ADMISSION OF FLORIDA AND IOWA.
At this time were admitted into the Union, and by a single bill,
two States, which seem to have but few things in common to put
them together--one the oldest, the other the newest territory--one
in the extreme northwest of the Union, the other in the extreme
southeast--one the land of evergreens and perpetual flowers, the
other the climate of long and rigorous winter--one maintaining, the
other repulsing slavery. It would seem strange that two territories
so different in age, so distant from each other, so antagonistic
in natural features and political institutions, should ripen into
States at the same time, and come into the Union by a single act;
but these antagonisms--that is, the antagonistic provisions on the
subject of slavery--made the conjunction, and gave to the two young
States an inseparable admission. It happened that the slave and
free States had long before become equal in number, and a feeling
of jealousy, or a calculation of policy operated to keep them so;
and for that purpose to admit one of each character at the same
time. Thus balancing and neutralizing each other, the bill for
their admission was passed without a struggle, and furnished but
little beyond the yeas and nays--these latter a scant minority in
either House--to show the disposition of members. In the Senate the
negatives were 9 to 36 yeas: in the House 48 to 144. Numerically the
free and the slave States were thus kept even: in political power a
vast inequality was going on--the increase of population being so
much greater in the northern than in the southern region.