The Greater Republic Part 31

Great Britain and the United States had jointly occupied Oregon for twenty years, under the agreement that the occupancy could be ended by either country under a year's notice to the other. Many angry debates took place in Congress over the question whether such notice should be given. The United States claimed a strip of territory reaching to Alaska, lat.i.tude 54 40', while Great Britain claimed the territory south of the line to the Columbia River. Congress as usual had plenty of wordy patriots who raised the cry of "Fifty-four forty or fight," and it was repeated throughout the country. Cooler and wiser counsels prevailed, each party yielded a part of its claims, and made a middle line the boundary. A minor dispute over the course of the boundary line after it reached the Pacific islets was amicably adjusted by another treaty in 1871.

STATES ADMITTED.

It has been stated that the bill for the admission of Iowa did not become operative until 1846. It was the fourth State formed from the Louisiana purchase, and was first settled by the French at Dubuque; but the post died, and no further settlements were made until the close of the Black Hawk War of 1832, after which the population increased with great rapidity.

Wisconsin was the last State formed from the old Northwest Territory. A few weak settlements were made by the French as early as 1668, but, as in the case of Iowa, its real settlement began after the Black Hawk War.

THE SMITHSONIAN INSt.i.tUTE.

James Smithson of England, when he died in 1829, bequeathed his large estate for the purpose of founding the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution at Washington "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." In 1838, his estate, amounting to more than half a million dollars, was secured by a government agent and deposited in the mint. John Quincy Adams prepared a plan of organization, which was adopted.

The Smithsonian Inst.i.tution, so named in honor of its founder, was placed under the immediate control of a board of regents, composed of the President, Vice-President, judges of the supreme court, and other princ.i.p.al officers of the government. It was provided that the entire sum, amounting with accrued interest to $625,000, should be loaned forever to the United States government at six per cent.; that from the proceeds, together with congressional appropriations and private gifts, proper buildings should be erected for containing a museum of natural history, a cabinet of minerals, a chemical laboratory, a gallery of art, and a library. The plan of organization was carried out, and Professor Joseph Henry of Princeton College, the real inventor of the electro-magnetic telegraph, was chosen secretary.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SMITHSONIAN INSt.i.tUTION.]

THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA.

For many years hardy hunters and trappers had penetrated the vast wilderness of the West and Northwest in their hunt for game and peltries. Some of these were in the employ of the Hudson Bay Company, whose grounds extended as far toward the Arctic Circle as the rugged men and toughened Indians could penetrate on their snowshoes.

At points hundreds of miles apart in the gloomy solitudes were erected trading posts to which the red men brought furs to exchange for trinkets, blankets, firearms, and firewater, and whither the white trappers made their way, after an absence of months in the dismal solitudes. Further south, among the rugged mountains and beside the almost unknown streams, other men set their traps for the beaver, fox, and various fur-bearing animals. Pa.s.sing the Rocky Mountains and Cascade Range they pursued their perilous avocation along the headwaters of the rivers flowing through California. They toiled amid the snows and storms of the Sierras, facing perils from the Indians, savage beasts, and the weather, for pay that often did not amount to the wages received by an ordinary day laborer.

Little did those men suspect they were walking, sleeping, and toiling over a treasure bed; that instead of tramping through snow and over ice and facing the arctic blasts and vengeful red men, if they had dug into the ground, they would have found wealth beyond estimate.

The priests lived in the adobe haciendas that the Spanish had erected centuries before, and, as they counted their beads and dozed in calm happiness, they became rich in flocks and the tributes received from the simple-minded red men. Sometimes they wondered in a mild way at the golden trinkets and ornaments brought in by the Indians and were puzzled to know where they came from, but it seemed never to have occurred to the good men that they could obtain the same precious metal by using the pick and shovel. The years came and pa.s.sed, and red men and white men continued to walk over California without dreaming of the immeasurable riches that had been nestling for ages under their feet.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GOLD WASHING--THE SLUICE.]

