History That Doesn't Suck - 39: The California Gold Rush and the Compromise of 1850

Episode Date: May 27, 2019

“The Union is doomed to dissolution. … I fix its probable occurrence within twelve years or three presidential terms.” This is the story of statehood and compromise. California is booming. The gold rush is in full swing with Americans and immigrants from all over the world hoping to make their fortune. But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. Nature and the miners show their violent sides. With such a flood of Americans in California, it also means statehood is needed. But will it be a slave state? Or a free state? Congress and the nation are up in arms as slavers and freedom fighters each push to get their way. Their fighting threatens the very existence of the Union. Will it die? Or can they compromise? ____ Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations join discussions in our Facebook community get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette  come see a live show get HTDS merch or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What did it take to survive an ancient siege? Why was the cult of Dionysus behind so many slave revolts in ancient Rome? What's the tragic history and mythology behind Japan's most haunted ancient forest? We're Jen and Jenny from Ancient History Fangirl. Join us to explore ancient history and mythology from a fun, sometimes tipsy, perspective. Find us at ancienthistoryfangirl.com or wherever you get your podcasts. From the creators of the popular science show with millions of YouTube subscribers comes the MinuteEarth podcast. Every episode of the show dives deep into a science question you

might not even know you had, but once you hear the answer, you'll want to share it with everyone you know. Why do rivers curve? Why did the T-Rex have such tiny arms? And why do so many more kids need glasses now than they used to? Spoiler alert, it isn't screen time. Our team of scientists digs into the research and breaks it down into a short, entertaining explanation, jam-packed with science facts and terrible puns. Subscribe to MinuteEarth wherever you like to listen. Welcome to History That Doesn't Suck. I'm your professor, Greg Jackson, and as in the classroom, my goal here is to make rigorously researched history come to life as your storyteller. Each episode is the result of laborious research,

with no agenda other than making the past come to life as you learn. If you'd like to help support this work, receive ad-free episodes, bonus content, and other exclusive perks, I invite you to join the HTDS membership program. Sign up for a 7-day free trial today at htdspodcast.com slash membership, or click the link in the episode notes. Welcome to History That Doesn't Suck. I'm your professor, Greg Jackson, and I'd like to tell you a story. Sacramento's population has exploded this past year.

In early 1849, this simple settlement at the confluence of northern California's Sacramento and American rivers consisted of four houses and a few dozen people. Now it's winter, 1849, and that few dozen has become 10,000. Migrants are arriving in droves, and November's heavy rains are pushing local miners, particularly the wise old-timers, to seek refuge in the quickly forming city. They know this kind of precipitation can make the rivers dangerous, so they plan to pass the winter here. This influx of people is a problem. The new arrivals plus the miners means the population's increase is dramatically outpacing the growth of Sacramento's infrastructure. Add to that the torrential rainfall and, well, it doesn't make for a pretty picture. To quote New Yorker-turned-Sacramentan Jonas Winchester, there are people, quote, half a leg deep in filth and mud. The city is one great

cesspool of mud, awful, garbage, dead animals, and that worst of nuisances, consequent upon the entire absence of outhouses. Close quote. Ahem. Thanks for your discretion, Jonas, but we definitely still get the picture on that last bit. More importantly, though, it's clear that as the year expires and we enter 1850, Sacramento is already in something of a crisis. The last thing it needs is some kind of emergency. But the wet winter continues, and rain comes down in sheets during the first few days of January. As it does, and even for a number of days after the heavens finally close, both the Sacramento and American rivers swell. Then on January 9th, the inundation of water proves too much for the river's banks.

With no respect for persons, livestock, or property, the powerful floodwaters crash through Sacramento's streets, buildings, and communities, swallowing everything in the path. Water's coming in! Josiah Royce screams into his tent, where his wife Sarah is with their young daughter, Mary. These Iowan pioneers only made it to Sacramento in their wagon last week. Talk about baptism by, well, not fire, water, deadly water. Mary grabs a few supplies and the family of three scrambles out of their tent. The rivers are hemorrhaging. What can they do? Ah, a hundred yards out,

they spot a half-built two-story building. Josiah, Sarah, and Mary dash toward it and up its stairs to the second story as water pursues. Other strangers pour in. Soon, more than 50 people of all ages are crammed into the unfinished building. I could hear the rippling and gurgling as the water rose higher and began to find its way into crevices and over sills in the lower story.

Sarah will later recall. Fearful shrieks fill the room as infants and adults alike watch the deadly water rip through the entire first floor. Looking outside, Sacramento City appears moments away from becoming America's own Atlantis. Will the water continue to rise? Will the building hold together even as others don't? Its occupants are completely at the water's mercy. By the next day, water levels have stopped rising. Surviving two-story structures puncture the waterscape. Sacramentans willing to brave the element row out to the partially constructed building Mary now calls their, quote, little ark, close quote, and save the Royces and

others. They're lucky. If not for their little ark, they'd number among the dead now floating through the strong current rivers that were once streets. In fact, the waters are so deep and powerful that a steamboat sails through Main Street while the Daily Alta California newspaper reports that, quote, front, first, second, third, and fourth streets became like rapid rivers, so much so that it was almost impossible for the boatman to stem the tide, and many boats were upset in trying to navigate these streets. Although some see opportunity among the death and destruction, boatmen in hotels with dry rooms clean up handsomely. One miner offers to take the dead to dry ground for burial, which he'll do by placing a coffin across his small boat while rowing. This works fine at first, but once he's out in the middle of the water,

