USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Controversy arose within Congress over the issue of slavery. Congress adopted this legislation and admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a non-slave state at the same time, so that the balance between slave and free states in the nation would remain equal.

Detailed explanation-2: -Regulating Slavery in the State of Missouri The “Missouri Compromise” allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state, thus keeping the balance of slave and free states equal in Congress.

Detailed explanation-3: -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, allowing Missouri into the union as a slave state.

Detailed explanation-4: -Henry Clay then skillfully led the forces of compromise, engineering separate votes on the controversial measures. On March 3, 1820, the decisive votes in the House admitted Maine as a free state, Missouri as a slave state, and made free soil all western territories north of Missouri’s southern border.

Detailed explanation-5: -Missouri’s application opened a political firestorm over the spread of slavery in the new western territories and disrupted the balance of free and slave states. There were 22 states in the Union, 11 free and 11 slave states.