Compromise of 1850

With the people of California, Texas, and various other territories seeking to enter union, the most heated topic of discussion on Capital Hill was the legality of slavery. On one side, there were those who stood firmly in support of slavery and made outrageous demands such as California and New Mexico must be admitted as slave states. On the opposite end of the spectrum were those who felt that they could not allow the slightest concession for slavery. As with the numerous polarizing issues that faced Congress before, a compromise was struck between the two sides. In return for California joining the nation as a free state and the abolition of the slave trade in Washington D.C, the Fugitive Slave Act was enacted and slavery itself remained legal in the capital.