Daily Richmond times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1849-1850, 1850-04-02
CALIFORNIA.
REPORT OF HON. T. BUTLER KING.
WASHINGTON, March %, 1850.

L the lion. JOHN NJ. CLAYTON,
Secretary Of Stale.
SIR: In obedience to your instructions, Dated
1.-THE Sd of April last, proceeded to California, by
sway of the Isthmus of Panama, and arrived att
4 San Francisco on the fourth day of June.
The steamer in which took passage was the
first conveyance that reached California with intel
ggence of the Inauguration of President Taylor
and the appointment of his Cabinet, and that COM
gress had failed to aid the Executive in providing
Ia Government for the people of that Territory
1 he greatest anxiety was naturally felt and man.
zifested to ascertain the cause of this neglect on|
1.-THE part of the Government of the United States
land what steps duty to themselves required themI
I to take, in the painful and embarrassing postonI
in which they were placed, for their protection andI
! welfare.
A brief sketch of their condition will explain
5the cause of this anxiety
The discovery of the gold mines had attracted
IA very large number OF citizens of the United
Estates to that territory who had never been accus
/ toned to any other than American law, admins
q tered by American courts There they found
their rights of property and person subject to the
uncertain, and frequently most oppressive, opera
stion of laws written in language they did not I'M
aderstand, and founded on principles, in many re-
4 spects, new to them. They complained that the
Halcaldes, or judges, most of whom had been APP
&pointed or elected before the immigration had COM
#menced were not lawyers by education or profess
e3sion and, being Americans, they were of course,
& unacquanted with the laws of Mexico, or the
#prnciples of the civil law on which they are
8founded.
u 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, as theyj
a. tho of tho of (yua1n-
2lupe Hidalgo, regulating the relations of the nha
abitants of California with each other necessarily
remained in force X yet there was not single vo-l
lume containing those laws as far as know orI
believe, in the whole Territory, except, perhapsI
i in the Governors Office, at Monterey.
The magistrates, therefore, could not procure|
: them, and the administration of Justice was mel
&cessarily, as unequal and huctuating as the op-
! nions of the judges were conflicting and vari-
liable.
There were no fee-bills to regulate costs, and
consequently, the most cruel exactions, in many
&instances were practised.
The greatest confusion prevailed respecting
Sttes to property, and the decision of SUITS invov
Ting the most important rights and very large sums
sof money, depended upon the dictum of theI
fudge.
The sale of the territory by Mexico to the Until
tied States had necessarily cut off or dissolved theS
laws regulating the granting or procuring titles tot
4 Hand and, as our own and-laws had not been ex /
tended over it, the people were compelled to re-
aceive such titles as were offered to them, with
7 out the means ofascertaning whether they weres
valid or not.
Litigation was so expensive and precarous that i
Injustice and oppression were frequently endured I
rather than resort to so uncertain remedy.
Towns and cities were springing into existencef
many of them without charters or any legal right
Ito organize municipal authorities, or to tax pro-
sperty the citizens, for the establishment of al
police the erection OF prisons, or providing any of
Sthose means for the protection of life and pro-
3perty which are so necessary in all civil commu-
lnities and especially among people mostly stran-
gers to each other.
Nearly million and ahalf of dollars had beenE
Ipad into the custom-houses as duties on imported
goods, before our revenue laws had been extended
lover the country; and the people complained bit
|terly that they were thus heavily taxed without
{beng provided with government for their protec
3tion, or laws which they could understand, or al
lowed the right to be represented in the councils
sof the nation.
While anxiously waiting the action of Congress, |
depressed and embarrassed by this state of affairs
land feeling the pressing necessity of applyipg1
fsuch remedies as were in their power and circum-
stances seemed to justify, they resolved to subst-
1tute laws of their own for the existing system,
and to establish tribunals for their proper and faith
5ful administration.
In obedience, therefore, to the extraordinary ex-
ligences of their condition, the people of the city
aof San Francisco elected members to form Lei
agislatnre, and clothed them with full powers toll
4 pass laws.
The communities of Sonoma and of Sacramento
Scity followed the example.
Thus were three legislative bodies organized Il
the two most distant being only one hundred andy
thirty miles apart.
Other movements of the kind were threatened
land doubtless would have followed in other sec
tions ofthe Territory, had they not been arrested
10y the formation of State Government.
While the people of California were looking tof
congress for Territorial Government, it wasg
1quite evident that such an organization was daily
becoming less suited to their condition. which was
Benlirey different from that of any of the Terrific
fries out OF which the new States of the Union has
Ibeen formed.
Those Territories had been at first slowly ands
|sparcely peopled by few hunters and farmers, /
who penetrated the wilderness, or traversed the
prarles In search OF game or new home; and +
when thus gradually their population warranted it, !
a government was provided for them They, how
ever, mad no foreign commerce. nor anything be- !
yond the ordinary pursuits of agriculture and theE
various branches of business which usually ac- [
company it, to induce immigration within theirE
borders Several years were required to giveH
them sufficient population and wealth to place them
in condition to require, or enable them to sup-k
port State Government
Not so with California. The discovery of thek
vast metallic and mineral wealth in her mountainsE
had already attracted to her, in the space oftweves
months, more than one hundred thousand peopleE
and an extensive commerce had sprung up WITH
China, the ports of Mexico on the Pacific, Chill L
and Australia.
Hundreds of vessels from the Atlantic ports of
the Union, freighted with our manufactures and
agricultural products, and filled with our fellow
citizens, had arrived, or were on their passage&
round cape Horn; so that in the month of June&
last there We're more than three hundred sea-N
going vessels in the port of San Francisco.