Missouri Crisis Research Paper

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Pages: 4

During the Missouri Crisis, the political parties were divided over the issue of slavery. The territory of Missouri was seeking admission as a slave state, which would have been the first territory in the Louisiana Purchase to allow slavery. This created a great controversy among the states since it would upset the balance between free states and slave states if a new slave state were admitted. This caused an uproar throughout the states, as creating a new slave state would unbalance the number of free states and slave states. Since the 1787 Constitutional Convention, politicians have been avoiding the issue of slavery. They formed the Three-Fifths Clause, which stated that sixty percent of a state's enslaved population was counted towards their representation, even though slaves had no rights. James Tallmadge was heavily against slavery and founded the Tallmadge Amendment, which the northern states supported. It switched the debate to declaring slavery as immoral and evil. Southern Congress saw the amendment trying to abolish slavery throughout the whole Union and to take away the freedom from the slave owners. …show more content…
It marked a turning point in the ongoing debate over slavery and its expansion into new territories. At the heart of the crisis was whether Missouri, part of the Louisiana Purchase, would be admitted to the Union as a free or slave state. A fire bell in the night is seen as something that wakes you with terror; Thomas Jefferson referred to the Missouri Crisis as a “fire bell in the night.” He was referring to his fear of the westward expansion of slavery. This fear was proper to have; just forty years later, America would enter a war between the Northern and Southern states over