NEGenWeb Project
Resource Center OLLibrary
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LEADING FACTS OF AMERICAN HISTORY
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295. Discovery of Gold in
California, 1848. At the close of the Mexican War
Colonel  Mason
was left in charge of California as military governor,
and William T. Sherman -- later General Sherman -- acted
as one of his chief officers. In the spring of 1848 two
men called on the governor, at Monterey, south of San
Francisco. Presently Colonel Mason called to Sherman to
come into his office. On the table were several little
papers containing small bits of yellowish metal. "What is
that?" said the governor to Sherman. "I touched it," adds
the general, "examined one or two of the large pieces,
and asked, 'Is it gold?'"1 It
was gold.  Some
men had found it in digging a mill race for a sawmill for
Captain Sutter, near Coloma, on a fork of the American
River about a hundred miles northeast of San
Francisco.
San Francisco was then a little village
of about 400 inhabitants. When the news of the "great
find" was spread abroad, nearly every person started for
the mines. Houses were left half built; fields, half
plowed. Every man who could possibly get away bought a
shovel and hurried off to dig his fortune out of the
golden sands.
296. Emigration to California; the
"Vigilance Committee"; Results of the Discovery of
Gold. The next spring (1849) the gold fever" reached
the eastern states, and a great rush of
1 "Memoirs
of General W. T. Sherman," I, 40. Gold was first
discovered, January 24, 1848; see Bancroft's
"California."
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RESULTS OF THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD
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emigration, by both land and sea, began for California. Many
died of sickness contracted in crossing the Isthmus of Panama;
multitudes more perished on the overland route across the
continent. From the Rocky Mountains to the Sierras the track of
the emigrants was marked by the skeletons of horses and oxen, and
by barrels, boxes, and household goods thrown away along the road.
But notwithstanding the loss of life, and the fact that many
turned back, discouraged at the hardships of the undertaking,
still over 80,000 men succeeded in reaching California before the
end of that year.
From an insignificant settlement San Francisco
suddenly sprang into a city of 20,000 inhabitants. To-day it has a
population of over 400,000. But the great majority of the
emigrants hurried off to the gold diggings, where, with pan and
shovel,1 they were speedily engaged in collecting the
shining particles of that precious metal which most men find it so
hard to get, and also so hard to hold. In the course of the next
seven years (1849-1856) gold valued at over $400,000,000 was
obtained. The labor of getting it was worth three times more than
the gold itself.2 A few gained the riches they so
eagerly sought, but the greater part barely made a living by the
most exhausting toil.
Eagerness for wealth naturally brought bad men
as well as good to this land of promise. At times these reckless
adventurers made serious trouble. The stern hand of a Vigilance
Committee, organized by a majority of the best citizens of San
Francisco, speedily taught desperadoes and thieves that life and
property must be respected.
In the end the discovery of gold had many good
results.3
1. It gave us firm possession of the Pacific
coast, since it rapidly settled the wilderness of California with
a population of energetic and determined men.
1 At first, much of
the gold was taken from the beds of small streams and their
vicinity. It was done by sifting out the sand, or washing the
earth, in pans or otherwise. When the surface mining gave out, men
began to cut down the hills by directing powerful streams of water
against them, and then washing the gravel and dirt for gold. Most
of the gold now obtained in California is from quartz rock, which
is broken to pieces by stamping mills.
2 Bancroft's "Pacific States," Vol.
XVIII.
3 But compare § 312.
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2. By increasing the amount of gold in
circulation it stimulated trade, industry, and commerce not only
throughout the United States but throughout the civilized world.
New lines of steamships were started, new lines of railways built,
new markets opened for goods and produce, new mills and factories
established.
3. When the precious metal in the sands began to
give out, men found the real, inexhaustible wealth of the country
in its fields of grain, its vineyards, its orange plantations, its
sheep and cattle farms. These make California a true land of gold,
and of gold which is forever growing.
297. Summary. James K. Polk's presidency opened
with our getting possession of Oregon. The Mexican War followed,
resulting in our obtaining California and New Mexico ; the latter
then included Nevada, Utah, with parts of Colorado and Wyoming.
(Map, p. 332.) The period closed with the discovery of gold, and
with an immense emigration to California.
298. Taylor and Fillmore's
Administrations (Twelfth and Thirteenth Presidents, One Term,
1849-1853); the Question of the Extension of Slavery. When
General Taylor1 became President the North and the
South were already engaged in fierce dispute in regard to the
territory gained through the Mexican War. Florida had been
admitted (1845) as a slave state, and Texas followed (1845). It
was the last slave state that entered the Union; next, Congress
was called on to determine whether California and New Mexico
should be permitted to hold slaves.
This question of the spread of slavery had now
come to be of greater importance and of greater danger to the
country than any
I General Taylor was
born in Virginia, 1784. A few years later his father removed with
his family to Louisville, Kentucky. Taylor entered the regular
army in 1808. In 1840 he bought a plantation, and settled at Baton
Rouge, Louisiana. His career in Mexico has already been traced. He
was elected President by the Whigs, over Lewis Cass, the
Democratic candidate, and Martin Van Buren, the Free-Soil
candidate. President Taylor died July 9, 1850, and was succeeded
by Vice President Millard Fillmore. General Taylor owned a large
number of slaves; but in political action he belonged to no party
and did not favor the extension of slavery to new territory. He
was a brave, true, and conscientious man.
