Weekly Trinity journal., 1857-10-03
[From the Sierra Citizenl
The Pneihc Wall Steamship Monopoly.


Monopolies. whether they affect what we eat,
drink or wear,-or interfere with our comfort or
convenience, are always odious, and deservcdly
so. The most odtous of all the monopoes-
/ SOur -four and soft pork not excepted affecting
the right and interests of California has been the
Pacific Mail Steamship Company. 1t has been
we'll and truly said that Corporations have no
soulS'-and the truism is eminently applicable to
! this monster monopoly.
To swell their revenue, aud fill the already en-
gorged Golfers of that overgrown and arstocratc
corporatiou--humanity has been sacrificed like
sheep in the shambles, and blood has been shed
like the waves of the placid Pacific Men, women
and children were huddied together like cattle
in n pen,--the sickly tropics causing them TO die
like sheep with the rot.
Where then. oh men of San Francisco, was
your Vigilance Committee, when the voice of hu-
manity cried like the blood of the murdered Abel
from the ground, to be avenged? Where, then.
were the First Merchants Of Frontstreet With
their brstlng panoply of bayonets, their deep
mouthed castron cannon,--their sand-bag re-
doubts-and their dreadful bell, which was alike
the signal Of alarm--and the death knell Of your
Victims When a Wholesale slaughter, out Her
oding llerod, was going on,-were even your
voices raised in rcmOnstrance? Why did you not
| then call upon the mountains to come TO the
sea-, Had you done then, you might not
have occasion when you stand before the Judge
of the quick and the dead not your own trbu-
nal of Twenty one, or your Judge Advocate in
secret conclovc,- for the mountains to fall upon
| and hide you from his face.
We cut the following true and Just remarks
! from the little San Francisco Morning CdH We
can speak fecliugly on the subject. for we sailed
up on this side on the old worthless hulk, the
/ CaifOrnia, which the CAL says was put up by the
/ Mail Steamship Company as "a magnificent
| steamer She broke down off Santa Barbara,
and came near going ashore on the rocks of San
/ tn Catalnu-an iron-bouud coast--whcrc nine
hundred men, women and children would have
undoubtedly pcrshed, for there was no salvation
for them. Even the gallant old Commodore
Soat who first planted the stars and stripes
the Pacific coast,-Nho was on board with the
! Navy Board sent out to locate the u. 5. Dry
| Docks-paled before the impending danger
Nothing but the promptness and energy of the
officers, Capt. Il. l.. Whiting, Simmons, the mate,
and especially Of Douglas, the First Engineer,
saved us. Our fellow passengers residing in
Downicvilc-CoL Keyes, Col Plunkett, and
Judge Alanson Smith and lady, can bear testi-
mony to the truth Of what we say.
Three years later the old tub was chartered to
convey the Government troops to Oregon during
the Indian war. We had u friend now in this
County. whom we saw of on her, who WAS bound
for Humboldt Bay we begged him not to go on
her, as she tatcd to encounter some accident.
Our predictions proved true, for of the coast, in
the ,!Sinlty OF Humboldt, she took fire, and be-
fore the namCgSeuid be checked they were with
III u lew Iecl OF tnn nhgaHtuC. '''N" '"S
Gen. Wool, who had heard the thunder at Chlp-
powa, and stormcd the Black Fort at Monterey,
quailed before the danger.
We have had enough of such magnificent
steamers of the Pacific Mail Line. and Of the ex-
tortion of their cormorant appetites and greed
for gain, at the expense of tho people of Califor-
MIA. Let the people rcpudiate them and build
line OF steamers, such as are described in the
prospectus we published some months since,
where Eve hundred dollar certificate Of stock
entities the holder to one passage to and from
the Atlantic each year, in addition to his dvi-
dends
We commend the following article alluded TO,
to the serious attention Of the reader:
"A lIEAIriEss MoNoroIY.-The T. NJ Steam
ship Company advertises to send down the trip
toPanama. to morrow, the magnificent steamship
CditOrHid.' Now, We propose to inquire what
credit can be attached to the assertion that the
Company will dispatch II magnificent steamer
on the approaching trip? The steamship Cab
fornia first arrived at San Francisco the 2Sth
of February, l8i0-now more than eight years
ago. She was the first steamer placed upon the
line by the Company, and is. we believe, the first
steamship that ever entered this port. In the
early days Of 40, she was deemed entirely unfit
for the purposes Of the trade in which she was
engaged, and was only used ut the time until
substitute could be procured. Eight years have
since rolled round, during which time this heart
less monopoly has coined millions Of money out
OF the people Of California and yet at this late
day the best steamer that can be afforded The vast
travel between this port and Panama, ia the
magnificent old hulk-we like to have said
floating coffin Cohfornia! Truly may it be
said, we are forbcarng people. The amount
Of money that we have yearly contributed to the
T. NJ. Steamship Company should have secured to
US the finest line Of steamers in the world but
instead Of that the old hulks of 40 are the best
accommodations afforded US. We trust that no
one having regard for the safety Of his life will
venture passage upon this old worn out steamer
The men who advertise her know that she is ut
tery unfit to make the passage to Panama but
still what do they care, provided they can secure
payment for the tickets sold Passengers and
steamers may go to the bottom the Company
will be that much richer. Verify, Corporations
have no souls