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Westward Expansion

The idea of expansion to the Western United States has always been a subject of great interest to the colonials of the 1800s. Even past presidents -- including Thomas Jefferson -- were particularly keen on a westward vision, one most Americans believed to be their manifest destiny. With the acquisition of most of the lands west of the colonial United States, this manifest destiny came into fruition, though it did bring about a tension between the Northern and Southern states of the nation. Slavery became a heavy issue within the addition of the new states (a result of the Wilmot Proviso bill previously passed by Congress), and the tensions would run high, culminating into a Civil War within the country.

The Compromise of 1850 was an important factor in this North and South tension. After the close of the Mexican War in 1848, Texas was annexed to the United States through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ("Compromise"). Henry Clay, then-President of the United States, had signed for the annexation, though border disputes during the time cost him the next election, and John W. Taylor was sworn in to replace him. Meanwhile, on the far west, citizens began to pour into California, and an application to be entered as an official state into the United States was granted in 1849 (Taylor).

The acquisitions of such territories would not have been such a problem if not for the Wilmot Proviso, which was written up and passed in 1846. The bill's major proposition dealt with the extension of slavery on the lands acquired from Mexico in the war and on further lands annexed in the future. The Wilmot Proviso disallowed the spreading of slavery in Texas. When California petitioned for its annexation, the state was also affected by the Wilmot Proviso. Thus both Texas and California were to be added into the United States as free states.

California and Texas being admitted into the United States as free states was also pushed by President Taylor. While Taylor believed that the Union was not threatened by this decision, it became alarmingly apparent that the North and South ideas would differ greatly. The conflict had escalated regarding the slavery laws and the newly added territories that some of the Southern senators at the time -- Jefferson Davis, John C. Calhoun, and William H. Seward -- would fight for "equal position in the territories," to protect the citizens of the Southern states "against abolitionists" ("Compromise").

This dispute became further aggravated by Henry Clay's proposition of a bill to the Senate, which would certainly admit California as a free state, with no mention of whether the New Mexico and Utah territories would be allowed slaves. The bill also proposed a prohibition of the slave trade in the capital District of Columbia, as well as a stricter set of fugitive slave law. Once more, slave and territory disputes came hand in hand; long debates were held, and the threat of a Southern cessation loomed over Congress.