and wanted to see Governor Mason in
person. I took them in to the Colonel, and left them together. After
sometime the Colonel came to his door and called to me. I went in, and
my attention was directed to a series of papers unfolded on his table,
in which lay about half an ounce of placer gold . . . . . . . Colonel
Mason then handed me a letter from Captain Sutter, addressed to him,
stating that he (Sutter) was engaged in erecting a sawmill at Coloma,
about forty miles up the American Fork, above his fort at New Helvetia,
for the general benefit of the settlers in that vicinity; that he had
incurred considerable expense, and wanted a 'preemption' to the quarter
section of land on which the mill was located, embracing the tail-race
in which this particular gold had been found. Mason instructed me to
prepare a letter, reciting that California was yet a Mexican province,
simply held by us as a conquest; that no laws of the United States yet
applied to it, much less the land laws or preemption laws, which could
only apply after a public survey. Therefore it was impossible for the
Governor to promise him (Sutter) a title to the land; yet, as there were
no settlements within forty miles, he was not likely to be disturbed by
trespassers. Colonel Mason signed the letter, handed it to one of the
gentlemen who had brought the sample of gold, and they departed . . . .
. . . That gold was the first discovered in the Sierra Nevada, which
soon revolutionized the whole country, and actually moved the whole
civilized world."--Personal Memoirs, p. 68.

[5] Cross vs. Harrison, 16 Howard (57 U. S.), 164, 192.

[6] "In 1850 the Congress of the United States passed what is called a
series of compromise measures. Among them was a fugitive slave law, the
indemnity to Texas, the creation of territories in Utah and New Mexico,
the admission of California, and the change in the Texas boundary. Four
of them had direct relation to the question of slavery, and one was the
admission of this State. Being in Congress, as a member of the House, at
that time, I know well what you remember. The admission of California as
a State was delayed for some nine or ten months, because the leaders of
the Pro-Slavery Party were determined to secure their own way on all the
other measures before California should be admitted."--E. D. Baker,
Forest Hill speech, Aug. 19, 1859.

[7] J. Ross Browne: Debates in the Convention of California on the
Formation of the Con