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 majority of eight. The bill for the admission of Missouri was attached to that for the admission of Maine. The suggestion of this stratagem was made on the 20th of December by Henry Clay, who declared that he did "not mean to give his consent to the admission of Maine, so long as the doctrine was upheld of annexing conditions to the admission of States beyond the mountains." The analogy was scarcely just. Under the Constitution the right was absolute; Maine was a part of the original thirteen States of the Republic. The problem respecting Missouri was radically different, and resolved itself into the question whether Congress, under the American Constitution, had the right to create a new State out of the purchased territory, and to admit it to the Union without a republican form of government. Clay's threat was improved upon. The judiciary committee reported the House bill for the admission of Maine, adding an amendment for the admission of Missouri. Roberts of Pennsylvania moved to amend the amendment by prohibiting slavery in Missouri, but his motion was rejected by a majority of eleven (including six Senators from free States). A motion to make the admission of Maine a separate question was also defeated. The two Houses now stood directly opposed to each other. The Representatives would not retreat from their decision to prohibit slavery in Missouri; the Senate was equally determined that Missouri should be admitted as a slave State. Had the House maintained its ground, the United States for the next half century might have had another history. [Sidenote: The Missouri compromise]