HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
/ 
 
 THE 
 
 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 BY 
 
 FEAI^KLII^ TUTHILL. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO: 
 H. H. BANCROFT & COMPANY. 
 
 18^6. 
 
Kntered according to Act of CoDgress, in the year 186fi. 
 
 By H. n. BANCROFT & CO., 
 
 In the Clerk's Ofl3ce of the District Court of tlie United States for the 
 Northern District of California. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The following book was written because there 
 seemed to be a demand for a History of California 
 which should sketch the main events of the country 
 from its discovery to the present time. The pioneer, 
 under whose observation the most exciting of these 
 events have occurred, confesses the need of such a 
 book. The thousands who have entered the State 
 since it assumed its present peaceful aspect, comj)lain 
 of the lack of a succinct story of what had to be done 
 here to make the land so pleasant a home. 
 
 The material for a lii story of California is abundant. 
 The log-books of ancient mariners who visited the 
 coast — the voluminous, if not well-kept archives of the 
 Government, while the territory was under Spanish or 
 Mexican rule — the official reports and Congressional 
 documents about the transfer to the United States — the 
 files of newspapers since the land was Americanized — 
 the scores of books of intelligent travellers, who have 
 put their impressions on record, and the oral evidence 
 of natives, and early immigrants, who mingled in all 
 the affairs most interesting to us— from these sources 
 may be drawn ample details of life in California, from 
 dates as far in the j)ast as any but enthusiastic antiqua- 
 rians care to retire to. 
 
 There are several histories of California to bo found 
 in the libraries, some of them works of permanent 
 value. One of the oldest, the " Jesuit Venegas," and 
 the authority for the times and phices of which it treats, 
 Avas printed a century ago, when the California of the 
 
Mil PREFACE. 
 
 Txioderns was an unknown land. The history by 
 Forbes, the Englishman, and the vahiable report of 
 explorations by De Mofras, the Frenchman, each much 
 quoted and appreciated in the highest quarters, were 
 written while our California was deemed by Americans 
 the very remotest land of the globe, farther away for 
 all practical purposes tlian the East Indies, more inac- 
 cessible than the antipodes. After the discovery of 
 gold in California, there was quite an irruption of 
 books about the country, and among them a few histo- 
 ries, which rendered the outlines of its past career 
 familiar, and ministered adrairal)ly to the needs of the 
 early adventurers. But since their period, though the 
 term, counted by years, is very sliort, all has happened 
 that is most stirring in California story. Those events, 
 so impossible of repetition, seem, even to the actors in 
 them, to belong to a distant antiquity. The sixteen 
 years that have elapsed since the American occupation, 
 embrace such physical and social changes as oftener 
 require a full century for their development. 
 
 No doubt a better history can be written when the 
 country is older, and time has more thoroughly tested 
 some social experiments that seem already successful. 
 But, considering by how large a portion of the popula- 
 tion of the State its thrilling story is but dimly remem- 
 bered, like a tale told long ago in a far-distant sY»ot, 
 concerning lands now familiar, but which the hearer 
 never dreamed would become his home, this work is 
 cheerfully submitted to the public, in hope that it will 
 be received in the same spirit of charity with which it 
 was written. 
 
 August, ISOo. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE APPROACUES TO, AXD DISCOVERT OF, CALIFORKIA. 
 
 Hindrances to the Earlier Discovery of California. — Colnmbus.'s Theory left no Room for 
 Calilornia on the Globe. — First Voyagers on the Pacitic, — Expeditions sent up the 
 Coast bj' Cortez. — His Pilot, Ximenos, discovers Lower California, a. d. 1584. — Ca- 
 biillo discovers Upper California, a. d, 154'2. — His Coast Survey Profitless. — Meaning 
 of the Word California.— Boundaries of the Country Pages 1—14 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 A NOTABLE ENGLISHMAN- IN CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Inducements to the Exploration of the Coast— The Straits of Anian.— Sir Francis Drake 
 about Cape Horn, and on the Pacific. — He Attempts Returning to Europe by a North- 
 ern Koute.— Visits California, a. d. 1.579, and names it New Albion. — A I'edestrian Trip 
 through the Country. — The Climate gets a Bad Name.— Drake jirobably entered San 
 Francisco JJay. — Ueasons for Die Celief. — Lharacteristics of the Natives. — Did the? 
 find Gold ? Pages 15—27 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 VISCAINO'S EXPLORATIONS ALONG THE CALIFORNIA COAST. 
 
 Philip II. orders the Settlement of California.— Yiscaino's Settlement at La Paz.— His care- 
 ful Exploration of the Coast. A. d. 1602.— Describes San Diego and Monterey.— His 
 Crew Suffers from Scurvy.- Did he Visit San Francisco?— The Results of his Voyage 
 Wasted Pages 28-36 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS TO COLONIZE THE COUNTRY. 
 
 Pirates on the Coast.— Futile Attempt of Admiral Otondo and Father Kino to Colonize 
 California in 1CS3.— The Jesuits decline the Job.— Topographical Reasons why the 
 Spanish Navigators missed the best Harbor on the Coast, Pages 37 11 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 EXPERIMENTS OF THE JESUITS IN CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Jesuit Occupation of the Peninsula.— Fathers Kino and Salva Tierra undertake the Spir- 
 itual Conquest of California.— Settlement at Loreto, A. D. 1697.— Their Method with 
 the Indians.— .1 Rebellion Met by Coercion.- Jealou.sy of the Jesuits Ilim'ers their 
 Success.— Hard Times.— Father ligarte at the Mission.— Kino, from Sonora. furnishes 
 Supphe.s.—Efl"nrt to Connect the Settlements of the Peninsula and the Main-Land bv 
 a ( hain of Missions.— Overland Excursions IVom Sonora to Lower Calilornia.— Salva 
 Tierra"s Unwelcome Promotion, Release, and Death.- Alberoni's Grand Scheme and 
 Its Collapse.— The Pioneer Home-Built Vessel.— Ugarte Explores the Gulf.— Geo- 
 graphical Surveys.— Ugarte Dies.— A Success.— The 'Missions Relieve the Philippine 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 Galleon. — A Rfbellion. — Life at the Missiofl. — 'Wliippiiig Popular Trith the Indians. — 
 The I'ious Fund. — The Jesuits K.Npellcd. — The Franciscans iissunie the Lower Cali- 
 fornia Missions. — I5e.sert"s Blast airainst California. — 'I'lie Dominicans Uelieve the 
 Franciscans, who (\.v. lT69)i:oto Upper California. — Yenega's History and Ciiriors 
 Map T Pages 42— "i I 
 
 CHAPTER Y I. 
 
 OCCUPATION^ OF UPPER CALIFOPNIA BY THE FRANCISCANS. 
 
 Galvez's and Junipero's Expedition, in four Dctachinents, to Settle Upper California. — 
 They Rendezvous at San Diego. — A Mission Kstablished, a. d. 1T60. — (iovi-rnor Portala 
 visits .Monterey Harbor, Overland, without recognizing it. — Discoveis 8;in Francisco 
 by Land. — Imlian Outbreak at San Diego. — Monterey Dis'overed, — Joyful l!ecei)tion of 
 the News in Me.xico. — Death of Father Junipero," A. D 1TS4. — Location of the Mis- 
 sions. — A Vessel enters San Francisco Bay, June, 17T5 — Order of Establishment of 
 the Missions....' Pages 72 — 87 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE ABORIGINES. 
 
 The Aborigiries of Upper California. — Digger Mythology, Ti-aditions, and Customs. — Their 
 F*od; Relisions and Social Life; Medical Practice; the Sweat-House. — Burial or 
 Burning of the Dead.— Their Ideas of Death Pages 8S— 97 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 DETAILS OF THE MISSION SYSTE3L 
 
 The Spanish Policy towards the Indians. — Theory of the Mission System. — The Mission 
 Buildinss. — The Indian Itancheria. — Government of the Mission. — The Presidio. — 
 Collision of Priests and Soldiers. — The Pueblo of dilferent Kinds. — Political Govern- 
 ment of California under Spain. — ElVect of the Manifold Order System. Pages 93 — 110 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A CALM HALF CENTURY. 
 
 The Indians take kindly to Mission Life. — .'Vn Era of Tninqnillity. — Number of Domesti- 
 cated Indians at diiferent Periods. — Population ot each Mission, .\. d. 1S02. — Thriving 
 Times. — Yankees I5uy their Hides. — Fear of ICarthqnakes. — Dread of Foreigners. — 
 The Viceroy's Orders to beware of Captain Cook. — Vancouver Well Treated. — Jealousy 
 of American Visitors. — lohn Brown at San Francisco. — The Uussian Occupation, from 
 1812 to 1842, of aStri]) on the Coast Pages 111—120 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 CALIFORNIA UNDER MEXICAN RULE. 
 
 California Accepts Imperial Mexico's Rule (1S22). — List of Governors of California while 
 ' under Spain. — Becomes a Territory of Uepiiblican Mexico. — Proposal Change of 
 Name. — -Jedediah S. Smith arrives Overland from tlie East, a. d. 1826. — The Fur Busi- 
 ness. — The Pious Fund diverted from the Ecclesiastics to the Spanish and Mexican 
 Governments. — The Mexican Colonization Act of 1824. — Wealth of the Missions in 
 1834 Pages 121—129 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE MISSIONS SECULARIZED. 
 
 Trouble Comes. — Governor li^chcandia tries to enforce the Secularization, a. d. 1830. — 
 Soliz's Insurrection. — Governor Victoria AiTCSts the Secularization. — The Echcandia 
 
CONTENTS. XI 
 
 InsiiiTection. — Portilla's Trpncherv. — Victoria Keeps his Promise, and Kelires to' 
 AJexiai. — Pu> I'icMi appointed Goveitior by tlie LeL'iblatnre. — Anaicby and Contusion. — 
 Figuema arrives ihronsli many Perils. — Divi.-ion of tlie Missions: tlic Spanisli Fran- 
 ciseans take those Sontliof Sm Luis Obispo; llie Mexiean Fianeiscans talie tliose North 
 of it. — Director IIiJar"s Colony arrives at t^olano. — ihe Missionaries hasten to Destroy 
 their Property.— Great Slanprliter of Cattle. — The Colonists Ilevolt, and are Exiled. — 
 The Territorial Leirislature turns over the Missions to Governor Figueroa. — Death of 
 J'igueroa, a. d. 1835 Pages 130 — 140 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 REBELLION, SECESSION, UESTOnATION, PANICS. 
 
 Cnstoni-House Quarrel.— Revolution. — Alvarado and Isaac Graham capture the Capital, 
 and Proclaim the Independence of Calil'ori.ia. — .\Ivarado crushes out a Rebellion; is 
 appointed Governor by Mexico, and Itecognizes Mexico again as the Central Power. — 
 Graliani and other Foroiirners Arrested and Exiled, but return again with Honor. — 
 Go\eriior Micheltorena arrives. — A I'anic. — Comiuodoro Jones hoists thi> American 
 Flag at Monterey. — Hauls it down again, nnil Apologizes. — Alvarado and Vallejo cap- 
 ture the Governor's Ammunition.— Micheltorena Invokes Sutters Aid. — Sutter obtains 
 a "Gener.al Title" to certain Lands. — The J''(/rei!.'ners stand aside, leaving Mexicans 
 and Californians to Fight it out. — The Me.\ici!ns Surrender. — Apparition from over the 
 Mountains. — Fremont's Api^earancc. — Lisi of Mexican Governors of California. 
 
 Pages 141—151 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 TUE "-NATIVE CALIFORNIANS." 
 
 What they understood by " Independence.''— Character of the People.— Great Riders. — 
 Their ilomes, Habits, Food, Dress, and Gardens. — Boston Tr.aders arrive after IS'22. — 
 How Justice was Administered. — Whalers in the Port. — Immigrants, and the Impres- 
 sion that all is soon to be Americanized Pages 152 — IGl 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 FREMONT AND THE BEAR PAUTY REVOLUTION. 
 
 Fiemont's Exploring Party asUs Permission to Rest in the San Joaquin Valley. A. d. 1846. — 
 Castro's Fair Promises and Treacherous i'erronnanees. — Freuiont stands a Siege. — Pro- 
 ceeds Northward. — Is Overtaken by Lieutenant Gillespie wiih Dispatches from Home. 
 — Ilis Camp broken into by Indians.— Fonr of his Party Killed. — Ucsolves to Revo- 
 lutionize the Government.— Returns to the Sacramento Valley. — Merritt's Party Cap- 
 tures Sonoma. — William!?. Ide's Proclamation. — The Bear Flag. — Lieutenant Ford's 
 Exjiedition routs De La Torre's Force. — FreiTio;it Organizing a Battalion. — Arrives at 
 Sonoma. — Declaration of Independence, July 5lh. — The Bear Party Absorbed into the 
 Battalion. — Fremont gives Chase to Castro Pages 1G2 — 175 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE AMERICAN CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Movements of the Ignited States Navy in the Pacific. — Commodore Sloafs Instrnctions. — 
 A Race .and its Consequences.— Sloat I'aises the United Slates Flag at Monterey, July 
 7th, 1S4G. — British Plots to secure California rendered Futiie. — The United States Flag 
 raised at San Francisco.— It replaces the Lear Flag at Sonoma — Fremont anticipates 
 Sloat's Messenger, and seizes the Goveinmeiit Arms at San Juan. — Rei)orts to SIcat.— 
 The Commodore I'uzzled, and out of Spirits. — Refuses to Accept into Service Fremont s 
 Battalion. — Arrival of Commodore Stockton. — He takes Command of theL::ud Forces,— 
 Sloat Sails for Home.— Oc nip.ation of the Ports.— Stockton lands at San Pedro; Marches 
 his Force to Los Angele.s, and organizes a Territorial Government for California. — The 
 Flores's Insurrection at the South Pages 176 — 102 
 
XU COj^TENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XYI. 
 
 CALIFORNIA'S THREE CONQUERORS AND FIRST THREE AMERICAN 
 GO VERNORS. 
 
 Stockton's Mcasnroa to Quell the Insurrection. — Captain Mein-ine's Party Eepulsed near 
 Sau Podro, by the Califoinians. — News of General Kearny at San Pasqual. —Stockton 
 sends liini timely Keliof. — Kearny arrives at San Diego. — The Advance upon L03 
 Ansclcs. — The Enfrairenient on the Plains of San Gabriel. — Stockton re-enters l^os 
 Anireks, January IDth, 1S47. — Fremont's Battalion moves Southward. — He Pardons 
 Jesus Pini. — A Toilsome March. — Fremont makes and Proclaims the Treaty of Co- 
 iiensa.— Delicate Eelations of Stockton, Kearny, and Fremont. — Fremont Reports to 
 Stockton. — Fremont as Governor. — Seven Weeks of Tranquil Splendor. — Kearny and 
 Shiihrirk join to depose him. — Proclamation Ignoring the Conenga Ti'eaty. — Fremont's 
 Famous i;i<l('^Is refused an Interview with Kearny, except 111 Presence of Colonel 
 Mason. — Fremont Disobeys Orders. — Stevenson's liegiment Airives. — Fremont goes 
 East under Arrest. — Ills Trial and Sentence — Kefusesthe President's Clemency, and 
 Retires from the Service Pages 193—213 
 
 CHAPTER XVI I. 
 SAN FRANCISCO AMERICANIZED. 
 
 The Land Escapes Mormonism. — Yerba Buena's Change of Name. — Its Newspapers. — 
 Benieia. — First Alcaldes of San Francisco. — First Mayor and the Aynntamiento. — Pub- 
 lic Meetings. — Overland Immigrants Snow-slayed East of the Sierra Nevadas. — Terrible 
 Suft'erings of the Donner Party. — Meeting of Indiirnation concerning Fremont. — 
 Growth of San Francisco, and its Sudden Depopulation Pages 214 — 225 
 
 CHAPTER XVI II. 
 
 THE GOLD DISCOVERY. 
 
 Gold Discovered at Coloma, January 19th, 1S49. — Governor Masons Visit to the Placers. — 
 His Iteport to the War Department. — IJow the News was Keceived at the Ea?t. — 
 Previous Hints of Gold in California. — Circumstances of the Discovery of 1S4S. 
 
 Pages 226—284 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 GRAND RUSH TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Peace between the United States and Mexico. — Terms of the Treaty.— The California Fever 
 a World-wide Epidemic. — They come in Companies with strange Ventures in Rotten 
 Bottoms. — Isthmus and Overland Immigrants. — The Grumblers. — Theories of the 
 Gold Production. — Simultaneous Settlement of the Mining Region. — Society. — Crime 
 and its Punishment in the Mines. — iVuomalous Method of Civil Government. 
 
 Pages 235—248 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 CONGRESS FAILS TO PRO VIDE A GO VERNMENT. 
 
 Unavnilin',' Efforts to gi%c California a Government. — Polk's Request and the Wilraot Pro- 
 viso. — Senators Coruin. Callioun, Benton, and Dix on Califori.ia, — Clayton's Bill Passi s 
 the Senate, and is Defeated in the House. — Congress does nothing for California, 1S47- 
 '4S. — President Polk's Letter to Californians. — Colonel Benton's Letter to the Same. — 
 The Congress of lS4S-'49. — Douglas's State Bill Adversely Reported.— A Special Com- 
 mittee Reports Favorably. — Senatorial Discussions. — Dayton says thev can cet a Con- 
 stitutional Convention oidy by using the Lasso. — Webster advises a Military Govern- 
 ment—Proposition to Cede back California to Mexico. — A Territorial Bill put on the 
 .\pproiiriation Bill.— Dix reiirets the Gold Discovery.— Webster and Calhoun Debate 
 Coiistitulional Questions. — A Stormy Sunday Morning Session. — Foote Raves. — Jeffer- 
 son Davis would Sacrifice California' to the Ap]Mopriations.— The Senate Recedes, and 
 California gets no Government — Revenue Laws E.'itended over California. 
 
 Pages 240-261 
 
CONTENTS. Xili 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE COKSTITUTIOKAZ CON^VEXTIOX. 
 
 The People of California Establish a Government. — CJovernor Riley's Proclamation for a 
 State Convention.— Ek-ction of Dolegiitcs. — Small Vote Oast— Constitutional Conven- 
 tion meets at Monterey, September, 1S49. — The Antecedents of Members. — Organiza- 
 tion of the Convention. — Slavery Prohibited Forever. — Debate coneernin^j; Negro Im- 
 migration. — State Boundaries. — The Slavery Question. — Lotteries, Duelling, Schools, 
 Bank.s. — E.xpenses of Convention. — Concluding Courtesies. — The Peoi)le Adopt the 
 Constitution Pages 262 — 283 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 TUE FIRST STATE LEGISLATURE. 
 
 Meeting of the First Legislature at San Jose. — Governor Eiley surrenders his Anthorily as 
 Governor to Governor Burnett. — Fremont and Gwin elected U. S. Senat<u's. — The 
 Legislature's Keputation and Work. — Rate of Interest. — Foreign Miners' I.icense. — 
 Utah's Curious Petition. — Brief History of the Cities Chartered. — San Francisco's 
 Growth. — The Hounds. — Sacramento. — Counties Organized. — Meaning and Origin of 
 their Names Pages 2S4--306 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 WAITIXG ON COA^GRESS FOR ADMISSION' TO THE UNION. 
 
 President Taylor's Message, advising the Admission of California. — Admits that he urged 
 the People to Organize a State. — Clay's Compromises Projwsed. — California's Admis- 
 sion discussed by Senators Foote, Mason, Davis, Clay, King, Calhoun, Webster, and 
 Seward.— Bell's Compromise Res<dutions.— Debate on the Compromises submitted by 
 Clay's Select Committee. — The California Bill passes the Senate. — Ten Senators Pro- 
 test. — It passes the House, and is approved by the President, September. 1850.— The 
 other Compromise Measures.- Repose. — What Disturbs and Ends it. . . Pages 306 — 8'23 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 ■' THE FALL OF '49 AND SPRING OF '50." 
 
 News of the Admission into the Union celebrated. — The Tent Era. — Flush, Thriftless 
 Times.— Cost of Living in the "Fall of '49 and Spring of '50."— The Scarcity of Fe- 
 males. — Character ot the Population. — All try the Mines. — The Currency. — Wages 
 
 Labor Honorable with all.— State of the Market— A Wet Winter.— Style 'of Houses.— 
 Fires in San Francisco.— Mining Rushes.— Squatter Riots.— GambliuL', Lynch Law, 
 Politics. — Conservative Influences at Work. — Sources of State Pride and Hope. 
 
 Pages 324—345 
 
 CHAPTER XX y. 
 
 AFTER THE ADMISSION. 
 
 Product of the Mines. — New Mining Methods. — Quartz-Crushing and Water-Ditches. 
 
 Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce. — The Markets alternately Bare and Glut- 
 ted. — Population of the State. — The Indians and Indian Wars. — Corresiioiulence be- 
 tween Governor Bigler and the U. S. Agents concerning the Indians. — War Debt. — 
 Reservations. — The Chinese Welcomed at first, but soon' Disliked.— Their '-Houses." 
 Habits, Worship, and Employments. — A Chinese Fight. — Excitement in the Legisla- 
 ture about Negro Testimony ." Pages 346—378 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 GRO WTU AND HINDRANCES OF THE TO WNS AND CITIES. 
 
 San Francisco's Prop-ess. — Real Estate. — Land Claims. — The Limantour Fraud. — E.vorbi- 
 tant Taxes. — The Peter Smith Judgments and Sale of City Propcrt}'. — Sacramento — 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 Fires and Floods.— Marysvillo. — Stockton. — Nevada City. — Grass Valley. — Placorville. 
 — Oihei- Towns and Gitii'S. — Frequent licmuvals ol' the Caijiial Pages 379 — 3U2 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 FILLIBUSTEniS2I. 
 
 William Walker. — His Sonora Expedition. — Its Ingli rioiis J"nd. — The Mexican and French 
 Consuls at San Francisco tried I'or Violating the Neutrality Laws Pages 303 — 401 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 A FINAXCIAL STORM. 
 
 The Financial Storm of 1855.— Failure of Page, Bacon & Co.— The Adams & Co. Muddle.— 
 Their Uooks lost and found —Alfred A. Colien, Isaiah 0. Woods, and Trenor W. Park. — 
 Sketch of the Career of '-James King, of VVni."— The Banker turned Editor.— The 
 Subjects of his Assault.— Palmer, ('iMik\t ('o.— State Finances in a Bad Way.— Water- 
 Froiit Extension. — Franchise-Hunting. — The Courts Pages 402 — 412 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 POLITICS. 
 
 Early Democracy of the State.— Governor Burnett.— Governor McDougall. — Governor 
 Bigler. — Tammany and Chivalry Yv'iUL'-s of the Democratic Party. — Douhle-headed 
 Convention of ISiH.— Know Noihing Victoiy. — First Election tor U. S. Senators. — 
 Fremont and Gwin chosen. — Failure to elect Fremonfs Successor in 1S51. — Weller 
 elected in 1SV2.— The Struggle (jf lbr)4.— Broderiek heaten. — Gwin still kept out of the 
 Vacant Seat in 1855. — Narrow Eseape from Ilinry S. Foote's Election in ItoO. — llow 
 San Francisco and Sacramento Voie. — The real Ruling Classes.— Lynchings.— Increas- 
 ing Violence and Crime Pages 418 — 431 
 
 C H A P T E R XXX. 
 
 THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE OF 185G. 
 
 Assassination of "James King, of Wm.," hy Supervisor Casey. — Formation of the Vigil- 
 ance Committee. — Newspaper Treatment of the Assassination. — Great Public Excite- 
 inont. — Tile Pulpit on the Vigilance Alovement. — Casey taken Ironi the Jail by the 
 p^.^,lll^.. — King's Burial. — Generous Provision for his Family. — Casey and CoraExe- 
 cute'd by the Viirilance Committee. — Burial <if tlie Executed. — Billy Mulligan's Life, 
 Dream, \.i\t\ Suicide. — Governor Johnson asks for Federal Arms in vain. — The Com- 
 mittee make some laiimrtant Arrests.— Non-ariival of the <'xpected J;eacti<m. — Ele- 
 ments of Opposition to the Popular Movement. — A Law and Ordor Meeting. 
 
 Pa.ses 452—451 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 COLLISIONS WITH THE STATE AUTHORITIES. 
 
 Governor Johnson proclaims San Francisco in a State of Insurrection. — lie orders out tlie 
 Militia. — Fort Gunny-Bags erected. — Citizens petition the Governor to withdraw his 
 Proclamation. — He tiirows the Uesiioiisildlity on the "Insurgents.'" — General Sherman 
 Kesigns his Major-Generalship of Militia. — News of ConKreSsiiian Herbert's Murdering 
 a Waiter. — Constitution and Method ot thi' Vigilance Committee. — Its Arms and Funds. 
 — Meetmg of Sympathizers. — Great Vigilance Mass Meetinc. — The Patent Ballot-Box. 
 — Governor Johnson appeals to President Pierce for Aid, but receives none. 
 
 Pages 45.i— 472 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE ASSUMES MORE DOUBTFUL POWERS. 
 
 A C.tse of Piracy alhged.— State Arms seized hy the Vigilants.— One of their Agents 
 stabbed by Judga Terry.— A General Alarm. — Vigilants Capture the Armories. — Volney 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 E. Howard's Official Report uf Affairs. — Jiulsre Terry in the Vigilants' Jail. — Commis- 
 sioners frum Sacrairi'nto ijleail fur him. — The Governor Ripufliates the Coniinission.-^ 
 Terry's Kriendsin th(f United Slates Senate. — Senators concerning the N'i^ilance Com- 
 mittee. — Ubiiinitoiis M<;Gowan. — The Banished tryinji to return. — Execution of lleth- 
 erinston and Urace by the Visilants. — A. A. Green gets the Pueblo Papers by a Strat- 
 agem. — How tlie Vi5:ilants got them from him. — Vigilance Respect for Federal Aiitlioi^ 
 ities. — Judge Terry discharged Pages 47o — 198 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 THE VIGILAyCE COMMITTEE DISBANDS. 
 
 The Supreme Court resumes Work. — The Vigilance Committee preparing to surrender 
 Power — Danger of being emwded into Polities. — Grand Final Parade. — Addi-essof the 
 E.'cecutive to the General Committee. — Head-Quarters under Public Inspection. — State 
 Arms retained. — The "Pirates" Acquitted. — The Rooms closeil. — Results of the Vigil- 
 ance Committee's Work. — List«f the K.xecuted and Banished. — Popularity of the Move- 
 ment. — The Rev. Dr. Scott iu Trouble. — .Members annoyed by Suits. — The Prochimatioa 
 of Insurreetiou witlulrawn Pages 499 — 517 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXIV. 
 
 PRESERVING THE FRUITS OF THE REFORM 
 
 Organization of the People's Party. — The Reformed City Government— Better Times. — 
 Comparis n of Municipal K.^penses before and alter the Revolution. — Method of the 
 People's I'arty Pages 5iS— 524 
 
 CIIAPTEB XXXV, 
 
 FINANCIAL BREAKERS. 
 
 The State's Interest not p.iid. — An Unconstitutional Debt. — Vision of Threatening Repa- 
 diation. — The Debt assumed by a Popular Vote. — RestoraSion of the Civil Fund to the 
 State refused. — Indian War Claim admitted. — State and Local Debts, and what to show 
 fortheiij Pages 52o — 531 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 LAND TITLES 
 
 Uncertainty of Land Titles. — Congressional Legislation concernins them. — Board of Land 
 Commissioners.— Suffering entailed by every Decision, liight or Wrong. — Attorney- 
 General Black's Sinsaiional CommuBieation. — Instances-i^uoted by him of Fraud r,a a 
 grand Scale. — A Hetter Era Dawning Pa<^<'s 632 — 542 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII- 
 
 BITTER PARTY STRIFES 
 
 Governor Johnson's Administration. — The State Prison Blimder. — Bate.s's De.'alcat!<»n. — 
 Broderick is King of Caucus, and is elected U. S. Senator. — Gwin and Latham aspire 
 to the vacant Seat. — Why Broderick gives it to Gwin. — Latham's Version of his De- 
 feat. — Gwin's Letter provini; the Bargain and his Abasement. — Broderick breaks with 
 the Administration. — The Fugitive Slave Law tried.— The Campaign of 1S.")9. — Brod- 
 erick declines a Challeuge. — His first Stump Speech. — Broderick, (xwin, anil Latham 
 enjoying great Freedom of Speech. — Attitude of the Republicans. — Greeley's Advice. — 
 Pixley's Pamphlet. — Latham wins Pag'S 543 — 560 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 BRODERICirS DEATH.— NOTABLE DUELS 
 
 Jadge Terry challenges Broderick. — The Challenge Accepted. — The Duel. — Broderick 
 mortally wounded. — His Death ajid Biudal. — Colonel BjJv^t's Kulogy. — Baker's Life and 
 
XVI CONTENTS. 
 
 Death.— r.roderick's Will.— Terry's Eesi2:ntition.— The Farce of hi.s Trial.— NotaWe 
 Dufls. — Gilbert killed by Denver in 1852.— G. Pen Johnston kills !3eMati>r Feririisun in 
 lS5s. — Piercy killed by Showalter in 1S61. — Senator Hann announces Broderiok's Death 
 to the U. S. Senate Page.s 561 — 5T1 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 A POLITICAL REYOLVTIOK 
 
 Latham elected Senator in Broderick's Place. — Governor Downey vetoes the Bulkhead, 
 and achieves extraordinary Popularity. — The Water-Front Question happily settled. — 
 The State votes for Lincoln. — Lpgislature of 1S61. — Free Gifts of Kailroad Franchises. 
 — General MclJouscall elected U. S. Senator. — A Eepublicau State Ticket elected. — The 
 LegisLitures of 18(32, 1SG3, and 1864 ,. Pages 5T2— 581 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 RELATIONS TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 Perilous Position when the Southern States began to secede. — A. Sydney Johnston, com- 
 manding the Pacific Department, relieved by General Sumner. — The great Union 
 May Meeting, 1861. — The Press, and the Pulpit for Union. — Kev. Dr. Scott prefers 
 Peace. — hnportant Servicesof T. Starr King. — His Method, Death, and Burial. — Politi- 
 cal Parties <in the War. — Downey's Fatal Sentence. — Democratic State Convention. — 
 Edmund Randolph's Crazy Speech. — Stanford elected Giovernor. — G'.vin's Hypocrisy. — 
 Latham rides two Horses, and Is thrown. — McDougall disappoints the Union Men. — 
 Conner's Course. — Party Organisations sacrificed f( r Union. — Low elected Governor. — 
 The Supreme Court Judges. — California's Contributions to the Army. — Gifts to the 
 Sanitary Fund. — The Spe'cific Contract Act. — Adherence to a Metallic Currency. — Tax- 
 ing the Mines. — Californians in the Army and Navy. — ^In Rebel Service. — A California 
 Pirate. — Arrests of Disloyal Persons.^ — General Wright's prudent Course. 
 
 Pages 582-600 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 RESOURCES OF THE STATE. 
 
 The Grold Yield. — ^Profit of the various Modes of Mining. — ^Late Rushes out of the State. — 
 Loss of Population in certain Districts. — ^Useful Mineral Products of the State. — The 
 Mining Stock Mania, 1863-4. — An Irruption of Prospecters. — Valuable Mineral Dis- 
 coveries. — i\.grlculture. — Manufactures. — Exports, and luiiwrts. — Arrivals and Depart- 
 ures. — Insolvencies, — ^The Cm'rency Pages 601 — 615 
 
 CHAPTER XLI I. 
 
 QUARRELS WITH NATURE— COMPENSATIONS FOR APPARENT 3JISF0R- 
 
 TUNES. 
 
 Earthquakes, Floods, and Drought.— The Flood of ]S61-'2.— Is there any Danger of another 
 such ?— Rainless Years— Compensation of Fires, Floods, Droughts, and Rushes.- Much 
 of the appareat Loss a real Gain to tho Miaing Towns Pages 616—627 
 
 CHAPTER XLI 1 1. 
 
 THE PEOPLE AND TUE PROSPECT. 
 
 Salubrity of the Climate.— What Diseases are not Uncomnion.— Society ""^pMlT iiiiproving, 
 
 —The Schools.- " ' •■ ■ - ^^ mu.i,,...„ 
 
 The Wine Que 
 
 —The Schools.— Disproportion of the Sexes.— Sabbath Observance.- The Dashaways.— 
 jestion.— Charities. — The Indian Remnant. — Failure of the Reservation 
 
 Svstem.— The Chinese Puzzle.— Communications with the Atlantic States.— Overland 
 
 lj[ail The Pony. — Telegraph across the Continent.— Awkward Task of the Historian. 
 
 — Tlie Statu on the Threshold of Us Greatness.— xVlready a Mother of Territories and 
 
 States 
 
 Pages 628—644 
 
THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAPTER 1. 
 
 THE APPROACHES TO AND DISCOVERY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 It was about half a century after Columbus chap. 
 found America that the first discovery was 
 made of Upper California. It was thirty-seven 
 years later that the first Englishman set eyes 
 on its soil. Still later, by one hundred and 
 eighty-nine years, the first permanent settlement 
 in it was successfully attempted. There was 
 not enough known of its resources to attract 
 much attention, until the American conquest of 
 California, which occurred seventy-eight years 
 later still, or three hundred and fifty-five years 
 after the discovery of the New World. 
 
 The statement of Herodotus, that winged 
 serpents guarded the cinnamon-trees of India, 
 though historically fabulous, was poetically 
 true enough ; for though no such fantastic 
 creatures as the historian described ever stood 
 guard l)y any tree of earthly growth, the dis- 
 
2 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOE^STIA. 
 
 CHAP, eases that hover over the spice-gardens on the 
 ,__^_ verge of tropical jungles were scarcely less dan- 
 gerous ol:)jects to encounter than winged ser- 
 pents would have been. The dragons that so 
 long protected from plunder or enjo}'ment the 
 depositories of our California gold, the bound- 
 less opulence of our Pacific resources, commer- 
 cial, agricultural, and mineral, were the reports 
 carried back to Spain and England by succes- 
 sive navigators of intense cold in these middle 
 latitudes, and of storms perpetually raging 
 along our coast ; the concealment of our har- 
 bors under thick and frightful fogs, behind 
 reefs of outlying rocks or sand-bars, over which 
 the breakers seemed to make a continuous 
 breach ; on the east, a sturdier dragon still de- 
 fied approach — desert wastes, and impassable 
 mountains of great breadth, whose frosty peaks 
 and ridges were unbroken, except at far-distant 
 passes, that only the most careful search re- 
 vealed. During the course of three centuiies 
 the unceasing demand for safe harbors along 
 the coast, the fact that pirates nestled in its 
 sparse bays to the terror of lawful traders, sto- 
 ries of pearls in the rivers and gold in the soil, 
 the sharp rivalry of empires conflicting for 
 wider possessions, the assurance that whoever 
 enjoyed its ports would control the avenues of 
 the rich commerce of the Indies — all these mo- 
 tives conspired in vain to tempt to its thorough 
 
DISCOVERY OF CALIFORNIA. 3 
 
 exploration and settlement. It will never cease char 
 
 to be a wonder how, so Ion 2: after it was , ' 
 
 mapped, siicli a land lay hidden and almost for- 1500. 
 gotten, while explorers rummaged all corners of 
 the earth beside, and dragged the sea for fresh 
 prizes in the domain of Geography. 
 
 It was some years after the great Genoese 
 found his new world before geographers com- 
 prehended that there M^as room enough on the 
 globe for the land of which we write. When 
 Columbus argued to the professors of Sala- 
 manca his pet and prolific theory of the rotun- 
 dity of the earth, the wisest of them did not 
 dispute its truth ; but he shared with them the 
 error of allowing too little length for a degree 
 of longitude. In consequence, he looked in the 
 vicinity of Florida for Marco Polo's famous 
 Island of Cipango — the Japan of our maps ; 
 and the best charts of his day advanced the 
 eastern boundary of Cathay or China as far 
 east as the Sandwich Islands. So, when he 
 came across the islands that picket the West- 
 ern Continent, lie had no doubt that he was 
 near the threshold of the Eastern. When he 
 had coasted scores of leagues along the south- 
 ern shore of Cuba, and the crazy condition of 
 his ships and his disheartened men made it 
 necessary for him to turn to the eastward again, 
 he took the sworn statements of all on board 
 his fleet, from the captain to the ship-boy, in 
 
4 THE niSTOKY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, confirmation of Lis own opinion tliat they had 
 '_^ visited the eastern extremity of Asia. On his 
 
 1502. fourth voyage to America, in 1502, he diligent- 
 ly searched from the Bay of Honduras to Porto 
 Bello, for the strait that the Spanish geograj^h- 
 ers believed must communicate between the 
 Gulf of Mexico and a sea lying to the west- 
 ward. But no such coveted outlet could he 
 find, and he died firm in the faith that in cross- 
 ing the Atlantic he had navigated the only 
 ocean that divided the western edge of Europe 
 from the eastern fringe of Asia. But as suc- 
 ceeding explorers pried into and retreated from 
 each large river's mouth along the northern 
 shore, investigated the whole curve of the Mex- 
 ican Gulf, souo;ht alon<>: the Caribbean Sea and 
 up the broad La Plata, but everywhere in vain, 
 for an opening westward, the islands, that most 
 had held the new lands to be, grew beyond 
 controversy into a continent — ^but not the East- 
 ern Continent, for the natives everywhere per- 
 sisted in the story that to the westward (and 
 many of them said, not far off) lay an ocean. 
 It piqued the chai't-makers and the hardy navi- 
 gators alike that it could not be reached. 
 
 1513. That honor was not long reserved for Balboa, 
 a noble Spaniard, who had settled with a colony 
 of gold-seekers at Darien. In the year 1513 
 his guides took him to the top of a mountain, 
 whence they told him that both seas might be 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE SOUTH SEA. 
 
 seen. Pushing up to its summit, lie found it as chap. 
 they had said. When the vision of a limitless ^_^_, 
 expanse of waters to the south met his gaze, 1513. 
 he fell on his knees, and, with uplifted hands, 
 thanked Heaven for the honor of being the 
 first European that had beheld *' the sea be- 
 yond America." Then descending to the shore, 
 he waded waist deep into the water, and took 
 possession of it, and all the lands it washed, 
 for Spain. 
 
 But the first European to sail on the waters 
 of Balboa's " South Sea beyond America " was 
 Fernando Magellan. This zealous and courage- 
 ous Portuguese navigator had sailed as far east 
 as the Malay Islands, where his countrymen 
 were slowly efi^ecting a settlement. But be- 
 coming dissatisfied with the remuneration he 
 was receiving for his services, he went over to 
 Spain, and without much difficulty convinced 
 the court, inflamed by reports of the mines 
 in Mexico, where about that time Cortez was 
 urging his imperial conquests, that the coveted 
 Spice Islands might be reached by sailing west- 
 ward. There was a famous com23act then ex- 
 isting between those maritime rivals, that what- 
 ever new lands might be discovered beyond 
 the meridian one hundred and eighty degrees 
 west of the Azores, should belong to Spain ; 
 and all east of that line were to be the prop- 
 erty of Portugal. Spain could not resist the 
 
6 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 OHAP. temptation to gain a point by intrigue when 
 .,_^_^ projected on so grand a scale, and Magellan 
 1520. was speedily dispatched with five small ves- 
 sels to come up l:>y a westward route behind 
 the Portuguese possessions in the Malay Ar- 
 chipelago ; and so, while adhering to the letter 
 of the compact, to obtain a claim to that gar- 
 den of the East which, without a question, 
 the compact was intended to secure to Portu- 
 gal. 
 
 Arrived off the South American main, Ma- 
 gellan left no gulf or inlet unexplored that 
 promised an opening westward. On the 21st 
 of October, 1520, he entered the strait between 
 the mainland and the Island of Tlerra del Fue- 
 go, which he named " The Strait of Ten Thou- 
 sand Virgins," but which, ever since, has been 
 known as the Straits of Magellan. He was 
 sixty days threading this channel, crooked and 
 thick-set with islands. Behind every headland 
 that he passed a new creek opened or a new 
 river emptied. The tide rose and fell thirty 
 feet. The water rushed backward and forward 
 like a torrent. The overhano-ino- cliffs were 
 capped with snow, yet a flaming mountain — so 
 they reported— was generally in sight on the 
 south. At last from this horrid place his little 
 fleet emerged into an open sea, so calm, so gen- 
 tle, so unlike the turbulent Atlantic, that he 
 named it the Pacific. Once upon its bosom, 
 
COETEZ ON THE PACIFIC COAST, 7 
 
 his course lay westward towards tlie Philip- chap. 
 pines. Northward of his track no one yet had ,_^_ 
 sailed on all this ocean. I52i. 
 
 But Cortez (in 1521) had completed the 
 conquest of Mexico, and from the capital 
 to both oceans the Spanish dominion was ac- 
 knowledged. It was with no little curiosity 
 that he awaited the return of the explorers he 
 had sent out to find the western border of his 
 New Spain. The next year he had the pleas- 
 ure of announcing to his emperor that his 
 agents had in three places discovered the South 
 Sea. The responsive command to explore both 
 coasts for an oj^ening between the oceans, he 
 welcomed as a relief from the languor that 
 began to annoy him. It was comparatively 
 an easy task to scour the eastern coast from 
 Panama to Florida. But on the west he had 
 work worthy of his genius ; for, first of all, 
 there were his harbors to find, then his ships 
 to build, and then a sea of unknown perils to 
 navigate, which as yet no keel had ever vexed. 
 
 But, to a man like Cortez, difficulties are a 
 spur, and repeated failures are sharp incentives. 
 He fitted ship after ship, and sometimes fleets 
 of them, determined to know not only what 
 sort of face the land he had conquered pre- 
 sented to the west, but also to be sure that no 
 strait were left undiscovered, north or south, 
 by which Spain might reach the Spice Islands 
 
O THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, without doubling tlie Cape of Good Hope; 
 ^_^1^ and it was his special purpose to inspect defi- 
 1534. nitely the stormy channel through the conti- 
 nent where Magellan had passed from ocean to 
 ocean. In 1534, one of his men, a mutineer 
 and murderer, discovered Lower California, and 
 was murdered there. Cortez had given to Be- 
 cerra the command of one of two ships that 
 were sent out to learn the fate of a missino; 
 vessel of a previous expedition. Becerra's crew 
 mutinied under the lead of the pilot, Ximenes, 
 a native of Biscay, who continued the voyage, 
 crossed the Gulf of California, and landed. 
 While near the bay afterwards known as La 
 Paz, Ximenes and twenty of his Spaniards were 
 killed hj the Indians. The vessel, however, 
 returned, with a good report of the country, its 
 people, and its pearls. 
 
 During the same year, Cortez, seeking for 
 the Moluccas, which he thought to be no great 
 distance oif, conducted in person an exploring 
 expedition to the north. He left Tehuantepec 
 with four ships ; three of these were soon 
 stranded along the coast. The one in which 
 he himself sailed reached the gulf and the 
 peninsula. From that time the Gulf of Cali- 
 fornia was known as the " Sea of Cortez ;" 
 though when, soon afterwards, it was more 
 explored, it gained the name of the Red or 
 Vermilion Sea: perhaps from some resemblance 
 
LOWER CALIFOENIA DISCOVERED. 9 
 
 of its outline to tlie Eed Sea that separates chap. 
 Egypt from Arabia ; perliaps from tlie color of v_^_ 
 its waters near its liead, as seen after tlie Colo- 1534. 
 rado had diso-oro-ed into it a torrent more than 
 usually turbid. Cortez hoped to plant a colony 
 on the peninsula ; but the discontent that grew 
 out of the sufferings of the little company from 
 famine, from excesses when relief came, and 
 from repulses by the Indians, made him glad 
 to hear the appeals from Mexico for succor, 
 that gave him an excuse to retreat from his 
 undertaking and return. 
 
 In 1537 he dispatched three ships, under 1537. 
 Francisco de Ulloa, who entered the Gulf of 
 California, explored it to its extremity, then 
 doubling the Cape, went up the western coast 
 of the peninsula to -about the twenty-ninth 
 degree of north latitude. Ulloa, after a year's 
 absence, brought back accounts of a bare vol- 
 canic land, peopled by poor men — of " no coun- 
 try, in short, worthy the second visit." And 
 now the conqueror's conceit of rich islands and 
 vast territories of unbounded wealth was quite 
 deserting him. For all his princely outlays he 
 was reaping no profits either of glory or of 
 gold. 
 
 But that very year Mexico enjoyed a fresh 
 sensation. Of three hundred Spaniards, who, 
 ten years before, landed in Florida to conquer 
 it, four survivors wandered across to Cu- 
 
10 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORXIA. 
 
 CHAP, liacan, whence tliey were sent to the capital. 
 ^_^^_^ There they tokl such stories of the pearls and 
 1537. other riches that abounded on the coast of the 
 South Sea, that all Mexico was fired for explo- 
 rations. Cortez and the Viceroy Mendoza, with 
 equal zeal, sprang to new enterprises. But the 
 projects of the two were irreconcilable, and the 
 star of the viceroy was in the ascendant. Cor- 
 tez remained chafing at home, harassed by the 
 lawyers, while the viceroy perfected his ar- 
 rangements to send off, for the conquest of " the 
 countries and islands north of Mexico," an army 
 of a thousand men by land, and another by 
 sea. Orders were given for the two armaments 
 to meet in latitude thirty-six. The land forces 
 penetrated northward by way of Sinaloa and 
 Sonora to where they found seven wi'etched 
 towns, with a population in the largest one of 
 but four hundred men. The houses, though 
 constructed of earth and unhewn logs, were 
 occasionally of several stories in height. These 
 places they identified as " the seven large towns, 
 inhabited by civilized nations, with mountains 
 round about, rich in metals and gems," and 
 " the large town of Quivira, with houses seven 
 stories high, celebrated for its riches," which a 
 zealous Franciscan had reported to exist, and 
 on whose representations as much as on those 
 of the Florida wanderers the expedition was 
 founded. In three years the inland army re- 
 
DISCOVERT OF CALrFOPvlSriA. 11 
 
 turned, sick, tliinnecl, and disheartened, report- chat, 
 ing a country barely tolerable, and but narrow- ^_^ ' 
 ly removed from the character of a desert. 1540. 
 Meanwhile the fleet had achieved the disgrace 
 of its commander l)y a very speedy return with- 
 out the slightest advantage gained. They went, 
 according to account, to the appointed place on 
 the thirty- sixth degree of north latitude, which 
 would have heen up the Colorado Kiver, above 
 the Mohave Indian country ; they erected some 
 crosses, buried some bottles containing letters? 
 and then went back ao;ain. As we hear noth- 
 inor fm'ther of this landino; in so hisi-h a latitude, 
 as it was not spoken of as a point beyond pre- 
 ceding explorations, and as the commander of 
 the fleet was disgraced, it is probable that there 
 was some mistake about it, though that Alarcon 
 was the discoverer of the mouth of the Colo- 
 rado, about the year 1540, is not disputed. 
 
 Cortez now embarked for Spain, never to re- 
 turn. Before he left, however, he saw himself 
 deserted by one who had always followed his 
 fortunes. Pedro de Alvarado, ambitious of 
 rivalling Cortez as an explorer, having asked 
 of the emperor and received a commission, con- 
 tracted for the building of twelve ships, a gal- 
 ley, and some smaller vessels, and for their thor- 
 ough outflt with men, horses, arms, and pro- 
 visions. To make his enterprise more sure, he 
 allied himself with Mendoza, the viceroy, but 
 
12 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, sufferino; deatli at the hands of the Indians, 
 
 I • • 
 
 ,_^^_, whom he had cruelly oppressed, his ships were 
 
 1540. left to rot in their harbors, until Mendoza re- 
 fitted a portion of them, two of which he sent, 
 under Juan Eodriguez Cabrillo, a native of Por- 
 tugal, to explore the western coast of California. 
 
 1642. Cabrillo left Natividad June 27, 1542. He 
 touched on the peninsula of Lower California, 
 ran up the coast, and often landed to cpiestion 
 the docile Indians. In the Santa Barbara re- 
 gion he saw large houses, and being told by 
 the natives that in the interior there lived 
 white men, he wrote those white men a letter, 
 and gave it to the Indians to be forwarded. 
 When about on the fortieth degree of latitude, 
 he saw mountains covered with snow, and be- 
 tween them a large cape, which he called De 
 Mendoza (Mendocino), in honor of the viceroy. 
 . On the 10th of March, 1543, when in forty-four 
 degrees, the cold being very intense, his provi- 
 sions exhausted, and his ships in bad condition, 
 he turned southward again, and sailed back to- 
 wards Natividad. 
 
 The value of this expedition lay simply in 
 the information it brought back of the trend 
 and direction of the coast. Cabrillo fetched 
 home no account of snug harbors, or of places 
 proper to plant colonies in ; indeed, the impor- 
 tant geographical facts of his discovery seem 
 to have been soon forgotten. The date which 
 
DISCOVERY OF CALIFOElSriA. 13 
 
 marked an era — the starting date, indeed, in Cal- chap. 
 ifornia history — was no era to the cotemporaries 
 of Cabrillo. The viceroy sent out no succeed- 1543. 
 ing expeditions. Being soon afterwards pro- 
 moted to the viceroyalty of Peru, he had little 
 further opportunity to extend his researches; 
 and the solitary enterprise of his successor in 
 that direction proved a perfect failure. The 
 efforts that had been put forth with so little 
 profit for twenty years, to learn the configura- 
 tion of the western coast of America, were in- 
 termitted for more than half a century. 
 
 The meaning of the word California^ and 
 how it came to be applied to the land we live 
 in, is not to this day a settled matter. Vene- 
 gas, the Jesuit historian, thinks that some 
 words of the Indians having a sound similar 
 to it, were mistaken by the* Spaniards as the 
 designation for the country, though investiga- 
 tion showed that the Indians did not so call it. 
 Others have supposed or guessed that the name 
 was deliberately framed by the Spaniards fi'om 
 the Latin calida fornax — a hot furnace. But 
 this is improbable, as the Spaniards were not 
 in the habit of manufiictuiing names by any 
 such classical process ; nor were men who were 
 used to the heat of Acapulco likely to speak 
 of any 23ortion of California as a furnace, in com- 
 parison with that oven of cities. 
 
 The name first appears in the account wi'it- 
 
14 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, ten by Bernal Diaz, of one of Cortez's expedi- 
 tions, lie applying it only to tlie gulf. From 
 
 1543. this it seems to have spread to include all of 
 the region that Spain claimed northward of 
 Mexico on the Pacific, or west of the Gulf 
 of California. 
 
 If a geographer of the time of Cabrillo had 
 attempted to bound the region known as Cali- 
 fornia, he would have said that it extended 
 from the Vermilion Sea of Cortez and the 
 ocean on the south, northward past Cape Men- 
 docino, to the Straits of Anian, which separate 
 America from the confines of Tartary; that 
 eastward it was bounded by Canada, and on 
 the southeast by a wild desert tract that cut 
 off access to it from New Spain, above the ter- 
 mination of the Vermilion Sea. 
 
FEANCIS DEAKE IN CALIFORNIA. 15 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 A NOTABLE ENGLISHMAN IN CALIFORNIA. 
 
 HiTHEETo there liad been three great induce- 
 ments for prosecuting explorations in the North- 
 ern Pacific : First, a desire to find a route from 
 Europe to the Indies, the Straits of Magellan 
 being the only water passage yet known, and 
 a return through them from west to east being 
 industriously represented as quite impractica- 
 ble. Second, the hope of finding rich regions 
 that wcuild rival the Spice Islands in the prod- 
 ucts of their forests, and the mines of Mex- 
 ico in precious metals. Third, the ardent zeal 
 of the Catholic sovereigns, inspired alike by 
 policy and piety, to convert the heathen and 
 give unknown nations to the Church. But now 
 a new motive was added. A rich trade be- 
 tween the Philippine Islands and Spain was 
 springing up. Every year a great galleon from 
 the Malaysian Archipelago crossed the Pacific 
 to Acapulco, whence its freight was conveyed 
 either to Panama or across the continent to 
 Vera Cruz. To avoid the eastei'ly trade-winds, 
 this galleon made the coast of America as far 
 
 1543. 
 
16 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, nortli as Cabrillo's Cape Mendocino, where the 
 .^J^ northwest winds were generally blowing, and 
 1578. from which point there was still a long voyage 
 of some eighteen hundred miles to Acapulco, 
 with no known harbors on the way into which 
 she might put on emergency for supplies or 
 repairs. 
 
 Then there were the Straits of Anian, much 
 talked of by mariners and believed in by geog- 
 raphers, which were supposed to sepai'ate Asia 
 and America ; and the fancy was that they led 
 eastward to the Atlantic, somewhere about 
 Newfoundland. Suppose the English, who 
 were beginning to be a threatening power on 
 the sea, should force that upper passage and 
 some fine morning appear with a fleet oif Aca- 
 pulco or Panama ! What was to hinder their 
 taking any port they pleased, or snatching all 
 the plunder of captured galleon or sacked 
 cities that they had the heart to covet or the 
 shij^s to carry away? Or if there exist pro- 
 found peace between England and Spain, the 
 latter had not a single settlement north of Cu- 
 liacan, and the doctrine was not then admitted, 
 any more than now, that the i:>lanting of a cross 
 in a land conferred a title to it that the next 
 squatter sovereign could not cloud the day he 
 took possession. x\s the S];)aniards debated, 
 the shadow of what they most dreaded stalked 
 in upon them. 
 
DRAKE OiS" THE PACIFIC. 17 
 
 England and Spain were at peace, but no chap. 
 love was lost between them. Queen Elizabeth ^^' 
 had no hesitation in smiling upon the under- 1573. 
 takings of Francis Drake, who, " on his own 
 account, was playing the seaman and the pi- 
 rate," "had got a pretty store of money to- 
 gether," was fast earning the name of "Sea- 
 King," and already " was very terrible to all 
 Spaniards." On his third voyage to the West 
 Indies and the Spanish Main, he was led to 
 " that goodlie and great high tree " on the Isth- 
 mus of Panama, from whick both oceans are 
 visible at the same time. 
 
 As he looked out on the vision that had so 
 affected Balboa sixty years before, he was " ve- 
 hemently transported with desire to navigate 
 the South Sea ; and falling down there upon 
 his knees, he implored the Divine assistance 
 that he might at some time or other sail thither 
 and make a perfect discovery of the same, and 
 hereunto he bound kimself with a vow. From 
 that time forward his mind was pricked on con- 
 tinually, night and day, to perform his vow." 
 
 Five years later he set sail again, with great 
 secrecy, for America, his fleet consisting of live 
 vessels ; the largest of one hundred, the small- 
 est of fifteen tons! His own "ship" was 
 named the Pelican ; but afterwards gloried in 
 the designation of the Golden Hind. Three 
 
 of the five survived to enter the Straits of Ma- 
 2 
 
18 THE IIISTOEY OF CALIFOKNIA. 
 
 CHAP, gellan, wliicli tliey threaded in tlie course of slx- 
 ,___^ teen da^s. This was in the fall of 1578. They 
 1578. found " what they call the Pacific, or Calm 
 Sea," whipped into fury by a tempest. The 
 storm separated the adventurous vessels, and 
 the Pelican it drove Jis far south as the fifty- 
 seventh degree of latitude. Nearly two months 
 she was hurled backwards and forwards about 
 Cape Horn. Drake plainly made out that here 
 the continent was at an end — that the Atlan- 
 tic and Pacific met. Here, then, was a route, 
 not an inviting one indeed, yet one that ships 
 might take to return from the Pacific towards 
 Europe. It was a discovery of great value, for 
 though by the time he made it a lost one of 
 his own fleet had forced a passage eastward 
 through the Straits of Magellan, he had ac- 
 cepted as true the Spaniard's doctrine that such 
 a thing was scarcely possible ; and no Avonder, 
 as to this day, for sail-vessels, it is not often 
 deemed practicable. 
 
 After waiting duly for his delinquent ves- 
 sels, Drake pushed northward in the Golden 
 Hind alone. Off Arica, in the harbor of Cal- 
 lao, and elsewhere, he plundered ship after ship 
 of its silver, silks, and costly gums. He cap- 
 tured the great galleon and appropriated her 
 treasure, avoided Panama, paused at Acapulco, 
 and refitted during a single day. 
 
 But when the Golden Hind was getting over- 
 
THE CLIMATE REVILED. 19 
 
 burdened with her precious freight, the ques- chap. 
 tion grew troublesome, "What should he do _,^_^ 
 with it?" He had no fancy for Cape Horn, 1579. 
 though that tedious way had no such teri'or for 
 mariners a century later, as his name had at 
 that time for all that sailed. He did not doubt if 
 he returned, that he would find a Spanish fleet 
 waiting^ off the Straits of Ma2:ellan to sink him. 
 As he had seen the oceans meet at the South, he 
 believed they must meet, too, at the North, It 
 suited his adventurous spirit to slip away from 
 his enemies by a road they never had heard of, 
 and sail back into some old English bay, laden 
 with a grand discovery, as well as with gold 
 and silver, pearls and spices, from the Orient. 
 
 Home, by a northeast passage, then, was his 
 determination, and he soon found himself off 
 the coast of California in exceedingly cold 
 weather. The Rev. Mr. Fletcher, chaplain of 
 the buccaneer's fleet, writes a distressing ac- 
 count of the inclemency of this wretched coast. 
 If it had been his misfortune actually to enter 
 the Arctic Ocean, where our bold whalers now- 
 a-days rather like to summer, and occasionally 
 even winter, he would have suffered from an 
 exhaustion of his vocabulary of freezing adjec- 
 tives before reaching- Behrino-'s Straits. 
 
 On the 3d of June, 1579, in latitude forty- 
 two — that is, the southern line of Oregon — the 
 crew complained grievously of " nipping cold ;" 
 
20 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOKNIA. 
 
 CHAP, the rio-o-ino- was stiff, the rain was frozen. In 
 ^„_^^ latitude forty-four — that is, off Umpqua City — 
 1579. their hands were benumbed, the meat was 
 frozen when it was taken from the fire ! 
 
 On the 5th of June they ran in shore, and 
 cast anchor in a bad bay, where, when the thick, 
 vile fogs lifted, they were not without danger 
 from violent gusts and flaws of wind. Finding 
 it no place to stay, they got to sea again as 
 soon as possible. It was probably here, if the 
 story which the Spanish historians tell is true, 
 that he left behind him his Spanish pilot, Mo- 
 rera, who afterwards made his way overland 
 down to Mexico ; and a hard pedestrian excur- 
 sion he must have found it — that first white 
 man toiling through thirty-five hundred miles 
 or so of strange territory, the amazement of a 
 laud full of savasres. 
 
 Drake and his companions would seem to 
 have gone as high as forty-eight degrees, and 
 then to have been driven southward by a wind 
 that they could not face. In thirty-eight degrees 
 they found a fit harbor, though there the low 
 hills were covered with snow, entered it, and 
 tarried thirty-six days. 
 
 Now it is possible that the Golden Hind hap- 
 pened along our coast when our usually charm 
 ing weather was "not at home." Such mis- 
 haps have occurred before now, that a climate 
 has lost reputation because, at just the time 
 
THE CLIMATE OF CALIFOENIA. 21 
 
 when an observer was prepared to note it, both. chap. 
 barometer and thermometer agreed to depre- »_^_, 
 ciate its average excellence. It may possibly i57'j. 
 have been a cold June that " the oldest inhab- 
 itant " among the natives told of for half a cen- 
 tury afterwards. 
 
 But another explanation is quite as probable. 
 The Golden Hind had been for months loiter- 
 ing in the tropics. To men just emerging from 
 the soft, southern gales, the winds of our tem- 
 perate zone, though charged with only frost 
 enough to make them bracing and grateful to 
 the acclimated, are rasping. Drake's crew had 
 no relish for the northern passage, no taste for 
 rugged weather, and in their dread they met it 
 half way. Then Shasta and the Oregon moun- 
 tain peaks, generally capped with snow in early 
 s«mmer, quickened their sensitiveness, and 
 made them veiily believe that they had prema- 
 turely confronted an Arctic clime. 
 
 Fletcher's excessive caution to prevent such 
 a conclusion, itself suggests its probability. He 
 argues the causes of the extreme cold, and an- 
 ticipates the objection that they felt it the 
 more from their recent arrival from equatorial 
 regions. The general's admirable regimen, he 
 says, secured them from any possible suffering 
 on account of sudden transitions of lines of 
 latitude; and then he speaks contemjDtuously 
 of youi^ " chamber company, whose teeth in a 
 
22 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, temperate air do beat in their Leads at a cup 
 __^ of cold sack and sugai* by the fire." The 
 1579. sprightly chaplain had the whole story to him- 
 self: there were no previously written accounts 
 for his to conflict with, and it must be admit- 
 ted that he made a good apology, and all the 
 more plausible for being indirect, for the aban- 
 donment by Drake of his deliberately formed 
 purpose to go home to England by the Straits 
 of Anian. 
 
 Those much-talked-of Straits, we know, as 
 happily for our curiosity they did not, lead up 
 to a frozen ocean which, may as well, for all 
 commercial purposes, have no connection with 
 Atlantic waters. Drake troubled his head no 
 more about them, for on leaving the California 
 coast the Golden Hind steered for the Philip- 
 pines,, and so, by the way of the Cape of Good 
 Hope, went back to Europe — the first craft that 
 ever made the circuit of the globe with the 
 same commander on board who took her out 
 of port. 
 
 Drake named all the land he had seen here- 
 abouts New AlbioUy the white cliffs I'eminding 
 him of his native coasts, and su2:2:estin2: the 
 happy compliment that his loyalty seconded. 
 English books after that spoke of New Albion 
 as " Drake's land, back of Canada." 
 
 But where is the bay that Captain Drake — it 
 was later that he was knighted and was called Sir 
 
DRAKE IN SAN FEANCISCO BAY. 23 
 
 FnuicLs — spent those thirty-six days in? Where chap. 
 is the quiet nook so shielded from raw winds, _^_ 
 so free of fogs and gusts, so altogether j)leasant 1579. 
 and secure that even Chaplain Fletcher, with 
 his bones aching from past cold, has for it no 
 word of abuse ? 
 
 From time immemorial, until lately, it was 
 presumed to be San Francisco. But Humboldt, 
 in correction of the common belief, remarked 
 that Drake's port was farther north, under the 
 parallel of 38° 10', and was called by the Span- 
 iards Puerto de Bodega. Later writers, in cor- 
 rection of Humboldt, hold that it was a curve 
 in the coast under the lee of Point Reyes, and 
 which, on the modern maps, is marked as 
 Drake's Bay. In support of this theory, it is 
 urged that Drake's Bay is in latitude 37° 59' 
 5'", w^hich corresponds within a minute to the 
 statement of Drake's chronicler, who made the 
 latitude 88° ; that the clifl's in the vicinity of 
 that bight are white, resembling England's in 
 the neisrhborhood of Dover, and that if he had 
 really entered San Francisco harbor he would 
 not have been silent as to its excellence. 
 
 These reasons would seem quite insufficient 
 to rob San Francisco of the claim to Drake as 
 its discoverer. Its latitude is 37*^ 59', to which 
 that given by Drake's chronicler is quite as near 
 as those early navigators, with their compara- 
 tively rude instruments, were likely to get. 
 
24 THE IIISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 The cliffs about San Francisco are not remark- 
 ably wliite, even if one notable projection, inside 
 1579. the Gate, is named "Lime Point;" but there 
 are many white mountains, both north and 
 south of it, along the coast ; and Drake named 
 the AV'hole land — not his landing-place alone — 
 " New Albion." They did not go into ecstasies 
 about the harbor — they were not hunting har- 
 bors, but fortunes in compact form. Harbors, 
 so precious to the Sj)aniards, who had a com- 
 merce in the Pacific to be protected, were of 
 small account to the rovins: En2:lishman. But 
 the best 2:)ossible testimony he could bear as to 
 the harbor's excellence were the thirty-six days 
 that he spent in it. 
 
 The probabilities are, then, that it was in San 
 Francisco Bay tliat Drake made himself at 
 home. As Columbus, fiiiling to give his name 
 to the continent he discovered, was in some 
 small measure set right by the bestowal of his 
 name upon the continent's choicest part, when 
 poetry dealt with the subject, so to Drake, 
 cheated of the honor of naming; the finest harbor 
 on the coast, is sLill left a feeble memorial, in 
 the name of a closely adjoining dent in the coast 
 line. 
 
 To the English, then, it may be believed, 
 belongs the credit of finding San Francisco Bay, 
 though the Spanish had long before named and 
 mapped points on the coast farther north. Of 
 
DRAKE CLAIMS THE LAND FOR ENGLAND. 25 
 
 tills, liowever, Drake was ignorant, and in chap. 
 
 • TT 
 
 Queen Elizalieth's name he took possession of the ^_^1^ 
 land, and erected a monument in token of tke i579. 
 fact — " a plate nailed upon a faire great poste, 
 whereupon was ingraven her Majestie's name, 
 the day and year of our arrival there, with the 
 free giving up of the province and people into 
 her Majestie's hands ; together vnth her high- 
 ness' picture and arms, in a piece of five-pence 
 of current English money, under the plate, 
 whereunder was also written the name of our 
 general." 
 
 The natives, who were robust, powerful, un- 
 suspecting, and kindly, lived in huts by the 
 water-side, and were found huddled around the 
 fires in their huts, midsummer though it wsiS. 
 The men were naked ; the women wore deerskin 
 blankets over their shoulders, and mats of 
 rushes around their bodies. They brought to 
 the Englishmen presents of feathers and to- 
 bacco, harangued them with speeches, and, mis- 
 taking them for something more than mortals, 
 proposed to worship them. This the visitors 
 declined ; and, to show that they too were sub- 
 jects of a Higher Power, they themselves had 
 divine worship in the presence of the Indians. 
 Then, with much ceremony, with singing and 
 dancing on the part of his attendants, the king 
 of the Indians approached and placed upon the 
 admiral's head a crown of feathers, and made 
 
26 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOKNIA. 
 
 CHAP, liim a present of liis whole kingdom ; all whicli 
 
 tlie admiral accepted in the name of his sov- 
 
 1579. ereign, and in memorial of it, as well as of his 
 
 visit, erected the monument spoken of above. 
 
 The narrative pi'oceeds : — 
 
 " Our necessarie business being ended, our 
 general, with his companie, travailed up into 
 the countrey to their villages, where we found 
 hearcles of deere by 1000 in a companie, 
 being most large and fat of bodie. We found 
 the whole countrey to be a warren of a strange 
 kind of Connies. * * * The people do eat 
 their bodies, and make great accompt of their 
 skinnes, for their king's coat was made out of 
 them." — " There is no part of earth here to be 
 taken up wherein there is not a reasonable 
 quantity of gold or silver." 
 
 All this is very extraordinary. The deer 
 have not yet vanished from the wooded parts 
 of the land. The squirrels still remain in count- 
 less numbers, to annoy the farmers in the val- 
 leys. But about the gold ? 
 
 The Europeans of that day had very con- 
 temptuous notions of any portion of the New 
 World which did not sparkle with gold or sil- 
 ver. The chronicler of Drake's voyage remem- 
 bered that, and wrote : " The earth of the coun- 
 try seemed to promise rich veins of gold and 
 silver; some of the ore being constantly found 
 on digging." It is ungracious to question the 
 
EAKLY EEPOETS OF GOLD. 27 
 
 veracity of travellers wlio brouglit liome so chap. 
 many indisj^utable truths ; but it is significant, >_^_ 
 that the Indians whom they met wore no isYo. 
 golden ornaments, as the natives of lands usu- 
 ally do where gold is so very abundant ; and 
 none of Drake's successors have had any similar 
 good luck in their explorations of the vicinity 
 that it is supposed he visited. 
 
lis THE HISTOEY OP CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAPTER m. 
 
 YISCAJNO'S EXPLORATIONS ALONG THE CALIFORNIA 
 COAST 
 
 CHAP. The time had come, when, unless Spain 
 ■ would consent to let go quietly a vast region 
 
 1596. that might be a ban^en desert, or might be an El 
 Dorado — unless she would see her bitterest foe 
 inherit, before her own decay, an immense terri- 
 tory that she had eai-ned by discovery — unless 
 she would see her Indian possessions fronted by 
 her spoiler, the time had come for action. In 
 1596, Philip IL, from Madrid, forwarded a dis- 
 patch to Monterey, Viceroy of Mexico, conjuring 
 him to explore and seize California. In accord- 
 ance with this command, Viscaino, with three 
 ships, sailed from Acapulco, crossed over to the 
 peninsula, established a garrison, built a small 
 church, and out of the branches of trees con- 
 structed some rude huts at La Paz — a name 
 given to the bay and the new settlement in 
 token of the peaceful reception that they re- 
 ceived from the Indians. But speedily they 
 ran across the misfortunes that seemed to be 
 
VISCAIlSrO AT SAlSr DLEGO, 29 
 
 inseparable from all enterprises in tlie Gulf, chap. 
 and were compelled to return, abandoning tlie 
 settlement before tlie expiration of the year. ico2. 
 
 Philip III., hearing the result of the attempt, 
 gave orders to survey the ocean side of the 
 peninsula. Viscaino, cheerfully accepting the 
 charge, left Acapulco with three vessels, in the 
 spring of 1602, for an expedition that proved I602. 
 notably successful. The unceasing head-winds 
 made the passage up the coast tedious and slow, 
 but that gave the better opportunity to survey 
 it faithfully. At Barbary Bay (near Cape St. 
 Lucas) he found a well-behaved people, incense- 
 trees, pearly shells, and salt. About Magdalena 
 Bay he found friendly though naked savages, 
 frankincense, and eatable mussels. He stopped 
 at several points before reaching Cerros Island, 
 where there were " affable Indians," some pearls, 
 little wood, and brackish water. On Cerros 
 Island they observed a bald, painted mountain, 
 for its sides were streaked with different-colored 
 veins ; and a seaman, who, because he came from 
 Peru, was presumed to be a judge of precious 
 metals, gave his opinion that it was entii'ely 
 made up of gold and silver ! They saw, as they 
 sailed, " ill-smelling but precious amber enough 
 to load a ship." 
 
 On the 10th of November they entered the / ^ O 2L. 
 harbor of San Diego, where they saw a forest 
 of tall, straight oaks, shrubs reseml:>ling rose- 
 
30 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, mary in savor, and many fragrant and whole- 
 ^____, some plants. They stopped here ten days, and 
 1602. were delighted with the mildness of the climate, 
 the excellence of the soil, the look of the land, 
 which they accurately surveyed, and the docility 
 of the Indians, who besmeared their bodies with 
 paint and loaded their heads with feathers. The 
 harbor abounded with fish, the flats with shell- 
 fish, the woods with game. 
 
 At sea again, they saw frequently the smoke 
 of fires burning on the hills, which they inter- 
 preted as sure tokens that the country was in- 
 habited, and as invitations for them to land. 
 On the Island of St. Catalina they saw savages 
 who had a temple, and worshipped idols with 
 sacrifices ; who sold fish to those who dwelt on 
 the mainland, and were shrewd thieves. When 
 in Santa Barbara Channel, the cazique offered 
 to give the strangers ten wives apiece if they 
 would settle among them. Occasionally they 
 wen-t on shore, and had mass celebrated. The 
 harbor, where they anchored on the 16th of 
 December, 1602, under the Point of Pines, 
 they named Monterey, in honor of the viceroy 
 who managed the fitting out of the expedition. 
 From this point, one ship was sent back to 
 Acapulco to report progress. The others, after 
 a tarry of eighteen days, during which time they 
 had made out that the place furnished fine, 
 large pines fit for masts, and oak excellent for 
 
VISCAINO AT MOjSTTEREY. 31 
 
 ship-timber, that the harbor was secure against chap. 
 
 • • • TTF 
 
 all winds, and that the natives were so docile 
 that their conversion would be easy, pushed 1602, 
 still farther northward. Disease, however, had 
 thinned their numbers and weakened most of 
 those who still survived. Sharp pains were 
 continually shooting along their bones. They 
 were painfully sensitive to the keen, cold winds. 
 Purple spots broke out upon their flesh. Their 
 teeth were loosened in their gums, " even so 
 that, unawares, they spit them out." To tell 
 their story in a word, they were sadly afflicted 
 with scurvy. 
 
 In twelve days after leaving Monterey, a 
 favoral^le wind — it was about the only favor of 
 the sort they could boast — carried the flag-ship 
 "past the port of San Francisco;" but, the 
 smaller vessel having been separated from her, 
 the ship put back into that port and waited. 
 The barefooted Carmelite who accompanied 
 and wrote the story of the expedition, clearly 
 states that the flag-ship "put back into the 
 port Francisco," where a ship, that was sent 
 out from the Philippine Islands to survey the 
 California coast, had been driven ashore and 
 lost, eight years before. The pilot of that lost 
 ship was chief pilot of Viscaino's vessel, and he 
 affirmed that, fi^om the wreck, large quantities 
 of wax and several chests of silks had been 
 landed. 
 
32 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP. The reader is naturally puzzled, at first, on 
 ^___, seeing the name used as familiarly as if our 
 1002. matcliless harbor were already well known to 
 the Mexicans, especially as the writer speaks 
 of some place in this very vicinity. But there 
 is not the slightest probability that Viscaino 
 entered the harbor of modern San Francisco, 
 " The flag-ship," says the record, " came to anchor 
 behind a point of land called La Punta de los 
 Keyes." Doubtless it was the bight outside and 
 north of the Heads. It is not possible that Vis- 
 caino, who was on a hunt for harboi's, could have 
 sailed through the Golden Gate into the best 
 harbor north of Acapulco, without making spe- 
 cial mention of so perfect a j^lace of safety. He 
 would have felt that his expedition was an en- 
 tire success, if he had been able to report to the 
 viceroy that, at the very point where the great 
 circle of the trade- winds touched the coast, he 
 had found a good retreat and recruiting-place 
 for the Philippine galleon, where wood and 
 water were easily obtained, and abundant secu- 
 rity furnished against every storm. He who 
 had spoken so glowingly of the harbors of San 
 Diego and Monterey, would not have neglected 
 a eulogy on that of San Fi'ancisco, if he had 
 ever seen it. He would not have spoken of it 
 only as a place where a ship had been driven 
 ashore by the violence of the wind. Drake may 
 have entered it, and yet not be struck with its 
 
VISCATNO'S EXPLOBATIOlSrS. 33 
 
 capacity to accommodate a fleet, for lie was chap. 
 Bated with tlie sight of uatural wonders. Gold ,__^_, 
 and ad venture were his objects — not safe anchor- leos. 
 ing-places. 
 
 Wherever it was, Viscaino finished his sur- 
 veys in a day, and moved on again slowly to 
 the northward. On the 12th of January, he 
 made some high, red mountains, and beyond 
 them, farther northwest, some snowy moun- 
 tains, whicli he judged to be Cape Mendo- 
 cino. But herig they encountered one of the 16O8. 
 dra2:ons that had Q-uarded the coast so lon<2:. 
 They fell in with a violent gale, accompanied 
 with sleet, and it was intolerably cold. There 
 were but six persons on board able to keep 
 the deck ; all the rest were down with scurvy. 
 On the 19th, they saw high mountains, cov- 
 ered with snow, which, from their color, and 
 the fact that they were seen on the eve of St. 
 Sebastian, they called Cape Blanco de San Se- 
 bastian. 
 
 The smaller vessel went, probably, as high 
 as the mouth of the Columbia E-iver, where, 
 finding they were beyond the point to whicli 
 the viceroy's instructions authorized them to 
 sail, and with a sickly crew, th^ ofiicers put 
 about to return to Acapulco. At the high- 
 est point that they reached, they found a large 
 river, its banks covered with ash-trees and 
 willows, whose pleasing appearance tempted 
 3 
 
34 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOP.JNIIA. 
 
 CHAP, tliem to land ; but, the currents hindering them, 
 
 ,_^_, they turned toward the south, and sailed for 
 
 1603. . home, firmly believing that the current which 
 
 they could not stem was the Strait of Anian, 
 
 through which the fabulous ship had passed 
 
 from the x\tlantic to the Pacific. 
 
 The fiag-ship, in returning to Acapulco, kept 
 before a favoring wind near enough to shore for 
 the explorers to see that the coasts were cov- 
 ered with verdure, and, from the fires, they 
 . judged them to be populous; but the crew 
 were too much thinned and enfeebled to permit 
 the closer examination they had proposed to 
 make on their return. 
 
 Viscaino was exceedingly anxious to repeat 
 his expedition, but before doing so it was ne- 
 cessary to obtain the permission of his Span- 
 ish Majesty. He went to Spain, and urged 
 the affair at court with great assiduity. He 
 met a courtier's fate. He was promised, and 
 promised again, rebufi'ed, encouraged, and put 
 off, until, quite disheartened, be returned to 
 Mexico. 
 
 In a subsequent letter of Philip IH. to his 
 agents in Mexico, we find how much better report 
 Viscaino had made of the Pacific coast than had 
 ever before been given. He represented the 
 country as carpeted with verdure, the climate 
 mild, the land covered with trees, the soil fruit- 
 ftd. The chief subsistence of the people weie 
 
TLSCAIISro'rf FAVOEABLE EEPOETS, 33 
 
 the spontaneous products of tlie earth and the chap. 
 plentiful objects of the chase. Their clothing _^_, 
 was made of the tanned skins of sea-wolves. 1603. 
 They had an abundance of flax, hemp, and cot- 
 ton. He heard that in the interior there were 
 large towns, silver and gold, and veins of other 
 metals. 
 
 The monarch, apparently, labored under the 
 impression that Viscaino visited the coasts of 
 Japan and China, which he evidently thought 
 were but a little distance off. He ordered a 
 search to be made for Viscaino, and, if found, 
 that the command of a new expedition be 
 given to him. The veteran in his retirement 
 heard the news with joy, and prepared with 
 alacrity to engage in fresh enterprises, but, 
 being suddenly overtaken with a fatal illness, 
 the royal commands were never executed. 
 
 Worse than that. The charts that Viscaino 
 made with so much difficulty, were carelessly 
 treasured, or, in their transfer to Spain, were 
 lost, and in a few years the results of his costly 
 explorations were forgotten. 
 
 It was one hundred and sixty-six years be- 
 fore the harbor of Monterey was visited again, 
 and San Diego, "well watered and well 
 wooded," and its bay, " spacious enough to con- 
 tain many ships," and the smaller bay contig- 
 uous to it, passed as entirely out of mind as 
 if they had never been mapped. Such sorry 
 
36 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, results could scarcely have come of such 
 
 III . . 
 
 ,__^__, grand undertakings if there had been news- 
 
 1603. papers in those days, to serve up, in popular 
 
 form, the story of brave adventurers, or print, 
 
 in solid columns, the official reports of their 
 
 officers. 
 
ATTEMPT TO COLONIZE THE COUNTRr. 37 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT TO COLONIZE THE COUNTRY. 
 
 It was a great grief to Spain, when tliere was chap. 
 leisure between Iter wars to consider it, that ,_^1^ 
 California could not be conquered and peopled. 1683. 
 During many succeeding years, traders fre- 
 quently sent down pearls of great value, ob- 
 tained on the west coast of the gulf. There 
 were current many stories of inland discoveries 
 to the northward, and of the wealth that ad- 
 venturers found. Then there were pirates 
 infesting the Pacific, making their head-quar- 
 ters in the California harbors ; and these, 
 though quiet the rest of the year, were sure to 
 sally out when the Philippine galleon was due. 
 Attempts were repeatedly made to re-discover 
 the harbors already described, and bring them 
 into use ; but all were in vain. 
 
 There was a well-planned effort made for the 
 conquest of California in 1683, which, for a 
 while, promised fairly. It was under the com- 
 mand of Admiral Otondo, though its spiritual 
 government was intrusted to Father Kino by 
 the Jesuits, upon whom it was conferred by 
 
38 THK TIISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, special warrant from Spain, and witli the for- 
 lorn liope that, by a joint effort of Clinrcli and 
 
 1683. State, a permanent settlement of the country 
 might Le effected. They sailed up the gulf, 
 and once more California was taken possession 
 of in the name of the Spanish Majesty, with the " 
 usual imposing ceremonies. The admiral spent 
 his time in coastwise and inland explorations, 
 while the religious members of the company, 
 making La Paz their head-quarters, and having 
 erected a church but three months afterward 
 near San Bruno Bay, set to work learning the 
 languages of the natives. It was very tedious, 
 but the learners were in earnest, and it was not 
 long before they had translated into the Indian 
 tongue the chief articles of the Christian creed. 
 They did not escape the difficulty always 
 experienced by missionaries in finding native 
 terms to express ideas of which the untutored 
 heathen has no conception. On one occasion 
 they took some flies, and, putting them under 
 water in the presence of the Indians, waited 
 till the insects seemed to be dead; then, placing 
 them on the warm ashes in the sunlight, told the 
 natives to watch until they came to life again. 
 As one after another the flies were restored to 
 vitality, and began to stretch themselves and 
 clean their wings for a flight, the exclamation 
 of the watchers was accepted as the proper word 
 by which to render the idea of resiuTcction. 
 
FAILURE OF THE ATTEMPT. 39 
 
 But there came a droua-lit of eighteen montlis' chap. 
 
 ^ TV 
 
 duration. Hardships innumerable followed, _,^J^ 
 and so much sickness, that the most sanguine 1G83. 
 debated whether the enterprise must not be 
 abandoned. Just then came orders for the ves- 
 sels to put to sea, to take under convoy the Phi- 
 lippine ship, for which the Dutch privateers were 
 waiting ; and so was precipitated the end of an 
 effort which had cost three years of time and 
 large appropriations of the royal revenue. 
 
 The viceroy next endeavored to engage the 
 Society of Jesuits to undertake the reduction of 
 California, promising them, as material aid, 
 $40,000 a year, to be paid annually out of the 
 king's treasury. The chapter thanked him 
 for the honor conveyed^ in the invitation, but 
 foresaw too great inconveniences in taking upon 
 itself such rugged temporal engagements, and 
 declined. It professed a readiness, however, 
 always to supply the necessary missionaries to 
 accompany any future expedition that might be 
 planned. 
 
 Thus, after nearly two centuries of repeated, 
 costly efforts, it was resolved on the part of 
 Spain that the projects which Cortez and the 
 kings attempted in vain must be abandoned ; 
 and California was left to the unrestrained ten- 
 antry of its naked natives ; though the most 
 fabulous reports of its wealth were credited, 
 and every year the absolute necessity to the 
 
40 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 GKAP. East India trade of a good harbor on the coast 
 
 ,__^ was made the more apparent. 
 
