Question

How did the compromise of 1850 address the question of slavery?

Answer 1

Answer:

The Compromise of 1850 was a series of laws that attempted to resolve territorial disputes that arose after the Mexican-American war of 1846-1848. The five laws, promulgated during Millard Fillmore's presidency, set out to balance the interests of the southern states of the United States and free states.

California was admitted as a free state, Texas received financial compensation as a reward for some lands claimed on the western shore of the Rio Grande by present-day New Mexico; the then New Mexico Territory (including today's Arizona State and part of present-day Nevada) and the territory of Utah were organized as independent states; and the African slave trade, but not the slavery in itself, was abolished in Washington DC.

The measures, proposed by Senator Henry Clay (who failed to get them implemented), were then carried out by Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas and Senator Daniel Webster, but met with opposition from Senator John C. Calhoun. The Compromise was possible after the death of President Zachary Taylor, who was against it. Vice President Millard Fillmore, who succeeded Taylor, was indeed a strong supporter of the compromise; he temporarily defused sectoral tensions in the United States, postponing the crisis that led to the American Civil War.

The Compromise dropped the Wilmot Proviso, which would have prohibited slavery in the territory acquired by Mexico, but in this way never became law. Instead, the Compromise once more affirmed the concept of "popular sovereignty", applying it also to the Territory of New Mexico. The various compromises brought a climate of relative calm in the political dispute for four years, but it resurfaced with the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Answer 2

The Compromise of 1850 addresses several different elements of slavery. For example, California will enter the United States as a free state. Along with this, there will be a new Fugitive Slave Law which will help Southerners to obtain slaves that tried to runaway to the North. This compromise also introduces the idea of popular sovereignty. Popular sovereignty calls on the citizens to vote on whether or not they want slavery. This idea is used in the New Mexico territory. Despite the compromises made, this law does not solve the long term issue of whether or not slavery will exist in the US.