Pros And Cons Of Crittenden Compromise

The Great Compromise refers to the issue of representation of states in the United States Legislature. When the Constitution was being drafted, the issue of representation between big and small states was a major issue. The Virginia Plan laid out by Edmund Randolph stated that states should be represented based on their population, and the amount of revenue they contributed to the federal government. This plan favored larger states because under this plan larger states would have a lot more representation than smaller states. “The Virginia Plan was thought to be heavily biased in favor of the large states.”

The Compromise of 1877 was brought to attention recently, shortly after the Presidential Election of 1876. It called to resolve the disputed 1876 presidential elections in the United States. This was supposedly a deal to make it so Rutherford Hayes, the Republican Party candidate running for president, could become president. The Democrats would also become powerful in the governments within the South. Having Hayes, when he would become president, promise to allow troops to be pulled out of the rebelling states and slave states out of the South, it would the Democrats to become just that.

Some Southerners believed that they needed to secede from the nation because they believed Abraham Lincoln, and his Republican majority were a major threat to the institution of slavery. The new Republican Party showed up in the 1850s and they were against the institution of slavery. When the election of 1860 came about, one of the candidates was Abraham Lincoln who just so happened to be a republican. When he won the election alongside his commanding majorities in both houses of Congress, the Southern states panicked, and got afraid that the federal government would stop the continuation of the practice of slavery. In other words, they were afraid that they were going to abolish slavery in the South, which they believed was going to be a problem

For several decades slavery ran ramped in the United States, and by the 1850s-1860s there were different opinions about whether to keep it, abolish it, or contain it where it is. Most understand that the south was pro-slavery, their further intentions were to expand into the new territories the US had purchased from Mexico and from the Louisiana Purchase. Then, there was a small minority group in the north that wished to abolish slavery from the entire US, and this group was disliked by both northerners and southerners. The majority of the north, however, didn’t mind keeping slavery in the south where it already existed, but they did not want it to expand into the new states Congress was carving out of the purchased territories. Each of this groups disliked one

He feared that it would tear apart the nation and free states would outweigh the slave states leading slave states to lose their power to protect their property and

Although the ‘New World’ declared independence in 1776, by 1787 the United States of America had yet to agree on a constitution that would satisfy the varying needs of each existing state. One of the major debates was over whether the new legislature would give each state representatives based on that state's population or if each state would have equal representation. The larger states desired more influence with proportional representation, but the smaller ones feared that their views would be encroached on if such a system were put into place. The proposal came from Roger Sherman, a Superior Court Judge of Connecticut, who had previously been a delegate during the independence debates of 1776.

Joseph Montesino Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election on November 6, 1860 without the support of a single southern state. Abraham Lincoln proposes banning slavery in all the American territories to stop it spreading. The Crittenden Compromise was proposed as a constitutional amendment by Kentucky Senator John J. Crittenden on December 18th, 1860 to assured the continuation of slavery in states where it already existed, in hope of preventing the First State to secede from the Union. Two days before Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration, the Crittenden Compromise failed and was rejected.

The Connecticut Compromised of 1787 in the United States, also known as the Great Compromised, originated in the creation of legislative bodies. It joined the Virginia Plan that favored population-based representation, and the New Jersey Plan, which featured each state as an equal. Roger Sherman, of Connecticut, played an important role in building this compromise. Roger Sherman was well-regarded at the convention and was respected by many of the other members. On the morning of June 11, Sherman proposed that the proportion of suffrage in the first chamber should correspond to the respective number of free inhabitants; and in the second chamber or Senate, each state should have one vote and no more.

The founders wanted the two states to join the Union to create a more vigorous government; because the founders wanted to keep the support of the Southern delegates, they allowed the Atlantic slave trade to keep operating by allowing no law to ban the Atlantic slave trade until 1808. Therefore, the founders didn’t abolish slavery because they thought that if they took action to eliminate slavery, the Southern delegates wouldn’t allow South Carolina and Georgia to join the Union, which would have been an unfavorable outcome for the nation. They didn’t want to risk that because the Southern delegates wouldn’t agree to the Constitution, the founders created and wouldn’t let the states join the

The South seceded because of slavery, political power, the differences in their way of life. Slavery was a major issue here in America. The South wanted slavery and the North didn’t. “Government cannot endure half slave, half free” (Doc 5).

The Great Compromise which was founded at the Constitutional Convention wasn't formed without trouble. Many of the delegates that participated in the convention were wealthy landowners and lawyers, who owned many slaves. They failed to notice the diversity that excited within the nation. As they talked how to repair the Articles of Confederation, issues would arise that would create continuous debates amongst each other. One of the issues that would arise would be the nature of the new government.

There were several reasons on why the Confederate states wanted to protect slavery, but the main reason was because they wanted to protect their way of life. Back then, slave labor

After no progress of which plan to go through with, Roger Sherman came up with the Great Compromise. The compromise called for two house legislator. Members of the house of representatives or the lower house would be elected by popular vote. Members of the Senate or the upper house would be chosen by the state legislators. Each state would only have two senators no matter the size, or population of the state.

The Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia, on May 25, 1787. Most of the delegates were from the upper classes of American society. The most famous delegate, George Washington, was “unanimously elected president” of the Convention (Cassel, 1994. P. 119). Originally, the delegates intended to revise the Articles, however their debates resulted in a whole new constitution.

The issue the compromise was about was whether there should be slavery in the western territories. Maine wanted to be added to the Union, however, slavery was banned there. If Maine were to be added to the Union, it would upset the balance between free and slave states in the nation and the Senate. So, the Missouri Compromise, proposed by Senator Henry Clay, allowed Maine to enter the Union as a free state, and allowed Missouri to be entered into the Union as a slave state.