258 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



successful operation a thorough mail system, com- 

 mensurate with the wants of the people, has been 

 effectually crippled from the want of an appropriation 

 to meet the necessary expenses. We are without 

 admiralty courts ; yet the interests of the commerce 

 of the Pacific are centring in the Bay of San Fran- 

 cisco. We are paying millions into the treasury of the 

 United States yearly. Our custom-house is thronged 

 daily with captains and consignees of vessels, paying 

 government dues, which eventually come from the 

 pockets of the citizens of the whole State ; yet there 

 is hardly a possibility that one dollar in a thousand 

 will ever be expended for our benefit. 



" This state of things is unnatural — too much so for 

 a quiet endurance, unless stern necessity is at the 

 bottom. Were there any reason why we should be 

 treated thus, we could patiently suffer on. But there 

 is none. And now a sentiment is fast gaining ground 

 here, that it is the intention of Congress — or a portion 

 of Congress, to throw us back upon a territorial organi- 

 zation. It may not be amiss to state that California, 

 under no circumstances, will give up her State organi- 

 zation. She has just escaped from the crudities and 

 unintelligibilities of the Mexican code. Under it, she 

 would still belaboring, had the action of Congress been 

 awaited. Neither to this state of vassalage to institu- 

 tions foreign to the habits and education of her citizens, 

 nor to a second vassalage of territorial government under 

 Congress, will she submit now. She knows her interests 

 too well for this. If we are driven to take matters into 

 our own keeping, the responsibility rests not upon us, 

 neither should the odium, if any attaches. Should 

 Congress ever come to its senses, and do what naked 

 justice demanded months ago, California will ever be 



