The south grew increasingly worried about the future of slavery because:

a. the wilmot proposal was likely to be revived and enacted by congress after the congressional elections of 1850.

b. the admission of california might permanently tip the political balance against them.

c. the supreme court was increasingly likely to issue a decision abolishing slavery everywhere in the united states.

d. president taylor was the first president openly critical of slavery.

b.the admission of California might permanently tip the political balance against them.

Explanation:

The admission of California as a free state was an issue that ignited controversy along sectional lines. Southern representatives did not want more legal provisions or solutions that could limit the practice of slavery, presidents had to work out  a delicate balance. The Wilmot Proposal to ban slavery in the territory that the US would win in the Mexican-American War was not approved, but it deepened divisions. The issue of slavery divided American politics since the 1820s until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861.

war never

b. sec, foreign relations