The Missouri Compromise By 1819, a heated controversy over whether or not Missouri was to be admitted to the Union as a slave state or as a free state was underway. Before Missouri's admission to the Union, there was an equal balance of free state and slave state senators in the United Sates Senate. If Missouri was to be admitted as a slave state without the admission of another free state, it would have upset the …showed first 75 words of 914 total…

…showed last 75 words of 914 total…Missouri 1). Also, the fact that new states north of the southern border of Missouri, excluding Missouri, were to be free only applied to the remaining lands of the Louisiana Purchase. To keep the balance in the United States Senate, Maine, which was also applying for statehood at the time, was admitted to the Union as a free state. The Missouri Compromise really seemed quite simple. The South was satisfied with Missouri as a slave s