The Nevada journal., 1855-03-30
Report Of the Committee on Claims.

Below we give the report OF Mr.. W ate,
Chairman of the Committee on Claims,
upon the application of Sacramento for
relief. This matter is ignored in this Leg
islature, but will probably come before
the next, and it is important that the peo-
pie should understand the nature, objects
and merits of this large claim. The re-
port is drawn with singular clearness and
force, and bcspeaks an able pen in the
hand of our worthy representative, Mr..
Waite. The following is the report:
Mr. SPEAKER:
The Committee on Claims, after care
ful consideration of the claim laid by the
city Of Sacramento, through the petition
of G. l. Hutchinson on behalf of the
said city, against the State of California,
would respectfully offer the following
EPORT.
The claim laid by the city Of Sacramen-
to against the State of California amounts
to the sum of $l44, ,295 so, which amount,
it is alleged, was expended by the said
city between the 9th day of December.
1919, and the Sd day of May, 1851, for
and on account Of the sick and estitute,
not residents of the city or county of Sac
ramcnto, and for the proper interment OF
/ those Of this class who died within the
dates above mentioned.
On account of the large amount claim
ed, the Committee has examined into the
nature and cause Of the claim with the
closest scrutiny, and the facts that have
been elected show that the large expen-
ditures made by the city of Sacramento
were necessarily made to meet the exigen-
cies o. the times during the first year in
the history of California, so strange and
unprecedented in the annals of the world,
when the hordes of Worn out and scorbutic
immigrants from the plains, alike with the
pilgrims to the shrine Of Mammon cncr-
waited with long and tedious voyages
around Cape Horn, by the Isthmus route,
from the shores of Asia and the Isles of
the Ocean, came pouring upon the Pacific
coast.
1t is well known that Sacramento, for
apparent reasons, was the point to which
the newly arrived immigrants converged.
The wearied, eneryatcd and scurvy-
stricken immigrant from the plains, find
ing no comforts or scarcely necessaries in
the mines, none Of those attentions so
essential to rccuperate exhausted nature,
no house to shelter him from the hot sun
by day Or protect him from the cold by
night, and no medical aid-such was the
intatuation Of all classes and professions,
that digging was the only way to realize
their highest hopes-was forced to seek
shelter, a temporary homo and charity at
the hands Of the citizens Of the Valley
City.
And, TOO, of the voyagers from all
parts of the world who came by thousar ds
through the Golden Gates to the city of
San Francisco, such was the al-powcrful
influence of the mines, that few remained
in that city, but took an early passage to
the great center of mining trade, Sacra-
mento.
The rich placers along the foothills of
the Sierras were the goal which even eve
ry deDllltateQ stranger On our snoreS spent
his last dollar to reach. IF an exhaus-
ted purse or exhausted nature compelled
him to stop short of the object of his
hopes, the place ofhis temporary sojourn,
in nine cases out of ten, was Sacramento.
Thus Sacramento, from her local position
and the force of circumstances, became a
hospital for the entire coast, lazar-house
of Indulgence and disease.
During the summer and part of the
autumnal months of 1S49, the sick and
destitute were dependent on the charity
of private individuals, and the heavy
burthen was borne by the generous-hear-
ted Sacramentans till the 18th of October
in that year, when temporary city char
ter vas formed, under which the city was
governed until the adoption of charter
under the State Constitution, April 1st,
1850, which legalized all the acts of the
previous one, which it superseded.
Under the "People's Charter" much
active charity was dispensed by the city
to the INDECENT and sick who came flock
ing in from every direction, and under