sand, where will you
find the same number of educated, enterprising, and intelligent men in
any one district or state of Europe, not excepting any given part of
France or England? If we have fewer learned and scientific men than
older countries can boast, we have a greater number above mediocrity,
according to our population, and a vastly higher average of general
intelligence. If our laws are too often loosely administered, it is at
least in the power of the people to remedy the difficulty by
substituting good and faithful for corrupt and inefficient officers;
and if any law should prove burdensome, it can be repealed at the will
of the majority. So far as injustice is concerned, I have seen more of
it in Europe, individual rights were concerned, than I ever saw in
California. We have a public sentiment in favor of the right which can
not be shaken by corrupt, factious, and transitory influences. If our
governors and public men are not furnished with gilded palaces and
fine equipages, the labor of the toiling poor is not taxed to supply
them. If we are backward in the higher branches of literature and the
fine arts, there is scarcely a mechanic or a miner in the state who
does not know more of the history of his own country, possess a more
accurate knowledge of its institutions, read more of the current
intelligence of the day from all other countries--who, in short, is
not better versed in every branch of practical knowledge applicable to
the ordinary purposes of life, than the average of the most
intelligent classes in Great Britain or France. If we are deficient in
the dandyism of dress and the puppyism of manners, which so generally
pass for refinement and politeness on the Continent of Europe, there
is scarcely a boor among us who would not be hooted out of the lowest
society for the indifference, rudeness, and disrespect toward women,
which form the rule rather than the exception among the polished
nations of Europe. I have seen more absolute selfishness, coarseness,
and innate vulgarity under the guise of elegant manners, since my
arrival on this side of the water, than I ever saw in California under
any guise whatever. If that be civilization, I do not want to see it
prevail in our country. It would be difficult, indeed, to say in what
respect a comparison would not show a heavy balance in our favor.
Wealth is more equally diffused, fortune is more accessible to all,
the honors and emolument of political positio