HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILItary DepartmENT, Monterey, California, December 14, 1847. SIR: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 22d November, enclosing a petition signed by yourself, two citizens, and a soldier, asking for a special court to quiet land titles in the town of San Francisco, and referring to a commission appointed last suminer that sat in Sonoma, as a precedent. The circumstances that caused that commission to be appointed are not at all parallel with those presented in your petition, and I find even that precedent not a good one. Any court or commission that might be appointed to quiet a land title, their verdict or opinion could only be of temporary character-it could not forever set at rest the title, and, when the proper law courts are established in the country after it becomes finally surrendered to and forms a part of the United States territory, would open anew all such decisions; and so far from special courts quieting titles and stopping litigation, they would only engender more. It is better, upon the whole, not to stir land titles by the appointment of special courts, until they can be finally quieted by the competent courts having the proper power and jurisdiction. It would not be proper to appoint another body to continue the investigation of the charges against Mr. Hyde. The gentlemen who have that business in hand are fresh from the people, and were elected by them with a special view to town affairs; and were I to take the matter out of their hands and place it in others, it would be establishing a very unsafe precedent, and would be an assumption of power that I could not sustain myself in exercising, for it would effectually defeat the election of the people, and I might as well be justified in appointing a special commission to repeal or pass some town ordinance which the people's representatives had declined doing. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, C. E. PICKETT, San Francisco. R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, SIR: Your communication of the 12th instant has been received. I have no authority to rent or sell land in California. Respectfully, &c., JOSEPH A. RANSCH, R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. San Francisco. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Monterey, California, December 6, 1847. SIR: Julian Urgua does not wish to accept the appointment of alcalde. I will, as I informed you at the time you were in Monterey, appoint any one an alcalde for whom the people will sign a petition, provided the person will accept the office, which you should ascertain before sending in the petition. I request that you will attend to this affair. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. JOSE MARIA SANCHEZ, HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT," Monterey, California, December 6, 1847. CAPTAIN: The merchant-shippers and masters of vessels at your port do not correctly make out their invoices and manifests. The invoices do not, in many cases, describe the number and marks of the different boxes, packages, &c. The boxes and packages, and each article not. boxed or in packages, must be plainly marked and numbered. These marks and numbers must be expressed upon the invoice, and the invoice must show the actual contents of each box or package, according to its respective number and mark, otherwise it is impossible to ascertain whether the goods are properly or fraudulently invoiced. The marks and numbers on the invoice must correspond with the marks and numbers on the manifests. The column under the head of "quantity" on the manifest should express, when it is practicable to do so, the quantity or contents of the boxes or packages, in yards, pounds, arrobas, gallons, &c., and not simply the number of the packages, as has generally been the case. The shippers must be more particular in their invoices, otherwise I shall be obliged to seize the goods as being improperly invoiced, or send them back to the port from whence they come. For fear that I have not clearly expressed myself, I send you herewith a manifest and invoice correctly made out, and corresponding in every particular; by which you will see how easy it is for the shippers and masters to comply with the regulation. I think it would be well if you were to give to each of the masters of vessels and merchants in your port, as there are not so very many of them, a copy of the manifest and invoice I send you, and require them in their future shipments to conform strictly to the manner of marking them. You will observe on the manifest that the boxes, &c., are described with their general contents, whilst on the invoice the contents of each box are particularized-the numbers and marks exactly corresponding with those on the manifest, as also the exact money value. I find the better plan is not to give vessels a separate manifest for such cargo as they take in at port, unless they take in an entire cargo; but to enter on the manifest deposited in the custom-house such boxes, packages, &c., as they receive on board, according to their invoices, setting forth the name of the port, date, &c. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, Captain J. L. FOLSOM, R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. Assistant Quartermaster, San Francisco. P. S. Since writing the foregoing I have overhauled the manifest and invoices of the brig Henry, from San Francisco. Her invoices show no mark or number of the boxes, packages, &c., which constitute her carge, nor the value of the articles; neither does her manifest show the number of any box or package. This informality in her papers gives us a great deal of perplexity here. I wish that in future you will suffer no manifest to pass from your office without seeing that marks and numbers are properly expressed thereon, and that the marks and numbers on the invoices correspond with those on the manifest. Give no vessel a clearance until the master presents to you the manifest and invoices properly made out and authenticated. R. B. M., Colonel 1st Dragoons. DECEMBER 7. