Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1850-04-18

eminent was provided for them. They,
however, had no foreign commerce, nor
anything beyond the ordinary pursuits of
agriculture and the various branches of bus
mess which usually accompany it, to induce
immigration within their borders. Several
years were required to give them sufficient
population and wealth to place them in a
condition to require or enable them to sup.
port State Government.
Not so with California. The discovery
of the vast metallic and mineral wealth in
her mountains had already attracted to her,
in the space of twelve months, more than
one hundred thousand people an extern
siye commerce had sprung up with China,
the ports of Mexico on the Pacific, Chill
and Australia.
Hundreds of vessels from the Atlantic
ports of the Union, freighted with our man
ufactures and agricultural products and
filled with our fellow citizens, had arrived,
or were on their passage round Cape Horn !;
SO that in the month of June last there
were more than three hundred sea-going
vessels in the port of San Francisco.
California has border on the Pacific Of
10 degrees of latitude, and several impor-
tant harbors which have never been sur
veyed nor is there buoy, beacon, a
lighthouse, or a ratification on the whole
coast.
There are no docks for the repair of ma
tional or mercantile vessels nearer than
New York, a distance of some twenty thous-
and miles round Cape Horn.
All these things, together with TIE prop
err regulations Of the gold region, the quick
silver mines, the survey and disposition of
the public lands, the adjustment of land IL
ties, the establishment of a mint and marine
hospitals, required the immediate formation
of more perfect civil government than
California then had, and the fostering care
of Congress and the Executive.
California had, as it were by magic, be-
come State of great wealth and power
One short year had given her Il commercial
importance but little inferior to that of the
most powerful of the old States. She had
passed her minority at single bound, and
might justly be regarded as fully entitled to
take her place as an equal among her SIS
tiers of the Union.
When, therefore, the reality became
" tHC vi tiJl ithiN
that the Government had done nothing To
relieve them f,om the evil and embarrass-
ments under which they were suffering, and
seeing no probably of any change Oh the
subject, winch divided Congress, they adop-
ted, with most unexampled unanimity aud
promptItude, The only course which lay open
to them-tne immediate formation Of a
State government.
They were induced to take this step not
only for the reason that 1t promised the
most speedy remedy for present difficulties,
bat because the great and rapidly growing
interests Of the Territory demanded 1t; and
all rejecting men saw, at glance, that 1t
ought not to be any longer, and could not
under any circumstances, be much longer
postponed.
They not Only considered themselves bes,
qualified, but that they had tine right TO de-
eide, as far as they were concerned, the
embarrassing question which was shaking
the Union to It's centre, and had thus far
deprived them of a regularly organized CIV
il government. They believed that, in
forming constitution, they had right to
establish OF prohibit slavery, and that in
their action as a State, they would be sus-
tanned by the North and the South.
They were not unmindiul of the fact,
that while Northern statesmen had contend
ed that Congress has power TO prohibit
slavery in the Territories, they had always
admitted that the States of the Union had
the right to abolish or establish it 1t pleas
ure.
n. Al,
had almost unanimously contended that
Congress has not the constitutional power
TO prohibit slavery in the Territories, be-
cause they have net the power to establish
it; but that tie people lii forming govern
ment for themselves, have the right to do
either. If Congress can rlghtfulIy do one,
they can certainly do the other.
This is the doctrine put forth by Mr..
Calhoun, in his celebrated Resolutions OF
lS47, introduced into the Senate of the
United States, among which is the follow
ing
I9esoired, That it is fun lamental principle
III our political creed. that people in forming
u constitution have the unconditional right 10
fonn and adopt the Government which they may
think best calculated to secure their liberty,
prosperity, and happiness; and in conformity
thereto. 10 other condition is imposed by the
Federal Constitution on State, III order to be
admitted into this Union, except that It's consti-
tuition shall be Tepubl cam" and that the impo-
sion of any other by ongress would not only
be in violation of the Constitution but In direct
conf CT with the principle on which our Political
system rests.
President Polk, i'll his annual message,
dated 9th December, 1913, uses the follow