Answer:
I would say that the best answer to the two questions: Do you think the solutions set forth in those compromises were good ideas? Why do you think the compromises did not hold the nation together? Would be: Issues at the heart of the various compromises, including the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850.
Explanation:
At the very heart of the problems that began to divide the United States into North and South, and drove enmity between the two sides, lay the issue of slavery, but more than that, the implications of its spread towards the territories that were now being admitted as states into the country. While the North wished for the abolition of slavery, and to prevent this institution from being allowed to spread to the new territories, like California and Louisiana, as well as Missouri, who applied for admission in 1820, the South pushed forth to prevent measures that would stop the spread of slavery and the abolition of this institution. In both the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850, the federal government, in an attempt to staunch the growing conflict agreed with new incoming states, like Missouri and California, to be admitted, one as a slave state, while the other was admitted as a free state. The same happened with other territories that requested admission, or that were annexed, to the Union. However, the problem stemmed from the lack of a strong stance on the part of the government on the issue that divided both regions: slavery and its expansion. These Compromises, among other minor ones that dealt with the same issue, only divided North and South more, as both wished for more definitive action.
