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There were four schools of thought as to what to do with the large amount of territory won from Mexico after the Mexican-American war. First, there was the viewpoint of Wilmot and New York Barnburners, that slavery should to be banned from all of the new territories. The second viewpoint, Calhoun's argued that Congress had no right to regulate slavery in the territories (however, in actuality, Calhoun was willing to support the Missouri Compromise extension idea). Senator Benton famously described these two viewpoints as two blades of shears, destined to cut the Union in half.

Neither of these plans had any chance of passing through Congress, and the two compromise positions were as follows. The first, originated by James Buchanan supported extending the Missouri Compromise line to the pacific. This was originally supported by Polk and a lot of the Democratic apparatus, including the administration newspaper. This was even the central plank of Buchanan's 1848 presidential campaign. Then of course, Buchanan was eclipsed by the other compromise idea, the 'popular sovereignty' doctrine of Lewis Cass. This position was eventually made the Democratic position and of course Cass was nominated in 1848 and lost to Zachary Taylor. Polk eventually put the administration's weight behind Cass and popular sovereignty and even the Democratic newspaper recanted Buchanan and the Missouri Compromise extension idea.

The wane in support for Buchanan's idea was primarily that 1. Popular sovereignty was vague enough that it could appeal to everyone while extending the compromise line spells out exactly who wins and who loses, and 2. After Oregon was organized into a free territory in 1848, the North would have been the clear loser in extending the line (as Oregon territory was already free, so why divide the Mexican cession so equally) and subsequently opposed any attempts to extend the line.

But for whatever reason, let's suppose Polk puts the full support of the administration behind Buchanan and the Missouri Compromise and Buchanan wins the nomination and a narrow election against Taylor and on top of that somehow passes the extension of the line. Is the Missouri Compromise a stronger vehicle to contain the debate over slavery? If this happens, what are the biggest issues that dominate politics in the 1850s?

Thoughts?
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