Crisis and Compromise

An Amicable Agreement

When the U.S. Senate eyed "the forbidden fruit" of California, they saw poison. John C. Calhoun

trembled at the possibility that the slave power might be losing its control. Daniel Webster and

Henry Clay, as he did before, sought compromise. William H. Seward labeled any compromise

with slavery "radically wrong." Into this breach moved young Stephen Douglas, who managed to

garner majority approval for pieces of legislation that together became known as the

Compromise of 1850.

Video: The Compromise of 1850

When California applied for admission to the United States as a state, the issue touched off a

much broader debate in the U.S. Senate. This video analyzes those issues and the attempt to

reach a compromise on them.

Look for answers to these questions when watching the video:

• How did the California gold rush help precipitate a political crisis by 1850? What was

significant about the possible admission of California as a free state?

• Besides the California question, what other issues were on the table during the Senate

debate in 1850?

• Who were the major players in the "Great Debate" in the Senate? What were their positions

on the issues?

• What were the major provisions of the Compromise of 1850? How and why were these

agreements reached?

Video script:

Music introduction

Narrator: In January of 1850 the United States of America contained thirty states. Fifteen of

these were considered northern states and fifteen southern.

 

 

The North, due to its larger population, had a greater number of congressmen in the House of

Representatives but in the senate the power between North and South was perfectly balanced,

until California applied for admission to the Union as a free state.

Actor, Jefferson Davis: “For the first time, we are about permanently to destroy the balance of

power between the sections."

James Roark: Northerners could have their way in the House of Representatives. So it was

crucial to Southerners, they believed, to protect the South from this rampant abolition that they

feared was sweeping the North, to maintain a balance of power in the senate.

Narrator: The country was at odds over slavery, and the traditional spirit of compromise and

cooperation had broken down.

James Roark: Sectional hostility was not new in 1850, but it did reach a kind of crisis and the

crisis followed hard on the heels of the Mexican War. From 1846 to 1848 the United States was

at war with Mexico and the victory produced enormous western lands, new territories that fed

into the American nation.

Michael Holt, University of Virginia: Many Northerners backed the imposition of the Wilmot

Proviso on that territory. This would have blocked slavery from entering it by congressional

statute. By the end of 1849, a number of Southerners and southern states were threatening to

secede, should Congress ever pass the Wilmot Proviso.

Narrator: Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky believed the crisis could be solved.

Michael Holt: Clay got up and gave this speech about the five bleeding wounds. He said, “Here

are five wounds that need to be solved, not just the one of admitting California.” He said, “I want

to organize territories where territorial governments need to be organized too. We need to

settle the Texas-New Mexico boundary dispute. We need to do something about the slave

auctions in the District of Columbia, and we need to do something about fugitive slaves.”

Narrator: Clay was known as the great compromiser. He was the author of the Missouri

Compromise, which had settled the boundaries of slavery thirty years earlier. In 1850, he once

again lived up to his name.

Actor, Henry Clay: “Mr. President, I hold in my hand a series of resolutions which I desire to

 

 

submit to the consideration of this body. Taken together in combination, they propose an

amicable arrangement of all questions in controversy between the free and the slave states,

growing out of the subject of slavery.”

Narrator: Clay’s compromise catalyzed the senate and provoked what is known as “The Great

Debate.” For months the galleries of the senate were filled with spectators as senators spoke

eloquently for or against the bill.

Actor, Daniel Webster: “I speak today for the preservation of the Union. Hear me for my

cause.”

Actor, John C. Calhoun: “California will become the test question. If you admit her, under all the

difficulties that oppose her admission, you compel us to infer that you intend to exclude us from

the whole of the acquired territories, with the intention of destroying irretrievably the equilibrium

between the two sections.”

Narrator: Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun, the senate’s most distinguished

leaders, were aged and infirm. This was the last time that the three men, known as the great

triumvirate, would meet on the political battlefield.

Despite tremendous effort, the senate was unable to agree on all the points in Clay’s proposal,

and the bill collapsed. It was Stephen Douglas, the senator from Illinois, who pieced it back

together again.

Actor, Stephen Douglas: “We have heard so much talk about the North and the South, as if

those two sections were the only ones necessary to be taken into consideration. When there is

a power in this nation greater than either the North or the South, that power is the country

known as the great west.”

James Roark: The genius of Stephen Douglas was to break up the compromise into individual

parts and put together bare majorities, Southerners or Northerners with the group of

compromisers that would achieve a majority. And put together a plan in which most

Northerners and most Southerners had not compromised at all, but had found a way through

these five major principles to create a solution, hopefully permanent to the issues that had

grown out of the Mexican war.

End of video.

 

 

The Attorney General of Fugitive Slaves

"Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men" summarized the agenda of the Free Soil

Party formed in 1848. Most of the party platforms were written by Salmon P. Chase, who was

sometimes called "the Attorney General of Fugitive Slaves." The words of Thomas Jefferson

echoed in Chase's statement of beliefs:

"True democracy makes no inquiry about the color of the skin, or the places of nativity, or any

other similar circumstances of condition. Whenever it sees a man, it recognizes a being

endowed by his Creator with original inalienable rights....I regard, therefore, the exclusion of

colored people from the election franchise as incompatible with true democratic principles."

Chase and his fellow party members clearly had no intention of compromising on the issue of

slavery. People in other parties, however, were just as firmly committed to opposing viewpoints.

Activity: Check Your Understanding

Southerners feared the admission of California as a free state because they would lose the

balance of power in the U.S. Senate. By 1850, more people lived in the free states than in the

slave states. In Congress, this meant that in the House of Representatives measures restricting

slavery had a real chance of being approved. However, since the Senate was based on state

equality, antislavery legislation would not pass in that chamber. The admission of California as a

free state would put the free states in the majority and endanger the political clout of the slave

power in the Senate. Stephen Douglas' genius during the debates on the Compromise of 1850

was illustrated by his ability to gain majority approval on each piece of legislation. Henry Clay’s

grand design for resolving the sectional issues facing the nation in 1850 drew sharp criticism in

the Senate from both North and the South. Senator Douglas, from Illinois, skillfully broke the

large bill into parts and secured the passage of each. An important compromise was reached,

but divisive issues remained.