[91] Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas then stepped to the fore, with Clay's agreement, proposing to break the omnibus bill into individual bills that could be passed piecemeal.[91] Fillmore endorsed that strategy, which eventually divided the compromise into five bills.[4]
Fillmore sent a special message to Congress on August 6, 1850; disclosed the letter from Governor Bell and his reply; warned that armed Texans would be viewed as intruders; and urged Congress to defuse sectional tensions by passing the Compromise. Without the presence of the Great Triumvirate of John C. Calhoun, Webster, and Clay, who had long dominated the Senate,[i] Douglas and others were able to lead the Senate towards the administration-backed package of bills. Each bill passed the Senate with the support of the section that wanted it, with a few members who were determined to see all the bills passed. The battle then moved to the House, which had a Northern majority because of the population. Most contentious was the Fugitive Slave Bill, whose provisions were anathema to abolitionists. Fillmore applied pressure to get Northern Whigs, including New Yorkers, to abstain, rather than to oppose the bill. 