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September-October-November 1849


In San Francisco, Mr. Sam Brannan utilizes some of his wealth to attempt to further monopolize the power and wealth at his disposal, by purchasing large tracts of land next to San Francisco's docks. In doing so, the price of land anywhere adjoining the ocean and near to San Francisco soars, and is in part the impetus of a tremendous increase in the price of land across San Francisco. Everyone who is anyone, with even the slightest wealth, begins purchasing land to open up goods shops, hotels, saloons, flophouses, gambling houses, whorehouses, regular houses, any houses, the city is on a building spree, and with title to land still a difficult subject to enforce, a terrible conflict brews. Gangs of indigents and toughs begin to demand payment for protection, and the eastern cultural habit of dueling private fire stations setting fires and demanding cash to put them out begins to spread. Some speak of a gold rush without any gold, as everyone in San Francisco with any land or claim to land is enriched on paper. The question of actual demand for much of the dock land is not a question on anyone's tongues at the moment, as most ships are merely being abandoned in the bay.


[b]In the state of Sierra, Charles Lucien Bonaparte works to establish the first schoolhouse in the area. Though there are relatively few children, they begin to attend, though irregularly, while their parents are working in the mines. Though the school also makes mention that they will teach Chinese and Indians English, none attend, the Indians disinterested and the Chinese occupied by gold fever.


A new institution is put together which will live forever in the annals of Californian history, the California Rangers! Mr. José de los Santos Berreyesa's petition to President Kearny and the Senate to institute the Ranger system being successful, the recruitment proceeds apace. Though many of a rather undesirable element initially show up to try for the jobs, thinking that "enforcing the law" on miners will amount to little more than state-sanctioned racketeering, the deliberation and care with which Mr. Berreyesa makes his recruits soon separates the worst of the lot. A decision was made early on to constitute the Rangers as a highly diverse group. 200 men, 50 Protestant Anglos, 50 Mormons, 50 Californios, and a mix of halfbreeds and Indians, Negroes and Chinese. The men generally stick to their own communities, which causes some difficulty in the beginning, and training is sparse, with the overall qualification seeming to be lack of moral turpitude. Experienced trackers are found mostly among the Indians, while the Anglos and Mormons are mostly middle class cityfolk, with a few mountain men thrown in who have no desire to toil in the mines or rivers. While the Rangers are initially a disparate and raw bunch, their patrols through the wilderness of California, and their dealings with bandits, outlaws, claim jumpers and all other manner of depravity will quickly forge them into a toughened nucleus of a greater force, akin to the Texas Rangers or Royal Canadian Mounted Police.


Mrs. Jessie Ann Benton Fremont makes a bold play for using the resources of her position as Postmistress to create a government-sponsored mining claim to a large area of the Sierras, but with President Kearny's comeuppance and Mr. Sam Brannan's publication of this malfeasance, she slinks back to the shadows for some time. In those shadows however, she uses her time to work the mines herself, or rather, at the head of a large contingent, on land claimed by the Frémonts. The claim is successfully worked for some time, and a few sizable nuggets are produced, but nothing outsized or amazing. Overall, as Mrs. Fremont is not opposed by any real effort apart from a belittling and a few snarky headlines, and she backed down on her own, it has no effect on her influence (Spent AP if you want to harm someone from something like that in the future).


In a mining camp at the edge of the border between Sierra and Nimrod, Mr. James Sinclair utilizes a shipment of Hudson's Bay Company materials to set up a store directly in the mining region. Men from a hundred miles in either direction make their way to the store to purchase foodstuffs at inflated prices, often paying directly in gold. Centered right along the "mother lode", the most dense area of gold discovery, this mining camp explodes in size and though obviously of claptrap construction, greatly increases Mr. Sinclair's wealth (+2 wealth, you got very lucky!)


In Sutter's Mill, Mr. John Sutter makes his way back to personally supervise the mining processes near to the area. As the population of Nueva Helvetia grows, and other stores come into being, Sutter's Mill is increasingly being bypassed. With shops opening closer to the mining regions to the south (the mother lode) and also in San Francisco where emigrants first disembark, the need to purchase supplies in Sutter's Mill or Nueva Helvetia is decreasing, and the rampant price gouging of a few months earlier is becoming more difficult. With the changes in Sierra state due to the clear shift in the political winds, Sutter generously (some say forcedly) ends forced labor, mostly by Indians, on his land. With his stranglehold over most of his workers broken, many depart, never to return. The few who stay seem to be mostly women and children, among them several of Sutter's rumored squaw women and halfcaste bastards. A few Anglo laborers, maimed or injured and needing the work, replace some of the Indians, but Sutter finds himself with far fewer laborers than he had in the past, though of a much higher quality. Mining continues near the mill, but as the epicenter of the original gold discoveries, it seems that most miners are moving on much like a swarm of locusts. Sutter's wealth is increasing, but at a relatively slow rate, and in comparison to others who are finding newfound riches elsewhere, he is losing in comparison.

