Uncover the Facts Behind the Crittenden Compromise

The Crittenden Compromise was an attempt at a compromise which would prevent the secession of the Southern states from the United States of America in 1860. The Crittenden Compromise ultimately failed, however, as the secession of those Southern states and the Civil War followed shortly after the Compromise’s proposal.

The Crittenden Compromise was named after the Senator who proposed it, John J. Crittenden. The Crittenden Compromise was an attempt to make many concessions to the South, such that the Southern states would not have grounds for secession anymore. As such, the Crittenden Compromise codified and would have made permanent a number of important elements of America at the time.

For example, the Crittenden Compromise included six different Constitutional Amendments and four proposed resolutions to be passed by Congress. These would make slavery a permanent institution ratified in the Constitution. Furthermore, the Crittenden Compromise would make permanent the dividing line set out in the Missouri Compromise, such that slavery would always be legal south of the 36th parallel north and would be illegal north of that line.

The Crittenden Compromise would also have prevented Congress from interfering with slavery in any significant fashion, whether through interstate trade or through future Amendments and proclamation. The Crittenden Compromise would have enforced fugitive slave laws, thus assuring southern slave owners that runaway slaves would be returned to them instead of being set free in the northern, abolitionist states.

Ultimately, the Crittenden Compromise failed due to a number of factors, one of the most important of which was the Presidency of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln immediately dismissed the terms of the Crittenden Compromise which was seen as contributing to the secession of the South and the Civil War.

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