The story of the American West is a story of emigration—hundreds of thousands of pioneers heading West, originally to areas west of the Mississippi River, and later to areas west of the Rockies, all the way to the Pacific Ocean. When news that gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in Northern California in 1848, what had been a slow-but-steady stream of settlers moving west became a mad dash of people from all over America and the World, by land and by sea. The first news of the discovery of gold reached New York in April 1848, when the New York Herald first reported it. But it wasn’t until December 1848 that the U.S. government acknowledged the discovery, when President James K. Polk confirmed it in his address to Congress. The news immediately triggered a massive stampede to California in 1849, as the quest for quick riches led thousands of men to the gold fields of the western Sierras. These first prospectors came to be called the “49’ers,” and the name stuck.
Almost overnight, San Francisco became a hive of activity and was transformed into a growing metropolis. San Francisco Bay became a major port where hundreds of ships arrived from all parts of the world bringing new settlers and provisions. Within a few years, a merchant class emerged, along with banks, stores, doctors, lawyers, and all the accoutrements of civilization. But in 1849, almost all this was missing. California was not yet a state and had only recently been acquired from Mexico via the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed on February 2, 1848. Before the Treaty, San Francisco’s population was a few hundred people. By 1852, the population was almost 40,000—a geometric increase in people, and conflicts. While there was a military presence, lawlessness prevailed in the gold fields, where prospectors staked their claims and sometimes had to defend them against competing claims. Violence was not uncommon. Many historians argue that the Gold Rush was effectively over by 1855, and most of the easiest accessible gold deposits had been mined out even earlier.
Despite the state’s relatively new status as an American territory, California’s business and political leaders were quick to take steps to achieve statehood, and to establish a government that would support the growing economy, and protect the state’s citizens from outlaws, bandits, Indians, and other external threats. Many Northern political leaders back East also favored statehood for more tactical reasons—the hope was that California would be a “free” state where slavery would be outlawed, to counter-act any moves by Southern political leaders to add more slave states in the west (although the next Western state admitted to the Union was not until a decade later, when Oregon became a state in 1859).
The path to California statehood officially began on September 1, 1849, when a Constitutional Convention convened in Monterey, California, attended by 48 delegates from around the state. The composition of the delegates is noteworthy. According to a Fact Sheet prepared by the California State Archives, only six members of the delegation had been born in California; nineteen had been in California for less than three years; and almost all the delegates originally hailed from Eastern states. The ages of the delegates ranged from twenty-five to fifty-three. The diversity of the delegates was acknowledged at the conclusion of the debates, in words that well capture the spirit of the proceedings:
“Although born in different climes, coming from different States, imbued with local feelings, and educated perhaps with predilections for peculiar institutions, laws and customs, the delegates assembled in Convention, as Californians, and carried on their deliberations in a spirit of amity, compromise, and mutual concession for the public weal.”
One of the major issues the delegates addressed was slavery (one of the “peculiar institutions” alluded to in the preceding quote). A number of the delegates were strong proponents of slavery, and at points, the convention was at an impasse over the issue. It took some persuasion, but the final draft of the constitution ultimately included a ban on slavery. Article I Section 18 specifically stated: “neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude, unless for punishment of crimes, shall ever be tolerated in this state.” However, Article II, “Right of Suffrage,” stated in Section 1 that those entitled to vote included only “every white male citizen of the United States, and every white male citizen of Mexico, who shall have been elected to become a citizen of the United States.” The same section provided that the Legislature could, by a two-thirds vote, extend voting rights to “Indians or the descendants of Indians, in such special cases as such proportion of the legislative body may deem just and proper.” No mention was made of the possibility of black Americans having the right to vote. Sadly, this was not an uncommon circumstance in the United States in 1849.
The new constitution addressed a myriad of other matters, including the creation of a court system, militias, schools, a legislature, etc. Most importantly, a “Declaration of Rights” was included in the constitution, which set forth the right to trial by jury, the right of habeas corpus, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, and freedom of speech. The very first freedom set forth in the constitution closely mirrored our Declaration of Independence:
“all men are by nature free and independent, and have certain inalienable rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining safety and happiness.”
The debates on slavery and other thorny issues were recorded in extraordinary detail in the “Report of the Debates of the California Convention,” which runs to over 1,000 pages; it can be accessed here. The final draft of the California Constitution was approved on October 13, 1849, following 37 days of deliberations. The constitution was overwhelmingly ratified a month later, and the first California legislature sat for the first time on December 15, 1849, in San Jose. A year later, California was officially admitted as a new state on September 9, 1850. The 1849 California Constitution was amended only three times in thirty years, in 1856, 1862 and 1871. A new California Constitution was enacted in 1879, which was subsequently amended fifty-two times in the space of three years.
On this 175th anniversary of the first California Constitution, we honor the memories of all those early California settlers from the Gold Rush era who came West to establish a new state, and whose leaders convened in Monterey to enact a wide-ranging set of laws by which the diverse people of California agreed to govern themselves. We are indebted to all of them for their tenacious efforts, which gave rise to one of the greatest states in American history.