who had cast his fortunes in the Golden State at the outset, when the
gold boom was on. Until secession was imminent, Gwin served his adopted
state well enough. His encouragement of the Pony Express enterprise has
already been pointed out. It is doubtful if he were statesman enough to
have foreseen the significant part this organization was to play in the
early stages of the War. Otherwise his efforts in its behalf must have
been lacking - though the careers of political adventurers like Gwin are
full of strange inconsistencies[17].

Speaking in the Senate, on December 12, 1859, Gwin declared, that he
believed that "all slave holding states of this confederacy can
establish a separate and independent government that will be impregnable
to the assaults of all foreign enemies." He further went on to show that
they had the power to do it, and asserted that if the southern states
went out of the Union, "California would be with the South." Then, as a
convincing proof of his duplicity, he had these pro-rebel statements
stricken from the official report of his speech, that his constituents
might not take fright, and perhaps spoil some of the designs which he
and his scheming colleagues had upon California. Of course these remarks
reached the ears of his constituents anyhow, and though prefaced by a
studied evasiveness on his part, they contributed much to the feeling of
unrest and insecurity that then prevailed along the Coast.

It is of course a well-known fact that California never did secede, and
that soon after the war began, she swung definitely and conclusively
into the Union column. The danger of secession was wholly potential. Yet
potential dangers are none the less real. Had it not been for the
determined energies of a few loyalists in California, led by General E.
A. Sumner and cooperating with the Federal Government by means of the
swiftest communication then possible - the Pony Express - history today,