The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-02-21
A Card from MIR. A. q. Brown.
HOUSE OF KEPREsENrArIvEs,1
February % 1870

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
February 20, 1850. :
In the Republic, of this morning, find ga card'
from Mr.. VIM. Carey Jones, in which objection Is
interposed to the use of his name in a resolution
introduced by myself in the House of Representa-
tives on Monday. Mr.. j. was late secretary to
the Board of Commissioners for settling Mexican
claims He resigned this post and went to Cali
fornia, as was generally said at the time by the
newspapers, as an agent or bearer of dispatches
for the Government. My alusion to him was as a
public man thus engaged abroad in the employ of
the Government. If the general impression has
been TO Mr. Jones's visit to California,
if he went there as private gentleman, and not
as Government employee, then regret the in
PRODUCTION of his name in my resolution. But, if
he went as the agent of the Government, l insist
that, representative and as an American citi-
zen, have right to inquire what was the nature
of his mission, and in what manner he discharged
it.
have believed, and now believe, that the Ad-
ministration used its influence to induce the people
of California to exclude slavery from that Terri
tory. As small part of the evidence on which
this opinion is based, / here insert an extract
from letter Of Bayard Taylor, written in Cali
fornia, and published in the Republic ON the 18th
instant
"The assertion of the Evening Post, which no.
ticed in The Tribune, that the Government sought
to keep the constitution Of California silent the
subject Of slavery, is entirely false. II is and
every where understood here, that our administra-
tion at Washington earnestly desired that the ques-
ton should be settled at once and for ever. The
only objections which were privately urged (none
were made in the conventon) against making Cal
ifornia a free State were on these very grounds,
from members of the Locofoco party"
If the assertion is false that the Government
sought to keep the constitution Of California silent
on the subject Of slavery, what to infer but
that the Government sought TO procure an express
sion this subject from the so-called convention
of California? 1t is said that the Government did
not interfere one way or the other; then how came
IL to be "every where understood that the Admin
istraton earnestly desired that the question should
be settled at once and for evers' What is this but
an interference in the question,
By what agency was it everywhere made known
that Z" our Administration desired 90 this CUES
ton settled at and forever by the people o.
California? This the question present TO my
mind when penned the resolution, and Il was be-
cause Mr.. Jones had, supposed, been sent "a
California agent, that wished 70 know II
Il was by his agency that this desire Of 5unin-
istration thus every where made known. II
Mr.. Jones was in the employ Of the Government,
my inquiry is pertinent II he was not, ] regret
the use Of his name in the resolution.
The hope Of Mr.. Jones, rather gratutousy eI-
pressed, that would make known the information
on which based my inquiry, and thus save my.
self from imputations which must otherwise arise
does not, think, demand any special notice.
may, however, say that have generally found
myself quite competent to resist unjust imputa
tions; and Mr.. Jones need not, therefore, Civ,
himself any further concern on that point.
A. G. BROWN.
L Int r,lcnan 4