gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) any of various conditions resulting from gastroesophageal reflux, ranging in seriousness from mild to life-threatening; principal characteristics are heartburn and regurgitation. When there is damage to the esophageal epithelium, it is known as reflux esophagitis.
Missouri Compromise Map. (Missouri Compromise 1820 Map) An Act to authorize the people of the Missouri territory to form a constitution and state government, and for the admission of such state into the Union on an equal footing with the original states, and to prohibit slavery in certain territories.
Henry Clay, a leading congressman, played a crucial role in brokering a two-part solution known as the Missouri Compromise. First, Missouri would be admitted to the union as a slave state, but would be balanced by the admission of Maine, a free state, that had long wanted to be separated from Massachusetts. Second, slavery was to be excluded from all new states in the Louisiana Purchase north of the southern boundary of Missouri. People on both sides of the controversy saw the compromise as deeply flawed.