it proves too much for a small vessel. It begins to sink. Soon his boat's gone. He tries to swim, but the miner also has seven pounds of gold dust with him. Worth more than $60,000 US by 21st century terms, he doesn't want to let it go. He thrashes in the water, trying to keep his head above the waterline. Onlookers watch as he disappears under the water, only to reemerge moments later. This happens repeatedly. Finally, he disappears for good. Unwilling to part with his heavy gold dust, the unnamed miner takes it to his watery grave. It's marked temporarily and ironically

by the coffin he was greedily transporting, which, after sinking his boat, continues to float with its drowned deceased still inside. Despite this grim opening, I'm sure you can see that California is booming. Today we're going to hear about that growth and how California, as well as the other formerly Mexican territories now folded into the United States, are impacting the nation. We'll start by electing old rough-and-ready General Zachary Taylor to the presidency. Then we can head out west with the 49ers, who are pouring into the state from all around the world. With this exploding population, California will put together a constitution, a slavery-banning free state constitution,

and request statehood. But it's not that simple. California's application will unleash an all-out melee of words in Congress as pro- and anti-slavery forces battle to shape the Southwest, even talking of civil war. Can their compromise of 1850 save the Union? We'll find out. We're entering a dramatic time in U.S. history. I'm sure you can feel it, and I know you're ready. So let's head back to the East Coast in the year 1848, where presidential candidacies are in full swing. Rewind. It's early June, 1848, and the candidate field in the presidential election is wide open.

Okay, maybe there aren't over 20 candidates vying for the nomination within a single party, but you get my point. There are a couple of factors that have led to this all-applicants-welcome situation. First, the Mexican-American war has just ended, bringing a couple of Whig military heroes into the forefront. Second, current President James Polk is refusing to seek another term in the White House. Good move, James. This stressful job is taking a serious toll on your health, and that mullet isn't going to take care of itself. But that leaves the Democratic Party without a ready

candidate, so they go on a nationwide hunt for an electable guy. And finally, the anti-slavery third party, the Liberty Party, which has run a candidate in the last two elections, is ready to do so again. But beyond party politics, there is one issue that supersedes all others. Territorial slavery and lands the United States annexed from Mexico in the Mexican-American War. Should slavery be allowed in the new territories? Should Congress determine the slave or free status or allow the local residents to decide for themselves? Furthermore, since Mexican law in California and New Mexico prohibited slavery, can Congress overturn those laws or do the territorial

governments have that power? This is a complex problem that requires a delicate touch, so the two major parties are going to do what any political parties would. They're going to sidestep the issue. And that's going to play to the advantage of the small, vocal, anti-slavery Liberty Party. Let's see how. At the Whig National Convention on June 7, 1848, the party members nominate war hero General Zachary Taylor as their official presidential candidate with anti-slavery New York Millard Fillmore as his running mate. The reluctant general tells a friend he has no

quote, vanity to consider myself qualified for the station. I would not refuse perhaps to serve and do the best I could if the good people of the country should be so indiscreet as to confer that high station on me. Close quote. Old Zach's writing sucks, so let me clarify. He's humbly willing to accept the nomination. Not to be outdone, the Democrats nominate an old war hero at the convention too. Well, War of 1812 hero, Michigan Senator Louis Cass. So both parties put popular former generals on their respective tickets while adopting watered-down, vague platforms. Yeah, the official party lines that come out of the conventions completely avoid the slavery expansion issue. This frustrates, well, maybe Angus would be more

accurate, the anti-slavery factions in both parties, the democratic quote-unquote barn burners and the conscience wigs. The barn burners have objected to the expansion of slavery for years. They were the brains behind the slavery curtailing three times defeated Wilmot Proviso. And these barn burners, named for the mythical farmer who burned down his barn to get rid of the rats living in it, are willing to burn, or at least ditch, their party to get their anti-slavery agenda on the ballot. On the other side of the political aisle, conscience Whigs follow the principles of gone-but-not-forgotten John Quincy Adams. Like the barn burners, they completely object to the expansion of slavery into the conquered territories gained in what they saw as an unprovoked, land-grabbing Mexican-American war. So when the Whigs nominate the war hero,

pro-slavery, Louisiana plantation owner, Zach, to champion a platform that doesn't even address slavery expansion, the conscience Whigs bolt from their party. But where are these barn burners and conscious wigs running to? Ah, here's where the small anti-slavery liberty party comes in. The three groups, barn burners, conscience wigs, and the liberty party join forces. Like the rebel alliance in the Star Wars universe, they're a motley crew with little in common save beyond their goal to end slavery and bring freedom to the galaxy. Or country, as the case may be. With this sole purpose in mind, they formed the Free Soil Party. The new Free Soil Party leaders put together a platform centered on preventing slavery from expanding into any U.S. territories. They go on to nominate former President Martin Van Buren

to headline their ticket with John Quincy Adams' son, Charles Francis Adams, as his VP. Now, Martin does not fit everyone's vision of the perfect anti-slavery expansion candidate. As president a decade ago, he championed Southern causes and came down on the wrong side of the Amistad case. Oh, right. He's the one who overturned the Connecticut court ruling and appealed that case to the Supreme Court. Yeah, more than a few abolitionists remember that move. But Free Soil Party leader Salmon Chase tells his friends that, quote, much in the past may be overlooked,

close quote. All right, now that each of the three parties has their candidate teed up, let's cover the election. Well, actually, we don't need too many details here. As Princess Bride's Inigo Montoya would say, let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up. On Tuesday, November 7th, 1848, Americans go to the polls in droves. This is actually the first time every state holds their elections on the same day. And when the votes are tallied, Free Soiler Martin gets 10% of the national popular vote, but no love from the Electoral College. He pulls a straight up goose egg. This leaves 163 electoral votes for Zach and only 127 for Lewis. So old rough-and-ready General Zachary Taylor becomes the new commander-in-chief. But funny enough, there's some ambiguity as to whether old Zach actually voted for himself.

