Compromise of 1861
Instances in the past have shown us just how well the U.S. can deal with its problems and still remain as a whole. Several times before in history the southern and northern parts of the United States have had differences of opinions, but the U.S. was always able to pull together and find a solution to their problem. In 1787 there was a dispute over how the government would be made up. The northern states and Madison wanted and proposed to have proportional representation, which meant that they would have a majority because there were more people in the North. William Paterson and the South called for equal representation. The dispute lead to the forming of The Great Compromise, which consisted of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House would be made up by proportional representation and the Senate would be run under equal representation. Another issue still in 1787 was the question if slaves would count when calculating the population of states. The south of course wanted to count slaves, but the North refused to count them. This lead to the Three-Fifths Compromise that stated that slaves would count as 3/5 of one person. This compromises satisfied both the North and south without giving either a majority.
The rivalry was at its peak. Both north and south were equally upset at each other. It was more personal than ever. People had gotten hurt attempting to expand or stop slavery. Some incidents were very serious, John Brown for example wanted to take over an arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Va. He intended to give slaves guns so that they could turn on their owners. He failed, he was caught and was hanged for treason. In the North people came to see Brown as a hero who had died trying to fight something he thought was wrong. Southerners on the other hand, saw Brown as a typical northern abolitionist. They labeled him as crazy and dangerous. Again, the gap had been widen more. Well, in 1833 the north-south dispute would awake once again like a bear after its long winter slumber. The Nullification crisis of 1832 which was resolved in 1833 really begins in 1828 when Congress passes the "Tariff of Abominations" that raised taxes on all imported goods. Southern farm states were very upset. John C. Calhoun wrote the South Carolina Exposition, in it he argued that although the South had fewer people in its population it didn't deserve to always be taken advantage of. Many people in the South were very anti-tariff. These "nullies" held a special convention where they decided to nullify the federal tariff. Even though President Jackson was very much in favor of state's rights he disapproved the actions taken by this group of people. The crisis was ultimately resolved when Henry Clay once again steps in and draws up a compromise; the 1833 Compromise to Tariff. It didn't eliminate the tariff, but it did reduce it by 10%. South Carolina and the rest of the South agree with it and the crisis was over. People now begin to think about slavery everyone knew that someday there had to be a crisis over the slavery issue. The dragon was put to sleep once again. and compromises had been the liquid that had slowly been filling up the empty glass until the glass could hold no more and finally spilled and caused a slippery mess, the words which can be defined The Compromise of 1850 would be the final peaceful solution to the problems between the North and south. From 1854 on, it would be all downhill for the United States of America, with a number of problems and questions over the slavery issue, eventually resulting in the Civil War. All good things come to an end and for the U.S. the age of compromises had come to a bitter
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Approximate Word count = 1630
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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