California Admission Day September 9, 1850 Media Contacts California Admission Day September 9, 1850 In February of 1848, Mexico and the United States signed a treaty which ended the Mexican War and yielded a vast portion of the Southwest, including present day California, to the United States. Several days earlier, January 24, 1848, gold had been discovered on the American River near Sacramento, and the ensuing gold rush hastened California’s admittance to the Union. With the Gold Rush came a huge increase in population and a pressing need for civil government. In 1849, Californians sought statehood and, after heated debate in the U.S. Congress arising out of the slavery issue, California entered the Union as a free, nonslavery state by the Compromise of 1850. California became the 31st state on September 9, 1850. The Golden State’s rich history has since been shaped by people of every ethnic background who traveled here seeking economic, social and educational opportunity, and a life of quality and breathtaking beauty. California situated its first capital in San Jose.

The city did not have facilities ready for a proper capital, and the winter of 1850 - 1851 was unusually wet, causing the dirt roads to become muddy streams. The legislature was unsatisfied with the location, so former General and State Senator Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo donated land in the future city of Vallejo for a new capital; the legislature convened there for one week in 1852 and again for a month in 1853. Again, the facilities available were unsuitable to house a state government, and the capital was soon moved three miles away to the little town of Benicia, inland from the San Francisco Bay. The strait links San Pablo Bay to Grizzly and Suisun Bays deep in the interior. A lovely brick statehouse was built in old American style complete with white cupola. Although strategically sited between the Gold Rush territory of the Sierra Foothills and the financial port of San Francisco, the site was too small for expansion, and so the capital was moved further inland past the Sacramento River Delta to the riverside port of Sacramento in 1854. Sacramento was the site of John Sutter's large farm and his fort.

In 1846, during the midst of the Bear Flag Revolt, the fort was an oasis. A war was being fought between American and Californio soldiers in the southern part of the province for control of California. But at Sutter's Fort, life on the frontier continued with rhythm of the seasons and arrival of new soldiers. The town was founded by John Sutter, Jr. while the elder Sutter was away, at the river's edge and downhill from the fort. Sutter Sr. was indignant since this place, shaded by water-needy Cottonwood trees, was often under water. Indeed, every hundred years or so, the whole Great Valley from Chico to Bakersfield, was one great freshwater sea. However, lots were already sold, so there the town of Sacramento stayed. At the end of the century, the streets were raised a full story, so buildings in Old Town Sacramento are now entered through what were once doors to the balconies shading the sidewalks below. The Greek word "Eureka" has appeared on the state seal since 1849, when California sought statehood, and means " I Have Found It ." The words were probably intended to refer to the discovery of gold in California.

Archimedes, the famed Greek mathematician, is said to have exclaimed "Eureka" when, after long study, he discovered a method of determining the purity of gold. In 1957, attempts were made to establish "In God We Trust" as the state motto, but "Eureka" was made the official state motto in 1963. Related Pages Address: 1416 9th Street Sacramento, CA 95814 | P.O. Box 942896 Sacramento, CA 94296 Public Information Inquiries: (916) 653-6995 | (800) 777-0369 September 9, 1850 – California Joins the Union as the 31st State | Legal Legacy September 9, 1850 – California Joins the Union as the 31st State Posted on September 9, 2014 by rhapsodyinbooks In January 1848, gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in the Sierra Nevada foothills about 40 miles east of Sacramento – beginning the California Gold Rush.

The word spread slowly though, and it wasn’t until the beginning of 1849 that large numbers of gold seekers (known as “Forty-Niners”) began to arrive from across the U.S. and from other continents. Some 250,000 people arrived in five years – mostly male, and half younger than thirty. As late as 1880 males still outnumbered females two to one. But there were places to find women, such as in the brothels of San Francisco’s “Barbary Coast.” San Francisco, a hastily built wooden town, burned to the ground five times between 1849 and 1851. Some of these Forty-Niners met in Monterey and petitioned for statehood, but Congress was deadlocked over how to apportion the territories acquired during the Mexican-American War between slave and free states. A year after their petition, Californians were finally given official statehood as part of the Compromise of 1850. (This was a package of five bills drafted by Whig Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky and promoted by young Democratic Senatory Stephen Douglas that included admission of California as a free state.

It also strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act, the enforcement of which further inflamed the tension between North and South. You can see a list of all the provisions of the Compromise here .) One of the earliest settlers in California was Agoston Haraszthy, a refugee from the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. He imported some 200,000 cuttings of varietal grapes by mail, destined for Napa, Sonoma, and Santa Clara counties. (Years earlier he had tried planting grapes in Wisconsin.) Agoston Haraszthy He first tried to raise grapes in San Francisco but found the climate too foggy. Next he tried San Mateo County, again unsuccessfully. In the meanwhile, he began a business to refine gold. In 1857 he was indicted for embezzlement but was eventually exonerated. While the investigation was pending, he moved to Sonoma, bought a vineyard northeast of town, and renamed it Buena Vista. Today, still in operation, it is the oldest commercial winery in California. Buena Vista Winery, Sonoma, California Gradually Californians added other institutions besides prostitution and drinking.

Jesuit universities in Santa Clara and San Francisco opened in the 1850’s. Governor Frederick Low (in office from 1863 to 1867) favored the establishment of a state university based upon the University of Michigan plan, and in 1867, he suggested a merger of the existing private College of California in Berkeley (chartered in 1855) with the proposed state university. The Organic Act, establishing the University of California, was signed into law by Governor Henry H. Haight (Low’s successor) on March 23, 1868. The university opened in September 1869 with ten faculty members and nearly forty students using the former College of California’s buildings in Oakland as a temporary home while the new campus underwent construction. In 1871, the Board of Regents ruled that women should be admitted on an equal basis with men. When the Berkeley location was ready for occupancy, 167 male and 222 female students attended. Opening day at Stanford, 1891 Stanford opened in 1891, founded by a former governor and U.S.

senator Leland Stanford and his wife in memory of their son, Leland Stanford, Jr., who died of typhoid two months before his 16th birthday. By 1899, women were enrolling in growing numbers. Concerned that the institution named for her son would become largely a girls’ school, Jane Stanford amended the Founding Grant to limit enrollment to 500 females, or 40 percent of the student body. The stipulation was not eliminated until 1973. Like this: California becomes the 31st state in record time - Sep 09, 1850 - HISTORY.com California becomes the 31st state in record time Share this: California becomes the 31st state in record time Author California becomes the 31st state in record time URL Publisher A+E Networks Though it had only been a part of the United States for less than two years, California becomes the 31st state in the union (without ever even having been a territory) on this day in 1850.

