watching himself over the safety of the camp, formidable bow, whose arrow went to its mark, while the men slept. Towards midnight, he without a flash or a sound to show whence it heard a movement among the horses, indicative came. All advantages were on the side of the of alarm and danger. Horses, and especially savages: but the camp was saved! the wounded mules, become sensitive to danger under long protected from massacre, and the dead from mutravelling and camping in the wilderness, and tilation. The men, springing to their feet, with manifest their alarm at the approach of any their arms in their hands, fought with skill and thing strange. Taking a six-barrelled pistol in courage. In the morning, Lieutenant Gillespie his hand, first making sure of their ready fire, recognized, in the person of one of the slain asand, without waking the camp, he went down sailants, the Tlamath chief who the morning beamong the disturbed animals. The moon shone fore had given him a salmon, in token of friendbrightly: he could see well, but could discover ship, and who had followed him all day to kill nothing. Encouraged by his presence, the horses and rob his party at night—a design in which became quiet-poor dumb creatures that could he would certainly have been successful had it see the danger, but not tell what they had seen; not been for the promptitude and precision of and he returned to the camp, supposing it was Mr. Frémont's movement. Mr. Frémont himonly some beast of the forest-a bear or wolf- self would have been killed, when he went to prowling for food, that had disturbed them. the horses, had it not been that the savages He returned to the camp fire. Lieutenant Gil- counted upon the destruction of the whole lespie woke up, and talked with him awhile, and camp, and feared to alarm it by killing one, then lay down again. Finally nature had her before the general massacre. course with Mr. Frémont himself. Excited spirits gave way to exhausted strength. The day's ride, and the night's excitement demanded the reparation of repose. He lay down to sleep, and without waking up a man to watch-relying on the loneliness of the place, and the long ride of the day, as a security against the proximity of danger. It was the second time in his twenty thousand miles of wilderness explorations that his camp had slept without a guard: the first was in his second expedition, and on an island in the Great Salt Lake, and when the surrounding water of the lake itself constituted a guard. The whole camp was then asleep. A cry from Carson roused it. In his sleep he heard a groan it was the groan of a man receiving the tomahawk in his brains. All sprung to their feet. The savages were in the camp: the hatchet and the winged arrow were at work. Basil Lajeunesse, a brave and faithful young Frenchman, the follower of Frémont in all his expeditions, was dead: an Iowa was dead: a brave Delaware Indian, one of those who had accompanied Frémont from Missouri, was dying: it was his groan that awoke Carson. Another of the Delawares was a target for arrows, from which no rifle could save him-only avenge him. The savages had waited till the moon was in the trees, casting long shadows over the sleeping camp: then approaching from the dark side, with their objects between themselves and the fading light, they used only the hatchet and the It was on the 9th of May-a day immortalized by American arms at Resaca de la Palma that this fierce and bloody work was done in the far distant region of the Tlamath lakes. The morning of the 10th of May was one of gloom in the camp. The evening sun of the 9th had set upon it full of life and joy at a happy meeting: the same sun rose upon it the next morning, stained with blood, ghastly with the dead and wounded, and imposing mournful duties on the survivors. The wounded were to be carried-the dead to be buried; and so buried as to be hid and secured from discovery and vio lation. They were carried ten miles, and every precaution taken to secure the remains from the wolf and the savage: for men, in these remote and solitary dangers, become brothers, and defend each other living and dead. The return route lay along the shore of the lake, and during the day the distant canoes of the savages could be seen upon it, evidently watching the progress of the party, and meditating a night attack upon it. All precautions, at the night encampment, were taken for security-horses and men enclosed in a breastwork of great trees, cut down for the purpose, and half the men constantly on the watch. At leaving in the morning, an ambuscade was planted-and two of the Tlamaths were killed by the men in ambush-a successful return of their own mode of warfare. At night the main camp, at the north end of the lake, was reached. It was strongly intrenched, and could not be attacked; save them from destruction. General Castro but the whole neighborhood was infested, and was then in march upon them: the Indians scouts and patrols were necessary to protect were incited to attack their families, and burn every movement. In one of these excursions their wheat fields, and were only waiting for the Californian horse, so noted for spirit and the dry season to apply the torch. Juntas docility, showed what he would do at the bid were in session to transfer the country to Great of his master. Carson's rifle had missed fire, at Britain: the public domain was passing away ten feet distance. The Tlamath long bow, ar- in large grants to British subjects: a British row on the string, was bending to the pull. All fleet was expected on the coast: the British the rifles in the party could not have saved him. vice-consul, Forbes, and the emissary priest, A horse and his rider did it. Mr. Frémont Macnamara, ruling and conducting every thing: