We trace how the Missouri Compromise tried to hold a fragile Union together by pairing Missouri and Maine, drawing a line across the map, and postponing a moral decision. The story connects founding-era bargains to Kansas-Nebraska, Dred Scott, and the rise of a party that said no more expansion of slavery.

• Louisiana Purchase expansion without slavery rules
• Declaration ideals versus entrenched slavery
• Congress as lead actor under Monroe
• Missouri as slave state, Maine as free state
• The geographic line and Senate balance
• Jefferson’s “firebell in the night” warning
• Founding compromises and three-fifths power boost
• Abolitionist surge and pro-slavery ideology
• Compromise of 1850 as echo of 1820
• Kansas-Nebraska repeal and Dred Scott escalation
• Republican Party rise and end of compromise

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