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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 unap- propriated 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 differ- ence. 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 agra- rian, 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. With- out 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 tak- ingj 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 en- titled to it. He was a professional gull, ever hover-
