The Compromise of 1850 had similarities to the Missouri Compromise thirty years earlier. In this compromise, California was admitted as a free state and the land being disputed over by Texas and New Mexico was to be awarded to the ladder. Moreover, Washington D.C. was to abolish the slave trade, but not slavery. In return, proponents of slavery were awarded a federal stipend to Texas and the remainder of the land was to determine the issue of slavery by popular sovereignty. More stringent provisions of the Fugitive Slave Law also aided in maintaining the position of slaves in the South. Unfortunately, this compromise differed from the Missouri Compromise with the introduction of popular sovereignty. Not admitting any states with slavery only added fuel to the fire between the North and South. The stage was being set for a violent confrontation of ideologies. The Compromise of 1850 was one of the major stepping stones toward the Civil War.

            Sectional compromises greatly affected the balance of power between the North and South. The issue of slavery dominated the political arena in the time period just prior to the war. As those in the North were vehemently denying the idea of slavery, the South was being forced to concede more and more. The introduction of new states were no longer given the right to slavery; they were allowed to utilize popular sovereignty as the method of determining the state’s stance of the issue. Although this was a more democratic method, it seriously shifted the balance of power toward the abolitionists. With the sectional power shifting toward the North, the tensions were beginning to rise to an unprecedented level. No longer could the issues be settled politically. The tone of the nation was changing and the idea of violent action was beginning to become a realistic option. With Stephen Douglas’ Kansas-Nebraska scheme, the Gadsden scheme of expanding the south was acted against. The bloody conflict that arouse there was a prelude to the horrors the Civil War would soon present.

            Reality had sunk in by 1854 that slavery was an issue that could not be thrown under the rug. The Missouri Compromise was completed in a time where slavery was not of the utmost importance and could be avoided in order to progress. But even though the nation thought it was successfully avoiding the issue, it was only worsening the situation by building the tensions. When it was finally time to handle the situation, the chance for diplomatic and peaceful resolution had passed. The sectional divide was no longer over the issues; it was now over differing ideals of seemingly two separate nations. The induction of sound political opposition would lead to bloody conflict, beginning in Kansas. From there, the sectional divide would prove to have only one solution: violence. The Civil War was not a war to end slavery, but a war over conflicting ideals within a nation. Sectional disagreements were the root cause of the Civil War, a war that finally saw America address the issue of slavery once and for all.

The Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise of 1850 were both very similar.  They were both created to bring peace between the south and north.  However they were different in the way they affected the balance of power.  The Compromise of 1820 balanced the power of the South and the North, but the compromise of 1850 caused it to not be stable.  When these two compromises were ruined in order to create the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, the issues between the South and North were once again causing problems.

The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was created to determine which states would be slave and which would be free.  There were many tensions between groups in the United States before everyone accepted this compromise.  The two groups were the South, who were in favor of slavery, and the North, who were against slavery.  In order to keep both sides happy and to keep peace in the United States, it was decided that one state, Missouri, would be entered as a slave state while Maine would enter as a free state.  This compromise kept the free and slave powers to be balanced. 

            After California was obtained by the United States it then wanted to be admitted as a free state.  This led to intense debating between pro-slavery statesmen and anti-slavery statesmen.  After President Taylor died in 1850, his replacement, Vice President Millard Fillmore signed a series of compromises in order to create peace between the North and South.  This compromise caused the balance between the slave states and free states to no longer be. 

            Both the Compromise of 1850 and the Missouri Compromise of 1820 were created in order to end the disputing between the North and the South.  The issue that was being compromised in each of them was that of which states should be free and which ones should be slave states.  A difference between the two was the manner in which the people accepted them.  In the Missouri Compromise of 1820, both the North and South accepted it without difficulty.  This is because it allowed there to be a balance between the number of slave states and the number of free states.  The North quickly accepted the Compromise of 1850 since they gained the most from it; more free states became a part of the United States.  The South, however, did not accept it so easily.  This is mainly because the balance between the North and the South was nevermore restored.  At first the South were very angry with the North and even boycotted northern goods.  After a while, the South then reluctantly accepted this compromise.

            In 1854 no compromise would have been able to keep the peace between the north and the south.  When Senator A. Douglas tried to help the South gain one more slave state by ignoring the Missouri Compromise of 1820 to allow Kansas to become a slave state.  The South, presumably, were in favor of this Kansas-Nebraska Act.  However the North refused to allow the Compromise of 1820 to be canceled.  When this act was passes, it ruined both the Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise of 1850.  This act destroyed the peace between the North and South, a peace that would not return for many years.

            The Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise of 1850 were both similar and dissimilar.  However they both kept peace in the nation.  When they were destroyed, the United States was not able to keep the country peaceful any longer.

          The Compromise of 1850 and the Missouri Compromise of 1820 were very similar in that their main purpose was to balance the Senate with free and slave states. North and South each had to make concessions, but they were more equal in the Compromise of 1850.  They also both tried to find solutions for future problems, but neither was able to establish a permanent solution to the slavery controversy.

          Each compromise kept the balance of power between the North and South by ensuring that for each new state admitted as slave, a free state would be admitted at the same time. The sectional issues could be compromised in 1820 and 1850, but not in 1854 because by that time the North and South couldn’t stand each other for a minute longer. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was really what threw everything to the dogs. It was pushed through by Stephen A. Douglas for unknown reasons and said that Kansas and Nebraska would have popular sovereignty. To do this, the Missouri Compromise was repealed. The fact that an honored and important compromise would be repealed so that more states could become slave outraged the North. After that, the abolitionists gained a large following and the Fugitive Slave Law became nothing more than a piece of paper in the North. The South grew angry because a law that was very important to them wasn’t enforced. They were also infuriated because free-soilers were trying to control Kansas, which they believed contrary to the presumed “deal,” (that Kansas would be slave and Nebraska free.)