Sectional Compromises In The 19th CenturyEssay Preview: Sectional Compromises In The 19th CenturyReport this essaySectional Compromises in the 19th CenturyThere are two mind paths to choose when considering the statement that the compromises of the 1800s were not really compromises, but sectional sellouts by the North, that continually gave in to the Souths wishes. The first is that the compromises really were compromises, and the second is that the compromises were modes of the North selling out. Really, there is only one correct mind path of these two, and that is that the North sold out during these compromises and gave the South what it wanted for minimal returns. The three main compromises of the 19th century, the compromises of 1820 (Missouri) and 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 each were ways for the south to gain more power so that eventually, it could secede.
First, the Missouri Compromise of 1820 established the slavery line that allowed slavery below it and forbid slavery above it. It also gave the South another slave state in Missouri and the north a free state in Maine. Although each region gained a state in the Senate, the south benefited most from the acquisition because Missouri was in such a pivotal position in the country, right on the border. Later on with the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, Missouri had a big role in getting Kansas to vote south because many proslavery Missourians crossed the border into Kansas to vote slavery. The Missouri Compromise also helped slavery because the line that was formed to limit slavery had more land below the line than above it. Therefore, slavery was given more land to be slave and therefore more power in the Senate, when the territories became state. In effect, the north got the short end of the stick and the south was given the first hint of being able to push around the north. The interesting thing is, the north agreed to all these provisions that would clearly benefit the south.
Likewise, the Compromise of 1850 was made to benefit both regions but really only benefited the south. The north got their wish, which was California to be admitted free, but other than that, the only beneficial provision was the abolishment of slavery auctions in Washington, D.C. This promise really didnt do anything but move the Washington slave auctions to Arlington, across the river in Virginia. Texas boundary was limited in this compromise, but then the government paid Texas $10 million, which eventually went towards the southern cause. Also, a stronger fugitive slave law was passed, which just helped slavery because it forced the north to accept that it was a functioning system and promoted the growth due to the slaves being returned so they can produce more slaves. The compromise additionally made the New Mexico and Utah territories open to slavery. Even though they werent influential territories, it still showed the southern dominance over the north. In fact, all of these provisions showed southern dominance over the north. They got what they wanted and allowed the south to have whatever it wanted.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 also benefited the south and showed the norths inability to fight for what was considered by the abolitionists as right. This act erased the Missouri Compromise line, allowing all territories to be open to slavery. This upset the north because it meant that slavery could be allowed in the north where the majority of people didnt approve of it. Then, if the territories allowed it, the entire plains section of the country could be slave. This act was then considered proslavery, and if the northern politicians were so against slavery, they could have prevented it. However, they had already been pushed around so much that they couldnt hold their own and allowed it to be passed.
These three major acts all show that the north became weaker after the compromises, and it also sold out, so to speak, by letting the south have anything it wanted after it got what it wanted. In 1820, the north wanted a free state and got it. In 1850, the north wanted California and got it. In each of these instances, the north gave the south more provisions that helped them and left satisfied with another free state. They were, for the majority, fighting for the abolition of slavery, and in each compromise, they didnt succeed in getting any abolition provisions passed, only more free state provisions. The north was totally unsuccessful in any effort at all to abolish slavery in these compromises, and they allowed the south to push them around. They were weak and could not hold their own in the political circles.
The Confederate War: 1850-1955.
Although the North was given free state provisions in 1840, as well as other free things, the South never saw any such provision that it might use again.
Southerners, as well as other Southern states, were divided along racial lines on the question of slavery, with each state having its own position. As was clear from the Union census records, only 25% of the states got all they wanted (i.e., slavery) within its borders; the rest had no laws against it at all. The Southern state legislature, then, approved the new law, and it made provisions about how to fight against the secessionists in the South. On June 17, 1863, Congress passed a law making a slave-owner’s job a mandatory act.
The Confederacy of Independent States.
The Southerners had plenty of other means they could use in the end, and they never made any demands against the Confederacy. They did, however, demand, as an act of defiance, that if the South’s leaders decided to try to stop the secessionists, they should immediately cut their supplies or move them to the “slave trade” as the Southerners called it on their side.
This tactic failed after the secessionists took control of South Carolina and Kentucky, although not before the Union had sent three brigades, with two tanks, to the eastern part of the state. The Southern government knew immediately that the Southern insurrection could occur, and the secessionists were going to send tanks and artillery to the part of the state the secessionist might target. The Confederates, who had just taken over Louisiana, sent tanks from two different states, Georgia and Kentucky, and ordered two Confederate destroyers to go out to capture the South’s northern border.
The Southern government then sent soldiers that day back to North Carolina to start fighting the secessionists. When they got to the state Capitol in downtown Charlotte, they found nearly all of them out to a shooting. Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was killed in the ensuing battle and Robert E. Lee died soon afterwards at Charleston. The South’s leadership didn’t want to take any chances and was very willing to take any kind of threat, including the threat of a trade war, that the secessionists might carry to their southern border. The southern Confederacy was also afraid that this might lead to another trade war.
The South wanted more provisions to be given, so any deal that included more provisions would be accepted, though only some of the bills were actually proposed. The South also agreed, on April 19, that slavery would be abolished. And so on. The South fought with all their might to end it all, but eventually, the South surrendered.
Confederates, 1861-1869.
The South was the first Southern state to accept the Civil War as a treaty. The Constitution in 1865 made all that happen as a simple matter of giving the states the right to try to end slavery without congressional approval. They also made a provision that Congress could ratify these provisions, and if one county’s representatives rejected ratification (as they do in 1868) that county’s governor would be put to death