INTRODUCTION 



Ordinarily events are the result of antecedent 

 causes, but now and then an apparently fortuitous 

 incident upsets all calculations and changes the 

 course of history in a day. Of such a character 

 was the discovery of gold in California. It would 

 be difficult to overstate its importance. It led 

 directly to a similar discovery in Australia and the 

 combined output of the two fields replenished the 

 world's stock of precious metals, shaped monetary 

 systems, stimulated prices and powerfully affected 

 the economic and industrial development of the 

 last half century. Politically for the United States 

 the discovery was the turning point in the struggle 

 between the sections. Texas had been annexed and 

 the South West wrung from Mexico largely for 

 the purpose of equalizing slave and free territory 

 by providing the South with an outlet for Western 

 emigration comparable in extent with that pos- 

 sessed by the North. The instantaneous settlement 

 of California under circumstances unfavorable to 

 slavery produced a free state and gave the North 

 a majority in the Senate. The attempt to recover 

 the lost ground brought on the Kansas struggle and 

 precipitated the war that destroyed the only real 

 cause of antagonism between the sections. Socially 

 the results of the discovery were not less important. 



