Missouri Compromise 1820

Glossary Words Compromise: an agreement in which both sides in an argument agree to give up something they want in order to reach an agreement. The Union: The United States as one country under one government. During the Civil War, the Union came to mean the government and armies of the North. Secession: the act of withdrawing or leaving an alliance; like the southern states leaving the Union Fugitive: someone who flees or tries to escape (for example, from slavery) Civil War: a war fought between the people of a single country

Confronting the Issue of Slavery…. Congress had established a process for forming new states in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which banned slavery north of the Ohio River. Using this, the United states was able to maintain a balance between free states and slave states. When Missouri wanted to enter the union as a slave state, it raised two questions. If most of Missouri lay north of where slavery had been banned east of the Mississippi, shouldn’t it be banned on the west side of the Mississippi too? If Missouri is allowed to enter the Union as a slave state, what keeps slavery from spreading all across the Louisiana Purchase Territory?

A compromise is reached… Congress began to fight over Missouri becoming a slave state, and southerners threatened secession. Henry Clay stepped in with a compromise to maintain balance between slave and free states. 1.Missouri would enter the union as a slave state. 2.Maine would enter the union as a free state, preserving the balance of power. 3.Congress drew an imaginary line at the th latitude. North of the line, slavery would be banned, south of the line, slavery was permitted. In the end, the Missouri Compromise kept the country together, but no one was really happy. The problem of slavery was just pushed into the future.