Read complete books and articles on: Compromise of 1850

Compromise of 1850 - The annexation of Texas to the United States and the gain of new territory by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo at the close of the Mexican War (1848) aggravated the hostility between North and South concerning the question of the extension of slavery into the territories. The antislavery forces favored the proposal made in the Wilmot Proviso to exclude slavery from all the lands acquired from Mexico. This, naturally, met with violent Southern opposition. When California sought (1849) admittance to the Union as a free state, a grave crisis threatened. Also causing friction was the conflict over the boundary claims of Texas, which extended far westward into territory claimed by the United States. In addition, the questions of the slave trade and the fugitive slave laws had long been vexing. There was some fear that, in the event of strong antislavery legislation, the Southern states might withdraw from the Union altogether.

The possibility of the disintegration of the Union was deprecated by many but was alarming to some, among them Henry Clay, who emerged from retirement to enter the Senate again. President Taylor was among those who felt that the Union was not threatened; he favored admission of California as a free state and encouragement of New Mexico to enter as a free state. These sentiments were voiced in Congress by William H. Seward. John C. Calhoun and other Southerners, particularly Jefferson Davis, maintained that the South should be given guarantees of equal position in the territories, of the execution of fugitive slave laws, and of protection against the abolitionists.

Clay proposed that a series of measures be passed as an omnibus compromise bill. Support for this plan was largely organized by Stephen A. Douglas. The measures were the admission of California as a free state; the organization of New Mexico and Utah territories without mention of slavery, the status of that institution to be determined by the territories themselves when they were ready to be admitted as states (this formula came to be known as popular sovereignty); the prohibition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia; a more stringent fugitive slave law; and the settlement of Texas boundary claims by federal payment of $10 million on the debt contracted by the Republic of Texas.

These proposals faced great opposition, but Daniel Webster greatly enhanced the chances for their acceptance by his famous speech on Mar. 7, 1850. Taylor's death and the accession of conservative Millard Fillmore to the presidency made the compromise more feasible. After long debates and failure to pass the omnibus bill, Congress passed the measures as separate bills in Sept., 1850. Many people, North and South, hailed the compromise as a final solution to the question of slavery in the territories. However, the issue reemerged in 1854 with the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and seven years later the factions were fighting the Civil War.

See E. C. Rozwenc, The Compromise of 1850 (1957); H. Hamilton, Prologue to Conflict (1964).

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13 of the Best Books and Articles on: Compromise of 1850

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

History of Black Americans: From the Compromise of 1850 to the End of the Civil War » Read Now
by Philip S. Foner. 540 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...BLACK AMERICANS From the Compromise of 1850 to the End of the Civil War...cotton kingdom-- --v. 3. From the Compromise of 1850 to the end of the Civil War...Cotton Kingdom...
2.

Texas, New Mexico, and the Compromise of 1850: Boundary Dispute & Sectional Crisis » Read Now
by Mark J. Stegmaier. 436 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Writing from the vantage point of the Texas-New Mexico boundary issue, Mark Stegmaier provides a comprehensive analysis of the dispute, the compromise, and the overall implications for the Civil War. He meticulously examines the crisis through a close reading of Texan and New Mexican documents, U.S...
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Writing from the vantage point of the Texas-New Mexico boundary issue, Mark Stegmaier provides a comprehensive analysis of the dispute, the compromise, and the overall implications for the Civil War. He meticulously examines the crisis through a close reading of Texan and New Mexican documents, U.S. government records, maps, newspapers - particularly the reports of Washington correspondents - and collections of personal letters. In addition, he introduces a revisionist analysis of roll call voting in the U.S. Congress and the Texas legislature. Stegmaier recounts how, with the support of Southern radicals, Texas attempted to extend its jurisdiction despite opposition from New Mexicans and U.S. political leaders. Threatened by military occupation, New Mexicans countered by seeking free state status, while Presidents Taylor and Fillmore committed U.S. forces to defend the territory against a Texan attack. The resolution of this issue allowed the passage of the Compromise of 1850, the last great accord on the sectional issues between North and South. Texas, New Mexico, and the Compromise of 1850 deserves the term "definitive". It will appeal to all students of the Civil War era.
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3.

The Compromise of 1850 » Read Now
by Edwin C. Rozwenc. 102 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
4.

The Union as It Is: Constitutional Unionism and Sectional Compromise, 1787-1861 (Chap. 5 "Last Ritual: The Compromise of 1850") » Read Now
by Peter B. Knupfer. 285 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
5.

Space, Time, and Freedom: The Quest for Nationality and the Irrepressible Conflict, 1815-1861 (Chap. 7 "The Crisis and Compromise of 1850") » Read Now
by Major L. Wilson. 312 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...Conflict 120 7 The Crisis and Compromise of 1850 148 8 Progress and the Irrepressible...expected from the idea of popular sovereignty, of course, for as a compromise...
6.

