Southern Benefits:
The Compromise of 1850 called for five major laws that would later help both the Northern and Southern states. One topic that helped the south was the strengthening of the Fugitive Slave Law. The Fugitive Slave Act was a pair of federal laws that made it illegal for people to aid in the escape of slaves in the South. The law forced people to capture and return runaway slaves within the territory of the United States to their rightful owners in the southern slave states, and made the punishment ever harsher for aiding or escaping. This part of the compromise of 1850 obviously helps the southern plantation owners in the south who own slaves. Another part of The Compromise of 1850 that benefits the south is the idea of having a state decide if it will be free or slave by popular sovereignty . Popular sovereignty is the idea in which the people of a certain state vote in order to decide if it will join the union as a free or a slave state. A final way the Compromise of 1850 benefits the South is when the federal government takes over all of Texas's war debt. This clearly benefits the south because instead of having to pay off the debt from the war they will just have the federal government take it over. As you can see many of the aspects of the Compromise of 1850 benefit the South by strengthening the fugitive slave act, deciding new free and slave states using popular sovereignty, and having the government pay off Texas's war debt. However, these benefits were not as helpful to the South as the northern benefits were to the North.
"I believe from the bottom of my soul that the measure is the reunion of this Union. I believe it is the dove of peace, which, taking its aerial flight from the dome of the Capitol, carries the glad tidings of assured peace and restored harmony to all the remotest extremities of this distracted land. I believe that it will be attended with all these beneficent effects. And now let us discard all resentment, all passions, all petty jealousies, all personal desires, all love of place, all hankerings after the gilded crumbs which fall from the table of power." ~Henry Clay, "Compromise" Speech to President, February 6, 1850
Northern Benefits:
Out of the five parts that made up the Compromise of 1850, there were three main bills that benefited the north greatly. A first example would be that California was admitted as a free state. This was extremely helpful to the North because it gave them more power. Before, there was a balance between slave and free states. After California was admitted, however, the balance was disrupted. The North now had more power, because they had one more state than the south. Another point to be made is that slave trade became prohibited in Washington D.C. This was a huge victory for the North because, before the Compromise, the slave trade in the capitol was a thriving center for slavery. Once slave trading was prohibited, there was a massive drop in the slave industry. The last principal bill that benefited the north was that Texas lost the boundary dispute with Mexico. If Texas had won, the South could have gained a lot of territory to expand slavery. This was perhaps the most beneficial bill to the North, because it stopped the expansion of slavery. It should also be noted that the biggest victory for the South, the Fugitive Slave Act, was never really enforced by the north. Henry Clay believed that the Compromise of 1850 was the solution to relieving the tension between the north and the south, but in reality, it only prolonged the inevitable.