"New Almaden's Civil War Crisis.
In March 1863 the Supreme Court adjudged that the original
Castillero claim to the New Almaden Mine was fraudulent and
invalid. President Abraham Lincoln, acting on this judgment, sent
a writ to U.S. Marshal C. W. Rand in San Francisco:
"I, Abraham Lincoln, do order you to take possession
of the New Almaden Quicksilver Mine for the United States."
The Marshal was prepared to take the mines by force. General
Wright, Commander of the Department of the Pacific, ordered
Company E of the Second Cavalry and an infantry detachment to
San Jose to enforce the order.
Under orders from the owners who believed the order was illegal,
Superintendent John Young refused to give up the mines. A
telegram from General Henry Halleck, General-in-Chief of the
Army, to General George Wright, countermanded
Lincoln's order. The troops and the Marshal withdrew.
Fredrick Low, the collector of the Port of
San Francisco, also telegraphed President Lincoln that the miners
in California and the Territory of Nevada believed the U. S.
Government would seize all mines on public property. President
Lincoln, recognizing the political implications of his possibly
fueling the cause of secession, retracted his writ.
Dedicated by the Santa Clara County Historical
Heritage Commission &
Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department.
October 8, 2005
Sponsored by the New Almaden Quicksilver County
Park Association &
Mountain Charlie Chapter No. 1850, E Clampus Vitus
"Right Wrongs Nobody"" (
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