The repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854 stands conspicuous as a turning point of the American slavery controversy. It put an end forever to the long series of accommodations between the territorial claims of slavery and freedom. An apparently innocent bill to organize a territorial government west of the Missouri River provoked a gigantic and picturesque parliamentary duel in the Senate Chamber of the United States, and with the termination of that last gladiatorial combat in the arena of Congress, the day had passed for peaceful adjustments and for compromises based on mutual good faith. The estrangement of the sections was irreconcilable. The appeal to arms was the only and inevitable means of ending forever the irrepressible conflict. To advance a new explanation of the circumstances under which the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was conceived, and how the repeal happened in 1854 is the main purpose of this book.

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