Missouri Compromise

In 1820, the United States Congress passed the Missouri Compromise. Before it was passed the Northern states and Southern states had different ideas of the states. The North wanted to limit slavery, while the Southern states wanted more slavery. Missouri wanted to become a slave state in 1820, but the Northern states wouldn’t allow it. As a compromise, Missouri could be a slave state as long as Maine was added as its own free state, thus the Missouri Compromise. Along with these factors a rule of 36⁰30N was applied saying that in the Louisiana Territory, the states above the latitude line 36⁰ and 30 minutes North was admitted as a free state; the states below the same line were slave states. Historians say that the Missouri Compromise caused a national crisis, others question why both sides agreed to the compromise. Both Northern and Southern states both agreed to the Missouri Compromise in thought of their own benefits, but it cause a major national crisis instead.
For a while this compromise allowed equality in Congress between the representation of slave state and free states, however, states that weren’t part of the Louisiana Territory started to be admitted as slave states; this caused a major national crisis. Having equality in representation meant that if the free states tried to pass a law that the slave states didn’t agree with, then the slave states could veto and stop them from being passed; and vice versa. In 1845, Florida and Texas both joined the United States as slave states. Slave states counted to a total of 15 and free states were at 13 until 1846. This created a national crisis due to the fact that the slave states were now in control of law making. Slave states would be able to create any law and be able to pass it with ease because they were the majority. The South was now in control of Congress, the Northerner’s biggest fear. By 1848, the states equaled in representation, but this ended by 1850 when California entered as a free state. After