1850] Clay's compromise resolutions. 403 Salt Lake City. But the acquisition of California brought them again under the jurisdiction of the United States ; and they now applied for the admission of their country as the State of Deseret, or for its organisation as a Territory. To Deseret (afterwards called Utah) and New Mexico the North insisted on applying the Wilmot Proviso, while the South declared such an application would be followed by secession. (3) Texas claimed the Rio Grande as her western boundary. But the larger part of New Mexico lay east of the Rio Grande ; and the pre- tensions of Texas were so stoutly resisted that an appeal to arms seemed not unlikely. (4) The South demanded more stringent legislation for the capture and return of fugitive slaves. (5) The North insisted on the abolition of slavery and the slave-trade in the District of Columbia. Taking these demands as the basis for a plan of compromise. Clay worked out a scheme which he laid before the Senate (January 29, 1850) in eight resolutions, providing ; 1. For the admission of California as a Free State. 2. For the organisation of territorial governments in New Mexico and Utah without any restriction on slavery. 3. For the settlement of the boundary between Texas and New Mexico. 4. For the payment of the debt contracted by Texas before annexation, provided that she should relinquish all claim to any part of New Mexico. 5. That it is not expedient to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia without the consent of the people of the District, and of Maryland, and without compensation to owners of slaves. (That part of the District which had been in Virginia had been retroceded several years before.) 6. That the slave-trade ought to be abolished in the District. 7. That more effectual provision ought to be made by law for the return of fugitive slaves. 8. That Congress has no power to meddle with the slave-trade between the States. The debates which followed the presentation of these resolutions are beyond all question the greatest in the annals of the country. Clay's eloquent defence of his compromise plan, the speech of Calhoun summing up the grievances of the South, the sensational "Seventh of March" speech of Webster, the " Higher Law " speech of Seward, the speech of Jefferson Davis (soon to become the leader of a great rebellion) setting forth what the South would accept, and the bitter and fiery utterances of a host of lesser men, impart an interest which attaches to no previous congressional discussion. On April 18, 1850, Clay's resolutions went to a Committee of Thirteen, which reported on May 8 : 1. That the admission of any new State or States made out of Texas be postponed until they shall present themselves, when it will be CH. xii. 262
