Crittenden+Compromise

= Crittenden Compromise  =

__Background:__
The Crittenden Compromise was a failed proposal to a compromise that would have ended the secession crisis. The grieviances of the southern states were not solved, leading to the Civil War. It was proposed by Kentucky Senator John Crittenden on December 18, 1860.

The south wanted to secure their slavery, and the north wanted to take it away. With westward expansion, maintaining the balance between slave states and free states became difficult. The Missouri Compromise was no longer enough to keep both the north and the south happy. The north wanted to do away with slavery in the western territories, but the south wanted to make sure they were not overpowered by free states. This caused major tension between the north and the south, and many efforts were made to repair this relationship. The Crittenden Compromise was one of the last of these attempts.

__Ideas in the Proposal:__
The Crittenden Compromise proposed the following six amendments to the Constitution and four Congressional resolutions:

__Amendments:__

 * 1) Any state north of 36 degrees, 30 minutes would prohibit slavery, and any state south of that latitude would allow slavery, and Congress could not interfere with their slavery laws.
 * 2) Congress could not abolish slavery in places where they have jurisdiction but are in a slave state.
 * 3) Congress could not abolish slavery in the District of Columbia while it bordered Virginia and Maryland and without the consent of the inhabitants. Those who refused to accept abolition would be compensated.
 * 4) Congress could prohibit or interfere with interstate slave trade.
 * 5) Congress would compensate owners of rescued fugitive slaves, and Congress could sue any county that obstructed the fugitive slave laws to get money to compensate the owner, and the county could sue the people who prevented the return o the fugitive.
 * 6) No future amendments could change these amendments or authorize Congress to interfere with slavery in any slave state.

__Congressional resolutions:__

 * 1) The fugitive slave laws were constitutional and had to be enforced.
 * 2) All state laws in the way of the fugitive laws were unconstitutional and had to be repealed.
 * 3) The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 should be modified to make the North happy by equalizing the fee schedule to return fugitives and limiting the power of the marshal to summon citizens to help in capture of fugitives.
 * 4) Laws eliminating slave trade had to be enforced effectively.

__ Summary of terms: __
Essentially, this compromise ensured that slavery would remain in current slave states and could not be changed by Congress; it extended the line of the Missouri compromise all the way to the west coast, prohibiting slavery above and guaranteeing slavery below the line; it set out guidelines for fugitive slave laws that the south wanted; and it said that its terms could not be modified at all.



Crittenden proposed these amendments and resolutions to try to evade a civil war. He tried to address the complaints of the slave states so that they would not leave the United States. Many Republicans opposed his compromise because they did not want slavery to extend to states that did not already practice slavery (namely the western territories). This is one of the reasons that this compromise was shut down. Another reason is that is was too harsh. It was too exact and did not allow for enough flexibility. If it was more flexible and lax with its terms, it would have had a better chance of being passed.



__ Analysis: __
This was the real cause of the civil war because it failed to keep the union together, forcing the southern states to secede from the country. The North and the South could not settle their differences and compromise to ease the tensions leading up to the Civil War, which started a mere four months after the compromise was proposed, on April 12th, 1861.

This was also one of the last solid efforts to keep the United States together. It tried to patch up any bad feelings between the north and the south and tried to keep the south happy so that they did not split from the United States. Congress did not accept it, which upset the southern states, so they separated from the northern states. The Civil War could have been avoided, at least for some time, if Congress had accepted the Crittenden Compromise, because it would have kept the southern slave states happy and eased the tensions between the north and the south.

Violent conflict could have easily been avoided between the north and the south. If the Crittenden Compromise had been passed, it would have at least cooled down the situation. Unfortunately, many members of Congress did not want to pass the compromise, and it was never put into effect. The Crittenden Compromise was really the last chance for peace before the south separated from the United States. Other events before the Crittenden Compromise elevated tension between north and south, but this was the real tipping point. Once the south saw that this compromise could not be ratified, they decided that they could no longer try to compromise. Their only choice was to try to split from the north because they felt that their freedoms were being taken from them and the north was not willing to compromise. The Crittenden Compromise was the true cause of the Civil War.

__ More information: __

 * General background on the time around the proposal of the compromise: []
 * More information on the Compromise: []
 * The terms of the Crittenden Compromise: []
 * New York Times 1861 article on the Crittenden Compromise: []