Causes Of The Compromise Of 1850

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In the 1850s the North and the South were having major difficulties trying to agree on multiple things. The Northern states had multiple factories that would produce things like guns or railroads. While the Southern states would rely on farming cotton or other things. The country started to split apart when immigrants from Europe would come to the Northern states and entered the industrial workplace. Many northerners began to have a strong opposition to slavery in the South fearing it might bring slave labor into contact with free labor and overthrow the white workers. The Southern states disagreed with the northern states stating if slavery ended it would lead to a social and economic revolution. In 1846 a man known as David Wilmot introduced …show more content…
Northerners began to demand the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, while the Southerners accused the North of failing to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. As time passed Southerners threatened secession, or withdrawal from the Union. In an attempt to resolve the issues between northerners and southerners over slavery, Henry Clay proposed the Compromise of 1850. This Compromise would admit California as a free state, enforce the Fugitive Slave Act, resolve the Texas border dispute, abolish slave trade, and determine the slavery issue in Utah and New Mexico territories. Clay’s speech about this Compromise started many political debates in the United States. A man known as John C. Calhoun presented a Southern case for slavery and was than followed by Daniel Webster, who gave a famous speech about how Northerners should try to compromise with the South by passing a stricter Fugitive Slave Law. The Senate rejected this proposed compromise again in July. Finally a man known as Stephen A. Douglas took over the compromise and proposed to break the Compromise into separate parts trying to allow the Senators to vote on each part instead of the entire