A Compromise Avoids a

Crisis

To Expand or Not Expand

Expanding or
restricting
slavery????

California Threatens Power

Gold fever
Towns with Names

Gold Run

Eldorado
Dutch Flats
Chinese Camps
French Corral

Negro Bar

Iowa Hill

California Threatens Power

80,000 journeyed to California
Wild lawless
California recognized that they needed
a government to bring order to the
chaos.
1849, California drafted a
constitution and asked to be
admitted to the Union as a freenonslave-state.

California Threatens
Power

The Gold Rush led to the rapid settlement

of California which resulted in its
imminent admission as the 31st state.
Southerners recognized that there
were few slaves in California because
Mexico had prohibited slavery.
Immediate admission would surely
mean California would be the 16th
free state, giving the non-slaveholding states an edge in the Senate.

Meanwhile
Texas was still a slave state claiming
land that was part of New Mexico.
The north was also disgusted at the
ongoing practice of slavery in the
nation's capital Washington DC. a
practice the south was not willing to
let go.

Meanwhile
New Mexico and Utah were
organizing to become territories.
Southerners demand the government
to enforce the fugitive slave law of
1793.
The lines were drawn as the three
Senatorial giants took the stage for
the last critical time

Past
Compromises

Henry Clay

When the Congress was

divided in 1820 over the issue
of slavery in the Louisiana
Territory, Clay set forth the
Missouri Compromise.
When South Carolina nullified
the tariff in 1832, Clay saved
the day with the Compromise
Tariff of 1833.
Henry Clay ability to work our
compromises to the sharpest
problems earned him the title
Great Pacificator

Henry Clay offers a

Compromise
Once again stepped forward
and urged the North and the
South to reach an
agreement.
Urged the Senate to
adopt a compromise on
the Slavery issue.

Clay's Compromise of 1850

1. Congress would admit California as a
free state.
2. The people of the territories of New
Mexico and Utah would decide the
slavery question by popular
sovereignty.
3. The slave trade-but not slaverywould be ended in Washington, DC
4. Congress would pass a strict new
fugitive slave law
5. Texas would give up its claims to
New Mexico in return for $10 million.

John Calhoun Speaks

Let the States agree to

separate and part in
peace. If you are unwilling
that we should part in
peace, tell us so, and we
shall know what to do

Believed that the

compromises would
betray the south.
Claimed that the
Northerners would have
to agree to federal
protection of slavery for
the south to feel
comfortable remaining in
the Union.
Believed that Clays
proposal did not give the
South enough protection

Daniel Webster Speaks

Suggested that the

cotton and tobacco crops
that flourished under
slavery would not grow
in California..

3 days later Websters speech

urged Senators from all
regions of the nation to
compromise their positions
in order to save the Union.
With the nation's fate in the
balance, he pleaded with
northerners to accept southern
demands, for the sake of Union.
Withdrawing his former support
for the Wilmot Proviso, he
hoped to persuade enough
of his colleagues to move
closer to Clay's proposals.

Succession Becomes a
Reality
Several issues divide the members
- California Statehood
- Texas claims eastern New Mexico
-North demands abolition in D.C
-South threatens secession more
often
-No enforcement of Fugitive Slave
Act

Rage debates
Debate over ratification of the
compromise raged for months.
Northern radicals like William
Seward, argued that the morality
of Gods Higher law against
slavery was more important that
popular sovereignty or national
unity.

Raged Debates
Violence in the Senate occurred
Debates dragged on with dozen of
speeches
Equally radical southerners
organized boycotts against
northern goods.
Promoted separation from the
union.

Stephan A. Douglas
Took Charge
Along with Henry Clay,
Daniel Webster and John
C. Calhoun they
proposed the
Compromise of 1850
Douglas steered each
piece of element of
Clays plan through the
Congress, persuading the
Senate to adopt each
measure separately.

Senate Adopts the Compromise of

1850
By September 1850, the obstacles to
agreement had melted away and
both Calhoun and the Slaveholding
president Taylor were dead.
Millard Fillmore, the new
president, supported the
compromise.
At last, the Senate passed the
Compromise of 1850.

Compromise of 1850
California was admitted as a free state.
Policy of popular sovereignty was applied
to the territory acquired from Mexico.
Texas relinquished its claims on New
Mexico and returned $10million from the
federal government to settle its debts.
One by one, each provision passed and slavery
would remain undisturbed in Washington,
D.C, but the slave trade was prohibited.

Fugitive Slave Act

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793
was an Act of the United States
Congress to give effect to the
Fugitive Slave Clause of the U.S
Constitution which guaranteed the
right of a slave holder to recover an
escaped slave

Revised Fugitive Slave Act

Added rigorous amendments to
the earlier law, including the
requirements that private
citizens assist with
apprehending runaway slaves.
Citizens who assisted a fugitive
slave could be fined or
imprisoned.
Compromise restored calm but also
carried the seed of new crises in the

RESPONSE BY ABOLITIONISTS

An immoral law makes it a mans duty to break it,

at every hazard. For virtue is the very self of every
man. It is therefore a principle of law that an
immoral contract is void, and that an immoral
statute is void. The Fugitive Slave Law is a statute
which enacts the crime of kidnapping, a crime on
one footing with arson and murder. A mans right
to liberty is as inalienable as his right to life
Ralph Waldo Emerson
3 millions of the American people are crushed
under the American Union! The government gives
them no protection the government is their
enemy, the government keeps them in chains! The
Union which grinds them to the dust rests upon us,
and with them we will struggle to overthrow it!
The Constitution which subjects them to hopeless
bondage is one that we cannot swear to support.
Our motto is, No Union with Slaveholders.We
separate from them, to clear our skirts of innocent
blood.and to hasten the downfall of slavery in
America, and throughout the world! William Lloyd
Garrison

SOUTHERNERS RESPOND
Southerners threatened war
Believed it should be enforced
because the Constitution
protects property and Federal
law is over State law.

Case Studies
read both contemporary newspaper
reports and respond to the questions
at the end of each account.
Was it an outrage or a rescue
when black men whisked fugitive
slave Shadrach Minkins out of the
federal court house in downtown
Boston?
Class discussion

Critical Thinking
Answer 6 and 7 critical thinking on
page 197 make sure you include
information from notes and prior
knowledge in a 5-7 sentence
summary.