| OF IOWA | 145 |
After a brief discussion the proviso was adopted in the House of Representatives by a vote of seventy-nine ayes to sixty-seven nays. This was the beginning of the great conflict between freedom and slavery in the new States and Territories, which forty-three years later brought on the armed attempt of the slave-holding States to overthrow the National Government and establish a slave-holding Confederacy.
After a lengthy and bitter contest over slavery in Missouri, a compromise was effected, largely through the influence of Henry Clay, who was Speaker of the House. This settlement became famous under the name of the “Missouri Compromise.” The Senate favored the admission of Missouri as a slave State, while the House insisted upon the exclusion of slavery. The remarkable influence and eloquence of Henry Clay finally persuaded a majority of the members of the House to admit Missouri as a slave State, upon the condition that slavery should forever be excluded from that portion of the Louisiana Purchase lying north of latitude 36 degrees, 30 minutes, excepting Missouri.
This compromise was a guarantee by Congress that all States lying north of that line should in the future be admitted free, while slavery might be extended in Territories and States south of the compromise line, as far as the limits of the original Louisiana Purchase. During the controversy over the admission of Missouri, the District of Arkansas was detached and organized into the Territory of Arkansas. In defining the northern boundary of Missouri, the following language was employed.
“From the point aforesaid north along said meridian line to the intersection of the parallel of latitude which passes through the rapids of the River Des Moines, making the said line to correspond with the Indian boundary line; thence east from the point of intersection last aforesaid along said parallel of latitude to the middle of the channel of the main fork of said River Des Moines, to the mouth of the same, where it empties into the Mississippi River, thence due east to the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi River.”
[Vol. 1]
