The Clayton Compromise was a plan drawn up in 1848 by a bipartisan United States Senate committee headed by John M. Clayton for organizing the Oregon Territory and the Southwest. Clayton first attempted to form a special committee of eight members, equally divided by region and party, two northern and two Southern men from each of the two great parties, with Clayton of Delaware himself acting as chairman, to consider the questions relating to the extension of slavery. It recognized the validity of Oregon's existing antislavery laws, prohibited the territorial legislatures of New Mexico and California from acting on slavery, and provided for appeal of all slavery cases from the territorial courts to the Supreme Court of the United States. It passed the Senate July 27, 1848, but it was tabled in the United States House of Representatives by a coalition of Southern Whigs led by future Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens. Stephens believed that the compromise would completely surrender Constitutional rights in the territories, as he was certain that the Supreme Court would rule against slavery in the territories. A problem arose in the United States. The question of whether slavery should exist in the new territories became a problem for Congress. Congress wanted a compromise that could solve this problem. The Clayton Compromise was drafted in 1848 by John M. Clayton. John M. Clayton was a Whig from Delaware who was chairman of group of Whigs and Democrats. This bill excluded slavery from Oregon. It also prohibited the territorial legislatures of New Mexico and California from acting on slavery. However, the compromise provided for the appeal of all slavery cases from the territorial courts to the Supreme Court. It passed the Senate 27 July 1848, but was tabled in the House of Representatives. After twenty-one hours of debate, the Senate passed the bill. Though the compromise was popular throughout the South, Alexander Hamilton Stephens spiked the Clayton Compromise in the House. Stephens claimed that Congress could not prohibit slavery in any U.S. territory. Robert Toombs agreed with Stephens but accepted the compromise before it died.> The Clayton Compromise validated the provisional laws of Oregon-which excluded slavery-so far as not incompatible with the constitution of the US or with the bill itself, subject to the action of its territorial legislature; but prohibited the territorial legislature of New Mexico and California from passing laws relative to slavery, and provided