Political Compromises Before 1860

By the 1860s, Americans could no longer solve their political disputes through compromise because slavery became a deeply entrenched and uncompromisable issue in America, the compromises made beforehand were counterproductive to their peaceful efforts, and there was confusion of the legality of secession. In 1860, slavery became such a passionate and divisive issue that a compromise could no longer be reached. As the years progressed and more people began to have a more definitive stance on slavery, the issue of slavery became deeply entrenched into America. As Lincoln states in Document G, slavery is an issue in, “politics, in religion, in literature, in morals, in all manifold relations in life…” At this point in time, a compromise wouldn’t

There were three important compromises before 1860: The Compromise of 1850, Kansas and Nebraska Act, and The Missouri Compromise. The Compromise of 1850 sought to be beneficial to both the North and South by making California a free state in tandem with creating the Fugitive Slave Act. In reality, it caused the issue of slavery to become a more prominent issue. Fugitive slaves living in the North now feared for their lives, and abolitionists became more resolved on the issue of slavery. In addition, the South were afraid that the balance of power between the free and slave states would now shift toward free. To make matters worse, there was now discourse between the people in the North about the Fugitive Slave act, some believed, such as Daniel Webster in Document H, that “South is right and the North is wrong…” while others were strongly against it. The Kansas and Nebraska ask wanted to give more power to the people and allow them to decide on the implementation of slavery in their own states. However, in an attempt to affect the vote, abolitionists and pro-slavery people came to Kansas. This led to fighting and killing and the name “Bloody Kansas”. Lastly, the Missouri compromise created the 36 30-degree line, where any state above this line, except for Missouri, would be a free state. While this didn’t have any strong drawbacks, such as the two compromises stated previously, it’s important to note that this compromise was practically nullified by the Kansas and Nebraska Act, which did more harm than good. Congress didn’t know how to make a compromise that would please both sides, the compromises they made were either invalidated by newer ones or did more harm than