What was the Compromise of 1850?

Answer 1

The Compromise of 1850 was a series of bills that wanted to resolve the territorial and slavery controversies arising from the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). There were 5 laws which balanced the interests of the slave states of the South of Missouri and the free states to the north. California was admitted as a free state; Texas received financial compensation for relinquishing claim to lands west of the Rio Grande in what is now New Mexico; the territory of New Mexico (including present-day Arizona and a portion of southern Nevada) was organized without any specific prohibition of slavery; the slave trade (but not slavery itself) was terminated in the District of Columbia; and the stringent Fugitive Slave Law was passed, requiring all U.S. citizens to assist in the return of runaway slaves regardless of the legality of slavery in the specific states. The measures, a compromise designed by Whig Senator Henry Clay (who failed to get them through himself), were shepherded to passage by Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas and Whig Senator Daniel Webster. The measures were opposed by Senator John C. Calhoun. The Compromise was possible after the death of President Zachary Taylor, who was in opposition. Succeeding President Taylor was a strong supporter of the compromise: Millard Fillmore. It temporarily defused sectional tensions in the United States, postponing the secession crisis and the American Civil War. The Compromise dropped the Wilmot Proviso, which never became law but would have banned slavery in territory acquired from Mexico. Instead the Compromise further endorsed the doctrine of "Popular Sovereignty" for the New Mexico Territory. The various compromises lessened political contention for four years, until the relative lull was shattered by the divisive Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Answer 2

the compromise of 1790 was a compromise organized by thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison with some backing up by George Washington. it stated that the south got the national capital on the potomic river and in a slave-driven stae, Virginia. the north's side of the bargian was that the south had to help pay off the revolutionary war dept for the north.

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Answer 3

It was an act made by Henry Clay declaring California as a free (non-slave) state and allowing popular sovereignty everywhere else.

Following the Texas Annexation (December 29, 1845) and the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), there was a four year long confrontation between the slave states of the American South, and the free states of the American north, that arose from expectation of territorial expansion of the US. The "Compromise of 1850" defused this tension, and staved off secession (or civil war) at the time, and quieted sectional conflict.

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Answer 4

It related to slavery in the territories acquired in the Louisiana Purchase, as they applied for statehood.

Missouri could be a slave-state. But after that, Missouri's Southern border was taken as the parallel, North of which slavery would be illegal.

This was a clear line in the sand, and it kept the peace for thirty years.