The Crusade Against Slavery, 1830-1860 (Chap. 9 "The Compromise of 1850") » Read Now
by Louis Filler. 318 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...RISE OF POLITICAL ABOLITIONISM 137 8. FUGITIVE SLAVES AND POLITICIANS 160 9. THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 192 10. KANSAS AND ABOLITION: THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT 218 11. REFORM...
7.

The Origins of America's Civil War (Chap. 6 "The Compromise of 1850") » Read Now
by Bruce Collins. 169 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
8.

Southerners Against Secession: The Arguments of the Constitutional Unionists in 1850-51, in Civil War History » Read Now
by James L. Huston. 19 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...when the various parts of the Compromise of 1850 passed both houses of Congress...South--those who accepted the Compromise of 1850--dramatically triumphed. At...the laws...
9.

A History of the American People ("The Compromise of 1850" begins on p. 569) » Read Now
by Harry J. Carman, Harold C. Syrett. 767 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...129. THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 569 130...and Free Territory in 1850 574 19. The Missouri compromise and the Kansas Nebraska...20. The Election of 1860 595...
10.

Dynamics of the Party System: Alignment and Realignment of Political Parties in the United States ("The Compromise of 1850" begins on p. 68) » Read Now
by James L. Sundquist. 466 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library
11.

The Secession Movement in Virginia, 1847-1861 (Chap. II "Virginia and the Compromise of 1850") » Read Now
by Henry T. Shanks. 296 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...II. VIRGINIA AND THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 18 III. PARTY...CHAPTER II VIRGINIA AND THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 DURING the period from 1847...declaring his acceptance of the...
12.

The Road to Disunion: Secessionists at Bay, 1776-1854, Vol. 1 (Chap. 28 "The Armistice of 1850") » Read Now
by William W. Freehling. 642 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Far from a monolithic block of diehard slave states, the South in the eight decades before the Civil War was, in William Freehling's words, "a world so lushly various as to be a storyteller's dream." It was a world where Deep South cotton planters clashed with South Carolina rice growers, where the...
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Far from a monolithic block of diehard slave states, the South in the eight decades before the Civil War was, in William Freehling's words, "a world so lushly various as to be a storyteller's dream." It was a world where Deep South cotton planters clashed with South Carolina rice growers, where the egalitarian spirit sweeping the North seeped down through border states already uncertain about slavery, where even sections of the same state (for instance, coastal and mountain Virginia) divided bitterly on key issues. It was the world of Jefferson Davis, John C. Calhoun, Andrew Jackson, and Thomas Jefferson, and also of Gullah Jack, Nat Turner, and Frederick Douglass. Now, in the first volume of his long awaited, monumental study of the South's road to disunion, historian William Freehling offers a sweeping political and social history of the antebellum South from 1776 to 1854. All the dramatic events leading to secession are here: the Missouri Compromise, the Nullification Controversy, the Gag Rule ("the Pearl Harbor of the slavery controversy"), the Annexation of Texas, the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Freehling vividly recounts each crisis, illuminating complex issues and sketching colorful portraits of major figures. Along the way, he reveals the surprising extent to which slavery influenced national politics before 1850, and he provides important reinterpretations of American republicanism, Jeffersonian states' rights, Jacksonian democracy, and the causes of the American Civil War. But for all Freehling's brilliant insight into American antebellum politics, Secessionists at Bay is at bottom the saga of the rich social tapestry of the pre-war South. He takes us to old Charleston, Natchez, and Nashville, to the big house of a typical plantation, and we feel anew the tensions between the slaveowner and his family, the poor whites and the planters, the established South and the newer South, and especially between the slave and his master, "Cuffee" and "Massa." Freehling brings the Old South back to life in all its color, cruelty, and diversity. It is a memorable portrait, certain to be a key analysis of this crucial era in American history.
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13.

A Cultural Encyclopedia of the 1850s in America ("Compromise of 1850" begins on p. 74) » Read Now
by Robert L. Gale. 479 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

The 1850s were a particularly fruitful and eventful period in American history, a time of unrest and preparation for change. This reference work provides a thorough record of the cultural happenings in America during that period. The volume is divided into several sections. It begins with a...
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The 1850s were a particularly fruitful and eventful period in American history, a time of unrest and preparation for change. This reference work provides a thorough record of the cultural happenings in America during that period. The volume is divided into several sections. It begins with a chronology that presents the events of the 1850s in capsule form year by year. A list of entries follows. The encyclopedia that comes after the list of entries contains brief, alphabetically arranged articles for performers, military personnel, theologians, composers, critics, educators, explorers, historians, industrialists, inventors, authors, artists, physicians, scientists, sculptors, and numerous events and creative works. A bibliography, divided into topical sections, directs the reader to the best sources of additional information. An appendix lists the biographical entries according to professional categories, and a detailed index adds to the usefulness of the volume.
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