Question

How did the North and the South react to the Compromise of 1850?

Answer 1

Although each side received benefits, the north seemed to gain the most. The balance of the Senate was now with the free states, although California often voted with the south on many issues in the 1850s. The major victory for the south was the Fugitive Slave Law. In the end, the north refused to enforce it. Massachusetts even called for its nullification, stealing an argument from John C. Calhoun. Northerners claimed the law was unfair. The flagrant violation of the Fugitive Slave Law set the scene for the tempest that emerged later in the decade.

Fugitive Slave Act (allowed whites to find their runaway slaves and take them to court, but technically gave power to whites to bring any black person to court, slave or not; judge always decided in favor of white plaintiff; act was clearly unfair and in favor of the South)

Utah & New Mexico Territories Choose For Slavery By Popular Sovereignty (gave choice to the people, created new territories which could account for the expansion of slavery; another pro for the South)

The North:

California Admitted As Free State (another free state to even the balance between free and slave states, a benefit for the North)

Slave Trade Ends In Washington D.C. (the slave trade becomes prohibited in the nation's capital, however slavery was still legal; not much of a change, but a positive change nonetheless)

they both felt as if the compromise wasnt fair.