affairs. Mercantile affairs are languishing from the large importations of goods, which must be sacrificed. Labor is still high and scarce. I wish to submit to the department the propriety of allowing me, when officers are ordered home, (not for any pressing duty,) to permit them to take various routes-through Russia, by way of China, or across the southern part of the continent; the observations of intelligent officers on what they may see will be invaluable, and the time requisite will not much extend beyond that necessary now. The Russian officers here assert, that from Sitka the journey or voyage to St. Petersburg will not exceed forty days. It is not proposed to increase the allowance for transportation beyond that now made by the mail route. As there are actually no mail routes here or in Oregon, and it has beenhitherto impossible to count upon the arrival or departure of the steamboats, and as the troops in this division are not all arrived, it is impossible to have returns ready to send when a mail goes. So soon as these things are regulated, returns will be forwarded in order. It is very probable that long since, instructions have been sent as to the collection and disposition of the revenue; but, should this not be the case, and the course at present pursued continued here, coin will accumulate in the hands of the depositary here, to the great inconvenience of commerce and risk of the government. To ship the coin would be ruinous to the merchants here, and very expensive. Under these circumstances, unless otherwise ordered, after waiting some time, I will direct such part of the funds as will not be required here to be used in purchasing gold, to be sent to the mint. Your obedient servant, PERSIFOR F. SMITH, . HEADQUARTERS PACIFIC DIVISION, GENERAL: Since my last communication, I have the report of Brevet Major Hathaway of his arrival, with his command, (two companies of artillery,) in the Columbia river. No difficulty was found in entering the mouth of the river; the Massachusetts went in without a pilot. At this season, little or no danger is to be apprehended from the sea on the bar. When south winds prevail, it will be impassable for weeks together. Astoria is represented as very unfit for a military post or residence, and a point higher up recommended; but as the custom house is established there by law, and the troops may be necessary for its protection, no change will be made, unless it prove very unhealthy there, and the post can be removed without inconvenience. I purpose visiting Oregon in August, and to be able to furnish detailed information on all these points from my own observation. In the mean time, a post is to be established near Tusqually, on Puget's sound. The garrison of the "Presidio," two and a half miles from this towards the entrance of the bay, is the only body of troops near this place. That place is properly called the "Presidio of San Francisco." This town is properly"Yerba Buena"-the people have assumed for it the name of San Francisco, and it is generally known as such; but it is not a military post-has had no garrison; and now the stores are all removed from it to "Benicia," a place on the straits of Karquinnes, where is established the general depot for this division, and a military post garrisoned by two companies of infantry. A small company of dragoons is posted at Sonoma, a day's ride west-southwest from Benicia, whence it can visit, if necessary, the country bounded by the Sacramento (latitude 42) and the ocean-said to be thickly inhabited by Indians. I am about to move my headquarters to Sonoma. A post is being established on the upper Sacramento, and on the upper San Joaquin; and San Diego and Monterey have garrisons. The troops which sailed in the "Mary Adeline," and which put back into the Chesapeake, have not yet arrived. As correct and minute information in relation to this country is, no doubt, much desired by government, I shall take the liberty, when officers are returning to the Atlantic States under orders to report to their respective corps, to order them, unless some specific duties are pointed out, to report to you at Washington, that an opportunity may be afforded of questioning them personally. Some of them have been over a great part of the territory, and have not wasted their opportunities of gaining valuable knowledge. The steamers from Panama have never been to Oregon, and have not regularly stopped at the ports south of this, so that we have but occasional communication with other parts of the coast, and consequently have no regular returns from the two departments up to the last of May. A field. return of the division, formed on the latest returns received, is all that can yet be furnished. Desertions still take place, but I hope will not continue; many desire to return. I will not make any offer of pardon which they may or may not accept; but, should any come back, I would encourage such conduct by clemency towards them. High prices of rent and labor still continue, and adventurers of all classes and nations still flock in. Further examination does not diminish the prospect of a continuation, for some years at least, at the same rate of production as heretofore; and though many are disappointed, yet