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within their territory. Calhoun, Foote and Jefferson Davis replied, backed by an almost unanimous South, that we should never become a state of the Union while such a declaration was engrafted in our constitution. It was in response to such a sentiment, coming from Jefferson Davis, that the great American orator, Henry Clay, rose in that body and said: "Coming, as I do, from a slave state, it is my solemn, deliberate, and well-matured determination, that no power-no earthly power-shall compel me to vote for the positive introduction of slavery, either south or north of that line." (Missouri compromise line.) In this debate Daniel Webster, always Calhoun's antagonist, uttered one of those sentences that fasten themselves upon the memory of mankind: "I would not take pains to reaffirm an ordinance of nature, nor to re-enact the will of God." William H. Seward, then young in the senate, was found battling side by side with Webster, Clay, Benton, and the Little Giant of Illinois, Stephen A. Douglas, in their efforts to gain admission for California, and in his enthusiastic warmth uttered the following beautiful thought : "Let California come in-California, that comes from the clime where the west dies away into the rising east. California, that bounds at once the empire and the continent. California, the youthful Queen of the Pacific, in the robes of freedom, gorgeously inlaid with gold, is doubly welcome. She stands justified for all the irregularities in the method of her coming."

While this contest was in progress, the territorial legislature had gone quietly on enacting laws. One was passed February 18, 1850, dividing California into counties, and on March 2 another was enacted, authorizing the first county elections that took place on the first of April. On the twentysecond of April the legislature adjourned, having enacted in its four months' session one hundred and forty laws that were supposed to so completely cover the requirements of the times as to warrant that body, in its own judgment, in making their enactments the only existing law.

Four months after the adjournment of the legislature, the bill for the admission of California passed the senate, the vote being taken August thirteenth, and going to the lower house, passed that body September seventh. It was signed by President Fillmore on the ninth of the same month, and Senators Fremont and Gwin were permitted to take their seats, as well as the other two representatives of the youthful"Queen of the Pacific," and October 18, 1850, General Bidwell arrived in San Francisco on the steamer Oregon, the bearer of the welcome news.

With California standing as a state at the threshold of her destiny; with her limits defined and laws established; with her name a magic talisman to the world; with the $100,000,000 in gold from her ravines, gulches and cañons distributed among the nations; with her $455,000,000 that, in the coming eight years, were to follow in the same channel; with the little that is said and the much that remains untold, we are compelled to close this history.

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By act approved March 28, 1874, the territory comprised in the county of Klamath was annexed to the counties of Humboldt and Siskiyou.

+ Modoc county was formed from the eastern part of Siskiyou county.
San Benito county was formed from the eastern part of Monterey county.
Ventura county was formed from the eastern part of Santa Barbara county.

AN IMPORTANT DOCUMENT.

The histories of California, since its acquisition by the United States, have all given a similar version of the position, acts and intentions of the British government, in regard to the possession of this state, prior to and at the time when Commodore Sloat solved the problem of possession by the seizure of Monterey. Thinking from the tone of those versions that it was possible they might be partizan statements, instead of authentic history, a letter of inquiry was addressed to J. Alex. Forbes, ex-viceconsul of Great Britain, and the following reply, that speaks in no uncertain terms, was received :

COLONEL FRANK T, GILBERT——

WEST OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA, Dec. 12, 1879.

DEAR SIR: I received duly your letter of the tenth current, informing me that you are engaged in writing a California State History, and desiring to adhere strictly to correctness, in your narration of political occurrences in this state prior to its acquisition by the United States, you send me two extracts from historical compilations of California, by Messrs. Tuthill and Cronise, for the purpose of testing the accuracy of certain statements therein published, relative to negotiations which they allege I had, in 1846, with Governor Pico, General Vallejo and General Castro, for affecting a separation of California from the Mexican Republic, and for placing the former under the protection of Great Britain.

As I have taken no exception to those statements, my silence regarding them may perhaps be ascribed to a tacit recognition of the same as true. Never having seen those compilations, I was entirely ignorant of the inaccuracies therein published until I read the above-mentioned extracts. My notice thereof, at this late day, may appear supererogatory, and, so far as concerns myself, I regard those statements with indifference; but I feel it my duty to defend the aforesaid respectable Californians from the illiberal unauthorized imputations cast upon them by those compilers in their erroneous assertions, respecting which, even if those statements were true in fact, I deny the right of Messrs. Tuthill and Cronise to censure Governor Pico, General Vallejo and General Castro for their personal or official acts, in proceedings which they were at perfect liberty to carry into full effect for achieving the independence of California, by and with the consent of a majority of the inhabitants thereof, and without the least responsibility to any foreign power. Furthermore, I declare that the statements contained in the aforesaid extracts are absolutely inaccurate, unfounded in fact, and based upon hearsay evidence, originating in incorrect official reports of Mr. Thos. O. Larkin to the United States government, under which, since 1844, he held the appointment of consul at Monterey, of whose official acts alone and with due respect to his memory I speak in this connection.

