The Missouri Compromise was ineffectual in the case of California because it was both above and below the line. A new compromise was necessary to further delay conflict. Orchestrated by Henry Clay, the "Great Compromiser", Texas was admitted as the balancer to California, a free state. The slave trade was outlawed in Washington DC but not slavery itself. Also part of the deal was a new, more enforceable Fugitive Slave Act, which infuriated Northern abolitionists. The decision on how to determine the policy of further states admitted was known as Popular Sovereignty, wherein the population of the territory would vote to decide whether the state would be free or slave. A good plan in theory, it led to violence and "Bleeding Kansas" when implemented.

Compromise of 1850