Thus, while the southern phalanx in opposition remained firm, enough
members were won over from the northern ranks to defeat the
restrictionists. Some of these deserters [Footnote: See King, Life
and Corresp. of King, VI., 291, 329; Benton, View, I., 10; Adams,
Memoirs, V., 15, 307. Randolph applied to them the term
"doughfaces."] from the northern cause were influenced by the
knowledge that the admission of Maine would fail without this
concession; others, by the constitutional argument; others, by the
fear of disunion; and still others, by the apprehension that the
unity of the Democratic party was menaced by the new sectional
alignment, which included among its leaders men who had been
prominent in the councils of the Federalists. By the final solution,
it was agreed (134 to 42) to admit Missouri as a slave state and
Maine as a free state; while all of the rest of the territory,
possessed by the United States west of the Mississippi and north of
36 degrees 30' was pledged to freedom.
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