"On General Taylor's accession to the Presidency (1849) the organization of California could be no longer postponed. Oregon . . . had become a free Territory. The discovery of gold in California had led to its rapid settlement. New Mexico already possessed a population of sixty thousand. In correspondence with these movements, a Convention for the formation of a state Constitution was held in California. It determined on the prohibition of slavery, but, as might have been expected when the application for admission came before Congress, it encountered resistance from the South. Eventually, however, after much discussion, a general plan of compromise suggested by Mr. Clay was adopted. It has attained celebrity under the designation of "the Compromise of 1850."*

"SAN FRANCISCO" "NOV 1850" Sixth-plate daguerreotype Photographer unknown San Francisco, California November 1850 (Click on the image to view further details)

CALIFORNIA STATEHOODwas achieved with the Compromise of 1850 just 2 months (9 September) before the creation of this daguerreotype. Resulting political stability in the West and sectional compromise in the East probably encouraged countless Americans to journey westward. One can imagine this gent fresh off a clipper ship around Cape Horn but not as yet outfitted for the goldfields. Perhaps he stopped at a daguerreian salon to record visual evidence of his safe arrival for loved ones at home. To memorialize the event he (or the daguerreian operator) used some sort of box to prop a sign with "SAN FRANCISCO" visibly lettered in a dark strip and "NOV 1850" (difficult to read) written in a light strip. The writing was painstakingly reversed because the daguerreotype is otherwise a mirror image.

"The chief features of the Compromise of 1850 were a pledge that Congress would faithfully execute the compact with Texas respecting the formation of new states out of her territory; the immediate admission of California into the Union; the establishment of New Mexico and Utah as Territories without the Wilmot Proviso--they were to embrace all the territory recently acquired from Mexico not contained within the boundaries of California; a pecuniary grant to Texas in consideration of the cession of certain territorial claims by her; more effective provision for the securing of fugitive slaves. It abstained from the abolishing of slavery in the District of Columbia, but prohibited the slave-trade therein."*

"It was affirmed that in one year after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, more fugitive slaves were seized than in the preceding sixty years. Surprise has sometimes been expressed that the vote for the anti-slavery candidate for the Presidency rose from 153,000 in 1852 to more than a million and a quarter (1,341,264) in 1856. There are occasions, however, when men renounce all considerations of political expediency, and are guided by the promptings of the heart. And this was one of them."*

"In the North the abolition of slavery and the encouragement of immigration have destroyed totally all ideas of social inequality. Every hour individualism has become more and more intense. It has engendered a clamor for equal political rights and equal distribution of property. It has conceded independence to women in regard to property; it is actually contemplating the same in politics. It is weakening with fearful rapidity the marriage relation, and sapping society and morals by increasing the facilities for divorce. It forgets that the subordination of sexes is the very basis of the family, and that the family ought to be the basis of the whole social system."*

"Universal suffrage has emended the law of landlord and tenant to the disadvantage of the former; it has interfered with the marriage state by facilitating divorce, and separating the estates of men and their wives; it has compelled property owners to bear the burden of government, and liquidate the onerous exactions of corporators; it has forced the rich to educate the children of the poor; its next step will be to compel them to supply food and clothing.* Nor is the social demoralization restricted to men. Masculine women perambulate the country, preaching the right of their sex to discard all feminine delicacy, and divide with men the labors and honors of the forum, the field, the cabinet. They are to be seen in the dissecting-rooms of medical schools, preparing themselves with loathsome alacrity to dispute with the physician his patient and his fee. They do not hesitate to invade the sanctity of the pulpit, commending the clergyman they would displace to betake himself to some more manly pursuit."*

By 1848 the North was a seedbed of fermenting radicalism. Reformers embraced every new idea in an attempt to advance freedom and perfect human existence. Transcendentalism, Millennialism, spiritualism, Mormonism, utopic socialism, religious communism, Shakerism, pacifism, feminism, temperance, abolitionism, and reform for the institutionalized were only a few of countless reform movements sweeping across the "burned over" district of upper New York State and New England--areas already well scorched by successive religious revivals of earlier generations. Women in America were faced with persistent legal, political, educational, and professional discrimination. On 19 July 1848 Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized the famous Seneca Falls Convention in upstate New York. Over 100 men and women signed a "Declaration of Rights and Sentiments". Based upon the Declaration of Independence, this document claimed that "All men and women are created equal" and demanded that women be allowed to develop as morally responsible beings. Among 12 resolutions passed with this declaration was one calling for the right to elective franchise. Amidst the resulting storm of ridicule that broke throughout the country and the press, many signers withdrew their support. Besides battling extensive ridicule and rejection, the feminist movement was increasingly overshadowed throughout the 1850s by the antislavery movement. The time for women's rights had not yet arrived, and after all spasms of reform were utterly spent in the Civil War, feminism could only await another reform generation in the 20th century. The "Bloomer Costume" consisted of a loose-fitting dress or coat reaching below the knees and a garment similar to Turkish trousers, gathered at the ankles into walking boots or fitted above house slippers. This practical outfit was designed by Elizabeth Smith, daughter of Gerrit Smith and cousin of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Both women wore the costume as did Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Angelina Grimke Weld, and others. The majority of Americans and the press considered the reform dress "a badge of radicalism, and its wearers were suspected of ‘free love' notions and of a desire to be rid of all feminine graces and restrictions." One after another the feminist leaders "went back to the long skirts, because, as Lucy Stone said, it was ‘so much bother to be different.' Susan B. Anthony dryly remarked that she found it impossible to obtain a man's attention to her talk when he was completely occupied gazing at her ankles."

