“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 President 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.