It was unsatisfactory to the South because it was deemed inadequate in its provisions, and because the South did not believe the North would execute it in good faith. The fugitive slave law was hateful to the North not only because it was cruel and degrading, but because it was seen to be a move formed for nationalizing slavery. The admission of California as a free State was regarded by Calhoun as fatal to the balance between the free and the slave States, and thereafter a fierce agitation sprang up for the recovery of this loss of balance, and ultimately for Southern preponderance, which resulted in the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the KansasNebraska war, and the civil war. The compromise of 1850 satisfied neither the North nor the South. Was this only an “ event,” the advent of a new force in politics was the book merely an abolition pamphlet, or was it a novel, one of the few great masterpieces of fiction that the world has produced ? After the lapse of fortyfour years and the disappearance of African slavery on this continent, it is perhaps possible to consider this question dispassionately. This was the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. In that month the two great political parties, in their national conventions, had accepted as a finality all the compromise measures of 1850, and the last hours of the Kentucky statesman were brightened by the thought that his efforts had secured the perpetuity of the Union.īut on the 20th of March, 1852, there had been an event, the significance of which was not taken into account by the political conventions or by Clay, which was to test the conscience of the nation.

On the 29th of June, 1852, Henry Clay died.

Mr and mrs bird uncle toms cabin