ers. 70 These professions did not prevent their being miners any more than it disqualified them from legislation, and nothing but crime bars the American from that privilege. All were in the prime of life, all very much in earnest, and patriotic according to their light, albeit their light was colored more or less by local prejudices. To be a patriot, a man must be prejudiced; but the respect we accord to his patriotism depends upon the breadth or quality of his bias.

As I have remarked, the northern spirit was prepared to array itself, if necessary, against any assumption on the part of the chivalry in the convention, whose pretensions to the divine right to rule displayed itself, not only upon slave soil, but was carried into the national senate chamber, and had already flaunted itself rather indiscreetly in California. While the choice of a president was under discussion, Snyder took occasion to state in a facetious and yet pointed manner that Mr Gwin had come down prepared to be president, and had also a constitution in his pocket which the delegates would be expected to adopt, section by section." Both Snyder's remarks and Gwin's denial were received with laughter, but the hint was not lost. Snyder proposed Doctor Semple for president of the convention, and the pioneer printer of Monterey, a giant in height if not in intellect, was duly elected. He was a large-hearted and measurably astute man, with tact enough to preside well, and as much wisdom in debate as his fellows.73

72

The chosen reporter of the convention, J. Ross Browne, had a commission to establish post-offices, and established one at San José before the convention, and none anywhere afterward. William G.

TO Overland Monthly, ix. 14-16; Simonin, Grand Quest., 320-3.

71 Crosby, Events in Cal., MS., 38-40. This was true; but it was the constitution of Iowa.

72 Gwin explains that it was the distrust of the native-born members that defeated him. They attributed to him 'the most dangerous designs upon their property, in the formation of a state government.' Memoirs, MS., 11. Royce, California, 62; Colton, Three Years, 32; Sherman, Mem., i. 78; Capron, 47-8.

HIST CAL., VOL. VI. 19

Marcy was selected secretary; Caleb Lyon, of Lyonsdale, first assistant, and J. G. Field, second assistant secretaries. William Hartnell was employed to interpret for the Spanish members. Chaplains were at hand, Padre Ramirez and S. H. Willey alternating with the refugee superior of the Lower California missions, Ignacio Arrellanes."

Thus equipped the delegates proceeded harmoniously with their work. They did not pretend to originate a constitution; they carefully compared those of the several states with whose workings they were familiar, and borrowed from each what was best and most applicable, or could be most easily made to conform to the requirements of California, all of which, by amendments frequently suggested, became modelled into a new and nearly faultless instrument.

To the surprise of northern men, no objection was made by the southerners to that section in the bill of rights which declared that neither slavery nor invol untary servitude,75 except in punishment of crime, should ever be tolerated in the state. It was not in the bill as reported by the committee having it in

"Browne, L. Cal., 51; Willey's Thirty Years, 32.

75 The temper of the majority was understood. As early as 1848 the question was discussed in Cal. in relation to its future. The editor of the Californian, in May of that year, declares that he echoes the sentiment of the people of California in saying that 'slavery is neither needed nor desired here, and that if their voices could be heard in the halls of our national legislature, it would be as the voice of one man; 'rather than put this blighting curse upon us, let us remain as we are, unacknowledged, unaided.' A correspondent, signing himself G. C. H., in the same journal of Nov. 4, 1848, writes: 'If white labor is too high for agriculture, laborers on contract may be brought from China, or elsewhere, who if well treated will work faithfully for low wages.' Buckelew, in the issue of March 15, 1848, said: 'We have not heard one of our acquaintance in this country advocate the measure, and we are almost certain that 97-100 of the present population are opposed to it.' 'We left the slave states,' remarked the editor again, because we did not like to bring up a family in a miserable, can't-help-one's-self condition,' and dearly as he loved the union he should prefer Cal. independent to seeing her a slave state. The N. Y. Express of Sept. 10, 1848, thought the immigration would settle the question. It did not change the sentiment, except to add rather more friends of slavery to the population, but still with a majority against it. On the 8th of Jan., 1849, a mass meeting in Sac. passed resolutions opposing slavery. This was the first public expression of the kind.

76 Gwin was chairman of the committee on constitution. Norton, Hill, Foster, De la Guerra, Rodriguez, Tefft, Covarrubias, Dent, Halleck, Dimmick, Hoppe, Vallejo, Walker, Snyder, Sherwood, Lippincott, and Moore constituted the committee. Browne, Constit. Debates, 29.

