As early as 1818, at the first session of the Fifteenth Congress, a bill was reported to the House of Representatives, authorizing the people of the Missouri Territory to form a Constitution and State Government, for the admission of such State into the Union; but at that session no final action was had. At the next session, in February, 1819, the bill was again brought forward, when an eminent Representative of New York, whose life was spared till this last autumn, Mr. James Tallmadge, moved a clause prohibiting any further introduction of slaves into the proposed State, and securing Freedom to the children born within the State, after admission into the Union, on attaining the age of twenty-five years. This important proposition, which assumed a power not only to prohibit the ingress of Slavery into the State, but also to abolish it there, was passed in the affirmative, after a vehement debate of three days. On a division of the question, the first part, prohibiting the further introduction of slaves, was adopted by eighty-seven yeas to seventy-six nays; the second part, providing for the emancipation of children, was adopted by eighty-two yeas to seventy-eight nays. Other propositions to thwart the operation of these amendments were voted down, and on the 17th of February the bill was read a third time, and passed with these important restrictions.
In the Senate, after debate, the provision for the emancipation of children was struck out by thirty-one yeas to seven nays; the other provision, against the further introduction of Slavery, was struck out by twenty-two yeas to sixteen nays. Thus emasculated, the bill was returned to the House, which, on the 2d of March, by a vote of seventy-eight nays to seventy-six yeas, refused its concurrence. The Senate adhered to their amendments, and the House, by seventy-eight yeas to sixty-six nays, adhered to their disagreement; and so at this session the Missouri Bill was lost: and here was a temporary triumph for Freedom.
Meanwhile the same controversy was renewed on the bill pending at the same time for the organization of the Territory of Arkansas, then known as the southern part of the Territory of Missouri. The restrictions already adopted in the Missouri Bill were moved by Mr. Taylor, of New York, subsequently Speaker; but, after at least five close votes, on the yeas and nays, in one of which the House was equally divided, eighty-eight yeas to eighty-eight nays, they were lost. Another proposition by Mr. Taylor, simpler in form, that Slavery should not hereafter be introduced into this Territory, was lost by ninety nays to eighty-six yeas; and the Arkansas Bill, on the 20th of February, was read the third time and passed. In the Senate, Mr. Burrill, of Rhode Island, moved, as an amendment, the prohibition of the further introduction of Slavery into this Territory, which was lost by nineteen nays to fourteen yeas. And thus, without any provision for Freedom, Arkansas was organized as a Territory: and here was a triumph of Slavery.
At this same session Alabama was admitted as a Slave State, without any restriction or objection.
It was in the discussion on the Arkansas Bill, at this session, that we find the earliest suggestion of a Compromise. Defeated in his efforts to prohibit Slavery in this Territory, Mr. Taylor stated that "he thought it important that some line should be designated beyond which Slavery should not be permitted," and he moved its prohibition hereafter in all Territories of the United States north of 36° 30´ north latitude, without any exception of Missouri, which is north of this line. This proposition, though withdrawn after debate, was at once welcomed by Mr. Livermore, of New Hampshire, as "made in the true spirit of compromise." It was opposed by Mr. Rhea, of Tennessee, on behalf of Slavery, who avowed himself against every restriction,—and also by Mr. Ogle, of Pennsylvania, on behalf of Freedom, who was "opposed to any compromise by which Slavery in any of the Territories should be recognized or sanctioned by Congress." In this spirit it was opposed and supported by others, among whom was General Harrison, afterwards President of the United States, who "assented to the expediency of establishing some such line of discrimination," but proposed a line due west from the mouth of the Des Moines, thus constituting the northern, and not the southern boundary of Missouri, the partition line between Freedom and Slavery.
This idea of Compromise, though suggested by Mr. Taylor, was thus early adopted and vindicated in this very debate by an eminent character—Mr. Louis McLane, of Delaware—who has since held high office in the country,[43] and enjoyed no common measure of public confidence. Of all the leading actors in these early scenes, he and Mr. Mercer alone are yet spared. On this occasion he said:—
"The fixing of a line on the west of the Mississippi, north of which Slavery should not be tolerated, had always been with him a favorite policy, and he hoped the day was not distant, when, upon principles of fair compromise, it might constitutionally be effected."[44]
The present attempt, however, he regarded as premature. After opposing the restriction on Missouri, he concluded by declaring:—
"At the same time, I do not mean to abandon the policy to which I alluded in the commencement of my remarks. I think it but fair that both sections of the Union should be accommodated on this subject, with regard to which so much feeling has been manifested. The same great motives of policy which reconciled and harmonized the jarring and discordant elements of our system originally, and which enabled the framers of our happy Constitution to compromise the different interests which then prevailed upon this and other subjects, if properly cherished by us, will enable us to achieve similar objects. If we meet upon principles of reciprocity, we cannot fail to do justice to all. It has already been avowed by gentlemen on this floor, from the South and the West, that they will agree upon a line which shall divide the slaveholding from the non-slaveholding States. It is this proposition I am anxious to effect; but I wish to effect it by some COMPACT which shall be binding upon all parties and all subsequent Legislatures,—which cannot be changed, and will not fluctuate with the diversity of feeling and of sentiment to which this empire, in its march, must be destined. There is a vast and immense tract of country west of the Mississippi yet to be settled, and intimately connected with the northern section of the Union, upon which this compromise can be effected."[45]
The suggestions of Compromise were at this time vain: each party was determined. The North, by the prevailing voice of its Representatives, claimed all for Freedom; the South, by its potential command of the Senate, claimed all for Slavery.