116 Transactions of tue 



great and homogeneous people that will be here will do us all justice, 

 and will say of us, these men who devised and executed, the hum- 

 blest as well as the proudest, who built up and made this country, 

 that attacked nature, and compelled obedience, tlyit have left us 

 these great bonds of union — these homes, these educational institu- 

 tions, tlioir friendly fe('lin<j; toward each other; this exclusive love of 

 OJ<r country, these white men and ccdored men, the Christian and 

 the heathen — all who contributed to this end, verily they lived in 

 the time whereof it was said, " there were giants in those days." They 

 di)ubllcss had their hopes which were disappointed, their hates, their 

 loves, weaknesses, and their crimes. They desired great things, and 

 some at least died without the sight, but we know that their etlorts, 

 guided and overruled by a benehcent law, have ended in good. 



Happy are those wlio lived in California at the close of the nine- 

 teenth century. Looking down upon their completed work they will 

 see that, despite their misfortunes and their mistakes, they builded 

 better than they knew. 



Great as is the aggregate of these accumulations, it is insignificant 

 when compared with that in the hands of the third or laboring class. 

 I use the jihrasc laboring man reluctantly; all terms which seem to 

 divide or classify men by a reference to their peculiar life, or occu- 

 pation, had best be avoided. This appellation, however, seems to be 

 so generally accepted that 1 adopt it. This class of producers, in this 

 ►State, must have earned over five hundred millions of dollars since 

 eighteen hundred and fifty, and are now doui)tless in possession of 

 three or four hundred millions. I am told they have more than sixty 

 millions in the savings banks at this time. Certainly this is a sound 

 and healthy condition, and yet there arc many among us endeavor- 

 ing to convince us that the laboring man is greatly abused and 

 oppressed, and that while all the rest of the world has been making 

 progress he alone has drudged and drudged, without success and 

 without hope. 



According to these ncAV lights the world of industry has been hith- 

 erto lop-sided, all the ])rofits and advantages have been on one side. 

 That while the laborer has been distinctively such he has been kept 

 in poverty, but full of all charity and kindly feelings, but strange 

 ])aradox, when he has l)econie rich he has ceased to have the instincts 

 of his original condition, and has lost all interest and sympathy with 

 those who still occupy it. It is to be hoped that neither poverty nor 

 wealth of themselves produce such results. The fact as to his con- 

 dition is, that he has not only kept i)ace with tln)se who started ahead 

 of him, but he has closed up the gaj) which separated him from them. 

 Six hundred years ago the laborer was not, in its present sense, a man. 

 Ho was a serf, a retainer — he belonged to the estate upon which he 

 was l)orn, and was transferred with it. He lotlged with the animals, 

 a stable was his home. He slei)t on the forage, or upon a bed made 

 of round sticks, covered pcrhajis with a bundle of straw. His clothes 

 were a shee[)-skin, or those of animals taken in the chase. He went 

 barefoot or wore hide sandals tied with thongs. His head was bare 

 of all covering but the unshorn tangled hair. He was not allowed 

 to carry arms. His marriage was directed by his master. His food 

 was what he could get. AVith a kind master he sat below the salt and 

 cut with his hunting knife, or more probably tore with his fingers, 

 his meat from the common mass. Around his neck was often a col- 

 lar, marked with his owner's name and the legend of his own servi- 



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