1850 American Gold Baron

Chapter 124 The President’s Wrath

Fillmore was furious.

The development of the situation has completely exceeded his expectations.

Before Colonel Mason set out, the orders he and the War Department conveyed to Colonel Mason repeatedly emphasized that no fire should be fired.

But what’s the result?

The young captain named Sherman under Colonel Mason not only opened fire, but also massacred civilians in Los Angeles, pushing the entire federal government against the people.

In the more than 70 years since the founding of the United States, the image of the federal government has never been so bad. If this matter cannot be properly handled, Fillmore, let alone his re-election, may be the worst president in the history of the United States.

Ermo belongs to.

Fillmore considers himself a person who is calm about changes. After all, over the years, from a sharecropper to the president, he has come step by step in a down-to-earth manner. What storms and waves has he not seen?

Only this time, he was at a loss when faced with an unmanageable situation.

"The War Department and Congress bypassed us and wrote to Colonel Mason several times, and Congressman Calhoun also wrote to Colonel Mason in his own name."

In the Oval Office of the White House, Secretary Conrad expressed his views to Fillmore.

He believed that the government and the War Department should not be responsible for this matter. Congress and the War Department bypassed the President and the War Department to send letters to Colonel Mason, which was the culprit that caused this tragedy.

Fillmore was very angry about Congress's disregard. If Congress hadn't acted on its own terms, the situation would not have become so difficult to deal with.

"By arresting Sherman and subjecting him to a military court, we need to give an explanation to the victims in California and Los Angeles."

Fillmore picked up his pipe and took a puff of cigarette to ease his current bad mood.

Sherman, the culprit, must be dealt with seriously, even if it means sending him to the gallows.

Fillmore checked Sherman's information. He was an outstanding graduate of the West Point Military Academy. He had repeatedly made military exploits during the Mexican-American War. He was a promising young man.

However, his excellence and military exploits were not enough to offset the crimes he committed in Los Angeles.

The Department of the Army, which has been cheating on others, also needs to be dealt with seriously, otherwise other ministers will not take him seriously as president. Fillmore must kill the chicken to scare the monkeys.

"The Secretary and Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Army were dismissed on the spot, and an investigation team was set up to carefully investigate which other officials in the Department of the Army were involved in this matter," Fillmore said.

"What about Congressman Calhoun? Congressman Calhoun is seriously ill and a little unclear. I think he is not suitable to serve as a member of the Senate anymore."

Conrad has long had a problem with Congressman Calhoun, who always relies on his old age, and he hopes to take this opportunity to drive this old guy out of Congress.

Why doesn't Fillmore not think so? He sometimes even feels that these congressmen who rely on their old colleagues in Congress are a stumbling block on the way forward for this country and need to be removed.

But he is the president and cannot touch Congressman Calhoun.

And as a veteran-level congressman, Calhoun's influence in Congress is too great.

The bills he proposed were so absurd that they were supported by young congressmen. In the eyes of some young congressmen, their own future was far more important than the future of the United States.

However, he believed that after this incident, the already ruined Calhoun would soon lose his Senate qualifications and get out of the Senate.

"As for this old congressman who is in danger of dying, let him go." Fillmore said calmly.

Calhoun, the immortal delivery man, is getting worse every day, and he doesn't have many days left to live.

He didn't have to argue with a dying person, lest he get into trouble and have a negative impact on himself.

"Mr. Webster, I heard that Wall Street has sold all the land in California?"

Fillmore put down his pipe and looked at Secretary Webster.

"Yes, Mr. President, they are all sold."

Webster, who was old and in poor health, leaned on the soft sofa and answered Fillmore's questions.

"Are they really impatient? Do they really think that the California state government does not exist?" Fillmore said with a sneer.

It would be okay if California were a territory. After all, the land in the territory is still nominally under federal jurisdiction.

But now that California already has their state government, legally, these lands should belong to the California state government.

Those people still ignore the existence of the California state government and rush to buy land in California on Wall Street. It is really too arrogant.

"This is the list of successful bids, you can take a look."

Webster was unable to get up, so he handed the unopened document bag to an assistant nearby and asked the assistant to pass it to the president.

