Chapter Twenty-One

 The Post-Méjicano-Américano War

(May 13, 1846 C.E.-February 2, 1848 C.E.)

The Américanos and the Taking of the Land 1847 C.E.-1860 C.E.

 Much of the information provided here is taken for the Internet

As described in earlier chapters of this family history, Europeans had over the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries C.E. invaded, conquered, and displaced natives of the North American Continent. In support these actions were such legalisms as the “Devine Right of Kings” and “The Right of Conquest.” These they felt were sufficient to uphold their taking and keeping of the land. For the period of 1521 C.E. through 1821 C.E., the Españoles had governed their Nuevo Mundo’s Nueva España. Later, when El Imperio Méjicano took España’s provincia of Nuevo Méjico and others in 1821 C.E., they most certainly applied the “The Right of Conquest.” Later, they would feel free to attempt to conquer Cuba under the same legal proposition.

While doing my research for this chapter and its timeframe, I found it necessary to provide a non-traditional historical narrative of that often applied generic term “Méjicanos.” By non-traditional, I mean to say that which is usually provide by Anglo-American and other non-Hispanic writers. This was due to the fact that the term Méjicanos as it applies to the Méjicano-Américano War, the Norte Américano provincias involved, and their inhabitants  is too narrow in scope and frankly, misleading. These writers and commentators seem to view the Méjicanos in a very simplistic way, as one homogeneous lot. To make a point, they were not.

To further clarify, before Méjico arrived on the scene, the vast geographic areas of land, the Norte Américano provincias, had been a part of España’s Imperio Español. After 1521 C.E., following the Spanish Conquista of the Azteca Empire the Virreinato of Nueva España was created. As additional territorial conquests were made by España, by 1535 C.E., it was transitioned to an expanded virreinato or viceroy-ruled group of territories. Nueva España would stretch north of the Isthmus of Panama, to include parts of Norte América, and peripheries in Asia until 1821 C.E.

Due to the difficulties and hazards of travel throughout the vast virreinato, the territories remained by and large separate and apart from one another. The one common link for all of these individually insular Criollo cultures which developed over time was España. It remained so until the Méjicano invasion of the Norte Américano provincias.

Hispanic sphere. It should be noted that the term Castas is used in Nuevo Méjicano history to describe pueblo people and Nuevo Méjicanos.

Note:

Here, we describe the Spanish sistema de castas (Caste System) or the sociedad de castas (Caste Society). At its core was the Pureza or limpieza de sangre or "cleanliness of blood" and "blood purity." limpieza de sangre originated in mid-15th-Century C.E. España, as an obsessive biased belief held by the Españoles regarding the unfaithfulness of the “deicide Jews,” (god-killing Jews) or Crypto Jews before, during, and after España’s Moro Conquista Period. It is estimated that 50,000 of the kingdom’s 125,000-200,000 Jews were baptized. Those who refused to abandon the faith of their fathers were forced to flee.

Crypto Jews, practicers of Crypto-Judaism secretly adhered to Judaism while publicly professing to be of another faith. As the so-called pure blooded Españoles saw it, not only had the blood endured in these Crypto-Jews who converted to Catholicism but also had been transmitted by blood to their descendants. This was regardless of their sincerity when professing the Christian faith.

Of interest to this writer is the fact that some of these “Conversos” as they were also called made their way to the Spanish Américas and into North American areas of the virreinato of Nueva España. 

In 1571 C.E., the Spanish Inquisition arrived in the Spanish Américas in force. Many Crypto-Jews moved to the northern reaches of the Spanish Empire due to the Inquisition’s activities in Nuevo León, many crypto-Jewish descendants migrated to frontier colonies further west, using the trade routes passing through the towns of Sierra Madre Occidental and Chihuahua, Hermosillo and Cananea.

They later moved further north on the trade route to Paso del Norte and Santa Fé, both of which were cities in the colonial Santa Fé de Nuevo Méjico. According to records from the Inquisition in the Américas, their first official expedition into Nuevo Méjico was led by Juan de Oñate in 1598 C.E. In the expedition were Conversos. Later, during the late 1600s C.E., the gobernador of Nuevo Méjico and his wife were accused by the Inquisition of practicing Judaism.

Their crypto-Jewish communities could be found in the mountainous region around Taos, in other parts of New Mexico. Later, as the Inquisition’s activities continued, they began moving northward into what is today’s southern Colorado and into the wider Southwest. Some even traveled to Alta California on the Pacific Coast. Indeed, they live in all areas settled by the Españoles and Portugués. Some went as far as the New England coastline, where many individuals of Portugués descent settled. They had done all of this to remove themselves as far as possible from the prying of the inquisitors.

In today’s small villages and hamlets in the mountains of New Mexico live communities of secret Jews claiming descent from Jewish ancestors from España and Portugués. These had maintained their hidden Jewish identity, with unique customs, practices and beliefs. They also lived within a complex set of identities. Externally, often they are members of Christian churches of different denominations. The majority are Catholic.

These too would play a large part in the settlement and governance of North American areas of the virreinato of Nueva España, thus increasing the already complex sociedad de castas (Caste Society) and political tapestry of the areas.

In the end, the sistema de castas or the sociedad de castas was created by the Spanish elites. Important here, is how the system was applied to Hispanics at the timeframe dealt with in this chapter. As time went on, it varied greatly. It could be applied due to birth, color, race, and the origin of ethnic types. Therefore, the sistema de castas was more than socio-racial classification. It also had an effect on every aspect of life, including economics and taxation. This applied in both España’s Nuevo Mundo and its Nueva España. To be sure, the Spanish government and the Church required more tax and tribute payments from those designated as being of lower socio-racial categories.

Here, again, I must differentiate myself from the majority of American historians. They most often offer the view that to be considered an Español one had to be judged by limpieza de sangre and non-Mestízo, as the racially pure Peninsulares were considered. My position on the matter is different. I suggest that Criollos or Españoles born in the Américas and many Mestízos saw themselves as Españoles by virtue of their being subjects of el Imperio Español. Therefore, many Criollos of the Norte Américano provincias would have had the same inclination.

Beyond the Españoles, the Méjicanos had only held these Norte Américano lands in what is now the American West and Southwest for twenty-five years (1821 C.E.-1846 C.E.), a very limited time. It must be remembered that the Tejanos, Hispano Nuevo Méjicanos, Californios, and other Hispanics of the new Américano territories during the Spanish Period had separate histories and had developed their own Hispanic subcultures. These Norte Américano Hispanic cultural groups within the larger Spanish culture of el Imperio Español had differing beliefs and interests. Some were even at variance with those in España proper and its larger Nuevo Mundo culture. Thus, the Norte Américano Hispanics had developed different cultural identities from the Méjicanos and each other. As discussed in the earlier “Chapter Twenty The de Riberas of Nuevo Méjico, the end of the Españoles, the Méjicanos - 1821 C.E.-1846 C.E., and the Coming of the Américanos,” twenty-five years of Méjicano rule had done little to alter this localized, geographic culturalization which had taken effect over hundreds of years.

To clarify, my position is that for the previous twenty-five years, most Hispanics in the newly conquered American West and Southwest had seen themselves as Méjicanos by virtue of conquest. Yes, there was political inclusion by the central government as established by the Méjicano constitution. Yes, there was shared governance over the republic’s 31 individual Méjicano states. One must accept, however, that the act of sovereignty and the exercise of governmental authority may not necessarily make one feel a part of a nation. Thus, during the Méjico-Américano War, the Méjicano government could not count on cultural or political cohesiveness in these territories. In fact, just the opposite had existed during the preceding twenty-five years.

By 1846 C.E., after 25 years of Méjicano control of these provincias, the Américanos embarked upon their conquest of these territories. Their European cultural, historical, and legal experience had brought them to a similar understanding of “The Right of Conquest.” Theirs, however, was newly phrased. It was “Manifest Destiny,” that 19th-Century C.E. doctrine or belief that the expansion of the United States of America throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable. In this regard, I also provide some historical background regarding the initial Américano taking of areas of what was once Nueva España, and had become a part of Méjico. This includes such areas as Nuevo Méjico and California.

It must be stated that my progenitors, the Nuevo Méjicanos, did react to this invasion of their ancestral home by the Américanos with anger and determination. It was not, however, seen as an attack upon Méjico, but upon “their” Nuevo Méjico. Thus, the first families of Nuevo Méjico sent their sons to defend its sovereignty and not that of the Estados Unidos Méjicanos.

Samples are given of some of the uprisings and battles between the parties throughout the newly taken Méjicano territories. It also includes reasons for battles in order to provide some information regarding the geographic, social, economic, and political conditions which precipitated these actions and activities.

The chapter also includes a few of the factors that led to the loss of Hispano Nuevo Méjico and Californio Land Grants after the Méjico-Américano War and the conditions under which they were taken. Of particular interest is the importance of taxation, which was one of the major factors.

The chapter ends with the period before the beginning of the American Civil War.

By 1846 C.E., the United States by virtue of prior claims made by the newly-annexed Republic of Texas claimed as American territory the land between the Río Nueces and the Río Grande. It also, maintained that the annexation of Texas gave the United States title to what is now the eastern half of present-day New Mexico.

Accordingly, General Zachary Taylor was to be sent to assert American sovereignty over the "Nueces Strip." Colonel, soon to be Brevet Brigadier-General, Stephen Watts Kearney, would be sent to occupy Nuevo Méjico. Kearney had two missions. Firstly, he was to secure Nuevo Méjico. Secondly, Kearney was to continue westward and conquer Alta California, where according to the Américano Secretary of War William L. Marcy, this was a land, where the people, particularly the Américano settlers residing in the Sacramento River valley, were "well disposed towards the United States."

By this one assumes that Marcy’s remarks suggested that the Américano settlers were prepared to support the takeover of Alta California. It is, therefore, important at this juncture that we discuss to some degree the part played by Américano settlers in previous American incursions into areas held by other powers. As earlier chapters discussed, Américano settlers had entered and were living within those boundaries of lands held by other European powers on the North American Continent. France and España held Louisiana Territory had allowed Américano settlers in before their takeover by the Américanos in 1804 C.E. In España’s Las Floridas, Américanos had been welcomed and settled there before the takeover in 1819 C.E. Before and after 1821 C.E., Américano settlers had been allowed into other Tejas, Nuevo Méjico, and California. Within the context of American expansion and Manifest Destiny, the protecting of Américano settlers in European and other national holdings had been and would continue to be used as one of the many reasons for initiating takeovers.

In June 1846 C.E., United States Army General Stephen Watts Kearny was billeted at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas where he received his orders from Secretary Marcy. He was informed that the state of Missouri was raising a volunteer force to supplement the regular Army force under his command. Secretary Marcy’s order also instructed him to attempt to enlist forces from among the Mormon emigrants then temporarily settled in the Iowa Territory, "a number (not) exceeding one-third of your entire force" in order "to aid us in our expedition against California." Following orders, Kearney sent Captain James Allen, of the First Dragoons, to the Mormon camps. There, Allen was successful in raising a force of battalion strength.

General Kearny began preparing to move southwest from Fort Leavenworth toward Nuevo Méjico. In June, before Captain Allen could join him with his newly-raised "Mormon Battalion," Kearney left from Fort Leavenworth. His large force numbered 1,558 men. The "Army of the West" was comprised of a battalion of Missouri Mounted Volunteers, five squadrons of the First Dragoons, and Colonel Alexander Doniphan’s First Regiment of Missouri Mounted Volunteers. Kearney's forces also included a group of Indian guides, a French interpreter, and Lieutenant William H. Emory’s small party of United States Army topographical engineers. Kearny's orders were simple, invade and take the territories Nuevo Méjico and Alta California.

Kearney's forces followed the Santa Fé Trail which had been used by traders from Missouri for over two decades. They rode across vast open plains which were then called the "Great American Desert," where they marveled at the treeless prairie with its vast herds of wild bison.

In California, on July 1, 1846 C.E., United States Army Captain John C. Fremont in command of twelve men crossed over from Sausalito in the launch of the Moscow and spiked the guns of the Castillo de San Joaquín and then returned whence they came. Brown asserts it was a bold deed. Fremont says that as they ascended the hill several horsemen were seen hastily retiring, while Brown says that there was not a Spaniard nearer than the Misión Dolores (four and a half miles).

By the end of July, they reached Bent's Fort, a private, fortified trading post located in present-day southern Colorado. There, on July 31st, Kearney issued a proclamation, in advance of entering Nuevo Méjico, in which he announced he was at the head of a large military force which intended to occupy that department for the purpose of "seeking union with and ameliorating the condition of its inhabitants." This was, one assumes, the second reason for the Américano invasion. It isn’t quite clear which inhabitants, Américanos, Nuevo Méjicanos, or both, were to be assisted. For that matter it is not explained why the inhabitants needed someone to make their lives better, more bearable, more satisfactory, or improve conditions.

At this juncture it would be safe to say that the Américano people had fully embraced the concept of Manifest Destiny. In the 19th-Century C.E., Manifest Destiny was a widely held belief in the United States that Américano settlers were destined to expand across the North America Continents East Coast to the Pacific Ocean. The historian has stated that this concept was born out of "a sense of mission to redeem the Old World by high example ... generated by the potentialities of a new earth for building a new heaven." In short, it was felt that this concept gave the Américanos the divine right to invade, capture by whatever force necessary, any and all territories it felt met this criterion. Given this, Méjico and it’s largely Mestízo and Indian peoples were simply an impediment to that divine intervention.

Earlier European conquests of the Continent of North America had set the legal basis for “Right of Conquest.” England, France, and España had early on established their own legal rights to the continent through “Right of Conquest.” In fact the Spanish ancestors of the Hispanics had led much of the charge. Thus these actions by the Américanos could be viewed as the latest, rightful action by Américanos of European extraction to expand their presence in all areas related to the destiny of the United States. The Américanos simply followed suit using what they saw as lawful actions as applied via acts of war. And so the war had begun. To the victor go the spoils, and all of that.

The Méjicano gobernador of Nuevo Méjico, General Manuel Armijo, learning that Kearney was on the march and of his pronouncement at Bent's Fort, responded on August 8th by issuing his own proclamation at Santa Fé, in which he declared he was "willing to sacrifice his life and all his interests in the defense of his country."

Understanding the strength of the Américanos, the Méjicano Gobernador Armijo wanted desperately to avoid battle. Unfortunately, on August 9, 1946 C.E. Catholic padres, Diego Archuleta a young Méjicano regular-army Comandante, and the young miquelets officers Manuel Cháves and Miguel Pino forced him to mount a defensive action against the Américanos. Armijo then established a military presence in Apache Canyon, a narrow pass about 10 miles southeast of the city.

resistance." Whether or not this means Armijo was bribed, as some historians have maintained, remains uncertain.

Before the Américano army had been located by the Nuevo Méjicanos, on August 14th, Armijo decided not to resist the invasion. When Pino, Cháves, and some of the members of the miquelets insisted on attacking, Armijo ordered the Cañón pointed at them. While the Nuevo Méjicano force decided to retreat to Santa Fé, Armijo fled to Chihuahua, Méjico.

General Kearny and his troops encountered no Méjicano military forces upon arriving in the Santa Fé area of Nuevo Méjico on August 15th. By the time Kearney's forces reached the mountain pass near Santa Fé, where a Nuevo Méjicano force, said to have numbered 4,000 men was supposed to have assembled to resist the American advance, Armijo's army had disappeared. It has been reported that an Américano named James Magoffin claimed to have convinced Gobernador Armijo and Diego Archuleta to follow this course of retreat. The there is that unverified story which suggests that Magoffin had bribed Armijo. 

The Américano force next entered the Villa de Santa Fé on August 18, 1846, and claimed Nuevo Méjico for the United States. The "Army of the West" had been able to ride unopposed into Santa Fé and take possession of the capital without firing a shot.

General Stephen Watts Kearney's first official act, after headquartering himself in the old Spanish Palacio de los gobernadores or Palace of the Governors recently vacated by Armijo, was to issue a proclamation declaring that Nuevo Méjico was now part of the United States. Kearny also declared himself the military governor of the annexed New Mexico Territory on August 18th and established a civilian government.

A few days later, Kearny issued orders for the building of an adobe-brick fortress, to be constructed on a hill overlooking the town. Completed about a month later, it was called Fort Marcy in honor of the United States Secretary of the War. Finally, after establishing a civil government, with Charles Bent as first American governor of the "Territory of New Mexico," he set out for California. Américano officers with some background in law would soon draw up the necessary documents for a temporary legal system for the territory which was instituted as the Kearny Code.

Upon his departure for California, General Kearny having completed his mission for New Mexico left a military force in place. He assigned the responsibility for command of the Américano forces in New Mexico under Colonel Sterling Price. Colonel Alexander W. Doniphan was temporarily left in charge of the military forces with orders to hand over command to Colonel Sterling Price upon his arrival with the Second Missouri Mounted Volunteers.

On September 25th, taking the remainder of his army, 300 United States dragoons, General Kearny moved west toward his next goal of conquest, Alta California.

Colonel Price arrived at the Villa de Santa Fé in October 1846 C.E. to take over command. Having completed their first two tasks, under orders to rendezvous with General John Ellis Wool in Chihuahua, Colonel Doniphan and his men headed south for Méjico. During their march, they would fight both Indians and Méjicanos.

After the raising of the American flag in San Francisco, California United States Army Captain Montgomery remained in command there until about December 1, 1846 C.E., when he was succeeded by Commander Joseph B. Hull of the Warren. Lieutenant Watson of the Marine Corps retained command of the troops on shore. He was to be succeeded later by Captain Ward Marston, of Marines on the flagship Savannah.

In in Santa Fé, New Mexico following Kearny's departure, non-Américano native Nuevo Méjicano dissenters of both Spanish ancestry as well as full-blooded Pueblo Indians plotted an uprising for Christmas. Both groups had begun to regret that nothing had been done to try to stop the Américano advance. Determined to respond, a plot was hatched. Theirs plan, however, was uncovered when a handful of Nuevo Méjicano women confided in the authorities. Upon discovery of their plans by the Américano authorities, the dissenters delayed the uprising. While waiting, the Méjicanos continued attracting Indian allies, including Puebloan peoples.

On Christmas Day 1846 C.E., the Américanos battled a large Méjicano force which had ridden out from El Paso del Norte (present-day Ciudad Juarez) to stop the determined Missourians. On that day of December 25, 1846 C.E, en route to Chihuahua, Colonel Doniphan's regiment was attacked by a Méjicano army about thirty miles from El Paso del Norte, about 9 miles south of Las Cruces, New Mexico, at Brazito on the Río Grande. The ensuing clash between the Missourians of the United States Army and the Méjicano Army became known as the Battle of El Brazito. There Doniphan's regiment engaged and defeated the Méjicano troops.

By 1847 C.E., the United States understood the nature and difficulties of being a coast to coast empire. Its concern was the transporting passengers and goods coast-to-coast from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. The existing long and treacherous passage around the tip of South America had proven expensive and slow. Under consideration were both sea and land transportation infrastructures which could do this considerably quicker and less expensive. The United States was also grappling with a need to vastly improve its coast to coast shipping and traveling via land.

In 1847 C.E., the United States was attempting to purchase the Isthmus of Tehuantepec located in Méjico, on the southern edge of North America. It represents the shortest distance between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. Clearly, the Américanos were interested in drastically improving their land transportation systems. This was seen as an alternative means of providing a southern connection between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Américanos traveling to the West Coast by ship did not want to endure the long and treacherous passage around the tip of South America. To shorten their journey and voyage by months, most of these travelers preferred to cross the isthmus using the route through Nicaragua rather than through Panama. These sea travelers disembarked on the East Coast of Nicaragua and cross the isthmus to the Pacific. They proceeded by light boat up the San Juan River to Lake Nicaragua, crossing the lake in larger steamers. The final overland leg of the journey was via carriages. They traveled on a well-planned, safer, modern road that deposited them on the West Coast, where they boarded a steamer for San Francisco. After 1855 C.E., when the Panama Railroad Company would complete its Panama Railway and the Nicaragua route would be largely closed down.

Understanding the problems with the existing route, a group of New York financiers organized the Panama Railroad Company in 1847 C.E. They proposed to build a road railway across the Isthmus of Panama which was the narrowest barrier between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, though it traversed dense jungle swarming with malarial mosquitoes. The Panama Railway route with its road railway across the Isthmus of Panama, if planned and executed properly, the improved route might offer a faster crossing if properly developed.

Méjico, however, had already granted Méjicano Don José de Garay the 60 year right to build colonies for Américanos on the isthmus with capital from the New Orleans Company. Méjicano Presidente Juan Ceballos feared the colonists would rebel as those in Texas had. He revoked the grant, angering Américano investors. The Américanos were intent upon protecting their economic interests at all costs.

From 1847 C.E. to 1850 C.E., California military governors would be appointed by the senior military commander in California. This arrangement was rather difficult for the American military officers, as they had no inclination or precedent for such actions. They also lacked formal training for the implementation and management of organizations in support of civil government infrastructures which was to provide security, safety, and maintain a stable economy for its inhabitants.

In the Américano world of that day, its economy and society was dependent upon a viable economy where purchases were made and paid for with currency, money. The question was how to create that viable economy where relatively little infrastructure existed?

Here it is important to note that Californio Rancho Society had few resources. The one exception was vast herds of wild longhorn cattle which roamed freely in California. The trade in hides, tallow or melted animal fat, and sometimes horns was the primary business activity in California during the Rancho Period. The trading system was simple. The Californios traded their hides to be used to make a large variety of leather products. As the Californios did not make shoes, they traded most of their hides to be sent to New England to be made into shoes. The Californios traded their tallow which was sent by the traders to Chile or Perú to be made into soap and candles.  The horns were used for manufacture buttons. They would later purchased soap, candles, shoes, and buttons from the merchant ships. Thus, a Californio family's wealth was counted in the number of cattle they owned, and the value of the cattle was in the hides and tallow. In short, the income of the rancho was dependent upon hides, tallow, and sometimes horns.

To be precise, the Californios had survived economically by killing, skinning, and removing the fat and other parts from their cattle. From these, the ranchos produced the cowhides which were then called California Greenbacks. The cowhides were staked out to dry and the tallow put in large cowhide bags. The remaining parts of the animals were left to rot or feed the California grizzly bears, then common in California. The result was the largest tallow business in North America.

