y of State, dispatched Lieutenant Gillespie, of the United
States Army, _via_ Vera Cruz, the City of Mexico, and Mazatlan, to
Monterey, Upper California, ostensibly with dispatches to a consul,
but really for the purpose of presenting a mere _letter of
introduction_ and a verbal request to Captain John C. Fremont,
U.S.A., then on an exploring expedition to the Pacific Coast. The
Lieutenant found Fremont at the north end of the Great Klamath
Lake, Oregon, in the midst of hostile Indians. The _letter_ being
presented, Gillespie verbally communicated from the Secretary a
request for him to counteract any foreign scheme on California,
and to cultivate the good-will of the inhabitants towards the United
States.

On this information Fremont returned, in May, 1846 (the month the
war opened on the Rio Grande), to the valley of the Sacramento.
His arrival there was timely, as already the ever-grasping hand of
the British was at work. There had been inaugurated (1) the massacre
of American settlers, (2) the subjection of California to British
protection, and (3) the transfer of its public domain to British
subjects. Fremont did not even know war had broken out between
the United States and Mexico, yet he organized at first a defensive
war in the Sacramento Valley for the protection of American settlers,
and blood was shed; then he resolved to overturn the Mexican
authority, and establish "California Independence." The celerity
with which all this was accomplished was romantic. In thirty days
all Northern California was freed from Mexican rule--the flag of
independence raised; American settlers were saved, and the British
party overthrown.

Since its discovery by Sir Francis Drake--two hundred years--England
had sought to possess the splendid Bay of California, with its
great seaport and the tributary country. The war between the United
States and Mexico seemed her opportune time for the acquisition,
but her efforts, both by sea and land, were thwarted by her only
less voracious daughter.(61)

Often in human affairs events concur to control or turn aside the
most carefully guarded plans. California and the other Mexican
acquisitions were by the war party--the slave propagandists--fore-
ordained to be slave territory. The free State men had done little
to favor its theft and purchase, and it was therefore claimed that
they of right should have little interest in its disposition.

Just nine days (January 24, 1848) bef