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MISSOURI COMPROMISE

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 615 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MISSOURI See also:COMPROMISE , an agreement (182o) between the See also:pro-See also:slavery and See also:anti-slavery factions in the See also:United States, involving primarily the regulation of slavery in the public territories. A See also:bill to enable the See also:people of Missouri to See also:form a See also:state See also:government preliminary to See also:admission into the See also:Union came before the See also:House of Representatives in See also:Committee of the Whole, on the 13th of See also:February 1819. An See also:amendment offered by See also:James Tallmadge (1778–1853) of New See also:York, which provided that the further introduction of slaves into Missouri should be forbidden, and that all See also:children of slave parents See also:born in the state after its admission should be See also:free at the See also:age of twenty-five, was adopted by the committee and incorporated in the Bill as finally passed (Feb. 17) by the house. The See also:Senate refused to concur in the amendment and the whole measure was lost. During the following session (1819–182o), the house passed a similar bill with an amendment introduced on the 26th of See also:January 1820 by See also:John W. See also:Taylor (1784–1854) of New York making the admission of the state conditional upon its See also:adoption of a constitution prohibiting slavery. In the meantime the question had been complicated by the admission in See also:December of See also:Alabama, a slave state (the number of slave and free states now becoming equal), and by the passage through the house (See also:Jan. 3, 1820) of a bill to admit See also:Maine, a free state. The Senate decided to connect the two See also:measures, and passed a bill for the admission of Maine with an amendment enabling the people of Missouri to form a state constitution. Before the bill was returned to the house a second amendment was adopted on the See also:motion of J. B.

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Thomas (1777–1850) of See also:Illinois, excluding slavery from the " See also:Louisiana See also:Purchase " See also:north of 36° 30' (the See also:southern boundary of Missouri), except within the limits of the proposed state of Missouri. The House of Representatives refused to accept this and a See also:conference committee was appointed. There was now a controversy between the two houses not only 1861 See also:Hamilton R. Gamble (appointed by state See also:convention; died in See also:office), provisional See also:governor See also:Willard P. See also:Hall (Lieut.- governor by same See also:power, acting provisional governor) Thomas C. See also:Fletcher . See also:Joseph W. McClurg . B. Gratz See also:Brown .. . See also:Silas Woodson See also:Charles H. Hardin John S.

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Phelps Thomas T. See also:Crittenden John S. Marmaduke (died in office) . . See also:Albert P. Morehouse (acting governor) See also:David R. See also:Francis . . . . See also:William J. See also:Stone . . . . Lon V. See also:Stephens .

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Alexander M. Dockerey . Joseph W. Folk . . . See also:Herbert S. See also:Hadley . . on the slavery issue, but also on the See also:parliamentary question of the inclusion of Maine and Missouri within the same bill. The committee recommended the enactment of two See also:laws, one for the admission of Maine, the other an enabling See also:act for Missouri without any restrictions on slavery but including the Thomas amendment. This was agreed to by both houses, and the measures were passed, and were signed by See also:President See also:Monroe respectively on the 3rd and on the 6th of See also:March 1820. When the question of the final admission of Missouri came up during the session of 182o-1821 the struggle was revived over a clause in the new constitution (1820) requiring the exclusion of free negroes and mulattoes from the state. Through the See also:influence of See also:Henry See also:Clay an act of admission was finally passed, to come into operation as soon as the state legislature would See also:pledge itself not to pass any legislation to enforce this clause.

This is sometimes known as the second Missouri Compromise. These disputes, involving as they did the question of the relative See also:

powers of See also:Congress and the states, tended to turn the Democratic-Republicans, who were becoming nationalized, back again toward their old state See also:sovereignty principles—to prepare the way for the Jacksonian-Democratic Party. On the other See also:hand, the old Federalist nationalistic See also:element was soon to emerge first as See also:National Republicans, then as Whigs, and finally as Republicans. On the constitutional See also:side the Compromise of 182o was important as the first precedent for the congressional exclusion of slavery from public territory acquired since the adoption of the Constitution, and also as a clear recognition that Congress has no right to impose upon a state asking for admission into the Union conditions which do not apply to those states already in the Union. The compromise was specifically repealed by the See also:Kansas-See also:Nebraska Bill of 1854. See J. A. Woodburn, " The See also:Historical Significance of the Missouri Compromise " in the See also:Annual See also:Report of the See also:American Historical Association for 1893 (See also:Washington, D.C.) ; See also:Dixon, See also:History of the Missouri Compromise (See also:Cincinnati, 1899) ; See also:Schouler's and McMaster's Histories of the United States. (W. R.

End of Article: MISSOURI COMPROMISE

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