Compromise of 1850

Cultural  

1. A set of laws, passed in the midst of fierce wrangling between groups favoring slavery and groups opposing it, that attempted to give something to both sides. The compromise admitted California to the United States as a “free” (no slavery) state but allowed some newly acquired territories to decide on slavery for themselves. Part of the Compromise included the Fugitive Slave Act, which proved highly unpopular in the North. Senator Henry Clay was a force behind the passage of the compromise.

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The Compromise of 1850 shows how difficult it was to accommodate the two sides of the slavery question. It failed to prevent the Civil War, which broke out just over ten years later.

Example Sentences

But as governor he protected fugitive slaves who reached New York, and during the fierce Senate debate over the Compromise of 1850, he notoriously asserted that there was a “higher law” than the Constitution, a moral one, which demanded a halt to the expansion of slavery.

From The Wall Street Journal

These events prompted a slavery debate in Congress—and may have influenced one piece of the Compromise of 1850, which ended the slave trade in the District of Columbia.

From Literature

California banned slavery in its 1849 Constitution and entered the Union as a “free state” under the Compromise of 1850.

From Los Angeles Times

During debates on the Compromise of 1850 concerning the expansion of slavery, Sen. Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri charged Sen. Henry S. Foote of Mississippi on the Senate floor.

From Salon

Of the Compromise of 1850, which brought California into the union but strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act — arguably the most detested federal law in American history — he stated that it illustrated how “slavery has shot its leprous distillment through the life blood of the nation.”

From Los Angeles Times