Malheur National Wildlife Refuge circa 1851

In the following New York Times article, the malcontents who are “squatting” at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge can be deemed to be the same as outlined in the letter to the editor from the Sacramento Daily Union, 5 August 1851 :

First the NYT article:

Opposing Factions Take to Facebook in Oregon Wildlife Refuge Dispute

Now the Sacramento Union letter:

Reckless of all principle, regardless alike of public safety and private right, the incendiary spirits who have given origin unto this evil, whether as leaders, far-sighted and unscrupulous, or as followers, fanatical and lawless, have determined to risk all hopes of success upon the chances of an immediate and combined effort, as upon the hazard of a die.
Organizing their schemes upon an idea perfectly agrarian, conducting them in a spirit perfectly unprincipled, they heed not that the issue may prove ruin to the State, and the overthrow of the fabric of affairs. In the shipwreck of the body politic, it matters not to them that law and equity and reason — that all which is noble, excellent and virtuous, must descend to the bottom, if only they and their iniquitous designs can float securely on the surface and prevail. Through their thronging ranks, the apostles of Squatterism penetrate far and wide, disseminating radical and subversive doctrines, and contending for an indiscriminate ownership of property, by the whole people, qualified only by a right of possession in the actual possessor.
A turbulent and misguided body of men, led on by impudent and shameless demagogues, have imposed upon their fellow-citizens a monstrous perversion of public law and moral right, and have involved the whole community in uproar and confusion. Emboldened by impunity, and running riot in success, these rash and insolent invaders of our peace continue to stir up the waves of agitation. By a wider promulgation of these doctrines; by a bolder enforcement of their practice, they seek to terrify their opponents into submission, and provoke a contest where the ranks and classes of society must be arrayed against each other in fearful collision; where the desperado, the ruffian and the adventurer, will repair their shattered fortunes by trampling upon everything that is good and great and noble ; and where confusion subverts order, tranquility succumbs to strife, and the common weal is wrecked in anarchy.