Before traveling to Washington, D.C. to take up his new post, Zach spends a few weeks at his plantation in Cypress Grove, Louisiana. During a casual conversation with Zach, a stranger let slip that he voted for Democrat Louis Cass. Not easily ruffled, Whig Zach doesn't reveal his identity, but explains that he didn't vote for old Ruffin Reddy either. Quote, Close quote. Just then, a friend of both men walks by and calls Zach by name. The stranger realizes he just told the president-elect of the United States

that he voted for the other guy. After taking his foot out of his mouth, the stranger books it down the street. Old Zach laughs off the encounter, never definitively answering the question of how he voted. In February 1849, the newly elected president travels to Washington, D.C. He's then sworn in on a blustery, cold March 5th. Like any other president, Zach has a lot to do during his first days in office, but the newly minted executive prioritized the linked issues of territorial slavery

and California statehood. Zach's predecessor, James Polk, confirmed that gold had been discovered in California in an address to Congress back in December 1848. With that kind of official endorsement, plus the plethora of accurate and wildly exaggerated newspaper stories about the opportunities to strike it rich out west. Thousands of Americans are flocking to the newly acquired territory. Old rough and ready can't ignore the ballooning population of California, which is ready to skip territorial status and join the union as a full fledged state. So let's leave Zachary's presidential duties and travel on those now

well-worn western trails to see what's going on in the gold mines and boom towns of California, Sierra Nevada foothills. Ha! Kick off an exciting football season with BetMGM, an official sportsbook partner of the National Football League. Yard after yard, down after down, the sportsbook born in Vegas gives you the chance to take action to the end zone and celebrate every highlight reel play. And as an official sportsbook partner in Vegas gives you the chance to take action to the end zone and celebrate every highlight reel play.

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Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem? For free assistance, call the Connex Ontario Helpline at 1-866-531-2600. That MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Want to learn how you can make smarter decisions with your money? Well, I've got the podcast for you. I'm Sean Piles, and I host NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast. On our show, we help listeners like you make the most of your finances. I sit down with NerdWallet's team of nerds, personal finance experts in credit cards, banking, investing, and more. We answer your real-world money questions and break down the latest personal finance news.

The nerds will give you the clarity you need by cutting through the clutter and misinformation in today's world of personal finance. We don't promote get-rich-quick schemes or hype unrealistic side hustles. Instead, we offer practical knowledge that you can apply in your everyday life. You'll learn about strategies to help you build your wealth, invest wisely, shop for financial products, and plan for major life events. And you'll walk away with the confidence you need to ensure that your money is always working as hard as you are. So turn to the nerds to answer your real world money questions and get insights that can help you make the smartest financial decisions for your life. Listen to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Back in episode 31, I told you about the discovery of gold on the American River near Sutter's Fort in California in 1848. But let me refresh your memory a bit. While working on a mill near Sutter's Fort, James Marshall found a gold nugget in the American River. Then in March 1848, Henry Bigler went panning for gold and found $30 worth in one weekend.

Henry's gold panning site steadily grew until nearly all of the mill workers were panning for gold full-time. But it was Sam Brennan's bold marketing move a few months later that changed California mining from a few thousand guys panning for gold into a full-blown, cross-continental, international even, gold rush. After stocking his new store with mining supplies, Sam walked the streets of the city by the bay, waving a vial of gold flakes and shouting, gold, gold, gold on the American river. Oh yeah, how could we forget such a display of American opportunism? Okay, so now that you're back up to speed, let's talk numbers. Between Sam's August 1848 stunt and President Polk's December 1848 declaration about the gold strike, Argonauts, that is people with gold fever, rushed to California. In 1848, a few thousand pioneers from nearby Oregon and Southern California come to pan for gold in the rivers near Sutter's Fort. But in 1849, over 90,000

people come to strike it rich in the gold fields. And they aren't just Americans. Due to a combination of violent revolutions and economic setbacks in France, Italy, England, Chile, and China, about one-third of the 49ers are foreigners. But almost none of them are women. Of the 40,000 gold rushers who sail into San Francisco Bay in 1849, only 700 are women. That ratio will improve, but men will outnumber women in California for years to come. Still, Sam Brennan can see that these miners are going to need a place to sleep, eat, and buy supplies. So he and John Sutter's son lay out Sacramento City two miles south of Sutter's Fort on the

Sacramento River. It becomes the epitome of a boomtown, growing from four houses and a few outbuildings in April 1849 to 10,000 residents by January 1850. And that's when the flood that you heard about in this episode's opening hits. Some residents stick around and rebuild after the floodwaters subside. Others move on to greener, or at least drier, pastures. Yeah, contrary to the image of gold laying in the streets and easy living, life in California can be pretty volatile, unpredictable, and laborious. Disillusioned gold miner Abraham Abrahamson, yeah for real, some people don't love their kids, writes to a friend, quote, anyone who thinks that roast pigeons are flying around here on golden wings just waiting to be plucked and eaten should stay home, close quote. Still, many of the men panning full-time

come to terms with the difficulty of their circumstances, while others find unique ways to profit from them. Adventurous, independent, long-haired and bearded bar owner and Mormon gunslinger Porter Rockwell makes miners' lives a little easier by taking his wares into the hills. See, Porter tries out gold mining for a few months in 1849, but quickly realizes he could make more money selling whiskey to thirsty miners, but quickly realizes he could make more money selling whiskey to thirsty miners. Porter also realizes he could turn a significant profit by not waiting for the miners to come to him, but by putting his bar on wheels and going to them. Well, to be strictly accurate, old Port uses mules, not wheels. Anyway, he loads a bunch of liquor onto the backs of two mules and treks up to the makeshift mining camps. When Porter finds a likely spot, he puts a board on the backs of the mules

and opens up for business. But instead of ringing a dinner bell like a boarding house cook might, Porter's partner shoots his pistol in the air. And the miners come running, ready to part with their hard-earned gold in exchange for Porter's whiskey. Brilliant. But it leaves me wondering, did Porter Rockwell just invent the food truck? Probably not, but with the beard, he has the hipster look for it. Now, as hard as life can be for the miners, there's another group for whom it's indisputably worse, the indigenous peoples of California. Though Spanish monasteries, Mexican authorities, and foreign diseases have already devastated their population, many native tribes still occupy and fight for their ancestral lands. As you probably guessed, when gold-seeking

