The Price of Gold

Upon the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2, 1848, California became a part of the United States. The organization of civil government and admission to the Union would follow rapidly as gold was discovered and the world beat a path to California.

James Marshall’s discovery on January 24, 1848 changed California forever. In March news appeared in print. Merchants and farmers fled their shops and fields, and hundreds of ships abandoned by their crews  filled the wharfs of San Francisco.

In July there were 4,000 miners in the gold fields. The merchants who supplied the mining camps with equipment and drink were more likely to get rich quick than were the miners themselves. By 1853 twelve million ounces of gold had been extracted from the earth.

Rapid immigration would have a devastating impact on California’s population. Around 157,000 people lived in California in 1846, of whom about 150,000 were Native Americans. In 1850, this indigenous population fell to 100,000. 

Since Chinese immigrants could not legally become U.S. citizens, this and later laws taxing foreign miners increasingly targeted this community. In 1856 alone, income from foreign miners’ licenses accounted for about a quarter of all State tax revenue.

Congress did not form a government in California. US military officers and officials appointed or elected during the Mexican period maintained rule. Military Governor Bennet Riley called for an election in 1849 to select delegates to attend a Constitutional Convention. 

The Convention left the issue of Native American rights unresolved (8 years later delegate Manuel Dominguez was barred from testifying in a court case due to his Native American ancestry). Tragically, California’s indigenous population were frequently subjected to violence.

The Convention paid $500 to John Hamilton to write the final version of the Constitution. It took him 3 days and nights the write the text on 19 pieces of parchment, or animal skin. The first page even features an illustration of a vaquero, or horseman, lassoing a steer.

John Hamilton wrote Pedro Sainsevain's name on the Constitution’s signature page in pencil. Sainsevain, a delegate to the Convention, was absent on the day of the signing due to a family illness.

It was ratified by a 10-to-1 margin: 12,061 to 811. California’s admission to the Union threatened to upset the balance of power between free and slave states. A package of Federal legislation known as the Compromise of 1850 was needed before California became the 31st state.