What two States were admitted to the Union as part of the Missouri Compromise

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When the territory of Missouri applied for admission to statehood, the Congress and the nation were confronted with a unique substantive question that had far-reaching implications both for the settlement and for the future political status of all the states that might be carved from the vast area acquired from France in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.

Should slavery be allowed in the new state of Missouri? The fact that southern slaveholders had already migrated into the Missouri territory made the question more than academic. When the bill for admission came before the House, Congressman James Tallmadge of New York offered an amendment that would have prohibited the further introduction of slavery and would have eventually freed the progeny of slaves then in the territory. Tallmadge's remarks in defense of his amendment refer to the excitement and bitterness that his proposition elicited from slavery advocates. While he justified his position on the grounds of Congressional authority, there was also an indication of northern reluctance to see the extension of southern political advantage by inflated representation (tied to the three-fifths compromise of the federal Constitution). The Tallmadge amendment passed the House but was rejected by the Senate.

The issue was resolved by a two-part compromise. First, Missouri gained admission to the Union as a slave state, with a provision that portions of the Louisiana Territory lying north of 36' 30' north latitude would be free. (This limitation was later overturned by the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act and by the 1857 Dred Scott case, 19 How. 393 ) Second, Maine was simultaneously admitted to statehood, which enabled the Senate to maintain the balance between slave and free state representation -- twelve of each. The enabling act of March 6, 1820, made it clear, however, that fugitive slaves could be apprehended north of the compromise line and returned to their owners.

Civil Rights and the Black American
A Documentary History, edited by Albert P Blaustein and Robert L. Zangrando, published by Washington Square Press, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.,1968

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From Ohio History Central

The Missouri Compromise of 1820 maintained the balance among states favoring and opposed to slavery in the Congress of the United States.

In 1818, the Missouri Territory applied for statehood. Many Missourians wanted to allow slavery in their state. A number of Northerners opposed this idea for two reasons. First, abolitionist sentiment was growing in the North. Secondly, there were eleven free states and eleven slave states. For a bill to become a law, both houses of the United States Congress had to agree to it. With eleven slave and eleven free states, each side had the same number of senators. If Missouri became a slave state, the tie would be broken. The South would control the Senate and would be one step closer to legalizing slavery in states newly admitted to the Union. Because of their fears, Northern members of the United States Congress refused Missouri admittance to the United States as a slave state. When Maine applied for statehood in 1819 as a free state, Southern members of Congress threatened to prevent Maine's admittance.

Faced with deadlock, the Congress agreed to the Missouri Compromise in 1820. This agreement allowed Missouri to enter the United States as a slave state and Maine to enter as a free state. The Congress thus maintained the balance between slave and free states. To avoid additional conflicts in the future, the Congress also created the Missouri Compromise line. All future states north of Missouri's southern border would be free states. Future states south of Missouri's southern border would be slave states.

In Ohio, the Missouri Compromise was controversial. While, the Ohio legislature asked its national representatives to vote against slavery's expansion, some Ohioans came from the South and favored the growth of slaveholding states. Other people moved to the area from New England and tended to oppose slavery for both moral and economic reasons. There also was a growing abolitionist movement in Ohio, led primarily by the Society of Friends. Just as the nation was divided over slavery's expansion, so too were Ohioans.

The Missouri Compromise did not prevent future arguments from arising over slavery. The Missouri Compromise remained in effect until 1854, when the United States Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

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