by Paul R. Spitzzeri
On this day 176 years ago, California was admitted to the Union as the 31st state after considerable debate and division, which led to the Compromise of 1850. This package of five bills approved by Congress on 9 September included the Golden State’s admission as a free state—this was written into the California Constitution passed in December 1849. Other acts amended the Fugitive Slave Act regarding the capture and return of runaway slaves; the banning of the trade in slaves in Washington, D.C.; the creation of the Utah Territory; and the establishment of a territory of New Mexico while adjusting its boundaries with Texas.
As we continue our look into commemorations of Admission Day in Los Angeles newspapers in the decades after, we move into the 1870s, beginning with an enlightening editorial in the Los Angeles Star of 9 September 1871. It remarked that, when California joined the rest of the American states, it was “considered a great mining camp,” but widely felt that it “was not good for much else.” It was added that comments made in the many reports printed by Congress as it deliberated over the admission “and it evokes a smile at the status of the begging state.”
The piece went on that:
Time, however, rectifies all mistakes, and convinces of all errors. The timid and shrinking applicant has since proved herself the main stay of the financial resources of the country. In a very few years she took a position which astonished her sisters, and to-day she considers herself second to none in all that constitutes a free, happy, and prosperous community. In no instance on record has so great a State arisen in so few years; has a people attained such great prosperity.
In agriculture, manufacturing and mining, it was continued, “we are only on the threshold of material development” and the next decade “will exhibit still greater progress and improvement than have the two decades of our history.” California was “entering on our railway age” and the completion of new roads would be such that “their advantages will begin to be realized.” The conclusion was that “the destiny of California will be upward and onward” and “the most enthusiastic can form no conception of her greatness in the not very remote future.”
Three years, though, passed before the addition of California among the United States aroused major comment in the Angel City’s press, yet, references in the Star and Los Angeles Herald insisted that 1874 marked the 25th anniversary, though it was the 24th—perhaps they were confused by the passage of that constitution. The Star briefly noted that, at Los Angeles High School, which was beginning its second year of operation, “the High School flag was flung to the breeze yesterday in honor of the 25th anniversary of the admission of California into the Union.”
Yet, the Express, the other English-language daily in town, compounded confusion by correcting its contemporaries with further error by asserting it was the 23rd anniversary! In its number of the 11th, the Herald acted as if it knew all along that it was the 24th anniversary and referred to a general media accounting that it was the silver anniversary.
In any case, the Herald referred to the glory days of the Gold Rush by remarking that “those who struck the pay-dirt early and saved their dust have cause to rejoice,” though, for those whose toil in the field “rolling boulders for years” didn’t pan out, they “have finally settled down to hard labor and small wages,” but “will not see anything particularly amusing in the annual recurrence” of admission day.
Despite its insistence that it was the year to celebrate “A Quarter of Century,” the Star published a lengthy editorial, but noted that it was in San Francisco where the most prominent commemoration was to be conducted, as the Society of California Pioneers, of which F.P.F. Temple and his son William were members, held three days of ceremonies. It is somewhat gratifying for us at the Homestead that the author of the piece, likely publisher Benjamin C. Truman, remarked that,
the historian . . . will indite no page upon which shall be written a stranger or more attractive story than that of the birth and growth of California . . . [after repeating the view that its mines were viewed as its only important attribute] Time and experience have proved that it possesses within its borders all of the elements out which can be builded a populous and mighty State.
The agricultural bounty for which the Golden State was to be increasingly known led the writer to observe that, “it is today a granary to which the starving of other lands may bring their sacks in times of scarcity, and be sure of returning with them filled to the brim, pressed down and running over.” This included large yields of wheat, that “her vineyards are destined to furnish libations for the world” and “her orchards, fruit for a continent,” while “her mineral treasures are as exhaustless as her skies are blue.”
There was a paean to California’s unparalleled climate, of which it was added that the state “will be the refuge of the invalid,” certainly this proved true with greater Los Angeles, while it was to become “the shrine of the lover of nature in her loveliest moods, until time shall be no more.” Residents, it was asserted “have assimmilated [sic] themselves with remarkable unanimity to the character and requirements of her institutions” as well as “caught inspiration from the grandeur of her scenery and the wealth of her surroundings.”
The University of California’s second president, Daniel Coit Gilman, was quoted from a speech given to the Social Science Association of New York in May as he lauded the progress of California in 25 years [here, Gilman was likely referring to the period since the Gold Rush]. The academic chieftain lauded the “establishment of institutions designed to promote the social welfare of the people” and which “are prognostics of ultimate success.” The wonder is that this was done in a quarter-century by those who began with little money, but not only were able to “provide all the requirements of civilized society,” but established durable “institutions of morality, education, charity and religion” and which “compare favorable with institutions of its class in the older States.”
After remarking that it was challenging to explain to a group across the country “a notion of these enterprises,” Gilman undertook to try, starting with public schools and, naturally, “culminating in the State University.” With its $1.25 million endowment was the seed money for the campus and the academic programs which included science research and other subjects. He also applauded the operation of an Academy of Sciences, the State Geological Survey, libraries, institutions for the disabled and mentally ill, art associations, private educational institutions; the $2 million state capitol, and more.
The university leader told his audience that “all these foundations and expenditures for the public good” being outside of federal funding, “compare in all respects favorably with what has been accomplished in any of the older States, and speak volumes for the liberality, the intelligence and the success of the community.” Gilman closed by insisting that these attributes “indicate the triumph of good forces over bad forces, of humanity and Christian civilization over the love of material gain, or the tendency of wealth to assert itself merely in luxury, accumulation and display.”