 1683. The mountain system of Upper Califoi-nia, 
 when studied on the modern maps, furnishes 
 much apology for the incompetence of the Span- 
 iards to effect an earlier settlement, and espe- 
 cially for missing the best harbor. A series of 
 mountain ranges lies almost parallel to the 
 coast ; indeed, for most of its extent, the surf 
 beats the broadside of a rocky mountain. There 
 is only one perfect, noteworthy fissure in the 
 range, and that, widened by the currents, con- 
 stitutes the Golden Gate which opens into San 
 Francisco Bay. At the Point of Pines the range 
 strikes the sea. Between that point and the 
 Santa Cruz range the ocean excavates the Bay 
 of Monterey. To the same fact, that the moun- 
 tain ranges are not exactly parallel with the 
 coast, we are indebted for the roadstead of San 
 Luis Obispo, the Santa Barbara Channel, and 
 the Bay of San Biego. When the old naviga- 
 tors, sailing northward, saw the peaks of a dis- 
 tant range draw nearer and nearer to the sea, 
 they might naturally expect it soon to strike 
 the sea at a sharp angle, and just north of that 
 they would look for anchorage. But at San 
 Francisco the range is abruptly broken. It is 
 an exception to the rule, and they failed to note 
 it. Bemember, too, the thick fogs that so often 
 
t.lILUEl; OF TiriU ATTEIIFI. 41 
 
 veil the Golden Gate, and it will seem less chap 
 
 • • • IV 
 
 strange tliat tliese early navigators missed it. ^_ 
 
 The Jesuit historian, in commenting on these 1683. 
 repeated failures, sees the hand of Providence, 
 for the glorification of religion, in the fact that 
 not until majesty and power and wealth had 
 exhausted their resources, and confessed their 
 inability to cope with it, was the work done. 
 In the same spirit, the American Christian sees 
 that it is Providence who now will send a suc- 
 cession of earnest, indefatigable, religious men 
 to wrestle with and subdue the land ; and after 
 them, a race of quiet, easy, comfortable priests 
 to possess it, tame its wildness, bring to view 
 the mild, serene enjoyments so natural to it, 
 travel unsuspicious over its hoarded wealth, 
 seed and stock it, and plant vineyards in a few 
 favored spots ; develop, though feebly, its agri- 
 cultural resources, and then, with scarcely a 
 struggle, surrender all to another people, of a 
 reformed faith and more progressive practice. 
 
42 THE HISITOTIY OF OALIFOENIA. 
 
 1697. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 EXPERIMENTS OF THE JESUITS 117 CALIFORmA. 
 
 The Father Kino, or Kiihn (as it was in his 
 native German), wlio attended Otondo in his 
 unsuccessfnl attempt to plant a colony and a 
 mission at La Paz, was not a man to retreat 
 li'om a project once undertaken. While hold- 
 ing the professorship of mathematics in a Span- 
 ish college, highly esteemed, quietly enjoying a 
 life of leisure, and with a prospect of a large 
 fortune before him, he was taken exceedingly 
 ill. When lying, as he supposed, at the very 
 verge, of death, he made a vow to Saint Francis 
 Xavier that if he should recover, that saint 
 should be the model of his life. He did re- 
 cover, resigned his professorship, and came to 
 Mexico. But before long he grew jealous of 
 the tranquillity of his new career. He em- 
 braced with delight the hardships promised in 
 Otondo's expedition, and certainly had no 
 cause for disappointment in that respect. When 
 the barrenness of the land and its utter poverty 
 forced its abandonment, he, if no others, was 
 
EITTHUSIASTIC PIONEERS. 43 
 
 determined that it sliould be only temporary, chap. 
 He was inflamed with a desire to conquer Cali- .__J^ 
 fornia for the Church — an object to which he 1697. 
 devoted his life. He travelled widely through 
 Mexico, persuading, pleading, arguing with his 
 Jesuit brethren, to enlist their sympathies with 
 his. That he might the better accomplish his 
 ends, he sought and obtained the appointment 
 of " Superintendent of the Missions of Sonora^" 
 Their contiguity to the land which it was his 
 ambition to convert gave him facilities, no 
 other way attainable, for watching over and 
 devising means to subdue the barren Canaan 
 of his hopes. Fortunately, as he travelled on 
 one of his mission tours he met, and infected 
 with his own zeal. Father Juan Maria Salva 
 Tierra, who soon became his equal in enthu- 
 siasm. For a while the two struggled in vain. 
 The Society of Jesuits, the Viceroy of Mexico, 
 the King of Spain saw in it nothing but a chi- 
 merical experiment, in which, with an empty 
 treasury, there was no temptation to embark. 
 But in 1697, eleven years after Father Kino 
 began to preach his project, Salva Tierra was 
 authorized by the Jesuits to raise contributions 
 for the spiritual conquest of California. He 
 found a valuable colaborer in Father Juan 
 Ugarte, professor of philosophy in the College 
 of Mexico, a shrewd manager of temporal 
 affairs, who undertook to act in Mexico as 
 
44 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORI^IA. 
 
 CHAP, agent for the conquerors wliile tliey were in 
 
 , _ the field. 
 
 1697. It was not long before the funds were pour- 
 ing in, and when they accumulated sufficiently 
 an expedition was fitted out. There were but two 
 conditions required of the colonists by the royal 
 council : first, that they must not waste any 
 thing belonging to the crown, or dra^7 on the 
 treasury, without the king's express order; 
 second, that they were to take possession of 
 all territory in the king's name. They were 
 empowered to enlist soldiers for their guard 
 at their own expense, and to appoint officers 
 of justice for the land they should conquer. 
 
 Salva Tierra and his little company of six sol- 
 diers and three Indians crossed the gulf from 
 the mouth of the Yaqui, and pitched their first 
 encampment, which they called Loreto, on the 
 Bay of San Dionysio, thirty miles south of San 
 Bruno. It was a place green with trees and 
 grass, and rich in its convenience to sj)rings of 
 fresh water. The barracks for the garrison 
 were built, and the tents for a chapel set up, 
 before whose door was planted a crucifix, and 
 on it displayed a garland of flowers. On the 
 25th of October, 1697, possession was taken of 
 the country in the name of the king. 
 
 Father Salva Tierra at certain hours of each 
 day read to the Indians, who gathered for the 
 purpose, prayers and parts of the catechism,. 
 
LIFE AT THE MISSION". 45 
 
 whlcli he translated to the best of liis ability, chap. 
 with the aid of the papers that the mission- ,____, 
 aries of Otondo's expedition had preserved. 1097. 
 Then, in order to learn their language, he 
 wrote down their discourse. The Indians were 
 veiy much amused with the blunders that he 
 made, but he took their banter kindly, and 
 made fine progress. When these labors of the 
 day were over he distributed to each Indian an 
 allowance of boiled maize, and so teacher and 
 taught made a very good start. 
 
 It was scarcely a month, however, before the 
 Indians, who greatly admired the boiled maize, 
 and were even willing to take the catechism to 
 get it, began to pilfer from the corn-sacks, and 
 so improve upon the daily half-bushel allow- 
 ance. The attempt to prevent this provoked 
 them to plot the murder of the whole company, 
 that they might get all the corn. This calam- 
 ity being happily averted, the Indians called 
 their brothers from many miles around, to take 
 counsel how to crush out the little colony. 
 
 These were touoih times with the handful of 
 soldier missionaries. They were obliged to 
 keep constant watch, and they suffered sadly 
 from the intense heat of the sun by day, and 
 still more from the heavy rains at night ; against 
 which, being misled by the continued drought 
 that Otondo reported, whence they inferred 
 that it never rained in California, they had 
 
46 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, made no provision. Still, wlien the assault came, 
 ^^ _^ they were ready for it, and the ten men of the 
 i69r. garrison withstood the attack of the five hundred 
 savages. When the enemy retreated, the pious 
 victors saw to their amazement that the pedes- 
 tal of the cross had cau2:ht most of the arrows, 
 while the cross itself and the chapel tent were 
 untouched, and only two of the soldiers were 
 wounded. The Indians, driven bach now by 
 force, were afterwards won to friendship by 
 kindness ; and Salva Tierra's letters to Mexico 
 were so full of modesty and gratitude for the 
 preservation and success of the mission, that to 
 lour of them was accorded the honor of publi- 
 cation ! 
 
 And now for two years all things went 
 smoothly. The missionaries widened by de- 
 grees their circle of influence, and made an 
 occasional tour of exploration into the interior. 
 The next trouble was one that the native doc- 
 tors or sorcerers stirred up, because their craft 
 was in danger; for they very naturally and 
 correctly suspected, that if the strangers should 
 introduce a new religion, the prophets of the 
 old would find their occupation gone. So 
 thinking, they encouraged a rebellion ; but the 
 appetite for boiled maize, of which they could 
 of course get none w^hile hostilities were main- 
 tained, brought the rebels to terms again. 
 Once the vessel with supplies from the main 
 
TROUBLE AT THE MISSIOJN". 47 
 
 failed to arrive before the whole stock was chap. 
 reduced to three sacks of poor meal and three ._^_, 
 of maggoty maize. Fortunately, the twenty- 1697. 
 two soldiers that constituted the camp were 
 " cheerful and devout," and the supplies came 
 before their courage failed. 
 
 There was a solitary grumbler in the camp, 
 however, whose letters home did much mischief 
 among the friends of the mission. The worthy 
 captain of the garrison had been compelled by 
 a trouble in his eyes to return to Mexico. His 
 successor felt his subordination to the fathers 
 irksome, and in his correspondence found much 
 fault with their management. His representa- 
 tions might have produced no bad effects, if 
 there had not already grown up in Mexico 
 much jealousy of the Jesuits. Other expedi- 
 tions, said their enemies, sent home many 
 pearls; this one sends none. Their faithful 
 friends claimed that that fact showed the dis- 
 interestedness of the missionaries. Rather, an- 
 swered the disaffected, it proves that they con- 
 ceal the treasures which they gather ; and, be- 
 sides, that they are pretty busy at something 
 else than the state's business, one might guess, 
 seeing that no creek or bay or harbor has yet 
 been found by them for the great galleon to 
 seek shelter in. 
 
 Meanwhile, no help towards the new con- i7oo. 
 quest came from the civil government. Once 
 
48 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, the viceroy and general assembly tendered 
 an appropriation so contemptibly small that 
 
 1700. Father Ugarte declined to accept it. Philip 
 v., on his accession to the throne of Spain, 
 ordered that six thousand dollars a year be 
 paid towards the object. In 1701, Mary of 
 Savoy expressed her highest admiration of the 
 enterprise. She deemed it already a grand 
 success, for she had learned that for fifty 
 leagues about the Indians were brought to a 
 settled obedience, that four towns had been 
 founded, that they counted six hundred con- 
 verts and two thousand adult catechumens. 
 But, since the treasury was already exhausted 
 by an expensive effort to conquer Texas, and 
 save Pensacola from falling- into the hands 
 of other nations, neither the king's order nor 
 Mary's good wishes brought a dollar to the 
 famishing conquerors of Lower California. 
 
 Father Ugarte, despairing at last of state 
 aid, gathered what contributions he could in 
 Mexico, and proceeded in person to the field. 
 This was about the close of the year 1700. 
 He took his station at St. Xavier, in the inte- 
 rior, and henceforth the professor of philos- 
 ophy dedicated all his energies to the work 
 of. teaching and civilizing half-naked savages. 
 There was a little good land about his mission, 
 and he determined to make the most of it. 
 The first thing in the morning, the Indians, 
 
MEEEY SAVAGES. 49 
 
 young and old, were gathered into churcli for chap. 
 mass. Tlien came breakfast of pozoli, and ^__, 
 then work. i70G. 
 
 It was easy working with sucli a master, for 
 lie claimed the hardest task for himself. He 
 was first in the trench with his spade ; at fell- 
 ing trees, no one handled the axe so well ; at 
 splitting rocks, he was the handiest with the 
 crow. His good-nature infected his company, 
 and when he himself began to tire, he ordered 
 all hands to rest. He was patient as the day 
 was long, but they must not trifle with him out 
 of season. Once, at prayers, he was annoyed at 
 seeing his whole congregation full of merriment, 
 evidently at his expense. He kept on with his 
 duties as if he saw nothins; amiss, until he was 
 sure that the cause of the giggling was a stout, 
 full-grown Indian, who was a sort of bully 
 among them. The meek but muscular mission- 
 ary said nothing, but suddenly catching the 
 stout savage by the hair of the liead, swung 
 him to and fro, till the others, thinking their 
 turn might come next, ran frightened out of the 
 church. But when he learned that they had 
 laughed because of his mispronunciation, and 
 the comical misuse of words that the wags of 
 his class led him into, he possessed his soul in 
 patience, and chose more carefully his philo- 
 logical advisers. The savages could not but be 
 charmed with his shrewd and kindly ways. 
 
50 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOKNIA. 
 
 CHAP. And he made not only the little patch of rich 
 ^___^ soil about the mission, bnt the rough, craggy 
 1707. desert around it too, wave with golden grain 
 and corn, and the vines of his planting yielded 
 a small stock of generous wine. In 1707, while 
 New Spain was suffering with drought, he was 
 eating bread of his own raising. The stock 
 was not enough to last the year, but sufficient 
 to lessen essentially the charges for supplies 
 from abroad. The horses and sheep, brought 
 over from the opposite coast, increased rapidly. 
 He made distaffs, spinning-wheels, ond looms, 
 and imported a weaver to teach his Indians the 
 mysteries of that art. "Who," he gayly Vv^'ote, 
 " who would have dreamed of any such thing !" 
 Yet lono; before Uo^arte had eaten bread of 
 his own makino;, all the missions would have 
 been blotted out but for the untiring zeal of 
 Kino, who, from his Sonora settlements, was 
 sending over continually grain, cattle, furni- 
 ture — every thing that he could muster to sup- 
 ply their wants. California was his field, and 
 he only tarried in Sonora that, with its fertility, 
 he might relieve the barrenness of the land 
 where his affections lay. 
 
 But frequently it occurred that all the sur- 
 plus proceeds of a harvest, shipped for the Cali- 
 fornia missions, were lost or damaged by the 
 dangerous transit of the gulf Kino early con- 
 cluded that the salvation of the California mis- 
 
NEW JriSSION ENTEEPEISES. 51 
 
 sions, wliicli could not become self-supporting in chap. 
 many years, hinged on this question : whether ^ 
 or not California was joined to the main land 1707. 
 He believed firmly that it was, and in this faith 
 he constantly pushed up his missions to the 
 northward. He gathered the Indians into vil- 
 lages, travelled among them, won their confi- 
 dence, and slowly extended his peaceful con- 
 quests in that direction where he thought — 
 perhaps in the latitude of Monterey, perhaps of 
 Mendocino — he would be able to turn south 
 again, and carry on the chain of Christian settle- 
 ments, till the last link were established with 
 Loreto and its circle. He met few difficulties 
 in the Indians themselves^ but an abundance 
 from his commercial countrymen. The Apaches, 
 at this day such a terror to travellers, gave him 
 no trouble ; but avaricious Spaniards were the 
 plague of his life. These fellows studied to 
 keep the Pimos rebels and enemies, that they 
 might have an excuse for making slaves of 
 them. At his earnest solicitation, the Audience 
 of Guadalaxara agreed that none of his converts 
 should be obliged to work in the mines or on 
 the public lands for five years after conversion. 
 Charles V. extended the term of exemption to 
 twenty years. And yet Kino w^as sadly morti- 
 fied to see his baptized converts dragged off 
 without mercy to the mines, in spite of the agree- 
 ment — in violation of the kiug's explicit order. 
 
52 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 But Fatlier Kiuo knew that in Mexico, and 
 among tliose who were regarded as authorities, 
 
 1700. there were many who denied the premises of 
 his reasoning, and were sceptical as to the con- 
 nection of California with the main land, upon 
 which he presumed. More to satisfy their 
 doubts than any of his own, in the year 1700 
 he made up a party of friendly Indians, and 
 proceeded to the junction of the Gila and the 
 Colorado, crossed the Gila, where fifteen hun- 
 dred natives came out in a body to see him, and 
 ascended a mountain, whence he saw notliing 
 but land to the westward. The natives, too, 
 assured him that the first " l)ig water " in a 
 westerly direction was the South Sea. 
 
 1701. The next year he repeated the journey, ac- 
 companied by Salva Tierra, and both were 
 
 1702. satisfied on the point. The year following, 
 Kiuo once more took the excursion, and made 
 his own assurance trebly sure that California 
 was not an island, as the maps of that day had 
 it, under the name of Islas Carolinas. But 
 the course of our story must wait no longer 
 on the movements of Father Kino, the life 
 as they were of the land to whose spiritual 
 subjugation he was entirely devoted. He 
 abated no jot of his first zeal, remitted no eftbrt 
 that could forward his cause, until, in 1710, he 
 died. 
 
 1704. The seventh year (1704) of the California 
 
A PEKILOUS YEAR. 53 
 
 missions was near to Leiog their last. The sup- chap. 
 plies were spoiled on the way. The garrison 
 grew discontented. Matters came to such a ito4. 
 strait that Salva Tierra called the fathers to- 
 gether, and plainly put the question whether 
 they should surrender to the impending famine 
 and go home. Not that he for a moment med- 
 itated joining himself in any retreat, but it 
 seemed like submitting to a company of, men 
 whether or not they would consent to stay and 
 starve. The fathers, with one voice, agreed to 
 take the risks and stay. Nor upon consulta- 
 tion would one of the camp consent to go, un- 
 less the fathers would. So TJgarte gathered a 
 force of soldiers and Indians for a raid into the 
 woods ; and on the fruits of the forest and the 
 roots that they dug, they managed to subsist 
 until supplies ai'rived. 
 
 This peril passed, Salva Tierra went over to 
 Mexico on business of the mission. There he 
 heard bad news — that he was promoted to be 
 provinciaL He sent on at once, asking permis- 
 sion to resign his new post, but meanwhile 
 exerted all the increased influence that the 
 position gave him to forward the California 
 interest. He waited on the viceroy, pleaded 
 the king's warrants, urged the arguments two 
 centuries old, but won only promises. He pre- 
 pared a bold and earnest memorial to the 
 Assembly, just about to meet, in which he set 
 
54 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, forth the policy of supporting what was so well 
 begun, and represented the impossibility of con- 
 
 1711. tinuing the settlements unless a more generous 
 liberality were extended them. For seven and 
 a half years they had been allowed three ves- 
 sels ; now two of them were lost, and one could 
 not answer the purpose. He contrasted the 
 luckless, fruitless, wretchedly misconducted ex- 
 pedition of Otondo, who had the royal treas- 
 ury at command, with the economy and success 
 of this. He pictured the barrenness of the 
 country. From the time of Cortez the peopling 
 of it was tried in vain ; but, the holy Virgin 
 of Loreto aiding, the land was subdued at 
 last and settled. He showed how certainly all 
 would be lost if the fathers had not the power 
 to appoint and displace the commander of the 
 military. He dwelt upon the danger of insur- 
 rection if, under any pretence, the Indians were 
 compelled to fish for pearls, and he asked that 
 twenty-five soldiers and a captain be put at 
 the service of the missionaries. The cost of the 
 enterprise to that day was one million two hun- 
 dred and twenty-five thousand dollars, exclu- 
 sive of the "foundation" of six missions, which 
 amounted to sixty-eight thousand dollars more. 
 Of these sums the treasury had paid only eigh- 
 teen thousand dollars. As to the king's sug- 
 gestion to establish a garrison on the western 
 coast, for the relief of the Philippine ships, he 
 
SALVA TIEREA S PLEA. 55 
 
 proposed that, without the expense of a new ohap 
 garrison, a subsidy of thirteen thousand dollars 
 be paid to the fathers, which would enable 1711. 
 them to push the settlements across to the west- 
 ern coast. As to the condition of the country, 
 he assured them that the sovereign was now 
 possessed of fifty leagues in circuit, where all 
 was so profoundly peaceful that the fathers tra- 
 versed it alone without a guard. Three routes 
 to the Pacific had been discovered, and a dis- 
 tance of two days' journey along the ocean 
 coast had been surveyed. 
 
 But the viceroy, who listened with politeness, 
 meant no relief. His royal master needed all 
 that could be spared from the treasury, for the 
 greater part of Europe was leagued to deprive 
 him of his crown. Perhaps the viceroy was 
 influenced by the common scandal of the time 
 as to the insatiable avarice and wealth of 
 the Jesuits ; more probably he thought he 
 made a better case for himself with the king, 
 by remitting money to Spain, than he could hj 
 carrying into effect his pious orders, which did 
 not need to be enforced to gain for majesty an 
 abundance of credit. But, whatever his motive, 
 California got no favors from him. 
 
 The churlish viceroy died in 1711, and the 
 Duke de Liuacres succeeded him. The duke 
 had an hereditary affection for the Jesuits, and 
 would have strained a point to forward their 
 
56 THE HISTOKY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, enterprise ; but in liis official capacity lie could 
 do nothing, for all tlie king's schedules had 
 
 1711. been so carefully secreted by his predecessor 
 that they could not be found. However, he 
 testified the sincerity of his professions by giv- 
 ing by will one-third of his estates to the Cali- 
 fornia missions, and then, as the climax of his 
 excellent behavior, died in I7l7, and gave them 
 an early enjoyment of his bequests. 
 
 The missionaries, meanwhile, kept themselves 
 busy ; now Father Piccolo was directing all 
 their energies to secure the supplies for their 
 subsistence ; now Father Ugarte was laborious- 
 ly surveying a new route to the ocean ; now all 
 were en2:ao;ed in inducini»: the Indians at a dis- 
 
 Co o 
 
 tance to exchano-e their wild life for the habits 
 of the settlements, and now founding new mis- 
 sions. 
 
 Salva Tierra bad at last obtained his dis- 
 charge from the office of provincial, and re- 
 turned to share the perils of his brethren. 
 Scarcity of food was the dark shadow that was 
 always approaching, or just behind them, but 
 1717. seldom entirely out of sight. At one time the 
 small-pox made terrible ravages among the 
 natives. The sorcerers whispered that the 
 fathers poisoned the children with the baptis- 
 mal water, and the adults with extreme unc- 
 tion, and thence came seditions and revolts. 
 Then the vessels were lost. Then again there 
 
A statesman's view. 57 
 
 would be a burst of sunsliiue ; supplies would chap. 
 arrive, and peace follow in the wake of plenty ; 
 and so, v/ith alternations of good and bad for- 1717. 
 tune, things w^ent on until 1717. 
 
 In the autumn of that year all the peninsu- 
 la was visited by a hurricane, which did great 
 damage to the missions. Father Ugarte's house 
 and church were levelled to the ground. A 
 Spanish boy at Loreto was reported as taken up 
 in a whirlwind and never seen more ! If (says 
 the chronicler) in former ages such hurricanes 
 were frequent in California, it is not surprising 
 that all its mould was swept away, leaving its 
 rocks bare, and its plains and valleys covered 
 with heaps of stones. 
 
 But a more remarkable event than the hur- 
 ricane notched this year as noticeable. A new 
 viceroy had arrived at Mexico, charged by the 
 minister Alberoni — afterwards cardinal — to 
 lend every encouragement to the Sonora and 
 California missions ; to establish garrisons on 
 the South Sea coast at all practicable j)oints, 
 and, if possible, to induce the formation of set- 
 tlements up the Coloi'ado and Gila Hivers. Al- 
 beroni believed that the settlement of Califor- 
 nia would tend to develoj) immensely the 
 trade with the Philippines, and that in return 
 that trade, after a nucleus on the coast were 
 once formed, would build up California. His 
 instructions on these points wonderfully fore- 
 
58 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOKNIA. 
 
 CHAP, sliadow the destiny of the coast that we are 
 ^' seeing fulfilled to-day, though of course the 
 
 1717. glory and wealth of Spain were the objects to 
 1)6 attained by all the means that he suggested. 
 The viceroy desired to second with spirit all 
 that was commanded him, and, that he might 
 do so intelligently, sent for Salva Tierra to visit 
 Mexico. 
 
 The noble old pioneer, though afflicted with 
 a very painful disorder, and stooping with the 
 weight of years, immediately started. He 
 ])aused from sheer necessity at Guadalaxara, 
 and was never able to renew his journey. Two 
 months he suffered there the sharpest agony ; 
 then, perfectly contented, resigned his breath. 
 The whole city assisted at his burial, and[ every 
 friend of California moui'iied her loss in his 
 death. 
 
 Jayme Bravo, who attended the good father 
 through his illness, pushed on to Mexico, and 
 answered, a good deal better than was feared, 
 the purposes for which Salva Tierra had been 
 summoned. The viceroy's council and the 
 Assembly, with the greatest generosity, granted, 
 so far as resolutions could do it, all that was 
 asked, but forgot the necessary appropriations ; 
 and so the treasurer, who was a very strict 
 economist where his own interests were out of 
 question, declined to pass over any funds. 
 Then Alberoni, being made cardinal, left Spain 
 
WASTED LABORS. 59 
 
 for a different order of business, and thus his chap. 
 grand scheme for California collapsed. v— v-^ 
 
 In 1722 clouds of locusts invaded Lower 1722. 
 California, and consumed every green thing. 
 The Indians, being short of food, turned the in- 
 vaders to account for that purpose, and from 
 this cause, as they alleged, came the general 
 epidemic, of which great numbers of them died. 
 The next year an epidemic dysentery raged 
 with great havoc. 
 
 But no opportunity for making explorations 
 was ever omitted. The Pacific coast had been 
 surveyed, from St. Lucas to the latitude of Cer- 
 ros Island, and three tolerable harbors, with 
 wood and water convenient, had been discov- 
 ered. Maps, charts, and minute draughts of 
 the result of every tour were forwarded to 
 Spain, but it is doubtful if royal eyes ever 
 vouchsafed a glance at them. Valuable papers 
 of this sort were either treated carelessly and 
 soon lost, or, if deposited in the state archives, 
 it was so difficult to gain access to them, that 
 their information failed to enter into general 
 circulation. So it happened, that during this 
 century there were many important discoveries 
 and re-discoveries ; and the country was still, at 
 the end, almost the Unknown Land that it was 
 at the beginning. 
 
 As to the insular or peninsular character of 
 California, there was scarcely less diversity of 
 
60 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 sentiment than if Fatlier Kino Lad not three 
 several times during his life established the 
 1722. poiiit. Even Father Ugarte thought there 
 might possibly be some channel between Loreto 
 and the mouth of the Colorado, through which 
 the waters of the Gulf issued into the ocean. 
 The doubt at last bred in him the determina- 
 tion to know the truth. But he had no vessel 
 to make a survey with, no money to purchase 
 one, and no timber at hand to build one. Being 
 in earnest, howevei', he procured a gang of ship- 
 masters, climbed with them over the mountains, 
 found in a secluded spot trees that they pro- 
 nounced fit for the purpose, cleared a road into 
 the slouo;h, cut and drao-ored the timber to the 
 lauding, and constructed a vessel, of no great 
 dimensions indeed, but a stancher craft than 
 they were accustomed to see in those parts; 
 and though it about exhausted their provisions 
 and money, it cost less than to have bought 
 her equal in Mexico. This pioneer Cali- 
 fornia coaster was named The Triumjyh of the 
 Cross. 
 
 Taking an open boat along as a tender, 
 Father Ugarte and a company of twenty men 
 set sail in the Triumpli, on an expedition from 
 which they did not return until they had thor- 
 oughl}^ explored both sides of the Gulf to the 
 mouth of the Colorado. It proved a voyage 
 full of perils and hair-breadth escapes. As 
 
FATHER UGAKTe's DEATH. 61 
 
 tliey neared the nj)per end of the Gulf, the tide chap. 
 rolled impetuously at tlie flood over an immense >_^J_, 
 extent of flat country, and currents of great 1722. 
 strength swept around the rocks. The water 
 was poisonous to their flesh. One day it was 
 as dark at noon as it usually is at midnight ! 
 They had thunder and rain, and waves of fright- 
 ful height. Once they were terrified by the 
 close approach of a water-spout. It was a great 
 comfort to the men, as the fiercest of the gales 
 that they encountered was raging, to see St. 
 Elmo's fire hoverino- aroand the cross at 
 the mast-head. Out of all their troubles they 
 were safely delivered, and they returned well 
 satisfied that they had seen the end of the Gulf, 
 and that there was no way for its waters to 
 reach the ocean except southward. As to the 
 people on the shores, they noticed that those 
 on the east were cruel and malignant, but on 
 the west they were gentle, friendly, and just. 
 Father Ugarte made no more expeditions, built 
 no more vessels. In 1730, when seventy years 1730. 
 old, after thirty years of missionary life and 
 service, he quietly died. 
 
 If he had lived four years longer, he would 
 have thought the sun of a brighter day wa 
 rising on his rugged land. For, in 1734, the 1734. 
 Philippine galleon for the first time visited it, 
 turning in to St. Lucas with only water enough 
 on board to last two days longer, and her crew 
 
02 THE HISTORY OF CALITOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, down with scurvy. Tlie missions furnisLed 
 her with water, fresh fruit, and vegetables, and 
 1734. most of the crew w^ere recovered before she re- 
 sumed her hizy course toward Acapulco. 
 
 Here were demonstrated at last the benefits 
 of the mission to East Indian commerce. When 
 the story should reach Mexico, it must com- 
 mend the policy so long pursued without en- 
 couragement, and give a fresh impetus to the 
 work of settling the country. 
 
 But it worked precisely an opposite result. 
 The Philippine trade itself was in Jesuit hands. 
 The owners of the cargoes of the galleon were 
 the monks of Manila. They had their enemies 
 in Mexico, and these found now a new reason 
 for frowninsT on the missions. Their influence 
 was sufficient with the Government to prevent 
 the dispatch of garrisons to protect the later 
 settlements. 
 
 The Indians, no longer restrained by moral 
 means, since the fathers had no physical force 
 to make it respectable, rose in rebellion, de- 
 stroyed the four missions between La Paz and 
 St. Lucas, and gave crowns of martyrdom to 
 Fathers Carranco and Taraaral. The mission- 
 aries returned to Loreto, which was the capital 
 of the province, and their settlements for a 
 while ran to waste. The next year's galleon, 
 putting in to St. Lucas, found all desolate that 
 was shortly before so flourishing, and, indeed, 
 
A EEBELLION. 63 
 
 thirteen of her men, who went on shore with- chap. 
 out suspicion, were murdered by the insur- _^^_^ 
 gents. 1736. 
 
 The Yaquis came over from the continent 
 to aid the missionaries, and the Governor of Si- 
 naloa tendered his help. It was not, however, 
 until after he had spent two years in learning 
 that coercion was the only method of dealing 
 with insurgent Indians, that he took the fa- 
 thers' advice, treated the rebels as enemies, 
 whipped them soundly in battle, and restored 
 peace. 
 
 Philip V. assumed the cost of repressing 
 this outbreak for the royal treasury, and he 
 made some spasmodic efforts to complete the 
 reduction of California. Ferdinand VI., with 
 all his power, seconded his father's efforts. He 
 essayed, but without success, to settle the pen- 
 insula by means of emigration from Mexico. 
 He ordered that the soldiery be entirely subor- 
 dinate to the clergy. He suggested to the 
 Jesuits the propriety of doubling the number 
 of their missionaries, and, in accordance with 
 Father Kino's plan, sweeping the circle of 
 their establishments from Pimeria to California. 
 But the provincial replied, that the utter bar- 
 renness of the region around the head of the 
 Gulf, and the experience of fifty years, made it 
 quite useless to repeat that attempt. Still, 
 Father Consag, in 1746, explored anew the 
 
64 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP. Colorado, with a view to the practicability of 
 establishing an overland route from California 
 174G. to Sonora. 
 
 Meanwhile, the order remitted no effort to 
 maintain the missions that were established, 
 and found new ones. In 1745 they numbered 
 sixteen. Their sio-nal fires on the mountains 
 guided the annual galleon into St. Lucas Bay, 
 and the products of their thin soil furnished the 
 fresh supplies that her scurvy-stricken crew re- 
 1758. quired. In 1758 the Indians, for a tract three 
 hundred leagues northward from St. Lucas, 
 were tamed and converted — that is, they did no 
 harm to the whites, worked a little under the 
 orders of the fathers, and were supported in 
 part or entirely by them. 
 
 Life at the missions passed off very quietly, 
 in about this way : — 
 
 Every morning the sexton, or catechist, as- 
 sembled the Indians in the church, where the 
 Te Deum was sung, mass said, and catechism 
 rehearsed. Then came a breakfast, for all who 
 were punctual at church, of corn, boiled, bruised, 
 macerated in water, and warmed again — they 
 called the dish atole. Then all went to the 
 work of the day, or to the woods. At noon, 
 they who fed at the public table had pozoli — 
 simple boiled corn — with meat, and " vegetables 
 in theu' season." At night, there were devo- 
 tions again in the church ; and, after that, more 
 
LIFE AT THE MISSIONS. 65 
 
 atole. Every Sunday they walked in proces- chap. 
 sion around the village, and then to cliurcli, .__^_ 
 where, besides prayers, catechism, and singing, 1758. 
 they lieard simple sermons. 
 
 The father was head laborer, head cook, 
 school-master, physician, and priest. In every 
 new mission he was attended by a soldier, who 
 was vicegerent in the father's absence ; for 
 small faults he whipped, for larger ones he im- 
 prisoned the offender, or put him in the stocks. 
 Whipping, from the way it came into vogue, 
 was always very popular. The captain of the 
 garrison at Loreto once detected a thief, and 
 ordered for him a very severe punishment. Just 
 as sentence was al>out to be executed, Salva 
 Tierra interfered ; the captain consented to 
 change the punishment to flogging, and tlie na- 
 tives were filled with admiration that so inno- 
 cent and superficial a substitute could satisfy 
 justice. 
 
 The captain of the garrison was also captain 
 of the coast ; but in all things he was subordi- 
 nate to the fathers, which was a grievous 
 offence to the sword. The soldiers and sailors 
 complained about being denied the privilege of 
 diving for pearls, of which every fifth one found 
 was the Idng's perquisite ; but diving, the mis- 
 sionary firmly prohibited. Nothing so much 
 prejudiced the natives as to find the foreigners 
 running off with this source of their wealth ; — 
 
66 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, uothlnoj would sooner entail scandal on tlie mis- 
 ^_^_ sions. He encouraged diving by the natives, 
 1758. on their own account ; but neither sailors nor 
 soldiers must engage in it. 
 
 Everywhere, the children were the first care. 
 Some from all the missions came up to Loreto, 
 where they learned reading, writing, singing, 
 and Spanish ; and were promoted, as they 
 earned the honor, to be church-wardens or 
 catechists at home. The priests furnished their 
 parishioners with coarse clothes and blankets. 
 Those who could work were instructed to do 
 so, and the product of their labor was their 
 own, except only the wine, which the f^ither 
 saved for his personal and medicinal uses. But, 
 as the very best of them would waste all they 
 gathered, if left in their hands, the father 
 saved it for them in a common store, distribu- 
 ting it as their necessities demanded, or occa- 
 sionally helping out some other mission not 
 quite so able. As it was found impossible 
 either to subsist the entire population who 
 would attend service, as was first intended, or 
 to find profitable work for them, the policy 
 adopted was to feed the chief, the aged, the 
 sick, and the children from six to twelve years 
 old, and to give a certain allowance to all the 
 rest, provided once a week they came to receive 
 instruction. This was done to induce them to 
 keep together in villages, rather than to stray 
 
THE JESUITS IN" LOWER CUJEOEIflA. 67 
 
 about tlie mountains, driftino; hither and thither chap. 
 without any home. Seeing that not the church _^_ 
 only, but all the parishioners were to be sup- 1758. 
 ported, these missions were very costly experi- 
 ments to their faithful patrons. When the 
 contributions for their support amounted to 
 $10jOOO, the sum was invested at home as a 
 "foundation," and the five per cent, interest 
 was transmitted to the missionary as his salary. 
 Afterwards, instead of investing the principal, 
 it was devoted to the purchase of a farm, 
 which was manao-ed for the missions' account. 
 Really, since 1735, there had been no great dif- 
 ficulty as to the finances. The Jesuits had 
 received some large donations, which were ad- 
 ministered shrewdly — they purchased some pro- 
 ductive real estate, and afterwards added to it 
 mines, factories, and flocks. This property was 
 held sacred to the California enterprise, and 
 was called the " Pious Fund." 
 
 Whatev^er they may have to answer for on i767. 
 other parts of the continent, the Jesuits certainly 
 earned a good name in Lower California. True, 
 none but Jesuits were the historians of their 
 career on the barren peninsula, but their version 
 is confirmed by Indian tradition, and by all the 
 mute witnesses that remain after the workman 
 is gone, and testify of his faithfulness or his 
 treason to his trust. 
 
 But King Charles of Spain saw Jesuitism 
 
68 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, steeping in the politics and controlling the 
 ^_^__, interests of the realm ; and, to sa-^e his throne, 
 1767. he expelled the order from his domain. The 
 decree was instantly enforced in the provinces 
 of Mexico ; and the Jesuit establishments in 
 California, and their pious fund, were turned 
 over, in 1707, to the Franciscan monks of the 
 College of San Fernando, at Mexico. 
 
 Father Junipero Sen-a was selected as the 
 president of the missions under the new order. 
 He set out at once for his field, and on the 1st 
 of April of the next year, at Loreto, took 
 possession. In the manuscript records of the 
 Loreto church stands the entry that Serra made 
 on the next day : " We are in the mission and 
 royal presidio of Loreto, capital of this penin- 
 sula of California, sixteen religious priests, 
 preachers and apostolic missionaries ; ''' ^' * 
 the fathers of the Company of Jesus having 
 heen expelled, for reasons known to his Ma- 
 jesty." 
 
 If thus the Franciscans came in without a 
 compliment to their predecessors, the Jesuits 
 went out saying " the grapes were sour," and 
 wasting no adulations on the land tliey were 
 quitting. Father Begert, a German, who had 
 spent seventeen years in the land, relieved his 
 mind of a load when he got hack to Europe, 
 by publishing at Manheim, in 1773, some "His- 
 torical Sketches of the American Peninsula of 
 
FRANCISCANS UNDERTAKE THE MISSIONS. 69 
 
 California," He pronounced it a miserable chap. 
 land, not worth tlie trouble of describing — a v_.^__ 
 land of chaparral, thorn-bushes, bare rocks, and 1769. 
 sand-hills, with a brutish people, whose Christi- 
 anity was all on the surface, but whose habits 
 of laziness, lying, and stealing were ingrained. 
 They had no words to express the most homely 
 virtues, yet had so small a share of such virtues 
 that the lack was not annoying to them. Be- 
 gert's book must have made the bones of Kino 
 and Salva Tierra rattle with indignation in their 
 graves, that a Jesuit should come to speak in 
 such a strain of the poor land and the poorer 
 people whom they offered themselves to save! 
 
 The Franciscans girded themselves to their 
 work with enthusiasm, but a rival order, the 
 Dominicans, began to clamor for a share of the 
 field, and at last obtained a royal edict requir- 
 ing one or two of the missions to be surrendered 
 to them. The Franciscan warden explained 
 how indivisible the interests of the missions 
 were, and proposed, instead, to cede the whole 
 to them; for they had, by this time, another 
 project at heart. So the Dominicans took pos- 
 session of the Lower California missions, and 
 the Franciscans retired altogether into the un- 
 known land to the northward — our own Upper 
 California. 
 
 This concludes our dealings with Lower 
 California. The impatient reader may deem 
 
70 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA, 
 
 CHAP, all wiitten on this subject impertinent to a 
 ^'_ histoiy of California. But really it is an es- 
 
 1757. sential part of the story. The bald Pacific 
 coast of California presented a front that Span- 
 ish enterprise could not penetrate. The Jesu- 
 its were then invoked to flank it with their 
 mission strategy — to approach it gradually, 
 by civ^ilizing the rude tribes of the penin- 
 sula, by ascending the Colorado, by subdu- 
 ing the deserts, and planting settlements at 
 convenient distances from Gape St. Lucas north- 
 ward, until the goodly land described by Vis- 
 caino were reached and subjugated. Father 
 Venegas's History of CaUfo7'7iia, published at 
 Madrid, 1757, was the record of this grand 
 flanking enterprise. His California was not the 
 peninsula alone, but all the unknown land 
 north of it, though repeated failures led the 
 Jesuits at last to relinquish their long-cherished 
 hopes of going much above the mouth of the 
 Colorado, since every new advance northward 
 separated them farther from their base of sup- 
 plies. 
 
 Accompanying Venegas's History, published 
 at Madrid, 1757, was a curious map, which 
 shows at a glance what the pioneers thought 
 our western world was like. The outlines of 
 Lower California are laid down with general 
 accuracy. The Colorado, a little above the 
 mouth of the Gila, stops short. But the most 
 
A MAP OF CALTFOENIA. 71 
 
 curious feature is a grand sea — an ocean situ- 
 ated within the continent of North America- 
 stretching from Mexico, in the hititude of Cape 1757. 
 St. Sebastian, up to the latitude of the southern 
 point of Greenland, and twenty-five degrees in 
 width. Two straits connect this mediterranean 
 sea with the Pacific, in latitudes forty-three and 
 forty-six. From the course of the Colorado it 
 is evident they thought future discoveries 
 would lead it up to this great* sea, which on 
 the northeast, by a river and through two lakes, 
 connects with Hudson's Bay. Midway between 
 Cape Mendocino and Monterey is the Cape of 
 Pines, and behind it, on the north, a deep inden- 
 tation in the coast — the only thing that looks 
 like San Francisco. Hudson Kiver makes a 
 clean breach across to the St. Lawrence, and 
 New England is an island. 
 
72 THE HISTORY OF CALITOIINIA. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 OCCUPATION OF UPPER CALIFORNIA BY THE 
 FRANCISCANS. 
 
 Before tlie Franciscans had consented to 
 give up Lower California, Jose de Galvez, tlie 
 1768. new visitor-general, and afterwards minister- 
 general for all tlie Indies, had arrived, bearing 
 an order from the King of Spain to rediscover 
 by sea, and make a settlement at San Diego. 
 Galvez, w"ho seems to have been a man of 
 marked ability and enterprise, at once under- 
 took the execution of the king's design, and he 
 found in Father Junipero Serra a faithful and 
 enthusiastic co-operator. Studying the spirit 
 rather than the letter of his instructions, Gal- 
 vez with all haste prepared two expeditions, 
 one to go by land, the other by water ; and, to 
 make success more sure, he divided each of 
 these in two, to start sepai'ately, but all to 
 meet at San Diego. His fleet consisted of two 
 vessels, the San Oarlos, of not more than two 
 hundred tons, and the San Antonio^ both of 
 which were brought over from San Bias for the 
 purpose. 
 
GALVEZ AND JUNIPERO SEREA. 73 
 
 The San Carlos was tlie flag-ship. She chap. 
 sailed from La Paz January 9th, 1769, Father ,_^_ 
 Junipero having first blessed the flags, and i769. 
 Galvez deliverino; a cheering: address to the 
 embarking adventurers, who numbered in all 
 sixty-two persons. Her commander was Don 
 Vicente Villa. Amono; those on board were 
 Friar Fernando Parron, father missionary; 
 Lieutenant Pedro Fages and twenty-five sol- 
 diers, a baker, tw^o blacksmiths, a cook, and 
 two tortilla-makers. Her manifest, which is 
 still to be found in the State archives of Cali- 
 fornia, includes Indian corn and flour, ci-ackers, 
 home-made sugar, peas, beans, rice, hams, fish, 
 chocolate (but no cofifee or tea), a little brandy 
 and wine, plenty of dried meat, one thousand 
 dollars in small coin, candles for the churches, 
 fish-oil and lamp-wicks for light, and supplies 
 of other sorts sufficient to afford very comfort- 
 able living, for both cabin and forecastle, du- 
 ring a long voyage or a tedious delay on a 
 desolate shore. Galvez accompanied the San 
 Carlos in a little vessel as far as Cape St. Lucas, 
 and saw her fairly to sea, with the wind in the 
 right quarter, before he turned back. 
 
 The next off was the San Antonio^ which 
 started from Cape St. Lucas on the 15th of 
 February, commended, as her consort had been, 
 to the patronage of St. Joseph. Her com- 
 mander was Juan Perez, who was born on the 
 
74 THE IIISTOEY OF CxYLIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP. Island of Majorca, and had ali'eady won fame as 
 
 "a pilot in the Philippine trade. Among her 
 
 1769. passengers were two priests. The San Antonio 
 had been thoroughly overhauled at St. Lucas, 
 Galvez himself seeing that not a l)arnacle was 
 left on her, and that her keel was as sound as on 
 the day it was laid. She carried ornaments for 
 the church ; all sorts of utensils for tent, house, 
 or field; flower, vegetable, and fruit seeds for 
 the garden and orchard, and grain for the 
 valleys. Indeed, all that was thought necessary 
 for the foundation of at least three missions 
 was dispatched in one or the other of these 
 vessels, or overland. 
 
 The land expedition was placed in command 
 of Gaspar de PortaM, who, at the time, was 
 Governor of Lower California, and a captain 
 of dragoons. The next officer in rank was Don 
 Fernando Rivera y Moncada, who was captain of 
 a company of foot-soldiers. Rivera had made the 
 tour of the northern missions in the preceding fall, 
 and collected men, provisions, horses, mules, and 
 two hundred head of cattle, with which to stock 
 the unknown country they were to settle. On 
 the 24th of March he left the frontier mission 
 for the northern wilderness. In his company 
 were Father Juan Crespi, a pilot who under- 
 took to keep an itinerary, twenty-five foot-soldiers 
 who wore leathern bucklers, three muleteers. 
 
WHITE MEN ENTER CALIFOENIA TO LIVE. 75 
 
 and an unnumbered host of Christian Indians, 
 
 -'> 
 
 from the peninsular missions. 
 
 Last of all started Governor PortaM's com- i769. 
 pany, in May, — Father Junipero, though in 
 wretched health for a journey into the desert, 
 being punctually at the rendezvous. 
 
 These four detachments reached San Diego, 
 but not precisely in the order of their starting. 
 The first vessel in was the San Antonio. The 
 San Carlos arrived twenty days behind her, 
 having lost, by scurvy, all of her crew but one 
 sailor and the cook, and several of the soldiers. 
 Rivera's company was in by the 14th of May, 
 and Portald's, after a j)leasant jaunt of forty-six 
 days, at a time of year when the landscape is 
 most charming and the weather most delicious, 
 came in sight on the 1st of July. There was a Julyi. 
 great time in San Diego on that day, when all 
 who were alive of the two hundred and fifty 
 that made up the total of the four expeditions 
 met again. The vessels fired salutes, the sol- 
 diers discharged round after round for joy. The 
 1st of July, 1769, is marked in the almanacs as 
 the birthday of both Wellington and Napoleon, 
 Vjut it is memorable in our history, as Randolph, 
 in his admirable Outline of the History of Cali- 
 fornia., well remarks, for a greater event than 
 either — it was the first day that white men 
 entered Upper California with the purpose to 
 live and die there. 
 
76 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOK^STIA. 
 
 Just as soon as tlie mutual congratulations 
 were ended, the work of founding a mission 
 commenced. For this the process was to select 
 a suitable spot, and take formal possession of 
 it in the name of Spain. A tent was erected, 
 or an arbor, or booth, or rude log-house con- 
 structed for a temporary church, and into it the 
 sacred ornaments were carried. A cross was 
 planted before its entrance, a patron saint was 
 named, a clergyman for the post designated. 
 Then all the premises were sprinkled mth holy 
 water, the candles were lighted, mass was said 
 and sung (the soldiers with their fire-arms doing 
 duty for the organ, and the smoke of exploding 
 gunpowder answering for incense), and a ser- 
 mon was preached. The next task was to draw 
 in the Indians. Presents of cloth and food 
 served to catch the adults, and bits of domestic 
 sugar captivated the children. The natives 
 were to be convinced that the strang-ers came as 
 friends, to protect them from their enemies and to 
 do them good. As their confidence was gained, 
 they were to be allured away from their idle 
 wandering habits, persuaded to settle in villages 
 near the mission, instructed in farmino; and the 
 simple arts, taught the elements of the Catholic 
 faith, and, as soon as they consented and seemed 
 disposed to their new life, to be baptized and 
 reckoned converts. Father Junipero consid- 
 
GOVERNOR PORTALA AT SAN FRANCISCO. i i 
 
 ered himself fairly started in this work in a chap. 
 
 vr. 
 
 fortnicfht after Lis arrival at San Dieajo. 
 
 Leaving liim at his labor of love, than which 1769. 
 nothing: could more delio-ht him, the San Anto- 
 7U0, with all the sailors who were able, was 
 dispatched to San Bias with tidings of what 
 had been done, and to fetch up additional sup- 
 plies. It is a significant intimation of the perils * 
 of the coast, and the state of navigation in those 
 times, that, though she made the trip in twenty 
 days, she lost nine men on the way. 
 
 Meanwhile, Governor Portald, with soldiers, July u. 
 priests, muleteers, and Indians, sixty-five per- 
 sons in all, and a pack train of provisions, 
 started on the 14th of July to rediscover Mon- 
 terey ; for Galvez had charged him to accom- 
 plish the never-executed scheme of Philip III., 
 so carefully laid down one hundred and sixty- 
 three years before. Over six months PortaM 
 was gone on this errand. He stopped at Mon- 
 terey and set up a cross, but never dreamed it 
 was the place he sought. 
 
 Pushing still northward, he came upon a land- 
 locked, hill-encompassed bay or lake. East- 
 ward the land rose gently to a lofty range of 
 hills, beyond which peered the blue peak of 
 a far-distant mountain. On the north were 
 mountains ; on the west high hills, whose sandy 
 slopes descended even to the water's edge. 
 They said they recognized this as a spot which 
 
78 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, had been described, tliougli where, or in what, 
 does not appear. That it was a iit place for a 
 mission was clear to them all. 
 
 Then the priests remembered that when Gal- 
 vez had suggested the three names that were 
 to be given to the three missions that they 
 were to found, Father Junipero had exclaimed, 
 with much grief in his countenance, " But is 
 there no mission for Father St. Francis ?" and 
 that Galvez had replied, gravely, as if it were 
 not a sudden thought, " If St, Francis 'wants 
 a mission, let him show us his port, and we will 
 put one there." They accepted the token; 
 good St. Francis had guided their errant 
 steps and brought them to this port, so they 
 named it San Francisco. This is the first un- 
 questioned account of a visit to San Fran- 
 cisco. 
 
 That Sir Francis Drake had spent several 
 weeks here, recruiting, has already been shown 
 as probable. That Viscaino did not visit it, 
 has been shown as equally probable ; and yet 
 PortaM's company recognized the place from 
 the descriptions, and, curiously enough, before 
 they had made out whether the broad sheet of 
 water at their feet was a lake or a bay ! 
 
 It seems possible, although this is only a sur- 
 mise, that the port may have been visited 
 casually by some of the Spanish navigators, 
 whose oral descriptions, coinciding with Fran- 
 
TROUBLES AT SAN DIEGO. '79 
 
 CIS Drake's written accounts, led them, to speak chap. 
 
 VI 
 
 of it as San Francisco — the given name of the ,_^_, 
 discoverer being preserved in a form not offen- 1769. 
 sive to the prejudices of the Spaniards, and 
 calculated to secure a saint's protection; but 
 afterwards, as the minutiae of their story faded 
 into indistinctness, the glowing accounts still 
 surviving were presumed to refer to the har- 
 bor of Monterey. So, much of the eulogy that 
 was originally spoken of San Francisco harbor 
 may have been put to the credit of Monterey ; 
 yet, when the former place was revisited, the 
 locality was recognized as already described 
 under the name it now bears. 
 
 PortaU and his company returned in about 
 six months, and thrilling news they heard from 
 the little party that had guarded the San Diego 
 Mission. The Indians, coveting the cloth which 
 the missionaries only doled out to them very 
 judiciously, took every opportunity to steal it, 
 and even cut out pieces of the sails of the ves- 
 sel. Of course the missionaries protected their 
 property by force. On the 15th of Augusfc,Aiig, 15. 
 the Indians came down in full figliting feather 
 and began pillaging. The score of whites and 
 their Christian Indian retainers from Lower 
 California ilew to arms, whose explosions soon 
 commanded peace. In the struggle, one of the 
 priests was wounded and a Christian Indian 
 killed. The savages saw the strangers were 
 
80 THE HISTORY OF CALTFOET^IA 
 
 CHAP, too mucli for tliem, and treated tliem from tliat 
 
 ^__^ time, for a long wliile, as tlieir kind superiors. 
 
 1V70. But other troubles, and not of Indian origin, 
 
 ^ ^^^^^' awaited the San Diego pioneers. Provisions 
 
 fell short, and the sad resolution was taken at 
 
 last, that unless supplies came by the 20th of 
 
 March, they must abandon all and return home. 
 
 Providence kindly remembered the dispirited 
 
 company, for on the very day before the one 
 
 set for the abandonment of all, the S'a7i Anto- 
 
 nio sailed into the harbor with supplies in 
 
 abundance. 
 
 Portald now started again northward by 
 land, and this time found Monterey without a 
 question, and was satisfied of the fact. 
 
 The San Antonio^ too, ran up the coast, with 
 Father Junipero on board, and entered Monte- 
 rey harbor eight days after PortaM, on the 31st 
 of March. Here again they took possession in 
 the name of the king, hung up their bells on 
 the trees, rang them out merrily, builded the 
 chapel, blessed all, said mass, sang the Veni 
 Creator and a Te Deum. 
 
 Portala, in the San Antonio, returned to 
 Mexico, taking with him, or sending overland 
 under Pivera, the whole of the company, ex- 
 cept Father Junipero, five priests, Fages, and 
 thirty soldiers. The Indians told those who 
 remained, as they sat under those dark Mon- 
 terey pines, ghostly stories of how the crosses 
 
FATHER JTJNIPERO. 81 
 
 sliined that each white man wore on his breast chap. 
 the first time they had passed through there, not 
 knowing the place ; and of the great cross that 1770. 
 was planted by Portald before he knew he was 
 at the spot he coveted ; how it would grow at 
 night till its point rested among the stars, glis- 
 tening the while with a splendor that outshone 
 the sun; that when their superstitious dread 
 of it wore off, they had approached, planted 
 arrows and feathers in the earth around it, and 
 hung strings of sardines, as their choicest offer- 
 ings, on its arms. 
 
 It was like a gala day when Galvez, at the 
 palace of the viceroy, surrounded by distin- 
 guished citizens, heard from the mouth of Por- 
 tals that Monterey had been discovered, and 
 that three missions were established in Upper 
 California. The bells of the cathedral and of 
 all the churches were rung for joy, and every 
 generous pulse in New Spain beat faster for the 
 glorious news. 
 
 Father Junipero did not stay long at Mon- 
 terey; but, establishing a mission close by on the 
 Carmel Kiver, made that his residence, though 
 he spent much time in travelling about the 
 country, looking up wild Indians, and winning 
 them from their savage ways, establishing mis- 
 sions, watching his convert^, and baptizing the 
 little ones. He was the president of all the 
 missions in Upper California until his death. 
 
82 THE niSTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 When a new mission was to be established he 
 would take a couple of priests, an escort of sol- 
 1784, diers, and a train of mules, packed with the 
 necessaries for a journey, and the furniture for 
 a church. Then, wanderino; over the moun- 
 tains, and peering into all the pleasant valleys, 
 until he found a place to suit, he would hang 
 the bells on the trees, and himself pull lustily 
 the rope, while he shouted, " Hear, hear ! O 
 ye Gentiles ! come to the holy church." Then, 
 having set up the church tent, blessed and dedi- 
 cated it, and appointed a pastor, he would go 
 out hunting for parishioners. He lived until 
 the year 1784, when, at his own mission on 
 the Carmel, he died. 
 
 This venerable Franciscan pioneer was a man 
 worthy of the work he undertook. He was 
 the son of humble parents, who resided in one 
 of the islands of the Mediterranean, and from 
 his childhood was educated for the church. He 
 showed a wonderful faculty for attaching to 
 himself the affections of the natives, and seemed 
 by his presence to charm them into a ne'w mode 
 of life. It is said that, even before cultivated 
 audiences, he would hammer his breast with a 
 stone, and hold his flesh in the; flame of a can- 
 dle, to show that pain had no terrors in view 
 of the love for Christ that filled him. In tra- 
 velling, which he usually did on foot, though 
 lame from a chronic ulcer on his leg, he wore 
 
PALOU'S LIFE OF JUNIPEEO. 83 
 
 sandals and never stockino-s. The visitor-o-en- chap. 
 eral's proposal for an expedition to the north of _^_, 
 his desolate field in Lower California chimed 1784. 
 exactly with his desire, and Galvez himself did 
 not more urgently strive than he to make the 
 undertaking a success. When he came up to 
 Portala's rendezvous on the Lower California 
 frontier to start for San Diego, he was so lame 
 that he could scarcely mount and dismount 
 from his mule. Portald gave orders for a litter 
 to be made for his conveyance, but the tender- 
 heai-ted father would not hear of burdening 
 the Indians to carry him. After a prayer that 
 this cup might be spared him, he called one of 
 the muleteers and asked him what to do for his 
 sore foot and leg; but the muleteer modestly 
 demurred that he was no sui-geon, and was only 
 equal to the task of curing the sore backs of 
 beasts. "Then consider me a beast," said the 
 father, " and my limb as his back." The 
 muleteer, under shelter of this fancy, ventured 
 upon the cure, and applied to the ailing limb 
 a salve of mashed herbs and tallow. The next 
 morning the father was in excellent condition 
 and royal spirits. He mounted his mule and 
 rode oif, apparently as well as the rest them. 
 
 Junipero's life was written by a devoted 
 friend and admirer. Father Francisco Palou, 
 the first priest who had charge of the Mission 
 Dolores, and his book was doubtless the first 
 
84 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 book written at San Francisco or in Upper 
 California. It was published in Mexico in 
 1787. 1787, and with it a map of the country, which 
 shows the nine missions and the three presidios, 
 and the road between them, all lying near the 
 coast, while to the eastward was a blank. 
 
 Before Father Junipero Serra rested from his 
 labors he had founded eio;ht missions. Their 
 location speaks loudly for the judgment and 
 taste of the fathers. They occupy the very 
 choicest valleys that snuggle between the coast 
 ranges. Generally convenient to the sea, or, if 
 not, close by the stream that dries up latest 
 during the long droughts, their vicinity is 
 green when the other plains are parched. The 
 best pasturage, the fattest land, the prettiest 
 valleys to look down upon from the mountain 
 passes, or up toward from the sea, were chosen 
 for mission sites. Perhaps the least desirable 
 of all them for purely mission purposes was 
 the one at San Francisco. Though the Fran- 
 ciscan order owned no richly freighted gal- 
 leon annually sweeping down the coast, and 
 generally needing a harbor, yet it was so 
 charged with the traditional policy of Spain, 
 that the Bay of San Francisco pleaded for a 
 mission on account of its position. Indeed, 
 Father Junipero long had his eye on the sites 
 of both San Francisco and Santa Clara, and 
 when he went to Mexico to straighten up some 
 
MISSION DOLORES FOUNDED. 86 
 
 other matters, lie obtained a promise from tlie chap. 
 viceroy that tliey should be founded so soon as _^_, 
 communication was opened with them from 1773. 
 Monterey by land. Captain Juan Bautista 
 Anza effected that in 1773, reported the fact to 
 the viceroy, and returned with quite a company 
 of families in 1776. Meanwhile the San Carlos 
 had gone up the coast, and by actually entering 
 the Golden Gate, or the Gulf of the Farallones, 
 as they called it, in June, 1775, demonstrated 1'775. 
 that the land-locked bay — -whose two arms 
 stretched, one to the north till it met another 
 great ])ay into which St. Francis river, fed by 
 five other rivers, flowed, and the other south- 
 easterly some fifteen leagues — was open from 
 the Pacific for vessels to sail into it at j)leasure. 
 
 On the 17th of Sej^tember, the presidio of 
 San Francisco was founded. An expedition was 
 organized to explore the interior — a portion to 
 go by water up San Pablo Bay, a portion by 
 land. The latter strayed into one of the canons 
 of the Diablo range and discovered the San 
 Joaquin Valley. 
 
 On the 9th of the next month, October, 
 1776 — year ever memorable as the date of 1778. 
 American Independence — the mission " De los 
 Dolores de Nuestro Padre San Francisco de 
 Asis" was established. There ^vere several 
 Saints Francisco — Francisco of Paula, Francisco 
 of Sales, and Francisco of Asisis, the founder 
 
86 THE IIISTOEr OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 ijHAP. of the order of Franciscans. This mission was 
 
 . ^__, in honor of the sufferings of him of Asisis, 
 
 1776. and to avoid confusion it soon came to be known 
 as the Mission Dolores, while to the presidio 
 and the fort clung: the saint's name. The first 
 site chosen for the mission was near the " la- 
 goon," back of Russian Hill; but the winds 
 were so bitter there that soon it was removed 
 to the spot on the creek where the crumbling 
 old church and some of the houses that sur- 
 rounded it still stand. It was the sixth in the 
 order of the founding of the Upper California 
 missions, and as late as 1802 was the most 
 northerly of the eighteen then in existence. 
 
 The order of the establishment of the twenty- 
 one missions in Upper California was as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 San Diego, July 16, 1769. 
 
 San Carlos de Monterey (soon removed from 
 Monterey to the Carmel River), June 3, 1770. 
 
 San Antonio de Padua (thirteen leagues 
 from San Miguel), July 14, 1771. 
 
 San Gabriel (near Los Angeles), September 
 8, 1771. 
 
 San Luis Obispo, September 1, 1772. 
 
 San Francisco (Dolores), October 9, 1776. 
 
 San Juan Capistrano (between Los Angeles 
 and San Diego), November 1, 1776. 
 
 Santa Clara, January 18, 1777. 
 
OEDEE OF MISSION ESTABLISHMENTS. 87 
 
 San Buenaventura (southeast of and near ciiai'. 
 
 V[ 
 
 Santa Barbara), March 31, 1782. _^_ 
 
 Santa Barbara, December 4, 1786. nsv. 
 
 La Purisima Concepcion (on the Santa Inez 
 Eiver), December 8, 1787. 
 
 Santa Cruz, August 28, 1791. 
 
 Soleclad (on the Salinas Kiver), October 9, 
 1791. 
 
 San Jose, June 11, 1797. 
 
 San Juan Bautista (on the San Juan River), 
 June 24, 1797. 
 
 San Miguel (on the Salinas River), July 25, 
 1797. 
 
 San Fernando Rey (near, and northerly from, 
 Los Angeles), September 8, 1797. 
 
 San Luis Key de Francia (thirteen and a 
 half leagues from San Diego), June 13, 1798. 
 
 Santa Inez (twelve leagues from Santa Bar- 
 bara), September 17, 1804. 
 
 San Rafael (north of San Francisco Bay), 
 December 14, 1819. 
 
 San Francisco de Solano (Sonoma), August 
 25, 1823. 
 
88 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 THE ABORIGINES. 
 
 CHAP. When explorers come u^^on a new land, if 
 ^^^' they find it heavily timbered, or the intervals 
 1776. rank with wild grass, they know that cultiva- 
 tion will make it yield richly of grains and 
 ft'uit ; but if it bear no trees, or only scraggy 
 and stinted ones, and a thin, scant herbage on 
 the open country, they condemn it as unfit for 
 all farming purposes. Californians have the best 
 of reasons for hoping that the aborigines of a 
 land do not indicate, ])y the degree of their 
 nobleness or degradation, the style of men that 
 will be produced under civilized auspices upon 
 the same soil ; for, of all wretchedly debased 
 and utterly brutal beings, the Indians of Cali- 
 fornia were tlie farthest fallen below the averao^e 
 Indian type. They were neither brave nor bold, 
 generous nor spirited. They seem to have pos- 
 sessed none of the noble characteristics that, 
 with a slight coloring of romance, make heroes 
 of the red men of the Atlantic slopes, and win 
 for them our ready sympathy. We hear of no 
 
THE ABOEIGINES. 89 
 
 orators among them, no bold braves terribly chap. 
 resenting and contesting to the last the iisiirj)a- 
 tions of the whites. They were "Diggers," i776. 
 filthy and cowardly, succumbing without a blow 
 to the rule of foreign masters. As redeeming 
 them from utter brutality, it is refreshing to see 
 occasional glimpses of humor iu them, and a 
 disposition to make fun of the missionary when 
 his back was turned. But under the father's 
 eye they cowered like children on the low 
 benches before the old-time pedagogue wielding 
 the ferule. Perhaps the mild, motherly sort of 
 treatment which priests met them with, dis- 
 armed them. Perhaps, if they had been subject 
 to the rough handling that the Indian tribes 
 generally received from English settlers, they 
 might have fired up, and displayed some of the 
 violence and savage fury that make us respect 
 the Indians of the East and the North. Per- 
 haps it was in part because they were treated 
 as children, that they grew into simple, childish 
 ways. 
 
 They were as contemptible physically as 
 intellectually, and evinced as little traces of 
 conscience as of a reasoning faculty. To Drake's 
 party they showed a disposition to offer sacri- 
 fices, thinking the sea-king's jolly tars to be 
 veritable gods. Venegas thought the Lower 
 Californians to be the most stupid and weak, 
 in both body and mind, of all mortals. But the 
 
90 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 THAP. settlers of Upper California, who had seen l^oth, 
 _^__, thought the northern natives far inferior to the 
 J 770. southern. Humboldt, from all his readino- con- 
 eluded them as low in the scale of humanity as 
 the inhabitants of Van Diemen's Land. Though 
 m many respects one people, the gibberish they 
 spoke varied widely in different localities. 
 Those about San Diego could not understand a 
 word of the language of tho.r^e sixty miles north, 
 and every high mountain-range divided dialects. 
 I« all their customs, their religi )us notions, 
 and their habits, the residents of different val- 
 leys differed, though not widely. Father Bos- 
 cana, of the San Juan Capistrano Mission, left a 
 pretty full account of the Acagchemem nation, 
 who constituted his parishioners, and who seem 
 to have been about the best of the wdiole, 
 though that may be simply because they found 
 a more affectionate historian than did any of 
 their brethren. Mr. Robinson, the translator 
 of Boscana's papei', presumed that the descrip- 
 tions might be taken as true, with some slight 
 variations, of all the tribes in Upper California. 
 We may take, then, the picture of tlio tril)e that 
 occupied the sea-coast forty or fifty miles below 
 Los Angeles, as representatives of the people 
 whom the missionaries found in Upper Cali- 
 fornia, and whom Father Junipero learned to 
 love as if they were his own flesh. 
 
 They held that the inferior regions were once 
 
ABOEIGINAL MYTHOLOGY. 91 
 
 on a time married, and their children were the chap. 
 
 . • VII 
 
 sand and soil, rocks, stones, flints for their ar- ^_^_^ 
 rows, trees, herbs, grass, and animals. There 1776. 
 was a phantom whom they called Chinigchinich, 
 an orphan from the beginning, who could see 
 in the darkest night as clearly as at noon. This 
 powerful being defended the good and chastised 
 the bad ; he was always and everywhere present, 
 but hailed from the stars as his home. Him 
 they regarded as the creator of their race, and 
 as their great Captain. The land where they 
 lived was the first land made — they seemed to 
 believe that there was very little beyond it. 
 The sea was at first but a fresh-water stream, 
 coursing around their little earth ; but the fishes, 
 putting their heads together, agreed and man- 
 aged to break a rock, inside of which was gall ; 
 emptying this into the river, the waters grew 
 bitter, and swelled to an ocean, and the thought- 
 ful fishes were rewarded with plenty of room 
 and a wholesome pickle to sport in. 
 
 To the great Captain, or god of the long 
 name, they accredited all the precepts of morality 
 that they taught their children, and to his com- 
 mands they traced their customs and mode of 
 life. He told them to l)uild a temple ; so in 
 every tovfii, close by the chief's house, was the 
 oval enclosure, made of the branches of trees 
 and mats, surrounded by stakes of wood driven 
 into the ground, which constituted the temple. 
 
92 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP. It was a very sacred spot, within or near whicli 
 no irreverent act was ever performed ; for tlie 
 
 1770.' god himself was there, in the person of a coyote- 
 skin, stuffed with feathers, claws, talons, and 
 beaks, which doubtless symbolized the strength, 
 swiftness, fierceness, and power of the birds 
 and beasts from which they were taken. They 
 worshipped him with grotesque dances and 
 hideous yells, or sometimes in perfect silence, 
 squatting in most awkward attitudes in his 
 presence, and retaining one position while the 
 ceremony of adoration lasted. His temple was 
 the " city of refuge," where the most outrageous 
 criminal was safe, and after one visit could go 
 free, though the crime might be punished upon 
 the descendants of the offender at once or after 
 the lapse of generations ! 
 
 The boys were whipped with nettles, and 
 laid upon ants' nests, that the stings of the 
 insects might make them courageous under the 
 infliction of pain. They were branded by 
 burning moxas upon the fleshy part of the arm, 
 to put them above the consideration of trifling- 
 ailments. They were forbidden to warm them- 
 selves at a fire, lest they came short of the 
 toughness of men ; and, until they were heads 
 of families, certain food they must not touch. 
 To violate any of these orders, would let loose 
 the Evil Spiiit on them, and piiovoke the ire of 
 the god. 
 
CUSTOMS, MANNEES, DRESS. 93 
 
 The girls were trained to work from infancy, chap. 
 At ten, to heighten their beauty, their hiists ._^^_ 
 and faces were tattooed, the flesh being pricked 1776, 
 with the thorn of the cactus until it bled, and 
 a soft charcoal rubbed in, in lieu of India ink. 
 On arriving at womanhood, they were placed 
 on a bed of branches over some heated stones 
 that were lain in a hole in the ground, and 
 there kept with little or no food for three days, . 
 while ancient hags danced around the pile, 
 singing songs well calculated to inspire the 
 wi'etched, perspiring beauties with a sense of 
 the vast responsibilities that pertained to their 
 new condition. Betrothed by their parents in 
 infancy, they were married with a good deal of 
 ceremony, and divorced without any, at their 
 own ,or their husbands' will. 
 
 A skin thrown over his shoulders constituted 
 the full dress of a gentleman. Mats made of 
 squirrel-skins twisted into rope, sewn together, 
 and tolerably fitted to the person, was a fine 
 lady's common dress. Add a fringe of grass 
 reaching to the knees, hang ornaments of beads 
 and shells upon her neck, and varnish her face 
 with colored mud, and she was dressed for a 
 grand occasion. The San Francisco Indians are 
 said to have used a much more simple style of 
 dress, plastering their whole bodies with mud, 
 especially in the cooler months of the year — 
 though, if this were so, the fashion came in 
 
94 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, vogue probably after Drake's day, or was re- 
 served for winter. 
 
 1770. The men made bows and arrows, baskets, 
 and nets for fishing, killed some small game, 
 and fished a little, when the mood was on ; but 
 most of the work was done by the other sex. 
 The women went to the woods, gathered the 
 acorns that were a staple of food, picked the 
 berries, dug the edible roots, gathered the fire- 
 wood, cooked, kept house, and cared for the 
 children. The a3>LM3 they mashed, wet up 
 with water into a dough, and cooked between 
 hot stones. Buckeyes they rubbed down with 
 water into a thin gruel, and boiled by throwing 
 hot stones into the mess. They lield it a god- 
 send when a whale was stranded on the coast : 
 it relieved them from the necessity of work for 
 weeks ; for, like most gourmands who prefer 
 their game a little high, they thought the blub- 
 ber improved by moderate age ! 
 
 Dancing was a very important part of all 
 their entertainments and of their worship. Ex- 
 cepting at a few special feasts, the dances were 
 generally very modest, the sexes dancing apart 
 from each other, though in the same room. 
 Their god was a great admirer of a vigorous 
 dancer ; so dancing Avas a virtue, and this virtue 
 at least was popular. War was never their 
 passion ; but if one of a tribe stole a squirrel or 
 an ornament from another tribe, they generally 
 
NATIVE JIEDICAL PHACTICE. 95 
 
 indorsed his theft, and maintained their honor chap. 
 with tlieir arms. Th*3 war beiusr ended, the ^^^' 
 thief was dealt with as he deserved. Yet it 1776, 
 appears that they lived very peaceably most of 
 the time, and did very little quarrelling. On 
 occasion of their grand feasts, scalps taken in 
 war were exhibited on a pole planted on a tem- 
 ple. The women and children who were cap- 
 tured in wargenerally stayed with their captors 
 for life. 
 
 Every town had its chief, but he enjoyed 
 very little consideration in the town councils. 
 If he transgressed his authority, they deposed 
 him. His person was held in veneration, al- 
 thono-h his advice mio-ht be treated witb sov- 
 ereign contempt. 
 
 Their medical practice was exceedingly sim- 
 ple. Herbs, crushed or bruised, and applied as 
 a poultice, was the treatment for most external 
 diseases. For slight internal ailments they 
 smoked the same herbs, or whipped the part 
 affected with nettles. For serious diseases the 
 cold-water bath was a common remedy; that 
 failing, the patient was laid upon the dry sand, 
 or ashes, and a fire kindled near his feet, which 
 was kept blazing night and day. By his 
 head was placed a cup of water, or some gruel. 
 His friends then sat down by his side, and 
 waited in patience until he recovered or died. 
 Of course, they had their quacks, who per- 
 
96 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOR]SnA. 
 
 CHAP, formed wonderful cures throus;]! the medium 
 VII . . 
 
 _^ of a perfect faitli and the entire control of the 
 
 177G. patient's imagination — thus swindling him 
 away from under the power of disease. Some 
 writers speak of the sweat-house as the never- 
 failing remedy for the Indian, whether his ail- 
 ment were little or great. It was supposed to 
 add very largely to the mortality of the tribes ; 
 but their ancestors, " the authorities," believed 
 in it, and to the sweat-house they went, whether 
 afflicted with typhus or tooth-ache, a tit of indi- 
 gestion or the small-pox. 
 
 When one died, he was either buried or 
 burned, according as the custom of the locality 
 was. Where burning was the fashion, the 
 corpse was laid upon a pile of fagots, in the 
 presence of the friends, and the bows and arrows, 
 and whatever the deceased cherished as his 
 property, were laid beside him. When the j)ro- 
 fessional burners announced that all was con- 
 sumed, the friends retired outside the town to 
 do their mourning — the doctor accompanying 
 them, and chanting the story of the fatal sickness, 
 while they wept. After three days and nights, 
 they returned home and cut their hair in token 
 of their loss. If the departed were a distant 
 relative, the rule required that it be cut half its 
 old length ; if it were a j)ai-ent, wife, or child, 
 the liead must be shaved close. 
 
 They thought Death was a being who took 
 
THEIR IDEA OF DEATH. 97 
 
 away a person's breath, and after that there chap. 
 
 was no more of him forever. The punishments '^ 
 
 that they feared from their god were almost i776. 
 entirely physical, and pertained to lihis life. 
 Still, they thought that the heart of a good 
 chief went up, after death, among the stars, to 
 enlighten the earth ; hence, that the stars, 
 comets, and meteors, were the hearts of great 
 Indians departed. Common men had no such 
 honor awaiting them, and the chiefs only at- 
 tained it by virtue of the fact that, after death 
 and before being burned, men who practised a 
 modified cannibalism as a profession came and, 
 with much ceremony, consumed a small portion 
 
 of their flesh. 
 7 
 
98 THE HISTOEY OF CALLFOENIA. 
 
 CHAPTER Vm. 
 
 DETAILS OF THE MISSION SYSTEM. 
 
 But degraded as was the Indian, the whole 
 theory of the Spanish conquest required, and 
 i7g] the first principle of the missions was, that he 
 should be trained in the simple arts, educated 
 in the elements of letters and religion, and be 
 made a citizen. The fathers succeeded in 
 teaching him to plough and plant, to sow and 
 reap, to raise corn, to make wine, to weave 
 cloth, to dress leather, to manufacture soap, 
 brick, and tiles ; but they never could bring 
 him out of his stolid ignorance. The project 
 of manufacturing him into a valuable subject 
 of Spain was an utter failure. In other of her 
 Indian possessions this had been done, but in 
 California it could not be. Yet, throughout 
 the career of the missions, throughout the nde 
 of the Church in California, the Indian was 
 always treated as the object of solicitude and 
 kindly care. If he was a slave of the fathers, 
 it was that he might become a subject of the 
 crown. 
 
THE Missioisrs. 99 
 
 In the political system of tlie country, his ciiap. 
 weakness and wants were scrupulously consulted. >_^_, 
 The missions were to grow into towns ; the pre- i78i 
 sidios were for their defence; and the pueblos 
 were established only when it was found that 
 the Indians were not competent to sustain the 
 missions and the presidios without a heavy 
 draft upon the Government at Mexico. The 
 first grant of land made within California was 1775. 
 to a Spanish soldier, in consideration of the fact 
 that he had mamed a native convert. This 
 care for the Indians, as the prospective subjects 
 and sacred occupants of the soil, was never in- 
 termitted until the revolution came that over- 
 threw the missions themselves, and California 
 was distracted with the civil wars that followed 
 its attempt at independence. 
 
 How many Indians there were in California 
 when the missions were in their glory, there are 
 no means of knowing : not because they were a 
 floating population, for those near the coast, at 
 least, seldom drifted far beyond the horizon of 
 their birthplace ; but they were not reckoned 
 worthy of being counted until converted. They 
 were more valuable than beasts only as they 
 were susceptil )le of conversion. 
 
 The missions were bnilt upon one general 
 plan, though they differed in the expenditures 
 upon them. In the centre was a handsome 
 church, generally built of adobe, whose tinsel 
 
100 THE IIISTOKY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, and pictures, marble pillars for tlie altar, and 
 __;_, 2'old and silver plate, must have struck the In- 
 1781. dians as exceedingly line. Close by the chuix-h 
 were the residences of the clergy, store-houses, 
 granaries, shops for blacksmiths, weavers, and 
 soap-makers, all of which were built of adobe 
 and roofed with tiles. There were also large 
 gardens, and pens for cattle and horses. Two 
 or three hundred yards away was the " ranche- 
 ria,." sometimes an adobe structure, sometimes a 
 collection of wigwams made of poles, which 
 had this advantage over the adobe house, that 
 when they became altogether filthy, they could 
 be burned down, and new ones put on their site. 
 Close by the rancheria was a building for a 
 garrison of half a dozen soldiers, with their 
 families. About the mission as a centre, the 
 l>est land of the vicinity, generally a tract of 
 some fifteen miles square^ was set apart to it for 
 a farm, where the thousands of sheep and cattle 
 grazed and pastured. But this was not all that 
 the missions claimed. Their boundaries touched 
 each other. From the sea-coast to the moun- 
 tains, from San Diego to San Francisco, all, 
 with a few exceptions to be hereafter named, 
 was claimed by the priests as mission property, 
 without reference to the number of the estal:*- 
 lishments. 
 
 Over each mission was a presiding fathei', 
 who had a control of its affairs that was almost 
 
THE MISSIONS AND PRESIDIOS. 101 
 
 absolute, being responsible only to the presi- chap. 
 dent of the missions and the college to which ^^^^' 
 he belonged. The ground was tilled, the cattle 1781. ' 
 killed, the cloth woven, the vintage nourished 
 or neglected, as the father dictated. If he 
 were blessed with worldly wisdom, his mission 
 flourished, its Indians were fat and contented, 
 and its treasury full. If he had no mind for 
 such matters, unless indeed his assistant clergy 
 were wiser than he, spiritual and temporal 
 affairs alike went amiss, the Indians suffered 
 fi'om nakedness and hunger, and fumed with 
 discontent ; converts were not multiplied ; the 
 buildings went to decay ; the mission got a bad 
 name. 
 
 To give greater protection to the missions, 
 which were mostly inland, four presidios, or 
 military establishments, were planted at as 
 many sea-ports — San Diego in 1769, Monterey 
 in 1770, San Francisco in 1776, and Santa Bar- 
 bara in 1780. The presidio was an enclosure of 
 from two to three hundred yards square, sur- 
 rounded by an adobe wall of about twelve feet 
 in height. In this square were a chapel, store- 
 houses, residences for the officers, and l^arracks 
 for the soldiers. Upon the walls were mount- 
 ed sundry small cannon. Near the anchoring- 
 ground and aside from the presidio was gene- 
 rally a fort of rude construction, also mounted 
 Mdth cannon. The presidio was, in theoiy, 
 
102 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOKiaA. 
 
 CHAP, manned by seventy soldiers, but tliat maximum 
 ^__^ was seldom reached ; most of the number rated 
 1781. as cavalry, and a small portion as artillery. 
 Tlieir commander had military jm^istlictiou over 
 a certain number of missions and the pueblos 
 within his limits. Thus the Presidio of San 
 Francisco, as late as 1835, had within its juris- 
 diction the town of San Jose and the six mis- 
 sions about the bay. Tlie commandant stood 
 in the place of the viceroy throughout his dis- 
 trict. He must assist the missionaries and 
 protect their charge, but in no way interfere 
 with. them. 
 
 One of the objects of Father Junipero in 
 visitino; Mexico was to bring; to an issue a dis- 
 pute concerning the mutual rights and relations 
 of the military and tlie ecclesiastics. The law 
 of the latter toward the Indians was kindness ; 
 the former looked down on the red men with 
 scorn, and abused them accordingly. They 
 made the Indian men work, the squaws carry 
 burdens, the children wait upon them, and 
 punished them all promptl)^ if they tried to 
 avoid work. The priests had complained to 
 the viceroy of the behavior of the soldiers ; 
 the military had complained to him that the 
 priests were meddlesome, aiid in the habit 
 of transcending their powers by dictating to 
 their equals. The viceroy took the priests^ 
 part, invoked the military to pres^^rve harmony, 
 
 17' 
 
PEIESTLY AND MILITAEY AL'THOEITIES. 108 
 
 to lielp the fathers cheerfully, tr) give them cpiat. 
 aid, escorts, and supplies, and to treat the In- _^_ 
 dians so kiudl)^ that their example would com- 1773. 
 mend their religion. The most explicit advices 
 failing to j^roduce the desired harmony, Juni- 
 pero went personally to Mexico, and, from the 
 Convent of San Fernando, issued the gravest 
 charo-es ao;ainst the soldiers, and Don Pedro 
 Fages, their chief commandino^ officer. Then 
 Fages was peremptorily ordered by the viceroy 
 to remove any soldier at the demand of a mis- 
 sionary, and to leave the entire management 
 of the Indians to the priests. After that, 
 though there were occasional jealousies, the 
 positions of the two powers were pretty well 
 defined, and there was not nuich conflict be- 
 tween them. 
 
 The commander of a presidio had authority 
 to oTant building;-] ots to the soldiers and other 
 residents within the space of four square leagues 
 of head-quarters, where it could be done with- 
 out encroaching upon the mission. It is not 
 certain that this right was ever exercised by 
 the captain of the San Francisco presidio, but 
 probably it was at San Diego, Santa Barbara, 
 and Monterey. 
 
 There were a few farms set apart for the use 
 of the presidio so*ldie]*s, but the military did 
 not take well to farming; and, excepting for 
 grazing purpo'^es, this land was very little used. * 
 
104 THE inSTOEY OF CALIFOEISTA. 
 
 CHAP. The soldiers were an undisciplined, riotous set 
 
 VIII . 
 
