November 18, 2025 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, most people know the Civil War began at Fort Sumter in 1861. Few remember how close it came to starting a decade earlier in New Mexico. In 1850, America stood at a breaking point. The war with Mexico had added vast new lands to the United States, and every mile of that territory brought the same question: would slavery spread west? As tensions rose, Texas laid claim to much of what is now New Mexico, and both sides began to talk about raising armies. For a brief moment, it looked as though the first shots of the Civil War would ring out in the desert.
Gettysburg National Park Service Ranger Matt Atkinson explains how the Compromise of 1850, a fragile agreement over slavery, land, and power, held the Union together when the country was ready to break.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
And to search for the American Stories podcast, go to
the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. You've
probably learned about the Compromise of eighteen fifty in history class,
but it was almost certainly glossed over in favor of
(00:32):
the Civil War, which came a mere ten years later.
We think that's unfortunate because the story behind how the
Compromise came to be says a lot about the state
of America at that time. Here to tell the story
is Gettysburg National Park Service ranger John Hooptech take it away.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
John Well. After years and years of tension, the American
Civil War began in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the
summer of eighteen fifty, when Texas State forces overran and
attacked US infantry posted there under Colonel John Monroe. Did
(01:12):
anyone guess that? Good? Good? Of course, you know this
is not true, but but it very nearly was the case.
This Civil War almost began eleven years before Fort Sumter,
and if it did begin, then the most likely place
(01:32):
was Santa Fe, New Mexico. In eighteen fifty, the nation
was at the edge of this union, and the issue
that was tearing the country apart was slavery. There were
thirty states in the country in eighteen fifty and about
twenty three million people. Of those twenty three million people,
approximately three point two million were enslaved. The United States
(01:56):
had also just trounced its neighbor to the south, Mexico.
Now as a result of the Mexican American War, the
United States grew by a staggering forty percent, from one
point seventy five million square miles to three million square miles,
getting the territories of New Mexico, Utah, and California. Yet,
(02:18):
of course, ironically, it was this very vast acquisition of
new land which very very likely threatened to tear the
nation apart. The debate, very simply stated, was whether slavery
would be allowed to spread into that newly acquired land.
(02:38):
Southerners and slaveholders in particular said yes. Slaves they thought
they felt were property, and the Fifth Amendment says the
government cannot interfere with personal property, that they should be
able to take their enslaved people wherever they wanted to go.
And especially into this territory. Many Southerners, of course, had
(03:01):
fought in the Mexican War, and they were adamant that
they will not be denied entry into that land. Many Northerners,
on the other hand, and not just abolitionists, but many Northerners,
said no, slavery had already grown too powerful in this
land of liberty, that it should not spread any further,
(03:22):
and especially not into this territory, because Mexico had outlawed
slavery here. In the eighteen twenties, the argument between the
North and South were at a fever pitch, to such
a degree that there were many in this country who
felt that this union was inevitable, and there were some
people who thought that nothing should be done. Now. This
(03:44):
debate was certainly nothing new in eighteen nineteen, when Missouri,
the first state to be organized from the Louisiana Purchase,
applied for statehood into the country. Even then, the thought
of admitting Missouri almost drove this nation apart. The Missouri
Compromise was worked out, which settled things down for a
(04:07):
few years, but things had become so heated during the
Missouri debates that Thomas Jefferson, an aged Thomas Jefferson famously
declared that this compromise frightened him like a fire bell
in the night. I considered it at once the knell
of the union. It is hushed, indeed for the moment.
But this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence.
(04:31):
And just as he predicted, it was only a reprieve,
one which ended in a big way. In eighteen forty six,
right after the nation went to war with Mexico, when
Congressman David Wilmot of Pennsylvania introduced a proviso to an
appropriations bill, and that proviso said any territory, any territory
(04:54):
to be gained from Mexico, will not have slavery. That
proviso said, off a firestorm, not only in Congress, but
across the nation. Wilmot's proviso was brought up every single
year in Congress in eighteen forty six, eighteen forty seven,
eighteen forty eight, eighteen forty nine, and every single year
(05:17):
it passed the House of Representatives, but not the Senate.
And that is an important point that needs to be made.
Going hand in hand with this debate over the expansion
of slavery, was this very delicate balance of power in Washington, DC.
As I noted earlier, in eighteen fifty, there were thirty states,
(05:40):
fifteen north and fifteen south. There were sixty senators, thirty
from northern states, thirty from southern states. What happens if
one more state is added, That balance of power will shift,
It will shift the House. The House of Representatives was
(06:02):
dominated by northerners. The population of the North was much
larger than it was of the South, and that would
have been much bigger in the House if it were
not for that three to fifth clause. The three fifth
clause of the Constitution gave the South sixty additional members
of the House of Representatives in eighteen fifty, okay, representing
(06:25):
their so called constituents who were enslaved. It was in
the Senate where this balance of power was threatened, and
as John Calhoun, as John Calhoun said, the day that
the balance of power between the two sections of the
country is destroyed is a day that will not be
(06:46):
far removed from political revolution, anarchy, civil war, and widespread disaster. Well,
things were coming to a head. So what can be
worked out?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
And you've been listening to Gettysburg National Parks of ranger
John Hoptech. It's the Civil War that almost happened before
the Civil War. He describes that and describes the circumstances
we had had the Missouri Compromise right after the Louisiana purchase,
and then comes these new states after the Mexican War,
and what will this do to the balance of power,
(07:18):
particularly in the US Senate. When we come back the
fateful Compromise of eighteen fifty, that story continues here on
our American Story, Leehabib Here as we approach our nation's
two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, I'd like to remind you
that all the history stories you hear on this show
(07:40):
are brought to you by the great folks at Hillsdale College.
And Hillsdale isn't just a great school for your kids
or grandkids to attend, but for you as well. Go
to Hillsdale dot edu to find out about their terrific
free online courses. Again, go to Hillsdale dot edu and
sign up for their free and terrific online courses. And
(08:09):
we returned to our American Stories and the story of
the Compromise of eighteen fifty. When we last left off,
America was teetering on the edge of a full blown
civil war over the expansion of slavery. It was up
to the thirty first Congress to try to solve the
issues and save the country. Let's get back to the story.
Here again is Gettysburg National Park Service Ranger John Hoptec.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
There were five major issues facing the country, and each
of those five had the power to tear the nation apart.
Those five issues were as follows. California. Tens of thousands
of people flocked to California, why looking for gold, looking
to strike it rich. And it was quite readily apparent
(08:56):
that some kind of government was needed there. It was
becoming like an outlawed territory. So they got together in
eighteen forty nine and they wrote a constitution for their state.
And in that territorial constitution, the people of California said unanimously,
we do not want slavery here. Northerners, Okay, that's great.
(09:20):
When can we get you into the country. Southerners said,
what ah, because that balance of power would be shifted.
