Lost Journals of a Pioneer.—I. [pp. 75-90]

The Lost Journals of a Pioneer.
pose is directly inconsistent with it, Fremont
being in personal and political antagonism
with the interests of the settlers of the State,
and being the direct head and representative
of the owners and claimants of the fictitious
Spanish and Mexican grants that curse the
whole State of California.
Friday, 7th AMarc/h. Clear, cool.-Among
the absurdities of the day concerning California, and showing the necessity of looking
out a better set of officers, legislative, congressional, and executive, is a provision said
to be contained in Senator Gwin's mail route
bill: a direction that the mail shall be carried twice a week to Benicia from San Francisco, by way of Saucelito, San Rafael, Petaluma, Sonoma, and Napa, on horseback.
The ridiculous becomes almost imposing in
this array, Saucelito being north of Benicia,
and the other towns the same, and Sonoma
at least thirty miles inland; so that the mail
would have to diverge from the direct route
to Benicia, which should be the starting point,
zigzag through the country, and finally come
back to Benicia on horseback. How Saucelito is to be reached by this method of
traveling is not stated. Probably eschewing
steamboats, the mail is to be carried around
the south end of the Bay, the mail rider then
to swim the Suisun Bay, and pass silently
and coldly through Benicia hurry on to Saucelito, get a dry shirt, and deliver the packages due that extensive city, thence travel to
San Rafael, Sonoma, and Napa, and return
by the way of Benicia, and Bay of Suisun to
San Francisco. A very agreeable, but neither a very practicable nor speedy one, so far
as my knowledge of the country enables me
to judge.
Tuesday, zuth Marchi. Clear, cold.-The
excitement at the Bay on the subject of criminals has taken a new form. The "Herald"
seizes the occasion to malign and traduce
Judge Parsons, who, in return, has punished
the editor, a Mr. Walker, for contempt of
court, and remitted him to prison to expiate
his offenses. That the time calls imperatively for the exertion of all the powers of the
judiciary, to reduce to subjection the mob
spirit that inflames our State in every quarter,
and renders its name infamous abroad, as it
does its laws a despicable mockery, a very
curse, destructive to honest men, while affording safety to scoundrels, every honorable
and right thinking and feeling man must see
and acknowledge.... The community
was and is incensed at the executive and judicial officers of the county, under the impression that they had failed to perform the
duties imposed by law upon them, and that
in consequence of this negligence, criminals
had in numerous instances escaped unpunished, and crimes had increased, as the necessary effect of impunity.... The defendants most assuredly have violated the law,
and merited severe punishment for conduct
calculated to produce anarchy, and destroy
every social safeguard which protects the life
and the character of citizens.... Judge
Parsons, therefore, stands in the honorable
attitude of an officer prepared firmly to enforce the respect due to the law, and to
maintain the law uninjured, despite the tumult of the crowd, or the efforts of the unworthy to foster licentiousness and secure
immunity to crime; and this entitles him to
the cordial support of all men who desire to
have the laws steadily, honestly, and correctly
enforced, and mobs, which are covering California with disgrace by the infamous proceedings of lynch law, giving immunity to the real
criminal, while the honest but unknown citizen is surrounded with perpetual dangers,
subdued and dispersed.
Thursday, 131th Marc/i. Clear, warm.A bill, according to the reports from San
J os6, has been introduced to discontinue the
trials of Dr. Charles Robinson and others
for murder, assault with intent to kill, and
conspiracy. This is a proceeding as novel
as peremptory. I have heard of granting
new trials by legislature, but not of legislative acquittal of offenses. That these men
are innocent of any such violation of the law
as should subject them to the penalty of
either of these offenses is certain; yet the laws
of the State are not so feeble and inefficient
that we need appeal to the legislature to stay
the prosecutions.... Such a disposition of
these proceedings may be more grateful to
82
[Jan.