Slavery Compromises

1
Slavery Compromises

• 1820-1854

2
Missouri Compromise

• Background
• The Era of Good Feelings
• Monroes avoidance of political squabbles
• After War of 1812, Federalists eliminated as a
  major political force
• Republicans begin to adopt some former Federalist
  policies
• Federal for internal improvements
• tariffs

3
Missouri Compromise

• Slavery had not been a significant issue since
  the Constitutional Convention
• Hartford Convention of 1814
• Reflective of political/economic concerns along
  sectional lines
• In 1819, Missouri considered in Congress for
  statehood
• There are 11 slave states, 11 free states

4
Missouri Compromise

• Missouri would upset the balance in the Senate
• Conspiracy Theory
• Every President since Adams was a Virginian.New
  aristocracy???
• James Tallmadge (RepublicanNY)
• Proposes that no more slaves be brought into MO,
  and that upon age 25, all slaves there would be
  freed

5
Missouri Compromise

• Issues
• South says North conspiring to destroy the Union,
  end slavery
• North says South trying to extend slavery
• Henry Clay of Kentucky
• (Speaker of the House)
• Worried of talk of disunion, civil war
• Is the Union falling apart?

6
Missouri Compromise

• 1st Missouri Compromise
• At the same time, Maine is seeking admission as a
  state
• Maine will be admitted as a Free State, MO can be
  added as a Slave State
• No more slaves in Louisiana Territory
• MO drafts a Constitution that prohibited FREE
  blacks from entering

7
Missouri Compromise

• 2nd Missouri Compromise
• 1821
• Henry Clay pushes agreement that prohibits MO
  from discriminating against citizens from other
  states
• But
• Can Free blacks be citizens in Missouri?
• Southern Victory?
• Slavery north of 36o30

8
Missouri Compromise
9
Compromise of 1850

• Background
• Wilmot Proviso
• When Texas, California, New Mexico territories
  added, only TX would have slavery
• Had been illegal in Mexico
• Assumed that TX would be the last slave state

10
Compromise of 1850

• Free Soil Movement
• Northerners who didnt want slavery extended to
  any new territories
• Texas had claimed parts of Eastern New Mexico
• No one likes the idea of a line to the Pacific
  marking where slavery can be legal
• Northno one should have it
• SouthCongress cant do it

11
Compromise of 1850

• Zachary Taylor, President had resisted compromise
  (anti-Slave, even though he owns them)
• Secession talk among the fire-eaters in the
  South
• Dies in office, Millard Fillmore more amicable to
  compromise
• Another series of compromises approved
• Again, engineered by Henry Clay

12
Compromise of 1850

• California gets statehood as Free State
• Popular Sovereignty
• Territorial status for Utah and New Mexicoget to
  choose for themselves
• Resolve TX-NM border disagreement
• Federal Govt assumes Texass debt
• No more slave trading in D.C.whites can still
  own slaves
• New Fugitive Slave Law, rigorously enforced

13
Compromise of 1850
14
Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois wants to have a
  trans-continental Railroad, with major terminus
  in Chicago
• (he owns some land)
• Southern Democrats wanted a more southerly route
• Gets railroad money passed by attaching to a bill
  to divide Nebraska Territory into Kansas and
  Nebraska

15
Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Settlers would have choice whether or not to
  adopt legal slavery
• Appealing to Southwould allow slavery legally
  above 36o30
• Had been closed by Missouri Compromise
• Passed and signed by President Pierce in 1854

16
Kansas-Nebraska Act

• In effect, it nullifies the Missouri Compromise
• Creates more sectional tensions in Congress
• A new party is formed among Northerners and
  Westerners who do not want slavery spread any
  further
• REPUBLICANS

17
Kansas-Nebraska Act
18
Kansas-Nebraska Act

• How does this lead to controversy in Congress
  later on?
• The Lecompton Constitution