Civil War Compramises

Compromises played a big role in delaying the civil war. It was an attempt to slow the spread of slavery to the states up north and also to the territories in the west. It kept the nation united by trying to give everyone something they wanted, in order to keep them all happy. In 1850 there was an equal amount of the free states and the slave states. The territories and states did not want the government to control whether or not they were a slave state or a free state. They wanted to base the decision off what the majority wanted. The Missouri Compromise included adding Missouri to the slave state list. but first they had to have another state agree to be a free state. which was Maine. For all of this to be passed and agreed on there were other things that had to be done. Slavery was to be outlawed in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase, and the north of Missouri. Missouri did not allow free black people into the area, but it was against the Constitution. Missouri wasnt happy about it, they redid the Constitution so they could alow it state by state. Since the United States was growing so rapidly, by 1850 there were territories all the way to the Pacific Ocean. California Territory wanted to become known as a free state, which naturally did not make the South happy. If California territory was made into a free state it would mean there would be more free states than slave states. Which was bad news because the free states could soon over power the slave states if the growth continued. Before the Compromise of 1850 was passed, it was rejected many times by the Senate. Stephen A Douglas, a senator, worked very hard to keep the comprimise a float. Eventually he got it so the compromise was broken up into sections, and had them voted on seperatly. Despite the northerners protesting to allow slavery in states where it had been prohibited for well over 30 years, Senate had the Kansas-Nebraska Act passed. This act created the territories of Kansas and