Compromise of 1850
The California gold rush in the late 1840s and the acquisition of new territory of Utah and New Mexico after the Mexican-American War required Congress to analyze the intertwined issues of expansion and slavery again since the Missouri Compromise only applied to the Louisiana Territory.

This time, Congress allowed California to be admitted as a free state and southerners were granted a stricter fugitive slave law allowing them to recapture their property, even in the North. Finally, popular sovereignty would allow the people living in the Utah and New Mexico territories to vote on the issue of slavery when they entered the union as states.

Created by Thomas C. Caswell
© 2001 New York State High School Regents Exam Prep Center