SMALL AND GREAT. 395 things, returned to their homes, only to find their destiny in village labor, their fathers at first seeming in their eyes old-fashioned, fossilized, non-progressive men of la vieille roche. The stories told by returned Californians were to their hearers fabulous; and they were, indeed, too often as little worthy of literal belief as the wonders Rabelais narrated concerning his hero-how seventeen thousand cows and more scarcely supplied the babe with milk; how the mare on which he rode was as large as six elephants; how he cut lettuce as big as walnut trees, used for his hair a comb nine hundred feet long, and for a toothpick an elephant's tusk. CHAPTER XVII. SQUATTERISM. Some suffer them selfe for defaut of aparaunce, The Ship of Fools. SQUATTERISM is the doctrine or system which has for its base the maxim eminently American that all citizens have equally the right to share in the common property of the country, particularly in the public domain. The terms squatter and settler are often used synonomously, the former being no more a word of opprobrium than the latter. A squatter is one who takes possession of and settles on unoccupied land. He may do so legally, taking possession of lands belonging to the government, and in accordance with all the requirements of government, or he may plant himself on lands belonging to another or on lands in dispute, or on lands covered by Mexican grants of which he had no knowledge, or in the validity of which he had no faith. The term settler is rather the more respectable of the two, as that implies simply one who makes his home upon a piece of ground formerly either public domain, or land held by another and acquired by purchase. Thus we see a squatter may be a settler, and a settler may be a squatter. There is this distinction, and this only a settler is seldom intentionally a fraudulent squatter, although a squatter may be a respectable settler. As LAND-CLAIM COMMISSION. 397 a rule, however, the term squatters is applied to those who settle upon the lands of another, or upon lands in dispute, while the settler is one of that worthy and enterprising class who enter upon and subdue unappropriated public domain, and thereby establish a claim, by virtue of first actual possession, to the right of purchase or of title in conformity with law. Of course a man may settle himself in town or in a thickly populated district; but the term is usually used as I have said. Between the honest settler and the unprincipled squatter there was a marked difference. The one was contented with what land he could use, and willing his neighbor should have as much; he did not oppose monopoly in another while practising it himself; he was not unjustly agrarian, but ready to respect the rights and titles of others, as he would have others respect his. If the large grant-holders came into possession of their lands justly and in accordance with law, the land was theirs. If our government promised to respect those rights, it should do so, at whatever cost to its citizens. Without going back to the time when these grants were made, when the Mexican authorities could not give their lands away, and regarded every loyal settler an acquisition compared with which a few leagues of land were as nothing; without taking into the account the necessities of these grant-holders for broad lands for grazing purposes, their risks of life and property among the wild natives, their isolation, and their chances of never again living in civilized society,which indeed, but for the accidental discovery of gold, they would not, nor scarcely did then,-without taking these and the like into consideration at all, the holders of large land grants righteously obtained are as much entitled to protection as any other class of men in their possessions. The squatter of the California flush times was one who assumed the name of settler without being entitled to it. He was a professional gull, ever hover ing about some proad-acred pelican, which had dived into the depths for its possessions, and held them rightfully. He it was who speculated in town lots, staked off farming lands, jumped mining claims, and stole the nest of another rather than build one of his own; waiting and watching for opportunities to pounce upon the property of others if so be he might escape the law's penalty. The squatters of Sacramento, affirming that the lands of Sutter belonged to the United States, resolved, in July 1850, to hold possession of that which they had seized, peaceably if possible, forcibly if necessary; and if the bail of an arrested squatter should be refused simply because the bondsman was not a landholder under Sutter, all executions issued in consoquence thereof should be deemed illegal, and the associated squatters should "act accordingly." A commission was appointed by act of congress, early in 1851, for the purpose of ascertaining and settling private land claims in California. It was to consist of three commissioners appointed by the president, a secretary skilled in the Spanish and English languages, and not to exceed five clerks; it was to continue for three years, unless sooner terminated by the president. An attorney was to be appointed to attend the meetings of the board, and guard the interests of the United States in the premises. The commission might summon witnesses, and administer oaths; and every person claiming lands in California by virtue of any right or title derived from the Spanish or Mexican governments, should present the same to the commissioners when sitting as a board, together with such documentary evidence and testimony of witnesses as the claimant relied upon in support of his claim. Appeals from the commission might be made to the United States district court, and thence to the United States supreme court. Three tedious tribunals, attended by harassing and expensive litigation, were thus to be undergone before the land-holder was SORROWS OF THE SETTLER. 399 secured in the peaceable possession of what in the beginning was his own. In deciding upon the validity of claims, the commissioners and courts were to be governed by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the laws of nations, the laws, usages, and customs of the government from which the claim is derived, the principles of equity, and the decisions of the supreme court of the United States so far as applicable. A patent should issue to claimants for all claims finally confirmed; those finally rejected should be considered as part of the public domain of the United States. Land granted by the Mexican authorities for the establishment of a town in existence on the 7th day of July, 1846, and town, farm, or pasture lots held under a grant from a corporation to which lands were granted for town purposes, did not come under the jurisdiction of these commissioners; and the fact of the existence on the above mentioned day of any town or city being duly proved was prima facie evidence, either of a grant to the corporate authorities or to the individual, under which holders might claim. It was the duty of the commissioners to ascertain and report to the secretary of the interior the tenure by which the mission lands were held, and those held by tame Indians, agriculturalists, rancheros, and pueblos. It was hoped that when California became a state the uncertainty in regard to land titles, which exercised so fatal an influence on agriculture and settlement, would be quickly terminated; but it was about a year after congress had created a coramission, whose duration, as I have said, was limited to three years, that the commissioners presented themselves in California. Many of those who emigrated to California were informed, and undoubtedly believed, that the vast territory ceded by Mexico, and whose beauty and fertility had been so extolled, was at the time of its cession the public property of Mexico, and as such, |