Henry
Clay delivering speech
The
Compromise of 1850 was primarily about the issue
of slavery in America's new territories acquired
after the Mexican War, though other, less important
issues were included as well. California had already
adopted an anti-slavery constitution and applied
for statehood. The question, then, was whether slavery
should be allowed in the new territories. Both pro-slavery
and anti-slavery advocates argued over the issue,
yet neither side was strong enough to administer
a plan of action.
The
slavery issue quickly became a crisis that threatened
the Union. In an attempt to maintain a balance between
free and slave states, Henry Clay offered the famous
compromise. Clay's Compromise called for the admission
of California as a free state, the organization
of the new territories of New Mexico and Utah, with
the slavery issue left to those citizens, settlement
of border disputes between Texas and New Mexico,
a prohibition of slave trade in the District of
Colombia, and a more stringent Fugitive Slave Law
which outlined penalties for individuals who harbored
runaway slaves. The compromise was accepted by moderates
throughout the country, and may have postponed southern
secession for a decade.
Although
the Compromise of 1850 was a good temporary solution,
its precedent led to future violence in Kansas,
and ultimately, could not prevent the onset of the
Civil War eleven years later.
