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California's statehood debate foreshadowed the American Civil War
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On Wednesday, Sept. 9, our Golden State celebrated its 165th birthday. The great seal of the state of California features an outline of San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate, the image of a grizzly bear and the Roman goddess Minerva (Greek: Athena), born full grown from the mind of Jupiter.
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Following the Gold Rush, what are now San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties became a wild and remote portion of the state, avoided by most travelers and especially neglected by the San Francisco- and Mother Lode-dominated legislators in Sacramento. This remained true until after 1869.
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Achieving statehood was vital to crime-infested parts of California, most especially the Central Coast, where the first mass murder in the territory occurred at Mission San Miguel on Dec. 5, 1848. Among the 11 victims were the son-in-law and daughter of Gen. Mariano Vallejo, a “jefe politico” of Mexican California.
Mitigating against statehood was the issue of slavery. The republic of Mexico had banned “the peculiar institution” in 1829. Most Californians wanted a “free” state. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 and admission of Iowa in 1846 and Wisconsin in 1848 kept numerical equality between free and slave states. California’s admission as a “free state” would upset that balance. To the dying senator from South Carolina, John C. Calhoun, losing the richest of the former Mexican territories to abolitionists would be an intolerable defeat for the South. The debate in the Senate was violent. Mississippi Sen. Henry S. Foote drew a pistol on Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri.
--- Snip ---
On Wednesday, Sept. 9, our Golden State celebrated its 165th birthday. The great seal of the state of California features an outline of San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate, the image of a grizzly bear and the Roman goddess Minerva (Greek: Athena), born full grown from the mind of Jupiter.
--- Snip ---
Following the Gold Rush, what are now San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties became a wild and remote portion of the state, avoided by most travelers and especially neglected by the San Francisco- and Mother Lode-dominated legislators in Sacramento. This remained true until after 1869.
--- Snip ---
Achieving statehood was vital to crime-infested parts of California, most especially the Central Coast, where the first mass murder in the territory occurred at Mission San Miguel on Dec. 5, 1848. Among the 11 victims were the son-in-law and daughter of Gen. Mariano Vallejo, a “jefe politico” of Mexican California.
Mitigating against statehood was the issue of slavery. The republic of Mexico had banned “the peculiar institution” in 1829. Most Californians wanted a “free” state. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 and admission of Iowa in 1846 and Wisconsin in 1848 kept numerical equality between free and slave states. California’s admission as a “free state” would upset that balance. To the dying senator from South Carolina, John C. Calhoun, losing the richest of the former Mexican territories to abolitionists would be an intolerable defeat for the South. The debate in the Senate was violent. Mississippi Sen. Henry S. Foote drew a pistol on Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri.
--- Snip ---
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2015/09/12/3804573/californias-statehood-debate-foreshadowed.html
Happy (slightly belated) birthday to us!
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