Crittenden compromise
The Crittenden Compromise or the Crittenden Amendment ( Engl . Crittenden Compromise or Crittenden Amendment ) ( 18th December 1860 ) was an unsuccessful attempt by Senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky , the southern states of the United States prevent them from leaving the Union and thus the impending Civil war to prevent.
content
The Crittenden Compromise should be the Constitution of the United States by six additional articles expand. These amendments would expand the Missouri Compromise to prohibit slavery north of the 36 ° 30 'latitude. South of this demarcation line, which was to be extended to the Pacific, slavery was to exist in all existing and future territories. But that would also have meant that in states like California , where slavery was banned at the time, slavery would have to be introduced immediately. The federal government should no longer interfere in the affairs of the individual states. Congress was also prohibited from abolishing federal slavery (forts, arsenals, naval bases, etc.) within a slave state. Slaveholders whose possessions had fled to the north and could not be returned should be compensated by the state. Likewise, Congress would have been prohibited from abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia without the consent of its citizens, even if it had been abolished in Virginia and Maryland beforehand . No future amendment law could have repealed it.
Result
Abraham Lincoln wrote to influential senators and members of the House of Representatives from Springfield :
“The tough battle is inevitable, and it's better it comes now than anytime in the future.” Crittenden's compromise, Lincoln told Weed and Seward , “would deprive us of everything we won in the election . [...] The consequences would be piracy all over the south and the establishment of new slave states. [...] And we would be well on the way to a new slave empire «. The very thought of a territorial compromise, Lincoln explained, “admits that slavery has the same rights as freedom and gives up everything we fought for. [...] We have just won an election based on principles that have been openly presented to the people. Now we are told in advance that the government will be dissolved unless we submit to those we have defeated. [...] If we surrender, that is our downfall. Because the opponents will repeat this experiment ad libitum . Not a year will pass before we have to accept Cuba as a condition for them [the southern states] to remain in the Union. "
In the Senate Committee, all Republicans then voted against the compromise. The Democrats Toombs and Davis also voted against and the proposal fell by 7 by 6 votes. Crittenden then presented the plan in a public Senate meeting, where it was rejected on January 16 by 25:23 votes. Though the compromise surfaced again later, it was doomed to failure because of Republican opposition and the indifference of the South.
literature
- Paul G. Pierpaoli Jr .: Crittenden Compromise. In Spencer C. Tucker (Ed.): American Civil War: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection (= Volume I: A – C ). ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara 2013, ISBN 978-1-85109-677-0 , p. 465.
Individual evidence
- ↑ James M. Hiatt, Das Handbuch der Politik, containing a selection of the most important documents from the political history of America , Asher & Adams, Indianapolis 1865, page 303
- ↑ Michael Hochgeschwender , The American Civil War , CH Beck oHG, Munich 2010, page 61, ISBN 978-3406-56251-8
- ↑ James M. McPherson , Die for Freedom - The History of the American Civil War , Anaconda Verlag GmbH, Cologne 2011, page 240, ISBN 978-3-86647-267-9
- ↑ a b James M. McPherson , Die for Freedom - The History of the American Civil War , Anaconda Verlag GmbH, Cologne 2011, page 241, ISBN 978-3-86647-267-9