What they
desired was to join the United States. And very soon they asked to
be admitted to the Union.
But Texas lay south of the Missouri Compromise line, and although
small for an independent republic it was huge for a state, and
might be cut up into three or four. Therefore the people in the
North were very much against Texas being admitted to the Union as
it would increase the strength of the slave states enormously. But
the Southerners were determined to have Texas, and at last in 1845
it was admitted as a slave state. The two last states which had
been added to the Union, that it, Florida and Texas, were both
slave states. But they were soon balanced by two free states, Iowa
and Wisconsin.
Iowa is an Indian name meaning "Sleepy Ones." The state was called
after a tribe of Indians of that name who were there when the
Frenchmen first explored the country. It was the first free state
to be carved out of the Louisiana Purchase.
Wisconsin was part of the Northwest Territory and was the last part
of it to be organised as a state. Like many other states Wisconsin
takes its name from its chief river, which means "Gathering Waters."
There are many lead mines in Wisconsin and these had been worked
in a poor sort of way by the Indians, and when white people began
to work them there was trouble between them and the Redmen.
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