Americans head into the Sierra Nevada foothills, conflict erupts quickly. Dwindling population or not, natives dauntlessly fight for their lands and try to scare off miners. But armed miners aggressively fight back with deadly accuracy. The miner versus Indian violence runs rampant and we could go on all day about it, but I'll just give you one example. In April 1853, when Greenhorn Silas Weston arrives in Auburn, California, a small mining town 40 miles northeast of Sacramento, he hears about a recent near-fatal Indian attack on two American teamsters. So Silas arms himself with two rifles and two six-barreled revolvers

before he heads to the remote mining camp at Kelly's Bar. On April 15th, Silas, his friend, and 20 other young miners from the makeshift tent camp decide to attack the nearest Indian village as revenge for the ambush on the Teamsters. They trek five miles to the native settlement. Silas tells us each man has, quote, a bowie knife, a shotgun, and a pair of six-barreled revolving pistols so that the company could fire more than 200 times without stopping to reload. Close quote. Damn. Feels like these guys are overcompensating, doesn't it? The ridiculously overarmed and hot-headed bunch find the Indian village in a small ravine with steep hills on either side and attack just after breakfast. As their bullets fly down the hillside, the Indian warriors immediately fire back,

sending a cloud of arrows flying up at their assailants. Silas describes the scene, quote, so nimbly did the Indians use their bows that often each had two arrows on the way at the same time while our men were pouring upon them a most deadly fire, close quote. But the attacking miners who are situated uphill from the village are too far away for the Indians arrows to hit them. Their incessant gunfire soon overwhelms the valiant villagers. Taking heavy losses, the Braves send their women and children up the opposite hillside of the ravine. The Indian warriors then continue fighting the miners

despite the barrage of bullets. But when their chief takes a hit and dies, the surviving warriors retreat, following their wives and kids. The miners shoot them in the backs as they flee. The bloodthirsty raiders then walk through the village and up the ravine's hillside, hunting for, killing, and scalping any wounded Indians. The women and children beg for their lives, and thankfully, most are spared. In the end, over 30 Indians die, another three dozen or so are left wounded, while only two of the miners are injured.

When the raiding party returns to Kelly's Bar in the late afternoon, many of the miners who hear their stories and see the bloody scalps hanging from their belts are disgusted. In a confusing statement, Silas, who I'll remind you participated in the attack, says, quote, I am happy to say that the miners very generally disapproved of the conduct of the young victors, especially those acts of cruelty perpetrated upon the wounded after the enemy had fled. But the Indians have committed so many depredations that the miners have become strongly incensed against them. Close quote. So yes, they might be disgusted, but not enough to put a stop to the retaliatory violence, and definitely not enough to realize that they are attacking people whose land and gold they're stealing. Unfortunately, as has happened with previous waves of American pioneers moving

west, Indians lose power, land, and influence to the burgeoning population of Argonauts. But the surging numbers of newly minted Californians has a notable difference from other migration waves in the history of the United States. Rather than being a primarily domestic movement, it's diverse and global. As the gold rush stretches into the early 1850s, tens of thousands of foreign fortune and opportunity hunters flock to California. In 1852 alone, 20,000 Chinese immigrants sail into California's harbors. Women and children start to become more common as men bring their families to the new settlements. And in 1854, the first Jewish female gold rush pioneer treks from Germany to New York to Illinois to California.

Isabella Fanny Brooks and her husband Julius open a small grocery store after they settle in the outlying mining town aptly named Timbuktu. But the Brooks family have plenty of American and European Jewish company in Northern California. 8% of San Francisco residents are Jewish by the mid-1850s. In addition to these immigrant minorities, California has a significant free African American population. According to the 1850 census, which some historians argue is more than a little inaccurate. Only about 100 free African Americans live in California. However, by 1852, there are at least 2,500. Many are hoping to find enough gold to purchase the freedom of their still enslaved relatives. John Armstrong meets a free

black man named James Taylor in the mining fields and later mentions in a letter, quote, I saw a colored man going to the land of gold prompted by the hope of redeeming his wife and seven children. Success to him, close quote. As Europeans, Asians, South Americans, and even Australians mix and work with Americans from every single state, things can feel open and cosmopolitan. For some, they are. Chilean immigrant and miner, Vincente Rosales, observes that Argonauts, quote, had come to a land where the generous immigration laws had removed the word stranger from the vocabulary, close quote. But Vincente's experience doesn't speak to everyone. Most immigrants and African Americans face significant prejudice and racism. Municipal governments pass laws requiring all stores to close on the Christian Sabbath, or Sunday. That means Jewish merchants who choose to close

on their Sabbath day, Saturday, lose two days of business instead of just one like other merchants. This blatantly discriminatory policy makes it harder for them to compete. Further, the California legislature passes the foreign minor tax of 1850, which requires every immigrant to purchase a non-transferable minor's license fee at a cost of $20 per month. That's the equivalent of over $600 in the 21st century. And just like states back east, blacks can neither vote nor testify against whites in California courts. They also face stiff racism in their daily lives. When Mifflin Gibbs arrives in San Francisco in 1850, he immediately gets work as a carpenter making $10 per day.

