Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1850-03-30
CALICO r N IA.
REPORT OF Hos. T. BUTLER KING.

III opeuencc p" youi mstIucuoHs, uatou the Oh VI
April last proceeded to California by way Of the shmus
of Panama, and arrived at San Francisco the fourth day
Of June.
The steamer in which took passage the first convey
that reached California with intelligence of the in
suguaon of President Taylor and the appointment Of his
Cabinet and that Congress had failed aid the Executive
providing Government for the people of that Territory
The greatest anxiety naturally felt and manifested to
certain the Of this neglect the part Of the Govern
ment of the United States, and what steps duty to them
selves required them take in the painful and embarrassing
position which they placed for their protection and
welfare. .... s. -. s.
brief sketch of their condition will explain the Of
this anxiety.
The discovery Of the gold mines had attracted very large
number Of citizens Of the United States to that territory who
had been accustomed any other than American law,
administered by American There they found their
rights Of property and person subject to the uncertain, and
frequently most oppressive operation laws written in Ian
guage they did understand and founded principles
many respects, to them They complained that the
acaldes, judges, most Of whom had been appointed
elected before the immigration had commenced were not law
yers by education profession and being Americans they
werc Ut course unacquained with the laws of Mexico the
principles of the civil law which they founded.
As our own laws except for the collection revenue the
transmission Of the mails and establishment of post Offices
had not been extended that Territory the laws Mex
CO. they existed the conclusion of the treaty. of Guad
lupe Hdago, regulating the relations of the inhabitants
california with each other necessarily remained in force
yet there not single volume containing those laws
far know believe, in the whole Territory except per-
haps, in the Governors Office, at Monterey.
The magistrates, therefore, could procure Them and
the administration of justice was necessarily unequal and
huctuang the opinions Of the judges conflicting and
variable. 49,"
There were TO feebi to regulate costs, and, consequent
y the mos cruel exacons in many instances praced
The greatest confusion prevailed respecting titles pro-
peIy and the decision of SUITS involving the most important
rights and large OF money, depended upon the
dcum Of the judge. -. |
The sale of the territory by Mexico to the United States
had necessarily cut off dissolved the laws regulating the
granting procuring titles to land aad own land
laws had not been extended over it. the people compel
led TO receive such titles offered them, without the
means of ascertainng whether they were valid or not.
Litigation was expensive and precarous that injustice
and oppression frequently endured, rather than resort
to uncertain remedy. ,'.. .... +
Towns and cities springing into exsence-many of
them without charters legal right organize municipal
authorities to tax property the citizens for the establish
ment of police the erection of PRISONS providing any
those means for the protection Of life and property which
necessary in all civil communities and especially among
people mostly strangers to each other.
Nearly million and half of dollars had been paid into
the customhouses, duties imported goods before
laws had been extended the country and
people planned bitterly that they thus heavily taxed
without being provided with for their protection
laws which they could understand allowed the right
While anxousy waiting the action of Congress- oppressed
and embarrassed by this state OF affairs and feeling the pres
sing necessity of applying such remedies in their
power and seemed justify, they resolved
substitute laws of their for the existing system, and
establish tribunals for their proper and faithful administration
In obedience, therefore, the extraordinary exgencie OIL
their condition, the people Of the city of San Francisco elected
members to form Legislature, aud clothed them with full
powers to pass laws .".".. VII" IT,.
The communities of sonoma and of Sacramento city fol-
lowed the example. Ill.,: ..,"
Thus three legislative bodies organized the most
distant being only hundred ana thirty miles apart.
Other movements of the kind threatened, and doubt
less would have followed in other sections OF the Territory
had they not been arrested by the formation Of State Gov
eminent. '@'. ...
While the people Of California were looking to Congress
for Territorial Government, quite evident that such
reorganization daily becoming less suited to their cond
tlon which entirely different from that Of any of the Ter
rtories of which the States of the Union had been
formed ,"'..."
Those Territories had been FIST slowly and sparsey
peoped by few hunters and farmers who penetrated the
Wilderness traversed the praes in search OF game
new home and when thus gradually their population
ranted it, government provided for them. They how
had foreign thing beyond the od
nary pursuits Of agriculture and the various branches Of bust
which usually accompany it, to induce immigration within
their borders Several years required give them suf
fcient population and wealth place them in condition
require, enable them to support, State Government.
Not with California. The discovery of the vast metallic
and mineral wealth in her mountains had already attracted
her, in the space Of twelve months than hundred
thousand peoples and extensive bad sprung
with China, the ports Of Mexico the Pacific, Chill and
Australia.
Hundreds of vessels from the Atlantic ports of the Union
feghted with manufactures and agricultural products
and filled with feow-citizens, had arrived on
their passage round Cape Horn that in the month Of June
las, there than three hundred going vessels
the port OF San Francisco.
California has border the Pacific of ten degrees Of la
tude, and several important habos which have been
surveyed nor is there buoy, beacon lighthouse, or
fortifcation on the whole coast.
There docks for the repair Of national mercantile
vessels than New York. distance of some twenty
thousand miles round Cape Horn.
All these things, together with the proper regulations OF
the gold region the quicksilver mnes the survey DISCO
sion of the public lands tie adjustment of land titles the
establishment of mint and of marine hospitals required
the immediate formation of perfect civil government,
than California then had and the fostering Congress
and the-Execu,ive.
California bad, i; by magic, become State OF
great wealth and power One short year had given her
commercial importance but little Inferior that of the
powerful OF the old States She had passed her minority
single bound and justly be regarded fully entitled
to take her place equal among her Of the Union
When therefore, the reality became known people of
that Territory that the Government bad done nothing
lieve them from the evils and endorsements under which
they suffering, and seeing probability of any change
the suhec, which divided Congress- they adopted with
most unexan led unanmy and promptiude only course
which lay opin hem-the immediate formation Of State
government.
They induced to take this step only for the reason
that it promise he most speedy remedy for present difficult
ties but because the great and rapidly growing of the
Territory demanded il and oil rejecting men saw at a
glance that ought TO be any longer, and could not I'M
der any circumstances, be muca longer postponed.