The Missouri Compromise was not conceived by Henry Clay to benefit slaveholders. The Missouri Compromise was a series of laws passed in 1820 that temporarily resolved the issue of slavery in the newly acquired Louisiana Territory. The compromise admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, and it drew a line across the 36°30′ parallel north latitude, above which slavery would be prohibited in the remaining Louisiana Territory. The Missouri Compromise was a compromise between Northern states that opposed the expansion of slavery and Southern states that supported the expansion of slavery. Henry Clay was a key figure in the negotiations that led to the Missouri Compromise, and he is credited with helping to prevent the United States from descending into civil war over the issue of slavery.