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The Crittenden Compromise, the last chance to keep North and
South together, dies in the U.S. Senate.
Proposed by Senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky, the
compromise was a series of constitutional amendments. The
amendments would continue the old Missouri Compromise
provisions of 1820, which divided the west along the latitude
of 36ý 30". North of this line, slavery was prohibited. The Missouri
Compromise was negated by the Compromise of 1850, which
allowed a vote by territorial residents (popular sovereignty) to
decide the issue of slavery. Other amendments protected slavery
in the District of Columbia, forbade federal interference with the
interstate slave trade, and compensated owners whose slaves
escaped to the free states.
Essentially, the Crittenden Compromise sought to alleviate all
concerns of the southern states. Four states had already left the
Union when it was proposed, but Crittenden hoped the
compromise would lure them back. Crittenden thought he could
muster support from both South and North and avert either a split
of the nation or a civil war. The major problem with the plan was
that it called for a complete compromise by the Republicans with
virtually no concession on the part of the South. The Republican
Party formed in 1854 solely for the purpose of opposing the
expansion of slavery into the western territories, particularly the
areas north of the Missouri Compromise line. Just six years later,
the party elected a president, Abraham Lincoln, over the complete
opposition of the slave states. Crittenden was asking the
Republicans to abandon their most key issues.
The vote was 25 against the compromise and 23 in favor of it. All
25 votes against it were cast by Republicans, and six senators
from states that were in the process of seceding abstained. One
Republican editorial insisted that the party "cannot be made to
surrender the fruits of its recent victory." There would be no
compromise; with the secession of states continuing, the country
marched inexorably towards civil war.