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CHAPTER LXVI.

THE COMPROMISE OF 1850.

General Zachary Taylor, the twelfth President, was born November 24th, 1784, in Orange County, Virginia. He served with distinction in the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War, and the war with the Seminole Indians. On the outbreak of the troubles with Mexico he was given the command of the forces in Texas. During the war he met with great success, which led to his nomination for President by the Whig party in 1848. General Taylor was familiarly known as "Old Rough and Ready." He died in office, July 9th, 1850.

500. California. · One of the first matters to be brought to the attention of the new President was the question concerning the lands which had been purchased from Mexico. The portion of this purchase which lay upon the Pacific Coast was called California; and before Congress was ready to provide a territorial government, it made application to be admitted as a State. During the years 1848 and 1849 an unprecedented migration took place from all portions of the United States. to the mountains of California. Around Cape Horn, across the Isthmus of Panama, and even over land by caravans, thousands were drawn to the new land by the report that gold had been discovered in great abundance. As early as the autumn of 1849 there were more than one hundred thousand inhabitants in the territory, a State Constitution had been formed, State officers had been chosen, and application had been made to Congress for admission.

501. The "Omnibus Bill."-While the search for gold was taking place, political

He was succeeded by the Vice-President, Millard Fillmore, who had previously been well known in the House of Representatives as a supporter of John Quincy Adams and as Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. In 1856 Fillmore was nominated for the Presidency by the American party. He was born in Cayuga County, New York, January 7th, 1800, and died March 8th, 1874.

leaders, both in the North and in the South, were discussing the future of the Mexican purchase, as well as the ever-present question of slavery. Bitter dissensions were common, and threats of secession were heard on all sides. For the third time Henry Clay came forward as "The Great Compromiser." A special committee, of which he was chairman, presented three bills, one of which has received the title of the "Omnibus Bill," because it contained so many unconnected subjects. At first it failed of passage, but

afterwards it was divided, and each section became a law very

Washing out Gold.

much as Clay proposed.

502. Compromise of 1850.These bills, though passed separately, have always been called the "Compromise Measures of 1850." California was admitted as a free State September 9th, 1850; the rest of the Mexican Cession was divided into two territories, Utah and New Mexico, with or without slavery as each should decide; and Texas was paid ten million dollars for a large portion of her lands. Two other matters were settled at the same time; namely, that slavery was allowed to continue within the District of Columbia, but the

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slave-trade was prohibited, and a new and strict Fugitive-Slave

Law was enacted.

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Discovery of Gold. In the early portions of 1848, a Swiss immigrant in California, Captain Sutter by name, began to build a saw-mill. He had established himself on a branch of the Sacramento River, some fifty miles east of Sacramento. As the workmen were engaged in digging the mill-race, they came upon certain shining particles which had the appearance of gold. An attempt was made to keep the discovery a secret, but before the finders had ascertained whether the grains were gold or not, the news had reached San Francisco. Some very remarkable "finds" were soon made, and the story spread throughout the country. The name "Forty-niners" was given to the thousands that migrated to California during the year 1849.

503. The Fugitive-Slave Law. The Constitution of the United States declared that every person held to service or labor in one State, and escaping to another, should be delivered up by that State. In 1793 Congress passed the necessary laws to enforce this portion of the Constitution, thus enacting a Fugitive-Slave Law. This law remained in force until 1850, when it was superseded by the more stringent law of that year. The South claimed that the earlier act was not properly enforced, and that no provision had been made to compel its enforcement. The antislavery leaders objected strongly to certain features of this new act, especially the clauses which allowed the

person pretending to be the owner simply to affirm that the negro was his property in order to prove his ownership, which forbade the matter to be tried by jury, and which compelled those who morally disbelieved in slavery to assist in enforcing the law. As a result, many riots and rescues took place in various portions of the North, and an organized system of aiding fugitive slaves to escape to Canada was instituted. This has been called "The Underground Railway."

California. The name California originally applied to the whole Pacific coast from about forty-two degrees north latitude to the mouth of the Gulf of California. Lower California was discovered by Mendoza in 1534, and California proper was explored by Cabrillo in 1542. The region remained in Spanish and Mexican hands until conquered in 1846 and purchased in 1848. California contains a great goldproducing region, and since 1848 has furnished a large portion of the world's supply of the "King of Metals." The "Golden State" also possesses great quantities of silver and mercury, besides many other ores. Certain sections of the State are unsurpassed in their agricultural productions. Southern California is especially noted for its delightful climate. The State is rapidly growing, having a million and a half inhabitants. San Francisco, with its three hundred thousand people and its unexcelled harbor, is the metropolis of the Pacific coast.

