Polarized Times: The Compromise of 1850
In 1848, the Whig Party convinced popular General Zachary Taylor to run as their candidate, even though Taylor had never run for office before. No one was even sure what party he belonged to or if he had ever even voted before. Taylor ultimately decided that he supported the Whig Party and agreed to run as their candidate. He won the election as President in November of 1848, as tensions were mounting between slave-holding states and free states. More territory had been acquired during the Mexican War and strong disagreement existed over whether some, all or none of the new territory would allow slavery.
Many in the Whig Party expected that the politically naive Taylor would do as he was told and simply follow the party line on the question of what would become of the new territory. As a southerner who owned slaves himself, southerners expected that they had an ally in the White House. During his brief tenure as president, Taylor surprised many, and established himself as a strong supporter of the union. He refused to take his marching orders from the Whigs in Congress. Debate over the slave status of the large territories claimed in the Mexican War led to threats of secession from Southerners, but despite being a Southerner and a slaveholder himself, Taylor did not support the expansion of slavery. He wanted settlers in New Mexico and California to bypass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood. Debate over the issue led to the Compromise of 1850, something that Taylor did not support. But before the issue could be decided, Taylor died suddenly of a stomach-related illness in July 1850.
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five bills, passed in Congress in September of 1850, intended to broker a peace in the confrontation between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North concerning the status of the newly acquired territories. The compromise was drafted by Whig Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky. It was negotiated between Clay and Democrat Stephen Douglas, and for a time it prevented secession or civil war and reduced sectional conflict. On September 9, 1850, the Compromise of 1850 transferred a third of Texas's claimed territory (now parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Wyoming) to the control of the United States government in return for the federal government assuming $10 million of Texas's pre-annexation debt.
Under the compromise, Texas surrendered its claim to New Mexico, as well as its claims north of the Missouri Compromise Line. It transferred its public debt to the federal government, and retained the control over El Paso. California's application for admission as a free state with its current boundaries was approved and a Southern proposal to split California at parallel 35° north to provide a Southern territory was abandoned.
The New Mexico Territory and Utah Territory could in principle decide in the future to become slave states by popular vote, even though Utah and a northern fringe of New Mexico were north of the Missouri Compromise Line where slavery had previously been banned. These lands were generally unsuitable for plantation agriculture and their existing settlers were non-Southerners uninterested in slavery. The unsettled southern parts of New Mexico Territory, where Southern hopes for expansion had been centered, remained a part of New Mexico instead of becoming a separate territory.
The most significant Southern gains were (1) a stronger Fugitive Slave Act, the enforcement of which offended Northern public opinion, and (2) preservation of slavery in Washington, DC, although the slave trade was banned there.
The Compromise became possible after the sudden death of Zachary Taylor. Although Taylor was a slave owner, he favored excluding slavery from the Southwest. Whig leader Henry Clay designed a compromise, which failed to pass in early 1850, due to the opposition of both pro-slavery southern Democrats, led by John C. Calhoun, and anti-slavery northern Whigs. Calhoun's supporters thought that the compromise didn't offer enough to the slave states, while the northern Whigs thought it gave too much. At Clay's suggestion, Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas divided Clay's bill into several smaller pieces and he was able to narrowly win their passage over the opposition of those with stronger views on both sides.
The debate in Congress became quite heated at times. On April 17, a "Committee of Thirteen" had agreed on the border of Texas as part of Henry Clay's plan. The dimensions were later changed. That same day, during debates in the Senate, Vice President Fillmore and Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri had a heated exchange. During the heated debates, Compromise floor leader Henry S. Foote of Mississippi drew a pistol on Benton.
In early June, nine slaveholding Southern states sent delegates to a gathering in Nashville known as the Nashville Convention. Their goal was to determine their course of action if the compromise passed. Some delegates preached secession, but the moderates prevailed and proposed a series of compromises, including extending the dividing line designated by the Missouri Compromise of 1820 to the Pacific Coast.
