The Nevada Democrat., 1860-01-11
To the Young Men OF California.


The following extract from the Introductory
address of Professor Barstow, delivered at the
opening of the Medical Department Of the Uni.
versity of the Pacific, should be read by every
yonng man in California
How potent are the considerations which urge
the young men Of California to improve their
minds In the first place, this country is new,
and there is q demand for knowledge and skill.
Vast enterprises of developement aud upbuild-
ing are to be undertaken. The condition of the
country calls for ii. soil rich in its surface,
and concealing mines below, is the basis for all
that is active and ardent in enterprise, provided
a race naturally powerful has possession Of it.
Such an one Is the Ango-Ameroan race. tits
the nature of this race to pant for great enter
prises. II is not a'Tutterng race. 1t likes to
WELD great forces, and grappe with great diff
fculties. II delights IN what is grand, but
practical in achievement II is not q revolu-
tionary race, unless trodden upon by a hard
and heavy heel. Then II will fight aud when
it fights IL conquors. But disdains the nonsense
of conspiracies, the gabbe of instructions, the
whisper of underground plots. 1t leaves all
that to men of noise. But It loves 10 stand be-
fore barriers of Nature, deemed impassable--
heights considered inaccessible, and then say,
Excelsior | must 60 up here.
1t is the prize.Gg with nature. Young men
of California, is there any doubt that all your
mental resources will be wanted? II bad
prophets voice that could reach you all, would
say, improve you every man his own mind,
No matter what your vocation, whether to heal
the sick, to bridge streams, to sink shafts
whether you are to be craftsmen, shepards. vine-
dressers powmen engineers, lawyers-no. mat
ter what All your talents, all your acquire
meets will be In demand for into the compass
of the next ten years the people Of the Pacific
shore will crowd the progress of centuries.
Let us look at our situation. There are
certain physical facts which produce moral and
intellectual consequences. Climate, geograph-
ical position, and local institutions, as well as
events and the powerful character Of indvidu-
ais, have their part in shaping the destiny of
people. Let any man stand on the SUBMITS Of
the Pyrenees, and see what an obstacle they
form TO social intercourse aud business and
there be discovers how the great barriers of
nature tend to preserve, on each side Of them.
distinct national characteristics. Those noun
tains give a marked individuality to France on
the one side, and Spain on the other. Our situa-
tiOn with respect to the Atlantic States, Is not
parallel with this, but there is resemblance.
We have more amalgamatng influences. and
fewer causes of separation. We speak the same
language as our brethren Of the Atlantic States.
We have come from those States. We belong
to the Union. But change of place changes, to
some extent the man. Neither the Southerner
at the North nor the Yankee at the South, re-
mains wholly the same. He exhibits charac-
ter modified by the offsets around him.
1t is new philosophy that man Is 10 part the
creature Of circumstances; and hence the CON-
mon saying amongst us, "he is not the same man
that he pas at the East" To the scholar and the
statesman, it is a subject Of interest TO inquire
the causes of this change. But IL should not as
tonish or alarm US to know that California never
can become Massachusetts, or South Caroli-
ma. Natures laws forbid this. II Is q great
mistake to suppose that governments, or codes
can neutralize the effect Of physical causes.
The greatest neutralzer is sintercOmmunication.
But even this Is wholly Intellectual; and as long
as the ridge of the Sierra Nevada remains and
the billows of the Pacific roll, no matter what
railroads or steamships we have, so long this
Pacific country will be q peculiar country, and
this people peculiar people. II never would
be Massachusetts, even II every inhabtant
had been born in that commonwealth. Nor
could 1t become a South Carolina, even If 1t
should be swept of its present inhabitants, and
the people of South Carolina could be lifted up.
en- nasse, over the mountains, and set down in
California. We have before US, then in common
with all our country, an impending future, to-
wards which we are Fastening. in connection
with the other States of the Confederacy. But
we have also future Of our own-a future in-
fiuenced by our location, climate ,'pursuits. re-
sonrces-a future which our principles and
actions are to shape out, and which we have 1t
in our power to make full Of glory or full Of
shame.