Till at last, through this spirit of deference, compromise, and public concern, the instrument was finished. And now let us glance at its prominent features. This constitution is thoroughly democratic; no prescriptive privileges, or invidious distinctions are recognized; the interests of the great mass fill every provision. Political and social equality are its bases, while the rights of private judgment and individual conscience flow untrammelled through its spirit. It is the embodiment of the American mind, throwing its convictions, impulses, and aspirations into a tangible, permanent shape. It is the creed of the thousands who wield the plough, the plane, the hammer, the trowel, and spade. It is the palladium of freedom, rolled in from the seaboard, and down from the mountains, and which has caught its echoes from every river, steep, and valley. It is the fraternal oath of a great people, uttered in the presence of God and the hearing of nations. Millions will turn their eyes to the fulfilment of its promises, when time and disaster have engulfed the monuments of their own splendor and strength. The 13th of October, 1849, will never fade from the annals of California. It was not the sun, circling up into a broad and brilliant heaven, that gave this morn its brightness: it was not the thunder of the Pacific on the sea-beaten strand, that gave the day its impressive force: it was not the long heavy roll of the artillery that most signalized the hour; nor the harmony of the winds rolling their anthems from the steep forests that stirred most strongly the human heart. It was the silent signatures of the members of the convention to the constitution, which had been confided to their wisdom and patriotic fidelity. It was this last crowning act in an eventful moral enterprise, having its source in the exigences of a great community. I wonder not the old pioneer of the Sacramento pronounced it the greatest day of his life; I wonder not that the veteran “Hero of Contreras” forgot the laurels gathered on that field of fame, in the higher and nobler honors showered upon him in this day’s achievements. It was his steady purpose and fearless responsibility that threw into organized forms and practical results, the plans and purposes of the people of California. He will find his reward in the happiness and prosperity of a great state, over which the flag of the Union shall never cease to wave. The tide of Anglo-Saxon blood stops not here; it is to circulate on other shores, continents, and isles; its progress is blent with the steady triumphs of commerce, art, civilization, and religion. It will yet flow the globe round, and beat in every nation’s pulse; morn will not blush, or twilight fade where its swelling wave is not; its guiding-star is above the disasters in which the purposes of man are sphered.