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tute the wealth and sovereignty of the State. Our Harbor of San 

 Francisco, the largest and safest in the world, affords anchorage for 

 the navies of every nation on earth. The enterprise and intelligence 

 of our merchants, inviting trade and encouraging commerce, are 

 now in the full enjoyment of a trade with the nations of the East — a 

 trade that has enriched every nation that has ever possessed it. It 

 is rapidly adding wealth to the State and to the nation, and building 

 up our great commercial emporium down by the sea. 



The rich mineral resources of the State, yet scarcely developed, 

 remain a source of unbounded wealth, yielding up its rich treasures 

 to the intelligent, persevering, industrious miner. 



Nature, prodigal in her rich legacies, has given us grand, flowing 

 rivers, filled with life-giving waters, flowing through vast regions of 

 now barren and unproductive land. Under proper restrictions, with 

 careful and honest management, this water can be utilized and dis- 

 tributed over millions of acres, and, by its fructifying influence, 

 abundant crops can be raised, causing the desert to bloom as the rose. 

 Our commonwealth, far from the civilized world, unblazed by the 

 troubles and prejudices that control or vex it; uninfluenced by those 

 daily occurrences which brighten or cloud its sky ; rich in that which 

 invites the intelligent, hardy, energetic, and adventurous from other 

 lands; and among the thousands that have been scattered like grains 

 of gold, scarce thinking that there was another and a nobler mission 

 than gathering the shining ore, they have found homes among us, 

 and the asperities that parted them from us, bornof national preju- 

 dices, have been dissolved by our friendship, and in their new-found 

 homes, from the fullness of their hearts, they bless us, and reverence 

 the free and enlightened government under which we live. 



Surrounded as we are by all the elements of a rich, luxurious, 

 glorious life, many of our people are without homes and without 

 employment. The hoarse mutterings of discontent are heard grow- 

 ing loud and fierce. The demand for labor and a just compensation 

 for honest toil, the apparent conflict between capital and labor, the 

 stagnation of trade, the derangement of the currency, our industries 

 crippled, and the demands for money, are all questions that should 

 demand the careful attention and serious consideration of every 

 lover of his country. The farmer, the capitalist, the laborer, the 

 mechanic, the merchant, and the manufacturer, are all vitally inter- 

 ested in the proper and harmonious solution and adjustment of these 

 momentous questions. The causes producing this unhappy condition 

 of affairs are numerous, and their discussion at this time would be 

 ill-advised. 



The unwise policy adopted in our public land system is now yield- 

 ing its harvest of misery and want. The millions of acres of rich 

 agricultural lands within our borders are in the hands of a few pro- 

 prietors, and can only be obtained at exorbitant prices— prices beyond 

 the reach of the poor man who desires them for agricultural pur- 

 poses. These lands should have been held sacred for the benefit of 

 the actual settler under preemption and homestead laws, thereby 

 enabling every farmer to own the soil that he tills, for it dignifies 

 and ennobles his manhood, it intensifies his patriotism, and adds an 

 interest in the welfare and prosperity of his fellow-men. It would 

 build up a thriving, industrious husbandry all over the land, adding 

 permanent wealth to the State, and prosperity, happiness, and plenty 

 to the citizen. Then those out of employment and homeless in the 