Compared to laborers east of the Mississippi making only a dollar to a day, this is serious money. But Mifflin has to quit his job. I was not allowed to long pursue carpentering. White employees finding me at work on the same building site would strike, the maltreated man explains. Mifflin goes into business with another black man, Peter Lester, selling boots and clothes. But when Peter is robbed and beaten by a white man, and Mifflin is the only witness, the business partners can't get any help because blacks can't testify against whites in court. Frustrated and fed up, Mifflin and the small population of African Americans in California fight to change the law. They send several petitions to the state legislature, asking for redress and equal treatment.

Unfortunately, it will be decades and long after statehood before they get fair laws enacted. And I mention statehood because even though the United States has had claim to California as a territory for about one hot minute, the swelling population of Americans here has given the once bare republic a fast pass to the front of the organized government line. So let's head to the California State Constitutional Convention back in 1849 and see how the sausage gets made in producing the Golden State. Here we go. Rewind. It's June, 1849, and Californians have been without a formal government for well over a year. See, the February 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo brought California into the U.S., but didn't set up an official territorial government. Congress was supposed to do that,

but it hasn't gotten around to it. That's left U.S. Army General Bennett Riley as de facto governor, trying to maintain law and order among the booming Motley population. But he has nothing to back his authority except thick wavy hair and enviable mutton chops. This can't last. So on June 3rd, Bennett calls for delegates from all over California to come to a constitution-making convention. And it turns out Bennett isn't the only Californian anxious for a permanent, legit government to take control, because 48 delegates from all over California come to Monterey, which is still serving as the capital. On September 1st, 1849, the four dozen men meet up at Colton Hall, the only building in town big enough for this many people.

In the second-story ballroom of the grand, white, clappered building, Bennett sets up four long tables with 12 chairs each, and the convention gets underway. Brilliant, baby-faced Lieutenant Henry Halleck acts as the scribe for the meeting. Don't worry, he can definitely keep up with the proceedings better than William Jackson did at the U.S. Constitutional Convention back in episode 15. Among the delegates, there are several men who recently immigrated from France, Ireland, Scotland, Switzerland, and Spain, and seven previously Mexican but now American Californios, including our old friend from episode 34, California leader Mariano Vallejo. These Californios are losing property and livestock left and right to destructive and recalcitrant squatters, so they have a vested interest in forming a legit government in which they might have a chance

of legally reclaiming their ranches and homesteads. With that kind of motivation, right out the gate, delegates vote to apply for statehood instead of territorial status. So as a portrait of the founding father, George Washington, looks down on the meeting, they start drafting a state constitution. Then things get real. The group decides to make California a free state. There are men here from 15 different states,

and most of the American-born reps are originally from slave states. But life is different in California, and they know it. John Milner, a former slave owner who hails from Alabama, agrees with the decision. He explains, With 20 good Negroes and the power of managing them as at home, I could make from $10,000 to $20,000 per month. But here, a fellow has to knock it out with his own fists, or not at all. Close quote. Let me be clear. Making the state free doesn't give black men and women the rights and privileges of whites. In fact, Delegate Morton McCarver, who grew up in Kentucky but lived in Oregon for a few years before immigrating to California,

wants the Constitution to have an African American Exclusion Clause. who grew up in Kentucky but lived in Oregon for a few years before immigrating to California, wants the Constitution to have an African American Exclusion Clause. Do you remember the Oregon law that prohibits African Americans from settling in Oregon territory from episode 30? Well, Morton is a big fan of that policy. He proposes a similar one for California three times during the convention, but his idea gets voted down each time he presents it. Even without the African-American ban, racist statutes, like the one prohibiting blacks from testifying in court against whites, make it into law. After efficiently dealing with the difficult statehood and slavery dilemmas, the delegates move on to other issues. First, they ban a state lottery, but don't say anything about private gambling.

Good call, guys. There's no way you're going to keep 49ers from betting away their hard-earned gold in a cutthroat poker game. Then they outlaw dueling. But the final provision they discuss has nothing to do with drunkenly gambling away your gold, then shooting at the man who gloats about winning. No, the last topic of discussion deals with women's property rights. In order to entice women to come to disproportionately male California, convention secretary and baby-faced bachelor Henry suggests that women be allowed to own property. He takes the forward-looking idea one step further and suggests that a woman's holdings shouldn't be transferred to her husband at marriage. This blows most delegates' minds. But Henry strongly argues his case, saying,

I do not think we can offer a greater inducement for women of fortune to come to California. It is the very best provision to get us wives that we can introduce into the Constitution. Close quote. Poor Henry. You sound lonely, brother. Sorry, Tinder isn't a thing yet. But with that, his female property rights provision makes it into the state's Constitution. The convention ends on October 12th, after a mere six weeks of debate, discussion, and drafting. The delegates pool their cash and hold a big party. They even get a few women to come before they sign the constitution on October 13th, 1849. And because they outlawed dueling,

but they really want to fire some guns, they shoot off a 31-gun salute, 30 for each state and one for the hopeful state of California. To make things official, the delegates present the governing document to the people for ratification. On November 13th, the Constitution passes by a wide margin of 12,061 votes in favor to 811 against. But don't get too excited. That means less than 13,000 of the nearly 110,000 eligible voters came to the polls. I guess trying to find the mother load is a little more interesting than trying to create a sound governing body for these 49ers. And with that, the Golden State is in business. There's just one more step, a formality really. The state constitution needs to get approved by the U.S. Congress. And if Missouri's statehood application in 1819 taught us anything,

that won't be a problem at all. I hope you're picking up on my sarcasm there because I'm laying it on pretty thick. Let's travel to Washington, D.C. with the California constitution to see how this goes down. Wagons East. Ha! Napoleon Bonaparte rose from obscurity to become the most powerful and significant figure in modern history. Over 200 years after his death, people are still debating his legacy. He was a man of contradictions, a tyrant and a reformer, a liberator and an oppressor, a revolutionary and a reactionary.

