Alexandria Gazette

THE CALIFORNIA EXPEDITION.

The time is now fast approaching when the seventh regiment of New York United States volunteers, under command of Colonel Jonathan D. Stevenson, will sail for California in the service of the Government. The three ships intended as transports are now lying together at Old Slip; one of them is ready for sailing, and preparations upon the other two are being made with a vigor which will probably fit them for sea in the course of a week or ten days. They are all ships of known character, and have been chartered at a price which reflects great credit upon the economical disposition of the commandant of the regiment.

The preparations and outlay for this expedition have been the cause of much noise, speculation, and vituperation among certain portions of the community, who have echoed the half-fledged opinions of a few presses whose conductors have no souls for sympathy with any movement, however advantageous to the country at large, unless it yields directly to the glorification of their peculiar party. Again and again it is asked what is the object of this expedition, and more particularly now that the war is virtually at an end, and the country to which it is destined is really in possession of the United States.

Briefly as possible, we will give our ideas of the objects, intended operations, and advantages of this expedition.

The rich and beautiful region of California will, without doubt, come into formal possession of the United States, without any further fighting for it. Far removed as it is from our seat of Government, inhabited in a measure by a half-civilized people, it will be absolutely necessary, if we intend to hold it, that military possession be taken of it, and that a territorial government be established there. And what is the class of men who, under such circumstances, are best fitted to do this? Not mere soldiers, whose only knowledge is a military one. Not politicians, who can theorize most beautifully, but whose schemes burst like gas bubbles when tried by the fire of practice; but the sound hardy mechanics of our country—the men whose hands know useful labor—the artizan, at whose touch the rough metal is moulded into implements of use—the men who transform the material into the necessaries and luxuries of human existence. The hard-handed, honest laborer, the farmer, the blacksmith, the tailor, the shoemaker, the hatter, the carpenter, the mason; these are the men under whose auspices a country rich in soil, heavenly in climate, and possessing local advantages of a rare nature, will grow up and flourish. Precisely of this class are the men whom our government are about sending to California. Nearly every man in the regiment is a mechanic, and may carry his implements of trade with him. Should the regiment be disbanded immediately upon its arrival, it contains within itself the elements of prosperity, wealth, and greatness.—N. Y. Herald.