Was the Compromise of 1850 a good compromise?

The Compromise of 1850 did several things. It allowed California to enter the Union as a free state. It stated that the land we received from Mexico would be divided into the New Mexico and the Utah territories. The people would determine if there would be slavery in these territories. The Compromise of 1850 ended slave trading in Washington, D.C. It also included the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act. This law required northerners to...

The Compromise of 1850 did several things. It allowed California to enter the Union as a free state. It stated that the land we received from Mexico would be divided into the New Mexico and the Utah territories. The people would determine if there would be slavery in these territories. The Compromise of 1850 ended slave trading in Washington, D.C. It also included the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act. This law required northerners to help capture runaway slaves.

While a compromise is designed to give both sides part of what they wanted, this compromise created many problems. The northerners were furious that they had to help capture runaway slaves. This meant that no slave who had escaped was safe in the North. Many northerners refused to obey this law. This made the South unhappy because they relied on the enforcement of this law to capture the slaves that had escaped. The North also had a majority of states in the Senate. It is fair to say there was unhappiness with this compromise after it was created.