The Missouri Compromise: Political And Sectional Rivalry

The Missouri Compromise was established by congress to ease political and sectional rivalries. These rivalries started because in late 1819, Missouri requested to become a slave state. During this time the U.S. had 22 states, which had been evenly divided between free and slave. The debate for Missouri’s admission started in December of 1819 and ended in March of 1820. Senator Rufus King of New York and many Northerners believed that congress had the power to forbid slavery in a new state. The Missouri Compromise was criticized by southerners because it put forth the principle that congress could create laws concerning slavery. Northerners reviled the Missouri Compromise for agreeing to the expansion of slavery (only south of the compromise
He made a bill proposing “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist”, this applied to all the territory acquired by the U.S. in the war with Mexico. The Wilmot Proviso meant that California, as well as Utah, and New Mexico, would be closed to slavery forever. The Wilmot Proviso divided congress. Northerners became angry because the southern congressmen refused to vote for internal improvements (such as building roads/canals). The North feared that increasing slave territory would give slave states more members in congress. Southerners opposed the compromise. White southerners claimed that slaves were property and that property was protected by the constitution. Southerners feared that if the Wilmot Proviso became a law that more free states would be added to the union. Ultimately giving permanent power to the North. The Proviso was accepted by the House of Representatives but was denied by the
The novel became a bestseller almost instantly. The novel stirred up many reactions from both the North and the South. The plot of Uncle Tom’s Cabin is exaggerated and the characters are stereotypes. The message of the novel was not only that slavery was a political issue but it was also a moral struggle. Abolitionist in the North continued to protest against slavery and the Fugitive Slave Act. The white southerners were quick to criticize the novel for being an attack on slavery. Uncle Tom’s Cabin really hadn’t begun to settle and it already stirred up new controversy over