From the Missouri to the line of Utah they would have the 40th degree of latitude; from Utah westward they would have the 42d parallel, leaving the line of Oregon as the southern boundary of the United States on the Pacific.
THE SOUTHERN STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS.
This policy was not absolute but alternative.

If the slave-holders could maintain their supremacy in the Union, they would prefer to remain.

If they were to be outvoted and, as they thought, outraged by free-State majorities, then they would break up the government and form a confederacy of their own.

To make such a confederacy effective, they must not take from the Union a relatively small section, but must divide it from ocean to ocean.

They could not acquire a majority of the total population, but they aimed to secure by far the larger share of the vast domain comprised in the United States.