The Trinity journal., 1856-09-13
The Future.

California Dwellers upon the Pacific,
what standard of public morality what
criterian of social and civic worth, what
code of ethics, are you about to establish for
your future guidance? Men of to-day, do
you not know that you are now moulding
the future of this great commonwealth p
Even now, you are winding the wool upon
the shuttle of her destiny what sample of
historic web shall be woven? What habits,
what views, what kind of manners, what
style of virtues are to be Incorporated into
the life of this people What sort of scion
shall be engratted on the stock of Califor-
mia You see we are but just setting out
in our race we have written only the title
page of our annals and we would know
what shall be inscribed on the blank leaves
as time shall unfold them to the pen of the
future historian.
For six. years, now gone by, we have
been living ostensibly as a political body :;
subject, nominally to legal and municipal
regulations yet it is obvious, that only noao
has our real history begun. Coming as we
did, strangers and adventurers from all
lands animated with but one selfish pur-
pose given up to one sole pursuit without
concert of action without community of
sympathy or interest, the history of our
State has been one of individual experience
rather than that of people. But things
have changed We are no longer isolated
and alone-a community of wayfarers and
wanderers The tent has turned into cot
tage the camp into homestead the ad-
venturer has settled down; the soiourner
has grown into citizen controlled by local
attachments, personal preferences, home in
huences and other kindred considerations
men have gathered into groups and the
social elements, according to their aflinities,
have sought combinations. The spontane-
GUS impulse of association, implanted in our
nature, forces us to union, according to our
several likes and antipathies. We are in
that transition state-in the midst of that
elementary commotion which marks all the
great revolutionary periods of nature. The
great popular soul is engaged in conflict
such as neither metaphysical nor material
worlds are ever permitted to escape. Our
country encountered it in the heroic age of
the Republic and our own green earth
passed through it long ago, in her escape
from chaos.
state-this perilous cimacteric in our ma
tional life, when we have got to decide ana
are daily deciding, what shall be the future
of this community.
And we must remember that there is a
principle of evil ever present and active in
the affairs of mortals, as we'll as a principle
of good. Both, as was wisely taught by
the Egyptian of ole, ,aaTc in perpetual strife
for the mastery of the universe. Impelled
by the fierce instinct of sef-propagation,
they wage eternal war for dominion. There
is a necessary, inherent antagonsm between
them, as opposite as vice and trtue-as day
and night. And the DeitieS that imperson-
ate these principles rule among men with
the same sway as they did five thousand
years ago on the banks of the Nile. They
are as potent in our midst to-day as they
were in Paradise in the beginning. And it
is truth at which the good man will trem-
BILE in the telling, that the fell spirit of evil
the power OF the malgn god-has hereto
fore feartully prevailed amongst us and
the question now presses shall it be allowed
TO predominant
What policy, what kind of civilization
shall prevail? What manner of people
shall henceforth abide upon this God blessed
coast Shall life be protected, industry
encouraged, labor honored, and virtue be
sanctiiied or shall they, as heretofore be
treated with levity and derision? Shall
honesty be approved, probity respected, and
worth rewarded or shall senSuality, lust
and outrage prevail? Are we going to
preach the gospel of rapine or the gospel of
peace? What shall be the evangelism of
this generation ? Shall we longer sIumber
on in the deep and miry rut of the past p
If not, this is the place to turn out and
now is the time to pull the side rein on pub.
lie opinion.
How shall this be? What of our public
functonaries for the future? Shall the i'm
pudent oflice-broker, with his political prices
current, be allowed longer to barter away
the sacred sulfrages of the people Shall
the tribunals of justice-polluted by the
presence of professional jurors and perjured
witnesses OF depraved counsel and corrupt
judges-longer be turned into lazar-house
0fjudicial leprosy, while our Legislators are
imposed upon us by the Pariahs of society
Shall the servants of the people still 90 on,
ever spending the products of official pecu-
lation in riot and debauchery or shall we
enter upon better life, initiates q new order
of things? Shall fruits and flowers rroy
along our paths, or shall they be encountered
with nightshade, the nettie and the bram-
BILE? 1t is clear that we have reached a
crisis-a turning point in our history The
balance-beam of our destiny trembles fear
fully on its point. Good men and true, how
lhag il Il settled To what destiny will