Southerners urged that all the ments, advanced a complicated and
lands acquired from Mexico should carefully balanced plan . His old
be thrown open to slave holders . Massachusetts rival, Daniel Web-
Antislavery Northerners demanded ster, supported it . Illinois Demo-
that all the new regions be closed cratic Senator Stephen A . Douglas,
to slavery . One group of moderates the leading advocate of popular
suggested that the Missouri Com- sovereignty, did much of the work
promise line be extended to the Pa- in guiding it through Congress .
cific with free states north of it and
The Compromise of 1850 con-
slave states to the south . Another tained the fol owing provisions: (1)
group proposed that the question California was admitted to the Union
be left to “popular sovereignty .” The as a free state; (2) the remainder of the government should permit settlers to Mexican cession was divided into the
enter the new territory with or with- two territories of New Mexico and
out slaves as they pleased . When the Utah and organized without mention
time came to organize the region of slavery; (3) the claim of Texas to a
into states, the people themselves portion of New Mexico was satisfied
could decide .
by a payment of $10 mil ion; (4) new
Despite the vitality of the aboli- legislation (the Fugitive Slave Act)
tionist movement, most Northerners was passed to apprehend runaway
were unwilling to challenge the exis- slaves and return them to their mas-
tence of slavery in the South . Many, ters; and (5) the buying and sel ing of however, were against its expansion . slaves (but not slavery) was abolished
In 1848 nearly 300,000 men voted in the District of Columbia .
for the candidates of a new Free Soil
The country breathed a sigh of
Party, which declared that the best relief . For the next three years, the
policy was “to limit, localize, and compromise seemed to settle near-
discourage slavery .” In the immedi- ly all differences . The new Fugitive
ate aftermath of the war with Mex- Slave Law, however, was an imme-
ico, however, popular sovereignty diate source of tension . It deeply
had considerable appeal .
offended many Northerners, who
In January 1848 the discovery refused to have any part in catch-
of gold in California precipitated a ing slaves . Some actively and vio-
headlong rush of settlers, more than lently obstructed its enforcement .
80,000 in the single year of 1849 . The Underground Railroad became
Congress had to determine the sta- more efficient and daring than ever .
tus of this new region quickly in
order to establish an organized gov-
A DIVIDED NATION
ernment . The venerable Kentucky
Senator Henry Clay, who twice During the 1850s, the issue of slav-
before in times of crisis had come ery severed the political bonds that
forward with compromise arrange- had held the United States together .
136
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
It ate away at the country’s two great then have three free-soil neighbors
political parties, the Whigs and the (Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas) and
Democrats, destroying the first and might be forced to become a free
irrevocably dividing the second . It state as well . Their congressional
produced weak presidents whose
delegation, backed by Southerners,
irresolution mirrored that of their blocked all efforts to organize the
parties . It eventual y discredited even region .
the Supreme Court .
At this point, Stephen A . Doug-
The moral fervor of abolition- las enraged all free-soil supporters .
ist feeling grew steadily . In 1852, Douglas argued that the Compro-
Harriet Beecher Stowe published mise of 1850, having left Utah and
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a novel pro- New Mexico free to resolve the slav-
voked by the passage of the Fugitive ery issue for themselves, superseded
Slave Law . More than 300,000 cop- the Missouri Compromise . His plan
ies were sold the first year . Presses called for two territories, Kansas
ran day and night to keep up with and Nebraska . It permitted settlers
the demand . Although sentimental to carry slaves into them and even-
and full of stereotypes, Uncle Tom’s tually to determine whether they Cabin portrayed with undeniable should enter the Union as free or
force the cruelty of slavery and pos- slave states .
ited a fundamental conflict between
Douglas’s opponents accused him
free and slave societies . It inspired of currying favor with the South in
widespread enthusiasm for the an- order to gain the presidency in 1856 .
tislavery cause, appealing as it did The free-soil movement, which had
to basic human emotions — in- seemed to be in decline, reemerged
dignation at injustice and pity for with greater momentum than ever .
the helpless individuals exposed to Yet in May 1854, Douglas’s plan in
ruthless exploitation .
the form of the Kansas-Nebraska
In 1854 the issue of slavery in Act passed Congress to be signed by
the territories was renewed and the President Franklin Pierce . Southern
quarrel became more bitter . The re- enthusiasts celebrated with cannon
gion that now comprises Kansas and fire . But when Douglas subsequently
Nebraska was being rapidly settled, visited Chicago to speak in his own
increasing pressure for the establish- defense, the ships in the harbor low-
ment of territorial, and eventually, ered their flags to half-mast, the
state governments .
church bells tolled for an hour, and a
Under terms of the Missouri crowd of 10,000 hooted so loudly that
Compromise of 1820, the entire re- he could not make himself heard .
gion was closed to slavery . Dominant
The immediate results of Douglas’s
slave-holding elements in Missouri ill-starred measure were momen-
objected to letting Kansas become a tous . The Whig Party, which had
free territory, for their state would straddled the question of slavery ex-
137