Pickett, Charles Edward:

$1,850 · Offered by William Reese Company

ORATION DELIVERED IN THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, JULY 4, 1857. A presentation copy, inscribed at the beginning of the text: "Genl. M.G. Vallejo with Respects of the Orator." Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (1808-90) was one of the most consequential figures in 19th-century California political and military history. Stationed at the Monterey garrison as a fifteen-year-old cadet, he was involved in putting down Indian uprisings and in guarding California's frontier lands against Russian encroachments. Vallejo was one of the "Californios" who sought independence from Mexico in 1836, amassed huge land holdings, became a supporter of American statehood for California, and served in the first session of the California state senate. In our experience, books inscribed to Vallejo are quite uncommon. This copy contains several instances of pencil corrections, almost certainly in Pickett's hand.Charles Edward "Philosopher" Pickett (1820-82) was born in Virginia and moved to Oregon in 1842, before coming to California in 1846. He practiced law in San Francisco, lived at Sonoma, visited Hawaii, and kept a store for a time at Sutter's Fort. Cowan wrote of him that he "was an able but greatly eccentric character. He wrote many pamphlets, and, from whichever point of view they may be regarded, their deeply radical nature cannot fail to engross the interested reader." Hart describes him as "a dabbler in law, a political and polemical pamphleteer, and an agitator for the Confe

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