The spirit of emigration which is carrying off thousands to California so far from dying away increases and expands every day. All classes of our citizens seem to be under the influence of this extraordinary mania... What will this general and overwhelming spirit of emigration lead to? Will it be the beginning of a new empire in the West, a revolution in the commercial highways of the world, a depopulation of the old States for the new republic on the shores of the Pacific?

Every day men of property and means are advertising their possessions for sale, in order to furnish them with means to reach that golden land. Every city and town is forming societies either to cross the Isthmus or to double Cape Horn... Poets, philosophers, lawyers, brokers, bankers, merchants, farmers, clergymen--all are feeling the impulse and are preparing to go and dig for gold and swell the number of adventurers to the new El Dorado.

Part I, Resource 3-4c

Page 16

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