CHAPTER XVI.--_Spanish Land Grants Viewed Retrospectively._
San Francisco seemed deserted, dusty and desolate to Clarence after hisreturn from the Yosemite and the society of Mercedes. It was the stepfrom the sublime to the ridiculous; so he ran off to his Alameda farmand remained there until the day before the steamer would leave for SanDiego. He then came back late to the dusty city and went in search ofHubert to take him to dinner.
"Come for pity's sake to dine with me and talk to me. I can't eat alone,I am too blue," said he, going to Hubert's desk.
"All right, my boy. You are the very man I wanted to see, for I havebeen slashing into your stocks like all possessed;" and he made cuts andthrusts in the air illustrative of a terrible havoc.
"What have you done?" Clarence asked, laughing.
"Well, in the first place, I have sold all your Yellow Jacket, all yourSavage and half of your Ophir, and I bought you some ConsolidatedVirginia and California. What do you say to that?"
"Not one word, for I suppose you know what you are about."
"I think I do, and, as a proof of it, I made for you twenty thousanddollars clear profit by the operation, besides buying your ConsolidatedVirginia. So if that last venture is a failure, I shall not feel I haveswamped all your cash."
"I should say not. You are the prince of brokers, Berty. You have notmade a single mistake in managing my stock."
"Yes I have. I sold your Crown Point too soon."
"But that was my mistake, not yours."
"Yes it was. I ought to have sold half to fool you, and kept the otherhalf ten days longer to make a million with it. I was stupidly honestthat time."
"I forgive you."
"But I don't forgive myself, nor you either."
"I know that. You are only piling coals of fire on my head. Now I haveto bear twenty thousand more fresh coals, and I forbearingly say: 'Pileon Macduff,' _et cetera_. Where shall we go to dinner--the Poodle Dog orCalifornia?"
"Let us go to the California House. John keeps the best."
To the California House they went, and had a most excellent dinner withChateau Yquem and a bottle of Roderer.
"Don't you know I like some of our California wines quite as well as theimported, if not better? I suppose I ought to be ashamed to admit it,thus showing that my taste is not cultivated. But that is the simpletruth. There is that flavor of the real genuine grape which ourCalifornia wines have that is different from the imported. I thinksooner or later our wines will be better liked, better appreciated,"Clarence said.
"I think so too, but for the present it is the fashion to cry down ournative wines and extol the imported. When foreigners come to Californiato tell us that we can make good wines, that we have soils in which togrow the best grapes, then we will believe it, not before."
The two friends went after dinner to Clarence's rooms, where they spentthe evening together. Twelve o'clock found them still busy talking of athousand things. Next morning Hubert came to breakfast with Clarence andaccompanied him to the steamer.
"Good-by, old fellow; take care of yourself."
"Good-by, my boy; good luck to you," said they, with a lingering grip ofthe hands.
"I hope Fred has had a safe journey," Clarence added.
"I think so, and I hope soon to get his telegram--about his '_firstimpression_'--which I shall transmit to you."
Once more Clarence was crossing San Francisco Bay--on to the GoldenGate, on to the broad Pacific.
The surrounding scenery recalled Mercedes' image so vividly to his mindthat it made his heart long to see her, and the entire voyage waspainful to him with the keen regret of her absence.
But now, again, on the fourth morning--a lovely one in the sunlitJuly--he was once more making his way between Ballast Point and thesandy peninsula, facing La Playa and then turning to the right towardsSan Diego City.
San Diego at that time--in July, 1873--be it remembered, was fresh androsy with bright hopes, like a healthy child just trying to stand up,with no sickness or ill-usage to sap its vitality and weaken its limbs.Only ten months before Col. Scott had come to say that the Texas PacificRailroad would be built through the shortest, most practicable route,making San Diego the western terminus of _the shortest transcontinentalrailway_. It was true that on the following winter Congress had donenothing further to help the Texas Pacific. But many reasons were givenfor this singular lack of interest in so important a matter on the partof Congress. Among the many reasons, _the true one_ was not mentioned,hardly suspected; it would have seemed too monstrous to have beenbelieved all at once; incredible if revealed without preparing the mindfor its reception. Yes, the mind had to be prepared--slowly educatedfirst. Now it has been. The process began about that time and it hascontinued up to this day, this very moment in which I write this page.Mr. Huntington's letters have taught us how San Diego was robbed,tricked, and cheated out of its inheritance. We will look at theseletters further on.
When the steamer arrived near enough to the wharf for persons to berecognized, Clarence's heart leaped with pleasure, for he saw the wellknown, tall form of Don Mariano sitting in his buggy leaning back,looking at the approaching steamer. A minute after, he saw Victorianoand Everett standing together near the edge of the wharf ready toreceive him.
