s not growing out of the Mexican War were in
regard to the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia,
and the passage of a new fugitive slave law.

Congress met on the 3rd of December 1849. Neither faction was strong
enough in both houses to carry out its own programme, and it seemed for
a time that nothing would be done. On the 29th of January 1850 Henry
Clay presented the famous resolution which constituted the basis of the
ultimate compromise. His idea was to combine the more conservative
elements of both sections in favour of a settlement which would concede
the Southern view on two questions, the Northern view on two, and
balance the fifth. Daniel Webster supported the plan in his great speech
of the 7th of March, although in doing so he alienated many of his
former admirers. Opposed to the conservatives were the extremists of the
North, led by William H. Seward and Salmon P. Chase, and those of the
South, led by Jefferson Davis. Most of the measures were rejected and
the whole plan seemed likely to fail, when the situation was changed by
the death of President Taylor and the accession of Millard Fillmore on
the 9th of July 1850. The influence of the administration was now thrown
in favour of the compromise. Under a tacit understanding of the
moderates to vote together, five separate bills were passed, and were
signed by the president between 9th and 20th September 1850. California
was admitted as a free state, and the slave trade was abolished in the
District of Columbia; these were concessions to the North. New Mexico
(then including the present Arizona) and Utah were organized without any
prohibition of slavery (each being left free to decide for or against,
on admission to statehood), and a rigid fugitive slave law was enacted;
these were concessions to the South. Texas (q.v.) was compelled to give
up much of the western land to which it had a good claim, and received
in return $10,000,000.

This legislation had several important results. It helped to postpone
secession and Civil War for a decade, during which time the North-West
was growing more wealthy and more populous, and was being brought into
closer relations with the North-East. It divided the Whigs into "Cotton
Whigs" and "Conscience Whigs," and in time led to the downfall of the
party. In the third place, the rejection of the Wilmot Proviso and the
acceptance (as regards New Mexico and Utah) of "Squatter Sovereignty"
meant the adoption