California Reports

“ Finally, an arrangement was made with the Collector of San Francisco, under which uncoined gold could be received in payment of duties, and then business went on as usual. Care is one of the first essentials of beneficial legislation. The circumstance that the people of California are so far from the seat of the federal government, requires a strict attention in legislators, to prevent evils which cannot be quickly remedied. ”

“ Under the peculiar circumstances in which California becomes a State—with an unexampled increase of a population coming from every part of the world, speaking various languages, and imbued with different feelings and prejudices, no form of government, no system of laws, can be expected to meet with immediate and unanimous assent. It is to be remembered, moreover, that a considerable portion of our fellow-citizens are natives of Old Spain, Californians, and those who have voluntarily relinquished the rights of Mexicans to enjoy those of American citizens. ”

“ To what such commercial facilities, mineral and metallic resources, and an active and progressive population will conduct California, it is easy to imagine. They will build up a State, which, although the member of a confederacy, will be powerful enough to maintain itself, independent of the aid to be derived from the Union. Its ports will be the resort of the vessels of all nations, and its valleys and hill-sides will become the homes of an agricultural population, reaping the rich reward of their toil. ”

“ It is to be expected that, in the residue of the Territory ceded to us by Mexico, the people residing there will, at the time of their incorporation into the Union as a State, settle all questions of domestic policy to suit themselves. No material inconvenience will result from the want, for a short period, of a government established by Congress over that part of the Territory which lies eastward of the new State of California ”

“ The collection for the history of California is absolutely complete; and it should be regarded as of the greatest importance to the State, not only that such a collection exists, but that there exists in its owner a man with the high ambition to extract from it, with infinite labor and ample resources, a perfectly accurate as well as thoroughly creditable history of the country from the earliest times to the present—an advantage no other State of any nation has ever possessed. ”

“ California is now a State—in organization at least, if not in being a member of the Union. The country has become thoroughly American in its government and laws. A Constitution is adopted as a State organization, which bears the impress of enlightened sentiment and just principles. The most liberal provisions have been made in that instrument for the grand end of public education. ”

“ If California had been contiguous to the older States, and her mining operations had only kept pace with the progress of settlements, or if her representatives had been less ready to sacrifice the enduring interests of their constituents for temporary and selfish ends, the wretched travesty of law which now afflicts the States and Territories of the West would have been unknown, and the same code and forms of administration would have prevailed from the lakes to the Pacific. ”

“ In considering the question of the admission of California as a state into the Union, a majority of the committee conceive that any irregularity, by which that state was organized without the previous authority of any act of congress, ought to be overlooked, in consideration of the omission by congress to establish any territorial government for the people of California, and the consequent necessity which they were under to create a government for themselves, best adapted to their own wants. ”

“ Whatever of legal power the state of California may exercise over its municipalities has received decisive definition in many decisions. The cases are quoted by the supreme court in the case at bar. Whatever power the United States may exercise, or, by refraining from exercising, yield to the state of California to exercise, has long been decisively settled. ”

“ During a couple of years have the wildest adventurers from all nations of the earth rushed thither in the delirium of the gold-fever. But the best of the people have banded together, organised, and maintained the observance of law and civil order, and California, rapidly advanced to a population of 200,000 souls, now takes its place as a fully competent State in the great circle of the Free States of the Union. ”

“ The California Supreme Court advises us that within the confines of California the United States is engaged in a great variety of activities: 'The federal territory within the State is so fragmented that there may be several federal islands within a single marketing area. If they are citadels of immunity from State jurisdiction, they are also exceptional segments in areas that are otherwise subject to that jurisdiction. ”

“ Except an act to provide for the deliveries and taking of mails at certain points on the coast, and a resolution authorizing the furnishing of arms and ammunition to certain immigrants, no Federal act was passed with reference to California in any relation; in no act of Congress was California even mentioned after its annexation, until the act of March 3, 1849, extending the revenue laws of the United States "over the territory and waters of Upper California, and to create certain collection districts therein." ”

“ The circle of engaging objects in a community, just emerging into the refinements of civilization, is never broad; but every phase in the great change going on possesses an intense individuality, and leaves its ineffaceable impression, like a ship sweeping a solitary sea, or a bird scaling a sunset cloud. California will be no more what she has been: the events of a few years have carried her through the progressive changes of a century. ”

“ California has for many years suffered greatly from domestic troubles; civil wars have been the poisoned fountains which have sent forth trouble and pestilence over her beautiful land. Now those fountains are dried up; the star-spangled banner floats over California, and as long as the sun continues to shine upon her, so long will it float there, over the natives of the land, as well as others who have found a home in her bosom; and under it agriculture must improve, and the arts and sciences flourish, as seed in a rich and fertile soil. ”

“ It cannot be denied that a difference of opinion was entertained in the convention, as to the policy and 337 expediency of several measures embodied in the Constitution; but looking to the great interests of the State of California, the peace, happiness, and prosperity of the whole people,—individual opinions were freely surrendered to the will of the majority, and, with one voice, we respectfully but earnestly recommend to our fellow citizens the adoption of the Constitution which we have the honor to submit. ”

