In January (1820) of the succeeding Congress the measure was again under consideration in the Senate, then composed of only forty-four members. It was then that Rufus King and Wm. Pinckney, the former for, the latter against, the slavery restriction amendment, displayed their eloquence. Pinckney, a lawyer of much general learning, paraphrased a passage of Burke to the effect that "the spirit of liberty was more high and haughty in the slaveholding colonies than in those to the northward." He also planted himself, with others from the South, on state-sovereignty, afterwards more commonly called "state-rights," and in time tortured into a doctrine which led to nullification--Secession--_War_. All these speeches were answered in both Houses by able opponents of slavery extension, but meantime a matter arose which did much to favor the admission of Missouri as a slave State. Maine, but recently separated from Massachusetts, applied for statehood, and could not be refused. A Senator from Illinois (Mr. Thomas) introduced a proviso which prohibited slavery north of 36 deg. 30' in the Louisiana acquisition, except in Missouri. Here, again, at the expense of freedom, was an opportunity for _compromise_. It was promptly seized upon. It was agreed that Maine, where by no possibility slavery would or could go, should come into the Union as a free State; Missouri as a slave State, and the proviso limiting slavery in the remaining territory south of 36 deg. 30' should be adopted. This compromise was adopted in the Senate, and later, after close votes on amendments, the House also agreed to it. John Randolph and thirty-seven Southern members voted against it, and, but for weak-kneed Northern members, it would have failed. This compromise Randolph said was a "_dirty bargain_," and the Northern members who supported it he denounced as "doughfaces,"--a coined phrase still known to our political vocabulary. Missouri, however, did not become a State until August, 1821. Thus, for the time only was this question settled. Of it Jefferson wrote, as if in prophecy: "This momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it the knell of the Union."(43) Clay wrote of the height to which the heated debate arose: "The words civil war and disunion are uttered almost without emotion."(44) (40) Later, Arkansas and Michigan (1836-7), Florida and Iowa (March 3, 1845) and Maine and Missouri were, in pairs--slave and free-- admitted as States. (41) Both died July 4, 1826. (42) Hildreth, vol. vi., p. 664. (43) Jefferson's _Works_, vol. vii., p. 159. (44) Clay's _Priv. Cor._, p. 61. XIII NULLIFICATION--1832-3 (1835)