Question

In the first phase of congressional debate over the bill that would become the Compromise of 1850, the majority of speakers were _________.

Answer 1

In the first phase of congressional debate over the bill that would become the Compromise of 1850, the majority of speakers were radicals.

Step-by-step explanation:

In the first phase of congressional debate over the bill that would become the Compromise of 1850, the majority of speakers were radicals. These radicals, who composed nearly two-thirds of Congress, did not intend to accept the compromise, as they set the tone of public debate.

Often aligned with regional interests, they were notably against any quick solutions to the sectional controversies regarding slavery and its extension into new territories. Adding complexity to the situation, President Zachary Taylor, who did not initially support the compromise, unexpectedly died, and his successor, Millard Fillmore, ardently supported a compromise approach.

Eventually, after Henry Clay stepped down from leadership of the compromise effort, Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas pushed five separate bills through Congress that collectively formed the Compromise of 1850.

These included the controversial Fugitive Slave Act, the admission of California as a free state, settling the Texas-New Mexico boundary in favor of New Mexico, abolishing the slave trade in Washington, DC, and deferring the slavery decision in New Mexico and Utah to popular sovereignty.