Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican/Volume 2/Book 6/The State of California 1
THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo confirmed the title to Upper California which the United States had gained by war. Although the geographical position of that region, the security of its harbors, and the supposed value of its soil, had attracted the attention of our people at an early day, it was not imagined, at the period of the cession, that the new territory would so soon become the nucleus of the first Anglo-Saxon empire on the shores of the Pacific. Its rapid development was owing rather to circumstances of an extraordinary character, than to the commercial and progressive spirit of our citizens; but the national energy which is always alive to individual interests, was never more completely illustrated than by the alacrity with which all classes rushed to the new scenes of labor, and turned to gold the soils that Indians and Mexicans had trodden for centuries as worthless sand.
Lower California was discovered, visited, and partly settled by the Spanish adventurers soon after the Mexican conquest, and although the coasts of Upper California had been explored in 1542, it was not until the eighteenth century that the "spiritual conquest" of that distant region was undertaken by the Roman clergy, under whose directions the missions were founded upon a "pious fund," created by the zealous Catholics of Mexico. At that time it was supposed that the civilizing influences of religion would not only win thousands of savages to the worship of God, but that by blending agriculture and trade under the tutelage of the church, the Indians might be rendered valuable subjects of the Spanish crown. The government well knew that the Spaniards were neither sufficiently numerous nor adventurous in Mexico to throw large bodies of hardy men into so remote a province on the shores of the Pacific, and it was, therefore, imagined that the actual native population of the district might be tamed by religion to supply the place of Christian immigration.
All the explorers who visited Upper California reported favorably on the character of the country. It was known to possess inducements to a profitable trade. The golden east opened its gates in front of it; and the country was supposed to contain valuable metallic deposits which might be slowly and surely developed. But the labors of the clergy did not respond to the expectations of the government. The priests were contented with present comfort rather than anxious for future success. The mass of the Indians were brought into a state of comparative vassalage, as we have seen in the chapter on the church of Mexico, and all the most valuable or accessible lands were rapidly absorbed, to the exclusion of hardy, persevering, and thrifty white men. [1]
Although the clergy were the virtual proprietors of the agricultural and cattle raising districts, the viceroyal government contrived to retain a loose and limited control over this district, until the period of the revolution. In 1824, on the adoption of the federal constitution, as the Californias did not possess sufficient population to become States of the federation, they were erected into Territories, with a right to send a member to the general congress, who, though suffered to participate in debate, was not allowed to vote in its decisions. As Territories they were under the government of an agent styled the Commandant-General, whose powers were very extensive.
After the revolution the first progressive step was made by the secularization of the missions. In 1833, under the vigorous lead of Gomez Farias, the salaries of the monks were suspended, the Indians were released from servitude, the pious fund was confiscated, the division of property among natives and settlers decreed, and an extensive plan proposed to fill the country by immigration. These blows fell heavily upon the monastic farmers and herdsmen of those trading churches. The missions were speedily deserted, their edifices and establishments decayed, and, near the period of their close, the whole result of this abortive ecclesiastical civilization, was summed up in the paltry numbers exhibited in the following statement: MISSIONS AND THEIR POPULATION IN UPPER CALIFORNIA IN 1831.[2]
Agriculture had always been most carelessly conducted. The implements used in the fields were nearly the same as those introduced by the earliest settlers. The mills were few and primitive; and although the same extent of ground yielded nearly three times as much wheat as in England, and returned corn at the rate of one hundred and fifty fold, yet nothing was cultivated that was not absolutely needed for the maintenance of the missions and their immediate neighborhoods. There was no commerce to carry off the excess of production, and no enterprise to create a surplus for the purposes of trade.
