This Country of Ours Part 61

"What do we want with it?" they said. "What are we to do with it?

How could a bit of land five thousand miles away ever become part of the United States? It is absurd!"

Steam, said someone, would make it possible. Railways would bring Oregon near to the seat of government.

"Steam!" cried the objectors. "Railways across the Rocky Mountains!

Rubbish!"

The British on their side did not want the whole of Oregon, but they wanted the land as far south as the Columbia River.

However in the end both sides gave way a little. It was agreed to halve the country, and the parallel 49 was taken as the boundary.

Thus another large territory was added to the States and the northern frontiers peacefully settled from east to west.

But Polk's land hunger was not yet satisfied. He had half of Oregon, he had the whole of Texas, but he wanted more. He waned California, but California belonged to Mexico. He tried to buy it from Mexico, but Mexico would not sell it. Polk, however, was determined to have it. So determined was he that he made up his mind to fight for it, if there was no other way of getting it.

It was easy to find an excuse for war. The boundaries of Texas were very uncertain, and a tract of land lying east of the Rio Grande River was claimed by both Texas and by Mexico. IN 1846 Polk sent an army to take possession of this land.

General Zachary Taylor was in command of this expedition. And when he arrived near the mouth of the Rio Grande and began to build a fort the Mexicans were very angry. They sent him a message ordering him to be gone in twenty-four hours.

Of course Taylor refused to go, and he began to blockade the river, so as to stop trade with Mexico.

The Mexicans then made ready to fight, and next morning they attacked and captured a scouting party of Americans.

When the news reached Washington there was great excitement.

"Mexico has pa.s.sed the boundary of the United States," declared the President, "has invaded our territory, and shed American blood on American soil."

"War exists," he said, "notwithstanding all our efforts to avoid it, exists by the act of Mexico herself."

Some of the people, however, did not believe that Mexico was wholly to blame for beginning the war. And a young Congressman named Abraham Lincoln asked the President to state the exact spot on American territory where American blood had been spilled. This was called the "Spot resolution."

But in spite of any protest that was made war was declared, and volunteers came pouring in from every side.

The war lasted for a year and a half, and from the first the Mexicans had the worst of it. Throughout the whole war they never won a battle. Besides General Taylor's army the Mexicans soon had two more to fight. In the north General Kearney marched into New Mexico and took possession of it in the name of the United States.

Then he marched into California and claimed that also. In the south the Commander-in-Chief, General Scott, landed at Vera Cruz.

And after taking the town he marched triumphantly on, conquering everything on his way till he reached Mexico City, and the war was practically at an end.

It was not, however, until February of the following year that the treaty of peace was signed in Mexico and not till the 4th of July was it proclaimed in Washington. By it a great tract of land was given to the United States, stretching from the borders of Texas to the sh.o.r.es of the Pacific and from the present northern border of Mexico to Oregon.

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Chapter 77 - Polk - The Finding of Gold

In return for the great tract of land ceded to the United States Mexico received 15 million dollars. But the Mexicans little knew what a golden land they were parting with, and what a bad bargain they were making. Nine days before the treaty was signed gold was found in California. But news traveled slowly in those days, and the treaty was signed before the Mexicans knew of the great discovery.

Some time before this a Swiss named Sutter had settled in the Sacramento Valley. He had prospered greatly, and had become a regular little potentate, ruling the whole district round.

He had thousands of horses and cattle, and hundreds of men worked for him, both white men and Indians. Now he wanted to build a saw mill and a man named Marshall, a settler from the East, undertook to build it for him.

Marshall was a moody, queer tempered man. But he was a good workman.

So about fifty miles from Sutter's fort the saw mill was begun. Now one day while Marshall was walking beside the mill stream inspecting the work he saw something yellow and shining among the loose earth and gravel which was being carried down by the stream. At first he thought little about it, but as again and again he saw these shining grains he at length thought that they might be gold and picked some up.

Next morning he again went to inspect the mill stream and there he found a piece of the shining stuff bigger than any he had found the day before. Marshall picked up the piece, and when he felt it heavy in his hand he began to feel a little excited.

Could it really be gold? he asked himself. Marshall did not know much about gold, but he knew that it was heavy, and that it was fairly soft. So he bit and hammered it with stones, and finding that it was easily beaten out he at last decided that it was indeed gold.

So he mounted his horse and rode off to Sutter to tell him of his wonderful discovery. It was a pouring wet day in January, and when Marshall reached the fort he was soaked through. But he took no thought of that, and marching right into Sutter's office with something of an air of mystery asked for a private talk.

Sutter wondered what had brought Marshall back from the mill, and he wondered still more at the mysterious air.

Soon he understood. For Marshall took out a little bag, and emptying what it held into his hand, held it out to Sutter.

"I believe this is gold," he said.

"It certainly looks like it," said Sutter in surprise.

Then Marshall told how he had found it in the mill stream, and that he believed there were tons of it.

Sutter was a very great man in the countryside, and he had things which no one else dreamed of having. Among these was an Encyclopedia.

So he looked up the article on gold and read it carefully. And then the two men tried all the tests they had at command, and at last came to the conclusion that the shining grains which Marshall had found were certainly gold.

Sutter would have been glad to keep the secret for a little time, at least until his mill was finished. But such a secret could not be kept. Soon every one round knew of the great discovery. The sawmill was left unfinished, the workmen went off to dig for gold, and everyone else followed their example.

The towns were deserted, shops and offices were shut up, houses were left half built, fields were left unploughed, horses and cattle roamed about uncared for. High and low, rich and poor, lawyers, doctors, labourers, threw down their tools or their pens, turned the key in the door, and departed for the gold fields.

Some went by sea, and those who could not get pa.s.sage in ships hired any small craft which they could find. They put to sea in the most rotten or frail little boats, willing to brave any danger if only they might at length reach the land of gold.

Others went by land, some rode on horseback or drove in a wagon, others went on foot all the way, carrying with them nothing but a spade or shovel.

It was a mad rush for wealth. Every one as soon as he heard the wonderful news was seized with the gold fever. When ships came into port the sailors heard the news, and they deserted wholesale, and the ships were left to rock at anchor without a soul on board.

Prisoners broke prison and fled to the gold fields. Warders followed, not to take them but to remain and dig. Newspapers could not be issued, because the printers had all run off; every industry was neglected except the making of spades and picks. And the price of these rose and rose till they could not be had for less than ten dollars apiece, and it is said that even fifty dollars was offered for one.

But in some places upon the gold fields picks and shovels were not needed, for all the men had to do was to pick at the seams with their pocket knives to get enough gold to make them rich.

At first it was only from California, Oregon and the Western settlements that men rushed to the gold fields. For although the telegraph had been discovered a short time before this there were neither telegraphs nor railroads in the West. But soon, in a wonderfully short time too, the news spread. It spread to the Eastern States, then to Europe, and from all over the world the rush came.

Every ship that would float put to sea. Many instead of going their usual routes sailed for California, the whale fisheries were neglected and the whalers took to mining. The fleets of all the world seemed to make for the sh.o.r.es of America.

Across the Continent, too long trains of lumbering wagons drawn by oxen slowly wound. They were tented over and were so huge that whole families lived in them, and they were given the name of prairie schooners. All day long they crawled along and as dusk fell they gathered into groups. Fires were lit, tents pitched for the night.

Then early next morning the travelers would be astir again, and so day after day through lonely uninhabited wildernesses the caravans moved on.

In one unending stream great tented wagons, carts, carriages, hors.e.m.e.n or even walkers moved along, all going in the same direction, to the golden land of the West.