Buchanan, James; Speech Before the 30th Congress, December 5, 1848. Published to Accompany President Polk's Message to Congress of the same Date. 30th Congress, 2nd Session, Executive Doc. 1, 1848. Octavo, pp. 73, large folded hand-colored map, 3 folded maps of California gold region.

In half calf and marbled boards, colored map re-backed and nicely repaired at split folds, very minor foxing to some text and small marginal tears at text edges repaired with archival tape, very good.
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Just prior to President Polk's official announcement , before the 30th Congress, of the discovery of gold in California; James Buchanan; Secretary of State, spoke before the same body and praises the present wealth of America and the newly discovered gold and quicksilver deposits of California, the newly acquired territories and the need for a stable government in California. It is within this document that the official announcement of the discovery of gold in California is found. Included in the document are the two letters from Thomas Larkin to James Buchanan, dated June 1 and June 28, 1848 and entitled "Mineral Lands in California". The June 1 letter begins with the announcement of the gold strike on the American Fork of the Sacramento and Feather river. Also contained is Colonel Richard B. Mason's report of his trip to the newly discovered placers. The maps are quite important. The first is a map of the "Upper Mines and Lower Mines of the Mormon Diggings". The second is a map of the "Position of the Upper and Lower Gold Mines on the South Fork of the American River.." and the third is the "Topographical Sketch of the Gold and Quicksilver of California". The maps are the first accurate maps of the gold fields. The large folded hand colored map is not normally found in Executive Document 1. The map does not have a title but is probably Wheat's "Mapping the TransMississippi West" reference #561. The lower left margin has "E. Gilman, draftsman" and "P. S. Duval's lith, Philad.". The map measures 22 by 14. It shows the United States after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildago. The States and Territories are separately colored with California extending eastward through present day Arizona and Colorado while Texas extends westward and northward to include Santa Fe.