The Missouri Compromise: Missouri's "Sarcastic and Defiant" Compliance

By way of reminder, Henry Clay’s compromise resolution ending the second Missouri Crisis called for the admission of Missouri, “Provided, that the legislature of the said state, by a solemn public act, shall declare the assent of the said state to the . . . fundamental condition”

that the fourth clause of the twenty-sixth section of the third article of the constitution submitted on the part of said state to Congress, shall never be construed to authorize the passage of any law, and that no law shall be passed in conformity thereto, by which any citizen, of either [any?] of the states in this Union, shall be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and immunities to which such citizen is entitled under the constitution of the United States . . .

Glover Moore reports that, “In June 1821, the Missouri legislature made the promise which Congress desired but expressed it in such sarcastic and defiant language that the ire of the antislavery press was again aroused.” Although Moore did not quote Missouri’s language, you may be sure that his description made me determined to find it, and here it is. I really like the way it is entitled a "Solemn Public Act”, thus mocking the resolution:

A SOLEMN PUBLIC ACT, declaring the assent of this State to the fundamental condition contained in a resolution passed by the Congress of the United States, providing for the admission of the State of Missouri into the Union on a certain condition.

Whereas, the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, by their resolution approved on the second day of March, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and twenty-one, did declare that Missouri shall be admitted into this Union, upon an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever, upon the fundamental condition, that the fourth clause of the twenty-sixth section of the third article of the constitution, submitted on the part of said State to Congress, shall never be construed to authorize the passage of any law, and that no law shall be passed in conformity thereto, by which any citizen of either of the States in this Union, shall be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and immunities to which such citizen is entitled under the Constitution of the United States; provided, that the legislature of the said State, by a solemn public act, shall declare the assent of said state, to the said fundamental condition, and shall transmit to the President of the U. States, on or before the fourth Monday in November next, an authentic copy of the said act; upon the receipt whereof, the President, by proclamation shall announce the fact, whereupon, and without any further proceeding on the part of Congress, the admission of said state into this Union shall be considered as complete.

Now, for as much as the good people of this state have by the most solemn and public act in their power, virtually assented to the said fundamental condition, when by their representatives in full and free convention assembled, they adopted the constitution of this state, and consented to be incorporated into the Federal Union, and governed by the constitution of the United States, which among other things provides that the said constitution, and the laws of the United States made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land, and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or law of any state to the contrary notwithstanding; and although this general assembly are of opinion that the congress of the United States have no constitutional power to annex any condition to the admission of this state into the federal Union, and that this general assembly have no power to change the operation of the constitution of this state, except in the mode prescribed by the constitution itself; Nevertheless, as the congress of the United States have desired this general assembly to declare the assent of this state to said fundamental condition, and forasmuch as such declaration will neither restrain, or enlarge, limit or extend the operation of the constitution of the United States, or of this state, but the said constitutions will remain in all respects as if the said resolution had never passed, and the desired declaration was never made, and because such declaration will not divest any power or change the duties of any of the constituted authorities of this state, or of the United States, nor impair the rights of the people of this state, or impose any additional obligation upon them, but may promote an earlier enjoyment of their vested federal rights, and this state being moreover determined to give to her sister states, and to the world, the most unequivocal proof of her desire to promote the peace and harmony of the Union, Therefore, Be it enacted and declared by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri, and it is hereby solemnly and publicly enacted and declared,

That this state has assented and does assent that the fourth clause of the twenty-sixth section of the third article of the constitution of this state, shall never be construed to authorize the passage of any law, and that no law shall be passed in conformity thereto, by which any citizen of either of the United States shall be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and immunities to which such citizens are entitled under the constitution of the United States.
Approved, June 26, 1821.

Moore archly describes the denouement:

President [James] Monroe, less squeamish than [Theodore] Dwight and [Robert] Walsh and happy to be rid of a vexatious problem, proclaimed the final admission of Missouri on August 10, 1821.