His biography reads like a novel, and his influence is almost beyond measure. I'm Everett Rummage, host of the Age of Napoleon podcast, and every month I delve into the turbulent life and times of one of the greatest characters in history, and explore the world that shaped him in all its glory and tragedy. It's a story of great battles and campaigns, political intrigue, and massive social and economic change, but it's also a story about people, populated with remarkable characters. I hope you'll join me as I examine this fascinating era of history. Find The Age of Napoleon wherever you get your podcasts.

Before the document arrives in Washington, D.C., President Zachary Taylor knows it's coming. So he tells Congress on Christmas Eve, 1849, it needs to approve the slavery-banning California Constitution. He's all for popular sovereignty in the West, which gives territorial residents the power to decide on the slavery issue themselves. To put it bluntly, Zach firmly believes in a state's right to self-determination, and if the golden state residents reject slavery, then so be it. Plain spoken old rough and ready tries to persuade Congress to see his point, arguing that it should quote, abstain from the introduction of those exciting topics which have hitherto produced painful apprehensions in the public mind.

Close quote. In other words, Zach may be a Southern slave owner, but he doesn't want Congress to impose slavery on people who don't want it. But Congress ignores the president's request. The legislative body is bitterly divided between Whigs and Democrats, and those party members further divide along sectional lines. To make things worse, there's also an outspoken group of free soilers in Congress. So even though Zach specifically asked congressmen to leave slavery out of it and just ratify the California

Constitution, they do the exact opposite. Let me explain. For real this time, no summing up. Southerners feel threatened by the idea of a slavery ban in California. They see it as little more than an endorsement of the old Wilmot Proviso. Remember, this proposal suggested by a Northern democrat called for a ban on slavery in any territory gained in the Mexican-American war. That produces a collective panic attack in pro-slavery congressmen. As they see it, this will create a pack of free states, which would upset the balance of free and slave states in congress. From there, things would spiral out of control, with free states using their power in congress to abolish slavery in southern states, which would spiral out of control, with free states using their power in Congress

to abolish slavery in Southern states, which would lead to a total breakdown of their society. To get their heart rates down and stave off the societal apocalypse, Southern congressmen want to deny Western states the right to make their own decision regarding slavery by having Congress decide instead. Seeing and understanding the Southern position, an aging, gangly, experienced senator from Kentucky, Henry Clay, comes up with a plan that will deal with the persistently sticky slavery issue. The larger-than-life man whom we met in several past episodes and ran for U.S. President almost as many times,

stares down senators with his deep-set eyes on January 29, 1850, and presents his well-thought-through eight-point plan. He declares that he intends to, quote, propose an amicable arrangement of all questions between the free and slave states growing out of the subject of slavery. Close quote. First, Henry wants California admitted as a free state. Then he says that the New Mexico and Utah territories should be organized without

ever mentioning slavery. To quote him, not within one foot of the territory acquired by us from Mexico will slavery ever be planted and I believe it could not be done even by the force and power Okay, this does not feel like an amicable agreement to the southern senators now steaming in their seats. But Henry throws them a bone. Slaveholding Texas wants to expand its western border to New Mexico's Rio Grande Valley, which would put over half of New Mexico territory under its purview. The Great Compromiser quashes that ambition, proposing instead that Texas divide its current borders into two or three large slave states. In exchange, he offers to have the U.S. government pay off the Lone Star State's public debts. Okay, so Henry has proposed two ideas that

will keep the North and West happy, and two ideas that will make the South happy. The tall man then boldly walks into the snake pit that is the slave trade in Washington, D.C. Henry suggests that slavery be allowed to continue in the capital city. You can almost hear the gasps from the anti-slavery coalition, but that the very public, very repugnant slave trade be moved across the river to Virginia. The Kentuckian decries the slave trade, saying, quote, I am sure I speak the sentiments of every southern man when I say let it terminate and that it is an abomination. Close quote. If that statement calms the abolitionist crowd, Henry's last two propositions are like a sucker punch to the gut. He calls for a complete redo of the 1793 Fugitive Slave Act,

making that toothless, rarely enforced law strong enough to actually catch fugitive slaves. Henry argues that, quote, the most effect asks for a guarantee that the interstate slave trade will be protected by law. Whew! That is quite a plan, Henry! When he's done outlining his eight points, Henry turns to the Senate president, handsome, anti-slavery, New York Whig, Vice President Millard Fillmore, and warns that the states must compromise or splinter. He tells his fellow senators, quote, to beware, to pause, to reflect before they lend themselves to any purpose which shall destroy that union which was cemented by Washington's exertions and example. Close quote. Well, the Kentucky senator has given the Senate a lot to digest, and the heated debates on his plan

begin immediately. Henry spends two days in the first week of February explaining and defending it. On February 13, 1850, Mexican-American war hero and Mississippi senator Jefferson Davis responds. He hates the whole plan and isn't afraid to say so. Fanaticism and ignorance, political rivalry, sectional hate, strife, or sectional dominion have accumulated into a mighty flood and pour their turgid waters through the broken constitution. The Mississippian cries. But Jefferson's fiery speech is just the opening act of the Southern lineup. On March 4th, deadly ill John C. Calhoun walks into the Senate chamber. A mere shadow of his former self, the Andrew Jackson VP and lifelong politician hasn't been seen here in weeks due to several ailments.

