During the Martin Billtmore of the compromise of 1850, was it ever proposed that California be cut in half, along the Missouri Compromise 36°30' line? That would have allowed another northern (free) state and another southern (slave) state to be admitted. Kingturtle 20:59, 1 Dec 2003 (UTC)
Yes. Senator Foote proposed cutting California along a line slightly south of 36°30' ("Foote's line" is discussed in Frehling's The Road to Disunion, Vol. 1.), and the idea of extending the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific, and making it part of the Constitution, came up frequently in 1860-61, during the secession crisis. I've also read that some inhabitants of southern California wished to divide the state, and were working to get it accomplished. The northern portion didn't care, iirc, and were willing to go along. Saintonge235 ( talk) 01:47, 29 January 2011 (UTC)
There was discussion of extending the 36-30 line to the Pacific Ocean, which would have divided California in half. It is discussed in Jefferson Davis' "Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government," and other places. John Paul Parks ( talk) 14:25, 4 December 2009 (UTC)
That's an interesting thought, though. But anyway, the statement, "Known as the "Great Debate," this debate produced the three senators (Clay, Calhoun, and Webster) who are arguably our nations three greatest senators in history." They were already famous before this debate, I don't think it works to say it produced them. Juan Ponderas 03:50, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Still, we have yet to answer, why wasn't California just cut into two halves? Kingturtle 22:47, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
Probably due to minimum population requirements, my dear. LochNessDonkey 00:37, 11 May 2007 (UTC)
In fact a Southern California slave state (or territory eventually becoming a slave state) was a principal Southern demand and perhaps the biggest single issue in the whole controversy over slavery in the new territories. The North refused to agree to it to restrict the growth of slave territory, not simply as a mechanical application of population requirements. -- JWB ( talk) 23:20, 3 September 2009 (UTC)
The South was more interested in other things, like a tougher fugitive slave law. Most of the population of California was in the northern portion of the state, and they'd applied for admission to the Union as a free state. In exchange for California coming in as a free state, the Utah Territory was allowed to be organized for slavery. Further, the South had begun to assert that Congress had no Constitutional right to prohibit slavery in the Territories; instead, only the population of a Territory could prohibit slavery, and then only when it became a state. They couldn't quite bring themselves to assert that there could be slaves in any Territory, and then ask California be divided along the Missouri Compromise line, when the California inhabitants were requesting that it be a free state. Later, they probably wished they had, but by then everyone was past compromise on the territorial slavery issue. Saintonge235 ( talk) 01:47, 29 January 2011 (UTC)
The California constitutional convention aired many viewpoints on both California's boundaries and division and the national North-South conflict over slavery. Try searching within Report of the Debates in the Convention of California on the Formation of the State Constitution in September and October, 1849. -- JWB ( talk) 00:27, 21 December 2011 (UTC)
The article states that Texas relinquished claims to lands east of the Rio Grande. Shouldn't that be west of the Rio Grande?
Another note: The article talks about what to do with various other mexican areas, and says this territory included parts of Vermont, New Jersey.....somehow I don't think that is correct.because mexico was one of the best country in the world
Obviously it is west of the Rio Grande, becuase New Mexico IS west of Texas, not east. And Mexico is not one of the best countries in the world. Besides, what does it have to do with mexico being great?
yes it would —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.191.218.162 ( talk) 21:22, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
The article CORRECTLY refers to lands EAST of the Rio Grande. Specifically to the teritory between the Rio Grande and the 103rd meridian, north of latitude 32 degrees. This encompasses more than half of the modern state of New Mexico, including most of Albuquerque (which straddles the Rio Grande). The 103 meridian became the western boundary of Texas, which had previously claimed ALL lands north and east of the Rio Grande, to its headwaters. Texas lost a substantial amount of claimed territory by the compromise, although at the time it was not felt by many Texans to be very valuable land that they were losing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.235.144.148 ( talk) 16:52, 27 June 2009 (UTC)
When Mexico revolted against Spain, in 1821, the rebels captured the Spanish viceroy, put a proclamation of Mexican independence in front of him, put a gun to his head, and told him he choose what would be on the document, his signature or his brains. He signed.