Mr. Larkin's very limited knowledge of the Spanish language, and his exclusiveness, prevented him from exercising political or social influence with the rulers or the, people of California, and rendered difficult his acquisition of reliable information of the political occurrences that were passing in the spring of 1846, when he informed his government that he had discovered the existence of an intrigue or scheme, in which Governor Pico, General Vallejo, General Castro and myself were secretly negotiating "for passing their country to the possession of England, under the direction of a Catholic priest named Macnamara, who was to conduct a colony of Irishmen to California, as he had petitioned the Mexican government for large grants of lands around the bays of San Francisco and Monterey, at Santa Barbara and along the San Joaquin, of which lands that government had readily granted, not all that Macnamara asked, but three thousand square leagues in the San Joaquin valley, and for the perfection of the patent it only needed the signature of Governor Pico." Here we have the absurd assertion that the executive authority of a departmental governor suddenly became superior to that of the supreme government of Mexico, in that the former had to approve the official act of the latter, by signing the patent for the said

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grant made to Macnamara, whom Mr. Cronise says was an agent of the British government," and that his title deeds for said land "fortunately fell into the hands of the Federal government before they were signed by Governor Pico!" etc. And further, "to show how thoroughly informed the Federal government were of this design, we quote the following instructions from Secretary Bancroft to Commodore Sloat, under date of July 12, 1846, only two months after Forbes' contract had been signed." I now ask, what contract, when and where signed?

In justice to Governor Pico, General Vallejo and General Castro I say that neither of them ever had any negotiation with me as above stated. I deny that the Rev. Mr. Macnamara was an agent of the British government. That gentleman came from Ireland to Mexico for the purpose of soliciting a grant of land for colonizing it with Irish emigrants. He was informed by the Mexican president that large grants of land suitable for colonization could only be obtained in California, as there were large tracts vacant in this department. Accordingly Mr. Macnamara went to Mazatlan to take passage for Monterey, but not finding any vessel there bound for this coast, he finally succeeded in obtaining a passage in an English corvette, whose captain was a countryman of Macnamara. He arrived at Monterey in June, 1846, when I made his acquaintance, and being informed by him of his desire to petition Governor Pico for a large tract of land for colonization, I informed him that the only lands suitable for his purpose were situated in the San Joaquin valley. He petitioned the governor and received a grant of two hundred square leagues, subject to the approval of the supreme government of Mexico, and with the condition of placing two hundred families of immigrants upon said lands within one year from the date of his grant.

These are the facts respecting the occurrences that caused so much apprehension in the mind of Mr. Consul Larkin, that the United States would be cheated out of the principal prize that made war acceptable to her.

Mr. Cronise states that the deeds for three thousand square leagues of land in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys, made in favor of this Macnamara, very fortunately fell into the hands of the Federal government before they were signed by Governor Pico. Mr. Macnamara had no muniment of title upon which to base his tremendous claim for compensation; consequently nol cdy was injured by his petition to the governor for that grant of land, and there was no necessity for the unfounded animadversion of the aforesaid alleged participants in the pretended political above-mentioned intrigue. Mr. Cronise forgot to explain to his readers how Mr. McNamara's deeds for three thousand square leagues of land fell into the hands of the Federal government before they were signed by Governor Pico.

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Those unsigned title deeds were the copies or register of Macnamara's giant, which were doubtless found in the government archives after the change of flag, and, of course, they were unsigned by Governor Pico. Macnamara had the original.

The only facts upon which Mr. Consul Larkin based his official report to the United States government of the supposed intrigue for placing California under British protection, originated in the following information imparted to him by myself:-1st. That Governor Pico and two members of the departmental assembly, who were Don Juan Bandini and Don Santiago Argüello, had informed me, that as California was in reality abandoned by the government of Mexico, the authorities of this department were seriously discussing the necessity of severing their political relations with that republic for the purpose of soliciting the protection of a foreign power, for which object the governor and said members requested me to inform her Majesty's government thereof, to ascertain if its protection would be extended over California. 2d. That, in reply thereto, I informed Governor Pico and the said members, that I was absolutely without authority to give them any official answer upon the subject, but that I would duly inform her Majesty's government of the matter.

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