Missouri Compromise (1820)

The Missouri compromise, also Compromise of 1820, was an agreement between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States. It involved the regulation of slavery in the Western territories.The Missouri compromise was repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.

On February 13, 1819 a bill came before the House of Representatives to enable the people of Missouri territory to draft a constitution and form a government preliminary to admission into the Union. An amendment by James Tallmadge of New York provided stated that all slaves born after the admission should be free at the age of 25.The Senate refused to concur in the amendment.

On January 26, 1820 the House passed a similar bill with an amendment by John W. Taylor of New York making the admission of the State of Missouri conditional upon its adoption of a constitution prohibiting slavery. In the meantime Alabama (a slave state) was admitted to the Union making the number of slave and free states equal and a bill was passed to admit Maine as a free state (January 3, 1820).

The Senate decided to pass a bill for the admission of Maine with an amendment enabling the people of Missouri to form a state constitution. Before the bill was returned to the House a second amendment was adopted on the motion of Jesse Burgess Thomas of Illinois excluding slavery from the Missouri Territory north of 36° 30’ (the southern boundary of Missouri), except within the limits of the proposed state of Missouri.