" Still it had its faults, the
greatest of which was the power given the legislature over public moneys
and lands, as well as the chance it allowed for dishonesty in voting.
Unfortunately many of the delegates to the convention which was to make
the new constitution were foreigners who knew very little of American
manners, customs, and laws, and few of them were among the deeper
thinkers of the state, men who had had experience in lawmaking. That the
new constitution is not much better than the old, many who helped in the
making of it will agree. It was adopted in May, 1879. Since that time it
has received a number of changes by means of amendments voted for by the
people, and in spite of whatever errors it has contained, the state
under it has gone forward to a high degree of prosperity.
In 1875, during the administration of Governor Pacheco, the first native
state governor, an invitation was extended to native-born boys of San
Francisco to take part in the Fourth of July celebration. A fine body of
young men were thus assembled, of whom Hittell in his story of San
Francisco says, "They were unparalleled in physical development and
mental vigor, and unsurpassed in pride and enthusiasm for the land that
gave them birth.
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