Mexico had reluctantly ceded California and much of its northern territory to the United States in the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo,. When the Mexican diplomats signed the treaty, they pictured California as a region of sleepy mission towns with a tiny population of about 7,300-not a devastating loss to the Mexican empire. Their regret might have been much sharper had they known that gold had been discovered at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California, nine days before they signed the peace treaty. Suddenly, the greatest gold rush in history was on, and “forty-niners” began flooding into California chasing after the fist-sized gold nuggets rumored to be strewn about the ground just waiting to be picked up. California’s population and wealth skyrocketed. Most newly acquired regions of the U.S. went through long periods as territories before they had the 60,000 inhabitants needed to achieve statehood, and prior to the Gold Rush, emigration to California had been so slow that it would have been decades before the population reached that number.

But with gold fever reaching epidemic proportions around the world, more than 60,000 people from around the globe came to California in 1849 alone. Faced with such rapid growth, as well as a thorny congressional debate over the question of slavery in the new territories, Congress allowed California to jump straight to full statehood without ever passing through the formal territorial stage. After a rancorous debate between the slave-state and free-soil advocates, Congress finally accepted California as a free-labor state under the Compromise of 1850, beginning the state’s long reign as the most powerful economic and political force in the far West. Related Videos Compromise of 1850: Primary Documents of American History (Virtual Programs & Services, Library of Congress) Reproduction Number: LC-USZCN4-149 The Compromise of 1850 consists of five laws passed in September of 1850 that dealt with the issue of slavery. In 1849 California requested permission to enter the Union as a free state, potentially upsetting the balance between the free and slave states in the U.S. Senate.

Senator Henry Clay introduced a series of resolutions on January 29, 1850, in an attempt to seek a compromise and avert a crisis between North and South. As part of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in Washington, D.C ., was abolished. Furthermore, California entered the Union as a free state and a territorial government was created in Utah . In addition, an act was passed settling a boundary dispute between Texas and New Mexico that also established a territorial government in New Mexico. Jump Back in Time: The Day Henry Clay Died, June 29, 1852. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers This site allows you to search and view millions of historic American newspaper pages from 1836 to 1922. Search this collection to find newspaper articles about the Compromise of 1850. A selection of articles related to the Compromise of 1850 includes: " Mr. Clay's Resolutions ," The North-Carolina Standard. (Raleigh, N.C.), February 6, 1850. " Mr.

Calhoun's Speech ," The North-Carolina Standard. (Raleigh, N.C.), March 13, 1850. " Mr. Webster ," The Daily Crescent. (New Orleans, La.), March 16, 1850. " The Fugitive Slave Law ," Anti-Slavery Bugle. (New-Lisbon, Ohio), October 12, 1850. Exhibitions Exhibit of documents from Senators John C. Calhoun and Daniel Webster on the Compromise of 1850. Today in History Senator Daniel Webster delivered his famous "Seventh of March" speech urging sectional compromise on the issue of slavery. External Web Sites Thomas Hart Benton: Against the Compromise of 1850 , United States Senate Selected Bibliography Bordewich, Fergus M. America's Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012. [ Catalog Record ] Hamilton, Holman. Prologue to Conflict, the Crisis and Compromise of 1850. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1964.

[ Catalog Record ] Holt, Michael F. The Political Crisis of the 1850s. New York: Norton, 1983. [ Catalog Record ] Remini, Robert Vincent. At the Edge of the Precipice: Henry Clay and the Compromise That Saved the Union. New York: Basic Books, 2010. [ Catalog Record ] Stegmaier, Mark Joseph. Texas, New Mexico, and the Compromise of 1850: Boundary Dispute & Sectional Crisis. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1996. [ Catalog Record ] Waugh, John C. On the Brink of Civil War: The Compromise of 1850 and How it Changed the Course of American History. Wilmington, Del.: Scholarly Resources, 2003.

[ Catalog Record ] California | history - geography - state, United States | Britannica.com state, United States (2010) 37,253,956; (2016 est.) 39,250,017 Total area (sq mi) "Eureka (I Have Found It)" State bird Seats in U.S. House of Representatives 53 of (435) Pacific (GMT − 8 hours) 1Excluding military abroad. California, constituent state of the United States of America. It was admitted as the 31st state of the union on September 9, 1850, and by the early 1960s it was the most populous U.S. state. No version of the origin of California’s name has been fully accepted, but there is wide support for the contention that it derived from an early 16th-century Spanish novel, Las sergas de Esplandián (“The Adventures of Esplandián”), that described a paradisiacal island full of gold and precious stones called California.

The influence of the Spanish settlers of the 18th and 19th centuries is evident in California’s architecture and place-names. The capital is Sacramento . California. Mountainous coastline of the eastern Pacific Ocean, Big Sur, California. Jeremy Woodhouse/Getty Images California is bounded by the U.S. state of Oregon to the north, by the states of Nevada and Arizona to the east, by the Mexican state of Baja California to the south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. From the rainy northern coast to the parched Colorado Desert in the south, and from the Mediterranean-like central and southern littoral to the volcanic plateau of the far northeast, California is a land of stunning physical contrasts. Both the highest and lowest points in the 48 conterminous states are in the state of California— Mount Whitney and Death Valley , respectively. The former is the culminating summit of the Sierra Nevada , one of the major mountain ranges of North America . The diverse landscapes of California from Mount Whitney to Death Valley. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Sand dunes at Death Valley National Monument, California.

© Corbis The fluid nature of the state’s social, economic, and political life—shaped so largely by the influx of people from other states and countries—has for centuries made California a laboratory for testing new modes of living. California’s population, concentrated mostly along the coast, is the most urban in the United States, with more than three-fourths of the state’s people living in the Los Angeles , San Francisco , and San Diego metropolitan areas. Despite its urbanization and the loss of land to industry, California still leads the country in agricultural production. About one-half of the state’s land is federally owned. National parks located throughout the state are devoted to the preservation of nature and natural resources. Area 163,695 square miles (423,967 square km). Population (2010) 37,253,956; (2016 est.) 39,250,017. Downtown Los Angeles cityscape. California’s eclectic population is demonstrated through interviews with extreme mountain biker … Contunico © ZDF Enterprises GmbH, Mainz Land A section of the Los Angeles River affected by drought.

