Essay On Missouri Compromise

In the first place, Henry Clay composed the Missouri Compromise as a method for dealing with a disparity in the nation; the document was a seemingly easy solution to a quickly growing problem, and although it kept peace between the North and South for a good thirty-four years, it was unable to prevent the inevitable Civil War like it was meant to. Before the Missouri Compromise was even a notion, the ratio of free states to slave states in the nation remained secure and balanced; two states, one free and one slave, entered the country at a time, keeping the peace between the two sides of both the nation and the Senate. Twenty-two states had already received a place in the Union before Missouri, an area soon to become a slave state, applied

for statehood in 1819. The North, desiring to prevent the Senate from being ruled by the South, immediately attempted to bar the territory from entering as a slave state with the Tallmadge Amendment. This Amendment, if passed, would allow emancipation for children of slaves in Missouri, which would inevitably lead to the abolition of slavery in the state; the House of Representatives, dominated by Northerners, favored this Amendment, while the Senate, equally Northern and Southern, rejected it. Clearly, any suggestion of liberation for slaves overstepped the fixed conservative boundaries of the Southerners.

Henry Clay soon stepped into the dispute in an attempt to resolve the situation, presenting a solution known as the Missouri Compromise in 1820. Three main points were outlined in this document: first, Missouri was to be admitted into the nation as a slave state without further mention of the Tallmadge Amendment; second, Maine, once a part of Massachusetts, was to enter the Union as a free state to balance the Senate; third, all future states from the Louisiana Purchase located above parallel 36º30’ north were to be free, while new states on Louisiana Purchase territory below the parallel were to enter as slaveholding. The Missouri Compromise was successful in that it temporarily satisfied the two opposing halves of the country; the “good feelings” period following the passing of the document lasted for thirty-four years. On the other hand, the compromise was ultimately unable to prevent the increasing rift between the North and South and even had a part in causing it; throughout the forty years after the Missouri Compromise, the clashing of the two regions and their diametrically opposed opinions of slavery grew to become a prominent

issue. The Missouri Compromise, despite being designed to help bring the two sides of the country back together, was the first of many changes in the nation that led to the development of a national culture centered around two conflicting regions.