Year: 1876

failing supply ofbread. They have lived
to see the long weary journey which took
| them four months of toilsome travel,
traversed from ocean to ocean in three
days and a half. They have lived to SEQ
the hoar when The tidings of events at
homo which it would then have taken
them n month to learn, transmitted to
the recesses of their mountain canyons,
in the same day ON which they transpir-
ed, and since the year of Californian's ad-
mission there has been such progress in
thel field Of scientific research, that we
may we'll pause before we aflix the limit
to which it may attain during the lifetime
of her pioneers.


1t Will DO the aim to-day, of those cho-
sen as orators to leave tho beaten track OF
patriotic sentiment, and endoavor to com
ply with the resolution of Congress ask.
ing that the address for the Centennial
Year shall partake ofa local historical
character. But who can write the histo
ry of Trinity county and of your little
town ? Who can speak, except through
tradition, of tho pioneers OF Trinity who,
scaling the untrodden nights of the Trim
ity Range, sent back to tho valley of the
Sacramento report of the golden treas
ures of the soil. We have heard repeat.
ed the story of the explorers; of their dis
coveries; Of the gold so plentiful that it
was weighed with steeyards of the wat
or buckets in which tho cleaned dust was
poured and left setting in an open cent
while the workers went forth to add to
the store. In July, 1913, Major Reading
crossed the Mountains, discovering the
bar which has since borne his name. La
ter in the year there came emigrants
from Oregon, but further than this fact
we know nothing. 1t is very certain
that no point within the county attained
prominence until tho following years,
while the county seat did not attract that
attention which tho richness of the ada
cent mines should have commanded un-
til after the State Constitution had been
adopted. The history of the discovery Of
those points which afterwurd became no
ted in the county, is involved in obscum-
ty; the men who nado tho history OF that
day failed TO place it upon record. The
lapse ofa quarter ofa century has scat


Tered them far and wide, and those who
yet live enjoy in other lands tho fruits of
this toll. So far rs | know thero is not
one of the adventurous men who ventur-
cd into the wilds of Trinity in 1919 yet
within its borders. And in tho absence of
these, or of any record of their struggles
and triumphs, lies our apology for the ab-
sence Of a complete chapter of local his
tory o-day.


The application Of California for nd
mission into the sisterhood of States re-
moved the agitation of tho question of
slavery. She came with FREQ constitu-
ton; the wisdom OF those entrusted with
the formation Of that instrument having
decreed that slavery, or involuntary serv-
itude, except as punishment for crime,
should be forever prohibited. II Cali
fornin was admitted, the balance OF pow
er between the Slave and Free States in
the United States Senate would be des-
troyed. From the time of the admission
Of the State Of Missouri, each section hud
watched this balance Of power with jsal-
Gus eye. States with FREQ constitutions
were admitted when States with consti-
tutions recognizing slavery were admit
ted also. Arkansas and Michigan came
in together; they were followed in few
years by Florida and Wisconsin, and
these again by Texas and Iowa. There
could be no slave State carved out TO nett
tralize the vote Of California in tho SEN
ate, and she knocked at the door Of the
| Union in vain. 1t was then that patriot
ic minds sought TO qucll the agitation
which shook the nation from contor to
circumference, and to this end the cele-
brated compromise measures, Of which
the admission Of California was one, were
passed.


Looking upon the past with the light
Of the present we see how futile it is to
sanction wrong for the sake Of expedien-
cy. The forms and statutes of all gov
ernment are founded upon the principle Of
the projection Of human rights, and when
the law fails TO fulfill this purpose it is
but mockery. In dealing with all ques-
tions Of government and law, the aim Of
the legislator and patriot should ever be
TO cast expediency aside and be governed
only by that principle which aims 10 Sc
cure good government without any vlo-
lation Of right. In the question which
convused the Union when California
sJught admittance, there was an obvious
surrender Of principle on both sides, for
the sake Of temporary peace, and the
same line ofexpediency had governed for
thirty years. What tho result of that
temporizing policy has been, our own day
and generation can answer. 1t answered
one purpose and one only, and that was
10 defer the final out come.


We may question the wisdom, but not
the intentions nor patriotism, Of the au.
thors Of the compromise measures Of 1920
and Of thirty years later. But to us, who
have the light Of history for our guidance,
it would seem that the inevitable end of
the agitation pervading the country should
have been foreseen. When dark clouds
oyerspread the horizon and the deep toned
muttcrings of thunder are heard in the
distance, it needs not the voice OF pro-
phet to foretell the coming storm. The
threat Of disunion was not new one in
the land, and it should have been mani
fest TO far-seeing minds that the nation
which had broken the chains of British
oppression in its birth had curbed the
nri1a of that hauohtv rnonorchv in mora