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]
The issue dwarfing all others in the 1848 national elections was the disposition of territory acquired as the result of the Mexican War. Slave and Free states battled to add them to their ranks. Whig campaign pamphlets portrayed their candidate Taylor as anti-slavery in the North and as pro-slavery in the South. His opponent, Democrat Lewis Cass, was portrayed as pro-slavery in the North and anti-slavery in the South. The Democrats proceeded in a like manner. Here, for Northern consumption, Democrats demonstrate Taylor's "Southern face," i.e., his expressed comfort with Southern institutions and opposition to the Wilmot Proviso, barring slavery from the conquered territories.
Gen. Cass's extra pay, $64,865.46--General Taylor not one cent: proved by documents, officially certified and appended. Speech of Hon. Andrew Stewart, of Penn., delivered in the House of Representatives, U.S., August 3, 1848
Highwaymen and pirates' own book : containing historical narratives of the most celebrated robbers, pirates, &c., together with an account of the loss of the ship William Brown : and a full description of the mutiny on board the United States' brig Somers, with the execution of Spencer, Cromwell and Small
[pt. I] Life and adventures of ... Joseph Thompson Hare. Awful account of the ... pirate, Alexander Tardy.--[pt. II] Annals of the revolution.--[pt. III] James Moran, executed at Philadelphia ... May 19, 1837. The mutiny on board the brig Braganza. The loss of the ship William Brown. A full account of the mutiny on board the United States brig Somers.
The history of Mason & Dixon's Line : contained in an address delivered by John H.B. Latrobe of Maryland, before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, November 8, 1854
