Taylor, Fillmore and the Compromise of 1850

The Compromise of 1850 admitted California into the United States, and established that the South had the right to bring slaves into the United State's Southwest Territories. The Compromise also abolished the slave trade in D.C., although slavery itself was allowed to continue. Specifically, this Compromise enacted the following in a series of separate laws:

• admitted California as a free state

• the South had the right to bring slaves into the Southwest territories

• slave trade was abolished in D.C., but slavery was not

• enacted tougher federal fugitive slave laws and strictly enforced them (Clay pushed this through the Senate)

• Texas received $10M to pay off its debt in return for accepting a narrower western boundary and give up claims to New Mexico and territory that became other states

Senators Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and Stephen Douglas argued for this Compromise; South Carolina (and pro-slavery) Senator John Calhoun opposed it.^[8] This was the last great issue for the elderly Senators Calhoun, Clay and Webster, each of whom was near the end of their long careers in the Senate. Calhoun died a few weeks later.

The Fugitive Slave Act was particularly offensive to northerners and especially outrageous to abolitionists. It amended the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 in order to appoint federal commissioners to catch slaves who fled to northern states, without giving them due process.

In unrelated achievements during the Fillmore Administration, President Fillmore also:

• sent Matthew Perry to Japan to negotiate a treaty allowing open borders. The mission was successful.

• signed the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty in 1850, in which the United States agreed with Britain that neither nation would obtain exclusive control over an inter-oceanic canal joining the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

• saw the development of a new type of ship called the Clipper. These ships were longer and faster than their predecessors. They greatly enhanced shipping and increased the trade in port cities.

President Franklin Pierce and the Kansas-Nebraska Act

The slavery issue had become so divisive by the election of 1852 that it was almost impossible for a political party even to nominate anyone for president who had strong views about it. Instead, political parties turned more to "dark horse" nominees whose positions on slavery were unknown, and thus not so objectionable to one side or the other. That enabled them to appear to be more electable because they had not announced their positions on slavery.

The Whig Party, with its concentration in the North, collapsed over disagreement about the slavery issue, as the pro- and anti-slavery members went in different directions. The Democratic Party, which was more the party of the South, nominated the dark horse candidate Franklin Pierce in 1852. He had been quietly pro-slavery, and he won the presidential election because the Whig Party was no longer strong enough to oppose him.

The Compromise of 1850 resulted in a brief respite from the divisive conflict. In 1853, when Pierce became president, he tried hard to prevent further conflict from breaking out, but he could not control the conflict any better than anyone else.

In 1854, Senator Stephen Douglas pushed through the Senate the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Historians consider this ill-advised law to be the greatest single step towards Civil War. It replaced Missouri Compromise with Douglas's concept of "popular sovereignty" for new territories, whereby each new region could decide for itself whether to allow slavery. This caused mini-wars over the issue, especially in Kansas. This Act repealed the Missouri Compromise and reopened the question of slavery in the West, particularly Kansas.

Furious, anti-slavery activists founded the Republican Party in 1854 in order to:

• stop the expansion of slavery

• repeal the Kansas-Nebraska Act

• repeal the Fugitive Slave Law

• end slavery in D.C.

In other words, the Republican Party of today was founded in 1854 on the moral grounds of ending slavery. Early leaders of the Republican Party included the abolitionists Charles Sumner and George Julian, the Free-Soiler Salmon Chase, and conservative members of the Whig Party.

Pierce would only last one term as president. In 1854 the future President James Buchanan was working as a diplomat (which enabled him to avoid speaking out about the slavery issue). As a diplomat Buchanan issued the Ostend Manifesto, in which he told Spain sell Cuba to the United States or lose it by force. This was a failure and caused negative feelings, but Buchanan later became president anyway.