One day in February, 1848, James W. Marshall, who had come to California from New Jersey some years before, and had been doing only moderately well with such odd jobs as he could pick up, was working with a companion at building a sawmill for Colonel John A. Sutter, who had immigrated to this country from Baden in 1834. Going westward, he founded a settlement on the present site of Sacramento in 1841. He built Fort Sutter on the Sacramento, where he was visited by Fremont on his exploring expedition in 1846.

Marshall and his companion were engaged in deepening the mill-race, the former being just in front of the other. Happening to look around, he asked:

"What is that shining near your boot?"

His friend reached his hand down into the clear water and picked up a bright, yellow fragment and held it between his fingers.

"It is bra.s.s," he said; "but how bright it is!"

"It can't be bra.s.s," replied Marshall, "for there isn't a piece of bra.s.s within fifty miles of us."

The other turned it over again and again in his hand, put it in his mouth and bit it, and then held it up once more to the light. Suddenly he exclaimed:

"I believe it's gold!"

"I wonder if that's possible," said Marshall, beginning to think his companion was right; "how can we find out?"

"My wife can tell; she has made some lye from wood-ashes and will test it."

[Ill.u.s.tration: GOLD WASHING--THE CRADLE.]

The man took the fragment to his wife, who was busy washing, and, at his request, she boiled it for several hours with the lye. Had it been bra.s.s--the only other metal it possibly could have been--it would have turned a greenish-black. When examined again, however, its beautiful bright l.u.s.tre was undiminished. There was scarcely a doubt that it was pure gold.

The two men returned to the mill-race with pans, and washed out probably fifty dollars' worth of gold. Despite the certainty of his friend, Marshall was troubled by a fear that the fragment was neither bra.s.s nor gold, but some worthless metal of which he knew nothing. He carefully tied up all that had been gathered, mounted a fleet horse, and rode to Sutter's store, thirty miles down the American River.

Here he took Colonel Sutter into a private room and showed him what he had found, saying that he believed it to be gold. Sutter read up the account of gold in an encyclopedia, tested the substance with aqua fortis, weighed it, and decided that Marshall was right, and that the material he had found was undoubtedly gold.

It was a momentous discovery, repeated nearly a half-century later, when the same metal was found in enormous quant.i.ties in the Klondike region.

Colonel Sutter and his companions tried to keep the matter a secret, but it was impossible. Marshall, being first on the ground, enriched himself, but by bad management lost all he had gained and died a poor man. Colonel Sutter tried to keep intruders off his property, but they came like the swarms of locusts that plagued Egypt. They literally overran him, and when he died, in 1880, he was without any means whatever; but California has since erected a handsome statue to his memory.

For the following ten or twenty years, it may be said, the eyes of the civilized world were upon California, and men rushed thither from every quarter of the globe. There was an endless procession of emigrant trains across the plains; the ships that fought the storms on their way around Cape Horn were crowded almost to gunwales, while thousands halved the voyage by trudging, across the Isthmus of Panama to the waiting ships on the other side. California became a mining camp and millions upon millions of gold were taken from her soil.

THE MORMONS.

By this time the Mormons engaged much public attention. Joseph Smith, of Sharon, Vermont, and Palmyra, New York, was the founder of the sect. He claimed to have found in a cave a number of engraved plates, containing the Mormon Bible, which was his guide in the formation of a new form of religious belief. Although polygamy was not commended, it was afterward added to their peculiar faith, which is that sins are remitted through baptism, and that the will of G.o.d was revealed to his prophet, Smith, as it was to be revealed to his successors.

The most grotesque farce in the name of religion is sure to find believers, and they soon gathered about Smith. The first Mormon conference was held at Fayette, N.Y., in 1830. As their number increased, they saw that the West offered the best opportunity for growth and expansion, and, when there were nearly 2,000 of them, they removed to Jackson, Missouri, where they made a settlement. Their practices angered the people, and, as soon as they could find a good pretext, the militia were called out and they were ordered to "move on."