touched his horse; he sprang upon the savage! and all their plans so far advanced as to render and the hatchet of a Delaware completed the the least delay fatal. It was then the begindeliverance of Carson. It was a noble horse, ning of June. War had broken out between an iron gray, with a most formidable name-el | the United States and Mexico, but that was unToro del Sacramento: and which vindicated his known in California. Mr. Frémont had left the title to the name in all the trials of travel, cour- two countries at peace when he set out upon age, and performance to which he was subjected. his expedition, and was determined to do noIt was in the midst of such dangers as these, thing to disturb their relations: he had even that science was pursued by Mr. Frémont; left California to avoid giving offence; and to that the telescope was carried to read the hea-return and take up arms in so short a time was vens; the barometer to measure the elevations of the earth; the thermometer to gauge the temperature of the air; the pencil to sketch the grandeur of mountains, and to paint the beauty of flowers; the pen to write down whatever was new, or strange, or useful in the works of nature. It was in the midst of such dangers, and such occupations as these, and in the wildest regions of the Farthest West, that Mr. Frémont was pursuing science and shunning war, when the arrival of Lieutenant Gillespie, and his com-solve, and the only measure adequate to the munications from Washington, suddenly changed all his plans, turned him back from Oregon, and opened a new and splendid field of operations in California itself. He arrived in the valley of the Sacramento in the month of May, 1846, and found the country alarmingly, and critically situated. Three great operations, fatal to American interests, were then going on, and without remedy, if not arrested at once. These were: 1. The massacre of the Americans, and the destruction of their settlements, in the valley of the Sacramento. 2. The subjection of California to British protection. 3. The transfer of the public domain to British subjects. And all this with a view to anticipate the events of a Mexican war, and to shelter California from the arms of the United States. The American settlers sent a deputation to the camp of Mr. Frémont, in the valley of the Sacramento, laid all these dangers before him, and implored him to place himself at their head and apparently to discredit his own previous conduct as well as to implicate his government. He felt all the responsibilities of his position; but the actual approach of Castro, and the immediate danger of the settlers, left him no alternative. He determined to put himself at the head of the people, and to save the country. To repulse Castro was not sufficient to overturn the Mexican government in California, and to establish Californian Independence, was the bold re emergency. That resolve was taken, and executed with a celerity that gave it a romantic success. The American settlers rushed to his camp-brought their arms, horses and ammunition-were formed into a battalion; and obeyed with zeal and alacrity the orders they received. In thirty days all the northern part of California was freed from Mexican authority-Independence proclaimed-the flag of Independence raised-Castro flying to the south-the American settlers saved from destruction; and the British party in California counteracted and broken up in all their schemes. This movement for Independence was the salvation of California, and snatched it out of the hands of the British at the moment they were ready to clutch it. For two hundred yearsfrom the time of the navigator Drake, who almost claimed it as a discovery, and placed the English name of New Albion upon it-the eye of England has been upon California; and the magnificent bay of San Fancisco, the great sea-making the mistake of seizing the town once before in time of peace. He resolved to return to the United States, which he did-turning over the command of the squadron to Commo port of the North Pacific Ocean, has been surveyed as her own. The approaching war between Mexico and the United States was the crisis in which she expected to realize the long-dore Stockton, who had arrived on the 15th. deferred wish for its acquisition; and carefully she took her measures accordingly. She sent two squadrons to the Pacific as soon as Texas was incorporated-well seeing the actual war which was to grow out of that event-a small one into the mouth of the Columbia, an imposing one to Mazatlan, on the Mexican coast, to watch the United States squadron there, and to anticipate its movements upon California. Commodore Sloat commanding the squadron at Mazatlan, saw that he was watched, and pursued, by Admiral Seymour, who lay alongside of him, and he determined to deceive him. He stood out to sea, and was followed by the British Admiral. During the day he bore west, across the ocean, as if going to the Sandwich Islands: Admiral Seymour followed. In the night the American commodore tacked, and ran up the coast towards California: the British admiral, not seeing the tack, continued on his course, and went entirely to the Sandwich Islands before he was undeceived. Commodore Sloat arrived before Monterey on the second of July, entering the port amicably, and offering to salute the town, which the authorities declined on the pretext that they had no powder to return it-in reality because they momentarily expected the British fleet. Commodore Sloat remained five days before the town, and until he heard of Frémont's operations: then believing that Frémont had orders from his government to take California, he having none himself, he determined to act himself. He received the news of Frémont's successes on the 6th day of July: on