Through all the revolutions which convulsed the country, he held the post of United States consul, and vigilantly protected our commercial interests and the rights of our citizens. He was deeply concerned in all the measures which at length severed California from Mexico, and loaned his funds and credit to a large amount in raising means to meet the sudden exigences of the war. The Californians, to cut off these supplies, managed at last, very adroitly, to capture him, and held him as a hostage in any important contingency. But the work had already been measurably accomplished, and a restoration of prisoners soon followed. Mr. Larkin early engaged in the organization of a civil government—was a delegate from Monterey to the convention for drafting a constitution, and impressed his practical genius on many of its provisions. He has never been a candidate for any office, and resigned that of Navy Agent, with which he had been honored, as soon as the condition of public affairs would allow. His commercial enterprise and sagacity work best where they have the most scope; they have secured to him an ample fortune. His house has always been the home of the stranger; his hospitalities are ever on a scale with his ample means.
GEORGE W. WRIGHT.
Among the successful adventurers into California, Mr. Wright holds a prominent place. He was born in Massachusetts in 1816, where he received a business education, and commenced life with no capital beyond his own enterprise and sagacity. Through these he won his way to a partnership in a large commercial house, extensively engaged in the whaling service and its correlative branches of trade. Without disturbing these relations, he determined to push his adventures into California, where he arrived soon after the discovery of the placers, and engaged in the commerce of the country. Success and a rapid accumulation of capital attended his efforts. A large banking-house at San Francisco was proposed, and he became the leading partner. This house has withstood all the shocks which have carried ruin to many others, and maintained its credit unshaken. At the adoption of the constitution, two members of Congress were to be chosen, and Mr. Wright was elected to this honorable position. This token of confidence and regard was the more to be appreciated, as it resulted from no constrained party organization, but the decided preference of the citizens, expressed at the ballot-box.
Mr. Wright was the first to collect specimens of the gold-bearing quartz. He traversed the foot hills of the Sierra Nevada for this purpose, and underwent many hardships and perils. He was often for days on the very shortest allowance, and obliged to share even this with his famished mule. The quartz frequently seam the loftiest ridges, and can be reached only through the most exhausting fatigue. None but those of iron muscles can scale the soaring steep, or dislodge, with steady hand and head, the treasured vein in the giddy verge. Against these obstacles Mr. Wright persevered, and gathered a great variety of specimens, curious in themselves and often rich, but valued mainly as indications of the wealth of the quartz, and as leading-clues to their localities. They will serve to stimulate the exertions and guide the footsteps of the subsequent miner. They are not stowed away as secrets for the exclusive benefit of the discoverer: the information they impart is free to all. The only danger lies in conclusions too glowing for the reality, and those hasty adventures in which anticipation overleaps the laborious process. The specimens are genuine, and have been pronounced at the mint the richest that have been tested. The extent to which the gold-bearing quartz prevails can be thoroughly known only in the results of mining operations. It has been found in different localities between Feather river and the Mariposa; and if it approaches in value the most ordinary specimens gathered by Mr. Wright and myself, will munificently reward the labors of the miner, and will upset all geological deductions connected with gold-bearing quartz in other countries.
JACOB R. SNYDER.
Born in Philadelphia, 1813, emigrated to the west in 1834, and has been for the last five years a citizen of California. At the commencement of hostilities in that country, Com. Stockton, then in command of the land and naval forces, confided to him the organization of an artillery corps, and subsequently conferred on him the appointment of quarter-master to the battalion of mounted riflemen under Col. Fremont, which office he continued to fill during the war. At the restoration of peace, Mr. Snyder was appointed by Governor Mason surveyor for the middle department of California, where his activity and science were called into play in the settlement of many questions of disputed boundary in land titles. In the organization of a civil government, he was elected delegate from Sacramento district to the convention, and was one of the committee for drafting the constitution. His remarks in the convention are characterized for their pertinency, brevity, and sound sense. He is a good specimen of that versatility which belongs to the “universal nation.” Fond of adventure, and with resources in himself to meet all its exigencies,—partial to new positions, new duties, and responsibilities, and yet perfectly at home in each—ever with some beckoning object ahead, which, when attained, is to be relinquished for one of still greater magnitude,—and all this with a sound judgment, inflexible integrity, and unostentatious generosity. He was one of the original projectors of Sacramento City, and is still largely concerned in its prosperity. His liberal policy, sustained by that of his enterprising, intelligent partner, Major Reading, is exhibited in the ample reservations which have been made for churches, school-houses, and public squares.
CAPT. JOHN A. SUTTER.
The leading features of interest in the adventurous life of Capt. Sutter are connected with California affairs. He was born in Switzerland near the close of the last century, and early relinquished its glaciers and lakes for the sunny fields of France. His love of adventure turned his attention to the camp, where his gallant conduct soon secured him an honorable commission. But the wars of the continent being over, he emigrated to the United States, and having resided several years in Missouri, turned his roving eye to the shores of the Pacific.
Through a series of adventures, which seem more like fictions than realities, he at length reached the valley of the Sacramento, where he procured from the government the grant of a large tract of land. The country around was in the possession of wild Indians, some of whom he conciliated, and through their labors constructed a fort to protect himself from the rest. His influence over these children of the forest was such that in a few years he had over a thousand of their number at work on his farm. He was upright in all his dealings with them, and paid each as punctually as if he had been a king. His place, to which he gave the name of New Helvetia, was for years the emigrant’s goal,—the land of promise, which glimmered in warm light through his cold mountain dream. There he was sure of a cordial welcome, and a hospitality that knew no bounds; no matter from what clime he came, or what were his credentials; it was enough for his generous host to know that he was an adventurer, poor in all things save a manly purpose. But often the bounty of Capt. Sutter has gone forth to meet the emigrant; it was his sympathy and active benevolence that mainly rescued the emigrants of forty-six from starvation in the California mountains. When his relief reached them, their last animals had been killed and consumed for food, their last pound of provisions, and their last means of subsistence had given out; they were embayed in depths of snow which baffled their exhausted strength, and hunger hung in horror over the dead.
It was on the lands of Capt. Sutter that gold was first discovered; the cut of a mill-race revealed the entrancing treasure; but all were welcome to the results; no spirit of monopoly obstructed the digger, or enriched the proprietor; fortunes went freely to the pockets of those who drove the spade and turned the bowl. When a civil organization was proposed, the generous captain was deputed by the electors in his district to represent them in the convention. He there favored all measures calculated to secure the interests of the emigrants, and develop the resources of the country. When he put his own signature to the constitution, he dropped the pen in very gladness; the light of other days encircled his spirit, he was a child again; all felt the tears which filled the eyes of the old pioneer, and wept in joyous sympathy with their source. The work was done, and California was henceforth to revolve among the glorious orbs of the republic!