Analyze The Reasons For The Missouri Compromise

The purpose of the Missouri Compromise was to try to keep Congress balanced with slave and free states. Two states were added: Missouri was a slave state and Maine was a free state. The Missouri Compromise also stated that the latitude line 36 30 was the line where slavery stopped.

The Missouri Compromise was created by Henry Clay and it was passed in 1820.The Missouri compromise was made between Northern anti-slavery states and Southern pro-slavery states, because they wanted both states to be equal. During the Compromise, the north and south arugued with each other whether the new states should be slave state or free state. There were many effects that caused by the Missouri Compromise. For example, Maine entered the United Staes as a free state and Missouri entered the United Sates as a slave state. But the south lost the chance to admit more slave holding states besides what they owned in the small territory, and in the north Maine was separated from Massachusetts. During that age, slavery was banned in parts of the

At the time, the United States contained twenty-two states, evenly divided between slave and free. In the years leading up to the Missouri Compromise of 1820, tensions began to rise between proslavery and antislavery factions within the U.S. Congress and across the country. They reached a boiling point after Missouri’s 1819 request for admission to the Union as a slave state, which threatened to upset the delicate balance between slave states and free states. To keep the peace, Congress came up with a two-part compromise, granting Missouri’s request but also admitting Maine as a free state. It also passed an amendment that drew an imaginary line across the former Louisiana Territory, establishing a boundary between free and slave regions that remained the law of the land until it was repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.

This amendment is known as the Tallmadge Amendment. This bill stated that no slaves could be brought into the state of Missouri and slaves born there would be freed at the age of 25. Southerners were bothered by this suggested law because they felt that it would threaten the sectional balance we had in our country and that Congress would attempt to abolish slavery in southern states. As a solution to this growing dilemma, Henry Clay proposed the Missouri compromise in 1820. This compromise, commonly known as “The Great Compromise”, stated three important things. One being that Missouri was to be admitted as a slaveholding state. Second, Maine was to be admitted as a free state, in order to keep the balance. Third, in the rest of the Louisiana territory north of latitude 36º 30' , slavery was prohibited. Although this compromise was accepted by both sides of the country, it upset many Northerners, thus increasing growing sectionalism in our nation. Nevertheless, the “Era of Good feelings” was badly damaged by Americans’ torn feelings of sectional controversy over Missouri (North vs. South).

The Missouri Compromise was only important for preserving the Union for that small period of time. This is evident through the fact that the Compromise of 1850, Fugitive Slave Law, and other debates occurred even after the Missouri Compromise. Many Americans agreed that slavery would be the issue that led the United States to a civil war and the Missouri Compromise was one of many events that delayed the war.

By 1854 the Missouri Organization was overdue along with other states. As the falling out of slaves was becoming very common in certain territories which further complicated this issue, along with the location of the projected Transcontinental Railroad. This Missouri Compromise was the third debate on slavery in that certain area since 1789. The Kansas Nebraska, in 1854, was very contradicted to the 1820 resolution to slavery, although the new compromise became known as one of the major elements that led to the Civil war. This Compromise was created by Stephen A. Douglas who was a chairman of the Senate committee on territories. After three months of debate in congress, Douglas, who was supported by President Pierce and the southerners, saw it adopted. This bill that was reported in Jan, 1852 stated that slavery should be left to the territorial settlers themselves, in its final bill provided the creation of two new territories Kansas and Nebraska- instead of the one. The First state would be for slavery, second would be a free state. The result was it created more of a sectional division, it also created a new Political Organization, this is what propelled to the civil war.

Many Southerners did not like the idea of the Missouri compromise because it made laws regarding slavery. The south did not want slavery to be completely abolished because a large part of the South’s economy depended on slaves working on plantations to produce crops and goods. On the other hand, the north condemned the compromise acquiescing the expansion of slavery. Eventually, the Missouri Compromise was deemed unconstitutional in the Supreme Court during the Dredd Scott case.

The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was conflict having to do with the balance of slave states and free states. At the time, the US had twenty-two states, and there was a perfect balance of slave and free states. Missouri had a request to become a slave state, but that meant that the slave states and free states would be uneven and went against the law written by Henry Clay in 1818. His law was that there had to be an equal number of slave and free states. Slavery wasn’t allowed north of the latitude 36°30.´ To fix this problem, congress created a two part compromise which included Missouri to become a slave state. To help balance it out the other part of the compromise was to add another state which was free, this state was Maine.

Now, after 14 years, Missouri was applying for statehood in the same territory that was being debated should have even been bought. However, he application proved to spark controversy of its own; according to the Northwest Ordinance, no territory who applied to join the Union could allow slavery, Missouri however had no law banning the ownership and use of slaves. The Union at first would not allow this, for if slavery were to expand into the other territories than the country would have no economic necessity for manufacturing. Slave states would then outnumber free states and have a larger input as to the political direction of the nation, resulting in presidential elections constantly being won by using the majority vote provided by the southern slave states. This is where the Missouri compromise came into play, the agreement decided that Missouri could be allowed to remain a slave state if slavery was banned from all territories applying for statehood above the parallel 36°30′ north, and Maine (formally part of Massachusetts) would be allowed as a free state. This was met with criticism as it meant that any states north of the parallel would not be able to use the fertile land they had for plantations, while also resulting in the ban of trading slaves between

By doing that, it helped delay the Civil War. It also set a pattern for the enlargement of the United States without upsetting the balance between the slave-holding and "free" states.  Although the Compromise temporarily established calm over the issue, both the North and the South had concerns. While the North believed this encouraged the expansion of slavery throughout the union, the South saw the decision as allowing Congress to disrupt state sovereignty. The Compromise was later revoked in 1854 with the Kansas-Nebraska Act.The importance of the Missouri Compromise was that

In 1819, Southern settlers in Missouri requested the federal government to allow the new state, Missouri, to be a slave state. Since Missouri was north of the existing border between slave and free states, the North was threatened by the northern expansion of slavery. If more states in the West would become slave states, then the South would overpower the North with its advantage of votes in Congress. In 1820, both sides adopted the Missouri Compromise. In this agreement, there would be no slavery north of latitude 36° 30', Missouri would become a slave state, and Maine would become a free state.

The Missouri Compromise has impacted America today greatly for many reasons. One of the few reasons include, “It marked the beginning of the … conflict over the extension of slavery that led to the American Civil War.” (Encyclopædia Britannica, Missouri Compromise) Currently territories south of the Ohio River and the Mason Dixon Line were considered pro-slave states. A significant portion of Missouri is north of the Mason Dixon Line, but many citizens of Missouri were still slaveholders.

The Missouri compromise served as an effort to maintain the balance between slaveholding states and free states. Representative Jame Tallmadge provided two amendments, but the senate rejected them. The senator then proposed an amendment a year later stating that slavery was allowed only because it ran along the border of Missouri. Passing this amendment helped the North see that the South did not want it to end, only wanted to widen its presence.

In 1820,the Missouri Compromise was passed. The law stated that any state below the lands north of latitude 36°30′ were slave states and those above were free states. This Compromise was passed so Missouri would become a legal slave state. Southerners desperately wanted this act passed because at the time the more states and land you had the more powerful

The Missouri Compromise stated that territories below the line of latitude 36°30’ would be slave states, and states above 36 degrees and 30 degrees would become free. According to paragraph 3 there were many fights in congress about slavery in the territories so, congress made a compromise to keep a balance. All territories below the line of latitude 36 degrees and 30 degrees would be slave states, like the southern states that were their