1849—Gold Rush madness threatened to destroy California
while Congress was locked in a debate over slave states. Newly-appointed
Military Governor Bennet C. Riley took matters in his own hands and called a
constitutional convention. Forty-eight elected delegates came to Monterey.
Their socio-economic backgrounds were as diverse as their ages. Yet, they all
believed that what they were doing was critical to the future of California. The
Delegates of 1849 brings to light for the first time the life stories of all
forty-eight “founding fathers.”
