Compromise of 1850

The Compromise of 1850, in the history of the United States, was a series of Congressional legislative measures addressing slavery and the boundaries of territories acquired during the Mexican-American War

The five separate bills

• California was admitted as a free state.
• The slave trade was abolished (ie the sale of slaves, not the institution of slavery) in the District of Columbia.
• New Mexico (including present-day Arizona) and Utah were organized without any specific prohibition of slavery, allowing each to decide for itself on admission to statehood
• The Fugitive Slave Act was passed, requiring all U.S. citizens to assist in the return of runaway slaves.
• Texas was compelled to give up much of the western land which it claimed, and received compensation of $10,000,000.

Implications

The Fugitive Slave Bill of 1850 made any federal marshal or other official who did not arrest an alleged runaway slave liable to a fine of $1,000. Law-enforcement officials everywhere in the United States now had a duty to arrest anyone suspected of being a runaway slave on no more evidence than a claimant's sworn testimony of ownership. The suspected slave could not ask for a jury trial or testify on his or her own behalf. In addition, any person aiding a runaway slave by providing food or shelter was to be subject to six months' imprisonment and a $1,000 fine. Officers capturing a fugitive slave were entitled to a fee for their work.

Related Topics:
Federal marshal - United States - Runaway slave

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The Compromise in general proved widely popular politically, as both parties committed themselves in their platforms to the finality of the Compromise on sectional issues. This peace was broken only by the divisive Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which repealed the Missouri Compromise and led directly to the formation of the Republican Party, whose capture of the national government in 1860 led directly to the American Civil War.

Related Topics:
Kansas-Nebraska Act - Missouri Compromise - Republican Party - American Civil War

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The Compromise helped to postpone secession and Civil War for a decade, during which time the Northwest was growing more wealthy and more populous, and was being brought into closer relations with the Northeast. The rejection of the Wilmot Proviso and the acceptance (as regards New Mexico and Utah) of "Popular Sovereignty" meant the adoption of a new principle in dealing with slavery in the territories, which appeared to some to undermine the Missouri Compromise of 1820.

Related Topics:
Civil War - Wilmot Proviso - Missouri Compromise - 1820

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The enforcement of the fugitive slave law aroused feelings of bitterness in the north which led helped eventually to bring on the war, and helped to make it, when it came, quite as much an anti-slavery crusade as a struggle for the preservation of the Union. The enactment of the new fugitive slave law inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe to write her famous novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Related Topics:
Harriet Beecher Stowe - Uncle Tom's Cabin

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