Arriving on the Pacific Coast, foreign traders provided the Californios with manufactured goods brought to California by ships from the East Coast of the United States to purchase the cattle byproducts. The Californios brought their hides to barter for goods. As the Californios did not have boats of their own, the traders used the ship's small boats to bring the Californios out to the ship. The ship's crew often set up a trading room on board the ship. It was much like a store. Often, the Californio ranchero women spent an entire day on board the ship, choosing which goods to purchase.

Henry Dana, Jr. the author of the book, Two Years Before the Mast, provides a list of those goods that the Californio rancheros bartered for their hides. "...teas, coffee, sugars, spices, raisins, molasses, spirits of all kinds (sold by the cask), hardware, crockery, tin ware, cutlery, clothing of all kinds, boots and shoes, calico and cotton cloth, silks, shawls, scarves, necklaces and other jewelry, combs, furniture ... and, in fact, everything that can be imagined, from Chinese fireworks to English cart wheels."

The average length of such trading trips to California and back, was typically two years in length. Clearly, the Californios were dependent upon these traders and eagerly awaited their return trading missions.

At the time, there existed no simple solution for the land holding Californios or other Hispanics to be successful in the American economic environment. The Rancho economic bartering system was their only resource for access to various goods and little if any income.

As fate would have it, California would be under United States control by January 1847 C.E. and would be formally annexed and paid for by the Américanos later in The Friendship, Limits, and Settlement between the United States of America and the Méjicano Republic  or the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to be signed in 1848 C.E. These monies would not go to the Hispanics in the new American West or Southwest, by to the politicians in Méjico City.

Here, it is important to understand that future conflicts involving ownership of land within the newly conquered territories were bound to occur. During both the Spanish Period and Méjicano Period land grants which had been given to residents assumed their continued ownership. When reviewed under United States law and control, title to some of these grants would be rejected based on questionable documents. This is true especially when predated documents could have been created post-United States occupancy in January 1847 C.E. It is readily understandable that any change to the status quo was going to be challenged by the Hispanic inhabitants.

In this chapter it also becomes abundantly clear that for the residents of the new American West and Southwest the absence of a strong economic foundation with a vibrant manufacturing base, an adequate transportation infrastructure and system, a middle class which could provide the necessary tax base and the resulting hard currency revenue stream these territories could not be properly supported.

In January 1847 C.E., Californios were angered by Américano immigrants settling on their ranchos. Californios saw this as a breach of the law. When six men of the U.S. sloop Warren went ashore to buy cattle from Californios for food, they were taken hostage by a group under Francisco Sánchez. One of the hostages was Lieutenant Washington Allon Bartlett, the alcalde of Yerba Buena, which was soon to be renamed San Francisco. Once informed of the hostage taking, Captains Joseph Aram and Charles Maria Weber, commanding United States volunteers at Santa Clara and San Jose respectively, were dispatch to free them. Because the Californio Sánchez, had command of 200 men, once this was understood, Marines and artillery under Captain Marston were dispatched as reinforcements. They soon marched against Sánchez in the Santa Clara Alta California campaign on the same month.

What followed was the Battle of Santa Clara, a skirmish, fought on January 2, 1847 C.E., over two miles west of Misión Santa Clara de Asís. It was to be the only engagement of its type in Northern California during the war. This, however, was not the earlier planned uprising in New Mexico.

In New Mexico the leaders the planned uprising had escaped. This only meant that the event had been postponed, not cancelled. Despite Governor Bent's January 5, 1847 C.E., plea for domestic tranquility, insurrectionist planning had continued. Tragically only two weeks later, near his home in Don Fernando de Taos (present-day Taos, New Mexico), the governor would be brutally murdered in front of his family. At the same time, several other government officials would also be surprised and killed by the insurgents. "It appeared," wrote Colonel Sterling Price, "to be the object of the insurrectionists to put to death every American and every Mexican who had accepted office under the American government."

In California, minor armed resistance by the Californios ceased when they signed the Treaty of Cahuenga on January 13, 1847 C.E. After the Treaty was signed the Californios who had wrested control of California from Méjico in 1845 C.E., now had a new and much more stable government. With Alta California well in hand, the Américano Pacific Squadron then left to capture all Baja California cities, harbors, and to sink or capture all of the Méjicano Pacific Navy’s vessels they could find. Later after its capture, Baja California would be returned to Méjico in subsequent negotiations of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

About 150 Californios who were concerned about possible punishment by the Américanos for having not kept their non-aggression promises soon retreated into Sonora, Méjico via the Yuma Crossing Gila River trail.

Although General Kearny's army had encountered no resistance, the annexation of New Mexico was not to be totally bloodless. Américano actions could not quell the mounting unrest of the Nuevo Méjicanos. In northern New Mexico the insurrection known as "The Revolt of 1847 C.E.," was about to begin in response by Méjicanos and Pueblo Indians to the Américano invasion and occupation of New Méjico.

On January 19, 1847 C.E., a few months before my progenitor, José Luis Ribera’s son, Lorenzo Rivera was born, the newly appointed American Governor Bent and several other officials, a local sheriff, judge, and lawyer were murdered by a group of Hispanos and Indians in the Villa Don Fernando de Taos, New Mexico. It would result in the assassination of Governor Charles Bent, the local sheriff, a judge, and a lawyer. As the revolt spread the Américano army would respond decisively.

On the morning of January 19, 1847 C.E., the Nuevo Méjicano insurgents began the revolt in Don Fernando de Taos, present-day Taos, New Mexico, later given the name the Taos Revolt. They were led by Pablo Montoya, a Nuevo Méjicano, and Tomás Romero, a Taos pueblo Indian also known as Tomásito or Little Thomas. A number of the Nuevo Méjicanos and Indians had gathered in the villa of Taos to obtain the release of two companions whom the authorities had imprisoned. Once their demands had been refused by the Américano action was taken. The Indians murdered the sheriff and the Méjicano prefect, broke into the prison, and released the prisoners. They then, rushed through the villa and forced their way into the house where Governor Benthad had taken up a temporary residence.

Tomásito led his Indian force to the house where Governor Charles Bent was staying. Upon their approach, the Governor appears to have lost his presence of mind. He chose not to fight or retreat as they approached the house where he had taken refuge. Finally, as the Indian insurgents broke through a door and made their way into the house. As they drew near his room, Bent began his retreat and was wounded. When the Governor failed in the attempt to jump from the window, he made his way back inside.

There he was shot with arrows by the Indians. The Indians shot the dying Governor again, this time in the face with his own revolver. They then proceeded to scalp Bent in front of his family. Still alive, they next nailed Bent to a board. The Indian force soon left. Later, the survivors, Bent’s wife Ignacia and children, the wives of friends Kit Carson and Thomas Boggs, managed to escape. The group dug through the adobe walls of the home and into the house next door. When the insurgents discovered the fleeing party, they killed Bent. The women and children were left unharmed.

In various areas of the Villa, others were killed. Mr. Leal, the acting as district attorney at that time, was scalped while still alive and then killed by slow torture. The enraged Indians afterwards formed a procession, parading the bodies of the dead Governor Bent and acting district attorney through the villa. Though the Indians had attempted to excite an insurrection, they failed.

The Hispanos also sacked the homes of Anglo citizens. In the Mora Valley they killed six American merchants and trappers. After fierce fighting in the streets of the Villa of Mora, the Nuevo Méjicanos retreated and set up a defensive position around the church of San Jerónimo at Taos Pueblo. In their absence, an Américano cavalry unit succeeded in leveling the Villa.

On the following day, January 20, 1847 C.E., a large armed force of approximately 500 Nuevo Méjicanos and Pueblo attacked and surrounded Simeon Turley's mill in Arroyo Hondo which is located several miles outside of Taos. Charles Autobees, a worker at the mill, saw the men coming toward the Mill and immediately rode to Santa Fé for help from the occupying Américano forces. Eight to ten mountain men stayed to defend the mill. After a long battle, least half a dozen defenders of a mill near Taos were dead. Two of the men, John David Albert and Thomas Tate Tobin, Autobees' half-brother had escaped separately under the cover of darkness.

The same day, January 20, 1847 C.E., Nuevo Méjicano insurgents killed seven Américano traders who were making their way through the villa of Mora. Fortunately, no more than 15 Américanos were killed in both attacks.

Also on January 20th, United States Army Captain Israel R. Hendley of the Second Missouri Volunteers learned of the Taos insurrection having intercepted letters from the rebels while in command of a grazing detachment along the Pecos River.

Once aware, the Américano military would move quickly to end the revolt. This separate force of Américano troops commanded by Captain Israel R. Hendley and Captain and Jesse I. Morin were sent against the insurgents at Mora. They would lead more than 300 troops from Santa Fé to Taos. His force would also have 65 volunteers organized by Ceran St. Vrain, the business partner of the brothers William and Charles Bent. They included a few Nuevo Méjicanos. The Americans would move quickly to attempt to put down the rebellion at Mora, New Mexico. Unfortunately, even this company of brave, determined, and capable Américano Dragoons wouldn’t be able take the town of Mora.

Mora had been carved out of the mountain wilderness in the early-1800s C.E. in spite of the many Ute, Comanche, and Apache raiding parties that ranged through the area. Mora was built with defense in mind with the houses joined together in a rectangle in the Spanish protective tradition. The villa had been built with a small two-story fort on the northwest corner for a refuge against marauding Indians. In 1847 C.E., the Américano Private John Hudgins described the villa of Mora, Nuevo Méjico as being built in a rectangle of about 250 to 300 yards on a side. The adobe houses on the edge were joined together in the original Spanish style except for two places which were fenced. There was an L-shaped two story building on the northwest corner and a wooden blockhouse on the southeast corner. These buildings had loopholes for firing from within.

By January 22nd, Captain Hendley learned that the Hispano insurgents had gathered a force of 150 or more men at Las Bagas. That same day, Captain Hendley and his 250 soldiers took possession of Las Bagas. After leaving the majority of his troops behind in Las Bagas, Hendley headed to the Villa of Mora with a contingent of 80 men.

In California, on January 22, 1847 C.E., after hostilities had ceased with the signing of the Treaty of Cahuenga, Commodore Stockton's replacement, Commodore William B. Shubrick, arrived in Monterey in a razee or raze, a sailing ship that has been cut down or razeed to reduce the number of decks. In the sense it’s a shaved down ship. This razee, the USS Independence, carried 54 guns and about 500 crew members. The Américano takeover had begun in earnest.

By January 23, 1847 C.E., Colonel Price had assembled his force of 353 soldiers and militia. They were to march north and intercept the Nuevo Méjicano insurgents. Price's force included Captain McMillin's Company D, Captain. Williams' Company K, Captain Lack's Company L, Captain Halley's Company M, and Captain Barber's Company N, 2d Regiment Missouri Mounted Volunteers, Captain Agney's battalion of infantry and Captain St. Vrain's Santa Fé volunteers, and Lieutenant A.B. Dyer's four mounted howitzers, while Lieutenant Colonel Willock remained behind in command of the capital at Santa Fé.

On January 24th, Captain Hendley arrived in Villa of Mora and "found a body of Nuevo Méjicano miquelets under arms and in the process of preparing to defend the Villa." His troops were fired upon by Mexicans from the windows and loop-holes of houses and during skirmishes in the streets. Later, while pursuing the insurrectionists into the Villa’s old fort, Hendley was shot and killed. Lacking artillery and senior leadership, the Américano then retreated, with 17 prisoners. These were to be tried for treason, as eastern New Mexico was by then nominally a United States territory under the provisional government of New Mexico). During that First Battle of Mora, several other Américano Army personnel had been wounded. These included soldiers Waldo, Noyes, and Culver, and others. The battle left approximately 25 of the opposing miquelets or a militia reported dead, an unknown number injured.

What is clear is that this short skirmish which took place in and around the villa of Mora resulted in an Américano Army defeat and the death of Hendley and several of his men. Until the Américano forces could return with cannon, the first hard-fought Battle of Mora would end remain a Nuevo Méjicano victory.

The Revolt of 1847 C.E. and its First Battle of Mora would be followed by a series of battles in that late-January. During these battles, Colonel Price’s men combined other Américano forces would overcome a force of some 1,500 Nuevo Méjicanos and Pueblo at Santa Cruz de la Cañada and Embudo Pass.

The Battle of La Cañada also took place on January 24, 1847 C.E. A large force of Nuevo Méjicanos and Pueblo Indians gathered at La Cañada in Nuevo Méjico under the leadership of Chávez, Montoya, Tafoya, and Ortíz. The force assembled intending to march on the Américano held city of Santa Fé. They would be intercepted by the Américano garrison of Santa Fé, resulting in the battle.

There Colonel Sterling Price met the large insurgent force on the heights along the road to Santa Cruz de la Cañada. The Nuevo Méjicanos had manned three strong houses at the base of the hill. Price placed his artillery on the left to fire on the houses and bluff, placed his dismounted men such that they were protected by the stream bluff, and sent Captain St. Vrain to protect his wagon train a mile to the rear until it joined him. Price ordered Captain Agney to dislodge the rebels occupying the house opposite his right flank, followed by a charge up the hill, supported by Lieutenant White and Captain St. Vrain. Captains McMillen's, Barber's and Slack's men took possession of the houses enclosed by a strong corral. Price reported, "In a few minutes my troops had dislodged the enemy at all points, and they were flying in every direction." Many Nuevo Méjicanos including Tafoya were killed. Chávez would later be killed at Don Fernando de Taos Pueblo. Soon, Montoya would also be captured and hanged at Taos Pueblo. After the battle, Price camped on the field that night while the rebels retreated to Taos.

On that same day, of January 24, 1847 C.E., some of Colonel Sterling Price’s forces came upon insurgents prior to commencement of the Battle of Embudo Pass.

By January 27, 1847 C.E., Colonel Sterling Price advanced up the Río del Norte (Río Grande), to Lucero’s where he was joined by Captain Burgwin's Company, 1st Dragoons, Lieutenant Boone's Company A, 2d Regiment Missouri Mounted Volunteers, and Lieutenant Wilson's 1st Dragoons, bringing Price's force to 479 men. Marching to La Joya, where sixty to eighty insurgents were posted on either side of the canyon, Price found the road by Embudo impractical for artillery or wagons. He then detached three companies amounting to 180 men under Captain John H.K. Burgwin, Captain Ceran St. Vrain, and Lieutenant B.F. White. Soon, Captain Burgwin discovered the insurgents at El Embudo, near present-day Dixon, New Mexico, in the thick brush on each side of the road where the gorge becomes constricted.

The rapid slopes of the mountains made the entrenched Nuevo Méjicano position very strong. Their position was strengthened by the denseness of cedar trees and the clustered rock formation which provided cover.

The action was opened with Captain St. Vrain dismounting his troops and ascended the mountain to the left of Américano position. Flanking parties were moved out onto either side. The 2nd Regiment Missouri mounted volunteers were commanded by Lieutenant White, and by Lieutenants Mellvaine and Taylor, 1st dragoons. They ascended the hill quickly, engaging the enemy which soon began to retire toward Embudo. The retreating Nuevo Méjicanos moved so quickly along the steep rugged sides of the mountains, that they could not be pursued. The weapons fire from the pass of Embudo had been heard all the way to La Joya, now called "Velarde."  From there, Captain Slack and twenty-five mounted men were immediately dispatched to assist at Pass. Upon arrival, he relieved Lieutenant White’s men who were by that time very fatigued. Lieutenants Mellvaine and Taylor commands were also recalled. Soon, Lieutenant Ingalls was directed to lead a flanking party on the right slope. Captain Slack was to take the left slope. By that time, the enemy had retreated beyond Américano reach. Captain Burgwin marched his force through a narrow gorge and marked into the open valley where Embudo is located. The two flanking parties Captain Slack Lieutenant Ingalls were recalled and the combined troops entered the Villa of Embudo without opposition with several of the Villa’s inhabitants meeting him with carrying a white flag.

After the battles at the Pueblo at Santa Cruz de la Cañada and Embudo Pass the beaten Nuevo Méjicanos would be forced to retreat and form a defensive position around San Jerónimo Church of at Taos Pueblo. There, the insurgents took refuge behind the thick adobe walls of the old Spanish misión church. Crowding into the large building, they were determined to make a stand.

On January 27, 1847 C.E., the transport Lexington showed up in Monterey, California with a regular United States Army artillery company of 113 men under Captain Christopher Tompkins.

After the hostilities had ceased, more reinforcements arrived at San Diego on January 28, 1847 C.E. These were about 320 soldiers and a few women of the Mormon Battalion. They had been recruited from approximately 2,000 miles away from the Mormon camps on the Missouri River.

In New Mexico, the Américanos clearly sought revenge for United States Army's January 24th defeat by the Mexican-national militia of Hispanos and their Puebloan allies at First Battle of Mora. Now prepared with appropriate armaments, the Américanos would again attack the Villa of Mora in what is known as The Second Battle of Mora and finally overcome the insurgents and end the military operations against Mora.

During the ensuing two-day battle starting on February 1, 1847 C.E., the Américanos used their artillery to blow gaping holes in the adobe walls of the Church. They then directed cannon fire into the interior of the building. After a furious battle, which ended on February 3, 1847 C.E., the insurrection was broken. There were many Nuevo Méjicano casualties and about 150 insurgents killed. After fierce hand-to-hand fighting, the Américanos had captured 400 more of the insurgents and the Américano army brought an end to the revolution. Seven Américanos were lost in the battle.

Captain Jesse I. Morin and his troops would destroy the Villa the next week. The Hispanos of the Villa of Mora having joined the people of the Villa of Taos in the Revolt against the Américanos saw first-hand the destruction of their entire community. Captain Morin’s cavalry unit leveled the entire town. In the series of trials that followed, a number of the survivors were tried for murder and treason. During the following weeks, nearly two dozen Nuevo Méjicanos were hanged.

After the January 1847 C.E. uprising was quelled, New Mexico was relatively quiet for the remainder of the war. There were only a few minor incidents which marred the peace. In the following months, Nuevo Méjicano insurgents did engage Américano forces three more times. These military actions are known as the Battle of Red River Canyon, the Battle of Las Vegas, and the Battle of Cienega Creek. After the battles, the New Méjicano and Indian insurgents stopped resistance The American army would bring an end to the revolt in February.

On February 8, 1847 C.E, Colonel Alexander Doniphan's force of 924 soldiers and 300 civilians left El Paso del Norte for Chihuahua, Méjico. He did this despite learning John E. Wool had abandoned his march there. After a grueling march through rugged enemy terrain, Doniphan then joined forces with U.S. Army General Zachary Taylor at Buena Vista, Méjico.

In the wider scope of the Méjicano-Américano War, at the Battle of Buena Vista (February 22, 1847 C.E.-February 23, 1847 C.E.), Américano General Zachary Taylor’s forces defeated the Méjicanos under General António de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón (Santa Anna). During the the Battle of Buena Vista, also known as the Battle of Angostura, the United States Army used artillery to repulse the much larger Méjicano Army. Buena Vista, a villa located in the state of Coahuila, is seven miles south of Saltillo, in Méjico. At the Battle, the Américanos would defeat the Méjicanos. General Taylor was later angered at the thought that the Battle of Buena Vista opened the road to the city of Méjico and the halls of Montezuma to others competing American military commanders that might revel in them.

By February 28, 1847 C.E., Colonel Alexander Doniphan's American forces numbering less than 1,000 men began the Battle of the Sacramento River. The battle was fought about fifteen miles north of Chihuahua, Méjico, at the crossing of the Río Sacramento. There the Américanos met and defeated a superior Méjicano army and had few casualties. This action would lead to the occupation of Chihuahua. 

After some desertions and deaths in transit, four ships brought to California Colonel Jonathan D. Stevenson's 1st Regiment of New York Volunteers of about 648 reinforcements. They arrived in March and April of 1847 C.E. Of those, Companies H and K were sent to garrison El Presidio Real de San Francisco or San Francisco Presidio under command of Major James A. Hardie. Initially, they would take over all of the garrison duties for the Pacific Squadron's on-shore military duties and those of the Mormon Battalion and California Battalion's duties.

Also in 1847 C.E., Américano forces under General Winfield Scott began landing three miles south of Veracruz, Méjico. The landing was the first large-scale amphibious operation in United States history and in the Western Hemisphere. It was the largest amphibious landing in United States history and not surpassed until World War II. Fortunately, the Américanos encountered little Méjicano resistance from troops massed in the fortified City of Veracruz upon landing on March 9, 1847 C.E. By nightfall of that day, all of General Scott’s 10,000 men came ashore without the loss of a single life. Américano forces under General Scott had begun their invasion of Méjico.

Scott then began a siege of Veracruz on March 22, 1847 C.E. 

The fortress at Veracruz fell on March 27, 1847 C.E. and was occupied two days later.

On March 29, 1847 C.E., with very few casualties, the Américanos under General Winfield Scott had taken the fortified City of Veracruz and its massive fortress, San Juan de Ulúa.

By April 8, 1847 C.E., Scott moved toward Méjico City. At Churubusco General Winfield Scott defeated a Méjicano army of twenty thousand and at the Battle of Molino del Rey Américano forces defeated an estimated twelve thousand Méjicanos.

After mid-April, at Cerro Gordo, near Xalapa General Santa Anna commanding the Méjicano forces attempted to block Scott's march. There he had with him over 12,000 soldados in a fortified defile, a narrow way through which troops can march only in single file.

Santa Anna’s forces were represented by remnants of the Division of the North (5,650 total: 150 Artillery, 4,000 Infantry and 1,500 Cavalry. These included the Ampudia Brigade (the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 11th Line Infantry Regiments), the Vásquez Brigade (the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Light Infantry Regiments) and the Juvera Cavalry Brigade (5th, 9th Morelia and the Coraceros Cavalry Regiments); and reinforcements from the Capitol. These included the Rangel Brigade (the 6th Infantry Regiment, Grenadiers of the Guard, Libertad and Galeana Battalions, two Cavalry Squadrons and eight guns), the Pinzón Brigade, and the Canalizo Special Cavalry Division. The Artega Brigade (1,000: Pueblo Activos and National Guard Battalions) arrived toward the end of the battle.

