ation he lowered the flag next day with due ceremony and warm
apology. In California this incident served only to open up agreeable
personal relations and social courtesies, but it did not tend to clarify
the diplomatic atmosphere. It showed the ease of seizing the country,
the indifference of the natives, and the resolution of the United States
government. Mexico sought to prevent American immigration, but the local
authorities would not enforce such orders, however positive. Between
1843 and 1845, Great Britain, the United States, and France opened
consulates. By 1845 there was certainly an agreement in opinion among
all American residents (then not 700 in number) as regards the future of
the country. The policy of France and Great Britain in these years is
unknown. That of the United States is fully known. In 1845 the American
consul at Monterey, Thomas O. Larkin (1802-1858), was instructed to work
for the secession of California from Mexico, without overt aid from the
United States, but with their good-will and sympathy. He very soon
gained from leading officers assurances of such a movement before 1848.
At the same time American naval officers were instructed to occupy the
ports in case of war with Mexico, but first and last to work for the
good-will of the natives. In 1845 Captain J.C. Fremont,--whose doings in
California in the next two years were among the main assets in a
life-long reputation and an unsuccessful presidential campaign,--while
engaged in a government surveying expedition, aroused the apprehensions
of the Californian authorities by suspicious and very possibly
intentionally provocative movements, and there was a show of military
force by both parties. Fremont had information beyond that of ordinary
men that made him believe early hostilities between the United States
and Mexico to be inevitable; he was also officially informed of Larkin's
secret task and in no way authorized to hamper it. Resentment, however,
incited him to personal revenge on the Californian government, and an
ambition that clearly saw the gravity of the crisis prompted him to
improve it unscrupulously for his own advancement, leaving his
government to support or disavow him according as war should come or
not. In violation therefore of international amities, and practically in
disobedience of orders, he broke the peace, caused a band of Mexican
cavalry mounts to be seized, and prompted some American settlers to
occupy Sonoma (14th