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THE DANGER OF DISUNION
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other. It acted like a wedge, gradually forcing the North and
the South farther and farther apart. At the North the laborer was
free; whatever he earned was his own. At the South he was not
free; what he earned was his master's. The North with free labor
had steadily increased in population and wealth; the South with
slave labor had made but little real progress. Most people at the
North now considered slavery a positive evil; but a strong party
at the South, led by Calhoun, held that it was a positive
good.
This difference in belief led to the struggle
about the new territory. The South felt that it was only by
getting new slave states -- thereby increasing the number of its
senators and representatives -- that it could maintain its power
in Congress. The Southern leaders believed that if they lost that
power their system of slave labor would be destroyed, their
negroes would be set free and would get the control of that part
of the country.
299. The "Wilmot Proviso"; Dispute about
Slavery; the Danger of Disunion; the Compromise of 1850; the
Fugitive-Slave Law. Before the Mexican War had come to an end,
David Wilmot, a Pennsylvania Democrat, startled the country by
proposing the passage of a law called the "Wilmot Proviso." It
declared that slavery should never be permitted to exist in any
part of the territory which we might obtain from Mexico. The
"Wilmot Proviso" passed the House of Representatives by a large
majority, but it did not pass the Senate. The discussion of this
measure roused angry passions in both the North and the South.
After the Mexican War was over the dispute about
opening to slavery the new territory we had acquired (§ 294)
grew hotter and hotter. Three methods of settlement were
proposed.
1. The extreme Southern men said, "Every citizen
of the United States has the right to go to any part of the
country he pleases, and take his property, including his negroes,
with him. Give us, said they, that right, and we ask no more."
2. But the advocates of the "Wilmot Proviso" and
other Free-Soil men answered: "We will have no more slave states.
All territory must come in free."
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3. Finally, a third class said: Congress has
no right to meddle in this matter, one way or the other. What we
want is "Popular Sovereignty" -- that is, let the people of the
territories decide for themselves between freedom and slavery.
None of these methods satisfied both sections of
the country, but unless some agreement could be reached the Union
might be broken up. In that case we should split into a Northern
and a Southern Republic. At this time of peril Henry Clay, "the
peacemaker," came forward in Congress, in 1850, with this
compromise, or plan of settlement (§§ 243, 269).
1. Let California come in as a free state ; at
the same time let the slave trade (though not slavery itself) be
abolished in the District of Columbia (§ 264).
2. In all the rest of the territory obtained
from Mexico let us have "Popular Sovereignty" -- in other words,
let the people determine for themselves whether they will have
free labor or slave labor.
3. Let us have a new Fugitive-Slave Law (page
174, note) which shall arrest all runaway slaves found at the
North, and, without trial by jury, return them to their
masters.
It will be seen that Clay's first proposition
was calculated to please the Anti-Slavery party in the North and
get their votes in Congress. His second proposition was arranged
so that it would please the advocates of "Popular Sovereignty" in
the territories, while his third proposition would be sure to
gratify the slaveholders in the South, and so secure their votes.
In this way all parties would find something in Clay's Compromise
measures which they would like.
Daniel Webster (§ 268) employed his
eloquence to get Congress to vote for these compromise measures,
including the new Fugitive Slave Law;1 for he believed
that if it was rejected, the Union would be destroyed. Many people
at the North denounced him, as John Quincy Adams once did, as "a
heartless traitor to the cause of human freedom"; but Horace
Greeley, a strong Abolitionist,
1 Mr. Webster,
however, wished to have this law modified so as to secure trial by
jury to negroes arrested as fugitives, in case they denied that
they were runaway slaves. His efforts to secure this change were
unsuccessful, for the South insisted that no Northern jury would
ever return a negro. See Curtis' "Life of Webster," II, 422,
423.
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"UNDERGROUND RAILROAD"
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declared that the great majority, both North and South, agreed
with Mr. Webster.1
300. Passage of the Fugitive-Slave Law; its
Results; the "Higher Law"; the "Underground Railroad.1
During the debate on the Fugitive-Slave Law President Taylor
died, and was succeeded by Vice President Fillmore. The law, with
the other compromise measures, passed in the autumn of 1850,
California was admitted as a free state, and it was hoped that
peace was secured. But it was a peace, like a smoldering fire,
ready to burst into flame at any moment. (Map, p. 270.)
As soon as the slave owners of the South
attempted to enforce the new law and arrest their runaway negroes
at the North, trouble began. Many men who had never disobeyed an
act of Congress refused to send back the South's fugitive slaves.
They said, with Senator Seward, "On this point we feel that there
is a 'Higher Law' than that of Congress, -- a divine law of
justice and freedom, -- which forbids us to give the help
demanded."
This new spirit of resistance showed itself not
only in words but in actions. In Boston a fugitive named Shadrach
was taken from the officers and carried off to a place of safety;
and in Syracuse, New York, one named Jerry received his liberty in
the same way. Several Northern states now passed laws to protect
negroes and prevent their being sent back to slavery. Many
persons, out of pity for the escaped slaves, banded themselves
together to help them privately to get to Canada. This method got
the name of the "Underground Railroad" ; and hundreds, if not
thousands, of trembling fugitives owed their liberty to the
quickness and secrecy of this peculiar system of travel.
301. "Uncle Tom's Cabin"; Charles Sumner and
Jefferson Davis. This feeling of opposition was suddenly
intensified throughout the North by the publication (1852) of Mrs.
Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin." It was a remarkable book -- one
written from the heart to the heart. It meant to be truthful, to
be fair, to be kind.
Mrs. Stowe's object was to show what the life of
the slave really was, -- to show its bright and happy side, as
well as its dark and
1 See Horace
Greeley's "American Conflict," I, 220, 221.
