Further Aggravation of the Slavery Issue

The 1850 and missouri compromise, as well as the Kansas- Nebraska act proved to aggravate the issue of slavery by either contradicting one another or by setting rules that could not be morally followed by the North or South. Henry Clay proposed the North and South make concessions provided that the North enact a sensible fugitive-slave law. Webster urged the same. Calhoun, however, rejected them on the grounds of not providing adequate safeguards and instead proposed that slavery be left alone, runaway slaves be returned, and the South be given its rights as a minority in order to restore political balance. However, as this was not in any favor to the all-powerful North, his idealism would only go so far. The Fugitive Slave Law that was included in the compromise said that any runaways caught would not be able to testify on their own behalf, were denied a jury trial, and federal commissioner that handled their case would make $5 if they were freed and $10 if not (bribe). Naturally, the law strengthened Northern resentment of the South and the South in return was further angered by Northern unwillingness to follow through with the only serious souther gain the compromise had produced. The long debate over Clay's Compromise of 1850 proved to have helped the North gain moral, population, and financial strength, which was exactly what the south had feared in the first place: inequality among sections of the union. However, the northern strength gained when directly to their will to fight for the union, which was probably why the civil war hadn't broken out that same year. Douglas's eventual proposal that Nebraska be split into two different territories with its slavery status dependent on popular sovereignty, directly conflicted with the Missouri Compromise which prohibited slavery in the Nebraska territory. This Southern attempt at gaining the upper hand proved troublesome. From then on, any compromises with the south would be immeasurably more difficult, and tensions would rise to the point where civil war was clearly inevitable. The Kansas-Nebraska act "wrecked" the Missouri Compromise, and that of 1850 was shattered by Northern morally based unwillingness. The North and South found less and less that they were willing to live with.