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Another crisis arose from the request of the California Territory to be admitted to the Union as a free state; this was complicated by territory acquired in the southwest as a result of the [[Mexican War]] of 1848 and whether to extend slavery there.  An omnibus bill drafted by Henry Clay called the '''Compromise of 1850''' tried to give satisfaction to the southern states in addition to California's admission: the settlement of the Texas-New Mexico border dispute; the slavery question open for voting via popular sovereignty in the Utah and New Mexico territories as they were organized; the end of slave trading in the District of Columbia; and tough requirements concerning runaway slaves. [http://blueandgraytrail.com/event/Compromise_of_1850]

Another crisis arose from the request of the California Territory to be admitted to the Union as a free state; this was complicated by territory acquired in the southwest as a result of the [[Mexican War]] of 1848 and whether to extend slavery there.  An omnibus bill drafted by Henry Clay called the '''Compromise of 1850''' tried to give satisfaction to the southern states in addition to California's admission: the settlement of the Texas-New Mexico border dispute; the slavery question open for voting via popular sovereignty in the Utah and New Mexico territories as they were organized; the end of slave trading in the District of Columbia; and tough requirements concerning runaway slaves. [http://blueandgraytrail.com/event/Compromise_of_1850]

All five measures were enacted in September, 1850 as a result of the efforts and support of Democratic senator [[Stephen A. Douglas]] and Whig senator [[Daniel Webster]], and were accepted by moderates throughout the country as well as postponing Souther secession for another decade.  But the seeds of discord were planted; the precident of popular sovereignty, championed by Douglas as the way for the public to vote whether or not they wanted slavery in their territories, led to the Kansas territory for a similar provision.  And the [[Fugitive Slave Act]] that was a part of the Compromise was so bitterly condemned that many moderates who have ignored slavery in the past became determined opponents to any extention of the institution into the territories.  Many would risk jail rather than turn over runaway slaves to their owners as required by the new laws.   

All five measures were enacted in September, 1850 as a result of the efforts and support of Democratic senator [[Stephen A. Douglas]] and Whig senator [[Daniel Webster]], and were accepted by moderates throughout the country as well as postponing Souther secession for another decade.  But the seeds of discord were planted; the precident of popular sovereignty, championed by Douglas as the way for the public to vote whether or not they wanted slavery in their territories, led to the Kansas territory agitating for a similar provision.  And the [[Fugitive Slave Act]] that was a part of the Compromise was so bitterly condemned that many moderates who have ignored slavery in the past became determined opponents to any extention of the institution into the territories.  Many would risk jail rather than turn over runaway slaves to their owners as required by the new laws.   

The '''Kansas–Nebraska Act''', sponsored by Douglas, provided for the territorial organization of Kansas and Nebraska, using his principle the idea of popular sovereignty.  Douglas had written the act in an effort to slow or halt the sectarianism over slavery's extension, but the Kansas-Nebraska Act merely increased the flames, and was attacked by free-soil and abolitionists as a capitulation to those who supported slavery. The Whig Party, ineffective in preventing it, largely disintegrated, and the Republican Party was born and soon became a viable political organization opposed to territorial expansion of slavery. Unfortunately on the heels of the act a migration of those for and against slavery would leave Missouri and seek to influence elections in the Kansas Territory, the result of which became a short conflict known as [[Bleeding Kansas]], culminating in the May 21, 1856 sack of Lawrence, Kansas by pro-slavery men, and a massacre of a family a few days later by an abolitionist force led by a religious fanatic named John Brown. [http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/kansas.html]

The '''Kansas–Nebraska Act''', sponsored by Douglas, provided for the territorial organization of Kansas and Nebraska, using his principle the idea of popular sovereignty.  Douglas had written the act in an effort to slow or halt the sectarianism over slavery's extension, but the Kansas-Nebraska Act merely increased the flames, and was attacked by free-soil and abolitionists as a capitulation to those who supported slavery. The Whig Party, ineffective in preventing it, largely disintegrated, and the Republican Party was born and soon became a viable political organization opposed to territorial expansion of slavery. Unfortunately on the heels of the act a migration of those for and against slavery would leave Missouri and seek to influence elections in the Kansas Territory, the result of which became a short conflict known as [[Bleeding Kansas]], culminating in the May 21, 1856 sack of Lawrence, Kansas by pro-slavery men, and a massacre of a family a few days later by an abolitionist force led by a religious fanatic named John Brown. [http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/kansas.html]