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charge, but when offered by Shannon was unanimously adopted. Gwin had set out on the road to the United States senate," and could not afford to raise any troublesome questions; and most of the southern men among the delegates having office in view were similarly situated. Some of them hoped to regain all that they lost when they came to the subject of boundary. Let northern California be a free state; out of the remainder of the territory acquired from Mexico half a dozen slave states might be made.

But the African, a veritable Banquo's ghost, would not down, even when as fairly treated as I have shown; and McCarver insisted on the adoption of a section preventing free negroes from coming to or residing in the state. It was adroitly laid to rest by Green, who persuaded McCarver that his proposed section properly belonged in the legislative chapter of the constitution, where, however, it never appeared. The boundary was more difficult to deal with, introducing the question of slavery in an unexpected phase. The report of the committee on boundary included in the proposed state all the territory between the line established by the treaty of 1848 between Mexico and the United States, on the south, and the parallel of 42° on the north, and west of the 116th meridian of longitude. McDougal, chairman of the committee, differed from it, and proposed the 105th meridian as the eastern boundary, taking in all territory acquired from Mexico by the recent treaty, and a portion of the former Louisiana territory besides. Semple was in favor of the Sierra Nevada as the eastern boundary, but proposed leaving it open for congress to decide. Gwin took a little less, naming for the eastern line the boundary between California and New Mexico, as laid

"Gwin says in his Memoirs, MS., 5, that on the day of Prest Taylor's funeral he met Stephen A. Douglas in front of the Willard's Hotel, and informed him that on the morrow he should be en route for California, which by the failure of congress to give it a territorial government, would be forced to make itself a state, to urge that policy and to become a candidate for U. S. senator; and that within a year he would present his credentials. He was enabled to keep his word.

down on Preuss' map of Oregon and California from the survey of Frémont and others. Halleck suggested giving the legislature power to accede to any proposition of congress which did not throw the eastern line west of the Sierra; to which Gwin agreed. "If we include territory enough for several states," said the latter," it is competent for the people and the state of California to divide it hereafter.' He thought the fact that a great portion of the territory was unexplored, and that the Mormons had already applied for a territorial government, should not prevent them from including the whole area named. Then arose McCarver, and declared it the duty of the house to fix a permanent boundary, both that they might know definitely what they were to have, and to prevent the agitation of the slavery question in the event of a future division of "territory enough for several states. Shannon proposed nearly the line which was finally adopted for California, which he said included "every prominent and valuable point in the territory; every point which is of any real value to the state;" and insisted upon fixing the boundary in the constitution. "I believe, if we do not, it will occasion in the congress of the United States a tremendous struggle," said he; and gave good reasons for so believing. "The slaveholding states of the south will undoubtedly strive their utmost to exclude as much of that territory as they can, and contract the limits of the new free state within the smallest possible bounds. They will naturally desire to leave open as large a tract of country as they can for the introduction of slavery hereafter. The northern states will oppose it [the constitution], because that question is left open"—and so the admission of California would be long delayed, whereas the thing they all most desired was that there should be no delay. Hastings also took this view. "The south will readily see that the object [of Gwin's boundary] is to force the settlement of the question [slavery] The south will never agree to it. It raises the ques

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tion in all its bitterness and in its worse form, before congress."

These remarks aroused Betts, who plunged into the controversy: "I understand now, from one of the gentlemen that constitute the new firm of Gwin and Halleck the gentleman from Monterey-who avows at last the reason for extending this eastern boundary beyond the natural limits of California, that it will settle in the United States the question of slavery over a district beyond our reasonable and proper limits, which we do not want, but which we take in for the purpose of arresting further dispute on the subject of slavery in that territory. It has been well asked if the gentleman can suppose that southern men can be asleep when such a proposition is sounded in their ears. Sir, the avowal of this doctrine on the floor of this house necessarily and of itself excites feelings that I had hoped might be permitted to slumber in my breast while I was a resident of California. But it is not to be. This harrowing and distracting question of the rights of the south and the aggressions of the north

this agitating question of slavery is to be introduced here.... Why not indirectly settle it by extending your limits to the Mississippi? Why not include the island of Cuba, a future acquisition of territory that we may one day or other obtain, and forever settle this question by our action here?" And then he gave his reasons for fixing a boundary, and not a too extensive one, urging the greater political power of small

states.

McDougal seems to have been enlightened by the discussion, and to have made up his mind to present his views; this being his first attempt to deliver any kind of argument in a deliberative body. He was now opposed to taking in the country east of the Sierra, which he had first advocated. "The people may change their notions about slavery after they get hold of the territory; they may assemble in convention and adopt slavery. It leaves this hole open. You at