The economy was largely based on agriculture
A set of laws, passed in the midst of fierce wrangling between groups favoring slavery and groups opposing it, that attempted to give something to both sides. The south gained by the strengthening of the fugitive slave law, the north gained a new free state, California. Texas lost territory but was compensated with 10 million dollars to pay for its debt. Slave trade was prohibited in Washington DC, but slavery was not.
The primary concern was related to the number of congressmen from free and slave states. If Missouri was admitted into the Union as a slave state, the congress would have more Southerners than Northerners in the congress which would be bad for slaves everywhere. Northerners therefore asked that if Missouri enters as a slave state, Maine has to be separated and enter as a free state.<span />
The Spanish-America war ended when the U.S. and Spanish government signed the Treaty Paris on December 10, 1898.
