San Andreas independent., 1857-12-12
For the San Andreas Independent.
Reply to tCalaveras.
SouTH Fork. December. 10Th. Is

s SouTH Fork, December, 10th, 1851.
Hessrs. Editors In your issue of Nov 2lst
was inserted an article over the signature o
!" Calayeras,a animadverting on the recent ac.
tion taken by the miners of South Fork Mining
District, to expel the Chinese after certain
time, from their District The worthy critic
took as text the old but correct maxim thai
4 @Charity should begin at home" The miners
OF this District resolved to give that admirable
maxim a literal construction and application
to square their conduct by it, in effecting the
/ expulsion from their District of those they con-
slder not within the bounds of ChariY and
! : Calaveras" can take all the privileges his
fertile fancy can suggest, by preparing his text
and even take his Family Bible to pelt Saint
Peter with. to his hearts content as his intro
ductory remarks were rather mystical, and ev-
identity designed to portray dishonest, mis-
chlevious and clandestine characters they
cannot be admitted rs applicable to the moral
character and habits of the white miners OF
California, who, by their hard and honest la
Dor, keep the whole machinery of society in
motion by furnishing the needful-gold-to
lubrIcate every joint throughout every depart
ment and ramitication of the business incident
to civilized life.
/ There are very few, indeed, who are able to
command a sufficient amount of effrontery to
justify the policy of admitting the Chinese in
the first place; or the expediency of their re-
naming an indefinite length of time in the
State but one thing is we'll known, there
are some interests which have been created by
their presence amongst US, which stimulate
those who would be effected by their leaving
the mines to extraordinary efforts to thwart
the miners in the only feasible method they
can adopt to get rid Of them consequently
they are always ready to raise the cry of s're-
bellion to the law" sunjust and unlawful acts.
&c, pretending, as they do, to coincide with
public opinion, which they dare not oppose
they wish to throw dust into the miners eyes
by great flourish of "the majesty of the law"
they have assumed ''the terrors of the law" to
serve their dear selves with, and can Just as
| fippantly portray the evils resulting from the
Chinese remaining in the mines, as any poor,
white miner, who has travelled days and weeks
seeking employmentandc constantly witnessing
the Chinese working good-paying claims. and
even hired out to white men. There are
bounds to human forbearance which the
white miners of California have reached
and they must either drive the Chinese out of
the mines, which their duty enjoins on them,
or make arrangements to leave, themselves
The idea of depending on our legislature
taking any action in the matter, is entirely
nonsensical; have they not been tried and
found wanting? 1t is matter of record that
heretofore some of our Monopolist, .sCalifornia
Steam Navigation or Stage Companies did
quiet the consciences of a majority of the
guardians of the public veal, by giving them
free passages, and if they happen to visit San
E., =
be well stuffed with champagne and fine din
ners, &c. No doubt those Shrewd Chinese
merchants have learned the most vulnerable
points to attack the patriotism of our worthy
legislators. And even that great Sanhedrim.
the Supreme Court, might be influenced to
neglect the interests of the mines, by the sooth-
ing effects of the close proximity of coin and
bars OF gold, whose attraction would be strong
er than the dnst emboweled in onr placers
The Congress of the United States will not
be very likely to attend to matters that our
own members entirely neglect. Our repre-
sentation, thus far, have had unruly '.waitersr
or relatives to chastise, or interests in other
portions of the United States to attend to -
for instance: Whether the Wagon Road, or
Raul Road should be located North or South ;
or, "Who shall be our next o. S. Senator" to
attend to the small matter of our mines being
over-run by hordes of Asiatic Fillibusters, and
the gold carried out of the United States, and
our own citizens compelled to leave Uncle
Sam would pay about as much attention to
our petitions to interfere with the Chinese
Question as he did to our heroic, beligerent
Governor, to render assistance to aueil the
Vigilance Insurrection- by gentle hint that
we ought to be able to attend to our own, lit
tie, domestic concerns. What is our Consti-
tuition and Laws worth, which prohibits slave
ry,-or involuntary servitude,-and toerates
the importation of multitudes of slares, held by
foreign masters, whose language we cannot
understand and who are incompetent to become
citizens or give evidence in a Court of Justice,
and whose presence amongst US is fast running
our State by preventing others from coming
for every Chinaman occupies the place of
white miner, either at the present or some
future time, if the mines be not exhausted
AS to the legislators from the mines. reflect
ing the opinions of the miners, is an erroneous
idea. Legislators, commonly, reiterate that
most obnoxious, incorrect and insulting opin-
ion, to all practical miners, that the Chinese
work only such mines white miners have
sold. or refuse to work, because they would
not remunerate white laborers. This assertion
has been related so frequently, by some men,
that after awhile they may be led to believe it
themselves, if not contradicted. In buying or
locating mining ground, the white miners as
well as the Cinnamon frequently get deceived,
but the Cinnamon are known by all practical
white miners, to be quite rs good judges of
mining ground as any other men in the State
of California.
"Calaveras" presents to our view the prop
osition OF Themistocles to burn the fleet of the
allies, which Aristides admitted as q good
speculation, but denounced as unjust to
illustrate the act of the miners in selling those
worthless claims to the Chinese and then driv-
ing them away. Admirable logic, to go so far
after an illustration What sell them claims
which we considered useless to keep, and then
drive them off to get possession of that same
worthless mining ground again The gentle
man ought not to be too liberal in attributing
quite so much ignorance and duplicity to the
miners, as that act would infer; he ought to re-
serve a portion for others. He enquiries, ss have
the miners considered the consequences of
driving fifty thousand people from the mines
drawn here by our own overtures p | deny
that they ever were invited to come to Cali
fornla they came on their own risk, to obtain
gold, which they knew did not belong to them,
and they have remained thus far, through suf-
ferance, and they well know they are merely
tolerated-not welcome-whch the tax COL
lector is keeping fresh in their minds, and the
few miners alluded to- who passed /" those un-
just resolutions" will probably indeibly i'm
press on the minds of few of them and there