The San Francisco call., 1898-12-30
CELEBRATE OUR SEMl-cENTENnIaL

shall 1t be done?
 To appreciate the achievements of that half century one must reflect upon the conditions under which began For hundred years there had been here and there this soil a dreamy. civilization. It had slept and enjoyed its reveres in unknown contact with the wonderful natural resources, partly known and partly developed. From clustering around the early missions it had secured here and there foothold 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 i'll the valleys cropping their forage sharing 1t 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 was conspicuous attempt to found institutions, and in justice to those pioneers of civilization 1t must be admitted that their simple lives gave but small occasion for the exercise Of governmental authority. California but little known to the outside world Guarded by it's moun- tain wall on the east and by the wide stretching deserts of water on the west, its topography physical geography it's seasons and its soil and sky were the subject of interesting speculation as the vast reaches o Africa are now, but there less actual knowl edge about them than the world of to-day has of the Dark Continent Fremont came as an explorer, and though this generation cannot realize it. his time recognized in him all that civilization sees now i'll Livingstone, Spoke and Stanley. The simple story of his trials his passing of parched deserts and scaling of lofty mountains; his nights ill the somber forest guard against wild beasts and wilder men; his descent upon the plains, all the marvels which he first brought the worlds attention, appealed to the inn aginaton and inspired romance It was the first achievement to excite the fancy and the spirit of adventure in the New World since the expe dtons of Pizarro and Cortez. Followed closely by the discovery of gold the worlds imagination, fired 1 D,4 the vision of wealth The pastoral civilization of the country was swept from the valleys by the bosom of a crusade before which crumbed all that had been.
 When the admission of California was put among the compromises of 1850 in Mr. Clays omnibus bill this State introduced upon the theater of national politics. Though it yielding gold the knowledge of its permanent resources was so meager that many things in the debates Clays measure seem remarkable now. Websters speech will always stand as monument to his genius The ultra Southern sentiment resisted the admission of California free State because 1t would destroy the sectional bal ance. Free and slave States had entered the Union ir pairs; Vermont and Kentucky in I7oI I-o2; Tennes see and Ohio 17o6-I8o2; Louisiana and Indiana 18I2-I6; Mississippi and Illinois I8I7-iS; Alabama and Maine 18Io-2o; then came the break in this order and the first compromise. Missouri and Arkansas came in 182o-36, and the Missouri com promise line of 36 degrees 30 minutes was drawn, south of which all should be slave and north all should be free. Between 1920 and :I846 four slave States came in and only one free In the next two years came two free States, and then California knocked with the line of 30 degrees 30 min utes dividing herr into nearly equal parts Begin ming at about Cypress Point on Monterey Bay, that line crossed the San Joaquin Valley between Fresno and Visalia, crossed Mount Whitney and cut off the northernmost sands of Death Valley. Ii those who stood by the compromise of 1920 had prevailed cav cry and freedom would have met at that line.
 1 The situation was portentous, and the solution came in the speech of Webster: Turning to the Sen ators of the slave States he told them they would lose nothing. Slavery was an incident of physical conditions. It had feceded from New England and the Middle States because in their climate 1t profitable and like every system of labor, the essence of. its being was in its profit Then turning to Cali
 ornia, he said was in its physical geography and
 its topography Asiatic It differed in these respects from the rest of the continent Its products would be found peculiar to itself different from those of the rest of our domain Chattel slavery had four
 shed in Asia for physical reasons, and, as Congress could not repeal nor compromise natural law, slav- cry if founded in this Asiatc atmosphere would per ish and fade away.
 r. Looking backward through the events and across the development of two years and eight one stands enchanted in the presence of Webster struck with the univefsay of his knowledge and the prophecy that was in his analysis. The source of his information has been mystery to students. But is known that he gained it from who was by na ture an empire builder and the keenest observer o and her resources this coast and country have known. Dr. Gwin was one of our first Senator's He was in Washington from his election in 184o to the admission of the State in 1850. Born stakeholder, participant in the exciting history of Jacksons ad minstratons he pioneered here and put his hand tc the foundations of California From him Webster had the accurate description of the physical cond
 lions of California from which his genius developed that generalization which has been proved in every detail
 So, impinged upon history, this land merged from
 its past into statehood. Every step of the way i: written in romance and every advance is powered 1T
 beauty and spread with abundance.
 When this became the first Pacific State it stood alone Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas were tht frontier We were the isolated star on the flag Now