When he heard of the agreement, Thomas Jefferson described "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." When Missouri apple for statehood in 1819 the national leaders found themselves deadlocked. Neither Northern nor Southern leaders were willing to cede any votes in Congress to their sectional rivals. Southern leaders viewed the opportunity to expand slaver westward as both politically advantageous as economically beneficial. As slavery expanded westward, eastern slaves would become even more valuable providing breeding stock for the growing numbers needed in the west. After the narrow defeat of the Tallmadge Amendment which would have paved the way to gradual emancipation, Sen. Henry Clay of Kentucky earned his reputation as the Great Compromiser by navigating a proposal for both Missouri and Maine to enter the Union as a slave and free state , respectively. In addition to the new states, Congress also agreed that that slavery would be allowed in Missouri but prohibited in the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase north of the 36°30’ parallel. |
* * * Discussion Questions * * *
1. Much of the dispute regarding the expansion of slavery into western territories focused on other characteristics rather the morality of slavery. Explain these other considerations that loomed large in 1820.
2. Why was Jefferson so fearful of expanding slavery?
2. Why was Jefferson so fearful of expanding slavery?
American ProgressPainted by John Gant, American Progress represents the rising American belief in Manifest Destiny - the belief that is was America's God-given right to dance civilization into the western frontier. The belief (and the potential riches associated with it) pressured the boundaries of the young nation to bulge westward and force the debate over the expansion of slavery into nearly every political argument of the day.
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