1G6 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



ANNUAL ADDRESS. 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, SEPTEMBER 

 NINTH, EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-NINE. 



By Hon. EDWARD TOMPKIXS. 



Mr. President, Gentlemen of the State Agricultural Society, Ladies and 

 Gentlemen : 



"The State Fair of eighteen hundred and sixty-nine is California's 

 opportunity," said one of the leading papers of the State (the Sacra- 

 mento Union), in a recent suggestive and thoughtful article, and the 

 ideas therein advanced have furnished me the basis for what I am to say 

 this evening. 



California — who is she? Opportunity — for what? Nineteen years 

 ago this day a new State was born in the American Union. Everywhere 

 her advent was greeted with a most cordial welcome. Friends from 

 every State and from every land gathered about her, strong armsencom- 

 passed her, brave hearts at once took charge of her interest and her des- 

 tiny, the plains were covered with endless caravans of hardy adventu- 

 rers coming to engage in her service, the ocean gleamed with the white 

 wings of commerce waiting its tributes to her feet. Every land gath- 

 ered up of its courage and energy the choicest to send her, and the 

 islands of the sea poured out without limit or restraint their tribute also. 

 And as her name and fame spread from nation to nation, a new and 

 brighter spirit beamed from every eye. mind was every where quickened 

 and developed, hope came back to the desponding; wider range and 

 broader scope was given to intellect, and brighter possibilities and a 

 more brilliant future dawned upon mankind. 



Such was the advent of California into the Union, but the crowd who 

 rushed hither knew not the magnitude of the work in which they bore 

 a part. " They builded greater than they knew," and the powers they 

 put in motion were to accomplish results that their imaginations, in their 

 boldest flight, would never have dared to dream of as within the limits 

 of the possible. 



Nineteen years have passed, and what have they accomplished? The 

 infant State has developed into an empire. Aierritory larger than the 

 Eastern and Middle States combined, has beetr seamed up with roads, 

 dotted with farm houses, explored by science, its golden veins developed 

 and rifled, its buried secrets wrested from its bosom, the plough and the 

 harrow have torn it, and the reaper has swept far and wide over its 

 waving acres — the ships that came laden when everything was wanted, 