By April 18, 1847 C.E., General Winfield Scott’s troops, met and defeated a Méjicano army with a force of about thirteen thousand at Cerro Gordo. Army Corps of Engineers Captain Robert E. Lee, later of American Civil War fame, discovered a mountain trail around Santa Anna's position. General Scott quickly moved the main body of his command along the trail, out-flanking the Méjicanos.

At Churubusco, on April 20, 1847 C.E., General Scott met and defeated a Méjicano army of twenty thousand and at the Battle of Molino del Rey United States his forces defeated an estimated twelve thousand Méjicanos.

To negotiate peace with Méjico, President James K. Polk would appoint as his special agent, Nicholas P. Trist, a State Department veteran. The Américanos also attempted peace negotiations with Méjico, through the British minister, Charles Bankhead. Interestingly, these two powers had been since the American Revolutionary War in constant aggression and competition against one another. Most notably was the War of 1812 in which the Americans expelled the British from its territory. Yet, the two parties could put aside these varied and complex disagreements to cooperate on the taking of vast territories.

Severe battles with the Indians occurred during the Méjicano-Américano War which underscores issues relating to the safety and security of the new West and Southwest frontier settlements of American territory. One of the most spirited of these encounters was an attack by a detachment of Colonel Doniphan‘s men, upon a party of Lipan Apache warriors, near El Paso, Texas. On May 13, 1847 C.E., the Américanos were marching from Chihuahua to Saltillo. Earlier, he had detached Captain Reid as an advance guard, with thirty men to El Paso.

About nine o’clock in the morning, Captain Reid observed a party of about sixty Indians coming out of a gap in the mountains at about five miles distant. They appeared to be advancing toward the rancho. The Indians were returning from an attack upon a neighboring Méjicano town. There they had secured prisoners and more than a thousand horses and mules.

Although at war with the Méjicanos, Captain Reid made his decision. The Indian force was double his own. They clearly had the advantage of ground. If needed they could retreat and either escape or draw troops into an ambush. He had decided to rescue the prisoners.

Upon command, the Américano party bore down at full speed upon the Indians as they calmly awaited the charge. The Indians began the skirmish with discharge of arrows. The Américanos answered with a volley from their rifles. Almost immediately, the Indians raised a yell and rushed forward discharging more arrows in rapidity succession. After some time, the Américanos were driven back. Once having reloaded, they again charged, this time driving the Indians back.

Indian superior horsemanship gave them great advantages. They galloped swiftly up and down, easily moved their bodies in the saddles, eluding the Américano bullets. The battle continued nearly two hours. Each side party charged and retreated alternately, while keeping up a continual fire. After a while, the Captain’s troops began gaining ground inch by inch. The Indians soon became discouraged and fought with less skill. In their final retreat, the Indians suffered severely. They left fifteen dead and carried away a larger number of wounded. Nine of their Méjicano prisoners were freed and the herd of one thousand horses and mules were taken and later returned to their original owners.

The Comanche Indians were also a powerful tribe. These inhabited the country on the northeastern frontier of New Mexico. They made frequent attacks upon the Santa Fé traders and other daring activities and cruelty on the people of the western country, especially on the borders of Texas. They were brave, strong, powerful, and skillful horsemen. This added greatly to making their attacks formidable. Their incursions were also a source of terror to the Méjicanos.

Meanwhile in California, on June 6, 1847 C.E., Captain Folsom of the U.S. Army in a report to Major Thomas Swords, quartermaster, expressed his opinion against the validity of Mr. Thomas O. Larkin's title for Don Benito Díaz’s Land Grant of two leagues of land known as the Punta de los Lobos, comprising all that property on the San Francisco peninsula lying north of a line drawn from the Laguna de Loma Alta to the Punta de los Lobos based upon the following reasons: That the fort and presidio were on the land claimed; that they had been occupied by troops up to within four or five years and that one or more old Méjicano soldados continued to reside there; that he was assured by General Vallejo and Coronel Prudon that it was contrary to the organic laws of Méjico to sell or convey away any lands which might be wanted for "forts, barracks, field-works, and public purposes for defence"; that the title was not approved by the departmental assembly, as required by law; that the alcalde of the district had not certified that the grant could be made without prejudice to the public interest, as required by law; that Pío Pico, the gobernador, was not in Los Ángeles on June 25, 1846 C.E., when the alleged grant was signed; but had left Los Ángeles June 17th or 18th and did not return until July 15th, being at Santa Barbara on June 25th.

Previous to the laying out of the San Francisco Presidio reserve, Mr. Thomas O. Larkin of Monterey, notified Colonel Mason, governor of the territory, on June 16, 1847 C.E., that he was, by purchase from Don Benito Díaz, owner of two leagues of land near San Francisco running from Laguna de Loma Alta (Washerwomen's Lagoon) to Punta de los Lobos, embracing the old presidio and castillo, for many years abandoned, deeded and granted on the 25th of June 1846 C.E., to said Díaz by Pío Pico, Gobernador of California, and on the 19th of September same year, sold and conveyed by Díaz to Larkin for a valuable consideration. Larkin further notified Governor Mason that, in going over the land the previous May, he found that some troops of the United States government were in possession of the presidio; that they were living there; that they had torn down some of the buildings to repair others, and in some cases were putting new roofs on the houses. Larkin protested against his property's being used without his consent, or without compensation, and against damages sustained now or hereafter.

In proof of his claim Larkin offered the following documents: Grant of two leagues of land known as the Punta de los Lobos, comprising all that property on the San Francisco peninsula lying north of a line drawn from the Laguna de Loma Alta to the Punta de los Lobos, signed by Pío Pico in the city of Los Ángeles, June 25, 1846 C.E.

Deed from Don Benito Díaz and his wife, Luísa Soto, for above grant to Thomas O. Larkin, in consideration of one thousand dollars in silver coin, signed in Monterey before Walter Colton, alcalde, September 19, 1846 C.E.

Certificate of claim of Thomas O. Larkin to the aforesaid grant, signed by Washington Bartlett, alcalde of San Francisco, October 6, 1846 C.E.

These documents bore the following endorsement:"The United State troops are in possession of the presidio and old fort at the entrance of the bay of San Francisco, which are claimed by Mr. Thomas O. Larkin as his property."

Note:

Without making any decision for or against the soundness of Mr. Larkin's title as exhibited by this paper, the possession held by the United States will not operate to the prejudice of any just claim to said property held by Mr. Larkin.

"Monterey, September 3, 1847 C.E."

R. B. Mason, 
"Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California.”

A second person, Mr. Dexter R. Wright, produced a deed. This one was from Thomas O. Larkin and wife to the Don Benito Díaz Land Grant area in San Francisco, of Rancho Punta de los Lobos, dated September 29, 1846 C.E. Why Larkin should claim on June 16, 1847 C.E., to be owner of the land deeded to Wright eight months before, does not appear.

The aforementioned example is one of many which speak to the greed of newcomers who were intent upon obtaining land whether or not they were entitled to it. This I’m sure was played out throughout the new territories. 

In Kansas, on June 26, 1847 C.E., a severe battle was fought between the Comanche and a party of Américano soldiers, commanded by Lieutenant Love. On the June 23, 1847 C.E., Indians attacked two Américano government trains of provision wagons destined for Santa Fé, New Mexico as their cattle were grazing. They wounded three of the men, one severely. The Indians succeeded in driving off from traders, and a return train of government wagons under Mr. Bell, some seventy yoke of oxen. This left seventy wagons and a considerable quantity of provisions and other property without transportation.

That same day, June 23, 1847 C.E., Américano soldiers arrived at the Pawnee Fork, which is a fork of the Arkansas River which rises in the northwest corner of Gray County in southwest Kansas. There, they met the two government trains of provision wagons destined for Santa Fé. The wagons and property were burned to prevent their falling into the hands of the Indians.

On the next day, June 24, 1847 C.E., the Américano soldiers travelled up to the Fork and encamped.

On June 25, 1847 C.E., the same Américano soldiers in charge of the guard, vigilantly took all precautions and the night passed over without any alarm.

The next morning, of June 26, 1847 C.E., immediately after military reveille, Hayden‘s train, which was encamped about five hundred yards due west from the guard tent, drove their oxen out of the coral to graze. All were out, when a large band of Comanche and Méjicanos emerged from a ravine called Coon Creek, about two hundred yards west. They then proceeded to charge the teamsters and herdsmen, wounding three men. One hundred and thirty yoke of government oxen and thirty yoke belonging to a trader who was accompanying two hundred yards west. They then proceeded to charge furiously on the teamsters who were then driven off by the attackers.

In the meantime the camp was armed, and some eighteen or nineteen mounted dragoons were ordered out to retake the cattle. The enemy halted. The soldiers formed in an extended line and then charged on the Indians, and forced them to retreat. As the Indians were retreating, a large party of mounted Indians crossed the river between the soldiers and the camp, and charged into their rear. This prevented the Americans from rallying and they were forced to cut their way through them. The American command fought bravely, but five were killed fighting to the last. Six were wounded. After the skirmish, the Indians scalped three men, and took off the horses, equipments, arms, ammunition, the clothes of the dead, and left with the cattle.

These Comanche, Pawnees, and Arapaho Indians had attacked every train which was dispatch during the year. Such had been the Indian aggression and violence. They were bound to continue their attacks on every train they found on route to New Mexico or returning. They had numbered about five hundred. There were a few white men among them. They were all armed with lances measuring from twelve to fifteen feet in length, bows and arrows, and many rifles and muskets. Twelve or fifteen of the Indians had been wounded or killed, but were immediately carried off. Four of their horses were left dead on the ground. Eventually this constant Indian violence would force the United States government to take more effective measures to end the situation.

The Mormon Battalion troops were recruited by the American Army for military service with the understanding they would be discharged in California with their weapons. Most of the battalion would be discharged before July 1847 C.E.

The New York Volunteer companies were deployed from San Francisco in Alta California to La Paz, Méjico in Baja California. The ship Isabella sailed from Philadelphia on August 16, 1847 C.E., with a detachment of one hundred soldiers, for California.

The War ended on September 14, 1847 C.E. when United States forces under General Winfield Scott entered the Méjicano capital and raised the Américano flag over the Halls of Montezuma.

The Méjicanos ultimately lost the war which had begun as a war of attrition. It was the Américano field commanders who made decisions to transitioned and escalate the war. Due to the nature of the fighting both military and civilian targets were attacked by United States Army and Navy forces using effective and superior firepower. Fortunately the hostilities officially ceased by late-October of 1847 C.E.

Given the probability of immense financial gain there were many Norte Américanos who wanted more land than what had been originally sought. In fact, many of the Américano field commanders who participated in the invasion of Méjico supported total annexation. Brigadier General William J. Worth, an expansionist and possibly a racist, was quite explicit: “That our race is finally destined to overrun the whole continent is too obvious to need proof.... After much reflection I have arrived at the conclusion that it is our decided policy to hold the whole of Méjico -- The details of occupation are comparatively unimportant -- I mean by occupation, permanent conquest and future annexation....” By race, one assumes that General Worth meant Americans of Anglo-Saxon and Northern European stock.

A powerful faction of American politicians and elites called for the annexation and control of all Méjico. On November 10, 1847 C.E., the Whig Party in the United States published its program for the defeated republic: “It is, therefore, declared, for the peace and quiet of this land, (Méjico) for the happiness of these people, and to end the effusion of human blood, that the United States, from this day forward, ends the war -- assumes the entire conquest of Méjico  -- annexes it to the United States, and the people are required to repair to their respective homes, and there await the call of the proper authorities of their different States to organize their several State Constitutions, which, if Republican, will be accepted into the Union.... All in default, acting contrary to this manifesto, be traitors, whose lives and property will be confiscated.”

While informative, one can only conclude that this view was not held by all Americans. Powerful entities with the American government and private industry, however, saw only a need to ensure the complete takeover of Méjico for the obvious wealth of the land and its potential for the increased greatness of an American Empire.

There were, however, internal contradictions within the United States which made further Méjicano land acquisitions problematic. The movement for the annexation of all Méjico would be frustrated. The issue of slavery continued to be a difficult one for the United States. There were many slaveholders who advocated expansion. Yet, others feared that if all Méjico were to be annexed, portions of it might enter as free soil territory. Free soil advocates were concerned that the conquered nation would become slave territory and vehemently opposed annexation.

The year 1848 C.E., saw the close of Méjicano control over Alta California, this period also marked the beginning of the rancheros' greatest, however, brief prosperity. After 1847 C.E., California had been controlled by an American Army-appointed military governor and a small force of a little over 600 troops. From about 1848 C.E. to about 1860 C.E. the Californio rancheros would enjoy the "golden" days of California.

The Américano war with the Méjicano Republic and eventual conquest of the territories of the West and Southwest territories culminated in the year 1848 C.E. with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. This treaty was the basis for establishing the rights of Méjicanos to land title within the conquered territories. Within Article VIII of the treaty, the following is stated, "In the said territories, property of every kind, now belonging to Méjicanos not established there, shall be inviolably respected. The present owners, the heirs and all Méjicanos who may hereafter acquire said property by contract shall enjoy ample as if the same belonged to citizens of the United States."

Here it must be mentioned that what the Méjicanos, now Américanos, did not quite understand was that becoming a citizen of the United States entailed both responsibilities and rights. These responsibilities included accepting the Américano legal system concept of “due process,” which involved fair treatment through the normal judicial system, especially as a citizen's entitlement. Yes, the land grants were theirs, however, only if provable and confirmed under a court of law. Yes, they could keep their lands, once ownership was proven. The difficulty for these new Américanos was all of these exhaustive legal procedures cost money, money which they had precious little of. Therefore, due to these legalities, commission studies, and legal proceedings, the land holding rancheros were forced by these circumstances to secure loans at high rates. These eventually had to be repaid. The question was, with what monies? For the fortunate few who had surmounted this hurdle of the right of ownership, the battle was not over.

To exacerbate their woes, the rancheros would next have to deal with the Américano tax system and its burdensome imposition on their livelihood. Again, the question was, with what monies? This was the second and long-term battle over the continued keeping of land grant holdings.

It should also be offered here that the American legal system and tax system had been in place for quite some time. This was not unique to the West or Southwest territories, but applied and practiced throughout all of the American territories and states. In short, the laws were tried and true as they related to the ever changing, aggressive, and powerful economic American system.

The Américano conquest was not quite complete. Native Americans would present a challenge. It should be understood that the longtime Apache presence in the Southwest and their harassment of both the Españoles and the Méjicanos had checked their northward expansion. As masters of survival, the Apaches were wary of the Américano troops that began to arrive in great numbers after the 1848 C.E. The Américanos too would soon feel the Apache presence. After the United States takeover of the Southwest in 1848 C.E., the Apache became enemies of the Anglo-Américano occupants. These proved themselves the most stubborn of the Indian guerrillas. General George Crook, who campaigned against the Apaches as well as against many other Indians, singled them out as the "tigers of the human species."

For over 300 years of Spanish control, Nuevo Méjico and the other provincias found that they entrapped both politically and militarily. The forbidding land, its native peoples, the harsh climates, and other factors contributed to this Spanish entrapment. The Méjicano suffered a similar fate. The United States, too, would find these strange lands to be places of disappointment.

The United States had annexed and paid for California by 1848 C.E., making the United States a Pacific Ocean power. With President James K. Polk in office from March 4, 1845 C.E. through 1849 C.E., he attempted to in 1848 C.E. to have Congress make California a territory with a territorial government. He did this due to its importance.

By 1848 C.E., in California, intermarriages between Californios and foreigners quickly became more common with the Américano annexation and Gold Rush. These intermarriages worked to combine the cultures of Américano settlers and merchants with that of the declining Californio society, though they were not enough to prevent the decline of Californio power or later the racism and attacks on the people of Méjicano heritage.

In 1848, after the annexation of California, but before gold in California was confirmed, the American Congress had contracted with the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. It subsidized the Company with $199,999. The Company set up a regular route from Panama, Nicaragua and Méjico to and from San Francisco and Oregon via regular paddle steamer packet ships. These carried mail, passengers, and cargo on routes in the Pacific Ocean.

Nearly all cargo to California came by sailing ship. The sea route was more than 17,000 miles route from the east coast or Europe around Cape Horn in South America. This route averaged about 200 days by "standard" sailing ship or about 120 days by Clipper. One of the main problems that occurred during the gold rush was the lack of a paying cargo for ships leaving California. Food, supplies and passengers were the main cargo coming to California; but there were only a limited return trade of returning passengers, mail and gold. Many of the sailing ships that arrived in San Francisco Bay were abandoned there or converted into warehouses or landfill.

The Panama and Nicaragua routes provided a shortcut for getting from the East Coast to California and a brisk maritime passenger trade developed, featuring fast paddle steamers from cities on the east coast, New Orleans, Louisiana and Habana, Cuba to the Caribbean mouth of the Chagres River in Panama and the mouth of San Juan River in Nicaragua. After a trip up the Chagres River by native dugouts the last 20 miles were completed to Panama City by mule back. The trip up the San Juan River in Nicaragua was usually done by small steam launch to Lake Nicaragua, a boat trip on the lake and a final 25 miles trip by stage coach or mule back to San Juan del Sur or other city in the Pacific side of Nicaragua.

With gold having been discovered at Sutter’s Mill early in 1848 C.E., the trickle of western emigrants across the Isthmus of Panama turned into a flood. This acted as a catalyst for the Panama Railroad Company. By 1850 C.E., The Company’s workers would begin to lay track through the Panamanian jungle roughly along the route followed by the present canal.

Before the Gold Rush, almost no hard infrastructure existed in California except a few small Pueblos, secularized and abandoned misiónes, and about 500 large rancho land grants which averaged over 18,000 acres each. The largest town in California prior to the Gold Rush was the Pueblo de Los Ángeles with about 3,500 residents. The ranchos were owned by Californios most of which had taken over land and livestock previously held by the misiónes.

The January 1848 C.E. venture of William H. Aspinwall for a railway across the Isthmus of Panama was be well-timed, as the discovery of gold in California in created a rush of emigrants wanting to cross the Isthmus of Panama and travel on to California or return home from there. This railway across the Isthmus of Panama was to be a regularly scheduled route from Panama City, Nicaragua and Méjico to and from San Francisco and Oregon. Panama City was the Pacific terminus of the Isthmus of Panama trail across Panama.

Railroad laborers came from the United States, the Caribbean Islands, and as far away as Ireland, India, China, and Australia. Unfortunately, cholera, yellow fever, and malaria took a deadly toll on these workers. Despite a continual importation of large numbers of new workers, there were times when the work stalled due to a lack of semi-fit and living workers. All railroad construction supplies and nearly all foodstuffs for these workers had to be imported from thousands of miles away. This added greatly to the cost. 

In late-January 1848 C.E., when gold was discovered in California it had about 9,000 former Californios and about 3,000 United States citizens including members of Colonel Jonathan D. Stevenson's 1st Regiment of New York Volunteers. It soon discharged members of the California Battalion and Mormon Battalions. This it did at the same time the Pacific Squadron secured San Francisco Bay and the coastal cities of California.

At the time, the state was formerly under the military governor Colonel Richard Barnes Mason who only had about 600 troops to govern California. Many of these troops, including many of Stevenson's troops, deserted to go to the gold fields.

The sudden massive influx of gold seekers into remote areas overwhelmed the state infrastructure, which in most places didn't even exist. Miners lived in tents, wood shanties, wagons, or deck cabins removed from abandoned ships. Wherever gold was discovered, hundreds of miners would collaborate to establish what a mining claim could be, put up a camp and stake their claims. With names like Rough and Ready and Hangtown (Placerville, California), each camp often had its own saloon, dance hall, and gambling house. Prices were inflated in the camps. Miners often paid for food, liquor and other goods in "dust."

In 1848 C.E., the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Méjicano-Américano War. Nuevo Méjico was about to enter into a new and more fruitful period, the Américano Period, as New Mexico.

It is important to reinforce the fact that these New Mexico Hispanos had been isolated from Méjico-proper for hundreds of years by vast rugged distances led to the preservation of the old Spanish ways and that of its caballeros. The local hostile and warring Indians also enforced the maintenance of inward Hispano cultural views and lifestyles. The end of the Méjicano-Américano War in 1848 C.E. marked the most significant adoption of the rancho culture by non-Hispanics in the United States.

In New Mexico, the descendant families of Juan de Oñate’s original Spanish Period settlements still lived along the Río Abajo continued the old ways. In fact, there are genealogical charts on public display at the Belen, New Mexico Harvey House museum documenting the many descendant families of Juan de Oñate’s original Spanish Period settlements. These kept the legacy of excellent horsemanship which developed even before Colón’s or Columbus' arrival in Norte América by learning their ranching and caballeros and vaqueros "later cowboying" skills from their parents and grandparents. The first rodeos were held by these caballeros and their vaqueros. Many, after working spent their free time at play, demonstrating their horsemanship skills.

An early visitor from Missouri (early-1800’s C.E.), Josiah Gregg, described the caballero and their vaquero outfits from top to bottom. The Spanish and Méjicano caballero or gentlemen riding upon his horse was something to behold. “The riding costume generally consists of a sombrero - a peculiarly shaped low crowned hat with a wide brim-surmounted with a band of tinsel cord nearly an inch in diameter; a chaqueta or jacket of cloth gaudily embroidered with braid and fancy barrel buttons; a curiously shaped article called calzoneras intended for pantaloons, with the outer part of the leg open from hip to ankle - with the borders set with filigree buttons and the whole fantastically trimmed with tinsel lace. The nether garment is supported by a rich sash that is drawn very tightly around the body and contributes materially to render the whole appearance of the Caballero extremely picturesque.”

“Then there are the botas which somewhat resemble the leggings worn by the bandits of Italy, and the fancy blanket, completes the picture. This peculiarly useful garment is commonly carried dangling carelessly across the pommel of the saddle, except in bad weather when it is drawn over the shoulders, or the rider puts his head through a slit in the middle, his whole person is thus effectually protected. The standard dress for women was a short, full, brightly colored skirt topped off with a loose, low-cut blouse and a rebozo, or head scarf."

