Missouri Compromise

The Missouri Compromise was enacted in 1820 and mostly affected the pro and anti-slavery states. It was made to balance the free and slave states. It also banned slavery from the Louisiana Territory, not including Missouri. Because of this, Massachusetts was separated from the top portion of the state that was then called Maine, and became a new free state. In 1819 James Tallmadge offered a Amendment called the Tallmadge Amendment, this made it so that slaves were not allowed in Missouri and that all the children born in this state under a slave shall be freed at the age of 25.

Nullification

    Nullification : To invalitdate a law.

     In 1828 a topic of debate was the tariff placed on imported goods, the southerners were'nt happy with this because with a tariff on imported goods, the cost of goods that were not in the US rose. To counter act the tariffs a man named John Calhoun applied a Nillification. This meant that the states were able to nullify (nutrilize) federal law. The nullification caused high tension between federal law and the southern states. 


Links:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nullification

Slavery as a Cause

     Slavery was the main factor leading up to the Civil War. The country was divided by North and South, North was against slavery while the South was all for it. The north and south tended to bump heads frequently, and in order to maintain a peaceful country they had to resolve their disagreements. Thus creating the Compromise of 1850 (an agreement between the north and south to even out the free and slave states). California wanted to enter as a free state but there was no slave state to balance it out, therefore Texas divided in to 5 separate states (Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Texas).