Question

After the compromise of 1850, what had to happen in order for slavery to be allowed in the Utah or new mexico territories

Answer 1

The Commitment of 1850 is a set of five bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850, which appeased a political confrontation between slave states and free states. This crisis, which lasted five years, had its origin in the disagreement on the status that territories acquired after the US intervention in Mexico (1846-1848) should receive and reached its maximum degree of tension with the problem of fugitive slaves. in those years.

In short, of the three new territories annexed by the United States, California became a free state while Utah and New Mexico became slave territories. The commitment was welcomed with relief, although on each side he disliked some specific clauses.

The Southerners prevented the adoption of the Wilmot Amendment which prohibited slavery in any Mexican territory acquired during the war and thus in the new territories of Utah and New Mexico slavery was allowed by appealing to the principle of popular sovereignty as a method to avoid Wilmot Amendment and decide if it was allowed within the borders of these new territories. In practice, these lands were inappropriate for agricultural plantations and their colonization was not properly of slave origin.