HIST 405N Week 4 Discussion 1: Stepping Stones to the Civil War Professor and classmates, This week I have chosen to discuss: The Compromise of 1850, The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 and the Lincoln Douglas Debates of 1858. I believe that all of these events had a major role in the American Civil War. They all had to do with the issue of slavery in the United States and where it should be allowed and whether it should be continued or abolished. The Compromise of 1850 was a plan for temporary polit...