The Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise of 1850 were both designed to protect the balance between the free and slave states in the United States. The Missouri Compromise admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, and it also drew a line across the Louisiana Territory at the 36°30' parallel, with slavery prohibited north of the line and permitted south of it. The Compromise of 1850 admitted California as a free state, organized the Utah and New Mexico territories without specifying whether they would be free or slave, and passed the Fugitive Slave Act, which required all citizens to help capture escaped slaves. These compromises helped to maintain a delicate balance between the North and the South, but they also sowed the seeds of the American Civil War.