While the mass of people were busy at gold and in mammoth speculations, a set of busy politicians were at work to secure the prizes of civil government.  Gwin and Fremont were there, and T. Butler King, of Georgia, had come out from the East, scheming for office.  He staid with us at Sonoma, and was generally regarded as the Government candidate for United States Senator.  General Riley as Governor, and Captain Halleck as Secretary of State, had issued a proclamation for the election of a convention to frame a State constitution.  In due time the elections were held, and the convention was assembled at Monterey.  Dr. Semple was elected president; and Gwin, Sutter, Halleck, Butler King, Sherwood, Gilbert, Shannon, and others, were members.  General Smith took no part in this convention, but sent me down to watch the proceedings, and report to him.  The only subject of interest was the slavery question.  There were no slaves then in California, save a few who had come out as servants, but the Southern people at that time claimed their share of territory, out of that acquired by the common labors of all sections of the Union in the war with Mexico.  Still, in California there was little feeling on the subject.  I never heard General Smith, who was a Louisianian, express any opinion about it.  Nor did Butler King, of Georgia, ever manifest any particular interest in the matter.  A committee was named to draft a constitution, which in due time was reported, with the usual clause, then known as the Wilmot Proviso, excluding slavery; and during the debate which ensued very little opposition was made to this clause, which was finally adopted by a large majority, although the convention was made up in large part of men from our Southern States.  This matter of California being a free State, afterward, in the national Congress, gave rise to angry debates, which at one time threatened civil war.  The result of the convention was the election of State officers, and of the Legislature which sat in San Jose in October and November, 1849, and which elected Fremont and Gwin as the first United States Senators in Congress from the Pacific coast.

Shortly after returning from Monterey, I was sent by General Smith up to Sacramento City to instruct Lieutenants Warner and Williamson, of the Engineers, to push their surveys of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, for the purpose of ascertaining the possibility of passing that range by a railroad, a subject that then elicited universal interest.  It was generally assumed that such a road could not be made along any of the immigrant roads then in use, and Warner’s orders were to look farther north up the Feather River, or some one of its tributaries.  Warner was engaged in this survey during the summer and fall of 1849, and had explored, to the very end of Goose Lake, the source of Feather River.  Then, leaving Williamson with the baggage and part of the men, he took about ten men and a first-rate guide, crossed the summit