Crittenden Compromise

Crittenden Compromise, measure proposed in December 1860 by U.S. Senator John Jordan Crittenden of Kentucky, a prominent southern supporter of the Union, on the eve of the American Civil War to avert the impending secession of the southern states. The proposal was preceded by the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency and by a declaration by President James Buchanan that the federal government had no right to coerce a seceding state into submission. Crittenden was among those who hoped that a further concession might appease the South. His proposals were designed chiefly to provide that slavery should be prohibited in those territories north of 36°30’, the line established by the Missouri Compromise of 1820, but that south of the line slavery should be protected. Slavery, in any state where it existed, might not be abolished without the consent of that state, and the federal government should compensate the owners of fugitive slaves whenever it was established that the slaves had escaped with outside assistance. Lincoln's disapproval strengthened opposition to the Crittenden Compromise, which was rejected by the House of Representatives in January and by the Senate in March 1861.