South Carolinians felt a number of states including Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Illinois (among others) were enacting laws that either negated acts of Congress or rendered attempts at executing them useless. The constitutional article in question is Article 4, which states:.

             No person held to service in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due. .

             The South (especially South Carolina) was angry that too many of their slaves had escaped to the North and were being permitted to live free, despite Article 4. The South felt powerless to stop these actions and hence moved for secession, and eventually seceded on December 20, 1860. Charles O'Conor, a prominent lawyer in the South, stated:.

             If the South cannot otherwise protect itself against the aggravated spirit of the North, a real necessity for this act is secession.[from the] people of the North, who have drunk into their bosoms their dreadful error to crush out and trample this system of slavery. .

             A little more than two months later, Alabama, Missouri, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas all followed in South Carolina's footsteps and seceded by February 1, 1861. The growing anxieties and varying views on slavery put the nation's unity to the test and gave rise to the need for compromise. Enter John Crittenden with his plan.

             Crittenden's plan included two congressional resolutions and five constitutional amendments (also called Articles), the first of which called for the extension of the Missouri Compromise (36°30') line to the Pacific Ocean so that it would include all territories then part of the United States or "hereafter acquired." All land north of the line would be considered free and all land south would be slave; also, any land later acquired south of the line would be up to the territory to decide.