The Missouri compromise
The Missouri Compromise was an effort by the Congress to defuse the sectional and political rivalries. Throughout the years leading up to the Missouri Compromise brought tensions between pro-slavery and anti-slavery. They started to reach a boiling point after Missouri's 1819 request for admission to the Union as a slave state, which threatened the balance between the slave states and the free states. Congress tried making peace by a two-part compromise, which gave Missouri its request and granted Maine as a free state.
In 1819, when Missouri was being organized as a territory, the North proposed an amendment to officially end slavery twice, but was defeated both times.
The Missouri Compromise sparked a bitter debate. In addition, the nation used an imaginary line to show that one part of the line is the free territory and another is the slave territory, it was called 36 degrees 30 minute latitude. However, the act made it sound like the fugitive slaves could just escape anytime.
Through the influence of Henry Clay, the Missouri Compromise finally passed in 1820.
"...but this momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. it is hushed indeed for the moment. but this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence. A geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men, will never be obliterated; and every new irritation will mark it deeper and deeper."
In 1819, when Missouri was being organized as a territory, the North proposed an amendment to officially end slavery twice, but was defeated both times.
The Missouri Compromise sparked a bitter debate. In addition, the nation used an imaginary line to show that one part of the line is the free territory and another is the slave territory, it was called 36 degrees 30 minute latitude. However, the act made it sound like the fugitive slaves could just escape anytime.
Through the influence of Henry Clay, the Missouri Compromise finally passed in 1820.
"...but this momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. it is hushed indeed for the moment. but this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence. A geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men, will never be obliterated; and every new irritation will mark it deeper and deeper."