the good fortune of a few is sufficient to keep alive the hopes of all; and nearly every one who arrives goes directly to the mines, so that the numbers there are constantly increasing. I have no doubt that, when the immigrants by the plains arrive, there will be a population of over one hundred thousand souls in California. L. Jarvis (2d July) died a few days since at Sonoma, of disease of the bowels, contracted in Mexico. Some of the New York volunteers, discharged some months since, ask for transportation home, under the order of the Secretary of War. Will the department please to say as to what time, and under what circumstances, this privilege is to be continued to them. Those who have always been endeavoring to get home, would seem to be entitled to it;. but those who at first chose to remain, and now, having completed their business, change their minds, seem to me to be concluded by their first. elections. I hear of no late disorders in this Territory, and the people seem in 1 -clined to meet in convention to form a State constitution, in conformity with General Riley's recommendation in his proclamation. With respect, your obedient servant, PERSIFOR F. SMITH, Brevet Major General, commanding department. Brevet Major General R. JONES, Adjutant General. HEADQUARTERS PACIFIC DIVISION, San Francisco, June 20, 1849. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication, by the hands of the Hon. T. Butler King. With the view of affording him every possible opportunity of acquir ing information relative to California, its present situation, its capabilities and prospects, I have prepared the means of making a journey over the most part of the Territory that is inhabited-going from the upper part of the Sacramento along the foot of the Sierra Nevada to the upper waters of the San Joaquin, and returning by a route nearer the coast, after visiting the country north of this bay, near the sea. Several officers of the staff will accompany us; and an experienced geologist, Dr. Tyson, of Maryland, has promised to go along. Commodore Jones will also be of the party, if he finds he can be spared from the court. We shall leave as soon as the steamer is despatched. It is hoped that the character of the country, its capability of cultiva tion, its products in minerals and timber, will be so far ascertained as to furnish all the data necessary for legislation. If the country, as I think it will, prove capable of sustaining a large population and of furnishing them with most of the materials necessary for all branches of industry, its situation on the Pacific, its excellent harbor, and uninterrupted navigation, will give birth to a commerce of the highest class, independent of the advantage given by the possession of gold mines; so that, whether these continue to be productive or not, the future importance of California will be the same. The crowd of gold seekers increases every day; yet the ratio of their gains continues about the same as at first, showing as yet no diminution of the quantity of gold in the "placers. The history of discoveries similar to this shows that, after a period of from ten to twenty years, such deposites are so far exhausted as to furnish only the ordinary profit to labor; but in this case the extent of the deposites is so unprecedented that its limit is yet to be known. Some years may first elapse before the usual period of gradual exhaustion begins. As the annual product may be estimated safely at ten millions as the minimum, it is clear that even twenty years of production will furnish a capital sufficient to develop all other resources of the country, and give vigor to a commerce unrivalled; and consequently no effort should be left untried to furnish legislation with all the lights necessary to clear the way for so interesting a future. Nothing on my part will be spared to enable the government, at the earliest moment, to provide for all the political or commercial wants of a people who are to take so important a position in the world as those of California. Under the hope that some act of the last Congress had provided, or at least defined, the government of California, it was thought prudent to await intelligence of the close of the session; and then, if nothing had been done at Washington, to put in action the authority of the laws already existing here, and at the same time to propose to the people of California to form a State constitution, and present it at the next session of Congress-when their admission into the Union as a State would at once solve so many difficulties, and, while it removed a cause of disagreement at home, would give them an opportunity of legislating for themselves. The steamer Edith had been sent to Mazatlan for the necessary intelligence; and on her arrival, with information that no other than a revenue law had been passed, General Riley issued a proclamation for the election of the necessary executive and judicial officers under the exist ing laws, recommending at the same time the election of delegates to a convention to form a State constitution. Mr. King arrived at the time these proclamations were about being issued, and it was matter of great congratulation that the government by anticipation had approved of