Later this same territory would form into states we know today as Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Arkansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, most of Louisiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming, and parts of Colorado and Oklahoma. .
The origin of the compromise happened in February 1819, when the House of Representatives had under consideration a bill to enable Missouri to form a state government. James Tallmadge of New York introduced an amendment providing for the gradual abolition of slavery in the proposed state. Accepted by the House, where representatives from the free states had a substantial majority, the amendment suffered defeat in the Senate. This is where the slave states were able to present a united front and received aid from the northern states. The southern state Senators did not like the wording in the Tallmadge amendment. The Tallmadge amendment was very quick to point out that slaves would be free at the age of twenty-five years old. As the last excerpt from this amendment, you can tell why the southern states never like this amendment. The amendment set off a fierce debate. In the House, on February 16, 1819, the first clause of the amendment was carried by a vote of eighty-seven to seventy six. On February 17, 1819, the second clause was carried by a vote of eighty-two to seventy eight. On February 27, 1819, the first clause was lost in the Senate to a vote of twenty-two to sixteen. As for the second clause, it lost out in a vote of thirty one to seven. The amendment had not passed to make Missouri a state. .
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James Tallmadge Amendment; " That the further introduction of slavery or involuntary servitude be prohibited, except for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been fully [duly] convicted; and that all children of slaves, born within the said State, after the admission thereof into the Union, shall be free but may be held to service until the age of twenty-five years-.
