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Home , Great Triumvirate, Henry Clay, Missouri Compromise, Nullification crisis, Tariff of 1833, Wilmot Proviso

Congressional Compromises and the Road to War The Great

Henry Clay John C. Calhoun representing the representing representing West the North the South John C. Calhoun •From •Called “Cast-Iron Man” for his stubbornness and determination. •Owned slaves •Believed states were sovereign and could nullify or reject federal laws they believed were unconstitutional. Daniel Webster •From •Called “The Great ” •Did not own slaves •From •Called “The Great Compromiser” •Owned slaves •Calmed sectional conflict through balanced legislation and compromises. Compromise (1820) • Compromise sponsored by Henry Clay. It allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a Slave State and to enter as a Free State. The southern border of Missouri would determine if a territory could allow or not. • Slavery was allowed in some new states while other states allowed freedom for . • Balanced political power between slave states and free states. (1832-1833) • South Carolina, led by Senator John C. Calhoun declared a high federal to be null and avoid within its borders. • John C. Calhoun and others believed in Nullification, the idea that state governments have the right to reject federal laws they see as Unconstitutional. • The state of South Carolina threatened to secede or break off from the if the federal government, under President , tried to enforce the tariff in South Carolina. Andrew Jackson on Nullification

“The laws of the United States, its Constitution…are the supreme law of the land.” “Look, for a moment, to the consequence. If South Carolina considers the revenue laws (tariff) unconstitutional, and has a right to prevent their enforcement in the port of Charleston, there would be a clear constitutional objection to their collection in every other port, and no revenue could be collected anywhere.” “It is no answer to repeat that an unconstitutional law is no law, so long as the question of its legality is to be decided by the State itself, for every law operating injuriously (harmfully) upon any local interest will be perhaps thought as unconstitutional, and there is no appeal.”

What is Andrew Jackson saying about Nullification in these quotes? Compromise • To prevent a Civil War (that is a war between people of the same country), Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun compromised. • The high federal tariff was lowered and South Carolina agreed to accept the lower tariff. • States began to realize that if they did not get their way they could threaten to secede. The (1846) • Congressman who argued that James K. Polk started the U.S. Mexican War to expand slavery into the west tried to stop this with the Wilmot Proviso. • The Wilmot Proviso called for banning slavery in any territory won from as a result of the war. This proposal was rejected. • In 1850 Henry Clay created his greatest compromise yet, the . Compromise of 1850 1. joins the Union as a Free State. 2. The western territories of New Mexico and Utah would be allowed to vote on whether or not to allow slavery (). 3. The Slave Trade would be banned in Washington D.C. 4. Texas would give up part of its northwestern territory in exchange for the U.S. government paying off Texas’s debt. 5. The Fugitive Slave Law is passed.