As the Américanos moved to and settled in the American West and Southwest, Hispanic, Hispano, and Tejano way of life continued as always. The families had children and ranchos were worked. The non-Hispanics of the Southwest adopted everything Spanish and Méjicano related to ranching, even down to the fashions and styles of the banditos and desperados.  Mesteneros became Mustangs. The old Spanish/Méjicano Corriente cattle were renamed Texas Longhorns. Nuevo Méjico mules transported to Saint Louis and renamed the Missouri Mule, and the Spanish/Moro horses bred for rugged rancho life and refined by the Spanish and Méjicano caballeros and vaqueros were renamed American Cow Ponies.

Spanish and Méjicano caballero and vaquero clothing attire was also adopted as Anglo-American cowboy dress. The Texan Spanish to English ranching lifestyle translations became Spanish westernisms. The term "Ten Gallon Hat," the Méjicano Sombrero, or festooned hat, In Spanish was called "el sombrero galoneado." The resulting term "gallon" was derived from the translated word "galoneado." The second word "ten," was adopted to denote a size "large."

In Nuevo Méjico's history, Land Grants were awarded during the 223 years of the Spanish Period (1598 C.E.-1821 C.E.). During Spanish rule, España made few land grants. These were typically concessions from the Corona Española which permitted grazing and settlement rights on a specific tract of land, though the Corona Española retained the title. Nearly all Spanish records of land grants made in what is now New Mexico prior to the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 C.E. were destroyed during the revolution. Often historians can only be certain of land grants made after the Spanish Reconquista of Nuevo Méjico in 1693 C.E. For the 25 years of the Méjicano Period (1821 C.E.-1846 C.E.), hundreds of grants were granted by Méjico after 1821 C.E.

The Friendship, Limits, and Settlement between the United States of America and the Méjicano Republic more commonly known as The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, was signed by the United States and Méjico on February 2, 1848 C.E. It formally ended the Méjicano-Américano War (1846 C.E.-1848 C.E.). The Treaty was signed at the Villa de Guadalupe Hidalgo, today a neighborhood of Méjico City.

By the terms of the treaty Méjico ceded as part of the United States a total of almost 1,000,000 square miles of land from its southern neighbor, the lands of the Spanish cession, and the annexation of Texas. It recognized and settled over five hundred thousand square miles of territory as the new state of Texas. With the new boundaries Méjicanos gave up its Río Grande Valley and fertile coastal plains. Also included was the future state of California with its plentifully producing Central Valley and Pacific Coast. Nevada, Utah, and almost all of New Mexico with its Mesilla Valley were lost by Méjico. The Méjicanos delivered to the Américanos Arizona and its Río Gila Valley, parts of Colorado and its plateaus, and Wyoming. She had also forfeited the Ḷḷeno Estacado, vast areas that have produced enormous wealth in minerals, oil, beef, cotton, corn, sugar, and other agricultural commodities. These areas would eventually feed much of the Américano population. The Navajó homeland was also now part of this vast cession of land.

The Américanos would also have the treasures of the Sierra Nevada, the lower Rocky Mountains, and the upper portions of Sonora and Chihuahua. From these she would produce generous amounts of gold, silver, copper, and other minerals. Also won were the rivers and abundant forests of the American Southwest. The key seaports of California and Texas -- San Francisco, San Pedro, San Diego, Port Isabel, Corpus Christi, and Galveston or Gálveztown would now be Américano. These would all become thriving centers of commerce and industry. The Treaty also gave the Américanos the important trading centers of Sonoma, Santa Clara, San Juan Bautista, Monterey, San Luís Obispo, Santa Bárbara, San Fernando, Los Ángeles, La Mesa, San Gabriel, Santa Fé, Albuquerque, El Paso, San António, and Laredo.

In return for all of the aforementioned, the United States agreed to pay Méjico $15,000,000 and to assume the claims of Américano citizens against Méjico, amounting to $3,250,000.

The New York Volunteer companies were deployed from San Francisco in Alta California to La Paz, Méjico in Baja California. The ship Isabella had sailed from Philadelphia on August 16, 1847 C.E., with a detachment of one hundred soldiers, and arrived in California on February 18, 1848 C.E., at about the same time that the ship Sweden arrived with another detachment of soldiers. These soldiers were added to the existing companies of 1st Regiment of New York Volunteers. Stevenson's troops were recruited with the understanding that they would be discharged in California.

At the war’s end, the United States became an enormous continental republic. However, with the new lands came new problems. The acquisition of new territory aggravated the dispute between slavery and antislavery forces. President Polk had added a vast area to the United States, but its acquisition precipitated that bitter quarrel between the North and the South over expansion of slavery that resulted in the Civil War. The Méjicano-Américano War had secured Texas for slavery and it also took as the spoils of war another 529,017 square miles of land, nearly half of the original territory of Méjico.

The Américanos almost secured, an additional 336,000 square miles of Méjico as spoils of war, but decided against the acquisition.

While the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo formally ended the Méjicano-Américano War, tensions between the governments of Méjico and the United States would continue to simmer over the next six years. There were some Américanos who felt that these portions of Méjico were not enough. They were insistent upon demanding more land. In fact, President Polk was disappointed in the final terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. He championed the partitioning of Méjico along the 26th parallel, due west from the mouth of Río Grande all the way to the Pacific Ocean. This proposed annexation plan would have included almost all of the current Méjicano states of Coahuila, Chihuahua, and Sonora with its important seaport of Guaymas. His interest also included most of Baja California. Additionally, he coveted the area of Méjico east of the Sierra Madre Oriental, and down to, and including, the port of Tampico in the present-day Méjicano states of Nuevo León and Tamaulipas. The President considered Tamaulipas’ coastal plains to excellent areas for slave plantations.

Additionally, there were persistent efforts by private Américano citizens to enter Méjico illegally. Once there, they attempted to incite rebellions in an effort to gain more territory and exacerbated tensions between the governments. These continuing problems between Méjico and the United States complicated Américano efforts to find a southern route for a transcontinental railroad. The only viable routes passed through Méjicano territory.

With the two countries having each claimed the Mesilla Valley as part of their own country there were bound to be ongoing difficulties. Even more pressing was the Méjicano government’s demands for monetary compensation for Native American attacks in the region. Under the terms of the Treaty, the United States had agreed to protect Méjico from such attacks. The United States had continually refused to comply with these conditions, insisting that while they had agreed to protect Méjico from Native American attacks, they had not agreed to financially compensate for attacks that did occur.

The struggle for the ownership of the land in the new Américano territories continued after the war. The good intentions of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo had recognized the legitimacy of Spanish and Méjicano land grants. It also offered the Méjicano inhabitants in the ceded territories Américano citizenship. The problem was that the influx of Américanos determined to secure land by any means possible created through their efforts widespread oppression. The result was mass Méjicano exile. This was not new. To be sure, the exile of Méjicano citizens had begun after the Texan takeover of 1836 C.E. This began to intensify after the war in 1848 C.E. Méjicanos who had become Américanos saw their coveted lands lost. These abandoned their farms and ranchos and moved across the Río Grande to the established Méjicano towns of Paso del Norte, Guerrero, Mier, Camargo, Reynosa, and Matamoros and established the new towns of Nuevo Laredo, Mesilla, and Guadalupe.

Californios feared losing their privileged status and being viewed the same as the thousands of Spanish-speaking immigrants from Méjico and other parts of Latino América who arrived in California during the Gold Rush. The Méjicanos and Chilenos were among the first foreigners to make it to California in 1848 C.E. Their mining expertise had given them an edge in the cutthroat competition of the mines. Their success had become a main cause for Américano envy.

As the transition began, the future of the Méjicano population in the territory of New Mexico looked bright. The sheer size of the sparsely populated territory annexed by the United States was immense, about the size of Western Europe. The area contained about 14,000 non-indigenous people in Upper California and about 60,000 in New Mexico. With their numerical superiority, representational government, the rights guaranteed in The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and the initial possibility of holding on to their land, all was well. Ultimately, however, the Anglo-Américano ranchers, land speculators, and eastern and foreign capitalists would win out. Within two decades, land wars and lawsuits would leave most native Nuevo Méjicanos, like their compatriots in Tejas and California, displaced and landless.

The large Indian nations residing in the annexed regions of the West and Southwest were of the Papago, Pima, Puebloan, Navajó, Apache, and many others. Rather than be subjected to control by the Américanos some of these native people chose to relocate farther south in Méjico. The vast majority, however, continued in the United States territory.

Américano settlers began streaming into the newly conquered American West and Southwest. Once there, they viewed Méjicano law which was based upon a civil law system established by España, as alien and inferior. The Américano were openly contemptuous of the civil law system and began to dismantle it by enacting reception statutes. By which I mean to say that the new states adopted pre-independence English common law, to the extent that these laws were not explicitly rejected by the legislative bodies or constitution of the United States. In fairness, however, they did recognize the value of a few aspects of Méjicano law. These they carried over into the new legal systems. As an example, most of the Southwestern states adopted community property systems, marital property systems, and water laws.

Eventually, Méjicanos and Indians in the annexed territories would face the loss of civil and political rights, this despite the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo guaranteeing American citizenship to all Méjicano citizens living in the territory of the Méjicano cession. The Américano government would withhold citizenship from Indians in the southwest until the 1930s C.E., despite the fact that they had been Ciudádanos under Méjicano law.

In March1848 C.E., little had changed in New Mexico. The daughter of my progenitor, José Luís Rivera, María Marcelina Rivera married into the land wealthy Roybal family and quickly had a son. At this point, Nuevo Méjicanos still considered the land to represent wealth.  That was soon to change.

1848 C.E.: María Marcelina Rivera

Father: José Luís Rivera

Mother: María Isabel Martínez (Martín)

Family 1: José Manuel Roybal

Marriage: March 1, 1848 C.E., San Miguel del Vado Misión, New Mexico [164004]

INDEX [164004] [S1421] San Miguel del Bado Marriages 1802 C.E.-1865 C.E.

1834 C.E.: María Marcelina Ribera

Husband: Jesús Manuel Roybal

Father: Rafael Roybal

Mother: María Manuela Madrid

Wife: María Marcelina Ribera

Born: October 1834 C.E. Santa Fé, Nuevo Méjico (Rivera, Marcelina: born c.1834 Died: June 17, 1912, age 78. Buried San Gerónimo Cemetery, San Miguel County, New Mexico

Child 1: María Eluteria Roybal Female

Died: January 1919 C.E. Pecos, New Méjico 

Buried: Pecos, New Méjico

Spouse: Bartoloméo Vigil

1848 C.E.: María Marcelina’s brother, Felipe Rivera, was born in 1848 C.E.

Son of:

José Luís Ribera and María Isabel Martín

Married: María Trinidad Padilla on January 9, 1873 C.E. in Pecos, León

Daughter of: Baltazár Padilla and Juana García.

Children of Felipe Rivera and María Trinidad Padilla are:

Felipita Rivera born: March 21, 1882 C.E.

Before ratifying the treaty the United States Senate made two modifications. One modification changed the wording of Article IX which guaranteed Méjicanos living in the purchased territories the right to become United States citizens. In the second, the senators struck out Article X which conceded the legitimacy of land grants made by the Méjicano government. On May 26, 1848 C.E., when the two countries exchanged ratifications of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, they further agreed to a three-article protocol which is known as the Protocol of Querétaro to explain the amendments. The first article claimed that the original Article IX of the treaty, although replaced by Article III of the Treaty of Louisiana, would still confer the rights delineated in Article IX. The second article confirmed the legitimacy of land grants under Méjicano law. The protocol was signed in the city of Querétaro by A. H. Sevier, Nathan Clifford, and Luis de la Rosa.

parallel to the bay. Captain Folsom, in the concluding paragraph of his report says: "Should it ultimately be found that the reserve is unnecessarily large, it can be relinquished in part when no longer wanted." A map of this reserve, as surveyed by Lieutenant William H. Warner, United States topographical engineers, is given herewith.

After the volunteers had been mustered out in August 1848 C.E., Major Hardie resumed his position in the regular army as lieutenant of Third artillery. He also and remained as commandant of the San Francisco Presidio with a small force of the First dragoons.

Before the gold strikes were confirmed in California, the Pacific Mail's first ship, the SS California (1848 C.E.) was assigned the Panama City to San Francisco route. She was the first of three Pacific Mail Steamship Company paddle wheel steamships. The SS California left New York City on October 6, 1848 C.E. with her 60 saloon passenger compartments at about $300 fare and in her 150 steerage that part of her ship providing accommodations for passengers with the cheapest tickets at about $150 fare, only partially. Very few passengers were going all the way to California.

On October 10, 1848 C.E., influential New Mexico citizens began a convention in Santa Fe. The purpose was to ask the United States Congress for the privilege of organizing a territorial government. Interestingly, most participants were Hispanos who had served in the Méjicano regime now eager to join the Union.

That same month, on October 14, 1848 C.E., these local leaders sent a memorial to Congress for a speedy organization by law of a territorial government. They wanted protection from Texas land claims and the prevention of the introduction of slavery. To the Nuevo Méjicanos slavery would have seemed immoral given the rights they had earlier granted to the Native Americans.

By the 28th of November 1848 C.E., the president of the United States appointed a joint commission of navy and engineer officers for an examination of the coast of the United States lying on the Pacific Ocean. Among the duties of the commission was the selection of points of defence.

The Atlantic Ocean mail contract was won by the United States Mail Steamship Company. The route was from the East Coast cities and New Orleans to and from the mouth of the Chagres River in Isthmus of Panama. The Company’s first paddle wheel steamship, the SS Falcon (1848 C.E.) was dispatched on December 1, 1848 C.E. to the Caribbean (Atlantic) terminus of the Isthmus of Panama trail—the Río Chagres.

The first to hear of the confirmation of the California Gold Rush (1848 C.E.-1855 C.E.) in the goldfields in the Sierra Nevada and northern California were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), Méjico, Perú, and Chile. They were also the first to start flocking to California by late-1848 C.E. By the end of 1848 C.E., some 6,000 Gold seeking adventurers had arrived.

By December 9, 1848 C.E., José María Gallegos single son of Ramón Gallegos, deceased, and María Dolores Ortega, resident of Purisima Concepción and native of Taos, New Mexico

Married: María Feliciana Ribera

Single daughter of: Tomás Ribera, deceased and María del Carmel Gonsáles, resident of the same place and native of Taos

Sponsors: Felis Lonte and María de la Lus Trugillo

Witnesses: Julián Urban and Pablo Sandoval, residents of Don Fernando

For these isolated Nuevo Méjicanos of the Territorio de Nuevo Méjico, as it was for the Californios, there had always been an understanding that El Imperio Español and later, the Méjicano government had encouraged settlement there via establishing large land grants. These were offered and given to the landowners. That land given to individuals was as their sole and private property and became the great ranchos. Land grants given to the communities were as shared estates. These were the two major types of land grants. The communal grants made to groups of pobladores for the purpose of establishing settlements, was somewhat more complex. Communal land grants were also made to Pueblos for the lands they already inhabited. It was these conditions of ownership that had set the norms for Hispano and Californio society and economy.

Here, it must be remembered that in 1837 C.E., Northern Nuevo Méjicanos had stage a full-fledged revolt against the Méjicano government, mainly in the Chimayó area. It was a protest of the imposition of an unwelcome gobernador, unfair taxation, and poor military protection. Taxation was not a welcomed thing for the Nuevo Méjicanos. Here we underscore taxes! Quite honestly, these Hispanos did not understand complex Américano tax systems.

The ranchos established land-use patterns that are recognizable in New Mexico today. Over the hundreds of years, many had turned these land grants into into ranchos for the raising of cattle and sheep. The Ganaderos of these ranchos attempted to live their lives as the landed gentry of España. The rancho workers were caballeros, vaqueros, Mestízos, and Native Americans. It should be remembered as for the Native Americans, for many generations legally they were not allowed to learn to ride horses. It was only later that these became members of working class, horse mounted, Rancho System. These also learned to speak Spanish.

There are several notable land grants in New Mexico, one of which I offer here, the Alférez Ygnacio de Roybal Land Grant of October 2, 1702 C.E. As with many of the land grants given by España and Méjico, the Américano legal system dealt with them over long periods of time. In the case of the inhabitants of the Town of Jacona, as the heirs (Including the family of my Great Grandmother, María Nicolása Quintana) and legal representatives of Roybal and Peláez, they petitioned Surveyor General James K. Proudfit on January 5, 1874 C.E. The grant was finally patented on November 15, 1909 C.E. Finalization took some 35 years.

Alférez Ygnacio de Roybal petitioned Gobernador Pedro Rodriquez Cubero for a rancho on which to raise enough food to support his family and pasture his herds of livestock He reminded the Gobernador that Capitán Jacinto Peláez previously had been granted two fanegas (which was a unit of dry measure, equal in España to 1.58 U.S. bushels) of corn land at the Pueblo de Jacona and stated that his application covered the “surplus” lands at that site. He described the tract as being bounded: On the north, by the road which leads from the new villa to Jacona and some bluffs above said road; on the east, by the lands of Juan de Mestas and the lands of Oyu, formerly owned by Francisco de Anaya Almanzán; on the south, by the forest between this villa and Jacona; and on the west, by a Cañada, which comes down by a house built by Matías Madrid and some red bluffs near the little mesa of San Ildefonso.

Cubero granted all of the tract, embraced within the above boundaries to Roybal on October 2, 1702 C.E., save and except the two fanegas tract which was owned by the minor son of Jacinto Peláez, He also directed the Alcalde of Santa Fe, Roque Madrid, to deliver possession of the grant to Roybal in the customary manner. The grant was entered in the corporation book of Santa Fe on September 7, 1713 C.E. Roybal allegedly was placed in royal possession of the concession, and it is generally accepted that he and his family moved to the grant and commenced cultivating the premises. By 1846 C.E., there were at least fifty families living at the Town of Jacona. This included the family of my Great Grandmother, María Nicolása Quintana (1843 C.E.-1909 C.E.).

The inhabitants of the Town of Jacona, as the heirs and legal representatives of Roybal and Peláez, petitioned Surveyor General James K. Proudfit on January 5, 1874 C.E., seeking the confirmation of the two ancient grants. After a brief investigation, Proudfit, in an opinion dated June 10, 1874 C.E., found the grant papers to be genuine and recommended that the grant be confirmed to the legal representatives of said Roybal by Congress, “according to the boundaries set forth in the petition of said Roybal to Gobernador Cubero, and as granted by said Gobernador.” A preliminary survey of the grant was made in September, 1878 C.E., by Deputy Surveyors Griffin & McMullen for 46,341.48 acres.

Notwithstanding Proudfit’s favorable report, Congress took no action on the claim. Therefore, following the creation of the Court of Private Land Claims, the inhabitants of the grant turned to that forum for relief. They filed their petition on September 21, 1892 C.E., alleging that a valid grant had been made to Roybal in 1702 C.E., and was subsequently confirmed in 1782 C.E. by Gobernador Juan Bautista de Anza. In support of this contention the plaintiffs, referred to Archive No. 1261, which was a copy of the confirmation proceedings. This record showed that Mateo Roybal, a son of the original grantee had requested the confirmation of the entire grant. De Anza, in his decree dated September 11, 1782 C.E., stated: I granted and do grant in the name of his majesty (whom God preserve) that portion of land which he possessed and actually possesses as his own and no more in accordance with what is expressed in the documents relating to the entirety of the grant which was made of the aforesaid Jacona to the Alférez Don Ignacio de Roybal and without prejudice to what may be owned in the same by the other heirs.…

De Anza also directed the Alcalde of Santa Cruz, José Campo Redondo, to place applicant in royal possession of “the aforesaid portion of land.” In compliance with the Gobernador’s instructions, Redondo, on September 26, 1782, delivered to Mateo Roybal possession of a tract of land bounded: On the west, the edge of an Arroyo which likewise serves as the boundary of the heirs of Juana Lujan, the landmark of which is a rock which is on the edge of said Arroyo on the slope of a hill which also serves as the boundary towards the south, and looking from said rock in a straight line towards the north the boundary in this direction is the hills on the other side of the Nambe River; on the east with the lands of his brother Don Bernardo Roybal.…

The plaintiffs argued that these proceedings were a judicial determination by a proper officer and that the entire grant was valid. The government in its answer asserted that the grant was incomplete since there was no evidence that the original grantees had been placed in possession and that the 1782 C.E. proceedings confirmed only the lands actually occupied by Mateo Roybal. It also pointed out that the court had no authority to confirm the portion of the Town of Jacona Grant which conflicted with the previously confirmed grants to the Pueblos of San Ildefonso, Tesuque, and Pojoaque.

By decision dated August 23, 1893 C.E., the court held that while there was no documentary evidence that possession of the grant had been delivered to the original grantee, the long continuous possession of the premises raised a presumption that the ceremony had been performed. As an alternative ground, the court found that the recitals in the 1782 C.E. proceedings indicated that they were brought not to cure a defect in the 1702 C.E. grant arising from the failure of the grantee to obtain legal possession of the premises, but evidenced a voluntary partition of the grant amongst Roybal’s heirs. Therefore, the court believed it was justified in holding that Anza had recognized the entire grant and confirmed the rights all the heirs of the original grantee. However, the court excepted from its confirmation of the grant all lands lying within the Pueblo of San Ildefonso, Tesuque, and Pojoaque.

The government appealed the decision to the Supreme Court on the grounds that the court was not justified in presuming that possession had been delivered and, in the absence of a delivery of possession, the grant to Ignacio Roybal would not be one which the United States was obligated under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to recognize. If the original grant was involved, then the confirmation should be limited to the tract described in the 1782 C.E. proceedings. For some unexplained reason the Solicitor General of the United States, on February 1, 1897 C.E., requested the court to dismiss the appeal. In response to said motion, the court entered a decree dismissing the appeal.

The grant was surveyed by Deputy Surveyor Clayton Coleman in July, 1898 C.E. His survey showed that the grant contained 6,952.84 acres after excluding 1,163.64 acres which conflicted with the Pueblo of Tesuque Grant, 901.996 acres lying in the Pueblo of San Ildefonso Grant and 2,775.96 acres situated within the Pueblo of Pojoaque Grant. The grant was patented on November 15, 1909 C.E.

