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We find that the signatures of the Governor, though sworn to as genuine, are by many disinterested witnesses, declared to be forgeries; while the Governor himself testifies with caution and reserve, and is wholly unable to recollect a single circumstance connected with the grant. We find that in the opinion of many respectable persons, the characters of the principal witnesses for the claimants are such as to render them unworthy of belief. And finally, we find the suspicions of the fraudulent character of this claim, so vehemently excited by every circumstance attending it, are confirmed by the detailed and circumstantial disclosure by a witness who, whatever his character, was certainly in the confidence of GenVallejo, of the time and place and manner of its fabrication.

Such an array of proofs I confess myself unable to resist.

But in addition :

To hold this grant genuine we must suppose that by some unexplained accident, and contrary to custom, the petition was delivered to the party-that it remained with the grant, in his possession unseen by any one, and unsuspected by almost all of his neighbors and intimate associates. That the owner of so valuable an estate was content to remain a dependant upon the bounty of a wealthy friend, or to obtain his livelihood by mending clothes and similar employments, and never himself thought, or was reminded by his friend of the necessity of presenting his title for confirmation. That he has frequently and without a motive declared that he never obtained any grant whatever.

That the petition, the grant, and the certificate of approval, though together in the possession of the grantee, were by some unexplained accident separated when he transferred his title to the claimants. That the first and the last documents, after disappearing for a time, were in some unexplained way recovered, and re-united to the grant after the papers had been submitted to counsel and affidavits to be laid before Congress had been procured.

We must further suppose, that the note of the grant was taken in a book which has disappeared. That in the book which remains, and is by one witness identified as the book in which titles were noted, a note of this grant was by some strange accident omitted, although every other grant issued during the period over which the record extends, is found duly noted, with a single exception, readily accounted for.

We must suppose that in this instance, almost solitary, the Governor made an extensive grant without requiring a single report, or informe, and has entirely forgotten the circumstance.

We must further suppose, that the Departmental Assembly held an extraordinary session, of which their journals contain no trace, and this, after a formal adjournment for the rest of the year, and after permission given to the members to return home. That the jonrnal of their proceedings on re-assembling, alludes to the fact of their previous adjournment for the balance of the last year, and shows that the reading and approval of the proceedings of the last ordinary session was the first business transacted, while all mention of the supposed extraordinary sessions in the interval is omitted.

We must further suppose, that all the grants issued in the interval between the adjournment on the 8th October, and the reassembling on the 2d March, were reserved by the Governor until after the ordinary sessions had recommenced, with the exception of this grant and one other rejected by the Board as spurious.

We must suppose that the Governor-although his name appears to public documents of various kinds signed with singular uniformity several hundred times-in this instance adopted a mode of signing, either never on any other occasion made use of by him on official documents, or long disused. And this notwithstanding that on the very day on which this grant was signed, as well as before and afterwards, his signature appears on various documents exhibiting the same uniform and striking peculi arities visible throughout all the records of his official action.

We must suppose that the seal used on this grant is genuine, though it was not only different from that used on the petition of the 8th November and from that on an expediente of the 19th December, but different from any elsewhere found in the archives, and this, without proof that there was more than one seal, and in the face of the declaration of the secretary that there was but

one.

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And finally, that a wretch has been found with intelligence and depravity enough to invent and swear to a detailed and circumstantial account of the fabrication of these documents.

Such a series of improbable hypotheses I have found it impossible to believe.

I have given to this case an unusual degree of labor and attention, and have endeavored to arrive at a just and impartial conclusion.

My conviction is that it ought not to be confirmed.
June 22, 1858.

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APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT UNITED STATES FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA.

G. S. GIDEON, Printer, 511 Ninth street, Washington, D. C.

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