Research Paper On Missouri Compromise

Erin Rall History 113 Professor Townsend 11/14/15

Missouri Statehood: Compromise or Conflict

According to Oxford Dictionaries, compromise is defined as an agreement or a settlement of a dispute that is reached by each side making concessions (Oxford University Press).

Although compromise is usually the best solution to resolve a conflict, it does not always work.

Compromise has played a long role in the history of the United States. One of the compromises was the Missouri Compromise which caused one of America's most famous and heated political conflicts. This essay will discuss the crisis that developed around the admission of Missouri as a state and how this crisis was resolved.

Since the Revolution, the country had grown from 13 states

In February 1819, New York Representative James Tallmadge Jr. electrified the proceedings by proposing an amendment to ban the transport of more slaves in

Missouri as a condition of statehood, even though there were more than 2,000 slaves living there.

From here the debate began (Text p. 316). The South felt that the U.S. government had no power to restrict slavery, which was protected under the Constitution. The North felt that slavery was evil and should be restricted to the current slave states. The Southern states dependent upon slave labor, and 200 years of living with the institution had made it an integral part of Southern life and culture (Ch. 10 PowerPoint). In 1819, Maine, which had been part of Massachusetts, put in its application for statehood. Then a compromise developed (Text p. 316).

Erin Rall History 113 Professor Townsend 11/14/15

The Missouri Compromise came as a two part solution to the admission problem. First,

Missouri gained admission to the Union as a slave state, with a provision that portions of