The record-union., 1899-10-23

Sierras linking the Pacific with the At
lantic by iron bands and cementing
East and West in one magnificent re-
public.
Up to 1922, California was under the
rule OF spain. From Spain it passed
into the hands of Mexico by whom it
was ruled for a quarter of a century.
The steadily increasing number Of
Americans that We're occupying the
Sacramento Valley of those early days
made it evident that the days of Next
can rule We're numbered The new
corners began to speak and act for in-
dependence. The Californian" of Aug
ust -, 1916, speaks out clearly, saying:
THE destiny of California is fixed. She
is to become a free and independent
State Of the North American Confed-
eracy. She is to be no longer subject
to foreign arbitrary power, to domes-
tic revolutions, to military rule" The
story of the Bear Flag" party and of
the Mexican war is familiar to ALL In
1913 California, with Nevada, Utah,
Arizona and New Mexico, was ceded by
Mexico to the United States. In 1850
California was admitted to the Union
and sacramento declared to be it's capt.
tai.
1t is a significant fact that the Nor
mons in 1916 started a movement which
had for its object the making of Cali
fornia their home and headquarters.
The Californian" Of August. 1916. re-
ports the arrival of the ship Brooklyn
with a colony of Mormons on board.
The troubles of that sect in Nauvoo, H.,
had led their q
The editor of the paper referred to
says: 30 Tar as we are able to learn,
Callfornla is now to be their grand CEN
tral rendezvous, while the beautiful
region around San Francisco is the
chosen spot where the Latter Day
Saints propose to settle
The Watchword of the Mormons now
Is California. The few score of emf
grants on board the Brooklyn are but
a traction of the immense numbers al
ready on their way thither. The diff
cultles they found themselves in at
NauVoo and other parts of the States
have led to the resolution to break
up and be Off for California. They
are TO lay the foundations of society
and institutions social, civil and re-
1glous. When the first consignment
arrived here they found to their dismay
the Stars and Stripes flying. This
checked the movement to California
and the blot fell on Utah instead. We
may be devoutly jubilant to-day that
TINS falr, rich State never came under
the blight of Mormonism.
In review of the religious and po1i-
tical life of the State we should not
fail to pay our need of respect TO the
followers of Saint Francis of Assist.
In 1863 the Franciscans. under the lead
ership of the devout and valorous
Padre, Junlperi Sera, established their
nrst mission at San Diego. The fol-
rowing years they continued up the
coast as far as San Francisco, estab-
ilshlng their missions in all the import
ant centers. They came to save the
souls of men and establish the civiliza-
tlon and authority of Spain. These Pill
grim Fathers of the Pacific Coast were
as deVout and as single minded in their
motives as were our Pilgrim Fathers
VINO landed on the Atlantic Coast.
father Juniperi Sera sleeps with many
OF his companions in that Westminster
Abbey of California, the neglected mis-
sion of Carmel down by the sea. In
the same sacred spot lie the mortal re-
mains of fourteen Governors of Cali
1ornia when it was under Spanish rule.
These neglected and abandoned old
missions from San Diego to Sonona
stand as monuments to the failure of
the Franciscans to capture California
Tor Catholicism and Spain
1t is fact of tremendous significance
that about the same time that these
spanish missionaries were planting the
religion and government of Spain on
tnls Pacific Coast, the descendants of
the Pilgrim Fathers on the Atlantic
coast We're declaring their Independence
and laying the foundations of a repub-
lie that was one day to sweep away
spanish authority from this continent
and absorb into itself the land these
fathers We're occupying for Spain. If
the religion and institutions of the Pa
cific Coast had spread and CONQUERED
to the Atlantic Coast, instead of the
religion and institutions of the Atlantic
Coast spreading and conquering to the
racine, what different country this
would have been
All this may seem, to some, foreign to
the ceieoratlon of the jubilee of this
congregational Church in Sacramento.
but If we see deeper, we see in our jub-
lice the triumph Of principles, civil and
religious, that the churches of our faith
and order have ever stood for wherever
they are found. The planting of a
congregational Church here meant the
planting of New England ideas of civil
government here Every Congrega-
tional Church is under bonds to pro
claim liberty throughout all the land"
That word liberty is writ large over
all our church's history. 1t is a word
that Catholic Spain never had any place
for.
We may we'll "hallow the fiftieth
year, and proclaim liberty throughout
all the land, unto all the inhabitants
thereof. The Constitutional Conven-
tion OF ~ was the death knell of Span
ish authority on this coast We. on this
jubilee year of our State and church.
have seen the last lingering remnant
of that despotism wiped out from the
islands on our Eastern coast. And
through our Golden Gate in these last
few months we have seen go the ships
and the men who have broken the pow
er of Spain over the islands of the Pa
cific. Soon, too, we shall see the Stars
and Stripes floating over the Philip
pines, the pledge of a higher civiliza-
ton has ever yet dawned there.
There were men who minimized the
effort to unfurl the Stars and Stripes
over California in '46 They were con-
tent to let things go as they were. To-
day we see that the men who believed
in expansion were right and the others