The negotiations to end the disputes over the Wilmot Proviso resulted in which important legislative agreement?

The correct answer is the Compromise of 1850, which was a significant legislative agreement aimed at addressing the sectional tensions between free and slave states in the wake of the Wilmot Proviso. The Wilmot Proviso, introduced in 1846, sought to ban slavery in territories acquired from Mexico after the Mexican-American War. The proposal heightened the divisions between the North and South, leading to intense debates in Congress.

The Compromise of 1850 was designed to ease these tensions by providing a series of measures that included admitting California as a free state, allowing Utah and New Mexico territories to decide on slavery through popular sovereignty, and enacting a stricter Fugitive Slave Law. This compromise was crucial in attempting to maintain the balance of power between slave and free states, although it ultimately proved to be a temporary solution to a deeper national conflict.

The other options relate to different key historical events and decisions. The Dred Scott Decision was a Supreme Court ruling that took place in 1857 and further inflamed tensions over slavery, whereas the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863, during the Civil War, declaring the freedom of slaves in Confederate states. The Reconstruction Act dealt with the post-Civil War rebuilding of the Southern states