A second issue that was confronting the nation New Mexico
and Utah. Utah was a far way of way away
from organizing, but New Mexico wasn't and the people of
(09:42):
New Mexico said, we do not want slavery to spread
into this land. Now, going hand in hand with this
issue was another big time problem, and this was the
most incendiary, most potentially explosive problem of them all. Well,
Texas was the biggest state in the Union. It wanted
(10:04):
to be bigger. Still, it was claiming a sizeable portion
of New Mexico. A fourth problem slavery and the slave
trade in the nation's capital. The fact that there were
foreign visitors arriving in the capital of this land of
liberty and they could see a slave option taking place.
(10:25):
People were repelled by that. And finally, the fifth major problem,
widespread violations of that fugitive Slave law. Northerners were simply
not following the law, hiding them, helping them to freedom.
The Southerners claimed that there were thirty thousand escaped slaves
living in the North by eighteen fifty, worth fifteen million dollars.
(10:49):
Those were the five major issues that confronted the United States.
But before anything could get done, the House of Representatives
had to elect a Speaker of the House simple right.
It took sixty three ballots before a speaker was finally elected,
and for the first and only time in American history,
(11:10):
it was decided that a simple plurality of the vote
would do, not a majority. Now that a speaker had
been elected, it was time to get the president Stohn
and there is old, rough and ready Zachary Taylor, a
war hero. He wrote his military Heroics to the White House.
He was, though a political novice, and reportedly he had
(11:33):
never cast a vote in his life. Many believed he
was entirely wholly unqualified. Henry Clay wrote that his only
qualifications for the presidency was sleeping forty years in the
woods and cultivating moss on the cows of his legs. Now.
Zachary Taylor was honest, plain spoken, and as it turned
(11:55):
out many underestimated him. His four decades in the uniform
to his country had in him a pure patriotic love
of country. He was stubborn, independent minded, and he made
clear from the very start that he was not going
to be a mere rubber stamp for the Southern slaveholders.
In Congress, Southerners supported his bid for the presidency because
(12:19):
he was, after all, a Southern slaveholder, But Zachary Taylor
called slavery a moral and political evil, and he was
opposed to extending in his idea for solving the nation's problems.
Let's get California in and that was it. Southerners, of course,
(12:43):
are already outraged with Taylor, and there were others in
the Senate who felt that Zachary Taylor simply did not
go far enough. Now, Henry Clay, he was watching with
alarm all the drama playing out in the House. Now
he felt that he and the Senate could come up
with a compromise. He felt that if peace is going
(13:05):
to be restored to this country, it would be up
to him, and he was ready to take the lead.
He was beloved and lionized across the land as the
great compromiser. He had taken the lead in that eighteen
twenty Missouri compromise. Abraham Lincoln called him the bow ideal
of a statesman. He was seventy three years old and
(13:25):
in failing health. But despite all of his accomplishments, the
one thing that he coveted most had always eluded him,
and that was the presidency. He sought the Whig Party
nomination for president five times. He got it three times,
he lost all three times he lost. His son killed
in action in the Mexican War, fighting under Zachary Taylor
(13:46):
at Buena Vista. He was a slave owner too, but
he opposed it, and he would spend much of January
working out ideas. And on januy Quary, twenty ninth, to
a packed Senate chamber, Henry Clay rose and he presented
a great national scheme of compromise and harmony. And his
(14:10):
proposals were this, California will be coming into the Union
without slavery. Congress shall pass no law prohibiting or allowing
for slavery in New Mexico. Let the people there decide. Third,
Texas will relinquish its claim on any New Mexico territory.
(14:30):
In exchange, Texas will be given about fifteen million bucks.
The federal government would assume all of Texas's public debts.
Slavery would not be abolished in Washington, d c. But
the slave trade would. He called for a strengthening of
(14:52):
the Fugitive Slave Act. And finally, Congress will make no
law interfering with the slave trade between the slave states.
He thought that he had reached out to both sides.
The moderates loved him, and people across the United States
applauded Henry Clay once more for seeking compromise, but it
(15:16):
soon became very clear that Clay failed to appeal to
the extremists on both sides. Frederick Douglass called him a monster.
Jeremiah Clemens of Alabama stated that it called for the
unconditional surrender of the South and his interests. There would
be no compromise from those fierce fire brands in the South,
(15:37):
and at the head of that contingent was John Calhoun,
the most vocal and most prominent mouthpiece of Southern slave
owners in the country. About a month after Henry Clay
made his pitch to the Senate, a very sick, feeble, frail,
and haggard John Calhoun, sixty seven years of age and dying,
(16:01):
he entered the Senate, held up on either side by
two fellow senators. One observer said he looked like he
was so emaciated, pale, and cadaverous that he was a
fugitive from the grave. But he went there that day
to give his thoughts on the crisis. He did, he
believed speak for the South, but he couldn't speak. He
(16:24):
was too weak, So he gave his speech to James
Mason of Virginia, and Calhoun sat there, stone faced, haggard,
a heavy black cloak over his shoulders, while Mason read
Calhoun's prepared remarks. Now, Calhoun, of course, we know, had
always been very serious. The joke about John Calhoun is
(16:46):
that he attempted to write a poem only once in
his life, and it began with the word. Whereas he
was highly intelligent, a graduate of Yale, with those gaunt
cheeks and a long iron gray mane, and John Calhoun
believed he was one hundred percent right, one hundred percent
of the time. He stated that the South faced the situation.
(17:08):
The south face was critical, and he expressed his doubt
that the two sides North or South quote, so different
and hostile, could exist in one common union. The impression
is now very general, and is on the increase, that
disunion is the only alternative left to the South. I
have believed from the first that the agitation over slavery
(17:29):
could end in disunion. He said the country was in danger,
and it was the North's fault.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
And when we come back more of this remarkable story,
the story of the Compromise of eighteen fifty, here on
our American story, and we returned to our American stories
(18:11):
and the story of the Compromise of eighteen fifty. When
we last left off John C. Calhoun, former Vice President
John C. Calhoun had taken the floor of the Senate
to give a speech against the compromises proposed by Henry clay.
Let's return to Calhoun's speech. Here again is Gettysburg National
Park Service ranger John Hoptech.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Now, Calhoun also expressed his fear that the North was
becoming too powerful, the population was growing too big, the
House was dominated by Northerners, and they are soon going
to take the electoral college. Now he forgot the fact
that during the first sixty two years of the country's history,
a slave owner was president for fifty of them, that
(18:53):
chief justices of the Supreme Court were slave owners for
fifty two of those sixty two years. Nevertheless, he felt
that the government legislation to outlaws slavery from the territories
was too much. Slavery, he said, was essential and natural.
It was the North who had to come up with
a solution, and the North must rigorously enforce the Fugitive
(19:15):
Slave Act. He then suggested the way to go about
this is a constitutional for amendment that would forever guaranteed
sectional balance in the government, and he even put forward
a thought of a dual presidency, a Northern president and
a Southern president each had veto power. Calhoun died just
(19:37):
a month later NUSA. His death was announced in the Senate,
and there were the eulogies spoken Clay and Daniel Webster.
