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may be deemed reasonable, and the residue passed to the credit of the miner, and paid to him at his option in coin or stamped bullion, or its value in drafts on the treasury or mint of the United States. The gold in the mine, and after it is gathered, until brought into the mint, should be and remain the property of the United States. The barter, sale, gift, or exportation of any portion of it before it shall have been delivered at the mint, and so coined, or assayed and stamped, or its concealment, with intent to avoid the payment of rent or seignorage, should involve a forfeiture of the gold itself, and also of the mine. The terms of lease or sale should be favorable to the miner, and the law should be st. ingent to enforce the payment of seignorage and

rents.

So far as the surface deposits extend, I am of opinion that leases will, for yet a further reason, be preferable to sales of the lands. If sold, they will pass at once into the hands of large capitalists; if leased, industrious men without capital may become the proprietors, as they can work the mines and pay the rent out of the proceeds. But where gold is found in the rocks in place, the case is different. These must necessarily fall at once into the hands of large capitalists or joint stock companies, as they cannot be wrought without a heavy investment.

Some persons, whose opinions are entitled to much weight, apprehend difficulty in collecting the rents, if the mode of disposition which I suggest be adopted; but this, I think, is without a full consideration of the condition of the country and the means of enforcement. Gold, unless coined or stamped at the mint, could not circulate in California against a legal provision, and subject to a penalty such as is suggested. It could not be carried across the continent without risk of loss or detection, which would make the value of insurance equal to the rent. In any other direction it must pass the ports of California, and be there liable to detection.

Since the discovery of the mines, gold in California has not ranged higher than $16 per ounce its actual value is a fraction over $18. The difference between its true value and the highest price at which it has sold, or would probably ever sell, except to houses transacting an open, regular and legal business, is therefore one-ninth, being more than half the amouut that ought to be reserved as rent or seignorage.

If the penalty suggested above should be provided for an attempted evasion, and the ordinary advantages given to the officer or other person who should detect the fraud, as in case of smuggling, it would not be the interest of any one to become a dealer in the prohibited article at a small pro fit and great risk: nor would the miner risk a sale at a small advance of price, to be obtained at the hazard of a heavy forfeiture. The absolute security of the lawful business, the safety of the fund when deposited in the treasury of the United States, and the small profit and great risk of attempted frauds, would be reasonable security against them.

The property of the United States in the mines of quicksilver, derived from Spain through Mexico, with the eminent domain, is, as I have shown, the same as that to the gold, already considered. Indeed, the laws of Spain asserted more sternly and guarded more strictly the rights of the crown to that metal than to gold and silver. This arose from the scarcity of quicksilver, it being found in sufficient quantities to be worth mining in but few known places on the globe; while its necessary use in separating silver from its matrix, makes it an essential ingredient in silver mining operations.

The deposite of quicksilver, known to exist in California, is a sulphuret of mercury, or native cinnabar. The stratum of mineral, several feet in thickness, has been traced for a considerable distance along its line of strike. The specimens assayed at the mint range from 15.5 to 33.35 per cent. of metal; it is easy of access, and is mined and reduced without difficulty. So much of the mine as has been traced is situated on a ranch, to which the title is probably valid; and since the United States took possession of the country, an attempt has been made to acquire title to the mine by denouncement. This proceeding is, for the reasons that I have already given, invalid. It therefore remains for Congress to determine whether they will relinquish or assert the title of the United States in this mine.

EXTRACTS

From Executive Documents (H. of Rep.) No. 17, First Session, XXXIst Congress.

PRESIDENT TAYLOR'S MESSAGE, AND ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTS.

To the House of Representatives of the United States:

I transmit to the House of Representatives, in answer to a resolution of that body passed on the 31st of December last, the accompanying reports of heads of departments, which contain all the official information in the possession of the Executive asked for by the resolution.

On coming into office, I found the military commandant of the department of California exercising the functions of civil governor in that Territory; and left, as I was, to act under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, without the aid of any legislative provision establishing a government in that Terri. tory, I thought it best not to disturb that arrangment, made under my predecessor, until Congress should take some action on that subject. I therefore did not interfere with the powers of the military commandant, who continued to exercise the functions of civil governor as before; but I made no

such appointment, conferred no such authority, and have allowed no increas ed compensation to the commandant for his services.

With a view to the faithful execution of the treaty, so far as lay in the power of the Executive, and to enable Congress to act, at the present session, with as full knowledge and as little difficulty as possible, on all matters of interest in these Territories, I sent the honorable Thomas Butler King as bearer of despatches to California, and certain officers to California and New Mexico, whose duties are particularly defined in the accompanying letters of instruction addressed to them severally by the proper departments.

I did not hesitate to express to the people of those Territories my desire that each Territory should, if prepared to comply with the requisitions of the constitution of the United States, form a plan of a State constitution and submit the same to Congress, with a prayer for admission into the Union as a State; but I did not anticipate, suggest, or authorize the establishment of any such government without the assent of Congress; nor did I authorize any government agent or officer to interfere with or exercise any influence or control over the election of delegates, or over any convention, in making or modifying their domestic institutions or any of the provisions of their proposed constitution. On the contrary, the instructions given by my orders were, that all measures of domestic policy adopted by the people of California must originate solely with themselves; that while the Executive of the United States was desirous to protect them in the formation of any government republican in its character, to be, at the proper time, submitted to Congress, yet it was to be distinctly understood that the plan of such a government must, at the same time, be the result of their own deliberate choice, and originate with themselves, without the interference of the Executive.

