> Joe Manchin seems to have forgotten who we are. He seems to have forgotten that it was not the bankers or the boy scouts who opened the west, it was the the e

> Joe Manchin seems to have forgotten who we are. He seems to have forgotten that it was not the bankers or the boy scouts who opened the west, it was the the entrepreneurs, and yes, the hucksters, and the speculators, and all manner of flawed characters looking for a place where they could enjoy the relative freedom of the frontier, away from the tentacles of an overreaching government. California was added to the united states by conquest. it was sceded to us after the Mexican American war in 1848, which was when the gold rush started. it became a state 2 years later, just long enough for the political process to work itself out. the author of this post seems to be ignoring the fact that California was already a fairly well developed area with a history of native, Spanish, Mexican, Russian, and American influence in the area. he's right the gold rush helped it to develop, but it was already occuring before the us stepped in.