When Sam Houston captured Santa Anna after the Battle of San Jacinto, he put a gun to Santa Anna's head and a proclamation of Texan independence, with the Rio Grande as it's southern and western border, and gave Santa Anna the 'viceroy's choice.' Santa Anna signed.
When the U.S. annexed Texas, Mexico simultaneously refused to recognize the annexation, and objected that the southern and western border of Texas ran up the Nueces river from the Gulf, and then zig-zagged north to what is now the Texas panhandle. The disputed area, known as the Nueces strip, compromised almost all of what is now western Texas, eastern New Mexico, and part of Colorado and Wyoming. It was about half the territory Texas claimed as its own. President Polk tried to negotiate its status with Mexico, but the negotiations failed.
After the War with Mexico, the territory was definitely in the U.S. At the time, the Texas state govt. was broke. The state agreed to surrender title to the land in exchange for the Federal govt. taking over the state's debt. Saintonge235 ( talk) 02:09, 29 January 2011 (UTC)
I think the massive changes in this period left a worse article, not a better one. Details about the final bills, stripped of much context and written in a voluminous and archaic style, were put up front and now make up most of the sections of the article. Discussion of the causes, context and debates has been relegated to the end of the article, out of chronological order. The changed text also uncritically endorsed the Texas claims to northwestern territories, obscuring much of what the debates were about. -- JWB ( talk) 08:00, 30 August 2009 (UTC) I've added and revised more since then but would like to consider taking out some more of the stilted, inflated prose, which I suspect may have been plagiarized from some old law book. -- JWB ( talk) 23:45, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
It's missing a caption, and I don't know what it's about and so can't fix it, because it's missing a caption. Circular (il)logic hurts. Dude1818 ( talk) 22:49, 8 December 2009 (UTC)
Is there a good reason for the crop on the lead image? ( orig vs. crop) The work really should be presented in its entirety, especially since we aren't simply illustrating Henry Clay here. Jujutacular T · C 13:49, 19 July 2010 (UTC)
The second image, the map showing the Missouri Compromise line, is highly misleading. It shows Nevada and Oregon as states, Kansas as a territory, and West Virginia as part of Virginia. Oregon became a state in 1859, Kansas in 1861, West Virginia in 1863, and Nevada in 1864. Oregon and Nevada were not states in 1850, and Nevada was never a state when Kansas was a territory or West Virginia was part of Virginia.
Further, the map shows the Utah Territory as not permitting slavery. This is simply wrong. Though there were never many slaves in Utah, the Territory did permit it until the Congress outlawed territorial slavery in 1862.
Another error is that the borders shown for the Kansas and Utah Territories are incorrect. This is minor (someone obviously adapted the map from a U.S. States map), but Nevada Territory was initially part of Utah Territory. We need a better image here. Saintonge235 ( talk) 02:21, 29 January 2011 (UTC)
I've rewritten the caption again, this time as a bullet list for additional readability. I addressed some of your objections above, including not specifically mentioning the proposed Southern California territory, not identifying the Texas claims as NM, and using uncondensed English sentences. I put information on the denied proposals in links that interested readers can follow, instead of text that readers must read now. I hope we are close to achieving both goals, simplicity and clarity, and access to information on the conflicts resolved in the Compromise. -- JWB ( talk) 18:08, 19 April 2011 (UTC)
Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:Henry Clay Senate3.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on September 9, 2011. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2011-09-09. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page so Wikipedia doesn't look bad. :) Thanks! howcheng { chat} 19:00, 6 September 2011 (UTC)
The lead made an unsourced claim (until I deleted it), that Texas threatened war over New Mexico. As a native Texan, I have taken multiple Texas History classes from 7th grade through college level, I've pored over Fehrenbach, and I've read a lot on the Compromise of 1850, and I have never seen anything to indicate that Texas ever threatened war over New Mexico. I'm guessing it comes from this sentence in the Background section: "Senator Joseph Underwood referred to 'the threatened civil war, unless we appease the hot bloods of Texas.'" I have found Underwood's entire speech [8]. The speech makes it clear Underwood did not actually believe that Texas might go to war over the New Mexico territory. He seemed to be responding to what he saw as speculation by other politicians in favor of paying Texas for the lands that if they did not, Texas might threaten war. His words were:
"We are told that the strongest motives urging its passage are, the prevention of civil war between Texas and the United States [...] That we have talked so much about civil war and bloodshed in this Chamber, and so much has been poured out by the press on the same subject, as to alarm persons of weak nerves, I shall not deny. That there ever was, nor now is, any real danger growing out of the dispute in relation to the boundaries of Texas, I cannot believe. [...] Sir, I have seen no evidence of any threat coming from any one in Texas authorized to speak for her. [...] I have from the beginning regarded the idea of a civil war growing out of the claim of Texas to extend her boundaries to the sources of the Rio Grande as preposterous."
