HISTORY OP CALIFORNIA. 



123 



might justly be regarded as fully entitled to take her 

 place as an equal among her sisters of the Union* 



" When, therefore, the reality became known to the 

 people of that territory that the government had done 

 nothing to relieve them from the evils and embarrass 

 ments under which they were suffering, and seeing no 

 probability of any change on the subject which divided 

 Congress, they adopted, with most unexampled una 

 nimity and promptitude, the only course which lay 

 open to them the immediate formation of a State 

 government. 



" They were induced to take this atep not only for 

 the reason that it promised the most speedy remedy 

 for present difficulties, but because the great and 

 rapidly growing interests of the territory demanded 

 it ; and all reflecting men saw, at a glance, that it 

 ought not to be any longer, and could not, under any 

 circumstances, be much longer postponed. 



" They not only considered themselves best qualified, 

 but that they had the right to decide, as far as they 

 were concerned, the embarrassing question which was 

 shaking the Union to its centre, and had thus far 

 deprived them of a regularly organized civil govern 

 ment. They believed that, in forming a constitution, 

 they had a right to establish or prohibit slavery, and 

 that, in their action as a State, they would be sustained 

 by the North and the South. 



" In taking this step, they proceeded with all the 

 regularity which has ever characterized the American 

 people in discharging the great and important duties 

 of self-government. 



" The steamer in which I was a passenger did not 

 etop at Monterey ; I therefore did not see General 

 Riley, nor had I any communication with him until 



10 