My great grandfather, José Anastácio Rivera (De Ribera ) is listed on the town of Jacona Grant document as having been married to María Nicolása Quintana, as well as, having the following children which are listed: Felix, Magdaleno, Aniceto, Isidro (my grandfather), María, Gregoria, and Pabla. María Nicolása Quintana was also listed as one of the heirs of the Ignacio de Roibal, Original Grantee, in and to the Town of Jacona Grant; Consisting of 6954.84 Acres, Private Land Claim, Report No. 92 (District Court, No. 6323) dated March 25, 1909 C.E.

Another is the Alameda Land Grant. It’s situated on the west bank of the Río Grande. It’s presently a part of Albuquerque and Río Rancho. The original Alameda Land Grant, which is also the Town of Alameda Grant, was an 89,000-acre parcel.

The Capitán Francisco Montes Vigil Land Grant was given by King Felipe IV of España in 1710 C.E. to Capitán Vigil (b.ca. 1650 C.E.). Their descendents later intermarried with the de Ribera. He later sold the land to Capitán Juan Gonsáles of the Spanish Army. They also intermarried with the de Ribera. The grant also contained some farmland along the Río Grande.

Capitán Vigil died September 11, 1730 C.E. and was buried at Santa Cruz de la Cañada. Recorded in 1731 C.E., his burial record gives his age at death as 80. His wife died fourteen years late on November 19, 1745 C.E.  She was also buried at Santa Cruz.

In 1929 C.E., 20,500 acres were purchased by Albert F. Black who established the Seven Bar Ranch.

Another was the Atrisco Land Grant (Merced) of 1692 C.E., one among the few Spanish land grants in Nuevo Méjico. It is in the Valle de Atrisco south of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Other nearby land grants included the 1694 C.E. Diego Montoya Land Grant. These too intermarried with the de Ribera. It was later created as the Elena Gallegos Land Grant to the east, near Tierra Amarilla. In 1712 C.E. the grant, stretching from the crest of the Sandia Mountains to the Río Grande, was reissued to Elena Gallegos. Her descendants further subdivided the approximate 70,000-acres. When the land grant was re-adjudicated by Américano authorities in 1893 C.E., it was treated as a communal land grant. Much of northern Albuquerque is built on the former land grant.

The San Miguel del Vado Land Grant was originally 350,000 acres in the Río Pecos valley south of Pecos Pueblo. This land grant was a contributing factor in the demise of the Pecos Pueblo, which deteriorated from one of the leading pueblos to the point of the last families abandoning their land and moving to Jémez Pueblo. Overpopulation pressure and military protection centered at the San Miguel del Vado also contributed to the establishment of other land grants northeast of it, including the Las Vegas Land Grant.

As can see by the aforementioned circumstances of the Roybal Land Grant, the struggle for the ownership of these land grants in the new Américano territories continued after the war. The good intentions of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo recognized the legitimacy of Spanish and Méjicano land grants. With the signing of the Treaty, Américano New Mexico was established. Article 8 of the treaty stated that "property of every kind now belonging to Méjicanos not established there shall be inviolably respected." It also offered the Méjicano inhabitants in the ceded territories Américano citizenship. The problem was that the influx of determined Américanos with their property and land-owning orientation created great difficulties. Some Américanos made every effort to secure land. Unfortunately at times, they also did so by any means possible. This translated into widespread oppression of Hispanos. The result was mass Méjicano exile.

The exile of Méjicano citizens from Tejas that began after the Américano takeover of 1836 C.E. intensified after the war in 1848 C.E. Besieged refugees abandoned their farms and ranchos and moved across the Río Grande to the old Méjicano towns of Paso del Norte, Guerrero, Mier, Camargo, Reynosa, and Matamoros and established the new towns of Nuevo Laredo, Mesilla, and Guadalupe.

The Spanish-speaking population fared no better in post-Méjicano-Américano War California. Descendents of the original Spanish settlers, known as Californios, faced problems similar to those of their compatriots in Tejas. The Californios also had the additional pressure from the gold rush of 1848 C.E. which attracted over 100,000 newcomers to the territory, including more than 80,000 of non-Spanish European stock from the areas of the United States, 8,000 Méjicanos from the state of Sonora, and 5,000 South Américanos, mostly miners from Chile.

At first, the future of the post-Méjicano-Américano War, the Méjicano population in the newly annexed American territory of New Mexico looked promising. The numerical superiority of Hispanos, representational government, and the rights guaranteed in The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo initially offered these Hispanos the possibility of keeping their land. Unfortunately for them, the Américano ranchers, land speculators, and eastern and foreign capitalists would win the day. It would take two decades of land wars and lawsuits, before most native Nuevo Méjicanos, like their compatriots in Texas and California, found themselves without land and displaced.

The first ships started leaving East Coast ports for California as early as November 1848 C.E. From the East Coast, a sailing voyage of these California bound ships around the southern tip of South America would typically take five to eight months. The voyage averaged about 200 days by standard sailing ship. Ships could take a sea route year round. The Atlantic coast received the news by August of the same year.

There were three basic routes for the Gold Seekers on the Eastern part of the United States to get to California. The gold seekers inevitably came to be called the Argonauts, after the classic Greek tales of Jason and the Argonauts (seekers of the Golden Fleece). Some of the first Argonauts, as they were also known, traveled by this all-sea route around Cape Horn.

The Atlantic Ocean mail contract from East Coast cities and New Orleans, Louisiana to and from the Chagres River in Panama was won by the United States Mail Steamship Company whose first steamship the SS Falcon (1848 C.E.) was dispatched on December 1, 1848 C.E.

On December 5, 1848 C.E., when President Polk announced the discovery of gold in California, the Gold Rush to California was truly on.

To look back on 1848 C.E., with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, it was hoped by all involved that life would improve. Those new American Hispanic citizens of the American West and Southwest looked forward to better times. Here the Américano government would have several problems.

By 1849 C.E., the first order of business was to immediately increase the Américano portion of the population of the new territories. This it had to do in order to gain legitimate control of the levers of democratic political power. The second overriding issue was how to efficiently and effectively improve and vastly expand existing transportation and travel infrastructures. This was important in order to quickly populate these vast areas of land with Américano and provide necessary products and services to the newly taken territories.

Progress was everywhere as a new presidency was about to come into office. Zachary Taylor was about to become the Twelfth President 1849 C.E.-1850 C.E. Born in Virginia in 1784 C.E., Taylor was taken as an infant to Kentucky and raised on a plantation. Later, a career officer in the Army, his talk was most often of raising cotton. He made his home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and owned a plantation in Mississippi. Even with his Southern upbringing, Taylor did not defend slavery or Southern sectionalism. Forty years in the Américano Army had made him a strong nationalist. After spending a quarter of a century policing the frontiers against Indians, he was prepared for the Méjicano-Américano War. His major victories at Monterrey and Buena Vista spoke to his competence as an officer.

Taylor’s moment in the sun was soon to come. "Old Rough and Ready's" homespun ways would become political assets. His long military record would appeal to Northerners; his ownership of one hundred slaves would lure Southern votes. His reluctance to commit on troublesome issues was of value. As a result, the Whigs nominated him to run against the Democratic candidate, Lewis Cass, who favored letting the residents of territories decide for themselves whether they wanted slavery.

Polk left office with his health undermined from hard work. He died in June 1849 C.E.

The next order of business was to incorporate these territories as American states. This was no easy matter. As discussed earlier in the family history the issue was how to maintain a balance of the number of “Free vs. Slave States.” Therefore, admission of new states was pivotal to control of the laws affecting slavery in the United States. Given the fact that it was of great importance to the new Américano settlers in New Mexico and California to draft constitutions and apply for statehood, bypassing the territorial stage and going directly to statehood was of paramount interest. This approach caused Southerners to become furious, as neither state constitution was likely to permit slavery.

Finally, there was the matter of Hispanic integration into Américano society and its ramification vis-à-vis political control. This would include the sticky issue of Spanish and Méjicano Land Grants. At issue was their future legal deposition, the probable distribution of the land for Américano settlers, and the use of the land tax for increased local tax base.

The Government of the United States was accustomed to territorial expansion, understood the problems associated with settlers, and dealing with the Native populations to be integrated and/or displaced. It also had a planned strategy for colonization of its new West and Southwest territories. It would appear that California was upper most on the minds of these planners as it was the main artery for transportation of its new gold wealth. The other areas were landlocked and had little immediate wealth to offer.

Here, we shall first deal with California for its obvious importance as the richest and western most territory of the United States.

Firstly, to protect its interests in the newly annexed California, the United States Government selected its last military governor of California in 1849 C.E.-1850 C.E. He was General Bennett C. Riley who had fought in the Siege of Veracruz and Chapultepec during the Méjicano- Américano War and was considered to be an able military commander.

Critical to California, United States naval activity was heavy. It included the Pacific Squadron during and after the Méjicano-Américano War. There were also California naval installations being built and operated. Increased shipping meant the construction and maintenance of lighthouses. It also meant an increase in California shipbuilding.

Of the greatest importance to American politicians and businessmen was California’s future. The unexpected discovery of gold there a year earlier in 1848 C.E. had produced a spectacular “gold rush” in Northern California, attracting hundreds of thousands of ambitious young men from around the world. Only a very few struck it rich, and many returned home disappointed. Eventually, some 12-million ounces of gold were removed in the first five years of the Gold Rush. This gold greatly increased the available money in the United States, which was on the gold standard at that time. Thus, the more gold one had, the more one could purchase.

Argonauts, as they were often called, walked over the California Trail or came by sea. About 80,000 of these adventurous souls arrived in 1849 C.E. alone. Some 40,000 came over the California trail and another 40,000 by sea. Américanos and other foreigners of many different countries, classes, statuses, and races rushed to California for gold. Of these, almost 96% were young men. Women in the California Gold Rush were few. Many of these would have opportunities to do new things and take on new tasks.

The majority of these new arrivals to California took advantage of other economic opportunities other than gold, especially in agriculture. Many later brought their families to join them.

By 1849 C.E., San Francisco was designated the official port of entry for all California ports where United States customs (also called tariffs and Ad valorem taxes) averaging about 25%. These were collected by the Collector of Customs from all ships bearing foreign goods. The first Collector of customs was Edward H. Harrison, appointed by General Kearny. Harrison had arrived in 1847 C.E. as the quartermaster’s clerk for Stevenson’s regiment of First New York Volunteers. He became collector of the port of San Francisco and a member of the town council. He was also a prominent merchant and a partner in the early firm of DeWitt & Harrison.

The American government was also aware that ships from San Francisco would provide easy, cheap, links among the coastal towns within California and for the ocean routes leading there. Shipping resulting from the California Gold Rush included paddle steamers, clippers, and sailing ships. Passage via Panama, Nicaragua, Méjico, and Cape Horn caused great growth at the Port of San Francisco. Ships leaving East Coast ports for San Francisco sailed around the southern tip of South América, a trip which could easily cover over 18,000 nautical miles depending on the route chosen. Some of these ships even went by via the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). Later, when much faster clipper ships began to be used starting in early-1849 C.E., they could complete this journey in an average of only 120 days. These, however, specialized in high value freight and typically carried few passengers.

As a result, nearly all freight to California continued to be carried by, slower, regular sailing vessels, a cheap way to ship cargo. To meet the demands of the Gold Rush, ships bearing food, liquors of many types, tools, hardware, clothing, complete houses, lumber, building materials, etc. as well as farmers, entrepreneurs, prospective miners, gamblers, entertainers and prostitutes, etc. from around the world came to San Francisco. These imports included large numbers of Galapagos tortoise and sea turtle imported into Alta California to feed the Gold miners. 

Initially, the large supplies of food needed were imported from close ports in Hawaii, Méjico, Chile, Perú, and the future state of Oregon. By 1849 C.E., William H. Aspinwall had won the bid for the building and operating of the Pacific mail steamships. He conceived a plan to construct a railway across the Istmo de Darién or Isthmus of Panama. Aspinwall and his partners created a company registered in New York as the Panama Railroad Company. The venture raised $1,000,000 from the sale of stock. The company then hired other companies to conduct engineering and route studies.

Food shipments to California would eventually change to the majority of the shipments arriving from Oregon. Later, as California’s agriculture industry was developed internal shipments would come from both states.

Due to all of this transportation traffic and the influx of new settlers, the average shipping into San Francisco increased to about 793 ships in 1849 C.E. This number is in contrast to the average number of ships visiting California from 1825 C.E. to 1845 C.E. This number had jumped to 25 ships per-year versus the 2.5 ships per-year common for the prior fifty years. All ships were inspected for what goods they carried. Passengers disembarking in San Francisco had one of the easier accesses to the gold country since they could take another ship from there to get to Sacramento and several other towns.

Also starting in 1849 C.E., many of the ship crews when reaching port in San Francisco's deserted their ships and headed for the gold fields. For this and many other reasons, there were many hundreds of abandoned ships left anchored offshore in San Francisco Bay. Some of the better ships were re-crewed and re-engaged in the shipping and passenger business.

Others were purchased, hauled up on the San Francisco mud flats and used as store ships, saloons, temporary stores, floating warehouses, homes, businesses, and any number of purposes. Also, flammable structures wood-framed canvas tents were used for saloons, hotels, and boarding houses. These canvas and wood structures combined with drunken gamblers and miners, led almost inevitably to many fires. Most of San Francisco would burn down in six “Great Fires” between 1849 C.E. and 1852 C.E. The earlier employed repurposed materials would end up as landfill needed to expand available land.

With San Francisco shipping boomed, and wharves and piers had to be developed to handle the onslaught of cargo. Long Wharf was the most prominent of these.

By 1849 C.E., some repairs were needed for the San Francisco presidio the new Américano military post to render it habitable for the defenders. In order to protect the port and its surrounding areas four thirty-two pounders and two eight-inch howitzers were mounted on the old fort.

In 1849 C.E., the 48 California Constitutional Convention  delegates for the 1850 C.E. Convention  were chosen mostly from pre-1846 C.E. Américano settlers; eight were native born Californios who had to use interpreters. These eight who participated in the California constitutional convention of 1849 C.E. and the majority of Californios over time would see their political power decline along with their land base.

The delegates to the California Constitutional Convention were chosen by secret ballot but lacking any census data as to California's population and where they lived its representatives only roughly approximated the rapidly changing state population. The new miners in El Dorado County were grossly under-represented as they had no representatives at the convention despite then being the most populated county in California.

The Constitutional Convention met for 43 days debating and writing the first California Constitution.  As all American constitutions, the California Constitution adhered closely to the format and government roles set up in the original 1789 C.E. United States Constitution—differing mainly in details. The 1849 C.E. California Constitution copied (with revisions) a lot out of the Ohio and New York Constitutions but had parts that were originally several different state constitutions as well as original material.

The 21-article Declaration of Rights in the California Constitution (Article I: Sec.1 to Sec.-21) was broader than the United States Constitution's 10-article Bill of Rights. There were four other significant differences from the United States Constitution. The convention chose the boundaries for the state—unlike most other territories, whose boundaries were set by Congress (Article XII). Article IX encouraged statewide education and provided for a system of common schools partially funded by the state and provided for the establishment of a University (University of California). It issue was, where were the monies to come from to make all of this happen?  The answer was taxes! The California version also outlawed slavery, except as punishment (Article I Sec. 18). It also forbid dueling (Article XI Sec.2) and gave women and wives the right to own and control their own property (Article XI Sec. 14).

The state’s debt limit for was established at $300,000 (Article VIII). Like all other states they guaranteed the rights of citizens to sue in civil court to uphold the rights of contracts and property (Article I Sec. 16). Here, we must offer that Californios were at a great disadvantage not knowing or understanding the new Américano laws or legal system. They created a court system with a supreme court with judges who had to be confirmed every 12 years (Article VI). The Californios would soon learn the associated costs of using the legal system’s hierarchy. In addition, they established up the state’s original 29 counties (Article I Sec. 4). It should be noted that each county would need additional taxes to support these new political entities. A legislature of two houses was created as were polling places to vote. To support this new governmental structure new uniform taxation rules were created and implemented.

Here it important to state that the Californios had never conceived or experienced governance this complex or institutions of this size. Theirs had been a world of very small government, if any. Taxes to support this tiny government agency were not land-based.

The 1849 C.E. Constitution also guaranteed the right to vote, "Every citizen of California, declared a legal voter by this Constitution, and every citizen of the United States, a resident of this State on the day of election, shall be entitled to vote at the first general election under this Constitution, and on the question of the adoption thereof (Article XII Sec. 5)." To vote was one thing.  To control the state and its taxes was quite another.

In 1849 C.E., President James K. Polk again tried to get the Congress to make California a territory. Congress was, however, unable to agree on the specifics of how this was to be accomplished. At issue continued to be the problem of the number of “free states vs. slave states.”

The founding document for the state of California was the Constitution of 1849 C.E. Later, it would be judged only a partial success and be superseded by the current constitution, which was first ratified on May 7, 1879 C.E.

At this juncture it is important to place the Californio experience in its proper perspective, as there was a distinction between how Américanos were viewed and treated by the authorities as opposed to how Hispanics were dealt with. This isn’t to say that these distinctions were based only on race.

 The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of February 2, 1848 C.E. had ended the Méjicano-Américano War. It granted Californios full United States citizenship. It also promised that their property would be "inviolably respected." What did this mean? Simply that Californios had been promised the security of their land grants from destruction, violence, infringement, or desecration. One must, however, understand that this promise was made within the legal framework and confines of the United States Constitution, with the constraints of Federal laws, the defense of individual rights and property, and the economic structure of the nation, including taxation.

These Spanish-speaking Californios, descendents of the original Spanish settlers, would fare no better than their fellow Hispanics, the Tejanos of Texas and the Hispanos of New Mexico. All would eventually face similar problems. In fact, the imposition of Américano governmental structure in California would reverse the fortunes of its elite Californios. These would slowly lose their power, authority, privilege, and finally their land. One example, the Peralta family, lost all but 700 of their 49,000 acres in the East Bay. It was whittled away by the cost of legal protection by lawyers, land taxes for the new governmental structure, newly arrived Américano squatters and land speculators.

Just think about it for a moment, 100,000 newcomers to the territory arrived overnight drawn by gold rush of 1849 C.E. To succeed in seeking and digging for gold they needed food, shelter, and land. Pressure began to mount on the Californios. These included more than 80,000 Américanos, 8,000 Méjicanos from the state of Sonora, and 5,000 South Américanos, mostly miners from Chile. It should be said that laws existed to contest the miners, squatters, and homesteaders’ rights to overrun the Californios' lands. Unfortunately, the vagueness of the original Spanish and Méjicano land grants made legal claims difficult to prove. Even when the Californios successfully defended their rights and won legal title to their lands, many found themselves bankrupt from attorney's fees or taxes.

It wasn’t just Californios that were affected by this new wave of immigration sparked by the gold rush. At the beginning of the gold rush, there was no written law regarding property rights in the goldfields. An ad hoc system of "staking claims" was developed by the miners in order to provide some semblance of control over these enterprises. It must be understood that, in the early years of the California Gold Rush, placer mining methods were used, from panning to "cradles" and "rockers" or "long-toms", to diverting the water from an entire river into a sluice alongside the river. Additionally, there was the digging for placer gold typically found in the gravel down at the rocky, river, collected in stream bends creek bottom, or in the cracks in the rocks. This gold had been freed from its ore through slow disintegration over geological time. The process of gold extraction was an unprecedented, ever unfolding, movement into new geographic areas.

Just as when the Spanish misiónes in California were established, native inhabitants were forced from their traditional tribal lands. The Gold Rush with its incoming miners, ranchers, and farmers had a similar effect. Their staking of claims also had negative effects upon the Native Americans as they were pushed off of traditional lands. There were also a number of massacres in which hundreds of indigenous people were killed. In addition, the gold mining methods caused environmental harm to Indian lands. Due to this and many other reasons, the California native population continued to decline precipitously. Eurasian diseases also negatively impacted those who had no natural immunity. It is believed that thousands are thought to have died due to disease. Combined with a low Indian birth rate their population precipitously declined.

Américano families who had arrived in the eastern parts of the United States, Europe, and other locations had always caused similar problems before as the moved westward across the North American Continent. The vast majority came to establish a better life for themselves. For most it was in Agriculture. Even if lands had been given to them by the government, few could afford to purchase additional land for expansion. Yet, on they came, by the millions.

Agriculture was expanding throughout the state of California to meet the food needs of the new settlers. Agriculture was soon found to be limited by the difficulty of finding enough water in the right places to grow irrigated crops. In many cases, the large Californio ranchos had been founded where water was plentiful, thus having control the best watered areas. Winter wheat planted in the fall and harvested in the spring was one early crop that grew well without irrigation. As a result, the Californios initially prospered, as there was a sudden increase in the demand for agricultural products and livestock.

The Hispanics of the new American West and Southwest were forced to integrate themselves into a world dominated by the Américano legal and economic systems. The majority of non-Anglo-Saxon, non-English speaking European immigrants had been forced by these same circumstances to learn to read and write in English. This they did in order to improve their situation. Such was the case of the Hispanics. The Hispanic experience, however, had not prepared them for the accelerated rate of education in the American system as it related to taxation and other Américano laws.

Article XI of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo offered a potential benefit to Méjico, in that the Américanos pledged to suppress the Comanche and Apache raids that had ravaged northern Méjico and pay restitutions to the victims of raids it could not prevent. How were they to accomplish this enormous task? What resources did the Américanos have at their disposal?

Let us stop for a moment to grasp the complexity of this issue. The sheer size of these new territories was enormous. Access to these outlying areas was difficult, if not impossible. There were few roads, and those that did exist were poorly constructed. The United States Army could field only a small number in these vast areas. Military posts and forts were few and far between. The Indians they were up against were some of the finest mounted fighters in the world and standing against the Américanos in lands that they knew well. This made the capture and defeat of marauding Indians almost a fantasy. Thus, the Indian raids did not cease for several decades after the treaty, although a cholera epidemic reduced the numbers of the Comanche in 1849 C.E. 

To make a point, the United States inherited existing conflicts between settlers and Apache groups when Méjico ceded territory after the Méjicano-Américano War in 1846 C.E. These Apache Wars were that series of armed conflicts between the Américano Army and various Apache nations that were fought in the southwest between 1849 C.E. and 1886 C.E. Minor hostilities would continue until as late as 1924 C.E. The conflicts would not stop so long as new United States citizens came into traditional Apache lands to raise livestock, crops, and to mine minerals.

