that the necessary two-thirds majority could be mus-
tered, and the uncertainty was the more understandable
since no less a figure than the great Daniel Webster
was leading the opposition. Webster proposed that the
treaty be put aside so that a new agreement could be
negotiated with the defeated adversary. But on this oc-
casion the "god-like Daniel" failed. On March 2 his
resolution was voted down, and on March 10 the treaty
was ratified with a few votes to spare. A spiteful con-
temporary labeled it "a Peace which every one will be
glad of, but no one will be proud of." ²

With the benefit of hindsight, one may well wonder
what course history would have taken if Webster's mo-
tion had prevailed. By the terms of the treaty Mexico
agreed to surrender a spacious domain that included the
present state of California. Unbeknown to anyone in
Washington, on January 24 an American millwright,
while erecting a small sawmill on the banks of a Cali-
fornia stream, had picked up a bit of yellow metal that
to his delighted amazement proved to be gold. News
of his great discovery was not immediately announced,
but by the time that the senators finally decided to ap-
prove the treaty, excited fortune hunters in California
were already preparing to hurry to the site of that fa-
mous sawmill.

The discovery of gold, coming simultaneously with
the transfer to American sovereignty, abruptly changed

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