PANEGYRIC ON CALIFORNIA. So shall our voice of sovereign choice When God and man shall speak as one! 19 PANEGYRIC ON CALIFORNIA.-THOS. STARR KING, 1863. SUPPOSE we were called to name on all the globe, to-day, the community of 400,000 persons most favorably placed, so far as domain and prosperity and prospects are concerned. Let a man turn the globe with compasses in his hand, and hold them suspended, and deliberate as long as he may. I defy him to fix the point at any other place than Sacramento--right here at Agricultural Hall-so that the sweep shall include the 400,000 souls within the jurisdiction of this Society. What other portion of the earth held by one organization of less than half a million will compare in privilege, resources and hopes with the portion of * this young, beloved Benjamin of American States, whose autumnsack is now stuffed with grain, while the mouth of it contains a cup of gold? A line on the Atlantic coast, representing the length of our State, would run from Boston, below Chesapeake Bay, below Cape Hatteras, below the batteries of Gilmore on Cummings Point, to the harbor of Port Royal. And nearly the whole of the area with this vast water front is one symmetrical domain, by reason of the mountains that uprear their five hundred miles of jagged whiteness in its background; the rivers that flow from the northward and the southward, fed from those snowy springs, to unite in the centre of the State; and the bay that receives their volume, rivaling in its conformation the Bay of Naples. Where else has the Almighty delivered to half a million of people such a line of eternal snow looking down upon such opulent plains? Where else such a fellowship of temperate and tropic climates? Where else such rainless summers, which turn drouths into harvests? Where else gold in the rocks, and, bending over the mills that crush them, peaches that mock the apples of gold in the garden of the Hesperides? Where else such sweeps of wheat, such armies of noble cattle on a thousand hills, such bloom of vineyards; and beneath all such variety of mineral wealth, which only centuries to come can tap and drain? Where else has the Almighty connected such social blessings with material good-freedom, intelligence, schools, multiplying churches and loyalty deliberate-principled, unconditional, invincible loyalty to the Government and the policy, the freest, the noblest, the worthiest beneath the sun? I do not say this, gentlemen, in boasting. It is only the honest generalization of the map of California and of the facts which your exhibition presents to our eyes this week. In privilege of position, and in regard to resources and the future, the State of California, in the American Republic, is the most favored spot which this globe turns to the sun. CALIFORNIA.-BAYARD TAYLOR. O FAIR young land, the youngest, fairest, far, Whose guardian planet, evening's silver star, How art thou conquered, famed in all the pride How brought, O panther of the splendid hide, To know thy master's will? But where the wild oats wrapped thy knees in gold The plowman drove his share, And where, through cañons deep, thy streams are rolled, Yet in thy lap, thus rudely rent and torn, A nobler seed shall lie; Mother of mighty men, thou shalt not mourn THE CONSTITUTION AND THE UNION. Thy human children shall restore thy grace Gone with thy fallen pines; The wild, barbaric beauty of thy face Shall round to classic lines! And Order, Justice, Social Law shall carb Thy untamed energies; And Art and Science, with their dreams superb, The marble sleeping in thy mountains now, Shall live in sculpture rare; Thy native oak shall crown the sage's brow— Thy tawny hills shall bleed their purple wine, And Music, with her eloquence divine, Till Hesper, as he trims his silver beam, No happier land shall see, And earth shall find her old Arcadian dream Restored again in thee! 21 THE CONSTITUTION AND THE UNION.-DANIEL WEBSTER. FOR myself, I propose, Sir, to abide by the principles and the purposes which I have avowed, I shall stand by the Union, and by all who stand by it. I shall do justice to the whole country, according to the best of my ability, in all I say, and act for the good of the whole country in all I do. I mean to stand upon the Constitution. I need no other platform. I shall know but one country. The ends I aim at shall be my country's, my God's, and Truth's. I was born an American; I will live an American; I shall die an American; and I intend to perform the duties incumbent upon me in that character to the end of my career. I mean to do this, with the absolute disregard of personal consequences. What are personal consequences? What is the individual man, with all the good or evil that may betide him, in comparison with the good or evil which may befall a great country in a crisis like this, and in the midst of great transactions which concern that country's fate? Let the consequences be what they will. I am careless. No man can suffer too much, and no man can fall too soon, if he suffer or if he fall in defense of the liberties and Constitution of his country. OUR COUNTRY-E. D. BAKER. [Extract from the speech of Senator Baker, at the great Union Mass Meeting in New York City, after the fall of Fort Sumter.] THE majesty of the people is here to-day to sustain the majesty of the Constitution, and I come, a wanderer from the far Pacific, to record my oath along with yours of the great Empire State. The hour for conciliation has passed, the gathering for battle is at hand; and the country requires that every man shall do his duty. Fellow-citizens, what is that country? Is it the soil on which we tread? Is it the gathering of familiar faces? Is it our luxury and pomp and pride? Nay, more than these, is it power and might and majesty alone? No, our country is more, far more than all these. The country which demands our love, our courage, our devotion, our hearts' blood, is more than all these-our country is the history of our fathers our country is the tradition of our mothers—our country is past renown-our country is present pride and power—our country is future hope and destiny --our country is greatness, glory, truth, constitutional liberty-above all, freedom forever! These are the watchwords under which we fight; and we will shout them out till the stars appear in the sky, in the stormiest hour of battle. I have said that the hour for conciliation is past. It may return; but not to-morrow, nor next week. It will return when that tattered flag is avenged. It will return when the rebel traitors are taught obedience and submission. It will return when the rebellious Confederates are taught that the North, though peaceable, are not cowardly- though forbearing, are not fearful. That hour of conciliation will come back when again the ensign of the Republic will stream over every rebellious fort of every Confederate State. Then, as of old, the ensign of the pride and power, and dignity and majesty, and the peace of the Republic will return. THE UNION.-OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. HAS Our love all died out? Have its altars grown cold? They may fight till the buzzards are gorged with their spoil, In vain is the strife! When its fury is past, Our Union is river, lake, ocean, and sky, Man breaks not the medal when God cuts the die! THE REVEILLE.-FRANK BRET HARTE. HARK! I hear the tramp of thousands, Lo, a nation's hosts have gathered Freemen, come! "Ere your heritage be wasted," said The quick alarming drum. |