Compromise Of 1850 Dbq Analysis

In 1776, the United States constitution was originally formed to create a sense of national unity, however, this concept soon serves as a source of conflict and tension for the U.S. and is what later leads to the failure and destruction of the nation in 1850-1861. The constitution continued to bring national unity well into the 1850’s, however disputes over slavery were beginning to become extremely apparent during 1850-1861. Although the constitution explicitly states that “All men are created equal,” it never directly addressed the issue of slavery, leaving it up for interpretation of the citizens, which is one of the main causes of the Civil War. The issue of slavery began to invade American politics and later resulted in the failure of the country. The map in Document A illustrates how the Compromise of 1850 impacted the United States and makes the lines of division amongst the country extremely noticeable (Doc. A). Although the Compromise of 1850, devised by Henry Clay, seemed to satisfy the states, it allowed slavery to exist above the 36’30’ line which had previously been defined by the Missouri Compromise in 1820. With Popular Sovereignty being one of the Compromise of 1850’s main focuses, states north of the 36’30’ line could now be admitted as slave states shall they choose to do so. Although the Compromise of 1850 seemed to …show more content…
This image shows James Buchanan, Lewis Cass, Stephen Douglas, and Franklin Pierce, all Democratic candidates for the 1856 presidential election, and all of whom seemed to be united on the slavery issue. This image is in reaction to the violence against antislavery "freesoilers" in the wake of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The impeccable size of the freesoiler symbolized how much larger the freesoiler party was compared to the Democratic Party as well as how the democrats were trying to force the freesoilers to accept slavery (Doc.