"Well, Mr. Runaway, welcome back!" Victoriano said, clasping Clarence'shand as soon as he was upon the wharf. He gave the other hand toEverett, who said:
"We will have to _lazo_ you to keep you home."
"I think we will have to put a yoke on him," added Victoriano.
"Exactly; only let me select my yokefellow," Clarence said, laughing.
As Don Mariano intended returning home that day, Clarence proposed thatVictoriano should drive with Everett, and he go with Don Mariano, anarrangement which was very satisfactory to all parties. He was veryanxious to unburden his mind, and Don Mariano's inquiries about hisdaughters and their voyage to San Francisco soon gave him the desiredopportunity. He told Don Mariano what George had said, and how firmlyand sincerely Mercedes wished to abide by her mother's wishes. DonMariano listened very attentively, then said:
"I had intended suggesting to you the same thing. Gabriel has spoken tome about the matter several times, insisting that all the ladies of ourfamily ought to know that _you_ paid for your land. Since we cannotdivest them of the resentment they have towards squatters, let them knowthe truth. Let them see that Congress, if it does not always followmoral principles, can certainly subvert them most arbitrarily anddisastrously. Do you still wish to keep the matter from your father?"
Clarence thought for a moment, then answered:
"Yes, but only for a short time. I suppose we will have to define ourposition as soon as the appeal is dismissed. Before that comes, I shallexplain all to him."
They rode on in silence for a few moments; then Don Mariano said:
"Very well, I shall tell my wife that, for the present, the matter mustnot be mentioned outside the family or in the hearing of servants."
"I thank you," Clarence said: "it is very painful to me to find myfather adhering so tenaciously to his old conviction that all Mexicangrants not finally confirmed to their owners are public land, and beingso, they are open for settlement to all American citizens. Thus, hestill insists that, being an American citizen, he has the right tolocate on your land or any other unconfirmed grant. This idea has beenthe bane of his life for many years, but for the very reason that inmaintaining it he has caused so much trouble to himself and to others,he seems to cling to it most pertinaciously. He believes your land wasrejected, and that the rejection will be sustained."
"Yes, my land was reported rejected, but it was by some mistake of theclerks, because at that time the title had not been either finallyrejected or confirmed. It had been before the Land Commission, and that(of course) decided adversely, as it generally did. Then I appealed tothe United States District Court. This said that there was notsufficient testimony to confirm my title, but did not affirm the opinionof the Land Comm
ission, nor reverse their decision, nor enter a decreeof rejection. It simply left the case in that uncertain condition until1870, when I discharged my lawyer and engaged another to attend to thesuit. Then the case was reopened, and a decree of confirmation wasentered. In the meantime, squatters had been coming, and they now havecarried their appeal to Washington, to the United States Supreme Court,against me."
"I see it all now," Clarence said, thoughtfully.
"And don't you know," Don Mariano continued, "that I don't find it in myheart to blame those people for taking my land as much as I blame thelegislators who turned them loose upon me? And least of all I blame yourfather, for he has not killed my cattle, as the others have."
"Of course, he couldn't, he wouldn't, he shouldn't do that. That wouldbe worse than the lowest theft."
"That is true, but there is a law to protect him if he did; in fact, to_authorize_ him to do so. Thus, you see, here again come _ourlegislators_ to encourage again wrong-doing--to offer a premium to oneclass of citizens to go and prey upon another class. All this is wrong.I hold that the legislators of a nation are the guardians of publicmorality, the teachers of what is right and just. They should neverenact laws that are not founded upon rectitude, as Herbert Spencer says,no matter if expedience or adventitious circumstances might seem todemand it. But I need not tell you this, for you hold the same opinion."
"Indeed I do, and understanding your rights better than I did, I thinkyou were too generous in making the offer you made to the settlers atthe meeting with them last year."
"It was rather generous, but not as much so as you perhaps think. I waslooking out for myself, too."
"I heard them talk about an appeal that was pending, and I thought itwas your appeal, not theirs."
"The position then was this: In the first place, I was willing to givethem a chance of getting good homes for their families, for I shallalways consider that the law has deluded and misled them, and helpedthem to develop their natural inclination to appropriate what belongedto some one else; so they should bear only half the blame for beingsquatters--Congress must bear the other half. Then, in the second place,about the time I had that meeting, I had just received a letter fromGeorge, written at Washington, telling me how the Solicitor General haddisobeyed the order of the Attorney General, instructing him to dismissthe appeal against the confirmation of my title. As I did not know thatthe Solicitor General was acting thus out of pique or personal animosityagainst the Attorney General, I naturally feared that he was going tomake me suffer other worse outrages, judging by his arbitrary,irresponsible conduct. I thought that there might be many more years ofdelay while waiting for the dismissal of the appeal, and while thuswaiting all my cattle would be killed. Reasoning thus, I concluded thatit would be less ruinous to me to make the concessions I offered than towait for tardy justice to restore my land to me--restore it when all mycattle shall have been destroyed."
