MISSOURI QUESTION

SLAVEPOWER• The South enjoyed a special advantage in terms of

representation in the House of Representatives and theelectoral college as a result of the “three-fifths clause” ofthe Constitution.

• Northerners increasingly viewed the “three-fifths rule” asundemocratic and a threat to egalitarian republicanism.

• Many northerners viewed the rapid growth of the slavepopulation and the expansion of slavery into western landsas a conspiracy.

• When Missouri applied for admission to the Union as aslave state in 1819, northerners feared that the slave stateswould strengthen their control of Congress by virtue of atwelve-to-eleven edge over the free states.

TALLMADGE AMENDMENTS• The admission of Missouri as a slave state threatened to

upset the balance of power in Congress and set a precedentfor congressional acquiescence in the expansion of slavery.

• Representative James Tallmadge (NY) proposed twoamendments to the bill enabling enslaved Missouri to writea state constitution and then be admitted to the Union.– Prohibit any further introduction of slaves– Free at age 25 all Missouri slaves born to slave parents after

admission of Missouri to Union– Proposed Jefferson-style emancipation

• The proposed amendments led to rancorous and extremelybitter debate.– The House passed the amendments, but the Senate rejected them.

CONTROVERSY• Northerners such as Senator Rufus King (NY) contended

that Congress possessed the power to prohibit slavery in anew state. Southerners argued that slavery was a matter tobe decided by the states, not the federal government.Southerners also argued for unlimited extension of slavery.

• Representative Thomas Cobb (GA) declared: “If youpersist the Union will be dissolved. You have kindled a firewhich a sea of blood can only extinguish.”

• Tallmadge remained resolute: “If disunion must take place,let it be so! If civil war must come, I can only say, let itcome.”

BALANCE OF POWER• Passage of the Tallmadge amendments in the House raised

the perpetual southern concern that a permanent northernnumerical majority could control the House. The Southcontrolled the Senate.

• Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Marquis de Lafayette datedDec. 26, 1820, observed: “The boisterous sea of libertyindeed is never without a wave, and that from Missouri isnow rolling toward us; but we shall ride over it as we haveall others…. It is not a moral question, but one merely ofpower….”

CONTAINMENT• Northern congressmen such as Tallmadge, Taylor, and King

of New York wished to contain the expansion of slavery.• But some northerners began to attack the “peculiar

institution” as immoral and damaging to the republicancharacter of the nation.

• King assailed slavery as “contrary to the law of nature.”• Angry southerners feared losing economic prosperity,

political influence, and their culture. Many also dreaded thehaunting specters of slave insurrection, racial warfare, andracial amalgamation.

• Representative John Randolph (VA), an ardent defender ofstates’ rights who considered slavery a necessary evil,proclaimed defiantly, “There can be no compromise on thisquestion. God has given us Missouri, and the devil shall nottake it from us.”

PERPETUAL SLAVERY• Southerners defended their Constitutional guarantees of

property rights, insisted that Congress could not stop theextension of slavery, and began arguing that slavery was a“positive good.”

• Senator William Smith (SC) claimed that slavery was auniversal institution, sanctioned by the Bible, and needed byinfantile blacks. Smith stated: “No class of laboring peoplein any country on the globe are better clothed, better fed, ormore cheerful, or labor less.”

• Representative Charles Pinckney (SC) maintained thatmillions of dollars would be lost if slaves were emancipated.

• Some, such as John C. Calhoun (SC), would argue that theexpansion of slavery ought to be unlimited.

DIFFUSION

• Thomas Jefferson argued in Dec. of 1820: “All know thatpermitting the slaves of the South to spread in the West willnot add one being to that unfortunate condition, that it willincrease the happiness of those existing, and by spreadingthem over a large surface, will dilute the evil everywhereand facilitate a means of getting finally rid of it, an eventmore anxiously wished by those on whom it presses than bythe noisy pretenders to exclusive humanity.”

• Many politicians of the Upper South, especially ThomasJefferson and John Tyler, contended that the movement ofslaves to the western territories provided a means of solvingthe problems of slavery and racial coexistence.

