460 KESOITECES OF CALIFORNIA. 



it was then. The claimants have sold two-fifths of their land 

 to pay the expenses of litigation — that is said to be a modest 

 estimate by those familiar with the subject — and they are not 

 yet done. They have been despoiled of two-fifths of their 

 land, deprived of the possession of a large portion of the re- 

 mainder, and prevented from selling it while they saw its 

 value, in many cases, decreasing steadily with the decay of 

 business consequent on the exhaustion of the richest placer 

 mines. 



The injury done to the country by the delay in the settle- 

 ment of the land-titles is, to a considerable extent, irreparable. 

 That delay has caused us to lose, or has prevented our gain- 

 ing, a population of a million citizens, of the most valuable 

 class. Two hundred thousand men have left our state forever 

 — half of them because they could not get permanent homes 

 here — and they prevented as many more from coming, who 

 would have come if they could have had certain land-titles. 

 Not less than fifty thousand men have left us because of the 

 unsteadiness of business and the lack of employment, caused 

 by want of unquestioned ownership of the soil. Thus I esti- 

 mate that the delay in settling our land-titles has cost us two 

 hundred and fifty thousand men, representing a total popula- 

 tion of one million persons. The golden flood, the grand 

 rush of business, the unexampled prosperity which passed 

 over the state from 1849 to 1853, has passed away forever ; it 

 is too late to repair the damage ; fifty years of peace and 

 justice cannot place California where she now would have 

 been, had justice and sound policy been adopted twelve years 

 ago. 



Thus I have explained the reasons which caused the deser- 

 tion of California by many of the best men who have ever 

 visited her shore. Fortunately, every thing in California is 

 gradually becoming more stable ; titles in the agricultural dis- 

 tricts are gradually being settled ; and it is now almost estab- 

 lished beyond a doubt, that within a few years the federal 

 government must sell a considerable portion of the land in 



