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![handle is hein.slavery/wmseadca0001 and id is 1 raw text is:
SPEECH
OF THE
HON. WVI. H. SE WAR I),
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES,
ON THE ADMISSION OF CALIFORNIA.
[DELIVERED MARCH 8,1850.]
MR. SEWARD arose and said-Mr. President: Four years ago, California, scarcely in-
habited and. quite unexplored, was unknown even to our usually immoderate desires,
except by a harbor, capacious and tranquil, which only Statesmen then foresaw would be
useful in the Oriental Commerce, of a far distant, if not merely chimerical future.
A year ago, California was a mere military dependency of our own, and we were cele-
brating, with enthusiasm and unanimity, its acquisition, with its newly discovered, but
yet untold and untouched mineral wealth, as the most auspicious of many and unparal-
leled achievements.
To-day, California is a State, more populous than the least, and richer than several of
the greatest of our thirty States. This same California, thus rich and populous, is here
asking admission into the Union e nd finds us debating the dissolution of the Union itself.
No wonder if we were perplexed in the changing embarrassment, no wonder if we are
appalled by ever increasing responsibilities! No wonder if we are bewildered by the
ever augmenting magnitude and rapidity of national vicissitudes!
SHALL CALIFORNIA BE RECEIVED? For myself, upon imy individual judgment and con-
science, I answer Yes ! Tor myself, as an instructed Representative of one of the States,
of that one even, of the States, which is soonest and longest to be pressed in commereial
and political rivalry by the new Commonwealth, I answer, Yes! Let California come
in. Every new State, whether she come from the East or from the West, coming from
whatever part of the Continent she may, she is welcome. But California, that comes
from the clime where the West dies away into the rising East-California which bounds
at once the Empire and the Continent,-California the youthful Queen of the Pacific, in
her robes of Freedom, gorgeously inlaid with gold, is doubly welcome.
And now.I enquire, FIRsT, why should California be rejected ? All the objections are
founded only in the circumstances of her coming, and in the organic law which she presents
for our confirmation.
First. California comes unceremoniously, without a preliminary consent of Congress,
and therefore by usurpation. This allegation, I think, is not quite true,-at least not
quite true in spirit. California is not here of her own pure volition. We tore California
violently from her place in the confederation of Mexican States, and stipulated by the
treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, that the territory should be admitted, by States, into the
American Union as speedily as possible.
But the letter of the objection still holds. California did come without a preliminary
consent by Congress to form a Constitution. But Michigan and other States presented
themselves in the same unauthorized way, and Congress waived the irregularity, and
sanctioned the usurpation. California pleads these precedents. Is not the plea sufficient?
But it has been said by the Hon Senator from South Carolina, (MR. CALHOUN) that the
ordinance of 1787, secured to Michigan the right to become a State, when she should
have sixty thousand inhabitants. Owing to some neglect, Cohgress delayed to take the
census; and this is said, itn palliation of the irregularity in the case of Michigan. But
California, as has been seen, had a treaty, and Congress, instead of giving previous con-
sent, and instead of giving her the customary territorial government, as they did to Michi-
gan, failed to do either, and thus practically refused both, and so abandoned the new
community, under most unpropitious circumstances, to anarchy. Calilornia then made a
constitution for herself, but not unnecessarily and presumptuously, as Michigan did. She
made a constitution for herself and came here nuder the law-the paramount law of self-
preservation. I think she stands justified.
Indeed, California is more'than justified. She was a Colony-a military Colony. All](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.slavery/wmseadca0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)