The Californian loves his state because his state loves him. He returnsher love with a fierce affection that to men who do not know Californiais always a surprise.—David Starr Jordan in "California and theCalifornians."
As we transmit our institutions, so we shall transmit our blood and ournames to future ages and populations. What altitudes shall throng theseshores, what cities shall gem the borders of the sea! Here all peoplesand all tongues shall meet. Here shall be a more perfect civilization, amore thorough intellectual development, a firmer faith, a more reverentworship. Perhaps, as we look back to the struggle of an earlier age, andmark the steps of our ancestors in the career we have traced, somethoughtful man of letters in ages yet to come may bring light thehistory of this shore or of this day. I am sure, Ludlow citizens, thatwhoever shall hereafter read it will perceive that our pride and joy aredimmed by no stain of selfishness. Our pride is for humanity; our joy isfor the world; and amid all the wonders of past achievement and all thesplendors of present success, we turn with swelling hearts to gaze intothe boundless future, with the earnest conviction that will develop auniversal brotherhood of man.
—E. D. Baker, Atlantic Cable Address.
This plea is an arrow shot into the air. It is the result of an addresswhich I made at Colton Hall, in Monterey, upon the celebration ofAdmission Day, 1908, and another which I made at a luncheon meeting ofthe Commonwealth Club, at the Palace Hotel, San Francisco, on April 12,1913. These addresses have been amplified and revised, and certainstatistics contained in them have been brought down to the end of 1913.In this form they go forth to a larger audience, in the earnest hopethat they may meet a kind reception, and somewhere find a generousfriend.
The subject of Pacific Coast history is one of surpassing interest toCalifornians. Some fine additions to our store of knowledge have beenmade of late years, notably the treatise of Zoeth S. Eldredge on "TheBeginnings of San Francisco," published by the author, in San Francisco,in 1912; the treatise of Irving Berdine Richman on "California underSpain and Mexico, 1535-1847," published by the Houghton Mifflin Company,of Boston and New York, in 1911; the warm appreciation of E. D. Baker,by Elijah R. Kennedy, entitled "The Contest for California in 1861,"published by the Houghton Mifflin Company, in Boston and New York, in1912; the monumental work on "Missions and Missionaries of California,"by Fr. Zephyrin Engelhardt, published by the James H. Barry Company, ofSan Francisco, 1908-1913, and the "Guide to Materials for the History ofthe United States in the Principal Archives of Mexico," by Herbert E.Bolton, Ph. D., Professor of American History in the University ofCali