Prompt: Analyze the effectiveness the political compromise in reducing sectional tensions from 1820-1861.Make sure you discuss (but not necessarily limit your discussion to) The Missouri Compromise, The Compromise of 1850. You must discuss the debate and various opinions and the provisions of the bill and outcome From the nation's beginning, sectional tensions have always existed. During these years, however, the differences between North and South became so serious that they threatened to divide the Union. There were several attempts at compromise, including the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. In the four decades leading up to the Civil War, America was changing and developing slavery and agriculture was flourishing in the South, while industrialization continued to shape the economy of the North. Not only did this difference create great division economically, but the increasing popularity of slave labor to stimulate the Southern economy caused disagreement between the two regions. The United States government passed a series of compromise bills which intended to relieve sectional tensions in the country, which they did to some extent. However, for the most part, these compromises only served to worsen the moral and economic divisions. There were many issues dividing the North and the South, the most controversial was slavery. Slavery was seen as a moral disgrace in the North and regarded as a way of life in the South. Northerners wanted slavery to end, while Southerners were devoted to it. The issue of slavery came to a climax when Missouri applied to be admitted to the Union as a slave state. But the admission of Missouri would make it 12 slave states vs. 11 free states this giving more power to either the abolitionist North or the slaveholding South. There was a brutal debate until a proposition by Henry Clay for a compromise which was finally agreed upon. Missouri would be admitted as a slave state and Maine was admitted as a free state. A...