The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850 that temporarily defused tensions between slave and free states during the years leading up to the American Civil War. Designed by Whig senator Henry Clay and Democratic senator Stephen A. Douglas, with the support of President Millard Fillmore, the compromise centered on how to handle slavery in recently acquired territories from the Mexican–American War (1846–1848).
The provisions of the compromise included a provision that approved California's request to enter the Union as a free state, and strengthened fugitive slave laws with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The compromise also banned the slave trade in Washington, D.C. (while still allowing slavery), defined northern and western borders for Texas, while establishing a territorial government for the Territory of New Mexico that included no restrictions on whether any future state from this territory would be a free or slave state, and established a territorial government for the Territory of Utah, also with no restrictions if the territory would become a slave or free state.
A debate over slavery in the territories erupted during the Mexican–American War, as many white Southerners sought to expand slavery to the newly acquired lands and many Northerners opposed any such expansion. The debate was further complicated by Texas's claim to all former Mexican territory north and east of the Rio Grande, including areas it had never effectively controlled. These issues prevented the passage of organic acts to create organized territorial governments for the land acquired in the Mexican–American War.
In early 1850, Clay proposed a package of eight bills that would settle most of the pressing issues before Congress. Clay's proposal was opposed by President Zachary Taylor, anti-slavery Whigs like William Seward, and pro-slavery Democrats like John C. Calhoun, so congressional debate over the territories continued. The debate over the bill was among the most famous in Congressional history, where the divisions deteriorated into fistfights and the drawing of guns on the floor of Congress.
After Taylor died, he was succeeded by Fillmore, at which time Stephen A. Douglas took the lead in passing Clay's compromise through Congress as five separate bills. Under the compromise, Texas surrendered its claims to present-day New Mexico and other states in return for federal assumption of Texas's public debt. California was admitted as a free state, while the remaining portions of the Mexican Cession were organized into the New Mexico Territory and Utah Territory. Under the concept of popular sovereignty, the white people of each territory would decide whether or not slavery would be permitted. The compromise also included a stringent Fugitive Slave Law and banned the slave trade in Washington, D.C. The issue of slavery in the territories would be re-opened by the Kansas–Nebraska Act (1854), but the Compromise of 1850 played a major role in postponing the Civil War.
Background
The Republic of Texas declared its independence from Mexico following the Texas Revolution of 1836, and, partly because Texas had been settled by a large number of Americans, there was a very strong sentiment in both Texas and the United States for the annexation of Texas by the United States. In December 1845, President James K. Polk signed a resolution annexing Texas, and Texas became the 28th state in the union. Polk, an expansionist and slave owner, sought further expansion through the acquisition of the Mexican province of Alta California, which represented new lands to settle as well as a potential gateway to trade in Asia. His administration attempted to purchase California from Mexico, but the annexation of Texas stoked tensions between Mexico and the United States. Relations between the two countries were further complicated by Texas's claim to all land north of the Rio Grande; Mexico argued that the more northern Nueces River was the proper Texan border.
In March 1846, a skirmish broke out on the northern side of the Rio Grande, ending in the death or capture of dozens of American soldiers. Soon afterward, the United States declared war on Mexico which became known as the Mexican–American War. In August 1846, Polk asked Congress for an appropriation that he hoped to use as a down payment for the purchase of California in a treaty with Mexico. This action ignited a debate over the status of future territories. A freshman Democratic Representative, David Wilmot of Pennsylvania, offered an amendment known as the Wilmot Proviso that would ban slavery in any newly acquired lands. The Wilmot Proviso was ultimately defeated in the Senate, but it inserted the slavery debate into national politics.
In September 1847, an American army under the command of General Winfield Scott captured the Mexican capital in the Battle for Mexico City. Several months later, Mexican and American negotiators agreed to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, whereby Mexico agreed to recognize the Rio Grande as Texas's southern border and to cede Alta California and New Mexico.
The Missouri Compromise had settled the issue of the geographic reach of slavery within the Louisiana Purchase territories by prohibiting slavery in states north of the 36°30′ latitude, and Polk sought to extend this line into the newly acquired territory. However, the divisive issue of slavery blocked any such legislation. As his term came to a close, Polk signed the lone territorial bill passed by Congress, which established the Territory of Oregon and banned slavery within it. Polk decided not to seek re-election in the 1848 presidential election, and the 1848 election was won by the Whig ticket of Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore.
Prophetically, Ralph Waldo Emerson quipped that "Mexico will poison us", referring to the ensuing divisions that developed around the question of whether newly conquered lands would be slave or free. When Taylor was elected president in 1848, the issue was not yet apparent. Taylor was both a Whig and a slaveholder. Though Whigs were increasingly anti-slavery, Taylor's slaveholding had reassured the South, and he won handily. Taylor made a key electoral promise that he would not veto any congressional resolution on slavery. Much to the horror of Southerners, however, Taylor indicated that true to his promise, he would not even veto the Wilmot Proviso if it were passed. Tensions accelerated quickly in the fall of 1849.
Midterm elections worsened matters, as the Free Soil Party had gained 12 seats, which put it in the position to be a king-maker in the closely divided House: 105 Whigs to 112 Democrats. After three weeks and 62 ballots, the House could not elect a speaker; the main issue was slavery in the new territories. The turmoil of that period was severe, with a loaded revolver being drawn on the floor of Congress, fistfights occurred between Northerners and Southerners, and even Senator Jefferson Davis challenged an Illinois representative to a duel. Southern representatives increasingly bandied around the idea of secession. Finally, the House adopted a resolution that allowed a speaker to be elected with a plurality, and elected Howell Cobb on the 63rd ballot. As James McPherson puts it: "It was an inauspicious start to the 1850's."