(Click on the image to view further details) Young woman modeling an EARLY BLOOMER COSTUME Sixth-plate daguerreotype Photographer unknown Possibly New York State c.1848-50 Whether leader or soldier in the cause, the subject of this daguerreotype was one of only a tiny fraction of women who dared to defy the conventions and mores of the world in which they lived. She may have drawn her strength of purpose from a New England heritage of belief in human liberty and reason, yet only from the courage of her own heart could she summon the bravado to wear these clothes as visual symbols of the liberation to which she was entitled. "The Bloomer Polka & Schottisch" Sheet Music Baltimore, 1851 Note the similarity of costume with the daguerreotype.

"As the development of the slave power went on, so co-ordinately was developed its great antagonist, the anti-slavery idea. Slavery becoming, as such a system must needs be, aggressive, provoked a fierce resistance. So intense, eventually, was the animosity, that it swallowed up all other matters of dispute, the free North and the slave South being pitted against each other in geographical parties."*

"Slavery had been introduced into the Southern English colonies before the Puritans landed in New England. At that time the most sincerely religious men seem not to have been impressed with a sense of its barbarity and wickedness; it was not until many years subsequently that the public conscience was awakened. As patristicism had led to so sad a tragedy in the extermination of the natives of Mexico and Peru, under the pretense that they did not belong to the human race, so it excused the atrocities perpetrated upon the African under the plea that the Almighty had put a stamp of infamy upon him, he being the descendant of Canaan, whose father, Ham, had treated Noah disrespectfully."*

"The anti-slavery movement did not fairly begin till 1766, when measures were taken by several of the Massachusetts towns, among others by Boston, for domestic abolition. The policy of England at this time was for the promotion of slavery. . . . anti-slavery opinions . . . gathered force from the opposition of the British governors.* While internal state slavery was thus imperceptibly brought to its termination in Massachusetts, the foreign slave-trade was more abruptly closed. There had never been wanting bitter opponents to it from the time [1683] when the early apostle, John Eliot, declared "to sell souls for money seemeth to me a dangerous merchandise."*

"The New England Anti-slavery Society was founded in Boston in 1832. By this time the shifting sands of public opinion on the slavery question in Massachusetts had hardened into a rock. This movement was apparently the offspring of the anti-slavery excitement simultaneously occurring in England. As had been the case in England, all the machinery for political agitation which in late times has been brought to perfection was set in play, and through the pulpit, the press, societies, lectures, and innumerable other agencies, an incessant attack was kept up."*

ABOLITIONISM IN AMERICA Three albumen carte-de-visite photographs: (Click on the image to view further details) WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON, ABOLITIONIST photographed by G. Seaver, Jr., 27 Tremont Row, Boston c 1860 [on left] "GORDON", A SLAVE ESCAPED TO UNION LINES photograhed by McPherson & Oliver, Baton Rouge, La c. 1863 [in middle] FREDERICK DOUGLASS, RUNAWAY SLAVE & ABOLITIONIST (Carte is autographed on reverse) African American photographer J.P. Ball's Photographic Gallery, No. 30 West 4th St. between Main and Walnut Streets, Cincinnati, Ohio c. 1865 [on right]

"There is a political force in ideas which silently renders protestations, promises and guarantees, no matter in what good faith they may have been given, of no avail, and which makes constitutions obsolete. Against the uncontrollable growth of the antislavery idea the South was forced to contend.* Fanaticism at the North was met by fanaticism at the South; and while one party denounced slavery as "the sum of all villainies," the other lauded it as the greatest of social blessings, consecrated by antiquity, and authorized by the Bible."*

"Ideas, when they assume political activity, necessarily become aggressive. They take the initiative, and quickly compel material interests to stand on the defensive. The New England anti-slavery conceptions never for a moment declined in force. They spread geographically, and increased in intrinsic intensity. They pressed remorselessly on the South."* To strike at the weakest point of her antagonist, she assailed the conscience of the South; the mails and post-offices were burdened with anti-slavery newspapers, pamphlets, and books. Among the latter one may be mentioned as having attained world-wide celebrity--"Uncle Tom's Cabin." It was translated into almost every European language, and passed through hundreds of editions. It was read from Sweden to Italy, from the British Islands to the Russian Empire. If we may judge from its effect on the popular mind of Europe, the printing of that book was one of the severest intellectual blows delivered against the South.* The South mistook the spirit of the times. She did not recognize that modern civilization is adverse to her institution."*

(Click on the image to view further details)

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE Author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" Carte-de-visite photograph by E. & H. T. Anthony 501 Broadway, New York c. 1862