The daily national Whig. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1847-1849, 1849-01-11
From the New York Tribune.
GOVERNING CALIFORNIA.

ne trade oil governing Is one Tor which
every human being sconceits' that he has q
natural genius, II the post Of autocrat Of all
the Russas were offered tomorrow to each
Of our Democratic youth Of fifteenth twenty,
we suspect there would be found no boy and
not many girls so modest as to refuse il
through distrust Of his or her abilities~ A
rural village that could not produce three
good mechanics, even at their own apprai-
sal, will readily turn you out the raw mate
rial for dozen lawgivers and governors.
or late, this general ppclivity to the trade
Of governing has found the best field for its
theoretic demonstrations on the soil OF Cali
lornia There new region, with newly
discovered and vaguely developed capacities,
is suddenly attracting to its bosom swarms
Of eager adventures from half the area ofthe
globe. A population not exceeding fifty
thousand in September last will probably be
sweled to half a million by November next,
and perhaps to still greater number. Yam
KEGS, Europeans, Mexicans, Sandwich Is
landers, Chinese, Australians, South Amer
leans, Asiatic Russians, will hurry thither,
and ntermingle with the miserable remnant
of Aboriginal savages and the indolent, half
barbarous sprinkling Of native Calilornans
who are wholly or partly Of European an
cestry. We shall there witness the in
candescence and crystallization Of new
community on a scope hardly paraleled since
the binding Of Babel was arrested. The
active, the cunning and the strong will be
largely represented in that new social cauld-
ron, but the ignorant, the weak and the sim
pie will also be there. The virtuous, the
honest, the thrifty will be there; so will the
reckless, depraved and dissipated. Vice
will stalk unblushingly for season, and hor-
rble crimes will be committed The fana-
tics who denounce Government as wanton
usurpation and the cause Of the evils il pre-
tends to cure or at least repress, will have
chance to see, if their wilfulRess will let them
see at all, the fallacy Of their notions and the
absolute necessity, at least until the greater
majority shall be better educated and shield
ed from temptation than now,--of resolute,
powerful, peremptory Government. Cali
iornia will teach US useful lessons if we are
so wise as to observe and heed them.
But when Government is named there are
many among US not yet emancipated from
Old-World ideas Of governing-who have
no idea Of it aside from external force from
material terror. California is exposed to
crime and violence, they truly premise, and
therefore must be protected as if Nicholas
or Mehemet Ali were its sovereign. We
must send thither plenty Of hired soldiery,
and epauletted shoulders, and brass ordnance,
and cannon balls, and grape and shrapnell
shells, and thus insure the preservation of
order and personal safety
But, gentlemen, saying nothing yet Of the
heavy cost Of transportation, how do you
propose to hold your soldiers to their colors
after you shall have waited them to the Land
Of Gold' To justify the heavy expenditure
you urge, the wondrous productiveness Of its
Mineral Region must continue If not increase;
for yourarmaments are asked for on the pre-
sumption that California is the richest 'pla-
GER on earth Dispel this presumption, and
our army might as well be sent to Oregon
ay better; for there is smoldering savage
hostility to our rule in Oregon but none in
California. Now suppose Five Thousand
Regulars transported to California, and paid
even thirty dollars per month, with fair ra-
tons and clothing, do you suppose a MAORI
ty Of them would be kept in bond while in
the mountain glens and ravines all around
them men We're digging an ounce Of gold
each per day Is there any reasonable
hope that one-third Of them would hold on
Consider the materials Of which armies are
too generally composed-or, indeed, consider
any human materials exposed to such temp
tation--and Judge what is to be clearly cal
culated on. Remember that the troops, to
be useful, cannot be kept in garrison, but
must be out patrolling the Mineral Region,
tracking out offenders, apprehending deser-
tiers and protecting the wagon-trains on their
passage from the seaboard to the diggings
and back again. To our mind, the move
ment Of any considerable body Of troops to
the Paci6c--indeed, Of any troops at all
would be most prodigal folly. If the Gov
eminent would send the whole Army there,
giving every officer and soldier the option to
leave the service and dig, agreeing never
to fill up the ranks thus thinned out, we
might agree to the transfer, but not other
wise.
Instead Of undertaking to govern Califor-
MIA by the sabre and bayonet, our plan would
be to tell the tens ofthousands rushing thither,
Men I! govern yourselves! Most Of you
are intelligent and capable; you go there
to make and save something F; you have
all a common interest in good order and
equal justice: Whoever robs or Injuries
or delrauds is the deadly enemy Of ninety
nine in every hundred Of you. The land
is ours, but you are free to use It; the
gold is ours, but you are free to dig it go,
then, and take it, but make ample provi-
sion among you fol the security Of life and
property Establish courts, adopt laws,
organize patrols and deal justly with ofen-
ders, and we will deal as generously with
you as can reasonably be asked Such
is the spirit in which we would provide for
governing California.
That offences, outragea, crimes, would
still pc committed, we do not doubt, for hu-
man nature is far from perfect, in California
pr elsewhere But by taking this course