In the years leading up to the civil war, Congress was forced to pass the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Conflicts had begun to escalate between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery divisions within the Congress and across the nation. This tension reached a new high after Missouri’s request for approval to the Union as a slave state, which endangered the very fragile balance between the slave states of the south and free states of the north. To keep the peace, Congress arranged a two-part arrangement, approving Missouri’s appeal but also declaring Maine as a free state. This compromise also passed an amendment that drew an imaginary line across the former Louisiana Territory, establishing a border between the free and slave regions of the country further solidifying the divide in the