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The Struggle Between The Constitution And The Civil War

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During the early stages of our country, the individual states felt that creating a central government was going to produce a government with absolute power. This led some of the representatives to dispute the idea, as they did not want to lose the power they already possessed. Edmund Burke said: “All persons possessing any portion of power ought to be strongly and awfully impressed with an idea that they act in trust: and that they are to account for their conduct in that trust to the one great Master, Author, and Founder of society… Power to be legitimate must be according to that eternal, immutable law, in which will and reason are the same.” Between the creation of the Constitution and the Civil War, there was a period of implementation. In this period the Bill of Rights was ratified, but there was still a struggle defining how the Constitution would work. Due to disagreements on how to run the government, political parties were formed. The Federalist Party led by Alexander Hamilton and John Adams, and the Democratic- Republican Party led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. …show more content…

Missouri wanted to join the union as a slave state, but needed a way to do this that would be acceptable to the North. The government decided that Missouri could become a slave state, but only if Maine could become a free state. “At the time, the United States contained twenty-two states, evenly divided between slave and free. Admission of Missouri as a slave state would upset that balance.” http://www.history.com/topics/missouri-compromise. They then established an official ruling that everything north of the Mason Dixon line would be run as Free states. Although they were able compromise on this, it was challenging because the North wanted slavery

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The issue the compromise was about was whether there should be slavery in the western territories. Maine wanted to be added to the Union, however, slavery was banned there. If Maine were to be added to the Union, it would upset the balance between free and slave states in the nation and the Senate. So, the Missouri Compromise, proposed by Senator Henry Clay, allowed Maine to enter the Union as a free state, and allowed Missouri to be entered into the Union as a slave state.

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Missouri’s seeking to become a state in 1819 was complicated by the fact that it currently had slavery. Maine also was seeking admittance to be a (free) state so the two were paired together as free and slave, balancing out the Congress. In order to prevent further conflicts over whether states would be free or slave, Senator Jesse Thomas proposed the 36°30’ parallel to ban the introduction of slave states above Missouri, known as the Missouri Compromise. The cause of the Missouri Compromise was the division of Congress as members representing free states and slave states. If the balance was overthrown, it was feared that slavery could be abolished nationally or legalized nationally by a majority of representatives of either side.

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When Missouri applied to be part of the states, many northerners were panicked because it was a pro-slavery territory and they felt that slave states had too much power already. In 1820, however, Henry Clay of Kentucky announced that if Maine were to be a free state then Missouri should be allowed to be a state too. From this came the notion that states be admitted in pairs, one slave and one free. It was also said that no slavery was allowed above the 36 30 latitude line. Despite the fact that the Missouri Compromise had taken place, slavery was still creeping into the north guised under the legal matter of “indentured servitude.

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