The Jicarilla Apache War began in 1849 C.E. when a group of Américano settlers were attacked and killed by a force of Jicarillas and Utes in northeastern New Mexico. To avoid the winter snows and mountains of the central routes to the goldfields, or to seek their fortune in the newly acquired Southwest thousands of gold seekers and emigrants pushed along the southern route of the Trans-Pecos portion of the San Antonio-El Paso Road and on the Chihuahua Trail. The Road was a vital segment opened in 1849 C.E., which carried a large volume of traffic between the two cities and Santa Fé, New Mexico and Chihuahua, Méjico.

The well-travelled road presented rich opportunities for to marauding Kiowa, Comanche, and Mescalero Apache raiders to plunder. Intersecting it were Indian trails long used to sweep down from the north and devastate isolated villas and haciendas in northern Méjico. West of the Davis Mountains, raiding Mescalero Indians of New Mexico crossed the road and spread terror. To the east of the mountains, the Great Comanche War Trail divided into two parts its lower branch at Comanche Springs. This was another avenue for attack.

There the Indians assailed travelers on the San Antonio-El Paso Road. As ravaging continued and grew, several military outposts were constructed and manned which moved steadily westward into the trans-Pecos region. Soon, forts Hudson, Lancaster, Stockton, Davis, Quitman, and Bliss extended military protection and security from the outer ring of defensive posts all the way to El Paso.

Navajó Conflicts of 1849 C.E.-1863 C.E. in Arizona and New Mexico, saw persistent warring between the Navajó and the United States Army. The situation eventually would result in Navajó expulsion and incarceration at a reservation far from their homeland.

Despite these ongoing Indian attacks, life went on for the Hispanos. In 1849 C.E., family journals reported the wedding of José António Chávez (born 1820 C.E.) to María Apolinia Silva, (born February 12, 1827 C.E.). Following their wedding in today’s València County, New Mexico, the novios, or bride and groom departed the wedding dance and continued the celebration with jubilant ranch hands that had rounded up ranch wild livestock and conducted a rodeo. It was held in the ranch corral between the competing in-laws. The killing (butchering) of an animal that accompanied the rodeo or matanza was a highlight

Here, we now provide a timeline to better understand the transitioning of these territories.

As word of the gold strikes spread, the SS California (1848 C.E.), the first Pacific Mail Steamship Company steamship, picked up more passengers in Valparaiso, Chile and Panama City, Panama after steaming around Cape Horn from New York. It would arrive in San Francisco on February 28, 1849 C.E. She was loaded with about 400 gold seeking passengers; twice the number of passengers it had been designed for. In San Francisco all of the crew except the captain and one man deserted the ship. It would take the unfortunate captain two months to gather a much higher paid return crew for its return to Panama City and establish the route they had been contracted for. Many paddle steamers would soon be making their way from East Coast cities to the Río Chagres in Panama and the Río San Juan in Nicaragua. Other paddle steamers soon followed on both the Pacific and Atlantic routes.

Henry W. Halleck, brevet captain of engineers and secretary of state, provided an exhaustive report to California Governor Mason on the laws governing the granting or selling of lands, dated March 1, 1849 C.E. The report rejected the claim of one, Mr. Larkin, for Don Benito Díaz’s Land Grant of two leagues of land known as the Punta de los Lobos. The Grant comprised all of that property on the San Francisco peninsula lying north of a line drawn from the Laguna de Loma Alta to the Punta de los Lobos. The report stated that it was against the law, practice, and precedent of the Méjicano government to sell-off the lands of that area.

Life for the de Ribera clan continued as it had for generations despite the changing world around.  On July 19, 1849 C.E., Lorenzo Ribera son of José Luís Ribera, my progenitor, was born in New Mexico.

BIRTH: July 19, 1849 C.E.

At: San Miguel County, New Mexico, USA

DEATH: April 30, 1895 C.E. (aged 45)

San Miguel County, New Mexico, USA

BURIAL: Old Saint Anthonys Church Cemetery

Pecos, San Miguel County, New Mexico, USA

MEMORIAL ID: 170962089

President Taylor’s view was that the people could decide whether they wanted slavery when they drew up new state constitutions. Therefore, to end the dispute over slavery in new areas, Taylor urged settlers in New Mexico and California to draft constitutions and apply for statehood, bypassing the territorial stage.

Despite political arguments in D.C. regarding the new territories, in response to popular demand for a better more representative government in California, General Riley issued an official proclamation dated June 3, 1849 C.E., calling for a Constitutional Convention and an election of representatives on August 1, 1849 C.E.

After the election, the California Constitution Convention met in the small town and former Californio capital of Monterey, California, in September 1849 C.E. to write a state constitution.

In November 1849 C.E., while others were working on a state constitution, Captain E. D. Keyes, Third artillery, had succeeded Major Hardie in command of the presidio of San Francisco. The safety and security of California came first.

The California Constitution was ratified by popular vote at an election held on a rainy November 13, 1849 C.E. (as specified in Article XII Sec. 8). The Pueblo de San José was chosen as the first state capitol (Article XI Sec. 1). Soon after the election, they set up a provisional state government that implemented the counties, elected a governor, senators, and representatives. The provisional government operated for a ten month period establishing a state government before California was granted official statehood.

The constitution of 1849 C.E. was only judged only a partial success. This founding document was superseded by the current constitution, first ratified on May 7, 1879 C.E. Importantly the California Constitution of 1849 C.E. outlawed any form of slavery in the state.

Life throughout the new American West and Southwest life continued to change at a rapid pace. On November 28, 1849 C.E., the first issue of the Santa Fé New Mexican rolled off the press. The newspaper today dubs itself, "The West's Oldest Newspaper." Everywhere good news was reported by the press. The first recorded references to a rodeo in the official Republic of the United States were made in New Mexico. 

By late-1849 C.E., paddle steamers like the SS McKim (1848 C.E.) were carrying miners and business men over the 125 miles trip from San Francisco up the Sacramento River, to to Sacramento and Marysville, California. Steam powered tugboats started working in the San Francisco Bay soon after this.

On the 28th of December 1849 C.E., General Riley, commanding the Tenth military district, advised the war department that the San Francisco area reserve made by Captain Folsom was greater than was required for military purposes. He suggested that the owners of the Rancho de los Lobos were willing to give the land occupied by the San Francisco presidio, fort, and the adjoining ground to the United States for purposes of fortification. General Riley believed that it would be advisable to relinquish all the land that might be found unnecessary for military purposes, the designation to be made by the joint commission of navy and engineer officers.

By 1850 C.E., the United States had achieved its dream of Manifest Destiny. She had accomplished her expansion from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Ocean. With the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo behind her, America’s future was full of promise. The United States needed only to disperse her land-needy millions across the vast new territories won from the Méjicanos.

Regarding Méjicano issues, Robert Letcher, United States Minister to Méjico in 1850 C.E., was certain "that miserable 11th article" of the 1848 C.E. Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo would financially ruin of the United States if it could not be released from its obligations. This and other Articles would be a continued concern for many American politicians.

At the heart of the American problem were Articles VIII and IX. These had ensured the safety of existing property rights of Méjicano citizens living in the transferred territories. During the period from 1846 C.E. through 1850 C.E. assurances of these the property rights of Méjicano citizens in accordance with modifications to and interpretations of the Treaty were being questioned by the American leaders. The United States had also agreed to assume $3.25 million in debts that Méjico owed to United States citizens.

The non-American citizen residents had one year to choose whether they wanted American or Méjicano citizenship. Interestingly, over 90% would choose American citizenship. The others returned to Méjico where they received land, or in some cases, as in New Mexico, were allowed to remain in place as Méjicano citizens.

In 1850 C.E., in addition to concerns regarding the Articles VIII and IX of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, there was the ongoing conflict in the United States Congress regarding the number of slave versus non-slave states which continued to be the major stumbling block to allowing new states into the Union. It was well known that Hispanics were against slavery.

The mounting tide of westward travel in the 1850’s C.E., by the newfound interest of settlers in the vast new territory the United States acquired from Méjico in the Méjicano-Américano War (1846 C.E.-1848 C.E.), the Gadsden Purchase (1853 C.E.), and generated by the California Gold Rush swelled traffic over the American transcontinental trails. Here it should be noted that life for new settlers in these territories of the West and Southwest was a dangerous proposition, as marauding Indians continued to be a fact of life.

A massacre of Américanos in northeastern New Mexico by a force of Jicarillas and Utes occurred in 1850 C.E., in which several mail carriers were massacred. There were other occasional Indian attacks on Anglo-Américanos traveling the Santa Fé Trail and Butterfield Southern Route. Previously, the Indians had normally preyed upon Méjicanos south of the boarder. The Américano mishandling of an incident, however, shifted the pattern, providing the spark for 35 years of Apache unrest.

As Fort Bowie, Arizona spearheaded the campaign against the Chiricahua Apache, so did Fort Davis against the Warm Springs and Mescalero Apache.

There were other pressing and difficult issues which had to be dealt with. The immense size of the new territories, the condition of the existing limited infrastructure, the need for the expansion of that infrastructure, the demand for improved transportation, and the funding of services for the growing population all had to be dealt with. At issue was the tax base, or more appropriately the lack thereof.

By 1850 C.E., the United States Navy started making plans for a West Coast navy base at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. It was to be located 25 miles northeast of San Francisco in Vallejo, California. The Napa River goes through the Mare Island Strait and separates the peninsula shipyard (Mare Island, California) from the main portion of the city of Vallejo. Security for the rich, newly acquired territory was a high priority.

Due to its new wealth from the Gold Rush, California in 1850 C.E. was experiencing large, rapid, and continuing population growth. Entry by new arrivals was by both sea and land routes. To clarify, the average shipping into San Francisco increased to about 803 ships in 1850 C.E. Merchant ships filled the San Francisco harbor.

If all ship connections were met with a minimum waiting time, a trip to the East Coast, after about 1850 C.E., could then be made in as short a period as 40 days. These technical maritime improvements made the transportation and influx of more Américanos and other non-Californios simpler and easier. It had become a flood of human beings entering a totally unprepared California.

Many of these travelers to the state took steamboats to Panama or Nicaragua, crossed the Isthmus of Panama or Nicaragua and caught another steamboat to California. In the next phase of their travel facilitated by other, smaller steamboats that hauled miners and others from San Francisco, California via the Sacramento River to Stockton, Sacramento, Marysville, California, etc. Depending on appropriate and timely connections, this trip could be made within 40-60 days. Those returning to the East Coast usually just reversed this route.

Those travelers, mostly, farmers etc., living in the Midwest and already owned wagons and teams took the California trail. These usually left Missouri River towns in early-April. They would arrive in California 150-170 days later, in late-August or early-September. There was some winter wagon traffic which usually arrived via the Gila River (De Anza Trail) and routes that included parts of the Old Spanish Trail. It is suspected that approximately half the Argonauts travelling to California came by wagon on one of these routes.

To exacerbate problems, more settlers were streaming every day into California needing food, shelter, support. Taxation revenue was limited and serviced lacking. Due to limited agriculture within the state, food had to be imported to any and all West Coast ports from anywhere it could be obtained including Hawaii, Oregon, and Méjico. Lumber, wheat, and other food stuffs arrived from both Oregon and the Columbia River area which were transported by ships that had initially carried gold rush passengers and could usually be purchased inexpensively.

Soon, it was found that some types of spring wheat could be planted in the fall in California and the mild winter with its rains would allow good crops to be harvested in the spring without irrigation. Later, much of this wheat would be exported to ports around the world. California finally had a return cargo for its many incoming ships. In future, as gold dwindled in California it would increasingly become a highly productive in agricultural.

Since their beginning, there had been much trouble in the goldfields of California. Some of the difficulties stemmed from the fact that both the Sonorans or the Sonoranos, and the Chileans or Chilenos were better miners than the newly arrive Northern European and Anglo-Saxon (Whites). It is believed that many of the problems in the goldfields of California stemmed from the fact that both the Sonoranos and the Chilenos were better miners than the Whites and became targets of resentment and persecution.

As California legislation was controlled by the majority, non-Hispanos and Natives. The United States 1850 C.E. California Census asked the state of birth of all residents and found that only about 7,300 residents that were born in California. California had grown to have a non-Californio and non-Indian and population of over 100,000. The exact number of California Indians is unknown since they were not included in the 1850 C.E. United States Census, but has been estimated to be between 50,000 and 150,000.

The population of more than 100 Native tribes, in subsequent decades after 1850 C.E., would gradually be displaced and forced onto a series of reservations and rancherias. These were often small and isolated locations which in some cases lacked adequate natural resources. Funding sources from the Federal Government for these sites to sustain Native populations living a hunter-gathering lifestyle which they were accustomed to, was not adequate.

The Foreign Miners' Tax Law of 1850 C.E. was passed by the California legislature. It required foreigners to buy mining permits for $20 a month fee which was a large sum of money in those days. The Law could be seen as legislation intended to force Méjicanos and Chilenos into circumstances which would lead to their abandoning their land claims and also force them into taking jobs as wage laborers. The law, however, had proved to be unenforceable. It was left to the leaders of White lynch mobs and gunmen resolve the matter. Some of these local and regional leaders had experience with removing unwanted persons, as they had been Rangers in Texas before joining in the California gold rush.

Non-Hispanics of European stock, in California were said to have denounced the Méjicanos who fought back as bandits. Some see the intensity of the conflict as being reflected in the legend of the possibly fictional bandit Joaquín Murrieta. According to the myth, he created havoc in the Non-Hispanic communities as revenge for the rape of his wife, the murder of his half-brother, and the theft of his gold mine by Anglo-American or European claim jumpers. There are, however, actual historical cases such as those of Juan Flores and Tiburcio Vásquez, both banditos caught and hanged by White vigilantes. These are seen as a testimony to the desperation rage felt by the dispossessed Méjicanos and other Hispanics in California.

Whether right or wrong, in the end, most Chilenos and many Méjicanos were repatriated. The Méjicano population that stayed in California provided the labor power to develop the state’s wealth much as their compatriots had in Texas.

Greed as a motivator for many cannot be discounted or ignored. “Gold Rush Fever” was everywhere. For these making it rich quickly became the only concern. As a result of this and many other factors, Chinese immigrants increasingly came under attack by those with nativist tendencies and racism. The Chinese would soon be forced out of industry and agriculture. The next phase of transition for them was being gradually pushed into Chinatowns in the larger cities.

Between 1850 C.E. and 1860 C.E., the state of California would pay approximately 1.5 million dollars, some $250,000 of which was reimbursed by the federal government, to hire "militias." Their purpose was to protect American and other settlers from the indigenous populations. It has been suggested that these ongoing paramilitary forays involved several massacres and also at times were responsible for the wanton killings of Native Americans. It is reported that the first governor of California, Peter Burnett, openly called for the extermination of the Indian tribes. In reference to the violence against California's Native population, he stated, "That a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the two races until the Indian race becomes extinct, must be expected. While we cannot anticipate the result with but painful regret, the inevitable destiny of the race is beyond the power and wisdom of man to avert." 

At this juncture, it is only fair to offer another view of the American Hispanic experience. Given the accepted knowledge of the impacts of American racism and ethnic hatred and their unfairness in political and economic spheres, it must be mentioned here that some Hispanics of earlier generations had successfully integrated into American society. These were accepted and thrived in its political and economic systems. One was Miguel Deciderio Eslava born on May 6, 1797 C.E. and died on January 3, 1881 C.E. He was a partner at "Murrell and Company," the agents for most Confederate Blockade Runners which entered and left Mobile, Alabama, during the Civil War. 

He married Louise Malvina Delphine De Lanzos (born 1803 C.E., died 1870 C.E., buried at Church Street Cemetery). She was a native of New Orleans and daughter of Captain Manuel De Lanzos and Gertrudis Guerrero, one of the former Spanish Commanders of Mobile, during the Colonial Period. 

Miguel Deciderio Eslava served as Spanish Vice Consul to Mobile, for many years, prior to the Civil War. Miguel was the son of Miguel Deciderio Eslava Sr. and Hypolite Francoise Alexandre. He also served in the War of 1812, after España lost Mobile, between 1813 C.E. and 1815 C.E. He served as a private, in Diego McVoy’s Company, Mobile Militia, 14th Mississippi Territorial Regiment. 

He lived at 124 South Royal Street and was a shipping and commercial merchant at 31 South Royal Street (upstairs), in 1861 C.E. He later lived at what is now 152 Tuthill Lane, in Spring Hill, Mobile, Alabama, known as the Marshall-Eslava House, which was listed in the National Register of Historic Places, in 1974 C.E. 

Miguel also was involved in the construction of the “Eslava Building” located at 126 Government Street, which was built in approximately 1850 C.E. 

Miguel Jr. was described as always sporting a beard. He spoke Spanish, English, and French fluently.  He was also fluent in “Mobilian Trade Jargon” which was a Native American trade language spoken along the Gulf Coast, now extinct. He was buried next to his wife, in Church Street Cemetery, Mobile, Alabama, in the Eslava Tomb.

What this suggests is that there were cases of Hispanics who were able to integrate themselves into the social, political, and economic spheres of their respective American geographic locations. This is not to say that there were not impediments to accomplishing this. It is only to provide an example of what could be done given the abilities, skills, and will of the parties involved. With that said, let us return to our family history. 

Continuing growth caused many more towns to be built throughout Northern and later Southern, California. The few existing towns were to be greatly expanded and enhanced. Towns such as San Francisco and Sacramento were experiencing population explosions. All of this growth resulted in new roads, bridges, farms, mines, steamship lines, businesses, saloons, gambling houses, boarding houses, churches, schools, towns, mercury mines, and other components of the rich, modern California culture. Fortunately, as early as 1850 C.E., California had a great deal of native timber and saw mills had been built and equipped to turn some of this timber into lumber for construction needs.

San José became the state capital of California in 1850 C.E. and remained through 1851 C.E.

Steamboats plied the San Francisco Bay Area as well as the Sacramento and San Joaquín Rivers which flowed nearer the goldfields. These moved passengers and supplies to the three main cities supplying the gold fields. They made their way from San Francisco to the cities of Sacramento, Marysville, and Stockton, California. Riverboat navigation quickly became an important transportation link on the San Joaquín River. During its "June Rise," San Joaquín's annual high water levels during snow melt, large water craft could make it as far upstream as Fresno on a wet year.

The sleepy backwater city of Stockton on the lower San Joaquín quickly grew to a blossoming trade center. It was the stopping-off point for miners on their way to the gold fields located in the foothills of the Sierra. During the peak years of the gold rush, the river in the Stockton area was reported to be crowded with hundreds of abandoned oceangoing craft. Many of their crews had deserted them for the gold fields. The multitude of abandoned or idle ships caused such a blockade, on several occasions, they were burned clearing the way for riverboat traffic. 

Road transportation was another matter. Most of the gold miners in 1850s C.E. lived a "modest" lifestyle. Goods needed by them were usually hauled by horse, mule or ox drawn wagons. These could be economically imported. Initially, with few roads, pack trains and wagons brought supplies to the miners. With time, rough roadways such as the Millerton Road quickly extended the length of the valley and were used by mule teams and covered wagons. Large freight wagons pulled by up to 10 mules replaced earlier employed pack trains. These roads later became the Stockton-Los Ángeles Road. Soon a delivery and travel infrastructure system for wagon roads, bridges, ferries, and toll roads was developed. Many were managed and maintained by tolls collected from the users. The toll roads constructed and kept usable by the tolls made travel to the mining camps easier and enabled express companies to deliver clothes, firewood, food, equipment, mail, packages, etc. to the miners. Later, in Nevada, when communities developed steamboats were even used to haul cargo up the Colorado River as far as today’s Lake Mead in Nevada.

By this point in its history, California was exporting a large amount of privately held gold to the Eastern United States. This provided California with the influence necessary to establish its own boundaries, select its representatives, write its own Constitution, and be admitted to the Union as a free state in 1850 C.E. It became the 31st state of the United States of America with all of the rights and responsibilities associated with that status. This included its most important responsibility, the security, safety, and protection of its citizens. This it did without transitioning through the existing territorial status process as required for most other states. Even with this gold, at issue remained a public means for managing this remarkable growth. For this it would need an appropriate level of revenue and taxation was the key. The questions were, how much? And, what types of taxes?

To further explain this dilemma, many of the West and the Southwest territories and states were largely rural with few business establishments. Given the circumstances, sales or excise taxes derived from this source could yield very little revenue. Income taxes levied on the residents was also not feasible. Therefore, property tax, especially the real estate tax, was ideally suited to these states. Real estate had a fixed location, it was visible, and its value was generally well known. Revenue could easily be allocated to the governmental unit in which the property was located

To make an important point, by 1850 C.E., approximately 89% of United States’ federal government revenue was derived from import tariffs or customs or ad valorem taxes, at an average rate of about 20%. This was made up by and large of the import of goods, which were dependent upon an ever expanding economy to pay for them. The nature of these revenue streams and their size seriously impacted America’s ability to support the growing expansion needs for its new territories. Therefore, limited avenues for taxation were one of the underlying causes for revenue stream difficulties. Because of its importance, we will deal with the issue here.

At the heart of the matter was the imposition of property taxes. Here it is important to offer one example of property tax rates in 1850 C.E. It is that of January 10, 1850 C.E. that Utah’s provisional state General Assembly adopted a two percent property tax for that year. Notably, the two percent tax rate imposed in 1850 C.E. represented a doubling of the prior year's tax rate of one percent. This was done without concern for race, ethnicity, or religion. The aforementioned example was of great important to California and its residents, as they would soon become subject to such a tax.

Also, of consequence was the 1850 C.E. census data as to California's population and where they lived. There were incredible strains placed upon the government of California given that mainly non-Californio population growth rate. In almost every area of concern there were difficulties supporting this rapid growth. The overload placed on existing infrastructure and the critical need for its expansion called for immediate and additional taxation measures required to support this out of control growth. At issue was how to pay for it?

