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1846]

The Oregon Treaty

451

1846, map p.

Ocean. This line would have given the southern end of
Vancouver Island to the United States, and with it the con-
trol of the Strait of San Juan de Fuca, affording the best Oregon
access from the Pacific to the great bays and sounds between treaty,
Vancouver Island and the continent; but Great Britain
would not consent. It was now agreed (1846) that the
boundary between the two powers should be the forty-ninth
parallel, as far as Vancouver Sound, and should thence
follow the middle of the channel to the ocean.

435.

Tariff of

Schouler's

United States, IV, 514-517; State Papers, 214-251.

Taussig's

302. The Walker Tariff, 1846. — The triumphant election of Polk, and the consequent return of the Democrats 1846. to power, was naturally signalized by a reversal of the financial policy of the Whigs, and a return to that of the preceding decade. This change was brought about by the re-enactment of the Independent Treasury Act, and by the passage of a new tariff law. The former was substantially a repetition of the act of 1840 (p. 435): subtreasuries were to be re-established at the more important commercial centers, and provision was made for the safe and economical handling of the public moneys. The system has been modified from time to time to suit the growing needs of the country, but its essential features are still law.

The new tariff act was based upon the recommendations of Robert J. Walker, Polk's Secretary of the Treasury, and is invariably cited as the Walker Tariff. Under it, all dutiable articles were arranged in several schedules, - A, B, C, and D. The more important protected articles were grouped under Schedule A, and were subjected to a duty of thirty per cent ad valorem. Other articles were placed in Schedule B, with a twenty-five per cent duty, and so on through the list. All the duties were ad valorem, on a valuation made in foreign ports, instead of so much on the valuation of the commodity in America. This arrangement resulted in gross frauds, and inflicted great hardships on honest importers. The system was, as Webster declared, "not free trade, but fraudulent trade."

The country was very prosperous during the years that the

Prosperity, 1846-57.

inventions.

Walker Tariff was in operation. Many writers friendly to free trade have maintained that this prosperity was due to the operation of the Walker Tariff, which, in their opinion, was practically a free-trade measure. Other students point out that it is absurd to regard it as a free-trade measure, since the reduction on the rates of 1842 was only about one sixth. They argue, moreover, that there is no historical

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evidence to show that this comparatively slight reduction had any considerable influence upon the commercial and industrial development of the country. They contend that the remarkable prosperity of

the country between 1846 and 1857 was due to its rapid settlement, which was made possible by many things over which tariff legislation had little or no influence. For instance, there was a

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great increase in foreign immigration in these years (p. 483). Then, too, the first period of railroad extension was coeval

Influence of with this development. Great inventions, also, marvelously increased the efficiency of human labor and superintendence. For example, the successful introduction of the electric telegraph, owing to Morse's invention (1837), made it possible to operate great railway systems; and farming on a large scale was immeasurably promoted by the introduction of agricultural machinery, as the McCormick reaper (patented 1834). The most important manufacture of the United

McCormick reaper.

1846]

The Walker Tariff

453

States until recent times was the manufacture of farms, and this was more dependent on the development of railroad transportation and farm machinery than on the movement of tariff duties within the narrow limits affected by the Walker Tariff.

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Sutter's mill

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of gold in

California,
1848.

Schouler's
United

303. California, 1848-50. On the 19th of January, Discovery 1848, ten days before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, and fully three months before it was ratified, James W. Marshall discovered several bits of gold in the earth taken from Colonel Sutter's mill race in Coloma, California. Further investigation confirmed the discovery, and before long the existence of gold in that region was known throughout the world. From all parts of the United States

States, V,

132.

and from Europe, gold hunters sought the new Eldorado. Over the plains and the Cordilleras, across the Isthmus of Panama, and around Cape Horn, they thronged to California. Most of them came from the northern American states, but there were many Southerners as well. Before November, 1849, more than eighty thousand immigrants"the forty-niners," as they were termed - reached the land

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California demands admission as a free

state, 1849. Schouler's United

States, V,

142.

The United States, 1853

of promise. Their number already exceeded that necessary for a territorial organization, and they had scarcely any government at all. Compelled by necessity to establish some form of government, and inspired by the suggestions made. by an agent sent by General Taylor, the new President, they held a convention (November, 1849), drew up a state constitution, excluding slavery, and applied for admission

to the Union as a free state.

Soon Californian commis

sioners appeared at Washington, and demanded that California should be admitted as a free state. Congress was in

1846]

The Wilmot Proviso

455

this way forced to come to some decision as to the disposal of the vast domain which had just been wrested from Mexico; but the task was a formidable one.

1846.

United

States, V,

65-69.

304. The Wilmot Proviso, 1846. Even before the The Wilmot Mexican War had fairly been begun, and before the United Proviso, States had gained a foot of Mexican soil, an attempt had Schouler's been made to settle this question in favor of freedom. The occasion was furnished by the introduction of a bill to provide money for the purchase of territory from Mexico. When it was before the House, David Wilmot, a Democratic representative from Pennsylvania, moved an amendment in the form of a proviso that slavery should be forbidden in any territory thus acquired. The bill, with the amendment, passed the House, but failed to become law, as the Senate did not act upon it until the House had adjourned for the session (August, 1846). In the new Congress, elected the following November, the Whigs were in a majority in the House, but the Democrats retained control of the Senate. Meantime, the leaders of the latter party in the South had made up their minds to oppose the Wilmot Proviso should it again be introduced. Accordingly, after considerable delay, an appropriation bill was passed, without the slavery prohibition. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo had added some eight hundred thousand square miles of territory to the national domain, most of it lying south of 36° 30' north latitude, the parallel of the Missouri Compromise line. Should slavery be permitted in this vast region, or should the principle of the Wilmot Proviso be adhered to? The settlement of this question was regarded by Southerners as most important; it appeared scarcely less important to those Northerners who were determined that a limit should be set to the extension of slavery. This controversy dominated all

others in the election of 1848.

305. The Election of 1848. No fewer than five political organizations took part in this contest. First there were the Democrats, who nominated Lewis Cass of Michigan, a shrewd, clear-headed Northern Democrat. He had com

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