their interest, I referred to the charge made against me of being
an abolitionist, and denounced it as a base calumny. In proof of
the charge I was told that I had a brother in New York who was a
free-soiler. So I had, I replied, and a noble fellow he is--God bless
him wherever he may be. But I added, I have another brother who is a
slaveholder in Tennessee, and with which one, I asked, in the name
of all that is good, were they going to place me. I wondered if these
"honorable" men, who sought by such littleness to defeat me, did not
find out whether I did not have some other relatives,--women, perhaps,
who believed in things unearthly and spiritual,--whose opinions they
could quote to defeat me. Shame on such tactics, I said, and the crowd
answered by loud cheering. I then went on to give my views of our
government, of the relation between the general government of the
Union and the government of the States, to show that the former
was created for national purposes which the States could not well
accomplish--that we might have uniformity of commercial regulations,
one army and one navy, a common currency, and the same postal system,
and present ourselves as one nation to foreign countries--but that all
matters of domestic concern were under the control and management of
the States, with which outsiders could not interfere; that slavery
was a domestic institution which each State must regulate for itself,
without question or interference from others. In other words, I made
a speech in favor of State Rights, which went home to my hearers, who
were in great numbers from the South. I closed with a picture of the
future of California, and of the glories of a country bounded by two
oceans. When I left the platform the cheers which followed showed that
I had carried the people with me. McCarty, my opponent, followed, but
his speech fell flat. Half his audience left before he had concluded.

The election took place a week from the following Monday. I remained