Joshua Rainey—iStock Editorial/Thinkstock The largest lake of the Sierra Nevada is Lake Tahoe , astride the California-Nevada border at an elevation of 6,229 feet (1,899 metres). A mountain-ringed alpine lake about 193 square miles (500 square km) in area, it has among the world’s greatest average depth and a maximum depth of about 1,640 feet (500 metres). Elsewhere in the Sierra lie hundreds of smaller lakes, some above the timberline in regions of tumbled granite and smooth-walled canyons. West of the Sierra Nevada is Clear Lake; at 67 square miles (174 square km), it is the largest natural lake wholly within the state. On the eastern flank of the Sierra are Mono Lake and Owens Lake, both long endangered by agricultural development. Tufa towers of Mono Lake, east-central California, U.S. © Corel Climate California’s climate is marked by two seasons—a wet and a dry. Except on the coast, the dryness of the air and the consequent rapidity of evaporation greatly lessen the severity of summer heat.

Precipitation ranges from more than 170 inches (4,300 mm) in the northwest to traces in the southeastern desert, but moderate temperatures and rainfall prevail along the coast. The climate also changes rapidly with elevational extremes. Death Valley , with its lowest point at 282 feet (86 metres) below sea level, is the hottest and driest place in North America. Its temperatures easily soar into the 100s F (about 48 °C) in the summer, and average annual rainfall is only about 2 inches (50 mm). Summer temperatures in the low-lying Colorado Desert can reach as high as about 130 °F (54 °C), and annual precipitation there averages only 3 to 4 inches (75 to 100 mm). In the higher eastern deserts of California, summer temperatures are more moderate. Winter temperatures in the Sierra Nevada can drop to near freezing. The average annual temperature is in the mid-60s F (about 18 °C) in Los Angeles, with an annual precipitation average of about 14 inches (350 mm).

In San Francisco temperatures average in the mid-50s F (about 14 °C), with annual precipitation of about 20 inches (508 mm). On the coast, temperatures seldom exceed 90 °F (32 °C) or drop to freezing, and humidity is low. Amargosa Range surmounting Death Valley, eastern California. © J. L. Levy/Shutterstock.com Plant and animal life California is the most biologically diverse state in the United States, with more than 40,000 plant and animal species, some of which are endangered or threatened. Nearly one-fourth of all plant types found in North America occur naturally within the borders of the state. The state is particularly known for its redwood trees . Before European settlement the redwoods covered an estimated 2,000,000 acres (800,000 hectares) of California. Many redwood forests have been destroyed or substantially altered by logging operations; however, about 200,000 acres (80,000 hectares) of redwoods are protected in state and national parks.

Other highly recognizable forms of plant life, emblematic of different parts of the state, are the bristlecone pine , the palm, the creosote bush, and the Monterey cypress. Yet, some of California’s most characteristic landscapes, particularly the coastal region of the central and southern portions of the state, are dominated by plants introduced from other countries, most notably Bermuda grass from southern Africa, the tree of heaven from China , the thistle from Central Asia , and the giant reed from southern Europe. Undergrowth in Muir Woods National Monument, California. U.S. National Park Service Monterey cypresses (Cupressus macrocarpa) along the Pacific coast at Pebble Beach, … The Jon B. Lovelace Collection of California Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America Project, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-highsm-22837) Animal life in California is as varied as the geography; about 400 species of mammals and some 600 species of birds have been identified. Many are extinct or in danger of extirpation. The California grizzly bear is extinct, for instance, and the bighorn sheep is found mostly in remote desert mountains.

Some species have been reintroduced or given protected status, including the California condor, whose population has slowly regrown with the help of zoo hatching programs and wilderness refuges. Wildcats and pumas (cougars) characteristically prowl remote mountain areas, though they are increasingly coming into contact with humans as urban and suburban development expands. The more common deer, bobcats, coyotes, skunks, raccoons, and black bears are found in various habitats. In drier areas and deserts there are squirrels, jackrabbits, and chipmunks. Desert tortoises, horned toads, and rattlesnakes are abundant in desert climates. Among common birds are California jays and thrashers, juncos, mountain bluebirds, and hermit thrushes. Bass, perch, rockfish, and tuna are found in the Pacific Ocean off California’s coast, as are many species of marine mammals. People Population composition The California Indians , the original inhabitants of the state, now constitute a small but rapidly growing percentage of the population. Spanish missionaries converted and subjugated them as part of the construction of the California mission chain.

When the missions were secularized in 1833, some 30,000 Mission Indians were farming under the direction of priests and soldiers at 21 different missions. Disease decimated the California Indian population for decades after the Spaniards’ arrival. During the remainder of the 19th century, thousands of indigenous Californians were enslaved through the application of antivagrancy laws; similar numbers were killed during state-sponsored raids that were touted as “pacification” efforts. By 1880 only about 15,000 California Indians remained, a reduction of about nine-tenths of their pre-Columbian population. During the 20th century the population began to recuperate, and Native American communities engaged in a variety of advocacy and cultural-renewal activities. During World War II the state’s burgeoning military-industrial complex drew people from across the country, and following the war California became a destination point for U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs relocation programs. These factors caused many Native Americans from other parts of the United States to relocate to the state.

By the early 21st century, California had the largest Native American population in the United States, the vast majority of which resided in urban areas. California’s first settlers were mostly Midwestern farmers of European descent . The Gold Rush of 1849 changed the composition of the population as hundreds of thousands of fortune seekers from all over the United States and other countries entered the state. In 1850 more than half of Californians were in their 20s and were typically male and single. Only a few hundred Chinese lived in the state in 1850, but two years later one resident out of 10 was Chinese; most performed menial labour. Irish labourers arrived during the railroad construction boom in the 1860s. The Irish, French, and Italians tended to settle in San Francisco. As Los Angeles began to grow at the end of the 19th century, it attracted large numbers of Mexicans, Russians, and Japanese but primarily another influx of Midwesterners. By the beginning of the 20th century, ethnic discrimination had grown strong, especially against Asians . An alien land law intended to discourage ownership of land by Asians was not ruled unconstitutional until 1952.

At one time the testimony of Chinese in courts was declared void. Separate schools for Asians were authorized by law until 1936, and it was not until 1943 that the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed by Congress. As discrimination against the Chinese flared, Japanese felt encouraged to immigrate, and in 1900 more than 12,000 entered California. Prospering as farmers, they came to control more than one-tenth of the farmland by 1920, while constituting only 2 percent of the population. Los Angeles became the centre of the country’s Japanese community , while San Francisco’s Chinatown became the country’s largest Chinese settlement. Discrimination against the Japanese smoldered until World War II, when about 93,000 Japanese Americans lived in the state. Some three-fifths of them were American-born citizens known as Nisei (second-born); most of the others were Issei , older adults who had immigrated before Congress halted their influx in 1924. Never eligible for naturalization, the Issei were classed as enemy aliens during World War II.

