Final answer:
Henry Clay designed the Compromise of 1850 to avoid war by addressing sectional tensions over slavery; the correct answer is (B) Compromise of 1850.
Step-by-step explanation:
Designed by Henry Clay to avoid war and address the issue of sectionalism/regionalism, the correct answer is (B) Compromise of 1850. This set of measures was introduced to relieve sectional tensions that had arisen from the expansion of slavery into new territories acquired after the Mexican-American War.
The Compromise of 1850 included allowing California to enter the Union as a free state, letting the inhabitants of the rest of the Mexican Cession territories decide the issue of slavery for themselves (popular sovereignty), resolving Texas's borders and debts, and passing stricter fugitive slave laws while abolishing the slave trade in Washington D.C. It was a hard-fought agreement that took months of debate and required significant concessions from both pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions.