were called the Forty-Niners, because most of them came in the
year 1849. By the end of that year there were eighty thousand immigrants
in California.

[Sidenote: California constitutional convention, 1849.]

[Sidenote: Slavery forbidden.]

343. California seeks Admission to the Union.--There were eighty
thousand white people in California, and they had almost no government
of any kind. So in November, 1849, they held a convention, drew up a
constitution, and demanded admission the Union as a state. The peculiar
thing about this constitution was that it forbade slavery in California.
Many of the Forty-Niners were Southerners. But even they did not want
slavery. The reason was that they wished to dig in the earth and win
gold. They would not allow slave holders to work their mining claims
with slave labor, for free white laborers had never been able to work
alongside of negro slaves. So they did not want slavery in California.

[Sidenote: Divisions on the question of the extension of slavery.
_McMaster_, 335-336.]

344. A Divided Country.--This action of the people of California at
once brought the question of slavery before the people. Many Southerners
were eager to found a slave confederacy apart from the Union. Many
abolitionists were eager to found a free republic in the North. Many
Northerners, who loved the Union, thought that slavery should be
confined to the states where it existed. They thought that slavery
should not be permitted in the territories, which belonged to the people
of the United States as a whole. They argued that if the territories
could be kept free, the people of those territories, when they came to
form state constitutions, would forbid slavery as the people of
California had just done. They were probably right, and for this very
reason the Southerners wished to have slavery in the territories. So
strong was the feeling over these points that it seemed as if the Union
would split into pieces.

[Sidenote: Taylor's policy.]

[Sidenote: California demands admission.]

345. President Taylor's Policy.--General Taylor was now President.
He was alarmed by the growing excitement. He determined to settle the
matter at once before people could get any more excited. So he sent
agents to California and to New Mexico to urge the people to demand
admission to the Union at once. When Congress met in 1850, he stated
that California demanded admission as a free state. The Southerners were
angry. For t