Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1870-04-21
Lower California.
A NEW EMPIRE.


varied resources of that vast Peninsula on
our Western coast, known as Lower Cali
fornia, and which, jutting as it does,
down the Pacific for full six hundred
miles, forms a natural barrier to those
fertile provinces of Northern Mexico,
which are destined, ere long, to become,
like Lower California itself, integral parts
of the United States.
This Peninsula may now be said to be
in it's transition state. For ages it has
lain comparatively idle in the sea but by
degrees the heave of modern progress has
turned it over almost into the center of
the populated globe, and it must soon
play fully as important part as Upper
California, which lies above it, and more
so than the luxurious provinces of the de-
caying empire, to which it never more
than nominally belonged. In fact, Lower
California has merely pretended to belong
to Mexico, in order to protect itself from
seizure by some more vigorous power !;
while Mexico, on the other hand, has
GLADLY oontented herself with a mere nom
inal allegiance without subsidy or trib-
utel in order that Sonora, Sinaloa and
her other ocean provinces might not be
domineered by this formidable Peninsula
in like manner. The present State and
its dependent province have, therefore,
got along very well together down to the
present time, and as only an illusory au-
thority is exacted by Mexico, and no
taxes are levied from Lower California
the natives of the Peninsula have always
had very happy and independent time.
These days of simplicity, however,
could not be expected to last forever.
Heaven is not for man on earth. Nay, in
the case of this earthly elysium, teeming
as it is with gold and silver, and bordered
by its gulf of pearls, the westward tread
Of man forbade it. Seven hundred mil
lions out of the thousand millions of the
population of the whole earth, belong to
empires which push their coasts to the
shores of the Pacific; coasts which have
been comparatively silent until the last
twenty years, but which, now they have
been astounded by the railway, and in
famed by the magnetic wire, begin to stir
and wake to the destiny that lies before
them.
On the whole wide circle of that mighty
sea, which is destined to be the future
residence of human power, there is no
piece of coast of such geographical i'm
portance to the United States. as Lower
California. It is worth the British posses
sions in the northwest coast and Alaska
ten times told, for it gives US certain pos
session of every line of trade that either
comes by the Isthmus to the Indies, or
passes downward from our western rail
way routes to the coasts of South Ameri-
ca or Australia.
The acute statesmen of Mexico per-
ceived this problem more clearly perhaps
than even the Ministers of the United
States, and foreseeing, too, that they could
not expect to hold such fortress as Low
er California constitutes for the command
of the Pacific, they wisely prepared to
pass it into the more powerful and con-
servative hands of the United States in q
manner which would not be in the least
humiliating to themselves.
They made grant in 1864, covering
the vast area of the forty-six thousand
eight hundred SCARE miles in Lower Cali
fornia, which was subsequently trans
ferred to the hands of the Lower Cali
fornia Company, of this city; a corpora
ton which had already possessed itself,
under other grants, of a vast portion of
the rich provinces of Sonora and of the
Peninsula. For this transfer the grant of
1864, the Lower California Company paid
to Mexico large sum of money, when
she was in her utmost need. The transfer
was duly made at the Mexican Le-
CATION in Washington. in May 1866, and
was formerly ratified by President Juarez
In the following August. A certificate of
the conveyance, which was drawn by the
Hon. Caleb Cushing, and endorsed by the
Mexican Minister at Washington, was
filed in the Office of our Secretary of State,
to be the basis of any future action be-
tween the two governments, for the pur-
chase or joint protection of the Peninsula
of Lower California.
But it is not the object of the Lower
California Company that their charter
shall be made the basis of mere political
operation. Their object is to colombo the
land duly and faithfully, under the con-
tract with Mexico; and to that end they
are now preparing an extensive expe-
dition, with the view of settling up two
of its provinces, and establishing an ocean
city. Already, emigrants, allured by the
precious metals, and other deposits of
valuable materials of commerce, are pour
ing into Lower California; and this spon-
taneous movement makes it all the more
requisite that the Company should at once
apply its power and its means, to regulate
this random population under civil laws.
The Company is armed with powers equal
to those of the great East India Company,
which founded an empire in Hindostan,
and its Superintendent and governor
General is the Hon. John A. Logan, who
will probably follow the colonizipg
expedition during the next recess of Con-
gress, with select party who will make
it their summer trip.
Some notion of the power and resources
of the Lower California Company may be
formed by the names of few of its mem
bers and directors.
The President of the Company, the
Head Quarters of which is at No 30 Will
liam st. in New York, is Richard Sehell,
ESQ; and VIM. r. Travers is the Treas
urer; following which, we find the names
of General B. T. Butler, August Belmont,
VIM. G. Fargo, Caleb Gushing, G. K. Gar
rison, Hon. John A. Griswold, John An
ID r