They spoke out favorably with Calhoun, but not Senator Thomas
hart Benton. Thomas Benton of Missouri declared that Calhoun is
not dead. There may be no vitality in his body,
but there is in his doctrines. Hoon died with treason
(20:01):
in his heart and on his lips, and his disciples
are now disseminating his poison. Calhoun believed that the country
was indeed headed toward a civil war, and it would
come soon, that it would be as a result of
a presidential election. And he was right. But was the
war inevitable? Daniel Webster hope not. Now. After John Calhoun
(20:24):
gave his thoughts, all attention turned to the great Daniel Webster,
the godlike Daniel of Massachusetts as he was called. He
was the very definition of an American statesman, the mouthpiece
not for the North or for the South, the mouthpiece
of America. And he had this great physical magnetism, the
(20:44):
deep set eyes, a very large head, and people claim
that his head grew larger every single year. He had
a deep, melodious, operatic voice, and whenever he spoke, it
was an event. He was a very gifted orator. But
he drank heavily, and maybe it was because of a
(21:07):
history of personal tragedy. His firstborn child died in eighteen
seventeen at age seven. He lost another son at age three.
His wife, Grace, died in eighteen twenty eight at age
forty seven. A beloved brother died the following year, and
in eighteen forty eight, his son Edward died in Mexican War.
(21:27):
To make matters worse, the very day that Edward Webster's
body returned home for burial, Daniel Webster's daughter, Julia, died
of tuberculosis at the age of thirty three. Days after
Calhoun's speech was read, Daniel Webster stood up in the
Senate and he began his famous seventh of March speech.
(21:47):
I speak today not as a Massachusetts man, not as
a Northern man, but as an American. Hear me from
my cause I speak today for the restoration of that
country and that harmony which makes the blessings of this
Union so rich and so dare to us all. He
blamed the extremist on both sides for the current crisis.
(22:11):
He stated that it was useless to debate slavery in
the territories. It could never work. The law of nature,
he said, the soil, the climate, the terrain of New
Mexico would prohibit slavery from spreading there. So why are
we getting so worked up over this? I hear with
pain and anguish the war of secession secession. I would
rather hear of natural blasts and mildews, war, pestilence, and
(22:35):
famine than to hear of gentlemen talk of secession. Secession,
he thundered, would lead to war, and he was determined
to prevent that from happening, and to that end he
will support Henry Clay's compromises. He also surprised many when
he expressed his support for a stronger fugitive slave law.
(22:57):
Dan Webster personally hated slavery. He once called it unjust
and repugnant to the natural equality of mankind, but he
was not willing to risk the Union to further attack it.
Abolitionists up north decried this. John Greenleaf Whittier, in his
poem Ichabod wrote, from those great eyes, the soul has fled.
(23:20):
When faith is lost, when honor dies, the man is dead.
Aside from the abolitionists, though Webster's speech was hailed nationwide,
hope was entertained for compromise, there was still a long
fight to go. Day after day, week after week, the
debate and the argument went back and forth between Whigs
(23:42):
and Democrats, Northerners and Southerners, unionists and those who made
it clear they were ready to secede. Senator Henry Foot
of Mississippi declared that every day that we have sat
here delaborating, as we call it, agitating the question of slavery,
we have play this union in still greater peril. Now.
(24:03):
Henry Foot was forty six years of age, slight, short, talkative, pugnacious.
He had been in four duels, he was shot in
three of them. He got into a fistfight with Jefferson
Davis on Christmas Day eighteen forty seven, and in eighteen
forty eight he got into a wrestling match on the
Sunnate floor with Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania. We think things
(24:26):
are bad now. He was a fierce advocate of Southern rights,
but he was also a Unionist who sought compromise. And
right after Daniel Webster's speech that called for compromise, Henry
Foot had an idea. Why don't we package all of
Henry Clay's ideas into a single bill. We will call
(24:46):
it the Omnibus, named after a very popular form of
urban transportation. Okay, a lot of people from a lot
of different social classes, male, female passengers could all pile
into the omnibus that travel through the cities of this country.
Henry Clay never planned for this. He wanted to trot
out every one of his bills one at a time,
(25:08):
to be voted on separately. But Henry Foot was afraid
that Zachary Taylor would use his veto power on anything
except California. Some alike the idea, some did not. Thomas
Benton of Missouri hated the idea, and he hated Henry Foot. Physically,
(25:30):
the two men were opposites. Benton was brawny and burly
with a big, thick frame. He was overbearing without fear.
Foot was more effeminine, but boy, he didn't hold back.
Things finally boiled over after months of frustration, and on
April seventeenth, Henry Foot unleashed a torrent of insults at
(25:53):
Thomas Benton from the Senate floor. Benton had enough, he rose,
He tossed his desk to the side, and he ran
directly at Foot. Henry Foot pulled a revolver from his jacket,
pointed it at Benton coming adam down the aisle and
Millard Fillmore, the Vice President presiding over this, banging the
(26:14):
gavel order order. Two people are trying to hold Benton back.
But he opened his shirt and he said, let the
coward fire, Let the assassin fire. Only cowards go armed.
And Henry Foot he's saying, I only brought the gun
for personal safety. I think he was right. But this
(26:34):
happened on the floor of the Senate and Daniel Webster
is shaking his head. He wrote, I am sorry for
this country. That is what was happening in the Senate.
Henry Foot got his way. Henry Foot the day after
this whole embarrassing episode on the Senate floor with pistols drawn,
finally the Senate approved this omnibus plan, but just like earlier,
(27:00):
those immediately against.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
It, And you've been listening to Gettysburg National Park Service
ranger John Hoptech telling us one heck of a yarn,
one heck of a story about the Compromise of eighteen fifty,
the characters at play, the forces at play, the competing
factions at play. More of the remarkable story of the
fateful Compromise of eighteen fifty. Here on our American stories.
(27:37):
And we returned to our American stories and the final
portion of our story on the Compromise of eighteen fifty
when we last left off, after pistols had been drawn
on the floor of the Senate, the Omnibus of eighteen
fifty was approved, and Texas had threatened to raise an
army to claim the parts of New Mexico it wanted.
(27:58):
Let's return to the story, or rather with New Mexico's response.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
The people of New Mexico said, what try us? And
they would repeatedly call on the military leader there, John Monroe,
to resist any effort Texas might make. Governor Peter Bell
of Texas called upon the state legislature to raise and
equip an army, and he is going to summon a
friend of his, Robert Simpson Neighbors. Neighbors was told to
(28:26):
ride west, carrying copies of the Texas State Constitution and
making it known to anyone and to everyone that they
in their land was now subject to Texas law. Now,
John Monroe, sixty years old, a native of Scotland, a
hero of the Mexican War. Not only was he called
upon by the people of New Mexico to resist any
effort by Texas, but the administration in Washington had also
(28:49):
instructed him to do the same. The battle lines are
being drawn, and this was all happening the same time,
foot in Benton or drawing pistols on each other in
the Senate. Neighbors soon discovered the resolve of Monroe, and
Neighbors also found out the resolve of the people of
New Mexico. They were flatly against anything Texas had in
(29:11):
mind for them. They were also against slavery. Neighbors returned
to Texas. He was defeated. He was dejected in his plan,
but he informed Governor Bell that it might be best
now to raise an army. And that's exactly what Bell
intended to do. As Monroe and his soldiers kept a
nervous eye toward Texas, so too, did many political and
(29:33):
military leaders across the country. Alexander Stevens wrote a letter,
an open letter to the President of the United States,
and it was printed on July fourth, of all days,
in the National Intelligencer. The first federal gun that shall
be fired against a people with Texas will be the
signal for the freemen from Delaware to the Rio Grande
(29:54):
to rally to the rescue. When the Rubicon has passed,
the days of the Republic will be numbered. The cause
of te Texas will be the cause of the entire South.
