At the time when this moon-lit picnic of four took place on the steamer’s deck, as it glided northward over the glassy surface of the immense Pacific, the people of California had not yet heard about the disclosure of the famous Colton suit. This suit was hidden in the mists of a distant future, and therefore the famous “Huntington Letters” had not come forth to educate the American mind in the fascinating, meandering, shady ways of “convincing,” or of “bribery and corruption,” as the newspapers and committee reports have harshly stigmatized Mr. Huntington’s diplomacy(!) At that time, 1872,1 people yet spoke of “bribery” with a degree of shamefacedness and timidity. It was reserved for Mr. Huntington to familiarize the American people with the fact that an American gentleman could go to Washington with the avowed purpose of influencing legislation by “convincing” people with money or other inducements, and yet no one lose caste, or lose his high social or public position, but on the contrary, the convinced and the convincer be treated with the most distinguished consideration.2 So after drinking half of his second glass, George said:
“I don’t believe the stories about Washington being such a corrupt place, where people get everything by bribing. That is a shameful slander. I went there about that dismissal of the Squatters’ Appeal, and was treated like a gentleman, even by the Solicitor General, who was outrageously unjust to us. After my uncle had sent to the Attorney General Don Mariano’s letter explaining the case and stating how the transcript had been in Washington two years, I went as Don Mariano’s attorney to look after the case. I saw the Attorney General immediately, and he told me to return at ten o’clock next morning. I did so, and was shown in at once. He said:
“ ‘I looked at the case again last evening, and don’t see where those settlers can find a hook on which to hang their appeal. There isn’t any. It is very singular that this case has not been dismissed before by my predecessor. So I was just telling the Solicitor General, as you entered, to have it dismissed this morning. I have explained my opinion to him. He is going now to the Supreme Court and can make the motion and tell the clerk to enter the dismissal to-day. The United States have no case against Señor Alamar, his title is perfectly good,’ said he, looking at the Solicitor, who stood by silent and motionless. ‘You have only this one case to attend to this morning, besides the one I want continued until I return. The others, you understand, I leave you to manage as you think proper, and at such times as you think best.’
“I thanked the Attorney General, and as I took my leave I said I did not know he was going away.
“ ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I am going this evening to Oregon to see my constituents, but my absence will not affect your case, the Solicitor General takes my place during my absence, and he has only to say before the Supreme Court that I enter a dismissal, and that ends the matter.’
“As I went out I said to the Solicitor, ‘I suppose then, this business is finished now?’
“ ‘Such is the supposition,’ said he, and we went out together. I had a great mind to follow him to the Supreme Court and see what he was going to do, but I thought he might not like being watched. Well, sir, would you believe it? That man went to the Supreme Court and never said boo about our dismissal. Next morning I went to ask him if the dismissal was entered. He sent word he was engaged,—to call again. I called in the afternoon, and he had left the office. Next morning I called again; and he of course was engaged. I went to the clerk of the Supreme Court, and giving him the number of the case, asked if it had been dismissed. He said no, that the Solicitor General had been at the Supreme Court every day, but had entered no dismissal. I telegraphed to Uncle Lawrence to come, and as soon as he arrived we went to see the President3 about it. I laid the whole case before him. I told him how the squatters were destroying Don Mariano’s cattle, and how by a law of the California legislature, any one could plant grain field without fencing, and take up cattle that went to those fields, no matter whether there was any title to the land or whether the field was no larger than one acre.
“ ‘But the law does not open to settlers private property, private lands?’
“ ‘Yes it does, because land is not considered private property until the title to it is confirmed and patented. As the proceedings to obtain a patent might consume years, almost a life time, the result is that the native Californians (of Spanish descent) who were the land owners when we took California, are virtually despoiled of their lands and their cattle and horses. Congress virtually took away their lands by putting them in litigation. And the California legislature takes away their cattle, decreeing that settlers need not fence their crops, but put in a corral the cattle that will surely come to graze in their fields. As the cattle don’t know the law, they eat the crops and get killed.’
“ ‘But that is very hard on those land owners.’