In early 1942 almost all of California’s Japanese Americans, both Nisei and Issei, were moved to isolated internment camps east of the Sierra Nevada, and they were held under guard until 1945. At the end of the war, they found that their property had been sold for taxes or storage fees and their enclaves overrun. After years of litigation some 26,000 claimants were reimbursed for their losses at about one-third of the claimed valuation. About 85 percent of the Japanese Americans had been farmers, but with their land gone they became gardeners or went into other professions. In 1988 the U.S. Congress voted grants of $20,000 each to all Japanese Americans who had been interned. Manzanar Relocation Centre (an internment camp for Japanese Americans during World War II), near … Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (neg. no.

LC-DIG-ppprs-00229) Asian immigration to California surged in the 1970s and ’80s, with Filipinos, Vietnamese, Miao (Hmong), Cambodians, Laotians, and South Koreans among the newcomers. By 1987 the Asian population of California was estimated at about 6 percent of the total; that number had grown to more than one-tenth by the early 2000s. Immigration has led to the formation of large Asian enclaves, especially in the major metropolitan areas. Los Angeles, for example, now has a larger Korean population than any other city outside Korea. Lanterns hanging in Chinatown, San Francisco. trekandshoot—iStock/Thinkstock The many Californians with Spanish surnames largely reflect the 20th-century immigration from Mexico—to escape that country’s revolution (1910–17) or to seek economic opportunity in the United States. By the early 21st century, about one-third of the state’s population was Mexican or Mexican American (nearly one-half of the country’s Mexican Americans live in California).

Millions of Mexicans entered southern California illegally in the years prior to 1987. In that year the U.S. Congress granted amnesty to those who could establish specific conditions of prior residence. By 1988 about 1.7 million Hispanics had received temporary resident status under amnesty provisions, an estimated one-half of them within California. Since then, millions of Mexicans, as well as smaller numbers of Central and South Americans, have migrated to California. There are also smaller Puerto Rican and Cuban communities. Latinos as a whole make up more than one-third of the state’s population, and some areas are primarily Spanish-speaking. Few people of African descent settled in California until World War II. Between 1940 and 1980 the African American population in metropolitan San Francisco rose from about 5,000 to about 86,000 and in metropolitan Los Angeles from 64,000 to more than 900,000, marking one of the largest gains of any U.S. state’s African American population. In the early 21st century, the African American population accounted for about one-fifteenth of California’s population.

The San Francisco Bay Area became a haven for gay men and lesbians in the years following World War II and was among the first U.S. cities to issue antidiscrimination ordinances on the basis of sexual preference. Los Angeles and other California cities also have significant gay and lesbian populations that are politically and culturally active. California’s Supreme Court overturned a ban on same-sex marriage in May 2008, though opponents vowed to battle the ruling with a constitutional amendment . About one-third of Californians belong to churches, a proportion far below the national average. However, California has the highest concentration of megachurches (generally nondenominational churches with 2,000 or more members) of any state. Roman Catholicism is dominant in San Francisco, and fundamentalist Protestant groups are common in those parts of southern California inhabited by migrants from the South and Southwest . The Jewish community makes up about 3 percent of the state’s population. Los Angeles and, to a somewhat lesser extent, San Francisco have long attracted the development of unconventional religious movements. Aimee Semple McPherson , whose Angelus Temple in Los Angeles boasted near 30,000 members, is one of the best remembered of the evangelists.

Faith healers still are popular. Scientology has thrived in southern California and has boasted many celebrity adherents. Zen Buddhism enjoyed popularity in San Francisco during the 1950s, with English-born Alan Watts serving as its interpreter to a following that included the “Beat Generation.” Interest in Buddhism and other Eastern religions was rekindled in California in the 1990s as a result of both an influx in the Asian population and the search among baby boomers for nontraditional belief systems. Settlement patterns and demographic trends Native-born Americans were the dominant factor in California’s phenomenal growth in the mid-20th century. Many workers who flooded the defense industries during World War II remained as residents, along with hundreds of thousands who first visited the state as military personnel. California’s population tripled from 1950 to 2000. Rapid growth, mainly from immigration, continued into the 21st century. About three-fifths of the population is concentrated south of the Tehachapi Mountains in about one-fourth of the state’s area, with the greatest concentration in the small coastal region. The wide-scale transformation of California’s ethnic mix has led to profound demographic changes.

In 2001 California became the first state in the United States in which Hispanics were the majority. It was also one of the few states to experience a significant out-migration of “whites” moving to less ethnically diverse states, notably Utah , Nevada, Oregon , and Washington . Economic crises, overcrowding, and pollution in California’s major cities were some of the reasons for their movement eastward and northward. Page 1 of 3 California - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up) Virtually every kind of climate, landform, vegetation, and animal life that can be found anywhere else in the United States can be found in the state of California, the Golden State. The third largest state stretches for more than 800 miles (1,290 kilometers) along the Pacific coast. It meets the sea with sandy beaches and rugged cliffs. Inland, past wooded coastal mountains, lie verdant valleys and arid deserts. Along the eastern border the towering Sierra Nevada thrusts jagged peaks far beyond the timberline. Among the mountains are the awesome forest habitats of some of the largest, the tallest, and the oldest living things on Earth.

Article Contributors California Admission Day in the United States Home Calendar Holidays the United States California Admission Day California Admission Day in the United States September 9 is California Admission Day in the United States. It celebrates the time when California became the 31st state in 1850. California's "Bear Flag", which flew over the White House on September 9, 1924, to honor the date of the state's admission. California's "Bear Flag", which flew over the White House on September 9, 1924, to honor the date of the state's admission. Celebrate California Admission Day Some state public offices, organizations, businesses, museums and schools have special events to celebrate the state’s history on this day. Public Life California Admission Day is a legal observance but most public offices, schools and other businesses generally do not close. About California Admission Day In 1849, leaders from around the future state of California drafted California’s first constitution, which was approved on November 13 that year by a vote of 12,064 to 811. In January, 1850, the State Legislature began its first two-year session.

