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

California demands admission

as a free

state, 1849. Schouler's United

States, V,

142.

of promise. Their number already exceeded that necessary
for a territorial organization, and they had scarcely any gov
ernment 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 con-
stitution, excluding slavery, and applied for admission
Soon Californian commis-

to the Union as a free state.
sioners appeared at Washington, and demanded that Cali-
fornia should be admitted as a free state. Congress was in

1846]

The Wilmot Proviso

429

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

1846.

Schouler's

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 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.

No fewer than five political

305. The Election of 1848. 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

Election of

1848. Schouler's United

States, V, 100-110; Stanwood's

Elections, 161-177.

mended himself to the Southerners by the advocacy of the doctrine of "squatter sovereignty," according to which the people of each territory were to determine the question of freedom or slavery for themselves. This idea was closely related to the Democratic doctrine of states' rights, and its adoption seemed likely to prevent a split in that party on the question of the extension of slavery. The Whigs nominated

The Barnburners.

Election of 1848

General Taylor of Louisiana for President, and Millard Fillmore of New York for Vice-President. They made no statement of their principles, and thus endeavored to shirk the question of the greatest interest in the campaign. By this time, the slavery controversy had gone far toward bringing about the destruction of political parties in the North. A section of New York Democrats, bearing the curious name of "Barn-burners," was opposed to slavery in the territories. Their delegates appeared at the Democratic convention as rivals to another group of delegates, who harbored no such

1848]

The Election of 1848

431

scruples. The convention decided to admit both delegations, who should share the votes of New York between them; both delegations withdrew. The Barn-burners, with the assistance of delegates from a few other states, then held a convention of their own, and nominated Martin Van Buren. Another party, the " Free-soilers," which had a The Freelarger following, held a convention at Buffalo. Delegates soilers. from eighteen states appeared. They adopted a platform

which declared for 66 free soil for a free people." They maintained that slavery was a state institution, and as such the general government had no right to meddle with it; but they denied denied the competence of Congress to permit slavery in the territories. They, too, nominated Van Buren. The Liberty party

(p. 420) also held

a convention, and

William Lloyd Garrison

The Liberty

party.

nominated a candidate of its own, John P. Hale of New Hampshire; but he withdrew in favor of Van Buren. The

election was very close, but the desertion of the New York Election of Democrats caused the electoral vote of that state to be given Taylor. to Taylor and Fillmore, and thus decided the contest in favor of the Whigs.

306. Taylor's Policy, 1849, 1850. The conflict over Slavery in the Wilmot Proviso and the presidential campaign, in which politics. one of the three candidates stood for the limitation of slave territory, had at last attracted the attention of the Northern people to the cause underlying the politics of the time: the

The

existence of slavery in the South and of freedom in the North. The contest had not merely aroused interest and sentiment, it had called forth a dangerous spirit on both sides of Mason and Dixon's line. Southern extremists were determined to destroy the Union if the principle embodied in the Wilmot Proviso became a part of the law of the land; Northern extremists were desirous of destroying the Union if slavery were not abolished in the slave states, -no Wilmot Proviso would satisfy them. The Constitution was in the way, it was said. The abolitionists answered that abolitionists. the North should withdraw from the detestable bargain, and, paraphrasing the words of the Prophet Isaiah, declared that "the Constitution is a covenant with death, and an agreement with hell." Other Northern extremists were determined that the further extension of slavery should cease; as to slavery in the states, they contended that that was a state matter. Between these two bodies of extremists stood the mass of the people of both sections, who were desirous to put the whole matter aside, and proceed with the development of the country, leaving the future to take care of itself. Of Southern moderates were men like Clay and Benton, sincere lovers of their country and anxious to prevent sectional strife. The Northern moderates were also sincere lovers of their country. They thought as little about the slave question as possible, if the Southerners wished to ruin the South by perpetuating the institution, that was the Southerners' business; they had no strong moral feelings against slavery, and probably disbelieved most of the facts which the abolitionists were ever dinning in their ears.

Taylor's policy.

Schouler's

United

States, V,

The new President, Zachary Taylor, was a Louisiana sugar planter, the owner of a hundred slaves, and the father-inlaw of Jefferson Davis, one of the senators from Mississippi. Like most Southern men, he came to Washington with the 142, 147, 159. preconceived idea that the Northerners were the aggressors; he soon discovered that, with the exception of the small body of Northern abolitionists, who exercised no political influence at Washington, the aggression was all on the side