“ ‘Certainly. They are being impoverished with frightful rapidity. In a few years the majority of them will have been totally ruined, socially obliterated. I doubt if a dozen families will escape ruin. There seems to be a settled purpose with our law-givers to drive the natives to poverty, and crowd them out of existence. If we don’t turn them all into hardened and most desperate criminals, it will be because they are among the most incorruptible of the human race. But there is no denying that our laws are doing all that can be done to drive them into squalid hovels, and thence into the penitentiaries or the poor houses.’
“ ‘This is certainly very sad,’ said the President, with genuine sympathy, adding after a short pause:
“ ‘Wait for me here. I’ll run across the street to the Attorney General’s office, and I’ll ask the Solicitor what it all means in this Alamar case,’ so saying he put on his hat and went out.
“ ‘That is what endears General Grant to all his friends,’ said my uncle; ‘the idea of his going personally to see the Solicitor, he the President, and only because he wishes to do a kindness.’
“ ‘I wish he had sent for the proud Solicitor to come here. This visit of the President will make him more over-bearing,’ said I. ‘I am disgusted at his most arbitrary conduct.’ ‘Wait,’ said my uncle, ‘let us hear first what he has to say to the President.’
“In a short time the President returned. He said: ‘Well, gentlemen, I cannot make out why the Solicitor did not dismiss the case, as he was ordered. He says he found that the Attorney General had not looked into the record carefully, and so he did not think the case should be dismissed.’
“ ‘But how could he have found out that the Attorney General had not looked into the case carefully only by riding from the office to the Supreme Court? He must have disobeyed the instructions of the Attorney General first, and then to justify his disobedience, trumps up the pretext that the case had not been examined,’ said uncle.
“ ‘The Attorney General did not tell him to look into the case and give his opinion. He was told that the case had been examined; that the pleadings and allegations were trivial; that the United States had no case, and the matter should be dismissed,’ I said.
“ ‘It is clear, that without authority he took upon himself to review and reverse the decision of the Attorney General,’ said my uncle.
“ ‘I don’t understand his motive or object,’ the President said. ‘But I told him I presumed he could state his opinion in writing, and he said he would. Perhaps he will give a better reason for his action than he did verbally.’
“ ‘No, sir,’ uncle said, ‘he will give no better reason, as he has none to give. He has some spite against the Attorney General, and is laying in wait to catch something to hurt him. Fortunately, he can’t use this case for any such purpose, for it is a very clear one, and the hands of the Attorney General are very clean.’
“ ‘Of course they are,’ the President said.
“ ‘And now, sir, what do you advise us to do?’ asked uncle.
“The President smiled, mused a little, and said:
“ ‘My advice would be to wait until the Attorney General returns from Oregon. I know it is a hardship for the rightful owner of the land to wait so long, but the question is, would it not be longer if the Solicitor finds other reasons to take this case into his own hands. Now he has promised me to let the matter rest until the Attorney General comes back.’
“ ‘Yes,’ my uncle said, ‘I think what you advise is the best thing to do. Evidently the Solicitor is beating the bush to start some game, and will be satisfied with a “mare’s nest,” if he can only entangle the Attorney General in it. But this is a very paltry and picayunish business for a Solicitor General, Mr. President, and it is silly, too, because he has shown his hand to little purpose. He has plainly demonstrated how anxious he is to find something against the Attorney General, but that something he hasn’t got yet.’
“The President laughed, and said: ‘You mustn’t be so hard on the Solicitor.’
“It was decided that my uncle would return to New York by the four o’clock train that afternoon, and I would remain to receive the opinion in writing which the Solicitor had promised the President he would give.
“I did not have to wait until next day for that profound opinion. As I was going to dinner at six o’clock, a messenger handed me a closed official envelope which felt quite heavy. But that was all the weight the thing possessed, for it was the lightest, most vapory composition that a grown-up man, long past boyhood, could evolve from a mature brain.
“It made me angry to read it. ‘The man is evidently not a fool, but thinks we are,’ I said to myself, and made up my mind I would go next morning and tell him to his face what I thought of his conduct and his document.
“Promptly at ten o’clock next morning I presented myself at the Attorney General’s office, and was immediately ushered before the august presence of the great Solicitor, the mighty hunter of ‘mare’s nests.’ He evidently thought I had come to thank him for his vapory effusion, for he received me quite smilingly, and without a trace of that hauteur which he had at first meant should be so crushing.
