Chapter XXV TAYLOR-FILLMORE ADMINISTRATION 1849-1852 I INAUGURATION OF TAYLOR; DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA T HE twelfth President of the United States was born in while still a youth crossed the mountains into that frontier region which was later to become the State of Kentucky. Unlike his predecessor, young Taylor received only the rudiments of a common school education and from the first showed an adventurous disposition, which ultimately led him into the army. In 1808 he received a lieutenant's commission from President Jefferson and was sent to New Orleans for duty under General Wilkin During the second war with Great Britain he rendered conspicuous military service, distinguishing himself for gallantry in the defense of Fort Harrison, in recognition of which he was brevetted major. His next service was in the Black Hawk War, but the opportunities for distinction were not great in that campaign and his reputation as a soldier was not increased thereby. At the outbreak of the second Seminole War he was sent to Florida and with a force of about one thousand men pursued the Indians to the Everglades, defeated them in a hard-fought battle and compelled them to submit to the authority of the United States. In recognition of this service he was brevetted brigadier general. Having in the meantime purchased a plantation near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he moved his family from Kentucky and was living there at the time of the outbreak of the war with Mexico. His part in this latter war has already been recounted and need not be repeated here. Up to this time his military services had been almost wholly in Indian wars, and although not especially distinguished, he had won a reputation for bravery and trustworthi ness. 1849 In character and demeanor General Taylor was plain, rugged and patriotic, full of common sense and sagacity, incorruptible in morals, and physically courageous to a degree rarely excelled. He possessed great tenderness of heart and real affection for his men, by whom he was loved and trusted as few commanders are. One of the charges which his opponents brought against him in the presidential campaign was his lack of education and experience in civil affairs, Webster declaring with a sneer that he was only an ignorant frontier colonel who had not voted for forty years. While the charge contained a large element of truth, Taylor possessed, as already stated, an extraordinary gift of common sense, and like most successful military chieftains he was prompt and methodical in action and showed excellent judgment in reaching his decisions. On the whole it must be admitted that he was quite as well qualified for the Presidency as were any of the military chieftains who have been called to that station since Washington. The inauguration took place on the east portico of the Capitol, March 5, in the presence of 20,000 people from all parts of the Union. The day was cloudy and dreary, as if to usher in an administration that was to be marked by bitter dissensions and sectional strife growing out of the slavery controversy. Amid the strains of martial music, the ringing of bells and the booming of artillery, the President-elect rode from Willard's hotel in a carriage with the retiring chief magistrate, and after a short pause in the Senate Chamber he appeared on the east portico of the Capitol and pronounced a brief and dignified address, which was enthusiastically applauded by the multitude. With regard, however, to the question which had been the main issue in the late election, and which was destined to overshadow all others, namely, slavery in the Territories, he was as non-committal as had been the party which elected him. His only allusion to the subject was the expression of a hope that the enlightened patriotism of Congress would lead to the adoption of such measures of conciliation as might harmonize conflicting interests and tend to perpetuate the Union, which should "be the paramount object of our hopes and affections." "In any action," he said, " calculated to promote an object so near the heart of everyone who truly loves his country, I will zealously unite with the coördinate branches of the government." 1849 Taylor's Cabinet was composed of four members from the slave States and three from the free States, only one of whom was known to entertain opinions distinctly hostile to slavery. None of the President's official advisers, however, exercised so much influence over him as did William H. Seward, an anti-slavery Whig Senator from New York. Seward succeeded in gaining the President's favor to a remarkable degree, greatly to the disappointment of the Southern Whigs, who had hoped to enlist the executive influence on their side in the slavery controversy. It was generally believed in the South that inasmuch as the President was himself a Southern planter and the owner of several hundred slaves, his friendship could be safely counted on in any issue involving the interests of slavery. But as a result of Seward's influence he soon began to exhibit a sympathy for the anti-slavery advocates, and in a speech made in the course of a visit to Pennsylvania in August he declared that "the people of the North need have no apprehension of the further extension of slavery." During the summer speculation amounting almost to excitement, was rife throughout the Union concerning the probable action of the new Congress with regard to the organization of civil governments in the territory lately acquired from Mexico. Following the attempt of the Northern members to force the principle of the Wilmot Proviso upon the South, the legislatures of most of the Southern States had adopted resolutions denying the right of Congress, both on legal and moral grounds, to exclude slavery from the Territories, while those of