Compromise of 1850
Background
To refresh your memory, one year ago California requested permission to enter the Union as a free state. However, this would upset the balance between free and slave states within the senate.
Henry Clay
Senator henry Clay introduced a series of resolutions in an attempt to seek a compromise and avert a crisis between North and South. As part of the Compromise of 1850, the fugitive slave act was amended and the slave trade in Washington DC was abolished.
John C. Calhoun
Calhoun strongly opposes this comprises because it "betrays the south". He believes that Northerns need to agree to federal protection of slavery for the south to feel comfortable remaining in the Union.
Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster spoke three days after Calhoun's speech. He pleaded with northerners to accept southern demands, for the sake of Union. Withdrawing his former support for the Wilmot Proviso, he hoped to persuade enough of his colleagues to move closer to Clay's proposals.
Stephen Douglas
Douglas is a strong supported of Henry Clays compromise, and ensured that it would pass by dividing it into separate bills so that congressman could vote on the bills that they were interested in.
Results
As a result, California entered the Union as a free state and a territorial government was created in Utah, and ended a boundary dispute between New Mexico and Texas in which New Mexico gained territory and the federal government assumed Texas's debts.