The growth and changes to the American property tax system had always been closely related to economic and political conditions in her ever expanding frontier regions. In pre-commercial agricultural areas such as the New American West and Southwest, the property tax was seen as a tried and true solution for needed local government revenue. It was already accepted as an equal taxation source for the American wealth system which was consistent with the prevailing ideology and doctrines of equality among the majority of the American people.

It must be remembered that when the American Revolutionary War began, some 74 years before, the American Colonies already had well-developed tax systems. These tax structures varied from colony to colony as they had developed separately. To be sure, however, some cross-colony input had occurred. These tax systems was one of the reasons that a war was possible against the world’s most technically advanced and strongest military power, Great Britain. During that War, it had been necessary for tax systems to be changed and associated tax rates to be increased several fold, this in order to support the war effort. Taxation thus became a matter of heated debate and resulted in some violence.

There were at the time five kinds of taxes widely in use:

·       Capitation (poll) taxes: These were levied at a fixed rate on all adult males and sometimes on slaves

·       Property taxes: These were usually taxes of a specific nature, levied at fixed rates on enumerated items, however, sometimes items were taxed according to value

·       Faculty taxes: These were levied on the faculty or ability of persons with the earning capacity who following various trades or having specifically identified skills

·       Tariffs (imposts): As discussed earlier, these were levied on goods imported or exported

·       Excises: These were taxes levied on consumption goods, especially liquor

To make a point, settlers living on the ever expanding American frontiers and located far from markets complained bitterly about the unfairness of taxing of land on a per-acre basis. They demanded that property taxation be based upon land value. There were also “light land taxes” and “heavy poll taxes” favored in the southern colonies by wealthy landowners, but not the majority. It should be noted that there were some cases in which changes to existing tax systems caused wealthy citizens to complain, as well. For example, in New York, the wealthy saw the “excess profits tax” levied on war profits as a dangerous example of “leveling tendencies.” In New Jersey, owners of intangible property saw the tax on intangible property similarly.

Note:

Intangible property, also known as incorporeal property, describes something which a person or corporation can have ownership of and can transfer ownership to another person or corporation, but has no physical substance, for example brand identity or knowledge/intellectual property.

By the end of the American Revolutionary War, in 1783 C.E., the concept of equality as stated in the Declaration of Independence would have far-reaching implications to citizens. Equality of taxation for both the nation’s wealthy citizens and the ordinary man was a matter of great concern. It was being pondered by all for its meaning and to ask appropriate questions as to its implications. Because of the American Revolutionary War and its taxation issues, ordinary Americans readily understood the connection between independence, political equality, and the taxation system. Further, given the ongoing growth of the nation, they saw this as an opportunity to force needed changes. Wealthy American leaders saw little connection between a citizen’s independence, political equality, and the tax system.

By 1796 C.E., 7 of the existing 15 American states levied “uniform capitation taxes.” For the citizen Capitation meant a tax of a uniform, fixed amount per-taxpayer. The United States government found it necessary to levy direct taxes from time to time during the 18th and early 19th centuries C.E. In the late-1790s C.E., “Direct Taxes” were levied on the owners of houses, land, slaves, and estates. These taxes, however, were cancelled in 1802 C.E. 12 of these 15 states enacted taxes on some or all livestock.

Of particular interest here, “land” was taxed in a variety of ways. In future, this would have negative implications for Hispanic land grant owners of the newly established American Southwest and West. At the time, however, only 4 states taxed the mass of property by valuation. Also, at the time, no state constitution required that taxation be by value or required that rates on all kinds of property be uniform.

By 1850 C.E., the logical implication for the newly established American Southwest and West was that the property tax, or millage rate, also considered an ad valorem tax was eventually to be levied on the value of a citizen’s property. This is usually meant a tax levied upon real estate. For new territories and states, the governing authority of the jurisdiction in which the property was located had the power to levy such taxes. This might include the national government, a federated state, a county or geographical region or a municipality. In addition, multiple jurisdictions are empowered to tax the same property. In this context, “Property Tax” should be contrasted to a rent tax which is based on rental income or imputed rent. It should also be contrasted with a “Land Value Tax,” which is a levy on the value of land, excluding the value of buildings and other improvements.

Under the American “Property-Tax System” of the time, governmental authorities were required or perform appraisals of the monetary value of each property. A tax was then assessed in proportion to that value.

By 1818 C.E., the state of Illinois adopted the first uniformity clause. In 1820 C.E., Missouri followed. By 1834 C.E., only thirteen years later, Tennessee replaced a provision requiring that land be taxed at a uniform amount per-acre. It enacted a provision that land be taxed according to its value or ad valorem. 

By the end of the 19th-Century C.E., 33 states would include uniformity clauses in new constitutions or had amended existing ones. These would include the requirement that all property be taxed equally by value. It should be noted that a number of other states enacted uniformity statutes requiring that all property be taxed. As can be seen below, by 1848 C.E., both Texas and California had enacted uniformity statutes. Table 1 summarizes this history.

Table 1 Nineteenth-Century Uniformity Provisions (first appearance in state constitutions)

The following table represents a timeline beyond this chapter.

*Indicates amendment or revised constitution.

Notes:

1. The Tennessee constitution of 1796 C.E. included a unique provision requiring taxation of land to be uniform per 100 acres.
2. One thousand dollars of personal property and the products of the soil in the hands of the original producer were exempt in Tennessee.
3. The Michigan provision required that the legislature provide a uniform rule of taxation except for property paying specific taxes.
4. Except for taxes on slaves.
5. Nevada exempted mining claims.
6. One provision in Idaho requires uniformity as to class. Another seems to prescribe uniform taxation.

The battle over American taxation would remain an ongoing problem. Citizen and settlers of frontier territories and states strongly supported the Jacksonian ideas of equality. They also distrusted both centralized government and professional administrators. In the new states west of the Appalachians, the political appeal of uniformity was very strong. Many were in favor of a uniform tax on all wealth administered by locally elected officials.

The general, a property tax applied to all wealth. It was used for real and personal, tangible and intangible wealth taxation. The job of locally elected officials was to administer the tax system and determine:

·       The market value of the property

·       Compute the tax rates necessary to raise the amount levied

·       Compute taxes on each property

·       Collect the tax

·       Remit the proceeds to the proper government

The tax was uniform and was levied on all wealth in exact the proportion to that wealth. Thus, under this taxation system, each taxpayer was required to pay for those government services that he or she used.

Here it should be said that American taxation policy and administrative systems which developed over time, had been well-adapted as revenue sources for state and local governments. One can readily understand the negative impact on those who had never experienced such a system. In particular, here I speak of Hispanics of the territories of the Southwest and West.

It should also be noted that those parties who controlled the legislative process ultimately control the specifics of its application regarding taxation. Therefore, in relation to the new Hispanic, Hispano, Tejano, and Californio, Américano citizens, their economic fate lay with the legislative bodies of each new territory or state. These were largely made up of non-Hispanic legislators. The outcomes were obvious:

·       The majority of Hispanic wealth was made up of their Land Grants (land)

·       They had very few other assets (liquid) in order to pay those taxes

·       They had little or no understanding of the Américano judicial and taxation systems

·       They had few manufacturing and merchantile opportunities to develop and earn new sources of hard currency to pay those taxes

·       Their cultural and social ethos limited their ability to compete within a society dominated by Américano Zeitgeist

To further complicate matters, the new territories and states of the West and Southwest typically were divided itself into counties. These were given many responsibilities for administering state laws passed by the voting majority and its representatives, these being largely non-Hispanics. Citizen legislators were free to organize municipalities, school districts, and many kinds of special districts to perform additional political and administrative functions. Each of which resulted in additional cost burdens. In short, the result was a large number of overlapping, complex, and difficult to understand government entities. Hispanics were unable to absorb these new complexities quickly, limited in their participation in the new political infrastructure, and therefore respond appropriately to the onslaught of new laws and associated taxation.

To make a point, taxation in America was seen as a necessity to support and achieve desired and needed economic growth. The applicability of taxes in the new territories and states was simply an extension of that accepted tried and true methodology for raising revenue to support governmental structures and infrastructures. Three hundred years of Spanish law and its taxation system, and the brief period of Méjicano control had not prepared the Hispanics of the new American West and Southwest for rigors and complexity of those two critically important systems. This is just as it had been burdensome in earlier times for the Native Americans in these same regions, when under Spanish and later Méjicano law. For Hispanics without the knowledge of these laws and the skills necessary to navigate them, the worst was yet to come. 

In the 1850s C.E., as railroads steamed into the American West and Southwest, including, New Mexico, life improved. As commerce grew the territories would change forever. This was not to say that success would come easily to all of the citizens.

That same year of 1850 C.E., New Mexico which then included present-day Arizona, southern Colorado, southern Utah, and southern Nevada was designated a territory, but denied statehood. It residents wanted statehood. They felt this would improve their circumstances. This included Hispanics, such as the de Riberas. The path to a better life, however, is not always to be found.

Under the newly imported United States legal and taxation systems, some dishonest Américano lawyers would begin defrauding Hispanos and taking the land which they had held for centuries. This would also impact the de Riberas. Historians believe Thomas B. Catron was one of the principal leaders of the “Santa Fé Ring,” who led a group of lawyers and businessmen to use unscrupulous legal, political, and business tactics to acquire Spanish and Méjicano land grants.

This practice would continue from the end of the Méjicano-Américano War into the mid-1800s C.E. My Great-Great Paternal Grandfather, José Luís Ribera (de Ribera), and his older children then living in Pecos, New Mexico, would have been very aware and weary of Américanos of the Santa Fé Ring plotting to steal Hispano lands. His twelve hundred acres possibly could have been targeted by the Anglo lawyers and most probably were. The facts are that before he died in 1891 C.E., his lands and his wealth were lost. His sons would also eventually lose their land. This does not mean to say that I’m suggesting that Hispanos were totally dissatisfied.

Here it is important to understand that José Luís Ribera and other Nuevo Méjicanos had lived through the end of España’s empire and its loss of the Provincia of Nuevo Méjico in 1821 C.E. They then experienced twenty-five years of forced and failed Méjicano rule until 1846 C.E. He and his family saw themselves as being liberated by the Américanos. They offered his children the possibility of living the dream of “freedom,” as Américanos. In the end, this they did.

The children of the de Ribera clan and the larger body of extended families of New Méjico would later fight and die defending that freedom in the Civil War. Their children’s, children would fight and die in the Spanish American War, World War I, and their children in World War II, and Korea. The latest generation, of de Riberas would shed their blood in Viet Nam, Desert Storm, and other military actions.

In 1850 C.E., life for had changed little for other Nuevo Méjicanos like María Antónia València y Quintana who married Ribera Anastácio, my great-grandfather. The de Ribera clan had continued to grow and work the land. Following is the San Miguel County, New Mexico 1850 County Census. Time does not permit the explanation of the lives of each individual de Ribera found here. One person of note is my progenitor, Anastacio Ribera, is listed here.

1850 C.E.: Ribera Family San Miguel County,

New Mexico 1850 C.E. County Census

About 1850 C.E., Pablo Ribera son of José Luís Ribera, my progenitor, was born in New Mexico.

BIRTH: About 1850 C.E.

DEATH: October 26, 1918 C.E.

At: San Miguel County, New Mexico, USA

BURIAL: Old Saint Anthonys Church Cemetery

Pecos, San Miguel County, New Mexico, USA

MEMORIAL ID: 170925625 

During this period, cattle barons, such as, John Chisum started rounding up longhorns along the southeastern plains, often battling native landholders for them. Chisum also was involved in the bloody Lincoln County Wars in New Mexico, a conflict between two mercantile houses that involved such notables as Pat Garrett, Billy the Kid, and Governor Lew Wallace who wrote the novel Ben Hur.

By February of 1850 C.E., President Zachary Taylor the Twelfth President 1849 C.E.-1850 C.E. held a stormy conference with Southern leaders who threatened secession. He told them that if necessary to enforce the laws, he personally would lead the Army. Persons, "taken in rebellion against the Union, he would hang ... with less reluctance than he had hanged deserters and spies in Méjico." The President never wavered. New Mexico’s statehood swung in the balance of the ongoing “Free State vs. Slave State” impediment to allowing new states to enter the Union. 

In California, on the 31st of March 1850 C.E., the joint commission recommended the reservation of the following tract of land on the San Francisco peninsula for military purposes: "From a point eight hundred yards south of Point José (Point San José) to the southern boundary of the presidio along that southern boundary to its western extremity, and thence in a straight line to the Pacific, passing by the southern extremity of a pond that has its outlet in the channel between Fort Point and Point Lobos."

On the 5th of April 1850 C.E., Mr. Dexter R. Wright entered into a bond in the sum of fifty thousand dollars for the faithful performance of his agreement to convey to the United States the presidio and fort tract and reservation and Point San José, in consideration of the relinquishment by the United States of all "control, occupation, and military possession" of the remainder of the Rancho de los Lobos. This could be seen as a very clever scheme to secure government recognition of his title. In the bond, the presidio reservation is described as follows: Beginning at a point on the crest of a high hill, southeast of the presidio and marked by a stake which was established in the presence of Captain E. D. Keyes, Captain H. W. Halleck and D. A. Merrifield, Esq., on the 3d day of April, 1850 C.E.; thence running in a northerly direction parallel to Larkin street, in the town of San Francisco, to low water mark on the southern shore to the entrance to the bay of San Francisco; then running along the low water line of said bay and of the sea to the mouth of the outlet of the pond between Battery Point and Point Lobos and southwest of the said presidio; thence along the middle of said outlet and pond to the extremity of said pond; thence in a northeasterly direction to the point of beginning.

By April 27, 1850 C.E., under orders from General Riley, he withdrew the military forces under his command from the presidio of San Francisco to the reserve as described and bounded in Wright's bond, with the exception of those stationed at Point San José.

On April 28, 1850 C.E., General Riley transmitted to the Adjutant-General a copy of Wright's bond, concurring with the opinion of the joint commission that the arrangement with Wright secured to the United States all the land that would ever be required for military purposes on the south side of the entrance to the bay of San Francisco, and recommended approval by the secretary of war.

This was the same presidio reservation secured to the government by Teniente-Colonel Juan Bautista de Anza when, on March 28, 1776 C.E., he erected a cross on the Cantil Blanco and directed the fort to be built on the point and the presidio of San Francisco under the shelter of the hill. De Anza’s act created under the laws of España, a military reservation of three thousand varas—fifteen hundred and sixty-two and a half acres. The boundary lines of the Spanish presidio are those of the presidio reservation today with the exception of eighty feet cut-off from the eastern frontage by an act of congress on May 9, 1876 C.E., and given to the city of San Francisco for a street.

On June 19, 1850 C.E., the following endorsement was made on General Riley's letter by G. W. Crawford, secretary of war: "The agreement is disapproved. The acceptance of a quit claim to a parcel of land now, as I think, rightfully in the possession of the United States, might afterwards prejudice the right of the government to the remainder of the freehold embraced in the Díaz Grant. 
G.W.C."

The Benito Díaz Grant had finally been rejected by the land commission, ending an attempt to steal several thousand acres of San Francisco's choicest residence district. Mr. Larkin’s claim for the property and his fight for its possession had failed. Another Larkin grant claim before the land commission for the orchard lands of the Santa Clara Misión, sold to Castañada, Arenas, and Díaz, was also rejected on the ground that the deed was fraudulently antedated.

On a blistering July 4, 1850 C.E., after participating in ceremonies at the Washington Monument, President Zachary Taylor fell ill. Within five short days, the great general was dead. After his death, the forces of compromise triumphed. The war Taylor was willing and prepared to face would come eleven years later. Without the passion for the Union that President Taylor exhibited, his only son Richard would later serve as a general in the Army of the Confederate States.

On September 9, 1850 C.E., the Compromise of 1850 C.E. allowed California to be admitted into the Union, undivided, as a free state.

Thirty-eight days later, the Pacific Mail Steamship SS Oregon brought word to San Francisco on October 18, 1850 C.E., that California was now the 31st state. There was a celebration that lasted for weeks.

On November 6, 1850 C.E., President Fillmore, reserved lands as described by a joint commission recommended the reservation of the following tract of land on the San Francisco peninsula for military purposes. "From a point eight hundred yards south of Point José (Point San José) to the southern boundary of the presidio along that southern boundary to its western extremity, and thence in a straight line to the Pacific, passing by the southern extremity of a pond that has its outlet in the channel between Fort Point and Point Lobos."

In 1850 C.E., Juan Manuel Ribera a member of the de Ribera clan is found in the Territory New Mexico County, Santa Fé Census, age 61.

Year: 1850 C.E. Territory: New Mexico County: Santa Fé Sheet No: 344B

Reel No: M432-468 Division: the City of Santa Fé Page No: 687

Enumerated on: December 12, 1850 C.E.

The United States California Census was taken in 1851 C.E.

In the new American Southwest, Indians remained a threat in the new American Southwest. Settlers had become weary of the Apachean tribes including the semi-nomadic Jicarilla Apaches that had migrated into northeast New Mexico. As a result, Fort Union was built in 1851 C.E. It was situated near the place where the Cimarron Cut-off left the Santa Fé Trail to defend the new territory. It remained a strategic military post until abandoned in 1891 C.E. Fort Union was a reminder to the Indian camps established in Cimarron, Ute Park and along the Vermejo, Ponil, and Cimarron rivers that the Américanos were there to stay.

In 1851 C.E., New Mexico was organized as a territory and the Hispanos became United States citizens. Some prospered as they sold their grain to the newly established Army posts or trailed their huge herds of sheep to the gold camps of California and Colorado. Over time some lost their land. The Anglo newcomers were by in large the beneficiaries of such losses. There is reason to believe that on some occasions both Spanish and Méjicano land grants were simply ignored and the land taken.

Later in the 19th-Century, Anglo American land use practices would disrupt traditional Hispano agricultural practices. This is just as the Spaniards had disrupted Native American life when they took better watered lands from the Indians over a century earlier. By purchasing and fencing much of the land on the sloping sides of the valleys, usage was lost to surrounding Hispano families. These lands had for centuries been used by all the settlers in the valleys for grazing their herds of cattle and sheep, as it had been traditionally and legally held in common under Spanish and Méjicano Law.

As many Hispanos raised hay, wheat, oats, potatoes, barley, peas, and green plums in abundance, all required irrigation. Thus, any loss of water access was detrimental. Most of the Hispanos in these valleys continued in their centuries-long tradition of owning and working small farms. Others, like the de Riberas, owned and operated moderately larger areas of land. Oxen, mules, and horses were bred for farm work and other purposes. Their goats and dairy cows were plentiful. As in the past, Hispanos herded their sheep by day and corralled them at night. The flocks of sheep were raised to meet household needs for food, clothing, and barter. The Hispanos also raised hogs.

As non-Hispano settlers moved to the valleys, the local Hispanos were able to use a variety of their newly introduced outside ranching, farming, and building practices. They would also learn to use of different materials, tools, and machinery. The newcomers also opened many of the first village stores and brought with them new and different trading goods. Yet, the Hispanos resisted many Américano cultural characteristics, retained their old ways.

In time, the Américano newcomers and their descendants would learn to speak Hispano-Américano Spanish, this they did in order to better communicate with their neighbors. Soon, these began learning the wisdom of building their homes with traditional Hispano building materials and using local traditional house plans which were more suited to the regions weather, available natural resources, and geography. The Américanos also found the traditional farming and irrigation methods that had been in use for hundreds of years to be of value.

In 1851 C.E., Mangas Coloradas, the Indian chief the of the Mimbreño Apache, was attacked by a group of White miners near the Piños Altos mining camp, located about seven miles north of the present-day Silver City, New Mexico. They tied him to a tree and severely whipped and beat him. Similar incidents continued in violation of the treaty, leading to Apache reprisals against the Américanos.

On March 3, 1851 C.E., the Congress of the United States established the Board of Land Commissioners, by virtue of an Act entitled, "An Act to Ascertain and Settle Private Land Claims in the State of California, (United States. at large, Volume 9, page 631). They did so in order to implement the confirmation of “Land Grant” land titles. The following enactments are contained within this Act:

SECTION 1. "That for the purpose of ascertaining and settling private land claims in the State of California, a commission shall be, and is hereby constituted, which shall consist of three Commissioners, to be appointed by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, which commission shall continue for three years from the date of this Act, unless sooner discontinued by the President of the United States."

SECTION 8. "That each and every person claiming lands in California by virtue of any right or title derived from the Spanish or Méjicano  government, shall present the same to the said Commissioners when sitting as a Board, together with such documentary evidence and testimony of such witnesses as the said claimant relies upon in support of such claims: and it shall be the duty of the Commissioners, when the case is ready for hearings, to proceed promptly to examine the same upon such evidence, and upon the evidence produced in behalf of the United States, and to decide upon the validity of the said claim, and within thirty days after such decision is rendered, to certify the same, with the reasons on which it is founded, to the District Attorney of the United States, in and for the district in which such decision shall be rendered."

SECTION 14. "And be it further (1) that the provisions of this Act shall not extend to any town lot, farm lot, or pasture lot, held under a grant from any corporation or town to which lands may have been granted for the establishment of a town by the Spanish or Méjicano  government, or the lawful authorities thereof, nor to any city. or town, or village lot, which city, town, or village existed on the seventh day of July, eighteen hundred and forty-six; but the claim for the same shall be presented by the corporate authorities of the said town, or where the land on which the said city, town, or village was originally granted to an individual; (2) and the fact of the existence of the said city, town, or village on the said seventh of July, eighteen hundred and forty-six, being duly proved, shall be prima facie evidence of a grant to such corporation, or to the individual under whom the said lot holders claim; (3) and where any city, town, or village shall be in existence at the time of passing this Act. the claim for the land embraced within the limits of the same may be made by the corporate authority of the said city, town, or village."

Interestingly, procedures within this Act placed the burden of proof upon individuals seeking to confirm their private land claims. It must be remembered that the cost of this litigation and confirming process was charged to the applicant. It is true that these procedures discouraged the filing of fraudulent claims. What was problematic for those Hispanics and Hispanos seeking to validate their claims, the Act forced them to be encumbered by costly lawyers for which the majority had little or no money for this purpose. There was also the difficulty of finding absolute proof of ownership related to the different laws, customs, and languages involved. In addition was the burden of the time involved for the landowners to receive a final patent to their land. The average length of time for a final patent to be issued, after the filing of an original petition, was seventeen years. Some took as long as, thirty-five to forty years.

