428 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA 



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 Consti- 

 tution 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 establish- 

 ment 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 Exe- 

 cutive 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 



