April 10, 2024 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Gettysburg NPS Ranger Matt Atkinson tells the story of the fateful Compromise of 1850—and why our nation's bloodiest conflict could easily have started in the desert of New Mexico due to a forgotten border dispute.
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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.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
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.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Did anyone guess that? Good? Good?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
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 was Santa Fe, New Mexico.
In eighteen fifty, the nation was at the edge of
(01:38):
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 had also just trounced its
(01:58):
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.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yet, of course, ironically.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
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. Southerners and slaveholders in
(02:41):
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 fought in the
(03:02):
Mexican War, and they were adamant that they will not
be denied entry into that land.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Many Northerners, on the other.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
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, and especially not
into this territory, because Mexico had outlawed slavery here. In
the eighteen twenties, the argument between the North and South
(03:32):
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.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Now.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
This 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.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
That proviso said, off.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
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 it passed the
House of Representatives.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
But not the Senate.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
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,
fifteen north and fifteen south. There were sixty senators, thirty
(05:46):
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
dominated by northerners. The population of the North was much
(06:06):
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.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
The three fifth.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Clause of the Constitution gave the South sixty additional members
of the House of Representatives in eighteen fifty, okay, representing
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
(06:40):
the balance of power between the two sections of the
country is destroyed is a day that will not be
far removed from political revolution, anarchy, civil war, and widespread
disaster while things were coming to a head.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
So what can be worked out?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
And you've been listening to Gettysburg National Park Service 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 Stories. Lee Habib here again. Our American Stories
tries to tell the stories of America's past and present
to Americans, and we want to hear your stories too.
(07:41):
There's some of our favorites. Send them to us. Go
to Alamerican Stories dot com and click the your stories tab. Again,
please go to Alamerican Stories dot com and click the
your Stories tab. And we returned to our American Stories
(08:11):
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 Hoptech.
Speaker 3 (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 could 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. Texas
was the biggest state in the Union. It wanted to
(10:04):
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. People
(10:26):
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 Stott,
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.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Now.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Zachary Taylor was honest, plain spoken, and as it turned
out many underestimated him. His four decades in the uniform
to his country had instilled 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.
(12:14):
In Congress, Southerners supported his bid for the presidency because
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,
(12:36):
Let's get California in.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
And that was it.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Southerners, of course, 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.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
He felt that.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
If peace is going 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 bo ideal of a statesman. He was seventy
(13:24):
three years old and 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,
(13:45):
fighting under Zachary Taylor a Buena Vista. He was a
slave owner too, but he opposed it, and he would
spend much of January working out ideas and on January
Jory twenty ninth, to a packed Senate chamber, Henry Clay rose,
(14:05):
and he presented a great national scheme of compromise and harmony.
And his 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.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Let the people there decide.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Third, Texas will relinquish its claim on any New Mexico territory.
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
(14:47):
the slave trade would. He called for a strengthening of
the Fugitive Slave Act. And finally, Congress will make no
law interfering with the slave trade between the slaves states.
He thought that he had reached out to both sides.
The moderates loved him, and people across the United States
(15:10):
applauded Henry Clay once more for seeking compromise, But it
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 its interests. There would
(15:33):
be no compromise from those fierce fire brands in the South.
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,
(15:56):
and haggard John Calhoun, sixty seven years of age, age
and dying. 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,
(16:20):
he believed, speak for the South, but he couldn't speak.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
He was too weak.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
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 that he attempted to write
(16:47):
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, the South face was critical,
(17:09):
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 could.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
End in disunion.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
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
(18:10):
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 3 (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
(18:52):
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.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
The territories was too much.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
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 Slave Act. He
then suggested the way to go about this is a
constitutional for amendment that would forever guaranteed sectional balance in
(19:25):
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 A month later,
news of his death was announced in the Senate, and
there were the eulogies spoken Clay and Daniel Webster. They
(19:45):
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. Calhoun died with treason in his
heart and on his lips, and his disciples are now
disseminating his poison. Calhoun believed that the country was indeed
(20:09):
headed toward a civil war, and it would come soon,
that it would be as a result of a presidential election.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
And he was right.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
But was the war inevitable? Daniel Webster hoped not now.
