Missouri no-compromise

A victory for traditional marriage may be both a bellwether and a firebell | Janie B. Cheaney

When Missouri applied to join the union in 1818, she brought a long-simmering issue to a boil. Until then, the United States had an equal number of slave states and free states, so admitting Missouri would upset the balance and tilt the majority in Congress toward slave-holding interests. Naturally, Northern ­congressmen balked.

It took two years to work out the famous Compromise, whereby Maine (a free state) was admitted at the same time as Missouri and slavery was permanently banned in new states north of Missouri's southern border. That turned down the heat on the slavery issue, but thoughtful observers knew it was only temporary. Thomas Jefferson called the Missouri Compromise a "firebell in the night," the first alarm of a flame that would not be easily quenched.