ore the treaty of peace
(Guadalupe Hidalgo), John A. Sutter, a Swiss by parentage, German
by birth (Baden), American by residence and naturalization (Missouri),
Mexican in turn, by residence and naturalization, together with
James A. Marshall, a Jerseyman wheelwright in Sutter's employ,
while the latter was walking in a newly-constructed and recently
flooded saw-mill tail-race, in the small valley of Coloma, about
forty-five miles from Sacramento (then Sutter's Fort), in the foot-
hills of the Sierras, picked up some small, shining yellow particles,
which proved to be free _gold_.(62)

"_The accursed thirst for gold_" was now soon to outrun the _accursed
greed_ for more slave territory. The race was unequal. The whole
world joined in the race for gold. The hunger for wealth seized
all alike, the common laborer, the small farmer, the merchant, the
mechanic, the politician, the lawyer and the clergyman, the soldier
and the sailor from the army and navy; from all countries and climes
came the gold seeker; only the slaveholder with his slaves alone
were left behind. There was no place for the latter with freemen
who themselves swung the pick and rocked the cradle in search of
the precious metal.

California, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona still give
up their gold and their silver to the free miner; and the financial
condition and prosperity of the civilized countries of the world
have been favorably affected by these productions, but of this we
are not here to speak. Slavery is our text, and we must not stray
too far from it.

Turning back to the negotiations for the first treaty with Mexico,
we find, to her everlasting credit, though compelled to part with
her possessions, she still desired they should continue to be free.

Slavery, as has already been shown, did not exist in Mexico by law;
and California and New Mexico held no slaves, so, during the
negotiations, the Mexican representatives begged for the incorporation
of an article providing that slavery should be prohibited in all
the territory to be ceded. N. P. Trist, the American Commissioner,
promptly and fiercely resented the bare mention of the subject.
He replied that if the territory to be acquired were tenfold more
valuable, and covered _a foot thick_ with pure gold, on the single
condition that slavery was to be excluded therefrom, the proposition
would not be for a moment entertained, nor even communicated to
the President.(63)

Thoug