Clayton Compromise
CLAYTON COMPROMISE
CLAYTON COMPROMISE, on territorial slavery, drafted in 1848 by a bipartisan Senate committee headed by John M. Clayton. This bill excluded slavery from Oregon and prohibited the territorial legislatures of New Mexico and California from acting on slavery. However, in contrast to the absolute ban on slavery in the territories acquired from Mexico proposed in the Wilmot Proviso, the compromise provided for the appeal of all slavery cases from the territorial courts to the Supreme Court. It passed the Senate 27 July 1848, but was tabled in the House of Representatives.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Potter, David Morris. The Impending Crisis, 1848–61. New York: Harper & Row, 1976.
Ranulf Brock, William. Parties and Political Conscience: American Dilemmas, 1840–50. Millwood, N.Y.: KTO Press, 1979.
Mary WilhelmineWilliams/t. m.
See alsoCivil War ; Compromise of 1850 ; Guadalupe Hidalgo, Treaty of ; Wilmot Proviso .