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The Missouri Compromise: Cause Of The Civil War

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Recommended: The cause of The Missouri Compromise

Abdelrahman Abdelhamid
History 1301
Prof. O'Gilvie
The Missouri Compromise
In the years leading up to the Missouri Compromise of 1820, tensions began to rise between pro-slavery and anti-slavery 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.
At this moment in time, Congress was in the middle of deliberating Missouri statehood, by this time a normal expectation whenever a boundary territory accomplished the qualifying number of white settlers. Rapidly Tallmadge had thrilled the proceedings by introducing a debatable proposal: statehood should …show more content…

In a moment the smoldering coals of the slavery issue threatened to catch fire and burn out of control.
While on the other side, some Americans were strong-minded to surpass sectionalism and create an "era of good feelings." Inspired moderates such as President James Monroe, Rep. Henry Clay of Kentucky, and Secretary of War John C. Calhoun seized the initiative away from the truculent sectional extremists to avoid civil war. They worked out one of the most memorable compromises of American history.
In an attempt to improve the situation, Northern congressmen were quick to bring up that many of the South's most respected statesmen, either Thomas Jefferson, had often expressed a desire to find any solution of perpetuating slavery. So far now the South presented a virtually solid opposition and Thomas Jefferson joined their campaign which were required to force manumission upon a new state. Many days of arguments in the congress debates between the Northern and Southern congressmen about the Missouri controversy and the way headed the sessions were portending that the next era will initiate to a recurring sectional no way. Later on, this arguments will be a main and important reason in the civil war …show more content…

The House of Representatives narrowly approved gradual manumission 80 Northern votes to 14 while the South object just two votes to 64. But the slave states had greater strength in the Senate; besides, three of the four senators from Illinois and Indiana reflected the sentiment of settlers from the South and voted against the amendment. The Senate refused to accept any restriction on slavery and that was the reason that led to the Missouri compromise. Many of the senate leaders worked behind the scenes to create a compromise and break the dead end. The Senate leadership quickly joined the admission of Maine to be either a free state of not with Missouri into a single bill, which if passed would domain the concise balance of sections in the Senate. While the Northern majority still determining to enforce gradual manumission, Senator Jesse Thomas of Illinois suggested that slavery should be prohibited not in Missouri but in all the rest of the Louisiana Purchase lying north of 36°30′ latitude.
The Thomas proviso passed the House 95 out of 100 Northern rep. while Southerners were 39 to 37. By the Thomas proviso, 18 Northern rep. voted for Missouri statehood which was enough for it to pass with the support of a solid South. In the Senate, all the compromise measures were voted on together as a package: the South voted 20 to 2 in favor; the North, 18 to 4

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Due to the fact that the South had more of an agricultural economy, the Southerners thought that the states should have the right to decide whether residents could own slaves, rather than the federal government. In 1846 a congressman from Pennsylvania named David Wilmot introduced a bill to the House of Representatives called the Wilmot Proviso. This said slavery would not be allowed in any western territory acquired from Mexico. Of course most of the politicians from the North loved the idea, while the politicians from the South did not. The Missouri Compromise on March 3, 1820 (also called the Compromise of 1820) was the first major legislative compromise that was passed to draw a line between slave and free territory.

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Congress and across the country. They reached a boiling point after Missouri’s 1819 request for admission to the Union as a slave state or a free state, which threatened to upset the balance between slave states and free states. To keep the peace, Congress orchestrated 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 negated by the Kansas. The north’s reaction towards the MIssouri Compromise was that they condemned it for acquiescing in the expansion of

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He was famous for his insistence on the annexation of Texas. The acquisition of such western lands fed northern fear of the Slave Power Slave masters from the South held a conspiracy to maintain their traditional slaveholding ways when moving to acquired territory. The Southern white threatened the idealism of the Missouri Compromise. The Missouri Compromise was an effort by Congress to defuse the sectional and political rivalries triggered by the request of Missouri late in 1819 for admission as a state in which slavery would be permitted. A line was also drawn through the unincorporated western territories along the 36⁰30 parallel which divided the north and south as free and slave states.

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The South did not like the Missouri Compromise, though. They did not like it due to the fact that Congress would now have the power to make or change any rules dealing with slavery if they felt that they needed to (Forbes

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