Civil War DBQ - Political Compromise

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An Act for the Admission of Missouri into the Union, 1820 (Missouri Compromise) 
 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America,… That the inhabitants of that portion of the Missouri territory included within the boundaries herein after designated, be, and they are hereby, authorized to form for themselves a constitution and state government…and shall be admitted into the Union, upon an equal footing with the original states, in all respects whatsoever.

…And be it further enacted that in all the Louisiana Territory, which lies north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude, slavery and involuntary servitude, shall be, and is hereby, forever prohibited…APPROVED, March 6, 1820.
 
An Act for the Admission for the State of Maine into the Union
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United State of America in Congress assembled, that, the State of Maine is hereby declared to be one of the United States of America, and admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, in all respects whatever.
H. Clay, Speaker of the House of Representatives.

DOCUMENT 4
Source: Resolutions proposed in Congress to settle disputes over new territory acquired by the US from Mexico, Senator Henry Clay, 1850
It being desirable, for the peace, concord, and harmony of the Union of these states, to settle and adjust amicably all existing questions of controversy between them arising out of the institution of slavery upon a fair, equitable and just basis: therefore,
Resolved, that California, … ought… to be admitted as one of the states of this Union, without … slavery within those boundaries.
Resolved, that …we shall not abolish slavery in the District of Columbia … but the trade in slaves within the District, shall be prohibited.
Resolved, …that appropriate territorial governments (in Utah and New Mexico Territories) ought to be solely responsible for the adoption or restriction of slavery in their respective territories.
Resolved, that more effectual and strict laws are to be made, … for the restitution and delivery of persons held as slaves in any state, who may escape into any other state or territory in the Union. 

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Stephen A Douglas in a letter, writing about the Kansas and Nebraska Act, 1854

It will triumph and impart peace to the country and stability to the Union.  I am not deterred by the violence and insults of the Northern Whigs and abolitionists.   The storm will soon [blow over] and the people of the north will sustain the measure [popular sovereignty] when they come to understand it.  The great principle of self-government is at stake and surely the great people of this country are never going to decide that the principle upon which our whole republican system rests upon is vicious and wrong.

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 Source:  Abraham Lincoln speaking about the decision in the Dred Scott Case

… and now as to the Dred Scott decision. That decision declares two propositions-first, that a Negro cannot sue in the U.S. Courts; and secondly, that Congress cannot prohibit slavery in the Territories. It was made by a divided court- dividing differently on the different points… But we think the Dred Scott decision is erroneous. We know the court that made it, has often over-ruled its own decisions, and we shall do what we can to have it to over-rule this.  …If this important decision had been made by the unanimous concurrence of the judges, and without any apparent partisan bias, then it would be revolutionary to not accept it … 

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Source: Source: Henry David Thoreau, “A Plea for Captain John Brown” speech on Oct. 30, 1859 in  Concord, Mass.

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It was Brown’s peculiar doctrine that a man has a perfect right to interfere by force with the slaveholder in order to rescue the slave. I agree with him. I think that for once the Sharps rifles and the revolvers were employed in a righteous cause. The tools were in the hands of one who could use them.  Some eighteen hundred years ago Christ was crucified; this morning, perchance, Captain Brown was hung. These are not the ends of a chain which is not without its links. 

He is not Old Brown any longer; he is an angel of light...

Source: The Madison Weekly Visitor (Georgia), Nov. 1, 1859, Editorial following Harper’s Ferry Raid

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One of the remarkable features in our State and Federal Government at this time is a greatly diminished regard for the statutes of the land. This state of things is peculiar to no section of this country.  The fanaticism of New England, acting upon a higher law than the Constitution to destroy the rights of the South, is not more treasonable in its consequences than the encouragement of unlawful enterprises at the South to override a sacred compact of the past in the revival of the slave trade from the coast of Africa. The difficulty in Bleeding Kansas and the late affair at Harper’s Ferry are only additional instances going to show that the law of inclination is being substituted for the law of the land.  The law of retaliation is but the incubation of revolution, and an explosion sudden and overwhelming is destined, at no distant day, to burst upon this country.