Michael Kaufman asked:
> "sufficient population" - So what number of people qualifies as
sufficient?
That was not stated.
In the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the Confederation Congress
(prior to the ratification of the federal Constitution) had ordained
that the territory northwest of the Ohio River could eventually be
divided into between three and five Territories, each of which could
petition for admission to the Confederation as a state after
attaining 60,000 people. Even this requirement was forgotten by the
time Illinois was admitted to the Union in 1818 with only 46,625
people. (This was the second least-populated state ever to be
admitted, exceeded in its sparseness only by Nevada in 1864 with
21,111). Among the 14 states admitted between the original 13 and
Texas, the average population at admission was 104,359. The
population of Texas at its admission was 212,592. Thus Texas would
have been over twice the average population, and over 4.5 times that
of Illinois at admission. Interestingly, the all-time most populous
state upon its admission was Oklahoma with 1,396,900.
Now, back in message 12781, I wrote that the Texas division proviso
was one of the conditions and guarantees negotiated between the USA
and the RT. This now turns out to be in error, and I am making
haste to correct myself. While the other conditions and guarantees
were negotiated with Isaac Van Zandt, the diplomatic minister of the
Republic of Texas in Washington, this one was the brainchild of one
Milton Brown, a Whig Congressman from Tennessee. In the midst of
the debate over Texas in the House of Representatives, he rose to
present what was called the "Brown Amendment." It is that whole
business about the possible future division of Texas into smaller
states, subject only to the restriction that any above 36°30' be
free of slavery.
Texas had never asked for this proviso. Brown's motivations were
purely political. Whigs had just taken a beating in the South in
the election of 1844, the Democrats being led by the expansionist
James K. Polk. Brown hoped to shore up his own expansionist
credentials and those of some other Southern Whigs by this
amendment. The amendment passed by a vote of 118 to 101. The yea
votes came from 109 Democrats (56 Northern and 53 Southern) plus
nine Southern Whigs. The nay votes came from 67 Whigs, 30
Democrats, and four members of fringe parties.
Lowell G. McManus
Leesville, Louisiana, USA