Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1848-04-14
From the Washington Union, I'd inst.
VALUE OF THE PROPOSED ACQUISITION

demnlty which we were to obtain by the trea-
ty, and boldly declared that it would not be
worth a dollar. We published letter on
Thursday from an intelligent officer of the ar
my, who writes from Santa Fe in January
last, and describes the territory, and resources,
and value of New Mexico, from personal in
spection. His testimony upsets all the decla-
rations of Mr. Webster in relation to that ter
ritOry.
In regard to California, we call into court
gentleman whose opinion is held in great es-
TEEN by The wing party, and for whose char
acter we have sincere respect. We mean
Gen'l Waddy Thompson, of South Carolina,
who was minister in Mexico in 1871, and, af-
ter his return, published his 'Recollections of
Mexico" What does he say of California
owe refer to the extract from his work, quo
ted by the ''Baltimore Republican.'') Does
he value it at only dollar? Certainly not.
On the contrary, he pays the following tribute
to the value of the country
From all the information have received
and have been inquisitive upon the sub
iect-I am we'll satisfied that there is not on
this continent any country of the same extent
as little desirable as Oregon, NOR ANY IN THE
WORLD WHICH COMBINES AS MANY ADVANTAGES
AS CALIFORNIA.
"With the exception of the valley of the
Willamette, there is scarcely any portion of
Oregon which is inhabtable, except for the
most worthless of ala hunting population !;
and the valley of the Willamette is of very
small extent In the south, the only port is
at the Columbia river and that is no port at
all, as the loss of the Peacock, and other of
our vessels, has proven. To say nothing of
other harbors in California, that of San Fran
cisco is capacious enough for the navies of the
world and its shores are covered with enough
timber-a species of the live oak-to build
those navies If man were 10 ask of God
climate, he would ask just such one as that
of California, if he had ever been there
There is no portion of our western country
which produces all the grains as we'll. have
been told by more than one person, on whom
/ entirely relied, that they had known whole
fields to produce-a quantity so incredible that
[ will not state it. The whole face of the
country is covered with the finest oats, grow
ing wild, sugar, rice, and cotton, and there is
their own congenial climate. Besides all these,
the richest mines of gold and silver have been
discovered there; and the pearl fisheries have
always been sources of the largest profits and
more than these, there are the markets of In
dia and China, with nothing intervening but
the calm and stormIess Pacific ocean,"
After specifying other advantages which
might accrue from the acquisition of Califor-
MIA. Mr.. 7. says:
81 will not say what is our policy in re-
gard to California. Perhaps it is better that it
remain in the hands of weak power like
Mexico, and that all the maritime powers may
have the advantage of its ports. But one thing
[ will say-that 1T WILL BE WORTH WAR OF
TWENTY YEARS to prevent England acquiring
it; which | have the best reasons for beiev-
ing she desires to do, and just as good reasons
for believing that she will not do, if it costs a
war with this county,
Is California, then, not worth dollar to
us ?-particularly the Bay of San Francisco,
for which Mr.. Webster himself would have
paid several millions of dollars The last sus-
picions of Mr.. Thompson are confirmed by
additional revelations since he wrote his book
Mr.. Dix, in the speech which he recently de-
lvered on the California bill, proves, from the
memoir and documents of Col. Fremont, that
if it had not been for his exertions, the scheme
of Mcnamara, the agent for obtaining enor-
nous grants of land, ostensibly for Irish emf
grants, would have been carried out Mr.. D.
showed, by reference to the stealthy move
ments of Great Breitain in the Mosquito coun-
try, and in Yucatan, that she was anxious to
plant her lever in Central America-to extend
her commercial resources and her political
power-to connect the two oceans through
the isthmus of Nicaragua. In further illus
tration of the same views, Mr. D. produced
the intrigue of Mcnamara in California, and
the benefit which Col. Fremont had rendered
by defeating it, and subsequently smoothing
the way for our acquisition of that country.
Another aOarning Uoice from Merico-We
can scarcely say anything among ourselves
which is not repeated in the ear of Mexico
Her press re-echoes our own. The clamors
) of the opposition, the murmurs of our orators,
or the attacks Of the press, are reported in her