 Despite a major conflict in the U.S. Congress on the number of slave versus non-slave states, the large, rapid and continuing California population gains and the large amount of gold being exported east gave California enough clout to choose its own boundaries, select its representatives, write its Constitution, and be admitted to the Union as a free state in 1850 without going through territorial status as required for most other states.The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo formally ended the Mexican–American War in February 1848.For $15,000,000, and the assumption of U.S. debt claims against Mexico, the new state of Texas's boundary claims were settled, and New Mexico, California, and the unsettled territory of several future states of the American Southwest were added to U.S. control.