Happy 175th birthday California!
California was admitted as the 31st state of the Union 175 years ago today on September 9, 1850. The matter was fraught with tensions of the day, with debates raging here and in Congress over the state’s boundaries, whether it should be one state or two, and of course the slavery question. Following the failure of the Wilmot Proviso (which would have banned slavery in territory acquired from Mexico in the Mexican–American War), Congress instead adopted the Compromise of 1850. Among the package of bills were provisions admitting California as a free state, organizing the remaining portions of the Mexican...