I have spoken of these two incidents, the one of the peaceable
civilization of the missions, and the other of the strenuous life
issuing in the adoption of the mining law, as illustrative incidents of
the variety of California history. Let me briefly speak of a third one,
California's method of getting into the Union. But two other states at
the present time celebrate the anniversary of their admission into the
Union; the reason for California's celebration of that anniversary is
well founded. The delay incident to the admission of California into the
Union as a State was precipitated by the tense struggle then raging in
Congress between the North and the South. The admission of Wisconsin had
made a tie, fifteen free states and fifteen slave states. The destiny of
the nation hung upon the result of that issue, and when California
finally entered the Union, it came in as the sixteenth free State,
forever destroyed the equilibrium between the North and the South, and
made the Civil War practically inevitable. The debate was a battle of
giants. Webster, Clay and Calhoun all took part in it. Calhoun had
arisen from his death-bed to fight the admission of California, and,
upon reaching his seat in the Senate, found himself so overcome with
weakness and pain that he had Mason of Virginia read the speech he had
prepared in writing. Webster atoned for his hostility to the Pacific
Coast before the Mexican War by answering Calhoun. "I do not hesitate to
avow in the presence of the living God that if you seek to drive us from
California . . . I am for disunion," declared Robert Toombs, of Georgia,
to an applauding House. "The unity of our empire hangs upon the decision
of this day," answered Seward in the Senate. National history was being
made with a vengeance, and California was the theme. The contest was an
inspiring one, and a reading of the Congressional Record covering the
period makes a Californian's blood tingle with the intensity of it
all[6].