Missouri Compromise

History

A bill to enable the people of Missouri Territory to draft a constitution and form a government preliminary to admission into the Union came before the House of Representatives in Committee of the Whole, on February 13, 1819. An amendment offered by James Tallmadge of New York, which provided that the further introduction of slaves into Missouri should be forbidden, and that all children of slave parents born in the state after its admission should be free at the age of 21, was adopted by the committee and incorporated in the bill as finally passed on February 17, 1819 by the house.

Related Topics:
Missouri Territory - House of Representatives - Committee of the Whole - February 13 - 1819 - James Tallmadge - New York - February 17

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The United States Senate refused to concur in the amendment, and the whole measure was lost. During the following session (1819-1820), the house passed a similar bill with an amendment introduced on January 26, 1820 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 the question had been complicated by the admission in December of Alabama, a slave state (the number of slave and free states now becoming equal), and by the passage through the house (January 3, 1820) of a bill to admit Maine as a free state.

Related Topics:
United States Senate - January 26 - 1820 - John W. Taylor - New York - State of Missouri - Constitution - Alabama - Slave state - January 3 - Maine

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The Senate decided to connect the two measures, and passed 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. The House of Representatives refused to accept this and a conference committee was appointed.

Related Topics:
Jesse Burgess Thomas - Illinois - Missouri Territory

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