On September 9, 1850, California became the 31st entry into the Union. On September 9, 1924, California’s “Bear Flag” flew over the White House to honor the date of California’s admission. In 1984, however, Governor George Deukmejian signed legislation changing its observance to a “personal” option. In recent times, Californian governors have made public proclamations, inviting the public to observe the day. California Admission Day Observances California is the 31st State Admitted to the Union | World History Project Sep 9 1850 California is the 31st State Admitted to the Union It was August 1848 before the United States Senate ratified the treaty ending the Mexican War and recognizing the transfer of California to American hands. Local Army commanders, "Forty-eighters," Hispanic rancheros--all waited anxiously for details of the form of territorial government California would enjoy. When no news arrived, local residents took matters in their own hands, with mass meetings as early as December 1848 debating California's political future.

As tens of thousands of "Forty-Niners" joined the rush, the need became more pressing. Congress and the President did nothing, and in September 1849, forty-eight delegates met in Monterey to draw up a state constitution. The document was closely modeled on the constitutions of Iowa and New York, home states of many members of the convention, and it made California a "free" state from which slavery would be excluded. The frame of government was ratified by popular vote on November 13, and state officials were chosen the same day. While Eastern Congressmen and Representatives argued over whether and how to admit this new free state, Californians got on with the business of finding gold and making money. In the mining camps, it was the miners themselves who were responsible for local affairs. In only a few years, they worked out rules governing the discovery and exploitation of mineral resources that were later incorporated into state and federal statutes. As for criminal law, miners and local townspeople were equally efficient in dealing out their own form of justice. As towns sprang up near the camps, newly appointed officials were appointed to impose order.

Back East, established forces of morality and order like the major Protestant churches were concerned about the society to which the states of the Atlantic seaboard and Midwest were sending their young men and women. Sensing that California would be in desperate need of moral guidance, "home mission" boards of these churches sent clergyman west to minister to the souls of miners, saloonkeepers, peddlers, and merchants in California's booming towns and cities and isolated mining camps. Finally, on September 9, 1850, President Fillmore signed the bill that gave California statehood. However, state government did not automatically bring law and order to California. In San Francisco, local citizens became so impatient with the inability or unwillingness of local officers to enforce the law that they formed a "Vigilance Committee" in 1851. By the time that the committee disbanded at the end of September, they had hanged four men, handed fifteen over to the police for trials, and whipped or deported twenty-nine more. The San Francisco experience inspired vigilance committees in other towns and mining camps.

The apparent reforms brought by the 1851 San Francisco vigilantes were short-lived, and when the city's marshals and one of its newspaper editors were shot down in 1856, the second San Francisco Vigilance Committee was formed, this time even seizing arms from the local state militia. Wiki: Compromise of 1850 - upcScavenger upcScavenger upcScavenger » 31st United States Congress » Wiki: Compromise Of 1850 Tag (7) Media The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850, which defused a four-year political confrontation between slave and free states regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). The compromise, drafted by Whig Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky and brokered by Clay and Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois, reduced sectional conflict. Controversy arose over the Fugitive Slave provision. The Compromise was greeted with relief, although each side disliked specific provisions.

Texas surrendered its claim to New Mexico , as well as its claims north of the Missouri Compromise Line. It retained the Texas Panhandle and the federal government took over the state's public debt. California was admitted as a free state with its current boundaries. The South prevented adoption of the Wilmot Proviso that would have outlawed slavery in the new territories, Michael Holt, The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party (2003) p. 252 and the new Utah Territory and New Mexico Territory were allowed, under the principle of popular sovereignty, to decide whether to allow slavery within their borders. In practice, these lands were generally unsuited to plantation agriculture and their settlers were uninterested in slavery. The slave trade (but not slavery altogether) was banned in the District of Columbia. A more stringent Fugitive Slave Law was enacted. The Compromise became possible after the sudden death of President Zachary Taylor , who, although a slave owner, had favored excluding slavery from the Southwest. Whig leader Henry Clay designed a compromise, which failed to pass in early 1850, due to opposition by both pro-slavery southern Democrats, led by John C. Calhoun, and anti-slavery northern Whigs.

Upon Clay's instruction, Douglas then divided Clay's bill into several smaller pieces and narrowly won their passage over the opposition of those with stronger views on both sides. Background Soon after the start of the Mexican War, when the extent of the contested territories was still unclear, the question of whether to allow slavery in those territories polarized the Northern and Southern United States in the most bitter sectional conflict up to this time. A state the size of Texas attracted interest from both state residents and pro and anti-slavery camps on a national scale. Texas claimed land north of the 36°30' demarcation line for slavery set by the 1820 Missouri Compromise. The Texas Annexation resolution had required that if any new states were formed out of Texas' lands, those north of the Missouri Compromise line would become free states. Various proposals Proposals during 1846–1850 on the division of the Southwest included: The Wilmot Proviso banning slavery in any new territory to be acquired from Mexico, not including Texas, which had been annexed the previous year. Passed by the House in August 1846 and February 1847 but not the Senate.

Later an effort failed to attach the proviso to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Extension of the Missouri Compromise line: Failed amendments to the Wilmot Proviso by William W. Wick and then Stephen Douglas extending the Missouri Compromise line (36°30' parallel north) west to the Pacific (south of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California), allowing the possibility of slavery in most of present-day New Mexico and Arizona, and Southern California. The line was again proposed by the Nashville Convention of June 1850. Popular sovereignty, developed by Lewis Cass and Douglas as the eventual Democratic Party position, letting each territory decide whether to allow slavery. William L. Yancey's "Alabama Platform," endorsed by the Alabama and Georgia legislatures and by Democratic state conventions in Florida and Virginia, called for no restrictions on slavery in the territories either by the federal government or by territorial governments before statehood, opposition to any candidates supporting either the Wilmot Proviso or popular sovereignty, and federal legislation overruling Mexican anti-slavery laws.

Two free states: General Zachary Taylor , who became the Whig candidate in 1848 and then President from March 1849 to July 1850, proposed after becoming President that the entire area become two free states, called California and New Mexico but much larger than the eventual ones. None of the area would be left as an unorganized or organized territory, avoiding the question of slavery in the territories. Changing Texas's borders: Senator Thomas Hart Benton in December 1849 or January 1850: Texas's western and northern boundaries would be the 102nd meridian west and 34th parallel north. Two southern states: Senator John Bell (with the assent of Texas) in February 1850: New Mexico would get all Texas land north of the 34th parallel north (including today's Texas Panhandle ), and the area to the south (including the southeastern part of today's New Mexico) would be divided at the Colorado River of Texas into two Southern states, balancing the admission of California and New Mexico as free states.

