Page 349 - American Stories, A History of the United States

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA
14.1 (CANADA) N.H.
VT. ME.
OREGON MINNESOTA Great Lakes
TERRITORY TERRITORY
1848 1849 MASS.
14.2 WIS. N.Y.
R.I.
MICH. CONN.
UNORGANIZED PA. N.J.
TERRITORY IOWA
UTAH IND. OHIO DEL.
14.3 TERRITORY ILL. VA. MD.
1850
CALIFORNIA MO. KY.
1850 N.C.
NEW MEXICO INDIAN TENN.
TERRITORY TERRITORY ARK. S.C.
1850 GA. ATLANTIC
MISS. ALA.
OCEAN
PACIFIC TEXAS LA.
OCEAN
MEXICO FLA.
Gulf of Mexico
Free state or territory
0 250 500 miles
Slave state or territory
Opened to slavery by principle 0 250 500 kilometers
of popular sovereignty

MAp 14.1 tHe CoMproMise oF 1850 The “compromise” was actually a series of resolutions granting
some concessions to the North—especially admission of California as a free state—and some to the South, such as
a stricter Fugitive Slave Law.

southern Democrats thought the end result conceded too much to the other section.
Doubts lingered over the value or workability of a “compromise” that was more like an
armistice or a cease-fire.
Yet the Compromise of 1850 did temporarily restore sectional peace. In south-
ern state elections during 1850–1851, moderate coalitions defeated the radicals who
viewed the compromise as a sellout to the North. But this emerging “unionism” was
conditional. Southerners demanded strict northern adherence to the compromise,
especially to the Fugitive Slave Law, as the price for suppressing threats of secession.
In the North, the compromise received greater support. The Fugitive Slave Law was
unpopular in areas where abolitionism was strong because it required Northerners to
enforce slavery, and there were sensational rescues or attempted rescues of escaped
slaves. But the northern states largely adhered to the law during the next few years.
Quick Check When the Democrats and Whigs approved or condoned the compromise in their 1852
What were the key provisions of the platforms, it seemed that sharp differences on the slavery issue had been banished from
Compromise of 1850?
national politics again.

Political Upheaval, 1852–1856

14.2 How did the two-party system change during this period?
T he second-party system—Democrats versus Whigs—survived the crisis over

slavery in the Mexican cession, but the Compromise of 1850 may have fatally
weakened it. Although both national parties had been careful during the 1840s
not to alienate their supporters in either section of the country, they had in
fact offered voters alternative ways of dealing with slavery. Democrats had endorsed
headlong territorial expansion with the promise of a fair division of the spoils between
slave and free states. Whigs had generally opposed annexations or acquisitions, because
they were likely to raise the slavery question and threaten sectional harmony. Each

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