MISSOURI COMPROMISE.


Constitution of the State of Missouri. November 14, 1820. Washington: Gales & Seaton, 1820. 8vo (220 x 130 mm). 25 pp. Bound with other 1820 Senate documents (nos 1-41) in full library cloth, red and black gilt labels to spine. Dampstained and toned. THE SENATE PUBLICATION OF THE CONSTITUTION OF MISSOURI. When Missouri applied for statehood, the delicate balance between slave and free states (which stood at 22 each) threatened to upend. The compromise was to bring Maine into the union as a free state, and to prohibit slavery in the northern regions (except for Missouri). The state constitution printed here prohibits the legislature from passing laws for the emancipation of slave without the consent of their owners and to prohibit free people of color from coming to and settling in the state "under any pretext whatsoever," among other regulations supporting the institution of slavery.