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The Compromise Of 1850: The Power Of The States

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The Compromise Of 1850: The Power Of The States
States' Rights": The rights and powers belonging to individual US states instead of the federal government. Since the Constitution was first written, arguments had taken place regarding just how much power the states should have vs. how much power the federal government should control. Originally, the Article of the Federation established a weak government an issue that was addressed with the US Constitution that would strengthen the federal power. However, both northern and southern states disagreed with some federal laws when it came to the explosive Furtive Slave Act of 1850. Stating runaway slave were to be returned to their masters, even if captured in free states. With this the northern states felt the federal government was robbing them to regulate slavery in their own district. Consequently, with tensions building on both sides John C. …show more content…

The Compromise of 1850 was drafted by Henry Clay whose idea was from a Senator from Illinois by the name Stephen A. Douglas. The Compromise was passed by the US Congress on September 1850, mostly to pacify the issue of slavery and territorial boundaries between the North and South. Issues around slavery increased between the North and South. Consequently, ten years after the Compromise of 1850, the American Civil War began.

Dred Scott case: Dred Scott was an enslaved African American man in the United States who sued for the freedom of himself his wife and their two daughters. Mr. Scott unsuccessfully won the case of Dred Scott v. Sandford of 1857, which was otherwise known as the "Dred Scott Decision." The Dred Scott case was regarded as one of the worst supreme court decisions of all times. It stated that nor free or enslave African Americans could be American


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