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Sacramento City Dec 17th 

My Dear Father

In compliance with the hint contained in your letter of Sept. 5th I now proceed to deputize you 
as "Speaker" for the inmates of the "White Cottage". From your intimation "Uncle Samuel" is 
getting to be very lynx-eyed and jealous, but it seems that there is always some method of 
dodging the restraints which he would put upon the guile of letter writers. It looks sometimes 
as though he was rather too close and stingy, but in consideration of the very many good deeds 
that he has performed and of which I have myself received the benefit, I will freely endorse 
this trait in his character.

The mail came in last week but brought nothing for me. I mean in the shape of letters, for on 
asking at the newspaper box the clerk handed me a generous package of papers, the super-subscription 
of which was in the familiar handwriting of my dear mother. I have carried them in my pocket ever 
since and wherever an idle moment occurs I draw them forth and read with much interest news from 
N.Y. City, Springfield & Palmyra. These papers I value very much, not only from their origin, but 
from the interesting and instructive matter which they contain; and as I had received a similar 
package previously I am induced to hope that I may be favored with others. It is not necessary to 
send mother any particular expression of thanks for them; she knows that I value them and am not 
forgetful of the kind hand that envelopes them. We are looking for another mail steamer from Panama 
this week, when I shall be considerably disappointed if I do not receive some two or three letters. 
However I am not disposed to complain. I have received seven or eight letters directly from home 
since I came 

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while many of the emigrants of this season have not had even one.

Mr. Glover and myself are still engaged in practice. Business is steady and promises to increase. 
His health, which for about two months was very poor, is now completely restored and he is as strong 
and fleshy as a "grizzly". My own health continues excellent, and that of the whole valley is at 
present unusually good; -- alarmingly so, indeed if we may believe the physicians, who go about the 
streets with downcast and lengthened countenances. Several have informed me that they are not making 
their board while during the cholera season they averaged $100 per day. I would not be surprised 
however if the trade in "pills and powders" should grow a little more brisk in a few days for the 
rain has been descending merrily for nearly a week covering the low flat places with standing pools 
and reducing the firm and solid earth to a soft and luxurious bed of mud. Singular as it may appear, 
the air has not yet been unpleasantly cold, though it is now past the middle of Decr. A few frosty 
nights a week or two since produced ice in the pools about 1/4 of an inch in thickness but I am told 
that such a circumstance was entirely unknown to the Sacramentonians during the whole of last winter. 
The size of the stoves which are to be found in many of the offices here would be a sufficient 
evidence of the mildness of the mountain air, even in its roughest and sharpest moods. They are tiny, 
sheet iron things which a man could carry, with their appendages, in one hand for a whole day together 
without being tired of his burden.

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Firewood on the same gigantic scale is brought into the city and sells at $15.00 & $20.00 per cord. 
It resembles kindling wood, and is about the size of the stakes driven down in a flower plot to protect 
sprouting plants. What a huge conflagration three or four of these sticks would produce in one of these 
sheet iron boxes you may easily imagine. Half a dozen Lucifer matches on fire in a pint cup would also 
produce a respectable blaze.

But while the breath of "old Bonas[?]" is brot around with a keen bitter edge, it sometimes pours down 
upon us with a force and power which is hardly ever experienced in Mo. Night before last the [winds] 
commenced freshening from the S.E. and at about 12 o'clock blew a perfect hurricane. The hastily built 
pine board edifice in which I happened to be staying with a neighbor shook and trembled as though in 
great fear of being upturned and crushed by the wrath of the storm king; but it stood through the gale 
without injury and the rising sun shone not on a board or shingle displaced. On entering the city however, 
I found that many buildings of much greater pretension had suffered considerably. Some were a mass of 
indistinguishable ruins and others had been more or less affected by the fury of the blast. One or two 
and probably more were lifted bodily from their foundations and set down again at the distance of a few 
feet, without injury to the building or to their inmates. A family in one which was moved about three 
feet, stated that the removal was very gently performed and produced but little alarm among them. So 
much for the breaks of the mountain winds. 