I am unable to give any information as to laws passed by any supposed government in California, or of any census taken in either of the Territories mentioned in the resolution, as I have no information on those subjects.

As already stated, I have not disturbed the arrangements which I found had existed under my predecessor.

In advising an early application by the people of these Territortes for admission as States, I was actuated principally by an earnest desire to afford to the wisdom and patriotism of Congress the opportunity of avoiding occa sions of bitter and angry dissensions among the people of the United States.

Under the constitution, every State has the right of establishing, and, from time to time, altering its municipal laws and domestic institutions, independently of every other State and of the general government; subject only to the prohibitions and guaranties expressly set forth in the constitution of the United States. The subjects thus left exclusively to the respective States were not designed or expected to become topics of national agitation. Still, as, under the constitution, Congress has power to make all needful rules and regulations respecting the Territories of the United States, every

new acquisition of territory has led to discussions on the question whether the system of involuntary servitude which prevails in many of the states should or should not be prohibited in that Territory. The periods of excitement from this cause which have heretofore occurred have been safely passed; but during the interval, of whatever length, which may elapse before the admission of the Territories ceded by Mexic as States, it appears prob able that similar excitement will prevail to an undue extent.

Under these circumstances, I thought, and still think, that it was my duty to endeavor to put it in the power of congress, by the admission of Cali fornia and new Mexico as States, to remove all occasion for the unnecessary agitation of the public mind.

It is understood that the people of the western part of California have formed a plan of state constitution, and will soon submit the same to the judgment of Congress, and apply for admission as a State. This course on their part, though in accordance with, was not adopted exclusively in consequence of, any expression of my wishes, inasmuch as measures tending to this end had been promoted by the officers sent there by my predecessor, and were already in active progress of execution before any communication from me reached California. If the proposed constitution shall, when submitted to Congress, be found to be in compliance with the requisitions of the constitution of the United States, I earnestly recommend that it may receive the sanction of Congress.

The part of California not included in the proposed State of that name is believed to be uninhabited, except in a settlment of our countrymen in the vicinity of Salt Lake.

A claim has been advanced by the State of Texas to a very large portion of the most populous district of the Territory commonly designated by the name of New Mexico. If the people of New Mexico had formed a plan of a State government for that Territory as ceded by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and had been admitted by Congress as a state, our constitution would have afforded the means of obtaining an adjustment of the question of boundary with Texas by a judicial decision. At present, however, no judicial tribunal has power of deciding that question, and it remains for Congress to devise some mode for its adjustment. Meanwhile, I submit to Congress the question whether it would be expedient, before such adjustment, to establish a territorial government, which, by including the district so claimed, would practically decide the question adversely to the State of Texas, or, by excluding it would decide it in her favor. In my opinion, such a course would not be expedient, especially as the people of this Territory still enjoy the benefit and protection of their municipal laws, originally derived from Mexico, and have a military force stationed there to protect them against the indians. It is undoubtedly true that the property, lives, liberties, and religion of the

people of New Mexico are better protected than they ever were before the treaty of cession.

Should Congress, when California shall present herself for incorporation into the Union, annex a condition to her admission as a State affecting her domestic institutions, contrary to the wishes of her people, and even compel her, temporarily, to comply with it yet the State could change her constitution, at any time after admission, when to her it should seem expedient. Any attempt to deny to the people of the State the right of self-government in a matter which peculiarly affects themselves, will infallibly be regarded by them as an invasion of their rights; and, upon the principles laid down in our own Declaration of Independence, they will certainly be sustained by the great mass of the American people. To assert that they are a conquered people, and must, as a State, submit to the will of their conquerors in this regard, will meet with no cordial response among American freemen. Great numbers of them are native citizens of the United States, not inferior to the rest of our countrymen in intelligence and patriotism; and no language of menace, to restrain them in the exercise of undoubted right, guarantied to them by the treaty of cession itself, shall ever be uttered by me or encouraged and sustained by persons acting under my authority. It is to be ex pected that, in Mexico, the people residing there will, at the time of their incorporation into the Union as a State, settle all questions of domestic policy to suit themselves. No material inconvenience will result from the want, for a short period, of a government established by Congress over that part of the territory which lies eastward of the new State of California; and the reasons for my opinion that New Mexico will, at no very distant period, ask for admission into the Union, are founded on unofficial information, which, I suppose, is common to all who have cared to make inquiries on that subject.

Seeing, then, that the question which now excites such painful sensations in the country will in the end, certainly be settled by the silent effect of causes independent of the action of Congress, I again submit to your wisdom the policy recommended in my annual message, of awaiting the creation of geographical parties, and secure the harmony of feeling so necessary to the beneficial action of our political system. Connected as the Union is with the remembrance of past happiness, the sense of present blessings, and the hope of future peace and prosperity, every dictate of wisdom, every feeling of duty, and every emotion of patriotism, tend to inspire fidelity and devotion to it, and admonish us cautiously to avoid any unnecessary controversy which can either endanger it or impair its strength, the chief element of which is to be found in the regard and affection of the people for each other.

Z. TAYLOR.

WASHINGTON CITY, D. C., January 21, 1850.

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