the South had sown, and that
the North would reap. They had hoped to establish their right by
positive legislation to enter all the territories with slave
property. If they should fail in this, they believed with all
confidence, and had good reason at the time for their faith, that
they would be able to carry the line of 36 deg. 30' to the Pacific by
an extension of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and that in this
way the political strength of their section would be vastly enhanced.
But not long after the signing of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo,
an event happened which put to naught the anticipations of Southern
statesmen. Gold was discovered in California late in the autumn
of 1848, and by one of those marvels of emigration which the Anglo-
Saxon race have more than once achieved, the Pacific slope was
immediately filled with a hardy, resolute, intelligent population.
In less than a year they organized a State government, adopted a
constitution in which slavery was forever prohibited, and were
ready by the close of 1849 to apply for admission to the Union.
The inhabitants had no powers of civil government conferred by
Congress; the only authority exercised by the United States being
that of Colonel Bennett Riley of the regular army, who had been
placed in command immediately after the Treaty of Peace by President
Polk, and who was left undisturbed by President Taylor.

Congress convened on the first Monday of December, 1849, amid deep
feeling, rapidly growing into excitement throughout the country.
For three weeks the House was unable to organize by the choice of
a speaker. The Democratic candidate was Howell Cobb; the Whig
candidate, Robert C. Winthrop. The contest was finally settled on
the sixty-third ballot, in accordance with a previous agreement
that a plurality should elect. Mr. Cobb received one hundred and
two votes; Mr. Winthrop ninety-nine, with twenty votes scattering,
principally anti-slavery Whigs and Free-Soilers. It was the first
time that such a step had been taken; and its constitutionality
was so doubtful, that after the ballot, a resolution declaring Mr.
Cobb to be speaker was adopted by general concurrence on a yea and
nay vote.

The message of the President was immediately transmitted, and proved
a tower of strength to the friends of the Union, and a heavy blow
to the secession element, which was rampant in Congress. The
President recommended that California, with her constitution,