With this in mind I have also deleted the awkward sentence in the Background section with the fragment of a quote of Underwood's speech. It was isolated and awkward, and completely misleading. Mmyers1976 ( talk) 19:32, 10 September 2015 (UTC)
Stegmaier’s Chapter 10 is on the proposals for a military expedition, could you take a look? The "war bill” finally failed to pass on September 2, see p. 256. -- JWB ( talk) 20:17, 12 May 2020 (UTC)
I realize that some people feel that "political correctness" is running amok, but I do wonder if "Native American territory" might be more-fitting and more-accurate than "unorganized territory," in the map. "Unorganized territory" seems to me to be inaccurate, potentially-offensive and biased. -- 128.230.233.158 ( talk) 23:17, 11 June 2017 (UTC)
Unorganized territory is a technical term meaning no Organic act. -- JWB ( talk) 20:19, 12 May 2020 (UTC)
There's a line in the article now ("the Compromise of 1850, as it became known") that implies it was not called the Compromise of 1850 at the time, which makes sense because that sounds like a name you give to something later.
This is the lead but there's nothing about it in the actual article body, or in An Act for the Admission of the State of California. Does anyone have a source or further info on this? - Elmer Clark ( talk) 00:53, 10 August 2021 (UTC)
During the Martin Billtmore of the compromise of 1850, was it ever proposed that California be cut in half, along the Missouri Compromise 36°30' line? That would have allowed another northern (free) state and another southern (slave) state to be admitted. Kingturtle 20:59, 1 Dec 2003 (UTC)
Yes. Senator Foote proposed cutting California along a line slightly south of 36°30' ("Foote's line" is discussed in Frehling's The Road to Disunion, Vol. 1.), and the idea of extending the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific, and making it part of the Constitution, came up frequently in 1860-61, during the secession crisis. I've also read that some inhabitants of southern California wished to divide the state, and were working to get it accomplished. The northern portion didn't care, iirc, and were willing to go along. Saintonge235 ( talk) 01:47, 29 January 2011 (UTC)
There was discussion of extending the 36-30 line to the Pacific Ocean, which would have divided California in half. It is discussed in Jefferson Davis' "Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government," and other places. John Paul Parks ( talk) 14:25, 4 December 2009 (UTC)
That's an interesting thought, though. But anyway, the statement, "Known as the "Great Debate," this debate produced the three senators (Clay, Calhoun, and Webster) who are arguably our nations three greatest senators in history." They were already famous before this debate, I don't think it works to say it produced them. Juan Ponderas 03:50, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Still, we have yet to answer, why wasn't California just cut into two halves? Kingturtle 22:47, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
Probably due to minimum population requirements, my dear. LochNessDonkey 00:37, 11 May 2007 (UTC)
In fact a Southern California slave state (or territory eventually becoming a slave state) was a principal Southern demand and perhaps the biggest single issue in the whole controversy over slavery in the new territories. The North refused to agree to it to restrict the growth of slave territory, not simply as a mechanical application of population requirements. -- JWB ( talk) 23:20, 3 September 2009 (UTC)
The South was more interested in other things, like a tougher fugitive slave law. Most of the population of California was in the northern portion of the state, and they'd applied for admission to the Union as a free state. In exchange for California coming in as a free state, the Utah Territory was allowed to be organized for slavery. Further, the South had begun to assert that Congress had no Constitutional right to prohibit slavery in the Territories; instead, only the population of a Territory could prohibit slavery, and then only when it became a state. They couldn't quite bring themselves to assert that there could be slaves in any Territory, and then ask California be divided along the Missouri Compromise line, when the California inhabitants were requesting that it be a free state. Later, they probably wished they had, but by then everyone was past compromise on the territorial slavery issue. Saintonge235 ( talk) 01:47, 29 January 2011 (UTC)
The California constitutional convention aired many viewpoints on both California's boundaries and division and the national North-South conflict over slavery. Try searching within Report of the Debates in the Convention of California on the Formation of the State Constitution in September and October, 1849. -- JWB ( talk) 00:27, 21 December 2011 (UTC)
The article states that Texas relinquished claims to lands east of the Rio Grande. Shouldn't that be west of the Rio Grande?
