Overview
Although the Missouri Compromise of 1820 settled a disagreement between the two groups, it also contributed to the idea of sectionalism within the nation.
The Missouri Compromise of 1820
The Boundaries After Missouri Compromise
- An agreement passed between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups in the U.S. Congress
- It primarily involved the regulation of slavery in the western territories (prohibiting slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36°30′ north except within Missouri itself)
- Prior to the agreement, the House of Representatives had refused to accept this compromise, and a conference committee was appointed
Sectionalism at work...
- ...created a legal line between the free and slave states, therefore encouraging the two groups to view each other as separate
- ...division of the country would eventually lead to the peril of the Union
"...but this momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. it is hushed indeed for the moment. but this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence. a geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men, will never be obliterated; and every new irritation will mark it deeper and deeper".
---Thomas Jefferson (in a letter to John Holmes regarding his feelings about the Compromise Line)
- the Missouri Compromise settled on one line of latitude (North of which all territory would be free soil)
- when California entered the Union as a state it extended too far on either side of the line
- there had to be a new compromise, this would be known as the Compromise of 1850