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Bounty for
California
Volunteers.

and paid by the General Government, and in all respects were regarded and treated by the Government as a part of the volunteer force at that time in the United States service; and whereas, it has been decided by the War Department at Washington City that the men composing this aforesaid battalion are not entitled to bounty, thereby discriminating against those meritorious citizen soldiers; therefore,

Resolved by the Assembly, the Senate concurring, That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our Representatives requested, to take such proper action, by bill or otherwise, as may seem best, to have the men who composed the said First Battalion Mountaineers, California Infantry Volunteers, placed on the same footing with other volunteer soldiers.

Resolved, That His Excellency Governor H. H. Haight be requested to forward a copy of these resolutions to each of our Representatives and Senators in Congress.

lands for col

lege pur

poses.

No. V.-Concurrent Resolution.

[Approved February 26, 1868.]

Selection of WHEREAS, Most of the available public lands in the State of California have been reserved by the United States on account of railroad grants; and whereas, the State of California has made provision for the establishment of a Mining College in connection with the Agricultural College, which the General Government should foster and encourage; therefore,

Resolved by the Assembly, the Senate concurring, That our Representatives in Congress be requested, and our Senators instructed, to procure, if possible, the passage of a law authorizing the State to select, acre for acre, any portion of the one hundred and fifty thousand acres of land granted to the State for the benefit of an Agricultural College, from the even numbered sections within any of said railroad reservations.

Daily mail.

No. VI.-Concurrent Resolution.

[Approved February 29, 1868.]

Resolved by the Assembly, the Senate concurring, That the Senators from California be instructed, and our Representatives requested, to use their influence to procure the establishment of a daily mail from Petaluma, in Sonoma County, to Arcata, in Humboldt County, via Hydesville, Rhonerville and Eureka, in Humboldt County.

Resolved, That His Excellency Governor H. H. Haight be requested to forward copies of this resolution to each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress.

No. VII. Concurrent Resolution, concerning tri-weekly mail from
Eureka to Petrolia, in Humboldt County.

[Approved February 29, 1868.]

Resolved by the Assembly, the Senate concurring, That our Tri-weekly Representatives in Congress be requested, and the Senators from mail. California be instructed, to use all means in their power to procure the establishment of a tri-weekly mail from the Town of Eureka to the Village of Petrolia, in Humboldt County, California, via Ferndale and Centerville, in said county.

Resolved, That His Excellency Governor H. H. Haight be respectfully requested to forward a copy of this resolution to each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress.

No. VIII.-Memorial.

[Approved February 29, 1868.]

The Memorial of the Legislature of the State of California to the Congress of the United States respectfully represents:

construction

That the district of country lying in the northwestern part Grant of of the State of California, and embraced in the Counties of lands for Humboldt, Klamath, Del Norte and Mendocino, is a mountain- of roads. ous region, with but limited agricultural resources compared with other portions of the State, but possessing forests of valuable timber, excellent pasturage and valuable lodes or veins of gold quartz, copper, and, it is believed, of coal and silver; that the district or section named is but thinly populated by whites, and is, to a very great extent, undeveloped, which we feel authorized to state is owing entirely to chronic Indian wars and disturbances that have prevailed there continuously, with greater or less violence, for the last fifteen years. On repeated occasions these savages have so devastated portions of the district in question that it became in a measure depopulated of whites, while every enterprise became, in consequence, broken up or greatly injured. There being no safety for the farmer, herdsman and miner, it is but natural that they would abandon a country where the chances of life or the preservation of property were so precarious and uncertain. From this state of things, the people living there have suffered most severely on occasions and in ways the particulars of which are too long to state in this memorial.

The Federal Government, on its part, has been put to an expense of a very large sum, believed to amount to as much as one million and a half of dollars, in the time mentioned, in efforts, well intended but not successful, to restore quiet among the Indians infesting the region alluded to. No plan has yet been adopted by the General Government that has secured the persons and property of the white population in that section. from outrages by these savage Indians. The recent murder of

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Grant of lands for

construction of roads.

the United States Indian Agent at Hoopa Valley, Mr. Stockton,
furnishes proof of the daring, wicked and turbulent spirit that
yet animates them.

It is further respectfully submitted that, owing to causes connected with the condition of affairs here briefly sketched, no roads leading into the section mentioned have been or could be constructed. The region being, as stated, a rough and mountainous country, the construction of roads involves an expense greater than a small population, continually harassed and devastated by hostile Indians, could defray. Therefore the fact remains that the mails of the Government that are sent into the settlements in those counties are packed in on horseback at very great expense to the Government, at more than double the price that their transmission would cost if there were good roads provided. And on the other hand it results that, owing to the enormous prices the General Government has to pay for the transmission of the mails, because of this want of facilities for carrying them here mentioned, the people resident in said counties do not receive the number of mails that they would seem to be entitled to receive. To this we add that the General Government now pays very large sums of money for the transportation of troops and military supplies, and supplies for the Indian reservations in that region, which could in great part be saved if roads were constructed leading into the district named.

