120 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



most important rights, and very large sums of money 

 depended upon the dictum of the judge. 



" The sale of the territory by Mexico to the United 

 States had necessarily cut off or dissolved the laws 

 regulating the granting or procuring titles to land ; 

 and, as our own land-laws had not been extended over 

 it, the people were compelled to receive such titles as 

 were offered to them, without the means of ascertain 

 ing whether they were valid or not. 



" Litigation was so expensive and precarious that 

 injustice and oppression were frequently endured, 

 rather than resort to so uncertain a remedy. 



" Towns and cities were springing into existence ; 

 many of them without charters or any legal right to 

 organize municipal authorities, or to tax property or 

 the citizens for the establishment of a police, the 

 erection of prisons, or providing any of those means 

 for the protection of life and property which are so 

 necessary in all civil communities, and especially 

 among a people mostly strangers to each other. 



" Nearly one million and a half of dollars had been 

 paid into the custom-house, as duties on imported 

 goods, before our revenue laws had been extended over 

 the country; and the people complained bitterly that 

 they were thus heavily taxed without being pro 

 vided with a government for their protection, or 

 laws which they could understand, or allowed the 

 right to be represented in the councils of the 

 nation. 



" While anxiously waiting the action of Congress, 

 oppressed and embarrassed by this state of affairs, and 

 feeling the pressing necessity of applying such reme 

 dies as were in their power, and circumstances seemed 

 to justify, they resolved to substitute laws of their own 



