[ti:MAKING OF A NATION] [ar:Voice of America] [al:VOA Special English] [by:WWW.51VOA.COM] [00:00.00]51VOA.COM [00:11.27]Welcome to the MAKING OF A NATION [00:13.98]American history in VOA Special English. [00:18.59]As we reported in our last program, [00:22.44]slavery supporters failed to push [00:26.08]through Congress a bill [00:27.78]to make Kansas a slave state. [00:30.82]Congress,instead,let the people of Kansas [00:35.69]vote on the statehood constitution [00:38.29]written by pro-slavery men. [00:41.45]The people rejected the constitution. [00:45.13]And slavery supporters gave up the fight [00:49.26]for Kansas. [00:50.35]Here are Steve Ember and Bob Doughty [00:53.83]to continue the story. [00:55.71](MUSIC) [01:07.36]The problem of slavery continued [01:09.51]to divide the North and South. [01:11.68]Northerners warned [01:13.70]that slavery could spread no farther. [01:16.44]Southerners threatened to leave the Union [01:19.71]unless southern rights were protected. [01:22.69]In the far West, [01:25.55]one could forget this bitter dispute. [01:28.31]There were no slaves in the West. [01:30.95]The land and the weather were not right [01:34.37]for the kind of farming that used slaves. [01:37.48]The west was growing quickly. [01:41.46]Gold had brought thousands of settlers [01:45.16]to California ten years earlier. [01:47.90]New discoveries of gold and silver now [01:52.44]were leading men to Colorado, [01:54.65]Arizona and Nevada. [01:57.02]"Don't go," warned the New York Tribune, [02:00.51]"if you have a job or a farm. [02:03.26]But if you have neither," it said, [02:06.12]"and can get fifty dollars, [02:08.43]then go to Colorado." [02:10.93]There were many men without jobs or farms [02:15.62]in the summer of eighteen-fifty-eight. [02:18.71]The country had suffered [02:21.06]a serious economic depression the year before, [02:24.84]and jobs were difficult to find. [02:28.36]Thousands left cities in the east. [02:31.99]The first ones to reach Colorado reported [02:36.36]that gold was easy to find. [02:39.16]They said any man [02:41.49]who worked hard could find [02:43.92]five to ten dollars worth of gold a day, [02:47.86]and sometimes even more. [02:50.90](MUISC) [03:05.09]The thousands who rushed to Colorado [03:07.48]soon found that there was not [03:09.64]as much gold as expected. [03:11.74]The valuable metal became harder to find. [03:15.92]No longer could it be washed [03:18.65]from the bottoms of mountain streams. [03:21.33]Men had to dig into the mountains of rock [03:24.84]to get it. [03:26.00]Huge digging machines and crushers [03:29.50]were needed to get the gold from the rock. [03:32.56]These machines were expensive. [03:35.37]Few men had enough money to buy them. [03:38.80]Some of the miners organized companies. [03:42.73]They borrowed money from eastern banks [03:46.47]or sold shares of their companies. [03:49.70]In a few years, [03:51.86]almost all of the gold from Colorado [03:54.77]came from the mining companies. [03:57.60]Many of those who went west [04:01.74]to search for gold stayed to become farmers [04:05.86]or storekeepers. [04:07.99]Others moved farther west to find gold [04:11.97]in Nevada or California. [04:14.50]Some cleared the ground of trees [04:17.83]and cut them into wood for houses. [04:21.10]Such timber from the forests [04:24.00]of Oregon and Washington [04:26.21]was sold in California and Mexico, [04:30.29]even in China and Hawaii. [04:33.28]A few men recognized the need [04:36.94]for transportation across the nation. [04:39.27]Engineers planned four railroads. [04:42.65]But northern and southern leaders [04:45.83]could not agree on which one to build first. [04:49.61]Until a railroad could be built, [04:53.18]supplies were carried west in wagons [04:56.47]pulled by horses or oxen. [04:59.46]Three men -- Russell,Majors,and Waddell [05:04.75]formed a transportation company [05:07.07]in eighteen fifty-five [05:09.44]to carry government supplies to soldiers [05:13.30]in the West. [05:14.53]They started with five hundred wagons. [05:18.47]Three years later, [05:20.62]the company had three thousand five hundred [05:24.51]wagons and forty thousand oxen. [05:28.34]Getting letters to and from the west [05:33.24]was not easy in the eighteen fifties. [05:36.18]Ships brought mail to San Francisco [05:39.61]two times a month. [05:41.25]And once each month, [05:43.73]mail would arrive in California [05:46.29]after a slow trip by wagon [05:48.97]from Saint Louis,Missouri. [05:51.11]The federal government [05:53.57]decided to send mail overland [05:56.71]two times a week to California. [05:59.18]It gave the job [06:01.57]of carrying the letters to a new company [06:04.69]the Overland Mail Company. [06:07.53]The mail was carried by train or boat [06:12.16]to St.Louis. [06:13.41]Then it was put on overland company stage coaches [06:18.63]light wagons pulled by four or six horses. [06:22.30]The company was told to take the mail [06:25.92]along a four-thousand-kilometer southern route [06:29.96]through Arkansas,Texas,New Mexico and Arizona. [06:35.39]The mail arrived in Los Angeles twenty-four days [06:39.77]after it left St.Louis. [06:42.00](MUSIC) [07:05.76]There was a shorter way across the country. [07:08.91]But the postal chief was a southerner,A.V.Brown. [07:13.63]He believed stage coach travel [07:16.73]might lead the way for