Did the North benefit more than the South from the Compromise of 1850?
The
Compromise of 1850 was a collection of five different bills that were passed in
the United States in September 1850. In 1849 California requested to enter the
Union as a free state which would have upset the balance of free sates and
slave states. Henry Clay a senator from Kentucky introduced a series of
resolutions on January 29, 1850 in an attempt to institute a compromise, and
end the tensions between the North and the South. The Bills were drafted by
Whig Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky and overseen by Democratic Senator Stephen
Douglass. These bills helped to stop some of the tension between the Northern
and Southern states over the issue of slavery, caused by the dispute over
territories gained by the Mexican American War. In an
attempt to please both Northerners and Southerners, as part of the Compromise
of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade centered in
Washington D.C. was abolished. In addition, California entered the Union as a
free state and a territorial government was created in Utah. There was also an
act passed that finally ended a disputed boundary between Texas and New Mexico
which also established a territorial government in New Mexico. With the significant
support of Senators Daniel Webster and Stephen Douglas, the five parts of the
Compromise of 1850 were ratified in September. These laws were accepted by most
moderates in the United States and helped postpone secession of the south for a
decade. However they also contained the beginning of other disputes such as
popular sovereignty and the new fugitive slave act which caused further dispute
in the years to come. As you can see, the Compromise of 1850 benefited both the North and the South, but it can obviously be seen that the north benefited in more ways than the South.