After John Calhoun 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
(20:38):
the South, the mouthpiece of America. And he had this
great physical magnetism, the 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 av He was a very gifted orator,
(21:03):
but he drank heavily, and maybe it was because of
a 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
(21:25):
Mexican War. 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.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Hear me from my cause.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
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. He stated
that it was useless to debate slavery in the territories
it could never work. The law of nature, he said,
(22:17):
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 famine than
to hear of gentlemen talk of secession. Secession, he thundered,
(22:41):
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. Dan Webster
personally hated slavery. He once called it unjust and repugnant
(23:03):
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
when faith is lost, when honor dies, the man is dead.
(23:25):
Aside from the abolitionists, Though Webster's speech was hailed nationwide,
hope was entertained for compromise, there was still a long.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Fight to go.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Day after day, week after week, the debate and the
argument went back and forth between Whigs and Democrats, Northerners
and Southerners, Unionists and those who made it clear they
were ready to secede.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Senator Henry Foot of Mississippi declared.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
That every day that we have sat here delaborating, as
we call it, agitating the question of slavery, we have
placed this union in still greater peril now. Henry Foot
was forty six years of age, slight, short, talkative, pugnacious.
He had been in four duels. He was shot in
(24:13):
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
are bad now. He was a fierce advocate of Southern rights,
but he was also a Unionist who sought compromise, and
(24:36):
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
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
(24:58):
into the omnibus that 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,
to be voted on separately.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
But Henry Foot was afraid.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
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,
the two men were opposites. Benton was brawny and burly
(25:34):
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
Thomas Benton from the Senate floor.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Benton had enough.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
He rose, He tossed his death 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 gavel order order.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Two people are trying to hold Benton back.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
But he opened his shirt and he said, let the
coward fire, Let the assassin fire.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Only cowards go armed.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
And Henry Foot is He's saying, I only brought the
gun for personal safety.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
I think he was right.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
But this happened on the floor of the Senate, and
Daniel Webster, 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.
(26:54):
Finally the Senate approved this omnibus plan.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
But just like earlier, there were those immediately against it.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
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 with New Mexico's response.
Speaker 3 (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.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
He was defeated.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
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 military leaders across the country.
Alexander Stevens wrote a letter, an open letter to the
(29:38):
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 to rally to the rescue.
When the Rubicon has passed, the days of the Republic
(29:58):
will be numbered. The cause of tech will be the
cause of.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
The entire South. No wonder.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
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
the United States died in office. Zachary Taylor attended an
Independent State ceremony at the Washington Monument a broiling hot day.
(30:25):
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
he gorged himself on ice, milk, cherries, and raw vegetables,
and that night he.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Got very sick. Within a week he was dead.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
The nation mourned, and of course members of Congress would
use the event of the death of the president.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
To call for harmony, for a compromise.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
The day after Zachary Taylor died, Millard Fillmore will become president. Boy,
get a chance to talk about Millard Fillmore right, 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,
(31:16):
Fillmore was a lot more amenable to compromise.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
He inherited a mess.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
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.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Hate to say it that way.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
But Zachary Taylor was a tremendous obstacle in 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 art enthusiastic spirits in Arkansas Mississippi, Louisiana, and
(32:04):
Alabama that 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,
(32:27):
carries 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
(32:48):
to the omnibus that said, until we resolve 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?
Speaker 2 (33:10):
The floodgates opened.
Speaker 3 (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 the this omnibus will fail because the omnibus is
only going to unite the opponents of every bill.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
So as they were.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
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 California?
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Okay? Would you vote for a stronger future of Slave Act?
All right?
Speaker 3 (34:19):
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.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Okay, that's fine. It passed.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
He put forward another proposal on the Senate floor that
would establish the boundary between.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Texas and New Mexico.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
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
a few things. Millard Fillmore and the new Secretary of State,
(35:05):
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
Henry Clay's bills, while Millard Fillmore and Daniel Webster are
doing the same thing for the Whigs. On August twenty sixth,
(35:29):
a strengthened Fugitive Slave Act was passed. Fifteen Northern senators did.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Not show up that day to cast a vote.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
It passed by a vote of twenty seven to twelve
when there were sixty senators. Finally the slave trade in
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
(36:01):
try these bills one at a time, and by mid
September all of Henry.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Clay's ideas were passed.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
When Henry 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
(36:32):
in session 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
(36:54):
June twenty ninth, 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
(37:16):
of Clay and 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
(37:40):
happened if Civil 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 Tailor, but
(38:00):
one more devoted to human rights.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
And a special thanks to Gettysburg National Park Service ranger
John homptech, 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.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
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.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Did anyone guess that? Good? Good?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
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 was Santa Fe, New Mexico.
