The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-09-04
HOW THE UNITED STATES
 HAVE EXPANDED.
(By Dana c. Munro, A. M., and
 William Fairley, Ph. D.
CHAPTER VIII.
The Organization of California.

The Organization of California.
 The facts connected with the occupa- tion of California afforded material for national self-congratulation. The pro- minimum of resistance and of bloodshed, and it's conquest was determined upon and effected under the impulse of mani fest destiny" and the healthful forces of natural expansion, rather than the sordid motives of greed and avarice that would inevitably have controlled had the dis covery of gold been made at period trinsic value of our prize of victory was not manifest until the terms of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo had beensHxed. nor had the founders of our national great. ness more than a faint appreciation of California's future importance as the commercial gateway to the Orient.
 That California came so easily into our although territorially portion of Mexico. she was but loosely bound in ties of sympathy Her scattered population was Spanish rather than Mexican, and the events which brought about the erection of Mexico into an independent State had met with scant enthusiasm on the Pacich slope. So slight inded was her attach ment that there is little doubt that but ture attempts of Captain Fremont and the insurrectionists at Sonoma in the summer of 1H5. California would have accepted our rule without struggle, when, after the capture of Matamoras. Commodore Sloat took formal possession. of the Pacific ports in the name of the
 United States.
 The difficulties in the fay of a peace full absorption of California were further increased by the neglect of Congress to make suitable provision for the govern
 ment of the new territory. This act of
 obvious importance became involved, like all important functions of our govern
 ment at that period. in the great sec, c, slevery in the territory recently acquired
 from Mexico. Unable to effect a satisfac-
 tory compromise. the thirtleth Congress
 to the provisional military government in operation at the close of the Mexican war. Inadequate Administration.
 This condition of affairs was in the highest degree unsatisfactory to the
 American element In California. The
 ancient system of Spanish administration,
 in particular the patriarchal Jurisdiction of the local alcaldes, although sufficient
 for the needs of a simple pastoral civili-
 zation, was wholly inadequate to the
 necessities of a rapidly increasing popu. lation, swarming into the land from all parts of the world in quest of the golden | treasure, and was furthermore repugnant
 to the ideas and traditions of men who | had been accustomed to the advantages | of AngIo-Saxon institution. These men of American blood who in the years immediately following the dis | covery of gold in January. 1AS. poured | Into California by land and sea. over | routes up to that time unknown or little | traversed, were. both by numerical ma | jority and by the force of virile national characterstics, the determining factor in | the building of the Pacific State. The
 crowded ships that sailed the 19,6>O miles | that separated New York from San Fran | crisco. in the fever poisoned junglcs of
 the Chagres River. or in the historic
 trek" of 5000 souls across the bound
 less plains. the burning deserts and the
 painless dcfles of the Sierras. operated | as process of natural selection in bring.
 ing the hardier spirits to the front. lr | widening the range of their activities and | in preparing them for the hardships anC | emergencies of frontier life.
 l Men of this type. bearing with then | the traditions of American civilization | and keyed to the note of strenuous effort | were not likely to bow in passive sIIbmis | sion to the indifference or pre-occupatior | of a government at the other extremity | of a mighty continent. They clamoreC | loudly for reconstruction and for the cree l ton of a political State in accordance 1 with their habits and experience Il