 ,_^__, of fellows, mostly mutineers or deserters from 
 1781. tlie Mexican army, or felons trans2:>orted to tlie 
 wilderness because the prisons of Mexico were 
 crowded. Still, miserably mounted and shock- 
 ingly equipped as they were, they answered 
 every 2:)urpose that was required of them. The 
 timid Indians only needed the shadow of an 
 army to keep them within the l^ounds of pro- 
 priety. When the converted Indians were dis- 
 posed to relapse into heathenism, and ran 
 away, the soldiers went out on a grand hunt 
 and brought them in again, and with them all 
 the wild natives that they conld corral. Once, 
 at San Diego, the Indians rose, murdered sev- 
 eral persons, and burned the mission-houses. 
 The soldiers, with a few " terrible examples," 
 soon restored tranquillity, and this was the only 
 occasion for any warlike demonstration to quiet 
 insurrection during the early history of the 
 settlements. 
 
 At each presidio a certain number of pack- 
 mules were kept for the government service, 
 and four horses stood saddled l^y day and eight 
 by night, read}' to carry dispatches in any 
 direction. 
 
 To relieve the Government of Mexico of the 
 heavy burden of supplying tlie presidios with 
 recruits and rations, there were established, in 
 Father Junipero's day, the pueblos of San Jose 
 
THE PUEBLOS. 105 
 
 in tlie north, and of Los Angeles in the south, chap. 
 Later, in 1795, the Marquis of Branciforte or- 
 dered a commission to select a pueblo site in 1795. 
 the vicinity of San Francisco. The commis- 
 sioners reported that San Francisco was prob- 
 ably the worst place in all California for the 
 purpose, and so the " Villa of Branciforte" was 
 established near the Santa Cruz Mission. It 
 never grew to any consequence. Portions of 
 its adobe ruins are still pointed out to the 
 visitor to that pleasant sea-side retreat. 
 
 These pueblos were reckoned of little account 
 — a necessary evil, whose growth beyond a cer- 
 tain point was to be discouraged. Each pueblo 
 had its common lands, where the cattle were 
 pastured, and whence the fuel was obtained. 
 Each settler was entitled to an inalienable 
 homestead of two hundred varas square, a cer- 
 tain number of cattle, horses, and poultry, a 
 stipulated quantity of agricultural implements, 
 a salary at the outset, and, for five years, ex- 
 emption from all taxes. In return, he engaged 
 to sell all the products of his lot, beyond what 
 his family required, to the presidios, at a fixed 
 price ; to keep a horse, saddle, carbine, and lance, 
 and hold his own person in readiness for the 
 king's service, on demand. After five years' 
 occupation, he must pay an annual rent of a 
 bushel and a quarter of corn. 
 
 For the first two years after the establish- 
 
106 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOSInIA. 
 
 CHAP, ment of a puel)lo, it liad an alcalde or judge, 
 _, and other town officers of the governor's ap- 
 1709- pointment. After that, the officers were elected 
 ■^^^*^' by the people, subject to the governor's ap- 
 proval. The settlers ^vere mostly soldiers 
 whose term of service had expired. These free 
 towns, which ^vere originally intended to be 
 sul)servient to the presidios, as the presidios in 
 turn were Imt tlie servants of the missions, 
 ^vere naturally eyed ^vitll jealousy by the mis- 
 sions ; especially, as to them were attracted all 
 straggling foreigners, and the trappers and 
 hunters who wearied of their adventurous life, 
 and were disposed to settle, and end their days 
 in a semi-civilized fashion. Very naturally, 
 there were occasional collisions "between the 
 ecclesiastic and the military authorities ; and 
 there was a law-suit of tedious length, brought 
 by the college at Mexico to which the priests 
 belonged, before the viceroy, because the pue- 
 blo of San Jose was established nearer the 
 mission of Santa Clara than Father Juuipero 
 thought to be wholesome for his Indians. 
 
 But here we are verging upon ground that 
 the lawyers of California, and especially of San 
 Francisco, have disputed about too much for 
 any one not of the profession to travel over it 
 without great risks. Early in the career of San 
 Francisco, it became a question of importance, 
 whether or not it was ever a pueblo. The 
 
COLO:."IAL HISTOEY IN THE COUETS. 107 
 
 Supreme Court of the State decided that it was chap. 
 one ; and the Federal Court of the district has _^ 
 pronounced a like decision. L0U2: as the liti- i7G9- 
 gation lasted, it was not without some redeem- 
 ing results. The legal investigation of the pue- 
 blo question, on which hangs the title of the city 
 as the successor of the alleged puel)lo to the 
 greater part of the lands in its suburbs, threw 
 a deal of light upon the system under which 
 California was settled, developed many curious 
 historical facts that were buried in the S^^anish 
 documents of the State archives, and explained 
 other things, of which the full records were lost 
 in the bustle of the American occupation. 
 Dwinelle's " Colonial History of San Francisco," 
 published in 1863, was the argument of John 
 W. Dwindle, in the United States District 
 Court, for the city's pueblo claim for four 
 square leagues of land. 
 
 There are those, and Mr. Dwinelle appears 
 to be among them, who hold that the Spanish 
 and Mexican system for settling California con- 
 templated a threefold occupation of the land : 
 by the religious pioneers, building up missions 
 and drawing the natives around them ; by the 
 military, making the influence of the presidios 
 meet each other and cover the whole country ; 
 and by civilians, congregated in pueblos. On 
 this theory, all three were alike, if not equally, 
 cherished by the Governmeut, as nuclei of j^opu- 
 
1846. 
 
 108 THE mSTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, lation and growth into a State. If that were 
 
 VIII 
 
 ,_^_, really the theory of those who began the settle- 
 1769- raent of California, the failure of the Indian to 
 grow into a citizen caused the mission element 
 so early to outgrow the others in importance 
 and influence at Mexico, that very soon the 
 pueblo was deemed an intruder, and the pre- 
 sidio only tolerated as the prop and defender 
 of the missions. 
 
 Still, it is clear that the mission was never 
 intended to be a permanent institution under 
 priestly control. Just as soon as the converted 
 Indians were educated up to the capacity for 
 self-iTOvernment, the missions were to be con- 
 verted into pueblos. The " religious " priests — 
 that is, priests who had taken the three vows 
 of a " regulai- order " — vows of chastity, obe- 
 dience, and poverty, and were consequently held 
 in law as " civilly dead " — were to be succeeded 
 by the " secular clergy," and the mission church- 
 es would become parish churches; — in short, 
 the missions were to be secularized. It had 
 been presumed, at first, that ten years would 
 suffice to carry a mission up to the point where 
 it could l)e secularized ; but the priests loved 
 the missions too well, and their Indian converts 
 were too stupid for that. A few missions, forced 
 by the impatience of the Government, struggled 
 into the pueblo state, but soon ^vent to decay. 
 On the other hand, the original pueblos flour- 
 
SEVEEAL KITSTDS OF PPEBLOS. 109 
 
 isted finely, and several presidios grew so rapid- chap. 
 ly in spite of ecclesiastical objections, that they _^J_, 
 assumed the rights and privileges of pueblos. i769- 
 
 Much confusion has orio-inated in the some- 
 times loose, sometimes precise meaning of that 
 word pueblo. It seems to have worn all the 
 vagueness of our word toiviiy and like it to have 
 had also a specific meaning. The same term 
 was applied to a settlement of straggling In- 
 dian huts, and to an incorporation with powers 
 precisely defined. Moreover, a pueblo might 
 be aristocratically called a villa^ like Branci- 
 forte, or a ciudad^ like Los Angeles ; but under 
 whatever name, it still was a pueblo, with its 
 privileges determined exclusively by the num- 
 bers of its " reasoning " population. 
 
 California, when first settled, was a depart- 
 ment of the kingdom of Spain, and to the viceroy 
 at Mexico its governor was responsible. In 1776, 
 it became one of the " Internal Provinces," which 
 were ruled by a commandante-general. When, 
 still later, the Internal Provinces were divided 
 into Eastern and Western Provinces, it formed 
 a pai't of tlie W^estern, and then its capital was 
 either at Arispe or Chihuahua. Still later a few 
 years, the old order was restored, and the gov- 
 ernor of California, residing at Monterey as the 
 capital, was directly responsible to the viceroy. 
 
 Events travelled slowly in those times, and 
 it took many years to furnish a chapter of his- 
 
110 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 ( iiAP. tory. Eacli subordinate officer was a despot, 
 _^^_^ until liis suj^erior's order came. Loyalty was in- 
 17G9- stinetive, and the very distance of the supreme au- 
 thority added dignity and weight to his behests. 
 The King of Spain forwarded his order to 
 the viceroy, who sent a copy to each Spanish 
 dependency ; so that a command, intended for 
 Peru, came through to Califoi'nia, and was filed 
 here as well as there. Among these old kingly 
 communications preserved in our State archives, 
 Kandolph quotes one for the furnishing of the 
 royal park with some of the deer that abound- 
 ed, as was said in the neighborhood of San 
 Francisco ; and another, that would have been 
 more useful in Nicaragua than here, announc- 
 ing that a certain archbishop had happily dis- 
 covered that when the jiggers have l)urrowed 
 into the human iiesh, it is sure death to the in- 
 sect to anoint the part affected with cold olive- 
 oil ! So, in every corner of Spanish America 
 this royal remedy against jiggers was heralded. 
 To I'each here, it had travelled a long and 
 crooked circuit, from the king to the viceroy, 
 to the command ante-genera], to the governoi-, 
 to the captain of the presidio, to the flithers, 
 who read it aloud to the shivering, dusky 
 crowd, who wondered doubtless what sort of 
 creature this jigger was, that henceforth, in all 
 the dominions of Spain, was to have no chance 
 for his life. 
 
A CALM HALF CENTUEY. 11] 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A CALM HALF CENTURY. 
 
 The Indians accepted tlieir new style of life chap, 
 with apparent cheerfulness. Its restraints were >— v— 
 probably balanced in their reckouincr by the i'^'''^- 
 freedom from any peril of hunger or cold. 
 Though exceedingly lazy, they got through 
 their tasks with ease, and they were apt enough 
 to understand readily the simple arts they were 
 required to learn. They came together to the 
 missions in the morning, at the sound of a l)ell. 
 Seven hours a day they gave to work, and two 
 to prayer. For their misdemeanors they were 
 whipped — the females in private, the males in 
 public, for the edification of both sexes. Boiled 
 corn was served to them, morning, noon, and 
 night. On saints' days and gi-eat occasions 
 they had beef, which some of them preferred 
 unspoiled by cookery. So soon as an Indian 
 was baptized, he was regarded as a member of 
 the community, and entitled to feed at its ex- 
 pense. He was no longer at lil)erty to return 
 to the gentile Indian village, or to his heathen 
 
112 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, family. He had nothing that he could call his 
 own. He was a slave, under a mastership that 
 
 1775- was mild enough, so long as lie did his day's 
 work complacently, and said his prayers with 
 becoming gravity. 
 
 Without disturbance, without bloodshed, 
 with scarcely a ripple on the calm surface of 
 their simple society, these occu2)ants of a wild 
 and unknown portion of the continent drifted 
 through two generations. While America, on 
 her eastern border, was convulsed with a war 
 that was rending from England her thirteen 
 colonies, nothing disturbed the quiet of this 
 priest-ruled region. While Spain was passing 
 through the fire, this, her distant province, was 
 literally occupying a Pacific slope. The old 
 cannons on the presidio walls and in the forts 
 grew rusty for lack of use, or were buried in 
 the rank growth of the sod. The soldiers for- 
 o;ot the art of war, and craved the excitement 
 of the cattle-ranches. The captains of the pre- 
 sidios were sending to the governors of tbe 
 province the copy-books of the children in 
 their schools. Nearly sixty years this groat calm 
 lasted. The Indians grew somewhat skilful in 
 their trades. The fathers waxed fixt and patri- 
 archal. To start with, they had little of the con- 
 suming zeal and unquenchable thirst for explo- 
 rations that characterized the Jesuits, and, ns 
 their possessions increased, that little vanisbed. 
 
POPULATION AT THE MISSIONS. 113 
 
 They were contented with the valley in which chap. 
 they lived. Mountains, lising abruptly from _^_ 
 the plain, bounded their horizon ; they were not i775- 
 curious to widen it or discover what lay beyond. " ' 
 So the land that was unknown in 1776, was 
 scarcely known in 1830. It was only a fringe, 
 a few miles deep from the sea-coast, that was 
 explored, from San Francisco Bay to San Diego. 
 They knew there were such valleys as the San 
 Joaquin and Sadramento, but they took no 
 steps to possess them. 
 
 In 1786, when the missions were ten in num- 
 bei", it was estimated that there were five 
 thousand one hundred and forty-three domes- 
 ticated Indians in California. In 1790, when 
 there were eleven missions, the population was 
 set down at seven thousand seven hundred and 
 forty-eight ; and in 1801, at thirteen thousand 
 six hundred and sixty-eight. Humboldt esti 
 mated the population at the close of 1802, of 
 the ruling classes, the gente de razo7i, or rational 
 creatures of the land, amono; whom were em- 
 braced all the whites, mestizoes, and mulattoea 
 in the pueblos, presidios, and missions, at one 
 thousand three hundred ; and the converted 
 Indians of the eighteen missions at fifteen 
 thousand five hundred and sixty-two, of which 
 number seven thousand nine hundred and forty- 
 five were females. 
 
 The list of missions, in the order of their 
 
114 THE HISTOr.Y OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, population in 1802, would stand as follows: 
 San Diego, population about one thousand five 
 1802. hundred and sixty ; Santa Clara, one thousand 
 three hundred ; San Antonio de Padua and 
 San Gabriel, each one thousand and fifty ; 
 Santa Barbara, La Purisima Concepcion, and 
 San Juan Capistrano, each one thousand ; 
 San Juan Bautista, nine hundred and sixty ; 
 San Buenaventura, nine hundred and fifty; 
 San Francisco, eight hundred and twenty; 
 San Luis Obispo and San Carlos de Monterey, 
 each seven hundred ; San Jose, six hundred and 
 thirty ; San Miguel, San Fernandino, and San 
 Luis Rey, each six hundred ; Soledad, five hun- 
 dred and sev^enty ; Santa Cruz, four hundred 
 and forty. 
 
 The seeds and grains so carefully provided 
 by Galvez, flourished beyond expectation. The 
 cattle thrived and multiplied like Jacob's flocks 
 in Padan-arara. There were plenty of sheep 
 and horses and cattle in the land, an al)und- 
 ance of corn, wheat, beans, and peas, in the 
 fields, and of fruit in the orchards. At the 
 south they had grapes in profusion, and olives 
 of excellent quality. 
 
 Commerce, scenting great bargains from afar, 
 sent around the Horn, from Boston and New 
 York, vessels to buy up the surplus hides and 
 tallow. As the settlers had no use for gold or 
 silver, the traders brought in payment such 
 
COMMEECE UlSTVEILS THE COAST. 115 
 
 goods as were sure to captivate the wMtes, and chap. 
 sucIl stout stuffs as were desirable for Indian ^.^ 
 costume. The hides were rated so low, and the iT75- 
 goods they brought sold at so high a figure, that, 
 after the balance on the first venture was struck, 
 the trade was permanently established. 
 
 The Yankee visitors took home tales of. true 
 Arcadian landscapes; of a climate beyond 
 criticism, where sjiring was perennial, and 
 flowers bloomed in the open fields every month 
 in the year ; of a fat land, where people lived 
 to an extreme old age, and were free, to the 
 verge of their departure, from the infirmities of 
 declining life; of a country civilized, yet of 
 the simplest manners, and whore a fortune could 
 be made in a year or two, if one would consent 
 to take it in the shape of lands or hides. These 
 stories generally passed for travellers' tales, but 
 many restless pioneers at the East heard them, . 
 who, as they pushed westward before the ad- 
 vancing wave of Western settlement, climbed 
 the Rocky and the Snowy Mountains, and 
 dropped quietly into these valleys before they 
 found the country that matched their ideal; 
 and so, unobserved, there was quite a sprink- 
 ling of American settlers through the country 
 before this long calm was disturbed. 
 
 But, because there was no political storm, it 
 must not be supposed that the Californians had 
 not their share of grievances. They lived in 
 
116 THE IlISTOKY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 iiTAP. no little fear of earthquakes, perhaps as ninch 
 
 IX. 
 
 because the land has such an unfinished aspect 
 
 1775- in many parts, as from any experience of their 
 
 effects. The Indians said there had alwa}s 
 
 been more or less of them throug-hout the 
 
 *&' 
 
 country, and they early felt tremors enough to 
 make them appreciate the low, modest Mexican 
 style of building. 
 
 The adobe houses at San Juan Bautista were 
 severely injured by an earthquake which oc- 
 curred on the 18th of October, 1800; and the 
 captain of the San Francisco presidio reported 
 to the governor that several occurred early in 
 July, 1808, which did no greater damage simply 
 for want of more material to destroy. Within 
 the four weeks preceding the l7th, twenty-one 
 shocks had been felt, that cracked all the walls 
 of the captain's house, and threatened the 
 entire ruin of the barracks of the fort. On one 
 Sunday of September, 1812, the church of the 
 Mission San Juan Capistrano was destroyed by 
 an earthquake, and thirty persons killed ; on 
 the same day the church at Santa Inez was 
 thrown down. In 1818, an earthquake levelled 
 the mission church at Santa Clara. 
 
 But, more than earthquakes, from first to last, 
 they feared foreigners. On the 23d of October, 
 1776, the viceroy wrote to the governor to be 
 on the watch for Captain Cook, and not permit 
 him to enter the ports of California. Informa- 
 
JEALOUSY OF STEAISTGERS. 117 
 
 tion had reached the King of Spain that Cook chap. 
 had sailed, with two armed vessels, from 
 London, on a voyage of discovery to the 1776. 
 Southern Ocean and the northern coast of Cali- 
 fornia. But the world-renowned circumnavi- 
 gator never sought an entrance into the king's 
 inhospitable harbors. 
 
 Seventeen years later, Spain felt better to- 1793. 
 ward the land that had the effrontery to give 
 birth to Francis Drake, and orders were received 
 here to treat Vancouver well, if he should ar- 
 rive. The noise of the French Kevolution, 
 and the high doings of " that Lucifer," Bona- 
 parte, had reached this coast, and they made the 
 English seem friendly, by comparison with any 
 thing French. So, when Admiral Vancouver 
 turned into Monterey, in 1793, he was received 
 with distinguished consideration. 
 
 In 1790, Governor Fages commanded the 1790. 
 captain of the presidio at San Francisco, that 
 whenever the ship Colicmhla^ ''said to belong to 
 General Washington, of the American States," 
 which sailed from Boston, 1787, "bound on a 
 voyage of discovery to the Russian establish- 
 ments on the northern coasts of this peninsula" 
 (the good governor thought California a penin- 
 sula yet, all the way up to those mysterious 
 Straits of Anian), should appear, she was to be 
 "examined with caution and delicacy." The 
 Coliunhia was on a nobler errand than that of 
 
118 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, peering into ports where she would be cau- 
 tiously examined ; she struck the coast far- 
 
 isyo. ther north, and, by the discovery of the great 
 Western stream, gave her own name to the 
 Columbia River. 
 
 1803. On the 1st of August, 1803, " at the hour of 
 evening prayers," two American vessels, the 
 Alexander^ Captain John Brown, and the Asej\ 
 Captain Thomas Raben, entered the harbor of 
 San Francisco, dropped anchor, and sent ashore 
 for permission to take in wood and water. The 
 captain of the presidio, finding that Captain 
 Brown was the same man who was there five 
 months before, refused him permission to remain. 
 Next morning the Yankee captain sent in a dole- 
 ful account of the hard times he had experienced 
 on the northwest coast, and of his sevei-e en- 
 counters with the Indians in the Straits of Chat- 
 ham. At San Juan de Fuca he heard that the 
 ship Boston had been captured by the Indians, 
 and burned, and all but two of the crew butch- 
 ered. The presumption is that this tale, wheth- 
 er entirely true or not, so moved the captain 
 of the presidio, that the strangers were permit- 
 ted to supply themselves with wood and water. 
 The Russians made their first appearance 
 
 1807. about 1807. The czar's ambassador to Jaj^jan, 
 Von Resanofi^, after looking at the establish- 
 ments of the Russian Fur Comj^any, both on 
 the Asiatic and American coasts, and failing in 
 
RUSSIAN SETTLEMENTS. 119 
 
 an attempt to enter the Columbia River, came chap. 
 on to San Francisco. His immediate object v____, 
 was to obtain supplies for Sitka ; but once isoT. 
 here, he attempted to lay the foundations of a 
 regular intercourse between the Russian and 
 California settlements. To cement more surely 
 the national alliance, he proposed to take as his 
 wife the commandante's dauo;hter. The dausch- 
 ter and the father were nothino; loth, so the 
 ambassador hastened back to obtain from the 
 Russian and the Spanish courts the requisite 
 authority. On his road through Siberia, he fell 
 from his horse, and died from the effects of the 
 fall. The disappointed lady assumed the habit, 
 if not the formal vows, of a nun, and de- 
 voted her life to the consolation of the sick and 
 the education of the young, and we hear no 
 more of the proposed commercial compact. But 
 in 1812 one hundred Russians, and in their 1812. 
 company one hundred Kodiak Indians, came 
 down from the north, and squatted on a narrow 
 strip of land in what is now Sonoma County, 
 making Bodega their port. Whether they ever 
 had permission from the Spaniards, or whether 
 indeed they asked it, is not sure ; but this is, 
 that they were never regarded otherwise than 
 as intruders of the most unwelcome sort. 
 They maintained themselves by virtue of their 
 forts and many soldiers, and when at their best 
 estate, in 1841, numbered eight hundred Rus- i84i. 
 
120 THE HISTOET OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, sians, and a great company of Indian stij)endi- 
 ^___, aries. They raised some grain, kept some cat- 
 1841. tie, hunted on all the coasts, creeks, and inlets, 
 for seals, beavers, and otters, and scoured the 
 country for inland peltry. To circumscribe 
 their influence, the missions were founded at 
 San Rafael and Sonoma. 
 
 But, quite regardless of their jealous, priestly 
 observers, they held in undisturbed possession 
 their strip of exclusive territory, trapped wher- 
 ever they found game, and in their Greek 
 church, among the solemn pines of Fort lioss, 
 worshipped the Christian's God, after a fashion 
 scarcely less offensive to the zealous papists 
 than were the dances of the natives l^efore the 
 stufted coyote-skins in the savage temples. 
 Without any premonitions, in 1841, they sold 
 all their property to Captain John A. Sutter, a 
 Swiss, who was to be notable in the next 
 twenty yi^ars' history of the country; and then, 
 in 1842, after thirty years' quiet occupation, 
 they retired. 
 
CALIFORNIA UNDER MEXICAN RULE. 121 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 CALIFORNIA UNDER MEXICAN RULE. 
 
 In 1822, Mexico threw off tlie yoke of Spain, chap. 
 and established a separate empire. When the ,^_^^ 
 news reached California, the governor (Pablo 1822. 
 Vicente de Sola), the generals at the four 
 presidios, two militia captains, and one artil- 
 lery lieutenant, the prelate of the missions, and 
 the proxy of the father president, met accord- 
 ing to previous notice at Monterey, and heard 
 the documents read which announced the estab- 
 lishment of the Mexican empire. Then, with- 
 out a dissenting voice, they resolved that hence- 
 forth California was independent of any foreign 
 state, and would render obedience to Mexico 
 alone. The oaths were changed and taken ac- 
 cordingly, "and without a struggle the severance 
 of California from Spain was complete. 
 
 Father Boscana tells an anecdote illustrative 
 of how the Indians about San Diego were af- 
 fected by the news that the viceroy had Ijeen 
 deposed, and Yturbide proclaimed emperor at 
 Mexico. They had a grand feast in the village, 
 to which all the neighborhood was invited. 
 
122 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 ciTAP. The ceremonies were commenced by burning 
 ,_^1_, the chief alive.. Then they elected another, 
 1822. and after eight days of revelry they dispersed. 
 When the missionaries heard of it, they admin- 
 istered a sharp rebuke to those of their con- 
 verts who shared in the entertainment. But 
 the Indians replied : " Have you not done the 
 same in Mexico ? You say your king was not 
 good, and you killed him. Well, our captain 
 was not good, and we burned him : if the new 
 one should be bad, we will burn him too." 
 176T- Governors are governors the world over, and 
 '^^^~- are entitled to honorable mention for their 
 office' sake. So it is a duty to name the gov- 
 ernors of California under the Spanish rule, 
 though they governed but a small fraction of 
 the people, and, with some excej^tions, really 
 had less hand in shaping the course of events 
 within the province than any one of the fa- 
 thers. They were the despotic masters of the 
 military, except as at long intervals there came 
 up orders from their superiors at Arispe, Chi- 
 huahua, Mexico, or Madrid. But the military 
 and the people of the puel dos were all that they 
 could control. The wild Indians admitted no 
 ruler but their own chiefs ; the tame ones 
 looked to the fathers, and the fathers to the 
 coUeore, between which and them no civil or 
 military ruler intervened. These Spanish gov- 
 ernors were nine in number. Their residence 
 
SPANISH GOVERNORS OF CALIFORNIA. 123 
 
 was at Monterey, the capital. The time of chap. 
 their continuance in office was as follows : — w~J^ 
 
 Gaspar de Portala . . • , . 1767 to 1771 1777- 
 
 Felipe de Barri .... 1771 to 1774 1822. 
 
 Felipe «e Neve 1774 to 1782 
 
 Pedro Pages 1782 to 1790 
 
 Jose Antonio Roineu .... 1790 to 1792 
 
 Jose J. de Arrillaga (ad interim) . . 1792 to 1794 
 
 Diego de Borica .... 1794 to 1800 
 
 Jose J. de Arrillaga .... 1800 to 1814 
 
 Jose Arguello (ad interim) . . 1814 to 1815 
 
 Pablo Vicente de Sola . . . 1815 to 1822 
 
 In 1824, Mexico lay down the imperial and i824. 
 put on the republican form of government. 
 California accepted the change without protest 
 or the slightest olDJection. Lacking the quota 
 of population essential to a State, she was con- 
 stituted a Territory, with the privilege of send- 
 ing a representative to Congress, who could 
 take part in the debates, but had no vote. The 
 governor, henceforth called the " Political Chief 
 of the Territoiy," had a council, which was des- 
 ignated the "Territorial Deputation." In the 
 Deputation a proposition was once made to 
 change the name of the Territory from Cali- 
 fornia to " Moctesuma," and to make the coat-of- 
 arms represent, in an oval, an Indian, with a 
 bow and quiver, crossing a strait — an olive and 
 an oak tree on either hand ; thus symbolizing 
 the supposed amval from across the Straits 
 of Anian of the iirst inhabitants of America. 
 The proposition was not accepted. 
 
124 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOEISriA. 
 
 These successive political revolutions wrought 
 very few social changes among the people. 
 
 1824. They were still as jealous of strangers as ever, 
 as chary of their good services outside of their 
 own circle. In the archives of the State are 
 preserved many evidences that all strangers 
 were deemed a nuisance, and those who came 
 from the United States of America as especially 
 worthy of suspicion. " These Anglo-Americans 
 will become troublesome," said a long-headed 
 governor of California, in 1805, On the 
 
 182G. 20th of December, 1826, Jedediah S. Smith, 
 straying from the East too far into the Great 
 Desert, for want of provisions and water to get 
 home with, was compelled to push forward into 
 California. It stands on the record as among the 
 many triumphs of the Smith family, that one 
 of them was the first to make the overland trip 
 from the States to California. Fortunately, 
 Jedediah found here shipmasters from Ameri- 
 can vessels who vouched for his honest inten- 
 tions and perfect harmlessness. He had 
 attempted, during the latter part of the pre- 
 ceding winter, to make his way up to the 
 Columbia River, ])ut the snow was so deep 
 on the mountains that he was obliged to return. 
 Being informed by one of the Christian Indians 
 that the father would like to know wlio he 
 was, Captain Smith wrote a letter to Father 
 Duran, who resided at San Jose, in which he 
 
A PIONEER SMITH. 125 
 
 lionestly confessed tliat lie was destitute of chap. 
 clotliing and most of the necessaries of life, ,_^^_ 
 that his horses had perished for want of food 1826. 
 and water, and that his object was to trap for 
 beaver and furs ; and in conclusion he sig;ned 
 himself " your strange but real friend and 
 Christian brother." 
 
 But it was not Jedediah Smith alone and the 
 Americans who were after tlie furs. Even the 
 Californians were awaking to the value of 
 peltry, and the government of the Territory 
 had learned to raise no little revenue from the 
 licenses to trap that it was issuing. 
 
 California was under Spanish rule fifty-five 
 years, under Mexican but twenty-four ; yet for 
 nine Spanish she had thirteen Mexican governors, 
 or rather that was the number of successive ad- 
 ministrations. The last governor under Spain 
 was the first under Mexico. The release from 
 European fetters was not a matter that quick- 
 ened the California pulse. The new masters 
 were greeted as cordially as the old bad been, 
 and no more so. The more radical change of 
 Mexico from an empire to a republic did not 
 fret the lazy Californians. Thej^ would as lief 
 be Mexican as Spanish, republican as imperial 
 — any thing to keep the peace at home. 
 
 The seeds of mischief, however, had been 
 sown before these great political changes were 
 announced. Napoleon's attempt to place his 
 
126 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, brother on the throue of Spain, and the wars 
 
 X. 
 
 that grew out of Spain^s refusal to be so de- 
 1813. graded, rolled a heavy national debt U2:>on her 
 shoulders. Staggering with the burden, she 
 stepped out of the path of her traditional 
 policy. The Cortes ordered lands which 
 hitherto the crown had always retained for 
 itself, to be sold or granted to private parties. 
 It was with the object of benefiting the pue- 
 blos, said the preamble of the law ; but that 
 was a cloak. The real object was, to provide 
 means to extinguish the great debt, and to pay 
 the soldiers in the Spanish armies. In the same 
 year, 1813, the Cortes expressed the opinion 
 that the missions ought to be secularized. 
 
 But if Spain had felt herself compelled to 
 sell the crown's own acres to raise money, and 
 hint impatience with the mission experiment, 
 how much more likely would Mexico be to sum- 
 mon all neglected resources to her aid, while 
 attempting imperial magnificence Avith prodi- 
 gality, on a soil naturally so repugnant to every 
 thing of the sort ! She did not wait long, 
 though longer than she played at empire. 
 1824. On the IStli of August, 1824, the Mexican 
 Congress enacted a general colonization act, 
 which is so liberal as to excite a wonder what 
 hidden motive suggested its wiser provisions. 
 1828. Four years later, Congress ordered the seculari- 
 zation of the missions to proceed, and adopted a 
 
A COLONIZATIOlSr SCHEME. 127 
 
 system of rules for colonizing tlie territories, chap. 
 which evince a clear desire to tole strangers in, 
 and make landholders of residents. Governors 1828. 
 were authorized to grant vacant lands in limited 
 amounts to contractors, families, or private per- 
 sons, whether Mexican or foreigners, who 
 properly petitioned for them, and engaged to 
 cultivate and inhabit them a certain portion of 
 time. The grant? must not conflict with muni- 
 cipal rights, nor were they valid to contractors 
 who encfao-ed to brinic in a number of emio-rant 
 
 CD O C) O 
 
 families, without the approval of the Supreme 
 Government, nor valid to other parties without 
 the approval of the territorial legislature. The 
 mission lands it was strictly forbidden to grant 
 until it should be determined whose property 
 they were. 
 
 Congress was nibbling at the mission prop- 
 erty, but was not quite bold enough to seize it. 
 Probably the whole colonization scheme, so far 
 as California was concerned, was but a plan to 
 make the civil outgrow the religious settle- 
 ments there, after which despoiling the latter 
 would be an easier task. The year before the 
 resfulations above named Avere enacted, the 
 Mexican government seized seventy-eight thou- 
 sand dollars of the "pious fund," which had 
 reverted to the Franciscans when the Jesuits 
 were suppressed, and which, during the later 
 Spanish regime, had produced a revenue for the 
 
128 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOUNIA. 
 
 CHAP. Missionary Association of about fifty thousand 
 
 _^_, dollars a year. 
 
 1828- From that time, Mexico never lifted her eye 
 from that pious fund. From 1828 to 1831, the 
 stipends of four hundred dollars each, for the 
 Franciscan monks, failed to be paid with any 
 regularity. In 1832, Congress farmed out the 
 property of the fund for seven years, the pro- 
 ceeds to be paid into the national treasury. In 
 1836, Congress, ashamed of that decree, placed 
 the fund at the disposal of the president of the 
 missions, to be used according to the intention 
 of its founders. In 1842, Santa Anna took it 
 out of the hands of the bishop of California 
 (Pope Gregory had erected California into a 
 bishopric in 1840), and intrusted it to the 
 chief of the army-staff, to be "administered." 
 A few months later, the final blow came : Santa 
 Anna sold the pious fund to the house of 
 Barrio, and the Kubio Brothers. To convert 
 the missions into money, to stuff that always 
 empty maw, the treasury of Mexico, was a 
 more tedious task. 
 
 The fathers foresaw, from their calm retreats, 
 the coriiing of the storm, from the time their 
 stipends failed in 1828. That had happened 
 before, however. Even under Spain, from 181,1 
 to 1818, they had been received very irregu- 
 larly, if at all. The cloud might yet blow 
 over. 
 
THE imSSIOIT PROPERTY. 120 
 
 The missions bad a little passed the meridian chap 
 of their highest prosperity in 1834. At that '_^ 
 time, according to De Mofras, the French histo- 1834. 
 rian of California, the twenty-one missions had 
 thirty thousand six hundred and fifty Indians 
 living in their communities. The horned cattle 
 numbered four hundred and twenty-four thou- 
 sand ; the horses, mules, and asses, besides the 
 wild ones that scoured the plains in troops, 
 numbered sixty-two thousand five hundred; 
 the sheep, goats, and swine, three hundred and 
 twenty-one thousand five hundred; and the 
 corn, wheat, maize, and other grains that they 
 raised, measured one hundred and twenty-two 
 thousand five hundred bushels. The richest in 
 cattle and horses, and the greatest grain pro- 
 ducer, was San Gabriel. Next to it in every 
 thing else, and ahead of it in sheep, was San 
 Luis Key, which also had the most Indians. 
 The Mission Dolores stood low on the list, with 
 its five hundred Indians shiverino; in the wind 
 and fog, five thousand horned cattle, one thou- 
 sand six hundred horses and mules, four thou- 
 sand sheep, goats, and hogs, and two thousand 
 five hundred bushels of grain. 
 
130 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOKNIA.. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE MISSIONS SECULARIZED. 
 
 The trouble tLat Mexico was preparing for 
 her, came in earnest upon California in 1830. 
 1880. It was during tlie administration of Governor 
 Echeandia, who was the third of the list under 
 Mexico. Monterey was the capital of the Ter- 
 ritory, but the pleasanter air of San Diego in- 
 duced him, for the sake of his delicate constitu- 
 tion, to reside much of the time at the more 
 southern port. He was contracted in his views, 
 despotic in the exercise of his power, and self- 
 ish in his relations with foreis-ners. Occasion- 
 ally there was an insurrection to put down, like 
 that of Soliz, which surprised the garrison of 
 Monterey in the night, and overpowered it, the 
 town surrendering without the loss of a drop 
 of blood. Soliz received the moneys in the 
 hands of the commissary, and was elected 
 president of the insurgents, whose manifesto 
 declared the intention not to interfere with 
 foreigners, nor to interrupt the commerce of the 
 country. He had under his command one hun- 
 
ATTEMPT AT SEOUL ARIZATIOI^. 131 
 
 dred well-armed men, whicli was a powerful chap. 
 
 force for the place and the times, Ijut in the ' 
 
 course of a few weeks Echeandia's party de- 1830. 
 feated them, and the ringleaders were sent to 
 San Bias. An old friar of the San Luis 
 Obispo Mission was found guilty of abetting 
 the treason, and he too was embarked on board 
 a merchant-ship, and sent out of the country. 
 
 Echeandia, probably under instructions from 
 Mexico, though others doubt that, undertook 
 to carry into effect the neglected act of the 
 Cortes of 1813, for the secularization of the mis- 
 sions, which the Mexican Congress in 1828 had 
 ordered to be enforced. The devastation of the 
 missions now commenced. The Indians were 
 encouraged in their refusal to labor ; their 
 emancipation, for which the act provided, they 
 thought meant freedom from work, and license 
 to indulge in every form of vice. 
 
 But the evil day was postponed by the ar- 
 rival of a successor to Echeandia, Manuel 
 Victoria reached Santa Barbara on the 10th of 
 January, 1831. He was a man of courage, and I83i. 
 rather headstrong. He came up unattended, 
 asking no ceremonious reception. He had 
 great faith in his own capacity to rule, and did 
 not conceal his disgust at the loose way in which 
 matters were managed. He set out to reform 
 abuses, without preparing the public for his 
 reforms, or very carefully consulting the cdh- 
 
132 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORlSriA. 
 
 CHAP stitution, from wLich he derived all his authority. 
 ^..\ He had no patience with the slow course of jus- 
 1831. tice. In those days all cases of comphiiiit, civil 
 or criminal, went before the pueblo's ayunta- 
 miento (or town council), or the alcalde, whose 
 duties were those of a mayor and judge com- 
 bined. But their decisions had to be confirmed 
 by the commander of the presidio before they 
 were binding. In a capital offence, the alcalde" 
 held a preliminary examination, and sent up 
 the accused, if found guilty, to the general for 
 trial. 
 
 Two Indians had been convicted of cattle- 
 stealing. Victoria oi'dered them to be publicly 
 shot in the presidio of Monterey, It was a 
 short cut to justice, and it put a stop to cattle- 
 stealing ; but it was unconstitutional ; it gave 
 his enemies a handle against him, and hastened 
 the outl)reak of a revolution. So soon as the 
 reins of government were in his hands, he had 
 taken measures to counteract the polic}' of liis 
 predecessors with i-egard to the missions. 
 Echeandia had retired to Monterey, and Inspec- 
 tor Pddrez, who had l^een his evil genius, to San 
 Francisco. Both busied themselves in drawing 
 together the malcontents, who foresaw their 
 fortunes in the destruction of the missions. 
 Pd,drez, working his mischief too openly, was 
 dispatched to San Bias. 
 
 Victoria had placed all confidence in Portilla, 
 
TEEACHERY — VICTORIA RETURNS. 133 
 
 tlie commander at San Dies-o, and in return chap. 
 the commander gave him timely notice that ,_^^^ 
 certain persons had met and declared for i83i. 
 Echeandia in that extreme southern port. The 
 governor, dreaming of no treachery, started out 
 with a dozen men to meet Portilla and consult 
 with him. As he travelled, he heard that the 
 rebels had marched up to Los Angeles, taken 
 possession of the town, arrested the alcalde, 
 and were pushing on northward, numbering 
 now two hundred men. Victoria pressed on 
 to meet them, his force increased to thirty 
 persons. When they confronted each other, the 
 governor called upon the rebel leader to surren- 
 der, and then for the first time discovered tliat 
 it was his trusted friend Portilla ! Instantly 
 the governor's firmest supporter was sliot dead 
 by the traitors. Then Victoria, rushing in 
 with " sacred fury," and dealing his blows on 
 every side, routed the rebels like so many sheep, 
 and marched on victorious to the mission of 
 San Gabriel, where the loss of blood compelled 
 him to halt. Portilla's vagabonds, learning 
 that the cham^^ion was badly wounded, rallied, 
 gathered about the mission, and demanded the 
 governor's surrender. Victoria, seeing his case 
 hopeless, replied that, if they would leave him 
 to himself, he would resign his command and 
 return to Mexico. 
 
 He kept his word. Friends gathered about 
 
134 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOElSriA. 
 
 CHAP, him, tendered their services, and pleaded that a 
 
 ^^ * proQiise extorted could be violated with honor ; 
 
 1832. but he adhered to the letter of his. At San 
 
 Diego he embarked for San Bias, and thence 
 
 retired to a cloister in Mexico. 
 
 The victorious party formed a new govern- 
 ment at Los Angeles, and the legislature ap- 
 pointed Don Pio Pico governor. But soon, 
 news came from the north that the new gov- 
 ernment would not there l)e recognized. Echean- 
 dia, retreating to San Juan Capistrano, gathered 
 about bim many Indians, whom his promises 
 enticed from their work at the missions, and in- 
 augurated a series of robberies and murders. 
 Other Indians at distant points, especially at 
 the south, revolted. The Indian was free, and 
 as lie staggered along the pathway where he 
 had hitherto been a willing slave, he felt that 
 his freedom entitled him to do any violence 
 that might be convenient. Anarchy ruled 
 throughout the province, and confusion covered 
 the whole country. 
 
 It was happ)^ for the distracted land that 
 Jose Figueroa was the next governor ; but 
 his voyage up from Acapulco pi-efigured 
 the unhappy state in which he was to find 
 his command. The brig in which he sailed, 
 accompanied by his officers, soldiers, and eleven 
 missionaries from the College of Zacatecas, was 
 struck with lightning, while at Mazatlan ; but 
 
GOVERNOR figueroa's aeriyal. 135 
 
 fortunately, the fire was extinguished just before chap. 
 it reached the powder. At Cape St. Lucas the ,_^_ 
 troops revolted, declaring for Santa Anna, who 1832. 
 was in arms as^ainst the rulino: Mexican faction, 
 and. compelled the captain to take his vessel 
 to San Bias. The captain returned from that 
 point to St. Lucas, took on the governor, a few 
 faithful friends, and the friars, and landed all 
 safely in California in January, 1833. Figueroa 1833, 
 had been ordered to suspend the operation of 
 the secularization act, the Supreme Govern- 
 ment, though not opposed to the policy, having 
 entirely disapproved the method of effecting it 
 that Echeandia and Pddrez had attem2)ted. 
 Figueroa published a circular, pardoning all 
 who had taken part in the revolution against 
 Victoria ; and Echeandia went down to San 
 Diego, to prepare for returning to Mexico. 
 
 About this time, owing to the growing jeal- 
 ousy of whatever reminded of Spain, the juris- 
 diction of the missions was divided. The es- 
 tablishments north of San Luis Obispo fell to 
 the management of the native Mexican friars 
 from the Franciscan College of Zacatecas, while 
 to the old Spanish Franciscan directors were 
 left the missions of the south. 
 
 The Mexican Congress had repeatedly passed 
 acts concerning secularization, and afterwards 
 annulled them again. But now PMrez, whom 
 Victoria had packed off in disgrace to San Bias, 
 
136 THE HISTOIIY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, was in favor at the capital, and tBrougli his in- 
 
 , ^_, fluence the president gaA^e his sanction to an 
 
 1834. act which Congress had passed (in 1833), or- 
 dering the secularization of the missions and 
 the colonization of both the Californias. Hijar 
 was appointed governor and director of coloni- 
 zation, while Pddrez himself was made sub- 
 director. Hijar started for his post, accom- 
 panied by a large number of colonists, to whom 
 half a dollar a day was assigned till their ar- 
 rival, with a free passage, and maintenance 
 during the voyage. In the brig Natalia he 
 arrived at San Diego on the 1st of September, 
 1834, with a part of his colonists, who were of 
 both sexes. Ptidrez, with the rest, reached 
 Monterey on the 25th. The Natalia — it was 
 the same vessel on which Napoleon had es- 
 caped from the island of Elba — reached Mon- 
 terey on the 14tli of October, was beached 
 there in a storm, and utterly wrecked. It came 
 out, during the bitter discussion that followed 
 Hijar' s arrival, that the president had author- 
 ized the api^ropriation of fourteen thousand 
 dollars, payable in tallow from the missions, for 
 the purchase of this brig, and that the colonists 
 were organized as a company, with power to 
 monopolize the commerce of the country, ma- 
 king the missions and towns their depots, while 
 all their capital was to be squeezed out of the 
 missions. 
 
A COLONY UNDER IIIJAE. 137 
 
 When tlie news was fairly bruited througli chap. 
 California, the missionaries aroused to a new ,^_^__, 
 ambition — an ambition to destroy what they had 1834. 
 been so long in building. They saw that the 
 destruction of the missions was a foregone con- 
 clusion. Orders were given, and at once 
 obeyed, for the immediate slaughter of the 
 cattle. Of thousands tbat were slain, nothing 
 but the hides was saved ; the carcasses were 
 left to enrich the plains. 
 
 Figueroa had been ordered to provide a prop- 
 er spot for the colonists, and he had selected 
 San Francisco Solano, on the north side of San 
 Francisco harbor, for the purpose. He received 
 Hijar with civility and proper demonstrations 
 of resj)ect, but showed him that his arrival had 
 been anticipated by an overland order to him- 
 self, from the secretary of state, not to deliver 
 up to him the civil command — Santa Anna hav- 
 ing displaced President Gomez Farias, and as- 
 sumed the government. Hijar, as simple direc- 
 tor of the colony, was reduced to a man of little 
 consequence, unless he could get possession of 
 the missions, of which the prospect grew dim- 
 mer daily. 
 
 But the colonists at Solano were brewing a 
 revolt. One of their number, who had been 
 chosen as a commissioner to the home Govern- 
 ment, proceeded with his friend to Los Angeles, 
 under the pretence of embarking from that 
 
138 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, i^oint for Mexico wltli dispatclies from Hijar. 
 
 ^ ■_ But they went no farther than Los Ano-eles. 
 
 1835. There, on the 7th of March, 1835, these two 
 Solano men, and some fifty others, dechired 
 FiguerOa unworthy of confidence, ap]3ointed the 
 first alcalde provisional governor of the Terri- 
 tory in civil matters, and Portilla in matters 
 military, announced the restoration of the mis- 
 sions to the fathers, declared their plans sub- 
 ject to the approbation of the Supreme Govern- 
 ment, and solemnly averred that they would 
 not lay down their arms until all these points 
 had been gained. At three o'clock, the same 
 afternoon, the revolution was ended, in Los 
 Angeles, where it began, their own agent 
 havinsr delivered over to the authorities the 
 ringleaders. But in other places, especially by 
 the colonists, it was for some time regarded as 
 an accomplished revolution. These poor fel- 
 lows were of all trades and professions, except- 
 ino; those which would have been useful to 
 them. There were artists and printers, and 
 teachers of music, but never a farmer; there 
 were goldsmiths, where there was no gold in 
 use ; blacksmiths, for a country that employed 
 very little iron ; carpenters, where adobe and 
 tiles were the principal building materials ; 
 painters, for a region where paint was in no de- 
 mand ; shoemakers and tailors, for a people who 
 shod themselves with raw-hides, and wore 
 
figueeoa's DEA^rH. 1B9 
 
 blankets instead of coats. In their disappoint- ckap. 
 meut tliey talked loudly, and sometimes trea- _^_, 
 sonably, and at last the more restless and least 1835. 
 prudent of tLem were bauished to Mexico. 
 
 The Mexican scheme of secularization was 
 not offensive to the California politicians. The 
 Territorial legislature at last came round to 
 it. Administrators of the mission property 
 were appointed. These swindled all pai-ties 
 pretty effectually, but at last turned over all 
 the missions to Governor Figueroa. The gov- 
 ernor's position was not one to be coveted. The 
 missionaries were his enemies, the Indians were 
 his enemies, the great horde of swindling spec- 
 ulators were his enemies, and all for different 
 reasons. He was harassed and perplexed, 
 sick and disheartened, and at last he died. He 
 was the best governor that California had yet 
 seen. Aiming conscientiously to perform the 
 very delicate duties imposed upon him, he suc- 
 ceeded in what he undertook, but the penalty 
 of success was his death. The " Excellent Dep 
 utation " in session at Monterey passed the most 
 extravagantly eulogistic resolutions in his honor. 
 It ordered a portrait of the deceased to be 
 painted, and a monument in his memory to be 
 erected and inscribed with the flattering title, 
 " Father of his Countiy." Figueroa was forty- 
 three yeai-s old when he died, on the 29th of 
 September, 1835. His remains were carried in 
 
140 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 criAP. an American vessel to Santa Barbara, and de- 
 posited in a vault of the mission clmrcli, min- 
 
 1835. nte-guns being fired as they were conveyed 
 from the vessel to the burial-place, and a large 
 procession following them to the grave. 
 
EEBELLION. ' 141 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 REBELLIOK-*SECESSIOK— RESTORATION.— PANICS. 
 
 After a brief interval, during^ whicli Jose chap. 
 
 . • XII 
 
 Castro acted as governor, Nicholas Gutierrez , l^ 
 
 succeeded to the command, in accordance with i830. 
 the will of Figueroa, but he held it very briefly, 
 for Mariano Chico was sent up from Mexico to 
 be governor. But Chico's tyranny soon brought 
 him into disgrace ; he was expelled from the 
 Territory, and Gutierrez once more assumed the 
 reins. Matters now went quietly enough until 
 there broke out a quarrel between Gutierrez and 
 the custom-house department, which was sup- 
 posed to have been stimulated by resident for" 
 eigners, retii'ed hunters and trappers from the 
 Columbia River and the Rocky Mountain region, 
 and by Mexican adventurers. 
 
 The administrator of the customs was An- 
 gel Ramirez, a Mexican, and formerly a friar of 
 the Zacatecas Colleg-e. Next in authority was 
 Juan Bautista Alvarado, a native Californian^ 
 who for years had been secretary of the Terri- 
 torial Deputation. He was a person of some 
 talent, was educated l)y the missionaries, popular, 
 
142 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, and acquainted with the English language. 
 ^_^__^ With this Alvarado, Governor Gutierrez quar- 
 1836. relied on a point of etiquette concerning the 
 posting of guards at the landing-places. The 
 dispute running very high, Alvarado's arrest 
 was ordered, but he escaped from the town, and 
 the warrant was not served. His asylum was 
 the cabin of Isaac Graham, of Santa Cruz, who 
 had crossed the Rocky Mountains from Tennes- 
 see and settled amono; the Santa Cruz Moun- 
 tains. Alvarado told his story to Graham, and 
 a scheme was concocted on the spot, with the 
 understanding that, if it resulted happily, the 
 independence of California from Mexico should 
 be declared. Graham raised in a few days fifty 
 riflemen, and Alvarado brought to join them 
 a hundred Californians, under Jose Castro. 
 They entered Monterey at night, having ob- 
 tained ammunition from American vessels in 
 the harbor, shut up the governor and twice 
 their own number of soldiers in the presidio, 
 and demanded a surrender. Gutierrez hesita- 
 ting, a ball was fired from a brass four-pounder 
 — the only shot that was fired during the rev- 
 olution — and it struck the roof of the presi- 
 dio.* This brought him to terms, and the Mexi- 
 cans surrendered. Castro and Alvarado took 
 possession of the town. 
 
 The people of Monterey, of California indeed, 
 were ripe for the change. They wanted the 
 
ALVAilADo's INSURRECTION. 143 
 
 Federal Constitution of 1824 restored. As chap. 
 there was no prospect of that until the next i_^'_ 
 coup d'etat, which, even at the pace of Mexican i836. 
 revolutions, might be a twelvemonth oif, the 
 proclamation which followed caused no great 
 offence, though it showed that Alvarado had 
 by unanimous consent been placed at the head 
 of the government, and Guadalupe Vallejo 
 at the head of the military ; and that the 
 Territorial Deputation had adopted resolutions 
 declaring California independent, and erecting 
 it into a free and sovereign State, whose reli- 
 gion was to be Roman Catholic without admit- 
 ting the exercise of any other, though no per- 
 son was to be molested for his religious opin- 
 ion. The southern part of the country did not 
 come in quite so heartily to this arrangement, 
 but at the north it was accepted with pleasure. 
 Gutierrez, his officers and soldiers, were expelled 
 from the country, and most of the Mexican of- 
 ficials throughout the Territory were sent home. 
 
 It was said at the time, that a flag with a 
 lone star on it was prepared for the new Repub- 
 lic, but the victorious insurgents lacked the 
 courage to use it. With characteristic dread of 
 all changes, except in the one item of govern- 
 ors, they still kept the Mexican banner float- 
 ing on all their public places. 
 
 The Mexican Government fulminated a large 
 quantity of paper proclamations at California 
 
144 . THE IIISTOIIY OF CALIFOllNIA. 
 
 CHAP, for its rebellion, and threatened terrible eliastise- 
 
 XII 
 
 ,_^_^ ments. But, there coming Lot work for the 
 1837. politicians at Mexico, California was allowed to 
 govern herself until there should be peace at 
 the capital ; and foreigners, the customs being 
 now diminished one-half, were satisiied. Alva- 
 rado sent General Castro down to Santa Bar- 
 bara, to discover and imj)rove the feeling there 
 towards the new government. As Captain 
 Graham and his fifty riflemen accompanied 
 Castro, all that part of the country was readily 
 persuaded that independence was desirable. 
 
 At Los Angeles, a little party proclaimed it- 
 self in favor of adherence to Mexico, and grate- 
 ful Mexico named as the governor to be defend- 
 ed by that party, Carlos Carillo, Alvarado's 
 uncle. Carillo declared war at once, but Alva- 
 rado soon captured his uncle and set a guard 
 over him in his house at Santa Barljara, sent 
 off his advisers as prisoners to Sonoma, and dis- 
 patched a letter of explanation to Mexico. As 
 they were still busy at the capital, the victori- 
 ous Alvarado was approved in all his acts, and 
 appointed governor; while, to make matters 
 right with the vanquished, to Carillo was given 
 the little island of Santa Bosa. In return for 
 Mexican generosity, Alvarado recognized Mexi- 
 co again as the central power, and Upper Cali- 
 fornia was divided into two districts, each repre- 
 senting a State government, with Castro as pre- 
 
ALVAEADO THROWS OFF HIS ALLIES. 145 
 
 feet of the Nortli, and Pena, a Mexican lawyer chap. 
 who had figured briskly in the revolution of v_^_ 
 independence, prefect of the South, while both 1840. 
 were subject to the jurisdiction of Alvarado at 
 Monterey. Meanwhile, the missions were by 
 all parties regarded as fair objects of plunder, 
 and the forts of the presidios were left to fall to 
 ruins. 
 
 But, as Alvarado grew easy in his seat, the 
 remembrance that he owed his elevation to 
 foreigners, began to chafe him. There were 
 subjects of his who slapped him on the shoul- 
 der, and forgot the dignity that belonged to the 
 executive. Graham, the Tennesseean, was espe- 
 cially obnoxious, for he did not mind telling . 
 the governor to his face, that, but for his aid, 
 his excellency would still be simply a clerk. 
 It was at last an absolute necessity to get the 
 Tennesseean out of the way. The nuisance was 
 intolerable, and fortune provided an early excuse 
 for abating it. Graham had challenged all the 
 country to produce a swifter horse on the race- 
 course than one that he had trained. A Yankee 
 accepted the challenge, and, to make the bargain 
 sure, the terms of the race were drawn up in 
 v^'iting. The spies of Alvarado got a passing 
 glimpse of the document, and construed it into 
 a terrible plot to overthrow all that was stable 
 in California. 
 
 Castro was sent with an armed force to ar- 
 10 
 
146 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, rest Graliam, at tlie dead of night. Other 
 
 'Y'TT 
 
 " _^ Americaus, and some Europeans, about a 
 1840, hundred in all, were seized and taken to Mon- 
 terey. Some, who were considered the most 
 dangerous, were conducted to Santa Barbara, 
 and afterwards fifteen or twenty of them were 
 embarked, in chains, to San Bias. This event, 
 which was celebrated with a mass and a gen- 
 eral thanksgiving, occurred in May, 1840. Two 
 months later, a French ship, and the American 
 man-of-war St. Loitis, entered the harbor of 
 Monterey. Now was Alvarado in a most un- 
 happy predicament. Vallejo was not present, 
 and Castro had gone to Mexico with the pris- 
 oners. Fortunately, in the very nick of time, he 
 heard, or feigned to hear, of a disturbance 
 among the Indians in the interior. He slipped 
 off at once to attend to that, nor did he return 
 till the ships of war, finding no party to get 
 an apology from, had sailed again. Then 
 every thing v/ent on in its old career of quiet 
 dilapidation until 1842. 
 
 To the consternation of Alvarado, and the 
 1812. amazement of everybody, in July of that year 
 the exiled foreigners returned to Montere}'. 
 They came in a Mexican vessel, were much im- 
 proved in personal appearance, and admirably 
 armed. In their absence they had lieen main- 
 tained by Government, and now they were sent 
 home at its expense. This extraordinary issue 
 
AEEIVAL OF MICHELTOEElSrA. 147 
 
 of their exile bad been accomplislied through chap. 
 the urgency of the British consul at Mexico, 
 who succeeded besides in getting the guard of 1842. 
 the prisoners themselves imprisoned. 
 
 Meanwhile, Vallejo, who had found Alvarado 
 impracticable, from his retirement at Sonoma 
 had begged the General Government to appoint 
 some one as political governor in his stead ; and 
 Alvarado had as earnestly solicited a new gen- 
 eral in place of Vallejo. Both were gratified. 
 In August, 1842, General Micheltorena arrived 
 suddenly at San Diego. He came emj)owered 
 to assume both civil and military command. 
 Only a moderate force attended him, but close 
 behind were enough to make all opposition 
 futile. 
 
 Micheltorena was already distinguished as a 
 soldier. He had served with Santa Anna in 
 the Texan campaign, and he brought away 
 laurels if no scars. His soldiers were veterans 
 too, veterans in crime if not in war, a hard lot 
 of convicts, who brought their wives and chil- 
 dren with them, for they were of the sort who 
 trundle their fomilies around with them — not 
 because they prize their society so much, as be- 
 cause they have no other home than the place 
 where they feed to-day. 
 
 The new governor was received with dis- 
 tinguished honors. A series of grand dinners, 
 fandangoes, and bull-fights, was arranged. 
 
148 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOETS^IA. 
 
 OHAP. Micheltorena was travelling northward like a 
 ^' prince, and being hailed like a true lord, when 
 
 1842. suddenly word reached him that put fandangoes 
 out of his head and lent wings to his feet. He 
 and his forces dashed back into Los Angeles at 
 a speed quite unbecoming the gubernatorial dig- 
 nity. The startling news tliat brought his 
 triumphal entry so suddenl}^ to an end was in- 
 telligence well calculated to excite alarm. 
 Commodore Jones, of the United States Navy, 
 had sailed into Monterey harbor with the sloop- 
 of-war Oi/ane and the frigate United States, on 
 the 19th of October, 1842, had taken posses- 
 sion of the town (Alvarado gladly surrender- 
 ing on the 20th to a foreigner rather than to a 
 Mexican), had run up the stars and stripes, and 
 proclaimed the country a portion of the Amer- 
 ican Union. The people had saluted the new 
 flag with genuine delight. A braver general 
 than Micheltorena would have been pardoned 
 a swift gait to the nearest place of safety. 
 
 Next day, Commodore Jones pulled down the 
 stars and stripes again, and handsomely apolo- 
 gized. It was all a mistake. The commodore 
 had "blundered" the seizure. He knew the 
 programme of the politicians, that Texas was to 
 be annexed, that Mexico was to go " on the 
 rampage," that the Americans were to discover 
 unparalleled outrages on the part of Mexico, 
 that finally war was to be proclaimed, and then 
 
THE SnSTxVKE OF THE AMEEICA]Sr FLAG. 149 
 
 California would be fair game for the Ameri- chap. 
 can squadron in tlie Pacific. The commodore, 
 knowing so much, misconstrued some rumors i842. 
 that he had heard, did not doubt that war was 
 declared, and so pounced upon Monterey. 
 When he saw his error and had apologized, 
 Micheltorena came up to the capital and as- 
 sumed control without opposition. That his 
 ammunition might be out of the way of the 
 Yankees in case of another such freak as that 
 of Jones, he stored it with great cai-e a,t the mis- 
 sion of P an Juan. 
 
 But Alvarado, deposed, was not idle. He 1844. 
 had harmonized again with General Vallejo; 
 and the two, aided by Castro, November, 1844, 
 captured the Mission of San Juan and the gov- 
 ernor's ammunition. Micheltorena gave the 
 rebels eight days in which to lay down their 
 arms. When that time was up, the parties met, 
 disagreed upon the terms of peace, and the Cal- 
 ifornians made ready to attack the capital. 
 Micheltorena called for help on Captain Sutter, 
 whose settlement in the Sacramento Valley had 
 become quite an important power in the State. 
 The captain consented, but before he would 
 start he made a bargain for his friends. Since 
 1841 he had enjoyed a grant of land for him- 
 self, bad erected a fort near the junction of the 
 American and the Sacramento Rivers, and, as 
 justice of the peace, ruled the region. He 
 
150 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 asked — and Miclieltorena granted tliis request — 
 tliat every petition for land on wliicli Sutter as 
 1844. justice had favorably reported should be taken 
 as granted, and that a copy of the general title 
 which the governor then conferred should be 
 regarded no less binding than a formal grant. 
 
 Sutter and a hundred men then placed them- 
 selves at the service of the governor ; but his 
 excellency marched with such deliberation, that 
 a good part of his foreign allies turned back in 
 disgust. On the 21st of February, Cnstro, 
 1S45. heading the rebels, pushed out from Los Ange- 
 les, and the hostile parties met. As Castro 
 had some fifty foreigners with him, by agree- 
 ment all the foreigners from both parties with- 
 drew, to allow the Californians and Mexicans 
 to fight out their own quarrel alone. 
 
 After a brief and bloodless engagement, that 
 was resumed next day, when, it is said, four 
 persons were killed, Mexico surrendered. The 
 California "Deputation" declared its oldest 
 minister, Pio Pico, governor. Castro was ap- 
 pointed general, and Micheltorena, his ofiicers, 
 and all of his soldiers that had not married in 
 the country, were put on board an American 
 bark and hustled off to San Bias. 
 
 In the spring of the following year, Pio Pico 
 still being governor, and Castro busy at the north 
 plotting how to oust him — the bone of contention 
 being the custom-house, which each wanted at 
 
GOVEENOK r> WUILE UNDER i'JEXICO. 
 
 151 
 
 the place of bis residence — there glided in from chap. 
 
 over the mountains at the east, a young sur- , 
 
 veyor with a little party of old mountaineers, i846. 
 whose appearance brought all Castro's schemes 
 to a halt, and put a period to the civil wars and 
 the old times in California together. 
 
 The followino; are the names of the Govern- 
 ors of California, after Mexico declared her in- 
 dependence of Spain, and until the American 
 conquest — a term which continued from 1822 
 to 1846 :— 
 
 Pablo Vicente de Sola 
 
 Nov. 
 
 1822 to 1823. 
 
 Luis Arguello 
 
 
 1823 to June 1825. 
 
 Jose Maria de Echeaiidia . 
 
 June 1825 to Jan. 1831. 
 
 Manuel Victoria . . . 
 
 Jan. 
 
 1831 to Jan. 1832. 
 
 PioPico 
 
 . Jan. 
 
 1832 to Jan. 1833. 
 
 Jose Figueroa .... 
 
 Jan. 
 
 1833 to Aug. 1835, 
 
 Jose Castro 
 
 . Aug. 
 
 1835 to Jan. 1836. 
 
 Nicholas Gutierrez, . . 
 
 Jan. 
 
 1836 to May 1836. 
 
 Mariano Chico .... 
 
 . May 
 
 1836. 
 
 Nicholas Gutierrez . . . 
 
 
 1836. 
 
 Juan B. Alvarado . . . 
 
 
 1836 to Dec. 1842. 
 
 Manuel Jtlicheltorena . . 
 
 . Dec. 
 
 1842 to Feb. 1845 
 
 PioPico 
 
 Feb. 
 
 1845 to July 1846. 
 
152 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAPTER xnr. 
 
 THE ''■NATIVE CALIFORNIA NS." 
 
 CHAP. Three times the Californians had struck for 
 ,_^_^ their independence from Mexico, and won it ; in 
 1846. 1832, Avhen they deposed Victoria, and made 
 Pio Pico governor, but in the year of anarchy 
 that followed were glad to welcome Figueroa 
 from Mexico; in 1836, when Alvarado, by the 
 aid of the Tennesseean, expelled Gutierrez, and 
 straightway forgot the independence he had 
 proclaimed, on being recognized by Mexico as 
 governor ad interim ; and in 1845, when Alva- 
 rado, Vallejo, and Castro, expelled Micheltorena, 
 and Pio Pico was again made governor. But 
 they never got much farther than to declare in- 
 dependence, to adorn the State with a new set 
 of offices, and appropriate the customs from the 
 shipping. They never fairly claimed the coun- 
 try as their own. The right to grant lands 
 they seemed to consider as solely resident in 
 the home Government, nor do we know that 
 they ever demurred to the right of Mexico, at 
 the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, to stipulate 
 
THE NATIVE CALIFOENIANS. 153 
 
 their whole territory away. Yet the leading chap. 
 men, Pico, Alvarado, Castro, were native Cali- 
 fornians. 1846. 
 
 Eleven years had wrought wonders. The 
 priestly rule was entirely overthrown. The 
 Christian Indians had either relapsed into pa- 
 ganism, or^ by intermarriages with soldiers and 
 sailors, formed the basis of a mixed race that 
 still survives. It was estimated, by Larkin, 
 that there were fifteen thousand people in Up- 
 per California in 1846, exclusive of Indians. 
 Of that number, perhaps two thousand were 
 from the United States. They had come from 
 over the mountains, had tarried from vessels 
 that stopped at the various harbors, or had 
 drifted from the Columbia River region. Trap- 
 pers retiring from their hardy pursuits had 
 taken up their residence in valleys that suited 
 their fency, far away from points of contact 
 with the Mexican settlers, and in portions of 
 the country that the missionaries had nes^lected 
 
 The people that made up the body of the 
 population were dashing and careless, fond of 
 fandangoes, always ready for a dance, making 
 the most of their religious holidays with bull- 
 fights and bear-baitings, and almost universally 
 given to gambling. Monte was their favorite 
 game, in which all classes, and men and women 
 alike, engaged. They accepted their good 
 fortune without any lively demonstrations of 
 
15-i THE niSTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, joy, and. their losses did not disturb their com- 
 ,..^^__, posure of mind. On Sunday afternoons, devo- 
 184G. tions being ended, they generally surrendered 
 themselves to some sort of gay festivity. 
 
 There were few such riders in the world. 
 Wild horses, though every one had his claim- 
 ant, scoured the plains in droves, and those that 
 were accounted tame would seem to any other 
 people quite unbroken. When a gentleman 
 set out on a journey, he took a driver and a 
 drove of horses with him. As one animal 
 wearied of the saddle, another was made to 
 bear the burden. In this way a hasty rider 
 would accomplish his hundred miles a day. If 
 a horse gave out on the road, he was turned 
 loose to find his way home at his leisure. His 
 owner's name was branded on his flank ; there 
 was little dano-er of his beina: lost ; but of his 
 being stolen there was great danger, since with 
 the Indian, relapsed into barbarism, horse steal- 
 ing was a passion. 
 
 The child, at a very early age, was taught 
 to ride at a breakneck pace, and with the use 
 of the lariat every one was dexterous. 
 
 The saddle was an elaborate piece of work- 
 manship. The stirrups were of wood, and 
 set well back ; the skirts were broad, and 
 pierced for strips of raw-hide with whicli to 
 lash fast the blankets and bao;o;ao;e of the rider. 
 It was fastened very tightly by a wide girth, 
 
EXCELLE]^T HORSEMEN. 155 
 
 witliout the aid of a buckle, and in a manner chap. 
 that made slipping or turning impossible. >_^__, 
 Over its high pommel was coiled the inevitable 1840. 
 lasso. The bridle, like the lasso, was of braided 
 rawhide. To the bit was attached a cruelly 
 long spur, running back upon the beast's 
 tongue, so that the slightest pull at the bridle 
 compelled obedience without much reference to 
 the original intentions of the brute. He soon 
 learned to take his cue from the weight of the 
 rein upon his neck, and the horseman dashed 
 along the highway, generally at full gallop, 
 with loose reins. A poor man might own a 
 dozen horses, but he was rich who was sup- 
 plied with the complete furniture for one. 
 When overtaken by night on the road, the 
 saddle was his pillow ; the blankets, unrolled 
 from the bundles that they were as they dan- 
 gled from it, were bedding and covering enough 
 in so mild a climate; and the ever-useful lasso 
 limited the range of the horse, as he fed on the 
 wild oats of the valley. 
 
 It was not until the Indians discovered how 
 delicate and savory roast horse-flesh was, that 
 the tribe of horse-thieves sprang into exist- 
 ence, but then they grew with astonishing rapid- 
 ity, till they were the terror of all the country. 
 Their chief haunts were the valleys of the San 
 Joaquin and its tributaries. Temperate writers 
 estimate that from five thousand to ten thou- 
 
156 THE inSTORY OF CALIFOR^^IA. 
 
 CHAP, sand horses were stolen and eaten in tlie twenty 
 ,____, years between 1827 and 1847. It is impossi- 
 1846. ble to conceive how frightful the nuisance was, 
 unless we bear in mind how large a proportion 
 of the male population jingled immense spurs at 
 their heels perpetually, and that, unhorsed, the 
 Californian considered himself but half a man. 
 Their houses were one story high, generally 
 l3uilt of large unburued bricks, or adobes, 
 floored with clay, and roofed with tiles. The 
 pleasures of the table were not foremost in 
 their thoughts. The supply of flour for the 
 day was ground in hand-mills each morning 
 from the grain. Tortillas — simply thin cakes 
 of meal beaten by hand and baked before 
 the fire — figured at eveiy meal. Beans were 
 a staple article of diet. Red pepper entered 
 into the composition of every cooked dish, and, 
 like onions, were cultivated in every garden. 
 The table-drink was generally water. The 
 use of milk would have implied tame cattle and 
 work, so its presence was I'are. The j)oorest 
 householder had plenty of beef in his pot. 
 The butchered animal was hung up under the 
 shade of the oak, close by the house. In the 
 clear, dry air, there was no risk of its tainting 
 before the knife had cut ofi", day by day, the 
 tenderer parts for the family, and the tougher 
 for the troops of dogs that stretched themselves 
 lazily in the sun. 
 
THEIE CATTLE. 15T 
 
 The cattle introduced by Governor PortaU chap. 
 
 • XIII 
 
 and Father Junipero had increased beyond all _^__, 
 calculation. They formed the principal wealth 1846. 
 of the missions at one time, and for leagues 
 the higher grounds were spotted with bullocks, 
 while the valleys, for acre upon acre, waved 
 with growing grain. There was food enough 
 for all. 
 
 Every year all the cattle belonging to one 
 party were gathered to a rodeo ; that is, driven 
 together and passed through a corral or pen, 
 where they were branded with the owner's 
 mark, or at least old brands inspected, and 
 other necessary operations were performed upon 
 the calves. It was always a merry occasion, 
 beautifully adapted for the display of horseman- 
 ship in capturing and controlling the Avild cat- 
 tle ; and, both because of its own charms, and 
 to prevent the branding of other folks' cattle, 
 the neighbors generally came in to share its 
 sports. Every cattle-owner of course had his 
 special brand, and his marking-iron was de- 
 posited with the alcalde of the district. 
 
 The mission gardens were hedged in with 
 willows — at the south, with rows of the gigan- 
 tic cactus. Fruit-trees were planted about the 
 missions very generally. Shade-trees in the 
 vicinity of houses were never in favor, but long 
 alamedas, or shaded walks for the convenience 
 of distant worshippers along the line of travel 
 
158 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, from the pueblos to tlie cliurclies, were pretty 
 
 ^_^_^ features of tlie landscape. 
 
 1846. Both sexes were excessively fond of dress, 
 but they found little opportunity to humor 
 their fancy in that matter. They had few of 
 the luxuries of life, however crreat their wealth 
 might be. With the extortionate impost du- 
 ties, few elegancies were imported, but for tlie 
 finery that did arrive they paid enormous 
 prices. 
 
 From Mexican ports they got rice, sugar, 
 silk, scarfs, and woollen shawls, shoes, saddles, 
 and some English and American goods. Be- 
 
 1822. fore 1822, they exported little except a few 
 hides, some tallow, a trifle of wine, and perliaps 
 some wheat. But in that year a Yankee ship 
 appeared with a cargo of notions, and she 
 proved the pioneer of a trade that made many 
 a Bostonian rich, that bewitched the Califor- 
 nians of both sexes, and put the local authori- 
 ties in excellent humor, for they taxed customs 
 generously, and seldom or never sent a shilling 
 of what was collected to the Mexican Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 These Boston traders kept one or two ves- 
 sels on the coast, which took out a coasting 
 license and sailed from port to port between 
 San Diego, where the hide-houses were, and 
 San Francisco, near whicli were the most 
 northern missions. They took in any thing 
 
STEANGEES DROPPING IN". 159 
 
 tliat was for sale, but chiefly hides and tallow, chap. 
 and paid for them, from the well-appointed ._,.^^_i, 
 " store " on board, where the more tempting issc. 
 goods were displayed in show-cases. Hats, 
 hoes, shoes, shovels, calico, crockery, ribbons, 
 hardware, groceries, furniture — every thing, in 
 short, that a Californian coveted, or which his 
 taste could be educated to covet — was for sale 
 on board. Two or three times a year the ships 
 dropped down to San Diego and stored their 
 hides. Finally, one of them would be quite 
 loaded and dispatched for Boston, the other 
 continuing the collection until a new ship with 
 fresh supplies of "notions" arrived, to keep her 
 company in coasting imtil her own time came to 
 be left alone. It was in one of these hide-ships 
 that Richard H. Dana sj)ent his two years he- 
 fore the masty of which he wrote so readable 
 and still popular an account. 
 
 The administration of justice was a very simple 
 matter. They had no written statutes. Equity 
 was the law which the magistrates were expect- 
 ed, if honest, to enforce. All minor offences and 
 actions, involving less than one hundred dol- 
 lars, were examined and determined by the 
 alcalde. If the offence were great or the pen- 
 alty capital, he made a preliminary examination, 
 and sent the convicted party to the first judge 
 of the district. If an action involved more than 
 one hundred dollars it was tried by the first 
 
160 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, judge, and carried on appeal to tlie prefect or 
 governor. Either party miglit demand a jury, 
 1840. whicli generally consisted of three or five per- 
 sons. When honest men were on the bench, 
 they came to the substance of the thing in dis- 
 pute with great promptness, and the law had 
 no delay. When rogues held the balances, they 
 suited themselves without much interference, 
 and Justice was dumb as well as l)lind ; for it 
 was a trait of California character that when an 
 appeal had been taken to the law, its decisions 
 were borne with patience and in quietness. 
 
 The New England whale-ships, famous al- 
 ways for spying out good harbors in queer 
 out-of-the-way places, were early accustomed to 
 look in at San Francisco and Monterey ; and 
 not a few fine farms in the country were in 
 the hands of whalers, who had given up their 
 "lay" on board, stopped ashore, taken wives 
 at least half Indian, neglected to learn the 
 Spanish language, and brought up their large 
 families on frijoles and tortillas in adobe 
 houses. 
 
 After 1840, immigrants from over the plains 
 had begun to settle in the Sacramento Valley, 
 getting grants for the asking from the Govern- 
 ment, or taking, by consent, a slice out of some 
 early settler's broad claim. All these brought 
 mth them the impression — and most of the 
 Englishmen in California assumed the same — 
 
STRANGERS DROPPITSTG IN. 161 
 
 that in a few years the region would all be chap 
 under the flag of the American Union. 
 
 They did not,, like the Puritans, however, i846. 
 plant first a church, and then a school-house. 
 The church they quite forgot; and the only 
 schools, outside of the decaying missions, were 
 poor apologies for them, and scarcely worth 
 the name, where it was not pretended to teach 
 much beyond reading and writing. Nor were 
 those accomplishments of much account with 
 the natives, or greatly practised by the immi- 
 grants. 
 
 11 
 
162 THE HISTORY OF CALLFOKNIA. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 FREMONT AND THE BEAR-PARTY REVOLUTION. 
 
 CHAP. We left Castro diverted from all his schemes 
 ^^ ■ against the government of Pico, which he had 
 184(3. helped to establish, by the apparition of John 
 Murcii. (3|j.^i4eg Fremont from over the plains. This 
 young pathfinder, then a brevet captain in the 
 corps of United States Topographical Engineers, 
 had been dispatched, in the spring of 1845, on 
 a third tour of exploration across the continent, 
 and especially charged to discover a better route 
 fi'om the western base of the Rocky Mountains 
 to the mouth of the Columbia Kiver. He ar- 
 rived on the frontier of California early in 
 March, 1846, prudently halted his company, 
 then consisting of sixty-two men, some hundred 
 miles away from Monterey, and proceeded alone 
 to General Castro's head-quarters. His errand 
 was, to obtain permission to take his company 
 to the valley of the San Joaquin, where there 
 was game for his men, grass for his horses, and 
 no inhabitants to be molested by his presence. 
 
FEEMONT AND HIS EXPL0EER8. 163 
 
 Castro received Lim with courtesy, and told chap. 
 liim to go wherever he pleased — the whole 
 country was free to him. Fremont suggested i846. 
 that it would be pleasant to have the permis- 
 sion put in writing, but Castro was quite too 
 "sick" for the effort; so he gave "the word of 
 a Mexican soldier, which was his bond." Fre- 
 mont returned to his men, who at once broke 
 up camp to remove to the San Joaquin Valley. 
 
 Castro, upon reflection, seems to have felt 
 that now was the coveted opportunity to distin- 
 guish himself with the Government of Mexico, 
 which, smarting under the recent loss of Texas, 
 could have no excess of aifection for the Ameri- 
 cans. He was speedily in his saddle, and spur- 
 ring about the country, arousing the Californians 
 to ex]3el the strangers. His work sped bravely; 
 in a few days he had raised a company of three 
 hundred men. He now sent word to Fremont 
 to quit the country at once, adding also a threat 
 that if the orders were not complied with, he 
 would attack his company, and devote every 
 man among them to destruction. For his sud- 
 den change of demeanor he had the decency to 
 plead fresh instructions from Mexico. 
 
 Fremont was not entirely unprepared for the 
 general's treachery, having been posted from 
 Consul Larkin, of Monterey, as to the value of 
 " the Mexican soldier's word." He sent back 
 an oral message that he would hold no corre- 
 
164 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 (TiAP. spondence witli a may who had so shamefully 
 J_^_^ broken his faith, and that he should go when 
 1846. he was ready. He then took his position on 
 the " Hawk's Peak," a height overlooking Mon- 
 terey from a distance of some thirty miles, in- 
 trenched it, and raised the American flag. 
 
 His men were exhausted with their long 
 tramp through the deserts and over the moun- 
 tains. They needed repose and refreshment; 
 but if these wei'e not to be had, they were 
 quite ready to defend themselves to the last. 
 Secretary Marcy, in his report to the President, 
 was careful to insist that there was not in the 
 comj^any an officer or soldier of the United 
 States Army. They were scientific explorers, 
 rough, hardy pathfinders — reliable in any emer- 
 gency — true as steel. Six of the number were 
 Delaware Indians — the leader's body-guard. 
 Kit Carson was there, and others worthy to 
 keep his company. Each was armed with a 
 knife, a tomahawk, two pistols, and a rifle — not 
 a very desirable company to attack, and evi- 
 dently one not to be frightened out of its self- 
 possession. 
 
 Castro manoeuvred his dashing cavalry for 
 three days in full sight. He displayed a fair 
 show of infantry, too, and, through their 
 glasses, the Americans saw a body of artillery 
 getting field-pieces in place. He issued re- 
 peated bulletins about the " foreign vaga- 
 
INHOSPITABLE EECEPTIOlSr OF FREMONT. 165 
 
 bonds," and several times inspired his cavalry chap. 
 to charge : they charged gallantly, but always ^_^_, 
 wheeled before coming within bullet-reach, ap- 1846. 
 parently concluding that, for every rifle before 
 them, there would be an empty saddle in their 
 ranks ; and native Californians wisely held that 
 it were a foolish thing for such good riders to 
 be permanently unhorsed. Then Castro him- 
 self must have considered that an actual attack 
 would array against him all the foreign settlers 
 of the valley. If numbers and fierce demon- 
 strations would send the adventurers flying out 
 of the countiy, his purpose would be gained. 
 If not, he could afford to keep on manoeuvring 
 and writing proclamations. Perhaps the little 
 band would be foolhardy enough to make an 
 assault upon their persecutors ; in that case he 
 could run. So really there was nothing to be 
 lost by Fabianism. 
 
 It was dull sport to Fremont, however. He 
 had been charged on leaving home to provoke 
 no hostilities with the Mexicans, and he was 
 impatient at this detention from his legitimate 
 work. So on the fourth day, seeing no in- 
 creased i^rospect of an attack, his party broke 
 up their camp and leisui'ely moved oft' north- 
 ward, toward Oregon. Castro, delighted with 
 so easy an 0])portunity to herald a victory, was 
 careful not to follow. 
 
 Fremont had passed the Oregon border, and 
 
166 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, by the 9tli of May was on tlie northern shore 
 '^^' of the Greater Klamath Lake. Here word was 
 184(!. brought him that an officer of the United States 
 May. ^ri-Qj with dispatches was on his trail. In- 
 stantly, with nine men, he turned back upon 
 his track to find the unknown messenger, and 
 fortunately came upon him the next evening. 
 The stranger was Lieutenant Gillespie, of the 
 Army, who had left Washington the Novem- 
 ber previous, had crossed the continent from 
 Vera Cruz to Mazatlan, arrived at Monterey in 
 a United States sloop-of war, and thence has- 
 tened up the Sacramento Valley to overtake the 
 explorers. If the Mexicans had arrested and 
 searched him, as the threatening relations of 
 the two republics made not unlikely, they 
 would have found no suspicious papers upon 
 his person. All that he bore was a letter from 
 the Secretary of State, commending the bearer 
 to Fremont's good offices, and some private let- 
 ters from the captain's distant femily. There was 
 not a word of politics in them, or of war with 
 Mexico, or of the future of California; but 
 there were some expressions in a letter from 
 Colonel Benton that the old senator's son-in- 
 laAV studied with extraordinary diligence. No 
 doubt the oral conununications of, Gillespie 
 helped to draw from them a deeper significance 
 than the words conveyed on the fii'st reading. 
 
Fremont's camp attacked. 167 
 
 At an}" rate a new resolution was taken before chap. 
 the last of the party had retired for the night. 
 
 After the excitement of the day, for in the 1846. 
 life of such Wanderers there is no such excite- ^^' 
 ment as news from home, the usual vigilance 
 was relaxed, and all slept soundly until awaked 
 by a cry fi'om Kit Carson. The Indians had 
 broken into their camp ; Lajeunesse, one of Fre- 
 mont's most devoted adherents, was uttering 
 his death-groan ; and three of his trusty Dela. 
 wares were killed before the assassins could be 
 driven back and disjDersed. 
 
