Daily Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1876-1884, 1880-09-16

visiting THIS state Tor the nrSt Time,
you will involuntarfly and newt
ably be brought into contact with |
this circle, and that you will find 1t |
difficult, if not impossible, to es-
cape even temporarily from its in.
fuence. It will represent wealth
and hospitality, ut,above all other
things, the railroad, and just now
the Southern Pacific Railroad. 1t
has prevented hundreds of travellers
and statesmen from obtaining the
faintest conception of the true con-
dition of
IMPORTANT PUBLIC QUESTIONS
Affecting this State and the Union.
1t hos the means of employing
subtlety, tact readiness, knowledge,
to degree and in forms which it
requires local experience TO under
stand or counterfeit. But 1t would
be indicate and tedious to pursue
this topic further. We hope no rude
words from us will mar the pleas
uru of your visit, aud we would
not he understood as rejecting up
on the many gallant and honor
able gentlemen by whom you will
| be welcomed and entertained. We
| possess, however, the intense ear
| nestness Of men who are forced by
| their conditions to mean exactly
what they say, and whose lives
would bs valueless if the last mis-
| fortune that can occur in life should
overwhelm them. The country we
have made speaks better for us than
| vit fo tn at ,rp ~ ny n rtvtr y,,a an q
We ask you as a Christian man, as
u husband, as q father, as an Ameri.
can citizen, as the first President of
the United States who has visited
this coast during his torn of office,
to come AMI see il for yourself.
| Your programme includes, or would
naturally include, trip TO Los
Angeles, and at Goshen you will
be within twenty miles of Ham
ford. Three or four hours out of the
weeks you will spend in the eX-
treme West will answer our pur-
pose. We will meet you
MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN,
Face to face with cordial well
come, and you will have an Oppor-
tuuity to judge of what stock we
are, how we live and what we have
endured and accomplished. We
will supply you with a condensed
and incontrovertible summary of
the origin and progress of our sell
Element. And we shall not make
to you foolish and unavailipg app
peal to step aside from the strict
limits Of your executive duties, but
we shall request you, as a President
of the United States for once per-
mitted to get to the bottom of dis
turbing issue, to determine the fol-
lowing propositions:
Whether we are q cOllec-
ton of outlaws or Of respectable
American citizens.
Second-Whether we have not
acted like men who believed that
they were securing fairly and hon
Orably permanent homes for them.
selves and their families.
Third-Whether we have not &C.
oomplished great work of re-
clamation and development.
FOurth-Whether We have not
solid equities. if not legal rights,
which ought to be fully and def
nitely adjudcsted before We are
evicted.
Fifth Whether the Federal Gov
ernment should permit the South
ern Pacific Railroad Company,
through any of the Departments, to
use any unusual or extraordinary
methods to dispossess us.
Whether the Attorney
General of the United States
should not commence proceedings
to cancel the patents heretofore
issued to the Southern Pacific Rail-
road Company.
Observation-Disclosures We have not
been placed by Providence in q po-
sitioD to represent a cause in which
the whole people of the United
States, who are Americans at heart
and value the stability of our polit-
ical institutions, are concerned,
namely: Organized and peaceable
resistance, not to the just rights,
but to the usurpations, corfuptiOns
and unjust eXactious of railroad
corporations; and whether this sub
ject, thus pointed by an example,
does not deserve special notice by
your Excellency in your commune
cations with Congress, by which
body the Act of 1856 and the Reso-
luton of 1870, without interfering
with any vested rights, might be so
modified or amended as to give us
relief.
Whether the fluctuat-
Ing decisions Of the Department of
the Interior should not cease, at
least so far as the uncoustructed
portion of the railroad between
Tres Pinos and Huron ia concerned,
and the public lands along that gap
be thrown open to settlement.
THIS ADDRESS
Has been adopted by settlers upon
the odd sections in the Mussel
Slough district, who are members
Of the League referred to, as ex.
| pressive of their views and feelings
and OF the hope excited in their
breasts by the coincidence of their
necessities and your arrival. Some
of the signatures below are those
of persons who are not members of
the League, nor among this class
of settlers, but who are their neigh
bors and friends, who are familiar
with the truth of their statements
and who desire, therefore, fully and
heartily to indorse the tone and
substance Of the address.
Those of the signers who are per-
sonally and directly interested are
distinguished by the letter as" OPP
posite each name.
All of which is re spectfully SUBJ
mitted. Dated Mussel Slough dis.
trlct, September 8. A. D. 1880. ].
J. Doyle, J. N. Patterson, ]. Il.
Flewelling, Frank Dusey, Pierre.
pont Orion, Courtney Talbot,
George Hackette, Francis Wyrnck,
J. M. Ramsay, j. ID. Shelter and
$50 others.