Part 40 (2/2)

[Sidenote: Discovery of gold in California, 1848.]

[Sidenote: The ”rush” to California, 1849. _McMaster_, 337-338; _Source-Book_, 276-279.]

342. California.--Before the treaty of peace with Mexico was ratified, even before it was signed, gold was discovered in California.

Reports of the discovery soon reached the towns on the western seacoast.

At once men left whatever they were doing and hastened to the hills to dig for gold. Months later rumors of this discovery began to reach the eastern part of the United States. At first people paid little attention to them. But when President Polk said that gold had been found, people began to think that it must be true. Soon hundreds of gold-seekers started for California. Then thousands became eager to go. These first comers were called the Forty-Niners, because most of them came in the year 1849. By the end of that year there were eighty thousand immigrants in California.

[Sidenote: California const.i.tutional convention, 1849.]

[Sidenote: Slavery forbidden.]

343. California seeks Admission to the Union.--There were eighty thousand white people in California, and they had almost no government of any kind. So in November, 1849, they held a convention, drew up a const.i.tution, and demanded admission the Union as a state. The peculiar thing about this const.i.tution was that it forbade slavery in California.

Many of the Forty-Niners were Southerners. But even they did not want slavery. The reason was that they wished to dig in the earth and win gold. They would not allow slave holders to work their mining claims with slave labor, for free white laborers had never been able to work alongside of negro slaves. So they did not want slavery in California.

[Sidenote: Divisions on the question of the extension of slavery.

_McMaster_, 335-336.]

344. A Divided Country.--This action of the people of California at once brought the question of slavery before the people. Many Southerners were eager to found a slave confederacy apart from the Union. Many abolitionists were eager to found a free republic in the North. Many Northerners, who loved the Union, thought that slavery should be confined to the states where it existed. They thought that slavery should not be permitted in the territories, which belonged to the people of the United States as a whole. They argued that if the territories could be kept free, the people of those territories, when they came to form state const.i.tutions, would forbid slavery as the people of California had just done. They were probably right, and for this very reason the Southerners wished to have slavery in the territories. So strong was the feeling over these points that it seemed as if the Union would split into pieces.

[Sidenote: Taylor's policy.]

[Sidenote: California demands admission.]

345. President Taylor's Policy.--General Taylor was now President.

He was alarmed by the growing excitement. He determined to settle the matter at once before people could get any more excited. So he sent agents to California and to New Mexico to urge the people to demand admission to the Union at once. When Congress met in 1850, he stated that California demanded admission as a free state. The Southerners were angry. For they had thought that California would surely be a slave state.

[Sidenote: Clay's compromise scheme, 1850. _McMaster_, 339-341; _Source-Book_, 279-281.]

346. Clay's Compromise Plan.--Henry Clay now stepped forward to bring about a ”union of hearts.” His plan was to end all disputes between Northerners and Southerners by having the people of each section give way to the people of the other section. For example, the Southerners were to permit the admission of California as a free state, and to consent to the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia. In return, the Northerners were to give way to the Southerners on all other points. They were to allow slavery in the District of Columbia. They were to consent to the organization of New Mexico and Utah as territories without any provision for or against slavery. Texas claimed that a part of the proposed Territory of New Mexico belonged to her. So Clay suggested that the United States should pay Texas for this land. Finally Clay proposed that Congress should pa.s.s a severe Fugitive Slave Act. It is easily seen that Clay's plan as a whole was distinctly favorable to the South. Few persons favored the pa.s.sage of the whole scheme. But when votes were taken on each part separately, they all pa.s.sed. In the midst of the excitement over this compromise President Taylor died, and Millard Fillmore, the Vice-President, became President.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MILLARD FILLMORE.]

[Sidenote: Art. IV, sec. 2.]

[Sidenote: Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.]

[Sidenote: Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. _McMaster_, 341-343.]

[Sidenote: Results of pa.s.sage of this act. _Higginson_, 281; _Source-Book_, 282-284.]

[Sidenote: The ”Underground Railway.” _Source-Book_, 260-263.]

347. The Fugitive Slave Act.--The Const.i.tution provides that persons held to service in one state escaping into another state shall be delivered up upon claim of the person to whom such service may be due. Congress, in 1793, had pa.s.sed an act to carry out this provision of the Const.i.tution. But this law had seldom been enforced, because its enforcement had been left to the states, and public opinion in the North was opposed to the return of fugitive slaves. The law of 1850 gave the enforcement of the act to United States officials. The agents of slave owners claimed many persons as fugitives. But few were returned to the South. The important result of these attempts to enforce the law was to strengthen Northern public opinion against slavery. It led to redoubled efforts to help runaway slaves through the Northern states to Canada. A regular system was established. This was called the ”Underground Railway.” In short, instead of bringing about ”a union of hearts,” the Compromise of 1850 increased the ill feeling between the people of the two sections of the country.

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