 Whether Castro really had tampered with 
 the natives, as was then thought, or whether, 
 as was suspected afterwards, the hot fi*iendsof 
 a scheme on foot to give to England the protec- 
 torate of California, had stimulated the savages 
 to violence, is not known; but the resolution 
 of the night before was now irrevocable. Fre- 
 mont determined to become the pursuer rather 
 than the pursued, to turn upon the faithless 
 foe, and revolutionize the Government. 
 
 This would have been a hazardous course for 
 the reputation at home of one sent out on a 
 scientific errand, unless, either in his secret in- 
 structions before starting, or in the advices con- 
 veyed by Lieutenant Gillespie, he was assured 
 that a successful indiscretion of the sort would 
 be acceptable to his Government. As to the 
 precise plan that he adopted, there is no doubt 
 
■NT., 
 
 168 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOKNIA. 
 
 CHAP, that he consulted his own judgment alone. But 
 ■ there is abundant circumstantial evidence that 
 
 1846. he was given to understand that any defensible 
 method of gaining California to the Union 
 would be acceptable. President Polk's Admin- 
 istration had taken the position that the north- 
 ern Oregon boundary was some nine degrees 
 higher than Great Britain conceded. " Fifty- 
 four forty, or fight," was a party watchword for 
 a while ; yet when the issue was pressed, the 
 forty-ninth parallel of latitude was accepted as 
 the boundary, and the fighting was deemed 
 unwise. It would atone for this ungracious is- 
 sue, if by an aj)j)arent accident, or at least with- 
 out any interposition of our Government, the 
 whole of California should tender itself as the 
 next subject of annexation to the growing Re- 
 pul)lic, whose manifest destiny, as every stump 
 speaker and bar-room politician now clearly 
 saw, required the absorption of all that was 
 southward down to the tropic of Cancer. 
 
 A hint was enousfh for one so ambitious as 
 Fremont, and if he was not instructed, he cer- 
 tainly was most fortunate in his instincts. A 
 different issue to the revolution he inaugurated 
 might have overwhelmed him with reproach. 
 As it resulted, he had the perfect and flattering 
 indorsement of the Secretary of State. The 
 South was delighted with the new area for 
 slavery that the conquest opened, and the North, 
 
FREMONT ATTEMPTS A EEVOLUTION. 169 
 
 admiring tLe gallantry of the conqueror, lay all chap 
 the blame of "plotting to rob Mexico" on the 
 shoulders of the Administration, whose instruc- 1846. 
 tions they contended that he obeyed. ^^' 
 
 But the country was not conquered yet. 
 There was a deal of proclaiming, manoeuvring, 
 marching, and even some fighting to do before 
 the finest country in the world would drop from 
 the impotent hand of " the sick man, Mexico," 
 into the palm of the United American States. 
 
 Fremont returned with his party to the Val- 
 ley of the Sacramento, and encamped at the 
 Buttes, near the mouth of the Feather River. 
 He found the scattered settlers in a state of 
 high alarm. They had put the worst interpre- 
 tations upon Castro's proclamations, and did 
 not doubt that the time had come when they 
 must either be driven out, or defy the authori- 
 ties of the land and overawe them. 
 
 While the excitement was at its height, an 
 Indian from below told the story that he had 
 seen between two and three hundred armed 
 men advancing up the valley. This alarming 
 tidings was spread to the remotest settlements 
 as fast as the swiftest riders could carry it, and 
 instinctively the settlers rallied to the camp of 
 Fremont. There the foundation of the story 
 that aroused them was soon learned. Castro 
 had ordered Lieutenant De Arce, commandant 
 of the garrison at Sonoma, to remove a large 
 
170 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, number of Government horses from the Mission 
 ._^_, of San Rafael, on the north side of San Fran- 
 1846. CISCO Bay, to Santa Clai'a, at its southern ex- 
 tremity. To accomplish this, De Arce, with a 
 guard of fourteen men, ascended the Sacramento 
 Valley to New Helvetia, the nearest point 
 wliere the horses could safely swim the river. 
 The Indian had seen the horses and the guard, 
 and he presumed the rest. But the bearer of 
 the true version added that he had conversed 
 with De Arce, who told him that Castro wanted 
 the horses to mount a battalion of two hundred 
 men and expel the settlers. It was deemed 
 wise to frustrate this attempt without waiting 
 for any 2^01'tion of it to be accomplished. 
 Twelve volunteers, under command of Mr. 
 Merritt, the eldest of their number, were dis- 
 patched to overtake De Arce, On the lltli of 
 June. June they surprised the object of their pursuit, 
 gave to each of the guard a liorse to ride home 
 with, and charged De Arce to report to Castro 
 that if he wished the rest of the drove he must 
 come and take them. Merritt's party then 
 marched on to Sonoma, and at daybreak of the 
 15th entered and captured that military post, 
 of which the honest spoils — they took no other 
 — were nine brass cannon and two hundred and 
 fifty stands of arms. They also made prisoners 
 General Vallejo and tv/o other persons of con- 
 sideration in the province, and sent them ofi 
 
THE BEAR PARTY. 171 
 
 under an escort for safe keeping to Sutter's Fort chap. 
 at New Helvetia. -l-v~ 
 
 Eio-liteen men, under William B. Ide (a na- i84fi. 
 tive of New England, and then but one year ^"®' 
 resident in the country), were left in Sonoma 
 as a garrison, but, as tlie news spread, the force 
 was soon increased to forty. 
 
 Castro heard of these presumptuous doings, 
 and on the iTtli fulminated a proclamation from 
 his head-quarters at Santa Clara. He called 
 upon his fellow-citizens, in the name of their 
 religion, liberty, and independence, to rise irre- 
 sistibly for retribution upon the contemptible 
 and daring invaders. 
 
 On the following day, Mr. Ide, the garrison 
 consenting, issued his proclamation — crude in 
 its style, and in its allegations quite unsup- 
 ported by facts, yet commend ably explicit and 
 direct — to all persons in the district of Sonoma, 
 requesting them to remain at peace and follow 
 their rightful occupations, without fear of mo- 
 lestation. The insurgents, so the proclamation 
 declared, had been invited to the country under 
 promise of lands to settle on, and a republican 
 government. But these promises (who made 
 them does not ap23ear) were violated. They 
 were denied the privilege of either buying or 
 renting lands. Instead of a republic they were 
 treated to a military despotism, and were 
 threatened with extermination. They had 
 
172 THE mSTOKY OF CALITORISXA.. 
 
 CHAP, risen for self-protection, and tlie overthrow of 
 
 XIV 
 
 _^_, a government tliat had seized the property of 
 1846. the missions for its individual ao-ofrandizement 
 ' ""^" and " had ruined and shamefully oppressed the 
 laboring people." To assist in establishing and 
 perpetuating a republican government, all peace- 
 able and good citizens of California were in- 
 vited to repair to the camp at Sonoma without 
 dela}^ 
 
 Ide's proclamation, if not couched in more su- 
 perb language than Castro's, drew l^etter, and his 
 camp soon had men enough to spare a party to 
 go out and break up a gang of desperadoes, 
 under one Pad ilia, who had l^rutally tortured 
 to death two young men captured on their way 
 to Bodega. Lieutenant Ford commanded this 
 expedition, which mustered twenty-one men. 
 He came upon the enemy between Santa Rosa 
 and San Rafael, and found them far stronger 
 than he had anticipated, they having been re-en- 
 forced by Captain Te la Torre, and numbering 
 now eighty-six persons. Ford engaged them, 
 killed eight, wounded two, set the rest into pre- 
 cipitate retreat, and, without loss to his own 
 party, returned to Sonoma. 
 
 The party at Sonoma seems to have declared 
 an independent State, and some say that Ide 
 was elected governor. Of course a flag was 
 needed, and with such rude appliances as were 
 at hand they produced one whose like had not 
 
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 173 
 
 been seen before. On a sheet of cotton clotb, chap. 
 
 XIV 
 
 with a blacking brush and a pot of beriy juice, v__.^ 
 a tolerable likeness of a giizzly bear was painted. 1846. 
 This was the " bear flag," and the party that 
 raised it has gone into history as the Bear-Flag 
 party. The rude flag is still preserved as a 
 choice relic by the California Society of Pioneers, 
 and on notable occasions it has been borne in 
 procession by the society. 
 
 Meanwhile, Fremont was busy among the 
 settlers organizing a battalion. It was on the 
 23d of June that he heard at Sutter's Fort that 
 Castro was crossing the bay with two hundred 
 soldiers to fall upon Ide's garrison. Thirty-six 
 hours later he and his ninety riflemen had put 
 eighty miles behind them, and were at Sonoma, 
 but the only enemy noith of the Bay of San 
 Francisco was De la Torre's retreating force. 
 No pains w^ere spared to prevent their escape 
 from the peninsula. Once Fremont's scouts 
 fell in with the fugitives, killed or wounded 
 five, and captured nine pieces of artillery. But 
 the main body, coming to Saucelito, had the 
 good fortune to find a boat just arrived. This 
 they seized, and so made good their escape across 
 the bay — notable as the last Mexicans that 
 were on the soil north of the bay, claiming it 
 for any other Government than the American. 
 
 Fremont dispatched a party of ten, under K. 
 Semple, to cross to San Francisco, to take piis- 
 
iT'i THE IIISTOEY OF CALIFOllNIA. 
 
 OHAP. oner the captain of tlie port, R. T. Ridley, and 
 _^_ convey Mm to Captain Sutter's residence and 
 1846. fort, wliicli was to serve as a prison. The task 
 was successfully performed. Fremont himself, ac- 
 companied by Kit Carson, Lieutenant Gillespie, 
 and half a score of others, crossed in a launch 
 to the old fort near the presidio, spiked its ten 
 guns, and returned to Sonoma. There, on the 
 July. 5th of July, 1846, he called the whole force 
 together, and recommended an immediate decla- 
 ration of independence. All present united to 
 make such a declaration, and with the same 
 unanimity intrusted to Fremont the direction 
 of affairs. Thus the bear party was absorbed 
 into the battalion, whose roll-call now showed 
 one hundred and sixty mounted riflemen. 
 
 Next day the pursuit of Castro began. He 
 was imderstood to be intrenched in Santa 
 Clara with four hundred men. To get there 
 it was necessary to ascend the Sacrameiito and 
 cross at Sutter's Fort. The battalion effected 
 the crossing only to learn that Castro was re- 
 treating towards Los Angeles. To Los Ange- 
 les then they must follow him, four or five hun- 
 dred miles distant though it was. As they were 
 just about to move forward, news came that the 
 flag of the United States had been raised by 
 the American naval force at Monterey, and 
 that the American fleet would co-operate in 
 the effort to capture Castro. Down came the 
 
DECLAEATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 175 
 
 flag of independence, up went tlie stars and chap, 
 
 stripes, and, rejoicing that they had the law as v— ..^L 
 
 well as right on their side, on the}^ dashed south- 1846. 
 ward. Leaving Captain Fremont on the gal- 
 lop, we turn now to the operations on the 
 coast. 
 
176 THE HISTOEY OF CALLFOENIA. 
 
 CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 TEE AMERICAN CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP. ^^ the 2d of July, 1846, Commodore Sloat 
 -^^- arrived, in the United States frigate Savannah, 
 184(3 at Monterey. In the instructions that Secretary 
 •^"''"- Bancroft had given him, he was charged to be 
 careful to observe the relations of peace, unless 
 they were violated by Mexico ; in that case, he 
 was, without further notice, to employ his fleet 
 — all told, it numbered one frigate and five 
 smaller vessels — for hostile purposes. Before 
 he left Mazatlan he had heard of movements 
 that could scarcely fixil of precipitating the two 
 republics into war. The annexation of Texas 
 had been several months accom})lished ; Mexico 
 was boiling with indignation in view of it, and 
 every movement of the American Administra- 
 tion seemed to be hastening the inevitable col- 
 lision. All this Commodore Sloat knew; but 
 he could not know that President Polk's am- 
 bassador, Slidell, had visited Mexico, tendered 
 his offer of money for a peaceable boundary on 
 the Rio Grande and the cession of California, 
 
■ COMMODORE SLOAT ON THE COAST. 177 
 
 and that the bribe had been spurned ; nor that chap. 
 General Zachary Taylor, in obedience to orders, _1^^_ 
 had taken his j)Ost at the mouth of the Rio I8-16. 
 Grande; nor that, on the 11th of the previous 
 May, Mr. Polk had announced to Congress, in 
 special session, that the blood of our own citi- 
 zens had been shed on our own soil ; nor that 
 Congress had promptly responded that war 
 existed by the act of Mexico, and voted men 
 and money accordingly. 
 
 Sloat hesitated what to do. Instructions 
 from Secretary Bancroft were then on the way 
 to him (dated May 15, 1846), charging him to 
 take Mazatlan, Monterey, and San Francisco — 
 either or all, as his force would j)ermit ; taking 
 them, to hold them at all hazards, encouraging 
 the people to self-government and neutrality; 
 but of all things, when peace should come again, 
 to be sure that the country were found in pos- 
 session of the United States. Sloat knew well 
 enough that the conquest of California had 
 been predetermined at Washington. But, sup- 
 pose the war, by some accident, averted, it 
 would be an awkward lilunder if, by any act 
 of his, the plans of the Administration should 
 be revealed to the op23osition, who were charg- 
 ing, with great effect, at the Northeast, that the 
 President was bent on waging a war of con- 
 quest and for the acquisition of territory, in 
 12 
 
178 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOr.lSTLA. 
 
 ciiAP. contravention of the spirit of American institu- 
 _^ ■ tions, and in violation of tlie popular wishes. 
 184G. Fremont says that Sloat heard of the doings 
 at Sonoma, and of what he had done, and the 
 news determined hira. Doubtless it hastened 
 his determination. But there was another ur- 
 gent reason for speed. In the harbor of San 
 Bias lay Rear-Admiral Sir George Seymour's 
 flag-ship, the Oollingwood, while the Savannah 
 was at Mazatlan, and ei2;ht other British naval 
 vessels were on the coast, watching every Amer- 
 ican movement. It was clear that Euo'land 
 suspected the American designs, and counter- 
 plotted to make the Californias her own. When 
 the Savannah sailed out of Mazatlan, the Col- 
 lingwood sailed from San Bias. Both ships 
 spread every sail, and raced all the way to 
 Monterey. The Savannah was the better sailer 
 of the two, and her commander had time to 
 hear the news, weigh it well, and deliberately 
 choose his course, before the duller craft round- 
 ed the Point of Pines. 
 
 Here, at Monterey, he learned how sped the 
 project for which Mr. Forbes, the British vice- 
 consul, had labored so faithfully, to put Califor- 
 nia under British protection, where she would 
 lie as an ample security or equivalent for the 
 debt due in Mexico to British sul)jects. 
 
 Mr. Forbes, in April, had had an interview 
 with Governor Pico and Generals Castro and 
 
BRITISH PLOTS. 179 
 
 Vallejo, wten tlie scheme was partially dis- chap, 
 cussed. It contemplated a fresh declaration of J.^,^ 
 the independence of California, and an appeal to 1846. 
 Great Britain for protection. A British naval 
 force was to be convenient to respond to the 
 call. Mexico would be easily appeased, for 
 California was but a troublesome province, and 
 her enemy, the United States, would thus be 
 cheated out of the principal prize that made 
 war acceptable to her. Of all this, which was 
 concealed from the American people in Califor- 
 nia, intimations had reached our Government, 
 throiio^h the watchfulness of its consul at Mon- 
 terey, Thomas O. Larkin. From him Commo- 
 dore Sloat probably learned that part of the 
 scheme was to plant a colony of Irishmen in 
 the Valley of San Joaquin, and that Macnamara, 
 an Irish Catholic priest, had petitioned the 
 Mexican Government for large grants of lands 
 around the bays of San Francisco and Monterey, 
 at Santa Barbara, and along the San Joaquin. 
 Tempted by the doulde object of spreading 
 their religion and by possession excluding the 
 Americans, Mexico readily granted, not all that 
 Macnamara asked, but three thousand square 
 leagues in the San Joaquin Valley, which was 
 enough for his purpose. To be perfected, the 
 patent only needed the sigDature of Governor 
 Pico. 
 
 Upon information of these British plots, Mr. 
 
180 THE inSTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Marcy, Secretary of War, had giv^n oral instruc- 
 tions, tlirougli Lieutenant Gillespie, to Fremont, 
 
 184G. tliat made liim nothing loth to postpone his 
 scientific explorations when Castro blocked his 
 way, and turn back, as we have seen, from the 
 frontier of Oreo;on, to assist the menaced Ameri- 
 can settlers in the Sacramento Valley. George 
 Bancroft, Secretary of the Navy, in possession of 
 the same facts, had charged the commander of the 
 Pacific Squadron not to wait for o'fficial informa- 
 tion of the declaration of war, but at the first 
 news of it to go in and possess California. 
 In view of all these facts, Commodore Sloat, 
 
 July 7. on the 7th of July, sent Captain Mervine and 
 two hundred and fifty marines and seamen on 
 shore to hoist the American flag over Monte- 
 rey. As the stars and stripes were run up, the 
 troops and the people cheered, and all the ship- 
 ping in the harbor saluted it with a display of 
 flags and twenty-one guns, A proclamation was 
 then read, of which copies in Spanish and Eng- 
 lish were posted about the town. 
 
 This proclamation declared California hence- 
 forth a portion of the United States. The civil 
 and religious rights of such of its inhal)itants as 
 ohose to remain citizens would be respected and 
 secured. Those who declined the high privi- 
 leges of United States citizenship might remain, 
 so long as they preserved a strict neutralit}^ ; or 
 they might go, if they chose, after ample time 
 
THE BEAE PARTY RAISES THE AMEEICAIS" FLAG. 1 81 
 
 had been afforded them to dispose of their pro- chap. 
 
 perty. The titles to real estate, the administra- , 
 
 tion of justice, the property of the clergy, were 1846, 
 to remain just as they were found, and no pri- " ^' 
 vate property was to be taken for the use of 
 the ships or soldiers, without just compensation. 
 
 The day preceding this notable event. Com- 
 modore Sloat had dispatched a messenger to 
 San Francisco, requesting Commander Mont- 
 gomery, of the United States sloop-of-war Ports- 
 moiith, to raise the flag, if he had force enough 
 to warrant it. On the 8th, Montgomery lauded 
 with seventy sailors and marines, took posses- 
 sion of Yerba Buena, and hoisted the Union 
 standard on the plaza. 
 
 On the 10th, Montgomery sent an American 
 flag to Sonoma. The revolutionists received it 
 with joy, and, pulling down the bear flag, 
 raised it over the garrison. Sloat had ordered 
 Purser Fauntleroy to organize into a company 
 of dragoons all volunteers from the shipping 
 and the shore, for the purpose of keeping the 
 roads open from port to port in the vicinity. 
 On the 17th this corps left Monterey for the 
 San Juan Mission, thirty miles to the eastward. 
 
 Now when Micheltorena had recovered from 
 his fright at the premature seizure of Monterey 
 by Commodore Jones in 1842, he concealed all 
 his spare guns and ammunition at San Juan, 
 lest more Yankees should blunder an invasion 
 
182 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, and find tb em. When, in 1844, Vail ejo, Castro, 
 ^ ' and Alvarado declared the independence of 
 184(). California, first of all they made sure of San 
 •^"^^^ Juan. But as they brought their revolution to 
 a successful issue without the explosion of 
 much gunpowder, their concealed treasure ap- 
 pears not to have been disturbed. To secure 
 these hidden arms was Purser Fauntleroy's 
 errand. He made good time on his excursion, 
 and was soon at San Juan, but the treasure 
 was claimed by another part}^ An hour before 
 his arrival, Fremont and his battalion, riding 
 down from Sutter's, had dashed into the mis- 
 sion, taken possession without one movement 
 of opposition, and dragged to liglit nine pieces 
 of cannon, two hundred old muskets, twenty 
 kegs of powder, and sixty thousand pounds 
 of cannon shot. 
 / Tlie purser had conveyed from Sloat a re- 
 quest to Fremont that he would report himself 
 So next day l^oth parties marched into Monte- 
 rey, and Fremont and Gillesi)ie early presented 
 themselves on board the SavminaJi. The com- 
 modore was not in the best of humor, for he 
 had taken a responsil)ility. He had a misgiving 
 that he had been re-enactinof Jones's blunder of 
 1842. He had been sixteen days in port ; why 
 had not Fremont reported to him at once? 
 Fremont had known of his raising the flag six 
 days before: why had he not conferred with him 
 
FEEMOTiTT AISTD SLOAT. 183 
 
 at the earliest possible moment? "I want to chap. 
 know," said he, " by what authority you are act- _.__, 
 ing. Mr. Gillespie has told me nothing. He i846. 
 came to Mazatlau, and I sent him to Monterey ; " ^' 
 but I know nothing. I want to know by what 
 authority you are acting." 
 
 The answer that he got was not of a nature 
 to compose the commodore's spirits. Fremont 
 said he was acting on his own authority. " And 
 I have acted," said the commodore, " upon the 
 faith of your operations in the north. I would 
 rather suffer from doing too much than too little." 
 And the worthy commodore suffered sadly at 
 the moment, suspecting that he had done a good 
 deal too much. If he had known the nature 
 of a dispatch that would be on the Vv^ay to him 
 in less than a month, from Secretary Bancroft — 
 a dispatch recalling him because he had not 
 aoted long before — he would have felt relieved. 
 
 Fremont might have taken the commodore 
 to the quarter-deck and pointed to the Colling' 
 vjoodj which arrived but the day before. He 
 might have recalled to his attention the fact 
 that Great Britain had never befoi'e so large a 
 squadron in the Pacific as now; that Macna- 
 mara, the priest, had resided at Mexico, in the 
 house of a British official, and had been taken 
 by the British sloop-of war Juno up to Santa 
 Barbara in June ; that the scheme for the Brit- 
 ioh occupation of the country was well con- 
 
184 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, cocted, and about ripe; and tliat America's 
 chance would have slipped irrevocably, if some- 
 1840. body had not taken the responsibility before 
 Admiral Seymour arrived. 
 
 It is doubtful if the argument would have 
 comforted the commodore much. It might 
 have accounted for the ambitious young cap- 
 tain's zeal, but there was a mystery still that 
 annoyed him. Tlie captain was a topographi- 
 cal engineer, not an army officer, and Gillespie 
 1 )ut a lieutenant of marines. Yet the lieutenant 
 of marines had been sent past him, at Mazatlan, 
 without a message for his eye, to whisper an 
 oral message to the young engineer, and all the 
 while, he, Sloat, a faithful officer of the navy, 
 long in service, commander of the squadron, left 
 to take his cue from a younger man ! The 
 commodore was sick, disgusted, and fully re- 
 solved to return homeward as soon as he could 
 be relieved. 
 
 But there was the battalion of one hundred 
 and sixty men, panting for the work of crush- 
 ing Castro and finisliing the job that had been 
 taken in hand. Would the commodore ac- 
 cept their services? By no means. He had 
 no service for them. He intended to tarry in 
 Monterey ; there was no war of his making to 
 be prosecuted. 
 
 ' On the 15th of July, Commodore Stockton 
 arrived at Monterey, in the United States 
 
STOCKTOiq^'s AEEIVAL. 185 
 
 frigate Congress. He had left Norfolk, Vir- en a p. 
 ginia, niDe montlis before, with sealed orders, 
 which were to be opened only after passing i840. 
 Hatteras. The orders directed him to repair "-^' 
 first to the Sandwich Islands, and thence to 
 Monterey and deliver dispatches to Consul 
 Larkin, and then to report to his superior offi- 
 cer, Stockton obeyed his order to the letter. 
 Sloat at once expressed his intention to return 
 to the East, leaving Stockton in command of 
 the squadron. 
 
 Fremont and Gillespie, after Sloat's refusal to 
 have any thing to do with their battalion, had 
 a conference with Stockton. The New Jersey 
 commodore took a different view of thino;s 
 from that of his superior officer. He was suf- 
 fering no grievance, had not been overlooked by 
 the Administration, was young yet, enjoyed a 
 good digestion, did not despise the credit nor 
 shrink from the perils of being a conqueror. 
 
 He asked, and Sloat granted him permission 
 to assume command at once of the land forces. 
 Then he invited Fremont and Gillespie to take 
 service under him with their battalion. Fre- 
 mont was at the head of the popular movement, 
 and in a branch of the service that owed no 
 duty to a naval officer ; but he was glad to ac- 
 cept, and so settle cheaply all questions of the 
 irregularity of his late proceedings. Gillespie 
 was in the navy, but he was now detailed to a 
 
186 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 cuAP. special duty by the President. So Lis accept- 
 _ _^ ance was entirely voluntary, and it was clieer- 
 1846. ful. The battalion was satisfied with any thing 
 " ^' that promised work. Thus the reorganization 
 I was completed instantly. Stockton commis- 
 1 sioned Fremont as major, and Gillespie as cap- 
 tain of what thereafter was to be called in tke 
 official documents the " California Battalion of 
 Mounted RiHemen," but in common parlance, 
 the " Navy Battalion." 
 
 On the 23d, Commodore Sloat sailed for 
 home in the Levant^ and the same day Stockton, 
 now in full command, dispatched the Cycme, 
 Commodore Dupont, to convey Major Fremont 
 and his battalion to San Diego. A week latei", 
 Stockton himself sailed on the Congress for^ 
 San Pedro. At Monterey was left the Savan- 
 nah, and at San Francisco the Portsmouth. 
 
 Before he left Monterey, Stockton issued a 
 proclamation, announcing that he would " im- 
 mediately march against the boasting and 
 abusive chiefs, ^vho had not only violated every 
 principle of national hospitality and good faith 
 towards Captain Fremont, but who, unless 
 driven out, would keep this beautiful coun- 
 try in a constant state of revolution and blood- 
 shed, as well as a2:ainst all others who miii'ht 
 be found in arms aiding and abetting General 
 Castro." 
 
 There was not wanting a certain Mexican 
 
STOCKTON OCCUPIES IMPORTANT POINTS. 187 
 
 flavor in this, but the commodore proceeded chap 
 with great dispatch to caiTy his promises 
 into effect, which was a very nn-Mexican pro- i846. 
 cednre. ^^' 
 
 The Congress^ on her way down the coast, 
 touched at Santa Barbara. Stockton went on 
 shore and took possession unhindered; then, 
 leaving a small detachment to hold the place, 
 he sailed on to San Pedro. Here, on the 6th 
 of August, he disembarked, inquired for the 
 enemy, and learned that Castro and Pico were 
 at Los Angeles, with, as was reported, fifteen 
 hundred men. He learned, too, that Fremont 
 had safely reached San Diego, but, as he had 
 found it exceedingly difficult to obtain horses 
 to mount his men, there was little reason to 
 hope that the battalion vv'ould traverse the 
 hundred and thirty miles between San Diego 
 and Los Angeles in time to help capture 
 Castro. 
 
 Stockton had six small guns, borrowed jfrom 
 the shipping, and they probably of no very 
 belligerent antecedents, but now mounted on 
 rude carriages for use. Without horses, how- 
 ever, of what service would they be ? With 
 the little force at his command he could not 
 strike a heavy blow, but he determined it should 
 be a swift one. His marines and all the sailors 
 that could be spared from the ship were landed 
 and set to practising the artillery drill. The 
 
188 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOKIS^IA. 
 
 CHAP, tars knew very well tliat, once on shore, tliey 
 
 ,_\ might have to find their way back to Monterey 
 
 1846. overland, for the harbor of San Pedro was never 
 
 " "^' to be trusted in case of a storm. The drill was 
 
 all Greek to them, but they were apt scholars, 
 
 and soon were fit to be trusted to march. 
 
 While they were in the camp of instruction, 
 there came in commissioners from Castro with 
 a flag of truce, proposing that all active opera- 
 tions should cease, and each party hold the pos- 
 sessions it had until terms of peace could be 
 neo:otiated. Stockton dou])ted whether he 
 could trust Castro's promises, but did not doubt 
 that the commissioners were really spies. So 
 he met them with studied sternness, and bade 
 them carry back word that no terms would be 
 accepted. " Tell Castro he must uncondition- 
 ally surrender, or exjDerience my vengeance." 
 Meanwhile he occupied the opportunity by 
 skilfully parading his men at distant points of 
 view, so as to convey the impression that they 
 were a mighty multitude. To impress the com- 
 missioners with the teiTible nature of the en- 
 gines of his warfare, he so arranged a huge 
 mortar, enveloping it in skins, except its mouth, 
 that they did not doubt that they beheld a 
 cannon of more power and greater calibre than 
 ever had been displayed on the coast before. 
 In a few days other commissioners appeared, to 
 assure the commodore that at every sacrifice his 
 
THE MAECH TO LOS ANGELES. 189 
 
 intentions should be opposed. These were citap. 
 sent back with much the same lesson fastened 
 in their minds as their predecessors had borne is-ie. 
 away. On the 11th of August, five days after "^" 
 landing, Stockton took up the line of march 
 with his three hundred. Los Angeles was 
 reached that night — the cattle, besides which 
 they had no other provisions, being driven with 
 them in a hollow square, and the six guns 
 dragged by hand. Castro's skirmishers were in 
 sight much of the time, but they acted simply as 
 scouts, who bore to Castro tidings of the pro- 
 gress of the invaders. 
 
 As they neared the intrenched camp, a 
 courier from Castro came out, kindly to warn 
 them that the to^^ n would prove their grave if 
 they entered it. Stockton hastened the courier 
 back w4th word to the general to have the bells 
 tolled at eight in the morning, for at that time 
 he slioiild enter. He kept his word, but 
 Castro did not wait to superintend any fu- 
 neral ceremonies. Breaking up his camp, he 
 disbanded his forces and fled to the province 
 of Sonora. 
 
 Stockton at once took possession of Los An- 
 geles, where he was soon after joined by Fre- 
 mont and his battalion. Having received of- 
 ficial notice of the existence of the war with 
 Mexico, Stockton proclaimed California a terri- 
 tory of the United States, organized a territo- 
 
190 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOTINIA. 
 
 OHAF. rial f^overnment, reserved for himself the dutiea 
 ^___, of governor, appointed trusty men to certain of 
 i84i). ficial stations that could not well be left vacant, 
 and invited the jjeople to meet on the 15th of 
 September and elect officers of their own. He 
 left hfty men, under Captain Gillespie, to gar- 
 rison Los Angeles ; others, under Lieutenant 
 Talbot, to hold Santa Barbara, and others to 
 hold San Diego. With the rest of his force he 
 returned to Monterey. Hearing there that 
 a thousand Walla- Wallas were threatenino; 
 the inhabitants of the Sacramento Valley, he 
 sailed for Yerba Buena with the intention of 
 engaging this new enemy, but learned upon 
 ^ arrival that the repoi't was without founda- 
 
 tion. 
 
 The hundred or two inhabitants of Yerba 
 Buena and the people of the neighboring coun- 
 try gave Governor Stockton a public reception, 
 going down in procession to the landing-place 
 to meet him. They had music, a ride, a dinner, 
 with toasts and speeches, and the festivities 
 closed with a ball. In lack of any thing more 
 to do, Stockton conceived the j)i'oject, and set 
 Fremont to the work of executing it, of em- 
 barking a force of volunteers to Mazatlan or 
 Acapulco, and thence to cross the country 
 and meet General Taylor at the city of Mex- 
 ico. 
 
 But there was more work to be done at home 
 
THE CALIFOlllSTANS EEVOLT. 191 
 
 before the conquest of California was completed, chap. 
 Among the persons of rank who surrendered v___ 
 as prisoners of war at Los Angeles, and were 184G. 
 permitted to go at large on their parole of *^ " 
 honor, was General Jose M. Flores. No soon- 
 er had Stockton withdrawn from Los Ans^eles 
 than Flores began to rally the disbanded troops 
 and organize a new opposition. On the 23d of 
 September, his troops invested the garrison, 
 and Captain Gillespie, seeing nothing else to 
 be done, capitulated on the 30th, and retired 
 with his riflemen to Monterey. The insurgents 
 next besieged the garrison of Santa Barbara. 
 Talbot would not surrendei' to the overwhelm- 
 ing numbers that presented themselves, but 
 safely escaped with all his men. 
 
 Then Flores and his conspirators issued a Oct. 
 proclamation to the people. They attributed 
 the defeat of the former army to the cowardice 
 of the authorities. They called upon the Cali- 
 fornians to rally for the expulsion of the 
 " North Americans," and to re-establish the De- 
 partment of California as a member of the 
 great IMexican nation. They declared all Mex- 
 ican citizens between the ages of fifteen and 
 sixty, who refused to take up arms, traitors, 
 incurring the penalty of death. The North 
 Americans, who had directly or indirectly aided 
 the enemy, v/ere to be removed, and their prop- 
 erty confiscated. This proclamation was in- 
 
192 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOllNIA. 
 
 CHAP, dorsed by more than three hundred persons, 
 
 ■^^" all swearing never to lay down arms till tlie 
 
 184G. Americans were expelled from Mexican terri- 
 
 y^'' tory. 
 
THE CONQUEST EEPEATED. 193 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 CALIFORNIA'S THREE CONQUERORS AND FIRST THREE 
 AMERICAN GOVERNORS. 
 
 So the American conquest was to be repeated, chap 
 Stockton lieard the news from Gillespie, and __ 
 sent immediately the Savannah to San Pedro, 1846. 
 with three hundred and twenty men, under the 
 command of Captain Mervine. The}^ landed, 
 attacked a large number of mounted Califor- 
 nians some twelve miles from San Pedro, and 
 were repulsed, losing five men killed and six 
 wounded. Fremont he ordered, with one hun- 
 dred and sixty volunteers, to i^roceed to Santa 
 Barbara, there to mount his men, and meet the 
 commander-in-'chief, who had sailed in the Con- 
 gress for S*an Pedro, at Los Angeles. 
 
 Stockton effected his landing on the 23d of 
 October, in the face of eight hundred of the 
 enemy ; but, on account of the impossibility of 
 procuring supplies, re-embarked for San Diego. 
 Attempting to enter that harbor, the Congress 
 grounded on the bar, and just then the enemy 
 attacked the town. Stockton landed all the 
 
 13 
 
194 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, men that could be spared from the ship, de- 
 
 ^__ ", feated the enemy, and saved the town. 
 
 1846. Thon^-h victorious, it was any thins; but a 
 
 °^' pleasant prospect that the commodore found 
 
 there before him. There were no cattle or 
 
 horses, for the enemy had taken the precaution 
 
 to drive them into the interior. He sent out 
 
 messengers to the south to procure some, who, 
 
 after much labor, returned with one hundred 
 
 and forty wretched horses and five hundred 
 
 cattle. Meanwhile he heard from Fremont, 
 
 who, utterly failing to 2:)rocure horses at Santa 
 
 Barbara, had gone up to Monterey to see what 
 
 could be done there. 
 
 Stockton established a camp, built a fort, 
 l>ec. set his men to constructing Tuidles, saddles, and 
 shoes, and trained them in their tactics. While 
 thus busily engaged, on the 3d of December, a 
 messenger arrived, announcing that Brigadier- 
 General Kearny was approaching from the 
 East, and desirous of opening communication 
 with him. The same evening' the commander 
 sent off Captain Gillespie, with thirty-five 
 men, to meet the general. Three days later 
 another messenger came, saying that General 
 Kearny had been defeated at San Pasqual, with 
 the loss of eighteen men killed and as many 
 more wounded, and the capture of one of his 
 howitzers. He was even then surrounded by the 
 enemy, who threatened every hour an attack. 
 
GENERAL KEARNY IN TROUBLE. 195 
 
 Stockton instantly prepared, bad as was his chap. 
 condition for the march, to proceed with all 
 his force to aid Kearny ; but a-s still other i846. 
 messengers came in, telling a better story of ^'^' 
 the general's strength, he contented himself 
 with sending Lieutenant Grey and two hundred 
 and fifty men to his relie£. 
 
 How Kearny came into this position is 
 thus explained : He had left St. Louis under 
 orders from the War Department to cross the 
 continent to New Mexico and California, and, 
 if he should conquer, to establish a civil govern- 
 ment over them. New Mexico fell readily be- 
 fore his force. As he was about to move on- 
 ward thence, he met Kit Carson, with letters 
 from Stockton and Fremont, announcing that 
 the conquest of California was already achieved. 
 So, turning back the greater part of his troops, 
 he proceeded with only a small detachment of 
 dragoons as a body-guard. 
 
 At the mouth of the Gila, Lieutenant Emory, 
 of his party, captured a horseman with the Cali- 
 fornia mail for Sonora. From letters that it 
 bore, he read that the south had risen on the 
 conquerors, and retaken the lower country. 
 Kearny gave little credence to the tale, though 
 it Avas true enough. Still, when near San Pas- 
 qual, thirty-six miles from San Diego, he thought 
 it prudent, in his wearied, travel-worn state, to 
 halt until he could hear from Stockton. Mi\ 
 
196 THE HISTORY OF OALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP. Stokes, the Ens-lisliman wlio owned the rancho 
 
 XVI 
 
 where he halted, conveyed to San Diego the 
 I8i6. mes-sage that brought Lieutenant Gillespie, on 
 ®^' the 5th, to Kearny's camp. 
 
 Before the dawn of the next day, Keaniy 
 and Gillespie moved forward ; hut the Califor- 
 nians were up equally early, and gave them a 
 w^arm reception. The Americans maintained 
 their position ; but in the conflict they lost 
 eighteen killed and thirteen wounded, and, 
 among the latter, both Kearny and Gillespie. 
 They buried their dead that night, and next 
 morning again took up their march. Encum- 
 bered as they were with their wounded, they 
 charged upon the Californians, who came out to 
 dispute their way, and drove them from the 
 field. On the following morning, December 
 8th, the Americans found the desolate hill of 
 San Fernando, which they occupied, besieged 
 on all sides. They were out of supplies, sick, 
 wounded, foot-sore. Fortunately, they obtained 
 water on digging for it, and so were not utter- 
 ly hopeless. They must have perished but for 
 the heroism of Kit Carson, whom Kearny had 
 turned back from the errand with which Stock- 
 ton and Fremont had sent him eastward, and 
 reserved for his guide through the desert. 
 Carson, Lieutenant Beale, and an Indian volun- 
 teered to pierce the circle of the enemy, and 
 convjey intelligence to Stockton of their perilous 
 
MAECH FROM SAN DIEGO TO LOS ANGELES. 197 
 
 situation. The desperate attempt succeeded, chap. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 and on the night of the 10th, Lieutenant Grey 
 and his dragoons came dashing up to Sau Fer- I84e. 
 nando, at the sound of whose advance the be- 
 sieging force fled, and troubled them no more. 
 
 Two days later, Kearny's party were in San 
 Diego. The commodore received the general 
 graciously, and tendered him the chief command. 
 This Kearny politely declined, though he ex- 
 pressed his desire to command under Stockton, 
 which, of course, was permitted him. On the 
 29th of December the march was commenced 
 throuoh the sands and over the ruarsfed moun- 
 tains that make up the hundred and thirty 
 miles of distance between San Die^'o and Los 
 Angeles ; and about the same time commenced 
 the quarrel between Kearny and Stockton, 
 which was removed afterwards to Washington, 
 was thoroughly ventilated on the court-martial 
 of Fremont, and for a long time arrayed against 
 each other the friends of these distins^uished 
 citizens. The disagreement tinges all their after 
 proceedings on the Pacific coast, but led to no 
 serious collision until the reconquest was com- 
 pleted. 
 
 The advancing forces consisted of Cai^tain 
 TUghman's company of artillery, a detachment 
 of the first regiment of dragoons, Companies A 
 and B of the California battalion of mounted 
 riflemen, and a detachment of sailors and ma- 
 
198 THE H.3T0EY OF (JALIFOENIA. 
 
 31IAP. rines from the frigates Congress and Savannah 
 _ ■ and tlie ship Portsmouth. The horses were in 
 184G. such "wretched condition, tliat Captain Turner, 
 ^^' of the dragoons, preferred to go without them. 
 The men wore canvas shoes of their own manu- 
 facture, and were otherwise but miserably 
 equipped. It was in the midst of the rainy 
 season, and whenever the line of march led 
 them out of the sand, it took them into mud 
 ankle deep. The draught-horses gave out so 
 fast that half the vvork of dragging the guns, 
 ammunition, and provision wagons devolved 
 upon the men. Kit Carson and a corps of 
 scouts kept ahead of the main body, engaging 
 in frequent skirmishes. 
 1847. From San Luis Key, Stockton sent a messen- 
 ■jau. ggj. ^Q announce to Fremont his advance, and 
 to caution him ao;ainst risking: an action l^efore 
 their forces could be joined. This messenger 
 was dispatched on the 3d of January, but he 
 did not reach Fremont until the 9tl]. Several 
 times I'unners came from Flores, proposing com- 
 promises; but they were all rejected, and word 
 sent back that if he, or any one else, who, like 
 him, had broken his parole, should be caught, 
 he would sui'ely be shot. 
 
 On the 7th of January it was discovered that 
 the enemy, a])parently a thousand or twelve 
 hundred in number, and mostly cavalry, were 
 drawn up on the bank of the river San Gabriel, 
 
MARCH FROM SAN DIEGO TO LOS AXGELES. 199 
 
 in position to command the ford. Next morn- chap. 
 ing, Stockton advanced, and, when within a quar- 
 ter of a mile of the river, formed his men into 
 line, and gave orders not to lire a gun until all 
 had crossed. The order was obeyed, though 
 the enemy did not intermit tlieir brisk but in- 
 effectual discharges. As they were crossing, 
 Kearny sent word to Stockton that the bed of 
 the river, in which there was about four feet 
 of water, consisted of quicksands, and that the 
 guns could not be safely transported. " Quick- 
 sands or no quicksands," said Stockton, " the 
 guns shall pass over," and hurried to the head 
 of his column, took his place at the ropes, and 
 himself assisted to drag the guns across. All 
 over, the line of battle was ao-ain formed. 
 Kearny charged up the baidv, while Stockton 
 gave his attention to repelling an assault upon 
 his iianli, with which the enemy, descending 
 to the l)ank of the river, had visited him. The 
 assault was repelled, and, the enemy retreating, 
 Stockton with his artillery pushed up the de- 
 clivity after them. Arrived on the heights, he 
 found the enemy drawn up in battle array, with 
 their artillery in front, but his well-aimed fire 
 soon scattered them. A portion of their right 
 wing came upon the rear of the Americans, who 
 were guarding the baggage and cattle, but Cap- 
 tain Grillespie handsomely repulsed them, and 
 drove them across the river. The main body 
 
200 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 CHAP, fled towards Los Angeles, stopping occasionally 
 _^__, to renew the defence, but ahvays without suc- 
 1847. cess. 
 
 ^"" The next day, Stockton came upon them again, 
 well posted on the plains. Here the Califor- 
 niums redeemed their reputation for valor. 
 They charged gallantly uptm Stockton's army, 
 but were met with a disastrous fire. The 
 second attack was made upon three sides of 
 the square at once, yet it met with the same 
 result. The third time they returned to the 
 charge, and a third time were repulsed with 
 loss, after which they fled in confusion. 
 
 On the 10th of January, Stockton marched 
 into Los Angeles, and raised again the very flag 
 that Gillespie had been compelled through the 
 treachery of Flores to strike some three months 
 before. 
 
 Meanwhile, Fremont from Monterey, where 
 he ^vas trying to get horses for his battalion, 
 had sent news to Sutter's Fort of the disasters 
 at the south, and begged for re-enforcements 
 from among the settlers. Edwin Bryant and 
 some friends scoured the country for volunteers, 
 1846. and not without success. On the 29th of No- 
 ^^' vember, these recruits from the north joined 
 Fremont near San Juan Bautista, where he had 
 gone in pursuit of a party of Californians 
 which had taken Consul Larkin prisoner, 
 
Nov. 
 
 Fremont's battaliois" on the march. 201 
 tbouQ-h before his arrival tlie consul liad been chap. 
 
 J XVI. 
 
 rescued. *— ^-^ 
 
 y Fremont's battalion now numbered, includ- i846. 
 ing Indians and servants, four hundred and 
 twenty-eight. Excepting his original explor- 
 ing party, they consisted of volunteers from the 
 American settlements, and newly arrived emi- 
 grants, who were expert with the rifle, a few 
 Walla- Wallas from Oregon, and some native 
 Californians. Each man had in his leathern 
 girdle a hunter's and a bowie knife. Each 
 carried a rifle, holster pistols, and sometimes 
 a brace of pocket pistols besides. The best 
 equipped wore trousers and moccasous of buck- j 
 skin, and broad-brimmed hats ; the worst-sup- 
 plied made blue flannel answer in place of 
 buckskin. 
 
 The battalion was oro-anized into eig-ht com- 
 panies of cavalry, and one of artillery which 
 Louis McLane commanded. They drove five 
 or six hundred mules with them, besides pack- 
 mules loaded with baggage and provisions. 
 They beo;an their march southward on the 30th 
 of November, but halted the next two days 
 . while a party returned to the mission and 
 brought back a hundred head of cattle, which 
 the troops drove before them, confining them 
 in a movable corral at night, and slaughtering 
 from the herd as they were needed. 
 
 The rainy season had rendered the travelling 
 
202 THE HISTOEY OF CALirOE]S"lA. 
 
 CHAP, exceedingly bad, and the ground was so washed 
 by the rains that it furnished little fodder for 
 the cattle. The half-starved horses frequently 
 gave out on the march, and they seldom made 
 more than fifteen miles a day. Their cattle 
 corral was soon empty ; but happily they found 
 sheep ill plenty at the Missions of ISan Miguel 
 and San Luis Obispo, whose fine cactus-hedged 
 enclosures lay on their route. 
 
 They captured a few prisoners as they pro- 
 ceeded. Among: these was Jesus Pico, a dis- 
 tinguished citizen, who had been released by 
 Stockton on his parole, and had afterwards vio- 
 lated the terms of his release. For this offence 
 he was tried by a court-martial and sentenced 
 to be shot. The women came in p)Tocession at 
 San Luis to intercede for his pardon, and not 
 in vain. Colonel Fremont, with impressive 
 deliberation, granted the pardon, and thereby, 
 as he said on his own court-martial, won tlie 
 hearts of the people. 
 
 On Christmas Day the battalion was drag- 
 ging its weary way up the difficult pass of the 
 St. Ynez Mountain. The wind was a gale, 
 and the rain poured down. Descending the 
 southern slope of the mountain, many horses 
 fell into the ravines and were swept away by 
 the flood. Others tumbled over the precipices 
 and were killed. It was late at night before 
 the drenched and wretched party straggled 
 
Jan. 
 
 FREMOISTT PARDOISrS JESUS TICO. 203 
 
 clown to tlie foot of the mountain, and en- chap. 
 camped on ground so saturated that all efforts ^..__, 
 to kindle a fire were useless. ISText day the i846. 
 castaway baggage was brought down, and ^^' 
 some of the stray animals ; but there were not 
 horses enough to left mount the men. 
 
 They entered Santa Barbara on the 27th, 
 and remained there in camp for a week. They 
 resumed the march on the 5th of January, i847. 
 1847, and next day effected, without seeing an 
 enemy, the naiTOAV pass of the Rincon, where 
 they confidently expected that the way would 
 be disputed, as it might have been b}^ a very 
 small force. On the 6th, when some seven 
 miles from the Mission of Bueua Ventura, they 
 saw sixty or seventy mounted Californians 
 drawn up in order, but they disappeared as the 
 battalion advanced. A little later the courier 
 from Stockton met them, announcing that the 
 commodore and Kearny were on the way 
 from St. Diego to Los Angeles. On the 11th, 
 approaching San Fernando, they met Califor- 
 nians, who told them that Stockton and Kear- 
 ny v/ere in Los Angeles. 
 
 Here too suddenly swarmed about them the 
 enemy, apj)arently in strong force. Fremont 
 sent them a summons to surrender. Though 
 they would not obey that order, they did not 
 se'^m indisposed to parley. So the colonel and 
 Don Jesus Pico, his pardoned captive, and now 
 
204 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOEXIA. 
 
 CHAP, fast friend, went out to meet their chiefs. Fre- 
 mont did not know that Stockton had previ- 
 ously and repeatedly refused all terms to these 
 same men. They professed to admire Fremont's 
 clemency towards Pico, and flattered him by 
 assurances that to him and him alone they 
 would capitulate. Commissioners were speed- 
 ily appointed from each side to negotiate, and 
 the result of their labors was the Treaty of 
 Couenga. By its articles the Californians 
 agreed to surrender their artillery and puldic 
 arms, to return to their homes, and assist in 
 maintaining the public peace. The Americans 
 agreed to protect the life and property of all 
 Califoruian or Mexican officers and privates, 
 whether they took up arms while on parole or 
 otherwise. Equal rights were guaranteed citi- 
 zens of California and of the United States. All 
 paroles were cancelled, and their conditions an- 
 nulled, and all prisoners of both parties released. 
 The oath of allegiance was not to be required 
 of any Mexican or Californian until a treaty of 
 peace between Mexico and the United States 
 was signed, and if any such Mexican or Cali- 
 fornian desired to leave the country, he could 
 do so without let or hindrance. Tiie treaty, 
 si2;ned by Major P. B. Reading, Captain Louis 
 McLane, and Colonel Wm. H. Russell for the 
 Americans ; and by Jose Antonio Carrillo and 
 Augustiu Olivera for the Californians, was ap- 
 
THE TREATY OF COUENGA. 205 
 
 proved, January 16tb, by Fremont, as "Mili- 
 tary Commandant of California," and by 
 Andres Pico, " Commandant of Squadron and 
 Chief of the National Forces of California." It 
 was instantly proclaimed, as needing no further 
 ratification, and the war was ended. 
 
 The Treaty of Couenga brought peace to the 
 contending armies and the people, but trouble 
 enough to the three chief agents in the conquest 
 of the country. Fortunately, Flores, when his 
 forces dissolved before Stockton, fled to Sonora. 
 If he had remained it is doubtful if the com- 
 modore would liave assented to the terms of 
 the treaty. It was very natural that he should 
 prefer to make his own stipulations with an 
 enemy whom he had defeated. Still there the 
 treaty was, signed, proclaimed, and under its 
 grateful shade the late Ijelligerents ^vere at 
 peace. Kearny urged its recognition, and 
 Stockton was too shrewd to object. In fact, 
 neither could afford just at that time to quarrel 
 with the man who made it. 
 
 Fremont perceived the gravity of the next ^ 
 matter that claimed his attention, and moved 
 deliberately. Halting still at the Couenga 
 rancho, he sent Colonel Russell to Los Angeles 
 to discover who was chief in command there, 
 and to report to him. Kearny was his supe- ^ 
 rior officer in the army, to a department of 
 which he belonged. But to Stockton he was 
 
206 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, owino- the authority under wlilcli he had raised 
 
 XVI • • • 
 
 , _^ his battalion and written " Military Comman- 
 
 1847. dant " after his name. It was ^a delicate mat- 
 ^^' ter for him to decide, and he proposed to leave 
 it for their decision. 
 
 The messenger, returning, reported that 
 Stockton was acting as chief, but that Kearny 
 claimed for himself superiority. -Both command- 
 ers were exceedingly complacent towards him, 
 both tendered desirable positions, but Stockton*'s 
 bid was rather the most tempting. Stockton 
 had previously arranged to leave the country 
 soon, and he had transmitted to Washington 
 his intention to make Fremont governor on 
 leaving. Kearny held that he was endowed 
 with the functions of governor by his orders 
 from Washington; but, if Fremont should re- 
 port to him, he proposed to make him his suc- 
 cessor at some future day. 
 
 Fremont knew that Kearny was authorized 
 ■ to establish a civil government in California, 
 provided he should conquer it, as he had done 
 in New Mexico. But Stockton and Fremont 
 insisted that the conquest was accomplished be- 
 fore he crossed the plains. Or if the conquest 
 ( was not complete, as these later troubles showed, | 
 it was with a bad grace that he set up to be 
 its conqueror, who was shut up at San Pasqual, 
 and mio:ht have starved there but for the relief 
 that Stockton sent him. 
 
FEE5I0NT AS GOVEENOR. 207 
 
 To Stockton, then, Fremont reported, when ctiap. 
 on the 14:th. he entered Los Angeles, and by 
 that act, as it gave him the command of the 
 four hundred effective troops of the battalion, 
 the commodore won the field from the general. 
 A military tribunal has since reversed the de- 
 cision, and held Fremont to blame for his choice. 
 
 Two days later, Fremont received from Stock- 
 ton his commission as governor. Kearny still 
 kindly remonstrated ; but when he found his 
 dissuasion quite in vain, he determined to arrest 
 and punish the offender. For a little season the 
 general's wrath was quite impotent. But, re- 
 pairing to San Diego, he found that the Mor- 
 mon battalion, part of the re-enforcements for 
 Kearny's " Army of the West," which Stirling 
 Price had brought to Santa Fe, had arrived, 
 under Colonel St. George Cooke. Cooke re- 
 ported to Kearny, who thence proceeded by 
 sea to Monterey. 
 
 Scarcely was Kearny gone from Los An- 
 geles, when Stockton also departed. At San 
 Pedro he re-embarked his marines, and sailed 
 for the Mexican coast. 
 
 So Fremont was left alone as governor. He 
 resided in the mansion where several California 
 governors before him had lived. His battalion 
 he sent to San Gabriel for quarters. He en- 
 joyed the friendship of the first families of the 
 land. He vv^as honored for his position, his 
 
208 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 otiAP. achievements, Lis gentlemanly bearing. He 
 
 was at peace with all men, and throughout 
 
 1847. the length and breadtii of the land order pre- 
 
 March. yjji]g(-|^ j^ lasted some seven weeks, and then 
 
 a storm ! 
 
 At Monterey Kearny found Commodore 
 Shubrick in the Independence^ and the two, per- 
 haps disgusted that so young a man as Fre- 
 mont should be leading so merry a life, while 
 his elders were neither governors nor popularly 
 regarded as conquerors, harmonized in a course 
 that plucked the roses from his path, and 
 strewed it with thorns. First, they sent him 
 the copy of a proclamation, dated March 1st, 
 1847, signed jointly l)y the two, declaring that 
 President Polk had assigned to the naval com- 
 mander — that was Shubrick — the regulating of 
 port charges ; and to the military commander — 
 that was Kearny — the functions of governor. 
 Second, there came to him a proclamation, bear- 
 ing the same date, signed by Kearny alone, 
 telling the old story of his authority, and how 
 he came by it, announcing the entire annexa- 
 tion of California to the United States, absolv- 
 ino; all Californians from allegiance to Mexico, 
 and continuing the Mexican laws in operation, 
 and the existing civil officers in their offices, 
 provided they would s\vear to support the Con- 
 stitution of the United States. 
 
 It was not Fremont alone who was startled 
 
March 
 
 THE TEEATY OF COUENGA IGNOEED. 209 
 
 by this unlieralded proclamation. It abroo-a- chap 
 
 . XVI 
 
 ted the Treaty of Couenga, without so miicli w.,^_„ 
 as naming it. Californians found their citizen- 1847. 
 ship transferred without the courtesy of a ques- 
 tion asked. The man whom they had accepted 
 at the hands of the American authorities, as 
 their governor, after valiantly declining him, 
 and being honorably compelled to succumb, 
 and with whom now they were well pleased, 
 was utterly ignored. With him went the terms 
 of their capitulation. What next would the 
 Americans do ? Perhaps annex them to the 
 Chinese Empire ! perhaps proclaim them an in- 
 tegral part of the Cannibal Islands ! The whole 
 procedure seemed to them a gratuitous insult, 
 and an incomprehensible piece of insolence, that 
 a word from Fremont would have tempted 
 them to I'epudiate. 
 
 But Fremont, though mortified beyond meas- 
 ure, was reasonably prudent. On the 11th of 
 March he received orders through Kearny, 
 which discovered to him that the Administration 
 at Washino;ton would side ag^ainst Stockton and 
 himself. These orders required him to muster 
 the California battalion into the regular service, 
 or, if they were unwilling to be so disposed of, 
 to conduct them to San Francisco and dischars-e 
 them. Moreover, he was assured that Colonel 
 Cooke was made commandant of the southern 
 district, ^vith his Mormon battalion to back his 
 14 
 
210 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOT^NIA. 
 
 CHAP, authority. Here was a pretty position for a 
 governor in oi:ood and re2;ular standins; ! 
 
 1847. Fremont was military man enough to know 
 ^'^ *■ how to obey, though every item of these orders 
 was a cruel stab at his authority, his prido, his 
 I self-respect. His battalion, moreover, claimed to 
 have a will of its own. Officers and men re- 
 fused to be mustered. They would be dis- 
 ' banded if there were no help for it, but they 
 would like their pay for past services before 
 even that were done. 
 
 Fremont ordered the officers to keep things 
 as they were until his return, and then, with 
 Jesus Pico and a solitary servant, mounted for 
 a ride to Monterey. In three days and a half 
 he had put some four hundred miles between 
 him and Los Angeles. He called on General 
 Kearny, but was refused ])ermission to see 
 him, except in the presence of Colonel Mast)n, 
 who had arrived with instructions to relieve 
 General Kearny, and allow Colonel Fremont 
 to join his regiment or to pursue his intermitted 
 explorations, as he chose. Fremont's errand 
 was to consult with Kearny as to the payment 
 of the Ijattalion, but Kearny was in no con- 
 sulting; mood. He demanded to know if Fre- 
 mont would obey him. Fremont answered 
 that he would. "Then send those of the bat- 
 talion, who refuse to be mustered, to Monterey, 
 and come yourself by land " said his chief. 
 
FREMONT DISOBEYS OEDERS. 211 
 
 Swiftly as he had come, Fi-emont returned to chap. 
 Los Angeles to learn that Colonel Cooke had 
 been there in his absence, to demand the ord- 1347. 
 nance of the battalion, which, according to their P" 
 orders, the officers had refused to surrender. 
 Close on his heels came Colonel, alias Governor 
 Mason, ordering Governor Fremont to embark 
 his men for Monterey, and himself appear there 
 twelve days afterwards. 
 
 Fremont proposed to mount his original party, 
 with the intention of joining the regiment, of 
 which he was a lieutenant-colonel, in Mexico. 
 But the twelve days, the whole month of April 
 passed, and he still lingered. 
 
 Kearny meanwhile had received new acces- 
 sions to his forces. Colonel Jonathan D. Ste- 
 venson's New York Reo-iraent of Volunteers 
 arrived by way of Cape Horn, in four transport 
 ships, the Thomas H. Perhins, Loo-OJioo^ Sasan 
 Drew^ and Brutus. The three first named left 
 New York September 26th, 1846 ; the Brutus 
 left later. The first to arrive was the Perhins^ 
 March 6 th, 1847. 
 
 This regiment was composed of men selected 
 with reference to their willingness to tarry in 
 the country, if they found it what they ex- 
 pected ; artisans of all sorts, men versed in the 
 arts of peace, but bearing arms, and retaining 
 their military organization till the close of the 
 war. Except two companies, which were sent 
 
212 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, to La Paz to take possession of Lower Callfor- 
 
 XVI • ... 
 
 ma, the regiment was distributed througliout 
 California to garrison its chief points. They 
 did good service as soldiers, and afterwards as 
 civilians reflected no discredit on their origin. 
 
 Early in May, Kearny went to Los Angeles, 
 to hasten the proceedings of his tardy suhordi- 
 ^nate. He refused Fremont pemiissiou to join 
 iiis regiment, sold the horses he had collected, 
 and ordered him instantly to repair to Monterey, 
 There he compelled him to turn over his ex- 
 ploring instruments to another party. When at 
 •Time 19 last Kearny was ready to go East^ Fremont was 
 obliged to keep him company, with orders to 
 encamp at night in the rear of the Mormon 
 guard, and never more than a mile away from 
 the general ; at Fort Leavenworth he was ar- 
 rested; at Fortress Monroe, a court-martial 
 found him guilty of mutiny, disobedience, and 
 disorderly conduct, and sentenced him to forfeit 
 his commission. 
 
 On this trial Fremont behaved with spirit, 
 and pleaded his cause with an eloquence that 
 made the people of the States reverse the deci- 
 sion so soon as they read the proceedings. The 
 court recommended him to the clemency of the 
 President, on the grounds of his past services, 
 and the peculiar position in which he was 
 placed when the alleged disobedience took 
 place. Mr. Polk was not sure that the nnitiny 
 
FREMONT GOES HOME UISTDEK ARREST. 213 
 
 was proven, thongli tlie otlier charges were, and chap. 
 
 they were enougli to warrant the sentence. So ^^ ^ 
 
 he approved the court's decision, discharged i84T. 
 the culprit from arrest, and directed him to 
 report for duty. Fremont spurned the mercy 
 of the President, and retired from the army. 
 The people — to them these cases go for final 
 adjudication — pronounced it superlatively mean 
 to visit the consequences of an irrepressible 
 conflict between two senior officers upon a 
 junior, who could not possibly side with both 
 parties, and had the manliness to take the re- 
 sponsibility of reporting to the one he thought 
 best entitled to his services. They saw merits 
 in their hero that probably never would have 
 struck them if he had not been shamefully mal- 
 treated. If he had been left quietly in Califor- 
 nia, until superseded in a regular way, probably 
 Stockton would have been re2:arded as the fore- 
 most man in the conquest. But when spite 
 dogged Fremont home, and jealousy attem23ted 
 to crush him, the people pronounced him the 
 genuine " conqueror of California," and only 
 narrowly missed, a few years later, making him 
 President of the United States. 
 
:214 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAPTEK XVn. 
 
 SAN- FRANCISCO AMERICANIZED. 
 
 OHAP. Calitornia IS to be conOTatulated on its nar- 
 
 XVII. 
 
 ___^ row escape from a Mormon element m its popu- 
 1S47. lation, at a time when every ship-load of people 
 told with great power upon the shaping character 
 of the State. A company of Mormons, from New 
 York, under the leadership of Samuel Brannan, 
 arrived at Yerba Buena on the 31st of July, 1846, 
 pitched their tents at the foot of the sand-hills, 
 and fortunately fell soon to ci[uarrelling. Their 
 dissensions ran so high that many of their lead- 
 ers seceded. Then followed a lawsuit and a 
 jury-trial (the first in the Territoiy), of which 
 Brannan, who had been much reviled for alleired 
 misdeeds in the office of president of the asso- 
 ciation, was the winner. These proceedings 
 prevented the settlement of the Mormons as a 
 community in the neighborhood. The ties that 
 bound them too-ether were broken. Some of 
 them joined Fremont's battalion ; some of 
 them went into trade. Afterwards, most who 
 retained their Mormon faith were seduced over 
 the Sierras by the news of gold discoveries 
 
THE TO WIS" OF YERBA BUE]S"A. 215 
 
 about the Salt Lake, and so California escaped chap. 
 tlie curse of Mormonism. ^ 
 
 This little town of Yerba Buena, as people i847. 
 persisted in calling it untilJanuarj^,1847,liad,by *°' 
 that time, grown to be a post of three hundred 
 inhabitants and about fifty adobe houses, and was 
 indulging in a weekly newspaper, the Calif oimia 
 Star, published by Mr. Brannan, and edited by 
 Dr. E. P. Jones. Three months later it had a 
 second j^aper, Messrs. Colton and Semple's CaU- 
 fornian, which was the pioneer in the country 
 (having started at Monterey, Angust 15, 1846), 
 being transferred to the more thrifty settlement. 
 
 That change of name, from Yerha Buena 
 (good herb), which was balmy and unhack- 
 neyed and unique, to 8an Francisco, which 
 was common and significant of nothing peculiar, 
 was the fruit of an ordinance promulgated by 
 its first alcalde ; and one of its eifects was to 
 compel Mr. Larkin and Mr. Semple, who had 
 laid out a city on the Straits of Carquinez, in 
 expectation that it would eventually prove the 
 chief city about the bay, to change its name 
 from Frcmcisca to Benicia, in honor of Genial 
 Vallejo's wife. 
 
 An alcalde had a perfect right to change the 
 name, or, indeed, to do almost any thing else that 
 he could persuade the people to approve. He 
 could make grants of building lots to intend- 
 ing settlers, with very uncertain restrictions, 
 
210 THE UISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, order affairs to suit himself, and administer jus- 
 tice according to liis own notions of equity. He 
 
 1847. was tlie chief magistrate under the Mexican 
 '^'^'^' laws, and as yet the country enjoyed no other 
 
 than Mexican laws. The first alcalde of San 
 Francisco was AVashington A. Bartlett, who 
 did not long hold the office, being soon needed 
 on board the naval vessel to which he was 
 attached as lieutenant. Durini!: his administra- 
 tion he had Jasper O'FaiTell survey and plan 
 the city. Bartlett's temporary successor as 
 alcalde was G-eorge Hyde, who, to judge from 
 the court records of later times, must have been 
 constantly occupied in making grants to appli. 
 Feb.22. cants. After him came Edwin Bryant, ap- 
 pointed by General Kearny. Bryant had 
 crossed the Plains the year before, and ma- 
 terially aided Fremont in raising his battalion 
 for the conquest. He continued briefly in 
 office, returning in June, with Kearny's party, 
 to the States, and j)ublishing a valuable book 
 of his travels, entitled What I sav) in Cali- 
 fornia. The succeeding alcaldes were George 
 
 1848. Hyde (again), Di-. J. Townsend, Dr, T, M. 
 Leavenworth, and Colonel J, W, Geary, who, 
 as he was the last alcalde, was his own succes- 
 sor and the first mayor under the Americanized 
 city charter. 
 
 It was during Hyde's second term that, be- 
 cause the town business grew so heavy, an 
 
SUFFERING OF THE EMIGEANTS. 217 
 
 ayuntamlento or town council was establislied, chap. 
 to aid in conducting it, and, once established, it .l^.^ 
 continued until the boards of aldermen and i846- 
 assistant aldermen took its place. ^ 
 
 The San Franciscans were chiefly Americans, 
 and they began, before 1847 was ended, to do 
 as all Americans do — to talk j)olitics, to cele- 
 brate Fourth of July, observe Thanksgiving, 
 have a steamboat on the bay, and take measures 
 for establishing a public school. They were 
 fond of public meetings and of uttering their 
 sentiments in the form of resolutions. One of 
 the earliest occasions for such a meetino- durins: 
 the year was notable for its object, and most 
 creditable for its spirit and results. We con- 
 dense the story from the narrative of Mr. Bry- 
 ant in his book before alluded to. 
 
 Of the overland emigration to California in 
 1846, about eighty wagons took a new route, 
 from Fort Bridger around the south end of 
 Great Salt Lake. The pioneers of the party 
 arrived in good season over the mountains ; but 
 Mr. Reed's and Mr. Donner's companies opened 
 a new route through the desert, lost a month's 
 time by their explorations, and reached the foot 
 of the Truckee Pass, in the Sierra Nevada, on 
 the 31st of October, instead of the 1st, as they 
 had intended. The snow began to fall on the 
 mountains two or three weeks earlier than usual 
 that year, and was already so piled up in the 
 
218 THE IIISTOllY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP. Pass that tliey could not proceed. Tbey at- 
 
 _^^_, tempted it repeatedly, but were as often forced 
 
 184G- to return. One party built their cabins near 
 
 184^ • • 
 
 Truckee Lake, killed their cattle, and went into 
 winter-quarters. The other (Donner's) party 
 still l)elieved that they could thread the pass, 
 and so failed to l)uild their cabins before more 
 snow came and buried their cattle alive. Of 
 course these were soon utterly destitute of food, 
 for they could not tell where their cattle were 
 buried, and there was no hope of game on a 
 desert so piled with snow that nothing without 
 win2;s could move. The number of those who 
 were thus storm-stayed, at the very threshold 
 of tlie land whose winters are one long spring, 
 was eighty, of whom thirty were females, and 
 several children. The Mr. Donner who had 
 charge of one company was an Tllinoisian, sixty 
 years of age, a man of high respectability and 
 abundant means. His wife was a woman of 
 education and refinement, and much younger 
 than he. 
 
 During November it snowed thirteen days; 
 during December and January, eight days in 
 each. Much of the time the tops of the cabins 
 were below the snow level. 
 
 It was six weeks after the halt was made 
 that a party of fifteen, including five women 
 and two Indians who acted as guides, set out 
 on snow-shoes to cross the mountains, and scive 
 
 gi 
 
SUFFEKING OF THE OVEnLAT^D EMIGRANTS. 219 
 
 notice to tlie people of the California settli- chap. 
 
 ments of the condition of their friends. At 
 
 first the snow was so lio'ht and feathery that 184G- 
 
 1847 
 
 even in snow-shoes they sank nearly a foot at 
 every step. On the second day they crossed 
 the " divide," findinsr the snow at the summit 
 twelve feet deep. Pushing forward with the 
 courage of despair, they made from four to 
 eight miles a day. 
 
 Within a week they got entirely out of pro- 
 visions, and three of them, succumbing to cold, 
 weariness, and starvation, had died. Then a 
 heavy snow-storm came on, which compelled 
 them to lie still, buried between their blankets 
 
 under the snow, for thirty-six hours. By the 
 evening of the tenth day three more had died, 
 and the living had been four days without food. 
 The horrid alternative was accepted — ^they took 
 the flesh from the bones of their dead, remained ^847. 
 in camp two days to dry it, and then pushed on. 
 On New Year's, the sixteenth day since leav- 
 ing Truckee Lake, they were toiling up a steep 
 mountain. Their feet were frozen. Every step 
 was marked with blood. On the second of 
 January their food again gave ouf. On the 
 third, they had nothing to eat but the strings 
 of their snow-shoes. On the fourth, the Indians 
 eloped, justly suspicious that they might be 
 sacrificed for food. On the fifth, they shot a 
 deer, and that day one of their number died. 
 
220 THE IIISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, ^oon ttree others died, and every death now 
 ^_^^^ eked out the existence of the survivors. On 
 1847. the seventeenth all gave out, and concluded 
 their wanderings useless, except one. He, 
 guided by two stray, friendly Indians, dragged 
 himself on till he reached a settlement on Bear 
 River. By midnight the settlers had found 
 and were treating with all Christian kindness 
 what remained of the little company that, after 
 more than a month of the most terrible suifer- 
 ings, had that morning halted to die. 
 
 The story that there were emigrants perish- 
 ing on the other side of the snowy 1)arrier ran 
 swiftly down the Saci'amento Valley to New 
 Helv^etia, and Captain Satter, at his own ex- 
 pense, fitted out an expedition of men and of 
 mules laden with provisions, to cross the moun- 
 tains and relieve them. It ran on to San Fran- 
 cisco, and the people, rallying in public meeting, 
 raised fifteen hundred dollars, and with it fitted 
 out another expedition. The naval commandant 
 of th',^ port fitted out still others. 
 
 The first of the relief parties reached Truckee 
 Lake' on the 19th of February, Ten of the 
 people in *the nearest camp were dead. For 
 four weeks those who were still alive had fed 
 only on bullocks' hides. At Donner's camp they 
 had but one hide remainin<2:. The visitors left a 
 small supply of provisions with the twenty-nine 
 whom they could not take with them, and started 
 
SUFFERING OF THE OVERLAND EMIGRANTS. 22 1 
 
 back witli the remainder. Four of tlie children chap. 
 they carried on their backs. , ^_, 
 
 Another of the relief parties reached Truckee 1847. 
 Lake on the 1st of March. They immediately 
 started back with seventeen of the sufferers, but, 
 a heavy snow-storm overtaking them, they left 
 all, except three of the children, on the road. 
 Another party went after those who were left 
 on the way, found three of them dead, and the 
 rest sustaining life by feeding on the flesh of 
 the dead. 
 
 The last relief party reached Donner's camp 
 late in April, when the snows had melted so 
 much that the earth appeared in spots. The 
 main cabin was empty, but some miles distant 
 they found the last survivor of all, lying on the 
 cabin-floor smoking his pipe. He was ferocious 
 in aspect, savage and repulsive in manner. His 
 camp-kettle was over the fire, and in it his meal 
 of human flesh preparing. The stripped bones 
 of his fellow-sufferers lay around him. He re- 
 fused to return with the party, and only con- 
 sented when he saw that there was no escape^ 
 
 Mrs. Donner was the last to die. Her hus- 
 band's body, carefully laid out and wrapped in 
 a sheet, was found at his tent. Circumstances 
 led to the suspicion that the survivor had killed 
 Mrs. Donner for her flesh and her money, and 
 when he was threatened with hanging, and the 
 rope tightened around his neck, he produced 
 
222 THE IIISTOllT OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, over five hundred dollars in ^old, whicli proba- 
 ^_^ bly he had appropriated from her store. 
 1847. When General Kearny returned to the East, 
 in June, 1847, he halted at the scene of thcvse 
 terrible sufferings. By his orders the mum- 
 mied remains of the dead were buried, and all 
 the relics of the cabins gathered and burned. 
 Of the eighty who were thus arrested at the 
 eastern foot of the Truckee Pass, forty -four 
 were saved, of \vhora twenty-two were females. 
 Thirty-six perished. 
 
 Another subject which a public meeting was 
 called in San Francisco to consider was the de- 
 throned idol of the populace, Fremont. That 
 distinguished ex-governor left a joeople behind 
 him divided as to his merits. It was presumed 
 that California would soon be ei'ected by Con- 
 gress into a territory of the United States, and 
 a petition was in circulation asking tlie Presi- 
 dent to appoint Fremont as its governor. This 
 petition had been numerously signed at the 
 South, for there he was popular. Hk treat}^ 
 of Couenga, the easy terms he had allowed to 
 those who broke their parole, all his intercourse 
 with the first families of the country, made him 
 a favorite. 
 
 But when the petition came North it was the 
 signal for an angry controversy. Fremont's 
 most bitter enemies were his lately devoted sol- 
 diers, the disbanded battalion of mounted 
 
USTDIGISTAISTT AT FEEMONT. 223 
 
 liilemen, and tliose wLom lie had favored with chap. 
 contracts. He was in arrears to the latter for _^_^ 
 his £irmy outiit and supplies, and to the volun- 1847. 
 teers for their pay. Personally, he had no 
 funds to draw upon. Kearny would not 
 strain a point to relieve the embarrassment of 
 one who had denied his authority, nor would 
 Mason either employ the ample resources of 
 the country to pay debts contracted before 
 his day, or without the previous sanction of 
 Congress grant-warrants upon the Treasury. 
 Kearny's repudiation of him, and Mason's re- 
 fusal to recognize the authority of " the Path- 
 finder," led the malcontents to feel that he was 
 not simply a penniless debtor, but a swindler 
 as well. So they called a public meeting — 
 there is no surer sign that they were thoroughly 
 AmeFicanized — and expressed their indignation. 
 The meeting appointed a committee to investi- 
 gate and publish all reliable instances of his 
 misconduct, and by resolution protested against 
 his appointment as governor. 
 
 Meanwhile the subject of all this indignation, 
 dispirited and unhappy, was about a month on 
 his way across the plains, whose pathless deserts 
 and difficult passes he had done more than any 
 other man to describe and map. He who had 
 always been foremost of his company, rode now 
 behind and in dis2:race. 
 
 San Fi'ancisco was fast outgrowing in impor- 
 
224 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORXIA. 
 
 CHAP, tance tlie older towns of the coast. In March, 
 _^_ 1848, its population numbered over eight hun- 
 1848. dred. Two wharves were beino; constructed. 
 '"'"^' A public school had been opened. The unoc- 
 cupied iifty-vara lots, into which O'Farrell's 
 survey divided the land north of Market Street, 
 w^ere granted by the alcalde to any who peti- 
 tioned for them and paid, including the cost of 
 recording, sixteen dollars a lot ; while those 
 southerly of Market Street, each by the sur- 
 vey one hundred varas square, cost to the 
 petitioner twenty-nine dollars. The city, on 
 the maps, embraced Telegraph and Rincon 
 Hills, the land between, and the area west- 
 ward to about two miles from the water- 
 front. Yet really it nestled along the 1)each, 
 and encroached very little either on the sand- 
 hills or the rocky heights that overhang the 
 bay. But there was already about it the busy 
 hum of an American town. All felt that its 
 rapid growth was predestined. It must soon 
 • become a notable mart. Every week added to 
 its population. Its thrift was the theme of 
 every day's discourse. 
 
 Suddenly its streets were deserted, its busi- 
 June. ness stopped, its infant commerce was paralyzed. 
 The desertion was as instant and complete as 
 if a pestilence had swept over the j^eninsula — 
 and not in San Francisco alone, Imt every 
 little village in the province shared the sud- 
 
SUDDE]Sr DEPOPULATION OF THE TOWNS. 225 
 
 den depopulation. The people were all flying chap. 
 eastward and northward, to the foot-hills of the ._^ 
 Sierra Nevada ! 1848. 
 
 The Californian issued an extra, apologizing 
 for the non-appearance of its regular edition. 
 " The whole country," said its editor in his fare- 
 well, " ft'om San Francisco to Los Angeles, re- 
 sounds with the sordid cry of ' Gold.' " The 
 California Sta?' held out a fortnight longer, 
 when, everybody in his office having deserted 
 him, the editor announced that he must stop 
 its issue. 
 
 15 
 
226 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 
 
 Gold was discovered at Ooloma, on the Amer- 
 J848 ican E-iver, January 19tb, 1848, and the most 
 Jan. 19 skeptical and phlegmatic, by the middle of the 
 following spiring, were yielding to its attrac- 
 tions. Governor Mason left Monterey on the 
 lYth of June to visit the place, and the account 
 that he wrote home to the War Department 
 created a great sensation. 
 
 He alleojed that the land was full of g-old. 
 "I have no hesitation in saying," he wrote, 
 " that there is more gold in the country drained 
 by the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, 
 than will pay the costs of the late war in Mex- 
 ico a hundred times over. Nearly all the Mor- 
 mons," he added, " are leaving California to go 
 to Salt Lake, and this they surely ^vould not 
 do unless they were sure of finding gold there 
 in the same abundance as they now do on the 
 Sacramento." 
 
 This was remarked as if quite incidentally ; 
 but to many people at the East, the governor 
 
GOVERNOR mason's REPORT. 227 
 
 knew that tlie departure of the Mormons out chap. 
 of the land would be scarcely less welcome news — ^-^ 
 than the mineral discoveries. Again, but not i^^^- 
 as if the matter much affected him, Governor 
 Mason mentioned a visit to the New Almaden 
 quicksilver mine of Alexander Forbes, the Brit- 
 ish Consul. The mining world appreciated the 
 point, and observed that quicksilver, so neces- 
 sary to every gold-miner, was produced abun- 
 dantly within easy reach of the gold-fields. 
 Finally, the governor said, " No capital is re- 
 quired to obtain the gold, as the laboring-man 
 wants nothing but his pick and shovel, and tin 
 pan, with which to dig and wash the gravel, 
 and many frequently pick gold out of the crev- 
 ices of rocks with their butcher-knives, in pieces 
 of from one to six ounces !" 
 
 The party in the States which had opposed 
 the Administration of Mr, Polk in the Mexican 
 war, ridiculed mercilessly the whole story of 
 the gold discovery. This last statement, they 
 thought, must break the back of the camel 
 credulity. It was too much like reproducing 
 one of De Foe's imaginary adventures in South 
 America, to be for one moment believed by 
 solder men on the Atlantic slope. 
 
 • Yet it was substantially and literally true. 
 Let us follow the governor on his tour, as de- 
 tailed in his letter to the War Department : — 
 
 He found San Francisco deserted of nearly 
 
228 THE inSTORY OF CALIF OENIA. 
 
 CHAP, all its male inhabitants, and even females were 
 _^ very scarce there. Betw^een Sonoma and Sut- 
 1848. ter's Fort the mills were idle ; the fields of 
 ""^" wheat open to cattle ; the houses vacant ; the 
 farms going to waste. At Sutter's there was 
 much life and bustle. Flour was selling at 
 thirty-six dollars a barrel, and the captain was 
 carefully gathering his croj)s of wheat, estimated 
 at forty thousand bushels. Several stores had 
 been established, and a hotel erected. Cargoes 
 were being discharged at the river-side, and 
 carts were hauling goods to the fort. The cap- 
 tain had two mechanics in his employ, to each 
 of whom he paid ten dollars a day. A two- 
 story house in the fort was rented as a hotel, at 
 five hundred dollars a month. 
 July. On the 5th of July he pushed up the Amer- 
 ican fork of the Sacramento some twenty-five 
 miles, where he found a mining camp in full 
 operation. Canvas tents and arbors of bushes 
 strewed the hill-side. There was a store 
 opened, and several shanties were used as 
 boarding-houses. The sun poured down its 
 rays with intense heat upon two hundred miners 
 working for gold, some using tin pans, some 
 Indian baskets, and some rude cradles. Going 
 farther up the American, he reached the spot, 
 fifty miles above Sutter's Fort, where the gold 
 was first found. 
 
 The people at work there were averaging 
 
PBEVIOUS EEPORTS OF GOLD DISCOYEEIES. 229 
 
 from one to three ounces of orold a day. At chap. 
 
 XVIII 
 
 eight miles above Weber's Creek, the governor _^_^ 
 was shown a small gutter where two men had 1848. 
 taken out seventeen thousand dollars worth of 
 gold. At the end of one week's work they had 
 paid off their party of hired men and found ten 
 thousand dollars worth left in their hands. He 
 saw a small ravine out of which twelve thou- 
 sand dollars h^d been taken. " Hundreds of 
 similar ravines, to all appearances, w^ere as yet 
 untouched." Men who were getting fifty dol- 
 lars a day were leaving because they could do 
 better at other places. Three miles above Sut- 
 ter's, on the American, he met a Mr. Sinclair, 
 who employed fifty Indians for five weeks, and 
 showed, as his net proceeds, gold to the value 
 of sixteen thousand dollars: the last week's 
 results were fourteen pounds avoirdupois of gold. 
 A soldier got a furlough of twenty days from 
 the artillery company to which he belonged. 
 He spent most of it in travelling, but one week 
 in mining, during which week he made fifteen 
 hundred dollars — more than all his pay, clothes, 
 and rations for the five years of his enlistment. 
 All prices were enormous, of course, yet 
 the treasure was so plenty that even Indians 
 could sport gaudily-colored dresses. The most 
 moderate estimate that the governor could 
 obtain was, that four thousand men were work- 
 ing in the gold district, more than half of whom 
 
230 THE HISTOKY OF CALIFORIN'IA. 
 
 CHAP, were Indians, and that from thirty thousand to 
 XVIII. ^^-^^ thousand dollars worth of gold were taken 
 1848. out daily. Astonishing to relate, crime was in- 
 frequent in the mines. There were no thefts 
 or robberies, though all lived in tents or bush 
 arbors, or in the open air, and the workmen 
 frequently had thousands of dollars wortli of 
 dust about their ]3ersons. 
 
 Such statements as these, coming from an 
 official source, and presented to Congress with 
 the report of the Secretary of War, could not 
 but stir the country to its remotest corners. 
 
