hey had thought that California would surely be a
slave state.

[Sidenote: Clay's compromise scheme, 1850. _McMaster_, 339-341;
_Source-Book_, 279-281.]

346. Clay's Compromise Plan.--Henry Clay now stepped forward to
bring about a "union of hearts." His plan was to end all disputes
between Northerners and Southerners by having the people of each section
give way to the people of the other section. For example, the
Southerners were to permit the admission of California as a free state,
and to consent to the abolition of the slave trade in the District of
Columbia. In return, the Northerners were to give way to the Southerners
on all other points. They were to allow slavery in the District of
Columbia. They were to consent to the organization of New Mexico and
Utah as territories without any provision for or against slavery. Texas
claimed that a part of the proposed Territory of New Mexico belonged to
her. So Clay suggested that the United States should pay Texas for this
land. Finally Clay proposed that Congress should pass a severe Fugitive
Slave Act. It is easily seen that Clay's plan as a whole was distinctly
favorable to the South. Few persons favored the passage of the whole
scheme. But when votes were taken on each part separately, they all
passed. In the midst of the excitement over this compromise President
Taylor died, and Millard Fillmore, the Vice-President, became President.

[Illustration: MILLARD FILLMORE.]

[Sidenote: Art. IV, sec. 2.]

[Sidenote: Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.]

[Sidenote: Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. _McMaster_, 341-343.]

[Sidenote: Results of passage of this act. _Higginson_, 281;
_Source-Book_, 282-284.]

[Sidenote: The "Underground Railway." _Source-Book_, 260-263.]

347. The Fugitive Slave Act.--The Constitution provides that
persons held to service in one state escaping into another state shall
be delivered up upon claim of the person to whom such service may be
due. Congress, in 1793, had passed an act to carry out this provision of
the Constitution. But this law had seldom been enforced, because its
enforcement had been left to the states, and public opinion in the North
was opposed to the return of fugitive slaves. The law of 1850 gave the
enforcement of the act to United States officials. The agents of slave
owners claimed many persons as fugitives. But few were returned to the
South. The important result of these attempts to enforce the law was to
strengthen Northern p