The Establishment of State Government in California, 1846-1850 .  By Cardinal Goodwin , M. A. (New York: The Macmillan Company.  1914. Pp. xiv, 359. $2.00.)

California history has frequently suffered at the hands of its friends. Too often its facts, interesting enough in all conscience in themselves, have been exaggerated into a sort of fictitious romance, or perverted to coincide with preconceived notions or opinions. With neither of these defects can Mr. Goodwin's book be charged, and one welcomes it, therefore, with a sense of decided satisfaction.

The division of the work into three parts renders it convenient for ready use. The first of these, after a brief summary of early American influence in California and a review of the conquest, carries the discussion down through the establishment of military rule to the problems created by the influx of the gold seekers and the call and organization of the constitutional convention which these rendered necessary. The second deals with the work of this convention and of the chief questions confronting it. While the third takes up the actual establishment of state government and the preliminary workings of the new machinery. One chapter in this division is concerned with the national aspect of California's admission; and still another contains certain interesting statistics for the year 1850.

The student of economic and legal history will find much of interest in the volume, particularly in the chapters dealing with the convention's attitude toward banks and corporations, Governor Burnett's financial recommendations, the land question, the sources of the constitution, and the debates over the establishment of the civil or common law in the state.

Of more particular value, however, and to the reviewer's mind the essential contribution the study has made to the history of the period, is the author's treatment of the establishment of the eastern boundary and the introduction of the negro into California. With regard to both of these questions, misconception has been widely prevalent and strongly rooted. Almost without exception, earlier writers, following in the steps of Bancroft, who is prone to wander wherever his prejudices lead, without regard to fact, have seen in these issues the sinister and malignant influence of slavery, when in fact such influence did not exist. Sectionalism, Mr. Goodwin found; though not the sectionalism created by Mason and Dixon's line, but that which resulted from the divergent interests of the mining regions on the one hand and the remaining districts of the state, led by San Francisco and San José, on the other.

In this sober examination of the slavery question and restatement of the actual issues at stake in the convention, the author has conferred marked benefit upon the history of California. Indeed, he has done more—he has given another illustration of how essential it is for the sake of truth that much of our western history be rewritten by those able to consider events before the Civil War dispassionately and find as their causes other motives and interests than the sombre issue of slavery. If for no other reason than this, Mr. Goodwin's book deserves a permanent place in the historical literature of the state.

The reader will notice several outstanding defects, most of which could easily have been obviated. There is no bibliography; and if one be inclined to overlook this, he is struck at once with the fact that seldom in the footnotes does the writer specify either the edition of a work from which he quotes or the name of its publisher. Frequently also he omits even the initials of the author; and sometimes becomes lax in his citation of authorities, as, for example, on page 15, where no references whatever are made to the sources from which he has drawn his information. The style, too, grows somewhat heavy towards the end and the body of the text is unnecessarily cumbered with material that might better have been placed in appendices or addenda. A particular instance of this may be found on pages 255-258.

The author has relied very largely upon secondary authorities and government reports for his material. At times, however, he has drawn upon manuscript sources and frequently consulted the files of contemporary newspapers. On the whole his work has been done with care and discrimination and the product will prove of lasting value.

Robert G. Cleland .

How to cite:
Cleland, Robert Glass, "The Establishment of State Government in California, 1846-1850", Volume 018, Number 3, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Page 330 - 332. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v018/n3/review_21.html
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