History of the State of California Part 18

At Sacramento city much alarm prevailed, in consequence of the rise of the water in the river and its tributaries. The papers say:--

The warm and unprecedented heavy rains of the last forty-eight hours have brought down upon us an avalanche of water from the snowy regions skirting the forks of the American River, and swollen the latter stream to a greater height than at any former period of the present season.

At 9 o'clock, yesterday morning, the water was even with its natural banks, and soon after commenced percolating through the unfinished embankments at the gaps of the old levee. These were speedily torn away by the force of the current, and the water, now running on un.o.bstructed through the breach of the new levee, and so on down towards the city.

By dusk last evening, that portion of the town lying south of J and east of Fifth street, was entirely submerged, to the depth of from one to three feet. During the whole of yesterday the rain poured down in torrents, and the weather was warmer than we have known it for a month past. The American river continued to rise, up to a very late hour, and, at last accounts, was eleven and a half feet higher than on Wednesday.

It is useless to deny the fact that the highest mark has not yet been reached, for there is a great body of snow that, under the influence of the present storm, must dissolve, and find its way to the Sacramento. The latter stream also rose steadily during Thursday, but still lacks some two feet of being up to the top of the levee.

There is no danger whatever of the embankment yielding at any point in front of the city--the only danger to be apprehended is that it may not prove sufficiently high to retain the stream within its appropriate bounds.

A small breach was discovered early yesterday morning in the new levee, near Dudley's farm, but it was repaired before any damage was done.

There was a rumor prevailing last evening that Lisle's bridge had been swept away, but could be traced to no reliable source.

Every body is busily engaged in making preparations to meet the antic.i.p.ated flood. Merchants and shopkeepers, and all having property on the ground floor, are raising them above high water mark--boats are moored at the doors--vehicles of every description, stock, grain, tents, hay, provisions and people, are crowded together on the public square, and every available dry nook and corner is occupied.

The Marysville Express of the 20th, says: "The water is within three or four inches as high as it was at the last flood, when it was 6 inches higher than ever known before. The rain is still falling heavily, and when we consider the enormous, almost frightful, quant.i.ty of snow in the mountains, the most alarming fears may most reasonably be entertained. All seem to join in the belief that the present will exceed any previous flood known."

The accounts we receive from the mining districts are really heart rending; death by cold and starvation has visited many poor unfortunates, while as yet the tale of horrors is but half told. It was feared that as intelligence should be received from the mountains, we shall have to record the sad fate of many more.

Great quant.i.ties of gold are still obtained in California. The average value of the gold dust brought by each steamer of the Panama line is about $500,000. This is an astonishing production; and we are almost ready to believe the enthusiastic declarations of the first adventurers in this El Dorado, that the gold region is inexhaustible.

Emigration to California continues to be extensive. Most of those who intend to become permanent settlers proceed by the overland route, from Independence, Missouri, to Sacramento City. Late in the summer of every year, a relief train is sent from the settled portion of California, to meet the emigrants. Many persons are thus saved from death by starvation. The expense of the relief train is a consideration of little importance, when its object is borne in mind.

Had the same measure been adopted soon after the gold discovery, many of those whose bones are bleaching on the plains, would have survived to become useful citizens of California.

Interesting proceedings have taken place in the United States Senate, in regard to the Tehuantepec route to California. The Mexican government has shown a disposition to prevent the construction of a road across Tehuantepec, which some senators think should be promptly rebuked. In a recent speech upon the subject, Mr. Mason, of Virginia, said that the acquisition of California and the intervening territory, placed this Government in the position of having some of its dependencies almost inaccessible. The discovery of the gold in California, made the subject of a communication with that region, of the deepest importance, and has naturally drawn the eyes of the world to the necessity of securing some safe, reliable, and speedy right of way to the Pacific Ocean. Panama has been sought, and it has been used as a place of transit, without any serious objection on the part of any government there. Mexico alone has interposed an obstacle to this desired communication with the Pacific. Mexico, from whom our territory was derived, and who is our neighbor and sister Republic, has alone refused the right of way to the world, and has not only refused the right of transit to other nations, but has also set aside an existing grant of that right. For years, enterprises have been projected to connect the two Oceans at Tehuantepec. In view of the vast importance of this connection, the minds of the people of the United States have been concentrated upon the discovery of that plan which shall be the least expensive, and at the same time the most certain and efficient, to unite the two Oceans by means of travel or transportation. Mr. Mason read a table showing the distance between New York and San Francis...o...b.. the Chagres route, to be 6650 miles; between New Orleans and San Francisco, by way of Chagres, 5675 miles; between New York and San Francisco, by the Tehuantepec route, 4970; between New Orleans and San Francisco, by the Tehuantepec, 3740 miles.