First draft of the compromise of 1850: Texas's northwestern boundary would be a straight diagonal line from the Rio Grande 20 miles north of El Paso to the Red River (Mississippi watershed) at the 100th meridian west (the southwestern corner of today's Oklahoma ). Final proposed compromise On January 29, 1850, Whig Senator Henry Clay gave a speech which called for compromise on the issues dividing the Union. However, Clay's specific proposals for achieving a compromise, including his idea for Texas' boundary, were not adopted in a single bill. Remini, Robert. Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union (1993) pp 730-61 Upon Clay's urging, Senator Stephen A. Douglas, Democrat of Illinois, divided Clay's bill into several smaller bills, and passed each separately. When he instructed Douglas, Clay was nearly dead and unable to guide the congressional debate any further.

The Compromise came to coalesce around a plan dividing Texas at its present-day boundaries, creating territorial governments with "popular sovereignty" (without the Wilmot Proviso) for New Mexico and Utah, admitting California as a free state, abolishing the slave trade in the District of Columbia, and enacting a new fugitive slave law. The Compromise of 1850 was formally proposed by Clay and guided to passage by Douglas over Northern Whig and Southern Democrat opposition. It was enacted September 1850: California admitted as a free state; Utah Territory and New Mexico Territory organized with slavery to be decided by popular sovereignty; Texas dropped its claim to land north of the 32nd parallel north and west of the 103rd meridian west in favor of New Mexico Territory, and north of the 36°30' parallel north and east of the 103rd meridian west which became unorganized territory. Texas's boundaries were set at their present form.

Senator James Pearce of Maryland drafted the final proposal where Texas ceded its claims to land which later became half of present-day New Mexico , a third of Colorado , and small portions of Kansas , Oklahoma , and Wyoming to the federal government, in return for the assumption of $10 million of the old republic's debt. El Paso , where Texas had established county government, was left in Texas; Slave trade was abolished in Washington, D.C. (but not slavery itself); The Fugitive Slave Act was strengthened. Seward and Northern Whigs Most Northern Whigs, led by William Henry Seward who delivered his famous "Higher Law" speech during the controversy, opposed the Compromise as well because it would not have applied the Wilmot Proviso to the western territories and because of the newly strengthened fugitive slave act, which would have pressed ordinary citizens into duty on slave-hunting patrols. This provision was inserted by Democratic Virginia Senator James M. Mason to entice border-state Whigs, who faced the greatest danger of losing slaves as fugitives but who were lukewarm on general sectional issues related to the South into supporting Texas's land claims. John M. Taylor, William Henry Seward: Lincoln's right hand (1996) p.

85 Zachary Taylor avoided the issue as the Whig candidate during the 1848 U.S. presidential election but then as President attempted to sidestep the entire controversy by pushing to admit California and New Mexico as free states immediately, avoiding the entire territorial process and thus the Wilmot Proviso question. Taylor's stand was unpopular among Southerners and surprised them because Taylor was a Southerner. Elbert B. Smith, President Zachary Taylor: the hero president (2007) p. 238 Northern Democrats and Southern Whigs supported the Compromise. Southern Whigs, many of whom were from the border states, supported the stronger fugitive slave law. Debate and results On April 17, a "Committee of Thirteen" agreed on the border of Texas as part of Clay's plan. The dimensions were later changed. That same day, during debates on the measures in the Senate, Vice President Millard Fillmore and Senator Benton verbally sparred, with Fillmore charging that the Missourian was "out of order." During the heated debates, Compromise floor leader Henry S. Foote of Mississippi drew a pistol on Senator Benton.

In early June, nine slave holding Southern states sent delegates to the Nashville Convention to determine their course of action should the compromise take hold. While some delegates preached secession , eventually the moderates ruled, and they proposed a series of compromises, including extending the geographic dividing line designated by the Missouri Compromise of 1820 to the Pacific Coast . The various bills were initially combined into one "omnibus" bill. Despite Clay's efforts, it failed in a crucial vote on July 31, opposed by southern Democrats and by northern, anti-slavery Whigs. He announced on the Senate floor the next day that he intended to persevere and pass each individual part of the bill. The 73-year-old Clay, however, was physically exhausted as the effects of the tuberculosis that would eventually kill him began to take its toll. Clay left the Senate to recuperate in Newport, Rhode Island , while Stephen A. Douglas wrote the separate bills and guided them through the Senate. Eaton (1957) pp. 192–193. Remini (1991) pp.

756–759 The situation had been changed by the sudden death of President Taylor and the accession of Vice President Millard Fillmore to the presidency, on July 9, 1850. President Fillmore, anxious to find a quick solution to the conflict in Texas over the border with New Mexico, which threatened to become armed conflict between Texas militia and Federal soldiers, reversed the administration's position late in July and threw its support to the compromise measures. Michael Holt, The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party (1999), p. 529-530: "only rapid passage of the omnibus bill appeared to offer a timely escape from the crisis." The Northern Democrats held together and supported each of the bills and gained Whigs or Southern Democrats to pass each one. All passed and were signed by Fillmore between September 9 and September 20, 1850. California was admitted as a free state. It passed the House 150–56. Holman Hamilton, Prologue to Conflict (University of Kentucky Press, 1965), p. 160 It passed the Senate 34–18.

The slave trade was abolished (the sale of slaves, not the institution of slavery) in the District of Columbia. The Territory of Utah was organized under the rule of popular sovereignty. It passed the House 97–85. The Territory of New Mexico was organized under the rule of popular sovereignty. It passed the House 108–97. It passed the Senate 30–20. A harsher Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the Senate 27–12, and by the House 109–76. Texas gave up much of the western land which it claimed and received compensation of $10,000,000 to pay off its national debt. Clay was still given much of the credit for the Compromise's success. It quieted the controversy between Northerners and Southerners over the expansion of slavery and delayed secession and civil war for another decade. Senator Henry S.

Foote of Mississippi, who had suggested the creation of the Committee of Thirteen, later said, "Had there been one such man in the Congress of the United States as Henry Clay in 1860–'61 there would, I feel sure, have been no civil war." Remini (1991) pp. 761–62 Implications The Compromise in general proved widely popular politically, as both parties committed themselves in their platforms to the finality of the Compromise on sectional issues. The strongest opposition in the South occurred in the states of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, but unionists soon prevailed, spearheaded by Georgians Alexander Stephens, Robert Toombs , and Howell Cobb and the creation of the Georgia Platform . This peace was broken only by the divisive Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 introduced by Stephen Douglas, which had the effect of repealing the Missouri Compromise and led directly to the formation of the Republican Party, whose capture of the national government in 1860 led directly to the secession crisis of 1860–1861.