the latter measure. Every means will be used to give the people of California an opportunity of expressing their wishes on this point, and of bringing the matter to a happy conclusion. To insure this, I may find it necessary to postpone my visit to Oregon, unless some pressing and unforeseen necessity arises. No opposition has been manifested to the project of forming a Statethat has met with universal approbation; but some small factions here expressed dissatisfaction that the measure did not proceed from them. Its obvious utility will drown their censure. During the military occupation of California, sums were collected as military contributions. After the news of peace, a revenue conformably to the tariff was collected. On my arrival, the acting collectors were instructed not to exact duties, but to receive them as deposites at the door of the treasury, awaiting the action of Congress. The revenue laws (without our knowledge) were extended over California at the same time, (March 11,) and all the sums thus collected are now deposited in the hands of the quartermaster. They amount to near half a million. The military contribution, under a late law, can be paid into the treasury; but the revenue collected after the peace, and up to March 10, is not money collected according to law. The money collected since is due by law, but not collected according to law while the collector is yet absent. As the money will finally go into the treasury in some way or other, it is desirable that some disposition should at once be made of it; and I would suggest that all the disbursing officers authorized to draw should cash their drafts here out of this fund, and send the drafts home, to remain subject to final action. This would transmit the fund to Washington, and furnish the disbursing officers here, without expense: drafts at par on Mexican Pacific ports, cause two or three per cent. loss in export duty, freight, &c. The emoluments attached to military office were no doubt intended to provide the officers with all the necessaries of life, while the pay proper was intended as compensation for service. In the course of experience, it was found that these could not always be drawn in kind. An officer in a boarding-house, for example, could do nothing with his rations, fuel, &c., &c., and the whole were calculated, together with his quarters, in the sum he paid for board and lodging. From this arose the practice of commuting these emoluments; and the sum fixed on had reference to what the officer would have to pay if he furnished himself, and was, perhaps, an equitable arrangement, and would meet the wants of any reasonable and economical man, being founded on the actual price at the time and place. But these prices are totally inadequate here; they will not furnish the articles they are intended to represent. The salary of the Secretary of War would not half pay the rent of the quarters to which a general officer is entitled by the regulations, and not much more than pay the hire of his servants. It seems to me fair, and I would respectfully suggest, that the commutation here be brought back to be what was originally intended—a fair alternation for the supply furnished, and that the disbursing departments should from time to time fix the rate according to an average of prices, so that when circumstances oblige an officer to take the commutation, it may bear some relation to the article it is intended to represent. In the hope of preventing desertion, I have authorized the quartermasters to employ soldiers to labor at a rate approaching to that current at the place, the soldiers having short furloughs for the purpose; and as other laborers were not to be had at lower prices than the additional emolument, this is economy for the government. But it would be better that it should be the subject of some generalregulation. In the Atlantic States the pay, clothing, subsistence, quarters and medical attendance a soldier receives are equal, if not superior, to the average daily wages of a laborer. Here they are not one-tenth-thesoldier receiving a little over fifty cents a day, and the laborer from six to ten dollars. The high rate of labor here would seem (for it is likely to last some years) to render all heavy public works here unadvisable; yet the necessity of securing the harbors and public establishments increasing every day with their increase of value, renders some system immediately necessary. If the system of fortification for each place be at once adopted, and only the water batteries at the entrance executed, the others might be postponed, and in the mean time security attained. By the construction of many large steamships in the Atlantic States, where prices are still the same, as coal is no doubt plenty in Oregon, these vessels could run in the Pacific as packets to China and South America, and always anticipate the arrival of an enemy on our coast; so houses, barracks, storehouses, and everything that requires labor in its construction, may be prepared in the Atlantic States and transported here, thus diffusing the advantages of the gold mines here over the whole country. With sincere respect, your obedient servant, PERSIFOR F. SMITH, Hon. W. H. CRAWFORD, Secretary of War. |
