Alta California : embracing notices of the climate, soil, and agricultural products of northern Mexico and the Pacific seaboard : also, a history of the military and naval operations of the United States directed against the territories of northern Mexico, in the year 1846-'47 : with documents declaratory of the policy of the present administration of the national government in regard to the annexation of conquered territory to this union, and the opinion of the Hon. James Buchanan on the Wilmot Proviso, &c
Description of area: p. 9-12; history and documentation: p. 13-64.
Anti-annexation tract.
Summary
The 1847 publication briefly address climate soil and agriculture in Alta and Baja California in chapter I. The following eight chapters consist of communications from the U.S. Government consisting of instructions in the event Mexico declared war, justification of and motives for war, various reports to Washington, communications with Mexican officials in Alta California, accounts of the military operations in California, the articles of capitulation entered into at Rancho of Cowanga on January 13, 1847, all of which are interspersed with personal observations and comments by the author. The final chapter deals with the question of whether slavery would be allowed in California, the policy of the South and its motive for a slave market and emigrants to California and Northern Mexico [from California State University's Digital Commons]
"A relationship between [Thaddeus] Stevens and...[Robert Boston] is an important counter narrative. Most traditional accounts of the local Underground Railroad activity emphasize the actions of white stationmasters such as William Wright in Columbia or Daniel Gibbons in Bird-in-Hand. African-American involvement while not ignored is generally presented as being of secondary importance. Each demonstrable piece of evidence of Black involvement in effort to combat slavery strengthens arguments for a tradition of Black agency and necessitates a reassessment of the lives and experiences of African Americans in the Antebellum Era."
"May God have mercy on the deeply affected congregation" : the divisive 1825 language dispute at Lancaster's Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity
Jonah Davenport, an early eighteenth century Lancaster Indian trader, his son William Davenport, a Carlisle saddler, and grandson, Samuel Davenport, Trader General of the Tribes of Texas
"On the American frontier, there were men who always pushed the edge. These were often the Indian traders, solitary men who purchased great lots of manufactured goods, loaded them on trains of pack horses or mules and set out into the wilderness to trade with the Indians in exchange for skins and furs. Such a man was the Indian trader Jonah Davenport."
