property qualifications, both as to the right to vote and as to the right to be senators. They did venture to leave out all provision for juries from the Constitution of the United States, and I cherish the idea they did it by design, (although that was denied,) but the unreasoning popular predjudices in favor of them at the time, was so general amongst the people, (not yet possessed of common schools or a general education,) that their prejudices in favor of juries had to be gratified, and they were directed to be "preserved" in certain cases by a constitutional amendment. But their English feelings, prejudices, and opinions respecting government, and fortunately because probably in their day none as good was to be found elsewhere, induced them to simply republicanize the English government, and adapt it to their State governments, and after that, to their charter from the States, for the purposes of a United States government.

But can any one who has the slightest knowledge of them, and of their wishes and desires and ceaseless love of country, imagine they would have remained thus long and witnessed the wrongs and abuses we endure from our government, without even one earnest and united and honorable attempt to thoroughly and intelligently reform it?

In my humble opinion, the highest honor we can pay to them and to ourselves at the close of the first centennial of their constitutions of government, and especially we who have established this Excelsiorisimo State along the Pacific sea that now bounds our nation on the west, is to devote the centennial year to such new and thoroughly well considered and discussed constitutional reformations, as will be calculated to insure the success of their constitutional experiments, and to effectually blast the now confident and already exultant hopes of monarchists at home and abroad.

If we really care anything at all for the memories of our forefathers or for the success of their self-government experiment, or if we have left even the sparks of patriotism, or the slightest pride in preserving the glory and untarnished honor of our country, and especially of this magnificent State which we are now founding at the commencement of this century on the Pacific, as our fathers first founded theirs at the beginning of the last century on the Atlantic, let us unite at once, and completely, regardless of all mere party differences, and without a dissenting voice, vote at the polls for the Constitutional Convention which we will thus order and compel to be assembled in EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SIX.

ADDENDA.

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The following are extracts from a "speech" made by the author of the preceding address, "on the necessity of immediate constitutional reform," delivered in the Senate of California, on the seventh of February, 1856, and made on the Bill he had introduced, "recommending to the electors to vote for or against a Convention to revise and change the Constitution of California," the same having been made the special order for that day. It ought not to be forgotten that all that here follows was delivered in the State Senate over nineteen years ago.

GREAT EVILS EXIST.

MR PRESIDENT-If the heavens, which all may see, could be made as a pure mirror to image forth and reflect back upon us, true and vivid delineations of all our public affairs which transpire beneath, we might then be able to see (what we do not now appear to realize) the true public condition of this country. We might then see the citizens of whole towns, and sometimes whole counties, acting in open resistance and defiance of the laws, and executing by their own natural power, the impassioned and dreadful vengeance of outraged communities. We might then see criminals fleeing for safety to the officers of justice, and seeking protection in the very jaws of judicial punishment. We might then see swindlers, thieves, murderers, praying for the strict supremacy and enforcement of our laws, and the people trampling upon them, and themselves committing most dangerous offenses, in order that punishment might be certain to follow crime. We might then see officials squandering and often even retaining as their own, the very money of the people who elevate them to power, not because they have any right to do so, but because the laws have not thrown the same minute safeguards around the acts of officials as it would around the acts of villains, or men who are not honest at all, but honest merely according to law. We might then see schemes of speculation, gigantic in magnitude, and

disreputable in design and unjust in effect, instigated by villainy, and remotely sustained and encouraged, if not actually engaged in, by judicial corruption, or, what is equally fatal to the public, through judicial prejudice, or illegal assumptions. I do not appeal only to the fancies of Senators, for none of us can pretend that the reality of these scenes have not sometimes actually existed. Indeed, the picture of our public confusion and disorder, stands here before us all! It is as wide and extensive as the limits of our State. None of us can raise our eyes without seeing it! Nor is it possible for any of us to shut our eyes against it! But of all the scenes it presents, perhaps the most sad and painful, is the apparent indifference of our public men to the absolute necessity of an immediate and thorough reformation in this government. Indeed, if such an administration of law as we have hitherto endured is to be continued, how much longer is it supposed the people can endure the imposition? If there be not a complete and entire reform in our judicial and local governments, how much longer is it supposed the people can remain obedient to them, at the expense of public justice, public morality, and public order. If our existing Constitution is not adapted to the condition and wants of our people, what infatuation should lead us to remain indifferent to its revision. If the laws in all directions of the country are disobeyed, or openly set at defiance by whole communities, what right have we to assert that such disobedience is but the willful act of the people, without excuse or necessity? Sir, who are we but a few of the people? Who are we, that we should assume to be wiser and better than all other assemblies of the people? Who are we, that we should expect the people to be mindful of us and the laws we adopt, whilst we continue to applaud and act under a Constitution, which the existing population has never approved, and which is not at all adapted to our public condition, or even the actual necessities of our people?

