"When, therefore, the reality became known to the people of that territory that the government had done nothing to relieve them from the evils and embarrassments under which they were suffering, and seeing no probability of any change on the subject which divided Congress, they adopted, with most unexampled unanimity and promptitude, the only course which lay open to them--the immediate formation of a State government. "They were induced to take this step not only for the reason that it promised the most speedy remedy for present difficulties, but because the great and rapidly growing interests of the territory demanded it; and all reflecting men saw, at a glance, that it ought not to be any longer, and could not, under any circumstances, be much longer postponed. "They not only considered themselves best qualified, but that they had the right to decide, as far as they were concerned, the embarrassing question which was shaking the Union to its centre, and had thus far deprived them of a regularly organized civil government. They believed that, in forming a constitution, they had a right to establish or prohibit slavery, and that, in their action as a _State_, they would be sustained by the North and the South. "In taking this step, they proceeded with all the regularity which has ever characterized the American people in discharging the great and important duties of self-government. "The steamer in which I was a passenger did not stop at Monterey; I therefore did not see General Riley, nor had I any communication with him until about the middle of the month, when he came to San Francisco. A few days after my arrival, his proclamation calling a Convention to form a State constitution, _dated the third of June_, was received. "The people acted in compliance with what they believed to be the views of Congress, and conformably to the recommendations of the proclamation; and proceeded, on the day appointed, to elect members to a Convention for the purpose of forming a constitution, to be regularly submitted to the people for their ratification or rejection, and, if approved, to be presented to Congress, with a prayer for the admission of California, as a State, into the Union." According to the recommendation of General Riley, the civil governor of California, an election of delegates to form a Convention was held on the 1st of August, 1849. The number of delegates to be elected was thirty-seven. General Riley, General Smith, and Thomas Butler King, used every means to stimulate the people to hold the preparatory meetings, and they were generally successful. But in some districts scarcely any move was made until a few days before the election. In one or two instances, the election was not held upon the day appointed; but the Convention nevertheless admitted the delegates elected in such cases.