360 THE UNITED STATES. [PART IV. 1847. ceived from the enemy propositions which terminated in the conclusion of an armistice for the purpose of negotiating a peace. With surprising infatuation the enemy demanded terms that were due only to conquerors, and on the 7th of September hostilities were 1. What oc- recommenced. 'On the morning of the 8th the Mothe 8th of lino del Rey, or "King's Mill," and the Casa de Mata, the principal outer defences of the fortress of Chapultepec, were stormed and carried by General Worth, after a desperate assault in which he lost one fourth of his entire force. curred on September? 2. Give an account of the reduc castle of tion of the Chapultepec. tinuation of during the 27. "The reduction of the castle of Chapultepec itself, situated on an abrupt, rocky height, one hundred and fifty feet above the surrounding grounds, was a still more formidable undertaking. Several batteries were opened against this position on the 12th, and on the 13th the citadel and all its outworks were carried by storm, but not without a very heavy loss to the 3. The con- American army. The battle was continued during the battle the day, on the lines of the great causeways before 13th. mentioned, and when night suspended the dreadful conflict, one division of the American army rested in the suburbs of Mexico, and another was actually 4. Capture of within the gates of the city. During the night which followed, the army of Santa Anna, and the officers of the national government abandoned the city, and at seven o'clock on the following morning the flag of the American Union was floating proudly to the breeze above the walls of the national palace of Mexico. THE RE- "The American army had fulfilled its destination; our soldiers had gained the object of their toils and sufferings; and, as the fruit of many victories, were at last permitted to repose on their laurels, in the far-famed "Halls of the Montezumas." the city. SULT. 1848. said of the of the war? 28. "The conquest of the Mexican capital was the What is finishing stroke of the war, and on the 2d of February conclusion following the terms of a treaty of peace were concluded upon by the American commissioner and the Mexican 7. Ratifica government. "This treaty, after having received treaty with some modifications from the American Senate, was . Mexico? adopted by that body on the 10th of March, and subse tion of the 362 THE UNITED STATES. [PART IV 1848. the brow of our nation's glory, were entwined the cypress and the yew-emblems of mourning. 1. What is said of the territory acquired by the contest, and the character of the controversy that hus 31. The vast extent of unoccupied territory which we had acquired as the result of the conquest, proved an apple of discord in our midst; and the question of the final disposal of the prize was a problem which our profoundest statesmen found it difficult to solve. The South and the North took issue upon it—the for. mer claiming the right of her citizens to remove, with he South? their property in slaves, on to any lands purchased by the common treasure of the republic, and the latter demandiing that territory free from slavery at the time of its acquisition, should for ever remain so. arisen between the North and 2. What is said of the election of 1848? 3. Of the support given to Generals Cass and Taylor? 32. The opposing principles of slavery extension presidential and slavery restriction entered largely, as elements of party zeal and political controversy, into the presidential election of 1848; but although the South advocated one line of policy, and the North another, the citizens of neither section were united in the support of either of the three presidential candidates, who were Martin Van Buren, of New York; Lewis Cass, of Michigan; and Zachary Taylor, of Louisiana. 'General Cass, the regular democratic candidate, and General Taylor, the Whig nominee, both claimed by their respective parties as favoring Southern interests, while the same parties in the North advocated their election for reasons directly opposite, received the principal 4. of Mr. support of the whig and democratic parties; 'while Van Buren? Mr. Van Buren, first nominated by a division of the democratic party of New York, and afterwards re nominated by a northern "Free Soil" convention held at Buffalo, was urged upon the people by his partisans as the peculiar exponent of the free-soil principles se generally professed by the northern section of the Whe was Union. After an exciting political canvass, the electhe canvass tion resulted in the choice of Zachary Taylor, by one hundred and sixty-three electoral votes, out of a total of two hundred and ninety. Millard Fillmore, of New York, was chosen vice-president. the result of 864 THE UNITED STATES [PART IV. 1849. eigners began to be turned to the country; and from 1833, when scarcely any but native born inhabitants were found there, up to 1845, the foreign population had increased to more than five thousand. What occurred in 18467 4. 'Still, the unsettled condition of the government prevented anything like systematic enterprise; nor was it until 1846, when Fremont and his companions hoisted the American flag and declared California independent of Mexican rule, that the natural capacities of the country for a numerous agricultural population began What is to be developed. "With the belief that California had gration to become, inseparably, a portion of the American Union, the country? emigrants came pouring in, mostly from the United said of emi. vorable prospects States, to seek their fortunes in a new country under 8. Of the fa. their own flag. 'Grazing and agriculture were the chief occupations of the people; many little villages pened? sprung up; and everything promised fair for the steady growth of this distant territory on our western borders. thus 4. Of the first report of the discovery of gold? 5. In this tranquil state of affairs the announcement was made in the latter part of February, 1848, that a mechanic, employed in cutting a mill-race on the "American Fork" of the Sacramento, about fifty miles above New Helvetia, or Sutter's Fort, had found numerous particles of gold, and some pieces of consider. Of the ef- able size, in the sands of the stream. "The report duced byt? spread with rapidity; examinations were made at other points along the stream, and almost every where with success; and in a few weeks the newly-discovered gold region was crowded with adventurers, tempted by the glittering prize. fects o 8. The effects upon iator rise of pri ces, c. 6. Laborers in the settlements, carried away by the excitement, struck for higher wages, and left their employers: sailors abandoned their vessels in the harbors: the villages were nearly deserted; and, as provisions were scarce, flour and pork arose to forty, and even a hundred, dollars per barrel at the mines, butter to a dollar per pound, and common shoes sold for ten or twelve dollars per pair. 'At first, workmen at the gold first mines ordinarily gathered gold to the amount of from twenty to forty dollars per day; and in some instances they obtained from $500 to $1000 a day for each man Of the amenint of gathered |