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HEAD-QUARTERS, ARMY OF THE WEST,
Ciudad De Los Angeles, January 16, 1847.
SIR : I am informed that you are now engaged in organizing a civil government and appointing officers for it in this territory. As this duty has been specially assigned to myself, by orders of the President of the United States, conveyed in letters to me from the Secretary of War, of June 3, 8, and 18, 1846, the original of which I gave to you on the 12th, and which you returned to me on the 18th, and copies of which I furnished you with on the 26th December, I have to ask if you have any authority from the President, from the Secretary of the Navy, or from any other channel of the President, to form such government and make such appointments.
If you have such authority, and will show it to me or furnish me with a certified copy of it, I will cheerfully acquiesce in what you are doing. If you have not such authority, I then demand that you cease all further proceedings relating to the formation of a civil government for this territory, as I cannot recognise in you any right in assuming to perform duties confided to me by the President.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. W. KEARNEY,
Brigadier- General United States Army.
COMMODORE R. F. STOCKTON,
Acting Governor of California.
