Item 14 is something of a transitional document, from Mexican to American rule: Alta California: Embracing Notices of the Climate, Soil, and Agricultural Products of Northern Mexico and the Pacific Seaboard… Written "by a Captain of Volunteers," it was published in 1847, during the Mexican War. The Americans had already seized California, but its official cession was still a year away. It has much about agriculture in California, but also a discussion of slavery in the areas expected to be conquered as a result of the war. On this subject it includes The Opinion of the Hon. James Buchanan on the Wilmot Proviso. The Wilmot Proviso, never adopted into law, would have banned slavery from any newly acquired territories. Buchanan, anticipating his later presidency as a "Northern man with Southern principles," was against it. $5,000.
We will close with an item relating to American California, and the Gold Rush that suddenly flooded the state with immigrants. Item 26 is an 1850 journal kept by John F. Willis, who traveled the Platte River Road to California. Willis traveled the standard route from St. Louis to Idaho, but then took a different trail through Nevada and California. His journal is unpublished. $22,500.
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