The Missouri Compromise
On March 6, 1820 (192 years ago today) President James Monroe signed the Missouri Compromise into law. The compromise permitted Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state, but provided that the rest of the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase territory would be free of slavery.
The Louisiana Territory stretched from the south in part of what is modern day Louisiana, all the way north, even north of the present-day Canadian border in part. By 1812, that portion of the territory north of parallel 36 degree, 30 minutes, became known as the Missouri Territory.
On February 13, 1819, a bill was presented in Congress to permit the people of the Missouri Territory to draft a constitution and form a government. Representative James Tallmadge of New York moved an amendment to the bill (which was called the Tallmadge Amendment), which provided that the further introduction of slaves into Missouri should be forbidden, and that all children of slave parents born in the state after its admission should be free at the age of 25. This amendement adopted by the committee and incorporated in the bill as finally passed on February 17, 1819, by the house. But the Senate refused to concur in the amendment, and the whole measure was lost.
During the following session, the House passed a similar bill with an amendment, introduced on January 26, 1820 by John W. Taylor of New York, allowing Missouri into the union as a slave state. In December of 1819, Alabama had joined the untion as a slave state, making the number of slave and free states equal. There was also a bill in the House to admit Maine into the union as a free state.
The Senate decided to pass a bill for the admission of Maine with an amendment enabling the people of Missouri to form a state constitution. Before the bill was returned to the House, a second amendment was adopted on the motion of Senator Jesse B. Thomas of Illinois, excluding slavery from the Missouri Territory north of the parallel 36°30′ north (the southern boundary of Missouri), except within the limits of the proposed state of Missouri. This bill was passed and became known as the Missouri compromise.
Following the admission of Maine and Missouri, no other states were admitted into the Union until 1836, when Arkansas was admitted as a slave state, followed by Michigan in 1837 as a free state. The provisions of the Missouri Compromise forbidding slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36°30′ north were effectively repealed by the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854. That act allowed settlers in those territories to vote on whether they would allow slavery within each territory. The Kansas–Nebraska Act divided the nation and is considered by many historians as one of the events which led to the civil war. The turmoil over the act split both the Democratic and Whig parties and magnified the divide in the nation between free and slave states.
The Louisiana Territory stretched from the south in part of what is modern day Louisiana, all the way north, even north of the present-day Canadian border in part. By 1812, that portion of the territory north of parallel 36 degree, 30 minutes, became known as the Missouri Territory.
On February 13, 1819, a bill was presented in Congress to permit the people of the Missouri Territory to draft a constitution and form a government. Representative James Tallmadge of New York moved an amendment to the bill (which was called the Tallmadge Amendment), which provided that the further introduction of slaves into Missouri should be forbidden, and that all children of slave parents born in the state after its admission should be free at the age of 25. This amendement adopted by the committee and incorporated in the bill as finally passed on February 17, 1819, by the house. But the Senate refused to concur in the amendment, and the whole measure was lost.
During the following session, the House passed a similar bill with an amendment, introduced on January 26, 1820 by John W. Taylor of New York, allowing Missouri into the union as a slave state. In December of 1819, Alabama had joined the untion as a slave state, making the number of slave and free states equal. There was also a bill in the House to admit Maine into the union as a free state.
The Senate decided to pass a bill for the admission of Maine with an amendment enabling the people of Missouri to form a state constitution. Before the bill was returned to the House, a second amendment was adopted on the motion of Senator Jesse B. Thomas of Illinois, excluding slavery from the Missouri Territory north of the parallel 36°30′ north (the southern boundary of Missouri), except within the limits of the proposed state of Missouri. This bill was passed and became known as the Missouri compromise.
Following the admission of Maine and Missouri, no other states were admitted into the Union until 1836, when Arkansas was admitted as a slave state, followed by Michigan in 1837 as a free state. The provisions of the Missouri Compromise forbidding slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36°30′ north were effectively repealed by the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854. That act allowed settlers in those territories to vote on whether they would allow slavery within each territory. The Kansas–Nebraska Act divided the nation and is considered by many historians as one of the events which led to the civil war. The turmoil over the act split both the Democratic and Whig parties and magnified the divide in the nation between free and slave states.