Missouri Compromise

Quick Facts: Who was Missouri Compromise?

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Missouri Compromise

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Federal legislation of 1820 balancing slavery's expansion between North and South.

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Origins & Early Life

The Missouri Compromise (also known as the Compromise of 1820) was federal legislation of the United States that balanced the desires of northern states to prevent the expansion of slavery in the country with those of southern states to expand it. It admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state and declared a policy of prohibiting slavery in the remaining Louisiana Purchase lands north of the 36°30′ parallel. The 16th United States Congress passed the legislation on March 3, 1820, and President James Monroe signed it on March 6, 1820. Earlier, in February 1819, Representative James Tallmadge Jr., a Democratic-Republican from New York, had submitted two amendments to Missouri's request for statehood that included restrictions on slavery. While the slave states earlier claimed federal protection for slavery, they now objected to any bill that imposed federal restrictions on slavery and claimed that it was a state issue, as settled by the Constitution.

Career & Major Achievements

However, with the Senate evenly split at the opening of the debates, both sections possessing 11 states, the admission of Missouri as a slave state would give the South an advantage. Northern critics including Federalists and Democratic-Republicans objected to the expansion of slavery into the Louisiana Purchase territory on the Constitutional inequalities of the three-fifths rule, which conferred Southern representation in the federal government derived from a state's slave population. Northern Democratic-Republicans ardently maintained that a strict interpretation of the Constitution required that Congress act to limit the spread of slavery on egalitarian grounds. "[Northern] Republicans rooted their antislavery arguments, not on expediency, but in egalitarian morality." "The Constitution [said northern Democratic-Republicans], strictly interpreted, gave the sons of the founding generation the legal tools to hasten [the] removal [of slavery], including the refusal to admit additional slave states." When free-soil Maine offered its petition for statehood, the Senate quickly linked the Maine and Missouri bills, making Maine's admission a condition for Missouri entering the Union as a slave state. Senator Jesse B. Thomas of Illinois added a compromise provision that banned slavery from all remaining lands of the Louisiana Purchase north of the 36° 30' parallel.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

The combined measures passed the Senate, only to be voted down in the House by Northern representatives who held out for a free Missouri. Speaker of the House Henry Clay of Kentucky, in a desperate bid to break the deadlock, divided the Senate bills. Clay and his pro-compromise allies succeeded in pressuring half of the anti-restrictionist Southerners in the House to submit to the passage of the Thomas proviso and maneuvered a number of restrictionist northerners in the House to acquiesce in supporting Missouri as a slave state. While the Missouri question in the 15th Congress ended in stalemate on March 4, 1819, with the House sustaining its northern anti-slavery position and the Senate blocking a state that restricted slavery, it succeeded in the 16th Congress. The Missouri Compromise was controversial.

Chronological Milestones & Life Events

1. 1819: 1819 Milestone — Earlier, in February 1819, Representative James Tallmadge Jr.
2. 1820: 1820 Milestone — The Missouri Compromise (also known as the Compromise of 1820) was federal legislation of the United States that balanced the desires of northern states to prevent the expansion of slavery in the country with those of southern states to expand it.

Notable Quotes by Missouri Compromise

“The compromise both delayed the Civil War and sowed its seeds; in April 1820, Thomas Jefferson predicted the line as drawn would someday tear the Union apart.”

Historical Fact-Check Quiz: Missouri Compromise

True or False: “Did the Missouri Compromise permanently resolve the issue of slavery's expansion across all US territories?”

Answer (FALSE ❌): The compromise only temporarily settled the issue for over two decades; subsequent acts like the Kansas-Nebraska Act and Supreme Court rulings reopened the debate.

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Frequently Asked Questions about Missouri Compromise