Nathan Clifford

“ The first article confers the largest power which any government can have, that of providing the means of meeting the expenses of the government, both ordinary and extraordinary. With the power to provide for ordinary and extraordinary expenses of the government, and raise revenue and means for those purposes, does it admit of doubt that the public domain might be resorted to, so that the general object of colonization and the settlement of the country were secured in these alienations? ”

“ The power to grant lands under the colonization law of August 18, 1824, and the regulation of November 21, 1828, has always been considered to apply to vacant lands; and the lands which came within the scope of these provisions were not the subject of sale, but of colonization. Under those provisions the sale cannot be sustained. Neither is there anything in any of the decrees, &c., which gives such power as Pio Pico, supposing his grant genuine, has attempted to exercise. The sale of the missions was extremely odious to the Catholic clergy, as the letter of the Bishop of California shows ”

“ With regard to the alienation of lands, the existing laws shall be observed.' Those bodies were vested, as will be seen, with the power of acquiring, alienating, and so changing the property belonging to the department; but it is not perceived that they could confer any power upon the governor even upon that subject, while in relation to the alienation of lands, that power was e pressly restricted to what was conferred by the laws of colonization, which, as is now well known, was to approve or disapprove of a grant when regularly made by the governor under those laws. ”

“ The administrators keep in the habitations certain people who disturb all rest at nights, by their intoxication, gambling, and dancing, which the converts witness with shame. How insupportable is this! And what a miserable life for a few devoted religiosi! So much so is it, indeed, that many of them contemplate the abandonment of the missions, and to seek peace and transquillity of mind in retirement. ”

“ Who is the religioso that would desire to build a house or plant an orchard for his recreation and comfort, if he sees that they are to be taken away from him, and to be possessed by the men who before have been supported by alms, the gift of these very missionaries, and that the unhappy fathers have to life at their own expense? ”

“ What I insist on, and will always insist on, is that the houses and orchards which they or their predecessors have made, and which are contiguous to and in immediate communication with the churches, remain to the benefit and use of the missionaries. The administrators, as they have at their disposition the Indians and property of the missions, can build a house for them, and leave the fathers in peace and quietude. ”

“ Having seen and considered all that it behooves to see and consider: In the exercise of the powers wherewith I find myself invested, I make a real sale and perpetual alienation forevermore to the Senores, &c., of the mission of San Gabriel, with all the appurtenances, recognized as thereunto belonging, consisting of lands, improvements, real estate, or self-moving property.
'The following conditions are imposed:
'1st. They will pay to the creditors of the mission to sums which may be proved at the farthest in the term of two years at most. ”

“ On the 17th August, 1833, the Supreme Government passed a decree to secularize the missions of California.
'ART. 1. The government will proceed to secularize the missions.
'ART. 2. In each shall be established a parish, served by a secular clergyman, with a stipend, as the government shall decide.
'ART. 3. These parochial curates shall not recover or receive any fees for marriages, baptisms, or under any other name. ”

“ And on the day of its date, an order issued from the Ministry of the Interior, reciting that his excellency the President had been pleased 'to decree in conformity with everything asked in it;' and stating that an order was iss ed from the said ministry to the Governor of California, 'to restore without delay to the missionary fathers the possessions and property which were under their administration for the conversion of the heathen.'
In the year 1843 (June 12th) , the Mexican government adopted a new constitution,-Bases Organica. ”