In 1820 the territory of Missouri sought admission into the Union. The question as to whether it should be admitted as a free or a slave State was so warmly and violently discussed in Congress that many were alarmed lest it would lead to the dissolution of the Union. The territory was finally admitted as a slave State, but on the express condition that slavery would forever be excluded from all that part of the territory of the United States lying north of 36 degrees and 30 minutes. This provision was known as "the Missouri Compromise." In 1850 the "Fugitive Slave Law" was passed by Congress, which was, in part, to the effect that it was a penal offense to render any accommodations, assistance, or show any favors whatever to runaway slaves; also that officers were empowered to compel citizens, in the North as well as in the South, to assist in the capture of such slaves. As the Missouri Compromise forever excluded slavery from the northwestern territories, the "forever" terminated when Congress, in May, 1854, passed the celebrated Kansas-Nebraska Bill, introduced by Stephen A. Douglas, the Democratic Senator from Illinois. Its main provision was that each territory seeking admission into the Union might decide by vote of its inhabitants whether it should be admitted as a free or a slave State. This virtually repealed the Missouri Compromise, which Douglas had declared "to be sacred," and a law which "no human hand should destroy." This act was considered such a flagrant violation of a trust, breaking down all legal barriers to the possible spread of slavery, that it aroused great indignation throughout the North. Mr. Lincoln, just prior to the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, as already stated by Mr. Merwin in the last chapter, had become inactive in politics, and had given himself more fully to the practice of law. In furnishing a short biography of himself for a friend, in 1859, he said, "I was losing interest in politics when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again." He now saw the great danger of slavery enlarging its territory indefinitely, and was alarmed at the serious nature of the situation.