Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 2).djvu/359

Rh without the exclusion of slavery; there were those who would vote for the territorial governments, but not for the Texan boundary; and those who would not vote for the admission of California in any combination. In other words, it appeared probable that, while each of the different propositions might receive a majority of votes, the different majorities would be composed of different sets of men, and the combined measure would receive no majority at all, on account of the opposition of different men to different parts of it. The anti-slavery men insisted upon the admission of California and territorial governments with the Wilmot Proviso. The extreme pro-slavery men, led by Jefferson Davis, Butler, Mason, and Soulé, would not only not accept the admission of California, but demanded a positive recognition of the right of slave-holders to take their slave property into the territories. Rusk of Texas would not vote for any bill reducing the area claimed by Texas; and Benton opposed the compromise because it yielded to Texas too much of the territory belonging to New Mexico, and because it made the admission of California dependent upon the passage of other measures. While Clay's plan was supported by such Northern men as Webster, Cass, Douglas, and Cooper, and by such Southern Whigs as Badger and Bell, other Southern Whigs took as violently hostile an attitude as the Southern Democrats; and the various elements of opposition, so utterly divergent in their ultimate aims, threatened, if