A small segment of the Territory of Missouri applied for statehood on March 2, 1819. The application included a provision that would bring Missouri into the Union as a slave state, which would upset the delicate balance of slave and free states. This application also defined all land in the Missouri Territory south of the parallel 36°30' north, except the Missouri Bootheel between the Mississippi River and the Saint Francis River north of the 36th parallel north, as the new Territory of Arkansaw. When the Missouri Enabling Act was taken up in the United States House of Representatives, James Tallmadge denounced slavery and succeeded in passing the Tallmadge Amendment in the House, an act that would have extinguished slavery in Missouri in a generation. The act was the first attempt to curb the rapid expansion of slavery along the country's expanding western frontier and caught many southern Democrats by surprise. The following day, John Taylor proposed identical restrictions on slavery before authorizing the Arkansaw Enabling Act. The banning of new slaves amendment was soundly defeated, but the gradual emancipation measure was tied until Speaker of the House Henry Clay cast the deciding no vote killing the Amendment and allowing Arkansas to organize as a slave territory. The Missouri Compromise was later struck allowing Maine to enter as a free state, thus allowing Missouri to enter as a slave state to keeping the balance of free/slave states at 12 each.