In eighteen fifty, the nation was at the edge of
(01:38):
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 had also just trounced its
(01:58):
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.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yet, of course, ironically.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
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. Southerners and slaveholders in
(02:41):
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 fought in the
(03:02):
Mexican War, and they were adamant that they will not
be denied entry into that land.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Many Northerners, on the other.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
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, and especially not
into this territory, because Mexico had outlawed slavery here. In
the eighteen twenties, the argument between the North and South
(03:32):
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.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Now.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
This 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.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
That proviso said, off.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
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 it passed the
House of Representatives.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
But not the Senate.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
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,
fifteen north and fifteen south. There were sixty senators, thirty
(05:46):
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
dominated by northerners. The population of the North was much
(06:06):
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.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
The three fifth.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Clause of the Constitution gave the South sixty additional members
of the House of Representatives in eighteen fifty, okay, representing
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
(06:40):
the balance of power between the two sections of the
country is destroyed is a day that will not be
far removed from political revolution, anarchy, civil war, and widespread
disaster while things were coming to a head.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
So what can be worked out?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
And you've been listening to Gettysburg National Park Service 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 Stories. Lee Habib here again. Our American Stories
tries to tell the stories of America's past and present
to Americans, and we want to hear your stories too.
(07:41):
There's some of our favorites. Send them to us. Go
to Alamerican Stories dot com and click the your stories tab. Again,
please go to Alamerican Stories dot com and click the
your Stories tab. And we returned to our American Stories
(08:11):
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 Hoptech.
Speaker 3 (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 could 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. Texas
was the biggest state in the Union. It wanted to
(10:04):
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. People
(10:26):
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 Stott,
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.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Now.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Zachary Taylor was honest, plain spoken, and as it turned
out many underestimated him. His four decades in the uniform
to his country had instilled 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.
(12:14):
In Congress, Southerners supported his bid for the presidency because
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,
(12:36):
Let's get California in.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
And that was it.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Southerners, of course, 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.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
He felt that.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
If peace is going 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 bo ideal of a statesman. He was seventy
(13:24):
three years old and 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,
(13:45):
fighting under Zachary Taylor a Buena Vista. He was a
slave owner too, but he opposed it, and he would
spend much of January working out ideas and on January
Jory twenty ninth, to a packed Senate chamber, Henry Clay rose,
(14:05):
and he presented a great national scheme of compromise and harmony.
And his 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.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Let the people there decide.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Third, Texas will relinquish its claim on any New Mexico territory.
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
(14:47):
the slave trade would. He called for a strengthening of
the Fugitive Slave Act. And finally, Congress will make no
law interfering with the slave trade between the slaves states.
He thought that he had reached out to both sides.
The moderates loved him, and people across the United States
(15:10):
applauded Henry Clay once more for seeking compromise, But it
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 its interests. There would
(15:33):
be no compromise from those fierce fire brands in the South.
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,
(15:56):
and haggard John Calhoun, sixty seven years of age, age
and dying. 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,
(16:20):
he believed, speak for the South, but he couldn't speak.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
He was too weak.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
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 that he attempted to write
(16:47):
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, the South face was critical,
(17:09):
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 could.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
End in disunion.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
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
(18:10):
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 3 (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
(18:52):
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.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
The territories was too much.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
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 Slave Act. He
then suggested the way to go about this is a
constitutional for amendment that would forever guaranteed sectional balance in
(19:25):
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 A month later,
news of his death was announced in the Senate, and
there were the eulogies spoken Clay and Daniel Webster. They
(19:45):
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. Calhoun died with treason in his
heart and on his lips, and his disciples are now
disseminating his poison. Calhoun believed that the country was indeed
(20:09):
headed toward a civil war, and it would come soon,
that it would be as a result of a presidential election.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
And he was right.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
But was the war inevitable? Daniel Webster hoped not now.
After John Calhoun 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
(20:38):
the South, the mouthpiece of America. And he had this
great physical magnetism, the 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 av He was a very gifted orator,
(21:03):
but he drank heavily, and maybe it was because of
a 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
(21:25):
Mexican War. 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.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Hear me from my cause.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
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. He stated
that it was useless to debate slavery in the territories
it could never work. The law of nature, he said,
(22:17):
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 famine than
to hear of gentlemen talk of secession. Secession, he thundered,
(22:41):
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. Dan Webster
personally hated slavery. He once called it unjust and repugnant
(23:03):
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
when faith is lost, when honor dies, the man is dead.