Many historians argue that the Compromise played a major role in postponing the American Civil War for a decade, during which time the Northwest was growing more wealthy and more populous, and was being brought into closer relations with the Northeast. Robert Remini, The House: A History of the House of Representatives (2006) p. 147 During that decade, the Whig Party had completely broken down, being replaced with the new Republican Party dominant in the North and the Democrats in the South. Holt, Michael F. The Political Crisis of the 1850s (1978). But others argue that the Compromise only made more obvious pre-existing sectional divisions and laid the groundwork for future conflict. In this view, the Fugitive Slave Law helped polarize North and South, as shown in the enormous reaction to Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. The passage of the Fugitive Slave Law aroused feelings of bitterness in the North. Furthermore, the Compromise of 1850 led to a breakdown in the spirit of compromise in the United States in the antebellum period, directly before the Civil War.

The Compromise exemplifies this spirit, but the deaths of influential senators who worked on the compromise, primarily Henry Clay and Daniel Webster , contributed to this feeling of increasing disparity between the North and South. The delay of hostilities for ten years allowed the free economy of the northern states to continue to industrialize. The southern states, to a large degree based on slave labor and cash crop production, lacked the ability to industrialize heavily. Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Fruits of Merchant Capital (1983). By 1860, the northern states had added many more miles of railroad, steel production, modern factories, and population to the advantages it possessed in 1850. The North was better able to supply, equip, and man its armed forces, an advantage that would prove decisive in the later stages of the war. Issues Three major types of issues were addressed by the Compromise of 1850, to wit: a variety of boundary issues; status of territory issues; and the issue of slavery. While capable of analytical distinction, the boundary and territory issues were actually included in the overarching issue of slavery.

Pro- and anti-slavery interests were each concerned with both the amount of land on which slavery was permitted and with the number of States which respectively would be in the slave or free camps. Since Texas was a slave state, not only the residents of that state, but the pro- and anti-slavery camps on a national scale had an interest in the size of the state of Texas. The general solution that was adopted by the Compromise of 1850 was to transfer a considerable part of the territory claimed by the state of Texas to the federal government, to formally organize two new territories, the Territory of New Mexico and the Territory of Utah, which expressly would be allowed to locally determine whether they would become slave or free territories, to add another free state to the Union (California), adopt a severe measure to recover slaves who had escaped to a free state or free territory (the Fugitive Slave Law), and to abolish the slave trade in the District of Columbia. Texas The independent Republic of Texas won the decisive Battle of San Jacinto (April 21, 1836) against Mexico and captured Mexican president Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.

He signed the Treaties of Velasco, which recognized the Rio Grande as the boundary of the Republic of Texas. The treaties were repudiated by the government of Mexico which insisted it was sovereign over Texas and promised to reclaim the lost territories. To the extent that there was a de facto recognition, Mexico treated the Nueces River as its northern boundary control. A huge, largely unsettled area lay between the two rivers. Neither Mexico nor the Republic of Texas had the military strength to effectively assert its territorial claim. On December 29, 1845, the Republic of Texas was annexed to the United States and became the 28th state. Texas was staunchly committed to slavery, with its constitution making illegal the unauthorized emancipation of slaves by their owners. With this annexation the United States inherited the territorial claims of the former Republic of Texas against Mexico. The territorial claim to the area between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande and Mexican resistance to it led to the Mexican–American War. On February 2, 1848, that war was concluded by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Among the provisos of the Treaty was the recognition by Mexico of the area between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande being a part of the United States. The Republic of Texas had claimed ownership of the eastern half of present-day New Mexico, along with sections of Colorado, Kansas and Wyoming, but Texas had never effectively controlled the area, which was dominated by hostile Indian tribes (see Comancheria ). However, the federal government now controlled the area after 1846. The Compromise of 1850 solved the problem by setting the present boundaries of Texas in return for $10 million in federal bonds paid to the state of Texas. Mark J. Stegmaier, Texas, New Mexico, and the Compromise of 1850: Boundary Dispute and Sectional Crisis (1998) The state of Texas was heavily burdened with debt, which had been contracted during its struggles as the Republic of Texas. The federal government agreed to pay $10 million of bonds in trade for the transfer of a large portion of the claimed area of the state of Texas to the territory of the federal government and for the relinquishment of various claims which Texas had upon the federal government.

(These bonds bore interest at the rate of 5%, which interest was collectible by Texas every six months, and the principal was redeemable at the end of fourteen years.) The Constitution (Article IV, Section 3) does not permit Congress to unilaterally reduce the territory of any state, so the first part of the Compromise of 1850 had to take the form of an offer to the Texas State Legislature, rather than a unilateral enactment. The Texas State Legislature did ratify the bargain and in due course the transfer of a large swath of land from the state of Texas to the federal government was accomplished. Texas was allowed to keep the following portions of the erstwhile disputed land: that which is south of the 32nd parallel, and that which is south of the 36°30' parallel north and east of the 103rd meridian west. The rest of the land which had been disputed between Mexico and the Republic of Texas was transferred to federal government. New Mexico and Utah Territories The first law of the Compromise of 1850 also organized the Territory of New Mexico. The second law, also enacted September 9, 1850, organized the Territory of Utah.

Some of the land had been claimed by the Republic of Texas. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo made no mention of the claims of the Republic of Texas; Mexico simply agreed to a Mexico-U.S. border south of both the "Mexican Cession" and the Republic of Texas claims. Before the Compromise of 1850, this disputed land had been claimed but never controlled by the state of Texas. Of importance in 1850 was land included in present-day eastern New Mexico. From the Mexican Cession, the New Mexico Territory received most of the present-day state of Arizona, most of the western part of the present-day state of New Mexico, and the southern tip of present-day Nevada (south of the 37th parallel). From Texas, the territory received most of present-day eastern New Mexico, a portion of present-day Colorado (east of the crest of the Rocky Mountains , west of the 103rd meridian, and south of the 38th parallel).

From the Mexican Cession, the Utah Territory received present-day Utah, most of present-day Nevada (everything north of the 37th parallel), a major part of present-day Colorado (everything west of the crest of the Rocky Mountains), and a small part of present-day Wyoming. This included the newly founded colony at Salt Lake of Brigham Young. From Texas, the Utah Territory received most of present-day eastern New Mexico, and some of present-day Colorado that is east of the crest of the Rocky Mountains. A key provision of each of the laws respectively organizing the Territory of New Mexico and the Territory of Utah was that slavery would be either permitted or prohibited as a local option (Popular Sovereignty). This was an important repudiation of the idea behind the Wilmot Proviso (which never passed Congress); it would have forbidden slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico. California California also became part of the U.S. as a result of the Mexican Cession. After the Mexican War, California was essentially run by military governors. President James K. Polk tried to get Congress to officially establish a territorial government in California, but the increasing North vs. South debates prevented this. California and New Mexico: Message from the President of the United States. By United States.