At this epoch the whole cereal production of Upper California did not exceed—
| 63,000 | bushels of wheat. | |||
| 28,000 | " of corn. | |||
| 4,200 | " of frijoles or brown beans. | |||
| 2,800 | " of garabanzos or peas. | |||
| 18,500 | " barley. |
The Californians, of that period, seem however, to have particularly delighted in the care of cattle. The idle, roving life of herdsmen, who might wander over the plains and mountains in search of their flocks, was peculiarly suited to a population emerging from the nomadic state; and accordingly we find that the region was well stocked, whilst the missions and their dependencies flourished. In 1831, Mr. Forbes tells us, that there were in this province,—
| 216,727 | Horned Cattle, | ||
| 32,100 | Horses, | ||
| 2,844 | Mules, | ||
| 177 | Asses, | ||
| 153,455 | Sheep, | ||
| 1,873 | Goats, | ||
| 839 | Swine. |
In addition to these there were vast numbers, roaming at large, which were not marked or branded, according to California laws, as belonging to any of the jurisdictions, missions, haciendas or towns. These were hunted and slain to prevent their interference with the pasturage of the more useful and appropriated cattle; yet from all this multitude but little profit was gained except for hides and tallow. Beef was not salted and prepared for foreign markets, the dairy was altogether neglected, and butter and cheese almost unknown. In the earlier days of the settlement, many thousand cattle were annually driven either to the city of Mexico or to the interior provinces from the large estates on the Pacific; but that traffic was gradually abandoned under the habitual sloth of the people, nor was it until many years after the trade of the ports was opened by the war of independence, that a comparatively brisk intercourse opened with the Sandwich Islands and our own people, who were willing to exchange their manufactures for the hides and tallow of the Californians.
Such was the condition of affairs in this primitive pastoral region when the war between Mexico and the United States broke out. For a long time the natives and settlers had been discontented with their national government that usurped the milder sway of the clergy; yet it is probable that most of the revolutionary movements were founded on personal ambition and avarice rather than patriotic impulses, nor is it likely that the territory would have secured its independence without the aid of a foreign power. British interests had undoubtedly counselled the acquisition of California; but the fate of war suddenly threw it into our hands, and probably at the very moment when English subjects and the Mexican government were combining to exclude us from the positions on the Pacific which were so necessary for our mercantile progress as well as political and maritime convenience.
As soon as the country was quieted by the arrangement which Colonel Frémont made with the Californian leaders at Couenga, the people who had been engaged in the brief local war returned to their peaceful avocations. Our forces were stationed in small detachments, from Sutter's fort to San Diego, while our national vessels were anchored in the different harbors throughout the whole coast. In the maritime towns the supreme authorities collected a revenue from imports under the Contribution tariff. Order was promptly restored every where; but the only recognized control was that of the military government, which had devolved upon Colonel Mason at the departure of General Kearney.
Meanwhile the emigration from the United States, which, amounted to about five hundred individuals during the summer and fall of 1845, had been considerably augmented by recruits and adventurers during the continuance of the war. These men, as soon as hostilities ceased, naturally turned their attention to the two most important subjects that engage an American's attention, wherever fortune may cast his lot. Their future prospects of wealth, and the character of their government, demanded immediate care; yet while they relied upon Congress for the security of their political rights, they found, in spite of California's renown for agricultural riches, that they could only establish themselves successfully on the Pacific, or return with fortunes from its shores, by a steady and thrifty devotion to labor.
Such was the condition of California in the spring of 1848, when the accidental discovery of gold which might be rapidly and easily gathered in apparently inexhaustible quantities, changed not only the condition of the inhabitants, but affected the whole commerce of the world. "The towns were forthwith deserted by their male population, and a complete cessation of the whole industrial pursuits of the country was the consequence. Commerce, agriculture, mechanical pursuits, professions,—all were abandoned for the purpose of gathering the glittering treasures which lay buried in the ravines, gorges and rivers of the Sierra Nevada. The productive industry of the country was annihilated in a day. In some instances the moral perceptions were blunted, and men left their families unprovided, and soldiers deserted their posts."[3]
But the greediness of the adventurers soon taught them that they could not subsist on gold, and that after the first deposits were gathered in the most accessible regions, it was necessary for them to wander farther and farther from the coast settlements, until they were lost in the lonely and barren glens of the mountains. There, at the approach of winter, they found themselves without the means of comfort or support. In the meanwhile, however, the news of the discovered El Dorado crossed the continent, and although its marvels were regarded by many as fabulous, there were others who resolved at once either to abandon their homes for the wilderness or to despatch valuable cargoes whose enormous profits would absorb the miner's wealth.
Under these mingled temptations of trade and discovery, an immense immigration, chiefly of males, poured into California, not only from the United States but from Oregon, Mexico, Chili, Peru, China and the Sandwich Islands, all of whom soon saw the necessity of once more subdividing human labors into their ordinary channels as well as proportions; and thus, while commerce took the lead in the ports and warehouses, mechanical and professional pursuits equally assumed their relative importance, and partly restored the endangered balance of society.