“ And some very worthy citizens, wrongly, are involved in this, some citizens whom otherwise I greatly respect. It is better that a hundred criminals should escape than that the whole law of California should be outraged by an act that denies at once the value and the authority of our government. The energy, the talent for organization, that this committee has displayed in the exercise of usurped authority, might have been directed in aid of the courts, consistently with the constitution and the laws, with, equal if not greater efficiency. ”

“ What has been going on in California is not out of the natural course of things. The forces that have produced these events have been developed, not imported. And as it seems to me that the same forces exist in other parts of the country, I can not see why, essentially, the same movements may not soon begin elsewhere. It is this that makes these California experiences worthy of attention. Every result becomes in turn a cause; every event is the progenitor of future events. ”

“ In presenting the foregoing calculations, it has been my aim to show that California is a country of unparalleled casualties and catastrophes, and to direct attention to the immense losses which have been sustained in opening its mines of wealth. A large number of people, it seems, have got into the habit of estimating the gains without taking into consideration the cost or losses at all; and there are those, no doubt, who will attempt to find fault with the account which I have drawn up between California and the United States. ”

“ They have committed the very common error of judging of the institutions of one set of people by the standard of another. They have applied to California the same rule which would guide them in their judgment of an Atlantic State. In reality, however, there is no parallel between the two. The latter is inhabited by a population educated to regard the law as the paramount authority. The lawless are in the minority among them. ”

“ That California has the material resources to make her not merely one of the first, but the very first, of the states of the Union, no one can doubt; but the fostering care of the general government, and the exertion of all the energies of our own people will be required to develop those resources and make our state what it is capable of becoming. ”

“ The facilities of intercourse between California and the States east of the Rocky Mountains will tend to cement her to the Union by all the ties of trade and mutual interest. The people of that State, being at so great a distance from the rest of the States, would seem to be alien to them in interest, and, therefore, that an independent government would contribute most to their prosperity. But mechanical influences—the telegraph—the railroad and the steam vessel—annihilate distance, and will be the means of attaching the Californians to the confederacy. ”

“ The meaning of the California Constitution is whatever the courts of California declare it to be. The obligation of the petitioner's contract is whatever the law of California attached to the contract at the hour of its making. Long before that time, the Supreme Court of that state had held that under the law of California a statutory cause of action, whether penal or remedial, may be canceled or modified by repeal or amendment until it has ripened into a judgment. ”

“ For, following the several spasms of development incident to the ages of gold, of grain, and of fruit, and the advent of the railway incubus, California for a time betook herself to rest, which indeed was largely paralysis. Then, too, those who had come first and cleared the ground, laying the foundations of fortunes, were passing away, and their successors seemed more ready to enjoy than to create. But with the opening of a new century all California awoke and made such progress as was never made before. ”

“ I think the people of California recognize the difficult spot, the unique spot that their state is in, and the President and the Vice President are going to continue to help California while they move ahead with the plan that represents fundamental long-term thinking, so other states don't have to go through this and so California can recover from it. ”

“ But we suppose we shall receive accessions from the States to fill up in part the places vacated. Provisions on the Pacific coast must be scarce in less than eighteen months. Numbers of our brethren have gone to spend the winter at the gold mines and others will go in the spring, probably to make a home. You will see by this that no time should be lost by your Board in securing the labors of two or three efficient ministers for California. We feel that we, more than ever before, need grace to direct in these times of trial. ”

“ The legal authorities, State or Federal, are not necessarily representative of the power by which they are elected. In California, after a period of anarchy, the respectable classes rose with the tacit support of the people against the State Government which the people had elected ”

“ The press, [28] which has vastly improved in California, has taken a firm stand in opposition to this evil, and before long I have no doubt that the criminal law will be wholesomely administered there. We must not expect perfection in a self-regulated colony of six years’ growth, particularly when we remember that law reform and integrity of election occupy attention in older countries.
When once the seed of reform is implanted in California, it grows with great rapidity. ”

“ California opens a New Question.—In spite of the growing estrangement of the sections, even the admission of Texas furnished no definite ground for a positive clash. But the acquisition of California introduced a new element into the political situation. Part of the territory was south of the Missouri Compromise line of 36° 30′, and part was north of it. The inhabitants demanded admission to the Union as a state, and the question at once arose whether California should be admitted as a free or a slave state. The Californians asked to be admitted as a free and undivided state. ”

“ When we take into consideration the great mass of floating population of the United States and of other countries—people of all nations, kindreds and tongues—which has been suddenly thrown into this country, it must be acknowledged that every thing has, thus far, remained remarkably quiet, and that the amount of crime has been much less than might, under the circumstances, have reasonably been expected. It is to be feared, however, that during the coming winter, when large numbers of the miners collect in the towns, public order may be occasionally disturbed. ”

“ California's urgent need for an organic law was presented, as also the necessity of establishing courts of justice, and regulating the administration of finance. It was complained, moreover, that a great injustice had been done in the promotion of Mexican officers like Zamorano and Pacheco to captaincies over the heads of Californians who had grown gray in the service. Carrillo requested the territorial diputacion to petition congress for the reforms for which he was working, including the appointment, or rather paying, of two competent teachers. ”