vocating the so-called "popular" or "squatter sovereignty,' according to which the people of the territories were to decide for themselves the question of slavery. The "squatter-sovereignty" policy of Cass offended many of the anti-slavery Democrats, who eventually withdrew from their party convention. The Whigs, most numerous in the North, nominated for President a southern man, a slaveholder, General Zachary Taylor, the hero of Buena Vista. This party was also divided, for the southern section opposed the Wilmot Proviso, while the northern greatly favored it. Hence, the Whig, like the Democratic platform, also avoided any mention of the Wilmot Proviso question, even though it was of vital interest in the campaign. Because of this, many of the Whigs separated from their party, joined the Democrats, who had withdrawn from their party, and formed the "Free-Soil" party, which adopted as watchword "Free soil, free speech, free labor, and free men." Joined by the Liberty party, the Free-soilers nominated Martin Van Buren for the presidency. Thus, we see that at this election even the two old parties were beginning to break up on the slavery question. 465. The Discovery of Gold in California. About this time a magical change was taking place in California. But a few days before the peace of Guadalupe (January, 1848), gold was discovered at Coloma, on the fork of the American River in the valley of the Sacramento, about one hundred miles northeast of San Francisco. James W. Marshall, a millwright in the employ of Colonel Sutter, a Swiss settler, found a number of kernels of metal which were about the size of grains of wheat; upon test they proved to be solid gold. The discovery of the precious metal was for a time kept secret; but the workers in the mill soon learned of it, and the fact was announced in a San Francisco paper. From all parts of the Union and, indeed, from all parts of the world, eager goldseekers, afterwards styled "forty-niners," flocked over the plains, across the isthmus or around the Horn, to the gold fields. By the autumn of 1849, California contained nearly one hundred thousand people, and San Francisco sprang up, as if by magic, from a little village to a city of twenty thousand. This large population was composed of all sorts and conditions of men, who were at first governed only by vigilance committees and lynch laws. Before long, however, the people organized themselves in an orderly way into a state and adopted a constitution, by which slavery was forbidden. Even before a code of laws could be framed for the territory, the Califor nians asked to be admitted to the Union (1850). The Senate, however, rejected the application because of the clause in the territorial constitution which prohibited slavery. The discovery of gold in California gave to the United States a firm possession of the Pacific coast by rapidly peopling the California wilderness. It also caused the establishment of new lines of steamships, new railroad routes and new markets, for after the gold mines became less profitable, the people set about the cultivation of the land and the raising of sheep and cattle. California later became the chief fruit-growing region of the United States. 466. Two New States. During Polk's administration, two non-slaveholding states were admitted to the Union: Iowa (1846), the twenty-ninth state, and the fourth formed from the territory gained by the Louisiana Purchase; and Wisconsin (1848), the thirtieth state, and the fifth and last formed out of the Northwest Territory. 467. Indian Missions in Mexico and California. New Mexico had been explored and the natives christianized by Spanish missionaries more than three hundred years (1539) before the territory had become a part of the United States. So rapid was the progress of these early missions, that within the space of a few years twenty-seven stations were established, many of which possessed large churches. The Indian converts, who were numbered by thousands, had learned to read and write, and had adopted the customs of civilization. Though the hostility of pagan tribes and the oppression of civil authority sadly harassed the prosperity of these Catholic Indian missions, they have never been entirely suppressed. The mission of San Francisco was founded contemporaneously with the declaration of American independence (1776). The Franciscans, under their superior, Father Serra, established San Diego as their first mission (1769). The founding of Monterey followed (1770); then in rapid succession, San Francisco (1776), Santa Clara (1777), San Jose (1797), Los Angeles (1781), Santa Barbara (1781), and many others, until an unbroken chain of missions, more than twenty in number, linked San Diego with San Francisco. Under the supervision of the zealous sons of St. Francis of Assisi, the roving savages were soon won for the Church and civilization, and were ultimately transformed into orderly, industrious, and expert farmers, masons, or weavers. At one time the Catholic missions numbered about thirty thousand Indians, whose thrift and prosperity were attested by their possession of over four thousand head of cattle, sixty-two thousand horses, and more than three hundred thousand sheep. Many of the missionaries had been noted in Spain as men of culture, as soldiers, engineers, artists, lawyers, and physicians, before they wore the humble garb of their Order, but they did not scorn to labor with their charges in the fields, in brickyards, at the forge, or in the mills. By a decree of the Mexican Congress, the Indian missions THE CHAPEL OF THE SAN GABRIEL MISSION were eventually made state property. The converts were thus scattered, and within five years, the number of Catholic Indians was reduced from thirty thousand to four thousand, and when California became a territory of the United States only a few remains of the once prosperous missions could be traced. The Jesuits early began (1697) the work of spreading the Gospel among the native Indians of Lower California, and continued this work until the society was finally expelled from the Spanish domains (1767). |