What was the 1850 Compromise and Why did it Fail? Essay -- politics sl

What was the 1850 Compromise and Why did it Fail? In 1850, Henry Clay one of the most influential political leaders in American history introduced a set of resolutions, which aimed to please both North and South America. The five proposals were rolled into a single 'omnibus' bill, which offered a solution to the growing sectional conflict over slavery and westward expansion, which arose from the 1846 Mexican War. The 1850 Compromise, which Senator Douglas stripped down and effectively helped pass, failed for a number of reasons, the greatest of which was that it was unable to please both anti-slave and pro-slave groups. In fact it merely 'papered over the crack', and did not prove, as Daniel Webster a Clay supporter had hoped, 'a finality that would give peace to a country long distracted by the quarrel over slavery'. Why did the Compromise ultimately fail, and lead to polarization, featuring a party, which had begun to establish itself in the 1820s. The conflict between the North and South stemmed back to 1846, when the U.S.A won a huge area of Mexican territory as the result of what became known as the Mexican War. The land acquired revived controversy over the extension of slavery, as many Northerners wanted the new territory to become a free state with no slavery, and many Southerners wanted slavery to expand. Numerous compromises were conceded, to try to resolve the sectional conflict, for example the Wilmot Proviso of 1846 attempted to exclude slavery from any territory gained as a result of the war. The Calhoun Doctrine issued in 1847, and known as 'The Platform of the South', asserted that the territories were common property of all the states. However the argument of whether slavery should be... ... of the affects to their economy. However many Northerners who did resist slavery probably had a free labour ideology; that Northern farmers could grown cotton to fuel the trade industries of the North, as a replacement for slave labour. The events that had occurred before and after 1846 had shown that expansion of America created major sectional conflict and jealousies, due principally to the question of slavery. The resolutions had actually managed to delay the immediate danger of sectional split. However as the apparent fairness of the Compromise was false, like all other attempts at compromise it failed. Slavery was a moral issue, which proved that more than a compromise was needed to resolve it. The Compromise of 1850 ultimately resulted with a large number of Southerners seceding from the union, furthermore political polarization of the Democrats.