Warning signals that a war would soon begin arose in the United States. They were first seen in the conflict that led to the Missouri Compromise of 1820. In 1819, the Missouri Territory was being considered for admission into the United States. The problem arose when it was suggested that slavery Missouri becomes an anti-slave state. At the time, there were an equal number of slave states and free states in the Union. The admission of Missouri, whether slave or free, would mess up the balance of power. Under the terms of the Missouri Compromise, however, both sides were temporarily appeased. Maine, which was also requesting admission to the Union, was granted entry as free state; Missouri was then admitted without restrictions on slavery. As the nation spread westward, the question rose again. When it did, it was in the famous Supreme Court ruling in the Dred Scott case of 1857. This decision declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional and helped pave the way for the Civil War. The Compromise of 1833 was a response to the Tariff Act of 1832. South Carolina passed an ordinance of nullification, which declared that the federal tariff laws were void. Henry Clay helped prepare a compromise to the Tariff Act that would be more acceptable to the South. The compromise tariff was approved in 1833 and prevented South Carolina from seceding from the Union by rising up against the federal government. Then in 1845, people hoped that slavery would be confined to the areas where it already existed and no longer continue to travel westward. It had been given limits by the Missouri Compromise in 1820 and could not break these barriers. Many Northerners thought that if slavery was not allowed to spread, it would ultimately decline and hopefully die. However, Texas, which already permitted slavery, entered the Union as a slave state. But California, New Mexico and Utah did not have slavery, when the United States prepared to take over these areas in 1846; there were conflicting suggestions on what to do with them.