the 7th he took the town of Monterey, and sent a despatch to Frémont. This latter came to him in all speed, at the head of his mounted force. Going immediately on board the commodore's vessel, an explanation took place. The commodore learnt with astonishment that Frémont had no orders from his government to commence hostilities-that he had acted entirely on his own responsibility. This left the commodore without authority for having taken Monterey; for still at this time, the commencement of the war with Mexico was unknown. Uneasiness came upon the commodore. He remembered the fate of Captain Jones in The next day (16th) Admiral Seymour arrived ; his flagship the Collingwood, of 80 guns, and his squadron the largest British fleet ever seen in the Pacific. To his astonishment he beheld the American flag flying over Monterey, the American squadron in its harbor, and Frémont's mounted riflemen encamped over the town. His mission was at an end. The prize had escaped him. He attempted nothing further, and Frémont and Stockton rapidly pressed the conquest of California to its conclusion. The subsequent military events can be traced by any history: they were the natural sequence of the great measure conceived and executed by Frémont before any squadron had arrived upon the coast, before he knew of any war with Mexico, and without any authority from his government, except the equivocal and enigmatical visit of Mr. Gillespie. Before the junction of Mr. Frémont with Commodore Sloat and Stockton, his operations had been carried on under the flag of Independence-the Bear Flag, as it was called-the device of the bear being adopted on account of the courageous qualities of that animal (the white bear), which never gives the road to men,—which attacks any number,—and fights to the last with increasing ferocity, with amazing strength of muscle, and with an incredible tenacity of the vital principle-never more formidable and dangerous than when mortally wounded. The Independents took the device of this bear for their flag, and established the independence of California under it: and in joining the United States forces, hauled down this flag, and hoisted the flag of the United States. And the fate of California would have been the same whether the United States squadrons had arrived, or not; and whether the Mexican war had happened, or not. California was in a revolutionary state, already divided from Mexico politically as it had always been geographically. The last governor-general from Mexico, Don Michel Toreno, had been resisted-fought—cap tured-and shipped back to Mexico, with his 300 cut-throat soldiers. An insurgent govern ment was in operation, determined to be free of Mexico, sensible of inability to stand alone, and looking, part to the United States, part to Great Britain, for the support which they needed. All the American settlers were for the United States protection, and joined Frémont. The leading Californians were also joining him. His conciliatory course drew them rapidly to him. The Picos, who were the leading men of the revolt (Don Pico, Don Andres, and Don Jesus), became his friends. California, become independent of Mexico by the revolt of the Picos, and independent of them by the revolt of the American settlers, had its destiny to fulfil which was, to be handed over to the United States. So that its incorporation with the American Republic was equally sure in any, and every event. CHAPTER CLXV. PAUSE IN THE WAR: SEDENTARY TACTICS: "MASTERLY INACTIVITY." Moors seven hundred years in the South of Spain and the Visigoths three hundred years in the north of it; and would certainly out-sit us in Mexico. 3. That he could govern the conquered country under the laws of nations, without applying to Congress, to be worried upon the details of the act, and rousing the question of annexation by conquest, and that beyond the Rio Grande; for the proposed line was to cover Monterey, and to run east and west entirely across the country. These objections, pursued through their illustrations, were entirely convincing to the President, and he frankly gave up the sedentary project. But it was a project which had been passed upon in the cabinet, and not only adopted but began to be executed. The Secretary at War, Mr. Marcy, had officially refused to accept proffered volunteers from the governors of several States, saying to them-"A sufficient amount of force for the prosecution of the war had already been called into service:" and a premium of two dollars a head had been offered to all persons who could bring in a recruit to the ARRIVING at Washington before the commence-regular army-the regulars being the reliance ment of the session of '46-'47, Mr. Benton was requested by the President to look over the draught of his proposed message to Congress (then in manuscript), and to make the remarks upon it which he might think it required; and in writing. Mr. Benton did so, and found a part to which he objected, and thought ought to be omitted. It was a recommendation to Congress to cease the active prosecution of the war, to occupy the conquered part of the country (General Taylor had then taken Monterey) with troops in forts and stations, and to pass an act establishing a temporary government in the occupied part; and to retain the possession until the peace was made. This recommendation, and the argument in support of it, spread over four pages of the message-from 101 to 105. Mr. Benton objected to the whole plan, and answered to it in an equal, or greater number of pages, and to the entire conviction and satisfaction of the President. 1. The sedentary occupation was objected to as being entirely contrary to the temper of the American people, which was active, and required continual "going ahead" until their work was finished. 