No wonder. Henry Clay called this the crisis of the crisis.
But if things could not get more stressful to the nation.
In the literal midst of all this, the President of
(30:15):
the United States died in office. Zachary Taylor attended an
Independent State ceremony at the Washington Monument a broiling hot day.
They didn't have enough shade, and he didn't want to
ask the ladies to move from their seats under the awnings,
so he sat in the sun for two straight hours.
He went back to the White House that night and
(30:36):
he gorged himself on ice, milk, cherries, and raw vegetables,
And that night he got very sick. Within a week
he was dead. The nation mourned, and of course members
of Congress would use the event of the death of
the president to call for harmony, for a compromise. The
day after Zachary Taylor died, Millard Fillmore will become president.
(30:59):
Boy to get a chance to talk about Millard Fillmore portly, handsome, dignified,
and courteous, with a very sharp analytical mind. And let's
not forget that as vice president every single day he
did what he sat at the Senate sessions. But unlike Taylor,
Fillmore was a lot more amenable to compromise. He inherited
(31:21):
a mess. I know, we oftentimes like to dismiss Millard Fillmore,
you know, as one of the great unknown presidents, but
imagine being in his shoes. He is for a compromise,
and he began to fill his cabinet with like minded individuals.
Henry Clay saw the death of Zachary Taylor as a godsend.
Hate to say it that way, but Zachary Taylor was
(31:41):
a tremendous obstacle on Henry Clay's path. Finally we could
get this omnibus pass. He called upon his colleagues for
their patriotic and moralistic sentiment. He asked them to put
their section behind. If a war does break out between
Texas and the soldiers of the United States, there are
our enthusiastic spirits in Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama that
(32:05):
will flock to the standards of Texas, contending, as they
believe they will be contending for slave territory. Who could
say which side would prevail in such a fratricidal conflict.
I believe from the bottom of my soul that the
measure is the reunion of this Union. It is the
dove of peace, which, taking flight from the Capitol, carries
(32:28):
its glad tidings to all the remotest extremities of this land.
A thunderous applause broke out from the Senate, a tour
de force, a passionate, eloquent, tear provoking speech. The Omnibus failed.
On July thirtieth, an amendment was made to the Omnibus
(32:49):
that said, until we resolved the boundary between Texas and
New Mexico, let us consider New Mexico under Texas authority.
But a Senator from Maryland rose up in opposition to this,
and he said, you know, I'm why don't we remove
anything pertaining to Texas from this omnibus? The floodgates opened.
(33:11):
I proposed to remove anything pertaining to California past. I
proposed to remove anything pertaining to that Fugitive Slave Act
passed plank by plank, everything was removed. Thomas Benton and
William Henry Sewer danced with each other in the aisles
of the Senate, and Henry Clay, who spoke no fewer
(33:31):
than seventy times, rose from his seat and quietly left
the Senate. He went to Newport, Rhode Island to recover
his health. This was killing him, literally killing him. But
all was not yet lost, because there was that steam
engine in Bridges by the name of Senator Stephen Douglas.
(33:53):
He had a powerful voice, but he kept it silent
throughout this entire debate. He knew from the start, really
that this omnibus will fail because the omnibus is only
going to unite the opponents of every bill. So as
they were debating and talking things over, Stephen Douglas went
to every one of the members of the Senate and
he began to ask them, so would you vote for
(34:14):
California Okay, would you vote for a stronger future of
Slave Act? All right? He knew the omnibus would fail,
and when it did, he was ready to step up
to the plate. On the very next day, Stephen Douglas
rose in the Senate and he put forward a proposal
to organize the government for Utah without slavery. Okay, that's fine.
(34:36):
It passed. He put forward another proposal on the Senate
floor that would establish the boundary between Texas and New Mexico.
Texas would relinquish its claims for government funding to assume
its debts. And guess what it passed. He called for
California to be admitted to the Union without slavery, and
it passed. It was a miracle. Let's keep in mind
(35:00):
a few things. Millard Fillmore and the new Secretary of State,
Daniel Webster, they were talking to their whigs in the Senate.
I want you to stay home tomorrow from the vote.
Oh would you like a government position? Then why don't
you go ahead and vote for that Fugitive Slave Act.
So Stephen Douglas is rallying Democratic support for each of
(35:21):
Henry Clay's bills, while Millard Fillmore and Daniel Webster are
doing the same thing for the Whigs. On August twenty
sixth a strengthened Fugitive Slave Act was passed. Fifteen Northern
Senators did not show up that day to cast a vote.
It passed by a vote of twenty seven to twelve
when there were sixty senators. Finally the slave trade in
(35:45):
DC would be abolished thirty three to nine nineteen. It
was really quite amazing, after seven months of debate, with
the nation on the verge of war, that Stephen Douglas,
only thirty six years old, stood and said, Okay, let's
try these bills one at a time, and by mid
September all of Henry Clay's ideas were passed. When Henry
(36:11):
Clay returned from Newport, Rhode Island, probably couldn't believe what
was happening. Compromise at last ten straight months, three hundred
and two consecutive days of argument, threats, and all of
this was over. The thirty first Congress finally adjourned on
September thirtieth of eighteen fifty. They had been in session
(36:32):
from December second of eighteen forty nine to September thirtieth
of eighteen fifty without break. It was the longest Congressional
session ever. Daniel Webster wrote, we have now gone through
the most important crisis which has occurred since the foundation
of this government, and the Union stands firm. But was
it really a triumph? Henry Clay died on June twenty ninth,
(36:55):
eighteen fifty two, and so too did the spirit of compromise.
These debates in eighteen fifty and the effort to ultimately
avoid war in eighteen fifty is unsurpassed in American history.
Ten straight months of deliberation and argument. And while today
we don't always empathize with the views of Clay and
(37:16):
Webster and even Zach Taylor, especially with their support Clay
and Webster of that Fugitive Slave Act, their courage and
the stand that they took to save the nation mattered
the rancorous debates that defined the thirty first Congress. The
Statesman prevailed, and by doing so, they saved the Union
a few crucial years. What would have happened if civil
(37:41):
war broke out in eighteen fifty who would have led
the country? Millard Fillmore, who would have led the armies?
