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Washington of California. faithfully your Martinez, California, April 10/05. Dr. Benjamin, Washington, D.C. Dear
Sir:- Of all the Californians T know General Bidwell in my opinion, best deserves a place in Statuary Hall'. Form first
to last of his long career he was our most conspicuous and enthusiastic leader in making the State; taking part in commercial,
political and military affairs, building roads etc In particular he was a great farmer, the greatest of the West. In the early
days while others riddled the Sierra gulches in a wild storm of energy, and the whole atmosphere people and all seemed yellow
with gold-dust, he proved and made known the far greater wealth of the soil, plowing, sowing, planting, making innumerable
experiments with all sorts of grains and fruits for everybody's benifit. That Bidwell was not the only man to strike root
and grow high and broad in the mighty west goes without saying; but he has always been in sight as a patriarch of the old
style, steadfast, upright, towering in massive grandeur of character amid his fellow pioneers like a Sequoia amid its companion
firs and pines. And so I think his name will stand in history -- a benevolent master builder -- the illegible