The Missouri Compromise: The Cause Of The Civil War

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A compromise is where when two sides have a disagreement and they are able to reach an agreement where both sides get a part of they want so they can be content. Compromises are a great way to resolve conflict although they do not work all the time. Before to the American Civil War occurred, many compromises were made to prevent the Civil War. However, the differences were far to great and compromises were not able to help prevent the civil war. One of the greatest reasons for this was slavery. Slavery affected national politics greatly in the 1820’s, that the Missouri Compromise was to be made to settle things down for a bit.
In 1819, the territory of Missouri had reached a population of 60,000 residents and they needed to apply for statehood.
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This amendment would help Missouri become a state and at the same time nullify an increase of representation in Missouri. The amendments also would liberate a slave of the age of 25 after Missouri became a state. This would limit the Missouri’s slave population and reduce the representation. Congress came to a dead end when the amendments were introduced. The House accepted the amendments proposed but the Southern senators with some help from a few others did not accept the amendments in the …show more content…
Thus, Maine was introduced as a free state in the North to balance out representation between the free states and the slave states. This settled the fear the North had on the South attaining votes in Senate or House due to slavery. Along with this there was the Thomas Proviso, which would allow Missouri to become a state on the agreement that the South would have to ban slavery in the remaining part of the Louisiana Territory.
Henry Clay’s ability to negotiate compromises between the North and the South helped maintain balance between free states and slave states and also helped deter the start of the Civil War by many years. Henry Clay’s devotion to nationalism over several public policies may have helped keep the Union together. After he introduced the Missouri Compromise he ran for president in 1924 but ended up losing. He then provided his support to John Quincy Adams in return for being named Secretary of

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