which the final treaty of peace was signed (1848) the Mormons, a
religious sect, finding themselves unwelcome and out of place in
Illinois, moved westward in a body. Enduring every hardship, every
privation, perishing by hundreds in the trackless deserts, captured and
put to torture by the Indians, they still persevered in their migration,
and, halting at last in the valleys of Utah, began the settlement of the
Central West. [Footnote: See _Migrations of the Mormons_.]

Also in that same year, gold was discovered in California. Thousands of
eager adventurers flocked thither, and thus the vast wilderness that
Mexico had lightly surrendered had hardly become United States territory
ere it was filled with people, not listless semi-savages, but eager,
energetic men, resolute and resourceful. The West joined the march of
progress; it doubled the wealth and prowess of the East. [Footnote: See
_Discovery of Gold in California_.]


THE UPRISING OF THE PEOPLES

Important indeed was that year of 1848, noteworthy above most in the
story of mankind. In Europe it witnessed the greatest of all the
outbursts of democracy. The common people, easily suppressed by the
armies of the Holy Alliance in 1820, had been subdued with difficulty in
1830. Now in 1848 they rose again. Their gradual accumulation of power
and passion would soon be irresistible. Even the petted armies of
autocracy became possessed with the new belief in mankind's brotherhood.

This time the outburst began in Italy. Mazzini, the celebrated founder
of the political society "Young Italy," inspired his countrymen with
something of his own ardent devotion to the cause of liberty and Italian