Following the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the country was dived between the agricultural, pro-slavery South and the industrial, anti-slavery North. This division along the 39°30’ parallel created an uneasy peace between the North and South for three decades until it was shattered in 1854 by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which would allow settlers to choose if their state would be a free or slave state. Many northern leaders such as Horace Greeley, Salmon Chase, and Charles Sumner opposed the extension of slavery into the newly forming territories, especially across the parallel, and advocated against a national bank, and immigration. Thus, a new party was needed; the Republican party was born.
The party began as a coalition of anti-slavery "Conscience
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.
Although the aftereffects of the era of good feelings dominated the beginning of the time period and compromises were at first effective, sectionalism over national subjects, especially slavery, led to a crisis in which compromises often meant more increase in political tensions. (Doc F) Sectionalism abruptly increased in the 1820 and 1830's with The Missouri Compromise and the Tallmadge Amendment. Tallmadge's radical proposition was that Missouri gradually emancipated its slaves and prohibit slavery in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase which produced raging political debates. If Missouri went either as a slave state or free state, the precarious balance of eleven to eleven states in the senate would be upset. The compromise
Research Task- Describe the role of the 1820 Missouri Compromise in the campaign against slavery!
In 1954, the Kansas- Nebraska Act was passed. Northern Democrat Steven Douglass in an attempt to build a transcontinental railroad petitioned the Kansas-Nebraska act on the bases that the Compromise of 1850 validated popular sovereignty. In Douglass’s opinion the Compromise of 1850 made the Missouri Compromise of 1820 void. There was opposition from Northern politicians who believed that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was a sacred pact made by previous lawmakers during the union’s long history of compromises. For Southern politicians the Kansas- Nebraska Act would help the extension of slavery which most of the Northerners were against. Ignoring the wishes of the Northerners and pushing the Democratic agenda which wanted not only the
Through out the history of America, there were many compromises made as a desperate attempt to make both groups of people of either side happy as much as they could. In this case, the United States tried to avoid war with a series of political compromises in an attempt to reduce sectional tensions between the North and South, which proved to be ineffective.
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.
Arguments that slavery was undesirable for the nation had long existed, and the northern states all abolished slavery after 1776. In the interest of maintaining unity, politicians had mostly moderate opposition to slavery, resulting in numerous compromises such as the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise of 1850. However, The compromise that was reached (the Kansas-Nebraska Act) outraged too many northerners, which triggered violent uprisings from the North. These uprisings angered the Southern states greatly.
The Missouri Compromise was a temporary solution to the issue of slavery and territorial rights such as the movement West. Two areas of land wanted to become states in 1820, known as Maine and Missouri. Maine wanted to enter as a free state with no slavery as everyone in that area was against it and wanted it abolished. Missouri wanted to enter as a slave state and was all for slavery and wanted it to be spread all throughout the country. The compromise everyone came into conclusion with, was that there would be no slavery allowed north of 36° 30’ latitude. This angered the Southerners because their intention was to promote slavery not have it abolished. They realized that this compromise threatened the balance between free and slave states; Maine and Missouri. In order to expand slavery, the South felt that the United States would need territory from Mexico. The only area of land left was in Arkansas and that line became known as the Missouri Compromise line. The impact that the Missouri Compromise had on the United States was tremendous and had many effects on issues such as national politics, the institution of slavery, and the overall togetherness of the nation as a whole.
