The Missouri Compromise

The Missouri Compromise was a bad solution, because it did not solve the slave problem but it was also a good compromise because it lasted for several years and temporarily solved the conflict of whether or not the new states would be slave states or free states. Perhaps the more important aspect of the Missouri Compromise was the agreement that no territory to the north of Missouri’s southern border could enter the Union as a slave state. That part of the compromise effectively stopped slavery from spreading into the rest of the Louisiana Purchase. The Missouri Compromise, as the first great Congressional compromise over the slavery issue, was also important as it set a precedent that Congress could regulate slavery in new territories and states. While the Missouri Compromise seemed to settle an issue at the time, its full impact still lay years in the future. The issue of slavery was far from settled, and further compromises and Supreme Court decisions would play a role in the great debates over it. This was meant to settle the question of slavery in the Western territories that were applying to become states of the Union. It was agreed to draw one line of latitude, north of which slavery would be illegal. The line was the Southern border of Missouri. The compromise was made to make everyone happy, it wasn’t really about the slaves but about power. There were 11 slave and 11 free states and one more state was coming into play. If the state became a slave state then the South would have had more power in the House of Representatives, than the North. If the state became a free state then the South would be weak in the House of Representatives. No one in the government or in the North wanted the South to have more power because they were afraid the country would become a slave nation and they didn’t want that. The only way to make everyone happy was the Missouri Compromise, but it was not an ideal way to settle the dispute over the expansion of slavery in the