Daily national Democrat., 1858-11-23
advertisement, from. the s. F. Herald j
TIE NEW ALMADEN MfNES-oIININC
u III

S"tu0" as tue nIOst afollTaTy OF CIVILIZED powers
IN the exercise of authority ever its subjects and
their atfairs-as controlling them with less re.
gard 10 the broad and recognized princples of
harness and OF justice, and with more of despotic
absoutlsm than is exercised by any other power
within the pale Of modern and enlightened civil.
| ZltIon.
Years ago, in the mountains of Eastern Tarta-
| ry, drained by the Amoor and its tributaries, an
adventurous explorer discovered in a remote re-
gon, distinct indications of the presence of cop
per IN large quantities. The policy of the Gov
ernment and Its Invariable practice having been
! To give the largest encouragement and the most
liberal privileges to mining operators, he proceed
ed to develop his discovery. Having satisfied
himself OF sufficient existence OF mineral wealth
he next associated with him certain american
citizens, by whose capital and skill the buried
treasures were to be dragged from their hiding
| place, and thrown into the lap of commerce His
associates relying upon the liberal inducements
held out by the policy of the Government to min
ing adventurers-upOn the facilities with which
permanent rights of title could be obtained-upon
the assurance which the Government gave of pro.
tectol t. their nterests-tOOk upon themselves
the risk of heavy expenditures, and the arduous
labor of originating and perfocling extensive
works in a wild and distant country and in Il
pursuit of the most uncertain and precarous kind.
After years Of toll and great financial hazards,
success ON prncey scale rewarded their peril
Gus adventure. The sterile and forbiddmg hills
were honey-combed, vast tunnels run into the
solid rock shafts, adits slopes breasts sunk or
| eXcdvated-fOrtuues spent i'll committing the er-
rors incidental to mining enterprise and other
| fortunes expended in remedying those errors the
silent waste was peopled with busy multitude,
| brought from remote countries town was built;
costly smelling furnaces erected roads opened
agriculture made to flourish Il foreign cOmmere .
was created which did not previously exist, and q
healthy current OF prosperity sent radiating in
ever-eXtending circles through half province
| from their magnificent enterprise as a centre.
When nearly half generation had elapsed, and
the inceptional trials, osses risks dependencies
and disappontments of the enterprise, overcome
| by long and patient endeavor had given place to
smooth working, comparative certainty and a
handsome return; the wealth they had created
and ut length enj yed, excited the cupdty of Ger
tain shrewd men OF that numerous class in every
community, who lay in wait to reap where they
have not sowed."
1t had happened that in the early days of their
enterprise, while yet its weighty cares and uncer
taintes hung heavily around our spirited adven-
turers, that they had neglected to do, or to have
done, certain customary things in the nature OF
technical forms prescribed by the government
with view of placing upon paper the evidence
and certificate of their title to the naked hills
upon which they were operating. Regarded at
the time as matters of minor import, and easy
to be done at any time, they were unfortunately
procraSunated.
Suddenly total change in the supreme power
and its policy took place. The old forms neces-
sary to the completion Of their paper title were
abrogated and no others were, for years, substi-
tuted, by which the technical immaturities of
their documentary evidence could be completed.
In the bewllderng uncertainties by which they
were maZed, they seem to have attempted to per
feet their title through the formulas of the sud
denly abrogated system under which they had in
simple good faith commenced their gigantic ope-
ratiOnS well as by such other steps as the new
order of things seemed to require.
Their misfortune in this respect and their sub
sequent attempts at remedy, did not escape the
lynx'eyed vision of their opponents, whose un-
scrupulous appetite for gathered vintages, and
garnered crops, was whetted to ravenous iuten-
slty, by the rich booty which seemed to hang so
temptlngly within the reach of their keen talons,
guarded only in strictly legal sense by feeble
barrier of imperfect FORMS Feeble as this barrl-
was, it too strong for them to break through
with any show Of reason, aud the power of the
government was Invoked to enable them to reach
1t. by what tortu0us approaches the levers OF
the supreme authority was grdsped does not, and
probably will never appear. Suffice 1t to say,
that the power Of the Government WAS controlled;
and that great authOrty-under whose liberal
promises the prOprietOrs Of the mines cOmmenc-
ed their labors; trusting to whose protection they
had continued and completed their works by
whose very act they had been prevented from
complying with the technical requirements of the
law-whIch ought to have lent its name its
weight, and Its sovereign title to the protection
of the real developers Of the resources of its do
main-to the men who had dug and smelted and
built-whose capital, time, and energy had es-
tablshed III wilderness a thriving community,
aud added to the national revenue aud prosperity
became the instrument by which a noble es-
tabshment was closed, and the men who had
created 1t were deprived # the fruits of their en-
terprse and toll.
1t was not alleged against them that they had
seized the property of other men that they had
entered upon the works of others wrongfully;
that they had been unwilling to comply with the
forms Of law that they had detrauded the Gov
ernment Of its dues that they had not honestly,
hborously, magnifcently improved the bare hills
with their own resources but that they had not
obtained from the Government fully, a technical
release and quittance of the site of their improve
ments, and that, by carelessness or ignorance
they unfortunately, while they improved, left the
title in the sovereign. After years Of develop
ment, the property explored and erected by them
having become Of vast value the Government,
taking advantage of their mistakes pursued them
upon technical grounds, and resumed its Org-
nal sovereign possession, and with this seized
the costly and extensive works the prOprletUrs
had placed there.
This act has generally been considered strk-
ing example of the arbitrary meanness of Il des-
by corrupt iaVortlsm, aud to be withouta par
allel in the modern history of paternal and high
minded Governments.
In its professions Of the widest lberalty to its
citizens in their enterprises, in the freedom of its
ordinary practice from the trammels of form, in
the prompt recognition Of the prior rights of eX-
plOreFs and OrlginaturS, and in the protection
It's settled policy has ever afforded to this most
valuable class Of its people against mere techn
cal interferers, (the camp-tullowers and semi
treebOoters Of the great army of prOgress,) the
Government Of the United States eXcels all other
governments. Its settled practice has been to
give and and couutenance to the pioneer, and to
cover him with its powerful shield-especially on
its frontiers, where the forms of law are little
known, and where the changes in society aud in
its regulations are OF perpetual recurrence: To
protect actual labor actual enterprise, and actual
achievements; to secure to the men that run the
risks and do the work, the result of their toll and
hazards, and to eXOnerate them to the utmest pos
slble extent from prior compliance with forms
and the burden OF technical Observances.
With these opinions, we confess to have taken
up the pamphlet, the title to which stands at the
head of this article, and perused its contents with
no ordinary astonishment
ItcOntans the opinions of the Hon. the Justices
of the District and Circuit Courts of the United
States for this District, on the motion for grant
ing an Injunction at the sut of the United States
against the proprietoTs of the Quicksilver Mines |
Of New Almaden, in Santa Clara county, restrain
ing them from working these mines and the or
der granting the injunction.
We have no information of the merits of the
case at issue between the Government and the
proprietors Of the mines, eXcep' what we gather |
from the perusal of these opinions and fom a
general observation and acquaintance with cur
rent events forming the history of California for
the last ten years. judging from these we can:
not but consider the decision to which the court |
Constrained by judicial necessity" 1--WE use the |
language of one Of the Judges arrived, to be |
one contrary to the well-settled policy of the |
Uuited States generally, and at direct variance |