Today in History:

608 Series I Volume L-I Serial 105 - Pacific Part I

Page 608 OPERATIONS ON THE PACIFIC COAST. Chapter LXII.

indeed quite unacceptable to them. We are endeavoring to fill up the six regiments called for from this State, and I assure you that this report has proved our greatest obstacle. This letter is written in haste and only in pursuance of a duty I owe to our common cause and country, and of course not intended to be made public, but only to call your attention and that of the President to a fatal mistake which has been made, i. e., if it is intended that General Denver shall command California Volunteers.

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,

WM. C. KIBBE,

Adjutant-General, State of California.

[Inclosure.] THE WAYS OF THE POLITICIANS.

General Denver is a lucky man. Something is always turning up for his benefit. Wherever he goes he finds office. He was secretary of state under John Bigler for a long time. He was then sent to Congress by the wing of the Democratic party that was opposed to Bigler and his followers. After serving his term in Congress he was appointed Commissioner of something-of the Interior, we believe-but subsequently gave in up for the governorship of Kansas. In 1859 he returned to this State and at once became a candidate for the Senate, but was beaten by Latham. In 1860 he espoused the cause of Douglas, and wrote a letter for the purpose of proving that he was the regular nominee. In 1861 he was the candidate for a time of the Breckinridge party for the Senate of the United States, but was finally beaten by McDougall. Nothing daunted however, the general pressed forward, and was elected a commissioner to settle our new Indian was debt; wrote a strong Union letter to do away with the effects of his affiliation with the Breckinridgers, and proceeded to Washington. From that point he wrote a letter to his brother in Sacramento, of which the following is a copy:

ABINGDON, OHIO, July 30, 1861.

DEAR FRANK: I wrote to Arthur several days ago, and expected to have been in Washington by this time and to have written you thence, but the news from there deterred me from making too much haste where nothing was to be gained by it. Ere you receive this you will have heard of the battles of Bull Run and Manassas Junction. The U. S. troops under McDowell, from some cause, took a stampede, seemingly at the very moment victory was in their hands. The Confederate loss has been, according to their own account, quite as heavy as the Federal; but no matter what may have been said, they have won a great victory. The war engrosses the attention of everybody here. Business of every kind is at a standstill; mechanics have little or nothing to do; farmers can find no market for their produce; horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs are drug at half last year's prices, while all articles of import and manufactures of wool and cotton are greatly increased in value. The necessaries of life, or such as have become necessary by common use, such as coffee, tea, and sugar, have had the new tariff put upon them, while there is a positive certainty that the taxes will be doubled for the ensuing year. How the et these extraordinary demands, God only knows, for they have not been able to pay up all the taxes for the current year. Before the end of the present year the interest on the national debt alone will be very little, if anything, short of $50,000,000. The necessary expenses aside from the Army will be as much more. These must be met by duties on imports, by direct taxation, and by the thousand other modes resorted to in Europe, but never before known in this country, to squeeze money out of the people. From present appearances we are to be as tax-ridden a people as the subjects of Britain. If we succeed in getting out of our present difficulties, indeed, with as much freedom as is enjoyed by English subjects, we may deem ourselves happy. On every side disaster stares us in the face; a most formidable rebellion, an executive usurpation of power, a venal and subservient Congress; a bankrupt Treasury; an enormous debt, pecuniary ruin among the people, and great danger of the free Government given us by our farthers being turned into a military despotism.


Page 608 OPERATIONS ON THE PACIFIC COAST. Chapter LXII.