In the meantime, Mr. Sergei Sokolov once more makes legal news with his bald-faced some-say-salvage-some-say-piracy of abandoned vessels in the Bay Harbor. Having hired a small crew to shuttle between the vessels looking for useful salvage, Sokolov instructs many of the ships to be broken down and sold for lumber to build some of the wharves and warehouses which are coming to dominate the shoreline here. A clamor goes up from among the citizens of San Francisco who remain, many of whom have left property elsewhere in the trust of their friends and neighbors, and look at Sokolov as little more than scum. Calls rise through the city to have the government deal with this issue clearly, before it descends to mob justice.

From San Francisco, the newly appointed Rangers begin a long march to bring law and order to the people of Northern California, embarking on a circuit which will take them from Jefferson through Sierra, then down to Nimrod and back. This is a bonding time, and will be remembered as a formative experience among the Rangers for generations to come, with every new class having to engage on a similar roundabout of the nation.

Our dear leader, President Stephen W. Kearny, having heard of the disorder in Mariposa, immediately marches south to deal with the miners in Mariposa. He declares that if they doubt the government, he shall show them in person! A number of former members of the Mormon Battalion, along with a number of angered Mormon youth, head along with the President. A number of recent arrivals, heading in that direction anyway, join along and the march becomes something of a festive atmosphere. Each day, President Kearny waxes lengthily on his political and moral philosophy, and the caravan marches towards the southeast. Passing through the growing city of Moroni, more Mormons join the group, which is increasingly taking on the tenor of a revanchist mob rather than a disciplined military column, men speaking more of revenge against those who have slighted Mormonism and the state of Nimrod than Californian law. As President Kearny arrives in Mariposa at the dawn of winter, the situation is delicate. The miners have enriched themselves greatly in the meantime, and set up a local government of their own. As day breaks, a mining leader marches out to parlay with President Kearny (Kearny leads about 100 troops, some more effective than others, willing to engage in combat with the miners. I will handle the negotiations during the turn)

THE COURTS
IN the case of M. Sergei Sokolov versus M. Johann (John) Sutter, the court decides overwhelmingly for Mr. Sokolov based on the preponderance of evidence presented by the Russian emigre. Mr. Sutter is ordered to make a payment in the full amount of $10,212 plus damages. If Mr. Sutter makes this payment it will result in a loss of 1 wealth.

THE SENATE
* The California Railways Act passes. Engineers consider that it would require an investment of 100 wealth to hire the workers and complete construction, over a several year period. ( http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3799484&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=8#post467127750 )
* The Gold Revenue Act passes. Enforcement will prove a great difficulty, as the Rangers are moving as a single unit on a circuit. Without greater enforcement, the act will produce a mere 2 wealth annually ( http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3799484&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=8#post467128202 )
* The Nominations of President Kearny pass.
* The Ranger Recruitment Act passes, auditors consider that the Rangers will require an upkeep of 3 wealth per year to maintain at their current level of 200 rangers. The cost of the armored and fortified headquarters will be 5 wealth to establish a stone building.
* The Chinese Inclusion Act passes. While Anglo Protestants cheer the obvious built-in favoring of their race and religion, the tricky matter of enforcement comes up. With border controls non-existent, the ability for any form of governmental authority (which apart from the Rangers does not exist) to bring the act into being is severely diminished.
* The Slavery Devolution Bill passes, passing slavery to the states.
* The Security and Revenue Act passes, in an attempt to mollify the serious delinquencies of the Chinese Inclusion Act, establishing a bureau of enforcement and a revenue system of tariffs. Although no actual law on tariffs has been posted, the system is set to collect future tariffs, and pay for itself with those. Planing the bureau in all port cities will require 3 wealth in each port city and 5 in San Francisco, though this ignores the fact that a large number of settlers are entering and departing California from the east, where controls are non-existent.
* The Postal Service Act passes, establishing a postal service. It will require 5 wealth to set up initially, and a further 3 wealth per year to continue running. The Postal Service will have multiple good effects on the nation once it is fully established.

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