California Romantic and Resourceful | Page 8

of that convention should be familiar to every
citizen of this State. No Californian should be unfamiliar with the great
debate on what was to constitute the eastern boundary of the State of
California, a debate accompanied by an intensity of feeling which in
the end almost wrecked the convention. The dramatic scenes wrought
by the patriotism that saved the wrecking of the convention stand out in
bold relief. The constitution adopted by this convention was ratified
November 13, 1849, and, at the same election, an entire State and
legislative ticket, with two representatives in Congress, was chosen.
The senators and assemblymen elect met in San Jose on December 15,
1849. On December 20, 1849, the State government of California was
established and Governor Peter H. Burnett was inaugurated as the first
Governor of the State of California, and soon thereafter William M.
Gwin and John C. Frémont were elected the first United States Senators
of the State of California. Notwithstanding the fact that there had never
been any territorial form of government, notwithstanding the fact that
California had not yet been admitted into the Union, these men were all
elected as members of the State government, and the United States
Senators and members of Congress started for Washington to help get
the State admitted.
Immediately upon the inauguration of Governor Burnett, General Riley
issued this remarkable proclamation:
"To the People of California: A new executive having been elected and
installed into office, in accordance with the provisions of the
Constitution of the State, the undersigned hereby resigns his powers as
Governor of California. In thus dissolving his official connection with
the people of this country he would tender to them his heart-felt thanks
for their many kind attentions and for the uniform support which they
have given to the measures of his administration. The principal object
of all his wishes is now accomplished - the people have a government
of their own choice, and one which, under the favor of Divine
Providence, will secure their own prosperity and happiness and the
permanent welfare of the new State."
No matter what the legal objections to this course might be,
notwithstanding the fact that Congress had as yet passed no bill for the
admission of California as a State into the Union, and might never pass

one, California broke all precedents by declaring itself a State, and a
free State at that, and sent its representatives to Washington to hurry up
the passage of the bill which should admit it into the Union.
The brilliant audacity of California's method of admission into the
Union stands without parallel in the history of the nation. Outside of
the original thirteen colonies, she was the only State carved out of the
national domain which was admitted into the Union without a previous
enabling act or territorial apprenticeship. What was called the State of
Deseret tried it and failed, and the annexation of Texas was the
annexation of a foreign republic. The so-called State of Transylvania
and State of Franklin had been attempted secessions of western
counties of the original states of Virginia and North Carolina,
respectively, and their abortive attempts at admission addressed to the
Continental Congress, and not to the Congress of the United States.
With full right, then, did California, by express resolution spreading the
explanation upon the minutes of her constitutional convention[7],
avowedly place upon her great seal her Minerva - her "robed
goddess-in-arms" - not as the goddess of wisdom, not as the goddess of
war, but to signify that as Minerva was not born, but sprang full-armed
from the brain of Jupiter, so California, without territorial childhood,
sprang full-grown into the sisterhood of states.
When it is remembered that California was not admitted into the Union
till September 9, 1850, and yet that the first session of its State
Legislature had met, legislated, and adjourned by April 22, 1850, some
appreciation may be had of the speed limit -if there was a limit. The
record of the naive self-sufficiency of that Legislature is little short of
amazing.
On February 9, 1850, seven months before the admission of the State, it
coolly passed the following resolution: "That the Governor be, and he
is hereby authorized and requested, to cause to be procured, and
prepared in the manner prescribed by the Washington Monument
Association, a block of California marble, cinnabar, gold quartz or
granite of suitable dimensions, with the word 'California' chiseled on its
face, and that he cause the same to be forwarded to the managers of the
Washington Monument Association, in the city of Washington, District
of Columbia, to constitute a portion of the monument now being
erected in that city to the memory of George Washington." California

did not intend to be absent from any feast, or left out of