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Crittenden Compromise Quick Facts

  1. The Crittenden Compromise was an eleventh-hour effort to avoid the Civil War.
  2. President-elect Abraham Lincoln and the Radical Republicans in Congress opposed the Crittenden Compromise because it would have permitted the extension of slavery in future U.S. territories and states.
  3. By the time the United States Senate voted on the Crittenden Compromise, four southern states (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, and Alabama) had seceded from the Union.
  4. In key votes on December 22 and December 24, 1860, the Crittenden Compromise failed to receive support in the Senate’s Committee of Thirteen, and on December 31, the Committee reported to the Senate that it had not been able to agree on a plan of adjustment.
  5. The Senate Committee of Thirteen voted to reject the Crittenden Compromise on December 22 and December 24, 1860, by votes of 7 to 6. The committee reported to the full senate on December 30 that it could not reach an agreement on the Crittenden Compromise.
  6. Fourteen senators from southern states that had seceded, or were about to secede, from the Union did not participate in the vote that defeated the Crittenden Compromise in the United States Senate.
  7. Copperheads, Peace Democrats, and conservative northern newspapers unsuccessfully attempted to resurrect the Crittenden Compromise as a basis for ending hostilities throughout the duration of the war.