homes. Yet for this just and most beneficent judgment
there went up from a multitude, who had become interested in the
sales, a fierce howl of rage and hate. Attacks full of venom were
made upon Judge Baldwin and myself, who had agreed to the decision.
No epithets were too vile to be applied to us; no imputations were too
gross to be cast at us. The Press poured out curses upon our heads.
Anonymous circulars filled with falsehoods, which malignity alone
could invent, were spread broadcast throughout the city, and letters
threatening assassination in the streets or by-ways were sent to us
through the mail. The violence of the storm, however, was too great to
last. Gradually it subsided and reason began to assert its sway. Other
words than those of reproach were uttered; and it was not many months
before the general sentiment of the people of the city was with the
decision. A year did not elapse before the great good it had conferred
upon the city and settler was seen and appreciated. Since then its
doctrines have been repeatedly re-affirmed. They have been approved by
the Supreme Court of the United States; and now no one doubts their
soundness.

After that decision there was still wanting for the complete
settlement of titles in the city the confirmation by the tribunals of
the United States of her claim to the lands. The act of Congress of
March 3d, 1851, creating the Board of Land Commissioners, provided
that all claims to land in California, by virtue of any right or title
derived from the Spanish or Mexican government, should be presented to
the board for examination and adjudication. Accordingly, the city
of San Francisco, soon after the organization of the board, in 1852,
presented her claim for four square leagues as successor of the
_pueblo_, and asked for its confirmation. In December, 1854, the board
confirmed the claim for a portion of the four square leagues, but not
for the whole; the portion confirmed being embraced within the charter
limits of 1851. The city was dissatisfied with this limitation, and
appealed from the decision of the Commissioners to the District Court
of the United States. An appeal was also taken by the United States,
but was subsequently withdrawn. The case remained in the District
Court without being disposed of until September, 1864, nearly ten
years, when, under the authority of an act of Congress of July 1st
of that year, it was transferred to the Circuit Court of the United
Stat