At first people paid little attention to them. But when President Polk said that gold had been found, people began to think that it must be true. Soon hundreds of gold-seekers started for California. Then thousands became eager to go. These first comers were called the Forty-Niners, because most of them came in the year 1849. By the end of that year there were eighty thousand immigrants in California.
开始时人们不太关注这些传言，但当珀尔卡总统说找到黄金时，人们开始相信果真如此。很快数以百计的淘金者向加利福尼亚进发，然后有数以千计的人急于赶往加利福尼亚。这些首批到达加利福尼亚的人被叫做"旧金山四九人"，因为他们大多数是在1849年赶到加利福尼亚。截止到这一年年底，有8万移民入住加利福尼亚。
343. California seeks Admission to the Union.
343．加利福尼亚申请加入联邦
There were eighty thousand white people in California, and they had almost no government of any kind. So in November, 1849, they held a convention, drew up a constitution, and demanded admission the Union as a state. The peculiar thing about this constitution was that it forbade slavery in California. Many of the Forty-Niners were Southerners. But even they did not want slavery. The reason was that they wished to dig in the earth and win gold. They would not allow slave holders to work their mining claims with slave labor, for free white laborers had never been able to work alongside of negro slaves. So they did not want slavery in California.
加利福尼亚有8万白人，他们几乎不属于任何政府，因此，在1849年11月，这些人召开一次大会，他们起草一份章程并要求作为一个州加入联邦。这个章程的特别之处在于它在加利福尼亚禁止奴隶制。许多"旧金山四九人"都是南方人，但他们仍然不想要奴隶制，原因在于他们希望亲自在土里挖掘并获得黄金；这些人不允许奴隶主指使奴隶来采矿，因为自由的白人劳动力从来没有与黑奴并肩劳动过，因此他们不希望加利福尼亚有奴隶制。
344. A Divided Country.
344．被分裂的国家
This action of the people of California at once brought the question of slavery before the people. Many Southerners were eager to found a slave confederacy apart from the Union. Many abolitionists were eager to found a free republic in the North.
加利福尼亚人的行为立刻将奴隶制问题呈现在人们面前，许多南方人急于离开联邦而组建一个奴隶联邦；许多废奴主义者急于在北方建立一个自由的共和政体。