the territory were made a mere military comandancia. Small wonder, however, that the Californian republicans were unprepared for such a change! The four diputados, Vallejo, Ortega, Osio, and Castro, sent, September 18th, a representation to Mexico, complaining of the refusal to convoke the diputacion, of his evident hostility to the federal system, and of several arbitrary acts to be noted later. The 7th of November they sent another memorial in reply to Victoria's manifiesto, in which they called upon the supreme government to protect the people against the governor's oppressive usurpations.[1] Juan Bandini, substitute congressman from California, also wrote a reply to Victoria's proclamation, dated at San Diego October 10th, in which he refuted the charge of illegality in the elections, and argued very eloquently against the governor's right to deprive the country of the services of its diputacion on account of mere suspicions respecting the members. Pio Pico, senior vocal of the diputacion, issued a similar protest.[2]
The administration of justice was a subject which early claimed the new ruler's attention. It had been much neglected by the easy-going Echeandía, and crime had gone unpunished. Criminal proceedings had been often instituted, as we have seen in the local presidial annals of the last six years, but penalties had been rarely inflicted with fitting severity. Victoria had strict ideas of discipline, and no doubt of his ability to enforce the laws. He is said to have boasted soon after his arrival at Monterey that before long he would make it safe for any man to leave his handkerchief or his watch lying in the plaza until he might
- ↑ Copies of these documents in Vallejo, Doc., MS., i. 215, 238, 241.
- ↑ Bandini, Contestacion á la Alocucion del Gefe Político D. Manuel Victoria, 1831, MS.; Pico, Protesta al Manifiesto de Don Manuel Victoria, 1831, MS., dated Oct. 15th. Oct. 17th, J. M. Padrés in a private letter congratulates Vallejo and the other deputies on their efforts to throw off the ugly epithet of 'seditious' applied by the gefe político. He thinks the southern deputies have failed to do their whole duty. Vallejo, Doc., MS., i. 239.