The compromise of eighteen fifty provided the United States another
ten years to find a statesman equally committed to the
Union as Clay Webster and Tayler, but one more devoted
(38:01):
to human rights.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
And a special thanks to Gettysburg National Park Service ranger
John Hoptech the story of the Compromise of eighteen fifty.
Here on our American Stories.
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
And to search for the American Stories podcast, go to
the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. You've
probably learned about the Compromise of eighteen fifty in history class,
but it was almost certainly glossed over in favor of
(00:32):
the Civil War, which came a mere ten years later.
We think that's unfortunate because the story behind how the
Compromise came to be says a lot about the state
of America at that time. Here to tell the story
is Gettysburg National Park Service ranger John Hooptech take it away.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
John Well. After years and years of tension, the American
Civil War began in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the
summer of eighteen fifty, when Texas State forces overran and
attacked US infantry posted there under Colonel John Monroe. Did
(01:12):
anyone guess that? Good? Good? Of course, you know this
is not true, but but it very nearly was the case.
This Civil War almost began eleven years before Fort Sumter,
and if it did begin, then the most likely place
(01:32):
was Santa Fe, New Mexico. In eighteen fifty, the nation
was at the edge of this union, and the issue
that was tearing the country apart was slavery. There were
thirty states in the country in eighteen fifty and about
twenty three million people. Of those twenty three million people,
approximately three point two million were enslaved. The United States
(01:56):
had also just trounced its neighbor to the south, Mexico.
Now as a result of the Mexican American War, the
United States grew by a staggering forty percent, from one
point seventy five million square miles to three million square miles,
getting the territories of New Mexico, Utah, and California. Yet,
(02:18):
of course, ironically, it was this very vast acquisition of
new land which very very likely threatened to tear the
nation apart. The debate, very simply stated, was whether slavery
would be allowed to spread into that newly acquired land.
(02:38):
Southerners and slaveholders in particular said yes. Slaves they thought
they felt were property, and the Fifth Amendment says the
government cannot interfere with personal property, that they should be
able to take their enslaved people wherever they wanted to go.
And especially into this territory. Many Southerners, of course, had
(03:01):
fought in the Mexican War, and they were adamant that
they will not be denied entry into that land. Many Northerners,
on the other hand, and not just abolitionists, but many Northerners,
said no, slavery had already grown too powerful in this
land of liberty, that it should not spread any further,
(03:22):
and especially not into this territory, because Mexico had outlawed
slavery here. In the eighteen twenties, the argument between the
North and South were at a fever pitch, to such
a degree that there were many in this country who
felt that this union was inevitable, and there were some
people who thought that nothing should be done. Now. This
(03:44):
debate was certainly nothing new in eighteen nineteen, when Missouri,
the first state to be organized from the Louisiana Purchase,
applied for statehood into the country. Even then, the thought
of admitting Missouri almost drove this nation apart. The Missouri
Compromise was worked out, which settled things down for a
(04:07):
few years, but things had become so heated during the
Missouri debates that Thomas Jefferson, an aged Thomas Jefferson famously
declared that this compromise frightened him like a fire bell
in the night. I considered it at once the knell
of the union. It is hushed, indeed for the moment.
But this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence.
(04:31):
And just as he predicted, it was only a reprieve,
one which ended in a big way. In eighteen forty six,
right after the nation went to war with Mexico, when
Congressman David Wilmot of Pennsylvania introduced a proviso to an
appropriations bill, and that proviso said any territory, any territory
(04:54):
to be gained from Mexico, will not have slavery. That
proviso said, off a firestorm, not only in Congress, but
across the nation. Wilmot's proviso was brought up every single
year in Congress in eighteen forty six, eighteen forty seven,
eighteen forty eight, eighteen forty nine, and every single year
(05:17):
it passed the House of Representatives, but not the Senate.
And that is an important point that needs to be made.
Going hand in hand with this debate over the expansion
of slavery, was this very delicate balance of power in Washington, DC.
As I noted earlier, in eighteen fifty, there were thirty states,
(05:40):
fifteen north and fifteen south. There were sixty senators, thirty
from northern states, thirty from southern states. What happens if
one more state is added, That balance of power will shift,
It will shift the House. The House of Representatives was
(06:02):
dominated by northerners. The population of the North was much
larger than it was of the South, and that would
have been much bigger in the House if it were
not for that three to fifth clause. The three fifth
clause of the Constitution gave the South sixty additional members
of the House of Representatives in eighteen fifty, okay, representing
(06:25):
their so called constituents who were enslaved. It was in
the Senate where this balance of power was threatened, and
as John Calhoun, as John Calhoun said, the day that
the balance of power between the two sections of the
country is destroyed is a day that will not be
(06:46):
far removed from political revolution, anarchy, civil war, and widespread disaster. Well,
things were coming to a head. So what can be
worked out?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
And you've been listening to Gettysburg National Parks of ranger
John Hoptech. It's the Civil War that almost happened before
the Civil War. He describes that and describes the circumstances
we had had the Missouri Compromise right after the Louisiana purchase,
and then comes these new states after the Mexican War,
and what will this do to the balance of power,
(07:18):
particularly in the US Senate. When we come back the
fateful Compromise of eighteen fifty, that story continues here on
our American Story, Leehabib Here as we approach our nation's
two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, I'd like to remind you
that all the history stories you hear on this show
(07:40):
are brought to you by the great folks at Hillsdale College.
And Hillsdale isn't just a great school for your kids
or grandkids to attend, but for you as well. Go
to Hillsdale dot edu to find out about their terrific
free online courses. Again, go to Hillsdale dot edu and
sign up for their free and terrific online courses. And
(08:09):
we returned to our American Stories and the story of
the Compromise of eighteen fifty. When we last left off,
America was teetering on the edge of a full blown
civil war over the expansion of slavery. It was up
to the thirty first Congress to try to solve the
issues and save the country. Let's get back to the story.
Here again is Gettysburg National Park Service Ranger John Hoptec.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
There were five major issues facing the country, and each
of those five had the power to tear the nation apart.
Those five issues were as follows. California. Tens of thousands
of people flocked to California, why looking for gold, looking
to strike it rich. And it was quite readily apparent
(08:56):
that some kind of government was needed there. It was
becoming like an outlawed territory. So they got together in
eighteen forty nine and they wrote a constitution for their state.
And in that territorial constitution, the people of California said unanimously,
we do not want slavery here. Northerners, Okay, that's great.
(09:20):
When can we get you into the country. Southerners said,
what ah, because that balance of power would be shifted.
A second issue that was confronting the nation New Mexico
and Utah. Utah was a far way of way away
from organizing, but New Mexico wasn't and the people of
(09:42):
New Mexico said, we do not want slavery to spread
into this land. Now, going hand in hand with this
issue was another big time problem, and this was the
most incendiary, most potentially explosive problem of them all. Well,
Texas was the biggest state in the Union. It wanted
(10:04):
to be bigger. Still, it was claiming a sizeable portion
of New Mexico. A fourth problem slavery and the slave
trade in the nation's capital. The fact that there were
foreign visitors arriving in the capital of this land of
liberty and they could see a slave option taking place.
