Mr. Burnett was quite prominent in Oregon affairs until 1848, when he was attracted to California by its rich gold fields, and after a time he sent for his family to join him there.
In August, 1849, he was chosen one of the Judges of the Supreme Tribunal of California, and on the 13th of November of that year he was elected Governor. The Constitutional Convention had been held in September and October. California was admitted a state September 9, 1850. Governor Burnett sent in his resignation in January, 1851, and resumed the practice of law. In 1857-8 he served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the State. Later he engaged in the banking business.
In 1880 there was issued from the press of D. Appleton & Co. the "Recollections and Opinions of an Old Pioneer," written by Mr. Burnett. It is an extremely interesting narrative of his life in Missouri, Oregon and California, and valuable for its history of pioneer life on the Pacific Coast.
In the annual address before the Oregon Pioneers at Portland, in April, 1895, appears the following:
"Perhaps the demise of no one has attracted more widespread attention nor caused deeper sorrow on the Pacific Coast than the death of the late Peter H. Burnett, the first Governor of California, and an Oregon Pioneer of 1843, who had served in the legislature and was one of the justices of the supreme court."
Jesse Applegate was the only other gentleman who was with the 1843 immigration who might possibly have written the letters, but they contain dates, locations and facts that make sure the declaration that Burnett wrote them.
A discussion between William I. Marshall, the author of the "Acquisition of Oregon," and Professor Schafer, of the University of Oregon, regarding this book, the authorship of its letters, etc., was published in the Oregonian in 1903. Both gentleman seem to have agreed that letters written by Mr. Burnett and by him sent to the New York Herald for publication formed the basis of Part II of Wilkes' book, but they disagreed as to the value of the work as an "Original Source" of history. References to places and affairs in Oregon were quoted in substantiation of their conclusions. In this connection both gentlemen seem to have overlooked a paragraph on page 113 that, to my mind, is more nearly conclusive than the others, as follows:
"The more extended political organization of which I before spoke, is about to take place, and I was waited upon two or three days ago by a party from the Falls, to consult upon a plan of general territorial government, with a legislature of two houses, and a Chief Justice for its first executive officer. This arrangement will embrace all the settlements of the valley into one common government, the representatives of which will convene in general congress, at stated periods, at Multnomah or Oregon City, and there transact all the necessary business for our little body politic. When this plan is adopted, (as it doubtless will immediately be) it will perhaps, be the peculiar honor of your humble servant, to sit in a curule chair of the first Republican Government beyond the Rocky Mountains. We shall then be able to make our own laws, and likewise do our own voting and our own fighting."
A few months later Mr. Burnett was chosen Chief Justice of Oregon, under its provisional government, thus fulfilling the prediction in his letter above quoted.
Wilkes must have written considerable of Part II of his book before acquiring the letters, and then instead of rewriting it he tried to work in the letters. In some places this was quite clumsily done. The first chapter is nearly all fictitious, both in names and facts. Robbins, Smith, Harris, Baker, Brown, McFarley, Wayne and Dumberton were not members of the party, and near the bottom of page 65 Burnett is introduced to Peter H. Burnett. Why Wilkes should have failed to give the name of the writer is unexplainable. In minor details it was often inaccurate, but in important facts and in giving intending emigrants information about Oregon and those on the way there valuable facts about roads, fords, grass, distances, etc., it was reliable.