Texas shared the position of other slave states regarding the future of new territories and new states. It wanted the expansion of slavery. Southern states advocated a popular sovereignty solution, that is, new states to be admitted to the Union should choose by themselves. The 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act was a political compromise. Nevertheless, Texas had important objections. In a speech in the Senate delivered on February 15, 1854, Texan leader Sam Houston lists two important obstacles: Nebraska had a too small population in order to sustain organization , and Kansas was a land with very few white settlers and entirely occupied by Native tribes.
