Let me not be misunderstood. I would detract nothing from the glory of
other sections of the country. I would minimize nothing of any State's
accomplishment. Some of them have a record that is almost a synonym for
patriotism. Their tradition is our inheritance; their achievement is our
gain. Wisconsin cannot become a veritable workshop of social and
economic experiment without the nation being the beneficiary. New
England does not enrich her own literature without shedding luster on
the literature of the nation. They and theirs belong also to us and to
ours. Least of all, do I forget the old Bay State and her high tradition
- State of Hancock and Warren, of John Quincy Adams and Webster, of
Sumner and Phillips and Garrison and John A. Andrew, of Longfellow and
Lowell and Whittier and Holmes. Her hopes are my hopes; her fears are my
fears. May my heart cease its beating if, in any presence or under any
pressure, it fail to respond an Amen to the Puritan's prayer: "God save
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts."

But if they belong to us, we also belong to them. If their traditions
belong to us, so also our tradition belongs to them. We should simply
strive that California shall be given her proper proportionate place in
the history of the country. We do not find fault with them for having
taken the means of heralding abroad their story - we commend them for
it. We point to their activity so as to arouse our own people from their
amazing inaction. What have we of California done to collect, preserve
and diffuse information relating to the history of our State? And what
have other commonwealths done?

The California State Historical Society, first organized in 1853, and
incorporated in 1876, was in active existence from 1886 to 1894, and
published some valuable historical material, including Father Palou's
"Noticias," Doyle's "History of the Pious Fund," Willey's "History of