Within a year after this wonderful discovery, the Californians felt that they were no longer outlying colonists of the American Union, requiring pecuniary support from the mother State and military protection against savages. Their lot was strangely reversed in the history of distant settlements, for wealth had been secured in advance of inhabitants and trade. Gold, a large population, and reconstructed social relations, brought with them the necessity for firm, fixed constitutional government. The fermenting elements of a motly society were effervescing, and the substratum of order and civilization was rapidly chrystallizing. The dollar dulled the bowie knife. Immense fleets, arriving from all parts of the world, poured large revenues into the national coffers. Intelligent and industrious men thronged the towns that sprang up, as if by enchantment, at every advantageous point. All the great mercantile interests were rapidly developed. Property in land and moveables become suddenly valuable beyond the hopes or dreams of the early settlers. Discussions arose as to titles and rights. Spanish laws, uncertain in their character or sanction, and American laws of doubtful application, were hastily enforced by judges whom the wants of the time summoned to the bench from uncongenial pursuits to administer justice in courts which were quite as incongruously constructed.
In such a state of society, men were naturally anxious to know their relations to the Federal Government whose Congress adjourned two sessions after the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo without legislating for the ceded territories. It might almost have been pardoned, had California, feeling her power, position and self-reliant resources, asserted her independence after so much neglect. Yet, in the midst of all these temptations, and in spite of our people's abhorrence of a military government, there never was a more beautiful demonstration of national loyalty and affinity than in the regular assemblage, in that remote quarter of the world, of citizens from all our States, and of all classes, characters, tempers, professions and avocations, to form a republican constitution which would ensure admission into our Union. Their military governor, it is true, had set the example of submission to the civil power, by directing the election of delegates; but the people asserted their inherent right, independently of the military authority; and, although they acted in harmony with their estimable ruler, the constitution was emphatically the result of popular impulse and judgment alone. The convention, thus assembled, met at Monterey on the 1st of September, 1849, and closed its work on the 13th of October by submitting an excellent constitution to the people for their adoption. The document was forthwith disseminated in Spanish and English, and no attempt was made to mislead or control public opinion in relation to it. The people gave it their sanction by an overwhelming majority, and the legislature which was elected under it, assembled at San José, the capital of the State, on the 15th of December, 1849. Peter H. Burnett, who had been chosen first governor of the Pacific Empire State, was duly inaugurated, and on the 20th of the same month, the military governor. General Riley, resigned his power into the hands of the civil agents of the organized State. After a warm and embittered discussion in Congress at Washington, California, with all her sovereign rights, was finally admitted into the North American Union, on the 9th day of September, 1850.
The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, by the transfer of Upper California as it existed and was bounded in May 1848, conferred a magnificent domain upon the United States. This, however, has been subdivided by the action of Congress and the California Convention, and the new Territory or Utah formed out of a portion of it. The original grant comprises the region between the parallels of 32° 50' and 40° of north latitude, and 106° and 124° west longitude, containing an area of four hundred and forty-eight thousand six hundred and ninety one square miles, or, two hundred and eighty seven million, one hundred and sixty two thousand two hundred and forty acres of land. "In other words, our original territory of Upper California, embraced twelve hundred and two square miles more than the States of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa and Wisconsin, combined!"[4]
The California Convention, in shaping their new State, thought it advisable to diminish this unwieldy empire, a large portion of which was, in truth, divided by the evident decree of nature from the Pacific region. Between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, at an elevation of between four thousand and five thousand feet above the sea lies that singular geographical formation which was first explored by Colonel Frémont, and is known as the Great Basin. This is now comprehended in the Territory of Utah. It is about five-hundred miles in diameter, counting either from north to south or east to west; and, imprisoned on all sides by mountains, it has its own complete system of rivers and lakes, all of which have no outlet to the Oceans on either side of the continent. Its steep interior hills and mountains are covered with forests, and rise abruptly from a base of ten or twenty miles to a height of seven or ten thousand feet above the level of the sea. Many large bodies of water are confined in its capacious bosom, and among them are the Utah and Great Salt Lakes. The shores of the latter, extending in length about seventy miles, have been seized and occupied by the Mormons as the seat and centre of their future State. Immense quantities of salt are gathered from its banks when the waters of this inland sea recede during the dry seasons of these lofty plains and table lands. The waters of the Utah, however, are perfectly fresh; and, near the western edge of the Basin, is found the picturesque Pyramid Lake which is also shut in by mountains, and is remarkable for its depth and transparent purity.