"This document was asked by the Secretary of the Treasury to be handed over to you. The Treasury Department is currently raising compensation from Texas and hopes that Texas will withdraw its troops from the New Mexico region after receiving the compensation."

“It’s too late now to raise funds for compensation for Texas, let’s let the Ministry of Finance save the money.”

Fillmore opened the document bag, took out the documents inside and read them.

The names above are all old faces. Most of the bidders for these lands are old aristocrats from New York State. Some families from Connecticut, Massachusetts, Washington, D.C., and Virginia also participated in this matter.

However, not many families and consortiums from other states participated in this matter. The total amount of land obtained by the families and consortia in these states in this land bidding was not as much as that of the old aristocrats in New York.

This shows that it was the old aristocrats of New York State who took the lead in this matter.

Fillmore continued to read, and when he saw the last line, he could no longer control his anger.

$8.76 million!

In the eyes of these people, the land containing gold in California is only worth $8.76 million!

In other words, selling the entire California to these people would not be enough to pay the compensation to Texas! The government promised to compensate Texas for ceding land to the tune of US$10 million.

These nobles are so generous.

"The guys who wrote about it in the newspapers for giving New York City slums a 15-cent rent reduction never disappoint. They were willing to pay $8.76 million for land in California that could

There’s gold buried there!”

Fillmore angrily slapped the document in his hand on the desk.

It is now rumored that among the gold diggers in California, Liang Yao alone is now worth more than 10 million US dollars, becoming the first multimillionaire in the West. This does not include other gold diggers.

What is the concept of tens of millions of dollars? Currently, there are only two people in the United States whose net worth exceeds ten million dollars.

One was Backhouse, also known as Little Astor, of the Astor family, a large New York landowner, and the other was New York shipping king Vanderbilt, known as the Commodore.

If the rumors are true, Liang Yao will be the third multi-millionaire in American history, but considering that Liang Yao holds a large amount of gold.

Liang Yao may have more liquid capital than the two established multi-millionaires.

After all, land was the main asset of the Astor family, and Backhouse would not keep large amounts of money in the bank, but would exchange his money for land.

Vanderbilt also has a large part of his assets in ships and shares in investment companies, and his cash on hand will never exceed tens of millions.

Although these two people are not multi-millionaires, they have relatively large fixed assets. It is very troublesome to turn their fixed assets into cash.

"Fuck!"

Webster, who has always been mature and prudent and cares about his image, couldn't help but curse when he learned the figure of $8.76 million.

He had long known that recovering the land in California would not go smoothly, and he was very sensible and did not get involved in this matter.

Webster had expected that the land in California would not fetch much, but the fact that it did not sell for even $10 million was a surprise to him.

"If Congress continues to make trouble, let them make trouble. I choose to stand on the side of California. According to the Constitution, we should also stand on the side of California. The government of the United States respects and protects the legitimate private property of citizens."

The image of the president and the government was very bad. Outside the Capitol Hill, bursts of protests and vulgar words reached Fillmore's ears.

He decided to risk his life to convey his views to these protestors and give a speech to them.

Perhaps today's adventure can win him some votes in the re-election campaign.

"Mr. Webster, with all due respect, I think it's time to calm down the people's anger. I need to draft a speech and deliver it to the protesting crowd outside the Capitol later."

"Indeed, the situation needs to be calmed down quickly, even at a relatively high cost." Webster agreed with Fillmore.

"The ambassadors of Britain and France are particularly concerned about what happened in California. I heard that they have sent people to contact California. This is a very dangerous signal."

Things in California are a family matter of the United States, but if the British Empire, which is afraid of chaos, gets involved, it will be a big trouble.

"I heard about this too. Two bankers from Barings and the Banque de France visited San Francisco. I heard that they brought two shipments of arms to California. My God, I hope these arms will not be used.

." Fillmore said with a worried expression.

He worked hard to promote the passage of the Compromise Act in order to avoid the occurrence of civil war. He did not want a civil war to break out and split the United States during his term.

Once Britain and France get involved in California, a series of chain reactions will occur.

By then, with California as a model, other states with ideas will be ready to take action, and they will also flirt with Britain and France.

This matter must be resolved as quickly as possible without allowing Britain and France to take advantage of it. This is President Fillmore's current thinking.

(End of chapter)