Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly Volume 3 Article 5 Number 3 Summer 1976 1-1-1976 Our California Constitutions: Retrospections in This Bicentennial Year Leon Thomas David Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/ hastings_constitutional_law_quaterly Part of the Constitutional Law Commons Recommended Citation Leon Thomas David, Our California Constitutions: Retrospections in This Bicentennial Year, 3 Hastings Const. L.Q. 697 (1976). Available at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_constitutional_law_quaterly/vol3/iss3/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly by an authorized editor of UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Our California Constitutions: Retrospections In This Bicentennial Year By LEON THOMAS DAviD* I. Early History A. Prologue While the Bicentennial of our nation has focused attention on the great historic events which took place in 1776 on the eastern seaboard, one cannot ignore the western shores of our country. This year also marks the Bicentennial of the founding of San Francisco's mission and the establishment of its presidio garrison, around which the great city has developed. Through its port would come the major portion of the great mass migration begun in 1849.1 Similarly, another vast influx would follow World War II, making California the most populous state of the Union.2 As Bishop George Berkeley declared, "Westward the course of Empire takes its way," and in this Bicentennial, the circle has been completed. The course of world affairs has extended our -national influence to the perimeters of the Orient, from whence, some assert, the surge of civilizations began.