is real empire.

We think we may claim to have inherited physical and intellectual vigor,
courage, invention, and enterprise; and the systems of education prevailing
among us, open to all the stores of human science and art. The Old World
and the Past were allotted by Providence to the pupilage of mankind. The
New World and the Future seem to have been appointed for the maturity of
mankind, with the development of self-government, operating in obedience to
reason and judgment.

We may, then, reasonably hope for greatness, felicity, and renown,
excelling any hitherto attained by any nation, if, standing firmly on the
continent, we lose not our grasp on either ocean. Whether a destiny so
magnificent would be only partially defeated, or whether it would be
altogether lost by a relaxation of the grasp, surpasses our wisdom to
determine, and happily it is not important to be determined. It is enough,
if we agree, that expectations so grand, yet so reasonable and so just,
ought not in any degree to be disappointed. And now, it seems to me, that
the perpetual unity of the empire hangs on the decision of this day and
this hour.

California is already a State,--a complete and fully appointed State. She
never again can be less than that. She never again can be a province or a
colony; nor can she be made to shrink or shrivel into the proportions of a
federal dependent territory. California, then, henceforth and forever, must
be, what she is now,--a State.

The question whether she shall be one of the United States of America, has
depended on her and on us. Her election has been made. Our consent alone
remains suspended; and that consent must be pronounced now or never.