The Compromise was actually a series of bills passed mainly to address issues related to slavery. The bills provided for slavery to be decided by popular sovereignty in the admission of new states, prohibited the slave trade in the District of Columbia, settled a Texas boundary dispute, and established a stricter fugitive slave act. This featured document is Henry Clay's handwritten draft.
By 1850 sectional disagreements centering on slavery were straining the bonds
of union between the North and South. These tensions became especially acute
when Congress began to consider whether western lands acquired after the Mexican
War would permit slavery. In 1849 California requested permission to enter the
Union as a free state. Adding more free state senators to Congress would destroy
the balance between slave and free states that had existed since the Missouri
Compromise of 1820.
Because everyone looked to the Senate to defuse the growing crisis, Senator
Henry Clay of Kentucky proposed a series of resolutions designed to "Adjust
amicably all existing questions of controversy . . . arising out of the institution
of slavery." Clay attempted to frame his compromise so that nationally
minded senators would vote for legislation in the interest of the Union.
In one of the most famous congressional debates in American history, the Senate
discussed Clay’s solution for 7 months. It initially voted down his legislative
package, but Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois stepped forward with substitute
bills, which passed both Houses. With the Compromise of 1850, Congress had addressed
the immediate crisis created by territorial expansion. But one aspect of the
compromise—a strengthened fugitive slave act—soon began to tear
at sectional peace.
The Compromise of 1850 is composed of five statues enacted in September of
1850. The acts called for the admission of California as a “free state,”
provided for a territorial government for Utah and New Mexico, established a
boundary between Texas and the United States, called for the abolition of slave
trade in Washington, DC, and amended the Fugitive Slave Act.
The document presented here is Henry Clay’s handwritten copy of the original
Resolutions, which were not passed. The transcription includes Clay’s
Resolution and the five statutes approved by Congress.
For more information, visit the National Archives’ Treasures of Congress Online Exhibit.
