Compromise of 1850

The Compromise of 1850 was a political maneuver that allowed the enslavement of Africans to continue in some areas of the United States, while in other states and territories Africans were free. The American political landscape from 1787 into the 1860s was constructed with infusions of compromises. The continuation of the institution of slavery in postcolonial America created ideological conflict between those who were for slavery and those who opposed it. Slavery was more prevalent in the South, where the plantation economy thrived as a result of the free labor provided by the institution of slavery, than it was in the North, where there were no plantations and the need for slaves was minimal.

The presence of slaves had implications for the population and the economic development of the newly created American nation. Slaves swelled the population of the South, and if they were counted as humans and not as property, they would give the Southern states more representation in Congress. In addition, population would determine tax appropriation from the states. To create a balance between the interests of states with slaves and states with no slaves, Congress agreed on a three-fifths compromise that allowed the slave population to count for three-fifths of the white population.

In 1820, the slavery issue led to another compromise—the Missouri Compromise. In 1819, the people of the territory of Missouri applied for statehood. At the time, the nation had 22 states, of which half were states with slaves and half were states with no slaves. States with slaves preferred that Missouri be admitted into the union as a slave state, so that such states would have a numerical advantage in the Senate. To prevent this from happening, New York representative James Talmadge, Jr., introduced a resolution prohibiting the introduction of slavery in Missouri. The resolution engendered heated discussion in the House of Representatives, but it passed. The Senate, however, rejected the resolution. The application of the territory of Maine for admission into the union brought a solution to the Talmadge resolution. Maine was admitted into the union as a free state and Missouri was admitted into the union as a slave state with a proviso that slavery be excluded from the rest of the Louisiana Purchase north of Missouri's southern border.

Controversy over slavery did not end with the Missouri Compromise but continued as new states were added to the union. Following its war with Mexico and the subsequent signing of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, the United States acquired territories from Mexico at a cost of $15 million. These territories included Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas (at the Rio Grande boundary), Nevada, and Utah. To prevent the institution of slavery in the territories acquired from Mexico, Representative David Wilmot from Pennsylvania attached a rider to a war appropriation bill, declaring that slavery be forbidden in any lands taken from Mexico. The rider sailed through the House but collapsed in the Senate. Senator John Calhoun of South Carolina led the fight against Wilmot's proviso, arguing that the Constitution guaranteed to the citizens of all states who immigrated to the territories the same rights they enjoyed in their home states. Since the citizens of some states had the legal right to own [Page 191]slaves, these citizens should have the right to take their slaves with them to wherever they migrated.

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