nges, the Territory of Alabama was admitted to the Union
as the twenty-second State.

[Sidenote: The Missouri problem]

There were now eleven free and eleven slave States; and serious opposition
arose to the admission of Missouri. In February, the first bill was
introduced in the House for the admission of that Territory. James
Tallmadge, Jr., of New York, proposed that there should be no personal
servitude in the State except by those already held as slaves, and that
these should be manumitted within a certain period. This proposition he
modified by moving an amendment providing that the introduction of slavery
should be prohibited, but that those already slaves in Missouri should
remain so, and that the children of such slaves should be liberated upon
reaching the age of twenty-five. The proposition to hold in slavery a
generation yet unborn was fiercely resented. The two Houses did not agree,
and the question went over to another year. The South presented an unbroken
and unyielding front. Caleb of Georgia said that this attempt to interfere
with slavery was "destructive of the peace and harmony of the union"; that
those who proposed it "were kindling a fire which all the waters of the
ocean could not extinguish. It could be extinguished only in blood."

[Sidenote: Antagonism to slavery]

[Sidenote: Maine _vs._ Missouri]

The Missouri question having been left for the next session, the cognate
issue concerning a government for the Arkansas country south of parallel
33 deg. 30' was taken up. In both Houses an amendment to prohibit slavery was
lost. As a compromise a representative from Delaware suggested a division
of the Western Territory between the free and slave States. The contest was
renewed at the December session. Resolutions of Northern Legislatures
condemning the placing of slavery under the national government were
presented, and were treated with contempt by the Southern statesmen.
Senator Mason of North Carolina said: "They may philosophize at town
meetings about it as much as they please, but they know nothing about the
question." In the House the matter was brought up in the same form as in
the previous session. James W. Taylor of New York presented an amendment
prohibiting slavery, but holding in bondage those who were already slaves.
He kept this point clearly in view through the debate that followed.
Finally the bill was passed by a vote of 91 to 82, the prohibitory
amendment being adopted by a ma