After Zachary Taylor's death on July 9, 1850, Vice-President Millard Fillmore became president. Despite being a Northerner from New York, Fillmore had very different views on the slavery issue from Taylor. Before Taylor's death, Fillmore told Taylor that, as President of the Senate, he would use his tie-breaking vote to support the Compromise of 1850. When Fillmore took office, the entire cabinet offered their resignations. Fillmore accepted them all and appointed men who supported the compromise, (except for Treasury Secretary Thomas Corwin). When the compromise finally came before both Houses of Congress, Fillmore urged Congress to pass the original bill. This provoked an enormous battle in congress.
President Fillmore had support Clay's proposal and the various bills were initially combined into one "omnibus" bill. Despite Clay's efforts, it failed in a crucial vote on July 31, opposed by southern Democrats and by northern Whigs. Clay announced on the Senate floor the next day that he intended to pass each individual part of the bill. But the 73-year-old Clay was physically exhausted and was suffering from the effects of tuberculosis, which would eventually kill him. Clay left the Senate to recuperate in Newport, Rhode Island, and Senator Stephen A. Douglas took the lead in attempting to pass Clay's proposals through the Senate.
Fillmore was anxious to find a quick solution to the conflict in Texas over the border with New Mexico, which threatened to become an armed conflict between Texas militia and the federal soldiers. Fillmore denied Texas's claims to New Mexico. He took the position that the United States had promised to protect the territorial integrity of New Mexico under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Fillmore's resolve on this issue helped convince Texas's U.S. Senators, Sam Houston and Thomas Jefferson Rusk, to support Stephen Douglas's compromise. With their support, a Senate bill providing for a final settlement of Texas's borders won passage days after Fillmore delivered his message. Under the terms of the bill, the U.S. would assume Texas's debts, while Texas's northern border was set at the 36° 30' parallel north (the Missouri Compromise line) and much of its western border followed the 103rd meridian. The bill attracted the support of a bipartisan coalition of Whigs and Democrats from both sections, although most opposition to the bill came from the South.
The Senate quickly moved onto the other major issues, passing bills that provided for the admission of California, the organization of New Mexico Territory, and the establishment of a new fugitive slave law. The debate moved to the House of Representatives, where Fillmore, Senator Daniel Webster, Douglas, Congressman Linn Boyd, and Speaker of the House Howell Cobb took the lead in convincing members to support the compromise bills that had been passed in the Senate. The Senate's proposed settlement of the Texas-New Mexico boundary faced intense opposition from many Southerners. Some Northerners also opposed the measure because they believed that the Texas did not deserve monetary compensation. After a series of close procedural votes that tried to delay consideration of the issue, the House voted to approve a Texas bill similar to that which had been passed by the Senate. After that vote, the House and the Senate quickly agreed on each of the major issues, including the banning of the slave trade in Washington. The president quickly signed each bill into law except for the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. He ultimately signed that law as well after Attorney General Crittenden assured him that the law was constitutional. Many in Texas wanted to send a military expedition into New Mexico, but in November 1850 the state legislature voted to accept the compromise.
Fillmore's message to Congress in which he recommended that Texas be paid to abandon its claims to part of New Mexico, aided in gathering support for the compromise among northern congressmen. So did his mobilization of 750 Federal troops to New Mexico. These measures helped to shift a critical number of northern Whigs in Congress away from their insistence upon the Wilmot Proviso (the stipulation that all land gained by the Mexican War must be closed to slavery, proposed by Congressman David Wilmot).
Douglas's effective strategy in Congress combined with Fillmore's message to Congress gave momentum to the Compromise movement. Breaking up Clay's single legislative package, Douglas presented five separate bills to the Senate which individually would:
1. Admit California as a free state.
2. Settle the Texas boundary and compensate the state for lost lands.
3. Grant territorial status to New Mexico.
4. Place federal officers at the disposal of slaveholders seeking escapees-the Fugitive Slave Act.
5. Abolish the slave trade, but not slavery, in the District of Columbia.
Each measure obtained a majority, and, by September 20, President Fillmore had signed them into law. Fillmore had won the battle, but ended up losing the war. His actions split the Whigs irreparably, as Whigs on both sides were upset by the compromise, which led to a party division that was never healed. Northern Whigs said "God Save us from Whig Vice Presidents." The President lost his bid to be nominated as the party's candidate in the 1852 election. Millard Fillmore was the last Whig President of the United States and by 1856 the party was a shadow of its former self, with many former anti-slavery Whigs joining the newly formed Republican Party.
