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OMNIBUS BILL

OMNIBUS BILL, an attempt at a comprehensive adjustment of the territorial question reported on 8 May 1850 by the special Senate Committee of Thirteen. On 17 June the senators made popular sovereignty the criterion for Utah's statehood bid. President Zachary Taylor and radicals on both sides prevented the bill's adoption. On 31 July, the sections relating to California, New Mexico, and Texas were stricken, and on the following day the Senate adopted the Utah bill. Later legislation included substantially the ground of the originally proposed compromise.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Holt, Michael F. The Political Crisis of the 1850s. New York: Wiley, 1978.

Arthur C. Cole/A. R.

See also Compromise of 1850; Nashville Convention; Popular Sovereignty; Slavery; States' Rights.