The Missouri Compromise was a law that was passed by the US Congress in an effort to diffuse the sectional tensions when Missouri applied to enter the Union in 1819. It wished to be admitted as a slavery state. At the time, there was an even number of slave and non-slave states, and thus if Missouri were to be admitted as a slave state, this would cause chaos due to the imbalance in the number of slave vs. non-slave states in the Union. Missouri’s application caused a series of debates to be held in Congress. The southerners then argued that Congress was now able to promulgate laws on slavery, whereas the northerners argued that slavery as a practice should never be allowed to expand within the Union (which would happen if a slave state was to be accepted). Thus a compromise bill was hammered out in 1820, with Maine being accepted as a free state, and with Missouri being accepted as a slave state for as long as slavery was to be prohibited in the Louisiana Purchase lands north of latitude 36°30’ (History: Missouri Compromise).
The Missouri Compromise does illustrate that sectional differences could be resolved such that both sides of the debate do not go home empty-handed. This bill was conceived at a time when the US government saw the benefits of expansion for the young nation, while somehow controlling the expansion of slavery (Alexander, 340). This bill is also a reflection of the continuing struggles between the northerners and the southerners, which could be said to have evolved into the struggle between the Democrats and the Republicans who occupy Congress and the Senate. As the ideologies upon which these parties were founded quite differ from one another, one can see that should another contentious and controversial issue arise in the future wherein the parties in the Senate and in Congress differ in opinion, the nation will find itself once more in a similar situation that it was in 1820.
Works Cited
Alexander, Leslie. Encyclopedia of African American History. NY: ABC-CLIO.
History. Missouri Compromise. 2016. Web.
