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Missouri Compromise

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Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise

The Missouri Compromise, written by Henry Clay, attempted to limit the slavery boundaries; it was later declared unconstitutional and is also considered one of many events that led to the American Civil War. The compromise became a precedent for settling subsequent North and South disagreements over slavery and duty issues, and it remained in effect until rescinded by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. The Missouri Compromise eased tensions between the North and the South delaying the civil war The American Civil War. However, it is also considered one of the causes of the civil war because it increased the division of beliefs between the North and SouthThus, the Missouri compromise played an important role in the development of the American Civil War. In February, 1819, the House of Representatives considered a bill authorizing the territory of Missouri to frame a constitution. In the past, territories south of the Mason Dixon Line had been automatically made into slave states. Most of Missouri is north of that line but many of its citizens were slaveholders. A bill to permit slavery in Missouri on a temporary basis, but prohibiting further entry of slaves, passed the House but was rejected by the Senate. Meanwhile, Alabama had been admitted as a slave state, making the number of slave and free states 11 each. As this would ruin the balance between Slave states and Free states in the Senate, Henry Clay proposed the Missouri compromise.The Missouri compromise was created in order to ease tensions between the northern, anti-slavery states, and southern, pro-slavery, states for equal votes in the House of Representatives. It was used in maintaining balance in power between free and slave states, in an effort to preserve the balance of power in Congress between slave and free states, the Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820 admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. Henry Clay of Kentucky is known as the "Great

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