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 eighty thousand men succeeded in reaching California before the end of that year. From an insignificant settlement San Francisco suddenly sprang into a city of twenty thousand inhabitants, which has since rapidly increased, and, at its present rate of growth, will soon reach half a million. 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) between four and five hundred millions were obtained, but costing in labor, says the leading historian of California, three times what the gold was actually worth. 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. But 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 great results for good. First of all 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. Next, by increasing the amount

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. *"To punish incendiaries and other criminals."

2 Bancroft's "Pacific States," Vol. XVIII.

TAYLOR AND FILLMORE'S ADMINISTRATIONS.

265

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 railroads built, new markets opened for goods and produce, new mills and factories established. Finally, when the gold in the sands began to give out, men then 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 it a true land of gold, and of gold which is forever growing, forever increasing.

295. 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 period closed with the discovery of gold, and with an immense emigration to California.

ZACHARY TAYLOR AND MILLARD FILLMORE.

296. Taylor and Fillmore's Administrations (Twelfth and Thirteenth Presidents, One Term, 1849-1853); the Question of the Extension of Slavery.—When General Taylor2 became President, the North and the South were already engaged in fierce dispute in regard to the territory gained through the Mexican War. Texas had been admitted as a slave state- 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.

1 Farming in California is often carried on on an immense scale. There are single fields of wheat and barley of thousands of acres in extent.

2 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.

This question of the spread of slavery had now come to be of greater importance and of greater danger to the country than any other. It acted like a wedge, gradually forcing the North and the South further and further apart. The reason was that the two sections had come to be wholly unlike. At the North, the laborer was free; whatever he earned was his own. At the South, he was not free; and what he earned was his master's. The North with free labor had steadily increased in population and in 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, under Calhoun, held, in spite of all the facts pointing to the contrary, that it was a positive good. This difference in belief led to the struggle about the new territory. The South was the more determined because it was only by getting new slave states — thus bringing in senators and representatives — that it could maintain its power in Congress. If that power was once really lost, the foremost Southern leaders feared that their whole system of labor would be destroyed, that the negroes would be set free, and that they would by and by get the control of that part of the country.

297. How the Country was divided; the Danger of Disunion; the Compromise of 1850; the Fugitive-Slave Law. -The longer this debate about the new territory went on, the hotter it grew. Three methods of settlement were proposed. 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. But the Free-Soil men answered, We will have no more slave states. All territory shall come in free. Finally, a third class said: Congress has no right to meddle in this matter, one way or the other. The people of the territories are the sovereigns;1 let them decide

"

1 This was called "Popular Sovereignty," or Squatter Sovereignty," because it left the question to the settlers (sometimes called squatters") of the new territories.

THE DANGER OF DISUNION.

267

for themselves between freedom and slavery. Their will shall be

law.

Meantime, California asked admission as a free state. President Taylor, though himself a large slaveholder, strongly favored its admission; but Calhoun and his party just as strongly opposed it. The feeling became so violent and bitter that it seemed to many that the Union must be broken up, and that, instead of one nation, we should split into a Northern and a Southern Republic.

At this time of peril, Henry Clay, "the Peacemaker," came forward in Congress with a compromise,' or plan of settlement.2 He said: 1. Let California come in as a free state. 2. In the remainder of the territory, obtained from Mexico, let the people determine for themselves how they will come in. 3. All runaway slaves found at the North shall be arrested, and, without trial by jury, they shall be returned to their masters.

3

Daniel Webster employed his eloquence to get Congress to vote for this compromise, including the new Fugitive-Slave Law; because he believed that if it was rejected, the country was lost. Many people at the North denounced him, as John Quincy Adams once did, as a heartless traitor to the cause of human freedom";

66

1 Compromise: see note 3, page 225.

2 Clay's Compromise Bill contained so many points that it was called the "Omnibus Bill." In it he proposed to conciliate the North by: 1. Admitting California as a free state. 2. By abolishing the slave trade (but not slavery) in the District of Columbia.

On the other hand, he endeavored to conciliate the moderate party in the South by: 1. Leaving the question of slavery in New Mexico and Utah (acquired from Mexico), to the people of those territories. 2. To conciliate all parties in the South, he proposed a more effective Fugitive-Slave Law than that of 1793, which rested on one in the Constitution (see the Constitution, page xiv). The Omnibus Bill was passed at last, not as one, but as several bills (September, 1850).

Henry Clay, though a slaveholder, was opposed to the extension of slavery into new territory, and used all his influence to get his own state (Kentucky) to abolish slavery, but without success.

3 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. See Curtis's "Life of Webster," II. 422, 423.

but Horace Greeley, a strong Abolitionist, declared that the great majority, both North and South, agreed with Mr. Webster.1

298. Passage of the Fugitive-Slave Law; its Results; the "Underground Railroad"; the "Higher Law." 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, and it was hoped that peace was secured. But it was only a hollow peace, like the quiet of a smouldering fire, ready to break out at any moment in a conflagration.

As soon as the slave-owners of the South attempted to secure their runaway negroes at the North there were riots and rescues. 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.

In no country in the world is law more respected than in America - because here the mass of the people themselves make the laws. But now for the first time many men began to say, as William H. Seward of New York did in the United States Senate : Above the Constitution and all acts of Congress there is a "Higher Law a divine law of justice and of freedom which compels us through conscience not to obey the order of the government, and not to return the fugitive to his master.

299. "Uncle Tom's Cabin"; Charles Sumner and Jefferson Davis. This feeling of opposition was suddenly intensified

1 See Horace Greeley's "American Conflict."