California would be admitted as a free state.The remainder of the Mexican cession would be divided
into two separate territories, New Mexico and Utah, and these territories
would decide by popular sovereignty whether to be slave-holding
or free.Texas would cede its claim to parts of the New Mexico
territory, and, in exchange, the government would cover Texas’s
$10 million war debt. The slave trade would be abolished in the District of
Columbia, but slavery itself would continue.Congress would strengthen the Fugitive Slave Act by
requiring citizens of any state, slave or free, to assist in the
capture and return of runaway slaves.
