Missouri+Compromise+of+1820

=The Missouri Compromise of 1820 =

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Missouri exetended farther north of any slave state. Most of its citizens wanted slavery. Therefore the Missouri Comprimise of 1820 was made this allowed Missouri become a slave state. Congress decided to make another free state to balance this desicion. This state is Maine which was part of Massachusetts.

Before the Missouri Compromise
Right before the Missouri Comprimise was adopted, slavery extension had been an issue in congress for about a year. In 1819 the House of Representatives considered passing a bill which would permit slavery on a temporary basis, but also not allowing any further entry of slaves. Before this, all states south of the Ohio River and the Mason Dixon Line would atomatically become a slave state.

The Reason


The Problem
Missouri is mostly north of the Mason Dixon line but lots of its citizens were slave owners. This bill allowing slavery on a temporary basis but prohibiting any further entry of slaves was passed by the House but rejected by the Senate. This matter was left unsettled until the next meeting. Meanwhile Alabama has been changed to a slave state. This has made the number of free states and the number of slave states the same which added yet another problem.

The Meeting
 The House passed the bill on March 1st 1820, requirering Missouri to be a free state. The Senate droped the antislavery provision and added an amendment. The amendment stated that Missouri would be a slave state, but slavery was not allowed in other parts of the Louisiana territory north of the southern border of Missouri. This was possible because Maine was declared a free state, so now they can maintain the balance between the free and the slave states. The amendment was accepted by the House.

The Missouri Constitution
Missouri was asked to submitt a proslavery constitution. It was presented to congress to approve it in 1821. It contained a paragraph requiring the legislature to prevent the immigration of free blacks into this state. Congress objected it and a compromise bill called the 2nd Missouri compromise it was passed on March 2,1821. This did not allow Missouri to ban the entry of free blacks into the state. Missouri was admitted on August 10, 1821. ==A Later Attempt == 

In 1848 an unsuccesful attempt was made to broaden the Missouri Compromise. They wanted to broaden it to include the territories won in the Mexican War, and by extending the 36 degrees and 30' line to the Pacific Ocean. The Compromise was repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska act in 1854. In 1857 the U.S. Surpreme Court said that Congress did not have the power to abolish slavery in a territory, so the Missouri Compromise had been unconstitutional. Missouri did not become a strong slave state and did not secede from the Union.