California Statehood threatened the balance of power
- Mass population migration to California in search of gold
- Need for government was large as it became a wild and lawless place
- Drafted a state Constitution in 1849
o Asked to be admitted as a free state
- What to do???
There were other issues dividing North and South
- Texas dispute with government over northwestern border
- New Mexico and Utah organizing to become territories …and eventually states…probably free
- Abolitionists gaining support to ban slavery in Washington DC
Southerners demanded the federal government enforce the weak Fugitive Slave Law of 1793
- runaway slaves must be returned to their masters
- no government aid was provided for this
- South believed its property and honor were at stake
- North insisted federal government should not help enforce slavery