through which
flow our party politics. Out of the depths, all whiskey- soaked and in ignorance drenching, were brought Erin's exiles to be made kings. Then the down -trod- den African was lifted to the bosom of northern re- publicans, and borne tenderly to the polls. Next in turn come the Chinamen, now called pig-tailed, and turned into social swine, grunting under the blows of the lordly Irishman; but when needed by a political party every one of them should be a sweet John, and a lovely almond-eyed American voter. The squatters of California were at first denounced by the officers of the law, who called them outlaws, murderers ; but when these same office-holders desired reelection, and squatterism had become a power in the state, then candidates of every party vied with each other in grovelling prostration. From their vocabulary the term "squatter" was stricken, and every land- robber was an honest settler.
The immigrants were undoubtedly much disappointed at not being able to step in and take possession of the choicest morsels of the new domain, and thereupon induWed their disg;ust with all the senseless bombast common to enraged, free-born citizens of the gieat American republic. With wagons, tents, and equip- age, with guns, knives and pistols, they swarmed up- on the lands of the grant-iiolders, threatening death to any who interfered, and even went so far as to ap- proach the verge of growing towns and stake off upon the principal streets, beyond the limits of the occupied portions, town lots at intervals of forty feet, marking the stakes with the names of the claimants, and the time from which such possession dated.
Thus it was that very early in the history of Ameri- can occupation in California, squatterism became an evil. It was indeed only a phase of mob law, but with this important difference. A resort to popular, arbi- trary administration of justice might, under certain circumstances, be excusable in criminal cases, where the vital principles of social good, conduct were at
