The first real crisis over territorial expansion took place in 1819-1821 over the admission of the state of Missouri. The proposed state of Missouri was the first (beside Louisiana itself) to be carved out of the Louisiana Purchase. It lay out of the jurisdiction of the Northwest Ordinance, which prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territories, and had a long tradition of slavery. Therefore, in 1817 Missouri applied to the Union as a slave state. The extension of slavery so far north and the threat of further expansion of slavery into all new territories of the U.S. created havoc in Congress. In February 1819, Congressman James Tallmadge, from New York, proposed an amendment that would prohibit any new slaves to enter the state and provided that all

From 1800 to 1850 America saw a growth in territorial expansion. This expansion, aided by sectionalism and the slavery issue, eventually tore the United States apart. By 1850 conditions had peaked and compromise between North and South could no longer produce an adequate solution as it had done in the past. Ten years later America plunged into the Civil War.

The next jolt to national unity was over the admission of Texas into the Union. Texas had petitioned for admission as early as 1836, and the ensuing arguments in Congress over upsetting the balance between free and slave states delayed its admission into the Union. The issue of annexation was closely linked to the issue of expansion of slavery. Southerners saw the annexation of Texas as a way to expand the nation’s cotton production and as a means to gain an additional two slave state votes in the Senate. Some Northerners feared that the annexation of Texas was part of a Southern conspiracy to extend American territory south into Mexico and South America, thereby creating unlimited new slave states. Still, in February 1845, both houses of Congress voted to annex Texas. Shortly after the annexati

Some topics in this essay:
Slave Act, North South, Union Texas, Senate December, American Sectionalism, Tallmadge York, Northwest Territories, Henry Clay, Manifest Destiny, , territorial expansion, expansion slavery, north south, annexation texas, slavery territories, texas mexico california, union slave, slave act, fugitive slave, compromise 1850, issue expansion, tore united apart, expansion slavery territories, issue expansion slavery, fugitive slave act,