nia," instead of the words "State of California," to be
chiseled on the stone was that the rules of the Monument Association
probably prohibited any State from chiseling on the stone contributed by
it any words except the mere name of the State itself. And the
resolution was obeyed--the stone was cut from a marble-bed on a ranch
just outside Placerville, and is now in the monument!

On April 13, 1850, nearly five months before California was admitted
into the Union, that Legislature gaily passed an act consisting of this
provision: "The common law of England, so far as it is not repugnant to
or inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States, or the
Constitution or laws of the State of California, shall be the rule of
the decision in all the courts of the State."

Among other things, three joint resolutions were passed, one demanding
of the Federal Government not only a change in the manner of
transporting the mails, but also in the manner of their distribution at
San Francisco, a second urging upon Congress the importance of
authorizing, as soon as practicable, the construction of a national
railroad from the Pacific Ocean to the Mississippi River--not from the
Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, but from the Pacific Ocean to
the Mississippi River--and a third urging appropriate grants of land by
the General Government to each commissioned officer of the Army of the
United States who had faithfully and honorably served out a complete
term of service in the war with Mexico. Each of the last two
resolutions, with grim determination, and without a suspicion of humor,
contained this further resolution: "That His Excellency, the Governor,
be requested to forward to each of our Senators and Representatives in
Congress, a certified copy of this joint resolution."

These resolutions were passed five months before the State was admitted
into the Union. If the Senators and Representatives were not yet
actually "in Congress"--well, they were at least in Washington--and
busy. The desire to be admitted into the Union had developed into a
yearning to be considered a part of the Union, had ripened into the
conviction that the State was, potentially at least, actually a part of
the Union, a yearning and a conviction that became almost pathetic in
their intensity. The Legislature adjourned, and for nearly five months
the population of San Francisco assembled on the Plaza on the arrival of
every Panama steamer, waiting--wa