"I think your reasoning was correct--it did seem as if the Solicitormeant mischief. It was fortunate that he dropped the matter."
"Yes, for which I am devoutly thankful. I hope the mischief he has donemay soon be corrected by the Attorney General. Of course, the additionaleighteen months of depredations on my cattle which I have had to endure,must go unredressed together with all else I have had to suffer at thehands of those vandals."
"At the hands of our law-givers."
"Exactly. I shall always lay it at the door of our legislators--thatthey have not only caused me to suffer many outrages, but, with thosesame laws, they are sapping the very life essence of public morality.They are teaching the people to lose all respect for the rights ofothers--to lose all respect for their national honor. Because we, _thenatives_ of California, the Spano-Americans, were, at the close of thewar with Mexico, left in the lap of the American nation, or, rather,huddled at her feet like motherless, helpless children, Congress_thought_ we might as well be kicked and cuffed as treated kindly. Therewas no one to be our champion, no one to take our part and object to ourbeing robbed. It ought to have been sufficient that by the treaty ofGuadalupe Hidalgo the national faith, the nation's honor was pledged torespect our property. They never thought of that. With very unbecominghaste, Congress hurried to pass laws to legalize their despoliation ofthe conquered Californians, forgetting the nation's pledge to protectus. Of course, for opening our land to squatters and then establishing aland commission to sanction and corroborate that outrage, _ourCalifornia delegation_ then in Washington, must bear the bulk of theblame. They should have opposed the passage of such laws instead offavoring their enactment."
"Why did they favor such legislation?"
"Because California was expected to be filled with a population offarmers, of industrious settlers who would have votes and would wanttheir one hundred and sixty acres each of the best land to be had. Asour legislators thought that we, the Spano-American natives, had thebest lands, and but few votes, there was nothing else to be done but todespoil us, to take our lands and give them to the coming population."
"But that was outrageous. Their motive was a political object."
"Certainly. The motive was that our politicians wanted _votes_. Thesquatters were in increasing majority; the Spanish natives, indiminishing minority. Then the cry was raised that our land grants weretoo large; that a few lazy, thriftless, ignorant natives, holding suchlarge tracts of land, would be a hindrance to the prosperity of theState, because such lazy people would never cultivate their lands, andwere even too sluggish to sell them. The cry was taken up and becamepopular. It was so easy to upbraid, to deride, to despise the conqueredrace! Then to despoil them, to make them beggars, seemed to be, if notabsolutely righteous, certainly highly justifiable. Any one notacquainted with the real facts might have supposed that there was nomore land to be had in California but that which belonged to thenatives. Everybody seemed to have forgotten that for each acre that wasowned by them, there were thousands vacant, belonging to the Government,and which any one can have at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre.No, they didn't want Government land. The settlers want the lands of thelazy, the thriftless Spaniards. Such good-for-nothing, helpless wretchesare not fit to own such lordly tracts of land. It was wicked to toleratethe waste, the extravagance of the Mexican Government, in giving suchlarge tracts of land to a few individuals. The American Government nevercould have been, or ever could be, guilty of such thing. No, never! But,behold! Hardly a dozen years had passed, when this same economical,far-seeing Congress, which was so ready to snatch away from the Spanishpeople their lands (which rightfully belonged to them) on the plea thatsuch large tracts of land ought not to belong to _a few_ individuals,this same Congress, mind you, goes to work and gives to railroadcompanies millions upon millions of acres of land. It is true that suchgifts were for the purpose of aiding enterprises for the good of thepeople. Yes, but that was exactly the same motive which guided theSpanish and the Mexican governments--to give large tracts of land as aninducement to those citizens who would utilize the wilderness of thegovernment domain--utilize it by starting ranchos which afterwards wouldoriginate 'pueblos' or villages, and so on. The fact that theseland-owners who established large ranchos were very efficient andfaithful collaborators in the foundation of missions, was also takeninto consideration by the Spanish Government or the viceroys of Mexico.The land-owners were useful in many ways, though to a limited extentthey attracted population by employing white labor. They also employedIndians, who thus began to be less wild. Then in times of Indianoutbreaks, the land-owners with their servants would turn out as infeudal times in Europe, to assist in the defense of the missions and thesparsely settled country threatened by the savages. Thus, you see, thatit was not a foolish extravagance, but a judicious policy which inducedthe viceroys and Spanish governors to begin the system of giving largeland grants."
