If you were a national legislator during 1819 what would you have suggested be done with Missouri in terms of its desire to enter the union?

Question

If you were a national legislator during 1819 what would you have suggested be done with Missouri in terms of its desire to enter the union? Explain how you would have dealt with the issue of slavery regarding this state.

Answer 1

Maine was petitioning for admission to the union in 1819 as well as Missouri. Missouri was seeking admission as a slave state with the right of owning and selling of slaves available to its residents. In the Missouri Compromise, passed in 1820, Maine was admitted as a free state and Missouri was admitted as a slave state to maintain the balance in congress between free and slave states. In retrospect, the strict interpretation advocates from the northern states should have maintained their position and refused to admit another slave state. This compromise resulted in an uneasy peace for another forty years, but the slavery issue ultimately deteriorated and led to the American Civil War. The Supreme Court ruled the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional in 1857 in the Dred Scott Decision. The slavery issue was not resolved through the compromise and eventually had to be settled in blood, but again, the end never justifies the means. What is missed in the discussion of slave versus free state status is the lands west of the Mississippi were promised in treaty to Native American tribes dislocated from lands east of the Mississippi River by frontier expansion under the policy of Manifest Destiny. These peoples were the main losers in the Missouri Compromise. For more information of the Native American issues "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" by Dee Brown is an excellent reference and source for additional information.