 In Hakluyt's account of Drake's visit to the 
 California coast, in 1579, occurs the following 
 statement concerning its mineral wealth : — 
 " There is no paii; of the earth here to be taken 
 up wherein there is not a reasonable quantity 
 of gold and silver." There is little reason to 
 believe that this assertion was based uj^on any 
 knowledge of the fact averred. Yet the Span- 
 iards and Mexicans who visited the Californias 
 saw the indications of srold in the soil. In tlie 
 vicinity of the Colorado they found the precious 
 metal itself So, though they did not find it 
 in paying quantities, the impression went abroad 
 that it was a mineral region, and a vague sus- 
 picion of the truth perhaps crossed the minds 
 of American politicians who plotted and log- 
 rolled to annex a slice of Mexico to the Union. 
 Indeed, President Polk, in his Message of 1 848, 
 
HOW THE GOLD WAS FOUND. 231 
 
 said that it was known that mines of precious chap. 
 metals existed to a considerable extent in Cali- 
 fornia at the time of its acquisition. 1848. 
 
 But Alexander Forbes, in 1835, wrote, "No 
 minerals of particular importance have yet been 
 found in Upper California, nor any ores of 
 metals ;" and speaking of Hijar's emigrants who 
 arrived in 1833, he said there were among them 
 " goldsmiths, proceeding to a country where no 
 gold existed." 
 
 There are reports that silver was discovered 
 in Alizal, Monterey County, in 1802, and gold 
 in San Isidro, San Diego County, in 1828. A 
 place on the San Francisquito Canon, forty-iive 
 miles northward from Los Angeles, discovered 
 in 1838, was worked till 1848, yielding an 
 average of six thousand dollars a year. These 
 meagre hints of the presence of precious metals 
 were only sufficient to warm the fancy of san- 
 guine prophets of the future of the land, but 
 they did not affect the popular sentiment or 
 excite general attention. 
 
 The wonder is now that the discovery was 
 not earlier made. Emigrants, settlers, hunters, 
 practical miners, scientific exploring parties had 
 camped on, settled in, hunted through, dug in, 
 and explored the region, and could not see it. 
 Professor Dana, the geologist of Wilkes's ex- 
 ploring expedition, did say that gold rocks and 
 veins of quartz were observed by him in 1843, 
 
232 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, near the Umpqua River in Ore2:on, and pebbles 
 
 XVIII • • . 
 
 , ■ from similar rocks were met with along the 
 
 1848. shores of the Sacramento ; and when speaking 
 of places where gold was to be found, he men- 
 tions " California, between the Sierra Nevada 
 and the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers." 
 But it is very doubtful whether it occuiTed to 
 Professor Dana that there was gold to be found 
 here in quantities that would ever get into more 
 practical use than to lie as rare specimens be- 
 hind plate-glass doors in the mineralogical cab- 
 inets of the collea:es. 
 
 The discovery was entirely accidental. Cap- 
 tain Sutter had contracted with James W. 
 Marshall, in September, 1847, for the construc- 
 tion of a saw-mill at Coloma. In the course 
 of the winter a dam and race were made, but 
 when the water was let on, the tail-race was too 
 narrow. To widen and deepen it, Marshall let 
 a strong current of water directly into the race, 
 which bore a large body of mud and gravel to 
 the foot. 
 
 Jan. 1 9. On the 19th of January, 1840, Marshall ob- 
 served some glittering particles in the race, 
 which he was curious enough to examine. He 
 called five carpenters who were at work on the 
 mill to see them, but though they talked over 
 the possibility of its being gold, the vision did 
 not inflame them. Peter L. Weimar claims 
 that he was with Marshall when the first piece 
 
HOW THE GOLD WAS DISCOVERED. 233 
 
 of the "yellow stuff" was picked up. It was chap. 
 a pebble weigliing six pennyweights and eleven _^_ 
 grains. Marshall gave it to Mrs. Weimar, and 1848. 
 asked her to boil it in saleratus water and see 
 what came of it. As she was making soap at 
 the time, she pitched it into the soap-kettle. 
 About twenty-four hours afterwards it was 
 fished out and found all the brighter for its 
 boilinor. 
 
 Marshall, two or three weeks later, took the 
 specimens below, and gave them to Sutter 
 to have them tested. Before Sutter had quite 
 satisfied himself as to their nature, he went up 
 to the mill, and with Marshall made a treaty 
 with the Indians, buying of them their titles to 
 the region round about, for a certain amount of 
 goods. There was an effort made to keep the 
 secret inside the little circle that knew it, but 
 it soon leaked out. They had many misgiv. 
 ings and much discussion whether they were 
 not making themselves ridiculous, yet by com- 
 mon consent all began to hunt, though with no 
 great spirit, for the " yellow stuff " that might 
 prove such a prize. 
 
 In February, one of the party went to Yerba Feb. 
 Buena, taking some of the dust with him. 
 Fortunately he stumbled upon Isaac Humphrey, 
 an old Georgian gold-miner, who, at the first 
 look at the specimens, said they were gold, and 
 that the diggings must be rich. Humphrey 
 
334 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, tried to induce some of his friends to cfo up 
 XVIII • • . . 
 
 ,_^ with him to the mill, but they thought it a 
 
 1848. crazy expedition, and left him to go alone. He 
 ' '"'^^' reached there on the 7th of March. A few 
 were hunting for gold, but rather lazily, and the 
 work on the mill went on as usual. Next day 
 he began " prospecting," and soon satisfied him- 
 self that he had struck a rich j)lacer. He made 
 a rocker, and then commenced work in earnest. 
 A few days later a Frenchman, Baptiste, 
 formerly a miner in Mexico, left the lumber he 
 was sawing for Sutter at Weber's, ten miles 
 east of Coloma, and came to the mill. He 
 agreed with Humphrey that the region was rich, 
 and like him took to the pan and the rocker. 
 These two men were the competent practical 
 teachers of the crowd that flocked in to see 
 how they did it. The lesson was easy, the 
 process simple. An houi''s observation fitted 
 the least experienced for working to advan- 
 tage. 
 
GRAND EUSH TO CALIFORNIA. 235 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 GRAND RUSH TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 About a month after the gold discovery, but ^^J^- 
 before it was much bruited, an armistice be- ^-v — ' 
 tween the United States and Mexico was ao;reed \?*,^- 
 
 * Feb. 
 
 upon. The treaty of peace which followed was 
 ratified by the United States in March, by 
 Mexico in May. 
 
 The news reached California late in the sum- Aug. 
 mer, and was honored with illuminations, the 
 explosion of some gunpowder, and processions. 
 The terms of the treaty were satisfactory to the 
 war party. In consideration of the assumption 
 by the United States of the Mexican debt to 
 American subjects, and of fifteen millions of 
 money, the free navigation of the Colorado, from 
 the mouth of the Gila to the Gulf, and of the 
 Gulf itself, and all right and title to Texas, New 
 Mexico and Upper California were ceded to 
 the United States. Lower California, much to 
 the disgust of Captain Halleck and other mili- 
 tary men, who had been at pains to hold it while 
 the war lasted, was left with Mexico. It was 
 despised as an arid, barren, worthless i^eninsuLi. 
 
236 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP. The opponents of tlie Administration held tlie 
 _.^_^ treaty to be a very fit conclusion for a demor- 
 1848. alizing and unnecessary war. It paid an enor- 
 mous price, they said, for what we were a great 
 deal better without. It annexed an immense 
 territory that we did not need, and, worst fea- 
 ture of all, that territory was populous with 
 Indians, of whom we had more on our hands 
 than we had yet learned to take care of, and 
 with drowsy Mexicans, who never could be 
 worked over into American citizens, or brought 
 into harmony with American ideas. If they 
 knew it, they gave little heed to the fact that 
 there were already from twelve to fifteen thou- 
 sand whites in California, and there was no 
 seer to foretell the revolution that was about to 
 sweep through every settlement in the Union, 
 when the news should reach it of how those 
 whites in California were employing them- 
 selves. 
 
 The story of the great gold discoveries in 
 California crept slowly into the faith of the 
 people of the Union, but once there, the whole 
 lump was soon leavened. The President in- 
 dorsed, in a measure, the truth of the reports 
 of army and navy officers on the Pacific coast, 
 by sending them with the documents accom- 
 panying his message to Congress. They were 
 printed in the newspapers, and became the 
 topic of Congressional debate, and soon every 
 
THE RUSH TO CALIFORNIA. 23 Y 
 
 rural district was eclioiiig those debates. Spe- ^^^• 
 cimens of the gold were exhibited in the cities, -— ., — • 
 inflaming the imas^ination of the coolest. The i^^^- 
 whole land experienced a new sensation. 
 
 Some of the New York papers said the gold 1848. 
 was mica; but as an offset to these opinions 
 was the announcement of Director Patterson, 
 of the Philadelphia Mint, that the first deposits 
 of ffold from California were worth eio-hteen 
 dollars and five and a half cents per ounce. 
 Colonel Benton said in the Senate : " I am a 1849. 
 friend to a gold currency, but not to gold min- 
 ing. . . I regret that we have these mines in Cal- 
 ifornia, but they are there, and I am for getting 
 rid of them as soon as possible." Again he 
 said, " The gold in these washings is a tempo- 
 rary crop — a mine is one thing, a wash is anoth- 
 er." The gold washings of California, or placers 
 — called so, he said, from the Latin placere, to 
 please, because there was a very lively short- 
 lived pleasure experienced when a man finds 
 one of them — were marvellously rich, yet not so 
 rich as those of Brazil, a hundred years ago, 
 which were exhausted so long since that all mem- 
 ory of them is lost. 
 
 But soon the California fever was raging like 
 an epidemic in every section — even in those 
 rare spots whore migration was discouraged by 
 the example of a couple of centuries, it swept 
 through like an influenza. High and low, rich 
 
238 THE inSTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, and poor took it. They could actually pick 
 _^ the gold out from the crevices of the rocks with 
 1848- their knives ! Then it required no more capi- 
 tal to get all the gold that a modest man ought 
 to wish, than one's passage-money and his bare 
 living at the mines ! Plad a family man the 
 right to 2)lod all his life, and die at last leaving 
 those dependent on him v^ith a mere pittance, 
 v^hen a little energy, or a year or two of " rough- 
 ing it in the mines," would give him, and those 
 he lived for, a comj^etency ? 
 
 Before such considerations as these, the con- 
 servatism of the most stable bent. Men of 
 small means, whose tastes inclined them to 
 keep out of all hazardous schemes and uncer- 
 tain enterprises, thought they saw duty beck- 
 oning them around the Horn, or across the 
 plains. In many a family circle, where nothing 
 l)ut the strictest economy could make the two 
 ends of the year meet, there were long and anx- 
 ious consultations, which resulted in selling off 
 a piece of the homestead or of the woodland, or 
 the choicest of the stock, to fit out one sturdy 
 representative to make a fortune for the family. 
 Hundreds of farms were mortgaged to buy tick- 
 ets to the land of gold. Some insured their 
 lives and pledged their })olicies for an outfit. 
 The wild boy was packed off hopefully. Thw 
 black sheep of the flock was dismissed with a 
 blessing, and the forlorn hope that, with a 
 
THE RUSH TO CALIFOENIA. 239 
 
 change of skies, there miffht be a chanQ-e of chap. 
 
 XIX 
 
 manners. The stay of the happy household ^_^ 
 said, " Good-by, but only for a year or two " i849. 
 to his charge. Unhappy husbands availed 
 themselves cheerfully of this cheap and repu- 
 table method of divorce, trusting time to mend 
 or mar matters in their absence. Here was a 
 chance to begin life anew. Whoever had be- 
 gun it badly, or made slow headway on the 
 right course, might start again in a region where 
 Fortune had not learned to coquette with and 
 dupe her wooers. 
 
 The adventurers generally formed companies^ 
 expecting to go overland or by sea to the mines, 
 and to dissolve partnership only after a first 
 trial of luck together in the "diggings." In 
 the Eastern and Middle States they would buy 
 up an old whaling-ship, just ready to be con 
 demned to the wreckers, put in a cargo of such 
 stuff as they must need themselves, and pro- 
 visions, tools, or goods, that must be sure to 
 bring returns enough to make the venture prof- 
 itable. Of course, the whole fleet rushing in 
 tos^ether throu2:h the Golden Gate, made most 
 of these ventures profitless, even when the guess 
 was happy as to the kind of supplies needed 
 by the Californians. It can hardly be believed 
 what sieves of ships started, and how many of 
 them actually made the voyage. Little river- 
 steamers, that had scarcely tasted salt water be- 
 
24:0 THE HISTORY OF CALITORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, fore, were fitted out to thread tbe Straits of 
 
 __^ Magellan, and these were welcomed to the bays 
 
 1849. and rivers of California, whose waters some of 
 
 them ploughed and vexed busily for years 
 
 afterwards. 
 
 Then steamers, as well as all manner of sail- 
 incr vessels, began to be advertised to run to the 
 Isthmus ; and they generally went crowded to 
 excess with passengers, some of whom were 
 fortunate enough, after the toilsome ascent of 
 the Chagres River, and the descent either on 
 mules or on foot to Panama, not to be detained 
 more than a month waiting for the crafts that 
 had rounded the Horn, and by which they were 
 ticketed to proceed to Sau Francisco. But 
 hundreds broke down under the horrors of 
 the voyage in the steerage, contracted on the 
 Isthmus the low typhoid fevers incident to 
 tropical marshy regions, and died. 
 
 The overland emigrants, unless they came 
 too late in the season to the Sierras, seldom 
 suffered as much, as they had no great variation 
 of climate on their route. They had this ad- 
 vantage, too, that the mines lay at the end of 
 their long road, while the sea faring, when they 
 landed, had still a weary journey before them. 
 Few tarried longer at San Francisco than was 
 necessary to learn how utterly useless were the 
 curious patent mining contrivances they had 
 brought, and to replace them with the pick, 
 
THE EUSH TO CALIFOElSriA. 241 
 
 shovel, pan, and cradle. If any one found him- chap. 
 self destitute of funds to go farther, there was 
 work enough to raise them by. Labor was i849. 
 honorable, and the daintiest dandy, if he were 
 honest, could not resist the temptation to work 
 where wages were so high, pay so prompt, and 
 employers so flush. 
 
 There were not lackins; in San Francisco 
 grumblers who had tried the mines and satis- 
 fied themselves that it cost about a dollar's 
 worth of sweat and time, and living exclusively 
 on bacon, beans, and "slap-jacks," to pick a dol- 
 lar's worth of gold out of rock, or river-bed, or 
 dry ground ; but they confessed that the good 
 luck which they never enjoyed, abode with 
 others. Then the display of dust, slugs, ami 
 bars of gold in the public gambling-places — the 
 sight of men arriving every day freighted with 
 belts full, which they 2)arted with so freely as 
 men only can when they have got it easily— the 
 testimony of the miniature rocks — the solid 
 nuggets brought down fi^om above every few 
 days, whose size and value rumor multiplied 
 according to the number of her tongues — the 
 talk day and night unceasingly and exclusively 
 of "gold, easy to get and hard to hold," in- 
 flamed all new-comers with the desire to hurry 
 on and share the chances. They chafed at the 
 necessary detentions. They nervously feared 
 that all would be gone before they should arrive. 
 
 16 
 
242 THE HISTOKY OF CALITORlSnA. 
 
 The prevalent impression was, that the placers 
 would give out in a year or two. Then it be- 
 1849. hooved him who expected to gain much to be 
 among the earliest on the ground. Where ex- 
 periment was so fresh in the field, one theory 
 was about as good as another. An hypothesis 
 that lured men perpetually farther up the 
 gorges of the foot-hills, and to explore the 
 canons of the mountains, was this: that the gold 
 which had been found in the beds of rivers, or 
 in gulches, through which streams once ran, 
 must have been washed down from the places 
 of original deposits farther up the mountains. 
 The higher up the gold-hunter went, then, the 
 nearer he approached the source of supply. 
 
 To reach the mines from San Francisco, the 
 course lay up San Pablo and Suisun Bays, and 
 the Sacramento, not then as now a yellow, 
 muddy stream, but a river pellucid and 
 deep, to the landing for Sutter's Fort ; and 
 they who made the voyage in sailing vessels 
 thought Mount Diablo significantly named, so 
 long it kept them company and swung its shad- 
 ow over their path. From Sutter's, the most 
 common route was across the broad, fertile val- 
 ley to the foot-hills, and up the American or 
 some one of its tributaries ; or, ascending the 
 Sacramento to the Feather and the Yuba, the 
 company staked off a claim, pitched its tent or 
 constructed a cabin, and set up its rocker, or 
 
HURRYING TO THE MINES. 243 
 
 began to oust the river from a portion of its chap. 
 bed. Good luck might hold the impatient ad- _^ 
 venturers for a whole season on one bar ; bad i849. 
 luck scattered them always farther up. 
 
 So it was not gradually, but almost simul- 
 taneously, that the settlement of the northern 
 raining region was effected. The great trouble 
 was the excess of water in the winter, and its 
 deficiency in the summer. But the mountains 
 where the branches of the San Joaquin rise 
 being farther south, are covered with a thinner 
 mantle of snow than those that feed the Sacra- 
 mento, and consequently those southern rivers 
 never ra2:e with such tumultuous floods. It 
 required but a year's experience to discover 
 that the mines of the south could be best 
 worked during the wet weather, when the 
 northern ones were impracticable. So, though 
 the more sober and persevering stuck by the 
 bars that paid them, and spent the months 
 when they could not get out gold, in con- 
 structing flumes and dams that would put the 
 water henceforth under their control, the fluc- 
 tuating population alternated like a tide be- 
 tween the northern mines in the summer and 
 the southern in the winter. 
 
 Roads sought the mining camps, which did 
 not stop to study roads. Traders came in to 
 supply the camps, and, not very fast, but still 
 to some extent, mechanics and farmers to sup- 
 
244 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 ^XTX*' P^^ ^*^^^ traders and miners ; so, as if hj magic, 
 ^^ — • within, a year or two after tlie riish began, the 
 
 1849. jjiap of the country was written thick with the 
 names of settlements. 
 
 Some of these were the nuclei of towns that 
 now flourish and promise to continue as long 
 as the State is peopled. Others, in districts 
 where the placers were soon exhausted, were 
 deserted almost as hastily as they were begun, 
 and now no traces remain of them except the 
 short chimney-stack, tlie broken surface of the 
 ground, lieaps of cobble-stones, rotting half- 
 buried sluice-boxes, empty whiskey bottles, 
 scattered playing-cards, and rusty cans. 
 
 The "fall of '49 and spring of '50" is the 
 -jg^g era of California history, which the pioneer al- 
 
 1850. ways speaks of with warmth. It was the free- 
 and-easy age, when everybody was flush, and 
 fortune, if not in the pahn, was only just beyond 
 the grasp of all. Men lived chiefly in tents, or 
 in cabins scarcely more durable, and behaved 
 themselves like a generation of bachelors. The 
 family was beyond the mountains ; the restraints 
 of society had not yet arrived. Men threw off 
 the masks they had lived behind, and appeared 
 out in their true character. A few did not dis- 
 charge the consciences and convictions they 
 brought with them. More rollicked in a per- 
 fect freedom from those bonds which o-ood men 
 cheerfully assume in settled society for the good 
 
FLUSH, RECKLESS TIMES. 245 
 
 of the greater number. Some afterwards re- 
 sumed their temperate and steady habits ; but 
 hosts were wrecked before the period of their 
 license expired. 
 
 Very rarely did men on their arrival in the 
 country begin to work at their old trade or pro- 
 fession. To the mines first. If fortune favored, 
 they soon quit for more congenial employments. 
 If she frowned, they might depart disgusted, if 
 they were able ; but oftener, from sheer in- 
 ability to leave the business, they kept on, 
 drifting from bar to bar, living fast, reckless, 
 improvident, half-civilized lives; comparatively 
 rich to-day, poor to-morrow ; tormented with 
 rheumatisms and agues ; remembering dimly 
 the joys of the old homestead ; nearly weaned 
 from the friends at home, who, because they 
 were never heard from, soon became like dead 
 men in their memor^^ ; seeing little of women, 
 and nothing of churches ; self-reliant, yet satis- 
 fied that there was nowhere any "show" for 
 them ; full of enterprise in the direct line of 
 their business, and utterly lost on the thresh- 
 old of any other ; genial companions, mor- 
 bidly craving after newspapers; good fellows, 
 but short-lived. In fifteen years almost the 
 Tvhole generation of pioneer miners who re- 
 mained in that business has passed away, and 
 the sui'vivors feel like old men among the 
 crowds of new-comers, who may be just as 
 
246 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOKNIA. 
 
 CHAP, old, but lack their long, strange chapter of 
 
 ^,^,,_^ adventures. 
 
 1849- This heterogeneous mixture of men was either 
 "* ■ without law, or were the makers and executors 
 of their own law. Most of the companies that 
 left the East together quarrelled and dissolved 
 partnership, but they had very little litigation 
 about it. Generally equity ruled in the divi- 
 sioUj for all men claimed equality, and public 
 sentiment was sharp for the right. Theft was 
 a crime little known, but, when discovered, the 
 penalty was as swift as it was terrilde. Lynch- 
 law was substantially the criminal code of the 
 mines. Its seveiity held crime in check, but 
 some frio'htful mistakes were made as to the 
 objects of its stern sentences. 
 ^ As to civil law, the country was utterly at 
 sea. It had a governor in the person of the 
 commandant of the military district it belonged 
 to, but no government. The authority by 
 which the governor held his power was doubt- 
 ful and anomalous. While the war lasted, 
 ♦ California, as a conquered province, expected to 
 
 be governed by military officers, who, by virtue 
 of their command of the Department, bore sway 
 over all the territory that their Department em- 
 braced. But after peace had come, and the suc- 
 cession of military governors was not abated, 
 a people who had been in the habit of govern- 
 ing themselves under the same flag and the 
 
ANOMALOUS CIVIL GOVERNIVrENT. 247 
 
 same constitution, chafed that a simple change chap. 
 of longitude should deprive them of their in- 
 alienable rights. 1849- 
 
 General Persifer F. Smith, who assumed com- 
 mand on arriving by the California^ the first 
 steamship that i-eached San Francisco (February 
 28th, 1849), and General Riley, who succeeded 
 him (April loth, 1849), would have been ac- 
 ceptable governors enough, if the people could 
 liave discovered anywhere in the Constitution 
 that the President had power to govern a terri- 
 tory by a simple order to the commandant of a 
 military department. The power was obvious 
 in time of war, but in peace it was unprece- 
 dented. Left entirely to themselves, the people 
 could have organized a squatter sovereignty, as 
 Oregon had done, and the way into the sister- 
 hood of States was clear. 
 
 They felt that they had cause for complaint, 
 but in truth they were quite too busy to nurse 
 their grievance and make much of it. To some 
 extent they formed local governments, and had 
 unimportant collisions with the military. But 
 busy as they were, and expecting to return 
 home soon, they humored their contempt for 
 politics, and left public matters to be shaped at 
 Washington. Nor was that so unwise a course 
 under the circumstances, for the thing that had 
 hindered Congress from giving them a legiti- 
 mate constitutional government was the ever- 
 
248 THE IIISTOKT OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, present snag in the current of American polit- 
 
 ^__JJ^ ical history, the author of most of our woes, 
 
 1849- the great mother of mischief on the Western 
 
 ^^^^- continent — Slavery. 
 
CALIFORNIAN AFFAIRS AT WASHINGTON. 249 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 CONGIiESS FAILS TO PROVIDE A GOVERNMENT. 
 
 President Polk had asked the Twenty -ninth chap. 
 Congress to place at his disposal three millions ^"^ 
 of dollars to be used in negotiating for a boun- i846. 
 dary which would give to the United States 
 additional teri-itory. To a bill granting him a 
 portion of that sum, David Wihnot moved his 
 famous " proviso," that no part of the territory 
 to be acquired should be oj)en to the introduc- 
 tion of slavery. The proviso was adopted in 
 the House, and that killed the bill itself in the 
 Senate. Giddings said, "We souo;ht to extend 
 and perpetuate slavery in a peaceful manner by 
 the annexation of Texas ; now we are about 
 to effect that object by war and conquest." 
 They said Giddings could see slavery where 
 nobody else dreamed of it, but none were so 
 blind as not to see that the slavery question 
 was the substance and spirit of the whole con- 
 troversy about acquiring California and other 
 territory from Mexico. 
 
 At the next session (1847), the three mil- 
 lions were aj)propriated. Thomas Corwin noti- 
 
250 THE IIISTOEY OF CALIFORlSrEA. 
 
 CHAP, lied the Senate that they were paying dear for 
 ^___, California. If the war terminated in any thiug 
 1847. short of a mere wanton waste of blood and 
 money, it must end in the acquisition of terri- 
 tory to which the slavery controversy must at- 
 tach. " Should we prosecute this war another 
 moment, or expend one dollar in the purchase 
 or conquest of a single acre of Mexican land, 
 the North and the South would be brought 
 into collision on a i^oint where neither would 
 yield." 
 
 Calhoun attempted to meet the case with a 
 new dogma. He moved resolutions declaring 
 in effect that Congress had no right to prohibit 
 slavery in a territory, and that the exercise of 
 such a power was a breach of the Constitution 
 leading to the subversion of the Union. " Your 
 dogma admitted," said Colonel Benton, " the 
 Free Soilere have nothing: to fear, and the Slave 
 Soilers nothing to fear from the admission of 
 California. By a fundamental law of the 
 Mexican Republic slavery is prohibited through- 
 out its political jurisdiction. The prohibition 
 was proclaimed by President Guerrero in 1829. 
 An act of the Mexican ConsTress declared 
 slavery abolished in 1837, and in 1844 the 
 Constitution forbade it forever. Then if you 
 take California for a part of your territory, you 
 take her free, and if Congress, as you say, has 
 no power to legislate upon slavery in the terri- 
 
CALIFORNIAN AFFAIRS AT WASITINGTON". 251 
 
 tories, the slavery question has nothing to do chap. 
 with the question of acquiring land." v--^-' 
 
 Calhoun's resolutions never came to a vote. i847. 
 He and his party soon chose a different ground, 
 and the battle between the giants of the Senate 
 was set with California as the guerdon, Cali- 
 fornia with slavery would have been welcomed 
 to the Union by the South. Without slavery, 
 she was coveted by the North. Change the 
 terms, and neither would consent to receive her. 
 Indeed, there was a small minority, mostly 
 composed of conservative Whigs, who cherished 
 the Grecian L'tatesman's advice — " You have a 
 Sparta — improve it," — and they protested that 
 to enlaige our boundaries in any direction, or 
 at any price, would be a damage to the com- 
 monwealth. 
 
 As the prospects of making California a Slave 
 State faded, Calhoun asked, " Is there any man 
 here who would give for her fifteen millions of 
 money V Benton thought better of this land, 
 of which he knew more. Dix appreciated its 
 value to American commerce ; but was sure the 
 North would spurn it if slavery were to be in- 
 troduced by American law upon soil rendered 
 forever free by Mexican laAv. None dreamed 
 that the region about which they haggled so 
 long would be producing and exporting, within 
 a few years, gold enough to pay the price, which 
 Calhoun thought so extravagant, twice over 
 
252 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOEl^IA. 
 
 CHAP, every twelve montlis. The negro question ef- 
 ___^ fectuall}' closed the golden gate that year, and 
 
 1847. Congress adjourned without taking any steps 
 towards opening it. 
 
 In the spring of 1848 the treaty of peace was 
 
 1848. signed by which California was annexed to the 
 United. States. How to govern this new terri- 
 tory sorely exercised Congress ; and the debate 
 on the subject raged with violence until the 
 12th of July, when Senator Clayton moved a 
 committee of eight — half Northerners, half 
 Southerners, half Whigs, half Democrats — to 
 consider all the measures proposed. The reso- 
 lution prevailed, and the committee was ap- 
 pointed — Clayton, chairman ; Calhoun, Bright, 
 Clark of Rhode Island, Atchison, Phelps, D. 
 S. Dickinson, and Underwood of Kentucky. 
 In committee, the South favored extending the 
 Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific ; but 
 the North opposed it. The chairman was finally 
 ordered to draft a compromise bill establishing 
 the territorial governments of Oregon, Califor- 
 nia, and New Mexico, and submitting all ques 
 tions as so the riii^htful existence or extension 
 of slavery in these ten-itories to the decision of 
 the United States Supreme Court. The bill was 
 reported, argued, urged, fought, and finally or- 
 dered engrossed l)y ayes thirty- three, noes twen- 
 ty-two — Dix, Hale, Hamlin, and Corwin voting 
 no. This victory for the South was accom- 
 
NO GOVERNMENT PEOVIDED. 253 
 
 plished by means of a memorable session of chap. 
 twenty hours, the majority achieving its pur- ,_^^ 
 pose, and the Senate adjourning at seven min- i848. 
 utes of eight o'clock on Thursday morning, 
 July 27th. 
 
 But the victory was barren. The House, 
 receiving the bill, tabled it by a vote of one 
 hundred and twelve to ninety-seven — three- 
 fourths of those voting to kill the Vnll by ta- 
 blino; itbeino: Northern men. 
 
 Meanwhile President Polk had, by message, 
 called the attention of Congress to the ample 
 indemnity that California gave for the past. 
 He had dwelt on the value of the public 
 lands of California, on the safety of her har- 
 bors, on the rich Eastern commerce that she 
 insured, on the new markets she would fur- 
 nish, on the increased tonnage she would re- 
 quire, and the enhanced revenue that she must 
 return. 
 
 When Congress adjourned without taking 
 a step for the government of the newly acquired 
 territory. President Polk, through his Secretaiy 
 of State, James Buchanan, dispatched a letter 
 to the Pacific coast to assure the people how 
 matters stood. The Administration's doctrine 
 was, that the Californians had a government 
 de facto. To that they were advised to submit. . 
 Their consent to it would be presumed so long 
 as they submitted, and there need be no ques- 
 
254 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CMAP. tlon by what authority the officers of the army 
 
 ^ ■ were governing them. 
 
 1848. Now, Colonel Benton held that the right to 
 issue letters expository and of advice was not 
 exclusively with Secretaries of State or Presi- 
 sidents ; so he, too, wrote a letter to the Cali- 
 fornians, and sent it by the hands of Colonel 
 Fremont. He assured them that by the treaty 
 they were United States citizens, competent to 
 govern themselves. He pronounced the edicts 
 of Gtn^ernors Mason and Kearny, " each an 
 ignoramus," null and void. He warmly recom- 
 mended that they call a convention and provide 
 themselves with a governor, with judges, and 
 with peace and militia officers. 
 
 President Polk's messao-e to Concrress, on its 
 reassembling, December, 1848, recommended the 
 establishment of a mint at San Francisco, and 
 called attention again to the necessity of erect- 
 ing some form of government for the country. 
 
 Senator Douglas sprang to the work so eager- 
 ly, and persisted in it so well, that it was said 
 of him, by way of ridicule, that he had a special 
 mission to give California a government. On 
 the very first day of the session he gave notice 
 that he would introduce a bill for the admission 
 of California as a State. On the seventh the bill 
 was forthcoming. He despaired, he said, of 
 making it a Territory — three several bills to 
 that effect having failed during the preceding 
 
THE STRUGGLE EST THE SENATE. 255 
 
 session. Now, lie proposed that all the region chap. 
 acquired by treaty from Mexico be admitted as _^J^ 
 one State, with two judicial districts, Congress 1848. 
 reserving the right to receive other States out 
 of that portion of it east of the Siejra Nevada. 
 Afterwards, he proposed an amendment, author- 
 izing the judges to lay off the land into dis- 
 tricts, and provide for the election of delegates 
 to a constitutional convention. 
 
 This bill was referred to the Judiciary Commit- 
 tee, which — Mr. Down-^, of Louisiana, alone clis- 1849. 
 senting — reported adversely upon it. The report 
 argued that the Constitution provided only 
 for the admission, not for the creation of States; 
 that the proviso that Congress should reserve 
 the right to carve out from a State, once admit- 
 ted, other States, was void, and the bill would 
 inevitably lead to litigation between Texas and 
 California, which the Supreme Court must 
 eventually decide, with all the delay incident 
 to such investiirations. The committee recom- 
 mended that, instead of one State, the newly 
 acquired region be erected into two territories. 
 Mr. Douglas, foiled by the Judiciary, man- 
 a<^'"ed to g-et his bill referred to a select commit- 
 tee, composed of Senators Johnson, Jones, 
 Clayton, Jefferson Davis, Badger, and Niles, 
 with himself as chairman, which promptly 
 reported a bill erecting the territory into the 
 two States of California and New Mexico. 
 
256 THE HISTOIIY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 In the course of the discussions that arose 
 upon these several bills, some notable things 
 1849. -^ere said. Mr. Downs urged that California 
 should be brought into the Union at once, lest, 
 debiying, she might never come in. Mr. But- 
 ler pictured the surprise these Californians 
 would feel, waking up and finding themselves 
 a soverei2:n State, without ashing:: for it. 
 
 Ml'. Dayton objected that there was not pop- 
 ulation enough, nor were the people of the 
 right soi't to be admitted with safety. The sub- 
 stratimi of population consisted of some twelve 
 or fifteen thousand people of Spanish origin, 
 retired ofiicers, retired soldiers, the remnants of 
 the old Franciscan missions. Not as many 
 more were on their way thither by sea and a 
 few overland, who did not proj)ose to stay. 
 They were heterogeneous, crazy about gold, in. 
 diiTerent to government. "You would have 
 to lasso your members to get them to a consti- 
 tutional convention. My word for it," said he, 
 in the course of one or two years your ships 
 will retui-n laden with more gold-diggers than 
 gold-dust." 
 
 Mr. Wel)ster said they could do little more 
 there than keep the peace ; it was impracticable 
 to administer revenue laws. A military gov- 
 ernment there for the present would be the best 
 for the people, and the only safe course for the 
 whole country. 
 
THE STRUGGLE IN CONGEESS, 2^57 
 
 But all the efforts of the " Little Giant " of chap. 
 Illinois to push his bill forward were m vani. 
 In the House, a territorial bill for California i849. 
 passed, and Washington Hunt reported, from 
 the Finance Committee, a bill to extend the 
 United States levenue laws over Upper Cali- 
 fornia ; but that failed. Then, almost in de- 
 spair, attempts were made to attach amendments, 
 that would secure a lawful collection of the 
 revenue at San Francisco, to the army bill, and 
 to the civil and diplomatic appropriation bills. 
 At one time, Robert C. Schenck, a Whig, from 
 Ohio, proposed to cede back to Mexico all Cali- 
 fornia and New Mexico, if she would allow us 
 twelve millions of dollars on account ; though 
 if she would permit us to keep San Francisco, 
 three millions of dollars were at her service as 
 remuneration for the gift. This astonishing 
 proposal, having been amended somewhat, ac- 
 tually passed the committee of the whole House 
 — ayes eio-hty-iive, Twes eighty-one. When it 
 was reported to the House, however, and the 
 ayes and noes called, it was rejected by eleven 
 ayes to one hundred and ninety-four noes. 
 
 In the Senate, again General Dix, of New 
 York, regretted the necessity of discussing so 
 grave a question in the form of an amendment 
 to an appropriation bill. He was opposed to 
 the admission ; he held that the inhabitants of 
 Califoinia were mostly Indians, or Mexicans of 
 
 17 
 
2 00 THE mSTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, mixed blood, uneducated, not familiar with tlie 
 ■ business of self-government, not speaking our 
 1849. language, not intelligent or cultivated to the 
 standard of the American citizen. These ob- 
 jections he considered insuperable to the im- 
 mediate admission. He wanted to see the 
 population that was pouring in from eveiy 
 quarter of the globe pass through the process 
 of fermentation and settle before permitting it 
 to participate in the administration of the gov- 
 ernment. He held that a territorial o;overn- 
 ment should be organized for California and 
 New Mexico, the bill to contain a prohibition 
 of slavery, which, he said, would be agreeable 
 to the wishes of the people of his State, New- 
 York. He grieved over the news that he heard 
 from the country. Said he, " In the recent dis- 
 covery of gold, there is much to l)e deplored ; 
 let us hope that it will soon become exhausted, 
 and that the steady pursuits of agricultural, 
 commercial, and mechanical industry, by which 
 alone nations are made prosperous, may consti- 
 tute the sole objects of application." 
 
 For several days senators battled over the 
 constitutional questions involved. Webster and 
 Calhoun wrestled on this point — whether the 
 Constitution of the United States extends over 
 all its territories, as the latter argued, or can- 
 not, by legislation, be extended an inch beyond 
 the States' borders, as the former insisted. The 
 
A STORMY SUNDAY SESSIOI^". 259 
 
 civil and diplomatic appropriation bill, wliicli chap. 
 had passed tlie House, halted on its passage for 
 these logicians to decide abstract propositions i849. 
 which had no natural connection with any item 
 in the bill, but were incident to the territorial 
 questions that had been grafted on it by the 
 Senate, ratlier than have them utterly ignored. 
 
 The 4th of March came that year (1849) on Mar.4. 
 Sunday. President Taylor was to be inaugu- 
 rated on the 5th, and Congress had no legal 
 existence after the session of Saturday, the 3d, 
 should end. Unless this appropriation bill 
 passed, the wheels of government would stop;- 
 yet midnight came and the two houses still dis- 
 ao;reed as to these foreio-n amendments. Mr. 
 Cass said the term of the session was ended ; 
 he could not vote on any motion. Mr. Web- 
 ster insisted that the legislative day terminated 
 only with the adjournment of the day's session, 
 without regard to clocks. 
 
 Mr. Foote rasped and raved. He denied the 
 right of the body to take any further action. 
 About four o'clock Sunday morning he pro- 
 tested that nothing was in order ; that the chair 
 could not put a question, because the body did 
 not exist. When he made a motion, he said it 
 was not made in the Senate of the United States, 
 but in a town meeting, four hours after the term 
 of several senators had expired. Occasionally 
 he was sharply rebuked by some earnest man 
 
260 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 cnAP. wlio could keep silence no longer. Some- 
 times his brother senators hissed and groaned 
 
 1840. at him. Oftener they bit their lips and mut- 
 tered their disgust ; but checked themselves 
 even in that, lest it should provoke new delays 
 and fresh obstacles. In the course of the night 
 Mr. Cameron and Mr, Berrian were nearly be- 
 trayed into a personal collision. 
 
 Jefferson Davis said, strike out of the bill all 
 concerning California, and save the appropria- 
 tions. Mr. Douglas preferred to lose the appro- 
 priation bill and save California. Finally, the 
 Senate receded from its amendments (which the 
 House would only agree to on condition that 
 other amendments were added), and the appro- 
 priation bill passed wdth but seven dissenting 
 votes — Mr. Douo:las votino; with the Qioes. In- 
 stantly a House bill, which Mr. Dix had in the 
 morning reported, was called up and passed, 
 and the two houses, after a terribly stormy all- 
 night session, adjourned at seven o'clock Sunday 
 morning, March 4th. 
 
 This Sunday-morning bill extended the reve- 
 nue laws of the United States over all the terri- 
 tory ceded by the treaty of peace with Mexico. 
 It made San Francisco a port of entry, and San 
 Diego, Monterey, and a point near the junction 
 of the rivers Gila and Colorado ports of de- 
 livery. It authorized the President to appoint 
 a collector of customs, and that collector to ap- 
 
THE REVENUE LAWS EXTENDED. 261 
 
 point tliree deputies. It provided amply for chap. 
 obtaining revenue from California, but did not _^^_, 
 even promise at some future day tlie govern- i849. 
 ment tliat she coveted. 
 
 It imposed no new burdens on the people, 
 but it lesralized the course that Governor Mason 
 was already pursuing ; for, on hearing of the 
 treaty of peace, the governor had taken the re- 
 sponsibility of collecting the revenues under the 
 tariff of 1846. His collections had been with- 
 out law, yet as there were laws forbidding 
 goods to be landed until the duties were paid, 
 and as the goods were demanded, he assumed 
 that it was his plain duty to encourage the 
 landing of the goods, and raise a revenue from 
 them. 
 
202 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORTTIA. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 
 
 The Californians were not surprised at tlie 
 failure of Congress to give them a government. 
 I84'j. In anticipation of sucli an issue, they had called 
 public meetings at San Jose, San Francisco, 
 Sonoma, and Monterey, and discussed their 
 position. They had gone so far as to set the 
 day for the election of delegates to a constitu- 
 tional convention, but they had neglected such 
 a concert of action as insures success. 
 
 When, however, Brigadier-General Bennett 
 Riley (who succeeded General Persifer S. Smith, 
 the successor of Mason as governor) learned 
 positively that Congress had adjourned and 
 done nothing, he issued a proclamation l)y the 
 advice, he said, of the President and Secretaries 
 of State and of War, which was at once a call 
 for a convention, and an official exposition of 
 the Administration's theory of the anomalous 
 relations of California and the Union. He 
 strove to correct the prevailing impression that 
 California was held under a military govern- 
 
THE CONSTITUTIOIS^AL CONVEIST^IOK. 268 
 
 ment. That was ended with the war. What chap, 
 remained was the civil government recognized 
 by the existing laws of California. Those laws i849. 
 vested the government of the countiy in a gov- 
 ernor appointed by the supreme goverament, 
 or, in default of such appointment, the office was 
 vested in the commanding military officer of 
 the department, d secretary, a departmental or 
 territorial legislature, a superior court with, 
 four judges, a prefect and sub-prefect and a 
 judge^ of the first instance for each disti'ict, 
 alcaldes, local justices of the peace, and ayun- 
 tamientos or town councils. Several of these 
 offices were vacant ; he advised that they be 
 filled by the people, and named the first of Au- 
 gust as the day for the election. 
 
 Moreover, he advised the election of delegates 
 to a convention to adopt either a State or ter- 
 ritorial constitution, which, if the people rati- 
 fied, might be submitted to Congress for its ap- 
 proval. The territory, for election purposes, he 
 divided into ten districts. Every male inhabi- 
 tant of the country, who was twenty-one years 
 of age, was at liberty to vote in the district of 
 his residence, and the delegates so elected were 
 ordered to convene* at Monterey on the first of 
 September. The whole number of delegates 
 was fixed at thirty-seven, of whicli San Francis- 
 co was to send five. In the rapidly-shifting 
 state of society, and because no one could pre- 
 
264 THE HISTORr OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 tend to say how the population of the State 
 was distributed, supernumerary delegates could 
 be elected where it was deemed desirable, and 
 the convention would exercise its discretion 
 about admitting them. 
 
 There was a little natural repugnance on the 
 part of the people to accepting the dictation of 
 their governor by military position ; but as 
 they had once postponed the time that had 
 been set for the election, and as the proclama- 
 tion really commanded about what they de- 
 sired, they consented, after relieving their minds 
 by a public meeting or two, to obey it. 
 
 The election came off on the appointed day, 
 and a vote so alarmingly small was polled, that 
 those interested hesitated whether to confess 
 tliat they had greatly overrated the population, 
 or that the masses cared very little about poli- 
 tics. Still, the prophecy of Senator Dayton 
 was not fulfilled, that they would have to lasso 
 the members to get them to a constitutional 
 convention. 
 
 The convention met as ordered, at Monterey, 
 on the 1st of September, 1849, assembling in 
 Colton Hall, a large two-story stone building, 
 named in honor of Walter Colton, author of 
 Ship and SJiore, who, while alcalde of the 
 place, had urged its erection with the proceeds 
 of the sale of city lots. On Monday, the 3d, 
 a quorum was found present, and the first ses- 
 
MEM13EKS OE THE COFVENTIOl!^. 265 
 
 sion was opened with, prayer by the Kev. chap. 
 S. H. WHley, a Presbyterian clergyman, wbo __^ 
 Lad been sent out by the American Home Mis- i849. 
 sionary Society in 1848, before the gold discov- ^^^' 
 ery was bruited. They got early to worh, and 
 had a lively session of six weeks. 
 
 On the roll of meml^ers were the names of 
 several who had been already identified with 
 the history of the country, and who have since 
 taken a large share in its fate. Among them 
 were Captain H. W. Halleck, then Riley's " 
 secretary of state, and since then known to all 
 the nation as General-in-Chief of the United 
 States Army ; John A. Sutter, the pioneer, who 
 kept open house in the Sacramento Valley when 
 the valle}^, now so busy, was a solitude ; John 
 McDougal, the second governor of the State; 
 Thomas O. Larkin, the first and last American 
 consul in California, and before 1848 the con- 
 fidential agent of the American State Depart- 
 ment ; Charles T. Botts, afterwards editor of a 
 Democratic paper published at Sacramento; 
 Mariano de Guadalupe Vallejo, who had figured 
 in the civil wars of the province, and had 
 greeted with welcome the Americans at the be- 
 ginning of their career in the land ; and Dr. 
 Gwin, one of the first United States senators 
 elected by the legislaturef of the organized 
 State. 
 
 Enough of the supernumerary delegates were 
 
266 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORlSriA. 
 
 CHAP, admitted to make the Convention nmnber forty- 
 
 XXI 
 
 seven members. They represented seventeen 
 1849. States of the Union, and five foreign countries. 
 ^^^^' Seven of them were native Californians ; ten 
 had not been more than one year in the terri- 
 tory ; and ten more had not been residents over 
 two years. Dr. Gwin, who took a very impor- 
 tant part in the proceedings, had been there but 
 four months. Ei2;ht were merchants ; eleven 
 fanners ; thirteen hiwyers ; one gave his profes- 
 sion as " elegant leisure." Several of them did 
 not understand the English language ; they ad- 
 dressed the house through an interpreter, and 
 important resolutions were interpreted to them. 
 
 When the Convention was permanently or- 
 ganized, Robert Semple, of Sonoma, was its 
 president ; W. E. P. Ilartwell its interpreter ; 
 William G. Marcy its secretary ; Caleb Lyon 
 and J. G. Field its assistant secretaries ; and J. 
 Ross Brown its official reporter. 
 
 There was not at first entire unanimity as to 
 the i)olicy of forming a State government, 
 though the idea that the native Californians 
 were generally opposed to it was denied on the 
 floor. Dr. Gwin had taken the precaution to 
 have some copies of the constitution of Iowa 
 printed, and because that was the only docu- 
 ment of the sort to which they had easy access 
 at first, it seemed for a while as if Iowa were to 
 furnish California with her organic law. But 
 
AWKWAED LACK OF BOOKS. 267 
 
 as the session advanced, the constitution of New chap. 
 York was oftener consulted, and when the con- 
 vention finished its labors their perfected in- i849. 
 strument resembled more that of the Empire ^^P*' 
 State than of any other. When the preaml^le 
 was under discussion, McDougal expressed his 
 fervent desire to see a few lines of the dele- 
 gates' own manufacture. Mr. McCarver said if 
 they sat there much longer they would have a 
 resolution in to annex New York, constitution 
 and alL Botts complained that the standing 
 committee of twenty (of which Gwin and 
 Myron Norton were leading members) had 
 gathered up a constitution out of all sorts of 
 constitutions, without any regard to the circum- 
 stances of California. 
 
 Delegates complained that they felt the awk- 
 wardness of having so few books of reference. 
 Mr. Botts believed there were not fifty law-books 
 in Monterey. Yet the debates exhibit a remark- 
 able degree of ability. The speeches, as re- 
 ported, were generally brief, pertinent, and ex- 
 haustive of the topics discussed. Their free- 
 dom from verbiage, repetition, and irrelevant 
 matter would be surjorising, if we did not sus- 
 pect that the reputation of the speech-makers 
 was mercifully spared, and their credit en- 
 hanced by the elegant and critical pen of the 
 reporter. 
 
 The first article of the constitution is entitled 
 
268 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 a " Declaration of Rio'hts." When this article 
 was repoi'ted from the committee, it provided 
 I84t). in o-eneral terms that no member of the State 
 should, be disfranchised unless by the law of 
 the land or the judgment of his peers. This 
 was not up to the standard of public sentiment. 
 It was linally amended to declare that " all men 
 are, by nature, free and independent, and have 
 certain inalienable rights, among which arc 
 those of enjoying and defending life and lib- 
 erty." Lest that should be at some future day 
 construed into a "glittering generality," Mr. 
 Shannon, an Irishman by birth, who had emi- 
 grated three vears before from New York, 
 moved, as an additional section to the article, 
 the following : " Neither slavery nor involun- 
 tary servitude, unless for the punishment of 
 crime, shall ever be tolerated in this State." 
 
 Considering how the territory of California 
 was acquired by the United States; consider- 
 ing the composition of the Convention, and the 
 antecedents of some of its prominent members, 
 this ou2;ht to have raised a sjreat storm. But 
 it did not ; the text which never failed before 
 to produce a debate, failed uttei'ly here. There 
 was a little talk about what part of the con- 
 stitution to put that provision in, and then the 
 section was adopted in committee of the whole 
 unanimously. This was done on the tenth day 
 after the Convention assembled, which shows 
 
SLAVERY PROHIBITED FOREVER. 269 
 
 that tlie action was suggested by the well-un- chap. 
 derstood sentiment of the people, and not bred 
 of the policy developed within the Convention i849. 
 itself. 
 
 After so handsome an achievement in the 
 interest of freedom, accomplished with scarce a 
 struggle, it was quite natural that the Conven- 
 tion, in the good nature that follows victory, 
 should be almost betrayed into an action that 
 would have reflected very seriously upon its 
 sagacity. A desperate effort was made to pro- 
 hibit the emio-ration of free nem-oes into the 
 State. This was strenuously advocated by Mr. 
 McCarver, a Kentuckian ; Mr. Semple, also from 
 Kentucky by the way of Missouri ; Di-. Wozen- 
 craft, from Ohio, '^;^» Louisiana; Mr. Tefft, from 
 New York, and Mr. Steuart, from Maryland. 
 They argued that free negroes were bad mem- 
 bers of society, and unless they were strictly 
 prohibited from entering the State, California 
 would be overrun with them, and their labor 
 be brought into competition with white labor 
 in the mines. They said the owners of slaves 
 had already discovered that, by bringing their 
 negroes here and freeing them under indentures, 
 binding them to dig gold for a while, they could 
 get as much profit out of them in three years 
 as during a life-time on the 23lantations, besides 
 saving the expense of taking care of them when 
 old and valueless as property. 
 
270 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP. Mr. Dimmick, of New York, I'eplied, that 
 
 , _^ few masters could afford to bring their slaves 
 
 1849. here, especially in view of the extreme proba- 
 bility that they would run away the day they 
 set foot on California free soil. 
 
 Mr. Shannon, of New York, said the Slave 
 States might vei'y properly prohibit free negroes 
 from crossing their borders, for their presence 
 was injurious to the slave system ; but the Free 
 States had no excuse for such illiberality, and 
 only one of them, Illinois, had j^ractised it. 
 There, the Convention refused to put tlie prohibi- 
 tory clause into the constitution; but leaving it 
 to the people, they, by a popular vote, insert- 
 ed it. He contended, moreover, that the free 
 blacks are not a bad people, and if this illiberal 
 provision should be inserted, it would damage 
 the prospects of the constitution in Congress. 
 
 Mr. Gill)ert, from New York, though con- 
 fessing to a fashionable degree of repugnance to 
 the blacks, opposed the prohibition. He held 
 that color was not a crime. The free negro, in 
 the spirit and meaning of the Constitution of 
 the United States, was a citizen, and that Con- 
 stitution provides that the citizens of each State 
 shall be entitled to all the privileges and im- 
 munities of the several States. To insert the 
 proposed section would jeoj^ardize the success 
 of all their labors. 
 
 This debate occurred in committee of the 
 
on NEGEO HVIxMIGEATIOlSr. 271 
 
 whole, nine days after tlie unanimous adoption chap. 
 
 of tlie section excluding slavery forever from , ^_^ 
 
 the State. When the vote was taken the pro- 1849. 
 •posed section was adopted. It was as fol- 
 lows: "The Legislature shall, at its lirst session^ 
 pass such laws as will effectually prohibit free 
 persons of color from immigrating to, and set- 
 tling in this State, and to effectually prevent the 
 owners of slaves from brino-ins; them into this 
 State for the purpose of setting them free." 
 
 But that dark stigma was not to be indelible. 
 A fortnight afterward the subject came up 
 again, the question being on the adoption of 
 the report of the committee of the whole. Mr. 
 Norton opposed the prohibitory clause on con- 
 stitutional grounds. He alleged that when 
 Missouri was admitted to the Union it was 
 with the express, condition imposed by Con- 
 gress, that she should strike out a similar clause 
 from her constitution. The subject was dis- 
 cussed again freely, and when the question was 
 taken the whole- section was rejected, by ai/e-s 8, 
 7ioe-9 31. 
 
 But the negro question was not quite yet 
 disposed of. It reaj)peared as the principal 
 feature of the long discussion concerning the 
 boundaries of the State. That California should 
 1)6 declared to be bounded on the west by the 
 ocean, on the north by Oregon, and on the 
 south by Mexico, was acceded to so soon as 
 
272 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, proposed. But wliere should the eastern line 
 be drawn ? The committee had reported in 
 
 1849. favor of placing it on the one hundred and six- 
 teenth parallel of longitude. This would have 
 included within California the whole of mod- 
 ern Nevada. Mr. McDougal proposed the one 
 liundred and fiftli parallel of longitude, which 
 would have taken in portions of Kansas and 
 Nebraska. Mr. Semple preferred to make the 
 Sierra Nevada the eastern boundary. Dr. 
 Gwiu wanted to follow the line of separation 
 between California and New Mexico, as laid 
 down on Fremont's map, which woukl include 
 the Mormon settlements about Salt Lake. 
 Captain Ilalleck favored that, with a proviso 
 authoiizing the legislature to assent to a pro- 
 position, if Congress should make one, for the 
 erection of all east of the Sierras into either a 
 Territory or a separate State. Mr. Shannon 
 proposed nearly the boundaries that were 
 finally adopted. He objected to all schemes or 
 proposals that left the territorial question open, 
 for that left the slavery question open. The 
 usual arguments for and against a large State 
 were urged and answered. The dignity of 
 imperial dimensions, the pride of size, the fiict 
 that there was no neighbor on the east to ob- 
 ject to the widest scope proposed, the human- 
 ity of extending State law over the deserts 
 which were beginning to be populous along 
 
 July. 
 
TUE SLAVERY QUESTION. 2*73 
 
 certain lines of approacli and which Oongi'ess chap. 
 had failed to shield with any law, the doctrine 
 that the California of Mexico included all and i849. 
 more than the committee recommended, and 
 that it was not becoming for the convention, 
 unasked, to dismember or reject any portion 
 of her — these were the considerations urged 
 at first for making the State embrace all 
 the area possible. On the other hand, it was 
 ai'gued that it was wasting political power to 
 give to so vast a territory no more United 
 States senators than little Delaware is entitled 
 to ; the desert east of the Sierras was worth no 
 State's possessing ; the expense of sustaining a 
 State government over so broad a field would 
 be burdensome ; to take in Utah would be 
 simply to stipulate for a Mormon trouble ; to 
 be modest would look well in Congress, and 
 cost the sacrifice of not an acre that was really 
 worth ownino*. Of course no one dreamed then 
 
 o 
 
 that within twenty years the desert east of the | 
 Sierras would be ringing with the clatter of ^ 
 mills, populous with permanent inhabitants, 
 and famous the world over for the products of 
 its mines. 
 
 But the specious arguments that men ad- 
 vance are seldom the ones that govern their 
 votes in deliberative bodies. The boundary 
 question was settled by considerations connect- 
 ed with slavery. One party said, we have pro- 
 is 
 
274 TliE IIISTOFwY OF CALIFOKNIA. 
 
 CHAP, liibited slavery from our State; now, for hu- 
 ^_^ inanity's sake, let us make the State as large as 
 1849. possible. Do you suppose, asked the Chivalry, 
 that the South is so blind as not to see that ? 
 and will they let you in at all, when for such a 
 purpose you ask so much ? Ask modestly, 
 said a third party, and ask for a fixed, unalter- 
 able line, and Congress will not be tempted to 
 debate your admission all next term. Mr. Sem- 
 ple quoted T. Butler King, as begging very 
 emphatically, " Leave us no territory to legis- 
 late upon in Congress." Mr. Shannon under- 
 stood it now — the Cabinet was divided about 
 the Wilmot Proviso, and the President had sent 
 out T. Butler Kinof to induce the convention to 
 put all the loose territory west of the Rocky 
 Mountains within California, and take that bone 
 of contention, the "Wilmot Proviso," out of 
 Congress. 
 
 Whether that was literally true or not, there 
 I is no doubt that the most comprehensive bound- 
 I aries were advocated, with the hope that the 
 I action of the convention would be taken as 
 final, and relieve the Administration of a troub- 
 lesome question that it did not care to en- 
 counter. In committee of the whole this policy 
 prevailed, and the Gwin-Halleck proposition 
 was adopted by ayes 19, noes 4. 
 
 That did not end the discussion, however, 
 which was resumed in the House and main- 
 
THE BOUNDARY QUESTION. 275 
 
 tained witli enemy, amendment after amend- chap. 
 
 XXI 
 
 ment being voted down. When, at last, three ,_^„^ 
 days before tlie Convention adjourned, the re- 1849. 
 port of the committee of the w^hole was con- 
 curred in by ayes 29 to noes 22, there was 
 great confusion and excitement. Mr. McCarver 
 moved to adjourn sine die — they had done mis- 
 chief enough. " Your constitution is gone — ^is 
 gone ! " exclaimed Mr. Snyder. " I will sign it 
 under protest." "All is lost," and cries of 
 "Order," rang through the hall. Afterwards 
 the matter was reconsidered, and, as a compro- 
 mise, the line accepted which forms the present 
 eastern boundary — a line drawn north and 
 south from the forty-second to the thirty-ninth 
 parallel on the one hundred and twentieth de- 
 gree of longitude, thence southeasterly to the 
 Colorado ; thence along the channel of that 
 river to the Mexican line. This left the Mor- 
 mons out, took in all that was supposed to be 
 of any earthly value of the territory that Mex- 
 ico ever treated as California, and gave to the 
 new State an area of one hundred and eighty- 
 eight thousand nine hundred and eighty-one 
 square miles. 
 
 Other topics gently exercised the Conventioij, 
 but no other one excited it. The freedom of 
 the press was guarded by a provision that in 
 criminal prosecutions for libel, the truth of the 
 alleged libel might be pleaded, and if good mo- 
 
276 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOKNIA. 
 
 CHAP, tives for the publication appeared, the accused 
 should be acquitted. The right of suffrage was 
 1849. extended to white male citizens of the United 
 States, and to white male citizens of Mexico, 
 who elected to become citizens of the United 
 States under the treaty of peace. The Legisla- 
 ture was prohibited from granting divorces. 
 
 Lotteries were prohibited. Mr. Price believed 
 lotteries a necessaiy evil ; they could be made 
 to defray the expenses of the Legislature until a 
 system of taxes were devised. He contended 
 that the people of California were essentially a 
 gambling people. Every public house had its 
 monte and faro tables licensed by law, where 
 there was a law. Lotteries were less offensive 
 to public morals ; he would tax them for the 
 sake of revenue. Mr. Halleck reminded gentle- 
 men of the famous case of Yates and Mclntyre, 
 which involved not only many individuals in 
 ruin, but so embarrassed the finances of New 
 York State that the convention of 1846 felt 
 called on to prohi])it lotteries. Mr. Dimmick 
 denied the truth of Mr. Price's charge, that 
 California was a community of gamblers. It 
 was not applicable to his constituency, the 
 people of San Jose. The prohibition was not 
 seriously contested further. 
 
 Fighting a duel, or sending or ascepting a 
 challenge, or acting as a second in a duel, after 
 the adoption of the Constitution, made the 
 
MORAL AND EDQCAITONAL PEO VISIONS. 277 
 
 party so offending ineligible to any office of chap. 
 profit, and disfranchised him. Dr. Gwin earn- 
 estly contended for this clause. He pleaded 1849. 
 his observation in Mississippi and Tennessee 
 in evidence that this remnant of the dark a^-es, 
 which the greatest cowards cling to, can be put 
 down by law. 
 
 Provision was ordered for a system of com- 
 mon schools, to be supported in every district 
 for three months in the year ; but they were not 
 required to be absolutely free. The rights of 
 women to a separate property were recognized. 
 Banks of circulation were forbidden, and, after 
 a long discussion, hard money was made the ex- 
 clusive currency. Mr. Botts struggled hard to 
 make the State treasury a bank of deposit of 
 gold and silver, with power to issue certificates 
 of deposit, " You want a mint," said he, " but 
 you cannot have one — not in three years ; nor 
 at all — the expense of labor required to conduct 
 it would be too great in this country ;" in which 
 prediction, happily, he made a mistake. 
 • They fixed the capital at San Jose ; but they 
 left it optional for the Legislature, by a two- 
 thirds vote of each house, to remove it at any 
 time. 
 
 The expenses of the Convention, General Riley 
 gave them to understand, that he would take 
 care of, out of the proceeds of the anomalously 
 collected revenues. They allowed to their seo 
 
278 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOElSnA. 
 
 CHAP, retaiy twenty-eiglit dollars per diem / to the 
 1849. assistant secretaries and engrossing clerk they 
 ' — ^ — ' paid twenty-three dollars each, daily ; to the 
 copying clerk, sixteen dollars ; to the door- 
 keeper, twelve dollars. The sessions were 
 opened with prayer, either by the Rev. Mr. 
 Willey, Presbyterian, or the E-ev. Father Ra- 
 mirez, Catholic ; for this, sixteen dollars a day 
 was paid. The reporter, J. Ross Browne, en- 
 gaged to deliver a certain number of printed 
 copies of the proceedings ; he was paid ten 
 thousand dollars. These seem like liberal sala- 
 aries — heavy ones, they all confessed when they 
 lugged them off at the close of the session, paid 
 mostly in silver coin ; but they were not out of 
 proportion to the wages that men were making 
 in the field, the shop, and the counting-room. 
 
 Only one design for a great seal of state 
 and coat of arms was offered to the committee 
 that took that matter in charge. It was pre- 
 sented by Caleb Lyon, of Lyonsdale, as wdth 
 harmless affectation the eccentric first assistant 
 secretary loved to designate himself. After it 
 was accepted, some members claimed the original 
 design of it for Major Garnett, who, however, 
 had expressed to Mr. Lyon a desire that he 
 alone should be known as its author. Mr. 
 Lyon was authorized to have it engraved, and 
 to furnish a press and necessary appendages, 
 and the Convention paid him one thousand dol- 
 
THE SEAL OF STATE. 279 
 
 lars for it. The seal is thus explained by its chap. 
 
 , . ± ^ XXT. 
 
 designer : — w-v— ' 
 
 " Around the bend of the ring are represented i849. 
 thirty-one stars, being the number of the States 
 of which the Union will consist upon the ad- 
 mission of California. The foreground figure 
 represents the goddess Minerva, having sprung 
 full grown from the brain of Jupiter. She is 
 introduced as a type of the political birth of 
 the State of California, without having gone 
 through the probation of a Territory. At her 
 feet crouches a grizzly bear, feeding upon the 
 clusters from a grape-vine, emblematic of the 
 peculiar characteristics of the country. A 
 miner is en2:aged, with his rocker and bowl at 
 his side, illustrating the golden wealth of the 
 Sacramento, upon whose waters are seen ship 
 ping, typical of commercial greatness ; and the 
 snow-clad peaks of the Sierra Nevada make up 
 the background, while above is the (rreek mot- 
 to, ' Eureka ' (I have found), applying either 
 to the jmnciple involved in the admission 
 of the State, or the success of the miner at 
 work." 
 
 Dr. Wozencraft tried to have the gold-digger 
 and the bear struck out ; and General Vallejo 
 wanted the bear removed, or else fastened by a 
 lasso in the hands of a vaquero; but the original 
 suited the majority, and it was not altered. 
 The Convention had been in session six weeks. 
 
280 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP. Though members had indulged in some person- 
 alities, had always very freely criticised each 
 
 1840. other, and once Mr. TefFt and Mr. Jones had 
 mutually ras]3ed each other until the experts 
 in affairs of honor interfered and. gently forced 
 them to make the proper apologies inside the 
 House, harmony had generally prevailed, and 
 their work was crowned with good feeling. 
 They had met as strangers ; they parted as 
 friends. Of all parties, they had, to an aston- 
 ishing degree, ignored party. Representing all 
 sections of the Union, they had, to a wonderful 
 extent, laid aside sectional prejudice?, and given 
 to the new State a constitution fully up to the 
 standard of the times, and defaced with but 
 few of those innovations (like the popularly 
 elected judiciary) which have crowded them- 
 selves in among the improvements of the age, 
 and, for a season, passed for such. 
 
 On Saturday, October 13th, the Convention 
 
 Oct. 13. adopted a brief address to the people, thanked 
 General Eiley for his courtesy, and voted that 
 he ousfht to have ten thousand dollars a vear 
 for his salary while governor ; named six thou- 
 sand dollars as a proper salary for Captain 
 Halleck, as secretary of state ; paid Lieuten- 
 ant Hamilton, for ensrrossins: the Constitution on 
 parchment, five hundred dollars ; signed the en- 
 grossed copy, Colton Hall meanwhile trembling 
 and the hills around the bay echoing the salute 
 
FINAL adjotjunment. 281 
 
 of tLIrty-one sfuns fired from the fort, and ad- chap. 
 
 XXL 
 
 journed sine die. •^-^-^-^ 
 
 The members then went in a body to call on 1849. 
 General Eiley at his house. Captain Sutter 
 expressed the Convention's thanks for his aid in 
 creating a State government. General Kiley 
 replied that he never made a speech in his life ; 
 but it was a prouder day than v/hen his soldiers 
 cheered him on the field of Contreras. He 
 handsomely complimented the people who se- 
 lected such able delegates. The members 
 gracefully turned the compliment back with 
 three cheers for the Governor of California, and 
 three more for " the gallant soldier worthy of 
 his country's glory." " I have but one thing 
 more to add," said the general, weathering the 
 cheers. "My success in the afiairs of California 
 is mainly owing to the efficient aid rendered me 
 by Captain Halleck, the secretary of state. 
 He has stood by me in all emergencies ; to him 
 I have always appealed when at a loss myself, 
 and he has never failed me." Monterey was 
 gay with American flags that day, and the few 
 people throughout the State, who had given 
 any attention to ]3ublic afijiirs, were happy over 
 a good job completed. 
 
 It required swift Avork to publish the Consti- 
 tution in English and Spanish, and spread it 
 over so broad a territory in those roadless days, 
 so that it could be fairly canvassed in town and 
 
282 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOrvIHA. 
 
 CHAP, country, on the randies of the valleys, and in 
 
 ■^'^^' tlie mining camps far up the mountain-sides, by 
 
 1849. the 13th of November, which day General Riley 
 
 Nov.13 jj^^i appointed for the election to ratify or reject 
 
 it, and to choose the Cona-ressmen and State 
 
 officers that it called for. Whether it was well 
 
 or illy done, appearances were kept ui^, and on 
 
 the day set the election came off. 
 
 The people adopted the Constitution by a 
 vote of twelve thousand and sixty-four for it, 
 to eight hundred and eleven against it ; there 
 beino;, besides, over twelve hundred ballots that 
 were treated as blanks, because of an informal- 
 ity in the printing. Peter H. Burnett was 
 chosen governor, getting six thousand seven 
 hundred and sixteen votes, while his com- 
 petitors, W. Scott Sherwood, received three 
 thousand one hundred and eighty-eight; J. 
 W. Geary, one thousand four hundred and 
 seventy-five; John A. Sutter, two thousand 
 two hundred and one ; and William M. Stewart, 
 six hundred and nineteen. John McDougal 
 was elected lieutenant-governor ; and George 
 W. Wright and Edward Gilbert, getting be- 
 tween five thousand and six thousand votes 
 each, were elected to Congress. 
 
 These were small figures for a State claiming, 
 six weeks later, to have one hundred and seven 
 thousand inhabitants. Those most interested 
 felt ashamed of the returns, and were thankful 
 
A EAINY ELECTIOIS^-DAY. 283 
 
 that they could plead a drenching rain and chap. 
 unusual storm upon election-day throughout 
 
 the country. The day had been set early, in 1849. 
 
 hopes to anticipate the rainy season, but not ^^' 
 early enough by a week, as the event showed. 
 
284 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIL 
 
 THE FIRST STATE LEGISLATURE. 
 
 CHAP. Theee was a stroncrer reason than that, how- 
 
 XXII. 
 
 j^^^ ^^^^^^ v^c^^ ^xxc*v, 
 
 ever, in the fact that the vast majority looked 
 1849. upon politics as a matter of small account, in 
 the midst of such a harvest of gold, especially 
 as they expected to leturn soon to their old 
 homes, taking their fortunes with them, and 
 leaving the State and its politics for others of 
 different tastes and more modest expectations, 
 to regulate. 
 
 A month after election, the first Legislature 
 met at San Jose. The Senate consisted of six- 
 teen members, of whom San Francisco sent two, 
 and the Sacramento and San Joaquin districts 
 four each. The Assembly had thirty-six members. 
 Their pay was sixteen dollars a day, and sixteen 
 dollars mileage for every twenty miles trav- 
 elled in going to or returning from the capital. 
 
 Governor Riley kept the promise he had 
 made (conditioned upon receiving no orders to 
 the contrary from Washington), surrendered 
 the administration of civil aftairsinto the hands 
 of Governor Burnett, and turned over to the 
 
THE FIRST LEGISLATURE. 285 
 
 new government tlie books, papers, and archives chap. 
 of the territory. f^ 
 
 In his message, Governor Burnett advised 1849. 
 that without a doubt they had a right to pro- 
 ceed at once to the business of les^islation. 
 Missouri and Michigan had started on their 
 State career long before they were admitted to 
 the Union, and their right had not been se- 
 riously questioned. The Legislature never hesi^ 
 tated a moment iu adopting the course recom- 
 mended. On the sixth day of the session they 
 went into joint convention for the election of 
 two United States senators. On the first call 
 of the roll Jolm C. Fremont received twenty- 
 nine votes, and was elected. On the third, 
 William M. Gwiu received twenty-four votes, 
 and he was elected, his unsuccessful compet- 
 itors being H. W. Halleck, who had eighteen 
 votes, and T. J. Henley, T. Butler King, and J. 
 W. Geary dividing between them the remain- 
 der. 
 
 The Leo^islature continued in session four i850. 
 months. The wits of the day called it " The 
 Legislature of a Thousand Drinks." The appel- 
 lation may have been fairly won. Members, 
 whose families were the width of a continent 
 away, found it a thirstier land than it ever has 
 been since. But if they drank well, they 
 worked well too. They enacted one hundred 
 and forty laws, most of which were of a general 
 
286 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, and important character, thouf^h some were 
 
 XXII • 
 
 pretty nearly transcripts of tlie laws of other 
 1850. States, that have needed very thorough revision 
 since to suit them to the peculiar wants of 
 California, 
 
 They created the offices required by the Con- 
 stitution. They established a judiciary, and re- 
 quired the Supreme Court, after its first two 
 reo^ular terms, which were to be held in San 
 Francisco, to sit at the seat of government. To 
 each of the district judges they appointed a 
 salary of seventy-five hundred dollars a year; 
 to the county judges, from one thousand to six 
 thousand. They fixed the legal rate of interest 
 at ten per cent, per annum, in case no express 
 contract were made ; but if it were agreed to 
 beforehand, any rate of interest became legal, 
 and the interest, on failure to pay it promptly, 
 could be added to the principal, and itself draw 
 interest — a law which was early found to tend 
 to the ruin both of borrowers and lenders. 
 They required foreigners not naturalized to 
 pay a license before being pJlowed to work 
 the mines — a policy which, on trial, failed to 
 raise any considerable revenue, and met with 
 serious opposition in the mining districts. 
 
 They would not prohibit the immigration of 
 people of color into the State, but they so far 
 catered to the prejudices of the Chivalry, as to 
 bar from the courts the testimony of any black, 
 
THE FIRST LEGISLATURE. 287 
 
 mulatto, or Indian, either for or ao;ainst a white chap. 
 
 . . , ? • . XXII 
 
 man — a piece of unjust and foolisli legislation, ^_^_ 
 which it took thirteen years to erase from the i850. 
 statute-book. They made some meagre provi- 
 sion for common schools, and authorized the 
 Supreme Court to incorporate colleges when- 
 ever they could show an endowment of twenty 
 thousand dollars. For murder, and nothing 
 else, they established the death penalty. To 
 send or accept a challenge to a duel they de- 
 clared a crime, and affixed as a penalty impris- 
 onment for from one to three years, and a fine 
 not to exceed one thousand dollars. They 
 adopted the common law, so far as it was not 
 repugnant to the Constitution of the State or 
 United States, and showed their confidence that 
 nothing of importance was left undone, by abol- 
 ishing, with a few exceptions, all laws then in 
 force but those of their own enactment. 
 
 Early in January two delegates appeared at 
 San Jose with a curious petition, purporting to 
 come from the people of the *' new State of 
 Deseret." The residents in the Great Salt 
 Lake basin had, in March, 1849, met in conven- 
 tion and formed a State Constitution, which 
 afterwards was approved by the popular vote. 
 But, hearing that California was about to hold 
 a convention, they chose two delegates to attend 
 it, and urge that Deseret be included for a time 
 within California. The delegates, arriving, 
 
288 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, found that the Convention had adjourned. 
 xxir. 'Yhej then modestly asked California to call 
 1850. another convention, throw aside its adoj^ted con- 
 stitution, and ao^ree on boundaries which should 
 embrace temporarily the Great Basin. Tliis 
 done, they would unite in recommending Con- 
 gress to reject without discussion or debate both 
 the State constitutions already adopted. They 
 professed to have authority to vote against per- 
 mitting slavery, and urged that only in this 
 way could the slavery question in the territo- 
 ries be set at rest ; for Congress, owing to the 
 division of parties, could not handle it. Re- 
 ject these terms, and Deseret, " with her twenty 
 thousand inhabitants, and thirty thousand more 
 on the way to settle within her borders," would 
 insist before Congress upon her separate ad- 
 mission, with boundaries stretching fi-om the 
 Rocky Mountains to the Sierras, and a wide 
 strip from the southern end of California, to 
 give her access to the Pacific. Of course, Gov- 
 ernor Burnett recommended the Legislature not 
 to accede to the proposition, and it was soon 
 forgotten. 
 
 They authorized the incorporation of towns 
 out of any settlement containing over two hun- 
 dred people, and not embracing more than 
 three square miles ; and the incorporation as 
 cities, of places containing two thousand j^teople. 
 They also, by special act, in spite of one veto 
 
THE CITY OF SAN FEANCISCO. 289 
 
 of the Governor, who insisted that special chap. 
 
 • XXII 
 
 legislation was not needed for the purpose, m- ^_,^^_ 
 corporated nine cities — San Francisco, Sacra- isso. 
 mento, San Jose, Monterey, Los Angeles, San 
 Diego, Benicia, Sonoma, and Santa Barbara. 
 
 San Francisco was at tliat time a brisk, noisy, Ap'l 15 
 enterprising place, of from twenty thousand to 
 forty thousand inhabitants, full of troubles 
 about land, titles, much given to mass meetings 
 and other American ways ; with three daily 
 papers — the Alta, Journal of Commerce^ and 
 Pacific Heivs — which advertised seven places 
 of worship open every Sunday, and two thea- 
 tres ; with a 23rison brig ; with steamers on the 
 bay running to Sacramento, and charging " re- 
 duced rates," namely, twenty dollars to carry 
 a passenger there, or thirty-five to take him to 
 Yuba or Marysville; running to Alviso also, 
 which town Governor Burnett and Mr. Hoppy 
 were just starting, at the southern extremity of 
 the bay, and charging for passage through to 
 San Jose thirty-five dollars ; and running wher- 
 ever else freight or passage-money offered in- 
 ducements enough to tempt them. 
 
 The city had achieved most of its import- 
 ance vv^ithin two years. Though the Mission 
 Dolores was indeed founded in 1776, there was 
 no sign of settlement on the beach of Yerba 
 Buena Cove before 1835, when Captain W. A. i835. 
 Eiohardson, who had received the appointment 
 
 19 
 
290 THE HISTORY OP CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, of master of the harbor, put up the first dwell- 
 
 _^_, ing, a rude structure with a sail-cloth roof. On 
 
 1S36. the 4th of July, 1836, Jacob P. Leese finished 
 a frame house adjoining Richardson's (its site 
 was the southwest corner of Clay and Dupont 
 streets, where the St. Francis Hotel yet stands) 
 in time for a house-warming and celeln-ation of 
 Independence Day by some sixty guests invited 
 from the first families in all the region. On the 
 
 1838. 15th of April, 1838, the first child was born in 
 Yei'ba Buena, Rosalie Leese, whose father was 
 the pioneer American merchant, and her mother 
 a sister of General Vallejo. Leese erected, as 
 the requirements of trade required it, a store 
 on the beach, where now is the crossing of Com- 
 mercial and Montgomery Streets ; for the water- 
 front, which is now thrust six blocks to the east- 
 ward, at that time swept in on the line of 
 Washington Street as far as Montgomery, and 
 crossed Market Street at the intersection of Bat- 
 
 1830. tery and First Streets. Li 1839, Governor Al- 
 varado ordered a survey of the plain and cove ; 
 and Captain Juan Vioget made the survey, 
 which included the re^-ion between Pacific and 
 Sacramento, Dupont and Montgomery streets. 
 
 1841. In 1841, Leese transferred his property to the 
 liud son's Bay Company, and removed to So- 
 noma. That company did most of the business 
 
 1S46. of the place till 1846, when it sold out and 
 left. 
 
GEOWTH OF SAN FEANCISCO. 291 
 
 The American conquest quickened a new chap. 
 growth on the narrow, sandy plain that skirted 
 the base of Telegraph, Rincon, and Russian i847. 
 hills. In January, 1847, it had a population 
 of three hundred and a weekly newspaper. In 
 April following, it contained seventy-nine build- 
 ings, of which twenty-six were adobe, thirty-one 
 frame, and the rest shanties. In June, with a 
 population of four hundred, it boasted its second 
 weekly paper. On the 30th of January it dropped 
 its old name, and took a new and less fragrant 
 one. On the 20tli of July, the lots between 
 high and low water marks, from Fort Montgom- 
 ery (Clark's Point) to Rincon Point, were sold 
 at auction under orders of General Kearny 
 and Alcalde Bryant. The first steamboat, an 
 importation from Sitka, made its trial trip on 
 the bay November 15th. 
 
 By tlie middle of March, 1848, San Francisco 1848. 
 had two hundred houses and eig-ht hundred and 
 fifty people. On the 3d of April the first pub- 
 lic school was opened — a delay that would have 
 been a reproach if the population had not been 
 to so great a degree an adult one. In May and 
 June came the rush to the interior which, fol- 
 lowed the announcement of the gold discovery, 
 when the shipping was deserted, stores shut 
 up, shops abandoned, papers stopped, because 
 of the hegira to the mines. By November the 
 gold-hiunters were in good part back again, 
 
292 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOEIXIA. 
 
 CHAP, business resumed, school reopened, the presses 
 ,__^_ running again ; and the Rev. J. D. Hunt (chosen 
 
 1848. " Protestant chaplain," at a yearly salary of 
 twenty-five liunclred dollars, to be raised by sub- 
 scription) had begun a regular Sunday service 
 in the school-house on Portsmouth Square. The 
 year showed a million dollars worth of goods 
 imported, and as much in value of coin, but 
 two millions of gold-dust had been exported. 
 
 On New Year's Day of 1849, San Francisco 
 
 1849. claimed to have a population of two thousand, 
 and rejoiced in her new Broadway wharf. The 
 two weeklies on the 4th merged into the Alta Cal- 
 if OJ^nia. The people had showed some little in- 
 terest in a convention scheme, but far more in 
 the election of town councils or ayuntamientos, 
 of which at one time they had three in ex- 
 istence, each claiming to be exclusively the 
 legal one. On the last day of February the 
 pioneer of the ocean steamships, the Cali- 
 fornia, arrived from New York, with General 
 Persifer F. Smith on board, to take command 
 of the Pacific department. A month later 
 the steamship Oregon arrived from New York 
 with three hundred and fifty passengers, in- 
 cluding Colonel Geary, who had a commission 
 to act as postmaster for the city and postal 
 agent for the coast. On the 13th of April, 
 General Bennett Kiley came, relieving Smith 
 of the military command, and charged, also, to 
 
SHOET WORK WITH THE HOUNDS. 
 
 293 
 
 administer civil affairs. By the end of July ciiAP. 
 
 •^ . XXII. 
 
 there were two hundred square-rigged vessels 
 in the harbor. 
 
 This summer the affair of "the Hounds" 
 came off. A gang of desperadoes, organized 
 originally, as they professed, for mutual protec- 
 tion in the mining disti'icts, against the cheap 
 labor of foreigners of Spanish extraction, began 
 to practise their outrages openly. They had 
 their head-quarters and their officers, and 
 claimed to be " regulators " of society. On the 
 slightest pretence they would tear down the 
 tents of the Chilians, rob them of their valua- 
 bles, and divide among themselves the plunder. 
 On one of their expeditions a youth, who hap- 
 pened to be in their company, was fatally 
 wounded by a foreigner. On Sunday, the 15th 
 of July, returning from an excursion to Con- 
 tra Costa, they paraded the streets openly, and 
 proceeding to the Chilian quarter, tore down 
 tents, bccit their occupants, jDlundered them, 
 and repeatedly fired into their midst. Next 
 day, when the news spread through the town, 
 the public was warm with indignation. They 
 waited on the alcalde, and urged him to take 
 steps to punish the oft'enders. The alcalde, 
 by proclamation, summoned a public meeting, 
 which assembled at three o'clock on Ports- 
 mouth Square. Samuel Brannan addressed the 
 crowd. A generous subscription was made 
 
294 THE HISTORY OF CvVLIFOEKIA. 
 
 CHAP, for tlie relief of the sufferers, and two hundred 
 ^^^^- and thirty persons enrolled themselves as spe- 
 1819. cial constables. They were soon provided with 
 muskets, and had elected a commander and six 
 captains. Before night twenty of the rioters 
 had been arrested and lodged for safe keeping 
 on board the United States ship Warren. At 
 another meeting on the square, Dr. Gwin and 
 James C. Ward were chosen judges, to be asso- 
 ciated with Alcal de Leavenworth for the trial 
 of the rioters ; Horace Hawes was appointed 
 district attorney, and Hall McAllister his asso- 
 ciate. On Tuesday, twenty-four citizens, act- 
 ing as a grand-jury, found a true bill against 
 Samuel Roberts and nineteen other " Hounds," 
 on various charges. On Wednesday the trials 
 began, and were conducted in all calmness, but 
 with dispatch. Francis J. Lippett and Frank 
 Turk assisted Hawes and McAllister as counsel 
 for the people, and P. Barry and Myron Norton 
 defended the accused. Twelve jurors, among 
 whom were John Sime and Frederick Tesch- 
 macker, found ten of the accused guilty of one 
 or all of the counts of the indictment, and the 
 convicted were sentenced to different terms of 
 imprisonment. These sentences were never en- 
 forced ; but the " Hounds " were broken up, and 
 those who had been foremost in the gang quit 
 the city. 
 