(10:25):
People were repelled by that. And finally, the fifth major problem,
widespread violations of that fugitive Slave law. Northerners were simply
not following the law, hiding them, helping them to freedom.
The Southerners claimed that there were thirty thousand escaped slaves
living in the North by eighteen fifty, worth fifteen million dollars.
(10:49):
Those were the five major issues that confronted the United States.
But before anything could get done, the House of Representatives
had to elect a Speaker of the House simple right.
It took sixty three ballots before a speaker was finally elected,
and for the first and only time in American history,
(11:10):
it was decided that a simple plurality of the vote
would do, not a majority. Now that a speaker had
been elected, it was time to get the president Stohn
and there is old, rough and ready Zachary Taylor, a
war hero. He wrote his military Heroics to the White House.
He was, though a political novice, and reportedly he had
(11:33):
never cast a vote in his life. Many believed he
was entirely wholly unqualified. Henry Clay wrote that his only
qualifications for the presidency was sleeping forty years in the
woods and cultivating moss on the cows of his legs. Now.
Zachary Taylor was honest, plain spoken, and as it turned
(11:55):
out many underestimated him. His four decades in the uniform
to his country had in him a pure patriotic love
of country. He was stubborn, independent minded, and he made
clear from the very start that he was not going
to be a mere rubber stamp for the Southern slaveholders.
In Congress, Southerners supported his bid for the presidency because
(12:19):
he was, after all, a Southern slaveholder, But Zachary Taylor
called slavery a moral and political evil, and he was
opposed to extending in his idea for solving the nation's problems.
Let's get California in and that was it. Southerners, of course,
(12:43):
are already outraged with Taylor, and there were others in
the Senate who felt that Zachary Taylor simply did not
go far enough. Now, Henry Clay, he was watching with
alarm all the drama playing out in the House. Now
he felt that he and the Senate could come up
with a compromise. He felt that if peace is going
(13:05):
to be restored to this country, it would be up
to him, and he was ready to take the lead.
He was beloved and lionized across the land as the
great compromiser. He had taken the lead in that eighteen
twenty Missouri compromise. Abraham Lincoln called him the bow ideal
of a statesman. He was seventy three years old and
(13:25):
in failing health. But despite all of his accomplishments, the
one thing that he coveted most had always eluded him,
and that was the presidency. He sought the Whig Party
nomination for president five times. He got it three times,
he lost all three times he lost. His son killed
in action in the Mexican War, fighting under Zachary Taylor
(13:46):
at Buena Vista. He was a slave owner too, but
he opposed it, and he would spend much of January
working out ideas. And on januy Quary, twenty ninth, to
a packed Senate chamber, Henry Clay rose and he presented
a great national scheme of compromise and harmony. And his
(14:10):
proposals were this, California will be coming into the Union
without slavery. Congress shall pass no law prohibiting or allowing
for slavery in New Mexico. Let the people there decide. Third,
Texas will relinquish its claim on any New Mexico territory.
(14:30):
In exchange, Texas will be given about fifteen million bucks.
The federal government would assume all of Texas's public debts.
Slavery would not be abolished in Washington, d c. But
the slave trade would. He called for a strengthening of
(14:52):
the Fugitive Slave Act. And finally, Congress will make no
law interfering with the slave trade between the slave states.
He thought that he had reached out to both sides.
The moderates loved him, and people across the United States
applauded Henry Clay once more for seeking compromise, but it
(15:16):
soon became very clear that Clay failed to appeal to
the extremists on both sides. Frederick Douglass called him a monster.
Jeremiah Clemens of Alabama stated that it called for the
unconditional surrender of the South and his interests. There would
be no compromise from those fierce fire brands in the South,
(15:37):
and at the head of that contingent was John Calhoun,
the most vocal and most prominent mouthpiece of Southern slave
owners in the country. About a month after Henry Clay
made his pitch to the Senate, a very sick, feeble, frail,
and haggard John Calhoun, sixty seven years of age and dying,
(16:01):
he entered the Senate, held up on either side by
two fellow senators. One observer said he looked like he
was so emaciated, pale, and cadaverous that he was a
fugitive from the grave. But he went there that day
to give his thoughts on the crisis. He did, he
believed speak for the South, but he couldn't speak. He
(16:24):
was too weak, So he gave his speech to James
Mason of Virginia, and Calhoun sat there, stone faced, haggard,
a heavy black cloak over his shoulders, while Mason read
Calhoun's prepared remarks. Now, Calhoun, of course, we know, had
always been very serious. The joke about John Calhoun is
(16:46):
that he attempted to write a poem only once in
his life, and it began with the word. Whereas he
was highly intelligent, a graduate of Yale, with those gaunt
cheeks and a long iron gray mane, and John Calhoun
believed he was one hundred percent right, one hundred percent
of the time. He stated that the South faced the situation.
(17:08):
The south face was critical, and he expressed his doubt
that the two sides North or South quote, so different
and hostile, could exist in one common union. The impression
is now very general, and is on the increase, that
disunion is the only alternative left to the South. I
have believed from the first that the agitation over slavery
(17:29):
could end in disunion. He said the country was in danger,
and it was the North's fault.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
And when we come back more of this remarkable story,
the story of the Compromise of eighteen fifty, here on
our American story, and we returned to our American stories
(18:11):
and the story of the Compromise of eighteen fifty. When
we last left off John C. Calhoun, former Vice President
John C. Calhoun had taken the floor of the Senate
to give a speech against the compromises proposed by Henry clay.
Let's return to Calhoun's speech. Here again is Gettysburg National
Park Service ranger John Hoptech.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Now, Calhoun also expressed his fear that the North was
becoming too powerful, the population was growing too big, the
House was dominated by Northerners, and they are soon going
to take the electoral college. Now he forgot the fact
that during the first sixty two years of the country's history,
a slave owner was president for fifty of them, that
(18:53):
chief justices of the Supreme Court were slave owners for
fifty two of those sixty two years. Nevertheless, he felt
that the government legislation to outlaws slavery from the territories
was too much. Slavery, he said, was essential and natural.
It was the North who had to come up with
a solution, and the North must rigorously enforce the Fugitive
(19:15):
Slave Act. He then suggested the way to go about
this is a constitutional for amendment that would forever guaranteed
sectional balance in the government, and he even put forward
a thought of a dual presidency, a Northern president and
a Southern president each had veto power. Calhoun died just
(19:37):
a month later NUSA. His death was announced in the Senate,
and there were the eulogies spoken Clay and Daniel Webster.
