The South had no manufactories--only agricultural products, and her
representatives combatted the measure with zeal (Explain). This tariff
bill has always caused opposition, and a glance at the daily doings at
Washington shows that it is still a bone of contention.

Mississippi was admitted as a state in 1817 with slaves; Illinois in
1818, free; and Alabama, in 1819, slave, making twenty-two states,
eleven free, and eleven slave states--an equal division. In 1819 Florida
was bought from Spain.

The greatest quarrel came when Missouri was talked of as a State. The
South wanted her left free to choose slave labor; the North feared that
this would give the Southern legislators control of the Senate. There
were numerous slaves in Missouri Territory, and she wanted to retain
them as a State. So angry were the debaters, and so heated the feeling,
that it was feared the country would go to pieces. This was as far back
as 1819. Maine, cut off from Massachusetts, now wanted to come into the
Union. As she would be a free labor State, the Southerners would not
vote for her admission unless Missouri could have slaves; hence the
Missouri Compromise Bill, of which we have all heard. Senator Jesse B.
Thomas, of Illinois, proposed this compromise. The terms of it admitted
Missouri with slaves, but prohibited slavery in any other portion of the
Louisiana Purchase north of a certain specified latitude, which was the
Southern boundary of Missouri. This quelled the matter for many years,
but most of us have seen the celebrated steel engraving, where Henry
Clay stands speaking on this question, and pouring oil on the troubled
waters. His powerful oratory so often saved the country from dissension
that he was termed the Great Pacificator. The gifted triumver, Henry
Clay from Kentucky, Daniel Webster from Massachusetts, and John C.
Calhoun from South Carolina, had labored through years to reconcile