Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-09-10
TUESDAY. SEPTEMBER 10, 1859.
A admission Day.

Admission Day.
The thirty-ninth anniversary of the
admission of California into the Union
was celebrated yesterday throughout the
State. By statute it is legal holiday,
and as consequence business is more
or less suspended. The Native Sons of
the Golden West, an organization of
great and growing strength, took the lead
in it's celebration, and the Parlors here
eommemora ted the occasion by an even
ing of m usic, addresses and dance, a full
account of which will be found in other
columns.
As the ears pass, the exciting scenes
that ushered California into the Union
assume an interest Of great historical
value. Here was vast and virgin terri
tory that had been peopled as if by
magic. The discovery of gold had
brought hundreds of thousands of Amer
leans suddenly into this State. They
had come by sea and by land-around
the Horn and over the plains-through
Mexico and Central America-all urged
ON by that thirst for gold which Virgil
described as the "aari sdcra James"
The noun tains yielded of their golden
treasures to these hardy adveniuers in
fabulous quantities. Cities grew up as
if the tabled genii of Aladdin were again
at work. With the American immigra-
ton came gold seekers from every por-
ton of the globe. A motley population
was met with everywhere. With that
instructive political sagacity that belongs
peculiarly to the American, and which
leads him to organize order out of chaos
and government out of confusion, our
people at once set about the erection of
California into q State. A convention
was held, constitution adopted, and ap-
plication was made for admission into the
Union. After one of the stormiest ses-
eions Congress ever experienced, the act
was passed on the 9th of September,
1850. The question of slavery cut an
important figure in the debates, and the
whole subject of the Missouri Compro.
mise was again gone over as it was gone
over afterwards during the Kansas
Nebraska discussions which Immediately
preceded the Rebellion. When news was
received here that the bill for admission
had passed the whole State went wild with
joy over the fact. A great celebration WAS
held in San Francisco as we'll as in other
centers of population. Professions, ban
ners, fireworks, firing of cannon and all
the outward expressions of Joy were let
loose. Our Senators-Dr. VIM. M. Given
and Colonel J. G. Fremont-had already
gone on to Washington and taken
their seats. Our Congressmen-G. w.
Wright and Edward Gilbert-were there.
Our first Governor, Peter H. Burnett,
had been elected, and the new State,
fully equipped, started out on career of
prosperity such as has not been paral-
eiled even in this country of wonderful
surprises.
The California of that day and the
California of this day form q contrast
that marks a growth phenomenal even
in this age of rapid progress. In forty
years q wilderness has been transformed
into . garden spot, and canvas towns
have been transmitted into stately cities
Of magnificent architecture. The miners
found that there was surer road to wealth
and established fortune in tie soil of
California than in the minerals, rich as
her placers proved to be. They settled
upon farms, they planted out vineyards
and orchards, they brought into requis-
ition all the arts of the husbandman, and
they built up State that has been as
famous for the wealth of its horticultural
and cereal products as it had been for it's
mines.
And yet Cali fornia is only at the
threshold of her grand possibilities. She
has merely opened the door to the arcana
of her illimitable resources. With irri-
cation and indepen dence of the seasons
this State will support.ten million inhsb-
itants. As we progress, we shall find, as
We have before found, how little we know
sf our soils possibilities. Where one
acre was cultivated twenty years ago,
ono hundred are cultivated now. Multi.
ply this by ten or twenty and the result
viii be the productive area score of years
hence. Land despised twenty years ago
is now the most priced. Land nobody
wants now will be the land everybody
will cry for twenty years hence.
California has been and will be the
State of generous surprises and of bound
less possibilities.
Tux arOum ant m tho uupati0p rf iur;o