Many in the Whig Party expected that the politically naive Taylor would do as he was told and simply follow the party line on the question of what would become of the new territory. As a southerner who owned slaves himself, southerners expected that they had an ally in the White House. During his brief tenure as president, Taylor surprised many, and established himself as a strong supporter of the union. He refused to take his marching orders from the Whigs in Congress. Debate over the slave status of the large territories claimed in the Mexican War led to threats of secession from Southerners, but despite being a Southerner and a slaveholder himself, Taylor did not support the expansion of slavery. He wanted settlers in New Mexico and California to bypass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood. Debate over the issue led to the Compromise of 1850, something that Taylor did not support. But before the issue could be decided, Taylor died suddenly of a stomach-related illness in July 1850.
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five bills, passed in Congress in September of 1850, intended to broker a peace in the confrontation between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North concerning the status of the newly acquired territories. The compromise was drafted by Whig Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky. It was negotiated between Clay and Democrat Stephen Douglas, and for a time it prevented secession or civil war and reduced sectional conflict. On September 9, 1850, the Compromise of 1850 transferred a third of Texas's claimed territory (now parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Wyoming) to the control of the United States government in return for the federal government assuming $10 million of Texas's pre-annexation debt.
Under the compromise, Texas surrendered its claim to New Mexico, as well as its claims north of the Missouri Compromise Line. It transferred its public debt to the federal government, and retained the control over El Paso. California's application for admission as a free state with its current boundaries was approved and a Southern proposal to split California at parallel 35° north to provide a Southern territory was abandoned.
The New Mexico Territory and Utah Territory could in principle decide in the future to become slave states by popular vote, even though Utah and a northern fringe of New Mexico were north of the Missouri Compromise Line where slavery had previously been banned. These lands were generally unsuitable for plantation agriculture and their existing settlers were non-Southerners uninterested in slavery. The unsettled southern parts of New Mexico Territory, where Southern hopes for expansion had been centered, remained a part of New Mexico instead of becoming a separate territory.
The most significant Southern gains were (1) a stronger Fugitive Slave Act, the enforcement of which offended Northern public opinion, and (2) preservation of slavery in Washington, DC, although the slave trade was banned there.
The Compromise became possible after the sudden death of Zachary Taylor. Although Taylor was a slave owner, he favored excluding slavery from the Southwest. Whig leader Henry Clay designed a compromise, which failed to pass in early 1850, due to the opposition of both pro-slavery southern Democrats, led by John C. Calhoun, and anti-slavery northern Whigs. Calhoun's supporters thought that the compromise didn't offer enough to the slave states, while the northern Whigs thought it gave too much. At Clay's suggestion, Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas divided Clay's bill into several smaller pieces and he was able to narrowly win their passage over the opposition of those with stronger views on both sides.
The debate in Congress became quite heated at times. On April 17, a "Committee of Thirteen" had agreed on the border of Texas as part of Henry Clay's plan. The dimensions were later changed. That same day, during debates in the Senate, Vice President Fillmore and Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri had a heated exchange. During the heated debates, Compromise floor leader Henry S. Foote of Mississippi drew a pistol on Benton.
In early June, nine slaveholding Southern states sent delegates to a gathering in Nashville known as the Nashville Convention. Their goal was to determine their course of action if the compromise passed. Some delegates preached secession, but the moderates prevailed and proposed a series of compromises, including extending the dividing line designated by the Missouri Compromise of 1820 to the Pacific Coast.
After Zachary Taylor's death on July 9, 1850, Vice-President Millard Fillmore became president. Despite being a Northerner from New York, Fillmore had very different views on the slavery issue from Taylor. Before Taylor's death, Fillmore told Taylor that, as President of the Senate, he would use his tie-breaking vote to support the Compromise of 1850. When Fillmore took office, the entire cabinet offered their resignations. Fillmore accepted them all and appointed men who supported the compromise, (except for Treasury Secretary Thomas Corwin). When the compromise finally came before both Houses of Congress, Fillmore urged Congress to pass the original bill. This provoked an enormous battle in congress.
