The Missouri territory applied for admission to the union as a slave state early in 1819. The application spurred a full-fledged congressional debate on the nature of slavery and the expansion of the institution into new territories. In February 1819, Representative James Tallmadge (1778- 1853) of New York offered an amendment to the Missouri Enabling Bill to prohibit the further introduction of slavery into the territory and to provide for the gradual emancipation of slaves already in Missouri. The amendment was passed by the House of Representatives (dominated by Northerners) and was sent to the Senate, where the amendment was eliminated from the bill. The House refused to follow the Senate action, but Congress soon adjourned and the slavery issue awaited the organization of the Sixteenth Congress. That body hammered out the Missouri Compromise.

The Tallmadge Amendment stirred up the South, which was just entering an era...