Following increased pressure from Southern politicians, Congress passed a revised Fugitive Slave Act in 1850. Part of Henry Clay's famed Compromise of 1850—a group of bills that helped quiet early calls for Southern secession—this new law forcibly compelled citizens to assist in the capture of runaways.
The new plan of government centralized power in the federal government at the expense of state authorities. American leaders sought to draft the Constitution as a new plan of government.