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, SIR: In your account current with the civil government of California for the month of October. 1847, you credit yourself with two sumsforty two dollars and six dollars-and enter them as disbursements per voucher No. 1, and do. per voucher No. 2. These vouchers are not to be found among the papers received here relating to customs, &c., collected at the port of San Diego for the said month. As it is necessary that these accounts should be perfectly explicit, and that all vouchers referred to in the account current should accompany that document, you will be pleased to take the earliest opportunity to transmit to this office the vouchers for the above stated sums. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Monterey, California, December 10, 1847. SIR: There are some three or four vessels, under foreign flags, that are owned by resident citizens of California. Such vessels will be permitted to continue in the coasting trade, from port to port, on the coast of California, until the pleasure of the President of the United States can be known-subject, however, in the mean time, to the concurrence of the officer commanding the United States naval forces in the Pacific, who is at present absent from the coast of California. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, Know all men by these presents, that I, Richard B. Mason, colonel 1st regiment dragoons United States army, and governor of California, by virtue of authority in me vested, do hereby appoint Stephen C. Foster alcalde for and in the town and jurisdiction of Ciudad de los Angeles, to take effect on the 1st day of January, 1848. Given at Monterey, the capital of California, this tenth day of December, A. D. 1847, and of the independence of the United States the seventy-second. Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. Know all men by these presents, that I, Richard B. Mason, colonel 1st regiment dragoons United States army, and governor of California, by virtue of authority in me vested, do hereby appoint Robert Cliff alcalde for and in the town and jurisdiction of San Diego. Given at Monterey, the capital of California, this 10th day of December, A. D. 1847, and of the independence of the United States the seventy-second. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Monterey, California, December 10, 1847. SIR: I have this day appointed Mr. Stephen C. Foster alcalde for the district and pueblo de los Angeles, to take effect on the 1st day of January, A. D. 1848. You will, therefore, on that day deliver over to him all the books, papers, and records, appertaining to the office of alcalde, as also any property or funds that may properly belong to the same-taking care to give the proper inventories of all that you deliver over to your successor in office. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, ALCALDE, R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. Ciudad de los Angeles, California. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Monterey, California, December 10, 1847. COLONEL: I enclose herewith the appointment of alcalde for Mr. Stephen C. Foster, and also a letter to the present alcalde at Los Angeles, which be pleased to hand to him. I transmit by the same mail which takes this, the appointment of alcalde to Lieutenant Cliff, at San Diego. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. Col. J. D. STEVENSON, HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Monterey, California, December 11, 1847. COMMODORE: I have the honor herewith to enclose to you some printed copies of extracts from the instructions received from Washington, for collecting the military contributions in California, prepared for the information of ship-masters and merchants, in which are included the additional items and alterations agreed upon between us before you sailed from this port, as also some additional items of my own, made since your departure. Your absence from the coast must be my apology for giving instructions to the collectors upon matters which the President has confided to you; but I deemed them of sufficient importance to justify me in giving the orders, and hope they will meet your approbation. I also enclose you a copy of my letter to the Adjutant General of the 12th of November, as a part of it refers to the subject of duties, &c., and changes which I have made upon my own responsibility. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. Commodore W. BRANFORD SHUBRICK, Commanding U. S. naval forces of Maza'lan, and in the Pacific. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, SIR: Your two communications of the 29th November and the 12th December are before me. The moneys arising from the customs must be kept and accounted for separate from the other public funds. A copy of your quarterly account current to the War Department, now that the funds from the custom-house are settled there, need only be sent to this office. The monthly statement of revenue collected, intended for the War Department, comes through this office, that it may be entered in a book kept for that purpose, so that the amount collected in all the ports may be known here monthly. You speak of your custom-house accounts being setted at the treasury. Perhaps it has escaped your observation (see page 4 of the printed regu'ations) that these accounts are settled at the War and Navy Departments, according as funds.collected by army and navy officers, and not at the treasury. I have carefully read over my letter to you of the 6th instant: I cannot see how you can construe it into a censure of your conduct; surely, none such was intended. It was only meant to impart such information as I had been enabled to gain during the short time I have been discharging the duties of custom-house officer, and to point out the errors of shipmasters and merchants in making out their manifests and invoices, and showing you that the only way to compel them to make them out properly was to withhold the clearance until they did so. |