U.S. House of Representatives Vote for California Admission to the Union

September 7, 1850, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 150-56 to admit California to the Union as a non-slave state, September 7, 1850.

Every Northern legislator who voted supported the measure, as did 27 Southerners. Two days later, President Millard Fillmore signed the measure, which made California the 31st state.

It took 38 days, until Oct. 18 — when the Pacific Mail Line Steamship Co.’s SS Oregon docked in San Francisco — for word to reach the new state.

The news sparked a bang-up celebration that lasted for weeks.

California’s admission came as a result of the Compromise of 1850. Sen. Henry Clay, a Kentucky Whig and former House speaker, brokered the agreement. The compromise, which powerful Sen. John C. Calhoun (D-S.C.), strongly opposed, denied the slave-owning South access to the Pacific.

From 1847 to 1850, California had military governors appointed by the senior military commander in California. Responding to popular demand for a more representative government, Gen. Bennett Riley issued a proclamation on June 3, 1849, calling for a constitutional convention. Meanwhile, President James K. Polk tried to get Congress in 1848, and again in 1849, to make California a territory. But his efforts failed over the slavery issue.

A compromise was finally possible after the sudden death of President Zachary Taylor, who, though a slave owner, had favored excluding slavery from the Southwest.

After the initial bargain failed to pass in early 1850, Clay urged Sen. Stephen Douglas (D-Ill.) to divide his measure into several politically digestible smaller pieces, thereby narrowly winning passage.

On Sept. 11, California’s first representatives, Edward Gilbert, a Democrat, and George Washington Wright, an independent, were sworn in as House members — 51 fewer than the current Golden State delegation.

SOURCE: OFFICE OF HISTORY AND PRESERVATION, CLERK OF THE U.S. HOUSE