 On the 5th of August the first Protestant 
 
FIRST DEMOCRATIC MEETING. 295 
 
 clmrcli ill California — tlie property of tlie First chap. 
 Baptist Society — was dedicated. w.^-^ 
 
 In October, steamers began to make regular i849. 
 trips to Sacramento. The Pioneer^ a little iron 
 vessel brought out piecemeal from Boston ; the 
 Mint^ also of iron ; the propeller McKim, and 
 soon the Senator^ went into that line. 
 
 The first large Democratic meeting in Cali- 
 fornia assembled October 25th on Portsmouth 
 Square, " the plaza," Colonel Geary acting as 
 president ; O. P. Sutton and Aunis Merrill 
 being among the vice-presidents, and J. Ross 
 Brown and John A. McGlynn figuring among 
 the secretaries. On the 13th of November, 
 amidst a heavy rain, the State Constitution was 
 approved — two thousand and fifty-one voting 
 for, and five against it, in San Francisco. 
 
 By the end of the year there were twenty 
 thousand people in town. The unfenced plaza, 
 as we have said, was the place of general resort 
 on great public occasions. There were between 
 three and four hundred square-rigged vessels in 
 the bay, very many of which, for lack of sailors, 
 never went to sea again. The expenses of the 
 local government were not great, for the streets 
 were not yet improved, and for a while ample 
 funds had been raised to defray them from the 
 proceeds of the sale of water-lots or of uplands. 
 Later, however, they had raised quite a reve- 
 nue by licenses, which were required of almost 
 
296 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, evei'}^ trade and profession. They liad no 
 ,_1__ town-house, no safe jail, no adequate police, no 
 
 1849. hospital, no public burying-ground. 
 
 Collector Collier wrote to Secretary Mere- 
 dith, November 13th, 1849: "I am perfectly 
 astounded at the amount of business done at 
 this (San Francisco) office.'" Six hundred and 
 ninety-seven vessels had arrived within seven 
 and a half months. Board, he said, was five 
 dollars a day, without a room. A small 
 room with a sinoie bed rented for one hun- 
 dred and fifty dollars a month ; wood cost 
 forty dollars a cord ; flour, forty dollars a 
 barrel ; pork, sixty dollars. In lack of stores, 
 nineteen vessels were employed as warehouses. 
 Commercially, the port was already equal to 
 Philadelphia ! 
 
 Such was t he rude but promising town to 
 which the first Legislature gave a city charter, 
 which the people approved by vote, May 1st, 
 
 1850. 1850. The charter extended the city limits on 
 the west to a line parallel to Kearny Street, 
 two miles from the plaza. The county had sep- 
 arate boundaries, embracing what afterwards 
 was made San Mateo County, and on the west, 
 going some distance into the ocean. 
 
 Sacramento was the legitimate successor of 
 Sutter's " New Helvetia ;" the site of the new 
 town being originally the eml)arcadero of the 
 Swiss captain's settlement. The rush to the 
 
SACRAMENTO AND OTHER CITIES. 297 
 
 mines had stimulated it into a promising trad- chap. 
 ing-place. Here the miners landed from the 
 boats in which they ascended the river, and i848. 
 here the returning tide from the mountains 
 first struck navigable water. In October, 1 848, 
 there was advei^tised a sale of town lots in 
 Sacramento— the name then first appearing as 
 the designation of a settlement. In January, 
 1849, the first frame house was built on the i849. 
 bank of the river, and before that year ended, 
 the settlement about the foit moved down. A 
 school was started, but children were scarce, 
 and it languished. By the spring of 1850, the i850. 
 permanent pojDulation was twelve thousand. 
 A grove of fine old buttonwoods shaded the 
 j)lain and tempered the excessive heat of sum- 
 mer. The Sierras, covered till late in the spring 
 with snow, loomed up on the eastern horizon, 
 and Mount Diablo, like a grand 23yramid, lifted 
 its peak on the south. The site of the city, 
 which at once promised to exceed in its growth 
 all the inland cities of the State, was but fifteen 
 feet above low- water mark. The settlers soon 
 found what a mistake they had made concern- 
 ing the grade, for before January of 1850 was 
 passed, the place was flooded by the rise of the 
 river. 
 
 As to the other cities that year incorporated, 
 it was natural to suppose that San Jose, in a pro- 
 lific valley on the road to the great quicksilver 
 
298 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 (jyj^P mine, would grow rapidly; and that Monterey, 
 ^^11- Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and San Diego 
 '^^^ would slowly, at least, justify the wdsdom of 
 tlieir Spanish founders. General Riley, it w^as 
 said, had expressed the opinion that Benicia, 
 with its bold water-front and level upland, en- 
 joyed a position far superior to San Francisco 
 foi- a large city. Sonoma was solely a city of 
 the future and of the imagination. 
 
 This first Leg-islature also subdivided the 
 State into twenty -seven counties. General 
 Vallejo was chairman of a committee appoint- 
 ed to report the derivation and meaning of their 
 names. The General entered into the task with 
 spirit, and in his report embodied a good deal 
 of useful and curious information, of which we 
 condense all that suits our present purpose. 
 
 San Diego (St. James) takes the name of 
 its chief town, which lies three miles distant 
 from the harbor discovered by Viscaino in 
 1602. The town had its name from the first 
 mission established in Upper California, July 
 16th, 1769. 
 
 Los Angeles, the City " of the Angels," found- 
 ed by order of the Viceroy of New Spain in 1781. 
 Santa Barbara was named after the little 
 town established in 1780, about midway be- 
 tween San Diego and Monterey, to jirotect the 
 five missions that occupied the choice spots of 
 that pleasant region. 
 
DERIVATION OF COUNTY NAMES. 299 
 
 San Luis Obispo after its principal town, the chap. 
 
 vy'TT 
 
 site of the mission estal:)lislied September 1st, 
 1772, by Junipero Serra and Jose Cavalier. isso, 
 
 Monterey : when Viscaino, in 1602, discov- 
 ered the harbor cut in the coast where one of 
 two parallel coast ranges of mountains strikes 
 the sea; he named it Montere}^, after the count, 
 with perhaps an allusion to the pines — " king 
 of the forests " — that still blacken the southern 
 point that shoots out to make the indentation 
 a harbor. It was the official residence of four- 
 teen governors, and generally the capital of the 
 province. 
 
 Santa Cruz, the "Holy Cross," from the mis- 
 sion on the north side of Monterey Bay. 
 
 San Francisco : Father Junipero Serra was a 
 Franciscan monk, and he named the Mission 
 Dolores, established in 1776, of which he had 
 the immediate superintendence, after the foun- 
 der of his order. The presidio, established the 
 same year, and the magnificent bay took the 
 same name, and the little village of Yerba 
 Buena, finding itself no longer an obscure hide 
 port, but a stirring American town, assumed it 
 also. 
 
 Santa Clara, from the mission established in 
 January, 1777. 
 
 Contra Costa, " opposite coast," was the nat- 
 ural designation of the county across the bay, 
 eastward from San Francisco. Yet it had a 
 
800 THE HISTOPwY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP. naiTow escape of being profanely cliristened 
 ,_^_ Diablo^ after the noble mountain that rises 
 1850. from its very centre and keeps guard over a 
 wonderful expanse of valley and inland sea. 
 In 1806 a military expedition marched against 
 the tribe Bolgeres, then encamped at the west- 
 ern foot of the mountain. At the moment 
 that victory was inclining to the Indians, a 
 mysterious stranger, dressed in extraordinary 
 costume, suddenly appeared, indulged in some 
 curious antics, and disappeared up the moun- 
 tain. The defeated soldiers were told that the 
 stranger made his appearance there daily, and 
 the Indians called him "Puy," or Evil Spirit. 
 Several legislators thought the mountain en- 
 titled to name the county, but the Puy got his 
 full dues in the naming of the mountain, and 
 the county a very creditable designation in 
 Contra Costa. 
 
 Marin was the chief of a troublesome tribe 
 of Indians which a military exploring expe- 
 dition encountered in 1815. Marin was 
 taken prisoner, but he escaped from San 
 Francisco, rallied his tribe, and harassed the 
 troops continually. Being closely pursued, 
 he took refuse in the little islands at the mouth 
 of San Rafael Inlet, which were hence called 
 \he Marin Islands. In 1824, Marin was again 
 carried captive to San Francisco. When he 
 was set at liberty he retired to the San Rafael 
 
DEEIVATION OF COUNTY FAMES. 301 
 
 Mission, and tliere died in 1834. His prowess and chap, 
 
 • XXII 
 
 the islets that befriended him named the county. >_^_1, 
 
 Sonoma (the " Valley of the Moon ") is the 1850. 
 Indian designation of the Arcadian region, at 
 whose chief settlement the bear flas^ was 
 raised in 1846. The Chocuyens possessed the 
 valley when the missionaries visited it and 
 founded there a mission. They called the 
 chief Sonoma, and the tribe (dependants on 
 Marin) adopted that as their tribal name. 
 
 Solano: The great chief of the Suisunes, on 
 receiving baptism, gave up his heathen title, 
 Sem-Yeto (fierce hand), and accepted that of 
 Solano, in honor of Francisco Solano, the mis- 
 sionary. The county, embracing the fine arable 
 land and marshes which the Suisunes claimed, 
 not unnaturally was given his name. 
 
 Yolo is a corruption of the Indian Yoloy, 
 which signified a region thick with rushes, and 
 was the name of the tribe owning the tule 
 lands west of the Sacramento and bordering: 
 on Cache Creek. 
 
 Napa was the name of the brave tribe that 
 occupied that most charming of valleys which 
 stretches from San Pablo Bay to Mount St. 
 Helen's. The tribe was very numerous and 
 troublesome until 1838, when the small-pox 
 almost swept it out of existence. 
 
 Mendocino assumed the name of the western- 
 most cape of the coast, discovered in 1543, and 
 
302 THE HISTOKT OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, named after IMendoza, the viceroy of New 
 
 Spain and the author of the expedition. 
 1850. Sacramento (the Sacrament). Lieutenant 
 Moraga gave the great river which bears this 
 name the designation of "Jesus Maria," and 
 to its principal branch that of " Sacramento." 
 But before the American conquest the great 
 liver had assumed the name of the Sacramento, 
 and the branch was called the Feather. The 
 river named the county. 
 
 El Dorado : Th.e county within whose limits 
 the first discovery of gold in paying quantities 
 was found fairly earned the name of El Dorado. 
 
 Sutter: John Auo;ustus Sutter, a native of 
 Switzerland, and formerly a military officer 
 under Charles X., emigrated to California in 
 1839, proposing to found a colony. He ob- 
 tained a grant from tlie Mexican Government, 
 fixed the site of his colony on the east side of 
 the Sacramento, and south of tiie American 
 Fork, named it New Helvetia, built and manned 
 a fort, and by his ever-open hospitality made 
 his home the rallying and recruiting place of 
 emigrants from over the mountains. To name 
 a county after him was but simple justice. 
 
 Yuba is a misspelling of Uva, a name that 
 an exploring party in 1824 gave to a tributary 
 of the Feather, on whose banks they found 
 growing immense quantities of wild grape-vines. 
 
 Butte is tlie common French term for mound, 
 
DEKIVATION" OF COUNTY NAMES. 803 
 
 and the symmetrical mounds that rise without chap. 
 foot-hills out of the plain to a mountain height, l.^_^ 
 east of the Sacramento, were named "The 1850. 
 Buttes" in 1829 by a detachment of hunters, 
 headed by Michael Laframbeau, of the Hudson 
 Bay Company. Those peaks name the county. 
 
 Colusa is an Indian word of unknown ori- 
 gin, the appellation of a once numerous tribe on 
 the west side of the Sacramento. 
 
 Shasta was the name of a tribe of Indians 
 that resided at the foot of the noblest moun- 
 tain in California. 
 
 Trinity drew its name from Trinity Bay, dis- 
 covered on the anniversary of Trinity festival. 
 
 Calaveras: An immense number of skulls were 
 found by Captain Moraga in the vicinity of a 
 creek, which, from tkat circumstance, was called 
 Calaveras, or the river of Skulls. The story was, 
 tliat the tribes from the Sierras came down to 
 the valley to fish for salmon. To this the valley 
 Indians objected, and, as the conflict was irre- 
 pressible, a bloody battle was fought, and three 
 thousand dead bodies were left to whiten the 
 banks with their bones. The county in which 
 the river rises assumed its name. 
 
 San Joaquin: In 1813, Lieutenant Gabriel 
 Moraga explored the valley of rnshes, and 
 named a rivulet, which rises in the Sierras and 
 empties into Lake Buena Vista, San Joaquin, 
 after the legendary father of tlie Virgin. The 
 
304 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, rivulet named the great river ; the river named 
 
 '^^^^' the valley and the county. 
 
 1850. Tuolumne : A corruption from the Indian word 
 tahnalaume, meaning a cluster of stone wigwams. 
 Mariposa signifies l)utterfly. A hunting party 
 of Californians, in 1807, observed the trees 
 about the river, where they pitched their tents, 
 gorgeous with butterflies. They named the 
 river Mariposa, and the river named the county. 
 It is a curious comment on the small imj)ort- 
 ance attached to politics in those times, that 
 there was really danger lest the first Legisla- 
 ture should be dissolved for lack of a quorum. 
 Two senators and three assemblymen, includ- 
 ing the sj^eaker, early resigned, though some of 
 them did it to take other ofiices to which they 
 were elected. One assemblyman never appeared 
 to claim his seat. Many were absent most of 
 the time. Many talked of the great sacrifices 
 they made in staying. In the quiet seclusion 
 of San Jose, they fancied that, with the return 
 of spring and the end of the rains, lousiness 
 would revive with great energy : they repented 
 their dabbling in politics. A sharp rebuke, 
 administered by a joint committee, shamed 
 members into more attention. 
 
 After the speaker deserted his post, John 
 Bigler was elected to occupy it. After Nathan- 
 iel Bennet resigned his senatorship to accept 
 the position of Associate Justice of the Su- 
 
DAVID C. BRODEEICK, 305 
 
 preme Court, David C. Broderick, of San Fran- CHA]^ 
 CISCO, was elected to liis place by twenty-five J___. 
 hundred and eight out of only twenty-six bun- i850. 
 dred and nine votes cast in his district. This 
 was the first appearance in State politics of a 
 man who was destined to exert an extraordi- 
 nary influence on the j)olitical future of the 
 State. He was born in WashinsTton, in the 
 year 1819, the son of a stone-cutter. He re- 
 moved in 1825 to New York City, with his 
 parents, who soon after died. He was a rough, 
 honest, self-reliant boy. He was connected 
 with the Fire Department, kept a drinking- 
 place, and meddled with local j)olitics. In 
 
 1845 he was elected to j)reside over a con- 
 vention for securing a new city charter. In 
 
 1846 he was nominated for Congress, and was 
 defeated. In 1849 he sailed for California. 
 Without education, without flatterin<>: autece- 
 dents, he determined to become a power in the 
 State. For this he educated himself; to this 
 devoted all his time and his extraordinary en- 
 ergies. He soon made his mark in the Legisla- 
 ture, and controlled the apparent executive. 
 But it was the politics rather than the laws of 
 California that he shaped ; he aimed to manage 
 men rather than municipal measures. 
 
 20 
 
306 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 WAITING OK CONGRESS FOR ADMISSION TO THE 
 
 UNION. 
 
 xxm ^^ California was fairly launched and started 
 — . — on her career as a State. Will Congress admit 
 1849, j^ej. to the sisterhood of States, or keep her out ? 
 — a State by the voice of her people, and in all 
 constitutional forms, yet without a State's rep- 
 resentation in the Senate, or a State's voice 
 among the Representatives. 
 
 The Thirty-first Congress met at Washington 
 on the 3d of December, 1849 ; but the House 
 could not organize until the 2 2d, when, af- 
 ter adopting the plurality rule, Howell Cobb, 
 of Georgia, received one hundred and two 
 votes, and was elected Speaker, over Robert 
 C. Winthrop, who received, one hundred — the 
 remaining twenty being scattered. President 
 Zachary Taylor then sent in his first annual 
 Message — the one that contained the famous 
 passage which made the critics of the world so 
 merry : " We are at peace with all the world, 
 and seek to maintain our cherished relations of 
 amity with the rest of mankind." 
 
PRESIDENT TAYLOe's MESSAGE. BOY 
 
 Referring; to the affairs of California, he said chap. 
 
 • . • XXIII 
 
 that as no civil government had been provided _,^_^ 
 for it by Congress, the people, impelled by the is4a. 
 necessities of their political condition, had met 
 in convention, and the latest advices gave him 
 reason to suppose they had formed a constitu- 
 tion and State government. It was believed 
 they would shortly apply for, the admission of 
 California into the Union as a sovereign State. 
 Should such be the case, and should their con- 
 stitution be conformable to the requisitions of 
 the Constitution of the United States, he rec- 
 ommended their application to a favorable 
 consideration. By awaiting the action of the 
 people of the territory, who would lay the 
 foundation of a republican form of government 
 in such principles and organize its power in 
 such form as would seem to them most likely 
 to effect their safety and happiness, all uneasi- 
 ness might be avoided, and confidence and kind 
 feeling preserved. " With a view of maintain- 
 ing the harmony and tranquillity so dear to all," 
 said he, " we should abstain from tLe introduc- 
 tion of those exciting topics of a sectional char- 
 acter which have hitherto produced painful 
 apprehensions in the public mind ; and I repeat 
 the solemn w^arning of the first and most illus- 
 trious of my predecessors against furnishing 
 any ground for characterizing parties by geo- 
 graphical discriminations." 
 
308 THE HISTOKY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 It was excellent advice, but nobody took it. 
 The President informed Cono-ress that a collec- 
 1849. tor had been appointed for San Francisco under 
 the act extending the revenue laws over Cali- 
 fornia. He advised the confirmation of the col- 
 lections made there under military authority, 
 and that the avails be expended within the 
 territory, or paid into the treasury to meet ap- 
 propriations for the improvement of its harbors 
 and rivers. Arran2:ements for determinina: the 
 sites of light-houses on the coast had been made, 
 and, appreciating the mineral ^vealth of Califor- 
 nia, and its advantages by position, he proposed 
 reeonnoissances of several routes for railroads to 
 the Pacific. 
 
 General Sam Houston, of Texas, on the 4th 
 of January, introduced a proposition which, 
 while conceding that Congress had no power 
 over the subject of negro slavery within the 
 limits of tbe United States, either to prohibit, 
 interfere with, or estaldish it in any State or 
 Territory, for the sake of harmony afiirmed 
 that if the people in the newly-acquired Terri- 
 tories south of the parallel of thirty-six degrees 
 thirty minutes north latitude [the Missouri 
 Compromise line, and nearly the latitude of 
 Monterey] should establish negro slavery in 
 the formation of their State governments, it 
 should be deemed no objection to their admis- 
 sion into the Union. 
 
 1S50. 
 Jan. 
 
A QUESTION OF EXECUTIVE INFLUElSrCE. 309 
 
 On tlie 21st of January, General Taylor, chap. 
 in answer to a resolution of inquiry, stated ^ 
 frankly that lie liad urged the formation of i85o. 
 State governments in California and New Mex- 
 ico. For this purpose he had sent out T. Butler 
 King as bearer of dispatches, with a salary of 
 eight dollars a day and expenses. He had not 
 hesitated to express to the people of the terri- 
 tories his desire that they form a plan of State 
 government, and submit it to Congress, with a 
 prayer to be admitted, but he had authorized 
 no Government agent to influence any election 
 or convention, or to interfere as to the provi- 
 sions or restrictions of the constitution. The 
 officers sent to California by his predecessor 
 were instructed to promote measures leading to 
 the same end. His motive had been a simple 
 desire to afford Congress an opportunity to 
 avoid a bitter dissension. 
 
 Eight days afterwards, Henry Clay presented 
 a series of compromise propositions to the 
 Senate. The first proposed to admit California 
 to the Union, with suitable boundaries, and 
 without any restriction by Congress as to the 
 exclusion or introduction of slavery within her 
 boundaries. The second affirmed that Congress 
 ought to establish Teriitorial governments for 
 all the rest of the territory acquired from 
 Mexico, without adopting any restriction or con- 
 dition on the subject of slavery. Another de- 
 
310 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, clared it inexpedient to abolish slavery in the 
 District of Columbia, while slavery existed in 
 1850. Maryland, without the consent of the people of 
 Maryland and of the District, and w^ithout com- 
 pensation to the slave-owners. Another de- 
 clared it expedient to prohibit the slave-trade 
 in the District. Others announced that more 
 effectual provision ought to be made for the res- 
 titution and delivery of fugitive slaves, and that 
 Congress had no power to prohibit the trade in 
 slaves between the States. 
 
 The debate that followed upon these propo- 
 sitions engrossed the attention of the Senate 
 almost exclusively for nearly two months, and 
 they were not finally disposed of until Septem- 
 ber. Mr. Foote, of Mississippi, saw no objection 
 to admitting all of California above the line of 
 thirty-six degrees thirty minutes, as a Free State, 
 providing another Slave State could be carved 
 out of Texas, so as to preserve the equiponder- 
 ance between the Slave and Free States of the 
 Union. 
 
 Mr. Mason, of Virginia, deeply regretted 
 Mr Clay's admission that by law slavery was 
 already abolished in NeAV Mexico and Cali- 
 fornia — a doctrine never assented to, so far as 
 he knew, until then, by any senator represent- 
 ing one of the slaveholding States. 
 
 " Never," said Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, 
 "will I take less than the Missouri Compro- 
 
HENRY CLAY ON SLAVERY EXTENSION. 311 
 
 mise line extended to the Pacific Ocean, witli chap. 
 
 ■V""Y'TTT 
 
 the specific recognition of the right to hold __^_^ 
 slaves in the territory below that line, and i850. 
 that before such Territories are admitted into 
 the Union as States, slaves may be taken there 
 from any of the United States, at the option of 
 the owners." 
 
 To which Mr. Clay nobly replied : " Com- 
 ing from a Slave State, as I do, I owe it to my. 
 self, I owe it to truth, I owe it to the subject to 
 state, that no earthly power could induce me to 
 vote for a specific measure for the introduction 
 of slavery where it had not before existed, 
 either south or north of that (Missouri Com- 
 promise) line. Coming, as I do, from a Slave 
 State, it is my solemn, deliberate, and well-ma- 
 tured determination that no power — no earthly 
 power — shall compel me to vote for the positive 
 introduction of slavery, either south or north 
 of that line. If the citizens of those territories 
 (California and New Mexico) choose to estab- 
 lish slavery, I am for admitting them with such 
 provisions in their constitutions; but then it 
 will be their work, and not ours, and their pos- 
 terity will have to reproach them, and not us, 
 for forming constitutions allowing the institu- 
 tion of slavery to exist among them." 
 
 William R. King, of Alabama, objected to 
 California's mode of procedure. He preferred 
 to train people through a Territorial govern- 
 
312 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, ment for the exercise and enioyment of our In- 
 xxin. ... ,. '' -^ 
 
 ,_^__, stitutions. 
 
 1S50. On the 13th of February, President T^iylor 
 apprised Congress by message, that California 
 had organized a State Government, and through 
 her senators and representatives was applying 
 for admission into the Union. 
 
 It v\'-as upon the motion to refer this mes- 
 sage to the Committee on Territories, that Mr. 
 Calhoun, already prostrated with his last sick- 
 ness, prepared his speech, which was read to 
 
 Mar. 4. tlie Senate on the 4th of March by Senator Ma- 
 son. He asked what ^vas to be done with Cali- 
 fornia if she should not be admitted ? and him- 
 self answered that she must be remanded back 
 to the territorial condition, as was done in the 
 case of Tennessee. The irregularities in her 
 case, he said, were immeasurably greater and 
 offered much stronger reasons for pursuing that 
 course than did those of Tennessee. " But," 
 said he, " California may not submit. That is 
 not probable ; but if she should not, when she 
 refuses, it will be time for us to decide what is 
 to be done." Mr. Calhoun held that the indi- 
 viduals in California who formed the constitu- 
 tion of a State without first receiving the 
 authority of Congress so to do, usurped the sov- 
 ereignty of a State, and acted in open defiance 
 of the authority of Congress ; what they did 
 was revolutionary and rebellious in its charac- 
 
SPEECHES OF CALHOU]S", WEBSTEE, A]^D SEWARD. 313 
 
 ter, and anarchical in its tendency. If General chap. 
 
 XXIII 
 
 Eiley had ordered the election of delegates to Ll _, 
 the constitutional convention without authority, i850., 
 he ought to l^e tried, or at least reprimanded, 
 and his acts disavowed. As the Government 
 had done neither, he presumed that his course i 
 
 was approved. " If you admit California," said / 
 
 he, " you exclude us from the acquired territo- i 
 
 ries with the intention of destroying irretrieva- 
 bly the equilibrium between the two sections." 
 
 Three days later, Daniel Webster addressed 
 the Senate on JVIi*. Clay's resolutions. He re- Mar.7. 
 iterated his previous expressions that we had 
 territory enough ; that we should follow the 
 Spartan maxim — Improve, adorn what you have, 
 seek no further. He held slavery to be ex- 
 cluded from California by the law of nature. 
 He would not vote to put any prohibition into 
 any act providing a Territorial government. He 
 " would not take pains to reafBrm an ordinance 
 of nature, nor to re-enact the will of God." In 
 this speech he uttered his remarkable sentence 
 concerning peaceable secession. 
 
 William H. Seward said : " Let California 
 
 come in." " California, that cc>mes from the March 
 
 . . . . 11 
 
 clime where the west dies away into the rising 
 
 east — California, which bounds at once the em- 
 pire and the continent — California, the youthful 
 queen of the Pacific, in the robes of freedom 
 gorgeously inlaid with gold, is doubly welcome. 
 
314 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOKNIA. 
 
 CHAP. She stands lustifiecl for all tlie irreo-ularities iu 
 
 XXIII . . 
 
 her method of coming." He praised her that 
 she would not remain in the condition of a mili- 
 tary colony. The irregularities of her method 
 of coming, of which so much complaint was 
 made, were the following: She came uncere- 
 moniously, without a preliminary consent of 
 Congress ; she assigned her own boundaries 
 without the previous authority of Congress; 
 she was too large ; no census had been taken ; 
 no laws prescribed the qualifications of suffrage 
 Ijefore her constitutional convention ^vas held ; 
 she came constrained by executive influence to 
 come as a Free State and to come at once. Of 
 these last charges the first clause was denied, 
 the second clause was admitted, nor was it a 
 serious usiu'j)ation in the executive to recom- 
 mend that a State relieve itself and him from 
 the exercise of military authority. Mr. Seward 
 believed that the perpetual unity of our empire 
 hung on the decision of that day. He urged 
 that the consent of Congress be granted at 
 once — they would never agree if not then. 
 " Nor," said he, " will California abide delay. 
 I do not say she contemplates independence, 
 because she does not anticipate rejection." 
 " Either the stars and stripes must wave over 
 her ports, or she must raise aloft a standard for 
 herself." He asked if it would be a mean am- 
 bition to set up within fifty years monuments 
 
THE SLAVERY QUESTIOl^. 315 
 
 like tliose wliicli two hundred years had estab- chap. 
 
 • *" • * ICXTTT 
 
 lished on the Atlantic coasts ? As to her ability , 
 
 to become independent, he reminded the Senate i850. 
 that she was farther away than England, out of j j^ 
 the reach of railroads or unbroken steam naviga- 
 tion ; the prairie, and mountain, and desert, an 
 isthmus of foreign jurisdiction, and a cape of 
 storms interposed between her and the armies 
 of the Union. " You may send a navy there; 
 but she has only to open her mines and she can 
 seduce your navies and appropriate your float- 
 ing bulwarks to her own defence." If she went, 
 he intimated that Oregon would go also, and 
 then the Pacific coast was lost. So, with an 
 argument which few Californians would have 
 used, Mr. Seward insisted upon the immediate 
 admission, while he opposed any compromise. 
 
 Mr. Seward showed how earnest he was, by a 
 confession which brought Senator Footo to his 
 feet for an explanation, and startled not a little 
 his anti-slavery friends. Repugnant to his 
 wishes as such a necessity would be, he said 
 that even if California had come seekinp: ad- 
 mission as a Slave State, in view of the extra- 
 ordinary circumstances of her coming, and of 
 the consequences of the dismemberment of the 
 empire consequent upon her rejection, he would 
 have voted for her admission. It was in this 
 famous speech of Mr. Seward's that the sentence 
 occurred which made him the best-abused man 
 
316 THE IIISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, in the country for ten years following: : "There 
 XXIII • . . 
 
 IS a higher law than the Constitution." He re- 
 
 1850. plied to a point w^hich Mr. Webster had made, 
 
 that there is no just human enactment which is 
 
 not a re-enactment of the law of God. He could 
 
 not rely on climate to exclude slavery, for he 
 
 was born in a land where slavery existed, 
 
 though it was a land all north of the fortieth 
 
 parallel of latitude. 
 
 While the debate was pending, John Bell, 
 April, of Tennessee, had submitted a series of compro- 
 mise resolutions, the sixth of which accepted 
 the constitution of California, and admitted the 
 State on an equal footing in all respects with 
 the original States. Stephen A. Douglas, of 
 Illinois, from the Committee on Territories, 
 doubting the fate of the proposed compromise, 
 introduced two bills for a settlement ,;ithout 
 a compromise — one to admit California, the 
 other to establish territorial governments for 
 Utah and New Mexico. Both had their second 
 reading, and then Mr. Benton's proposition to 
 consider the California Bill v/as, on Mr. Clay's 
 motion, tabled — ayes, twenty-seven ; 7ioe6\ tw^en- 
 t3^-five. So it w"as determined that there should 
 be some compromise before the question was 
 settled. 
 
 Mr. Foote now moved the reference of IVIr. 
 Bell's resolutions to a committee of thirteen, 
 without instructions. Mr. Benton opposed 
 
COMPEOMISE PEOPOSITIONS. 317 
 
 "makins: an omnibus" of the resolutions, and chap. 
 
 . . . XXIII 
 
 urged the impropriety of causing the passage '^^^ ; 
 
 of one important bill to depend upon the aclop- 1850. 
 tion or rejection of any other bill. His motion 
 to keep the California question separate from 
 all others was lost — ayes, twenty-three ; 7ioes, 
 twenty-eight. 
 
 Mr. Footers motion, so amended as to refer 
 Mr. Clay's as well as Mr. Bell's resolutions to a 
 select committee, was adopted. The committee 
 of thirteen v/as selected by ballot as follows: 
 Henry Clay of Kentucky, Chairman ; Mr. Dick- 
 inson of New York, Mr. Phelps of Vermont, 
 Mr. Bell of Tennessee, Mr. Cass of Michigan, 
 Mr. Webster of Massachusetts, Mr. Berrien of 
 Georgia, Mr. Cooper of Pennsylvania, Mr. Downs 
 of Louisiana, Mr. King of Alabama, Mr. Man. 
 gum of North Carolina, Mr. Mason of Virginia, 
 and Mr. Brio-ht of Indiana — seven from Slave 
 States, six from Free States. 
 
 Early in May, Mr. Clay reported, and among May. 
 the propositions of his report ^vas one admitting 
 California foi-thwith as a State, with the bound- 
 aries adopted in her constitution. These com- 
 promise resolutions, and the " Omnibus Bill " 
 which embraced their principal provisions, were 
 vigorously debated for the next four months. 
 
 Mr. Soule, of Louisiana, moved that all south 
 of the parallel of thirty-six degrees thirty min- 
 utes be cut off from California, and formed 
 
818 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORJflA. 
 
 CHAP, into a Territory to be called South California. 
 
 XXIII • . i' ' 
 
 _^_^ whicli should be admitted as a State when it 
 1850. were able and willing, with or without slavery, 
 as its people might desire. This was rejected 
 by nineteen ayes (all Southern votes) and 
 thirty-six noes. Mr. King moved that the 
 ])arallel of thirty-five degrees thirty minutes 
 be the southern boundary of the State of 
 California; rejected, ^^/e.? twenty, noes thirty- 
 seven. Mr. Davis, of Mississippi, moved that 
 thirty-six degrees thirty minutes be the boun- 
 dary; lost, ayes twenty-three, noes thirty-two. 
 Mr. Turuey moved that the people of California 
 be enabled to form a new constitution ; lost, 
 ayes nineteen, noes thirty- three. Mr. Yulee 
 moved to remand California to a territorial con- 
 dition, and limit her southern boundary ; lost, 
 ayes twelve, noes thirty -five. Mr. Foote moved 
 to erect all that part of California that lies 
 south of the thirty-six-thirtieth parallel into 
 the " Territory of Colorado ;" lost, ayes thirteen, 
 noes twenty-nine. Mr. Turney moved to fix 
 the southern boundary l)y the line of thirty-six 
 thirty ; lost, ayes twenty, noes thirty. On the 
 Aug. 12th of August, the Southern members, having 
 exhausted all parliamentary tactics to stave it 
 off, the question was put on ordering the Cali- 
 fornia Bill engrossed for its third reading, for 
 by this time the several measures of the Com- 
 promise Bill had been severed and brought for- 
 
 12. 
 
THE CALIFOENIA BILL PASSES THE SEjSTATE. 319 
 
 ward in distinct bills. It prevailed, ayes thirty- chap. 
 
 XXIII 
 
 three (all the Free State senators and Mr. Bell, v_^_^ 
 Mr. Benton, Mr. Houston, Mr. Spruance, Mr. i850. 
 Wales, and . Mr. Underwood voting aye) ; noes ^"* 
 nineteen (all from Slave States). Next day 
 the bill had its third reading, and passed, ayes 
 thirty-four, noes eighteen. 
 
 Immediately Senators Mason and Hunter 
 of Virginia, Butler and Khett of South Caro- 
 lina, Turney of Tennessee, Jefferson Davis of 
 Mississippi, Atchison of Missouri, and Morton 
 and Yulee of Florida, entered their protest 
 against it. They thought it due to themselves, 
 the people of their care, and their posterity, to 
 leave an enduring memorial of their opposition 
 to the measure. They wished to place upon 
 record the reason of their opposition to a bill 
 whose consequences might be so durable and 
 portentous as to make it an object of deep 
 interest to all who came after them. This rea- 
 son, reiterated in several forms, was, that the 
 admission of California made an odious discrim- 
 ination against the proj)erty of fifteen slave- 
 holding; States. It denied those States a rio-ht 
 to the equal enjoyment of the territory of the 
 Union. The Government, they said, had in 
 effect declared that the exclusion of slavery 
 from the territory of the United States was an 
 object so high and important as to justify a 
 disregard, not only to all the principles of 
 
320 THE IIISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, sound policy, but also of tlie institution itself. 
 
 XXIII . . 
 
 ^_; " Against this conclusion we must now and 
 
 1850. forever protest, as it is destructive of tlie safety 
 and liberties of those wliose rights have been 
 committed to our care, fatal to the peace and 
 equality of the States which we represent, and 
 must lead, if persisted in, to the dissolution of 
 that confederacy in which the slaveholding 
 States have never sought more than equality, 
 and in which they will not be content to remain 
 with less." 
 
 In this protest the abandoned dogma of Mr. 
 Calhoun, that the Constitution of the United 
 States carries slavery with it, into whatever 
 territory it extends, is assumed as a true doc- 
 trine. Afterwards it was announced by Judge 
 Taney, in the Dred Scott decision, from the 
 bench of the Supreme Court. The hint at se- 
 cession on the admission of California as a 
 Free State, and the consequent destruction of 
 the balance in the Senate between the Slave 
 and Free States, was regarded at the time as 
 little more than a very common threat. After- 
 wards, it was remembered as significant that 
 even then the great rebellion was in contempla- 
 tion. 
 
 The California Bill went to the House of Rep- 
 resentatives, and was read twice and committed 
 Sept. on the 28tli of August. On the 7th of Septem- 
 ber it came up, and Mr. Boyd, of Kentucky, 
 
CALIFORNIA ADMITTED. 321 
 
 moved to append the bill organizing the Terri- chap. 
 tory of New Mexico. Mr. Vinton, of Ohio, " ^ 
 objected to that, as out of order. Speaker isaO. 
 Cobb overruled the objection, but the House ^^ ' 
 refusing to sustain his decision, the amend- 
 ment was not considered, Jacob Thompson, of 
 Mississippi, moved to cut off from California 
 all below the line of thirty-six forty, which 
 was rejected — ayes^ seventy-six ; noes, one 
 hundred and sixty-one. Then the bill was 
 ordered to its third reading and passed — ayes, 
 one hundred and iifty ; wjes. fifty-six, all South- 
 erners- 
 
 The bill went to the President for his signa- 
 ture, and, on the 9th of September, Millard 
 Fillmore, who, by the death of General Taylor, 
 had succeeded to the Presidential chair, signed 
 it, and California was admitted the thirty-first 
 State of the American Union. 
 
 Senators Fremont and Gwin were admitted 
 to their seats as representatives from the new 
 State in time to give a vote upon one or two 
 of the Compromise measures. All the proposi- 
 tions of Mr. Clay's Omnibus, though severed 
 from each other, and presented in separate bills, 
 and two of them, afterwards reunited, were 
 adopted. So the joy over California's admission 
 was not unalloyed at the North, nor the sorrow 
 at the South without compensation. She was 
 admitted as a Free State only on condition of 
 
 21 
 
322 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORlSriA. 
 
 CHAP, leaving New Mexico and Utah open to slavery, 
 
 ^_^ ; the concession of perpetual slavery in tlie 
 
 18.j0. District of Columbia, the passage of a law for 
 ^^^^' the recapture of fugitive slaves, which griev- 
 ously offended the North, and a stipulation 
 that the subject of slavery should never again 
 be agitated in either chamber of Congress. 
 
 These compromises, which were so distasteful 
 to both sections, really seemed for a time to 
 bring repose to the public mind. The National 
 Democratic Convention of June, 1852, which 
 nominated Franklin Pierce for President, re- 
 solved that the Democratic Party would abide 
 by and adhere to a faithful execution of the 
 compromises of 1850. The Whig National 
 Convention of June, 1852, which nominated 
 Winfield Scott for President, recommended and 
 acquiesced in them by a vote of three hundred 
 and twelve ayes to seventy Jioes. These two 
 great parties embraced the vast majority of the 
 voters of the Union. 
 
 There was outside of these parties a vigilant 
 and restless minority, which never ceased agi- 
 tating the slavery question, and it was making 
 rapid inroads into both parties ; yet the repose 
 might have remained much longer unbroken, 
 but for the fact that they who most deprecated 
 agitation, startled the political world four years 
 later with the doctrine that the compromises 
 of 1850 made inoperative and void the Missouri 
 
THE PRICE OF ADMISSION 323 
 
 Compromise, and insisted on putting that doc- chap. 
 trine into the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. After _^_^ 
 which there was no more " repose," and the 1850. 
 compromises, by virtue of which California P*" 
 struggled into the Union, were treated as no 
 longer binding beyond the letter of the laws 
 thiit embraced them. 
 
324 THE HISTOllY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 " TUE FALL OF '49 AND THE SPRING OF '50." 
 
 News of the admission of the State into the 
 Union reached San Francisco on the 18th of 
 1850. October, 1850, Ly the steamer Oregon. Of 
 ^*^^- course it could create no surprise ; the event 
 had been looked on as foreordained ever 
 since the conquest. The j^eople claimed it as 
 a right, and had never contemplated the possi- 
 bility of its being denied. Notwithstanding,' it 
 was a great thing to have the seal of national 
 authority put on their State proceedings ; it 
 was a grand thing to be recognized as part 
 of the American Union ; and so the Ore- 
 gorHs tidings were greeted with high enthu- 
 siasm. The 29th was set aside in San Fran- 
 cisco as a day of celebration over the event. A 
 procession, of which the Chinese were a striking 
 feature, an oration by Judge Nathaniel Ben- 
 nett on the plaza, the recitation of an ode writ- 
 ten by a lady, the firing of guns, the discharge 
 of artillery, the display of fireworks, and the 
 illumination by bonfires, made the day and the 
 night memorable. 
 
HIE TENT AGE. 325 
 
 From the fall of 1849 to the fall of 1850 was chap. 
 the tent era of California — the strange, flush ^ ' 
 times of the young State. Most of the popula- i849- 
 tion felt themselves pilgrims in the land, tern- ^^^^' 
 porary residents, enduring merrily severe pri- 
 vations for the sake of a future of plenty and 
 enjoyment in a distant home. Property was 
 changing hands, fortune changing favorites, with 
 astonishing rapidity. The poor man of yester- 
 day was the rich man of to-day. The servant, 
 running away from his master, tarried a mouth 
 or two in the mines, and returned with gold 
 enough to buy his master out. Social distinc- 
 tions were nearly rubbed out. Almost all men 
 felt that, whether they were born so or not, 
 they had become free and equal. 
 
 The average wages made by miners in 1849 
 were, perhaps, twenty to thirty dollars a day ; 
 yet in rich diggings an average of fi'om three 
 hundred t(j five hundred a week was not un- 
 common for weeks together. The abundance 
 of gold in the hands of people not used to it 
 made them lavish. There was very little sit- 
 ting down and calculating how to economize, 
 and there was no "Poor Richard" pleading 
 frugality, and pointing out the penury that 
 must follow thriftlessness. And if there was 
 any shrewd Yankee still following the precepts 
 of his early education, and in an open-handed 
 generation trying to remember that it is not 
 
326 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOEKLA. 
 
 CHAP, what a man makes, but what he saves, that de- 
 '^^^ termines him rich or poor, his daily memoran- 
 1849- dum of expenses must have seemed very shock- 
 
 1850. ijjg_ 
 
 If he breakfasted at a restaurant in San 
 Francisco he had a dollar to pay for a beef- 
 steak and a cup of coffee. For fresh eggs he 
 must pay from seventy-five cents to a dollar 
 each. His dinner would cost him from a dollar 
 and a half to five dollars, according to his appe- 
 tite. A " square meal " at a cleanly tavern cost 
 from two dollars upward. Washing was eight 
 dollars for the dozen pieces ; it even happened, 
 they say, that some sent their dirty clothes to 
 China to be washed. 
 
 The great body of immigrants were adult males. 
 The lack of refined and virtuous women gave so- 
 ciety a rough, unpolished aspect. The fame of the 
 gold placers had tempted a rush of all sorts of 
 men, and it must l)e confessed that for a while it 
 seemed that the doubtful and dangerous classes 
 were in excess over the orderly. The lightest 
 drift of the floating population of the world 
 washed up here. Not only the restless charac- 
 ters of Christendom, but of heathen countries 
 also, obeyed the strong attraction. Some mid- 
 dle-aged good men came, impelled by a sens(5 of 
 duty to try one chance more of acquiring for 
 their dependent families the competence that 
 they had failed to command at home. Some 
 
CHAEACTER OF THE EMIGEANTS. 3l'7 
 
 left tlieir families, because it was no cross to chap. 
 leave them. Others came because enterprise 
 spurred them, and there was nothing to hold i849- 
 them back. Others came with motives of am- 
 bition ; they were conscious of having failed in 
 the old country — in a new one they would try 
 life over again. They had counted the offices 
 to be filled, and came on to serve their coun- 
 try, and be maintained at the public expense. 
 There were a few, a very few, who had faith in 
 the future of the region ; who intelligently ap- 
 preciated the geographical and commercial po. 
 sition of California, and came with a sincere de- 
 sire to see its foundations laid in justice audits 
 walls squared by Christian principle. Alto- 
 gether, and chiefly, it was not the best material 
 out of which to construct a model society ; but 
 it was strong, enterprising, swift, and positive. 
 It might become either nol^le or infamous. It 
 was only incapable of mediocrity. 
 
 On landing at San Francisco, which early 
 became the principal port of debarkation, or on 
 arriving over the Sierras, almost all dashed first 
 into the mines. Placer mining could be learned 
 in a day ; any one who could shovel dirt, stand 
 up to his knees in running Avater, and shake a 
 pan, knew the art. It indeed required skill to 
 " prospect " successfully ; but if one doubted 
 his ability in that matter, he had only to follow 
 the multitude, and do as they did, or take up 
 
328 THE niSTOEY OF CALIFOKlSriA. 
 
 CHAP, the desei'ted claim wliicli a company, beariug 
 ' _J of better " finds," had quit. 
 
 1849- A few weeks' or months* experience satis- 
 ^^'^^' fied the multitude that minino; was not their 
 forte, and they retreated from it, providing 
 they had the money to get off with. If a 
 man knew any trade, he could make more 
 than the miner's average by work he had 
 learned to love. If accustomed to farmin<r, 
 he could raise potatoes or beans or corn iu 
 some rich nook close by the miner's camp, 
 and be more sure of a liberal profit than the 
 miner whom he fed. Any body could keep a 
 store. Any one who could erect a cabin, and 
 get a barrel of whiskey safely into it, could 
 keep a hotel. The miners pioneered the farm- 
 ers, mechanics, and tradesmen ; and wherever 
 they stopped for a few months on a bar or in a 
 canon, a village, perhaps a city, sprang up as 
 if by magic. Still, all the while, there was a 
 strong tide of successful or disgusted miners 
 setting back to San Francisco. 
 
 The currency was gold-dust — that is, small 
 scales, globules, or nuggets of gold. At first 
 they rudely measured it; then as rudely 
 weigjhed it — a silver dollar's wei2:ht, the weio-ht 
 of a jack-knife, the weight of an ounce avoirdu- 
 pois. Then they began to melt the dust into 
 bars, ingots, or slugs, stamping the initials of 
 the assayer to give credit to its designated 
 
THE CUERENCY AND WAGES. 329 
 
 weif^hfc where scales were not accessible. Not chap. 
 till 1854, when the United States gave them a _^^_^ 
 Branch Mint at San Francisco, was the currency i849- 
 regulated with any satisfaction, ^^^^' 
 
 The cheapness of gold raised the value of 
 every thing else. Silver was scarce ; no change 
 under a quarter of a dollar was given or taken. 
 What was worth buying was surely worth a 
 quarter. Wages were exceedingly high : rough 
 labor at San Francisco brouo-ht eio-ht dollars a 
 day ; carmen earned from fifteen to twenty dol- 
 lars a day ; " help " was scarce at one hundred 
 to two hundred dollars a month. 
 
 While labor was in such demand, and so well 
 paid, it could not be deemed degrading. For 
 carrying a trunk a mile a man would get a 
 week's wages at Eastern I'ates. So, few scru- 
 pled to do for money whatever offered. There 
 were the most astonishing changes in employ- 
 ments. Persons who had been preachers or 
 doctors or lawyers at home, shouldered bag- 
 gage, did street-work, drove drays, if they could 
 muster the capital to buy a horse and cart, 
 blacked boots, served at table, and were not 
 ashamed. 
 
 Almost every company that bought a ship 
 at the East, and came around the Horn in her, 
 put in a full freight of eatables, thinking that 
 if they only were not perishable, they could 
 scarcely fail to find a profitable market. So 
 
330 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, tlie market was glutted witli certain articles, 
 ,^_^_^ while others no money would buy. Potatoes 
 1849- were dumped into the bay by the ton, not com- 
 ^^^^' mandiug a price sufficient to pay for l)oating 
 them to the shore. Word would go East by 
 steamer that the market was bare of butter or 
 tobacco, or some style of dry goods for which 
 a day or two of hot weather made some in- 
 quiry. The five or six sharp Eastern merchants 
 who were fjivored with the news, would give 
 quick dispatch to half a score of clippers, 
 freighted with the articles desired. The first 
 one in would make the fortune of the shippers, 
 the tardy ones find no market. In the spring 
 of 1850 such quantities of tobacco had arrived 
 at San Francisco, for which there was no de- 
 mand, that rather than pay the exorbitant 
 prices of storage, the full chests were used to pave 
 the muddy street-crossings. The resident mer- 
 chants generally sold on commission, so the ruin 
 was on the parties abroad for whom they acted 
 as agents. The Eastern merchants then tried 
 assorting cargoes ; if one article had to be cast 
 into the street, some other one might cover all 
 losses, and secure a handsome profit on the 
 whole venture. Sometimes it would seem as if 
 they fimcied that whatever was not wanted at 
 home would be in demand here, and San Fran- 
 cisco was heaped and piled with odd, impracti- 
 
A WET WINTEE. 331 
 
 cable, useless goods, cramming the sparse ware- chap. 
 houses, and overflowing them. w-v— ' 
 
 Houses framed and ready to be put together i849- 
 without the aid of any tool but an axe and a 
 hammer, were sent out, some fine specimens of 
 which still survive, wearing a pleasant, homely 
 look, very noticeable for a fashion which never 
 prevailed here. When there began to be a 
 panic about fires, corrugated iron plates were 
 shij:)ped in considerable quantities. Some 
 houses built of this mateiial still remain, very 
 rusty and leaky; and the materials of some 
 that have been torn down to make room for 
 brick buildings furnish a more durable than 
 sightly fence for the suburban gardens. 
 
 The winter of 1849 and 1850 proved to be a 
 very wet one — the " wettest one," the pioneers 
 insisted, until 1861-62. The fact that the 
 streets were mthout pavements, and the people 
 chiefly domiciled in tents, no doubt enhanced 
 the discomforts of the season, and contributed 
 to give it a bad name. When a man has noth- 
 ing but a piece of canvas over him, and cannot 
 set foot into the street without sinking to the 
 ankle in mud, and especially when he has no 
 family in his wretched lodging-place, and has 
 to " find himself," a tolerably moderate rainy 
 season goes inevitably for a " horrid winter." 
 With the opening of that spring, all who were 
 
332 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 ^^y able, and expected to stay ou the coast, pre- 
 V— r— ^ pared more respectable house-accommodations. 
 lljl' Among- the curious consio-nments of the early 
 
 1850. '^ ^ . '~ *' 
 
 days were omnibuses, which, because the streets 
 were not easily traversed by heavy-wheeled 
 vehicles, were planted and employed as restau- 
 rants. Old ships, which never could get hands 
 enough to go to sea again, were beached at high 
 tide. They served for enviable boarding-houses. 
 As streets were laid out and constructed into 
 the bay, many of these were left standing. As 
 the sand-hills were wheeled down to the flats, 
 and the grades raised, these grew firm in the 
 foundations of the city. Upon more than one 
 such was built up a superstructure in the form 
 of a house. If it was a hotel, it still retained 
 the name of the ship which was its foundation. 
 The ship A2yollo was used as a store ; the Eu- 
 jyhemia as a prison, while moored in the bay. 
 Still others, beached in more slowly-growing 
 2)arts of the town, were left to rot for years, un- 
 used. But as boats, sloops, and schooners were _ 
 needed, and the price of labor declined, their 
 timbers and old iron were got out and sav©d. 
 Some of the best craft in the fleet of coastwise 
 and river vessels that a dozen years later vexed 
 the harbors and navigal)le streams of California 
 were made out of the skeletons of ships origin- 
 ally built on the New England coast. 
 
 The saw-mill was soon at work, splitting the 
 
STYLE OF BUILDING. 333 
 
 redwoods, which crowned innumerable heights, chap. 
 into boards, shingles, and joists. Then wooden 
 houses were run up almost in a day. The joists 1849- 
 were set in the ground, and a floor laid, the up- 
 rights erected, and the frail structure grew story 
 by story. Cloth answered for partitions and 
 ceilings, and paper for paint. These combus- 
 tible shells brought the rent of substantial 
 houses. If the roof would shed water in win- 
 ter, and the flimsy walls stand up against the 
 winds of summer, it was enough. Throw a 
 spark of fire into such materials, and unless a 
 pail of water were at hand to quench it, it was 
 of little use to ring the fire-bells. Nothing but 
 a wide vacant space could stop the ravages of 
 the conflagration. 
 
 Four great fires San Francisco suffered during 
 this memorable term. The first broke out in 
 Dennison's Exchange, a grand gambling-saloon 
 on the south side of the Plaza, on the morning 
 of the 24th of December, 1849. It burned 
 over half the block, and destroyed more than a 
 million dollars worth of property. Before the 
 ruins had stopped smoking, much of the ground 
 was rebuilt and occupied again. On the 4th 
 of May, 1850, at four o'clock in the morning, 
 fire affain broke out near the same site. This 
 time it swept over three blocks, from Montgom- 
 ery to Kearny Street, and from Clay to Jack- 
 son Street, destroying three million dollars 
 
334 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, worth of property. In ten days, more than 
 
 ■^^^^- half the burnt district was rebuilt. On the 
 
 1849- 14tli of June, 1850, another fire laid in ashes 
 
 1850. ^Yie district bounded by Kearny, Clay, and 
 
 California streets and the bay, and the daru- 
 
 asres were estimated at four million dollars. On 
 
 the morning of September l7th, 1850, a fourth 
 
 fire consumed the buildings, mostly of wood, 
 
 and but one story high, on the tract bounded 
 
 by Dupont and Montgomery, Washington and 
 
 Pacific streets. The damage was variously 
 
 estimated at from a quarter to half a million of 
 
 dollars. 
 
 Men grew credulous because there were so 
 many unquestionable marvels as to the occa- 
 sional finding of gold in nuggets, or lying loose 
 in " pockets " of rocks. Early in 1850, two nug- 
 gets of gold were found, weighing about twenty- 
 three pounds each. Others of not quite such 
 astonishino; size were brousfht to light in 1849. 
 Every such case set half wild the miners who 
 were toiling at a claim that paid less than at 
 first, or whose early 23romise had not been kept. 
 Very soon they were sorel}^ given to " rushes." 
 In June, 1849, a mountaineer named Green- 
 wood told the miners at Coloma that he had 
 seen gold in abundance at Truckee Lake. The 
 news spread swiftly, though noiselessly, and 
 hundreds left good diggings to try their luck 
 at Truckee Lake. They returned soon after 
 
MINLKG EUSHES. 335 
 
 thorouglily destitute. They found the place, chap. 
 l^it no color of gold there. , 
 
 In May of 1850, the Gold Lake fever broke i849- 
 out. Two miners were overheard by a third ^^^^' 
 talking of a lake on whose shores the gold lay 
 loose like pebbles. The third man guessed 
 that the wonderful region was Gold Lake, a 
 little sheet of water not far from Downie- 
 ville. He began at once preparations to go 
 to it, talking freely meanwhile of what he had 
 seen there. The story was whispered fi"om one 
 to another, and thousands of men deserted 
 claims where they were making from twenty to 
 forty dollars a day, and dashed off to tbe seclu- 
 ded pond — whence they returned a few months 
 later without any thing to show for their pains. 
 
 It seems strange now tliat practical men were 
 so often and easily deluded. But it must be 
 remembered that the majority labored under 
 the impression that they came to California just 
 one trip too late, and they did not choose to 
 lose the second chance at a fortune by tardiness. 
 Besides, the true tales that were told and illus- 
 trated by the full belts of gold buckled about 
 the waists of the narrators, were scarcely less 
 astonishing to the inexperienced than the wild- 
 est fable that was poured into the ears of the 
 experienced, whose credulity thrived on what 
 they had seen. 
 
 These rushes afterwards became so common 
 
336 THE lUSTOIlY OF CALIFOKXIA. 
 
 CHAP, that no year passed witliout one or more of 
 them. Those who went and saw for them- 
 
 1849- selves, were, on their return, instead of being 
 '^ ' the butt of their companions, regarded with 
 admiration. They had " seen the elephant " — 
 had experienced the joy of waking out of a de- 
 lusion on the very spot where the charm was 
 to work its wonders. It grew into a habit with 
 some to take every fever, and join in every rush. 
 At heart they thought fortune must favor 
 those who took all the chances ; but they pro- 
 fessed an unconquerable desire to see the end 
 of every humbug. Doubtless there are some 
 in the State who have personally explored 
 the truth or falsity of every grand mining story 
 that has excited the public since the first stam- 
 pede for Coloma. 
 
 Land, of course, acquired a high value about 
 the centres, of po23ulation, and troubles sprang 
 up between the squatters, who claimed by j)re- 
 emption or actual possession, and the claimants 
 under Spanish or Mexican grants. In August, 
 1850, there were serious riots at Sacramento. 
 Most of the land there was claimed under 
 conveyances from Sutter, yet it was sprinkled 
 with squatters. The Sutter claimants got favor- 
 able decisions from the courts ; but the squatters 
 pulled out their pistols and refused to be oust- 
 ed. Several of them were arrested and impris- 
 oned. Their friends rushed, armed, to the rescue. 
 
SQUATTER EIOTS GAMBLING. 337 
 
 and a collision occurred between them and tlie chap. 
 sheriff's posse. Several squatters were killed. l_^_j 
 Of tlie sheriff's party, one was killed and others i849- 
 wounded. 
 
 The gamblers of the world met here; the 
 foremost of that desperate and wretched class 
 swarmed to San Francisco like vultures to the 
 carcass. The recklessness with which money 
 was squandered made it their paradise. The 
 homelessness of the people furnished them vic- 
 tims in abundance. The absence of municipal 
 law, or the neglect of its officers, left them with- 
 out restraint to indulge their career. 
 
 Soon the choicest business locations in town 
 were occupied as gambling saloons. The plaza 
 was surrounded by them. The Parker House 
 rented for one hundred and ten thousand dol- 
 lars a year ; more than half the amount was 
 paid by gamblers. The "El Dorado," while 
 a tent, fifteen by twenty-five feet on the ground, 
 rented for forty thousand dollars a year to gam- 
 blers. 
 
 These saloons were fitted up with all the 
 attractions of gilded mirrors, pictures more 
 costly than chaste, and plaster statuary. The 
 gold Avas heaped upon the tables in piles that 
 made the richest feel poor as they gaped at 
 them. The miner, who had filled his buckskin 
 pouch with gold and his bones with rheuma- 
 tism after months of toil, dropping down to the 
 
 22 
 
338 THE HISTOEY OF CALQ^OETTLV, 
 
 CHAP, city on business or pleasure, or on his way East, 
 ,_^__J, could scarcely pass by the open doors, where so 
 1849- many thronged, without entering from curi- 
 '^^' osity. He saw there men pocketing by a lucky 
 throw of the dice more money than his pouch 
 held. Possibly he saw a man whom at home 
 he had regarded as a model of morality, staking 
 his whole substance on the chance of a card. 
 The foolish fellow must needs try his luck too, 
 is " dead broke " by the experiment, and now 
 must, of course, hurry back to the mines to be- 
 gin the world again. Men gambled who did 
 not know a card when they came into the place ; 
 some from mere love of the excitement ; some 
 hopefully to snatch the means of getting back 
 to their families, unquiet, anxious, and sick 
 with hope deferred ; some recklessly, because 
 they were alone in the world, and none would 
 suffer with their loss. 
 
 Without law, there was an unwritten law 
 taken for granted, that dealt justice to rich and 
 poor alike with rigid exactness. In the mines, 
 where eveiy thing depended on the good faith 
 of man to man, theft was the mortal sin, and 
 the eighth commandment was deemed altogether 
 the most important of the decalogue. Men 
 frequently wore theu* gold in belts about them ; 
 still, a very successful miner must have some 
 sort of deposit for what he could not lug about 
 liis person. So he buried it under his cabin- 
 
LT2sXH LAW. 339 
 
 floor, or by tlie roots of some privately marked chap. 
 tree, or in some other equally secret spot, where 
 a spying neighbor would be very likely to i849- 
 catch him hiding it. But, woe to the thief who "^ ' 
 despoiled him ! When a robbery was com- 
 mitted, they rallied from all the camps about, 
 to hunt the culprit, and, when found, to try 
 him, Judge Lynch presiding. The jury were 
 intolerant of long trials. The examinations 
 were sharp and brief, the questions apt to be 
 leading. When the jury found a verdict of 
 guilty^ the miserable prisoner was run up by 
 the neck to a limb of the nearest tree. The 
 very swiftness of Justice saved her from being 
 called into frequent requisition. Lynch law 
 knew no delays, and made some terrible blun- 
 ders, which, while they scared evil-doers none 
 the less, brought this border law into disre- 
 pute. 
 
 About the meanest class that cursed the com- 
 munity was a brood of unprincipled, labor- 
 hating, professional politicians, who gathered 
 from all corners of the States, fetching with 
 them the worst vices peculiar to the political 
 system of the locality they had I'elieved by leav- 
 ing. Some had found politics unprofitable at 
 home ; but, in their pursuit, had acquired habits 
 that unfitted them for any less exciting employ- 
 ment. There were others who had been edu- 
 cated to believe that offices were made for their 
 
340 THE HISTOKY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, enioyment. To demand one as miicli entitled 
 
 ^__^ them to places at tlie public crib, as more modest 
 
 1849 - folks, by work, entitled themselves to a living. 
 
 ■ These were the " chivalry," whose touchstone 
 
 was devotion to slavery. If they came from the 
 
 South, they spoke with contemptuous oaths of 
 
 the " Yankees ;" if from the North, they out- 
 
 heroded Herod in their abuse of " abolitionists," 
 
 and knew no service too menial to render to 
 
 the '' gentlemen of the South." 
 
 There were a few \^'ho saved politics from 
 utter degradation ; men who in the midst of 
 their business had studied the theory of our 
 government, and were statesmen undeveloped 
 to the public ; others, also, who had been in- 
 trusted with power and position at home, but 
 either l)ecause their influence waned, or hoping 
 to rise faster in a new State, brought their 
 talent and their experience to this market. 
 
 The Democratic party introduced California 
 to the circle of territories, but the Whigs were 
 in power when she was admitted as a State, and 
 had they managed with shrewdness, they might 
 have taken the cream of that advantage. They 
 lacked sagacity in the selection of agents to 
 represent them. They lost the favor of the mi- 
 ners by advising the sale of the mineral lands 
 which the cosmopolitan crowd claimed to be- 
 long, without distinction of color, or nation, or 
 
POLITICAL BLU]!0)ERS. 341 
 
 language, or religion, to tliose wlio would work guar 
 tliem. 
 
 Then the calculations of those who made the 
 question of slavery paramount were all frustra- 
 ted. The very method of the settlement of the 
 country was a nail in the skull of slavery. The 
 expectation of the war party had been that the 
 climate " would draw to it mostly a Southern 
 population." Probably that would have proved 
 true but for the sudden violence with which 
 the gold fever burst upon the States. Many 
 early immigrants from the South brought their 
 slaves with them. But if the penalty of death 
 would not deter soldiers from deserting from 
 camps, where there was nothing to do, to the 
 mines — if wages treble any ever offered to sail- 
 ors before would not keep Jack on board ship 
 when sailing in any direction was homeward, 
 it was certainly no wonder that the most trusty 
 slave deserted his master, in a land where a few 
 weeks' work made all men equal, and wliere 
 there was every shade of color to mollify the 
 prejudice that it excites. Li every laborer the 
 fugitive found a friend ; for the freeman feels 
 degraded to have a slave labor by his side. 
 So the fugitive never came back, and most of 
 the slave ventures into California were perfect 
 failures. 
 
 Very soon it was obvious that men of Noi*th- 
 ern and Western birth outnumbered the South- 
 
342 THE HISTOKY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, erners. Now it happened, as we have shown, 
 ,__^___^ that Southern notions concerning labor were 
 1849- early unpopular. Still the old Democratic 
 "^ ■ party training had been very thorough, Avhich 
 treated every thing of Southern origin as almost 
 sacred. So here, as elsewhere, the South blus- 
 tered and assumed every thing, while the North 
 and the West succumbed, partly from habit, 
 and partly because they had not come on a 
 political errand, and did not expect to stay. 
 
 A curious anomaly was the result. The 
 State with a marvellous unanimity declared 
 against the chosen and peculiar institution of 
 the South ; yet Southern men bullied and ruled 
 the community in every other respect, at their 
 sovereign will. 
 
 Some strong conservative influences, some 
 powerful elements of improvement, were at 
 work in this motley mass. The accumulation 
 of property by a man of any character made 
 him a better friend of law and order ; for prop- 
 erty is always a stringent conservator. The 
 newspapers, not so much by any bold denun- 
 ciation of wrong as by simply exposing it, were 
 doing a good work. They ventilated crime, 
 and that is often enough to check its growth, 
 which craves darkness and secrecy. Then tliere 
 were eccentric men who made the circuit of the 
 mining camps, preaching in quaint, unstudied 
 language, summoning men to repentance at 
 
CONSERVATIVE INFLUENCES. 343 
 
 the risk of all abuse and insult. In tlie cities chap. 
 
 XXIV 
 
 they gathered their meetings on the plazas, or ._^_] 
 at the doors of the most thronged gambling- 1849- 
 saloons, whose inmates, very likely in a fit of 
 sudden resj^ect for religion, would pass around 
 the hat for the preacher's benefit. These ear- 
 nest, humor-loving, quick-witted street-preach- 
 ers consorted well with the earnest, excited, 
 rollicking times, and they did more good than 
 at first might be supposed. Their exhortations, 
 heard by fragments amid the oaths and the din 
 of the gambling-table, may have summoned 
 many a conscience, that seemed dead, to life 
 again. 
 
 But of less doubtful power, of a force to 
 which society soon responded unmistakably, 
 was the influence of the undemonstrative Chris- 
 tian men sprinkled through the mas^ of immi- 
 grants — men who never lost the memory of 
 home, who cherished the early truths that in- 
 spired their fathers, who were true to early 
 vows, and faithful to their religion. Such, 
 among the distant foot-hills, in the wildest set- 
 tlements, and in all the cities, gathered the scat- 
 tered children into Sabbath-schools, and formed 
 the nuclei of religious associations that have 
 since built churches, started good schools, res- 
 cued the Sabbath, and given to society its 
 wholesome, healthful tone. 
 
 Good men, who felt at all at home here, 
 
344 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, regarded the magnificent proportions of the 
 
 , ■ State with pride. It enjoyed a far wider range 
 
 1849- of climate than its bounding parallels of lati- 
 ^^'^^' tude would suggest ; jet few places on the globe 
 are favored Avitli so equable a temperature the 
 year through as its commercial and popular 
 capital. The mines clearly were to be the 
 State's first source of wealth ; if they held out 
 as they promised, they could not fail to attract 
 a vast emigration. The few experiments upon 
 its soil showed that at an earl}'- future day 
 there would be no need of importing supplies 
 of food to feed all that would come. As popu- 
 lation increased, wages must diminish, and then 
 no condition would be lacking to encourage 
 manufactures and the arts. 
 
 Then the grand position ! Seated by the 
 sea, midway between Euroj)e and Asia, on the 
 road that Atlantic sails most naturally take 
 to reach China or Ja2:)an, with a harbor not 
 surpassed on the globe, and that without any 
 considerable rival on the coast through a 
 stretch of latitude greater than from Newfound- 
 land to Cuba ; midway between the climates 
 which it enjoyed so mixed, that apples and figs, 
 wheat and olives ripened side by side, and 
 summer and winter require a little difference of 
 clothing; midway between "the peoples," who, 
 meeting here, made the metropolis cosmopoli- 
 tan, and in the same mining-camp conferred in 
 
THE GRAND POSITION. 345 
 
 lialf-a-dozen languages ; midway of the marts chap. 
 and harvest-fields of the world, it required no 1_^_" 
 enthusiasm to make the dullest inquirer of her i849- 
 destiny anticipate a wonderful future for Cali- 
 fornia. 
 
34:6 THE UISTOllY OF CAUFOENIA, 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 AFTER THE ADMISSION. 
 
 CHAP. It is next proposed to sketch tlie growth of 
 
 ^_L the State from the date of its admission (1850), 
 
 1850- until a great uprising of the people, constituting 
 a thorough radical reformation of politics and 
 morals, once more arrested general attention, 
 and set older communities to speculating upon 
 the future of California — in short, until the 
 Vigilance rule in San Francisco, of 1856. 
 
 As a whole, during these six years, the course 
 of the people was upward : the State grew in 
 population, in wealth, in improvements. But 
 in one respect there was no visible growth. 
 Justice fell into bad company. Shameless men 
 managed public affairs, especially in the cities, 
 and society did not keep pace with commerce 
 and mining. Or rather, the conservative ele- 
 ment was so overlaid that it was hidden ; yet 
 it was growing all the while, and when the 
 burden became too heavy to be borne, it eman- 
 cipated itself. 
 
 The mines did not give out. The croakers 
 had said they would — had prophesied that in 
 
THE YIELD OF THE MIKES. 347 
 
 five years they would be exhausted, and then cfiap. 
 the population would vanish as it had come. 
 Sir Roderick Murchisoii, in September, 1850, i850- 
 endeavored, in an article in the Quarterly ^ ' 
 Heview, to show that in all probability the 
 gold washings of California would soon be ex- 
 hausted at the rapid rate they were being 
 worked, and he laid down the proposition that 
 no gold-bearing veins in the solid rock could 
 be wrought with profit. Fortunately for his fame, 
 that distinguished geologist did not make very 
 definite his prediction. The placers yielded 
 more abundantly in 1851 and 1852 than they 
 did in 1850. 
 
 The entire gold-yield, from 1848 to 1856 in- 
 clusive, has been variously estimated at from 
 four hundred and fifty to six hundred millions 
 of dollars. Hittell, who thinks the lower esti- 
 mate the more nearly correct, distributes the 
 yield among these years as follows : — 
 
 In 1848, ten millions of dollars ; in 1849, 
 forty millions; in 1850, fifty millions; in 1851, 
 fifty-five millions; in 1852, sixty millions; in 
 1853, sixty-five millions; in 1854, sixty millions; 
 in 1855, fifty-five millions; in 1856, fifty-five 
 millions. The same author holds that in 1850 
 there were fifty thousand miners at work ; if so, 
 each could have averaged but one thousand dol- 
 lars for that year — which, considering the cost 
 of living and of travel, was scarcely the fortune 
 
348 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 oiiAP. that the eag-er emio-rant barejained for wlieu he 
 
 XXV. o O to 
 
 185G. 
 
 left his home. 
 1850- At first, the gold was mostly taken from the 
 bars of the rivers, which constituted the " wet 
 diggings," or the ravines which were known 
 as " dry diggings." But in summer, many of 
 the rivers shrank to mere threads, and by de- 
 grees the gold was traced far away from their 
 banks. Yet water was essential in the process 
 of separating the metal from the dirt, and either 
 the auriferous soil and gravel must be brought 
 to the river, or the river brou2:ht to them. The 
 enterprising miners thought the latter the 
 cheaper plan, so many a river was turned out 
 of its bed, and conveyed in canals to the spot 
 where it was wanted. High up on the mountain- 
 sides dams were built, and the waters, as they 
 gushed from the springs, imprisoned in reservoirs. 
 Thence they were led by gentle declivities across 
 the slopes of the foot-hills, over deep ravines and 
 river-beds, in flumes sustained on trestle-work 
 bridges. They were distributed by branching 
 ditches in all directions, and afforded at a fixed 
 price for the inch in an abundant supply to the 
 miners; thus annihilating the distinction be- 
 tween wet and dry diggings, and substituting 
 for the cradle and rocker the " long tom," and 
 for that, in turn, the sluice-box. These canals, 
 and the long skeleton bridges supporting their 
 aqueducts at immense heights, added a new and 
 
IMPKOVEMENT IN MINING PI10CESSE3. 349 
 
 curious feature to the landscape, and gave an chap. 
 impression of improvement not justified by tlie ^_^.^ 
 wildness everywhere discernible on a closer isso- 
 look. ISTor V7as the amazement of the traveller 
 abated when he learned that these costly enter- 
 prises, valued, at the close of 1856, at eleven 
 millions of dollars, were built with the miners' 
 own money, and almost exclusively without 
 the employment of foreign capital. 
 
 The general extension of the system of water 
 ditches made way for another improvement. 
 In 1852, Edward E. Mattison, of Nevada Coun- 
 ty, and formerly of Connecticut, revolutionized 
 the whole business, and restored great value to 
 many an abandoned field by introducing the 
 hydraulic hose. This was the application of 
 a stream of water conveyed from a height 
 through strong pipes and a flexible hose, and 
 directed upon the face of hills in which the gold 
 was scattered in minute particles. Before this 
 hydraulic force, large hills were entirely broken 
 down and the lighter debris washed away 
 through sluice-l^oxes, where riffles detained and 
 quicksilver caught the precious metal. 
 
 It was early discovered that in a certain 
 white quartz, very abundant in Tuolumne and 
 Mariposa counties, especially on the tract 
 bought by Fremont from Alvarado, in 1846, 
 there w^as gold plainly visible to the naked eye. 
 The placer miners looked covetously on the 
 
350 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, sparkling points or seams, but generally pro- 
 ,__^_^ nounced it too tiglitly locked in its stony safes 
 1851. to be come at with profit. Capital made the 
 attempt, however. 
 
 In 1851 the first quartz-crushing mill was 
 erected; others quickly followed, the stamps 
 being worked in some cases by horse-powei', in 
 some by water, and in others by steam. Soon 
 there was a rage, especially among foreigners, 
 for quartz. Many Englishmen bought up gold- 
 bearing quartz veins by the map, sent out costly 
 macLinery, gave theorizing superintendents ex- 
 orbitant salaries, paid enormous travelling fees, 
 lavished their money, and looked for returns 
 that would startle the world. Sometimes their 
 agents on arriving could not find the purchased 
 veins ; sometimes the veins were all right, but 
 no water was to be had ; sometimes, where all 
 the other conditions were satisfactory, the agents 
 failed in practical exj)erience to make unques- 
 tionably rich mines pay. Most of the machin- 
 ery was found useless for the purposes intended. 
 Operations had been commenced when freights 
 and the prices of provisions, materials, and 
 labor were very high. Full two millions of 
 English capital, and not a little American, was 
 squandered, and then quartz-crushing at a profit 
 was pronounced impracticable, and was gener- 
 ally abandoned. Two or three years later that 
 business revived again. In 1855 the quartz on 
 
EXTENT OF inNING IMPE0VEMENT8. 351 
 
 Alison's rancli, near Grass Valley, whicli had chap. 
 long been known as very rich, was carefully ._^^__1. 
 tested. The result brought quartz-crushing again 1856. 
 into favor, started the idle mills, and caused 
 others with improved machinery to be erected. 
 By the end of 1856 there were one hundred 
 and thirty-eight quartz-mills in the State, valued 
 at one million seven hundred and sixty-three 
 thousand dollars, of which forty-eight were 
 driven by steam. There were innumerable 
 shafts and adits and tunnels which some- 
 times pierced quite through the hills. The hy- 
 draulic hose had washed down immense hills, 
 and sadly marred the natural beauty of the 
 mining region. There were more than forty- 
 four hundred miles of artificial watercourses 
 widening the area of the miners' operations, and 
 though the number of miners had not increased, 
 and more and more of the gold was detained in 
 California, her annual export of treasure was 
 maintained without much variation, from 1851 
 to 1856 inclusive, at about fifty millions of dol- 
 lars. 
 
 But although the mines were the strong 
 magnet that drew immigration, they did not fur- 
 nish the principal occupation of those who ar- 
 rived. The early immigrants generally tried 
 them long enough to learn that digging gold 
 was after all quite as hard work as digging 
 potatoes. The unrestrained liberty of camp- 
 
352 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, life soon parted with its first fine flavor, there 
 
 XXV 
 
 was so much druclo-ery mixed with it. Its ex- 
 1850- citements early lost their charm, and the calmer 
 '^^' sort pined for a steadier kind of employment. 
 Every mining camp made a market for vegeta- 
 bles, and the cost of transporting them tempted 
 those who knew the art to " tickle the earth " 
 with hoe and spade, and see if she would 
 " laugh with harvests " of root crops. The great 
 valleys were already famous for their yield of 
 grains; but the Americans had been here for 
 three or four years ]:)efore it was generally con- 
 ceded that there were over a few hundred acres 
 of "vegetable land" in the State. Experiment 
 settled the question satisfactorily, and then 
 agriculture soon populated the fertile nooks 
 near the mines, planted the sheltered slopes of 
 the foot-hills with gardens and orchards, and 
 l)rought into cultivation the great valleys. 
 Money was made more easily, fortunes were 
 built up more surely, and scarcely less rapidly, 
 by catering to the wants of settlers than by 
 huntino- for o-old. 
 
 The census of 1852 reported the wheat crop 
 of the State at two hundred and seventy-one 
 thousand seven hundred and sixty-three bushels. 
 The crop of 1856 was nearly thirteen times as 
 great. 
 
 The potato crop of 1852 was quite equal to 
 the demand, the average price being one and a 
 
ADVA]MCE OF AGRICULTURE. 353 
 
 half dollars per busliel. But in the supply and cit.\p. 
 prices of farm produce and garden truck, there ^^^ 
 continued o-reat fluctuations. The onion-fields isso- 
 
 -1 or » 
 
 of 1851 and 1852 made their owners rich ; the '^*'" 
 same fields in 1853 and 1854, witli excellent 
 crops, ruined their owners. The average price 
 of two hundred pounds of wheat flour at San 
 Francisco was, in January, 1851, sixteen dol- 
 lars; of 1852, eleven dollars; of 1853, twenty- 
 six dollars ; of 1854, ten and a quarter dollars ; 
 of 1855, nine dollars ; of 1856, eight dollars 
 and sixty-two cents. Attention was early at- 
 tracted to the facilities of the southern and cen- 
 tral parts of the State for producing wine. The 
 census of 1850 reported fifty-eight thousand 
 and fifty-five gallons of wine made in California, 
 and no other State in the Union made as much. 
 The number of vines was quadrupled in 1856. 
 The land available for cultivation, aside from 
 swamp and overflowed regions, was estimated at 
 forty-one and a half millions of acres. Of these, 
 one in every three hundred and seventy-six was 
 under cultivation in 1852 ; and one in every 
 seventy in 1856. Of animal food, from the be- 
 ginning there was plenty; but as late as 1856 
 none of the great staple, cereal, or root crops 
 were equal to the demand; yet the conclusion 
 had been reached by intelligent observers that 
 California, considering her limited amount of 
 arable land, was without a rival in her capacity 
 
 23 
 
354 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 ciTAP. of grain production — tliat she produced wheat 
 
 J^_^__, and the other small grains " in larger quanti- 
 
 1850- ties to the acre, of better quality, with more 
 
 ■ certainty and less labor, than any other country 
 
 in the known world." 
 
 The high prices of labor kept back manufac- 
 tures, and only those were developed which 
 populous new lands summon into existence. 
 The saw-mill, herald and pioneer of most set- 
 tlements, lagged behind population here. In 
 1856 there were three hundred and seventy- 
 three of them in the State, erected at a cost of 
 two and a half millions of dollars, cutting into 
 lumber the exhaustless forests of the coast 
 range and Sierra Nevada. There were one 
 hundred and thirty-one grist-mills, fourteen iron 
 foundries, and eighteen tanneries. Ship-build- 
 ing was as yet in its infancy. 
 
 Commerce reaped a splendid harvest from 
 California during this period. Almost every 
 thing eaten or worn here was imported until 
 1851. In 1852 the vessels arriving at and de- 
 parting from San Francisco averaged more than 
 seven a day. In 1853 the imports of San Fran- 
 cisco were valued at thirty-five millions of dol- 
 lars. The flour and meal bill of this importing 
 people was five millions of dollars ; its butter 
 bill four millions, and its lumber bill the same. 
 Its exports were a few hides and over fifty-seven 
 million dollars worth of gold. The vessels ar^ 
 
COJIIMERCE OF SAN FRANCISCO. 355 
 
 riving and departing that year registered one chap. 
 million one hundred and sixty-seven thousand ,___^ 
 four hundred and thirty-three tons — greater i850- 
 than the tonnage of Boston three years later. ^^°^* 
 
 Indeed, commerce overdid itself that year. 
 It was considerably less in 1854 ; still less in 
 1855 ; and less yet in 1856 ; and still San 
 Francisco, at the last date named, was fourth 
 in the list of American cities for its tonnasje. 
 New York, Boston, and New Orleans only ex- 
 ceeded it ; Philadelphia could not claim half its 
 amount. It must be remembered, however, 
 that this vast fleet was not, nor any consider- 
 able portion of it, owned here. 
 
 The Bay of San Francisco was lively in those 
 days. Long wharves thrust themselves over 
 the flats towards deep water. Their construc- 
 tion had cost a million and a half of dollars as 
 early as 1850, and fair facilities were furnished 
 for tolerably quick dispatch — the great lack 
 being fire-proof store-houses. Vessels propelled 
 by steam ploughed the bay and rivers, and 
 plied up and down the coast. Fortnightly 
 steamers arrived and left in 1853, carrying the 
 mails and bringing crowds of passengers and 
 such freight as could afford to pay the high 
 transportation charges of the Isthmus. 
 
 A passion possessed the merchants of the 
 Eastern cities to take California ventures. Car- 
 goes were bought up and sent out to be sold 
 
^56 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, on commission so quietly that none but tlie 
 ^__^ sharpest could keep posted on trade movements. 
 1850- Bostonians, New Yorkers, Pliiladelpkians 
 ^' would not be convinced that the high prices of 
 1849 and 1850 mio^ht not suddenly ragje ao;ain 
 on a day's notice, and they poured in their 
 miscellaneous assortments in spite of the pro- 
 tests of correspondents. Money was plenty, 
 but goods were plentier. Almost every thing 
 was sold on commission or at auction, for rents 
 were too high to permit unmarketable articles to 
 be stored lono;. Soon it ^vas clear that the 
 race was to the swift. If an article was grow- 
 ing scarce, the first ship that could get ai'ound 
 the Horn w^ith it won the market. So, fleet 
 clippers came into fashion, and it was held sim- 
 ple madness to freight a slow sailer. 
 
 Throughout the great part of 1852 high 
 prices ruled for the necessaries of life. Flour, 
 from eight dollars a barrel in March, ran up 
 to forty dollars a barrel in November. Storms 
 kept the clippers back. Of some things the 
 supply was quite exhausted, and the shifts to 
 which people were put, were veiy amusing to 
 disinterested observers. The Alta new^spaper, in 
 July, suddenly came down from a broad, hand- 
 some sheet to a small folio, with a page fourteen 
 by ten inches in dimensions. The Herald was 
 forced to use brown wrapj^ing-paper for its 
 issues. 
 
POPULATION OF THE STATE. 357 
 
 This occasional barrenness of markets did chap. 
 isometliing towards stimulating home mauufao- ^ 
 tures ; but not much, on account of the rates issu- 
 of wages, and the fact that money commanded ' • 
 so high an interest. 
 
