Before his presidency, and while Monroe was governor of Virginia, Jefferson sent Monroe and Robert Livingston to negotiate the purchase of the port of New Orleans. I infer that due to the fact that Monroe was the minister to France from 1794 to 1796, Jefferson asked Monroe to negotiate with Napoleon. …show more content…
The ratification of statehood could have threatened the balance of the number of slave states and free states. Before the application for statehood, there was elven free states and eleven slave-holding states. A congressman from New York called James Talmadge created a bill to have Missouri restrict slavery with having slaves being freed at the age of twenty-five. Ultimately, he wanted Missouri to be a free state. The bill passed the House of Representatives but did not pass the Senate. Henry Clay from Virginia coordinated the Missouri Compromise, stating that Missouri would be admitted as a slave state and Maine would join the Union as a free state. The Missouri Compromise was an attempt from Congress to dissolve the diplomatic issue of slaves commenced by the permission of statehood of Missouri. Also, they wanted to avoid civil war between the North and the South of the United States. Monroe was from a slave state (Virginia), but did not integrate in the discussion of slavery and made the matter Congress’s problem. Monroe did own slaves but favored the initiation of a West African colony where freed slaves could go to called Liberia. They named the capital Monrovia, honoring