Compromises Between 1820 And 1860

The Compromise of 1850 was an attempt by the U.S Congress to settle divisive issues between the North and South, including slavery expansion, apprehension in the North of fugitive slaves, and slavery in the District of Columbia. The Compromise of 1850 failed because Senator John C. Calhoun from the South and Senator William Seward from the North could not agree on what Henry Clay was putting down. Part of the compromise was to make California a slavery free state which benefits the North, and enforcing a stricter fugitive slave law which benefits the South. Both the North and South opposed what the other was benefiting from. What sparked the failure of the Compromise was the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.

Due to the fact that the South had more of an agricultural economy, the Southerners thought that the states should have the right to decide whether residents could own slaves, rather than the federal government. In 1846 a congressman from Pennsylvania named David Wilmot introduced a bill to the House of Representatives called the Wilmot Proviso. This said slavery would not be allowed in any western territory acquired from Mexico. Of course most of the politicians from the North loved the idea, while the politicians from the South did not. The Missouri Compromise on March 3, 1820 (also called the Compromise of 1820) was the first major legislative compromise that was passed to draw a line between slave and free territory.

During the early years of America, agricultural demands drove most of the economy allowing the South to demanded political protection. One of the protective measures was the Three-Fifths Compromise in 1787. The South wanted to count the slaves toward its population allowing for more representation. At the Constitutional Convention, the delegates decided to count a slave as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of determining the population for how many seats each State would have in the House. This solidified Southern control over Politics for several years to come.

The Republican Party was committed to restricting the growth of slavery, and its victory in the election of 1860 was the trigger for secession acts by Southern states. The debate before 1860 was mainly focused on the Western territories, especially Kansas and the popular sovereignty controversy. Lincoln was nominated as the Republican candidate for president in the election of 1860. Lincoln was opposed to the expansion of slavery into new areas, but held that the federal government was prevented by the Constitution from banning slavery in states where it already existed. His plan was to halt the spread of slavery, and to offer monetary compensation to slave-owners in states that agreed to end slavery (see Compensated emancipation).

John Brown, the son of Ruth and Owen Brown, was born May 9, 1800 in Torrington, Connecticut. Ruth Brown came from a religious background because her father was a minister. Owen Brown maintains a tanning business which is successful enough to keep food on the table and clothes on their backs but nothing more. Ruth and Owen brown had five children of their own plus one of which they adopted as their own. John brown was their third born child.

Abraham Lincoln was an extreme activist for the emancipation of slaves. For the previous eight years before Lincoln came into office, Pierce and Buchanan were the president and felt that slavery should be upheld in the south, much to the disapproval of the free-soil party, later to become the Republican Party. Once Lincoln received the place as president for the republican party, a few of the states in the south began to succeed from the Union and a month after his inaugural address was the commencement of the Civil War. The Union hoped that the war would be over quickly and that they could return to their daily life, but that hope was forgotten after a Confederate victory in the Battle at Bull Run. Lincoln was vaguely familiar with wartime strategies and atmospheres after serving in the Black Hawk War but surprised many with his excellent command and leadership during the Civil War.

Abraham Lincoln, infamously nicknamed “Honest Abe,” was an important influential person in history because of his impactful speeches, unique ideologies, and of course for being the 16th president of the United States. Lincoln’s legacy began when he was born on February 12, 1809 in Hardin County, Kentucky. He was named after his grandfather and had one older sister named Sarah and one younger brother named Thomas. Thomas died as a baby, and shortly after, Abraham’s mother died in 1818 (Lincoln was 9 years old). Growing up, Lincoln had no formal education but he taught himself through borrowing and studying books.

The Missouri compromise was an agreement between the north and south. It allowed Missouri to be the 24th state. Maine was also established, therefore Missouri was a free state. The Mason Dixon line was established, this created a line between the slave and free states. This rule was broken, and even more conflict was contributed to the start of the civil war.

The Missouri Compromise was made as an attempt to deal with the debate that had been going on about slavery. It lasted thirty-four years, but never truly made the North orouth totally happy with the situation. Although the Missouri Compromise did push back the debate on slavery in Missouri, it did not solve the problem as a whole. The tension between the North and South was, in fact reduced for a period of time. Once the Missouri Compromise was declared unconstitutional, the tension once again grew.

In 1860 President Lincoln was up against John C Breckenridge in the presidential election that he won without having not one single electoral vote from the south. Because of Lincolns winning many southern states threatened to secede from the nation, because they feared that he would Demise

The northwest ordinance created a lot of problems for the government. Such as How many people must be in a territory before it could apply for statehood and join the rest of the states. Or how many states could develop in that area. But one of the bigger topics was slavery. What would the government do about the question of slavery, or at least how far would they go?