asking me to come there and preach. Can you tell me where it is?"

In order to appreciate the condition of the West, about 1850, a brief glance back through the years will be of value. In 1793, Jedidiah Morse in his Universal Geography, which was the best authority upon the geography of North America, said of the trans-Mississippi region: "It has been supposed that all settlers who go beyond the Mississippi will be forever lost to the United States." Of the vast delta between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers the Long Exploring Expedition of 1820 reported: "It will be perceived to bear a great resemblance to the deserts of Siberia." Olney's Geography, in 1731, characterized the same region as a "barren waste," impossible of cultivation. To this great stretch of territory between what were then the outposts of civilization and the Pacific slope the name "Great American Desert" was applied, and of it Washington Irving in his Astoria, published in 1836, remarks: "It is to be feared that a great part of it will form a lawless interval between the abodes of civilized man, like the wastes of the ocean or the deserts of Arabia." Sir George Simpson, governor of the Hudson Bay Territory, who published the journal of his tour of the Northwest in 1847, says: "From the inhabited parts of the United States, it (Oregon) is separated by deserts of rock and sand on either side of the dividing ridge of mountains-deserts with whose horrors every reader of Washington Irving's Astoria is familiar." But, day by day, the westward trend of empire has pushed back and contracted the boundaries of that unknown, until it is difficult to realize the curious views entertained by the people of that period concerning the "Great American Desert."

One of the strongest incentives for the mastering of the real and imaginary difficulties of the western region was furnished when gold was discovered in California. James W. Marshall, on the 19th of January, 1848, while building a saw mill at Coloma, forty-eight miles from Sacramento,

found what experts of San Francisco pronounced to be gold. By the end of March, 1849, San Francisco was in a condition of frenzied excitement over the gold possibilities of California. Newspapers suspended publication, stores were closed, homes deserted, and throngs made their way to the gold fields. By the middle of summer the migration had begun from Monterey, Los Angeles and Santa Cruz. In the latter part of September the news reached the East, and California became a new Eldorado. By February, 1849, over eight thousand emigrants in one hundred and thirty-seven ships had sailed to California, and by the end of March, the number had risen, according to the New York Herald, to eighteen thousand three hundred and fortyone. At the close of the Mexican War the American population of California was fifteen thousand, by July, 1849, it had risen to forty thousand, and the 1st of January, 1850, saw one hundred and twenty thousand Americans and Europeans in the territory and nearly twelve million dollars worth of gold had been deposited in the United States mint. In addition to this sum it was estimated that the amount in private hands aggregated thirty million dollars.

CHAPTER VII

THE COMPROMISE OF 1850

THE Scene in the British House of Lords when the elder Pitt, enfeebled by years and by arduous labors in behalf of the great measures which he promoted, fell fainting to the floor and was carried out from the familiar scenes of his long activity to expire within a brief interval, was closely paralleled in the House of Representatives on February 21, 1848. John Quincy Adams, the sole remaining link between the Federalist régime and the turbulent period of partisan politics, entered the House and took his accustomed place. At about one o'clock, after the House had disposed of business of a trivial character the venerable statesman was seen to fall to one side over the arm of his chair. The cry was raised that Mr. Adams was dying. A member had quickly extended his arm and kept the fainting man from lurching heavily to the floor and many other tender hands proffered their assistance in making him comfortable for his last moments. Immediately, the House and Senate adjourned and the insensible form, borne by fellow members of the House, was laid upon a sofa in the rotunda. Carried to the door of the east portico in order that he might be revived by the air, the venerable statesman partially recovered consciousness and whispered: "This is the last of earth. I am content." Throughout the day and through the 22d he lingered, and early in the evening

of the 23d he expired in the Speaker's room. The whole country sought to do him honor and nowhere did orators enter more heartily into their great theme than did those of the South. The man who was unpliable in his attitude toward slavery, whose Puritan principles forbade him to compromise upon the subject of freedom, the man whose keen satire, rugged oratory and bitter and exasperating taunts had often stirred the South to bitter feeling commanded the respect of the South as no quibbler with his convictions ever could have done. Replete with public honors, spotless in his private character, combining courage with consistency, John Quincy Adams had offered to his country more than fifty years of service.

Almost at the moment of Adams's seizure a confidential message from the president, transmitting the treaty with Mexico, was carried to the doors of the Senate. The hasty adjournment of that body prevented its reception until the reconvening of the Senate. For more than a fortnight the Senate debated and considered in committees the conditions of peace. After being amended so as to accord to Mexicans the right to assume American citizenship the treaty, with other slight modifications, was adopted; its ratification, on March 10th, being by more than the required two-thirds vote. Polk, anxious that the formalities should be early completed, returned the treaty to Mexico with little delay in the last days of May. The exchange of ratifications took place at Queretaro and on July 4, 1848, the people were apprised by a proclamation of the president that peace was finally consummated. By the terms of the treaty the largest limits claimed by Texas were conceded by the Mexican government, and New Mexico and California were annexed to the national domain. The vast addition to the territory of the country represented by New Mexico, Upper California and Texas was surpassed only by the acquisition of 1803.

Attorney-General Clifford remained in Mexico as plenipotentiary and Isaac Toucey, of Connecticut, filled his