ions of this party of Americans had virtually been unauthorized,
and they would have been responsible to the United States for so doing,
however, it was their intention to turn over their conquests to the
United States as soon as possible. But the Mexican military authorities
regarded the actions of these Americans as a gross hostility, and from
all sides prepared to attack them. The position of this plucky little
band now became very perilous, and again they laid their cause and
dangers before Fremont, who was in his camp on the American River. Now
the Captain did not hesitate in his decision and with a small mounted
force began action on the field. Fremont was a man of many commendable
qualities, possessed of bright mentality, unwavering and extremely loyal
to the American cause, but he had his failings, among them being that on
several occasions he took advantage of the tangled state of affairs, to
seize upon personal property considered without the range of his lawful
power to take, hence the dislike that exists for him among many old
California residents; still it was the "Pathfinder" as he was called,
who with Commodore Robert Stockton, Lieutenant Archibald Giliespie in
command at Los Angeles, General Stephen Kearny and some others fought
the brief battles which terminated in the raising of the American flag
at the Custom House of Monterey on July 7, 1846, thus was California
admitted into the Union as a territory. By a treaty of peace which
followed the Mexican War, California was ceded to the United States for
the sum of $15,000,000 in 1848. Among Monterey's landmarks Colton Hall
is pointed out as the place where representative men from various parts
of California convened and framed the first American Constitution for
the State, September 3, 1849. On November third of the same year the
first election was held, with the result that Peter H. Burnett was
elected Governor, John McDougall, Lieutenant-Governor, and Edward
Gilbert and John Wright first Congressmen from California. From Monterey
the State Capital was removed to San Jose, where John Fremont and
William Gwin were appointed senators, and it was they who pressed
the Government to admit California as a state, with the result that
California was admitted as such on September 9, 1850. Major Robert
Selden Garnett, U. S. A. designed the state seal.

In 1854 the capital was removed to Sacramento from Benicia which held it
one year, San Jose having held it two yea