the admission of texas (1845) and the u.s. obtaining the vast new mexican cession territories (1848) after the mexican–american war created further north-south conflict. although the settled portion of texas was an area rich in cotton plantations and dependent on slavery, the territory acquired in the mountain west did not seem hospitable to cotton or slavery. as part of the compromise of 1850, california was admitted as a free state (1850), without a slave state pair. to avoid creating a free state majority in the senate, california agreed to send one pro-slavery and one anti-slavery senator to congress.