The 1850 California Compromise

The 1850 California Compromise

1. President Zackary Taylor bypassed California territorial status and applied for statehood

   • Gold Rush 1848
   • Made Whigs and Democrats feel betrayed or loose support in him

2. The Omnibus Bill (Failed)

   • Proposed by Henry Clay
     • Composed of all these elements but could not pass as a whole
   • California to become a free state
   • Divide Mexican cession into two territories
   • End slave trade in Washington
   • Fugitive Slave Law
   • End disputes between New Mexico and Texas

3. The Nashville Convention (3 June 1850)

   • Political meeting held where the first idea of secession were brought up
     • Historians would argue the secessionist arguments of 1850 were a dress rehearsal for the arguments that would be successful in 1860

4. The Compromise of 1850

   • Senator Stephen Douglas split the Omnibus Bill into separate bills so congressmen could vote or abstain according
     • Allowed compromise to pass even though not everyone agreed
   • Conditions
     • California admitted as a free state
     • New Mexico organised on popular sovereignty and Texas reduced size
     • Utah decided by popular sovereignity
     • Slave trade abolished in Columbia
     • Fugitive Slave Act brought in making it federal gov. responsible to return escaped slaves
   • Historians would say its not a true compromise. David Potter "Armistice" James McPherson "Armed Truce"

5. "Irrepressible Conflict" William Seward

   • Denounced compromise and spoke of obeying a higher law (God)
     • A view shared by progressive historians
       • Revisionists would argue it was repressible

6. Reactions

   • Southern Reaction
     • The Georgia Platform
       • If the North didn't stick to compromise secession would be a remedy
       • Became part of Democrat policy, Showed they protected Southern interests
       • David Potter the Georgia Platform became "the cornerstone if Southern policy for several years"
   • Northern Reaction
     • The North passed Liberty Laws to make it harder to implement Fugitive Slave Act
     • Publication of Uncle Toms Cabin 1852
     • Vigilance committees and underground railroad