Indeed, unless the leaders of the people can be induced to devote sufficient attention to our public affairs, to ascertain and remove the true causes of our public corruption, folly, and imbecility, what must inevitably, and ere many years, become our general public condition? What expectations need we indulge of ever enjoying the advantages of public order? How are we to secure an elevated, happy, and law-abiding citizenship? In what way are we to attain a sound and interested public opinion, based upon public morality, the first and most

indispensable requisite of good government? What hope need we indulge of ever enjoying an administration of justice untainted with corruption, and pure beyond suspicion? And when are we to commence, and how are we to insure the education and moral training of our youth, and our young men, on whom ere many years, the whole care and conduct of this government must descend?

Sir, our citizens openly, publicly, and frequently speak of the existing government of this State, with contempt and derision. And, what is worthy of our attention, their expressions of abuse are seldom, if ever, met by any attempt to defend the government, or with any popular indications that their bitterest abuse is either unjust or undeserved. The existing government does not seem to possess the affections of the people. It does not recommend itself to their willing support, or hearty encouragement. The complaints against it are not confined to men whose private affairs induce them to speak from personal interest, or mere individual wrongs. But they are almost universal among the people, and they have been constantly manifested and continually on the increase for years past. The press itself teems with them, and has continued to do so until the public mind has become wrought up to fever heat, by the constant details of facts proving the shiftlessness of this government. Indeed, the press is alive and unceasing, in pointing out the evils and outrages which our State is continually suffering under the pretense of government. Upon the whole, the press is doing its duty nobly. And it may justly and truly be regarded at this time as the chief ornament of this State, the noblest institution we now possess. Indeed, God only knows what darkness and ruin would soon fall upon this country, were it not for the light daily sent among our people by the press. To quote from the news press more at length, would be an unnecessary consumption of time; for I believe, the opinion that we are badly governed is absolutely universal amongst the press, which but reflects calmly, and in the cool expressions of composition, the more intense feelings of the popular mind, on this subject. So universal, at all events, is this opinion, that not one press can be found, and so far as I have ever heard, not even one citizen, to seriously contend that this State is well, or even tolerably well governed.

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The conclusion, then, is undeniable, indeed, we, ourselves,

all know it to be correct, that public justice is not properly administered, nor public order properly maintained in this State.

Now, in the first place, it is very apparent that the evils to which we have alluded, are not owing to any want of intelligence or respectability on the part of our population; for it cannot be denied that the great majority of our citizens are intelligent and respectable men, and the sincere lovers of justice and good order. In fact, sir, there probably never was in any country or under any government of equal population, so many good-hearted, brave, energetic, intelligent, enterprising and justice-loving men, as are found among the citizens of this State. For my part, sir, I do not believe that any State in the history of the world, was ever before enabled to commence its career with so splendid a population. Examine them in dozens or in masses, and nine times in ten the attentive observer will find it impossible to withhold his admiration of the splendid men who compose the great majority of our citizenship. Indeed, sir, they are in a great degree the picked men of their nation. And whoever in his secret thoughts attributes anything of our bad government to the real badness of our people, must be either the worst of observers or totally ignorant of their characters, and their intelligence.

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In the next place, our difficulties can not be owing to any want of funds to carry on the government; for there is certainly not another government in the whole Union which has been so profuse as this in its allowance to officials. In fact all the millions of dollars which have been paid and insured in its civil expenditures have gone almost exclusively to the payment of officials alone. In the next place, the cause of our bad government is not to be accounted for by reference to our common and State laws, as many seem to suppose. The common law, as we all know, was expressly adopted by the Legislature in 1850 and all its advantages have been as completely open to our enjoyment in this as in any of the other States. And as for our statute laws, even conceding that they are all bad, (which is an idea so prevalent that I will not undertake to controvert it,) still this does not account for our public evils. It is one of the very evils themselves of which we complain. It does not account for our bad government, it is merely one of its results. It does not constitute the cause or our evils, for the cause of such evils must be looked for elsewhere than in the evils themselves. It does not