1849

This week in 1849, the Pacific Mail Steamship Co.’s California arrived in San Francisco from New York, the first steamer to make the voyage. All but one of her crew deserted for the gold fields, likely making them the first “forty-niners” from the East Coast. Hundreds of thousands followed them in a stampede from all parts of the globe, which sent the population of the territory soaring with men (and some women) who spoke as many languages as there were tall tales of riches. San Francisco went from hamlet to metropolis seemingly overnight and Sacramento from a settlement of 100 or so to one of thousands in just months. The admonitions from more than a few learned men who were appalled by the madness simply went unheeded. “The hog that roots his own living, and so makes manure, would be ashamed of such company,” Henry David Thoreau wrote in his journal of those who gave up everything for gold. He condemned not only them but the whole of the former Mexican territory, where he was sure they would find damnation.

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The recent rush to California and the attitude of the world, even of its philosophers and prophets, in relation to it appears to me to reflect the greatest disgrace on mankind. That so many are ready to get their living by the lottery of gold-digging without contributing any value to society, and that the great majority who stay at home justify them in this both by precept and example! It matches the infatuation of the Hindoos who have cast themselves under the car of Juggernaut. . . . It makes God to be a moneyed gentleman who scatters a handful of pennies in order to see mankind scramble for them. Going to California. It is only three thousand miles nearer to hell. . . .

The gold of California is a touchstone which has betrayed the rottenness, the baseness, of mankind. Satan, from one of his elevations, showed mankind the kingdom of California, and they entered into a compact with him at once.

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(Printed by permission of Dover Publications)