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)
“The United States is just now the oldest country in the world, there always is an oldest country and she is it, it is she who is the mother of the twentieth century civilization. She began to feel herself as it just after the Civil War. And so it is a country the right age to have been born in and the wrong age to live in.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“Either war is obsolete or men are.”
—R. Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983)