The determined spirit of the slavery propagandists, as evinced in the discussion attending the territorial organization of Arkansas and the defeated Missouri bill, created intense interest and feeling throughout the country, and, at the convening of the new Congress on December 6, 1819, it was apparent that party lines could no longer prevent the slavery question from becoming the vital issue of the time.

Early in the session, the House passed a bill admitting Maine as a State, and sent the same to the Senate for concurrence. In the meantime, the Missouri petition was referred to a committee. In the end, a compromise was met that Maine would be admitted as a free state and Missouri would be admitted as a Slave State. The compromise also provided for provisions that excluded slavery from the Missouri Territory north of the parallel 36°30' north (the southern boundary of Missouri, except within the limits of the proposed state of Missouri.

Though the compromise had been made, the bitter disputes in gaining the agreement led to intense competition between the southern and northern states for power in Congress and for control over future territories. The debates also resulted in a radical change of opinion on the part of the South in regard to the institution of slavery. The profits accruing from servile labor, with the arrogance sprung from the unnatural relations of master and slave, had, in a generation, remolded the character of the Southern whites. Conscience no longer told them of the inhumanity of the traffic. Apology had given place to justification. It was no longer an acknowledged evil, only to be endured until it could be safely eradicated, but an essential and indispensable element in the structure of Southern civilization, to be fostered and perpetuated as such. The abolition of slavery, even at any remote or indefinite time, had no advocates except among the radical and somewhat unpractical abolitionists, who, though meager in numbers, continued to cry aloud against the enormity. The conservative North sought only its restriction; the solid South, forgetful of the traditions of the fathers, boldly championed it as a heaven-sanctioned institution, to be protected and defended under the constitution so long as possible, with disunion as the alternative.

There was; however, one most important advantage gained by the North -- the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase was, for the first time, freed from the chances of ever establishing slavery within its borders. Kansas, so much as was a part of Louisiana, was a part of the territory thus solemnly pledged to freedom.