Compare And Contrast The Compromises Of The Framers

A compromise cannot be reached regarding the case of slavery if Congress cannot make any laws in reference to slavery. This then caused a compromise in 1860 to be quite difficult to come about compared to the compromises that had been created in the

Congress did not really effectively address slavery. The Missouri Compromise "brought about a temporary, or brief, lull in the debate over slavery" (Textbook, 449). The debate over slavery was brief. It did not effectively address slavery. It did not end it, either.

This act made any official who did not turn in a runaway slave liable to pay a fine; therefore, truly enforcing the law and safeguarding southern property. This also made every Northerner responsible for turning in runaway slaves. In Stephen Douglas’ “Speech Defending the Compromise of 1850” he stated, “Congress, after a protracted session of nearly ten months, succeeded in passing a system of measures, which are believed to be just to all parts of the Republic, and ought to be satisfactory to the People. ”7 Douglas believed by making this concession, the south would remain a part of the union.

In continuation, America 's need for a new constitution was imperative. The Articles of confederation was unable to deal with the nation’s troubles. Inevitably, demand grew for a stronger, more effective national government. On May 25, 1787, the constitutional convention opened in philadelphia at the pennsylvania state House. During this convention many compromises were made, the first being the Great compromise, which combined the New Jersey plan and the Virginia plan.

Delegates from the north opposed slavery and only wanted to count those that were free. Northern delegates argued that slaves where property and why should they be counted, if slaves where counted would other property be counted as well (Jillson, 43)? The southern states on the other hand, supported slavery and wanted to count slaves at their actual number. The compromise was counting all other persons (anyone who was not free) as only three-fifths of their actual number. This meant for every five slaves it equaled three free persons.

Under the Articles of Confederation, each of the thirteen colonies was represented in Congress with one vote. When the framers created the Constitution, there were discussions surrounding whether each state should have votes proportional to the state’s population or should each state have equal representation. The larger states favored the Virginia Plan (which was based on population) because this would give them greater control in Congress. The smaller states were concerned about losing power in Congress so they supported the New Jersey Plan (which gave each state equal representation). After much debate over the two plans, a compromise was adopted that created a bicameral Congress.

The Great Compromise created a new issue concerning slaves and how they would be counted when figuring out a state’s population (Valentine). The Great Compromise required an exact count of the population to decide how many representatives each state would be allowed to have in the lower house. The Southerners wanted to include the slaves which make up about forty-three percent of their population. Doing that they would have many more representatives compared to the Northern states. Northern states had very few slaves, and they did not want the Southern states to gain the advantage of greater representation in the new government.

This compromise was proposed by James Wilson and Roger Sherman, delegates of the Constitutional Convention (Key Compromises of the Constitutional Convention). The Connecticut Compromise, also known as the Great or Sherman’s Compromise was an agreement that big and small states reached during the Constitutional Convention (Key Compromises of the Constitutional Convention). There was also the Slave Trade Compromise, which restricted the number of slaves counted toward representation and taxation to three-fifths the total number of slaves and prohibited congress from outlawing slavery (Key Compromises of the Constitutional

This settlement was the start of getting the entire nation on board with abolishing slavery. Rather than putting an end to slavery right away because it would create disaster inside the south's economy, Congress decided that they weren’t allowed to abolish slavery for twenty years in order to give the south a chance to rebuild their work force(Document D). Although it was difficult to combine so many opposing viewpoints, these compromises directly led to the strong willed U.S. government we have

The Northern states, smaller in comparison to the south, already did not have as much representation and political power as the southern states. Therefore, the compromise to them was unnecessary, and they felt they would have all the power and dominate in the polls and decisions. Considering the different views the two already had based on slavery, this alarmed the northern states. However, as time passed, the Three-Fifths Compromise would not provide the advantage the slave owning south had hoped. The Northern states grew more rapidly in terms of population and ended up being opposing political power to others.

Two different plans, the Virginia Plan and New Jersey Plan, came into fuse into one and was known as the Great Compromise which helped delegates distribute even representation state to state. The next large issue, and in my opinion the largest was Slavery which was a difficult and as we know lengthy process which eventually was abolished. Southern slave owners wanted slaves to be counted in the population so they could get more representation on larger states, this lead to the Three-Fifths Compromise where slaves would be counted as three-fifths of a person when taking poll on the population. This was very important because if slavery was abolished at this point the southern states would of just disbanded from the convention. The last of major compromise was how they were going to decide who would take the chair of president of our country.

Dred Scott was born was a slave in the state of Virginia and was owned by Peter Blow, who died in 1832. Scott only had two masters after Blow’s death; one lived in Wisconsin and later Illinois, both of which prohibited slavery, yet, Scott didn’t petition for freedom. Instead he met his wife Harriet. The two met their new master in Louisiana, who did not grant them freedom, so Scott looked for legal action to escape his slavery. Over a period of seven years, he went through trial and retrial until he was denied his final freedom in 1854.

If they were lucky enough to escape slavery they would still have problems living a normal life. The Citizen Clause also had a part in it about how the government couldn’t take away the citizenship of someone who was a legal citizen of America.

One of the compromises made in the Constitutional Convention is the three-fifths compromise. In this compromise, the southerners wanted to add slaves to the population of the state they lived in. If slaves were included in their state’s population, that state would be able to add more representatives in the House of Representatives. Northerners did not agree with that statement because slaves did not have the right to vote. After the delegates compromised, they agreed that only three-fifths of the slave’s population would be counted into the state’s population.

However, these differences show that the North and South were actually two distinct countries held together by one constitution. The North felt that decisions regarding slavery and its legality were entrenched in the central government while the South felt that such decision belonged to the individual states. In the times preceding the war, both sides could not reach a compromise. Bonner mentions, “Because secession and war were permitted to come, warned Russel, "We are not entitled to lay the flattering unction to our souls that the Civil War was an inevitable conflict (Bonner, 195).” Hence, these differences could only be addressed through war.