The agreement required before California could be admitted as a free state was the Compromise of 1850. This compromise was a package of legislative measures that aimed to address the contentious issue of slavery expansion in the United States. It consisted of several provisions, the most relevant being:
1. California would be admitted into the Union as a free state, meaning it would not allow slavery.
2. The territories of New Mexico and Utah would be organized under popular sovereignty, allowing settlers in those regions to decide for themselves whether to permit slavery.
3. The slave trade (but not slavery itself) would be abolished in Washington, D.C.
4. A more stringent Fugitive Slave Act would be enacted, requiring the return of escaped slaves to their owners, even in free states.
These measures were designed to maintain a balance between slave states and free states in Congress while temporarily diffusing tensions between North and South over the issue of slavery.
what agreement was necessary before California could be admitted as a free state?
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