At the start of the Méjicano-Américano War in 1846 C.E., many Apache bands promised Américano soldiers safe passage through their land, though other tribes fought in defense of Méjico and against the influx of new Américano settlers into New Mexico. When the United States claimed the frontier territories of Méjico in 1848 C.E., Mangas Coloradas signed a peace treaty, respecting the Américanos as the conquerors of the Méjico’s land. The treaty signed at Santa Fé on April 2, 1851 C.E., "The Jicarilla Apaches were expected to comply with the terms of the treaty immediately, yet as far as the Nuevo Méjicanos were concerned, their part of the agreement would only go into effect after the Congress had ratified it. Unfortunately, for all involved the United States Congress never ratified the treaty. Despite this, an uneasy peace between the Apache and the Américanos had remained. This was until large numbers of gold miners began entering into the Santa Rita Mountains of present-day Arizona and their presence led to conflicts.

By May of 1851 C.E., in California, General Persifer F. Smith was succeeded in command of the Third division by Brevet Brigadier General Ethan A. Hitchcock. Hitchcock soon moved the Division headquarters from the San Francisco presidio to Benicia, a waterside city in Solano County, California, which located in the today’s North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. 

On October 27, 1851 C.E., the Joint Commission of Navy and Engineer Officers modified its San Francisco area reservation recommendation of March 31, 1850 C.E., in accord with their report.

On December 31, 1851 C.E., President Fillmore modified his order of November 6, 1850 C.E., to embrace in the San Francisco area reservation. It was to be from the promontory of Point José (Point San José) within boundaries not less than eight hundred yards from its northern extremity. The presidio tract and Fort Point, would embrace all the land north of a line running in a westerly direction from the southeastern corner of the presidio tract, to the southern extremity of a pond lying between Fort Point and Point Lobos, and passing through the middle of said pond and its outlet to the channel of entrance from the ocean.

Later, on May 9, 1876 C.E., by act of congress the city of San Francisco was given eighty feet of the eastern frontage of the presidio reservation for a street, determined the fence of Captain Keyes to be the eastern line of the presidio. Accordingly, the fence was set back eighty feet. It has since been replaced by a stone wall. In making his survey, Keyes did not conform to the line parallel with Larkin Street, but ran it easterly of the line.  This made a considerable reduction in the size of the city blocks abutting on Lyon Street.

The discovery of gold in California renewed Américano interest in what remained of Méjicano territory in today’s American West and Southwest. Knowing that silver and gold are often found near deposits of common metals, Américano capitalists and speculators focused their interest on Méjico’s northern states of Sonora and Chihuahua. Both were rich in deposits of copper. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, like the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819 C.E., stood in the way of Américano profit-making ventures and had to be renegotiated.

This caused some dissatisfaction with the vast territorial concessions of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. In 1852 C.E., the United States demanded more land from Méjico. Of specific concern was the boundary set by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which left Méjico in possession of the Santa Rita copper mine in upper Chihuahua and other known copper deposits across northern Sonora. In addition, there was the Américano interest in the flat land south of the Río Gila which could provide an easy route for a southern United States trans-continental railroad.

To remedy the situation, the Américano President Franklin Pierce appointed James Gadsden, a wealthy railroad tycoon from the South, as Minister to Méjico. He then sent him to negotiate a land deal. The offer included a purchase of up to $25 million for the land. Some have speculated that the negotiations also included a $200,000 bribe for Santa Anna, then presidente of the Méjicano republic. Together with the ever-present threat of another Américano military invasion, negotiations were considered prudent by the Méjicanos.

Again, the Américanos employed the strategy that had proven so successful in obtaining España’s Las Florida and later Méjico’s Tejas. Américano immigrants had been infiltrating across the Río Grande and settling in the Mesilla Valley in the state of Chihuahua since the end of the Méjicano-Américano War. It has also been suggested that before Gadsden began his negotiations, Américano soldiers were moved upstream from El Paso to a strategic position. From there, they could move rapidly cross the river to "protect endangered Américano lives." Presidente Santa Anna had been kept abreast of the situation in the Mesilla Valley. Knowing how ruthlessness the Américanos could be, it is believed by some that he took bribe money and instructed his ministers to sign whatever terms that the United States offered.

Gadsden returned to Washington with a treaty which would gouge out a large portion of remaining Méjicano territory. It should be mentioned here that just as in the case of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, there were many powerful Américanos who wanted to exploit the Gadsden Treaty opportunity to obtain more. The new treaty moved the international boundary from the Río Gila approximately 125 miles south to its present location. This new boundary removed the upper parts of the Méjicano states of Chihuahua and Sonora. This transitioned another 30,000 square miles of the Méjicano republic to the United States. The United States ended up paying only fifty-three cents an acre for the land that became part of the states of New Mexico and Arizona. Santa Anna's lack of successful negotiations enraged the Ciudádanos of Méjico. It resulted in his ouster from office. He was also forced to spend the next twenty years of his life in exile.

Gadsden had compelled the Méjicano government to sign three separate drafts of the treaty. The first draft was the one that Gadsden and some wealthy, influential, and powerful cronies lobbied for. It set the international boundary on the 30th parallel, from a point in the middle of the Río Grande 31 miles north of the present Ojinaga-Presidio River crossing, due west to the Gulf of California. This draft also ceded all of Baja California to the United States. In addition, it would have taken approximately 132,000 square miles more than the final draft which was adopted.

The same issue, the Free State vs. Slave state issue, was likely what foiled the annexation of all of Méjico during the ratification of the previous Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty. It is likely that this same issue so powerful in the United States was responsible for the defeat of that most troublesome draft of the Gadsden Treaty. In the final analysis, the Gadsden Treaty did end further Américano expansion into Méjicano territory.

By 1852 C.E., the state capital of California was again moved, this time to Vallejo. It is that waterfront city in Solano County, California, which located in the North Bay sub-region of today’s San Francisco Bay Area. It would remain there until to 1853 C.E.

The 1852 C.E. California Census found that the population of San Francisco had exploded from about 200 in 1846 C.E. to 36,000. There was small number of Hispanics shown in 1852 C.E. California Census recount. This number, however, is subject to some debate.

In New Mexico, Agapita Ribera Roybal daughter of José Luís Ribera, my progenitor, was born in New Mexico on October 7, 1852 C.E.

BIRTH: October 7, 1852 C.E.

San Miguel County, New Mexico, USA

DEATH: December 8, 1892 C.E. (aged 40)

San Miguel County, New Mexico, USA

BURIAL: Old Saint Anthonys Church Cemetery

Pecos, San Miguel County, New Mexico, USA

MEMORIAL ID: 170889848 

Agapita married Julian Roybal on November 25, 1875 C.E. in Pecos, New Mexico.

Concerns over American West and Southwest and marauding Indian attacks on Méjicano citizens, was finally resolved. The United States was released by Article II of the Gadsden Purchase of 1853 C.E. from all obligations of the Article XI of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. These had committed to a potential benefit to Méjico. The Américanos pledged to suppress the Comanche and Apache raids that had ravaged northern Méjico and pay restitutions to the victims of raids it could not prevent. Unfortunately, for those of the newly established American West and Southwest, and Méjico Indian raids continued against settlers. It wasn't until that same year, of 1853 C.E., that the Américano army became involved in the one of those confrontations, the Jicarilla Apache War.

In California, by 1853 C.E., Lieutenant-Colonel Mason the engineer in charge of the work at Fort Point died. He was succeeded by Major J. G. Barnard who demolished the San Francisco presidio’s old fort, the Castillo de San Joaquín, and the site cut-down to the water's edge. A new fort, Winfield Scott, was then built.

The state capital of California was moved again to Benicia in 1853 C.E. It remained there through 1854 C.E.

By 1854 C.E., in California, the final selection of a state capital was made. It was Sacramento.

The Américano Gadsden Purchase Treaty was signed on December 30, 1853 C.E., by James Gadsden, ambassador to Méjico. It established the northeastern section of the disputed Américano-Méjico boundary. The territorial enlargement of the United States via the Gadsden Purchase, known in Méjico as Venta de La Mesilla, "Sale of La Mesilla," is a 29,670-square-mile region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. 

By 1854 C.E., there were tensions caused by increased Américano migration west to California following the Gold Rush. There were also the subsequent gains in Américano territory encroaching upon traditional Indian lands. These manifested themselves into the Sioux Wars of 1854 C.E.-1890 C.E. fought in Wyoming, Minnesota and South Dakota. As the Américanos moved across the Mississippi into "Indian Country," the Sioux under Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse resisted. Waves of settlers and prospectors began encroaching on their hunting grounds.

Fort Davis (1854 C.E.-1891 C.E.) located in the Davis Mountains in Texas, was a frontier military post established to protect emigrants, mail coaches, and freight during the Indian wars in the Southwest. 8th Infantry troops from Fort Ringgold, Texas, under Lieutenant Colonel Washington Seawell founded the post. It was strategically located in relation to emigrant and Indian trails and on the Trans-Pecos portion of the San Antonio-El Paso Road and on the Chihuahua Trail. The Fort was the largest and most important of the outer ring of defensive posts all the way to El Paso.

Located near a site known as Painted Comanche Camp, it was at the eastern edge of the Davis Mountains, north of the Big Bend of the Río Grande. The new fort was situated just south of Limpia Canyon in a small box canyon, lined by low basaltic ridges. The Fort afforded an adequate water supply from nearby Limpia Creek which was mandatory in the arid region. The surrounding area had a good timber supply for construction and fuel. It also had a healthful climate.  Lieutenant Colonel Seawell was never able to build the more permanent the post he had originally envisioned to the east at the mouth of the canyon. Instead, over time, the 8th Infantry erected a collection of tent-like structures and thatch-roofed buildings of log, picket, frame, and stone stretching along the length of the canyon. Once encamped, the Américano troops would make little progress pacifying the Indians in the Southwest region.

Mail-carrying stagecoaches that operated on a local and interregional basis from 1854 C.E.-1861 C.E. continued to be tempting targets to the Indian marauders. Traveling through Fort Davis over the San Antonio-El Paso Road, they offered connections with St. Louis, Santa Fé, and California. These included the George H. Giddings (1854 C.E.-1857 C.E.) mail-carrying stagecoaches in the Southwest that operated on a local and interregional.

In 1854 C.E., the United States government established the Office of the Surveyor General of New Mexico to ascertain "the origin, nature, character, and extent to all claims to lands under the laws, usages, and customs of España and Méjico." The Surveyor General’s responsibilities included making recommendations to the American Congress regarding the validity of land grant claims in New Mexico. The Office considered approximately 180 claims, excluding Pueblo grants. It confirmed 46 non-Pueblo grants. The Surveyor General would prove to be unsuccessful in confirming the validity of Nuevo Méjicano land grants.

Also, during this period, cattle barons, such as John Simpson Chisum started rounding up longhorns along the southeastern plains. They often battled native landholders for them. In 1854 C.E., Chisum entered the cattle business. He was one of the first to send his herds to New Mexico Territory. There, he obtained land along the Pecos River by right of occupancy and eventually became the owner of a large ranch in the Bosque Grande with over 100,000 head of cattle, about forty miles south of Fort Sumner.

On March 30, 1854 C.E., the American 1st Cavalry Regiment and a group of Jicarilla Apaches and possibly their Ute allies, fought at the Battle of Cieneguilla, near what is now Pilar, New Mexico. It was a significant Apache victory.

After an earlier Américano defeat at the Battle of Cieneguilla, where the Apaches had nearly wiped out the 60 Américano soldiers under the command of First Lieutenant John Wynn Davidson, the enraged Américanos retaliated against those Indian tribes who were responsible. After raising a force of 300 soldiers and 32 Indian allies, they searched for the Anishinabek or Jicarilla Apache. On April 8, 1854 C.E., the small Américano military force located a larger force of some 150 Anishinabe warriors and their allies and attacked. This engagement of the Jicarilla Apache warriors and their Ute allies against the United States Army was to be known as, The Battle of Ojo Caliente Canyon. This New Mexico battle was an Américano victory. There were very few casualties in the battle. Anishinabe casualties consisted of 5 killed and 6 wounded. There were no Américano casualties.

There was great difficulty in the United State Senate ratifying a revised Gladstone Purchase treaty on April 25, 1854 C.E. This was a result of the increasing of strife between the northern and southern states regarding the issue of Free states vs. Slave states. The new treaty reduced the amount paid to Méjico to $10 million dollars. It also reduced the land purchased to 29,670 square miles. Interestingly, it also removed any mention of Native American attacks and private claims.

On April 25, 1854 C.E., the United States Senate finally voted in favor of ratifying The Gadsden Purchase, though with amendments. The United States had sought the land as a better route for the construction of the southern transcontinental railway line. It then transmitted it to 14th President Franklin Pierce. It completed the last Américano land acquisition from Méjico for its new Southwest. It also ended the thirty-five year campaign for territory against España and Méjico. The United States had acquired over one million square miles of land. Placing this in a context for America’s size today, over 33.8 percent of the land area of the lower forty-eight Américano states is former Spanish or Méjicano territory. One has only to subtract the amount of land ceded by España from the total of one million square miles, this leaves over 31 percent of the land of the lower forty-eight states having originally belonged to Méjico.

The government of António López de Santa Anna agreed to the sale, which netted Méjico $10 million or the equivalent to $270 million in today’s dollars. In difficult financial straits, Méjico’s government and its General Congress or Congress of the Union gave final approval of The Gadsden Purchase on June 8, 1854 C.E. in 2017 C.E.). 

President Pierce signed the treaty and Gadsden presented the new treaty to Santa Anna, who signed it on June 8, 1854 C.E.

After Gadsden’s Purchase, a new border dispute caused tension over the United States’ payment. The Treaty had failed to resolve the issues surrounding financial claims and border attacks.

Despite this, the vast majority of Américano policymakers at the time thought that the United States would later under the right conditions expand further into Méjico. Américano Western land speculators and northern capitalists, continued in their interest to acquire the entirety of Méjico. Their intent was to eventually profit from the sale of the lands as they had earlier in the Américano Mid-west and South. Politically, these had sided with the annexationists in preparation to act upon the proposed annexation of all of Mexico. The result was a bitter political struggle within the United States Senate by opposing sides. In the end, the ongoing push for the extension of slavery into new territories and states, which had initially driven American expansion in the South and Southwest, would be the same issue to tip the balance against Méjico’s annexation.

Here, it is useful to briefly explain the decades-long American march of Manifest Destiny. Its campaign of geographic expansion was almost religious in fervor. To suggest otherwise would be to foolishly miss the obvious.

Many historical writers offer racism and ethnic hatred as answers for the underlying reasons of the woes of Hispanics in the United States of 19th-Century C.E., and later centuries. Therefore, it is necessary to objectivity analyze what occurred, and why. If only life were that simple.

The previous basis to all land acquisitions on the Continent by Europeans had been two fold. First, was the concept of “Divine Right.” This doctrine contended that kings and queens have a God-given right to rule, and that rebellion against this right is seen as a sin. The second was that of “Right of Conquest.”  In international law, it is seen as the acquisition of territory through force, especially by a victorious state in a war at the expense of a defeated state. An effective conquest takes place when physical appropriation or annexation of territory is followed by “subjugation.” This would constitute the legal process of transferring title of that territory.

With bribery and the use of military force the French, Spanish, and Russian European monarchs were removed from the Continent. Only the United States, Great Britain, and Méjico remained. One might say that in the case of the American blind obedience to the sovereign was replaced by the will of man, freedom, and his right to vote, and vote they did. They elected officials who understood their will and ensured that these compliant officials followed it.

The logical extension of this was American “Manifest Destiny.” The phrase was coined by the editor, John O'Sullivan, of the United States Magazine and Democratic Review in the July-August 1845 C.E. edition under the title "Annexation." This essay appeared in the July-August 1845 edition under the title "Annexation." Manifest Destiny is that 19th-Century C.E. doctrine or belief which suggests that the expansion of the United States of America throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable. Its advocates believed that the United States was destined by God to expand its dominion and spread democracy and capitalism across the entire North American Continent. Like their Massachusetts Puritan forefathers before them, who had hoped to build a "city upon a hill," these courageous American pioneers of 19th-Century C.E. believed that America had a divine obligation to stretch the boundaries of their noble republic to the Pacific Ocean. 

With the annexation of all of Méjico at an end, the fifty-year campaign by the United States to take the majority of the North American Continent was complete. First to be dealt had been the Oregon Country issue. The United Kingdom had earlier claimed the region west of the Continental Divide between the undefined borders of Alta California and Russian Alaska. The Third Nootka Convention of 1794 C.E. had called for the joint and exclusive British-Spanish exploitation of the region. The United States, however, claimed the same region based upon the voyage of Robert Gray up the Columbia River in 1792 C.E. and the United States Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804 C.E.-1806 C.E. The Americans had also establishment Fort Astoria on the Columbia River in 1811 C.E. for leverage.

In October 20, 1818 C.E., the Anglo-American Convention of 1818 C.E. had been signed by United States and the United Kingdom. In it they agreed on the border being established between British North America and the United States of America east of the Continental Divide along the 49th parallel north. The Convention called for joint Anglo-American occupancy west of the Great Divide. The Nootka Convention of 1794 C.E. was ignored by both parties. It had given España joint rights in the region. The Convention also ignored the rights of Russian settlements in the region.

Next, the Américanos moved against España by taking control of her Las Floridas as part of the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819 C.E. In 1821 C.E., the Américano Territory of Florida was established and Andrew Jackson became the first governor of Florida.

It was then Méjico’s turn. The Méjicano-Américano War proved to be devastating for Méjico and a triumph for America. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed on February 2, 1848 C.E., between the Américanos and the Méjicanos expanded the United States from the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. The Treaty and effect guaranteed slavery in Texas, putting-off for now the issue of ongoing issue of Free states vs. Slave states. Américano "Manifest Destiny," had met its ultimate goal for the North American Continent. The Méjicano government’s 27 year control of past Spanish North American territories had come to an end.

Here, it is important to remember that Méjico, after independence from España, had remained politically and economically unstable. In the 27 years prior to 1848 C.E., it had approximately 40 changes of government. These government entities had an average life-span of 7.9 months each. This inevitably impacted the stability of all of its provincias.

Méjico’s taking of former Spanish provincias such as Alta California, that large, sparsely settled, impoverished, backwater had been no bargain. The provincia paid little or no net tax, thus providing no meaningful revenue to the Méjicano Nation. In addition, Alta California’s Misión System had been in a state of decline. Its Misión Indian population in Alta California had continued to rapidly decrease negatively impacting their need for a readily available labor force.

Once Méjico was made to understand the error of her ways, then the Américanos could consolidate their newly won lands and expand American control and colonization, simple and logical, no. Doable, yes! In any event, she would do her best.

By November 15, 1854 C.E., the Catholic Church sent Archbishop Jean Baptiste Lamy to New Mexico. Once there, he found only ten Catholic priests were in the whole of New Mexico, and these were neglectful and extortionate. He immediately began to update the area's isolated, various worshipping practices. Lamy also found churches in ruins and no schools. In time his administration established schools, hospitals, and orphanages throughout the region. The Church would have undoubtedly been concerned about Américano Protestant encroachment upon its once exclusive religious domain.

On December 28, 1854 C.E., the Américano Surveyor-General William Pelham arrived in American Santa Fé to begin the process of investigating the legitimacy of Spanish and Méjicano land grants. Pursuant to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and based largely on the historical Nuevo Méjico archives, he began his work. He did this to ensure that land rights would be protected to the degree possible.

During the period, the remainder of the United States had not remained quite. The Third Seminole War (1855 C.E.-1858 C.E.) had begun. The Seminole mounted their final stand against the United States in the Florida Everglades under the Seminole Chief Billy Bowlegs. Chief Bowlegs would eventually surrender. He and others would then be deported to Indian Territory in Oklahoma.

The Rogue River War of 1855 C.E.-1856 C.E. in southwestern Oregon had begun with attacks on Rogue River Valley Indian people. It has been suggested that these attacks by the Américanos were meant to start a war that would employ miners unable to work because of a drought. In the end, they would be defeated, with Indian survivors forced onto reservations.

By the mid-1850s C.E. there were over ten Pacific and ten Atlantic/Caribbean paddle wheel steamboats shuttling high valued freight like passengers, gold, and mail between California and both the Pacific and Caribbean ports.

Though relations in California between settlers and natives were good prior to the mid-1800s C.E., this soon changed by the mid-1850s C.E. with the increased migration west following the gold rush and subsequent gains in territory.

By this time, the Indian tribes of California were in a degraded and miserable condition. The most numerous were the Shoshone, the Blackfeet, and the Crows. Many of them had been brought to a poorly civilized state and were employed at the different ranches. Those in the neighborhood of the Sierra Nevada were having trouble adjusting to civilization, treacherous, and ferocious. They wander the landscape, for the most part entirely naked, and subsisting upon roots, acorns, and pine cones.

It was said that since the discovery of the gold, they had acquired some knowledge of its usefulness, but having no clear concept of its value. They are generally of medium stature, dark skin and hair, said to be devoid of intellectual expression. Many Americans found them inferior to the Indians east of the Rocky Mountains, and those of the Atlantic States.

Soon after the discovery of the placers, in today’s Placer County which is included in the Greater Sacramento metropolitan area of California, the Indians displayed their hostility by attacking straggling miners. Soon they grew bolder, committed serious plundering the mining areas furthest toward the Sierra Nevada. The murder of a number of Oregonians led to a destructive warfare between the European settlers and Indians.

Property of the diggers such as horses and cattle had been carried away, and much damage had been done by the marauding Indians. Because of these outrages, exasperated well-armed and well-mounted miners launched a war of extermination. Eight Indians, with a number of squaws and papooses, were captured and brought into Culloma (Coloma) in today’s El Dorado County, California. These came within the jurisdiction of Judge Lynch. They were condemned to be shot. But the squaws and papooses were liberated.

The bloody war carried on, with more than a hundred Indians being killed to for the deaths of the slaughtered Oregonians. In time, the Indians were driven into the snows of Sierra Nevada. This they saw as their only place of refuge which afforded them safety from the pursuers.

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