" At a subsequent session of Congress, at which
Missouri asked admission as a State with a Constitution prohibiting her
Legislature from passing emancipation laws, or such as would prevent the
immigration of Slaves, while requiring it to enact such as would
absolutely prevent the immigration of Free Negroes or Mulattoes, a
further Compromise was agreed to by Congress under the inspiration of
Mr. Clay, by which it was laid down as a condition precedent to her
admission as a State--a condition subsequently complied with--that
Missouri must pledge herself that her Legislature should pass no act "by
which any of the citizens of either of the States should be excluded
from the enjoyment of the privileges and immunities to which they are
entitled under the Constitution of the United States."
This, in a nut-shell, was the memorable Missouri Struggle, and the
"Compromise" or Compromises which settled and ended it. But during that
struggle--as during the formation of the Federal Constitution and at
various times in the interval when exciting questions had arisen--the
bands of National Union were more than once rudely strained, and this
time to such a degree as even to shake the faith of some of the firmest
believers in the perpetuity of that Union.
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