What was the Missouri Compromise and why was there a need for it?

Answer 1

At the time there were an equal number of states that opposed slavery as that allowed it. This meant no legislation either Barring it or promoting it could be passed. When Missouri wanted to enter the Union it upset this balance. The Compromise was that Missouri would enter in as a Slave state and the newly created state of Maine would enter as a Free state thus preserving the balance.

Answer 2

John C. Calhoun was the real force behind the Missouri Compromise. Being from South Carolina he was absolutely terrified that if non-slave states were allowed into the United States, they would soon have a 3/4 majority and could easily pass a Constitutional Amendment banning slavery.

The Missouri Compromise allowed Missouri and Maine into the Union at the same time, Missouri as a slave state, and Maine as a free state. But more importantly, it banned slavery in all territories NORTH of the SOUTHERN border of Missouri (36 degrees, 30 minutes North Latitude). This led us ultimately down the path to Civil War. By banning slavery in those territories to the north, a controversy soon erupted over Kansas. It was determined that Kansas should have "popular sovereignty", meaning they would decide in an election if they would allow slavery or not. This threw the Missouri Compromise out the window, and erupted a mini-Civil War inside Kansas that we call "Bleeding Kansas". Slave owners and supporters in Kansas got many thousands of slave owners and supporters from Missouri to come vote in the election. Thus, Kansas voted to allow slavery, and the election fraud didn't sit too well with folks out there.

Answer 3

(1820), in U.S. history, measure worked out between the North and the South and passed by the U.S. Congress that allowed for admission of Missouri as the 24th state (1821). It marked the beginning of the prolonged sectional conflict over the extension of slavery that led to the American Civil War.

The territory of Missouri first applied for statehood in 1817, and by early 1819 Congresswas considering enabling legislation that would authorize Missouri to frame a state constitution. When Representative James Tallmadge of New York attempted to add an antislavery amendment to that legislation, however, there ensued an ugly and rancorous debate over slavery and the government's right to restrict slavery. The Tallmadge amendment prohibited the further introduction of slaves into Missouri and provided for emancipation of those already there when they reached age 25. The amendment passed the House of Representatives, controlled by the more populous North, but failed in the Senate, which was equally divided between free and slave states. Congress adjourned without resolving the Missouri question.

When it reconvened in December 1819, Congress was faced with a request for statehood from Maine. The Senate passed a bill allowing Maine to enter the Union as afree state and Missouri to be admitted without restrictions on slavery. Senator Jesse B. Thomas of Illinois then added an amendment that allowed Missouri to become a slave state but banned slavery in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase north of latitude 36°30´. Henry Clay then skillfully led the forces of compromise, and on March 3, 1820, the decisive vote in the House admitted Maine as a free state, Missouri as a slave state, and made free soil all western territories north of Missouri's southern border.

When the Missouri constitutional convention empowered the state legislature to exclude free blacks and mulattoes, however, a new crisis was brought on. Enough northern congressmen objected to the racial provision that Henry Clay was called uponto formulate the Second Missouri Compromise. On March 2, 1821, Congress stipulated that Missouri could not gain admission to the Union until it agreed that the exclusionary clause would never be interpreted in such a way as to abridge the privileges and immunities of U.S. citizens. Missouri so agreed and became the 24th state on Aug. 10, 1821; Maine had been admitted the previous March 15.

Although slavery had been a divisive issue in the United States for decades, never before had sectional antagonism been so overt and threatening as it was in the Missouri crisis. Thomas Jefferson described the fear it evoked as “like a firebell in the night.” The compromise measures appeared to settle the slavery-extension issue, however, and the sectional conflict did not grow to the point of civil war until after the Missouri Compromise was repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) and was declared unconstitutional in the Dred Scott decision (q.v.) of 1857.

Answer 4

The previous answer is from an internet thief. He cuts and pastes answers from other websites on topics he is not qualified to comment on and then does not credit his source. Do not reward Chloro... with a best answer.

Answer 5

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