[Sidenote:  Divisions on the question of the extension of slavery. McMaster, 335-336.]

344.  A Divided Country.—­This action of the people of California at once brought the question of slavery before the people.  Many Southerners were eager to found a slave confederacy apart from the Union.  Many abolitionists were eager to found a free republic in the North.  Many Northerners, who loved the Union, thought that slavery should be confined to the states where it existed.  They thought that slavery should not be permitted in the territories, which belonged to the people of the United States as a whole.  They argued that if the territories could be kept free, the people of those territories, when they came to form state constitutions, would forbid slavery as the people of California had just done.  They were probably right, and for this very reason the Southerners wished to have slavery in the territories.  So strong was the feeling over these points that it seemed as if the Union would split into pieces.

[Sidenote:  Taylor’s policy.]

[Sidenote:  California demands admission.]

345.  President Taylor’s Policy.—­General Taylor was now President.  He was alarmed by the growing excitement.  He determined to settle the matter at once before people could get any more excited.  So he sent agents to California and to New Mexico to urge the people to demand admission to the Union at once.  When Congress met in 1850, he stated that California demanded admission as a free state.  The Southerners were angry.  For they 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.