MARCH 6, 1820:
The Missouri Compromise was passed between the pro-slavery
and anti-slavery factions in the United States Congress, involving primarily
the regulation of slavery in the western territories. It prohibited slavery in
the former Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36°30′ north except within
the boundaries of the proposed State of Missouri. To balance the number of
"Slave States" and "Free States," the northern region of
what was then Massachusetts was admitted into the United States as a Free State
to become Maine.
Thomas Jefferson prophesied that the division of the country
created by the Compromise Line would eventually lead to the destruction of the
Union:
“...but this momentous question, like a fire bell in the
night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell
of the Union. It is hushed indeed for the moment. But this is a reprieve only,
not a final sentence. A geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle,
moral and political, once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men,
will never be obliterated; and every new irritation will mark it deeper and
deeper.”
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