shadows on the
distant mountains, the richly-laden vessels and the floating clouds
indicate the peaceful sunset hour, and the goddess, in harmony with
the scene is seated at her ease, as if after many weary wanderings
in search of an earthly Paradise she had found at last the land of
perennial summers, fruits and flowers--a land of wonders, with its
mammoth trees, majestic mountain-ranges and that miracle of
grandeur and beauty, the Yosemite Valley. Verily it seems as if
bounteous Nature in finishing the Pacific Slope did her best to
inspire the citizens of that young civilization with love and
reverence for the beautiful and grand.

California, admitted to the Union in 1850, owing to the erratic
character of her early population, has passed through more
vicissitudes than any other State, but she secured at last social
order, justice in her courts and a somewhat liberal constitution,
as far as the personal and property rights of the "white male
citizen" were concerned. By its provisions--

All legal distinctions between individuals on religious grounds
are prohibited; the utmost freedom of assembling, of speech and
of the press is allowed, subject only to restraint for abuse;
there is no imprisonment for debt, except where fraud can be
proved; slavery and involuntary servitude, except for crime, are
prohibited; wives are secured in their separate rights of
property; the exemption of a part of the homestead and other
property of heads of families from forced sale is recognized.

So far so good; but while the constitution limits the franchise to
every "white male citizen" over twenty-one, who has been a resident
of the State six months, and thus makes outlaws and pariahs of all
the noble women who endured the hardships of the journey by land or
by sea to that country in the early days, who helped to make it all
that it is, that instrument cannot be said to secure justice,
equality and liberty to all its citizens. The position in the
constitution and laws of that vast territory, of the real woman who
shares the every-day trials and hardships of her sires and sons
inspires no corresponding admiration and respect, with the ideal
one who gilds and glorifies the great seal of the State.

For the main facts of this chapter we are indebted to Elizabeth T.
Schenck.[496] She says:

Out of the stirring scenes and tragical events characterizing the
early days of California one