Key Quotations--John A. Sutter
- John A. Sutter [himself]
- I think I have done just like a missionary to tame and
civilize the wild Indians.
- It was a great assistance to us that we could hire the
Indians as laborers so very cheaply. They make slavery wholly
unnecessary.
- I was never a speculator, I stuck to the plow.
- You see, the gold mine is a lottery. Among hundreds only
one or two get rich. Most people prefer secure jobs.
Agriculture is best.
- The goldseekers came, and they bled me freely.
- I was robbed and ruined by lawyers and politicians.
- . . . this Gold Discovery produced through my industry and
energy . . . for me it has turned out a folly, then without
having discovered the Gold, I would have become the richest
wealthiest man on the Pacific Shore. [sic]
- Author James Hutchings
The men who shared most largely in his princely hospitality and
possessions were the first to take advantage of it by stealing
away his possessions. . . . May God forgive us Californians.
(1857)
- Philosopher Josiah Royce
A heroic figure he was not, although his romantic position as
pioneer in the great valley made him seem so to many travelers
and historians. . . . his fate was the ordinary one of the
persistent and unteachable dreamer. (1866)
- Sutter's Friend I.S. Tichenor
A more noble man never lived. (1880)
- California Historian Hubert H. Bancroft
His energy was a phase of his visionary and reckless enthusiasm .
. . Of principle, of honor, or respect for the rights of others,
we find but slight trace in him. (1886)
- Indian Historian Albert Hurtado
Sutter's Fort is about the Indian business. Without Indians,
there would have been no fort . . . Whatever Sutter's successes
and failures, Indians paid the price. (1990) - Historian of the "New West" Patricia
Limerick
Keeping [Sutter] on a pedestal requires a constant struggle
against the facts of his life. To let him off that pedestal and
to restore him to full humanity, one simply has to cease to fight
the facts . . . before gold ever appeared in the mill race at
Coloma, Sutter had encountered frustration, disappointment and
failure. (1990)
- Historian and Sutter Editor Ken Owens
. . . the Sutter myth . . . well may have become his most
enduring legacy. (1994)