The state of things which induced the people of California to form a state government deserves to be fully set forth. Their condition was without precedent in history; and from a statement of that condition, it will be seen that the framing of a constitution and the organization of a state government was the only resource of the Californians. The representations of the report of Thomas Butler King to the government of the United States will not be contradicted, and these we insert.
"The discovery of the gold mines had attracted a very large number of citizens of the United States to that territory, who had never been accustomed to any other than American law, administered by American courts. There they found their rights of property and person subject to the uncertain, and frequently most oppressive, operation of laws written in a language they did not understand, and founded on principles, in many respects, new to them. They complained that the alcaldes, or judges, most of whom had been appointed or elected before the immigration had commenced, were not lawyers by education or profession; and, being Americans, they were, of course, unacquainted with the laws of Mexico, or the principles of the civil law on which they are founded.
"As our own laws, except for the collection of revenue, the transmission of the mails, and establishment of postoffices, had not been extended over that territory, the laws of Mexico, as they existed at the conclusion of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, regulating the relations of the inhabitants of California with each other, necessarily remained in force;[11] yet, there was not a single volume containing those laws, as far as I know or believe, in the whole territory, except, perhaps, in the governor's office at Monterey.
"The magistrates, therefore, could not procure them, and the administration of justice was, necessarily, as unequal and fluctuating as the opinions of the judges were conflicting and variable.
"There were no fee-bills to regulate costs; and, consequently, the most cruel exactions, in many instances, were practised.
"The greatest confusion prevailed respecting titles to property, and the decision of suits involving the most important rights, and very large sums of money depended upon the dictum of the judge.