inhabitants by proclamation (2 2d August, 1846), that it was the "wish and intention of the United States, to provide for New Mexico a free Government, with the least possible delay, similar to those in the United States." He moreover required those who had in loyalty to their country " left their homes, and taken arms against the troops of the United States, to return forth- with to them, or else they will be considered as enemies and TRAITORS, subjecting their persons to punishment, and their property to seizure and confiscation." But these Mexicans who were to be punished as traitors for resisting the invaders of their soil, owed the same allegiance to their Go^'ernment, as the General did to his. To remove this difficulty, the Brigadier assumed the prerogative once exercised by the Papal See. " The undersigned," con- tinued the proclamation, "hereby absolves all persons residing within the boundary of New Mexico, from all further allegiance to the Republic of Mexico, and hereby claims them as citizens of the United States."
The absolution and the claim were of equal validity.
The General had been instructed to establish a tempe- ra r}'- civil Government, " therein abolishing all arhitrmy re- strictions" and well knowing the ultimate purpose for which his conquest was made, he ordained that the right of suffrage in New Mexico, should be exercised by " every free male,'' thus preparing the inhabitants for the arbitra- ry restrictions of the peculiar institution to be hereafter introduced. From Santa Fe, this gentleman proceeded to California, and there again assumed the powers of the Roman Pontiff and the American Congress. Addressing the Californians in a proclamation of 1st Mafch, 1847, he declares : " The undersigned, by these presents, absolves all the inhabitants of California, of any further allegiance to the Republic of Mexico, and regards them as citizens OF THE United States." Not content with wielding the attributes of ecclesiastical and civil sovereignty, he assumes those of a prophet : " The stars and stripes now float over Cahfornia ; and, as long as the sun shall shed his light, they will continue