Another note: The article talks about what to do with various other mexican areas, and says this territory included parts of Vermont, New Jersey.....somehow I don't think that is correct.because mexico was one of the best country in the world
Obviously it is west of the Rio Grande, becuase New Mexico IS west of Texas, not east. And Mexico is not one of the best countries in the world. Besides, what does it have to do with mexico being great?
yes it would —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.191.218.162 ( talk) 21:22, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
The article CORRECTLY refers to lands EAST of the Rio Grande. Specifically to the teritory between the Rio Grande and the 103rd meridian, north of latitude 32 degrees. This encompasses more than half of the modern state of New Mexico, including most of Albuquerque (which straddles the Rio Grande). The 103 meridian became the western boundary of Texas, which had previously claimed ALL lands north and east of the Rio Grande, to its headwaters. Texas lost a substantial amount of claimed territory by the compromise, although at the time it was not felt by many Texans to be very valuable land that they were losing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.235.144.148 ( talk) 16:52, 27 June 2009 (UTC)
When Mexico revolted against Spain, in 1821, the rebels captured the Spanish viceroy, put a proclamation of Mexican independence in front of him, put a gun to his head, and told him he choose what would be on the document, his signature or his brains. He signed.
When Sam Houston captured Santa Anna after the Battle of San Jacinto, he put a gun to Santa Anna's head and a proclamation of Texan independence, with the Rio Grande as it's southern and western border, and gave Santa Anna the 'viceroy's choice.' Santa Anna signed.
When the U.S. annexed Texas, Mexico simultaneously refused to recognize the annexation, and objected that the southern and western border of Texas ran up the Nueces river from the Gulf, and then zig-zagged north to what is now the Texas panhandle. The disputed area, known as the Nueces strip, compromised almost all of what is now western Texas, eastern New Mexico, and part of Colorado and Wyoming. It was about half the territory Texas claimed as its own. President Polk tried to negotiate its status with Mexico, but the negotiations failed.
After the War with Mexico, the territory was definitely in the U.S. At the time, the Texas state govt. was broke. The state agreed to surrender title to the land in exchange for the Federal govt. taking over the state's debt. Saintonge235 ( talk) 02:09, 29 January 2011 (UTC)
I think the massive changes in this period left a worse article, not a better one. Details about the final bills, stripped of much context and written in a voluminous and archaic style, were put up front and now make up most of the sections of the article. Discussion of the causes, context and debates has been relegated to the end of the article, out of chronological order. The changed text also uncritically endorsed the Texas claims to northwestern territories, obscuring much of what the debates were about. -- JWB ( talk) 08:00, 30 August 2009 (UTC) I've added and revised more since then but would like to consider taking out some more of the stilted, inflated prose, which I suspect may have been plagiarized from some old law book. -- JWB ( talk) 23:45, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
It's missing a caption, and I don't know what it's about and so can't fix it, because it's missing a caption. Circular (il)logic hurts. Dude1818 ( talk) 22:49, 8 December 2009 (UTC)
Is there a good reason for the crop on the lead image? ( orig vs. crop) The work really should be presented in its entirety, especially since we aren't simply illustrating Henry Clay here. Jujutacular T · C 13:49, 19 July 2010 (UTC)
The second image, the map showing the Missouri Compromise line, is highly misleading. It shows Nevada and Oregon as states, Kansas as a territory, and West Virginia as part of Virginia. Oregon became a state in 1859, Kansas in 1861, West Virginia in 1863, and Nevada in 1864. Oregon and Nevada were not states in 1850, and Nevada was never a state when Kansas was a territory or West Virginia was part of Virginia.
