Rush. Discriminatory and racist treatment and laws as well as being so vastly outnumbered forced them out of their native lands despite assurances by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that they could remain. Foreign Miners' Tax In response to the Mexican resistance to the American population, white miners called for something to be done about the "Sonoran" miner "problem". In response, in 1850, the Californian government introduced a tax on foreign miners who were working plots, called the Foreign Miners' Tax Law. The claimed purpose of the tax was to fund the government's efforts to protect the foreign workers. There are conflicting reports on the amount of the tax ranging from $20 to $30 per month. This extremely high tax forced all but the most successful Latinos to stop mining as they were unable to obtain enough gold to make mining profitable. This left only the most successful of the Mexican prospectors, who ironically were the ones who drew the most ire from the Euro-American miners initially. By 1851, when the tax law was repealed, approximately two-thirds of the Latinos and Californios that had been living and working in mining areas had been driven out by the tax. After repealing the $20 or $30 per month tax, the California legislature instituted a much more reasonable $3 per month tax in 1852. Society and customs of the first Californios Government In the Spanish period, Alta California ("Upper California") was nominally controlled by a governor appointed by the Spanish government. The governors of California were at first appointed by the Viceroy (nominally under the control of the Spanish Crown). After 1821 and Mexican independence, there were approximately 40 Mexican Presidents from 1821 to 1846. Their administrations appointed the governor. The costs of the minimal Alta California government were paid mainly from revenues of the roughly 40–100% import tariff collected at the entry port of Monterey. The other center of Spanish power in Alta California was the Franciscan friars. As heads of 21 missions, they often resisted the powers of the governors.<ref name="Encyclopedia mexican">Werner, Michael S., Editor; Concise Encyclopedia of Mexico; Women's Status and Occupation". pp. 886–898; Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers; </ref> None of the Franciscan friars was a Californio, and their influence rapidly waned after Mexico secularized the missions in the 1830s. The instability of the Mexican government (especially in its early years), Alta California's geographic isolation, the growing ability of Alta California's