President Fillmore had support Clay's proposal and the various bills were initially combined into one "omnibus" bill. Despite Clay's efforts, it failed in a crucial vote on July 31, opposed by southern Democrats and by northern Whigs. Clay announced on the Senate floor the next day that he intended to pass each individual part of the bill. But the 73-year-old Clay was physically exhausted and was suffering from the effects of tuberculosis, which would eventually kill him. Clay left the Senate to recuperate in Newport, Rhode Island, and Senator Stephen A. Douglas took the lead in attempting to pass Clay's proposals through the Senate.
Fillmore was anxious to find a quick solution to the conflict in Texas over the border with New Mexico, which threatened to become an armed conflict between Texas militia and the federal soldiers. Fillmore denied Texas's claims to New Mexico. He took the position that the United States had promised to protect the territorial integrity of New Mexico under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Fillmore's resolve on this issue helped convince Texas's U.S. Senators, Sam Houston and Thomas Jefferson Rusk, to support Stephen Douglas's compromise. With their support, a Senate bill providing for a final settlement of Texas's borders won passage days after Fillmore delivered his message. Under the terms of the bill, the U.S. would assume Texas's debts, while Texas's northern border was set at the 36° 30' parallel north (the Missouri Compromise line) and much of its western border followed the 103rd meridian. The bill attracted the support of a bipartisan coalition of Whigs and Democrats from both sections, although most opposition to the bill came from the South.
The Senate quickly moved onto the other major issues, passing bills that provided for the admission of California, the organization of New Mexico Territory, and the establishment of a new fugitive slave law. The debate moved to the House of Representatives, where Fillmore, Senator Daniel Webster, Douglas, Congressman Linn Boyd, and Speaker of the House Howell Cobb took the lead in convincing members to support the compromise bills that had been passed in the Senate. The Senate's proposed settlement of the Texas-New Mexico boundary faced intense opposition from many Southerners. Some Northerners also opposed the measure because they believed that the Texas did not deserve monetary compensation. After a series of close procedural votes that tried to delay consideration of the issue, the House voted to approve a Texas bill similar to that which had been passed by the Senate. After that vote, the House and the Senate quickly agreed on each of the major issues, including the banning of the slave trade in Washington. The president quickly signed each bill into law except for the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. He ultimately signed that law as well after Attorney General Crittenden assured him that the law was constitutional. Many in Texas wanted to send a military expedition into New Mexico, but in November 1850 the state legislature voted to accept the compromise.
Fillmore's message to Congress in which he recommended that Texas be paid to abandon its claims to part of New Mexico, aided in gathering support for the compromise among northern congressmen. So did his mobilization of 750 Federal troops to New Mexico. These measures helped to shift a critical number of northern Whigs in Congress away from their insistence upon the Wilmot Proviso (the stipulation that all land gained by the Mexican War must be closed to slavery, proposed by Congressman David Wilmot).
Douglas's effective strategy in Congress combined with Fillmore's message to Congress gave momentum to the Compromise movement. Breaking up Clay's single legislative package, Douglas presented five separate bills to the Senate which individually would:
1. Admit California as a free state.
2. Settle the Texas boundary and compensate the state for lost lands.
3. Grant territorial status to New Mexico.
4. Place federal officers at the disposal of slaveholders seeking escapees-the Fugitive Slave Act.
5. Abolish the slave trade, but not slavery, in the District of Columbia.
Each measure obtained a majority, and, by September 20, President Fillmore had signed them into law. Fillmore had won the battle, but ended up losing the war. His actions split the Whigs irreparably, as Whigs on both sides were upset by the compromise, which led to a party division that was never healed. Northern Whigs said "God Save us from Whig Vice Presidents." The President lost his bid to be nominated as the party's candidate in the 1852 election. Millard Fillmore was the last Whig President of the United States and by 1856 the party was a shadow of its former self, with many former anti-slavery Whigs joining the newly formed Republican Party.