(23:25):
Aside from the abolitionists, Though Webster's speech was hailed nationwide,
hope was entertained for compromise, there was still a long.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Fight to go.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Day after day, week after week, the debate and the
argument went back and forth between Whigs and Democrats, Northerners
and Southerners, Unionists and those who made it clear they
were ready to secede.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Senator Henry Foot of Mississippi declared.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
That every day that we have sat here delaborating, as
we call it, agitating the question of slavery, we have
placed this union in still greater peril now. Henry Foot
was forty six years of age, slight, short, talkative, pugnacious.
He had been in four duels. He was shot in
(24:13):
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
are bad now. He was a fierce advocate of Southern rights,
but he was also a Unionist who sought compromise, and
(24:36):
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
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
(24:58):
into the omnibus that 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,
to be voted on separately.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
But Henry Foot was afraid.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
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,
the two men were opposites. Benton was brawny and burly
(25:34):
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
Thomas Benton from the Senate floor.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Benton had enough.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
He rose, He tossed his death 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 gavel order order.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Two people are trying to hold Benton back.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
But he opened his shirt and he said, let the
coward fire, Let the assassin fire.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Only cowards go armed.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
And Henry Foot is He's saying, I only brought the
gun for personal safety.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
I think he was right.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
But this happened on the floor of the Senate, and
Daniel Webster, 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.
(26:54):
Finally the Senate approved this omnibus plan.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
But just like earlier, there were those immediately against it.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
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 with New Mexico's response.
Speaker 3 (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.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
He was defeated.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
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 military leaders across the country.
Alexander Stevens wrote a letter, an open letter to the
(29:38):
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 to rally to the rescue.
When the Rubicon has passed, the days of the Republic
(29:58):
will be numbered. The cause of tech will be the
cause of.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
The entire South. No wonder.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
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
the United States died in office. Zachary Taylor attended an
Independent State ceremony at the Washington Monument a broiling hot day.
(30:25):
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
he gorged himself on ice, milk, cherries, and raw vegetables,
and that night he.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Got very sick. Within a week he was dead.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
The nation mourned, and of course members of Congress would
use the event of the death of the president.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
To call for harmony, for a compromise.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
The day after Zachary Taylor died, Millard Fillmore will become president. Boy,
get a chance to talk about Millard Fillmore right, 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,
(31:16):
Fillmore was a lot more amenable to compromise.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
He inherited a mess.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
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.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Hate to say it that way.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
But Zachary Taylor was a tremendous obstacle in 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 art enthusiastic spirits in Arkansas Mississippi, Louisiana, and
(32:04):
Alabama that 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,
(32:27):
carries 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
(32:48):
to the omnibus that said, until we resolve 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?
Speaker 2 (33:10):
The floodgates opened.
Speaker 3 (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 the this omnibus will fail because the omnibus is
only going to unite the opponents of every bill.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
So as they were.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
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 California?
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Okay? Would you vote for a stronger future of Slave Act?
All right?
Speaker 3 (34:19):
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.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Okay, that's fine. It passed.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
He put forward another proposal on the Senate floor that
would establish the boundary between.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Texas and New Mexico.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
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
a few things. Millard Fillmore and the new Secretary of State,
(35:05):
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
Henry Clay's bills, while Millard Fillmore and Daniel Webster are
doing the same thing for the Whigs. On August twenty sixth,
(35:29):
a strengthened Fugitive Slave Act was passed. Fifteen Northern senators did.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Not show up that day to cast a vote.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
It passed by a vote of twenty seven to twelve
when there were sixty senators. Finally the slave trade in
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
(36:01):
try these bills one at a time, and by mid
September all of Henry.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Clay's ideas were passed.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
When Henry 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
(36:32):
in session 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
(36:54):
June twenty ninth, 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
(37:16):
of Clay and 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
(37:40):
happened if Civil 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 Tailor, but
(38:00):
one more devoted to human rights.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
And a special thanks to Gettysburg National Park Service ranger
John homptech, the story of the Compromise of eighteen fifty.
Here on our American stories,
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