Then President Andrew Jackson, who had said that the union must be preserved, stated that he strongly opposed this nullification. Jackson also let it be know that he would send 50,000 troops into South Carolina. .
This action scared South Carolina, and when they asked other states for help they got no promises of military aid. Finally seeing that his state was in bad shape John C. Calhoun asked Henry Clay to help him come up with compromise. They came up with a law that would lower tariff annually over a 10 year period until they were satisfactory. After the Missouri Compromise and the nullification crisis were dealt with things were relatively quiet for awhile. Then in 1850 California requested admission to the union as a free state.
California was the first state applying for state hood in the Mexican Cession. Southerners feared if California was a free state the rest of the territory would be too. Northerners felt they had to stop the spread of slavery to end it altogether. Then came another attempt to resolve the conflicts between the North and the South. In January of 1850 Senator Henry Clay proposed a plan. His plan was divided into six parts. The first part was that California would be admitted to the Union as a non-slave state. The second part was that Utah and New Mexico could decide if they wanted to be slave states of free states when they applied for statehood. The third and Fourth parts were tied into each other, the third part was that Land in dispute between New Mexico and Texas would go to New Mexico and for giving up this land Texas would receive 10 million dollars. The fifth part was that buying and selling of slaves but not slavery wouldn't be allowed in the District of Columbia. The sixth and final part was that congress would enforce a law stating that runaway slaves must be returned to their owners. The bill was passed section by section until it became law.