Douglas did not admit that even the whole of Texas would remain dedicated to slavery.Some of the States to be formed from it would be free, by the same laws of climate and resources which determined that the entire West would remain free.Before the Mexican War the Senator had become convinced that the extension of slavery had reached its limit; that the Missouri Compromise was a dead letter except as a psychological palliative; that Nature had already ordained that slave labor should be forever excluded from all Western territory both north and south of that line.His reply to Calhoun's contention that a balance must be maintained between slave and free States was that he had plans for forming seventeen new States out of the vast Western domains, every one of which would be free.And besides, said he, "we all look forward with confidence to the time when Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri, and probably North Carolina and Tennessee will adopt a gradual system of emancipation." Douglas was one of the first to favor the admission of California as a free State.According to the Missouri Compromise law and the laws of Mexico, all Western territory was free, and he was opposed to interference with existing conditions.The Missouri Compromise was still held sacred.Finally, however, it was with Douglas's assistance that the Compromise measures of 1850 were passed, one of which provided for territorial Governments for Utah and New Mexico with the proviso that, when admitted as States, slavery should be permitted or prohibited as the citizens of those States should determine at the time.Congress refrained from any declaration as to slavery in the Territories.It was this policy of "non-intervention" which four years later furnished plausible excuse for the repeal of the Missouri Compromise.
It was not strange that there was general ignorance in all parts of the country as to the resources of the newly acquired territory.The rush to the goldfields precipitated action in respect to California.Before General Taylor, the newly elected President, was inaugurated, there was imminent need of an efficient government.An early act of the Administration was to send an agent to assist in the formation of a state Government, and a convention was immediately called to frame a constitution.
By unanimous vote of the convention, slavery was excluded.The constitution was approved by popular vote and was presented to Congress for final acceptance in December, 1849.
In the meantime a great commotion had arisen among the people.
Southern state legislatures passed resolutions demanding that the rights of their peculiar institution should be recognized in the new Territory.Northern legislatures responded with resolutions favoring the admission of California as a State and the application of the Wilmot Proviso to the remaining territory.
Northern Democrats had very generally denied that the affair with Mexico had as a chief purpose the extension of slavery.Democrats therefore united with Whigs in maintaining the principle of free soil.In the South there was a corresponding fusion of the two parties in support of the sectional issue.
General concern prevailed as to the attitude of the Administration.Taylor's election had been effected by both a Southern and a Northern split in the Democratic party.Northern Democrats had voted for the Free-soil candidate because of the alleged pro-slavery tendencies of their own party.Southern Democrats voted for Taylor because of their distrust of Lewis Cass, their own candidate.Some of these met in convention and formally nominated Taylor, and Taylor accepted their nomination with thanks.Northern anti-slavery Whigs had a difficult task to keep their members in line.There is evidence that Taylor held the traditional Southern view that the anti-slavery North was disposed to encroach upon the rights of the South.Meeting fewer Northern Whig supporters, he became convinced that the more active spirit of encroachment was in the pro-slavery South.
