The Compromise Of 1850: The Causes Of The Civil War

The Compromise of 1850 was a series of congressional statutes passed in September of 1850, in which the United States Congress sought out to settle conflicts between those who opposed slavery in the North and those in favor of slavery in the South. There is much speculation about what the United States would be like today without this Compromise. Which leads to the question, should the Compromise have ever been approved? Still, regardless if the Compromise was approved or not, the Civil War was an inevitable event in American history. The Compromise of 1850 was an attempt to solve tensions between the North and the South over the expansion of slavery, specifically into Texas, which was a territory obtained by the United States in the Mexican …show more content…
However, I do not feel that the Compromise should have ever been approved because it did not fix the problem, nor did it prevent a war, it simply prolonged the issues that would force the war between the two in the years to come. Not to mention the Compromise allowed slavery to continue, any negotiation that allows for the act of slavery to exist, is doomed. The fact is that both sides felt they had given up too much and not received enough in return. There were also many issues that led to the failure of the Compromise of 1850 such as, slavery and economics but it was primarily about states right, specifically the right to practice slavery. It is my opinion, that the American Civil War was unavoidable. The war was destined to take place unless one side decided to back down from the other, which was not going to happen due to the presence of hardliners in both the North and the South. The only way to avoid Civil War was to abolish slavery, the South was not going to let that happen without a fight. They needed slaves in their society and were more than established in their ways. Needless to say, the South did not give up their position on the institution of slavery and they had good reason not to. The Southern economy was basically one of agriculture and the slave population was a very important component to their development. The Southern states desired to make decision for themselves within the state, which was ultimately the right to practice slavery. Had we avoided the Civil War, slavery would had probably continued for a much longer period, although eventually it would have been phased out, due to the inventions of machinery and also by the pressure of other