Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 17.djvu/442

 434 Southern Historical Society Papers,

by a unanimous vote against the desired restriction, and it was also presented to Congress in January following. Upon the final vote the restriction was lost, and Missouri was admitted into the Union with slavery on February 28th, 1821. Maine was received as a free State on the next day. This was according to an agreement, and all the territory north and west of the line of 36*^ 30', which was the south line of the State of Missouri, was declared by act of Congress at the same time to be free territory, and that slavery should be for- ever excluded. It was at that time occupied only by Indians and a few trappers.

The Missouri State line on the west ran due north and south, crossing the river at Kansas City, at the mouth of the Kaw river. The territory comprising the six counties in the northwest part of the State was then an Indian reservation, and contains its most fertile soil. Senators Benton and Linn succeeded in securing an extension of this State line to the river, and this extension included these fine lands, the bill being approved by President Jackson on the 7th day of June, 1836. This extension of slave territory was so quietly done, notwithstanding the anti-slavery agitation of the times, and the great debate pending in Congress on the right of petition, led by John Quincy Adams, that it hardly attracted attention, and was the first encroachment upon the terms of the Missouri compromise by any direct measure. This section of the State furnished the most aggres- sive emigration into the western territory in later years.

In the year 18 19 negotiations were opened with Spain for the pur- chase of Florida, and the treaty was ratified by both governments in July, 1 82 1, and that sovereignty was formally transferred to the United States. The north boundary line of Florida followed the St. Mary's river from its mouth to its source, thence west to the Chatta- hoochee, thence along that stream to the 31st parallel, thence west to the Mississippi river, including the present State of Florida, parts of Alabama and Mississippi, and some parts of the present Louisiana. It also included all that territory west of the Rockies and north of the 42d parallel to the British possessions, and from the Rocky mountains to the Pacific, including Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and part of Wyoming, thereby extinguishing the Spanish claims to this vast area. Florida proper was acquired with the institution of slavery existing, and was not subject to the restriction of the Mis- souri compromise, as claimed by one school of politicians and sub- ject to the restriction as claimed by the other. Slavery was neither prohibited nor sanctioned by the terms of this grant. About the