“Taking the chair he so graciously offered me, I said: ‘Sir, without meaning any direspect to the Solicitor General of the United States, I would like to inquire what is the meaning of the document I had the honor to receive from you yesterday?’
“He colored up, but still smiling, answered: ‘Did you not understand it? I thought I wrote in very plain English.’
“ ‘The English was plain enough, but I failed to catch your idea. Will you permit me to make a few enquiries?’
“ ‘Certainly.’
“ ‘You remember I was present when the Attorney General told you that he had examined the transcript carefully, and not finding that the government has any case at all, ordered you to dismiss it.’
“He bowed, but did not speak.
“I continued: ‘The Attorney General did not request you or authorize you to review his opinion. He merely said you were to dismiss the appeal, and have the clerk of the court enter in the record the order of dismissal that same morning. Had you obeyed the Attorney General’s order, you could not have had time to review his opinion, and find that it was incorrect. Has the Solicitor General the right, and is it incumbent upon him, to correct the Attorney General’s acts and opinions?’
“ ‘You evidently do not understand our relative positions, and I have not the time to instruct you.’
“ ‘Whose positions do you mean?’
“ ‘Ours—mine and the Attorney General’s.’
“ ‘Who is the head of the department—the Attorney General or the Solicitor?’
“ ‘The Attorney General.’
“ ‘Then he was your chief—your superior—when he gave the order to make the dismissal?’
“ ‘But I was not his clerk. You do not know how far it was discretionary with me to execute the order that day or not.’
“ ‘Ah, I see. The chief might issue an order, but the subaltern might only execute it if he deems it proper.’
“ ‘I am not a subaltern—I have as much authority—’
“ ‘Yes, in the absence of the Attorney General.’
“ ‘Always—when absent or present.’
“ ‘Then the department has two heads. That is, I suppose, what confused things in my mind. The matter then is to rest as it now is until the Attorney General returns?’
“ ‘Yes, I shall not remand the case, as I might have done; it will wait.’
“I took my leave then, having seen that he understood I saw through the contemptible impertinence of his conduct. That is all the satisfaction I could have then, but next winter, as soon as the Supreme Court convenes, the matter will be settled.”
“And will the squatters have to go then?” Elvira asked.
“Not immediately, unless they were to be guided by honorable motives. The rancho will be surveyed first, and then the patent issued after the survey is approved by the Surveyor General,” George replied.
“Ah! The endless red tape,” said Elvira.
“Poor papa, he has so much trouble,” Mercedes sighed. “In another year all the cattle will have been killed.”
“And the squatters will be more murderous, when they learn that their appeal is dismissed,” George said.
“Yes, I was thinking that will be the best to do to meet the emergency. I shall speak about that to Don Mariano on my return,” said Clarence.
“Yes, you help him all you can,” George said.
“Most undoubtedly. I will be able to do much more if I can persuade my father to take a correct view of the matter. But he might not, for as he has had so much trouble sustaining the rights of squatters, he has got to feel as if he were the champion of a misunderstood cause and much maligned people,” Clarence said, smiling sadly.
“No doubt, if Mr. Darrell is to be unfriendly, papa will have much more trouble to manage the others,” Elvira said.
“How singular that a man as bright and honorable as he is, can find any reason to justify ‘squatterism,’ ” said George.
“I think he began by being persuaded to take a claim in the Suscol rancho,4 honestly thinking it was government land. Afterwards the grant was confirmed, I think, but then he already felt compelled to maintain his position to justify his action, and so he began by a mistake which his pride will not let him acknowledge. I was a little child then, but I know he has had a great deal of trouble. For the last ten years we have been leasing land, but he had been wishing to have a farm of his own, so as not to be putting his labor and time and money to improve some one else’s land. Thus he was induced to come south on the representations that there was plenty of vacant government land, and that the Texas Pacific railroad would soon be built and southern California be prosperous,” said Clarence, anxious to extenuate his father’s errors.
“I shall telegraph to Don Mariano when the appeal is dismissed, so you can prepare the ground the best way you can,” said George. “And now young ladies it is near midnight, and is time for well regulated children to be asleep.”
“The moon is so lovely I could sit here for hours, watching its flashes on the water,” said Mercedes.
“So could I,” Clarence exclaimed.
“But I could not allow it, and let you both run the risk of being considered moon struck,” said George, laughing.