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I believe I wrote in one of my last letters that a day of Thanksgiving had been appointed by our Governor. 
As a true Son of New England, though so long absent from her happy vales I resolved to observe the day in 
the old fashioned manner so far as one Yankee alone could observe it, and when it was announced from Mr. 
Benton's pulpit that he would deliver a discourse on the occasion it seemed as though the "days of yore" 
were approaching at no great distance along the track of time. As for the afterpiece-the "Thanksgiving 
Dinner"-without which, thanks probably, would be few and feeble, I was for a time somewhat at a loss. A 
notice from Mr. Thos, a splendid "Dinner" would be prepared at one of the principal hotels on the occasion 
quieted my fears on this point. But alas! for the stupidity of our Chief Magistrate. Thursday was a 
pleasant day, but Saturday-the time appointed was ushered in with floods of rain. Instead of decreasing it 
poured the harder and at eleven o'clock I gave up hope of hearing the sermon or getting my dinner. The 
"feast of Reason" and the "flow of the Soul" were both alike unattended and unappreciated, but many a 
thought routed to that circle on the shores of the Mississippi to join which during the remaining hours of 
the Festival season would have been the sweetest fruit that Earth could afford. My own misfortune, however, 
I found to be the misfortune of many others, at least to a certain extent, and so few were present on 
Saturday to hear the discourse that by request, Mr. Benton repeated it the next day to an unusually large 
audience. It was beautifully written and read in a manner which produced a powerful effect upon the 
congregation. It has since been published and by this mail I send you a copy of it. If it interests you as 
much as it did myself, it will pay for sending it so far. 

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No. Two.	
Decr 18th Wednesday

Last night the sun set in thick gloomy clouds amidst the ceaseless passing of the rain. This morning with a 
bright face he peered over the top of the "Sierra" and scattered the fogs and mists in every direction, 
remaining undisputed King of the beautiful creation before him. Now his bright beams with a mild and genial 
warmth are pouring down upon the valley, and you would imagine were you here that the "merry month of May" 
was rapidly advancing. With the first gleaming of his rays I heard, for the first time since entering the 
State, the sweet notes of the innocent lark as he welcomed with apparent delight the sudden and unexpected 
change in the aspect of Nature. Stepping out I saw the familiar sight (at home, but [?] spectacular here) of 
an ox team dragging a prairie plow to the field of
labor. I followed it and had the pleasure of seeing the sod of California, hitherto undisturbed since the 
foundation of the world, turn up in rich, fresh masses before the powerful instrument of culture. Cattle 
were scattered, grazing, over the plain, and the first glance around reminded me strongly of those by gone, 
but yet happy days when for the first time we entered upon the work of redeeming in Mo. the rich Kingdom of 
Nature from the dominion of useless Solitude. But one feature -- nay, two features were wanting to furnish 
a complete copy of that picture; first the rough and rude but substantial, commodious and comfortable "log 
castle" which then and there uprose amidst the wilds of Nature and next the merry blithesome, happy group 
that called that castle, "home". These features alas! could not be supplied, and without them, the picture 
must remain sadly deficient and incomplete. 

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The gardeners near the city are now busily engaged in making preparations for planting. Some have already 
nice, flourishing shoots of lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower etc which in a few weeks will be ready for market. 
Mr. Hugh Jeffries our blacksmith from Philad[elphia], tells me that he is going largely into the gardening 
business this season. He has 4 or 5 blocks close to the city, containing 2 or 3 acres each, and wished to 
put them all in cultivation. Among other things he told me that last year he raised $900 worth of onions 
from 1/4 of an acre and is making preparations this season to sow about twenty five pounds of onion seed. 
Should he find the market as good (which is hardly probable, I think) he will realize quite "a pile".

Mr. Muldrow's plans are of course on the most gigantic scale. He is now engaged in a suit with one of his 
neighbors which will either add to or subtract from his purse the nice little sum of $100,000. With Mr. 
John McKee he has bought an immense tract of country on the west side of the river, through the whole of 
which is to run a wide and spacious highway on either side of which are to be blocks of 200 yards front, 
extending far enough back to contain 40 acres. These blocks will be sold for farms to his friends who are 
to have first choice. One or two gentlemen that I know of have been promised such a block for the purpose 
of making a home. But the Future must determine the utility of such promises.