a railroad. [07:19.64]And he wanted a southern railroad to California. [07:24.02]Brown said the southern route was the only one [07:28.84]that could be kept open in all seasons. [07:32.50]He said the other routes [07:35.37]would be closed by snow in winter. [07:38.49]The overland stage coaches were large enough [07:42.88]to carry four passengers. [07:45.11]But not many people went to California [07:48.80]in the coaches. [07:50.54]The coaches never stopped for very long [07:53.95]only to change horses or drivers. [07:58.04]And there were not many places to eat. [08:01.97]Also,the trip was dangerous, [08:05.04]because of hostile Indians. [08:07.57]The shortest distance [08:11.47]between Missouri and California [08:13.60]was across the central part of the country. [08:16.88]The Russell,Majors and Waddell Company [08:20.35]decided to show that this central route [08:24.09]could be used all year. [08:26.15]It began a speedy mail service [08:29.64]called the Pony Express. [08:31.96]Letters were carried by riders on fast horses. [08:36.60]Stations with fresh horses were built about [08:40.53]twenty-four kilometers apart, [08:43.10]all along the way. [08:44.62]A rider would change horses at each station [08:48.74]until he had traveled one hundred twenty kilometers. [08:52.91]Then he would give his letters to another rider. [08:57.21]In this way, [08:58.97]the letters would be carried [09:01.01]between California and Missouri. [09:03.72]The first letters sent by Pony Express [09:07.72]from California took ten days to reach Missouri. [09:11.78]The Pony Express lasted only eighteen months. [09:16.81]It was no longer needed after a telegraph line [09:21.29]was completed to San Francisco. [09:23.88](MUSIC) [09:45.31]As communications and transportation improved, [09:49.16]the government was able to increase its control [09:52.91]over the West. [09:54.47]But closer ties were not welcomed [09:57.63]between the government and a religious group [10:01.70]known as the Mormons. [10:03.59]The Mormon religion was started [10:06.63]by a young New England man named Joseph Smith. [10:10.93]In eighteen-twenty-three, [10:13.69]at the age of eighteen, [10:15.74]Smith claimed [10:17.29]that an Angel told him of a golden book. [10:20.83]He said the book contained God's words [10:25.22]to the ancient people of America. [10:28.08]Smith said he was able to [10:31.68]read the strange writing in this book [10:34.72]and put it into English. [10:37.35]He called this work the Book of Mormon. [10:41.57]He organized a church [10:44.89]and made himself its leader. [10:47.26]Many people became Mormons. [10:49.77]They believed themselves [10:51.61]to be a special people chosen by God. [10:55.09]Mormons worked hard. [10:57.38]They helped each other and shared [11:00.22]with those in need. [11:01.82]People who did not agree with the beliefs [11:05.28]of the Mormons did not like them. [11:07.68]Trouble developed between Mormons [11:10.49]and other people. [11:11.77]Joseph Smith was forced to move his people [11:15.48]from New York to Ohio and then to Missouri. [11:19.86]The Mormons seemed finally to have found a home [11:23.93]in Illinois. [11:25.38]They built their own town and called it Nauvoo. [11:29.35]They governed themselves [11:31.76]and had their own defense force. [11:34.21]The Mormons did so well [11:36.92]that Nauvoo became the fastest-growing city [11:40.50]in Illinois. [11:41.99]Then some members of the group split apart, [11:46.54]because of a new message Smith claimed [11:49.84]to have received from God. [11:52.04]Smith said God gave permission for Mormons [11:57.19]to have more than one wife. [11:59.71]This was polygamy. [12:02.12]And it was opposed by almost all people. [12:05.29]Some of the Mormons who left the church [12:10.24]published a newspaper criticizing Smith [12:13.49]and the other Mormon leaders. [12:16.07]Followers ordered by Smith [12:19.03]destroyed the newspaper's publishing equipment. [12:22.42]This caused non-Mormons to demonstrate [12:25.97]and demand that Smith be punished. [12:28.83]Smith was arrested [12:30.72]and put in jail in Carthage,Illinois. [12:34.33]His brother also was arrested. [12:37.17]An angry mob attacked the jail [12:40.71]and shot both Smith and his brother to death. [12:44.93]The governor of Illinois [12:47.70]ordered the Mormons to leave his state. [12:51.31]He said only this [12:53.98]would prevent further violence. [12:56.54]There was no choice. [12:58.65]They had to leave. [13:00.07]The Mormons had a new leader: Brigham Young. [13:04.55]Young decided to take his people west [13:08.02]and find a new home for them. [13:10.86]He wanted a place where they would be safe [13:14.24]where no one could interfere [13:16.88]with their religion. [13:18.44]Brigham Young told his people [13:21.36]that he had seen their new home in a dream. [13:25.04]He said they would search for it in the West, [13:29.49]for a wide beautiful valley. [13:32.65]He said he would recognize it when he saw it. [13:36.75]That will be our story next week. [13:40.27](MUSIC) [13:52.45]Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. [13:55.73]The narrators were Steve Ember and Bob Doughty. [14:00.01] [14:11.90]Join us again next week [14:14.57]for THE MAKING OF A NATION [14:16.79]an American history series [14:19.53]in VOA Special English. [14:22.56] [14:25.49]51VOA.COM