To the southward of this, bordering the base of the Sierra Nevada, within the Basin, is a long range of lakes; while many copious rivers disperse their water throughout its ungenial expanse. The chief of these streams is Humboldt River, which rises in the mountains west of the Great Salt Lake, and runs westwardly along the northern side of the Basin towards the Sierra Nevada of California. It courses onward for three hundred miles, without affluents, through a sterile plain, though the valley of its own creation is richly covered with grasses and bordered with willows and cottonwood. This remarkable stream will become of vast importance in the travel towards California, for, rising towards the Salt Lake, it pursues nearly the direct route towards the Pass of the Salmon Trout river through the gorges of the Sierra Nevada, where at an elevation of less than three thousand six hundred feet above the level of the Basin, the pathway descends into the Valley of the Sacramento, and penetrates the State of California only forty miles north of Sutter's original settlement.
The other known rivers of this strange and partially explored region, are the Carson, Bear, Utah, Nicollet and Salmon Trout, most of whose streams, furnished by the snowy peaks of the Sierra, are absorbed in marshes and lakes, or return by evaporation to the icy sources whence they sprang.
Such are the prominent features of this vast Basin or Table-land, in the interior of our continent, but as it is now separated by legislation from its former territorial adjunct, we shall pass at once to the consideration of the present boundary of California. This, according to the XIIth article of the State Constitution, sanctioned by the act of Congress, commences at the point of intersection of the 42nd degree of north latitude with the 120th degree of longitude west from Greenwich, and runs south, on the line of the 120th degree of longitude until it intersects the 39th degree of north latitude; thence a straight line pursues a south-easterly direction to the River Colorado, at a point where it intersects the 35th degree of north latitude; thence, the boundary runs down the middle of the channel of that river, to the boundary line between the United States and Mexico, as established by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo; thence, west and along said boundary line to the Pacific Ocean and extending therein three miles; thence, north-westwardly, following the direction of the Pacific coast, to the 42nd degree of north latitude; thence, on the line of the 42nd degree to the place of begining,—including all the islands, harbors, and bays along and adjacent to the Pacific coast.
The superficial area of the State is reduced, according to these boundaries, from the former enormous size, to one hundred and fifty-five thousand five hundred and fifty square miles, or ninety-nine millions five hundred and fifty-two thousand square acres, exclusive of the islands adjacent to the coast.
The noble Empire State thus constructed lies west of the Sierra Nevada, and was wisely fashioned to avoid jurisdiction beyond the mountains. It is strongly contrasted in appearance with the sterility of the Great Basin. Crossing the Sierra Nevada at the Pass traversed by Frémont in February 1844, the traveller finds himself about four degrees south of the northern boundary of the State, and, as he looks westward down the slope of the mountains, the whole of California lies at his feet. The declivities of the Sierra, with a breadth of from forty to seventy miles, and a length from north to south of about five hundred, are heavily wooded with oak, pine, cypress and cedar, while innumerable small streams, rising in the melted snows of the lofty peaks, traverse their rugged sides. These rivulets descend through glens and gorges,—sometimes barren, sometimes luxuriant,—until they disgorge themselves into the Sacramento and San Joaquin. The first of these,—rising in the north at the base of the gigantic Shastl which lifts its snowy diadem fourteen thousand feet above the sea,—sweeps southward towards the thirty-eighth degree of latitude; while the second, oozing from the fens and marshes of lake Tulares, runs northward until it mingles with the Sacramento,—when both, swollen by their tributaries from 
the Sierra Nevada, are finally discharged into the Pacific by the bay of San Francisco which bursts through a gap in a lower chain of mountains bordering the coast. This western Coast Range, averaging about two thousand feet in height, forms, with the Eastern Sierra Nevada, the intermediate sloping plain or valley which is completely drained by the Sacramento and San Joaquin.
- ↑ See vol. ii., page 137.
- ↑ Forbes's California, p. 202.
- ↑ Gwin, Frémont, "Wright and Gilbert: Memorial to Congress accompanying the Constitution of California, 12 March, 1850.
- ↑ See the admirable "Paper upon California" read by that accomplished scholar J. Morrison Harris, before the Maryland Historical Society in March 1849. It has been published and forms, in the estimation of competent judges, the best resumé and most philosophical disquisition upon California that has been hitherto issued from the press.