From Statehood To The Civil War
When California was admitted as a state under the Compromise of 1850, Californians had already decided it was to be a free state—the constitutional convention of 1849 unanimously abolished slavery. As a result, Southerners in Congress voted against admission in 1850 while Northerners pushed it through, pointing to its population of 93,000 and its vast wealth in gold. Northern California, which was dominated by mining, shipping, and commercial elites of San Francisco, favored becoming a state.
In the 1856 presidential election, California gave its electoral votes to the winner, James Buchanan.
| 1856 Presidential Candidate | Party | Home State | Popular Vote | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| James Buchanan | Democrat | Pennsylvania | 53,342 | 48.4 |
| Millard Fillmore | Know-Nothing | New York | 36,195 | 32.8 |
| John Fremont | Republican | California | 20,704 | 18.8 |
Read more about this topic: California In The American Civil War
Famous quotes containing the words statehood, civil and/or war:
“We’re for statehood. We want statehood because statehood means the protection of our farms and our fences; and it means schools for our children; and it means progress for the future.”
—Willis Goldbeck (1900–1979)
“[Rutherford B. Hayes] was a patriotic citizen, a lover of the flag and of our free institutions, an industrious and conscientious civil officer, a soldier of dauntless courage, a loyal comrade and friend, a sympathetic and helpful neighbor, and the honored head of a happy Christian home. He has steadily grown in the public esteem, and the impartial historian will not fail to recognize the conscientiousness, the manliness, and the courage that so strongly characterized his whole public career.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“Soldier, there is a war between the mind
And sky, between thought and day and night. It is
For that the poet is always in the sun,
Patches the moon together in his room
To his Virgilian cadences, up down,
Up down. It is a war that never ends.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)