CALIFORNIA. 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



Tlio California Pacific Railroad is 60 miles 



luii^r, and connects Vallejo with Sacramento. 



:nv also tlio railroad from Sacramento 



to siuiyl Springs, 45 miles long; the Los An- 



liailroad, 20 miles; and tho Northern 



"i-uia, completed from Marysville to Oro- 



:i distance of 26 miles. Besides these, 



Vallejo and Oloverdale road, 70 miles 



is in course of construction, and the Cop- 



>!i- road, running 88 miles eastward from 



kton, is projected. 



Tlio Legislature of California holdp its ses- 

 sions biennially. It met on the first Monday 

 I-;' I 'ccombor, in 1869, and continued in session 

 until the first part of April following. On.tho 

 Yth of January, Governor Haight submitted a 

 special message on the question of ratifying 

 tho fifteenth amendment of the Federal Con- 

 stitution. Ho opposed tho ratification, on tho 

 ground that it gave the General Government 

 jurisdiction in a matter which he believed 

 should bo left entirely to the different States. 

 In concluding his message, he says : 



" It Li idle to suppose that the people of this State, 

 or any other of the States, will bo satisfied to have 

 wrested from them the right to control their local 

 affairs. They are not blind to the fact that it is this 

 control which is but another name for liberty, and 

 which if liberty. No system which violates tho 

 maxims and principles of freedom can be made per- 

 manent by political artifice, or by the use of military 

 force. It is too much in conflict with the genius and 

 traditions of the American people, and with that in- 

 extinguishable love of liberty which, though it may 

 seem dormant for a while, will certainly revive and 

 assert its irresistible power. It is not possible for an 

 oligarchy of politicians, sitting in conclave at Wash- 

 ington, to continue long to exercise arbitrary control 

 over the people of remote States in all the arrogance 

 of consciouB tyranny, violating that cardinal doctrine 

 of all free government, to wit: " That every people 

 has the absolute and inalienable right to control its 

 own destiny, and to form its own political and so- 

 cial institutions." It is this principle, consecrated by 

 the blood of martyrs of freedom in our own Revo- 

 lution, and in all ages, which no political organization 

 can safely violate, ana which lies at the foundation of 

 the struggle now in progress in this country. The 

 attempt is made to transfer political power from tho 

 people themselves to legislators at Washington^ to 

 submerge the Executive and Judiciary under unlim- 

 ited congressional control ; to destroy all the checks 

 and balances of our system, and convert it into one 

 resembling the French National Convention, from 

 which tho people of that country gladly escaped by 

 seeking refuge in the despotism of one man from 

 that of an unscrupulous and tyrannical legislative 

 majority. Such an attempt can never permanently 

 Bucceeu among a people educated to freedom as are 

 the Americans from childhood. It needs but that 

 they should see the contest as it is between liberty 

 and local self-government on one side, and centralized 

 power or despotism on the other, and to this they 

 cannot long be blind. Peace in our distracted coun- 

 try is an object desired by all, but it is only attaina- 

 ble by recognizing the truth that Government derives 

 its just powers from the consent of the governed, 

 and that it is not possible to perpetuate arbitrary 

 rule, in the hands either of a king or of a Congress. 

 The right of self-government is as sacred to the peo- 

 ple of Georgia as it is to those of Massachusetts, and 

 the tyranny of political adventurers over the people 

 of States whose representatives have been arbitrarily 

 excluded from Congress, to whom all the promises 

 of the Government have been falsified, and whose 



liberties have been trampled under foot, will, at no 

 distant day, be justly regarded as among tho most 

 wrongful of those which nave defaced the aunal* of 

 modern times. 



The Legislature rejected the amendment, and, 

 after its final ratification by two-thirds of thu 

 States had been proclaimed, tho Attorney-Gen- 

 eral of the State rendered an opinion declar- 

 ing that county clerks should refuse to register 

 negroes until the State law had been changed, 

 or Congress had taken some action in the mat- 

 ter. Among the acts passed by the Legisla- 

 ture was one revising the school law, and one 

 providing for a general revision and codifica- 

 tion of the statutes of the State. Commis- 

 sioners were appointed under this latter act, 

 and the work was begun in the latter part of 

 the year. 



There was no general election in California 

 this year, and hence no important movement 

 of the political parties. The Republican State 

 Central Committee, who held a meeting in 

 August, adopted resolutions expressing sym- 

 pathy with the German people in the war in 

 Europe; favoring the total abolition of the 

 income tax; the reduction of all taxation to 

 the lowest requirement of the Government ; 

 affirming the resolutions of the State Conven- 

 tion of 1867; strongly opposing the importa- 

 tion of coolies ; and requesting the State de- 

 partment to investigate the conduct of con- 

 suls in the Chinese ports, allowing the law 

 against the importation of coolies to be vio- 

 lated. 



The term of the State officers is four years, 

 and the next election occurs on the 1st "Wednes- 

 day of September, 1871. The three Repre- 

 sentatives to which the State is entitled in Con- 

 gress will also be elected in 1871. The pres- 

 ent Governor, H. H. Haight, is a Democrat, 

 and the Legislature is divided as follows: 

 Senate, 26 Democrats, 11 Republicans, 3 Inde- 

 pendent; House of Assembly, 66 Democrats, 

 11 Republicans, and 3 Independent. 



CENTRAL AMERICA.* There are at pres- 

 ent in Central America five independent repub- 

 lics : Costa Rica, Guatemala, San Salvador, Nic- 

 aragua, and Honduras. Their area and popu- 

 lation were, in 1869, 178,700 square miles, 

 with 2,665,000 inhabitants. 



COSTA RICA. President of the Republic, 

 Tomas. Guardia; minister resident of the 

 United States, J. B. Blain, in San Jose". The 

 public revenue amounts to $1,000,000 annually. 

 Costa Rica has no public debt. 



GUATEMALA. President of the Republic, V. 

 Cerna (1869-'72); minister resident of tho 

 United States, S. A. Hudson, in Guatemala; 

 Minister of Guatemala and San Salvador, at 

 Washington, M. J. Vela. Public revenue, in 

 1867, $1,518,130; expenditure, $1,509,053. 

 Public debt in 1865, $2,461,978, of which 

 $1,489,879 was a floating debt. The industri- 

 al interests of the country, which were already 



* Set AMERICAN CTCLOPJEDIA for 1809, for details of 

 area and population. 