The average time from New York to San Francisco, by the Chagres route, was 28 days, and the shortest 24 days. The average time by the Tehuantepec route was 19 days, and the shortest 15. From New Orleans, by way of Tehuantepec, the average time would be 14 days and the shortest 12 days.

It is believed that spirited action on the part of our government will secure from Mexico the recognition of a right of way across Tehuantepec, which, according to Senator Mason's able representation, is but a matter of justice. Mexico is at present almost ready to fall to pieces, most of its states, or provinces, being in successful rebellion. She is not, therefore, in a condition to resist a formidable foreign power. It is lamentable when a government is weak, and yet dares to be unjust. The people of California have a considerable stake in the decision of the Tehuantepec question.

The gold region is constantly being extended by new discoveries--especially in the north-eastern section of the state. In the meantime the old mines continue to yield a good profit to industrious laborers. Before the recent flood, the mining news from the Mariposa diggings was very favorable--the miners averaging from $25 to $30 a day. On Cottonwood Creek, Shosta Valley, operations were also well rewarded--one company making $100 per day to the hand. The number of persons engaged in mining and crushing the gold-bearing quartz is very large, and the yield rewards the toil.

The miners still occasionally take upon themselves the punishment of offenders. Recently, a half-breed Mexican, named John Bathus, having stolen $800 in gold dust from S. B. Star, on the Klamath, was caught, tried by the miners of the district, convicted, sentenced to be shot, and executed accordingly. About the same time, a man named Morrison, having committed a theft among the miners on Humbug Creek, was caught, and received twelve lashes on his bare back. These cases, however, occurred in wild districts, where the laws of the State are but imperfectly executed, and where summary measures can alone secure the miner in possession of his hard-earned property.

The Indians in the State are very troublesome, in spite of the strong regular force kept in vigilant service. The most recent disturbances have occurred in Trinity County, whither Gen. Hitchc.o.c.k was compelled to despatch a company of United States troops. Prompt and vigorous measures being adopted, the savages were quieted. Other disturbances in that section of the country about the mouth of the Klamath, were terminated as promptly.

A late number of the Shasta Courier says, the Indians on Churn Creek, on the east side of the Sacramento river, have become very annoying to the whites. They have stolen a great many mules, and are constantly watching for opportunities to take human life. But recently, a man named Henry Welden, was pursued for several miles by a band of these Indians, and narrowly escaped with his life. In consequence of these outrages, a company of miners was formed for the purpose of driving the savages to a safer distance, or exterminating them. The company was equipped for efficient service in the mountains. The Indians fled before them, and could not be overtaken.

Several months previous the Indians on the Gila were incited to war by some reckless Mexicans. Several expeditions were sent against them from Fort Yumas, and recently the savages have been so far quieted, that the country is now considered safe for emigrants.

Among the new and most remarkable _placers_, are the gold bluffs, situated near the mouth of the Klamath river, about thirty miles north of Trinidad. The approach to them by land is over a plain of sand, into which the traveller sinks ankle-deep at every step. The bluffs stretch along some five or six miles, and present a perpendicular front to the ocean of from 100 to 400 feet in height. In ordinary weather the beach is from 20 to 50 feet in width, composed of a mixture of gray and black sand, the latter containing the gold in scales so fine that they cannot be separated by the ordinary process of washing; so that resort must be had to chemical means. The beach changes with every tide, and sometimes no black, auriferous sand is to be seen on the surface. By digging down, it is found mixed with gray sand, which largely predominates. The violence of the surf renders landing in boats impracticable. When the beach was discovered early in 1851, several tons of goods were landed from a steamer despatched thither, by means of lines from the vessel to the sh.o.r.e. The Pacific Mining Company have made good profits in working the bluffs and the sand of the beach.

Tunneling has been carried on quite extensively in the mining region.

Some of the tunnels through solid rock are wonderful achievements. At Duggan's Flat, a party bored 150 feet in the solid rock before finding the gold.

Professor Forrest Shepherd, of New Haven, has made some remarkable discoveries of thermal action in California. In one place where there was nothing on the surface to attract attention, on digging down the heat increased so rapidly that at the depth of two feet he could not bear his hand in the earth, and the thermometer indicated a temperature of 130 degrees. At another place, after wandering for four days through dense thickets, he came upon a chasm a thousand feet deep, through which flowed a stream, the banks of which, on the 8th of February, were covered with vegetation. Following up the stream, the earth grew so hot as to burn the feet through the boots. There was no appearance of lava, and the rocks were being dissolved by a powerful _catalytic_ action. From innumerable orifices steam was forced to the height of two hundred feet. The number of spouting geysers and boiling springs, on a half mile square, exceeded two hundred. The Professor, in the course of a lecture delivered at San Jose, said he did not doubt that silver, lead, and iron abounded in California.

