By the time the Constitution was drafted, the issue of slavery had been set aside and kept strategically distant, a choice that would later trigger the debate now known as the American Civil War. Settlement, once the answer to the Union's problems, had the opposite impact during the 1850s, when contentions and differing interpretations of the Constitution led to sectionalism, the danger of withdrawal, and tension between the North and the South. states. Northern abolitionists attempted to save the Union as they sought to rid themselves of slavery, while Southerners supported serfdom in the new region and took steps to retreat; the Compromise of 1850, particularly the Fugitive Slave Law, expanded these beliefs. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay Many changes in the United States were made mainly because of the Compromise of 1850. First of all, California was not a state and a slave -free one. This angered the South because they did not want to be outnumbered in the Senate. Utah and New Mexico were also admitted as states and enjoyed popular sovereignty, the only states at the time to have it. Texas was forced to give up some of its land and was awarded $10 million in compensation for doing so. The slave trade had been banned in Washington, D.C., but slavery was still permitted there. However, the most critical and controversial provision was the Fugitive Slave Law, which caused much controversy and much anger from the North, who opposed it, and the South, who was upset that the North would not enforce it. Since slavery was not mentioned in the Constitution, there was debate as to whether or not states had the right to allow it and spread it to the new territories. There were abolitionists, such as William Lloyd Garrison, who argued that since slavery was not in the Constitution, it should never have been protected or existed. Every citizen must be protected by the government, as well as his freedom; however, slaves did not have freedom and were not protected because, as Garrison states, the government was their enemy. According to Garrison, abolitionists must act accordingly, considering the fact that the government is doing little or nothing to abolish slavery. Some radicals like Garrison believed that seceding from the Union was better than remaining in the Union, where innocent blood was shed. Transcendentalists, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, held similar views. We see in Emerson's speech on the Fugitive Slave Law that laws like this are immoral and that citizens have every right to refuse to comply with them, despite the consequences. The law declared that fugitive slaves must be captured in the North and even granted a $10 reward to federal commissioners who captured unfreed slaves. He also called on citizens to help these commissioners. Emerson claimed that it was a crime of kidnapping and that it took away the liberties of citizens by having them take away the liberties of slaves. The law represented a threat to the Union and was a cause of sectionalism. The only good thing that came from it was the spread of abolitionism and slavery awareness in the North. Some states shared the views of people like Emerson. One, in particular, is Boston, Massachusetts. As shown in the poster in Document C, Boston even warned blacks about the fugitive slave law and advised them to “keep an eye out for kidnappers.” Massachusetts struck down the law, and Boston became the center of anti-fugitive opposition; their actions spread..