The San Francisco call., 1898-02-16
CELEBRATE OUR sEMI-cENTENNIaL

shall it be done?
 To appreciate the achievements of that half century one must reflect upon the conditions under which 1t began. For hundred years there had been here and
 there this soil dreamy civilization. It had slept and enjoyed its reveries in unknown contact with the wonderful natural resources, partly known and partly developed From clustering around the early missions 1t had secured here and there foohold in our grassy valleys, where the lords of the great grants lived as the Highland chiefs lived, in the midst of their clans. Focks and herds roamed at will Tn the valleys, cropping their forage, sharing it with the deer elk and antelope and sharing with them also the risks from mountain lions and their predatory partners. Beyond the ecclesiastical authority, seated in the missions, there conspicuous attempt to found institutions, and, in justice to those pioneers of civilization, it must be admitted that their simple lives gave but small occasion for the exercise of governmental authority. California was but little known to the outside world Guarded by its noun tain wall on the east and by the wide stretching deserts of water on the west it's topography physical geography its seasons and its soil and sky were the subject of interesting speculation as the vast reaches of Africa now, but there was less actual knowl- edge about them than the world of to-day has of the Dark Continent. Fremont as explorer, and though this generation cannot realize it, his own time recognized in him all that civilization sees now in Livingstone Spoke and Stanley. The simple story of his trials, his passing of parched deserts and scaling of lofty mountans his nights in the somber forest guard against wild beasts and wilder men, his descent upon the plains, all the marvels which he first brought to the worlds attention, appealed to the inn aOnation and uenired romance IF was the first achievement to excite the fancy and rouse the spirit of adventure in the New World since the expe ditions of Pizarro and Cortez. Followed closely by the discovery of gold, the worlds imagination, fired by the adventures of the Pathfinder, inhamed by the vision of wealth The pastoral civilization of the country was swept from the valleys by the bosom of crusade before which crumbled all that had been.
 When the admission of California put among the compromises of 1850 in MT. Clays omnibus bill this State was introduced upon the theater of national politics. Though it yielding gold the knowledge of its more permanent resources meager that marry things in the debates on Clay's seem remarkable now Websters speech will always stand as monument to his genius. The ultra Southern sentiment resisted the admission of California q free State because it would destroy the sectional bal ance Free and slave States had entered the Union in pairs; Vermont and Kentucky in I7oI-o2; Tennes- see and Ohio I7o6-1So2; Louisiana and Indiana 1sI2-16; Mississippi and Illinois 18I7-I8; Alabama and Maine I81o-2o; then came the break in this or der and the first compromise. Missouri and Arkansas came in I82o-36, and the Mis- souri compromise line of 36 minutes 30 seconds was drawn, south of which all should be slave and north all should be free Between 1920 and IS46 four slave States came in and only free In the next two years came two free States and then California knocked with the line of 3o minutes 30 onds dividing her into nearly equal parts. Begin ming at about Cypress Point on Monterey Bay that line crossed the San Joaquin Valley between Fresno and Visaa, crossed Mount Whitney and cut off the northernmost sands of Death Valley. If those who stood by the compromise of 1920 had prevailed slav- cry and freedom would have met at that line
 The situation portentous, and the solution in the speech of Webster. Turning to the Sem ators of the slave States he told them they would lose nothing Slavery incident of physical conditions. It had receded from New England and the Middle States because in their climate it was u profitable and like every system of labor the essence of its being was in its profit Then turning to Cali
  its topography Asatic It differed in these respects from the rest of the continent Its products would be found peculiar itself different from those of the rest of our domain Chattel slavery had never flour ished in Asia for physical reasons and as Congress could not repeal compromise natural law, sav- ery if founded in this Asatic atmosphere would per- ish and fade away
 Looking backward through the events and across the development of two score years and eight, one stands as enchanted in the presence of Webster struck with the universality of his knowledge and the prophecy that was in his analysis The source of his has been mystery to students But 1t is known that he gained it from man who was by na- ture an empire builder and the keenest observer of nature and her this coast and country have known. Dr. Gwin was of our first Senators. He was in Washington from his election in 184o to the admission of the State in 1850. Born saveholder,