CALIFORNIA. One of the new states of the United States of America.
It is situated on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, its northern boundary being the forty-second degree of north latitude, and its southern boundary being the division-line between the United States and 'Mexico. It was formerly a department of Mexico,' and was acquired by the United States by conquest' and the treaty of' Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848.
Congress not having provided for the organiza tion of a territorial government in California, Brevet Brigadier-General Riley, acting as civil governorf on the 3d of June, 1849, issued a proclamation re commending the election of delegates to a conven tion to frame a state constitution or a plan for a territorial government. In accordance with this recommendation, the people elected delegates to a convention which met at Monterey, September 1, 1849, and on the 13th of October, 1849, adopted constitution for the state. This constitution, with 'the exception of a change as to the mode of making amendments, remains unaltered to the present time. It was submitted to a vote of the people on the 13th of November, 1849, and was by them ratified. At the same time an election was held to fill the offices of governor and lieutenant-governor, and for members of the legislature, and for two mem bers of congress. The legislature chosen under the oonstitution assembled at San Jose on the 15th' of December, 1849, and in a few days thereafter two United States senators were elected and the new government was fully organized. From that time it exercised within the limits of the state an undisputed authority. In March, 1850, the sena tors and representatives submitted to congress the oonstitution, with a memorial asking the admiasioa of the state into the American Union.
2. On the 9th of September, 1850, congress passed an act admitting the state into the Union on sa lual footing with the original states, and allowing Br two representatives in congress until an appor (lament according to an actual enumeration at' the :habitants of the United States. The third section f the act provides for the admission, upon the ex ress condition that the people of the state, through wir legislation or otherwise, shall never interfere 'ith the primary disposal of the public lands within ,s limits, end shall not pass any law or do any act 'hereby the title of the United States to any right ) dispose of the same shall be impaired or ques need; and that they shall never lay any tax or ssessment of any description whatsoever upon the alio domain of tile United States, and that is no ase shall non-resident proprietors who are citizens f the United States be taxed higher than, resi ents; and that all the navigable waters within he state shall be common highways, and forever ree, as well to the inhabitants of the state as to he citizens of the United States, and without any ax, impost, or duty thetefor.
3. Congress passed an act, March 3, 1851, to as ertain and settle the private land claims in the tate of California. By this act a board of com aissioners was created, before whom every person lamming lands in California, by virtue of any right w title derived from the Spanish or Mexican goy Irnments, was required to present his claim, to ;ether with such documentary evidence and tes 'many of witnesses as he relied upon. From the leoision of this board an appeal might be taken to he district court of the United States for the dis viet in which the land was situated. Both the ward and the court, on passing on the validity of my claim, were required to be governed by the ,reaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the law of nations, he laws, usages, and customs of the government tom which the claim was derived, the principles if equity, and the decisions of the supreme court :f the United States.
4. By an act passed on the 28th of September, 1850, congress declared all laws of the United Rates, not locally inapplicable, in force within the !tate of California; created two district courts, di riding the state into two judicial districts, the line if division being the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude; conferred upon each of the district judges the same jurisdiction and powers which were by law given to the judge of the southern listrict of New York, and, in addition thereto, in rested the two district courts within the limits of ;heir respective districts with all the jurisdiction and powers in all civil cases then exercised ly the Arcuit courts of the United States.