Compromise of 1850

The main theme of Clay’s speech is that compromise is an integral feature of “the nature of the government and its operations” (Paragraph 1). Furthermore, in this context, compromise is necessary in order to save the Union. In the speech, Clay presents compromise as a final chance to restore some measure of peace; at the time, the South was indeed on the verge of seceding from the country.

Clay opens the speech by effectively undermining what he positions as the central objection to the measure: that “it is a compromise of principle, or of a principle” (Paragraph 1). The measure most certainly is a compromise. Any man, upon reflecting on the nature of how government works and on the nature of his opposition (in fact, his fellow party within the same government), “should be reconciled to the concession” necessary to receive something he wants in return (Paragraph 1). The only thing that could make the act of compromise truly unacceptable would be if the compromise included some “great principle […] such as a violation of the Constitution of the United States” (Paragraph 1), which is certainly not the case here.

Throughout the speech, Clay associates compromise with

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