MR. JOHNSON. Mr. President: I am commissioned by my fraters, on the floor of this Convention, to rise to a question of privilege. It is a matter, sir, which concerns vitally the feelings of this body, and as they believe, and so I believe, yourself as the President. In its retrospect it dates back to the organization of this Convention. In its prospect it reaches forward to the approaching close of our labors, when we shall bid a long adieu to this hall and return to our respective homes. Five months and more have passed away since we came to these halls comparative strangers. Here was the young man, just from college, crowned with the fragrant benedictions of Alma Mater; the matured lawyer, the victor of many forensic triumphs, fresh from his briefs; the old statesman, still well preserved and displaying all the fire, vivacity, and intellectual acumen, of which we have heard our seniors speak aforetimes. There were others representing other professions, other pursuits, and the dignity of labor.

from her otherwise fair features shall gradually disappear the Mongolian
blotch. Then, and only then, will her beautiful face become the mirror,
as it were, of a free, happy, homogeneous, and assimilating people.
the hand which now holds it will soon hold it no more; and after the
But the shadows are lengthening. The gavel will soon be unheeded;
uttering of a word my mission will have been accomplished. That word
has been said time and again, by all classes and conditions of society. It
was whispered it may be many years ago by some one on this floor,
into the ear of some gentler being, some fond parent, some trusted mon-
itor, the bulwark of his youth. It is a word which will be uttered by
us many times to come, to wife, to child, father, mother, friend, but
always in sorrow; a word which dissolving nature, before it breathes its
last, will rally all of its energies to articulate; but all must say it, and
all must feel it. That word is: Farewell!

For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey,

This pleasing anxious being e'er resigned;
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,

Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind?

It

Mr. President, I have nothing farther to say on this question of privilege. "Finis" is written on the parchment roll which contains the new Constitution; that word which has been said so often and by so many in this changing kaleidoscopic life of ours; that word which is destined to intensify the bitter sorrow of so many hearts in time to come, whether they beat in the breasts of prince or peasant, the learned or the unlearned, must now be said by the Delegates of this Convention. My fraters say, I say, we all say, FAREWELL TO MR. PRESIDENT. [Applause.] In that motley group there came also one, the observed of all observ- PRESIDENT HOGE. Mr. Chairman: I return to you, and the geners, "frisking beneath the burdens of three-score," and in his hands we tlemen you represent, my most grateful thanks for the kind and flatterplaced the gavel of command. To govern such a heterogeneous body, ing terms in which you have caused this gift to be presented to me. to assuage their turbulence, to direct aright their efforts and aspirations, overpowers me. Mr. Chairman, I hope you will believe me when I say required a man of clear head, great intellect, and moral resources, a I am essentially a modest man. [Laughter.] The terms in which you strong will, and I might add, an unimpaired physical constitution. have presented this very elegant, and to me, most appropriate gift, We have found you, sir, equal to the emergency. During the prev-almost destroys the power of reply. I have endeavored, in the position alence of the stormy debate, you have preserved your own equanimity in which this Convention in its kindness placed me, to perform its of mind and of temper. However complicated the questions which duties faithfully, impartially, and with the honest purpose of advancing have arisen, your thorough knowledge of parliamentary law, and your the deliberations of this body and conducting them to a successful terlong experience in presiding over deliberative bodies, have served you mination. If, therefore, in the exercise of those duties, I have succeeded as the thread of Ariadne served Theseus, as a means of escape from the in winning your appropriation, I am well rewarded. I shall treasure this labyrinth. Your conservative demeanor, and gentle courtesies have beautiful gift for all time. Every time I look into its pages it will bring also inspired us with the most friendly sentiments. Let these mute but back pleasant memories of hours that we spent together here; and when learned witnesses by my side, attest the genuineness of this expression. I am gone they will be handed down to my children, to remind them, Here is Dickens with his touching pathos and effervescing humor, as he in after years, that their father had merited your kind consideration tells of some new variety which he has just discovered in the genus and approbation. Gentlemen, we are now about to part, many of us, homo. It may be some quaint original like "Little Paul Dombey," perhaps, to meet no more; I beg, therefore, that you will hold me in some quainter still like, "Jack Bunsby," or "Captain Cuttle," or some kind remembrance, and I assure you that I shall hold you all in pleasimmaculate conception like " Agnes." Here is Motley, who discourses ant memory. I wish you a happy return to your homes and a prosperlearnedly about a half submerged country where William the Silent laid ous future. [Continued applause.] the foundation of a great State. Here is our own Irving, never so entertaining, as when. with face all aglow, he talks about the legends of Sleepy Hollow, and the weird country of the Catskills. Here is De Quincy, the learned opium eater, who can discount the heathen Chinese himself in opium eating, or at least, he can describe its effects in words of more thundering sound; and here is that brilliant essayist, Montaigne, who has laid all history and personal observations under contribution to "point a moral or to adorn a tale." Here is Macaulay, who deems it not beneath the dignity of his pen to portray the changing manners and customs of a great people, in his history of England; and finally here, in order, Sheridan, whose oration on the charge against Hastings, extracted from Fox that famous eulogy, All that have ever heard, all that I have ever read, when compared with it, dwindled into nothing and vanished like vapor before the sun." These learned witnesses, Mr. President, be pleased to take home with you, and knowing your eminently social turn of mind, we have no doubt you will give them a warm reception, and ensconce them in your best apartments. The shapes they assume are somewhat Protean, being an even hundred in number. So many guests at one time would ordinarily occasion some disarrangement of a household; but your record for hos-uniform kindness throughout this tedious session. I have endeavored pitality we have never heard questioned. Laying aside all facetiousness, Mr. President, I will make my meaning more apparent, which is, that your friends in this Convention have requested me to present you, in their name and for them, one hundred volumes of standard literary works as a slight testimonial of their respect and regard. The arch to Titus, the column to Trojan; but the works of Dickens, and Motley, and Irving, and DeQuincy, and Montaigne, and Macaulay, and Sheridan, to Mr. President. [Applause.]

