Fillmore signed into law the Compromise of 1850, a measure designed to reduce tensions between the slave and free states. Introduced and guided by Senator Henry Clay, the measure had many different provisions. Several of them dealt with the increasingly divisive issue of slavery. Under this law, California was admitted as a free state, the territories of New Mexico and Utah would decide for themselves, and the Fugitive Slave Law was enforced. Under this provision, slave owners had the ability to enter nonslave states to retrieve their slaves and claim them as their property.