California. Bennet Riley, Governor

Proclamation To the People of California. [Beginning:] Congress having failed at its most recent session to provide a new government for this country to replace that which existed on the annexation of California ... Given at Monterey, California, this third day of June, A.D. 1849. [Signed in type:] B. Riley, Brevet Brig. Genl. U.S.A., and Governor of California. [Monterey, 1849]



Broadside, folio (17 3/4 x 13 in.; 450 x 330 mm); a few inches of blank margin cut at lower left, small stain in lower right corner, formerly folded. Russet half-cloth clamshell box, gilt-stamped title label on spine.

Thomas W. Streeter (sale, lot 2555) — Harry J. Sonneborn (sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, 5 June 1980, lot 115

Streeter sale 2555 (this copy); AII, California, 92; Greenwood 119 (who locates this and three other copies-Pasadena, Huntington; Berkeley, Bancroft;  Washington, National Archives); Wagner, California Imprints 31

One of four known copies.

Issued in both English and Spanish, the American military governor's proclamation calls for the election on 1 August of thirty-seven delegates for a Constitutional Convention to be held at Monterey on 1 September.