The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 18, July 1914 - April, 1915 Page: 136
438 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Southwestern Historical Quarterly
condition than at the present moment," wrote a friend to Alfred
Robinson, who was then in New York, "we have no government.
Pio Pico who was nominally governor has been arrested and im-
prisoned. The people at the north, as usual, are opposed to those
of the south, and will be satisfied by none other than Alvarado for
chief magistrate.""'7
Such disorganization and political uncertainty, together with
the lax control exercised by Mexico, and the actual hostility to her
interference in local affairs, had a three-fold result. Many of the
Californians became reconciled to exchanging their allegiance to
Mexico for any form of government that furnished protection and
peace; it became generally recognized by those outside of Cali-
fornia that the time was near for some such change to take place;
and, finally, Polk was led to take active measures to bring the
separation, when it came, to good account for the United States.
CHAPTER IV
EVENTS IMMEDIATELY I'RECEDING THE OUTBREAK OF THE MEXICAN
WAR
As the political conditions in California were favorable to the
American interests during the opening months of Polk's admin-
istration, so also was the influx of immigration from across the
mountains. From the chance and temporary bands of hunters
who followed Jedediah Smith and the Patties, this movement had
grown in 1844 to the organized companies of Bartleson and Kel-
sey. A year later the tide had come to a full head and the an-
nual arrivals were numbered by the hundreds.
F'remont's report.-Then, as now, California had her publicity
agents whose duty it was to attract settlers. By order of the gov-
ernment, Fremont, whose second exploring expedition' had led him
across the Sierras,2 published a report of his wanderings during the
"'Robinson, Life in California, 213-214.
'Fremont's first expedition had taken place in 1842 but had gone no
farther than the South Pass and Fr6mont's Peak in the Rocky Mountains.
2Report of the Exploring Expedition in the year 1842 and to Oregon and
North California in the years 1848-44, by Brevet Capt. J. C. Fremont
printed by order of the I-ouse of Representatives (Washington,
Blair, and Reeves, 1845), 228-229; Larkin to the State Department, April
12, 1844, enclosing a letter from Sutter. Official Correspondence, Pt. II,
No. 3.136
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 18, July 1914 - April, 1915, periodical, 1915; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101064/m1/142/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.