California, they were confident, could be carried in their interest, if they could but plant supporting colonies between the Missouri and the Sierras.

The Democratic party was dominant in the State, and the Democracy was of the type personated by William M.Gwin.

Both her senators voted for the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and stood by the extremists of the South as steadily as if California bordered on the Gulf of Mexico.

Dissolution of the Union on the scale thus projected would, as the authors of the scheme persuaded themselves, be certain of success.

From the Mississippi to the Missouri they would carry the new confederacy to the southern line of Iowa.