Despite 1875 being the admission’s actual silver anniversary, it was reported that, even in San Francisco, the commemoration was “unostentatious,” while Sacramento was to have a military parade, but nothing was reported about any activities in Los Angeles nor was there any general editorializing. The positive pronouncements of 1871 and 1874, however, came at a time when the region was undergoing its first significant and sustained period of growth, which began late the prior decade, but the boom starkly and suddenly went bust at the end of August 1875 when news of a financial panic in San Francisco raced down telegraph wires to the Angel City.
The year 1876, of course, was an important one for the nation as it marked its centennial, but, when it came to Admission Day two months later, the only mention in local papers concerned Governor William Irwin proclamation that, as reported by the Express of the 8th, “it will be observed as a legal holiday, and all our public offices, courts, etc., will be closed to business.” Elsewhere, though, the paper commented that “our public officials and bankers will probably govern themselves accordingly,” while the Star only told its readers, “to-day is Admission Day, and, we believe, a legal State holiday.”
In 1877, the Star referred in some detail to an Admission Day banquet by a group of Gold Rush-era “pioneers” held at Long Branch, New Jersey, but only briefly to a military companies parade and literary exercises, meaning speeches and poems, to mark the day at San Francisco. The following year, a Society of California Pioneers event in the northern metropolis was mentioned and, while, locally, the Los Angeles Guards citizen militia, organized in 1874, paraded through the streets to show off their new uniforms, it was not stated that this had anything to do with Admission Day. Yet, on 9 September in 1878 and 1879, the Guards conducted public parades at Agricultural Park and, accompanied by a marching band, on the city streets, so there had to have been a reason why it was done on that day, though, again, not specified in the media.
As the Seventies came to a close, the Guards chose the 9th of September 1880 for an anniversary ball thrown at Military Hall, the militia’s armory located at Hill and Sixth streets near what was then called Sixth Street Park, now Pershing Square (which, however, has just been renamed Biddy Mason Square by a vote of the Los Angeles City Council). As for the status of a legal holiday, that seemed to have been in limbo since 1876, as the Express, in its number of the 6th, reported that Governor George C. Perkins issued a new proclamation for a state holiday, following petitions sent by citizens of Oakland, Sacramento and San Francisco.
Explaining why the Los Angeles Guards, which was formed with a state charter, the state’s chief executive remarked,
it being the thirtieth anniversary of the admission of California into the Union; and, whereas, the law requires the State troops to parade on that day, and as stated by the petitioners, most of the young men who are members of companies are so employed that unless the occasion is made a legal holiday they cannot participate in the parade; and, whereas, his Excellency, the President of the United States [Rutherford B. Hayes], is expected to arrive on that date, a just sense of propriety and respect to the Chief Magistrate of the nation would seem to demand from us some such recognition . . . I . . . do hereby appoint Thursday, the 9th day of September, 1880, a public holiday, and earnestly request that all business be suspended on that day throughout the State, and that the citizens thereof devote themselves to rational pleasures and enjoyments.
What exactly constituted “rational pleasures and enjoyments” wasn’t specified, but, presumably, meant parades, literary exercises, balls like that thrown by the Guards and, not, we can assume, anything involving excessive consumption of alcohol! Meanwhile, while Hayes was at the state capital, Sacramento, on the 9th, and then toured portions of northern California, he did not visit Los Angeles until the 24th, though this was the first time a sitting American president came to the Angel City.
The Los Angeles Commercial of the 9th informed its readers that “to-day is Admission Day and for the first time, pursuant to a proclamation by Gov. Perkins, a legal holiday,” despite Irwin’s 1876 announcement. Separately, as it announced there would be no edition on the 10th, remarking that this decision was “out of respect for the proclamation of he Chief Magistrate and the great historic event which it called forth.” The paper continued that it would,
observe this day as a Holiday, to give its employes [sic] an opportunity for a rest and pleasurable [and, rational] recreation, and to fix in their minds the memory of the illustrious Ninth Day of September, 1850, when the Star of California was added to the flag of the Union amid the blare of trumpets and the thunder of artillery.
The Commercial concluded its commentary by citing Senator (and future secretary of state under presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson) William H. Seward, in printed remarks from 11 March 1850 under the title of “Freedom in the New Territories” during the debate about admitting California.
Seward answered the question “Shall California Be Received?” by first observing that, upon its conquest in 1846, the possession was “unknown even to our usually immoderate desires,” except by those who recognized the potential value and use of San Francisco Bay. The Senator added that news was transmitted regarding the astounding news of vast amounts of gold there, California rapidly emerged as “more populous than the least, and richer than several, of the greatest of our thirty states.
Grandiosely referring to the controversies in admission debating, Seward mentioned “ever-changing embarrassments,” “ever-increasing responsibilities,” and the “ever-augmenting magnitude and rapidity of national vicissitudes” and, acknowledging that his powerful state of New York was to be “pressed by political and commercial rivalry by the new commonwealth,” rejoined according to the Commercial, though the paper deviated somewhat from the actual text:
Let California come in! Every new state, coming from the east or the west, from the north or the south, is always welcome. But California, which comes from the land where the West dies away in the rising East; California which bounds at once the Empire and the continent; California the youthful Queen of the Pacific with virgin robes of freedom gorgeously inlaid with gold is DOUBLY WELCOME.
In 2026, commemoration of Admission Day is, as usual, decidedly muted, though volunteers at the State Capitol Museum are holding an event today amid temperatures (like here) around 100 degrees. Among its listings of many important dates during the year, the state Department of Education encourages recognition of the day. Assembly member Tri Ta of the 70th district encompassing northwest Orange County issued a Facebook post this morning to mark Admission Day. So, there is, at least, some recognition and this post is our modest contribution to remembering how California became part of the Union 176 years ago.