Missouri Compromise Essay

By the early 1850s settlers and entrepreneurs wanted to move into the area now known as Nebraska. However, until the area was organized as a territory, settlers would not move there because they could not legally hold a claim on the land. The southern states' representatives in Congress were in no hurry to permit a Nebraska territory because the land lay north of the 36°30' parallel — where slavery had been outlawed by the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Just when things between the north and south were in an uneasy balance, Kansas and Nebraska opened fresh wounds. The person behind the Kansas-Nebraska Act was Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois.

The Compromise of 1850 was an attempt by the U.S Congress to settle divisive issues between the North and South, including slavery expansion, apprehension in the North of fugitive slaves, and slavery in the District of Columbia. The Compromise of 1850 failed because Senator John C. Calhoun from the South and Senator William Seward from the North could not agree on what Henry Clay was putting down. Part of the compromise was to make California a slavery free state which benefits the North, and enforcing a stricter fugitive slave law which benefits the South. Both the North and South opposed what the other was benefiting from. What sparked the failure of the Compromise was the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.

The Missouri Compromise was made as an attempt to deal with the debate that had been going on about slavery. It lasted thirty-four years, but never truly made the North orouth totally happy with the situation. Although the Missouri Compromise did push back the debate on slavery in Missouri, it did not solve the problem as a whole. The tension between the North and South was, in fact reduced for a period of time. Once the Missouri Compromise was declared unconstitutional, the tension once again grew.

Prior to 1820 the free states and slave states were equal in number within the union. That is until 1819 came in which Missouri had requested statehood and to become part of the union. The first attempt to solve this issue of Missouri’s statehood was the Tallmadge Amendment. This amendment was proposed by James Tallmadge and had several provisions. These provisions included not allowing immigration of enslaved people into Missouri and emancipating slaves after the age of 25 but when it was sent to the house of representatives, it failed, turning it into the Missouri Deadlock.

P.6 Compromises seemed to be working in 1820 as a solution to political issues that America agreed to disagreed on. As seen in the Missouri Compromise, where Henry Clay made slaves free in twelve states and not free in the other twelve; in order to keep everything balanced. But between the period of 1820 to 1860, compromising took a shift and no longer seemed to be the solution. Compromises worked with Henry Clay in the Missouri compromise in 1820 but by 1860 due to a series of geographic, political, and social changes compromises were impossible.

The election of President Lincoln had a huge affect on the civil war. Lincoln made numerous attempts to free slaves and to end the civil war. All of his attempts had helped in ways to end the civil war. His attempts included of the 13th amendment, the Emancipation Proclamation, his hard work on keeping the United States as one, and etc. Also because of the election of president Lincoln the 14th and 15th amendment was later on made as one of the Civil War Amendments.

This amendment freed all enslaved people in all states and abolished the act of slavery in all and could now be punishable for any non-involuntary servitude. This effort, over time, marked the end of slavery all over the United States and united the Confederacy back with the Union, but this also caused a chain of racism throughout the country. The government's efforts to solve slavery were successful because they solved that civic problem but caused a chain of racism which caused more civic

2 Another event that may have contributed to the start of the Civil War would be the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was when citizens would try and help solve sectionalism by voting on whether or not they wanted slavery. This method ended up backfiring and creating a mess that was ultimately named “Bleeding Kansas.” “Northerners and Southerners rushed to move into Kansas in 1854-55, even building temporary residences, to influence the vote. Fighting broke out between the two factions, leading to more than 200 deaths in a period of several years that came to be known as “Bleeding Kansas.”

Many northerners were worried about states entering. The compromise in 1820 by Henry Clay allowed Missouri a slave state, while Maine would become a free state. Also a line

One of the compromises made in the Constitutional Convention is the three-fifths compromise. In this compromise, the southerners wanted to add slaves to the population of the state they lived in. If slaves were included in their state’s population, that state would be able to add more representatives in the House of Representatives. Northerners did not agree with that statement because slaves did not have the right to vote. After the delegates compromised, they agreed that only three-fifths of the slave’s population would be counted into the state’s population.

Despite all of the sectional conflicts taking place within the U.S., the Compromise of 1850 brought a new light onto the situation of slavery. It proposed that California would be a free state, but other new territories would have no limits on slavery. In addition, the slave trade, but not slavery itself, would be banned in Washington D.C. The originator of this compromise, Henry Clay, also pushed for a stronger fugitive slave law.

The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was an attempt by Congress to ease some of the political rivalries between the North and the South (history.com 2009). The compromise stated the fact that all states up north would not have slavery and all states south would allow and continue the act of slavery (history.com 2009). It went both ways since it split the country up evenly between slave and free. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was handwritten by Henry Clay in 1820 (ancestralfindings.com 1995). On March 6th of 1820, President James Monroe signed the Missouri Compromise and made it the new law of the land (loc.gov 2017).

The passing of the Fugitive Slave Act brought major lifestyle changes in the North and the South, and changed the way civilians lived forever. This act being put into place meant that African Americans who were never in the slave industry to begin with lives were changed. They were wrongfully accused of being slaves, denied right to trial, and were forced to flee out of fear of the southern states. It also made lifestyle changes to slaves who were trying to escape. The Fugitive Slave Act was made to enforce that the slave industry was not to be taken down.

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.

The Civil War allowed the United States to make the changes necessary to unify the country. In addition, it began one of the most transitional periods in the United States’ history. This period, the Reconstruction, brought about many political, social, and economic changes, which were both beneficial and disagreeable. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, the Panic of 1873, and the formation of the Ku Klux Klan are just a few examples of heavily impacting events for the United States. During the Reconstruction period there were numerous political transformations in the country.