Northern States Never Compromised About Slavery

The truth is that the United States compromised from the Compromise of 1850 through the Emancipation Proclamation. This is the first attempt.

The issue of the westward expansion of slavery and the rights of slave owners were addressed in this important document. It contained five separate bills.

1. California would be admitted as a free state.
2. Slavery in New Mexico and Utah would be determined by white voters when applying for statehood.
3. Texas would be paid ten million dollars for the disputed boundary with New Mexico.
4. Buying and selling slaves was abolished in Washington (D.C.), but the practice of slavery would continue.
5. The Fugitive Slave Act demanded that lawmen and all U.S. citizens assist in the capture and return of fugitive slaves.

(By the way, this was true also of sailors of any race, although not on this law. Sailors were considered to belong to the ship in the same way that slaves belonged to the master’s land. However, it was for only one voyage.)