How did the Compromise of 1850 amplify the threat of disunion?

The issue of what to do with the western territories added to the republic by the Mexican Cession consumed Congress in 1850. Other controversial matters, which had been simmering over time, complicated the problem further. Chief among these issues were the slave trade in the District of Columbia, which antislavery advocates hoped to end, and the fugitive slave laws, which southerners wanted to strengthen.

an expansion is one of two basic business cycle phases; the other is contraction. the transition from expansion to contraction is a peak, and the changeover from contraction to expansion is a trough.