The Compromise of 1850 were several laws admitting California as a free state, and also they created the Utah and New Mexico territories. It determined popular sovereignty (of these and other territories)as the way to answer the question of slavery. This way every territory could make their on decitions on the subject. It helped settle the dispute for boundaries betwwen Texas and New Mexico, and ended the slave trade in Washington, D.C it also made it easier for southerners to recover fugitive slaves.
