The Negro trail blazers of California [microform] : a ... - Homestead

CHAPTER VI
Admission of California into the Union
In Bancroft's political history the following appears: "Early in 1848 the editor of
the Californian in May of that year declared that he echoed the sentiment of the people
of California in saying that slavery is not desired here and if their voices could be heard
in the halls of our National Legislature, "it would be as one man, rather than place this
blighting curse upon us. Let us remain as we are, unacknowledged and unaided."
The slavery question was so prominent that California never passed through a Territorial
form of government. The citizens held a convention, formed their constitution and
elected a Legislature without the permission of the Congress of the United States Their
object was to be admitted to the Union of the United States Government as a Free State,
before the slaveholders could locate their slaves in California.
There was no transcontinental railroads in pioneer days coming into California. The
trip was dangerous, long and at the best it was not an easy matter to communicate with
the government in Washington or locate in California. The majority of the citizens of
the State at that date were people from the South and yet they were bitterly opposed to
the slave traffic in California. Their position is better explained with, a quotation from
"General U. S. Grant's Memories" (p. 39): "The labor of the country was not skilled,
nor allowed to become so. The whites could not toil without becoming degraded and those
who did were denominated 'poor white trash.' The system of labor would have soon
exhausted the soil, and the non-slaveholder would have left the country and the small
slaveholder must have sold out to his more fortunate neighbor."
This quotation fully explains to the reader that the majority of the white settlers at
that period in California belonged to either the northern element who were opposed to
slavery from principle, or they were opposed to it because they were too poor to own
slaves, while the other half of the white settlers in the Territory of California were for
bringing their slaves because they saw a possibility of working the mines and reaping a
fortune through slave labor.
The opposition to slave labor in California by those who did not own slaves in the
Southland previous to coming west, was because of the terrible caste of being called "poor
white trash" if they attempted to make their own living. There was among the settlers
in California during pioneer days good material for the making of good humanitarians.
They were sincere and believed, like Columbus, that California, with its balmy atmosphere
and beauty, was too near the "Terrestrial Paradise" to blight it with human slavery.
And to add an insult to their efforts to make their living by the sweat of their own brow,
or be called for so doing ' ' poor white trash. ' ' The caste in a place as beautiful and rich
with gold as California would have been thrice as hard as in the other parts of the United
States.
If the Negro slaveholders could bring their slaves to work the mines they would soon
have all the gold and the poor white people would be poorer than ever. They realized that
no country can continue long beautiful that has for its object the oppression of mankind,
whether black, red, yellow or white. The course these early Californians took at that early
date in California's history is the same today. They may some time make mistakes, but
they are not afraid to do the right thing as it appears to them, whether anyone else approves
or not.
Long before the United States Congress met again California had formed its constitution,
held one session of the Legislature and sent a representative to the United States
Congress to ask admission into the Union, which was the beginning of the greatest chapter
in American History. Congress, owing to the slave question, had been unable to agree on
a Territorial form of government for California. There were some very eloquent addresses
delivered for and against its admission. Both sides presenting arguments in defense of
their views and rights. A few years previous the House passed the Missouri Compromise
which was intended to limit the extension of slavery. It was afterward amended so that
two States, Nebraska and Kansas, were admitted into the Union and without restricting
slavery. Afterward the "Wilmot Proviso" was passed by Congress, which said that "No
part of the territory acquired from Mexico shall be open to the introduction of slavery."
The southern members of Congress deemed it just that the newly acquired Territory
of California should either admit slavery in all or part. There were at the time fifteen
Free States and fifteen Slave States in the United States. Some of the members of the
California Constitutional Convention who were friendly to the South had tried to have