The Missouri Compromise

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In 1819 Missouri requested to join the United States as a slave state. This caused the beginning of a division between the people, and offices, of America. This division was a result of the issue of slavery, and a fear that the delicate balance between states that allowed slavery and states that did not allow slavery would be broken. Half of the country believed slavery was fine, and half believed it was wrong. In an attempt to keep peace between the South and the North, the Missouri Compromise was passed. The compromise would allow Missouri to enter the union as a slave state, and Maine as a free state; keeping the number of states pro-slavery and anti-slavery even. However, the compromise did not accomplish everything that congress had hoped. The Missouri Compromise was a poor attempt to end the dispute over slavery in America because it did not please the Southern or Northern states, was unconstitutional, and contributed to the civil war. The Missouri Compromise was an effort to preserve the balance of power between pro-slavery states, and anti-slavery states. At the time when Missouri asked to become a new state, there was eleven states that allowed slavery, and eleven states that did not allow slavery (History.com Staff). If Missouri had joined the union, then the balance would have shifted in favor of pro-slavery states. Northerners argued that congress had a right to ban slavery in a new state, while Southern states argued that new states had just as much right to decide if they wanted to allow slavery as the original thirteen colonies did (History.com Staff). The compromise did two things; first, it allowed Maine to enter as a free state, and Missouri to come in with slaves; second, slavery would be prohibited in the Lo... ... middle of paper ... ...y. Although some people believe that the Missouri Compromise delayed the Civil War, it actually is one of the main causes of the war. This is due to the fact that the Missouri Compromise did not solve the issue of slavery in any way, but merely delayed actually taking care of it. Instead of actually trying to come up with a real solution to the fact that the North and South had such different principles and morals regarding slavery, the compromise just attempted to ignore what the real problems were. Then, the compromise was repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 because Kansas and Nebraska decided whether or not to allow slavery by a vote of popular sovereignty, which made the Missouri Compromise void (Researchers). The Kansas-Nebraska Act was the final straw in dividing the country, and causing turmoil over the issue of slavery. If the federal government had

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