The American people have since become painfully aware that this was a delusion; and the question has often been asked whether, in view of what came afterwards, those who accommodated the Missouri quarrel really did a good service to their country. It is an interesting question. The compromise had in fact settled only two points: the admission of Missouri as a slave state; and the recognition of the right of slavery to go, if the settlers there wanted it, into the territory belonging to the Louisiana purchase south of 36° 30′. It was practically so recognized in the newly organized territory of Arkansas. So far, the compromise directly and substantially strengthened the slave interest. On the other hand, the slave interest had, in order to secure these advantages, been compelled to acquiesce in two constitutional doctrines: that Congress had the power to exclude slavery from the territories of the United States, and that the admission of new states could be made subject to conditions. But these points, especially the first one, were yielded only for the occasion, and might be withdrawn when the interests of slavery should demand that the territory north of 36° 30′ be opened to its invasion, as actually happened some thirty-four years later in the case of Kansas.
The compromise had another sinister feature. The anti-slavery sentiment in the North, invoked by the Missouri controversy, was no doubt strong and sincere. The South threatened the dissolution
