of its adoption, should be sent to the President, to be laid before Congress by the 1st of January, 1846. The United States should not be charged with the liabilities of the late republic. It retained its public lands. With its consent, four States, or less, might be formed out of its domain and be entitled to admission into the Union. All formed south of the line of the Missouri Compromise should be admitted with or without slavery as the people of each State should decide. North of the line slavery was prohibited.

On the 4th of July, 1845, a convention met at Austin, and completed a State constitution late in August.* It was submitted to popular vote and ratified. The vote bore small ratio to the population. At this time there were upwards of fifty thousand men in the State, most of whom were slaves. Many, especially the native Mexi

* August 27th.

+ Four thousand one hundred and seventy-four to three hundred and twelve. See the following works relating to this subject: The Constitution of the Republic of Mexico and of the State of Coahuila and Texas, containing also an abridgment of the Laws of the General and State Governments relating to Colonization, with Sundry other Laws and Documents, not before published, particularly relating to Coahuila and Texas, the Documents relating to the Galveston Bay and Texas Land Company; the Grants to Messrs. Wilson and Exter, and to Colonel John Dominguez. With a description of the soil, climate, productions, local and commercial advantages of that interesting country. New York, 1832. Journal of the Convention, October 16 to November 14, 1835; Houston, 1838. Journal of the General Council of the Republic of Texas, November 14, 1835, to March 11, 1836; Houston, 1839. Journal of the Convention of July 4 to August 28, 1845; Austin, 1845. Debates of same, W. F. Weeks, reporter; Houston, 1846.

Wisconsin Made a State

cans, did not vote. It was the American party that made the constitution and carried it through. It was this party that, from first to last, effected reannexation. Congress accepted the constitution, extended the laws of the United States over Texas, and admitted it by joint resolution.*

Wisconsin was now asking admission. Congress passed the requisite act in August, and on the 15th of October a convention assembled at Madison. Its work was rejected by the electors, and another convention assembled at the same place late in the following year. The constitution it submitted was approved by the electors in March and by Congress in May.§ In ten years the population of Wisconsin increased from thirty thousand to three hundred thousand. ||

California comprised the greater part of the Mexican acquisition, for by that name the country from Texas to the Pacific was known in the East. Congress extended the revenue laws over it, and made San Francisco a port of entry.¶ Violations of law were to be prosecuted in the Supreme Court of Oregon, or in the District Court of Louisiana.

*December 29th.

+ August 6, 1846.

See Journal of the Convention to Form a Constitution for the State of Wisconsin, Begun and Held at Madison, on the Fifth day of October, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Forty-six ; Madison, W. T., 1847. Also, Journal of the Convention to Form a Constitution for the State of Wisconsin, with a Sketch of the Debates, Begun and Held at Madison, on the Fifteenth day of December, Eighteen Hundred and Forty-seven; Madison, W. T., 1848. § The State was admitted May 29, 1847. Population, 1840, 30,945; 1850, 305,391. Act of March 3, 1849.

Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee had never been organized as Territories. Texas and California were to be similar exceptions. As soon as news of the discovery of gold in California spread abroad, all the world set its face towards the gold-diggings. While Congress was debating whether California should be organized as a Territory, more than two hundred thousand men had arrived on the coast and were transforming it into a State. Their civil necessities quickly outran the performance of Congress. A convention assembled at Monterey* on the 1st of September, and its work was approved by the electors in November. A year and nine days after the convention met Congress admitted the State-the thirty-first in the Union. It came in as free soil. The balance of power between the States was broken. Public opinion again found expression in the resolutions of the State Legislatures—some favoring, some opposing the further extension of slavery. Its restriction was viewed with alarm by the slave-holding States, and their expostulatory resolutions sounded a cry for a Southern convention. Some slave-holding States made provisions for military protection. The doctrine of '98 seemed on the point of being put to practical test.f

An act creating the Territory of Minnesota pass

*See Report of the Debates in the Convention of California on the Formation of the State Constitution, in September and October, 1849. By J. Ross Browne. Washington: Printed by John T. Towers, 1850. See also Vol. ii., Chapters x., xi., xii. † See note, pp. 340 et seq.

The Territories of Minnesota and Oregon

ed early in March.* Congress limited the franchise to free white men, and followed the Territorial precedents of the Northwest. As Minnesota was organized out of Wisconsin, the laws of the latter were continued in force as far as was consistent with the recent act. The new Territory contained about six thousand people,† and was divided into nine counties. Oregon had been a theme for debate in Congress, more or less, for twenty years. It was too far away to awaken much popular interest, and no man's seat in Congress depended upon his advocacy of its claims. Immigrants were arriving in large numbers, and were demanding a Territorial government. National parties made Oregon the substance of planks in their platforms, but these did not make a passable road to Astoria. Finally, Congress erected the country into a Territory, providing also that it might be subdivided into two Territories. The model followed was that of Minnesota. Only white men could vote or hold office. The act contained a new provision, that recalled the panic of '37-the Territorial Legislature was forbidden to incorporate a bank, or to grant any institution banking powers, or to pledge the credit of the Territory for any loan. Nor could it give any privilege of making or circulating bank-bills, or bills of exchange, or anything like them. This indicated that the lessons of '37 were not forgotten. Another lesson calling for reform, too, was remembered: henceforth + Population, 1850, 6077.

*March 3, 1849.

Act of August 14, 1848.

every law must embrace but one object, which must be expressed in its title. This was an early attempt to stop the evil of including vicious legislation under the phrase of the title "and for other purposes." A provision of local importance forbade the obstruction of streams that would prevent the salmon from passing up and down them freely. The antislavery provision of the Ordinance of 1787 was imposed upon the Territory, thus making it free soil forever. Two years earlier the joint occupation of the country had, by resolution of Congress, come to an end. An appropriation was made for a military station on the line of communication to Oregon, and, to encourage immigration, the Secretary of War was authorized† to furnish all applicants who designed to emigrate to Oregon, California, and New Mexico with such arms, munitions, and stores as might be required. The treaty of 1846 settled all controversy with Great Britain respecting title to the country.

On the day when California was admitted the northwestern boundary of Texas was settled; Texas ceded a large region of country to the United States for ten million five per cent. stock, and Congress organized the Territories of New Mexico and Utah.§ The franchise was limited, as usual, to white men. In New Mexico the white population clustered about a few old Spanish towns; in Utah it comprised the new Mormon settlements at Salt Lake. By the organiza

* April 27, 1846.

Population, 1850, 61,547.

+ March 2, 1849.

§ Population, 1850, 11,380.