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. This act stopped slavery
During the early years of America, agricultural demands drove most of the economy allowing the South to demanded political protection. One of the protective measures was the Three-Fifths Compromise in 1787. The South wanted to count the slaves toward its population allowing for more representation. At the Constitutional Convention, the delegates decided to count a slave as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of determining the population for how many seats each State would have in the House. This solidified Southern control over Politics for several years to come.
It forced them to travel all the way to Canada instead of closer free states to find freedom. Even though it was part of a compromise between the North and the South act favored the South. In 1820, the Missouri Compromise was created to help resolve the debate over the border of slave and free state. It only lasted for about thirty years before the South and North started to debate over what was a free state and slave state over the new territory on the West Coast.
In the early 1800’s, and before, the United States prided itself on its ability to discuss political issues and express opinions without violence. However, around the 1850’s and 1860’s, emotions were escalating, and political compromise was thrown out the window. This was because the major political debate at the time was slavery, an issue that throughout America’s entire history was shown to create very strong opinions. Another reason for this change is that northerners and southerners were unwilling to communicate with each other in any meaningful way. Slavery was an issue for the United States since it before it even became a country, and if the Three Fifths Compromise had not been made, America may never have become independent.
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.
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.
Former Confederate leaders like Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens claimed that the Civil War was fought because of state’s rights and how they wanted to fight back against federal tyranny. After reading the Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War, I agree that the war was fought because of state’s rights. The people in the South wanted to keep slavery and were going to do anything they could to keep slavery. They believe that the government was trying to oppress the South by making them get rid of their slaves.
The Missouri Compromise was a rule that regulated slavery in the southern states. America did this to even out the Non-Slave states and the Slavery states. This compromise was made in 1820 by Henry Clay. Henry Clay was a lawyer and a politician that was very involved in the Missouri Compromise of 1820.
In 1846, a congressman from Pennsylvania by the name of David Wilmot brought to floor a bill that would forbid any lands acquired in the war from abolishing slavery. Although his Wilmot Proviso was not passed, it led to ideas in the south that northern states were conspiring against the south. As a result the bill greatly signified an impassable divide in the nation on the subject of slavery, and through this divide the civil war would commence years later as the ultimate result of the Mexican-American
The most important cause for rising tensions in the 1850s would be the Compromise of 1850. Though it was labeled a compromise, it failed to dampen hostilities between pro- slavery and anti-slavery groups. It many cases it revealed that pro-slavery interests had more power in the government that it would appear from the number of slave states. One of the largest reasons that this issue was so divisive is that is failed to achieve either side expect result in regard to the Mexican cessation. Many years prior the Missouri compromise established a latitude line that would separate free and slave states.
These were a big deal involving slavery because they either strengthened slavery or made it seem like it was going to end all together. To the South, the thought of slavery ending was a complete disaster. In Document 9: Excerpt from the Dred Scott Decision, shows how Scott saw the Missouri Compromise. He says, “(I)t is the opinion of this court that the Act of Congress (the Missouri Compromise) which prohibited a citizen from holding and owning property of this kind (slaves) in the territory of the United States north of the line therein mentioned,...” This quote from his speech says he thinks that the Missouri Compromise was a good thing because it prohibited people who own slaves to cross the North and South border with their “property” or slaves.
Talk about the future of slavery stirred up problems, so Representative David Wilmot of Pennsylvania introduced a possible solution. "... Neither slavery or involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall first be dully convicted" (Wilmot par 4). But due to unwilling southern politicians, the Wilmot Proviso never passed because it was deemed unconstitutional. Although the Wilmot Proviso was never seen through, just four years later, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. This new act allowed the citizens of those two states to determine the fate of their states.
It did not outlaw slavery, nor did it stop slavery from continuing on in different forms, such as
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 Missouri Compromise greatly limited the growth and development of slavery in the United States. It allowed Missouri to become a state, and to allow slaves, and Maine, as a free state. The compromise also prohibited the practice of slavery in the northern portion of the Louisiana Territory. By this time, the importation of slaves from Africa had been outlawed, and they could only be purchased within the country. This meant also meant, that states that entered would be free states.
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.