the Northern States had with almost equal unanimity expressed approval of the Proviso. It was clear, therefore, that a purely sectional contest was imminent, in which each side had declared itself in positive terms on the all-important question of the hour. The agitation in the North had stirred the South to a high pitch of excitement, not to say alarm. It was the all-absorbing topic of public discussion in and out of Congress, and loud threats were frequent of the intention of the South, in case this proposed encroachment upon Southern rights and Southern institutions was carried out. Mr. Toombs, of Georgia, in particular, declared that he did not hesitate "to avow before this House and the country, and in the presence of the living God, that if by your legislation you seek to drive us from the Territories of California and New Mexico, I am for disunion." The Southern leaders in Congress 1849 turned to the discussion time and again and late in 1847 Mr. Calhoun, their recognized chief, introduced into the Senate his celebrated resolutions affirming that any attempt of Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia or in any Territory of the United States in which it had already existed would create serious alarm among the slave States and would be a violation of good faith toward the inhabitants of such Territory. "The Territories," ran the resolution, "are the common property of the several States composing the Union, and consequently Congress has no right to do any act whatever that shall directly or indirectly deprive any State of its full and equal right in any Territory." 1 These resolutions were adopted by the Senate with only nine dissenting votes. Calhoun contended that slavery already legally existed in the territory acquired from Mexico by virtue of the immediate extension thereto ex proprio vigore of the Constitution with its guarantees of slavery, after the transfer of the sovereignty of Mexico to the United States, and he wished to put the Senate on record as to the right of Congress in the premises. Webster, on the other hand, denied this position and took the stand recently adopted by the United States Supreme Court in the Insular Cases, that the Constitution does not " follow the flag" of its own force, and can only be extended thereto by act of Congress. The controversy was hastened by an unexpected event early in the year 1848. This was the discovery of gold in California. hardly more than a week after the signing of the treaty by which California was transferred to the United States. The actual discovery was made by a workman named Marshall, in the employ of Captain Sutter, who at the time was engaged in erecting a sawmill on the American branch of the Sacramento River. An effort was made to keep the discovery a secret, but the news soon leaked out and spread with astonishing rapidity, considering the primitive methods of communication which then prevailed. Almost instantly the whole population was seized with a sort of frenzy, and every laborer, blacksmith, carpenter, farmer, and hotel-keeper immediately abandoned his old occupation and started for the diggings." Even soldiers and sailors deserted the service and became miners. Houses half built were left unfinished, the growing crops in the fields were deserted. Everywhere the cry of "Gold, gold," echoed from the seashore to the mountains. The price of labor 1 Von Holst, "Life of Calhoun," p. 292. 1849 and commodities in the gold region rose to fabulous amounts. A common laborer commanded ten dollars per day, carpenters received sixteen dollars, while the price of provisions rose in the same proportion. Real estate values rose to enormous figures and an ordinary house rented for $25,000 a year. By the middle of the summer more than four thousand people were settled about Sacramento, most of them living in rudely constructed huts or coarse canvas tents all busy with pick or shovel unearthing the precious metal, or with bowl and pan washing out the gravel. San Francisco was depopulated, and as soon as the tidings reached the States a stream of gold-seekers began to pour in from the East. It was not until late in the year that official information of the discovery in California reached Washington. At once preparations began for a migration unparalleled except in the legendary tales of antiquity. There were three routes of travel by which the emigrants from the East could reach the new El Dorado of the far West. One was by sea around Cape Horn, involving a perilous ocean voyage of twenty-five thousand miles and requiring six or seven months' time for the journey. Another was by steamer to the Isthmus of Panama, then a dangerous overland journey across the Isthmus to the town of Panama, from which point another steamer could be taken for San Francisco. Arriving at Panama, the anxious traveler was often compelled to wait days and weeks perhaps, only to find the next steamer crowded to the water's edge and with no accommodation for additional passengers. It is said that the first steamer which sailed from New York after the news of the discovery of gold reached the East found upon its arrival at Panama fifteen hundred clamorous, frenzied adventurers begging to be taken aboard, whereas the available accommodations were scarcely sufficient for one-thirtieth of the number applying for passage.2 It was the custom whenever a California-bound steamer arrived at Panama to dispose of its available tickets by lot, leaving the disappointed hundreds who could not be accommodated to wait and take their chances of getting passage on the next steamer or to embark on some improvised, slow-sailing vessel already at hand. Lastly there was the overland journey, which could not well be undertaken until the following spring, and which was chosen by 2 Schouler, "History of the United States," vol. v. p. 136. |