1829, was apparently a sympathizer with the party of Padrés and Vallejo; or at least he was so regarded by Victoria. He had a land grant in the San Joaquin Valley which required confirmation by the diputacion, and he was therefore anxious for a meeting of that body. This was his only offence, so far as I can ascertain; but for it Victoria ordered him to leave the country, refused to give or listen to any explanations, and merely bade him present his claims and complaints to the supreme government. The correspondence began in February. In July, Stearns was refused permission to visit San Francisco to attend to his business affairs, and on September 23d his passport was issued. He soon sailed from Monterey, but did not go farther than San Diego, or the frontier of Baja California.[1] Nothing can be said in defence of Victoria's arbitrary course in thus exiling a Mexican citizen without trial or specification of offence; but the provocation was I have no doubt much stronger than it appears in the written record, since Stearns was not a man disposed to submit quietly when his interests were threatened.
Another of Victoria's arbitrary proceedings was that against Mariano Duarte, alcalde of San José, in August and September. Duarte had, after consultation with Alcalde Buelna of Monterey, tried to induce the ayuntamiento to petition for the convoking of the diputacion. This was his chief offence, "one which has a very strong bearing upon the present political state of the territory," in Victoria's eyes; but there were others, brought forward by the other municipal officers who disliked the alcalde, and included in the investigation. Duarte had somewhat
- ↑ Correspondence between V. and Stearns in Leg. Rec., MS., i. 321-9; Dept. Rec., MS., ix. 102, 106-7. S. had, however, since Oct. 1830, a quarrel on hand with Ex-alcalde Soberanes, for disrespect to whom he had been imprisoned, and justly as the asesor decided. Monterey Arch., MS., i. 26-7. Sept. 14, 1831, V. to min. of rel., accuses S. of pernicious conduct, of plotting with Padrés to have the dip. meet, of trying to go to S. Francisco to join the other plotters, and of being a vagabond dependent on Capt. Cooper. Dept. Rec., MS., ix. 145.
