The Problem with California’s Application for Statehood
By Robert L. Harrison
In 1849 California applied for admission to the United States as the 31st state. With the gold rush underway the territory’s value was well known across America. Moreover, statehood had the enthusiastic support of the growing number of American settlers in California. One would have expected prompt action by the national government of the application for statehood from a territory as rich as California — a state that met all the legal requirements. What then was the problem that provoked a heated debate in Congress and delayed California statehood?
As it turned out, California’s application got entangled with the slavery dispute between northern and southern states. In the early 19th century the country functioned under provisions of the 1820 Missouri Compromise. The intent of the Compromise was to maintain an equal number of free and slave states. California, following its Mexican heritage where slavery was abolished in 1829, approved the prohibition of slavery at a Constitutional Convention. However, the involuntary servitude of indigenous Californians at the Spanish missions was not taken into consideration by the State’s governing body. In the 1840s only a very few in California held Black African slaves. From the vantage point of the Federal Government, a new “free” State of California would upset the balance between free and slave states.
To maintain the balance, members of Congress from the south called for dividing the new State into one free and one potential slave state. Under this proposal the division would have been as specified in the 1820 Compromise at parallel 36 degrees 30 minutes (36.5 degrees North Latitude). The line was set by extending the southern boundary of the State of Missouri west to California. The Compromise allowed Missouri to be admitted as a slave state but required all new state proposals north of the line to be free from slavery while those to the south would have the option of adopting the practice.
Had this proposal been adopted, the line would have divided California from the Pacific Ocean at Carmel Highlands in Monterey County, across the Central Valley 15 miles south of Fresno, over the Sierra Nevada Mountains 5 miles south of Mt. Whitney and through Death Valley 2 miles north of the National Park Headquarters to the Nevada border. In 1850 the population north of this line was far greater than that to the south. But today it would mean that over 60% of California’s population would live in the State of South California. Further, under the provisions of the 1820 Missouri Compromise, South California would have had the option of permitting slavery.
The anti-slavery view of most California settlers was clearly expressed in the February 22, 1849 edition of the Daily Alta California: “The majority — four-fifths, we believe — of the inhabitants of California are opposed to slavery. They believe it to be an evil and wrong…and while they would rigidly and faithfully protect the vested rights of the South, they deem it a high moral duty to prevent its extension and aid its extinction by every honorable means.”
California’s application for statehood was set in motion with the military defeat of Mexico in 1848. On February 2, 1848 the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo conveyed a great section of Mexican territory in the American southwest to the United States, including the area of today’s California. Prior to formal annexation, Americans had been establishing a presence in California. While most of the territory’s early colonizers were of Mexican or European origin, by the 1840s scores of American immigrants had significantly altered California’s demographic picture.
In September 1849 California held its first Constitutional Convention. The meeting in Monterey was attended by 48 delegates, just six of whom were born in California, and most of whom were from states east of the Mississippi River. A resolution unanimously adopted by the Convention re-emphasized the opposition to slavery: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, unless for punishment of crimes, shall ever be tolerated in this State.” The Constitution was approved by the electorate on November 13, 1849. The vote was 12,061 in favor and just 811 against.
In accord with the Constitution, a California State government was formally established on December 20, 1849. No precedent existed for the formation of a State government prior to an enabling act by Congress. Nevertheless, Californians decided to proceed and send representatives to Washington to petition for admission to the Union. In March 1850 California’s elected Senators, J. C. Fremont and W. M. Gwin, along with Representatives Gilbert and Wright, submitted copies of the new Constitution and requested, “In the name of the people of California, the admission of the State of California into the American Union.”
The arrival of the California representatives caused a near panic among members of Congress from the South. They saw the imminent prospect of losing the richest territory gained in the victory over Mexico. Henry Clay, Senator from Kentucky, was determined to find a solution that would preserve the union. In 1820 he had fashioned the Missouri Compromise. And once again, 30 years later, he resumed work on the thorny issue of maintaining a balance between slave and free states. On January 29, 1850 Clay introduced a fiercely debated compromise. Clay’s proposal ultimately became the Compromise of 1850. It included several statutes:
- An Act entitled “An Act respecting Fugitives from Justice, and Person escaping from the service of their Masters.” This act of the Compromise was said to be necessary to attract enough southern votes to secure passage of Clay’s entire proposal. “The Fugitive Slave Act”, as it was also known, was responsible for a reign of terror throughout the nation as Africans, both free and escaped slaves, were rounded up and, without trial, returned to slavery in the south.
- An Act to suppress the Slave Trade conducted in the District of Columbia.
- An Act to establish a Territorial Government for Utah.
- An Act establishing the boundaries of the State of Texas.
- An Act for the Admission of the State of California into the Union as a free state.
The bill that made California the 31st state was signed into law by President Fillmore on September 9, 1850. The word of statehood was brought to California on the mail steamer Oregon. The Oregon did not reach California until October 16th at San Diego and on the 18th in the Bay Area. Upon reaching the Bay the Oregon was first required to submit a mission report at squadron headquarters in Sausalito. The pause to report enabled some residents of Marin County to be the first in the Bay Area to know California was granted statehood on September 9th.
As the Oregon entered San Francisco Bay, newspapers from the east were thrown overboard, recovered from the water and brought to the offices of the Daily Alta California where an “Extra” was immediately published with the news of California’s entrance into the union. Celebrations broke out in Washington when the statehood bill was passed and six weeks later with the arrival of the news to California. On October 19, 1850 the Daily Alta California expressed it this way:
“We have never seen so general and joyous an excitement, nor anything comparable to it, as that which has resulted in this city from the news received here yesterday.”
