!['Compromise' wasn't always a dirty word in American politics - Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/resizer/_tsIa9J2XMFLUInQz2MS7Q7E1Mg=/1200x0/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-tronc.s3.amazonaws.com/public/2RFVWFHBU5DMBDJD5DOOYUEI7M.jpg)
“The Great Compromiser,” as Clay was called by this time, had one more mediating trick up his sleeve. In 1850, California, suddenly full of gold-seekers, applied for admission to the Union as a free state. Southerners dug in their heels, complaining that a free California would tip the balance in the Senate against their section. Clay offered them something they had long desired: a sterner fugitive slave law, one that would criminalize the common Northern practice of assisting slaves fleeing bondage.
Source: “Los Angeles” – Google News