2. It was a mode of warfare suited to the Spanish temper, which loved procrastination, and could beat the world at it, and had sat-out the for the sedentary occupation. The cabinet adhered to their policy. The President convoked them again, and had Mr. Benton present to enforce his objections; but without much effect. The abandonment of the sedentary policy required the adoption of an active one, and for that purpose the immediate calling out of ten regiments of volunteers had been recommended by Mr. Benton; and this call would result at once from the abandonment of the sedentary scheme. Here the pride of consistency came in to play its part. The Secretary at War said he had just refused to accept any more volunteers, and informed the governors of two States that the government had troops enough to prosecute the war; and urged that it would be contradictory now to call out ten regiments. The majority of the cabinet sided with him; but the President retained Mr. Benton to a private interview-talked the subject all overand finally came to the resolution to act for himself, regardless of the opposition of the major part of his cabinet. It was then in the night, and the President said he would send the order to the Secretary at War in the morning to call out the ten regiments-which he did: but the Secretary, higgling to the last, got one regiment abated: so that nine instead of ten were called out: but these nine were enough. title. Seven years afterwards the establishment of a boundary between the United States and Mexico was attempted by treaty in the latitude of this proposed line of occupation—a circumstance,-one of the circumstances,-which proves that Mr. Calhoun's plans and spirit survive him. They enabled Scott to go to Mexico, and Taylor to conquer at Buena Vista, and to finish the war victoriously. In all that passed between the President and Mr. Benton about this line, there was no suspicion on the part of either of any design to make it permanent; nor did any thing to that effect appear in Mr. Calhoun's speeches in favor of it; but the design was developed at the time of the ratification of the treaty of peace, and has since been attempted by treaty; and is a design which evidently connects itself with, what is called, preserving the equilibrium of the States (free and slave) by adding on territory for slave States-and to increase the Southern margin for the "UNITED STATES SOUTH," in the event of a separation of the two classes of States. CHAPTER CLXVI. A comic mistake grew out of this change in the President's message, which caused the ridicule of the sedentary line to be fastened on Mr. Calhoun-who in fact had counselled it. When the message was read in the Senate, Mr. Westcott, of Florida, believing it remained as it had been drawn up, and induced by Mr. Calhoun, with whose views he was acquainted, made some motion upon it, significant of approbatory action. Mr. Benton asked for the reading of the part of the message referred to. Mr. Westcott searched, but could not find it: Mr. Calhoun did the same. Neither could find the passage. Inquiring and despairing looks were exchanged: and the search for the present was adjourned. Of course it was never found. Afterwards Mr. Westcott said to Mr. Benton that the President had deceived Mr. Calhoun-had told him that the sedentary line was recommended in the message, when it was not. Mr. Benton told him there was no deception-that the recommendation was in the message when he said so, but had been taken out (and he explained how) and replaced by an urgent recommendation for a vigorous prosecution of the war. But the secret was kept for the time. The administration stood before the country vehement for war, and loaded with applause for their SCARCELY was the war with Mexico commenced spirit. Mr. Calhoun remained mystified, and when means, different from those of arms, were adhered to the line, and incurred the censure of put in operation to finish it. One of these was opposing the administration which he professed the return of the exiled Santa Anna (as has been to support. He brought forward his plan in all shown) to his country, and his restoration to its detail the line marked out—the number of power, under the belief that he was favorable to forts and stations necessary-and the number peace, and for which purpose arrangements began of troops necessary to garrison them and to be made from the day of the declaration of the spoke often, and earnestly in its support: but war-or before. In the same session another to no purpose. His plan was entirely rejected, move was made in the same direction, that of nor did I ever hear of any one of the cabinet getting peace by peaceable means, in an applicaoffering to share with him in the ridicule which tion made to Congress by the President, to place he brought upon himself for advocating a plan three millions of dollars at his disposal, to be so preposterous in itself, and so utterly unsuited used in negotiating for a boundary which should to the temper of our people. It was in this de- give us additional territory: and that recombate, and in support of this sedentary occupa-mendation not having been acted upon at the tion that Mr. Calhoun characterized that pro-war session, was renewed at the commencement posed inaction as a masterly inactivity:" a of the next one. It was recommended as an fine expression of the Earl of Chatham-and which Mr. Calhoun had previously used in the Oregon debate in recommending us to do nothing there, and leave it to time to perfect our THE WILMOT PROVISO; OR, PROHIBITION OF "important measure for securing a speedy peace ;" and as an argument in favor of granting it, a sum of two millions similarly placed at the disposition of Mr. Jefferson when about to nego |