 The population of California was estimated 
 in 1831 at little over twenty-three thousand; 
 in January of 1849, at thirty-six thousand, of 
 whom thirteen thousand were natives, eight 
 thousand from the United States, and five 
 thousand from other foreign countries. The 
 national census of 1850 reported one hundred 
 and seventeen thousand five hundred and thirty- 
 eight inhabitants in the new State. In 1851, 
 twenty-seven thousand people arrived by sea, 
 and more than half of them by way of the Isth- 
 mus or the Nicaragua route ; yet the steamers 
 carried back more than they brought. If the 
 State grew, it was chiefly by means of the large 
 overland emio-ration. In 1852, the State census 
 showed a population of two hundred and sixty- 
 four thousand, four hundred and thirty-five. 
 Immigration was double that of the preceding 
 year ; about one-third the number that arrived 
 departed. Fewer were " going home " to stay. 
 In 1853 there arrived fifteen thousand by land, 
 and thirt^^-four thousand by sea. The depart- 
 ures were, exclusively by sea, tliirty-one thou- 
 sand. This was pushing ahead — a gain from 
 abroad of eighteen thousand. It was estimated 
 
358 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, that but one-fifth the whole population were 
 J_^_J, women, and but one-tenth children. By the 
 1850- close of 1856 the State contained, by estimate, 
 "^ ■ over half a million inhabitants. 
 
 Though the Indians were left out in the usual 
 business calculations of the people, they played 
 no inconsiderable part in the country during 
 this period. They made some trouble, required 
 much legislation, and were the innocent means 
 of pumping much money out of the General 
 Government. 
 
 After the spell of the Fathers was dissolved, 
 many of the tame ones relapsed into heathen- 
 ism, carrying back with them a more positive 
 laziness than their ancestors possessed, and a 
 surer instinct for thieving. They shrunk into 
 retirement during the conquest, and were seldom 
 thought of. Domesticated representatives of 
 their race were lioused among the pioneers, and 
 gangs of them, for wages, hunted for gold. 
 
 The Legislature, at its first session, compli- 
 mented them with an act. It had no trace of 
 an admission of their title to the land. Their 
 villages must not be disturbed, but their rights 
 were only those of a tenant. Minor Indians, 
 with the permission of their parents, might be 
 adopted by the whites. If the Indians were 
 abused, they could complain to the justice of 
 the peace, but no white person on their testi- 
 mony could be convicted. Thejustice must tell 
 
INDIAN WAES. 359 
 
 tliem wliat tlie law was, and, if they violated chap. 
 
 • XXV 
 
 it, must punish their head men by reprimand, ,„_^_ 
 fine, or reasonable chastisement. For stealing 1850. 
 they incurred a fine of two hundred dollars, or 
 "twenty-five lashes laid on without cruelty." 
 Able-bodied Indians found begging, strolling, 
 or loitering about places where li(][uor was to 
 be sold, could be hired out for four months to 
 the highest bidder. To sell them liquor in- 
 curred a fine of twenty dollars, or five days' 
 imprisonment. The money that was paid as 
 fines by Indians, or by whites on Indian ac- 
 count, and the wages earned while hired out on 
 account of vagrancy, was to go to a mythical 
 " Indian fund " of the town. So it will be seen 
 that the Indian was treated with a kind of con- 
 sideration, and as possessed of rights that white 
 men were bound to respect — white men being 
 judges. Considering the state of the typograph- 
 ical art of that' day, it is not at all significant 
 that the compiled statutes of the first three 
 years of California legislation scrupulously 
 spelled the word Indian with a little i. 
 
 Before the Americans came, there was 
 scarcely such a thing known in California as an 
 Indian war. Occasionally, when game and fish, 
 grasshoppers, acorns and pine-nuts were scarce, 
 the hungry Diggers would swoop down upon 
 the ranches of the tame Indians, and make off 
 with their cattle, which led to arms and a hunt. 
 
300 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP. But witli the admission into the Union, the In- 
 dians assumed the condition which ap])ears to 
 
 1850. be normal for them in all new frontier States — 
 that is, of frequent hostility. 
 
 Some Americans attempting in 1849 to pene- 
 trate the country to the head of the riv^ers, were 
 killed by them. They drove back a party of 
 explorers from the Trinity River region, and at- 
 tacked parties going to and from Oregon. In 
 1850, there were hostile movements in Mari- 
 posa and Fresno Counties, and some thefts and 
 murders committed. Not that the Indians had 
 combined, but, as Governor Burnett stated it, 
 being impelled by the same causes, they were 
 without combination placed in an attitude of 
 hostility. They saw the lands, for which the 
 General Government showed no haste to treat, 
 passing out of their possession ; a people that 
 had no sympathy for them crowding into their 
 choice places ; diseases thinning their tribes : 
 they accepted the notion that they were a 
 doomed race. Discouraged and moody, they 
 failed to provide for their wants, and. that fail- 
 ure in the presence of the whites was far more 
 serious than while they had the range of the 
 woods, the valleys, the bays, and the rivers. A 
 prospect of starvation followed, and to avert it 
 came thefts from the settlers. The whites were 
 not slow to punish the thieves, nor the Indians 
 to aveno-e their wrong's with murder. Volun- 
 
INDIAN WAKS. 361 
 
 teer companies organized expeditions to quell chap. 
 the disturbance ; they failing, the militia were _1^_ 
 called out, and then there was a pretty bill of 1850. 
 expenses on " Indian war account." Twice 
 during 1850 the Governor authorized expedi- 
 tions at the State's expense, because of formi- 
 dable attacks at points where the emigrant trains 
 entered the State. 
 
 At the confluence of the Gila and Colorado, 
 the savages on the 23d of April surprised and 
 murdered a Mr. Glanton and eleven other men, 
 who had established a ferry across the Colo- 
 rado. The southern counties, though called on, 
 manifested no great desire to form an expedition 
 to the scene of slaughter. General Morehead 
 raised a party of seventy-five men, conducted 
 them to the southeast corner of the State, wait- 
 ed a month, and then, by order of the Governor, 
 disbanded it, as there were no evidences of its 
 bein.Q: needed lono-er. 
 
 William Rogers was authorized by the Ex- 
 ecutive, in October, to arm two hundred men, 
 and proceed along the trail that leads from 
 Salt Lake into El Dorado County, where the In- 
 dians had killed several miners, and robbed and 
 wounded a number of emigrants. The expedi- 
 tion went out, did some skirmishing, lost three 
 men, killed sixteen of the Indians, and so re- 
 stored peace. 
 
 There were repeated troubles, too, in Mari- 
 
362 THE IIISTOEY OF CALIFOKNIA. 
 
 CHAP, posa and Fresno Counties, near the head of the 
 San Joaquin. Miners were murdered, their 
 cattle, stock, and movables earned off, their 
 cabins burned. Sheriff Burney raised a com- 
 pany of seventy-four volunteers, pursued the in- 
 surgents, overtook them, killed forty or fifty of 
 their number, and burned their village, losing 
 eight of his own party. 
 
 Indeed, along the whole eight hundred miles 
 of wild mountainous frontier, there was a fever- 
 ish expectation of trou])le kept up by rumors, 
 not always false, of Indian depredations. When, 
 by the resignation of Governor Burnett, John 
 McDougall became chief Executive in January 
 of 1851, he took an early occasion to inform the 
 Senate " of the actual existence of an Indian 
 war within our borders." 
 
 In the spring of 1852, J. W. Denver, and 
 1852. other members of the Legislature, represented 
 to the Executive that the Pitt River Indians 
 and other Northern tribes were constantly in a 
 state of hostility to the whites. They reported 
 that in the counties of Shasta, Trinity, Klamath, 
 and Siskiyou, since the winter of 1849 and 
 1850, two hundred and forty thousand dollars 
 worth of property had been destroyed, and one 
 hundred and thirty persons murdered by In- 
 dians. 
 
 This memorial Governor Bigler transmitted to 
 the commander of the Pacific Department of the 
 
INDIAN WAES. 363 
 
 United States army, complaining that the General chap. 
 Government was not doing its duty to the coast. ^_^_^ 
 General Hitchcock stated in reply that few 1850- 
 instances of late Indian depredations had come 
 to his knowledge. Since Major Kearny, in 
 June, 1851, chastised the Rogue River Indians, 
 he had heard of no trouble until a story was 
 published of eight men killed on the Coquilla. 
 He instantly sent out a force which killed some 
 of the alleged perpetrators of the murders, dis- 
 pelled the rest, and destroyed their supplies of 
 fish. Afterwards it appeared that the white 
 men, who were reported murdered, had escaped 
 alive into Oregon, and that the conflict arose 
 from their own imprudence. In December, 
 1851, he was informed of an outbreak in the 
 southern part of the State. Major Heintzel- 
 man, with a body of trooj^s, marched against 
 the Indians, met, fought, beat them, secured 
 the immediate authors of the war, punished 
 them, and restored perfect peace. He was 
 not aware that troops were needed in any 
 particular section of California, though he 
 very well knew that isolated cases of rob- 
 bery and murder had occurred. He remind- 
 ed the Governor that the country was not 
 settled from the coast gradually towards the 
 interior, but every part of it was suddenly 
 penetrated and explored, bringing the two races 
 into close proximity over the whole area, and 
 
3 ('.4 THE IIISTOllY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 I MAP. not alons: a froutier line alone. If there had 
 .il^,^ really been any delay in sendhig troops to tlie 
 1850- coast, it was only because the peculiar tempta- 
 tions to desertion made it almost impossible to. 
 keep troops together. 
 
 But Redich McKee, U. S. Indian A^ent for 
 Northern California, used a difi'erent tone in 
 addressing; the Governor. He was informed, 
 he said, that in February two men were mur- 
 dered, and their house robbed, on the north 
 side of the Eel River, some iifteen or twenty 
 miles from Humboldt. When the settlers 
 heard of it they jumped to the conclusion that 
 the murderers were Indians. They organized 
 a hunt, and shot down fifteen or twenty de- 
 fenceless natives, whom they had no occasion to 
 suspect. A week or two later they shot four 
 others on suspicion. In the same month an 
 Indian boy was deliberately shot by a Missou- 
 rian, at Happy Camp, on the Klamath. The 
 Indian friends of the boy charged a certain 
 white man with being concerned in the murder. 
 Alarmed for his safety, the white man collected 
 a party, who went up to the Indian village, 
 shot all the men and a number of the women, 
 and burned their houses. Proceeding two miles 
 up the river to Indian Flat, they treated that 
 village and its inhabitants in the same way, ex- 
 cept that here one man escaped to tell the agent 
 the story. In all, between thirty and forty In- 
 
INDIAN WAE8. 365 
 
 dians were tlius coolly slauoflitered. He sub- chap. 
 mitted it to the Governor, whether some meas- J^ 
 ures could not be adopted to vindicate the i85o- 
 laws of the country and of humanity, and bring 
 such desperadoes to punishment. Governor 
 Bigler, in reply, called attention to the discrep- 
 ancies between the statement of Senator Den- 
 ver and the account of Mr. McKee, som,e of' 
 whose reflections he thought " an imputation 
 on the character of American citizens." " As a 
 private intercessor," said the Governor, " be- 
 tween American citizens and their savao:e ene- 
 mies, consanguinity, and the sentiments which 
 it inspires, would incline me to favor the cause 
 of my countrymen ; and, as a public magistrate 
 chosen by American citizens, I cannot yield my 
 approbation to any imputations upon their in- 
 telligence or patriotism." Mr. McKee assured 
 the Governor that he fully concurred in his re- 
 marks touching the progress of civilization — 
 " many of them were familiar truisms very pret- 
 tily expressed" — still, he must remember that 
 if a pack-train were robbed, or a corral broken 
 open, the first red-skins that appeared were 
 made to pay the penalty, and he cited several 
 cases where "consanguinity" had led the whites 
 to punish Indians for outrages with which it 
 was afterwards clearl}^ proven that none of their 
 race had any thing to do. A sharp letter from 
 the Governor, " with renewed assurances," and 
 
366 TIIE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP. SO fortli, concluded this suggestive coiTespond- 
 
 XXV. 
 
 ence. 
 
 "Indian Wars" were not popular in tlie 
 cities, but tlie}^ were in the lobby of the Legis- 
 lature, where the men gathered who furnished 
 supplies for expeditions to quell disturbances, 
 as well as in the wild regions where the Indians 
 occupied choice land that the whites coveted. 
 
 It was a snug bill that was run up on ac- 
 count of the raids that punished the Indians, 
 and not a whit the less because it was pre- 
 sumed that the General Government would pay 
 it finally. The "War Debt," by New Year's 
 of 1853, was seven hundred and seventy-one 
 thousand one hundred and ninety dollars ; after 
 that it grew only by the addition of interest. 
 The trust in the General Government's gener- 
 osity was not disappointed, for Congress, at the 
 session of 1854, authorized the Secretary of 
 War to ascertain the amount expended by the 
 State, and appropriated nine hundred and 
 twenty-four thousand two hundred and fifty- 
 nine dollars to pay it. There was a hitch 
 about the interest due after the date of adjust- 
 ment, and the money was not paid for some 
 time. The State debated a good deal, wanting 
 more money, and legislated some in hopes to 
 get more; then a commission was sent to Con- 
 gress, but no new action was taken by that 
 body, which already had dealt very liberally 
 
THE INDIAN RESERVATIONS. 367 
 
 in the matter. From tliat time onward, the chap. 
 
 XXV 
 
 General Government with its own troops quell- ,_^^_J. 
 ed all Indian disturbances, and found but few i850- 
 
 -n 1856. 
 
 to quell. 
 
 Its early agents made treaties with the In- 
 dians, as if they had a title to the land, but the 
 United States Senate rejected them, and, as 
 Mexico and Spain had done, ignored the Indian 
 claim. That, moreover, was the Government's 
 general policy with all savages who, like those 
 of California, had lost their tribal character. 
 Soon it was urged that their hunting-grounds 
 were destroyed, the rivers ruined for salmon- 
 jSshing, by the miners, and the forests, mth 
 their store of acorns and nuts, cut down. It 
 was pleaded that, for humanity's sake, they 
 should be gathered upon reservations. So mili- 
 tary posts were established with farming lands 
 around each, and the Government agents were 
 authorized to gather them in. The Tehon 
 Reservation was established in 1853, in Los 
 Angeles County; Nome Lackee, in 1854, in 
 Tehama County; Klamath, in 1855; Mendo- 
 cino, in 1856 — each containing twenty-five thou- 
 sand acres; Fresno and King's River Farms, 
 of two thousand acres, in 1854, and Nome 
 Cult Farm, of five thousand acres, in Tehama 
 County. Farming was the chief emj^loyment 
 on all of them ; at Mendocino, fishing also was 
 extensively practised. 
 
308 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOKIsIA. 
 
 CHAP. The Reservation system was a costly, and 
 ■^■^^" not very successful experiment ; to collect the 
 1850- Indians was not the easiest part of it. The 
 ^^^^- tame or Mission Indians still loitered in consid- 
 erable numbers at the south, about the sites 
 of the old missions. They lived in families and 
 villages by themselves, and were the willing 
 helpers of the whites, for small wages harvest- 
 ing their crops and treading their wine-presses. 
 Others engaged as servants of the native Cali- 
 fornians, or hired out as miners, and were wel- 
 come help to companies that had capital and 
 lacked laborers. Then the wild Indians, who, 
 unless very hungry, or maddened by the at- 
 tempts of the whites to steal their children, 
 were almost equally harmless, even if willing 
 to go to the Reservations during the famine 
 months, pined for their freedom when the for- 
 ests and the rivers abounded with food, and 
 were apt to take it. The more restless and 
 bold sometimes drifted as far east as the Sierras, 
 or even beyond, then swayed back again to the 
 midst of the settlements. Perhaps this frequent 
 shifting of location accounts in part for the ex- 
 traordinary discrepancies concerning their num- 
 bers, which Colonel Henley estimated, in 185G, 
 as high as sixty-one tliousand six hundred ; yet 
 not more than ten thousand were gathered at 
 the Reservations. 
 
 The Chinese figured largely in the politics 
 
THE CHU^TESE. 369 
 
 of the State, tlioii2:li tliev Lad no vote, and no chap. 
 
 . . " XXV 
 
 standing as citizens. Tempted l>y gold out of ,1_^^_, 
 tlieir " Central Kingdom/' whose records give 1850- 
 tliem a national and imperial existence contem- 
 porary with, the Prophet Isaiah, they began to 
 arrive, but not very numerously, in 1850. By 
 the spring of 1852 there were ten thousand of 
 them (almost exclusively males) in the State; 
 and by the close of that year, perhaps eighteen 
 thousand. Most of them went to the mines ; 
 but there were also laborers, peddlers, laun- 
 derers, and merchants in their number, who 
 stayed by the cities. A few came as coolies, 
 but that system of servitude was found unprof- 
 itable, and soon abandoned. 
 
 At first they were welcomed as a picturesque 
 addition to the peculiarities of the country. 
 The barbaric feature tliey contributed was a 
 source of pride to the people. Kich or poor, 
 they adhered to their own costume. Their long 
 braided queues, their blue frocks, red sashes, 
 and wooden shoes, the jingling anklets of plated 
 silver worn by their females, the Americans 
 were proud to point out to strangers as tokens 
 that the wealth of their land was arousing even 
 the drowsy Asiatics. Besides, every Chinaman 
 was a silent witness that the Indies were just 
 to the west, and that this was the highway for 
 their wealth from the East of the ancients to 
 the true East of the moderns. The cleanliness, 
 
 24 
 
370 THE inSTOKY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, politeness, and unobtrusive good behavior of 
 the Chinese were in every pioneer's mouth, 
 
 1850- The Chinese restaui'ants were commended for 
 ' their fresh and novel delicacies, as well as for 
 their scrupulous neatness. But this did not 
 last long. The miners early took a fright. 
 These pagan strangers were happy and content 
 on three or four dollars a month, and the free 
 passage to and from the country. Even such 
 small wages were princely, compared with any 
 they had at home, and the " honest miners " of 
 European descent feared that Asia would dis- 
 gorge such a horde upon their gold-fields that 
 the original possessors would be starved out. 
 
 Governor Bigler, who was quick to take a 
 hint from a controlling class of voters, sound- 
 ed the alarm in a messaoje to the Leorislature of 
 1852. He submitted that measures must be 
 adopted to check the tide of immigration from 
 Asia, and keep away " coolies," who intended 
 to take away all they made. He suggested a 
 tax on Chinamen, and that Congress be memo- 
 rialized for a law prohibiting their working in 
 the mines. 
 
 Though the Legislature did not respond to 
 the Governor's suggestion, its effect was a sud- 
 den and almost entire cessation of immigration 
 and of importation of goods from China. In 
 the following year the subject was again early 
 before the Legislature. The Committee on 
 
185G. 
 
 THE CHINESE. 3T1 
 
 Mines, to wliicli it was referred, had an in- chap. 
 
 . ^ XXV 
 
 terview with leading Chinese merchants, who ._^_ 
 advised that a tax be laid upon their country- 1850- 
 men in the mines, and promised to exert their 
 influence to make its collection easy, arguing 
 that such a tax would be productive enough to 
 make their presence desirable in the several 
 counties. They explained the organization that 
 had been established here for the benefit of 
 their countrymen. All but a score or two of 
 the Chinese in the State were from the province 
 of which Canton is the capital. They divided 
 the province into departments, and for each de- 
 partment a house was built in San Francisco, 
 and presided over by two " heads," who were 
 elected by the Chinese from that department. 
 The house was a hotel, a hospital, a post-ofiice, 
 and assembly-room, all in one. A committee 
 of merchants, elected by the people, served with- 
 out pay, as advisers to the heads, and decided 
 matters in dispute between them and the mem- 
 bers. On arriving in port, the immigrants go 
 to the house of the department from which they 
 come, are registered by the clerk, pay each a tax 
 of ten dollars, and then are entitled to all the 
 benefits of the association. The houses lend 
 money to their poor, send the sick back to China, 
 if they wish it, and see that none i-eturu with- 
 out having paid their debts. The clerks keep a 
 registry of the names and residence of members, 
 
372 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, and gather up tlieir votes for company officers 
 _■ tlirouo;li messen2:ers. Tlte mercliants assured 
 
 1850- the committee that (contrary to the prevailing 
 opinion), although at first some came under 
 contracts with employers in China, the custom 
 was abandoned as unprofitable. Most came 
 now, they said, their own masters, and with 
 their own means. Some had hired money to 
 come with, and pledged their property or their 
 wages, for a certain time, as security, or pledged 
 their children as slaves in the event of non-pay- 
 ment. 
 
 The legislation of the year resulted in an 
 amendment to the law " for the protection of 
 foreigners," which required a license of four 
 dollars a month to entitle any person not a citi- 
 zen (except California Indians) to work in the 
 mines, the proceeds to be divided between the 
 State and county treasuries. 
 
 The law was enforced only on the Chinese. 
 They showed no haste to buy the license^ but, 
 when fairly caught, paid the fee with meekness. 
 It was not long before the county tax-payers 
 discovered that there was a compensation in the 
 unwelcome presence of the Chinese, since what 
 they contributed saved several counties from 
 bankruptcy. Then the candid confessed that, 
 with their pans and rockers, and hustled out 
 of any good claim they were lucky enough to 
 find by the covetous whites, these strangers 
 
THE CHIKESE. 3*7 3 
 
 worked principally the tailings, and abandoned chap. 
 claims on which Americans could not make a ,_1^_^ 
 living. Though their countrymen imported 1850- 
 much of their food, they spent their money 
 pretty freely, and so added to the wealth of the 
 State in more ways than one or two. 
 
 The politicians set their faces against the 
 Johns, but the people generally treated them 
 kindly, and they must have sent home fair re- 
 ports, for the immigration rather increased, and 
 at the end of 1856 their numbers in the State 
 were estimated at over thirty-eight thousand. 
 The Supreme Court having decided that they 
 were ^' colored," their testimony against white 
 men was not taken, and they were isolated in 
 the midst of the multitude. As a class, they 
 had no reputation to spare for truth-telling. 
 Believing in no God but their ancestors, and 
 doubtful if even th.ey were not annihilated by 
 death, it was difficult to shape an oath solemn 
 enough to bind them when they testified con- 
 cerning each other. On very important occa- 
 sions a sort of creed, printed on tissue-paper in 
 Chinese characters, was burned as they lifted 
 the right hand, and then, if ever, it was thought 
 they might be trusted to some extent. 
 
 They erected a temple in San Francisco, and 
 set up an idol, hideous with bright paint and 
 brazen ornaments ; but if strangers handled his 
 apparel or his person they manifested no of- 
 
3T4 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, fence. On New Year's Day they made a terri- 
 ble din with gongs, drums, and bells in the 
 
 1850- temple, and set tables in their houses for such 
 "^ ' "gods" as there might be, over against the ta- 
 bles of refreshment for guests. They observed 
 no Sabbath, and any thing like religious wor- 
 ship the closest observation failed to discover. 
 They were inordinate gamblers for very trifling 
 stakes, and excessively fond of theatrical enter- 
 tainments. The appointments of their stage 
 were of the rudest kind, the acting, whether of 
 tragedy or comedy, equally farcical in foreign 
 eyes, the singing nasal, the orchestra deafening 
 with lamentable monotones from gongs, reeds, 
 stringed instruments, and anvils of hard wood. 
 They puffed at their long, shallow-bowled reed 
 pipes incessantly when at leisure, sipped tea 
 night and day when in-doors and awake, and 
 walked single file the streets, giving just half 
 the walk to those they met. A cheery man, 
 meeting them in desolate places, saluted with 
 " How are you, John ? " and the unvarying re- 
 ply was, with a jerking nod, " How are you, 
 John?" They were polite, not obsequious, un- 
 obtrusive, and quietly enjoyed their rights with- 
 out giving oifence in the manner. They had 
 little dealings with the whites, purchasing of 
 them, however, whenever they could make a 
 good bargain for their simple wants. Their 
 merchants had the respect of the trade. Their 
 
THE CinNESE. 375 
 
 fishmongers competed only with a few Genoese chap. 
 and Maltese in San Francisco. Their purifiers >_^ 
 of dirty linen interfered mostly with machine- 1850- 
 washers. As house-servants the Irish girls 
 soon drove them from the kitchen. In the 
 country a few were employed on farms and in 
 gardens on wages. But the great body " created 
 values out of nothing," in the "exhausted" 
 placers, on their own account, or ministered to 
 the wants of their own people as petty trades- 
 men. 
 
 When they died, they were buried, after 
 funeral feasts and ceremonies more or less im- 
 posing, according to their position and wealth. 
 When the flesh of their dead bodies was decay- 
 ed, their bones were gathered up by the agents 
 of the companies, polished, preserved in com- 
 pact form, and in due time returned to rest in 
 Chinese soil. 
 
 In 1855, Governor Bigler argued to the 
 Legislature the right of the State to prohibit 
 their landino- on its shore ; he was shiverinsr 
 yet at the spectacle he had evoked of an over- 
 whelming eruption from Asia. But the treaty 
 stipulations of the United States with China 
 were too well known to the people, and Cali- 
 fornia was spared any such disgraceful legisla- 
 tion as he proposed. 
 
 Generall}^, they lived in peace and harmony 
 with each other. A notable exception occui'red 
 
376 THE HISTORY OF CALLFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, on a bar of tlie Stanislaus, in the fall of 1850, 
 where two mining companies quarrelled about 
 1850- a claim. After one collision, both j)arties ral- 
 ^^^^' lied their friends, and one of them ordered up 
 one hundred and fifty muskets with bayonets 
 and cartridges from San Francisco. Not know- 
 ing how to use them, when they came, they 
 hired some white men to teach them, whom 
 they afterwards said they understood were sent 
 up by the Governor to make sure of fair play, 
 and to prevent interference by the whites. All 
 things being ready, the party with the muskets, 
 nine hundred strong, assailed the enemy, who 
 were twelve hundred strong* and armed with 
 Chinese weapons. The bold assailants fired 
 and ran ; and the enemy, panic-stricken, ran the 
 other way. Two were killed and two wounded. 
 The sheriif intervened, and the war ended, cost- 
 ing, during its brief continuance, very much 
 less money, probably, than the newspapers of 
 the day reported. 
 
 The negro, though the staple topic of Con- 
 gressional legislation, did not much trouble 
 that of California. Governor Burnett, in 1851, 
 advised the exclusion of colored persons from 
 • the State. Tlie people were wiser than their 
 Governor, and would consent to no such folly. 
 However, they sacrificed to the fuming Chivalry 
 so far as to deny their citizenship and pi'ohibit 
 them from bearing testimony concerning whites 
 
NEGEOES !]!«■ CALIFORNIA. ' 377 
 
 in the courts. Tliis last was a cruel wrong to chap. 
 humanity, and the jealous whites suffered their _^ 
 share of its evil ; for, though a negro saw a man, 1850- 
 white or black, murdered by a negro, his lips 
 were sealed in the witness-box, and justice 
 cheated of her penalty. 
 
 At the legislative session of 1853, W. C. 
 Meredith, a Democrat, from Tuolumne, present- 1853. 
 ed a memorial to the Assemljly, signed by ne- 
 groes, asking the repeal of the clause prohibit- 
 ing colored persons to testify. Instantly one 
 member moved to throw the memorial out of 
 the window. Another did not want the journals 
 " tarnished with such an infamous document.^' 
 The chairman reluctantly ruled the motion out 
 of order, and an appeal was taken. Finally, 
 in the greatest excitement, the petition was 
 unanimously rejected, and the clerk instructed 
 not to file it. The tempest was too large for 
 the teapot, and the storm was not entirely sub- 
 dued for several days. 
 
 As to the other classes of population, the na- 
 tive Californians early retired into obscurity. 
 Some few allied themselves with American fami- 
 lies, yet gradually lost their influence in public 
 affairs ; and, annoyed by squatters and defraud- 
 ed of their lands, grew poorer and poorer, till 
 nothing but the shadow of their old possessions 
 remained. Mexico, and many parts of South 
 America, were thickly represented, but owing 
 
378 THE HISTORY OF CALirOR:MA. 
 
 CHAP, to their Spanisli tongue, they did not much mix 
 ■ with the rest, except in the mines. 
 
 The Europeans and white Americans frater- 
 nized in business and in general interests, and 
 were soon scarcely distinguishable, except by 
 their pronunciation of the common English lan- 
 guage. These produced the gold, made tlie 
 valleys bow and wave with grain, beckoned 
 commerce from every sea, set the busy wheels 
 of mills to humming, neglected public affairs 
 till they grew desperate, summoned wealth to 
 their hands like genii, and spent it like princes, 
 built magnificent wagon-roads over the moun- 
 tains, and forced that wondrous crop of towns 
 and cities, some of which grew up with amazing 
 rapidity, while others blossomed with a name 
 and straightway died. 
 
GEOWTH AND HINDRANCES. 379 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 GROWTH AND HINDRANCES OF THE CITIES AND TOWNS. 
 
 San Feancisco had outgrown the anticipa- 
 tions of the most sanguine. In 1856 it wore 
 the aspect of a hurriedly-built city, whose peo- 
 ple had faith in its noble destiny. It had many 
 miles of graded streets, a fair system of sewer- 
 age planned and partly put into use, many sub- 
 stantial store-houses of brick, wharves sufficient 
 to meet the demand of commerce, churches, 
 school-houses, and the comfortable homes of 
 families thoroughly satisfied to spend their 
 lives in California. Its eastern front had ex- 
 tended half a dozen blocks' width into the bay, 
 and the principal business was conducted on 
 ground made by the transfer of the sand-hills 
 to the flats, or by piling and bridging far be- 
 yond the original beach — a necessity imposed 
 by the closeness with which the hills of rock 
 crowded the bay. 
 
 The city had reached its condition of pros- 
 perity through very severe trials and in spite 
 of thick difiiculties. 
 
 A great deal of trouble was caused by the 
 
 1856. 
 
380 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, desperate, reckless villains who flocked to tlie 
 ^_^_' city from all parts of tlie world. Many of the 
 1851. best citizens formed themselves into a Commit- 
 tee of Vigilance, and, because the courts could 
 not or would not punish crime, undertook 
 themselves to administer justice. On the 11th 
 of June, 1851, between one and two o'clock in 
 the morning, they executed John Jenkins, by 
 hanging him to the cross-beam of the old adobe 
 building on the plaza. Jenkins had robbed a 
 store, and had been tried and found guilty by 
 the committee. On the 11th of July they exe- 
 cuted James Stuart, who murdered the sheriff 
 of Auburn, and attacked and robbed a man in 
 his own store on Montgomery Street. On the 
 24th of August they recaptured and hung Whit- 
 taker and McKenzie, who had been taken from 
 them, after trial, by the authorities, and lodged 
 in jail. Two weeks later, believing that they 
 had taught incendiaries, robbers, and murder- 
 ers a lesson that they would not dare to forget, 
 • the committee, without disbanding, suspended 
 operations and left justice to the courts. 
 
 Besides these social disturbances, fires, negli- 
 gent municipal officers, and swindling schemers 
 had done mischief enough to destroy a place 
 less tenacious of life. It was estimated that 
 sixteen million dollars worth of property was 
 consumed by five fires within eighteen months, 
 while the population numbered but thirty thou- 
 
GEOWTH OF SAJSr FEANCISCO. 381 
 
 sand. The most disastrous of these confla2:ra- chap. 
 tions occurred May 4th, 1851, the anniversary ,_1_^ 
 of a great fire the preceding year. The first isoi- 
 stroke of the fire-bell aroused the whole city, ^^'^^' 
 for wherever, in the compact business blocks* 
 the ravaorer becjan, few felt their lio:ht, combus- 
 tible buildings safe. The foremost men iu the 
 town organized themselves into fire companies. 
 
 On the ruins of these conflagrations build- 
 ings rose again before the ashes were fairly cold, 
 each time a little better than the preceding, and 
 with more careful precautions to render them 
 proof against fire. The immense amount of 
 business to be attended to gave the people an 
 elasticity of sj)irit that made them recover cour- 
 age with surprising haste, after apparently 
 crushino; misfortunes. 
 
 E,eal estate kept rising in value till 1854. 
 Then many causes combined to make it fall 
 and continue falling till the summer of 1858. 
 The speculators had glutted the market with 
 goods, and money grew scarce. Wages fell, 
 rents fell, and real estate tumbled with the rest. 
 The increasing uncertainty of land titles, the 
 exorbitant taxes, and the unsatisfactory condi- 
 tion of state and city finances, kept the latter 
 from risino; ao;ain. Claims of astonishincr ab- 
 surdity were set up for property that had been 
 in the quiet possession of occupants who never 
 dreamed of a flaw in their titles. 
 
382 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORliTIA. 
 
 CHAP. Gigantic for their impudence as well as tbeir 
 ^ ■ extravagance were tlie claims of Jose Yves 
 1853. Limantour, a Frenchman by birth, that were 
 presented to the Board of Land Commissioners 
 in 1853. He claimed that when trading on 
 the coast ten years before, he had advanced to 
 Governor Micheltorena merchandise and money 
 for the use of the Departmental Government. 
 For these considerations he professed that the 
 Governor had granted to him four square 
 leagues of land on the San Francisco peninsula, 
 embracing about half of what had become the 
 most valuable part of the city ; also Alcatraz 
 and Yerba Buena Islands and the Farralones, 
 and lands lying elsewhere in the State, cover- 
 ing in all more than a hundred square leagues. 
 The Board of Commissioners confirmed the 
 claims. The incensed people saw the gloomy 
 prospect, and doubted if it were not the most 
 hazardous of all investments to purchase real 
 estate in San Francisco. 
 
 An appeal was taken to the United States 
 District Court, where counsel for the United 
 States contended that all the documents on 
 which the claimant relied were f dse, forged, and 
 fraudulently fabricated long after the pretended 
 dates, and after the acquisition of California by 
 the United States. Judsre Hoffman rendered 
 1858. his decision (1858), reversing the Board's de- 
 cree, and rejecting the claims that were still 
 
HEAVY CITY TAXES. 383 
 
 pressed, as invalid. He added that tlie proofs chap. 
 of fraud were as conclusive and irresistible as ,_.^_^ 
 tlie attempted fraud itself was flagrant and au- 1858. 
 dacious. Following is a quotation from his 
 opinion, from which may be inferred what a 
 grievous nuisance was abated, when the claims 
 were rejected : — 
 
 " Whether we consider the enormous extent 
 or the extraordinary character of the alleged 
 concessions to Limantour, the official positions 
 and the distinguished antecedents of the princi- 
 pal witnesses who have testified in support of 
 them, or the conclusive and unanswerable 
 proofs by which their falsehood has been ex- 
 posed — whether we consider the unscrupulous 
 and pertinacious obstinacy with which the 
 claims now before the court have been persisted 
 in — although six others presented to the Board 
 have long since been abandoned — or the large 
 sums extorted from property-owners in this city 
 as the price of the relinquishment of these 
 fraudulent pretensions ; or, finally, the conclu- 
 sive and irresistible proofs by which the perju- 
 ries by which they have been attempted to be 
 maintained have been exposed, and their true 
 character demonstrated, it may safely be affirmed 
 that these cases are without a parallel in the 
 judicial history of the country." 
 
 Exorbitant taxes for State and city purposes 
 were paid, and with a feeling that, in spite of 
 
384 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOEXIA. 
 
 CHAP, the taxes, tlie city was nearing insolvency. The 
 expenditures of the double county and city 
 1856. government for the five years following the 
 city's incorporation were more than seven and a 
 half million dollars ; and the worst of it was, 
 that they had nothing to show for it all in the 
 way of public buildings, or other than the most 
 elementary improvements. The city's actual 
 debt, in 1856, was more than three and a half 
 million dollars — nineteen hundred thousand 
 of which was funded at six, seven, and ten per 
 cent, interest. 
 
 The State, in 1851, had ceded to the cit}^ the 
 beach and water lots, and confirmed the sales 
 made in virtue of General Kearny's grant, so 
 that, with its pueblo inheritance, it had ample 
 means to pay all debts,' if the land-stealers 
 would but let it alone, and its official guardians 
 save it from waste. 
 
 In the early times, large amounts were raised 
 for ordinary expenses, on scrip which never 
 bore less interest than three per cent, a month. 
 As all work for the public was liable to be 
 paid in this carelessly issued j>aper, every thing 
 that the city ordered done or j^urchased was 
 charged at enormous rates. 
 
 One of the city's creditors. Dr. Peter Smith, 
 on an account for taking care of its indigent 
 sick, declining to exchange his scrip for the ten 
 per cent, stock, into Avhich the Legislature 
 
THE PETER SMITH JUDGMICNTS. 385 
 
 (1851) had autliorized tlie floating debt to be chap. 
 converted, recovered judgment against the city, 
 and to defray the amount its wharves and cer- i85i- 
 tain upland lots v^ere sold by the sheriff. They '^''' 
 brought scarcely a twentieth part of their value, 
 the belief being that the sales were illegal and 
 void. As the sum realized by the sale failed 
 to satisfy the judgment, a second and a thii'd 
 sale was made of other city property, of an im- 
 mense value even then, and of incalculable 
 prospective value. For the same reason as be- 
 fore, this property brought merely nominal 
 price-s. Dr. Smith, or parties holding the scrip 
 paid him by the city, subsequently obtained 
 other judgments, and the sheriff sold still other 
 upland and water lots to satisfy them ; the Com- 
 missioners of the Funded Debt meanwhile, 
 under the advice of their counsel, Judge Hey- 
 denfelt, protesting that the city could give no 
 title to the lots offered for sale, since they had 
 been conveyed, by ordinance of the Common 
 Council, to the Commissioners in trust for the 
 benefit of the city's creditors. The protest pre- 
 vented corape Lition, but did not avert the sale. 
 At one sale (January 30th, 1862) the sheriff 
 sold two thousand acres of land within the city 
 limits at just such ruinous prices as before, to 
 pay Peter Smith judgments. 
 
 An inexplicable muddle came of it. The sales 
 were regarded as fiirces at first, but soon they sug- 
 
 25 ^ o 
 
386 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, nested serious tboughts. When the Commission- 
 ■ ers of the Funded Debt attempted to raise money 
 1851- on the land of their trust, this Peter Smith title, 
 JS56. -jij^g ^ poisonous shadow, floated over it, clouding 
 their title and depreciating the market value of 
 the land. Suit followed suit, and litigation thick- 
 ened over the whole matter in a confused web. 
 Every attempt to remedy the evil, as all eiibrts 
 to prevent it had, only plunged the subject 
 into a deeper chaos. The end is not even yet 
 reached, though this was early demonstrated — 
 that San Francisco was fast being stripped of 
 the choicest of her resources. Plunsied to the 
 eyes in debt, her means almost wasted, yet her 
 citizens cheerful, thriving, and getting rich, 
 San Francisco was rushing along like a tough, 
 stanch, but very foul ship, with officers who 
 would bear a irreat deal of watchino; and some 
 very rough and suspicious passengers ; yet with 
 tide favorable and a strong wind filling all her 
 canvas. 
 
 Sacramento, the second city in the State, 
 was prospering notably nnder quite as rugged 
 treatment. After the experience of 1850, when 
 the place was overflowed by the river, its peo- 
 ple raised the grade of the streets five feet, and 
 built a levee alono; both river fronts. On the 
 3d of November, 1852, a fire destroyed six 
 hundred houses, causing: from four to five mil- 
 Hon dollars dama2:e. From December 20th, 
 
MARYSVILLE. 387 
 
 1852, to January 24th, 1853, the city was chap. 
 again under water, and still again in April, ^_^^_^ 
 
 1853. It was made the permanent capital I85i- 
 of the State in 1854. In July of that year 
 another fire swept off five hundred thousand 
 dollars worth of property. Spite of this va- 
 riety and excess of calamities, the city increased 
 with a rapid, wholesome growth under the con- 
 Btant stimulus of its great trade with the north- 
 ern mines. It had its grievous land troubles, 
 
 too, its oppressive taxation, and its debt, 
 amounting, in the fall of 1856, to over a million 
 and a half of dollars, 
 
 Marysville, laid out in Decemljer, 1849 (at 
 the junction of the Yuba and Feather Rivers, 
 where one Cordua, a German, in 1842 had put 
 up an adobe building, naming the place New 
 Mecklenburg, and afterwards establishing there 
 a trading post), had assumed the aspect of a 
 busy New England village, with population 
 enough to cast nineteen hundred votes at the 
 November election in 1856. Its principal streets 
 were lined with substantial brick buildings, 
 which secured a remarkable immunity from 
 fires, though a very destructive one visited it 
 on the 31st of August, 1850. Its site had been 
 flooded in 1850, but that warnina^ was not 
 heeded, and in the sj)ring of 1852 the whole 
 business part of the town was under water 
 again. The grade of the streets was then 
 
'^88 THE HISTORY OF CALTFORlsriA. 
 
 CHAP, raised one foot above the liicjliest mark of the 
 
 XXVI • 
 
 ^^_^' flood, and the whole city brought to one level. 
 
 1850- A crop of paper cities sprang up around it, com- 
 '^ ' peting for its trade — Plumas, Eliza, Veazie 
 City, Hamilton, Linda, Featherston, and Yales- 
 ton, all which the best maps fail to show, and 
 which only local antiquarians are able to indi- 
 cate as they pass them. 
 
 Nearly every business house in Nevada was 
 burned down March 11th, 1851, destroying 
 half a million dollars worth of property. Again, 
 on September 7th, 1852, it was scourged with 
 fire. In December of that year the heavy rains 
 80 hindered the transportation from below that 
 the place was threatened with famine. Flour 
 was sold at forty dollars a hundred-weight, and 
 beef at forty cents a poimd. But it was the 
 centre of a rich mining vicinity, and flourished 
 maugi'e all its afflictions. By 1853 it was in 
 telegraphic communication with Sacramento, 
 and in 1855 with Downieville. At the Novem- 
 ber election of 1856 it cast a larger vote 
 (2,081) than any city in the State, except San 
 Francisco and Sacramento. On the 19th of 
 July, 1856, came a conflagration that consumed 
 four hundred wooden and twenty-two brick 
 houses, causino- a damag-e of a million of dol- 
 lars, and the lives of ten persons who trusted 
 to the brick buildings as fire-proof A month 
 later, and two hundred and fifty wooden houses 
 
185G. 
 
 PLACERVILLE. 389 
 
 were erected on tlie burned ground, and twenty- chap. 
 five In-ick ones were begun. ^^ 
 
 Grass Valky — so called because some over- iSaO- 
 land emigrants, in 1849, found there the cattle 
 that had strayed from them as they rested after 
 their tedious journey across the Plains and the 
 Sierras, luxuriating in excellent pasture — had, on 
 New Year's of 1851, only three or four cabins 
 in it. Before the year ended it wa,s one of the 
 busiest places in the mountains. It escaped 
 fires till September, 1855, when one visited it, 
 inflicting damage to the extent of three hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand dollars. The famous 
 Alison's Ranch quartz mine is three miles from 
 the place. In 1855 the men who owned this 
 lead ofi'ered to sell it for a thousand dollars, but 
 found no purchaser. The first eighteen tons 
 of rock taken from it produced twenty-three 
 thousand dollars. From October 6th, 1856, to 
 1861, the deposits of gold from this mine in the 
 mint at San Francisco were nearly a million of 
 dollars. 
 
 Placerville — known in early times as " Hang- 
 town," in memory of the lynching there of three 
 men who were arrested for highway robbery 
 and two of them identified as the persons guilty 
 of a murder — owed the beginning of its pros- 
 perity to the rich gold surface diggings in its 
 vicinity ; and its second growth to the fact that 
 it was on the most travelled road from the bay 
 
390 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOKNIA. 
 
 CHAP, to Waslioe. A fire, on the 15tli of April, 1856, 
 consumed the lower part of the to\vn, and 
 
 1850- another on the 6th of July almost destroyed it. 
 
 ^^^^'- A fire in Weaverville (March 7th, 1853) 
 damaged that town one hundred thousand dol- 
 lars ; and another (September 7th, 1855), two 
 hundred thousand. Yankee Jim's, in Placer 
 County, was burned down in June, 1852, and 
 Ophir, July 12th, of the same year. This last 
 place, as was often the case with mining villages 
 where the surface diggings were becoming 
 poor, and no other resource presented itself, 
 failed to recover from the shock. A fire in 
 Stockton (February 21st, 1855) did fifty thou- 
 sand dollars damage ; and one in Columbia 
 (July 10th, 1854) was figured up at a loss of 
 half a million dollars. It was estimated, not 
 very accurately, perhaps, that during the three 
 years preceding 1853, the losses to California 
 by fire amounted to sixty-six millions of dol- 
 lars; yet, as the imperfect list cited above 
 shows, very destructive fires were numerous 
 after that date. 
 
 The towns of the southern coast shared little 
 in the general growth, for they were away from 
 the main avenues of travel and trade. They 
 suffered little, too, from either fire or flood, for 
 they were mostly built at leisure, of adobe, and 
 under the direction of those who held the tra- 
 ditions of the fathers and the Indians concern- 
 ins; old-time floods. 
 
THE CAPITOL ON WHEELS. 391 
 
 It was inevitable tliat these conflagrations chap. 
 
 XXVI 
 
 and drownings should ruin many men finan- ^_ 
 cially ; but those who escaped were generous, i850- 
 and cheerfully helped up the prostrated, and 
 set them on their feet, and many overtook for- 
 tune again early. But where so few had family 
 ties to bind them to a spot, every lire or other 
 calamity that put business into confusion in- 
 creased the tendency to drift from town to 
 town, from bar to bar, and to " rush " to any 
 new diggings that were spoken of in flattering 
 terms. 
 
 The Legislature fairly represented this drift- 
 ing habit of the times in the v/ay it kept the 
 capital of the State trundling about. The first 
 two sessions were held at San Jose, though early 
 in 1850 the project of removal was agitated. 
 Monterey tendered land enough and all its pul)- 
 lic buildings to the State for the boon of the 
 capital. San Jose sent in several liberal prop- 
 ositions, and among the rest the donation of 
 a block of a hundred and sixty-eight building 
 lots. Colonel Stej^hensou and a business part- 
 ner offered to erect, free of expense to the State, 
 public buildings worth a hundred thousand 
 dollars, under the direction of a legislative com- 
 mittee, if the Legislature would make " New 
 York of the Pacific" the capital. But General 
 Vallejo's offer was the one of most princely aspect, 
 as viewed on paper. It was a tender of one hun- 
 
392 THE niSTollT OF OALIFOEXIA. 
 
 CHAP, dred and fifty-six acres of land on the Straits of 
 ^^^ Carquines for the sites of public buildings, and 
 1850- three hundred and seventy thousand dollars 
 ^^^^' towards their erection, the money to be paid in 
 two years. Senator Broderick, of the commit- 
 tee, reported in favor of accepting Vallejo's 
 offer, and the Legislature so far concurred as to 
 submit the suljject of removal to the people. 
 
 The people clearly cared very little about it. 
 On election day there were in nineteen coun- 
 ties reported but twelve thousand two hundred 
 and ninety-two votes cast on the question, of 
 which nearly nine thousand were for removing 
 to Vallejo's site. So the third session met 
 (January 5, 1852) at Vallejo; and because 
 there was no accommodation for the members, 
 it adjourned a week afterwards to Sacramento. 
 The next session (1853) met at Vallejo, and 
 after a month adjourned to Benicia. The fifth 
 session (1854) met at Benicia, but before March 
 removed to Sacramento, to be removed no 
 more, except temporarily, in 1862, when itie 
 flood made it impossible to transact business in 
 the drowned city, and San Francisco enjoyed 
 for a season the legislative presence. 
 
FILLIBUSTEEISM. 593 
 
 CHAPTER XXVn. 
 
 FILLIBUSTERISM. - 
 
 In those days there was a fi^reat deal said 2^^^; 
 
 '' ^ ^ o ^ XXVII. 
 
 about the "manifest destiny" of the nation to — ., — • 
 swallow up by annexation all of the continent ^^J^^r 
 between the Gulf of Mexico and the Isthmus, 
 and even to include the Sandwich Islands. It 
 was an Atlantic idea, of Southern origin ; but 
 it ran like an epidemic through the North and 
 West. There its most remarkable effect was 
 the curious change of sentiment it developed in 
 conservative circles — the feeling having grown 
 up that, whatever the territory annexed, in a 
 fair race slavery would lag, and the new coun- 
 try come into the Union free. When the 
 "manifest destiny" dogma in its career reached 
 the Pacific coast, it bred a perfect rage for prac- 
 tical fillibustei'ism in the restless classes. Poli- 
 tics had little to do with the matter, but there 
 were mines on territory that did not belong to 
 us, and that was reason enough for annexing it. 
 A leader was at hand, who proved to be one 
 of the most notable fillibusters of the century. 
 William Walker w^as born in 1824, at Nash- 
 
394 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOKXIA. 
 
 CHAP, ville, Tennessee. He studied medicine, and 
 ■^^^^^' graduated in it botli at home and in Paris, but 
 1850- never j^ractised. He studied law, went to New 
 I80G. Orleans, connected himself with the Crescent 
 newspaper, moved to California in 1850, and 
 became an assistant editor of the San Francisco 
 Herald., in which capacity he offended Judge 
 Levi Parsons, of the District Court, who fined 
 him five hundred dollars for contemjot of court 
 in an article he had written. Walker refused 
 to pay the fine, and was sent to j^rison. The 
 people held an indignation meeting, expressed 
 their trust in the press, and resolved that it 
 should not be put down for any imaginary con- 
 tempt of " courts which cannot l;)e reduced much 
 lower than they have reduced themselves," and 
 went in a body to console the prisoner. By a 
 writ of haheas corpus he was discharged. The 
 Legislature took up the matter, and a commit- 
 tee recommended Parsons' impeachment, but 
 soon the subject was dropped. Walker after- 
 wards practised law for a short time in Marys- 
 ville, and then took to fillibnstering. 
 
 The province of Sonora was well known to 
 be rich in minerals, and to wear very loosely 
 the robe of Mexican rule. A scheme was con- 
 1853. cocted, in 1853, for its conquest. Money was 
 raised by the issue of scrip to be redeemed by 
 the first proceeds of the new Government, and 
 a vessel procured and fitted out as the pioneer 
 
walker's schemes of cois^quest. 395 
 
 in tlie unlawful enterprise. General Hitchcock, chap. 
 
 • XXVIl 
 
 who commanded the United States troops on J_^_^ 
 the coast, ordered the vessel seized. It was i853. 
 done, but the prosecution was pushed with so 
 little zeal that she was soon released, much to 
 the general's disgust. 
 
 Meanwhile the bark Caroline was fitted out, 
 and in her Walker and forty-six men sailed 
 on the 16th of October. Landing at La Paz, 
 on tlie peninsula of Lower California, the ad- 
 venturers kidnapped the governor, hoisted a 
 flag of their own, and proclaimed Lower Cali- 
 fornia an independent republic. They after- 
 wards had a slight brush with the natives, but 
 the natives suffered all the loss. Walker was 
 now formally elected president by his handful 
 of followers, and he appointed a goodly number 
 of them cabinet members and to other hiorh 
 offices. Then retirins; in their vessel to Mas-da- 
 lena Bay, they disappeared for three weeks 
 from view. Next they were heard from at 
 Encinada, a little south of the California boun- 
 dary line, in Lower California, whence they 
 sent flaming accounts of their conquests to San 
 Diego. 
 
 The news made a great sensation in San 
 Francisco among the shiftless, impatient classes; 
 and the "dead broke" and desperate came down 
 from the mines in greater numbers than could 
 be accepted to volunteer as recruits. After 
 
39G THE HISTORY OF CAIIFORNI.l. 
 
 General Hitchcock's late experience he did not 
 feel called upon to meddle, the other authorities 
 
 1853. were glad to get rid of some who were going, 
 the newspapers rejoiced in the sensation and 
 kept their peace about the morality or legality 
 of the expedition, and the people laughed at it 
 as a very good joke. On the loth of December, 
 the bark Anita sailed with a hundred and 
 fifty men or moi'e. Arriving at Encinada, 
 Walker by proclamation abolished the repub- 
 lic of Lower California, and announced that of 
 Sonora, with boundaries embracing both prov- 
 inces. He took the presidency himself, and 
 gave the vice-presidency to Colonel Watkins 
 of the Anita. 
 
 1854. But with all the cattle and corn thiey bought 
 with Sonora scrip or confiscated, the president 
 could not feed his followers to their taste. 
 Some half a hundred of them deserted and 
 tried to make their way to San Diego. A few 
 were caught, of whom Walker had two flogged 
 and expelled, and two others shot for example's 
 sake. With about a hundred still faithful to 
 him, he set out in March, 1854, overland for 
 Sonora, but, harassed by the natives out of all 
 supplies, very hungry and quite dispirited, they 
 gave that up, and, turning northward, surren- 
 dered themselves as prisoners to the United 
 States troops. Taken to San Francisco, most 
 of them were set at liberty on theii* parole. 
 
walker's schemes of cokqdest. 307 
 
 Meanwhile, Vice-President Watkins, having chap. 
 
 XXVII 
 
 preceded tliern to San Francisco, had been ar- __^_j 
 raisrned before the United States District Court, is54. 
 Judge Hoffman presiding, and found guilty of 
 setting on foot a military expedition against 
 Mexico. He was condemned to pay a fine 
 of fifteen hundred dollars. Frederick Emory, 
 Walker's secretary of state, pleaded guilty to 
 the same charge, and was fined to the same 
 amount. Walker himself was afterwards tried 
 and acquitted. 
 
 Trouble springing up in Nicaragua, he gath- 
 ered some sixty or seventy followers, and left 
 in May, 1855, to assist the revolutionary fac- 1855. 
 tion. They landed at Realejo, and success soon 
 smiled on the side they espoused. Then Walk- 
 er began to use his power as a dictator. He 
 revoked the charter under which the Vander- 
 l)ilt Steamship Company sent its passengers 
 across Nicaragua, appointed E. J. C. Kewen 
 and two others commissioners to wind up the 
 affairs of the company, and gave to Edmund 
 Randolph a new charter for twenty-five years' 
 time. Hitherto he was but generalissimo of 
 the forces ; now he caused himself to be elected 
 president of the republic, and he abrogated 
 the decree by which slavery had for thirty-t^vo 
 years been prohibited. An insurrection took 
 place, fomented by the Vanderbilt Company, - 
 and joined by several Central American Stater,. 
 
398 THE JIISTOEY OF OALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP. Walker, beino-liarcl pushed, surrendered himself 
 
 xxvii . . . . 
 
 ._^^_" m May, 1857, with sixteen of his officers, to the 
 
 1857. United States authorities. Keturning again in 
 November to Nicaragua, Commodore Paulding, 
 of the United States Navy, compelled him and 
 one hundred and thirty-two of his followers to 
 surrender. Pi*esident Buchanan had, in his 
 message, denounced Walker's filibustering ex- 
 pedition, but he condemned Paulding for laud- 
 ing his force on foreign soil to extinguish it. 
 Walker, freed again, raised more followers in 
 the United States, and proceeded to Honduras. 
 There he was captured, condemned by court- 
 martial, and shot at Truxillo on the 3d of Sep- 
 
 1860. tember, 1860. 
 
 Personally, Walker was a small man, slow in 
 his speech, reserved, gray-eyed, freckled, unat- 
 tractive, heartless. His confederates in Califor- 
 nia were men of very oj)posite traits and prin- 
 ciples ; nor is it easy to judge from their 
 character what the arch-fillibuster's motive 
 was. Some hot ambition fired his cold nature. 
 He wished to make a position and a name, not 
 in the vulgar way. Indifferent to slavery or 
 freedom, he was willino; to use either as it 
 would promote his end. Perhaps he dreamed 
 of a Southern empire, with slavery as its corner- 
 stone, anticipating the attempt of Jefferson 
 Davis and his fellow-traitors. It is hardly prob- 
 able that the conspirators took him into their 
 
VIOLATION OF THE NEUTEALITT LAWS. 399 
 
 counsels. More likely, believing that tlie chap. 
 American Union would soon embrace all ,_^^_J 
 north of the Isthmus, he aspired to shape the i854. 
 destinies of whatever land he could conquer by 
 proclamation or his sword, in such fashion that 
 when the time for annexation should come, he 
 would be the Sam Houston of the new State, 
 entitled to its first senatorial honors, with a 
 prestige that might, perhaps, in time, make him 
 chief magistrate of the Union. His reward was 
 an early death, and such fame as a pirate wins. 
 However, he gave a cheap reputation to some 
 very small men who never would have been 
 heard of but for him, and some men of char- 
 acter were seriously compromised by their con- 
 nection with him. * 
 
 Interlacing with the trials of Walker and his 
 men were those of the Mexican and French 
 consuls at San Francisco, which produced still 
 more excitement. The Pacific Military Divi- 
 sion was commanded by General John E. Wool, 
 who was determined to put down fillibustering. 
 The Mexican consul, Mr. Del Valle, under in- 
 structions from his Government, prevailed upon 
 some five or six hundred persons, mostly French 
 or Germans, to join an expedition, with a pur- 
 pose not very clearly explained, to the province 
 of Souora. When they were about to embark 
 in the British ship Challenge^ General Wool 
 ordered that vessel seized. She was released. 
 
400 THE IIISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, however, in a clay or two, and permitted to de- 
 *Z^^' pai"* ; ^ut the general had Consul Del Valle 
 
 1854. arrested on a charge of enlisting soldiers for a 
 foreign power on United States territory. The 
 trial that followed was tedious and imbittering. 
 It l^ecame necessary, in the course of it, to have 
 the French consul, Mr. Dillon, in court as a 
 witness ; but that gentleman stood on his con- 
 sular dignity, declined the invitation, and ig- 
 nored the summons that followed. The mar- 
 shal finally brought him into court, where 
 Judge Hoffman allowed the justice of his 
 claim for exemption. But Ddlon held that 
 France had been insulted by his arrest, and 
 so pulled down his consular flag. The trial 
 of Del Valle proceeded, and he was found 
 guilty. 
 
 Dillon was next arrested, charged with aiding 
 the Mexican consul in his unlawful enterprise. 
 He pleaded, as Del Valle had done, that the 
 Challenge expeditionists went, not as fillibusters, 
 but to put down fillibusters, and especially the 
 Count Raousset de Boulbon ; who, failing to 
 find the Arizona silver mine he sought, and 
 goaded by persecution, had turned to political 
 schemings. The jury disagreed, and the prose- 
 cution was abandoned. Further proceedings 
 against Del Valle, too, who had not yet been 
 sentenced, were suspended. In November of 
 
VIOLATION OF THE NEUTEALITY LAWS. 401 
 
 1855, Mr. Dillon raised his flaer asrain as a chap. 
 
 . XXVII 
 
 French war-vessel entered the harbor, which 
 was saluted with apologetic guns, and the con- 1855. 
 sular trouble was happily ended. 
 
 26 
 
102 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIIL 
 
 A FINANCIAL STORM. 
 
 CHAP. A GREAT financial storm passed over the 
 State early in 1855. The Constitution pro- 
 
 1855. hibited Incorporations for banking purposes, 
 and forbade the issue of any paper currency. 
 In the early times men deposited their spare 
 gold-dust with such merchants as had safes or 
 vaults. As business increased, houses were es- 
 tablished in all the principal towns with the 
 special purpose of exchanging coin for the dust 
 of the miners, of receiving deposits, furnishing 
 exchange, and, in short, of doing a general bank- 
 ing business, always excepting that they could 
 utter no bank-bills. 
 
 It happened that the winter of 1854-5 was 
 very chary of its rains, and, in consequence, the 
 mines could not be worked extensively. Hence, 
 the miners, who were generally cash customers, 
 wanted credit with the mountain merchants ; 
 these wanted it of the jobbers; these of the 
 consignees and importers ; and these of the 
 Eastern shippers. Meanwhile the Eastern mer- 
 chants were pouring goods into the already 
 
FAILURE OF PAGE, BACON & CO. 403 
 
 overstocked market. At auction their con- chap. 
 signments found a sale, because they were so _^^_, 
 cheap, and the gold kept flowing Eastward to 1855. 
 pay for them. Most gold-shipments were made ® ' 
 through the banks, which were drained fear- 
 fully low of their treasure. 
 
 At this critical time, news arrived that the 
 house of Page & Bacon, of St. Louis, had got 
 into trouble through its advances to the Ohio 
 and Mississippi Eailroad. At once began a run 
 upon the leading bank in California (Page, 
 Bacon & Co.'s), which was in close business re- 
 lations with the St. Louis finn. The bank 
 stood it for a few days, and then, on February 
 22d, Washington's birthday, it suspended. A 
 panic seized the town, and soon affected the 
 whole State. The house of Adams & Co., 
 which had grown from an express business 
 into a large banking business, also suspended 
 next day, and their books, notes, dust, coin, and 
 so forth were turned over, at least so the pub- 
 lic supposed, to Alfred A. Cohen, as receiver. 
 Wells, Fargo & Co. folio w^ed, and Henry M. 
 Naglee was appointed their receiver. They 
 resumed soon after, and continue yet, with an 
 express business added to their banking, whose 
 ramifications may be traced throughout the 
 States and in Europe. Dr. Wright's Savings 
 Bank and some others in San Francisco closed. 
 In the interior, besides the branch offices of the 
 
404 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, large city houses, many smaller banks sLut up, 
 ^^_^_,'and the crash among the merchants swiftly 
 1855. followed. 
 
 '^ • All the susjjending banks — there were a few, 
 some of which are still in operation, that weath- 
 ered the gale — insisted that it was solely a lack 
 of coin that compelled tlieir closing, and that 
 they had abundant assets if they only could be 
 given a little time to make them available. 
 Many of the leading merchants, to whom Page, 
 Bacon & Co. were largely indebted, were so 
 well satisfied that time alone was wanting in 
 their case, that they guaranteed the time-certifi- 
 cates of the house, and Page, Bacon & Co. soon 
 started again ; but only to stumble deeper into 
 the mire. The gentlemen who guaranteed their 
 certificates were helped out of their liability by 
 a decision of the Supreme Court, that a discrep- 
 ancy of dates on some of the certificates and 
 their bond was fatal to the validity of the 
 former. 
 
 Nine years afterwards, when it was represent- 
 ed that all that either the San Francisco or the 
 St. Louis house had relied on to make good their 
 promises was gone, William T. Coleman, a 
 brother-in-law of Mr. Bacon, stated to a meeting 
 of the creditors of the California house, that the 
 remaining total indebtedness in this State was 
 about half a million of dollars, aside from in- 
 terest, which was as much more. He proposed 
 
FAILUEE OF ADAMS & CO. 405 
 
 to pay ten per cent, on the principal, if creditors chap. 
 would accept it, for the sake of releasing Bacon. _^_' 
 But the creditors thought five per cent, on 1855. 
 paper that they had carried nine years was 
 scarcely worth accepting, and the meeting, dis- 
 solved, agreeing to nothing. 
 
 For Adams <fe Co. there was a stormy future. 
 The bitterness of the indignation of their credi- 
 tors is scarcely yet out of their mouths. They 
 began in San Francisco in 1850, soon came into 
 an immense business, were universally confided 
 in, and were never suspected of unsoundness 
 until after their failure. The public very soon 
 after that event began to fancy that there was 
 some collusion in the appointment of Cohen as 
 receiver, who deposited at least a portion of 
 the funds turned over to him with Palmer, 
 Cook & Co., his sureties, a notable firm of bank- 
 ers, which had gone through the panic of Feb- 
 ruary without harm. The creditors, thoroughly 
 aroused, at last obtained the appointment of H. 
 M. Naglee as receiver, in place of Cohen ; but, 
 though they had the shrewd counsel of Trenor 
 W. Park, it was not an easy task to make Cohen 
 surrender the assets he had received to his suc- 
 cessor. So much of them as Palmer, Cook & 
 Co. held on deposit that firm refused to give 
 up. Suit followed suit, and Mr. Jones, one of 
 the partners, was imprisoned for contempt of 
 the Fourth District (Judge Hager's) Court. E,e- 
 
406 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, leiiting at last, Jones handed over so mucli as he 
 
 ■ had, and was released. 
 1855- Cohen was of more stubborn stuff, or else the 
 ^^^^' ignorance that he professed was genuine. He 
 too was imprisoned for contempt, and one ques- 
 tion that was asked — what became of a certain 
 amount of money that was removed on a par- 
 ticular night, from Alsop & Company's vaults 
 — is not to this day ansv/ered. The books 
 would tell, thought the creditors ; but on search 
 they were missing. One day a bag of books 
 was found floating in the bay, near North 
 Beach, by some Irishmen, who, on being as- 
 sured that they were the missing accounts of 
 Adams & Co., canght the infection of the times, 
 and asked thirty thousand dollars for them. 
 The officers of the law searched the vicinity of 
 the finders' homes, and at last discovered the 
 ])ooks, wet and water-soiled, between two mat- 
 tresses. But the important leaves detailing 
 the expenditures and receipts of February 21st 
 and 22d were wanting. 
 
 Cohen, still persisting that the books were 
 never in his possession, and that he had told all 
 he knew, was allowed to lie in jail. He was 
 prosecuted for embezzlement, and the jury 
 found that two hundred and sixty-nine tljou- 
 sand dollars had gone into his hands, for which 
 no account was made. But suddenly, when 
 Judge Hager had gone East, and ^vhile Park 
 
COHEISr's CONTEMPT OF COURT. 407 
 
 was away, application was made to tlie Supreme chap. 
 Court for liis release, and it was granted. 
 
 It was a mystery why the prosecution of 1855- 
 Cohen should so suddenly cease, and the inti- "* '' 
 mate relations soon after found to exist between 
 Park and Cohen's sureties, Palmer, Cook & Co., 
 and the connection of both with Fremont and 
 the Mariposa mine during the Presidential cam- 
 paign of 1856, caused some scandal, l)ut it re- 
 mained a mystery until the subject was forgot- 
 ten. 
 
 Meanwhile, Isaiah C. Woods, the resident 1855. 
 partner and manager of the house of Adams & "°' ' 
 Co., slipped off for Australia, and although in 
 a card he said he was going for the benefit of 
 creditors, he has not yet returned. The Su- 
 preme Court decided his proceedings in insol- 
 vency void, and further raised the hopes of cred- 
 itors by determining that those who had taken 
 out attachments must fare precisely as the rest ; 
 but nothing was saved from the wreck. 
 
 Among the bankers ruined by this financial 
 storm was " James King, of William," Born in 
 Virginia, he went to California in 1848. 
 When he failed he reserved nothing of the 
 handsome fortune he had made as a banker, 
 and refused to avail himself of the insolvency 
 act, for which scores eagerly applied. He be- 
 came a clerk with Adams & Co., but soon per- 
 ceived practices re^^ugnant to his natui'e. Be- 
 
408 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, fore lie had decided that it was right to leave, 
 ^■^^^^ ■ seeing that many of his old customers had fol- 
 
 1855. lowed him to that house, came its failure. 
 
 Oct. 8. ;f;[ow, entirely out of employment, and believ- 
 ing that an independent press might shed light 
 enough on the wretched state of society to com- 
 pel its reform, he associated himself with C. O. 
 Gerberding, and began (October 8th, 1855) the 
 publication of the daily Evening Bulletin. It 
 was a small sheet, and its editor's inexperience 
 in his new profession was marked in the first 
 as in many a succeeding number. But it was 
 from the start a power and a terror to evil- 
 doers. Intimately acquainted with the villany 
 of men in a rank that too often is not amenable 
 to law or even to public sentiment, he began 
 at once to apply the lash to their shoulders. 
 He had not much to say about sin, but sinners 
 he flayed alive. Into Palmer, Cook &, Co., 
 Broderick, Cohen, into city officials derelict in 
 duty, into courts that shielded crime with law, 
 into lawyers almost as a class, but specifically 
 enough, into ballot-box stuffers and ward colo- 
 nists, into politicians of all schools, into any- 
 body that seemed to him to be injuring society, 
 sapping its virtue, or defending its criminals, 
 he thrust his weapon with all his might. 
 
 He was exceedingly careful of his focts. The 
 thouirht of libel suits never disturbed him. He 
 gave early notice that he would not fight a 
 
JAMES Kiwa 409 
 
 duel, and that for assassins he went prepared, chap. 
 The people rallied to his support as if Justice __^" 
 had come down to edit a paper. He told secrets i855- 
 that made rich villains wince and detectives ^^^^' 
 wonder how he learned them. The Richmond 
 of his heaviest siege was " Palmer, Cook & 00.'' 
 He claimed that they were doing a general 
 banking business, and so were anjenable to 
 honest criticism. He charged them witli hei- 
 nous political crimes ; he alleged that they fur- 
 nished the funds for Broderick to make his 
 successful iight against Gwiu, and compelled 
 Gwin (whose defeat was no cause for regret) 
 to confess that Palmer kept him out of the 
 Senate ; they were kings of the lobby. He 
 said they compelled office-holders to engage 
 them as sureties that they might finger the 
 funds. He showed that while they were on 
 Cohen's bonds for a million dollars, they were 
 on the bonds of State, city, and county officers 
 for half a million, and of other persons and offi- 
 cers enough more to make the total of their 
 obligations of that sort over two million dol- 
 lars. He charged them with financial unsound- 
 ness and political corruption, with debauching 
 public officers, controlling elections, and buying 
 judicial decisions. 
 
 About vulgar criminals he made less noise, 
 but when Cora, the murderer of Marshal Rich- 
 ardson, was supposed to be rather loosely held 
 
410 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 ciiAr. by tlie sheriff, lie exclaimed in his paper, ''If 
 ,__^__,"Mr. Sheriff Scannell does not remove Billy 
 1806. Mulligan from his present post as keeper of the 
 county jail, and Mulligan lets Cora escape — 
 hang Billy Mulligan ; and if necessary to get 
 rid of the sheriff, hang him — hang the sheriff"!" 
 The price that James King paid for this 
 independence, these bold, unusual utterances, 
 which the disjointed times demanded, will ap- 
 pear in a future chapter. 
 
 The finances of the State were coming into a 
 very bad way. Prohibited by the Constitution 
 from creating a debt of over three hundred 
 thousand dollars, except under circumstances 
 that did not then exist, a debt of ten times that 
 amount had ]:)een contracted. At the close of 
 the year 1856, the aggregated city, county, and 
 State debts amounted to twelve million one 
 hundred and sixty-three thousand dollars. The 
 State owned the tide lands, but early gave away 
 to the several cities most of those portions of 
 them from whicli a revenue might have been 
 raised. It owned the swamp land, donated to 
 it by Congress for purposes of reclamation, on 
 which it raised sometliing by sales. It owned 
 several millions of acres more, given it by Con- 
 gress, and by the terms of the gift or by local 
 legislation devoted to school purposes. Besides 
 these resources, it had great exj)ectations that 
 Congress would refund the customs collected at 
 
STATE FINANCES. 411 
 
 San Francisco while California was neither a chap. 
 Territory nor a State ; but they were never real- 
 ized. To raise money, then, for current ex- i855. 
 penses, the chief reliable resort was taxation. 
 Real and personal property were taxed at a 
 high rate; poll-taxes were levied, and all pro- 
 prietors of theatres and shows, all bankers, bro- 
 kers, foreign miners, merchants, tavern-keepers, 
 and the officers of incorporations for gain were 
 required to take out licenses; but the tax-col- 
 lectors were not quick enough to catch the 
 shifting population, and high rates brought 
 small returns. 
 
 The Legislature began to be eyed suspicious- 
 ly, especially from San Francisco. It w^as al- 
 ways plotting some scheme that disturbed the 
 temper of citizens. Session after session it 
 attempted to extend the city's water-front in a 
 manner that would enrich a few at the expense 
 of the many and of commerce. In 1853, a bill 1853. 
 to extend the front at some points six hundred 
 feet into the bay, passed the Assembly The 
 five San Francisco members who opposed it — 
 John Sime was of the number — resigned their 
 seats, and were re-elected on that issue by an 
 immense majority. In the Senate the bill was 
 defeated only by the casting vote of Lieutenant- 
 Governor Purdy. Governor Bigier advised in 1854. 
 his next message another eiforfc at extension, 
 pleading the necessities of the State, which sadly 
 
412 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 CHAP, wanted tlie revenue that the water-lots would 
 ■fetch, but happily, though backed by a horde 
 
 1854. of hungry speculators, the city was saved the 
 infliction. 
 
 The lobby, which early became a formidable 
 power at the capital, devised schemes for ob- 
 taining valuable franchises for toll-roads lead- 
 ing out of the cities and over the mountains, 
 and for bridges ; but Governor Bigler was 
 sound on that question ; he vetoed most that 
 came before him, and the franchise-hunters tar- 
 . ried till a later day for their harvest. 
 
 The Federal courts commanded respect at all 
 times ; but the Supreme Court of the State had 
 only a tolerable reputation. The personal char- 
 acter of some of the judges was bad. If there 
 was ability, spotless integrity did not always 
 accompany it ; if honesty, it was not always 
 well mixed with wisdom. 
 
roLiTics ' 413 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 POLITICS. 
 
 Politics had gi\)wn to be a profession, and cha.p 
 its professors were not eminently the salt of the xxix. 
 earth. The honest, order-loving people were iq^(^_ 
 blamable for leaving their local and State policy 1856. 
 to be controlled so entirely by persons too idle 
 to labor, and too fond of office and the spoils 
 of party to be trusted safely. They sufi'ered 
 for their neglect, in pocket, in recantation, in the 
 peace of community. 
 
 A Democratic Administration had acquired 
 the country ; but a Whig Administration first 
 enjoyed it. Certainly it might have managed 
 its inheritance better. It succeeded early in 
 making every department of Federal rule of- 
 fensive to the people. It persisted in collecting 
 customs on the basis of the war levy long after 
 peace had been restored. It left the country 
 without the existence of either a Territorial or 
 State Government. It was not slow to furnish 
 postal facilities ; but the rates of postage were 
 maintained at an intolerably high figure. Presi- 
 dent Fillmore advised that the mines be held 
 
414 THi: HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, as United States j)i'operty, and tliat tliey he 
 
 y_^^ made to contribute to the Federal revenue, than 
 which nothins; could be devised to set the 
 miners more stubbornly against the party in 
 power. 
 
 For these and other reasons, the Whigs, not- 
 withstanding all their patronage, gained nothing 
 for their party in California, and never carried 
 the State. The first Governor elected by the 
 
 1849. people (1840) was Peter H. Burnett, a Demo- 
 crat. The total number of votes cast was but 
 fourteen thousand one hundred and seventeen. 
 John A. Sutter received two thousand two 
 hundred and one ; John W. Geary, fourteen 
 hundred and seventy -five ; W. M. Stewart, 
 six hundred and nineteen ; W. S. Sherwood, 
 three thousand one hundred and eighty-eight • 
 and Burnett, six thousand six hundred and 
 thirty-four. The first Legislature was of like 
 politics as the Governor. After a single year's 
 service, Burnett resigned, and John McDougall, 
 the Democratic Lieutenant-Governor, succeeded 
 to his chair — -David C. Broderick being elected 
 President of the Senate to fill the vacancy thus 
 created. 
 
 Lithe fall of 1851 the people elected again. 
 
 1851. John Bigler (a Pennsylvania Democrat, whose 
 familiarity with jiarliamentary rules made him 
 Speaker ^;ro tem. of the Assembly in 1850, and 
 permanent Speaker in 1851) received twenty- 
 
EARLY ELECTIONS. 415 
 
 tliree thousand seven hundred and seventy-four gila.p. 
 
 • • XXIX 
 
 votes for Governor, while Reading, Lis Whig J^^^J^ 
 opponent, got twenty-two thousand seven hun- i85i. 
 dred and thirty-three. 
 
 In this contest Bigler had the aid of the 
 squatters, who were becoming a power in the 
 State. He was democratic in his mannei's — the 
 "hale fellow" of all he met. His opponent 
 was a gentleman of more genteel bearing, and 
 owned much land. Bigler was kind-hearted, 
 unambitious, landless, and always mindful of 
 bis friends. He urged economy in his messages ; 
 but found it hard to prevent an office being 
 made for a friend. It was his pet project to 
 unite the Southern and Western men of his 
 party, and let the Free-soilers shift for them- 
 selves ; but it is not in that direction that party 
 cleavao-e runs. The Southerners scorned the 
 alliance. They were '' high-toned," and looked 
 dov/n upon a Missourian as little better than a 
 man from Massachusetts. The Governor's proj- 
 ect would not work. He carried water on both 
 shoulders, and spilt very little on either side. 
 Though a man of positive opinions, and bold 
 in the expression of them, he managed to make 
 his party grow, as was shown at the Presiden- 
 tial election in 1852, when Franklin Pierce re- 1852, 
 ceived forty thousand four hundred and twenty- 
 nine votes in California, and General Scott thii-- 
 ty-five thousand seven hundred and sixty. In- 
 
416 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, deed, he was a devoted partisan. In judging 
 of his Administration it must be remembered 
 
 1852. that he fell on evil times, when men gambled 
 a great deal, had not their families with them, 
 were rough, money-making, and extravagant. 
 At his first nomination, Broderick was against 
 him ; but after Weller went to the United 
 States Senate, the stone-cutter's son took a 
 different view of things, and brought his pow- 
 erful aid to secure him the nomination for a 
 second term. 
 
 Successful in convention, Bigler was suc- 
 
 1853. cessful again before the people, who (in 1853) 
 re-elected him Governor by a majority of four- 
 teen hundred and sixty-seven over Waldo, his 
 Whig opponent. 
 
 Plitherto the Democracy, quari'el as much 
 as they might in caucus and convention, had 
 managed to present an unbroken front on 
 election-day. Now the feud was too hot for 
 concealment. The party was split into fac- 
 tions — the Northern (Tammany) wing under 
 the lead of Broderick, and the Southern, or 
 Chivalry, under Dr. Gwin. Broderick strug- 
 1854 gled in the Legislature of 1854 to bring on 
 the election of United States Senator at once ; 
 hence his party was known at the time as 
 " Election ists." Gwin, with equal vigor, girded 
 himself to stave off the election, and his wing- 
 were " Anti-Electionists." Broderick was chair- 
 
GWIN AND BRODEEICK. 417 
 
 man of tlie State Central Committee. A State chap. 
 
 XXIX 
 
 convention was called to meet at Sacramento, 
 in the First Baptist Churcli, on the 18th of 1854. 
 July, 1854. The building was kept closed 
 until a few minutes of the time ; the doors were 
 then unlocked, and a great crowd dashed into 
 the little l)uilding. Broderick called the ex- 
 cited assembly to order, and asked nominations 
 for a temporary president. A Gwin man 
 named ex-Governor McDougall, and a Brod- 
 erick man almost simultaneously named Ed- 
 ward McGowan. Broderick recognized the 
 last-named, and put the vote. A storm of 
 ayes and noes was thundered out, and McDou- 
 gall and McGowan both started for the chair. 
 They reached it together, and both proceeded 
 with business, professing to ignore each other's 
 presence. • There were double sets of officers, 
 double speeches, double reports. At one time a 
 collision occurred, and a pistol was discharged, 
 probably by accident. The trustees of the 
 church gave notice that they could not occupy 
 the building any longer — it was not calculated 
 to bear the strain of a double convention. At 
 last a double motion to adjourn was carried, 
 and the two chairmen left the church arm-in- 
 arm. 
 
 Next day the factions met in separate halls. 
 The Chivalry nominated J. W. Denver and 
 Philip Herbert for Congress. The Tammany 
 
 27 
 
418 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORXIA. 
 
 CHAP, wing nominated General James McDougall and 
 
 ^_ ■ James Churchman of Nevada. 
 
 1854. A ^veek later the Whigs had a State conven- 
 tion at Sacramento, which was marked with all 
 the harmony j^eculiar to hopeless minorities. 
 J. Neely Johnson presided. Resolutions were 
 adopted, invoking the people to help reduce 
 taxes, unshackle commerce, remove restrictions 
 on trade, restore the purity of the ballot-box, 
 and make secure life, liberty, and property. 
 For Congressmen, they nominated Calhoun 
 Benham and G. W. Bowie. 
 
 At the election the Gwin Congressmen won, 
 getting some thirty-seven thousand five hundred 
 votes ; the Broderick candidates had little over 
 ten thousand ; while the Whigs had thirty-five 
 thousand. 
 
 It is curious to note here the future of some 
 of these worthies. McGowan, Broderick's chair- 
 man, at the outbreak of the great rebellion, pre- 
 sented himself in Washington, claiming to rep- 
 resent Arizona, and threatening to take that 
 Territory out of the Union if Southern claims 
 were not respected. Herbert, while in Congress, 
 murdered an Irish waiter at Willard's Hotel, and 
 fell into disgrace, even with his party. Denver 
 became a Brigadier-General of Volunteers, and 
 fouirht for the Union, until he was shelved 
 quietly. Calhoun Benham became Buchanan's 
 District Attorney for California, and prophesied 
 
THE GOVEENORSHIP. 419 
 
 that grass would grow in the streets of New chap. 
 York if Lincoln should be elected. After the ,_^^_ 
 war broke out he was arrested by General Sum- i855. 
 ner, in company with Dr. Gwin, in Panama 
 harbor, and for a brief time occupied an apart- 
 ment in Fort Lafayette. 
 
 In 1855, Bigler was renominated for a third 
 term as Governor. Some of G win's friends 
 urged Milton S. Latham, but they were a minor- 
 ity in convention. Bigler obtained forty-six 
 thousand two hundred and twenty votes, the 
 full strength of his part}^, but he failed of re- 
 election. The Whigs merged into the new 
 Know Nothing party, which gave fifty-one thou- 
 sand one hundred and fifty-seven votes to J. 
 Neely Johnson, and made him Governor. The 
 politicians of the day said that Bigler, in de- 
 spair of carrying any longer the friendship of 
 Estill, who had the obnoxious State Prison con- 
 tract, threw him off, and Estill, changing over 
 to the Know Nothings, with a party strong- 
 enough to turn the balance of power, revenged 
 himself on his old friend. But the governor- 
 ship was never deemed the highest political prize 
 in California. Far above it shone the United 
 States senatorship, and the attainment of that 
 from an early date taxed heavily the energies 
 of faction and the purse of the aspirant. At 
 the first session of the Legislature (held at 
 San Jose, December, 1849) parties were not or- 
 
420 THE HISTOEY OP CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, e^anized, and the senatorial election was soon 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 wv— ' over. 
 
 1849. The nominees for Senator were John C. Fre- 
 mont, William M. Gwiu, Captain H. W. Hal- 
 leck (since General-in-Chief,) T. Butler King, 
 Thomas J. Henley, Robert Semple, CoTonel 
 Jonathan D. Stevenson (but Edmund Ran- 
 dolph hastened to withdraw the colonel), and 
 Colonel (now General) J. W. Geary. On the 
 first ballot Fremont had twenty-nine (which 
 elected him), Gwin twenty-two, Halleck four- 
 teen. King ten, Henley nine, Geary five, Sem- 
 ple three. On the third ballot Gwin had 
 two majority. So Fremont and Gwin were 
 California's first Senators. Halleck's highest 
 vote was ei2:hteen on the third ballot. Fre- 
 mont drew the short term, and his seat became 
 vacant on the 3d of March, 1851. 
 