We came together, many of us at least, as I said before, as strangers; I might have added, with preconceived antagonistic notions. After the constant attrition to which our views have been subjected for the last five months, I doubt not here at this late day we entertain more respect for one another, and have abated some of the overweening confidence which we had in our formulas, and in our own peculiar opinions, as constituting the only safety of the State.

The State! what shall I say of her-this beautiful land of the Occident? Long after we shall have passed away, and nothing shall remain of us but

The broken arch, the ruined wall, The chambers desolate, the portals foul, May our goodly mother, the State, survive and flourish. [Applause.] Her fresh young face was beautiful three hundred years ago, when the white sails of Drake fluttered in San Francisco Bay; still later, it retained its beauty during the gentle sway of the Mission Fathers, with their depasturing flocks; despite the Mongolian blotch it is beautiful now, with the changing colors of the orange, the olive, the grape, the waving cereals, and with the cultivated look of her proud metropolis. But it will be more beautiful when, by the adoption of the new Constitution and its practical workings, labor shall be requited for all its pains, and|

MORE RESOLUTIONS.

Resolved, That the thanks of this Convention is hereby tendered to its several
Secretaries and Journal Clerks for the efficient and faithful manner in which they
have discharged their several duties.
Adopted unanimously.

ANOTHER PRESENTATION.

MR. ESTEE. Mr. President: [To the Sergeant-at-Arms.] I am commissioned by the members of this Convention to present you, as the Sergeant-at-Arms, with a slight token of our esteem. I am instructed that it is not presented to you so much for its real value, as that you to present you with this watch and chain, and I wish to remind you may, through life, bear with you a reminder that this Convention believed that you had faithfully performed your duty. [Applause]. MR. SHERWOOD. Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Convention: I accept this gift with heartfelt thanks to all the donors who participated in it, and at the same time return to each and every member, and to each employé of the Convention, my thanks for their

to do my duty in the position to which you elected me to the best of my ability, and this beautiful token reminds me that my efforts have not been in vain. I have only to say, farther, that I hope your earnest efforts here will be duly appreciated by the people of this State, and that the Constitution which you have framed will be adopted as the fundamental law. [Applause].

MORE RESOLUTIONS.

DEBATES AND PROCEEDINGS CONS'T CONV’N.

MR. LARUE. I move that the thanks of this Convention be returned I can say to you, because you have said it, that I have endeavored to to the Pages and Porters of this Convention.

INDEX TO PROCEEDINGS.