File:The contest for California in 1861; how Colonel E.D. Baker saved the Pacific states to the Union (1912) (14782517933).jpg

Identifier: contestforcalifo00kenn (find matches)
Title: The contest for California in 1861; how Colonel E.D. Baker saved the Pacific states to the Union
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: Kennedy, Elijah Robinson, 1844-1926
Subjects: Baker, Edward Dickinson, 1811-1861 Ball's Bluff, Battle of, Va., 1861 California -- Politics and government California -- History Civil War, 1861-1865 Pacific States -- Politics and government
Publisher: Boston, New York, Houghton Mifflin Company
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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orced; but so far as the exclusion ofslavery from the new territories was concerned, orthe loss of what was called the equiponderance ofrepresentation, the South had no right to complain.Others also took part in the debate. Of theseWilliam H. Seward, of New York, was the mostprominent. He was for admitting California un-conditionally and at once. To him California,coming from the clime where the West dies awayinto the rising East; California, which bounded theempire and the continent; California, the faithfulQueen of the Pacific, in robes of freedom gorgeouslyinlaid with gold, was doubly welcome. If state-hood was not then granted it might never begranted. California might not abide delay. Hewould not say that it contemplated independence,because he knew it did not anticipate rejection.But either the Stars and Stripes must wave over itsports, or it must raise aloft a standard for itself. Itwould be no mean ambition, if it became necessaryfor its own protection, to found an independent
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WILLIAM M. (;\\L\ THE NEW YORK ilBLIC LIBRARY ASTOR, LE^^X ANDTILD£N fOUNOATIONS. POLITICAL CONDITIONS 29 nation on the Pacific. It was further away than theold colonies had been from England. It was out ofthe reach of railroads or unbroken steam naviga-tion. Nor w^ould it be alone. As California wouldgo, so would Oregon go, and the whole Pacific Coastmight be lost.^ Mr. Calhoun and President Taylor died while thequestion was pending, and it fell to Millard Fill-more, who succeeded General Taylor, to approvethe bill admitting California as a state of theUnion, which he did on the ninth of September,1850. While the debate was going on, John C. Fremontand William M. Gwin, who had been elected Sena-tors, and Messrs. Wright and Gilbert, who hadbeen chosen to the House, and who were in Wash-ington waiting to be admitted to the bodies towhich they were accredited, united in issuing amanifesto assuring Congress that California wasloyal to the Union. Doubtless they were right. Butthe possibi

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