They spoke out favorably with Calhoun, but not Senator Thomas
hart Benton. Thomas Benton of Missouri declared that Calhoun is
not dead. There may be no vitality in his body,
but there is in his doctrines. Hoon died with treason
(20:01):
in his heart and on his lips, and his disciples
are now disseminating his poison. Calhoun believed that the country
was indeed headed toward a civil war, and it would
come soon, that it would be as a result of
a presidential election. And he was right. But was the
war inevitable? Daniel Webster hope not. Now. After John Calhoun
(20:24):
gave his thoughts, all attention turned to the great Daniel Webster,
the godlike Daniel of Massachusetts as he was called. He
was the very definition of an American statesman, the mouthpiece
not for the North or for the South, the mouthpiece
of America. And he had this great physical magnetism, the
(20:44):
deep set eyes, a very large head, and people claim
that his head grew larger every single year. He had
a deep, melodious, operatic voice, and whenever he spoke, it
was an event. He was a very gifted orator. But
he drank heavily, and maybe it was because of a
(21:07):
history of personal tragedy. His firstborn child died in eighteen
seventeen at age seven. He lost another son at age three.
His wife, Grace, died in eighteen twenty eight at age
forty seven. A beloved brother died the following year, and
in eighteen forty eight, his son Edward died in Mexican War.
(21:27):
To make matters worse, the very day that Edward Webster's
body returned home for burial, Daniel Webster's daughter, Julia, died
of tuberculosis at the age of thirty three. Days after
Calhoun's speech was read, Daniel Webster stood up in the
Senate and he began his famous seventh of March speech.
(21:47):
I speak today not as a Massachusetts man, not as
a Northern man, but as an American. Hear me from
my cause I speak today for the restoration of that
country and that harmony which makes the blessings of this
Union so rich and so dare to us all. He
blamed the extremist on both sides for the current crisis.
(22:11):
He stated that it was useless to debate slavery in
the territories. It could never work. The law of nature,
he said, the soil, the climate, the terrain of New
Mexico would prohibit slavery from spreading there. So why are
we getting so worked up over this? I hear with
pain and anguish the war of secession secession. I would
rather hear of natural blasts and mildews, war, pestilence, and
(22:35):
famine than to hear of gentlemen talk of secession. Secession,
he thundered, would lead to war, and he was determined
to prevent that from happening, and to that end he
will support Henry Clay's compromises. He also surprised many when
he expressed his support for a stronger fugitive slave law.
(22:57):
Dan Webster personally hated slavery. He once called it unjust
and repugnant to the natural equality of mankind, but he
was not willing to risk the Union to further attack it.
Abolitionists up north decried this. John Greenleaf Whittier, in his
poem Ichabod wrote, from those great eyes, the soul has fled.
(23:20):
When faith is lost, when honor dies, the man is dead.
Aside from the abolitionists, though Webster's speech was hailed nationwide,
hope was entertained for compromise, there was still a long
fight to go. Day after day, week after week, the
debate and the argument went back and forth between Whigs
(23:42):
and Democrats, Northerners and Southerners, unionists and those who made
it clear they were ready to secede. Senator Henry Foot
of Mississippi declared that every day that we have sat
here delaborating, as we call it, agitating the question of slavery,
we have play this union in still greater peril. Now.
(24:03):
Henry Foot was forty six years of age, slight, short, talkative, pugnacious.
He had been in four duels, he was shot in
three of them. He got into a fistfight with Jefferson
Davis on Christmas Day eighteen forty seven, and in eighteen
forty eight he got into a wrestling match on the
Sunnate floor with Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania. We think things
(24:26):
are bad now. He was a fierce advocate of Southern rights,
but he was also a Unionist who sought compromise. And
right after Daniel Webster's speech that called for compromise, Henry
Foot had an idea. Why don't we package all of
Henry Clay's ideas into a single bill. We will call
(24:46):
it the Omnibus, named after a very popular form of
urban transportation. Okay, a lot of people from a lot
of different social classes, male, female passengers could all pile
into the omnibus that travel through the cities of this country.
Henry Clay never planned for this. He wanted to trot
out every one of his bills one at a time,
(25:08):
to be voted on separately. But Henry Foot was afraid
that Zachary Taylor would use his veto power on anything
except California. Some alike the idea, some did not. Thomas
Benton of Missouri hated the idea, and he hated Henry Foot. Physically,
(25:30):
the two men were opposites. Benton was brawny and burly
with a big, thick frame. He was overbearing without fear.
Foot was more effeminine, but boy, he didn't hold back.
Things finally boiled over after months of frustration, and on
April seventeenth, Henry Foot unleashed a torrent of insults at
(25:53):
Thomas Benton from the Senate floor. Benton had enough, he rose,
He tossed his desk to the side, and he ran
directly at Foot. Henry Foot pulled a revolver from his jacket,
pointed it at Benton coming adam down the aisle and
Millard Fillmore, the Vice President presiding over this, banging the
(26:14):
gavel order order. Two people are trying to hold Benton back.
But he opened his shirt and he said, let the
coward fire, Let the assassin fire. Only cowards go armed.
And Henry Foot he's saying, I only brought the gun
for personal safety. I think he was right. But this
(26:34):
happened on the floor of the Senate and Daniel Webster
is shaking his head. He wrote, I am sorry for
this country. That is what was happening in the Senate.
Henry Foot got his way. Henry Foot the day after
this whole embarrassing episode on the Senate floor with pistols drawn,
finally the Senate approved this omnibus plan, but just like earlier,
(27:00):
those immediately against.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
It, And you've been listening to Gettysburg National Park Service
ranger John Hoptech telling us one heck of a yarn,
one heck of a story about the Compromise of eighteen fifty,
the characters at play, the forces at play, the competing
factions at play. More of the remarkable story of the
fateful Compromise of eighteen fifty. Here on our American stories.
(27:37):
And we returned to our American stories and the final
portion of our story on the Compromise of eighteen fifty
when we last left off, after pistols had been drawn
on the floor of the Senate, the Omnibus of eighteen
fifty was approved, and Texas had threatened to raise an
army to claim the parts of New Mexico it wanted.
(27:58):
Let's return to the story, or rather with New Mexico's response.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
The people of New Mexico said, what try us? And
they would repeatedly call on the military leader there, John Monroe,
to resist any effort Texas might make. Governor Peter Bell
of Texas called upon the state legislature to raise and
equip an army, and he is going to summon a
friend of his, Robert Simpson Neighbors. Neighbors was told to
(28:26):
ride west, carrying copies of the Texas State Constitution and
making it known to anyone and to everyone that they
in their land was now subject to Texas law. Now,
John Monroe, sixty years old, a native of Scotland, a
hero of the Mexican War. Not only was he called
upon by the people of New Mexico to resist any
effort by Texas, but the administration in Washington had also
(28:49):
instructed him to do the same. The battle lines are
being drawn, and this was all happening the same time,
foot in Benton or drawing pistols on each other in
the Senate. Neighbors soon discovered the resolve of Monroe, and
Neighbors also found out the resolve of the people of
New Mexico. They were flatly against anything Texas had in
(29:11):
mind for them. They were also against slavery. Neighbors returned
to Texas. He was defeated. He was dejected in his plan,
but he informed Governor Bell that it might be best
now to raise an army. And that's exactly what Bell
intended to do. As Monroe and his soldiers kept a
nervous eye toward Texas, so too, did many political and
(29:33):
military leaders across the country. Alexander Stevens wrote a letter,
an open letter to the President of the United States,
and it was printed on July fourth, of all days,
in the National Intelligencer. The first federal gun that shall
be fired against a people with Texas will be the
signal for the freemen from Delaware to the Rio Grande
(29:54):
to rally to the rescue. When the Rubicon has passed,
the days of the Republic will be numbered. The cause
of te Texas will be the cause of the entire South.
