Iowa is to come in without dismemberment, then
let Florida enter in like manner; but if Iowa is divided, then let
Florida be divided also."

Mr. Vinton, of Ohio, was the most vigorous champion of the Duncan
amendment. He stood out firmly for a reduction of the boundaries
proposed by the Iowa Convention because the country to the North and
West of the new State, "from which two other States ought to be
formed," would be left in a very inconvenient shape, and because the
formation of such large States would deprive the West of "its due
share of power in the Senate of the United States."

Mr. Vinton was "particularly anxious that a State of unsuitable extent
should not be made in that part of the Western country, in consequence
of the unwise and mistaken policy towards that section of the Union
which has hitherto prevailed in forming Western States, by which the
great valley of the Mississippi has been deprived, and irrevocably so,
of its due share in the legislation of the country." As an equitable
compensation to the West for this injustice he would make "a series of
small States" on the West bank of the Mississippi.

Furthermore, Mr. Vinton did not think it politic to curtail the power
of the West in the Senate of the United States by the establishment of
large States, since in his opinion "the power of controlling this
government in all its departments may be more safely intrusted to the
West than in any other hands." The commercial interests of the people
of the West were such as to make them desirous of protecting the
capital and labor both of the North and the South.

Again, he declared that if disunion should ever be attempted "the West
must and will rally to a man under the flag of the Union." "To
preserve this Union, to make its existence immortal, is the high
destiny assigned by Providence itself to this great central power."

The arguments for restriction prevailed, and the Duncan amendment,
which proposed to substitute the _Nicollet boundaries_ for the _Lucas
boundaries_, passed the House of Representatives by a vote of
ninety-one to forty.

In the Senate the bill as reported from the House was hurried through
without much debate. Here the question of boundaries seems to have
received no consideration whatever. There were, however, strong
objections in some quarters to coupling Iowa with Florida in the
matter of admission.

Senator Choate, of Massachusetts, called attention to the fact that
this was t