Issues
Three major issues were addressed by the Compromise of 1850: a variety of boundary issues, the status of territory issues, and the issue of slavery. While capable of analytical distinction, the boundary and territory issues were included in the overarching issue of slavery. Pro-slavery and anti-slavery interests were each concerned with the amount of land on which slavery was permitted, and with the number of States in the slave or free camps. Since Texas was a slave state, not only the residents of that state, but also both camps on a national scale had an interest in the size of Texas.
Texas
The independent Republic of Texas won the decisive Battle of San Jacinto (April 21, 1836) against Mexico and captured Mexican president Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. He signed the Treaties of Velasco, which recognized the Rio Grande as the boundary of the Republic of Texas. The treaties were repudiated by the government of Mexico, which insisted that Mexico remained sovereign over Texas, and since Santa Anna had signed the treaty under coercion, it promised to reclaim the lost territories.
To the extent that there was a de facto recognition, Mexico treated the Nueces River as its northern boundary control. A vast, largely unsettled area, lay between the two rivers. Neither Mexico nor the Republic of Texas had the military strength to assert its territorial claim. On December 29, 1845, the Republic of Texas was annexed by the United States and became their 28th state. To facilitate the annexation, Sam Houston played a ploy on the American government by flirting with the British. The British believed that they could make the state abolish slavery by purchasing it. However, Southern leaders, alarmed by the threat of British emancipation of Texan slaves, pushed harder for annexation. Eventually, John Tyler, in hopes of appealing to southern Democrats, led the push for annexation with Abel Upshur. Texas was staunchly committed to slavery, with its constitution making it illegal for the legislature to free slaves.
The United States inherited the Texas-Mexican boundary dispute after annexing Texas, which quickly led to the Mexican-American War. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the war, defined the new Mexico–United States border, which followed the Rio Grande in part, but made no specific reference the claims of the Republic of Texas. The southwestern part of the ceded territory was referred to as the Mexican Cession; but the boundaries between this Cession and the State of Texas were unclear, and Texas continued to claim all the territory north and east of the Rio Grande, which included a large stretch of land that it had never effectively controlled in present-day eastern New Mexico. New Mexico had long prohibited slavery, a fact that affected the debate over its territorial status, but many New Mexican leaders opposed joining Texas primarily because Texas's capital lay hundreds of miles away and because Texas and New Mexico had a history of conflict dating back to the 1841 Santa Fe Expedition. Outside of Texas, many Southern leaders supported Texas's claims to New Mexico, in order to secure as much territory as possible for the expansion of slavery.
Another issue that would affect the compromise was Texas's debt; it had approximately $10 million in debt left over from its time as an independent nation, and that debt would become a factor in the debates over the territories.
California
California was part of the Mexican Cession. After the Mexican War, California was essentially run by American military governors. President James K. Polk tried to get Congress to establish a territorial government in California officially, but the increasingly sectional debates prevented that. The South wanted to extend slave territory to Southern California and to the Pacific Coast, but the North did not. The issue of whether it would be free or slave might well have gone undecided for years, as it had already after the end of the Mexican American war, if not for the finding of natural riches.
Near the end of Polk's term in 1848, news reached Washington that gold had been discovered in California. This began the California Gold Rush, which transformed California from a sleepy and almost forgotten land into a burgeoning hub with a population bigger than Delaware or Florida. The mostly lawless land found itself in desperate need of governance. Californians wanted to be made into a territory or state promptly. In response to growing demand for a better, more representative government, a Constitutional Convention was held in 1849. The delegates unanimously outlawed slavery. They had no interest in extending the Missouri Compromise Line through California and splitting the state; the lightly populated southern half never had slavery and was heavily Hispanic. The issue of California would play a central role in the exhausting 1849 speaker dispute.
Other issues
Aside from the disposition of the territories, other issues had risen to prominence during the Taylor years. The Washington, D.C. slave trade angered many in the North, who viewed the presence of slavery in the capital as a blemish on the nation. Disputes around fugitive slaves had grown since 1830 in part due to improving means of transportation, as the enslaved used roads, railroads, and ships to escape. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 had granted jurisdiction to all state and federal judges over cases regarding fugitive slaves, but several Northern states, dissatisfied by the lack of due process in these cases, had passed personal liberty laws that made it more difficult to return alleged fugitive slaves to the South. Congress also faced the issue of Utah, which like California and New Mexico, had been ceded by Mexico. Utah was inhabited largely by Latter-day Saints whose then-practice of polygamy was unpopular elsewhere in the United States.
Passage
Taylor takes office
When Taylor took office, the issue of slavery in the Mexican Cession remained unresolved. While a Southern slaveowner himself, Taylor believed that slavery was not economically feasible in the Mexican Cession, and as such, he opposed slavery in those territories as a needless source of controversy. In Taylor's view, the best way forward was to admit California as a state rather than a federal territory, as it would leave the slavery question out of Congress's hands. The timing for statehood was in Taylor's favor, as the Gold Rush was well underway at the time of his inauguration, and California's population was exploding. In October 1849, a California constitutional convention unanimously agreed to join the Union—and to ban slavery within their borders. In his December 1849 State of the Union report, Taylor endorsed California's and New Mexico's applications for statehood, and recommended that Congress approve them as written and "should abstain from the introduction of those exciting topics of a sectional character".
Main figures
The problem of what to do with the territories became the leading issue in Congress. So began the most famous debates in Congressional history. Heading the debates were three titans of Congress: Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John C. Calhoun. All had been born during the American Revolution, and had carried the torch of the Founding Fathers.