American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1851, 1851-05-22

CALIfoRNIA.-The steady progress of Cali
fornia in population, resources, and general
prosperity, Notwithstanding many vicissitudes
and drawbacks, gives token of a great destiny
before her. and affords assurances that she will
mot fail to achieve it worthily. The latest ac-
counts from that quarter show an increased
tendency to the observance Of order, and to the
regular enforcement of law. The instances
which have occurred Of violent executions with
out the forms of law have not been so numer-
GUS but that we may well be surprised there
| were not more of such, considering the circum-
| stances under which the crowds of settlers
gathered there, the reckless character of many
of the adventurers, the absence of a regular
civil government and, above all, the alluring
nature of the fascination which attracted the
multitude, and which, even in the most civilized
countries, often blinds the eyes to the percep-
ton of right and wrong, hardens the sensibili-
| ties of the conscience, and becomes the parent
of innumerable evils.
The enforcement of what is termed Lynch
Law, where there are organized forms of law
and established tribunals, constitutes not only
an outrage horrible in itself, but one which is
calculated to subvert society. On the other
hand, in q remote region, where no civil gov
eminent exists, and where there are no regularly
established tribunals the execution of that fear
| full law takes the form of rigid alternative I;
and the community must resort to that mode of
Furnishing crime or suffer crime to go unpun-
shed, and thus leave the community to the
mercy Of ruffans who would desire nothing bet
ter than such immunity to give loose to their
| brutal impulses, and to confound every thing in
| the bloody pursuit of vengeance and plumber
But among people such as those who now
make up the mass of the population in Califor-
MIA, order and law must soon prevail over all
pto nf oil
that went from the States to California was in
himself the epitome of a constitution and of a
code of laws 1t is an Anglo-Saxon instinct to
know that nothing can be done with efficiency
and security, in any pursuit, unless system and
order and uniformity be established, along with
definite recognition of individual rights. Thus
every settlement soon grows into community,
and communities expand into commonwealth.
The commercial prospects of California, with
| the wide Pacific before her and the opulent
East lying beyond, spread out grandly in the
coming future. When direct intercourse shall
once be established between San Francisco and
the ports of China, a new era will begin, and the
cycle of trade, its last link being completed,
will encompass the globe. Another result will
follow, the indications Of which have indeed al
ready appeared. As our Atlantic ports, look
| ing towards Europe, receive hundreds of thou
sands of immigrants to add to our population
| and to infuse into it the blood of the various
European nations, so it may be expected that
large immigrations from China and other Ash
attic nations will arrive annually on our Pacific
shores when the lines of intercourse across shall
have been fully established.
Thus our far West will catch an oriental hue !;
and with our affinities so established with Asia
on the one hand, and with Europe on the other,
and with o sufficiently large representation of
Africa in our midst, this great Republic, its
shores laved by the oceans of the world, may
stand forth as the embodied and blended type
of the nations of the world. All the elements
of civilization developed in the earliest and in
the latest periods of human existence and pro-
gress may here meet and be commingled; and
such grand composite of ideas Of all kinds
religious, political, philosophical, and social (;
of habits, usages, and manners of languages
and physiognomies; such medley, such a
mixture, such combination, the world never
saw as yet The process of barmonizng all
these diversified elements and of forming them
into one vast national body is to constitute per-
haps the great work which this Republic has
to do as its special vocation-since it has been
employed in just such work from the beginning
Of its existence,-Bah american