64 THE CALIFORNIA 



to my zeal, in the noble cause in which we are engaged, 

 I might then hope to present you something worthy of 

 the occasion. ^That our country is experiencing great 

 and perplexing embarrassments ; and that wo are far 

 from enjoying, as a nation, the plenty and prosperity 

 which our almost boundless resources lead us justly to 

 expect, is painfully felt by all our citizens. We may 

 blame our Government or our banks, but whatever 

 agency they may have in our difficulties, they do not 

 directly produce them. Such are our real or imaginary 

 wants, that we consume more than we produce ; and as 

 long as this is the case, neither our Government nor 

 our banks can furnish us effectual and permanent 

 relief. Our imports have exceeded our exports ; our 

 consumption has gone beyond our production, for years, 

 in an alarming degree. The commercial balance against 

 us, this year, will probably fall little short of fifty mill- 

 ions of dollars ; added to which is the annual interest 

 on State loans amounting to full twelve millions of dol- 

 lars more. That is, we are this moment in debt to the 

 amount of upwards sixty millions of dollars, besides a 

 debt on time for somewhere near two hundred millions 

 of dollars, and this debt must be paid. Our creditors 

 are themselves embarrassed at home, and they must 

 and will have their money. Here is the cause of the 

 melancholy prostration of business in our whole country, 

 the stoppage of banks, the ruin of merchants, and the 

 downward tendency in the price of all the products of 

 our soil. Look where we will, no permanent relief can 

 be found, but in the actual products of that which will 