territory. As northern settlers poured into Kansas, however, in 1861 it qualified for admission to the union as a state where slavery was illegal. So many Northerners were distraught over the Kansas-Nebraska Act that they founded a new, purely northern, purely anti-slavery political party. the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opened new lands, repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and allowed settlers in those territories to determine if they would allow slavery within their boundaries. The initial purpose of the Kansas-Nebraska Act was to create opportunities for a Transcontinental Railroad. It was not problematic until popular jurisdiction was written into the proposal. The act was designed by Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. The act established that settlers could vote to decide whether to allow slavery, in the name of "popular sovereignty" or rule of the people. Douglas hoped it would ease relations in both North and South, because the South could expand slavery to new territories but the North still had the right to abolish slavery in their states. He was wrong; opponents denounced the law as a privilege to the slave power of the South. The new Republican Party, which was created in opposition to the act, aimed to stop the expansion of slavery, and soon emerged as the dominant force throughout the
The Missouri Compromise was an effort by Congress to keep the delicate balance between the slave and free states that would have been upset by the addition of Missouri as a slave state. After a tedious back and forth between the free and slave states, Henry Clay, speaker of the house at the time, orchestrated the missouri compromise in March 1820. The compromise stated that congress would not restrict the admission of Missouri as a slave state but as a result Maine would be added as a free state. Northerners also wanted a prohibition of slavery in the remaining territory of the louisiana purchase north of 36° 30´ latitude line. The compromise was important because it put off the dreaded debate of slavery, albeit not for long. The compromise
The Missouri compromise was a very important event that marked the beginning of the long battle against slavery. In the years leading up to the Missouri compromise tensions were rising between the North and the South. The states were all being divided into slave states and free states. Free states were states that were anti-slavery and were made up of mainly Northern states while slave states were states that supported slavery and were all mostly Southern states. Before the Missouri compromise the amounts of slave and free states were kept balanced. When Missouri met all the requirements to become a state and wanted to be admitted as a slave state, it threatened to tip the balance. The Missouri compromise allowed the admission of Missouri as a slave state while at the same time allowing Maine to be admitted as a free state, maintaining the balance. It also prohibited slavery in the states North of the southern boundary of Missouri. This conflict inspired other people and was the first major battle against slavery. It also kept the number of free and slave states even preventing the balance from being tipped in favor of slavery. One of the arguments that I intend to make to prove that the Missouri compromise was the beginning of this battle is that the Missouri Compromise prevented pro slavery states from gaining majority in the senate. A second point that I will make is that the Missouri compromise opened up serious debates and conversations that otherwise may not have
In 1854 another problem arose which resulted in Congress passing the Kansas-Nebraska Act which repealed the Missouri Compromise, this act was introduced by Stephen A. Douglas a chairman of Committee on Territories, this act allowed the people of Kansas and Nebraska to choose rather they wanted slavery in their boundary or not through the power of popular sovereignty, the Pro-slavery settlers won the election but were charged with accusations that they cheated, in order to make sure that the vote was right they ordered a re-election but the Pro-slavery refused and the refusal resulted into a battle. John Brown an Anti-slavery leader who believed that he was sent here by god to kill anyone who was pro-slavery. He led the anti-slavery force which gained the nickname “Bleeding Kansas”. The fight was soon stopped, and a final election was held, this time the anti-slavery settlers won the vote and was announced that Kansas would become a free state in 1861. In conclusion the Compromises and Acts may have had their flaws but it they some how manage to solve the slavery issues.
The Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1877, was mainly caused by the diverging society between the North and the South. The North and the South had different goals. There were many factors that led to the war and the chief ones were political and economic differences between the North and the South. The North’s aggression to control the South had led to the point where it was intolerable. The issue on slavery was one of the causes of the Civil War. Slavery and slave trades had become a big part of the South’s economy. The slaves were needed to work on plantations which helped the South prospered. During the 19th Century, the North worked hard on abolishing slavery, which they thought was a disgrace to the Union.
Stephen A. Douglas would soon find the terms of the Missouri Compromise very inconvenient. As an advocate for western expansion, he proposed to design a trans-continental railroad across the northern plains, with an eastern terminance in Chicago. In order for his proposal to succeed, Douglas felt that the territories through which the railroad passed would have to be formally organized which required the support of southern politicians. He was also a believer in popular sovereignty; arguing that the status of slavery in a territory should be decided by it’s residents rather than Congress. He would then design a bill to kill two birds with one stone, the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
The political effects of the Kansas-Nebraska Act were colossal. Before the act’s passage, the Whig party had been one of the largest political parties in America, consisting of both Southern and Northern Whigs. The Kansas-Nebraska Act initially violated the Missouri Compromise of 1820, an unceasing pact that had been strongly supported by both the North and South. The ratification of the bill conclusively split the Whig party into two; almost every Southern Whig had