Transcript Why was the Compromise of 1850 adopted?

THE UNION IN PERIL:
CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WAR
CHAPTER 10
Section 1
Objectives:
1. To describe the growing differences between the North and South in
their economy and way of life.
2. To explain why the Wilmot Proviso failed to pass and the statehood issue
of California statehood became so important.
3. To show how the efforts of Clay, Webster and Douglas produced the
Compromise of 1850 and a temporary halt halt to talk of secession.
What was the controversy in the territories about?
Why was the Compromise of 1850 adopted?
VARYING ECONOMIES
SOUTH
NORTH
Single Crop Plantation
Economy (Cotton)
• Industrial economy
Rural
• Urban
Segregated
• Socially and Culturally Diverse
black v. white
rich planters v. poor whites
Fearful of Northern
interference & slave revolts
– Immigration from Europe
• STOP SLAVERY!
• Why were immigrants
so opposed to slavery??
Map: Population Distribution, 1790 and 1850
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Slavery in Territories
Should territories and new
states have slavery
Missouri Compromise
Wilmot Proviso
Closed to slavery
California, Utah, and New
Mexico
Against southern constitutional
rights
Congress had no right to
control the territories
Passed by the House, rejected
by the Senate
Twice
David Wilmot, Penn. Congressman
“The north is going to stick the Wilmot
amendment to every appropriation and then
all of the South will vote against any measure
thus clogged. Finally, a tremendous struggle
will take place and perhaps Polk in starting
one war may find half a dozen on his hands. I
tell you, the prospect ahead is dark, cloudy,
thick and gloomy.”
- Alexander H. Stephens
Debate over Slavery in the territories leads
to… SECTIONALISM!!! (AGAIN!!!)
Wilmot Proviso = an amendment passed in 1846, stating that
“neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist” in the
territory seized from Mexico during the war.
WHY? More slave states would upset the balance of power
established in the Missouri Compromise.
PROBLEM: Gold Rush means that California is ready to
become a state, due to population boom. California
petitions to be a FREE state, despite being below the
36º30’ Missouri Compromise Line
Statehood for California
Gold Rush
Population explosion
Skipped requirements to
become a territory
State Constitution
Outlawed slavery
Outrage of Southerners
Location of California
How should California
enter the union?
Free or slave
Balance of power
The Senate Debates - 1849
Pres. Zachary Taylor supports California
popular sovereignty
Some Southern states, threaten secession
Senators Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John Calhoun
work out the Compromise of 1850
Compromise of 1850
CONCESSIONS TO NORTH
California admitted as free
New Mexico to receive disputed
land with Texas
Slave trade, but not slavery,
abolished in D.C.
CONCESSIONS TO SOUTH
New Mexico and Utah Territories
to be determined by popular
sovereignty
Texas paid $10 million as
compensation for New Mexico
Stronger Fugitive Slave Act
COMPROMISE OF 1850
Calhoun and Webster debate the Compromise. Calhoun rejects it, Webster
argues for it.
Calhoun= advocate of state’s rights. Slaveholders have no need to get permission
to take their property into the new territories.
Webster= the Union must be preserved, even if some Southerners and some
abolitionists remain unsatisfied.
Compromise initially fails but Stephen A. Douglas (Illinois) renews efforts
to pass the Compromise in sections, which works.
Taylor dies, and Millard Fillmore becomes President. Fillmore supports
compromise and signs the bill into law.
Map: The Compromise of 1850
16
FREE
VS.
16
SLAVE
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Potential Essay Topics
Compare and Contrast Compromise of 1820 and 1850
Causes and Effects of Manifest Destiny
Causes and Effects of Texas Revolution
Causes and Effects of Mexican War
Factors for increased Sectionalism and declining
nationalism
TERMS
Wilmot Proviso
Objectives:
Secession
1. To describe the growing differences
between the North and South in
Compromise of 1850
their economy and way of life.
Popular sovereignty
Stephen A. Douglas
Millard Fillmore
2. To explain why the Wilmot Proviso
failed to pass and the statehood issue of
California statehood became so
important.
3. To show how the efforts of Clay,
Webster and Douglas produced the
Compromise of 1850 and a temporary
halt halt to talk of secession