ON THIS DAY IN UNITED STATES HISTORY
March 6, 1820
The Missouri Compromise is Signed Into Law
by United States President James Monroe
On this day in 1820, the Missouri Compromise was signed into law allowing Missouri to join the Union as a slave
state while prohibiting slavery in the northern part of the Louisiana Territory.
In a letter on April 21, Thomas Jefferson predicted that the fallout from the Missouri Compromise would lead to the
eventual breakup of the Union. Sadly, some forty years later it would require the sacrifice of more than 600,000
lives in the American Civil War to prevent that from happening.
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