Changes

===Political machinations and compromises===

===Political machinations and compromises===

The '''Missouri Compromise of 1820''' allowed for the entry of Maine into the Union as a free state, and Missouri as a slave state.  It was further agreed that slavery was to be excluded from territory north of the 36°30′ parallel, or the remaining western territories. Before admission could be granted to Missouri a clause in the state's constitution provoked controversy: the exclusion of "free Negroes and mulattoes".  Under Whig Henry Clay's influence in the U.S. senate, an act of admission was passed, upon condition that the controversial [[exclusionary clause]] should "never be construed to authorize the passage of any law" impairing the privileges and immunities of free citizens. The compromise seemed deliberately ambiguous in that it could be interpreted to indicate that free blacks and mulattoes did not qualify as United States citizens, which would be put to direct test years later with a slave named Dred Scott. [http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Missouri.html]

The '''[[Missouri Compromise (1820)]]''' allowed for the entry of Maine into the Union as a free state, and Missouri as a slave state.  It was further agreed that slavery was to be excluded from territory north of the 36°30′ parallel, or the remaining western territories. Before admission could be granted to Missouri a clause in the state's constitution provoked controversy: the exclusion of "free Negroes and mulattoes".  Under Whig Henry Clay's influence in the U.S. senate, an act of admission was passed, upon condition that the controversial [[exclusionary clause]] should "never be construed to authorize the passage of any law" impairing the privileges and immunities of free citizens. The compromise seemed deliberately ambiguous in that it could be interpreted to indicate that free blacks and mulattoes did not qualify as United States citizens, which would be put to direct test years later with a slave named Dred Scott. [http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Missouri.html]

Another crisis arose from the request of the California Territory to be admitted to the Union as a [[free state]]; this was complicated by territory acquired in the southwest as a result of the [[Mexican War]] of 1848 and whether to extend slavery there.  An omnibus bill drafted by [[Henry Clay]] called the '''Compromise of 1850''' tried to give satisfaction to the southern states in addition to California's admission: the settlement of the Texas-New Mexico border dispute; the slavery question open for voting via popular sovereignty in the Utah and New Mexico territories as they were organized; the end of slave trading in the District of Columbia; and tough requirements concerning [[runaway slave]]s. [http://blueandgraytrail.com/event/Compromise_of_1850]

Another crisis arose from the request of the California Territory to be admitted to the Union as a [[free state]]; this was complicated by territory acquired in the southwest as a result of the [[Mexican War]] of 1848 and whether to extend slavery there.  An omnibus bill drafted by [[Henry Clay]] called the '''Compromise of 1850''' tried to give satisfaction to the southern states in addition to California's admission: the settlement of the Texas-New Mexico border dispute; the slavery question open for voting via popular sovereignty in the Utah and New Mexico territories as they were organized; the end of slave trading in the District of Columbia; and tough requirements concerning [[runaway slave]]s. [http://blueandgraytrail.com/event/Compromise_of_1850]