No wonder. Henry Clay called this the crisis of the crisis.
But if things could not get more stressful to the nation.
In the literal midst of all this, the President of
(30:15):
the United States died in office. Zachary Taylor attended an
Independent State ceremony at the Washington Monument a broiling hot day.
They didn't have enough shade, and he didn't want to
ask the ladies to move from their seats under the awnings,
so he sat in the sun for two straight hours.
He went back to the White House that night and
(30:36):
he gorged himself on ice, milk, cherries, and raw vegetables,
And that night he got very sick. Within a week
he was dead. The nation mourned, and of course members
of Congress would use the event of the death of
the president to call for harmony, for a compromise. The
day after Zachary Taylor died, Millard Fillmore will become president.
(30:59):
Boy to get a chance to talk about Millard Fillmore portly, handsome, dignified,
and courteous, with a very sharp analytical mind. And let's
not forget that as vice president every single day he
did what he sat at the Senate sessions. But unlike Taylor,
Fillmore was a lot more amenable to compromise. He inherited
(31:21):
a mess. I know, we oftentimes like to dismiss Millard Fillmore,
you know, as one of the great unknown presidents, but
imagine being in his shoes. He is for a compromise,
and he began to fill his cabinet with like minded individuals.
Henry Clay saw the death of Zachary Taylor as a godsend.
Hate to say it that way, but Zachary Taylor was
(31:41):
a tremendous obstacle on Henry Clay's path. Finally we could
get this omnibus pass. He called upon his colleagues for
their patriotic and moralistic sentiment. He asked them to put
their section behind. If a war does break out between
Texas and the soldiers of the United States, there are
our enthusiastic spirits in Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama that
(32:05):
will flock to the standards of Texas, contending, as they
believe they will be contending for slave territory. Who could
say which side would prevail in such a fratricidal conflict.
I believe from the bottom of my soul that the
measure is the reunion of this Union. It is the
dove of peace, which, taking flight from the Capitol, carries
(32:28):
its glad tidings to all the remotest extremities of this land.
A thunderous applause broke out from the Senate, a tour
de force, a passionate, eloquent, tear provoking speech. The Omnibus failed.
On July thirtieth, an amendment was made to the Omnibus
(32:49):
that said, until we resolved the boundary between Texas and
New Mexico, let us consider New Mexico under Texas authority.
But a Senator from Maryland rose up in opposition to this,
and he said, you know, I'm why don't we remove
anything pertaining to Texas from this omnibus? The floodgates opened.
(33:11):
I proposed to remove anything pertaining to California past. I
proposed to remove anything pertaining to that Fugitive Slave Act
passed plank by plank, everything was removed. Thomas Benton and
William Henry Sewer danced with each other in the aisles
of the Senate, and Henry Clay, who spoke no fewer
(33:31):
than seventy times, rose from his seat and quietly left
the Senate. He went to Newport, Rhode Island to recover
his health. This was killing him, literally killing him. But
all was not yet lost, because there was that steam
engine in Bridges by the name of Senator Stephen Douglas.
(33:53):
He had a powerful voice, but he kept it silent
throughout this entire debate. He knew from the start, really
that this omnibus will fail because the omnibus is only
going to unite the opponents of every bill. So as
they were debating and talking things over, Stephen Douglas went
to every one of the members of the Senate and
he began to ask them, so would you vote for
(34:14):
California Okay, would you vote for a stronger future of
Slave Act? All right? He knew the omnibus would fail,
and when it did, he was ready to step up
to the plate. On the very next day, Stephen Douglas
rose in the Senate and he put forward a proposal
to organize the government for Utah without slavery. Okay, that's fine.
(34:36):
It passed. He put forward another proposal on the Senate
floor that would establish the boundary between Texas and New Mexico.
Texas would relinquish its claims for government funding to assume
its debts. And guess what it passed. He called for
California to be admitted to the Union without slavery, and
it passed. It was a miracle. Let's keep in mind
(35:00):
a few things. Millard Fillmore and the new Secretary of State,
Daniel Webster, they were talking to their whigs in the Senate.
I want you to stay home tomorrow from the vote.
Oh would you like a government position? Then why don't
you go ahead and vote for that Fugitive Slave Act.
So Stephen Douglas is rallying Democratic support for each of
(35:21):
Henry Clay's bills, while Millard Fillmore and Daniel Webster are
doing the same thing for the Whigs. On August twenty
sixth a strengthened Fugitive Slave Act was passed. Fifteen Northern
Senators did not show up that day to cast a vote.
It passed by a vote of twenty seven to twelve
when there were sixty senators. Finally the slave trade in
(35:45):
DC would be abolished thirty three to nine nineteen. It
was really quite amazing, after seven months of debate, with
the nation on the verge of war, that Stephen Douglas,
only thirty six years old, stood and said, Okay, let's
try these bills one at a time, and by mid
September all of Henry Clay's ideas were passed. When Henry
(36:11):
Clay returned from Newport, Rhode Island, probably couldn't believe what
was happening. Compromise at last ten straight months, three hundred
and two consecutive days of argument, threats, and all of
this was over. The thirty first Congress finally adjourned on
September thirtieth of eighteen fifty. They had been in session
(36:32):
from December second of eighteen forty nine to September thirtieth
of eighteen fifty without break. It was the longest Congressional
session ever. Daniel Webster wrote, we have now gone through
the most important crisis which has occurred since the foundation
of this government, and the Union stands firm. But was
it really a triumph? Henry Clay died on June twenty ninth,
(36:55):
eighteen fifty two, and so too did the spirit of compromise.
These debates in eighteen fifty and the effort to ultimately
avoid war in eighteen fifty is unsurpassed in American history.
Ten straight months of deliberation and argument. And while today
we don't always empathize with the views of Clay and
(37:16):
Webster and even Zach Taylor, especially with their support Clay
and Webster of that Fugitive Slave Act, their courage and
the stand that they took to save the nation mattered
the rancorous debates that defined the thirty first Congress. The
Statesman prevailed, and by doing so, they saved the Union
a few crucial years. What would have happened if civil
(37:41):
war broke out in eighteen fifty who would have led
the country? Millard Fillmore, who would have led the armies?
The compromise of eighteen fifty provided the United States another
ten years to find a statesman equally committed to the
Union as Clay Webster and Tayler, but one more devoted
(38:01):
to human rights.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
And a special thanks to Gettysburg National Park Service ranger
John Hoptech the story of the Compromise of eighteen fifty.
Here on our American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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