opposition to the admission of a
state into the union with a constitution prohibiting slavery, on
account of such prohibition, is a policy wholly unjustifiable and
unstatesmanlike, and in violation of that spirit of concession and
compromise by which alone the federal constitution was adopted, and by
which alone it can be perpetuated." This amendment was adopted.[31]

After a debate of four months Congress admitted California as a free
State as one of five compromises. Jefferson Davis, however, repudiated
the idea of advantage to his section. He said: "Where is the
concession to the South? Is it in the admission, as a state, of
California, from which we have been excluded by congressional
agitation? Is it in the announcement that slavery does not and is not
to exist in the remaining territories of New Mexico and California? Is
it in denying the title of Texas to one half of her territory?" He
held that gold washing and mining was particularly adapted to slave
labor, as was agriculture that depended on irrigation.[32] The day
after the admission certain southern senators sent to that body a
_Protest_ against the injustice of the act of Congress, admitting
California as a free State. The Senate refused the clerk permission
either to read or record it. Whereupon the newspapers began publishing
articles of severe criticism and talked of dividing the Union.
Jefferson Davis went before the United States Senate and, addressing
it, called attention to these comments, adding that so much outside
criticism was doing more to divide the Union than the _Protest_ would
possibly do. Congress finally voted that the _Protest_ be
recorded.[33]

Was this to be a free State in every sense of the word? This was
the day when the slave power "was covertly grasping at the
Spanish-speaking countries beyond the Rio Grande, as it had at the
lands beyond the Sabine."[34] At first, it was not, for a good many
slaves were brought into the State. On April 1, 1850, an advertisement
appeared in the _Jackson Mississippian_ referring to _California, the
Southern Slave Colony_ and inviting citizens of slave-holding States,
wishing to go to California, to send their names, number of slaves,
time of contemplated departure, etc., to the _Southern Slave Colony_,
of Jackson, Mississippi. The design was to settle in the richest parts
of the State and to secure an uninterrupted enjoyment of slave
property. The colony was to comprise about 5,000 white persons