The Sutter Case

THIS case, which involved immense interests in California, and questions greatly agitated in a particular portion of that State, was an appeal from the decree of the District Court of the United States for the Northern District of the same, approving and confirming the survey and location of a claim to land under a Mexican grant to a certain John A. Sutter; a name abundantly known in the valley of the Sacramento, and which has left traces of some depth in the history of land titles in that region. Sutter himself, as described by another pen,1 was a native of Switzerland, who came to the Department of California about the year 1839; long, of course, befor the incorporation of that region with the United States. He was a man of a romantic cast of character, and having naturalized himself as a citizen of Mexico, formed, with the leave of its Government, a settlement near the junction of the Sacramento and American Rivers. In honor of his native country he designated it New Helvetia. The country, at that time, was uninhabited, except by bands of warlike Indians, who made frequent predatory incursions upon the undefended settlements to the south and east of this place. In two or three years after his arrival, Sutter was commissioned by the Governor of California to guard the northern frontier, and to represent the Government in affording security and protection to its inhabitants against the invasion of the Indians and marauding bands of hunters and trappers who occasionally visited the valley for plunder. In the year 1841 he commenced the erection of a fort at New Helvetia at his own expense.2 It was surrounded by a high wall, and was defended by cannon. Within this fort there were dwelling-houses for his servants and workmen, and workshops for the manufacture of various articles of necessity. There was a grist-mill, tannery, and distillery attached to the establishment. A number of Indians were domesticated by him, and contributed to cultivate his fields of grain, and to defend the settlement from more savage tribes. He was possessed of several thousands of horses and neat cattle, which were under the care of his servants. There were collected, at different times, from twenty to fifty families; and there were, in the course of years, some hundreds of persons connected with this settlement. He is described as having been hospitable and generous to strangers, and the Governors of California bear testimony to the vigor with which he performed the duties of his civil and military commission. Being a man of schemes, and of an adventurous turn, he sought, after a certain time, to extend his settlements and influence upward along the river; and did so, examining and fixing upon lands for miles up the Rio de las Plumas, a large tributary of the Sacramento. His ideas and acts were somewhat visionary; his habits of business not good; and, relying on titles possessed or to be obtained and confirmed from the Government, he made very unmerous grants to great numbers of persons; grants of vastly more land, as it turned out, than he owned. When, therefore, after the cession of California, our Government acknowledged his right, under Mexican grant, to a certain quantity of land,–the exact location of which remained to be practically fixed,–the fact that he had made deeds for much more than the quantity admitted as his, raised a great question among his various grantees as to where, exactly, his admitted land was situated. Each wished that which Sutter had granted to him to come within the limits, and the Government also had its interests in the location.