One reporter writes, quote, Physically, he seemed barely alive, yet his nervous, restless, and brilliant eye glared and loomed around him more remarkably than ever before. Too weak to speak, John has Virginia Senator James Mason read his speech. John barely mentions Henry Clay's compromise, but instead lays out the South's grievances. If Congress doesn't do something to protect the South, the cords binding the North and South will break and disunion will be a very real possibility. To quote him, has snapped some of the most important and has greatly weakened all the others. If the agitation goes on, the same force, acting with increased intensity, will finally snap every cord when nothing will be left to hold the states together except force. Close quote. Only one senator could possibly respond to John's eloquent but dire prophecy, Daniel Webster. On March 7th, the eloquent Massachusetts senator, widely known as

Golden-throated Daniel, fills the Senate gallery with eager spectators. He speaks for nearly four hours. Unexpectedly, he sympathizes with Southerners arguing the need for a strong fugitive slave law. I put it to all the sober and sound minds at the North as a question of morals and a question of conscience. What right have they, in their legislative capacity, to endeavor to get round this Constitution or to embarrass the free exercise of the rights secured by the Constitution to the persons whose slaves escaped from them. None at all. None at all. With Daniel's endorsement of a strong fugitive slave law, the prospects for Henry's compromise are looking up. But before the Senate debates end and votes are tallied, 68-year-old South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun lies on his deathbed.

The dying man gives James Mason a prediction. Quote, the union is doomed to disillusion. I'll fix its probable occurrence within 12 years or three presidential terms. Close quote. John doesn't live to see how accurate he is. His lungs finally give out on March 31st, 1850. But no matter what the brilliant statesman said at his death, Henry's going to put up a fierce fight for his union saving compromise. At a dinner in early April, the determined Kentuckian tells a friend, quote, Close quote. In an effort to make headway, Henry forms a committee of 13 to form his disparate plan into an omnibus or catch-all bill and get it through the House and Senate. The committee hopes that by linking each of the

eight pieces with one another, all of them will get passed at once. If the North and South have to concede ground at the same time, they can avoid that awkward moment when one side has agreed to a ceasefire and then waits with bated breath for the other side to put their arms down. Henry and his committee present the completed omnibus bill to Congress in mid-May. The great compromiser hopes that after a few weeks of discussion, it will pass and the Senate can move on to other business. Yeah, that's not going to work out. By the first week of June, Henry writes to his son, quote, the administration, is so frustrated by this point, it's been six months since he first presented his plan, that he directly blames the president for blocking the compromise. He claims that old

Zach has no plan to get California into the Union, nor to deal with slavery in the territories. The omnibus he practically pleads is, quote, equal. It is fair. It is a compromise which any man, whether at the North or the South, who is desirous of healing the wounds of his country, may accept without dishonor or disgrace. Close quote. Well, you can guess that speech doesn't earn Henry any bonus points in the White House. But no matter. There's about to be a big shake-up at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. President Zachary Taylor goes to a 4th of July party that turns out to be little more than sitting in the oppressive D.C. heat listening to pedantic speeches. Zach toughs it out like the soldier he is, but gives himself sunstroke in the process. Feeling overheated and dehydrated, he goes home and gorges himself on iced milk and cherries.

By nightfall, the president has added acute gastroenteritis to his sunstroke, but is well-meaning if poorly trained doctors diagnose him with the dreaded summer malady, cholera. They dose him with calomel and opium. Two days later, he's not improving much, so they bleed him and blister his legs. This is getting almost as bad as the medical treatment given to George Washington on his deathbed in episode 17. After receiving more calomel and opium, old Zack starts vomiting incessantly. And that's the last straw his spent body can take. As he lays dying, the war hero whispers, I am about to die. I expect the summon soon. I have endeavored to discharge all my official duties faithfully. I regret nothing, but I am

sorry that I am about to leave my friends. President Zachary Taylor dies on July 9, 1850 at 1035 p.m. The very next day, without even a hint of ceremony, tall, broad-shouldered New Yorker Millard Fillmore takes the oath of office he didn't expect to fill. For Henry Clay's omnibus bill, this is a game changer. Like I said, Zach was no fan of the bill, and after Henry called Zach out, the Kentuckian feared the president would veto it. But analytical and amiable Millard is a different story. The new president may be a northern Whig, but he can see the practicality and necessity of putting this issue to rest. So on July 22nd, Henry takes to the Senate floor

one last time to argue on behalf of his omnibus bill. But the bill has been torn to shreds and patched up so many times now, it's hard to even read it through all the scotch tape. Seriously, senators have added so many amendments to the omnibus that this thing is sinking under the weight. Still, on July 31st, Maryland Senator James Pierce makes a move to get this thing passed through the Senate. He proposes removing the New Mexico border clause, giving everything east of the Rio Grande to Texas. James then proposes reinserting the clause, but with a provision that creates a committee to find a mutually agreeable border between Feudian, Texas and New Mexico.

This is a huge mistake, like leaving a Starbucks takeaway cup in the shot during a Game of Thrones scene huge. Wily Northern Democrats who have been looking for a way to defeat the omnibus bill smell weakness and move in for the kill. They separate James's New Mexico border clause deletion from the border commission creation clause. Then they proceed to kill both clauses. In a vote of 29 to 23, the entire Texas border and the assumption of Texas debts has been knocked out of the bill. This starts a domino effect and one by one every clause in amendment gets voted down until the only thing left is the formation of a Utah territorial government. That, miraculously, goes through with little fanfare. Onlooker Elizabeth Blair Lee

writes to her husband that Henry Clay's omnibus bill, quote, died of amendments, close quote. Exhausted, defeated, dejected, Henry goes to Newport, Rhode Island to recover from the brutal blow. In his absence, Democrat Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas steps in to salvage the pieces of the original compromise. What Stephen can see that Henry couldn't is that, By combining the measure into one bill, the committee had united the opponents of each measure instead of securing the friends of each. Close quote. But Stephen has a way to secure enough votes for each piece of the eight-part plan. He presents each measure separately. See, there's a northern block and a southern block of votes in favor of each bill, but they are equally strong and cancel each other out.

