Hawk1981
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- Apr 1, 2020
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There was a perception in the 1840s and 1850s that a disproportionate and corrupt influence over the federal government was held by slave owners, and their supporters in the 'free states'. Antislavery campaigners complained bitterly about this "Slave Power" or "Slaveocracy" that used the federal government to expand and protect slavery in the United States. This perception was built on a series of events following the conclusion of the Mexican-American War.
The annexation of Texas as a slave state and the acquisition of new territories from Mexico led to renewed debate about whether or not slavery would be allowed to move into the new western territories. A series of resolutions passed by the Virginia legislature in 1847 came to embody a doctrine called the "Platform of the South." Stating that slavery followed the United States flag, automatically, wherever it was planted. Countering an argument raised in Congress that slavery should not be extended to the new territories, Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina proposed a theory that the territories were held in partnership by all of the states and that every partner had an equal right to protection of his property on his territory. Calhoun further maintained that the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which marked the southern border of Missouri along latitude 36.30, as a line to the Pacific where slavery was allowed south of the line, but not north, was unconstitutional.
Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina
The annexation of Texas as a slave state and the acquisition of new territories from Mexico led to renewed debate about whether or not slavery would be allowed to move into the new western territories. A series of resolutions passed by the Virginia legislature in 1847 came to embody a doctrine called the "Platform of the South." Stating that slavery followed the United States flag, automatically, wherever it was planted. Countering an argument raised in Congress that slavery should not be extended to the new territories, Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina proposed a theory that the territories were held in partnership by all of the states and that every partner had an equal right to protection of his property on his territory. Calhoun further maintained that the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which marked the southern border of Missouri along latitude 36.30, as a line to the Pacific where slavery was allowed south of the line, but not north, was unconstitutional.
Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina