Historical Summary

AUGUST 8, 1846, in the debate in the House on the bill appropriating $2,000,000 to purchase territory from Mexico, Wilmot of Pennsylvania moved as an amendment the proviso "that, as an express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any territory from the Republic of Mexico by the United States, by virtue of any treaty which may be negotiated between them, and to the use by the Executive of the moneys herein appropriated, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall first be duly convicted." The amendment was not accepted, and later attempts to engraft the proviso upon bills to organize the Territory of Oregon failed. In 1848 a bill to organize the Territories of Oregon, New Mexico, and California, with a provision "that all questions concerning slavery in those Territories should be referred to the United States Supreme Court for decision," passed the Senate, but failed in the House. The act of Aug. 14, 1848, organizing the Territory of Oregon, applied to the new Territory the provisions of the articles of compact in the Ordinance of 1787. A bill to establish territorial governments in New Mexico and California, with the Wilmot proviso, passed the House in 1849, but was not acted on in the Senate. Later in the session, the Senate attempted to provide for the organization of the two Territories by means of a "rider" on the general appropriation bill, but the attempt was defeated in the House.

In May, 1848, the Democratic National Convention had rejected, 36 to 216, a resolution offered by Yancey of Alabama, "That the doctrine of noninterference with the rights of property of any portion of the people of this confederacy, be it in the States or Territories thereof, by any other than the parties interested in them, is the true republican doctrine, recognized by this body." The doctrine of "squatter sovereignty" embodied in this resolution now began to be urged in opposition to the doctrine of the Wilmot proviso, and the issue was joined on the question of prohibiting slavery in the new Territories, or allowing the people of each Territory to establish or exclude slavery as they might see fit.

In June, 1849, the people of California adopted a State constitution prohibiting slavery. In his annual message of Dec. 4, President Taylor recommended the admission of California, but suggested the advisability of awaiting popular action in New Mexico before legislating for the organization of that region. January 29, 1850, Clay submitted in the Senate a series of resolutions, intended to afford a basis for adjusting the differences regarding the status and treatment of slavery in the Territories. On the 13th of February the constitution of California was transmitted to Congress. April 18, by a vote of 30 to 22, Clay’s resolutions were referred to a select committee of thirteen, of which Clay was chairman. May 8 the committee submitted its report, together with two bills, one to admit California as a State, to establish territoral governments for Utah and New Mexico, and making proposals to Texas for the establishment of her western and northern boundaries, and the other to suppress the slave trade in the District of Columbia.

The first of these bills, known as the "omnibus bill," was taken up in the Senate May 9. June 17, by a vote of 38 to 12, an amendment applying to Utah the doctrine of "squatter sovereignty" was agreed to; July 31 the sections relating to California, New Mexico, and Texas were stricken out, and Aug. 1 the remainder of the bill passed the Senate as "an act to establish a territorial government for Utah." The House passed the bill Sept. 7, by a vote of 97 to 85, and on the 9th the act was approved. A bill to adjust the Texan boundary passed the Senate Aug. 10, by a vote of 30 to 20; on the 15th the Senate passed the New Mexico bill, the vote being 27 to 10. The House added the New Mexico bill to the Texas bill as an amendment, and Sept. 6 passed the bill in this form by a vote of 108 to 97. The Senate concurred in the House amendment, and on the 9th the act was approved. The bill to admit California passed the Senate Aug. 13, 34 to 18, and the House Sept. 7, 150 to 56; Sept. 9 the act was approved. The fugitive slave bill passed the Senate Aug. 26, without a division, the vote on the third reading being 27 to 12; the House passed the bill Sept. 12, without debate, by a vote of 109 to 76, and on the 18th the act was approved. The act was repealed June 28, 1864. The act to suppress the slave trade in the District of Columbia, the last of the compromise measures, passed the Senate Sept. 16, by a vote of 33 to 19, and the House on the following day, by a vote of 124 to 59; on the 20th the act was approved.

REFERENCES. — The text is indicated at the end of each of the extracts following. For the proceedings of Congress, see the House and Senate Journals, 31st Cong., 1st Sess.; for the discussions, see the Cong. Globe, and appendix, or Benton’s Abridgment, XVI. A large number of memorials and resolutions are collected in the House and Senate Misc. Doc. of this session; see also Senate Rep. 12. See also Webster’s Works (ed. 1857), V., 324–366, 373–405, 412–438; Calhoun’s Works (ed. 1854), IV., 535–578; Seward’s Works (ed. 1853), I., 31–131; Pierce’s Summer, III., chaps 34, 35.