However, and this is the clincher, there's also a pro-compromise block in favor of each piece of the plan. If this group joins forces with either the northern or southern voters, then they can defeat the opposition group and give each bill a fighting chance. So the swaggering frontiersman Stephen goes to work, currying votes in the House and Senate for each now-standing-on-its-own-two-feet bill. Stephen's plan works perfectly. One by one, with the support of a compromise-minded voting bloc at its back, each piece of Henry's original compromises passes the House and the Senate. Starting on August 9,

1850, the Senate passes a Texas border bill that gives New Mexico all of its original lands and pays Texas debts. Then, on August 15, a bill to organize New Mexico as a territory without a slave clause goes through. Within two weeks, California's slavery-banning Free State Constitution gets ratified, as does the overhaul and strengthened Fugitive Slave Act. Finally, on September 16th and 17th, the Senate and the House pass a bill to abolish the slave trade within Washington, D.C.'s limits. President Fillmore quietly signs each bill. After nearly nine months of blood, sweat, and tears, oh, and over 70 speeches from the great statesman Henry Clay. California becomes a state and the Compromise of 1850 passes into law.

Time to celebrate, right? Well, maybe. The central issue of slavery in the newly formed Utah and New Mexico territories has been circumvented. The language of the Compromise is just ambiguous enough to let both Northerners and Southerners claim victory. Stephen Douglas goes home to Chicago at the end of September and tells his constituents that the Compromise recognizes the, quote, right of the people to regulate their own internal concerns and domestic institutions in their own way, close quote. But Georgian Senator Robert Toombs claims the right of people to take their slaves into U.S. territories has been maintained. Frankly, both men are kind of right. And it's Free Soiler Salmon Chase who points that out, observing that the, quote, question of slavery in the

territories has been avoided. It has not been settled. Close quote. So is the Compromise of 1850 a true compromise, or is it just a truce? A compromise implies that both sides give something up, but the votes for each piece of legislation followed strict sectional lines. Case in point, the beefed-up Fugitive Slave Act only passes because Southern Senators all vote for it, while opposed northerners, including Stephen Douglas, who wants to keep his anti-slavery constituents happy, skip the vote. In the end, it seems that neither side actually yielded any ground, but as with northerners in the Fugitive Slave Act, they simply got out voted on measures they opposed. The bill aims to put the Underground Railroad, which I will definitely cover in detail

in a later episode, out of service by punishing anyone who helps an escaped slave with a fine of up to $1,000 and jail time. It also creates federal commissioners who ensure the law is enforced and help hire slave catchers. These commissioners get paid $10 every time they certify a slave catcher's claim. They can also draft anyone into service if the catcher needs help restraining a slave or fighting off would-be slave rescuers. Basically, every Northerner becomes legally obligated to help capture freedom-seeking enslaved men and women. This is not going to go over well. The enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 shows just how little northern support there is, or ever was, for this part of the compromise.

When enslaved Margaret Garner, along with her husband and kids, escape her Kentucky plantation to the safety of Cincinnati, Ohio in January 1856, legally backed slave catchers and U.S. Marshals soon catch up to the fugitive family. The slave hunters shoot through the windows and break down the door of the house where the Garner family is hiding. Margaret realizes there is no way to avoid capture, so the desperate mother decides to do

the only thing she can think of to prevent her children returning to slavery. Slit their throats. Margaret kills her two-year-old, Mary, but the slave catchers rip her away from her four and six-year-old boys before she can save them from slavery through death. Instead of being tried for murder under Ohio law, in which her lawyers hope they can get her pardoned and safely into freedom, she is tried under the Fugitive Slave Act. The judge rules that the new federal law trumps any Ohio statute and Margaret, her husband, and surviving children return to slavery in Kentucky. Margaret is lost to what lawyer John Joliffe calls, quote, the seething hell of American slavery, close quote. Abolitionists all over the

North are heartbroken and outraged by the long reach of the hope-killing Fugitive Slave Act. But it's the ever eloquent Frederick Douglass who delineates the harms of the law most forcefully. And I quote, Where these go may also go the merciless slave hunter. Where these are, man is not sacred. The right of the hunter to pray stands superior to the right of marriage and to all rights of this republic, the rights of God included. For black men, there are neither law, justice, humanity, nor religion. The fugitive slave law makes mercy to them a crime. Close quote.

We've seen slavery boil under the surface since and even before the Union's birth. But as territories are organized and states are formed out west, the fissures of slavery are becoming deep cracks while congressmen openly discuss the possibility of civil war. The imperfect compromise of 1850 has the potential to hold the fracturing nation together, but with John C. Calhoun's prophecy that the Union is doomed to disillusion ringing in our ears, it's hard not to wonder, how long can it last? History That Doesn't Suck is created and hosted by me, Greg Jackson. Researching and writing, Thank you. For a bibliography of all primary and secondary sources consulted in writing this episode, visit historythatdoesntsuck.com. Join me in two weeks, where I'd like to tell you a story.

HTDS is supported by premium membership fans. You can join by clicking the link in the episode description. My gratitude to you kind souls providing additional funding to help us keep going. And a special thanks to our members, whose monthly gift puts them at producer status. Thank you.