Glasgow weekly times. (Glasgow, Mo.) 1848-1861, 1850-05-02

"N"'"y '""Ou "I'hOut bGlhS PlONlhCh
with government for their protection,
or laws which they could understand,
or allowed the right to be represented
in the councils Of the nation,
While anxiously awaiting the action
of Congress, oppressed and cmbarrass-
ed by the state of affairs, and feeling
the pressing necessity Of applying such
remedies as were in their. power, and
circumstances seemed to justify, they
resolved to substitute laws oftheir own
for the existing system, and to establish
tribunals for their proper and faithful
administration.
In obedience, therefore, to the extra
orninary exigencies of their condition,
the people of the city of San Francis
co elected members TO form a Legisla.
ture, and clothed with full power to
passa Tvs.
The communities Of Sonona and of
Sacramento city, followed the example.
Thus were three legislative bodies
organized, the two most distant being
only one hundred and thirty miles a.
part.
Other movements of this kind were
threatened, and doubtless would
have followed, in other sections of the
territory, had they not been arrested by
the formation Of State government.
While the people of California were
locking TO Congress for a territorial
Government, it was quite evident that
such an organization was daily bccom.
ing less suited to their condition, was
tiIely different from that of any ter.
ritories out of which the new States Of
the Union had been formed
Those Territories had been at first
slowly and sparscly peopled by few
hunters and farmers, who penetrated
the wilderness, or traversed the prai.
rles in search of game or a new home;
and, when thus gradually their popula.
ton warranted it, a government was
provided for them. They, however,
had no foreign commerce,nor anything
beyond ordinary pursuits of agricul.
ture and the various branches of busi-
ness which usually accompany it, TO in
| duce 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 10 support Stntes
Government.
Not so with California. The dscov.
cry Of the vast metallic and mineral
wealth in her mountains had already
attracted 10 her, in the space of twelve
months, more than one hundred thou
sand people; an extensive commerce
had sprung up with China, the ports OF
Mexico on the Pacific, Chill, and Aus
tralia.
Hundreds Of vessels from the Allan.
tic ports of the Union, freighted with
our manufacture and agricultural pro.
ducts, and filled with our fellow. citizens
had arrived, or were on their passage
f round Cape Horn; so that to the month
f of June last, there were more thar
three hundred sea going vessels in the
, port of San Francisco.
: California has a border on the Pa.
? cilic Of 10 degree of latitude, and sew
eral important harbors which have
n never been surveyed; nor is there ,
/. buoy,.a beacon, lighthouse, or q for
: lilication on the whole coast.
j. There are no docks for the repair o
r national or mercantile vessels, neare
than New York, dislunce of SOM
d twenty thousand miles round Cap
J. Horn.
r All these things, together, with thc
:. proper regulations of the gold region
o the quicksilver mines, the survey ant
r and disposition of the public lands, tn
e adjustment of land titles, the establish
+ ment Of mint and marine hospita
II require the immediate formation of
II civil government than California the
&c had, and the fostering care of Congress
h and the Executive.
+ California had, as it were by magic
e become State of great wealth AM
power. One short year had given he
J. commercial importance, but little in
d. ferior to that of the most powerful o