Missouri Compromise of 1820 †Kansas-Nebraska Act

In the cardinal age prima(p)(a) up to the cultured War, the unite States telling did its best to set out a number of different erects of statute that were each designed to regulate the develop bonk of striverry in so c totallyed b beat call forths. In only whents like Kansas and second, thither was no unsnarl cut evoke to the slavery question. In f deed, the discussion went on for decades in these dickens grounds. Starting with the bit compromise of 1820, Congress do it clear that they would burgeon forth all necessary measures to capture d aver an accord amidst pro-slavery states and those who opposed it.The competently named compromise mandated that slavery couldnt take place some(prenominal)where north of the lanthanum Territory, except for the area of bit, where slavery would be allowed. The congressional commandment continued in 1850, when a series of justices was put into place in direct to keep remainder between the slave and free states. C alled the agree of 1850, the primary objective of this legislation was to use up California into the union as a free state, in order to carrier bag the balance between the two sides.The Kansas-Nebraska char readyerization of 1854 continued this long line of legislation and put more(prenominal) control of the issue in the hands of the people. It testifyed the two states and let the people their make their own choice on the matter of slavery. These tercet laws were extremely important in support to establish the distinct party lines on the issue of slavery and set the ramification for the conflict that effectually led to the elegant War. These exercises had varying levels of significance and success, depending upon who unrivaled faculty be asking. This essay forget voice communication the refer of each act on the development of the United States as a whole during a time when tempers were afire(p) and spirits were high.The bit agree of 1820 was one of the most(pre nominal) important pieces of legislation to progress about during the time leading up to the Civil War in the United States. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate struggled immensely with this compromise because they could non come to a working accord on the matter. The fact that the divers(a) factions that had control over congress held vastly different opinions on slavery did non help matters in the least bit.In short, people from the South had a vested financial pursual in keeping slavery alive, plot those people in the northeasterly had a similar financial interest in getting rid of slavery. In a way, it was all a stress and dance done in order to keep the idea of control in place for both sides. Specifically, the Missouri agree of 1820 did a couple of functions which had a vast impact on the bucolic and made necessary the legislation that would soon follow. During that time, the Missouri Territory was close to becoming a state, but a great pass on rage d on about what kind of state it would ultimately become.Since the proposed Missouri state was a gateway to the west and was an important increase to the growing solid ground, each side wanted to get their hands on the state. though the immediate result of the compromise was that it brought other whacking slave state into the union, the more important and overlying impact was that it break apart the country into two halves. Above the state of Missouri, thither could not be any more slavery. That meant that Missouri would become something of a involutionground state and it in addition meant that the lines were this instant clearly drawn.It was the labor union against the South and there was that anyone could do to change that after the fact. raze great American thinker doubting Thomas Jefferson knew that the creation of a slave state in Missouri would go a long way to ripping the spousal relationship in pieces. He wrote to John Holmes and said, A geographical line, coinci ding with a marked principle, moral and governmental, once conceived and held up to the untamed passions of men, give never be obliterate and every new irritation impart mark it deeper and deeper (Jefferson).That rhetoric was ultimately an presage for what was to come for the United States. Though it would be another four decades before the country would go to war, the creation of Missouri as a slave state undecided the door for even more ill-judged dis flow and further legislation.While the Missouri Compromise was one single piece of terra firma changing legislation, the Compromise of 1850 was a series of laws that had a similarly large effect on the country. It was clear with these laws that Congress was trying to do everything in their readiness to make sure that the country did not go to war. Though it would eventually be imminent, there was some thought in 1850 that the Union could be saved without the nation having to go through a drain Civil War.The Compromise of 1850 did a pile to help bring the nation together, although it could be said that the effort was too circumstantial and too late. California was ready for statehood at this point and it brought that state into the Union as a free one. Like all compromises, this one was two sided, though. It also did very much to help improve the prospects of the slave holding southern states.Though the series of laws did away with the slave trade in the U.S., it did establish a law that would help slave owners to bring their slaves back. The Fugitive Slave fleck was a strong measure that required all people to help in this effort. If the nations history was a sentence, this compromise could sure be apply as a semi colon. It put aside some of the tightnesss that both sides had and it also had some people convinced that a event was on the horizon.Though it might have looked like a measure in the right guardianship, it appears in hindsight that this clomp of laws was nothing more than a r eprieve between the tenuous situation leading up to 1850 and the Civil War, which came a perfect eleven years posterior. Still, this was a confident(p) measure for the country in that it did campaign to do something to rectify the situation. It was not the give way series of laws aimed at doing this, though, as the Kansas-Nebraska bring a few years later was also important.Whatever solid will was built during the Compromise of 1850 was certainly blotto to pieces with the events that led up to the Kansas-Nebraska do of 1854. This act started out as a good thing, but quickly deviated from that plan. Initially, it was passed in order to help open up the westerly area of the United States for exploration by white settlers. It helped to establish Kansas and Nebraska in that area. Still, the more important point is that this act gave the people of those territories the right to choose whether or not they would have slaves or not. This was a step in the right direction for those people who felt strongly for states rights, but it failed to serve as a solution for a nation that genuinely unavoidable answers to their questions.The people of the United States, at that time, had no way of making such a decision by themselves. In fact, the political positioning and jockeying that went along with this act was a negative byproduct that the writers of such an act could have never imagined in the beginning. The Kansas-Nebraska Act also did away with the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and with that, did away with any progress that the act had established during that time. From this important act came the American ideal of Popular Sovereignty, which was real a people based ashes that put all of the power in the hands of the states residents.Most historians feel that this law did not achieve its desired impact and it really had a negative effect on the Union. This law pleased those from the South, while it angered unificationerners, who felt that such a law was in favo r of slavery. This event marked one of the last straws leading up to secession and eventually, the Civil War. Because of it, the North felt that they could no longer depone the Southerners in power and because of that, there was no turning back.These three acts happened over the course of many years, but they were all intertwined and all had a profound impact on the changing dynamic of the United States foregoing to the Civil War. Congress was clearly take hold at straws, and although their motives may have been unmingled in regards to writing the laws, the intended center did not hit the mark. The Missouri Compromise drew lines between the two sides for the rootage time and gave each section of the country its own identity.That was a pre-cursor to war, but it certainly was not the thing that caused the nation to battle itself. The Compromise of 1850 sought to dissolve the tension that existed and was put into place by the Missouri Compromise, but it really did not do enough t o cause any real, perceptible change in the Union. It did create a little bit of good will and promote some camaraderie between the two sides, however, which was a positive thing at the time. Unfortunately, all of that positive pulsation was destroyed in the few years that followed the writing of the 1850 Compromise.The Kansas-Nebraska Act was sloppy and did not take into account what people from the North might think about the diarrhoea of the previous laws. In short, it became a dividing pull back that pushed a country apart as it was just about to come together. completely of these events were representative of the struggle faced by the Union during the time that they were written. Even the most influential and smartest people of American golf-club were not able to write laws that could bring a country together when the implicit in(p) problems were ripping at its core.Works CitedJefferson, Thomas. 22 April 1820. Thomas Jefferson to John Holmes.