Monterey County CA Archives History - Books .....Chapter XI Discovery Of Gold 1893
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Book Title: Memorial And Biographical History Of The Coast Counties Of Central California.

CHAPTER XI.
DISCOVERY OF GOLD.

IN an address in New York, April 6, 1892, Senator John Sherman gave extracts
from the following letter from his brother, Lieutenant W. T. Sherman, which
gives an interesting and characteristic picture of the Monterey of that period.
It is dated-

                               " MONTEREY, August 24, 1848.
  "Gold in immense quantities has been discovered. All the town and farms are
abandoned, and nobody left on the coast but soldiers, and now that the New York
Volunteers are disbanded, there remain in service but two companies. Our men are
all deserting, as they can earn, by so doing, in one day, more than a soldier's
pay for a month. Everything is high in price, beyond our reach, and not a nigger
in California but what gets more pay than we officers do. Of course, we are
running into debt, merely to live. I have not been so hard up in my life, and
really see no chance of extricating myself. All others here in the service of
the United States are as badly off. Even Colonel Mason himself has been
compelled to assist in cooking his own meals. Merchants are making fortunes, for
gold: such as I sent you can be bought at $8 or $10 an ounce, and goods command
prices thirty times higher than in New York. * * * This gold is found in the
beds of streams, in dry quarries, in fact, mingled with the earth, over a large
extent of country, and the whole cannot be extracted in-centuries. I have not
the least doubt that $5,000,000 or $6,000,000 have already been extracted, and
men are getting from their individual labor from $5,000 to $8,000 a month! This
is not fiction. It is the truth. I went with Governor Mason and saw the
evidences of it myself."

EFFECTS OF THE GREAT GOLD DISCOVERIES.

  Of course the discovery of gold (in January, 1848) disturbed the quiet course
of events at Monterey, as it did in every other community in California.
Bancroft says (Vol. VI., p. 63), "At the capital, a letter from Larkin gave the
impulse, and about the same time, upon the statement of Swan, four Mormons
called at Monterey, en route for Los Angeles, who were reported to carry 100
pounds avoirdupois of gold gathered in less than a month at Mormon Island. This
was in June. A fortnight after, the town was depopulated, 1,000 starting from
that vicinity within a week!"

  Governor Mason tried to check desertion of the military forces under his
command, but practically gave up the attempt. General Sherman, in his memoirs
(I., 46) says: "I of course could not escape the infection, and at last
convinced Colonel Mason that it was our duty to go up and see with our own eyes,
that we might report the truth to our Government." Mason's official report of
August 17, to the adjutant-general at Washington, which carried great weight in
convincing people in the East, because of its official character, of the
richness of the mines, was based largely on what he saw during this trip.

RADICAL ECONOMIC CHANGES.

  The radical economic changes wrought throughout California by the discovery
near by, and the production, in such enormous volume, of that commodity by which
the value of all other commodities was measured, could be but imperfectly
understood abroad. The sudden and violent changes in the value of all property,
caused by the sudden abundance and consequent cheapening of gold, upset,
financially, many people, sometimes in the most unexpected manner. That many,
and often those who were most reckless, were made rich; and that many, and not
infrequently those who were the most careful, were made poor, were facts of
common occurrence, which should not cause surprise.

  People living in old communities, where values have acquired stability, often
criticise the judgment of those who, in a new placer-mining country, are
overwhelmed or bankrupted, or who have not made the fortunes they might have
made; when these same smug critics, if placed in similar positions, would very
likely have met a similar fate. The world's material values are seldom disturbed
by the discovery of placer or surface mines of gold, so enormously rich as those
found in California and Australia about the middle of the present century, and
which added to the world's stock of gold in twenty-five years an amount equal to
that already in the hands of man, or more than three thousand million dollars.

   Consul Larkin sent from Monterey, June 1, 1848, the first official account of
the discoveries of gold in California; and a month later he and Commodore Jones
sent letters by Lieutenant E. F. Beale, to Secretary of State Buchanan, giving
further information about the wonderful richness and extent of the placers; all
of which set the people of the East, and of the world, aflame with excitement,
causing a movement from all parts of the world toward the new El Dorado equaled
only in magnitude by the crusades of the middle ages.

  News of the ratification of a treaty of peace between the United States and
Mexico was received in California, August 8, 1848, and was duly celebrated by
the people on the 11th of the same month.

  General Persifer F. Smith arrived at San Francisco, and suspended or
superseded Colonel Mason as military commander of California, February 26, 1849.
The latter returned east, and died the same year at St. Louis, aged about sixty
years.

  April 12, Lieutenant-Colonel Bennett Riley of the Second United States
Infantry, arrived at Monterey on the Iowa, with his brigade, numbering about 650
men. He brought orders from the Secretary of War to take charge of the
administration of civil affairs in California.

  The situation of California at this time, as Bancroft well says (VI., 276),
was not like "that of Oregon, which was without laws until a provisional
government was formed; but was nearly identical with that of Louisiana, whose
laws were recognized as valid until constitutionally repealed." The laws of
Mexico were in force in California at the time of the conquest by the United
States, and theoretically should remain in force until abolished or replaced by
new ones enacted under United States authority,-unless, indeed, the country
should be governed wholly by military rule, which would not have long been
tolerated by the people.

  Of course after the conquest of California, and until a new civil government
was established, there were many irregularities and anomalies in the
administration of the affairs of the conquered Territory. Alcaldes, whether
appointed by the military or naval commander, or elected by the people,
continued, as under the Mexican system, to be very important officers, each in
their several localities. And till new laws and new rules were provided under
the new regime, naturally these officers, even when Americans, continued to
perform their duties according to Mexican customs, modified at times by common
sense and their own intuitions of natural justice, and in doubtful cases the
right of appeal to the governor was allowed. Their provisional or de facto
government, partly based on antecedent conditions, and partly evolved from the
necessities of the situation, probably answered the exigencies of the people
nearly as well as a regularly established territorial or provisional government
would have done.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Memorial and Biographical History of the Coast Counties of Central California.

Illustrated.

Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast from the
Earliest Period of its Discovery to the Present Time, together with Glimpses of
its Auspicious Future; Illustrations and Full-Page Portraits of some of its
Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers, and Prominent
Citizens of To-day.



HENRY D. BARROWS,
Editor of the Historical Department.

LUTHER A. INGERSOLL,
Editor of the Biographical Department.

"A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendants."—Macaulay.


CHICAGO: THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY.
1893.


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