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504. New Leaders.- President Taylor died July 9th, 1851, from a fever caused by the heat of the preceding Fourth. Vice-President Fillmore succeeded him. Again the Whigs had lost their President by death, and again the succession was fatal to future party success. During this administration all of the

older great political leaders died, leaving the work to be done by younger men. A few months before the death of President Taylor, Calhoun passed away, and during the Presidential campaign the other two of the great trio, Clay and Webster, also ceased from their labors. The new leaders might be classed as antislavery or as proslavery men. Among the former the most prominent were William H. Seward of New York, Salmon P. Chase of Ohio (1 633), and Charles Sumner of Massachusetts (¶ 526). Among the latter, Jefferson Davis. of Mississippi (¶ 536), Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia (1 537), and Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois (T 524) were best known.

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William H. Seward. (From a negative in the possession of the U. S. Government.)

505. Temperance.

about the year 1825. from alcoholic drinks had

The first Temperance Societies" were formed Previous to that time the evils resulting been constantly on the increase. Almost everybody drank intoxicating liquors, and drunkenness was a prevalent vice. "The American Society for the Promotion of Temperance," formed in 1826, and the "Washingtonian Temperance Society," formed in 1840, were followed by a large number of similar organizations, many of which pledged their members to total abstinence from the use of strong drinks. Thousands were restored to manhood, and incalculable blessings resulted.

William Henry Seward, the leader of the Whig party in New York, was born in that State May 16th, 1801. He early began the practice of law, entered politics, and was chosen governor in 1838. He took a leading position among the opponents of slavery, and was sent to the Senate in 1849, at a time when but few antislavery men were to be found in Congress. He naturally joined the Republican party at its formation, and was a leading candidate for the nomination to the Presidency in 1860. Mr. Seward was made Secretary of State by President Lincoln, and he held that responsible position during the war with remarkable ability. He then joined hands with President Johnson, and lost the favor of his former friends. October 10th, 1872, he died at his home in Auburn, New York. Mr. Seward was the author of the phrase, "The Irrepressible Conflict," which he felt must continue until either the free or the slave States were victorious.

506. Presidential Election.-As in 1848, so in 1852, there were three national parties in the field. The Democratic National Convention pledged a faithful observance of the compromise measures, and nominated, after a long contest, Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire

for President, and William R. King of Alabama for Vice-President. The Whig National Convention approved the compromise measures, and nominated Winfield Scott of Virginia, and William A. Graham of North Carolina as its candidates.

Maine Law.

For twenty-five years the temperance societies were the only means adopted to prevent the evils of drunkenness. In 1851, the State of Maine passed a law prohibiting the manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquors, except for medicinal purposes. This "Maine Law" was the first attempt to control the matter by legal prohibition. At times other States have followed her example. To-day this question is one of the most important for the American people to settle.

All voters who were opposed to the compromise were compelled to vote for one of the two parties claiming to be in favor of it, or else to throw away their votes on the Free Soil Candidates, Hale and Julian. This party declared for "no more slave States, no more slave territories, no nationalized slavery, and no national legislation for the extradition of slaves." Four States voted for the Whig candidates, and the Democrats carried all the rest. Pierce and King were elected by a vote of 254 electors to 42.

CHAPTER LXVII.

THE GROWTH OF THE SLAVERY AGITATION.

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507. North and South. When the thirteen States declared their independence in 1776, the distinction between North and South which later developed did not exist. Negroes were held as slaves in every State of the Union (¶ 394), though the number in the South was the greater. This was due partly to the fact that the negroes had been brought from the warm regions of Africa and could endure Southern heat better than Northern cold. The white population had suffered severely from the climate in the Southern colonies, and had been unable to endure the strain of work upon the great plantations. 508. The Slave-Trade. This difference in the number of negroes, North and South, became greater during the twenty years between 1788 and 1808, the period during which the Constitution permitted the introduction of slaves from Africa (T 447). By 1810 there were more than a million negro slaves south of Mason and Dixon's line, but north of that line slavery had been abolished in every State. This difference between the sections caused a great divergence in their customs and institutions. It resulted also in such a variance in their modes of thought as almost to divide the nation into two hostile wings. Abraham Lincoln's opinion, expressed in 1860, that this country could not forever continue half slave and half free, was

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509. Early Ideas. Jefferson and Washington were slave-owners, as were all of the first statesmen from the Southern section, but they differed from the majority of the Southerners in believing that the slaves should gradually be set free. President Jefferson had at one time the expectation that slavery must eventually and, he hoped, peacefully die out. He lived long enough, however, to see that his desire was not to be realized, and to fear that slavery might some time prove a serious injury to the country.

510. Change of Views. The invention of the cotton-gin (¶ 397), which so stimulated the raising of cotton, made negro help almost an absolute necessity. The people of the South had come to accept

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