Crossing the Mississippi into Illinois, they laid out a city which they named Nauvoo. Some of them were wealthy, and, as they held their means in common, they were able to erect a beautiful temple and numerous residences. Converts now flocked to them until they numbered fully 10,000. Their neighbors were displeased with their presence, and the feeling grew into indignation when the Mormons not only refused to obey the State laws, but defied them and pa.s.sed laws of their own in open opposition. In the excitement that followed, Joseph Smith and his brother Hyram were arrested and lodged in jail at Carthage. Lynch-law was as popular in the West as it is to-day in the South, and a mob broke into the jail and killed the Smith brothers. This took place in June, 1844, and the Illinois Legislature annulled the charter of Nauvoo.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH.]

The experience of the Mormons convinced them that they would never be allowed to maintain their organization in any of the States. They, therefore, gathered up their worldly goods, and, in 1846, set out on the long journey to the far West. Reaching the Basin of Utah, they founded Great Salt Lake City, which is one of the handsomest, best governed, and cleanest (in a physical sense) cities in the world.

While referring to these peculiar people, we may as well complete their history by antic.i.p.ating events that followed.

In 1857, our government attempted to extend its judicial system over Utah Territory. Brigham Young, the successor of Joseph Smith, until then had not been disturbed, and he did not mean to be interfered with by any government. He insulted the Federal judges sent thither and drove them out of the Territory, his pretext being that the objectionable character of the judges justified the step. Our government, which is always patient in such matters, could not accept this explanation, and Alfred c.u.mming, superintendent of Indian affairs on the Upper Missouri, was made governor of Utah and Judge Delano Eckels, of Indiana, was appointed chief justice of the Territory. Knowing that he would be resisted, Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston was sent thither to compel obedience to the laws.

The United States troops, numbering 2,500, entered the Territory in October and were attacked by the Mormons, who destroyed their supply train and compelled the men to seek winter quarters near Fort Bridges.

Affairs were in this critical state when a messenger from the President, in the spring of 1858, carried a conciliatory letter to Brigham Young, which did much to soothe his ruffled feelings. Then, by-and-by, Governor Powell of Kentucky and Major McCulloch of Texas appeared with a proclamation of pardon to all who would submit to Federal authority. The Mormons were satisfied, accepted the terms, and in May, 1860, the United States troops were withdrawn from the Territory.

Since that time our government has had many difficulties in dealing with the Mormons. Although polygamy is forbidden by the laws of the States and Territories, the sect continued to practice it. In March, 1882, Congress pa.s.sed what is known as the Edmunds Act, which excluded Mormons from local offices which they had hitherto wholly controlled. Many persons were indicted and punished for the practice of polygamy, while others abandoned it. Brigham Young, who had become governor of Deseret in 1849, and two years later was appointed governor of Utah, died in 1877, at which time he was president of the Mormon church. The practice of polygamy was never fully eradicated, and Utah, at this writing, is represented in the United States Senate by men who make no attempt at concealing the fact that they are polygamists.

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1848.

The former Democrats and Whigs who were friendly to the Wilmot Proviso formed the Free Soil party in 1848, to which also the Abolitionists naturally attached themselves. The regular Whigs and Democrats refused to support the Wilmot Proviso, through fear of alienating the South. The Free Soilers named as their nominees Martin Van Buren, for President, and Charles Francis Adams, of Ma.s.sachusetts, for Vice-President; the Democrats selected Louis Ca.s.s, of Michigan, for President, and William O. Butler, of Kentucky, for Vice-President; the Whig candidates were General Zachary Taylor, of Louisiana, for President, and Millard Fillmore, of New York, for Vice-President. At the electoral vote Zachary Taylor was elected President and Millard Fillmore Vice-President.

CHAPTER XIV.

ADMINISTRATIONS OF TAYLOR, FILLMORE, PIERCE, AND BUCHANAN, 1849-1857.

Zachary Taylor--The "Irrepressible Conflict" in Congress--The Omnibus Bill--Death of President Taylor--Millard Fillmore--Death of the Old Leaders and Debut of the New--The Census of 1850--Surveys for a Railway to the Pacific--Presidential Election of 1852--Franklin Pierce--Death of Vice-President King--A Commercial Treaty Made with j.a.pan--Filibustering Expeditions--The Ostend Manifesto--The "Know Nothing" Party--The Kansas Nebraska Bill and Repeal of the Missouri Compromise.