It was a law,
passed on the 6th of March, 1820, providing that Missouri might come into
the Union with slavery, but that in all the remaining part of the
territory purchased of France which lies north of thirty-six degrees and
thirty minutes north latitude, slavery should never be permitted. This
provision of law is the "Missouri Compromise." In excluding slavery north
of the line, the same language is employed as in the Ordinance of 1787.
It directly applied to Iowa, Minnesota, and to the present bone of
contention, Kansas and Nebraska. Whether there should or should not be
slavery south of that line, nothing was said in the law. But Arkansas
constituted the principal remaining part south of the line; and it has
since been admitted as a slave State, without serious controversy. More
recently, Iowa, north of the line, came in as a free State without
controversy. Still later, Minnesota, north of the line, had a territorial
organization without controversy. Texas, principally south of the line,
and west of Arkansas, though originally within the purchase from France,
had, in 1819, been traded off to Spain in our treaty for the acquisition
of Florida. It had thus become a part of Mexico.
Pages:
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223