The legislation of Congress in regard to California has sometimes been of a very unsatisfactory character. By an act pa.s.sed in 1850, the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to contract upon the most reasonable terms with the proprietors of some well-established a.s.saying works then in successful operation in California, who should perform such duties in a.s.saying and fixing the value of gold in grains and lumps, and in forming the same into bars, as should be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, and the a.s.sayer was to fix the stamp of the United States, indicating the degree of fineness and value, upon each bar or ingot. This was a measure of convenience, and the merchants of the California ports had then ample means of paying their custom house duties. In 1852, however, Congress pa.s.sed an act, creating a branch mint of the United States in California: and to this act was appended a clause, repealing the act which authorized the office of a.s.sayer, as soon as public notice was given of the creation of the branch mint. In consequence of this legislation, the a.s.sayer's office was abolished, and yet there was no mint for coining in the golden land. Time was required for making the necessary appropriation of money, erecting buildings, and constructing machinery, all of which had not been considered. The clause of the former act which made the stamped ingots receivable for duties was repealed. The merchants of California had no means of paying their duties at the custom house, and great excitement and confusion ensued. Finally, an arrangement was made with the Collector of San Francisco, under which uncoined gold could be received in payment of duties, and then business went on as usual. Care is one of the first essentials of beneficial legislation.

The circ.u.mstance that the people of California are so far from the seat of the federal government, requires a strict attention in legislators, to prevent evils which cannot be quickly remedied.

The people of California seem to be deeply interested in the construction of a great railroad from the Mississippi to the Pacific.

At San Diego, several meetings have been held, and reports adopted, advocating and exhibiting the advantages of a southern route for the proposed railroad. The route which the meetings favored is to start from the Gulf of Mexico or some of its tributaries, and pa.s.sing through Texas, Louisiana, and New Mexico to California, and strike the Pacific at San Diego. Its entire length would not exceed sixteen hundred miles, whilst it would have the advantages, as alleged by the report, of pa.s.sing through a section in which universal summer prevails, and of affording opportunities for lateral roads connecting with the cities of Mexico, through which a large trade might be obtained. The subject has been brought to the consideration of Congress, and that body has prudently appropriated a large sum for a survey of the various routes proposed.

APPENDIX.

APPENDIX A.

CONSt.i.tUTION OF CALIFORNIA.

PROCLAMATION TO THE PEOPLE OF CALIFORNIA

The delegates of the people a.s.sembled in Convention, have formed a const.i.tution, which is now presented for your ratification. The time and manner of voting on this const.i.tution, and of holding the first general election, are clearly set forth in the schedule. The whole subject is, therefore, left for your unbia.s.sed and deliberate consideration.

The Prefect (or person exercising the functions of that office) of each district, will designate the places for opening the polls, and give due notice of the election, in accordance with the provisions of the const.i.tution and schedule.

The people are now called upon to form a government for themselves, and to designate such officers as they desire, to make and execute the laws. That their choice may be wisely made, and that the government so organized may secure the permanent welfare and happiness of the people of the new State, is the sincere and earnest wish of the present Executive, who, if the const.i.tution be ratified, will, with pleasure, surrender his powers to whomsoever the people may designate as his successor.

Given at Monterey, California, this 12th day of October, A.D., 1849.

(Signed) B. RILEY,

Brevet Brig. General, U.S.A., and Governor of California.

(Official) H. W. HALLECK, Brevet Captain and Secretary of State.

WE THE PEOPLE OF CALIFORNIA, GRATEFUL TO ALMIGHTY G.o.d FOR OUR FREEDOM, IN ORDER TO SECURE ITS BLESSINGS, DO ESTABLISH THIS CONSt.i.tUTION:--

ARTICLE I.

DECLARATION OF RIGHTS.

SEC. 1. All men are by nature free and independent, and have certain inalienable rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining safety and happiness.

SEC. 2. All political power is inherent in the people. Government is inst.i.tuted for the protection, security, and benefit of the people; and they have the right to alter or reform the same, whenever the public good may require it.

SEC. 3. The right of trial by jury shall be secured to all, and remain inviolate for ever; but a jury trial may be waived by the parties, in all civil cases, in the manner to be prescribed by law.

SEC. 4. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall for ever be allowed in this State; and no person shall be rendered incompetent to be a witness on account of his opinions on matters of religious belief; but the liberty of conscience, hereby secured, shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness, or justify practices inconsistent with the peace or safety of this State.

SEC. 5. The privilege of the writ of _habeas corpus_ shall not be suspended, unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require its suspension.