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Many Southerners opposed the Compromise of 1850 because it allowed settlers to vote against the establishment of slavery in the western territories. South Carolina senator John C. Calhoun set forth their grievances in a speech delivered on March 4, 1850. He maintained that the Union could be saved only by "conceding to the South an equal right in the acquired Territory…by ceasing the agitation of the slave question, and…by adopting an amendment, which will restore to the South in substance the power she possessed of protecting herself, before the equilibrium between the sections was destroyed by the action of this government." | |
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Portrait
of John C. Calhoun,
by James Reid Lambdin, c. 1850 Click image to enlarge. Copyright 2002 The Chicago Historical Society |
Image 23
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