Missouri Compromise (1820)When Missouri sought statehood as a slave state, there was much debate as the balance between the slave states and free would swing in favor of the slave states. This would give the South more power in the Senate. One solution proposed by the House was to pass an amendment that would make Missouri a slave state, but Missouri would not be able to take in more slaves and slave children would be freed. However, this amendment did not pass in the Senate. Another solution to this problem was created by Henry Clay, called the Missouri Compromise. This would allow Missouri to be a slave state, but enter Maine as a free state to balance the number of slave and free states. It also limited slavery to north of 36°30' latitude, which was the southern border of Missouri. Congress approved and passed the Missouri Compromise in 1820. The states were balanced, but this compromise was a factor in civil war because the North was still against the expansion of slavery. Southern citizens also opposed it because it allowed Congress to legislate slavery. These arguments over slavery would continue even if the states were balanced. Later, the Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed this compromise because it allowed popular sovereignty to decide whether Kansas and Nebraska (both above the 36 30' line) would be slave or free states. The Dred Scott decision even declared that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional under the Fifth Amendment, which prevented Congress from depriving people of their property (slaves) without following due process of law. Although there was not much controversy at the time of the compromise, it would later serve as an issue repealed and labeled unconstitutional.Kansas Nebraska Act/Bleeding...... middle of paper ..... .ave. Between the late 1860s and 1861, the Southern states began to secede from the United States, with the Constitution of the Confederate States of America granting citizens the right to own slaves. They even elected their own president, Jefferson Davis. Jefferson Davis wanted to secede from the Union peacefully, but the issue of federal property arose. The forts were federal property, but the South would not give them up easily. Since the Harpers Ferry raid, the Southern states began preparing for combat, knowing that there were many tensions between the North and the South. They saw that the North would do anything to get rid of slavery. Additionally, Lincoln's stubbornness in bringing the Confederate states back into the Union without slavery caused the Confederacy to begin taking military outposts, arsenals, and federal currency. Eventually, South Carolina attacked Fort Sumter, which directly caused the Civil War..