President (1849-1850 : Taylor), United States. War Dept (Ex. Doc 17 page 1) Google eBook The South wanted to extend slave territory to Southern California and to the Pacific coast, while the North did not. Starting in late 1848, Americans and foreigners of many different countries rushed into California for the California Gold Rush, exponentially increasing the population. In response to growing demand for a better more representative government, a Constitutional Convention was held in 1849. The delegates there unanimously outlawed slavery. They had no interest in extending the Missouri Compromise Line through California and splitting the state; the lightly populated southern half never had slavery and was heavily Hispanic. William Henry Ellison. A self-governing dominion, California, 1849-1860 (1950) online The third statute of the Compromise of 1850 allowed California to be admitted to the Union, undivided, as a free state on September 9, 1850.

Fugitive Slave Law The fourth statute of the Compromise of 1850, enacted September 18, 1850, is informally known as the Fugitive Slave Law or the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. (It bolstered the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.) The new version of the Fugitive Slave Law required federal judicial officials in all states and federal territories, including in those states and territories in which slavery was prohibited, to actively assist with the return of escaped slaves to their masters in the states and territories permitting slavery. Any federal marshal or other official who did not arrest an alleged runaway slave was liable to a fine of $1,000. Law-enforcement officials everywhere in the United States had a duty to arrest anyone suspected of being a fugitive slave on no more evidence than a claimant's sworn testimony of ownership. The suspected slave could not ask for a jury trial or testify on his or her own behalf. In addition, any person aiding a runaway slave by providing food or shelter was to be subject to six months' imprisonment and a $1,000 fine. Officers capturing a fugitive slave were entitled to a fee for their work.

In addition to federal officials, the ordinary citizens of free states could be summoned to join a posse and be required to assist in the capture and/or custody and/or transportation of the alleged escaped slave. This particular law was so rigorously pro-slavery as to prohibit the admission of the testimony of a person accused of being an escaped slave into evidence at the judicial hearing to determine the status of the accused escaped slave. Thus, if a freedman were claimed to be an escaped slave under the Fugitive Slave Law he or she could not resist his or her return to slavery by truthfully telling his or her own actual history. The Fugitive Slave Act was essential to meet Southern demands. In terms of public opinion in the North the critical provision was that ordinary citizens were required to aid slave catchers. Many northerners deeply resented this requirement that they personally aid and abet slavery. Resentment towards this act continued to heighten tensions between the North and South, as inflamed by abolitionists such as Harriet Beecher Stowe. Her book Uncle Tom's Cabin stressed the horrors of recapturing escaped slaves, and outraged Southerners.

Larry Gara, "The Fugitive Slave Law: A Double Paradox," Civil War History, September 1964, vol. 10#3, pp. 229–240 The fifth law, enacted on September 20, 1850, prohibited the slave trade (but not slavery itself) in the District of Columbia. David L. Lewis, District of Columbia: A Bicentennial History, (W.W. Norton, 1976), 54-56. Southerners in Congress were unanimous in opposing this provision, which was seen as a concession to the abolitionists, but were outvoted. Damani Davis, "Slavery and Emancipation in the Nation'S Capital," Prologue, Spring 2010, vol. 42#1, pp.

52–59 Uncle Tom's Cabin a reaction against the Fugitive Slave Law Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854, which reopened the slavery issue California becomes a State of the Union | History Today California becomes a State of the Union Modern USA Political Millard Fillmore California became the thirty-first state of the United States on September 9th, 1850. Wild celebrations erupted in Washington DC on Saturday, September 7th 1850, when the Bill which made California the thirty-first state of the United States was passed by the House of Representatives. President Millard Fillmore would sign it into law on Monday. Cannon boomed, bands played, fireworks exploded and oratory and drink both flowed in liberal quantities. The issue had blown up after the discovery of gold near Sacramento early in 1848 - a few days before the Mexico ceded the territory to the United States. At that time California had a white population of under 7,000. The lure of gold, however, drew a horde of prospectors and other immigrants in numbers which exceeded the figure of 60,000 required to become a state. They now demanded to accede to the Union.

The problem was that there were no slaves in California, and white miners did not want black slaves to be used to undercut them as labour in the diggings. Two senators from California would tilt the balance of power in the Senate against the slave-owning South, and the House of Representatives already had a substantial majority of members from non-slavery states. Southern politicians rose in wrath to demand that the South should secede from the Union, but Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky intervened. A slave-owner himself, he disapproved of the institution and was as devoted to the Union as he was to whiskey and cards. He devised a compromise which offered, he told the Senate on January 29th, 1850, ‘an amicable arrangement of all questions in controversy between the free and the slave states, growing out of the question of slavery’. The Clay ‘Omnibus Bill’ covered California, the future of New Mexico and Utah, slavery in Washington DC itself and fugitive slaves in the North.

It gained the support of the administration and of Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts in a speech on March 7th (‘I wish to speak today, not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a northern man, but as an American’), which infuriated his anti-slavery constituents. Foot-dragging and interminable and sometimes furious debate - at one moment Senator Foote of Mississippi advanced on Senator Benton of Missouri with pistol drawn - went on until the compromise was defeated in the Senate on July 31st. Clay withdrew from Washington and what was to be called the Compromise of 1850 was finessed through, not by the voices of high principle but by a master of smoke-filled-room politics, Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. Douglas divided Clay’s bill into eight separate measures, so senators could take different positions on different matters. He then steered the measures through, by sheer persistence and adroit use of procedure combined with judicious nods, winks and deals connected with the building of railroads and the sale of government bonds.

Douglas told the Senate that, ‘These measures are right in themselves and collectively constitute one grand scheme of conciliation and adjustment - The North has not surrendered to the South, nor has the South made any humiliating concessions to the North.’ President Fillmore called the Compromise of 1850 ‘final and irrevocable’ and it was greeted not only with rejoicing in Washington, but with profound relief everywhere in the United States in the belief that conflict between North and South was now at an end. This belief proved tragically mistaken. The issue of principle over slavery had not been settled, and in the Civil War California was to be a substantial asset to the North.

Question: In September 1850, what was the 31st American state to join the Union?
Answer: California