This great State was ceded to us by Mexico, being part of that country before the war. In 1848 gold was discovered by Capt. Sutter in a river near Sacramento. On examination gold was found to occur in abundance. News of the wonderful discovery drew an immense emigration into California from all parts of the world, the majority of those traveling across the plains by the way of the Isthmus of Panama being, of course, from the United States. The people who poured into the golden State lost no time in applying for admission into the Union. In 1849, one year after Sutter’s discovery, the State presented itself at the door of Congress. In 1850 California was admitted. The celerity of the operation was due to the fact the North recognized, that California would offset to an extent the growth of slave territory actually made by the admission of Texas and threatened in Arizona and New Mexico, areas peculiarly adapted by climate and other conditions to the institution of slavery.
Oregon, Washington and Idaho were part of what was called the great Oregon country. They were acquired under an agreement with Great Britain in 1846. The United States claimed the territory up to the parallel of 54° 49′, but a compromise was made and the 49th parallel accepted as the dividing line between the United States and the British possessions. The country north of the line is now known as British Columbia.
Alaska, whose area is equal to about 120 States the size of Connecticut, became the property of the United States in 1867 by purchase from Russia. The sum paid for it was $7,000,000. The purchase, negotiated by Secretary of State Seward, was denounced by many as an extravagant use of public funds because Alaska appeared to be practically worthless. The Government, however, unheeding the kind of criticism paid $200,000 in addition to the first price named to extinguish the rights of various commercial companies and thus acquired a clear title. It was soon found the supposed ice bound land was full of wealth in fisheries and lumber, the income from seal fisheries alone amounting in one year to $2,500,000. Alaska’s wealth in gold was, however, not suspected until recent years and not demonstrated until the summer of 1896, when the now famous treasure ship arrived in San Francisco having on board over $600,000 in gold, the property of 50 prospectors who had washed it out of the bars of the creeks emptying into the Yukon river. Alaska, the “ice bound, inhospitable desert of the north,” as it was designated in 1868, was a Mecca for the world for the next few months and thousands braved the dangers of Chilkoot pass to search for the yellow metal, and at this time it is estimated over 50,000 people are in that part of the Territory which two years ago was practically uninhabited.