• Tyler stated that diffusion would dilute racial anxieties andfurther reform.

COLONIZATION

• Men such as Jeffersonand Henry Clayfavored the policy ofcolonizing freed slavesin places such asMexico, the Caribbean,and Africa.

• AmericanColonization Society

Henry Clay

THOMAS PROVISO

• Senator J.B. Thomas (IL) proposed to allowMissouri and Maine to be admitted to the Union asa slave and free states respectively and to prohibitslavery north of thirty-six degrees, thirty minutesnorth latitude.

• Both the House and Senate approved of thelegislation.

• President James Monroe signed the compromiselegislation on March 6, 1820.

THOMAS PROVISO• Senator J.B. Thomas (IL)

proposed to allow Missouri andMaine to be admitted to theUnion as a slave and free statesrespectively and to prohibitslavery north of thirty-sixdegrees, thirty minutes northlatitude.

• Both the House and Senateapproved of the legislation.

• President James Monroe signedthe compromise legislation onMarch 6, 1820.

James Monroe

THE GREAT COMPROMISER

• When Missouri drafted aconstitution thatprohibited free blacksfrom entering the state, thedebate raged on.

• Clay won support for acompromise that allowedMissouri to retain itsexclusion clause as longas the legislature promisednever to restrict those whowere or might become U.S.citizens.

ADAMS VERSUS CALHOUN

John Quincy Adams John C. Calhoun

OPPOSING POSITIONS

• Adams asserted that freelabor is superior to slavelabor.

• Adams concluded that“the bargain betweenfreedom and slavery in theConstitution of the UnitedStates is morally andpolitically vicious,inconsistent with theprinciples upon whichalone our Revolution canbe justified;…”

• Calhoun consideredslavery to be a “positivegood.”

• Calhoun stated thatslavery “was the bestguarantee to equalityamong the whites.”

• Disunion and civil warwere preferable toabolition or nonextension

“FIRE BELL IN THE NIGHT”

• Jefferson predicteddisunion and civil war.

• He considered theMissouri question to bethe “knell of the Union.”Jefferson knew that theso-called compromise wasa “reprieve only” becauseif failed to solve theproblem or reconciledifferences. He realizedthat “every new irritationwill mark it deeper anddeeper.”

Thomas Jefferson

STALEMATE• The “compromise” was actually a stalemate as opposed to a

true compromise. The deal failed to solve any problems. Itonly delayed the Civil War.

• Southerners criticized the Missouri Compromise because itestablished the principle that Congress could restrict slaveryin the West and make laws regulating the institution.

• Northerners rejected the compromise because it allowed theextension of slavery south of the compromise line.

• John Quincy Adams concluded: “I take it for granted thatthe present question is a mere preamble—a title page to agreat tragic volume.”

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brown, Richard H. “The Missouri Crisis, Slavery,and the Politics of Jacksonianism”. South AtlanticQuarterly. Volume 65. Durham, NC: DukeUniversity Press, 1966. pp. 55-70.

Freehling, William W. The Road To Disunion:Secessionists At Bay 1776-1854. New York:Oxford University Press, 1990.

Jefferson, Thomas. Writings. New York: Libraryof America, 1984.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Miller, John Chester. The Wolf By The Ears:Thomas Jefferson and Slavery. Charlottesville,VA: University of Virginia Press, 1991 (1977).

Oates, Stephen B. The Approaching Fury: Voicesof the Storm, 1820-1861. New York: HarperCollins, 1997.

Wright, Donald R. African Americans in the EarlyRepublic, 1789-1831. Arlington Heights, IL:Harlan Davidson, 1993.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Eyewitness to America: 500 Years of America in theWords of Those Who Saw It Happen. Edited byDavid Colbert. New York: Pantheon Books,1997.

The Boisterous Sea of Liberty: A DocumentaryHistory Of America From Discovery Through theCivil War. Edited by David Brion Davis andSteven Mintz. New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 1998.