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. Marshall 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 Marshall was prepared to take the mines by force. General Wright, Commander of the Department of the Pacific, ordered Company E of the Second Calvary 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 Marshall withdrew.
Frederick 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 this possibly fueling the cause of secession, retracted his writ.
"Right wrongs nobody"
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