How did the federal government try to resolve the issue of slavery in the western territories during the 1850?

In the 1850s, the federal government attempted to resolve the issue of slavery in the western territories primarily through the Compromise of 1850, which included measures such as admitting California as a free state and allowing the territories of New Mexico and Utah to decide the slavery issue through popular sovereignty. Additionally, the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 furthered this approach by permitting settlers in those territories to determine whether they would allow slavery. These efforts, however, often led to increased tensions and conflicts, exemplified by events like "Bleeding Kansas," as pro- and anti-slavery factions clashed over the future of slavery in the West.