Download Missouri Compromise - IB

Megan Dunn and Madison So 
Balance of Power

 When Missouri was petitioning to join the union in 1818,
there was a balance between slave states and free states
(11 to 11)
 At that time, free states had more representatives in the
House of Reps than slave states because they held the
majority of the population (105 to 81). However they
were equally represented in the Senate so either group
had the power to stop legislation it opposed
 Admitting Missouri into the Union, either as a free or
slave state would have tipped the scale and disrupted the
balance that had been struck
North vs. South

 The North wanted Missouri to be admitted as a free
state because they wanted to halt the expansion of
slavery particularly into the Louisiana Territory
 The South wanted Missouri to be admitted as a slave
state in order to preserve slavery and prevent
legislation that prohibited it. Slavery was an
essential part of the Southern economy, they wanted
to protect the institution with more slave states and
their votes in Congress
The State of Missouri

 February 1819- A New York Representative, James
Tallmadge, proposed an amendment abolishing slavery
in Missouri
 There were over 2,000 slaves in Missouri at the time
 The debate over the moral aspects of slavery began to
heat up once again
 The some in the North were strongly opposed the bondage
of fellow human beings by another
 The South claimed that their right to institute slavery was
protected by the Constitution
The Compromise

 March 3, 1820- The states finally came to an uneasy
agreement: The Missouri Compromise. Proposed by
Henry Clay, who came to be known as “the great
pacificator”, the Compromise outlined a plan in which
Maine(who was seeking statehood at the time as well)
was admitted to the Union as a free state and Missouri a
slave state preserving the balance. In regards to the
further expansion of slavery, the Compromise ruled that
all new states within the Louisiana territory above the
southern boarder of Missouri, excluding Missouri, would
be free
Excerpt

 SEC. 8. And be it further enacted. That in all that territory
ceded by France to the United States, under the name of
Louisiana, which lies north of thirty-six degrees and thirty
minutes north latitude, not included within the limits of the
state, contemplated by this act, slavery and involuntary
servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof
the parties shall have been duly convicted, shall be, and is
hereby, forever prohibited: Provided always, That any
person escaping into the same, from whom labour or
service is lawfully claimed, in any state or territory of the
United States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed
and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labour or
service as aforesaid. ("Our Documents")
State of the Union

Missouri Compromise
Video

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgELv4aNHjQ
 0:42-2:19
The Future of the
Missouri Compromise

 The Compromise was only a postponement of the
impending feud over slavery between the North and
the South that would ultimately contribute to the the
start of the Civil War.
 Created tensions between the North and South and
increased sectionalism.
 Repealed by the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act
 Ruled unconstitutional in the Dred Scott decision of
1857
Works Cited

 Brinkley, Alan. A Survey of American History. 12th. New
York: McGraw-Hill, 2007. 224-225. Print.
 Eisert, Kevin. "Secession Crisis." The War For States Rights.
N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan 2012. <http://
civilwar.bluegrass.net/secessioncrisis/ 200303.html>.
 "Missouri Compromise (1820)." American History. ABC-CLIO,
2012. Web. 29 Jan. 2012.
 "Missouri Compromise." Africans in America. PBS
Online,
n.d. Web. 29 Jan 2012. <http://
www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3h511.html>.
 "Transcript of Missouri Compromise (1820)." Our
Documents. National History Day, n.d. Web. 29 Jan 2012.
<http://www.ourdocuments.gov/ doc.php?