"I never knew that this was the object of the Spanish and Mexicangovernments in granting large tracts of land, but it seems to me a verywise plan when there was so much land and so few sett
lers."
"Precisely. It was a good policy. In fact, the only one in those days ofa patriarchal sort of life, when raising cattle was the principaloccupation of the Californians."
"I must say that to establish the Land Commission seems to me rather asmall subterfuge for the Congress of a great nation to resort to."
"What makes this subterfuge a cold-blooded wrong, of premeditatedgravity, is the fact that at the time when we were forced to submit ourtitles for revision, and pending these legal proceedings, we, theland-owners, began to pay taxes, and the squatters were told that theyhave the right to take our lands and keep them until we should provethat we had good titles to them. If the law had obliged us to submit ourtitles to the inspection of the Land Commission, but had not opened ourranchos to settlers _until it had been proved that our titles were notgood_, and if, too, taxes were paid by those who derived the benefitfrom the land, then there would be some color of equity in such laws.But is not this a subversion of all fundamental principles of justice?Here we are, living where we have lived for fifty or eighty years; thesquatters are turned loose upon us to take our lands, and we must paytaxes for them, and we must go to work to prove that our lands are oursbefore the squatter goes. Why doesn't the squatter prove first that theland is his, and why doesn't he pay his own taxes? We, as plaintiffs,have to bear heavy expenses, and as the delays and evasions of the laware endless, the squatter has generally managed to keep the land hetook, for we have been impoverished by heavy taxation while trying toprove our rights, and the squatter has been making money out of ourlands to fight us with. Generally the Californians have had nothing butland to pay their taxes, besides paying their lawyers to defend theirtitles. Thus, often the lawyer has taken all that was left out of thecost of litigation and taxes.
"It makes me heartsick to think how unjustly the native Californianshave been treated. I assure you, sir, that not one American in a millionknows of this outrage. If they did, they would denounce it in thebitterest language; they would not tolerate it."
"They would denounce it perhaps, but they would tolerate it. I used tothink as you do, that the American people had a very direct influenceupon the legislation of the country. It seems so to hear public speakersin election times, but half of all their fire goes up in smoke, andCongress is left coolly to do as it pleases. And the worst of it is,that this very arbitrary Congress, so impervious to appeals ofsufferers, is also led by a few persistent men who with determination doall things, spoil or kill good bills, and doctor up sick ones; and thenthey half-fool and half-weary the nation into acquiescence, for what canwe do? The next batch that is sent to the Capitol will have the sameelements in it, and repeat history."
"It seems to me there ought to be some way to punish men for being bador ineffectual legislators, when sense of honor or dread of criticismfail to make them do their duty."
Don Mariano sighed and shook his head, then in a very sad voice said:
"That should be so, but it is not the case. No, I don't see any remedyin my life-time. I am afraid there is no help for us nativeCalifornians. We must sadly fade and pass away. The weak and thehelpless are always trampled in the throng. We must sink, go under,never to rise. If the Americans had been friendly to us, and helped uswith good, protective laws, our fate would have been different. But tolegislate us into poverty is to legislate us into our graves. Their verycontact is deadly to us."
"And yet you do not seem to hate us."
"Hate you? No, indeed! Never! The majority of my best friends areAmericans. Instead of hate, I feel great attraction toward the Americanpeople. Their sentiments, their ways of thinking suit me, with but fewexceptions. I am fond of the Americans. I know that, as a matter offact, only the very mean and narrow-minded have harsh feelings againstmy race. The trouble, the misfortune has been that the American peoplefelt perfect indifference towards the conquered few. We were not insufficient numbers to command attention. We were left to the tendermercies of Congress, and the American nation never gave us a thoughtafter the treaty of peace with Mexico was signed. Probably any othernation would have done the same. Why should I then hate them? No,indeed. But I confess my heart collapses when I think what might be thefate of my family if I am not able to avert the ruin which has overtakenthe majority of Californians. We have not been millionaires, but we havenever known want. We are all ill prepared for poverty; and yet thislong-delayed justice, and the squatters crowding me so relentlessly--"he stopped short, then added: "I am not giving you a cheerful welcomewith my gloomy conversation."
"But I want you to talk to me frankly and give me your views. You havetold me much that I had never heard before, and which I am glad tolearn. But as for feeling gloomy about the future of the family, I thinka plan that Mr. George Mechlin and myself have been forming will makethings rather better for the future, and we trust you will approve it."
"What is the plan?"