This
new acquisition lay directly west of our old purchase from France, and
extended west to the Pacific Ocean, and was so situated that if the
Missouri line should be extended straight west, the new country would be
divided by such extended line, leaving some north and some south of it.
On Judge Douglas's motion, a bill, or provision of a bill, passed the
Senate to so extend the Missouri line. The proviso men in the House,
including myself, voted it down, because, by implication, it gave up the
southern part to slavery, while we were bent on having it all free.
In the fall of 1848 the gold-mines were discovered in California. This
attracted people to it with unprecedented rapidity, so that on, or soon
after, the meeting of the new Congress in December, 1849, she already had
a population of nearly a hundred thousand, had called a convention,
formed a State constitution excluding slavery, and was knocking for
admission into the Union. The proviso men, of course, were for letting
her in, but the Senate, always true to the other side, would not consent
to her admission, and there California stood, kept out of the Union
because she would not let slavery into her borders.
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