Burlington hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1845-185?, 1850-04-18
CALIFOR MA.
REPORT OF HON. T. BUTLER KING

REPORT OF HON. T. BUTLER KING.
WASHINGTON, March 22d, 1850.
SrR: In obedience to your instructions, dated the
I'd Of April last, proceeded to California by way
Of the lsthmus OF Panama. and arrived at San Fran
cisco on the fourth day Of June.
The steamer in which took passage was the
fl st conveyance that reached California with intel
gence Of the Inauguration of President Taylor and
the appointment Of his Cabinet, and that Congress
had failed to aid the Executive in providing gov
eminent for the people Of that Territory. The
greatest anxiety was naturally felt and mantle ted
to ascertain the cause of this neglect the part of
the of the United states, and what steps
duty to themselves required them to take, in the
painful and embarrassing position in which they
were placed, for their protection and welfare.
A brief sketch Of their condition will explain the
cause of this anxiety.
The discovery Of the gold mines had attracted a
very large number Of citizens Of the United States
to that territory, who had never been accustomed TO
any other than American law. administered by A
merican courts. There they found their rights OF
property and person subject to the uncertain and
frequently most oppressive operation of laws writ
ten in language they did not understand, and found
ed on principles, in many respects, new to Them
They complained that the alcaldes, or judges, most
Of whom had been appointed or elected before the
immigration had commenced, were not lawyers by
education profession, and being Americans. they
were Of course, nnacQuainted with the laws OF Mex
leo, or the principles Of the civil law on which they
are founded.
As our own laws, except for the collection OF
revenue, the transmission of the mails, and estab-
lishment of post Offices had not been extended over
that Territory, the laws Of Mexico, they existed
at the conclusion Of the treaty Of Guadalupe Hdal-
60, regulating the relations Of the inhabitants OF
California with each other sarily remained in
force u yet there was not single volume contain
ing those laws, as far as know or believe, III the
whole Territory except, perhaps, in the Governors
Office, at Monterey.
The magistrates, therefore, could not procure
them, and the administration IF justice was neces-
sarily, as unequal and uctuating the opinions Of
the judges were conflicting and variable.
There were no fee-bis to regulate costs, and
consequently, the most cruel exactions, in many
instances, were practised.
The greatest confusion prev allied respecting titles
to property, and the decision Of suits, involving the
most important rights, very large sums of none
depended upon the dictum Of the judge.
The sale of the territory of Mexico to the United
States had necessarily cut off dissolved the laws
regulating the granting procuring titles to land;
and, as our own land-laws had not been extended
over it, the people were compelled to receive such
titles were offered to them, without the means OF
ascertaining whether they were valid not.
Litigation was so expensive and precarious, that
injustice and oppression were frequently endured,
rather than resort to so uncertain remedy.
Towns and cities were springing into existence
many Of them without charters or any legal right to
organize municipal authorities, or to tax property
or the citizens, for the establishment of police,
the erection of prisons, or providing any OF those
means for the protection of life and property which
necessary in all civil communities, and es-
pecially among people mostly strangers to each
other.
Nearly one million and half Of dollars had been
paid into the custom -houses, as duties imported
goods, before our revenue laws had been extended
over the country; and the people complained bit
terly that they were thus heavily taxed without be-
ing provided with government for their protec-
ton, laws which they could under allow
Ah thA ernhtf ~ ho nptu
nation.
While anxiously waiting the action Of Congress,
oppres sed and embarrassed by this state Of affairs,
and feeling the pressing nece ssity ofappyng such
remedies as were in their power and circumstance
seemed to justify, they resolved TO substitute laws
OF their for the existing system, and to estab
ish tribunals for their proper and faithful admins
tration.
In obedience, therefore, to the extraordinary ex-
gences Of their condition, the people Of the city of
San Francisco elected members to form Legisla-
ture, and clothed them with full powers to pass
laws.
The communities Of sonoma and Of Sacramento
city followed the example.
Thus were three legislative bodies organized; the
two most distant being only one hundred and thirty
miles apart.
Other movements Of the kind were threatened,
and doubtless would have followed in other sections
of the territory had they not been arrested by the
formation Of a State government.
While the people OF California were looking to
Congress for Territorial government. it was quite
evident that such Organi was daily becom-
ing less suited to their condition, which was en-
tirely different from that Of any OF the Territories
out Of which the new States Of the Union had been
formed.
Those Territories had been at first slowly and
sely peopled by few hunters and farmers, who
penetrated the wilderness, or trarersed the prai-
ries in search Of game or a new home; and, when
thus gradually their population anti ed il, gov
eminent was provided for them. They, however,
haH
the ordinary pursuits Of agriculture and the various
branches Of business which usually accompany it,
to induce immigration within their borders. Sew.
eral years were required to give them sufficient
population and wealth to place them in a condition
to require, or enable them to support State gov
eminent.
Not so with California. The discovery of the
vast m .talc and mineral wealth in her mountains
had already attracted to her in the space Of twelve
months. more tSan one hundred thousand people
an extensive cImme zee had sprung up with China.
the ports of Mexico on tiic Pacific Chilli and Aus
tralia.
Hundreds Of vessels from the Atlantic ports Of
the Union, freghted with our mSnufa cures and
agricultural products, and filed with our :"low-
citizens Ind arrived or were on their pas rouSd
Cape Horn that in the month of June last there
were than three hundred sea going vessels IN
the port Of San Francisco.
California has border on the Pacific of ten de- !
grees Of latitude, and several important harbors
which have been surveyed; or is there buoy
a beacon, lighthouse, or fertilization, on the |
whole coast.
There are docks for the repair of national or !
mercantile vessels nearer than New York, a dis |
lance Of some twenty thousand miles round Cape |
Horn.
All these things. together with the proper regu-
lations Of the gold region, the quick silver mine
survey and disposition OF the public lands. the
justment OF land titles. the establishment Of mint
and Of marine hospitals, required the immediate |
formation Of perfect civil governmcn mt than |
California then had and the fostering care of Con-
gress and the Executive.
California had, as it were by magic, become |
state or great wealth and power. One short year |
had given her commercial importance but little |
inferior to that of the most powerful Of the old |
States. She had passed her majority at a single |
bound. and might justly he regarded as fully emit
tied to take her place as equal among her sisters
Of the Union.
When, therefore, the reality became known 10 |
the people OF that Territory that the Government
had done nothing to relieve them from the evils and
embarrassments under which they suffering, |
and seeing no probability of any change the sub
ject which divided Congress, they adopted with |
unexampled unanimty and promptitude, the only |
course which lay open to them-the immediate for
nation Of State government.
They were induced to take this step not only for
the that it promised the most speedy remedy
for present difficulties, but because the great and
rapidly growing interests of the Territory demand
ed it; and all rejecting men saw, at a glance, that
it ought not to be any longer, and could not under
any circumstances, be much longer postponed.
They not only considered themselves best quail |
fed, but that they had the right to deCide far