Foreign Relations of the United States, 1902, United States vs. Mexico, In the matter of the case of the Pious Fund of the Californias, Appendix II

Supplemental affidavit of the Most Reverend Patrick William Riordan, archbishop of San Francisco.

Kingdom of Holland, The Hague, ss:

Patrick William Riordan, being first duly sworn, on oath deposes and says:

I am the same Patrick William Riordan who has heretofore been sworn in this case, under date of September 16, 1902, and whose affidavit is filed herein, and I desire now to reaffirm the facts therein stated, and to make the former affidavit a part of the present one.

Desiring more specifically to answer the call for discovery served upon the United States, under date of August 12, 1902, by Sr. José F. Godoy, chargé d’affaires, of the Republic of Mexico, I depose and say:

1. The bishops of California did receive the sum of $904,070.79, Mexican gold, referred to in the decision of November 11, 1875, and as corrected as to amount by the umpire on November 18, 1876.

2. The said sum, first deducting the amounts necessarily expended for costs and attorneys’ fees, was applied to religious purposes by the orders to whom the same was paid, under the papal decree of distribution attached to my former deposition.

The sums paid to said qrders were expended within the limits of Alta California, according to the boundaries thereof as they were formerly claimed by Spain and within the territory ceded by Mexico to the United States under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The moneys paid to the several bishops were applied by them to religious purposes within their respective dioceses.

3. At all of the times stated herein and in my deposition above referred to said orders and said bishops, by the laws of the Roman Catholic Church, were required to keep accounts of all moneys paid to them or disbursed by them for religious purposes, including the moneys paid by me and by my predecessor, as archbishop of San Francisco, to them out of the moneys received upon the former award.

4. The accounts of distribution, so far as the moneys passed through my own hands or through the hands of the archbishopric of San Francisco before I became the incumbent thereof, are contained in the books of the bishopric, to be found in the office of the bishopric in the city of San Francisco; but inasmuch as the account books are large and numerous, and it is practically impossible to secure their physical presence before this tribunal, I have testified already of my own knowledge as to the distribution.

5. On the first day of January, 1875, and ever since that time, the State of Nevada has been, and it now is, a part of one of the dioceses of California. The present States of Washington, Idaho, and Montana were at the same date, and have since remained, and now are, suffragan to the metropolitan see of Oregon City, State of Oregon. Continuously since the same date, to wit, the 1st of January, 1875, the present State of Utah, formerly the Territory of Utah, has been, and now is, suffragan to the see of San Francisco.

That there are in the State of California, as it now exists politically, the archdiocese of San Francisco and the two suffragan dioceses of Sacramento and of Monterey and Los Angeles, the diocese of Sacramento being the direct successor of the old diocese of Grass Valley, which was represented by its bishop in the memorial filed in the case of Amat et al vs. Mexico before the Mixed Commission in 1870.

6. That within the knowledge of this deponent all of the twenty-one missions founded by the Franciscans in Upper Calif ornia are still in existence and in constant use either as missions or as Roman Catholic churches, except the missions of Santa Cruz, San Rafael, and San Francisco Solano, which are extinct, and excepting, furthermore, the two missions of La Purisima and San Antonio, as to which missions this deponent hath no personal knowledge, leaving, therefore, within his knowledge sixteen out of the twenty-one missions still performing religious work.

7. That in addition to the Indian mission schools controlled by the Catholic Church and assisted by the Government, and referred to in the extracts from the report of the Indian Commissioner for 1901, already filed in this cause, there are established in California a Catholic Indian mission school at Hopland, Mendocino County, California, with an attendance of about seventy-five, and at Lower Lake, Lake County, California, with an attendance of about thirty to forty Indian boys and girls; that, furthermore, a Catholic Indian church is maintained at Marshall, California.

Patrick William Riordan.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this thirtieth day of September, A. D. 1902.

[seal.]

Stanford Newel,
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States of America to The Hague, Netherlands.

Legation of the United States,
The Hague, Holland, ss:

Stanford B. Newel, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States of America at The Hague, Holland, and duly commissioned and sworn as such, do hereby certify that I have no interest in the claim to which the testimony heretofore annexed relates, and that I am not the agent or attorney of any person having any interest in said claim; that on the thirtieth day of September, A. D. 1902, before me, as such envoy extraordinary at The Hague, Holland, personally came Patrick William Biordan, the witness named in and whose name is subscribed to the annexed deposition; that the said Patrick William Riordan was thereupon then and there sworn by me, in due form of law, as a witness in the matter of the claim above mentioned, therein to testify and declare the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and the said witness having been so by me duly sworn then and there deposed to the matter contained in his said deposition annexed hereto and identified by my signature. I further certify that the witness Patrick William Riordan is personally well known to me, and known by me to be a credible and truthful witness, I further certify that the testimony of the said witness was then and there reduced to writing in my presence by J. J. Haledon Rix, a person having no interest in, and not being the agent or attorney of any person having an interest in the claim above mentioned, and that the said deposition was then and there carefully read by me to the said witness, and being signed by me was then and there signed by the said witness in my presence. The said deposition of said Patrick William Riordan was reduced to writing in the form of typewriting, and signed by him, and is annexed to this certificate.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of the said legation this thirtieth day of September, A. D. 1902, at The Hague, Holland, aforesaid.

[seal.]

Stanford Newel,
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Netherlands.