Above
Texas, and below the line of thirty-six degrees, thirty minutes,
lay a portion of what was known as the Indian country, where in
1820 there had been made no _prohibition_ of slavery by the
_national_ government.
Above the line of thirty-six degrees, thirty minutes, there thrust
up a portion of Texas which had no law at all, nor had it any until
a very recent day, being known under the title of "No Man's Land."
Yet on to the westward, toward free California, lay a vast but
supposedly valueless region where cotton surely would not grow,
that rich country now known as Utah, Nevada, Arizona and New
Mexico. This region, late gained by war from Mexico, soon to be
increased by purchase from Mexico on the South, was still of
indeterminate status, slavery not being prohibited but permitted,
by _federal_ action, although most of this territory had been free
soil under the old laws of Mexico. Moreover, as though
sardonically to complicate all these much-mingled matters, there
thrust up to the northward, out of the permitted slavery region of
the South, the state of Missouri, quite above the fateful line of
thirty-six degrees, thirty minutes, where slavery was permitted
both by _federal_ and _state_ enactment.
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