The best communication between the region in question and San Francisco is by water, which, owing to the want of harbors always easily accessible and the character of the coast, cannot be considered reliable. Finally, it is believed that if the people of those counties were assisted by the General Government in constructing roads there would at once result such an influx of white population that Indian wars would not occur in the future, and there would be at once a corresponding decrease if not a total cessation of the expenditures which the General Government has to incur under the existing state of affairs. Further, we add that, if such roads were built, vast bodies of land now of no value whatever to the General Government, and which can never be sold until roads are constructed, would at once be brought into market, realizing to the Government ten fold the cost of such roads. We therefore respectfully press upon the attention of Congress that the grant by it of suitable quantities of these lands, now lying waste, idle and valueless, for the purpose of building roads into those counties, would result to the great advantage of the General Government, besides extending, in the ways named, to the white people there resident that protection and security to which they are entitled, and which they have never yet received through any of the expensive methods heretofore devised by the General Government.

Resolved by the Assembly, the Senate concurring, That our Senators in Congress are instructed and our Representatives requested, to place this memorial before Congress, and to press the matter therein mentioned respectfully upon its attention.

Resolved, That our Senators be instructed, and our Representatives requested, to favor the passage of a law granting four sec

tions of land to the mile for the purpose of constructing a wagon and turnpike road from the Village of Hydesville, in Humboldt County, California, to the southern boundary line of said county, and in like manner to ask for a similar donation of lands to construct a wagon and turnpike road from the Town of Arcata, in Humboldt County, to the Town of Weaverville, in Trinity County, apportioning the same between said counties in a proper manner, said lands to be located in not more than twenty miles of said road, and in no case to interfere with the settlements of any settler, nor to be located on any lands that are mineral bearing.

Resolved, That his Excellency Governor H. H. Haight be respectfully requested to forward, without delay, a copy of this memorial and these resolutions to each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress.

No. IX.-Concurrent Resolution.

[Approved February 29, 1868.]

Resolved by the Assembly, the Senate concurring, That our Semi-weekly Senators in Congress be instructed, and our Representatives mail. requested, to use their influence to procure the establishment of a mail, twice a week, from Weaverville, in Trinity County, to Hydesville, in Humboldt County, via Douglas City and Hayfork, in Trinity County.

Resolved, That His Excellency Governor H. H. Haight be requested to forward a copy of this resolution to each of our Representatives and Senators in Congress.

No. X.-Concurrent Resolution.

[Approved March 4, 1868.]

This Memorial of the Legislature of the State of California to the
Congress of the United States would respectfully represent:

That the Town of Trinidad, situated on the coast, in the Light-house. County of Klamath, is one of the best open roadsteads on our coast; that the bay or harbor of said town is protected from the winds from the north and northwest, and casualties of the ocean, by a prominent head of land of between three and four hundred feet high, extending into the sea; that said head of land is and has been for years a Government reservation for light-house purposes; that the lumbering and mercantile interests of said port are of growing interest to the public; that the safety of navigation at large makes indispensable the erection of a light-house at said point; therefore be it.

Resolved by the Assembly, the Senate concurring, That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our Representatives requested, to place the matter before Congress, and use all proper means to obtain an appropriation from the General Government for the erection of a light-house on said reservation at an early day; that His Excellency the Governor be requested to forward without delay a copy of this memorial and resolution to each our Senators and Representatives in Congress.

mail service.

No. XI. Concurrent Resolution, asking postal facilities from Red Bluff, in Tehama County, via the Pitt River, Upper Sacramento and Shasta Valley route, to Yreka, Siskiyou County, California.

[Approved March 5, 1868.]

Necessity of WHEREAS, By [A] joint resolution of the Senate and Assembly of the State of California, adopted January eighth, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, instructed our Senators in Congress, and requested our Representatives in Congress, to use their influence to procure the establishment of a semi-weekly mail from Shasta City, in Shasta County, via Churntown, Copper City, at Pitt River Crossing, Dog Creek, and other places on the Upper Sacramento, and Butteville, on Shasta River, in Shasta Valley, to Yreka, in Siskiyou County, California; and whereas, in answer to such request, a post route was established, covering said district of country, with Red Bluff, in Tehama County, as the initial point; and whereas, said route from Red Bluff to Yreka, as established, would equally accommodate the county and community desiring postal facilities as that called for in the aforesaid resolution, and could, from the fact of its leaving a point at the head of water navigation, on the Sacramento River, from whence the passengers and light express freight for the upper county would be a source of considerable revenue to the contractor, be carried at a much reduced rate from that that would be required from Shasta City; and whereas, after the route was established and contracts advertised for transporting the mails over the same, the Postmaster General neglected to let the contracts for same on said route; and whereas, from said acts there is left a district of country of about one hundred and twenty miles, with a large mining and agricultural population, without any mail facilities except through the aid of transient slow freight teamsters passing over said route; and whereas, the route proposed is never obstructed by heavy snows in the Winter, and by it the northern country is accessible at all seasons of the year; and whereas, we are credibly informed that, to insure a letting of the contract at the time when the same was advertised to be let, as aforesaid, the citizens living along the proposed route induced bidders to offer to carry the mail and render the service at a rate much below the cost of transportation, by assurances of aid by subscription equal to remunerative prices for the same; therefore, by the Assembly, the Senate concurring, be it

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