Besides these grand schemes, he has another speculation in view which he expects will yield
him $300,000! Mr John A Sutter the Mexican grantee of a portion of this country, having a large amount of 
stock roaming unrestrained for over miles of this valley and not thinking it worth his while to gather them 
up has sold all his right, title, and interest therein

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for the sum of $500 to Col Muldrow. The Col. employs young men to ride over mountain, marsh and moor to 
gather up this stock and promises to pay their collecting $40. out of each $100 worth they secure to him. 
They board themselves, provide their own horses, drive up and watch the cattle and probably defend all 
law suits which the proceedings will be likely to bring into existence. The scheme is a very plausible one, 
and at first sight appears to those employed as if it would be production of considerable gain; but for 
myself, I see in it only the deceptive but beautiful colors of the rainbow that dance so gaily upon the 
glittering surface of the hollow and empty soap bubble. Probably the Col. would not like to have all his 
plans made known to his Missouri friends & I will suggest the propriety of not permitting these sketches to 
go outside the walls of the White Cottage. And now I am so near another point I will mention it. - That I 
do not wish anything that I write back to be published either verbally or in print on any account; for I 
think there is a great responsibility resting upon every one who undertakes to send back information 
respecting this country and hastily written letters which will be thoroughly under stood and duly 
appreciated by intimate friends of the writer, may occasion mischief by being disseminated among strangers 
who know nothing about him, nor of the circumstances in which he writes. I have heard many complaints here 
that communications never designed for publication, and containing perhaps items which it was highly 
improper to make known have been printed and circulated through the whole country. But it is hardly 
necessary to caution my friends upon this subject any further than I have done.

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Politics have been raging here quite furiously for the past week or two and the two great parties have 
already drawn the lines of distinction between them so plainly that they will probably henceforth continue 
entirely separate. This you must know is something new for California. Until within a month or two no 
distinction has been known. All parties were lost in the great party of "the people"; but a few ambitious 
aspirants for glory and station commenced working the wires and in a short time the Democrats had enough 
men picked out to hold a public meeting. Here they made speeches declared their hostility to the Whigs and 
threw down the gauntlet. The Whigs took it up and commenced marshalling their forces. Our mayor, dying, 
left a vacancy to be filled by the voters of the city. Each party strongly desired to fill it with a man 
of its own stamp. The Democrats were very vigilant and untiring in their efforts. Their candidate too was 
personally a very worthy and very popular man, so that I supposed they would certainly succeed. But on 
counting the votes, the Whigs, to my surprise, had a majority of about 75 in favor of their candidate. If 
they can triumph under such disadvantages, they will never despair in Sacramento.

Col. Fremont is politically dead, dead, dead. His voice will no more be heard in the U.S. Senate, -- never, 
in fact, in any other public station, if I read aright the feelings of Californians. I have heard but one 
man speak favorably of him, -- either of the Whigs or Democrats; - that was Col Wm. Muldrow. His principal 
reason for admiring him is that he possesses more villainous talent than any other man in California. 
Granting this, it does not follow that he makes her best Senator.

Many aspirants for his office - which he vacates next March - are already in the field. Among a number who 
possess both intellect and intelligence, I see our self-made Democratic giant from Marion, "Billy the 
Buster"! He made a grand speech in town last week, exhibiting the ruinous effects of the Tariff & the 
National Bank, and the injustice of distributing the proceeds of the sale of the public lands. In Marion 
County, it would not have created much sensation, but I thought he did about as well as any one on the 
stand. Among these were Col Zabriskie of Jacksonville, Thomas J Hurley, M.C. from Indiana & several stars 
of Caeser's magnitude. The Whigs will make a great effort to send a Whig to the Senate, but no one as yet 
can prophecy the result with certainty.
 
[note: letter ends abruptly here with no closing - see next letter dated Dec 23 that begins almost 
identically to this one and contains much the same "news"]