Further, the map shows the Utah Territory as not permitting slavery. This is simply wrong. Though there were never many slaves in Utah, the Territory did permit it until the Congress outlawed territorial slavery in 1862.
Another error is that the borders shown for the Kansas and Utah Territories are incorrect. This is minor (someone obviously adapted the map from a U.S. States map), but Nevada Territory was initially part of Utah Territory. We need a better image here. Saintonge235 ( talk) 02:21, 29 January 2011 (UTC)
I've rewritten the caption again, this time as a bullet list for additional readability. I addressed some of your objections above, including not specifically mentioning the proposed Southern California territory, not identifying the Texas claims as NM, and using uncondensed English sentences. I put information on the denied proposals in links that interested readers can follow, instead of text that readers must read now. I hope we are close to achieving both goals, simplicity and clarity, and access to information on the conflicts resolved in the Compromise. -- JWB ( talk) 18:08, 19 April 2011 (UTC)
Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:Henry Clay Senate3.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on September 9, 2011. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2011-09-09. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page so Wikipedia doesn't look bad. :) Thanks! howcheng { chat} 19:00, 6 September 2011 (UTC)
The lead made an unsourced claim (until I deleted it), that Texas threatened war over New Mexico. As a native Texan, I have taken multiple Texas History classes from 7th grade through college level, I've pored over Fehrenbach, and I've read a lot on the Compromise of 1850, and I have never seen anything to indicate that Texas ever threatened war over New Mexico. I'm guessing it comes from this sentence in the Background section: "Senator Joseph Underwood referred to 'the threatened civil war, unless we appease the hot bloods of Texas.'" I have found Underwood's entire speech [8]. The speech makes it clear Underwood did not actually believe that Texas might go to war over the New Mexico territory. He seemed to be responding to what he saw as speculation by other politicians in favor of paying Texas for the lands that if they did not, Texas might threaten war. His words were:
"We are told that the strongest motives urging its passage are, the prevention of civil war between Texas and the United States [...] That we have talked so much about civil war and bloodshed in this Chamber, and so much has been poured out by the press on the same subject, as to alarm persons of weak nerves, I shall not deny. That there ever was, nor now is, any real danger growing out of the dispute in relation to the boundaries of Texas, I cannot believe. [...] Sir, I have seen no evidence of any threat coming from any one in Texas authorized to speak for her. [...] I have from the beginning regarded the idea of a civil war growing out of the claim of Texas to extend her boundaries to the sources of the Rio Grande as preposterous."
With this in mind I have also deleted the awkward sentence in the Background section with the fragment of a quote of Underwood's speech. It was isolated and awkward, and completely misleading. Mmyers1976 ( talk) 19:32, 10 September 2015 (UTC)
Stegmaier’s Chapter 10 is on the proposals for a military expedition, could you take a look? The "war bill” finally failed to pass on September 2, see p. 256. -- JWB ( talk) 20:17, 12 May 2020 (UTC)
I realize that some people feel that "political correctness" is running amok, but I do wonder if "Native American territory" might be more-fitting and more-accurate than "unorganized territory," in the map. "Unorganized territory" seems to me to be inaccurate, potentially-offensive and biased. -- 128.230.233.158 ( talk) 23:17, 11 June 2017 (UTC)
Unorganized territory is a technical term meaning no Organic act. -- JWB ( talk) 20:19, 12 May 2020 (UTC)
There's a line in the article now ("the Compromise of 1850, as it became known") that implies it was not called the Compromise of 1850 at the time, which makes sense because that sounds like a name you give to something later.
This is the lead but there's nothing about it in the actual article body, or in An Act for the Admission of the State of California. Does anyone have a source or further info on this? - Elmer Clark ( talk) 00:53, 10 August 2021 (UTC)