 The Legislature desperately essayed, early in 
 
 1851. 1851, to elect a successor to Fremont, but all in 
 vain. After sundry efforts to appoint a day 
 for a joint convention, the 17th of February 
 was agreed on. When twelve o'clock arrived 
 the Assembly was still in session, engaged in a 
 call of the House, and the Senate took a recess 
 of ten minutes, to give the officers time to pre- 
 pare seats for the other branch in the Senate 
 chamber, on the first floor; for, seeing how 
 great the crowd was, it was deemed imprudent 
 to meet in the Assembly chamber, on the second 
 
THE UNITED STATES SEISTATOKSHIP. 421 
 
 floor. When order was called in the Senate chap. 
 
 XXIX 
 
 again, Mr. Broderick stated that several mem- . 'J 
 
 bers of the Assembly were absent from their issi. 
 seats in the Assembly, and could not be found. 
 He said, moreover, that there was a rumor on 
 the street that one member had been drugged 
 the night before, to prevent his voting for a 
 Senator. He moved to postpone the joint con. 
 vention, and, though while the vote was being 
 taken the Assembly was at the door, the vote was 
 carried — ayes nine, Qwes six ; and the astounded 
 Assembly was in a quandary, with a joint con- 
 vention on its hands, and no Senate to help ad- 
 journ it. However, the joint convention met 
 soon after, and on the first ballot forty-nine 
 votes were cast. Twenty-five were necessary to 
 a choice, and no one had near that number. 
 Fremont had eight ; Heydenfeldt, whose broth- 
 er was a Whig member of the State Senate, 
 had sixteen. King had .fifteen, G-eary four, 
 Weller four, Collier two. Seven days were spent 
 in ineffectual efforts to elect. On the sixty-sixth 
 ballot Fremont had eleven. King nineteen, 
 Heydenfeldt fifteen, Geary one, and George B. 
 Tingley two. On the 27th of February the 
 one hundred and forty-first ballot was taken, 
 when Fremont had fourteen, King eighteen, 
 Heydenfeldt fifteen, Bennet one. Heydenfeldt 
 was now withdrawn, and John B. Weller nom- 
 inated. Next day the one hundred and forty- 
 
422 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, second ballot was taken, resultins: as follows : 
 
 XXIX • • • 
 
 ^.^ Fremont nine, King twenty, Weller eighteen, 
 1852. Geary one. Then, satisfied they could never 
 agree, the joint convention adjourned to Janu- 
 ary 1st, 1852. The letter-writers of that day 
 represent San Jose as black with the lobby, 
 and the candidates giving suppers to their 
 friends with the most profuse hospitality. 
 
 The Legislature of 1852 met at Vallejo, but 
 finding no accommodations for remaining, re- 
 moved to Sacramento. By this time the Demo- 
 cratic party, which was largely in the majority, 
 had perfectly organized. The seventy-two Dem- 
 ocrats went into caucus, and on the first bal- 
 lot Weller had twenty-one votes, Broderick six- 
 teen. The joint convention, however, did not 
 wait on caucus. At its first ballotinor Weller 
 had twenty-three, G. B. Tingley sixteen, Brod- 
 erick fifteen, William Smith nine, Alexander 
 Anderson nine, W. McLvaue seven, and ten scat- 
 tering. Caucus tried it again, and on the fifth 
 ballot Weller had two majority over Broderick. 
 Next day, in joint convention, John B. Weller 
 had seventy-one, P. B. Beading seventeen. So 
 Weller was elected the successor of John C. 
 Fremont in the United States Senate. 
 
 In 1853 there was rest from Senator-making; 
 
 1854. but in 1854 the campaign reopened. Gwin's 
 
 term of ofiice was not to expire until March 4th, 
 
 1855. But Broderick doubted if he would 
 
THE UjStited states senatoeship. 423 
 
 soon again get so favorable a Legislature, and chap. 
 determined to brino: on an election. The Whis-s " 
 having nothing to lose by delay, united with the 1854. 
 Gwin faction in the employment of every means 
 to postpone the election. At one time Broder- 
 ick needed but a single vote more to carry his 
 point and secure his election. The Legislature 
 adjourned mid-session from Benicia to Sacra- 
 mento — it was said to win a Sacramento vote — 
 but the ruse was unsuccessful, and the election 
 could not be ordered. Hence the bitterness 
 and obstinacy with which the factions struggled 
 for the advantasre in the State Convention of 
 the followincr fall. 
 
 In 1855, Gwin started with a majority in the 1855. 
 Legislature, but not enough to control the elec- 
 tion. They balloted fifty times, and from the 
 17th of January to the 16th of February. On 
 the first ballot Gwin had forty-two, Broderick 
 twelve, Philip L. Edwards thirty -six, Joseph. 
 W. McCorkle fourteen, James A. McDougall 
 two, Frederick Billings one, Solomon Heyden- 
 feldt one, Frank Soule one, and R. T. Sprague 
 one. On the fiftieth ballot, Broderick had 
 twelve, Gwin forty -one, Edwards thirty -six, 
 Koman fifteen ; and then the joint convention 
 adjourned sine die, and from the 4th of March 
 of that year there was a vacancy in the State's 
 senatorial representation at Washington. To 
 prevent accidents in case the next Legislatui'e 
 
424 THE inSTORT OF CALIFOEISTA. 
 
 CHAP, should be of some other than the Democratic 
 
 XXIX 
 
 ._^_; party, a law was enacted, requiring all regular 
 
 1855. elections for United States Senator to be held 
 after the 1st of January next preceding the 
 commencement of the senatorial term — a pre- 
 caution necessary to keep Weller's seat open 
 for a Democrat. 
 
 Neely. Johnson was inaugurated Governor in 
 
 1856. January, 1856. He was supported by a Know 
 Nothing Legislature, which came within one 
 vote of electing Henry S. Foote, formerly of 
 Mississippi (and since then a member of the 
 Confederate Senate in Richmond), but at that 
 time a resident of California. Wilson Flint, 
 one of the senators, though a Know Nothing, 
 sturdily refused to vote for Foote, believing 
 that he was a pro-slavery man and a carpet- 
 bag politician, whose sole errand to the State 
 was to gain this prize. Great was the wrath 
 of the party, but Flint was stubborn, and with- 
 out his vote no progress could be made. His 
 life was threatened, but his friends guarded 
 well his ways, and no harm came to him. 
 Foote's party competitor was Henry A. Crabb, 
 who afterwards withdrew in favor of W. J. 
 Ferguson, of Sacramento. The party lacking 
 discipline, and its members distrusting its lease 
 of power, each faction felt that compromises 
 were useless, and present success all that was 
 worth struo-ofliuo; for. The Democrats did not 
 
GENERAL ELECTION RESULTS. 425 
 
 doubt that next year tliey would have the Legis- char 
 lature again, and as then Weller's term as well ,_^ 
 as Gwin's would be out, there would be a place 1856. 
 for each faction. So they harmonized in view 
 of the spoils, and with a very little Know Noth- 
 ing aid, got a resolution through the Senate, 
 declaring it inexpedient and contrary to the 
 wishes of the people to fill the existing vacancy, 
 and postponed all action on the subject to 
 January 1st, 1857. The two Houses did not 
 go into joint convention. 
 
 The Presidential election came on that fall. 
 James Buchanan obtained the electoral vote of 
 the State. His popular vote was fifty-three 
 thousand three hundred and sixty-five. Mil- 
 lard Filkuore, the American candidate, received 
 thirty-six thousand one hundred and sixty-five 
 votes ; and Fremont, who now claimed a resi- 
 dence in New York, from the State which de- 
 lighted almost unanimously to make him her 
 first Senator, received twenty thousand six hun 
 dred and ninety-three. 
 
 The candidates for Congress that year were 
 Joseph McKibben and Charles Scott (Demo- 
 crats), who were elected ; Whitman and Dibble, 
 Americans, and Ira P. Eankin and Mr. Turner, 
 Republicans, who ran far enough ahead of Fre- 
 mont to mark the unpopularity of the young 
 Pathfinder in the region of which he was the 
 reputed conqueror. 
 
426 THE HISTOBT OF CALLFOMSriA. 
 
 CHAP. San Francisco had come by deo^rees to stand 
 
 XXIX • • . . 
 
 ^_^_J at variance with the State on politics. In 1851, 
 1851- it gave a majority to the Whig nominee for 
 ■ Governor. In 1853, Bigler had but five major- 
 ity there over Waldo. In 1854, it gave a plu- 
 rality for the Whig Congressmen, and to the 
 Broderick wing from three hundred and fifty 
 to four hundred votes more than to the Gwin 
 faction. In 1855, the united Democracy got 
 nearly two thousand majority over the Know 
 Nothings. In 1856, it gave Buchanan a plu- 
 rality, but to Fremont more than three to one 
 for Fillmore. San Francisco, generally, tended 
 to the side of the minority. 
 
 In Sacramento the Whigs were in the ma- 
 jority in 1852, 1853, and 1854; the Know 
 Nothings in 1855 ; and the Democrats in 1856. 
 As between Broderick and Gwin in 1854, it 
 inclined to the former. The strongholds of the 
 Chivahy were in the mining region. 
 
 But the real "ruling classes " do not come to 
 light in these statistics. The dregs of society 
 — swindlers, thieves, and gamblers — dictated 
 to the party dictators, and ruled the State 
 with a tyranny that conventions dare not med- 
 dle with. The party in power had to bear 
 the odium of the wretched condition of affairs ; 
 probably it would have l^een all the same 
 whether Whigs or Democrats, Tammanyites or 
 " Chivs " occupied the public 2:)laces. The 
 
THE REAL EULEES. 427 
 
 better classes had despised politics, and tlie chap. 
 worst classes picked up the reins and were 
 driving fast to ruin. Good men, who were ele- 
 vated to power by parties that they could not 
 think of controlling, were ashamed, disgusted, 
 mortified by the power that used them. The 
 judiciary fell into disrepute. The course of 
 regular justice was obstructed. Criminals en- 
 joyed an alarming immunity from punishment. 
 Violence ruled in city and country. Then 
 Judge Lynch crowded the slow judge (whom 
 the people elected) off the bench. The legal 
 executioner could not learn his business for 
 lack of practice ; yet in many a quiet nook 
 among the mountains, the thief or murderer, or 
 the party pronounced to be such after a hurried 
 trial, was hung by the neck to the limb of a 
 tree — the trial beginning in the morning, the 
 hanging over before noon ! 
 
 Here are some examples which occurred long 
 after the organization of the courts was com- 
 pleted for every settled section of the State : 
 Two Mexican horse-thieves were lynched near 
 Martinez in April, 1853. A bar-keeper was, in 
 the same month, hung on the very day that he 
 shot a citizen of Whiskey Creek, near Shasta. 
 In July, a Mexican was hung at Jackson for 
 horse-stealing. At Volcano, in December, 1854, 
 one Macy stabbed an old man. In less than 
 half an hour the assassin was swinging lifeless 
 
428 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP. — ^Laving been executed by the mob. The same 
 ,__^^ month, one Johnson stabbed a man named 
 1853- Montgomery, at Iowa Hill ; he attempted to 
 ■^^^^" escape, but was captured, and was hung the 
 next day. As the wounded man gave signs of 
 recovery afterwards, a revulsion in the public 
 sentiment took place, and a suspicion got out 
 that perhaps the avengers had been in too 
 much haste. Three men, convicted of murder, 
 lay in jail together at Los Angeles, under sen- 
 tence of death. An order w^ent down from the 
 Supreme Court granting a stay of proceedings 
 in the cases of Brown and Lee, leaving Alvitre 
 to his fate. The people insisted that Brown 
 should suffer death the same day with Alvitre. 
 The mayor of the city made a speech, ui'ging 
 the justice of that course. On the 12th of Jan- 
 uary, 1855, Alvitre was executed according to 
 law. The mayor resigned his office and joined 
 the mob, which demanded Brown from the sher- 
 iff. They took Brown forcibly out of the jail 
 and hung him, in spite of the Supreme Court, by 
 the side of his fellow in crime. On the 18th 
 of the same month, Mr. Heslep, the acting treas- 
 urer of Tuolumne County, was murdered. The 
 supposed murderer was caught and lynched on 
 the 19 th. Three cattle-thieves were captured 
 one Sunday of February, 1855, in Contra Costa 
 County, and hung by the mob on the Monday 
 following. The same month, some unknown 
 
LYNCH LAW. 429 
 
 persons took a horse-thief out of the Oakland chap. 
 
 • • • • • XXIX 
 
 jail, carried him to Clinton Bridge, and hung _^ 
 him to the bough of a tree. In August, 1855, i855. 
 six Americans were murdered by a gang of 
 Mexicans, not far from Jackson, in Amador 
 County. The people turned out and caught 
 thirty-six of the Mexicans. It was proposed to 
 hang them together. But that was thought 
 too irresponsible a method. So a jury was se- 
 lected, several of the captives tried, and three 
 of them hung on the same tree together. 
 
 Robbers infested the highways, of the South- 
 ern counties especially. There is a long chap- 
 ter of violence that may remain unwritten, 
 where the criminals were not caught. Some- 
 times these cases created an excitement far 
 beyond the immediate vicinity where the crime 
 was committed. In November, 1855, Isaac B. 
 Wall, ex-Speaker of Assembly, and Collector of 
 Monterey, and T. S. Williamson, a county offi- 
 cer of Monterey, when on the road between 
 their home and San Luis Obispo, were assas- 
 sinated. The same month, William H. Richard- 
 son, United States Marshal, was shot fatally by 
 Charles Cora on Clay Street in San Francisco, 
 a few doors below Montgomery Street, by day- 
 light. Cora was arrested. 
 
 There was no assuraiice that conviction would 
 follow arrest, no matter how many witnesses. 
 The county jails were seldom very secure at the 
 
430 THE HISTOKY OF CALIFOElSnA. 
 
 best, even if there had not been conniving 
 sheriffs. The State's Prison at San Quentin 
 
 1854. was a sieve. In December, 1854, thirty con- 
 victs escaped from it on the same day. 
 
 The sudden rise of the Know Nothing or 
 
 1855. American party into power was not owing so 
 much to any outburst of exclusively American 
 feeling as to the determination to adopt any 
 thing new, with the hope that an unhackneyed 
 party and fresh men might dam the flood that 
 had swept away the social reputation of the 
 State, and threatened to wreck its financial 
 character. That party's equally sudden col- 
 lapse was due to the discovery that unprinci- 
 pled persons had got control of that organiza- 
 tion too, and were handling it as all others had 
 been. 
 
 Things came at last to a pitch beyond en- 
 durance. There were some good men in office, 
 but so hampered and hedged that they might 
 as well have been out ; there were some good 
 judges on the bench, but generally they were 
 powerless to punish crime or protect innocence 
 a2:ainst the tide of false swearino- that set in the 
 hour it was wanted to shield criminals or con- 
 vict the guiltless. There were bad men in 
 office, too, who had things very much their own 
 way: coi-rupt judges, who fingered bribes, as 
 the i)ublic believed ; sheriffs, and constables, 
 and jailers, to whom detected criminals ran for 
 
DESPERATE SOCIAL CONDITIO]^". 431 
 
 refuge. San Franciscans, after dark, instinctively chap. 
 avoided a crowd ; and if they had occasion to ^-^^j 
 go into the sandy or chaparal-covered suburbs 1855, 
 after nightfall, they felt that they neglected 
 their duty to themselves and their families un- 
 less they took a revolver. 
 
 Ballot-box stuffing v^as as regular as the ar- 
 rival of election-day. Voters felt it a farce to 
 spend their time at the polls, when rowdies, 
 gamblers, state-j)rison convicts, and " Sydney 
 ducks " could, in ten minutes after the polls 
 were closed, make any majority for their side 
 that was wanted. It was a condition of affairs 
 that American citizens could not long endure. 
 
432 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOEIS^A. 
 
 MayU. 
 
 CHAPTEK XXX. 
 
 THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE OF 1856. 
 
 The explosion occurred in 1856, at San Fran- 
 cisco, but the whole State felt the shock. A 
 1856. correspondent of the Bulletin, signing himself 
 " A Purifier," liad spoken of one Bagley, wko 
 had been indicted for attempting the life of 
 James P. Casey, as an objectionable 'appointee 
 to tlie Custom-House, which Collector Latham 
 was busily reformiu'T;. James King, in an edi- 
 torial, on tke 14th o^ May, used the following 
 language : — 
 
 " It does not matter how bad a man Casey 
 bad been, nor how much benefit it might be to 
 the public to have him out of the way ; we can- 
 not accord to any one citizen the right to kill 
 him, or even beat Mm, without justifiable, per- 
 sonal provocation. The fact that Casey has 
 been the inmate of Sius; Sino- Prison is no of- 
 fence against the laws of this State ; nor is the 
 fact of his having stufied himself through the 
 ballot-box as elected to the Board of Super- 
 visors from a district where it is said he was 
 not even a candidate, any justification for Mr. 
 
JAMES KIITG AND CASEY. 433 
 
 Bagley to shoot Casey, however richly the lat- chap. 
 ter may deserve to have his neck stretched for 
 such a fraud on the people." 185g. 
 
 The Bulletin was issued about three o'clock ^^' 
 in the afternoon. At four o'clock, Supervisor 
 Casey, the subject of the above " disparaging 
 allusion," entered the editorial room of the Bul- 
 letin^ which was on the second story of a build- 
 ing on Merchant Street, near Montgomery. 
 King was seated at his desk. Casey asked him 
 what he meant by the article in the Bulletin 
 just issued; King asked him to what article he 
 referred. 
 
 " To that," said Casey, " which says that I 
 was formerly an inmate of Sing Sing Prison." 
 
 " Is not that true ?" asked Kinsf. 
 
 "That is not the question," replied Casey ; " I 
 don't wish my past acts raised up ; on that I am 
 sensitive." 
 
 " Are you done ?" asked King. " There's the 
 door — go ! Never show your face here again." 
 
 Casey moved off immediately. Passing out 
 of the door, he said, " I'll say in my paper what 
 I j)lease ;" — he was editor of a weekly sheet — 
 the Sunday Times. 
 
 "You have a perfect right to do as you 
 please," answered King ; " I'll never notice your 
 paper." Casey, without another word, departed. 
 
 King left his office soon after five o'clock, as 
 usual, to go to his dinner. He passed up Mer- 
 
 28 
 
434 THE HISTORY OF CALTFORTTTA. 
 
 CHAP, chant Street, up Montgomery to Washington 
 '^^^' Street, and began to cross it to the west side of 
 1856. Montgomery. Casey, who was on the west 
 ^^^' side of Montgomery Street, waiting, threw off 
 his cloak, and presenting a revolver when they 
 were a few feet apart, and saying, " Come on," 
 or something to that effect, fired. The shot 
 entered King's left breast and passed out ijn- 
 der the shoulder-blade. King staggered into 
 the Pacific Express Company's ofiice, on the 
 northwest corner of Washington and Montgom- 
 ery Streets. The wound bled freely. He was 
 got to bed, and slept somewhat during the 
 night. 
 
 Casey, so soon as he had fired, was hurried 
 off to the station-house by his friends, and 
 thence to the jail on Broadway, as to a place of 
 refuge. 
 
 Fearful of an attack upon the jail^ the mili- 
 tary were ordered out, and they promptly re- 
 sponded. A hundred of them, more or less, 
 took their position on the roof, ready to fire on 
 the crowd in case of emergency. At half-past 
 six p. M., Mayor Van Ness attempted from the 
 front of the jail to address the crowd. He ad- 
 vised them to disperse quietly — " the prisoner 
 was safe " — " it was best to let the law take its 
 course and justice be done." He was inter- 
 rupted with cries of "Where is the law in 
 Cora's case V — " There is too much law and too 
 
JAMES KING SHOT BY CASEY. 435 
 
 little lustice in California." — " Down with sucli chap. 
 justice !" The Mayor, seeing his efforts useless, _^^ 
 retired. The crowd tarried about the jail till a issa, 
 late hour, and then dispersed. 
 
 But all night there was a great assemblage 
 before the Pacific Express Company's office, 
 waiting to learn the fate of Mr. King. Ropes 
 were placed across the street to prevent the 
 friendly crowd from entering the building and 
 disturbing the wounded man's repose. 
 
 The old Vigilance Committee of 1851 met 
 during the evening, but deferred definite actioa 
 until the next day. 
 
 That next day was one of profound excite- Mayi5. 
 ment in San Francisco. The Heixild spoke of 
 the attempted assassination as " an affray be- 
 tween James P. Casey and James King, of 
 William." "Motives of delicacy, needless to 
 explain, force us to abs^tain from commenting 
 on this affair," said the editor. He confessed 
 that in times past he had sustained the Vigil- 
 ance Committee, but now "justice was regular- 
 ly administered," and there existed " no neces- 
 sity for such an association." 
 
 The Sun and the Glohe abstained from edi- 
 torial comments. The (7Ai^'om(??(? called for jus- 
 tice. " Let reason and law — nay, make reason 
 and law vindicate the outraged laws and peace 
 of society." It almost suggested, but did not 
 quite, that the people assume the functions that 
 
436 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA- 
 
 the officers of the courts had so long neglected 
 to employ. The Alta spoke out decidedly that 
 1856. the tmie to stoj) such outrages had come. The 
 BvUetin appeared that evening with a blank 
 column in place of a leader. It narrated the 
 story of the assassination minutely, and its cor- 
 respondence teemed with calls for instant popu- 
 lar organization. On Friday it received over a 
 hundred letters, most of which advocated speedy 
 action by a Vigilance Committee. The Pacific 
 (a religious paper edited by a Congregational 
 clergyman) said, "Casey ought to be hung. Be- 
 lieve it who will," that, left to the coui'ts, he will 
 be ; " we do not." Said the Christian Advocate 
 (the Methodist organ), "Providence is a farce 
 and justice a lie, or the doom of the ungodly in 
 this city is at hand." The other papers spoke 
 freely, and nearly to the same point. 
 
 If the newspapers reflected the public senti- 
 ment — and probably nowhere else in the w^orld 
 are the papers more generally read, or do they 
 more truly speak for the whole people — ^there 
 was a very strong majority demanding the for- 
 mation of a vio;ilance committee, and thoroui^h 
 radical work by it. The Globe spoke out, like 
 most of the other papers, on the second day. 
 The Herald consistently opposed the Vigilance 
 Committee ; but its course cost it dear. It had 
 been the leading commercial and news journal 
 of the coast. The day that "motives of deli- 
 
PERILOUS TIMES FOR NEWSPAPERS. 437 
 
 cacy " led it to treat of tlie attempted assassina- chap. 
 tion of King as " an affray," subscribers to the ^_I^_L 
 number of two hundred and twelve stoj)ped 1856. 
 their paper. Two hundred and fifty importers, 
 merchants, and jobbers notified the auctioneers, 
 who had, as a body, used it as their advertising 
 medium, that they should not longer subscribe 
 for it. So the auctioneers took their advertis- 
 ing over to the Alta^ which waxed strong at 
 once on the patronage ; for in those days the 
 paper that had the auctioneers' advertisements 
 was necessarily the leading commercial organ. 
 The Herald shrank in its dimensions next morn- 
 ing, and never regained its former prestige. 
 The Sun soon ranged itself with the Herald in 
 the opposition. It was a political sheet, of 
 Democratic faith — for Bigler and Buchanan, 
 and against Broderick. It was temperate but 
 firm in its opposition, and made light of its 
 lack of support — presenting, some days, under 
 regular advertising heads, whole or half col- 
 umns of blanks, as much as to say, " We reserve 
 vacant and in order the space that our patrons 
 will be sure to want so soon as this little flurry 
 is over." 
 
 But it was no " little flurry." The Vigilance 
 Committee — to this day it is hard to say how 
 it started and was organized — was in session 
 from nine in the morning until a late hour in 
 the evening of the 15th. It was said, that 
 
438 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, within thirty hours after King was shot, they 
 „^]_^_J, had twenty-five hundred names enrolled on 
 1856. their books, of men who pledged themselves to 
 work together for the purging of the city of its 
 late " ruling classes," the gamblers, ballot-box 
 stuffers, jury packers, foreign convicts, swindlers, 
 thieves high and low, and of villains generally. 
 Hundreds were waiting their turn, all day, to 
 register themselves. 
 Mayia The meetings of the committee were held 
 with closed doors. The secrecy of its opera- 
 tions terrified the guilty, and large numbers of 
 suspicious characters departed up the river, or 
 scattered over the stage routes into the country. 
 Some bolder ones attempted to get inside of 
 the organization. Perhaps some of these suc- 
 ceeded; but if they did, they did not tarry 
 long, for " the all-seeing eye" that was printed 
 on the committee's ofiicial paper looked inside 
 as well as out of the committee. 
 
 Mayor Van Ness telegraphed to the Governor 
 that his presence was required. His Excellency 
 hastened down from Sacramento, had an inter- 
 view ivith leading citi2;ens and the city authori- 
 ties, and by his advice Sheriff Scannell admit- 
 ted some twenty persons, as a delegation of 
 the Vigilance Committee, into the jail, to keep 
 guard over Casey. 
 
 King still lingered ; sometimes improving a 
 little ; then again giving signs that his wound 
 
THE PULPIT ON THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE. 439 
 
 was fatal. Bulletins were posted about the chap. 
 
 • • • XXX 
 
 town, detailing his condition, which were con- i_^_J 
 suited by crowds. 1856. 
 
 Sunday was a day of gloom and sadness, ^^y^^- 
 The churches were perhaps more thronged than 
 usual. The Eev. IVIr. Lacy (Congregational- 
 ist), according to previous announcement, took 
 for his subject. Law and Heligion. The Kev. 
 Mr. Cutler (Unitarian) dwelt on the exciting 
 topics of the week. The Kev. Mr. Brierly, at 
 the Baptist church, discussed the matter that 
 engrossed all thoughts. Indeed, the Protestant 
 pulpit throughout the State very generally 
 availed itself of the great overshadowing event, 
 to make research for the principles that lie at 
 the base of all substantial human governments. 
 The Rev. J. A. Benton (Congregationalist), at 
 Sacramento, said : " A people can be justified 
 in recalling delegated power and resuming its 
 exercise" — guarding his statement with the 
 further remark, that " like every such remedy 
 and lesort, it must be reserved for rare oc- 
 casions and the most trying emergencies." 
 
 But while, in San Francisco, a portion of the 
 community were listening with the closest at- 
 tention to sermons on what filled every man's 
 thoughts, a larger portion were in the streets. 
 The members of the Vigilance Committee, or so 
 many of them as had received the hasty notice, 
 issuing from their places of rendezvous, armed 
 
440 THE niSTOIlY OF CALIFOKNIA. 
 
 CHAP, with muskets, rifles, or revolvers, and nmseless, 
 ■^^^' except as tlieir tramp rang out from the pave- 
 185G. ment, marched through the most public 
 thoroughfares to the jail on Broadwa}^ There 
 were twenty-four companies represented. Per- 
 haps half the complement of each (which was 
 one hundred) were in the procession. 
 
 Soon a brass cannon was placed in the street, 
 facing the jail door, and the roofs of the neigh- 
 borina: houses were covered with riflemen. 
 A committee from this armed and noiseless 
 crowd waited upon Sheriff Scannell, and de- 
 manded the surrender of Casey. With scarcely 
 a minute's parley the jail door was thrown 
 open. Casey at first remonstrated, and ex- 
 pressed some indignation that " Scannell too 
 had deserted " him. But he was shown how 
 vain opposition would be. Casey drew a con- 
 cealed knife, and said that no person should 
 put irons on his limbs. He was told that the 
 committee would have him dead or alive. 
 Thereupon he submitted to be handcuffed, and 
 was taken to a carriage, which, under guard of 
 two hundred men, was driven to the commit- 
 tee's head-quarters in Sacramento Street. 
 
 After Casey had been driven off, the special 
 committee returned to the jail, and demanded 
 Cora, the murderer of Marshal Richardson. 
 There was a little delay about this, but in about 
 an hour he too was produced, and put in a close 
 
JAMES king's ])EATH. 441 
 
 carriasfe, whicli tliree members of the committee chap. 
 entered. Two other carriages, filled with mem- ._^_ 
 bers, followed, and, with a company of guards 1856. 
 marching on either side, they proceeded to ^^ ' 
 head-quarters. All this was done so quietly 
 that the people in the churches knew nothing 
 of it until services ended. 
 
 A little after noon of the 20th of May, six 
 days after he was shot, James King, of Wil- 
 liam, died. It was known instantly upon the 
 street, and the tolling of nearly all the bells 
 conveyed the intelligence to every part of the 
 city. By telegraph the event was known be- 
 fore nio^ht throu2:hout the State. Merchants 
 closed their stores, mechanics their shops ; la- 
 borers stopped work at once. Very soon Mont- 
 gomery Street was lined with crape. Men ap- 
 peared with crape on their arms and on their 
 hats. The bell-handles of many houses were 
 trimmed with crape. A stranger would have 
 thought a plague was raging. 
 
 There was a general hastening of men to the 
 Vigilance Committee rooms. The expectation 
 was prevalent that Casey would not many min- 
 utes outlive his victim. But they learned that 
 the assassin was on trial, which would be calmly 
 conducted, and that no step would be rashly 
 taken. 
 
 From five o'clock until late in the evening, 
 King's body lay in state in a room on Mont- 
 
442 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, gormery Block, and tlie throng seeking aclmit- 
 ._^^_, tance to where it lay stretched down the side- 
 1856. walks of Montgomery Street for two blocks. 
 Not in San Francisco alone, but in many other 
 places throughout the State, the emblems of 
 sorrow were assumed l)y the people, and the 
 bells tolled as if a public calamity had occurred. 
 On the 2 2d, the funeral of King took place. 
 May 22. More generally than upon the Sabbath, all 
 places of business were closed. The body was 
 taken to the Unitarian Church. The Rev. Mr. 
 Cutler made a brief address, the Rev. Mr. Tay- 
 lor read appropriate passages of Scripture, and 
 the Rev. Mr. Lacy followed with some details 
 of conversations that he had held with the de- 
 ceased during his last sickness, wherein be bad 
 expressed himself assured of the truths of the 
 Christian reli^-ion. The whole house was at- 
 fected to tears. 
 
 Then came the procession to Lone Mountain. 
 First in the line were the representatives of 
 seven Lodges of the Masonic Order, in full rega- 
 lia ; then the Society of Pioneers ; next the 
 Sacramento Guard ; then every company of the 
 Fire Department, except Crescent, No. 10, of 
 which Casey was once the foreman ; then two 
 hundred and fifty mounted draymen ; then one 
 hundred and forty-two stevedores ; then the 
 Turners in costume ; then a deputation from a 
 colored society ; then a long line of mourners in 
 
443 
 
 carriages. In all, the proces&ion numbered chap. 
 thousands of people. Many bands of music __^^_1, 
 accompanied it, but in silence, their mute instru- 185G. 
 ments draped in mourning. To Lone Moun- ^^'''' 
 tain, with Masonic honors, the body was re- 
 signed. The spot is marked by a fine monu- 
 ment that was erected by the citizens. 
 
 The bereaved people of the State cheerfully 
 accepted as their charge the support of the 
 widow and orphans of their champion. Con- 
 tributions io money poured in generously from 
 all quarters for their benefit. The proceeds, 
 amounting to over thirty-one thousand dollars, 
 were profitably invested by the trustees of the 
 fund and the guardians of the children. 
 
 The same day — and those who rode most 
 swiftly back from the cemetery were too late 
 to witness the extraordinary sight — both Casey 
 and Cora were hans-ed in Sacramento Street, 
 near Davis, in front of the head-quarters of the 
 Vigilance Committee. The hour, one and a 
 half p. M., was chosen as the time when there 
 would be the least crowd. 
 
 The murderers had been tried by the com- 
 mittee and found guilty. A trap had been 
 constructed from the second-story window of 
 the committee's building ; the condemned were 
 placed upon it, and they were asked if they had 
 any thing to say. 
 
 James Casey was thirty-nine years of age. 
 
144 THE HISTORY OF CALTFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP. He had formerly lived in New York, was tried 
 
 XXX. • 
 
 _^ tliere in 1849 for grand larceny, was found 
 185G. guilty, and condemned to two years' imprison- 
 ^^ "' ment in Sing Sing. He served out his time, 
 inserted a " P." in his name, emigrated to Cali- 
 fornia, and soon became a most valuable assist- 
 ant of the "ruling classes," as an expert at 
 manufacturing election returns. When, in the 
 fall of 1855, his purposes required that he 
 should enter the Board of Supervisors as a 
 member, he scorned the slow methods of most 
 politicians, he neglected the "primary elec- 
 tions " on which others set such store, and yet 
 he was elected, to the astonishment of his dis- 
 trict, whose foremost men did not know that he 
 was running until the vote was announced. " If," 
 said the JVews of that day, "if the eleven 
 thousand voters are satisfied with this, if there 
 is not a gallows in the land at the service of 
 such wretches, so let it remain." Casey had 
 visited the editor after this passage appeared 
 in it, but Mr. Bartlett was amply prepared, and 
 there was no collision. Casey had found the 
 gallows, and now stood under it. 
 
 He had been told the day before that he 
 must die, and by the invitation of the com- 
 mittee, Archbishop Alemany had visited him. 
 He had property worth some thirty or forty 
 thousand dollars; he appointed Charles Gal- 
 lagher as his executor. The Grand Jury of the 
 
EXECUTIOlSr OF CASEY AND COEA. 445 
 
 City and County had on the preceding day in- chap. 
 dieted Casey, Edward McGowan, and Peter _^ 
 Wightraan, for the murder of King ; but that 1856. 
 fact gave him little concern. Justice was. swift- 
 er than Law, and was in no mood to wait for 
 her tardy companion. 
 
 Casey was asked if he had any thing to say. 
 With pinioned arms he addressed the vast con- 
 gregation that stood before him. He charged 
 that no one of all he saw, and especially the 
 newspaper men, should call him a murderer. His 
 faults, he said, were those of his education. He 
 had been taught that it was his province to re- 
 sent a wrong — he had done so now. He spoke 
 of his aged mother — it was her pain that he 
 felt. He pardoned those who took his life — he 
 asked pardon of God for the guilt of his life. 
 With another exclamation concerning his poor 
 mother he seemed to faint. Those who were 
 near sustained him, and Father Gallagher 
 pressed to his lips the cross, which he kissed. 
 
 By the side of Casey stood Cora, three hours 
 a bridegroom, having been married that morn- 
 ing to a public woman, who had lavished mon- 
 ey not in vain for his defence before the court, 
 and in all his troubles shown constant devo- 
 tion. He desired to say nothing. He only 
 pressed the cross to his lips repeatedly, and 
 waited, without emotion, until, at twenty min- 
 utes past one o'clock, the cord that held the 
 
446 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, outer ends of the platforms was cut, and the 
 
 XXX • 
 
 ^__^_J, two miserable men were suspended lifeless. 
 1856. Thousands of people witnessed from the 
 streets and the house-tops this terrible spectacle. 
 Many steamers from bay and river towns had 
 come in with deles-ations to attend Mr. Kings's 
 funeral. After the services in the church, and 
 the procession in carriages and on horseback 
 had started for the cemetery, hundreds had 
 bent their way towards the committee's head- 
 quarters, though without any definite idea of 
 what woidd occur. A dead silence reig^ned 
 over the whole assemblage when they perceived 
 what was proceeding. 
 
 As if to deepen still more the gloom of the 
 day, while the procession was moving and the 
 scaffold was being constructed, the Golden Age 
 steamed up the bay, bringing the news that on 
 the 15th of April more than one hundred of the 
 natives on the Isthmus had assaulted the Cali- 
 fornia-bound passengers from the Illinois^ and 
 the passengers from the 6br^e6', bound eastward, 
 and had massacred twenty, and severely wound- 
 ed fifty or sixty more. Nothing was lacking to 
 make the day thoroughly memorable. 
 
 The bodies of Casey and Cora were given 
 over to the coroner. His jury held an inquest, 
 and found a verdict to the efi'ect that they 
 " came to their death by hanging by the neck, 
 which hanging was done })y a body of men 
 
EXECUTION OF CASEY AND COEA. 447 
 
 styling themselves a Vigilance Committee of ^^^• 
 San Francisco." Cora was buried on Saturday, v^-, — > 
 followed to the grave by a few friends. i^^^* 
 
 Casey's body was given to the engine com- 
 pany of which he was once foreman. On the 
 following Sunday the funeral took place, when 
 a large procession followed the body to the 
 Mission Dolores Cemetery. Not long after, a 
 tasteful graystone monument was erected over 
 his remains, and it is to-day one of the most no- 
 ticeable structures in the old churchyard, as you 
 ride along the Mission road. On one side of it 
 was cut the following : " Erected by the Mem- 
 bers of Crescent Engine Company, No. Ten, as 
 a tribute of respect and esteem." On another 
 side, cut in a white marble slab, was the fol- 
 lowing : " Sacred to the memory of James P. 
 Casey, who departed this life May 22d, 1856, 
 aged twenty-seven years. May God forgive 
 my persecutors. E-equiescat in pace." 
 
 The day after the burial of King, movements 
 about the head-quarters gave token that the May23 
 Vigilance Committee meant to continue, for a 
 while at least, the work it had so vigorously 
 commenced. A large cooking stove, and cart- 
 loads of bedding, were added to the appoint- 
 ments of the upper rooms of the United States 
 Appraiser's store, which they occupied. A 
 heavy triangle was suspended from a frame on 
 the roof, a signal stroke on which brought every 
 
448 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP. Viojilant to his feet, and several cells were fitted 
 up for the confinement of prisoners. Before 
 
 1856, niglit, an armed detachment brought in to oc- 
 cupy the cells, besides other notables, Billy 
 Mulligan, one of the sheriff's deputies, Martin 
 Gallagher, who had achieved renown as a ballot- 
 box stuffer, and " Yankee Sullivan." Although 
 James Sullivan was one of the judges of the 
 election which stuffed Casey into the Board of 
 Supervisors, in this emergency he remembered 
 that he was not an American citizen, and ap- 
 pealed to the British Consul, but in vain. Born 
 in Ireland, he was transported to Sydney for 
 felony, and escaped thence, leaving his true 
 name, Francis Murray, behind him, but Ijring- 
 ing to Sag Harbor, Long Island, the reputation 
 of a prize-fighter. Very soon Sullivan removed 
 to New York, where he kept, on Division 
 Street, the "Sawdust House," and extended his 
 fighting fame. He got the name of " Yankee " 
 from the fact that he went into the ring, at one 
 of his fights, with the American flag wrapped 
 about his loins. In 1849, at Rock Island, Mary- 
 land, he was whipped by Tom Hyer in seventeen 
 minutes, the stakes being ten thousand dollars. 
 In 1853, at Boston Corners, he fought with 
 John Morrissey. In 1850 he came to Califor- 
 nia, but tarried only a short time. In 1854 he 
 came again to the State, and plunged into 
 
YANKEE Sullivan's suicide. 449 
 
 tlie career of vice for whicli his previous life chap. 
 had educated him. -l-r—' 
 
 Froni the hour that he was taken prisoner, i856. 
 mortal fear seemed to possess him. He ex- 
 pressed deep penitence, and promised, if his 
 life were spared, to reform. He was told that 
 he need not fear being hanged, for the com- 
 mittee would not execute any man for crimes 
 that were not capital in the eyes of the law. 
 He begged, that if they banished him, he might 
 be sent away separate from his companions, 
 who he said would kill him for what he had 
 divulged. He wrote a long confession, chiefly 
 regarding his election frauds, which implicated 
 many parties. 
 
 Early on the morning after the eighth night of MaySi. 
 his confinement, he suddenly shouted for a glass 
 of water, and, when it was brought him, he told 
 the guard his dream. He had stood under the 
 gallows, the fatal rope was around his neck, the 
 drop was falling, when he woke strangling, 
 calling for water, and in a cold sweat. The 
 guard told him that he was not to suifer the 
 extreme penalty, that he would only be ban- 
 ished. He knew it, he said, but the crimes of 
 his life haunted him, and he deserved to die. 
 The guard took breakfast to him a few hours 
 later, but Sullivan was dead. With a dull 
 case-knife he had sawn a terrible gash in his 
 
 29 
 
450 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, arm, and thus severed an artery, from whicli lie 
 ^ ■ bled to death. 
 
 1856. The day before this new horror was added to 
 the history of the times, Judge Terry, of the 
 Supreme Coui't of the State, issued a writ of 
 liaheas corpus for the person of Billy Mulligan. 
 But the sheriff who attempted to serve it could 
 not give the pass- word to enter the building, 
 and the Executive Committee paid no attention 
 to the writ. The rumor prevailed that Govern- 
 or Johnson was about to issue a proclamation, 
 and that he had applied to General Wool, com- 
 mandant of the Pacific Department, for arms, 
 and to the commander of the United States ship- 
 of-war Jolm Adams, then in the harbor. To 
 prevent a surf)rise, on Saturday morning — 
 Yankee Sullivan then lying dead in his cell — 
 the streets were cleared for two blocks each 
 way from the head-quarters, six brass pieces 
 were mounted, swivels loaded with grape were 
 placed on the roof, two cannon guarded by 
 one hundred French musketeers, were pointed 
 up Sacramento Street, and two, guarded by a 
 hundred riflemen, pointed down Davis Street, and 
 towards the steamboat landing. The whole com- 
 mittee was under arms, and the triangle was 
 ready to summon other aid if necessary. There 
 proved to be no need for this preparation, how- 
 ever, unless the very extent of it averted the 
 danger. The Governor was unfortunate in his 
 
A REACTION WAITED EOE. 451 
 
 solicitations with General Wool, and tlie John chap. 
 
 ■y'V'V" 
 
 A(Ia7ns, willing as that vessel's commander , ^_ 
 
 probably was, did not interfere. 1856. 
 
 On the first Sunday in June the triangle "'^®^' 
 sounded the alarm. Charles P. Duane, a New 
 Yorker until 1849, but from 1852 for a couple of 
 years chief engineer of the San Francisco Fire 
 Department, was arrested. He made consider- 
 able resistance, but the clangor of the triangle 
 brought out the Vigilants, armed in such num- 
 bers that he surrendered and went to jail. Next 
 day, " Wooley Kearney " was arrested, in whose 
 house was found a ballot-box, innocent and 
 honest enough to look at, but curiously con- 
 trived, with sliding sides, from the grooves be- 
 hind which, though locked and sealed, when 
 a concealed spring was pressed, hundreds of 
 ballots could be added to those deposited by the 
 voters. 
 
 The Vigilance Committee had been now, 
 for a fortnight, in vigorous action. It has been 
 shown that the newspapers almost unanimously 
 — the clergy with astonishing boldness — the 
 church almost as a church — the people, appar- 
 ently for the time as one man — approved the 
 formation of the committee. But it was natu- 
 ral to look for a reaction after the committee 
 had begun to make aiTests — after they had 
 hanged two men, and a third had gone a sui- 
 cide from their prison into the hands of the 
 
452 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 ^xxx* ^^^^"^^) ^^^^ ^^i^ ^^^^^ body Lad been exposed 
 
 • — , — ■ to the view of thousands of curious people. 
 
 1856. But if a reaction was coming, it was time for 
 it to show some tokens to that effect. Two 
 daily newspapers had, after a little hesitation, 
 come out in opposition to the Vigilance Com 
 mittee. The lawyers, as a class, were opposed. 
 Indeed, it was not so much the law as the law- 
 yers that the jDeople had rebelled against. The 
 judges, from their very positions, must frown 
 upon the movement which dared to act as if 
 justice were more sacred even than law. One 
 distinguished clergyman, Dr. Scott, was known 
 to lack sympathy with the committee, although 
 far the greater part of his congregation belonged 
 to it. The politicians, bound hand and foot to 
 party, soon perceived that opposition was their 
 cue. There must be in a city of so many in- 
 habitants no inconsiderable numbers of con- 
 servative men, who, after winking at the exe- 
 cution of Casey, would return to their old love 
 of law and order. 
 
 So the politicians and the lawyers argued, 
 
 June 2. ^iid, supposing that the time had come, the 
 Herald of June 2d called for a mass meeting 
 of the finends of law and order, at two o'clock 
 of that day, on the plaza. 
 
 When the hour arrived, there was a small 
 gathering inside the plaza fence, and a great 
 concourse outside it — placards ha.ving been 
 
LAW AND OEDER MEETING. 453 
 
 posted in the neighborhood inviting sympa- chap. 
 thizers with the Vigilance Committee to stay- 
 outside. Alexander Campbell called the meet- i856. 
 ing to order, and, on his nomination, John H. ^^® ^* 
 Wade took the chair. 
 
 As Mr. Wade began to speak, there was a 
 great rush into the plaza and towards the plat- 
 form. The force of the placards was exhausted. 
 The " Law and Order " men said that the Vigil- 
 ants were trying to create a riot and break up 
 the meeting. The Vigilants protested that 
 tbey were simply seeking good places to hear. 
 
 All the speakers were lawyers — Wade, Camp- 
 bell, C. H. Brosnan, Calhoun Benham, and 
 Colonel E. D. Baker. While Benham glorified 
 the law, and magnified the virtue of yielding it 
 peaceful obedience, he unwittingly exposed the 
 butt of a revolver stuck in his belt. The crowd 
 cried out upon this evidence of distrust in his 
 own doctrine. Benham coolly told them that 
 he went prepared to enforce obedience to the 
 law. 
 
 Colonel Baker had a hard task to secure a 
 hearing. He had defended Cora, and the crowd 
 hissed him, groaned at him, and uttered many 
 expressions of disrespect, reminding him and 
 each other of the ten-thousand-dollar fee he 
 was reported to have taken for that defence, 
 and of his eulogy of the woman whom Cora 
 had made his wife on the morning of his exe- 
 
454 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORTTIA. 
 
 CHAP, cutlon. But the eloquent coloDel battled 
 .^_^ bravely the storm, and conquered it at last. 
 1856. While he was speaking, an attempt was made 
 to raise the United States flag to the top of 
 the liberty pole. When it had neared the top, 
 the halyards parted, and the bunting came to 
 the ground. The Vigilants cheered the inci- 
 dent as an omen, saying that the flag declined 
 to protect their opponents. Altogether, the 
 meeting was admitted to have failed of its 
 object. 
 
GOVERNOE JOHNSOIT INTERFEEES. 455 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXL 
 
 COLLISION OF THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE WITH THE 
 STATE AUTHORITIES. 
 
 Next day — it was tlie third of June — Gov- chap. 
 
 • • XXXI 
 
 ernor Johnson issued from the executive cham- _^_^ 
 ber at Sacramento a proclamation, which de- 1856. 
 clared San Francisco in a state of insurrection. 
 It commanded all volunteer companies, and all 
 persons subject to military duty within the coun- 
 ty, to report immediately to Major-General Wil- 
 liam T. Sherman (since, the hero of the Georgia 
 march), and all within the third, fourth, and fifth 
 districts — which included the whole territory 
 from the northern line of Mendocino to the 
 southern border of Tulare, and from the Sierras 
 to the ocean — to be in readiness to respond to 
 further orders. The Vigilance Committee it 
 ordered to disband. 
 
 Perhaps, if the Governor had been more 
 prompt, this proclamation might have stimu- 
 lated the coveted reaction. It came too late to 
 do the opposition much good, and the Vigilants 
 heard it scornfully or with quiet unconcern. 
 It did not commend itself to the masses. The 
 
456 THE HISTORY OF CAIJTORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, city had been for weeks orderly to an imusual 
 degree. The civil courts proceeded with their 
 1856. business unhindered, the criminal courts found 
 ' ""^''' little to do, and time hung heavy on the hands 
 of the police. The coroner was seldom called, 
 and inquests were few and far between. The 
 morning papers omitted the item with the 
 standing head — " A man found drowned." It 
 was astonishing how few the man-traps on the 
 wharves caught. The citizen went where he 
 chose at night, and had no fear of robbery. 
 The stranger saw silent men patrolling the 
 streets after dark, and felt himself safe in any 
 quarter. The good people of the interior 
 agreed with those of the Bay City, that there 
 was nothing to take up arms for ; so, wherever 
 the proclamation was read, it "was duly 
 laughed at." 
 
 But the State military authorities opened re- 
 cruiting offices in San Francisco, and invited 
 enrolments. Nor was the appeal in vain. 
 Some very shabby fellows, and not a few re- 
 spectable men, who, in other times, would have 
 avoided all military connections, as foreign to 
 their taste, volunteered for the support of law 
 and order. 
 
 Seeing these hostile preparations, the Vigil- 
 ants opened their books for new enlistments. 
 Meanwhile they kept on with their main work, 
 notifying dangerous persons what day must be 
 
HE PEOCLAIMS A^ ESTSUREECTIOlSr. 457 
 
 tbeir last on the coast, and shipping some of chap. 
 their prisoners. They put their head-quarters v_^ 
 in order and fortified them. To make sure 1856. 
 against surprise, they constructed a bulwark 
 six feet high, of a double row of gunny-bags 
 filled with sand, from the front corners of their 
 building to and along the centre of Sacramento 
 Street. Chinks between the bas-s were left for 
 port-holes, through which protruded occasion- 
 ally the muzzles of sundry cannon — ships' guns 
 mounted for land service. They called their 
 secure retreat, thus fortified, " Fort Vigilance." 
 The opposition named it " Fort Gunny-Bags." 
 They forbade the use of spirituous liquors in 
 their buildings. The triangle on the roof they 
 replaced with a bell. They gathered in more 
 small-arms, and the numbers on whom they 
 could rely to use them grew daily. Their place 
 was always well garrisoned, and they had 
 twenty-five cannon at their command. 
 
 When the j^roclamation had been four days JuneT. 
 before the public, a committee of foremost citi- 
 zens, among whom were Colonel Joseph B. 
 Crockett, F. W. Macon dray, Henry S. Foote, 
 Balie Peyton, and John Sime, by previous ar- 
 rangement, met Governor Johnson at Benicia, 
 where he was in company with Volney E. 
 Howard, Judge Teiiy, and other advisers, and 
 respectfully petitioned His Excellency not to 
 precipitate a collision. They represented that 
 
458 TIIE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, they were autliorizecl to say that the Vigilance 
 ,_^__, Committee would desist from the exhibition of 
 1856, armed forces in public, and would obey the 
 writ of habeas corpus, if they could have as- 
 surances that the State authorities would pro- 
 ceed no farther in opposition. The Governor 
 put his brief answer in writing. He would 
 certainly do all that he could to avert unneces- 
 sary bloodshed, but he should execute the laws ; 
 and, if a collision occurred, the responsibility 
 must rest on those who disresfarded the author- 
 ity of the State. 
 
 Before the parties separated after this fruit- 
 less meeting, General Sherman put into the 
 hands of the Governor his resio-nation of the 
 command of the second division of the State 
 militia. In a card that he published, he re- 
 minded the public that he was no advocate of 
 the Vicrilance Committee. He had tried to 
 enroll the militia of his district, and had prom- 
 ised to arm them, basing his promise upon 
 the verbal assurance of General Wool (then 
 commanding the Pacific Department of the 
 United States Army) to Governor Johnson, 
 that he would issue sufficient arms for the emer- 
 gency, upon call. But when the requisition was 
 made. General Wool had changed his mind, and 
 refused the arms. He (General Sherman) had 
 counselled moderation and forbearance ; as this 
 counsel did not seem to coincide with the Gov- 
 
GENEEAL SHERMAN EESIGNS. 450 
 
 ernor's views, he thought it best to resign his chap. 
 commission. The Governor accepted the res- 
 ignation, and appointed Volney E. Howard i856. 
 Major-General in Sherman's stead. 
 
 General Wool took ample notice of this slur 
 that Sherman cast on his firmness or veracity, 
 afterward, when it was repeated from another 
 quarter. For the present he sim23ly ordered 
 the observance, on the part of the army officers, 
 of the strictest neutrality. 
 
 About this time news came from Washing- 
 ton that Philip Herbert, one of the California 
 members of Congress, had killed a waiter at 
 Willard's Hotel, because the waiter had an- 
 swered impudently his imperious orders after a 
 debauch. Then, on the same day that a fatal 
 affray was telegraphed as occurring at Coloma, 
 it was announced that a gambler, who had for- 
 merly drawn pay for work not done as a copy- 
 ing clerk at the San Francisco Hall of Records, 
 had shot an officer of the law at Sacramento. 
 
 By the Herbert affair the people felt that 
 they were disgraced throughout all Christen- 
 dom. The other acts of violence would not 
 have caused the slio-htest sensation at another 
 time, but now they fell like sparks on tinder, 
 kindling a determination all through the State 
 to see the end at once of a condition in society 
 wherein the average standard of morality was 
 lower than that of the majority. They burned 
 
460 THE HISTOEY OF CATJFOElSriA. 
 
 CHAP, to let the world S9e, by the clearest proofs at 
 _^ home, that though their representative had 
 1856. proved a murderer, he did not fairly represent 
 California society. They had meetings in many 
 towns, in which they denounced the Governor's 
 proclamation, and in some cases passed resolu- 
 tions assuring the Vigilants that when they 
 took up arms, it should be to defend reform and 
 punish villains. Many military companies dis- 
 banded to prevent any awkward contingencies, 
 in which they followed an example that had 
 been set in San Francisco, where some on so 
 doing surrendered their arms to the State, and 
 others took theirs to the Vigilance Committee, 
 as the real representatives of the people. 
 
 On the 9th of June the Vic^ilance Commit- 
 
 June 9. tee issued an address to the public, in which 
 
 they rehearsed the circumstances that led to 
 
 their organization, and put forth the philosophy 
 
 on which they justified it : — 
 
 Self-government was the people's inalienable 
 right. From the people emanated the right of 
 their own representatives to enact laws, and of 
 their honestly elected officers to execute them. 
 When the enacted laws failed of execution, it 
 was the people's right to resume the power 
 that they had delegated, or which had been 
 usurped. In this case, three-fourths of all the 
 people of the State sympathized with and en- 
 dorsed their efforts at reform. It did not fol- 
 
THE VIGILAITCE ORGAOTZATION. 461 
 
 low, because tliey had not seen fit to resume chap. 
 
 • XXXI 
 
 all the powers confided to executive or legal ^^,^ 
 officers, that they were not at liberty to with- 1856. 
 draw the authority of unlawful servants who 
 used authority to thwart justice. The com- 
 mittee had been intrusted by the people with 
 the task of gathering evidence, and, after trial, 
 of expelling ruffians and assassins who had out- 
 raged peace and good order, violated the ballot- 
 box, and overruled law. Tbey would spare no 
 pains to avoid civil war, but their work they 
 must do ; the reform in hand they had pledged 
 their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred hon- 
 or to accomplish. When it was finished they 
 would resign their power into the hands of the 
 people. 
 
 In 1849 a Vigilance Committee had been 1849. 
 organized to put down " The Hounds." In 1851, i85i. 
 when the " Sydney Coves " became intolerable, 
 a Vigilance Committee suddenly came to the 
 rescue. A scrutiny of the names on its rolls 
 showed that it was the still extant organization 
 of 1849. In 1853 the dispersed Sydney thieves 1853. 
 reappeared in town, and gave due notice of 
 their arrival by a repetition of their old famil- 
 iar acts of violence. One morning, a notice 
 was published in a newsj^aper, requesting the 
 Executive Committee of the Visrilants of 1851 
 to meet. That was enough. It does not ap- 
 pear whether the meeting called, for was ever 
 
462 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORiaA. 
 
 CHAP, lield, but the Sydneys took the hint and slipped 
 
 ^^^^- out of sight. Upon the death of James King, 
 
 1856. the aroused people found the hull of the old 
 
 organization, which had never been formally 
 
 broken up, and built it up to the formidable 
 
 Vigilance Committee of 1856. 
 
 Those who joined it signed a constitution, 
 which explained its object in a general way, 
 and agreed to be governed in matters of detail 
 by a set of by-laws, which were never publish- 
 ed. They denominated themselves " The Com- 
 mittee of Vigilance," an association for the pro- 
 tection of the ballot-box, the lives, liberty, and 
 property of the citizens and residents of San 
 Francisco. "We do bind ourselves," said they, 
 " each unto the other by a solemn oath, to do 
 and perform every just and lawful act for the 
 maintenance of law and order, and to sustain 
 the laws when faithfully and properly adminis- 
 tered. But we are determined that no thief, 
 burglar, incendiary, assassin, ballot-box stufFer, 
 or other disturber of the peace, shall escape 
 punishment, either by quibbles of the law, the 
 carelessness or corruption of the police, or a 
 laxity of those who pretend to administer jus- 
 tice." They agreed to keep open, night and 
 day, rooms for their deliberations, with always 
 one in attendance to receive from members re- 
 ports of acts of violence, and, if an emergency 
 demanded it, to summon the committee for 
 
THE VIGILANCE OEGANIZATION. 463 
 
 siicli action as a majority when assembled chap. 
 should determine on. It was the duty of the ^_^_^ 
 Executive Committee chosen by the General 1856. 
 Committee to decide upon the measures neces- 
 sary to carry out the objects of the association, 
 and to call into conference a Board of Dele- 
 gates, consisting of three from each subdivision 
 of the General Committee, v^hen the subject of 
 their determination was grave. The associa- 
 tion was to be kept free from all considerations 
 or discussions of sects, sections, or politics, and 
 any orderly citizen, irrespective of nativity, party, 
 or sect, could join it. No accused person could 
 be punished until after fair and impartial trial 
 and conviction. The General Committee wer^e 
 to be bound by the decision of the majority, on 
 any question submitted by the Executive Com- 
 mittee ; but, as to the punishment of criminals, 
 the death penalty could only be enforced when 
 two-thirds of those present approved it. Fi- 
 nally, they said, " believing ourselves to be exec- 
 utors of the will of a majority of our citizens, 
 we do pledge our sacred honor to defend and 
 sustain each other in carrying out the deter- 
 mined action of this committee, at the hazard 
 of our lives and our fortunes." 
 
 The Executive Committee consisted at first 
 of thirty-three members. A portion of the time 
 they sat as a legislative body, and then again as 
 a court. They had a prosecuting attorney, and 
 
464 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, counsel of their own number was always as- 
 ^_^_^ signed to defend tlie party charged with crime. 
 185G. Their meetings were secret, and few of their 
 proceedings were ever authoritatively pub- 
 lished, or even announced to the body that ap- 
 pointed them. 
 
 Within the General Committee was a police 
 organization, with a chief, and a sheriff with his 
 deputies. The rest of the General Committee 
 was divided into military companies — infantry, 
 artillery, and dragoons — of about one hundred 
 men to each company, which drilled, some at 
 head-quarters, and some at apartments outside, 
 provided for the purpose. A notice from the 
 secretary to the captains was usually all that 
 was necessary to obtain a general meeting ; but 
 for sudden emergencies, there was the triangle 
 on the roof, or the bell that replaced it, a tap on 
 which would summon such a swarm of men 
 from their business as, in the older time, noth- 
 ing; but a o-eneral fire-alarm would have called 
 together. The head-quarters was at once an 
 armory, a drill-room, a court-room, a guard- 
 house, a fort, and a secure prison. 
 
 They got most of their cannon from the ship- 
 ping in the harbor ; their muskets from their 
 domiciles, from George Law's wandering stock, 
 some with a lot of sabres from cases which the 
 State took in charge as its contingent from the 
 United States, and did not sufficiently guard, 
 
THE VIGILANCE ORGANIZATIOlSr. 465 
 
 and some from the volunteer companies dis- chap. 
 banded on the Governor's proclamation, who ; 
 
 thought the people the safest guardians of their i856. 
 trust. 
 
 They never lacked funds. The wealthy men 
 who went into the committee shed their money 
 like water, while a great deal of the patrol, 
 police, and other daily work of the organization, 
 was rendered gratuitously. It was said, at the 
 time, that five hundred dollars a day covered 
 their expenses when most extended. 
 
 The committee often published brief procla- 
 mations, but they were only signed "No. 33, 
 Secretaiy^" and impressed with the committee's 
 seal — an eye. It does not apj)ear that this im- 
 personal signature was ever forged, or that any 
 person ever found it to his interest to utter an 
 official paper with a bogus eye on it. 
 
 A great many citizens, who never signed the 
 constitution of the Vio-ilance Committee, sio-ni- 
 fied their readiness to assist, whenever it should 
 need outside aid. On the 12th of June there June 12 
 was a meeting of such sympathizers, to the 
 number of about three hundred, for conference. 
 Judge D. O. Shattuck presided, and at a later 
 session Balie Peyton. Ex-Recorder Baker said 
 he had not joined the committee, because his 
 oath as an attorney prohibited him. Ex- 
 United States Senator Henry S. Foote an- 
 nounced his approval of the objects of the meet- 
 
 30 
 
466 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOP.iaA. 
 
 CHAP, ing, and his sympathy with the Vigilants. A 
 .^^.^ committee, on which were H. M. Naglee, La- 
 1856. fayette Maynard, and Abel Griiy, presented 
 resolutions, which were adopted, expressing 
 confidence in the Constitution of the United 
 States, and of the State, respectfully requesting 
 Governor Johnson to withdraw his proclama- 
 tion, recommending the press to avoid exciting 
 discussions and irritating appeals, protesting 
 that the term " official corruption " should not 
 he construed to embrace the acts of all the ju- 
 dicial officers of the county, a majority of whom 
 were beyond reproach, and expressing a readi- 
 ness, if disappointed in their hopes of an early 
 peaceful termination of their difficulties, to or- 
 ganize and maintain the right. 
 
 This protest, limiting the scope of the term 
 " official corruption," was timely and just. For, 
 curiously enough, there were some excellent 
 men on the bench even then in San Francisco. 
 Edward Norton (who in 1861 received as high 
 a compliment as the State often pays to a cit- 
 izen, having been, while absent from the coun- 
 try, elected to a seat on the bench of the Su- 
 preme Court of California) was Judge of the 
 Twelfth District Court ; but partly because he 
 was particularly averse to the trial of criminal 
 cases, he had very seldom to deal with the 
 notorious villains who cursed the community. 
 On the bench of the Fourth District Court was 
 
VIGILANCE MASS MEETING. 467 
 
 Judge Hager, whose integrity was not ques- chap. 
 
 tioned. In the Superior Court, until the Con- ^^ ] 
 
 solidation Act legislated it out of existence, 1806. 
 was Judge Sbattuck, a Vigilance sympathizer. 
 Freelon was County Judge, and Mayor Van Ness 
 was Police Judge or Recorder. 
 
 As a fruit of these conference meetings was • 
 the great mass meeting before the Oriental 
 Hotel, held on the 15th of June. Balie Peyton June 15 
 presided. Among the speakers was William 
 Duer, who, in the course of his remarks, said 
 that probably more than five hundred murders 
 had been committed in California during the 
 preceding year, yet not more than five of the 
 perpetrators had been punished according to 
 the forms of the law ! He enumerated some 
 cogent reasons why the ballot-box, under the 
 guardianship of ruffians, could not be expected 
 to cure the evils they endured. In a late elec- 
 tion in St. Mateo County, from three precincts, 
 where there were but three hundred voters, fif- 
 teen hundred votes had been returned. At 
 Crystal Springs, "where there were but about 
 thirty voters, five hundred votes had been re- 
 turned by the agency of the same ballot-box 
 stuffers who controlled the San Francisco elec- 
 tions. 
 
 But the immense audience did not remember 
 the meeting so much for the speeches as for 
 their sight of the famous " patent ballot-box," 
 
408 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, wliicli bad been captured at Wooley Kearney's 
 ^__^_J, house, and wliicli Colonel Peyton exhibited, as 
 1856. " the orator of the occasion." 
 
 Governor Johnson saw little at home to en- 
 courage him in the thankless job he had under- 
 taken, so he appealed to the powers at Wash- 
 JUU&-20 ington. By the steamer of the 20th of June, 
 he wrote to President Pierce a statement of the 
 awkward plight of himself and the State which 
 he could not govern, and an appeal for aid in 
 enforcing the local laws. To be sure that his 
 letter should neither miscarry nor foil to be 
 pressed upon the attention of the Administra- 
 tion, he also sent E,. Augustus Thompson, and 
 F. Forman, postmaster at Sacramento, to deliver 
 it to Mr. Pierce, and furnish such details as 
 could not be embodied in a written communi- 
 cation. 
 
 A month later, Secretary Marcy wrote to the 
 Governor that the President had received it, 
 and given it his most careful consideration, but 
 beins: troubled with serious doubts of his law- 
 ful power to proceed in the manner desired, he 
 had referred the sul>ject to the Attorney-Gen- 
 eral, Avho found insuperable obstacles, which 
 the Prasident adopted as his own. 
 
 The Governor's communication briefly recited 
 the events, which caused him to confess that he 
 could not manage his own matters. Seeing 
 things in a different light from that of San 
 
THE GOVERISrOE APPEALS TO THE PEESIDENT. 469 
 
 Francisco, lie reported tliem as they seemed to chap. 
 liim. The Vigilance Committee, he said, was _^^_^ 
 formed on the 16th of May, " secret in its char- 1856. 
 acter, and to the uninitiated its purjDOses un- 
 known." A mob, before the committee's or- 
 ganization, had attempted to "rescue" Casey 
 from the officers of the law, and summarily 
 punish him, but the attempt was successfully 
 resisted. Meanwhile the mayor had called out 
 the military forces of the city, numbering some 
 ten companies ; but not more than fifty or sixty 
 of all their numbers could be depended on. 
 Several companies disbanded ; a large number 
 of their members joined the Vigilance Commit- 
 tee, cari'ying w^ith them their arms and accou- 
 trements, and the only two pieces of artillery 
 belono-ins: to the State. The sheriff did his ut- 
 most to obtain the aid of Siposse^ but not one in 
 ten of those summoned would obey his call. 
 On the 17th of May, three or four thousand 
 men marched to the jail and demanded Casey 
 and Cora. The sheriff, powerless, was fain to 
 surrender them, and a few days later the com- 
 mittee hung their two captives from the win- 
 dows of their place of meeting. They arrested 
 other individuals, and established a system of es- 
 pionage unknown to the laws or usages of a re- 
 public. The sheriff was, by armed resistance, 
 prevented from serving a writ of habeas corpus^ 
 issued by a judge of the Supreme Court of the 
 
470 THE HISTORY OF CALLFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP. State, on one of their prisoners, and the person 
 " ^^' for whom the wi'it was issued was, with others, 
 
 1856. transported beyond the limits of the State, 
 while one prisoner, rather than submit to be 
 banished, committed suicide in his cell. The 
 Governor said he had detailed to General Wool, 
 in a personal interview, the condition of affairs, 
 and shown him that he was almost destitute of 
 arms, and entirely destitute of ammunition ; and 
 the general had "unhesitatingly promised" to 
 furnish on his requisition what arms and am- 
 munition he required. On the 3d of June he 
 issued his proclamation, and a day or two after 
 made a requisition, but then General Wool re- 
 fused, alleging a lack of authority ! In the 
 mean time the Vigilance Committee continued 
 to arm themselves with muskets, and their 
 head-quarters with guns, varying in size from 
 six to thirty-two pounders, numbering in 
 all thirty pieces; they had erected fortilica- 
 tions ; proceeded with the trial and conviction 
 of prisoners ; and held some still in custody, 
 while others in fear had fled to remote parts of 
 the State. In the streets, and throughout the cit}^, 
 they harangued the people " both against the 
 General and State Governments," and at least 
 one of their presses had defiantly come out 
 against existing authority, and called uj)on the 
 people to assemble and form a new government. 
 He was powerless to arrest these unlawful pro- 
 
THE GOVEKNOR APPEALS TO THE PRESIDENT. 471 
 
 eeedinsrs, simply "because lie was destitute of chap. 
 
 . . . XXXI 
 
 arms and ammunition to equi23 a force capable v_^_^ 
 of coping with them, who numbered now six or 1856. 
 seven thousand, with sympathizers in large 
 numbers outside. He had not muskets or rifles 
 enouo;h for six hundred men — of ordnance and 
 ammunition he had none. He therefore asked 
 that the United States officers commanding the 
 Pacific Division be ordered to issue to the State 
 arms and ammunition sufficient to suppress the 
 insurrection now, and at any future time when 
 required by the Governor. 
 
 Such, in substance, was the statement which 
 President Pierce turned over to his Attorney- 
 General, Caleb Gushing, for that distinguished 
 lawyer to find good legal reasons for denying its 
 petition. Mr. Gushing treated it precisely as 
 if he thought it a story founded on facts. He 
 perceived that Governor Johnson had forgotten 
 to convene the Leo:islature, throug^h whose call 
 alone the President could be moved to action ; 
 and, moreover, that if the Galifornia Legislature 
 had invited his interference, the statute only 
 authorized him to call out the military of some 
 other State, or to employ the United States 
 forces — the law presuming that a Governor will 
 always be competent to call out his own State 
 militia. In the present case, there were no cir- 
 cumstances of superlative exigency, there was 
 no actual shock of arms. The constitutional 
 
472 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, power of the State had not been exhausted — 
 it had not even been exerted ; and so Mr. Cush- 
 
 1856. ing, not presuming to say that the President 
 had not moral authority in his discretion, con- 
 cluded that he had not sufficient legal justifica- 
 tion for acceding to Governor Johnson's request. 
 
THE VIGILANTS SEIZE THE STATe's AEMS. 473 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE ASSUMES MORE 
 DOUBTFUL POWERS. 
 
 If tlie Governor had waited until tlie next chap, 
 steamer, lie might have made even a stronger _^^ 
 case to the Government, for the Sierra Nevada i856. 
 had not been twenty-four hours out of port 
 when the Vigilance Committee assumed some 
 new and still more startling responsibilities. 
 They learned that the Governor, having ob- 
 tained a portion of the State's quota of arms, 
 was shipping them from up the river to the 
 care of General Howard at San Francisco. They 
 heard that some of these were on board the 
 schooner Julia., which had already left Sacra- 
 mento, and they deemed it essential to the pub- 
 lic peace that they should never arrive at their 
 appointed destination. So, on the evening of 
 the 20th of June, J. L. Durhee, with a detach- June 20 
 ment of Vicilants in a craft obtained for the 
 purpose, went up the bay as far as the islands 
 called " The Sisters," and lay-to. In the course 
 of the night the Julia came gliding down. 
 Durkee's party boarded her, showed Vigilance 
 
474 THE HISTOET OF CAL^IFOKNIA. 
 
 CHAP, authority for what tliey did, took out one liun 
 _J_,' dred and fifty muskets and tlie anamunitiou, 
 1856. which were in charge of Reuben Maloney and 
 John Phillips, let the men go, but conveyed 
 the property to the city, and before the people 
 were stirring, lodged it safely in the commit- 
 tee's arsenal. 
 
 Soon afterwards another j)arty of Vigilants 
 boarded a schooner in the bay which had neared 
 the wharf, and was loaded with a cargo of 
 bricks. The Vigilants, turning up a few courses 
 of bricks, came down upon twelve cases of rifles 
 and six cases of ammunition — another remit- 
 tance from the Governor's treasured supply for 
 General Howard's militia. Of course they were 
 all transferred to the Vigilants' arsenal without 
 delay. 
 
 When the Vio-ilants' Executive Committee 
 June 21 met on Saturday (June 21st) to hear the re- 
 ports from these expeditions, they concluded 
 that they ought to have Reuben Maloney be- 
 fore them to testify as to the circumstances of 
 the shipment of the arms, and ordered Sterling 
 A. Hopkins, of their police, to produce him. 
 
 Hopkins, with two assistants, went at once 
 to the oflice of Dr. H. P. Ashe, the United 
 States Navy Agent, at the corner of Washing- 
 ton and Kearny streets, over Palmer, Cook & 
 Company's banking-house. They found the 
 man sought, and several others whom they did 
 
A STREET COLLISIOIS^. 475 
 
 not seek — amon^ them Dr. Ashe, who was a cnAP. 
 
 • • XXXII 
 
 captain of one of the Governor's military com- 
 panies, and David S. Terry, an Associate Justice i856. 
 of the Supreme Court. As these two gentle- ^'^^'' ' 
 men assured Hopkins that no arrest could be 
 made in their presence, he returned to the com- 
 mittee-rooms, where, heing furnished re-enforce- 
 ments, he was ordered to make the arrest at all 
 hazards. 
 
 So soon as the Vigilant police had left their 
 presence. Judge Terry, armed with a rifle and 
 bowie-knife, Dr. Ashe carrying a lifle, and 
 others armed with pistols, descended to the 
 street, as an escort for Maloney, whom they de- 
 signed to take to the Dupont Street Armory, and 
 leave him in care of the Law and Order troops. 
 They had not gone far up Jaclison Street, when 
 Hopkins's party overtook them. Terry's coin- 
 pan}^ turned and faced them as they approached, 
 bringing their arms into a threatening position 
 and warning them to keep back. Hopkins 
 sprang upon Terry, and Oflicer Bovee upon Dr. 
 Ashe. The doctor surrendered, but -Terry 
 struggled manfully. A pistol was fired acci- 
 dentally in the crowd that gathered, and the 
 great confusion made the exact process of events 
 a difficult thing to describe. Terry surrendered 
 his rifle at last, but, as he did it, he caught out 
 his bowie-knife and plunged its blade into Hop- 
 kins's neck, severing the cai'otid artery, and mak- 
 
476 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, ing a wound which for many days thereafter 
 
 ,_^_,' threatened to prove fatal. In the excitement 
 
 185G. of the moment it was not generally known that 
 
 ^'^^^ ■ Hopkins was wounded, nor until after Terry 
 
 and his friends, including Maloney, had escaped 
 
 to the armory. 
 
 Meanwhile the Vigilance bell sounded, and 
 men from all corners of the city were gathering 
 to head-quarters. Draymen stopped in the 
 street, freed from their carts their horses, 
 mounted, and went clattering to the rendezvous. 
 Storekeepers locked up hastily and ran. Clerks 
 leaped over their counters ; carpenters left the 
 shaving in the plane ; blacksmiths dropped the 
 hammer by the red-hot iron on the anvil ; 
 schoolmasters dismissed their pupils. It seemed 
 as if the whole male population, on foot and 
 on horseback, was hurrying to Sacramento 
 Street. Occasionally one would be seen stem- 
 ming the tide, running against the current to 
 the armory. These were the Law and Order 
 men, availinn; themselves of the Vis-ilant alarm 
 to gather at their head-quarters. In three 
 quarters of an hour after the alarm was sounded, 
 every armory in the city, and every house 
 where it was suspected that the Law and Order 
 people had concealed any store of arms, was 
 surrounded by armed Vigilants. 
 
 The iron doors and shutters of the Blues' 
 armory on Dupont Street were closed as the 
 
JUDGE TEREY IK PEISON". 477 
 
 main body of the Vigilant troops drew up chap. 
 about it, and for a time it was supposed that "_^_J 
 resistance would be made. But soon Dr. issfi, 
 Ashe appeared at a window with a message 
 from the beleaguered, asking a conference as to 
 the terms of capitulation. The Vigilants de- 
 manded, first of all, the surrender of Judge 
 Terry and Reuben Maloney. Very soon after, 
 these worthies were produced, and, together 
 with Dr. Ashe, were conveyed to Fort Vigil- 
 ance. The armory, with its three hundred 
 muskets, was soon turned over to the besiegers, 
 who, with their prize, marched oif to the next 
 armory, planted a cannon before the door, 
 drew up in line, and demanded a surrender. 
 Colonel West commanded at the California Ex- 
 change Armory. When the order to surrender 
 came, he ran his eye along his little force of 
 seventy-five men, then glanced at the surging 
 multitude outside and at the cannon, thought 
 how useless it would be to sprinkle the streets 
 with blood, and ordered his men to stack their 
 arms. It was the same story at all the rest. 
 By six o'clock the whole job was completed ; 
 there was not one of the two thousand mus- 
 kets, and scarcely a pound of powder, which 
 the Governor or his Law and Order men con- 
 trolled in the morning, that was not now in 
 Vigilant hands, and all the men found in the 
 armories had been marched off", two and two, to 
 
478 THE HISTOET OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAR Fort Vigilance. Next morning all tlie State's 
 
 ■ soldiery were diseliarged. 
 180G. It was a heavy day's work, tliat 21st of June. 
 Three days before, the committee thought itself 
 almost ready to lay down its power. Now it 
 found itself possessed of arms enough, in an 
 attitude of defiance of the State executive, in 
 dano-er of a collision with the Federal authori- 
 ties if it should turn out that the arms taken 
 from the Julia and the Mariposa were not 
 State but United States property, and with a 
 Supreme Court judge on its hands as a j^risoner 
 whose victim was expected to die. 
 
 If Hopkins should die, it must go hard with 
 Terry, for in those days murder by a judge was 
 held to be as heinous a crime as murder com- 
 mitted by an untitled ruffian. It would be 
 very awkward for the committee to hang a 
 judge. If they should do it, it would be like 
 suspending the whole Supreme Court. Judge 
 Heydenfeldt was at the East on a visit. Chief- 
 Justice Murray was still in the State, but he 
 was under the ban. He had more than once 
 had his personal encounter in the streets of 
 Sacramento, and there was, on the part of the 
 newspapers, a pretty vigorous demand for his 
 removal. 
 
 While the ugly gash in Hopkins's neck re- 
 fused to be healed, the shadow of the gallows 
 must have darkened Terry's cell; something 
 
GENERAL HOWARD's OFFICIAL REPORT. 470 
 
 made bim moody and tame. When it healed chap. 
 
 • XXXII 
 
 and the wounded man was clearly doing well, _.^_* 
 Terry recovered his defiant air, and bore him- 1856. 
 self like a high judicial officer, though in du- 
 rance. 
 
 He had very busy Mends at work planning 
 his release. Major-General Volney E. Howard 
 hurried up to Sacramento, and, to an assembly 
 in front of the Orleans Hotel, told the story of 
 his friend's cajDture ; but his audience turned 
 his speech into ridicule, and testified their sym- 
 pathy with the committee. 
 
 The general then presented to the Governor 
 an " official report " of all these late proceedings, 
 in which the story was told with some varia- 
 tions from what was accepted popularly as the 
 true version. He said Terry inflicted the wound 
 on Hopkins while the later was trying to draw 
 a pistol, and expressed his opinion that if Hop- 
 kins died it would be a clear case of justifiable 
 homicide. Being authorized by Ashe, from the 
 second-story window of the Blues' Armory, to 
 negotiate for the judge, he promised the Vigil- 
 ance Committee that Terry should deliver him- 
 self up to the civil authorities, if they would 
 raise the siege. This they refused. He de- 
 tailed the seizure of the State's arms in the city 
 and on the bay. He said that George Law's 
 roving muskets had arrived at the port, and had 
 been seized or purchased by the Vigilants. He 
 
480 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, believed tliat the committee aimed at nothinof 
 
 , ■ less than the overthrow of the State GoverD- 
 
 1850. merit and secession from the Federal Union ! 
 Though the French Consul had ordered all 
 French citizens to withdraw from their treason- 
 able connections, several hundred of them still 
 remained in the Vigilance organization — and he 
 blackened their character without scruple. He 
 admitted that crime very often went unpunished 
 in San Francisco; it was, however, not because 
 judges were corrupt, but because the men who 
 constituted the Vigilance Committee had so 
 persistently shirked jury duty — in which state- 
 ment the general told at least a portion of the 
 truth. 
 
 Terry found another valuable friend in an 
 unexpected quarter. Judge D. O. Shattuck, 
 whose sympathies with the reformers had been 
 clearly displa^^ed, wrote a card to the public, in 
 which he took the ground that, after the proc- 
 lamation of the Governor, and the organization 
 of the State forces in opposition to the people, 
 they were in a state of war. When Terry 
 stabbed Hopkins, he was in company with a 
 legal armed force (that is, Dr. Ashe, cajitain of 
 a militia company) resisting the officers of a 
 bellisrerent. Hence he was entitled to be 
 treated as a prisoner of war, and hanging him 
 would be in contravention of the usages of 
 civilized belligerents. The argument command- 
 
teeey's feiends. 481 
 
 ed no respect, but its author did, and still Judge chap 
 Terry lay in the Sacramento Street prison, and ,_^_^' 
 was refused, after a few days, even the presence 1856. 
 of his wife. 
 
 There was a deal of clamoring for Terry to 
 resign his judgeship. While his prospects were 
 most dubious, a letter from his wife to the peo- 
 ple was published. In it that lady expressed 
 her confidence that the judge would resign if 
 the wish of the people to such eifect could be 
 clearly indicated. 
 
 After this, and while Hopkins was doing 
 very well, three commissioners came down from 
 Sacramento to negotiate for an adjustment of 
 difficulties.- They were Colonel Zabriskie, 
 General James Allen, and Dr. C. B. Zabrislde. 
 They met the Executive Committee of the Vigil- 
 ants, stated their authority and errand, and re- 
 ceived permission to pass a sealed letter to 
 Judge Terry. In that letter they referred to 
 Mrs. Terry's intimation, and ashed what he 
 would consider a satisfactory expression of the 
 will of th® people, and invited him to suggest 
 some means of ascertainino; it. 
 
 The judge replied that he would like to con- 
 sult with his friends, but, he wrote, " If I leave 
 this building alive, I leave it as Justice of the 
 Supreme Court of this State, and no power on 
 earth can make me change this resolution," 
 Hopeless as this made the case, the commission- 
 
 21 
 
482 THE IIISTOET OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 xxxu ^^^ obtained permission for A. P. Crittenden to 
 V— Y-^ visit the judge in his cell, and through him 
 185G. came a proposition for discovering the wish of 
 the people. Let Terry be tried by an impar- 
 tial jury, and, if found guilty of any offence, he 
 would resign. 
 
 That ended nesfotiations. The committee 
 wonld give him all the trial he would get. 
 
 The commission tried to keep its mission se- 
 cret, but it leaked into the newspapers. Then 
 it was whispered that the Governor never au- 
 thorized the negotiation ; then it was openly 
 said that he rej^udiated it. 
 
 This brouo;ht a full statement, from Colonel 
 Zabriskie, of the facts, though it was an ungra- 
 cious task, as the Governor's wife was the colo- 
 nel's daughter. The colonel said he had in- 
 deed no written authority, but* none the less 
 had attempted the negotiation at Governor 
 Johnson's request, made before witnesses ; just 
 as, a while before. Judge Monson and Charles 
 T. Botts had been intrusted with a similar un- 
 dertaking. The terms of peace which he had 
 been authorized to propose were these : The 
 Vigilance Committee to deliver Terry over to 
 the legal authorities, to restore the State arms 
 to the Governor's possession, and to disband. 
 The Governor to recommend to the Legislature 
 the passage of a General Amnesty Act, to ad- 
 vise the authorities in San Francisco not to 
 
terry's case iisr the u. s. senate. 48ci 
 
 prosecute for acts clone by or at the instance of chap, 
 the committee ; to use his influence, if prosecu- 
 tions were commenced, to have them quashed, i856. 
 and, if convictions were found, to grant uncon- 
 ditional pardon. This statement was indorsed 
 by Colonel Zabriskie's colleague, and the names 
 of witnesses to the executive's authorization 
 were given. Still, when the negotiations fell 
 through, the Governor repudiated the commis- 
 sioners, and the father-in-law repudiated the 
 Governor. 
 
 Terry found friends in still higher charters. 
 The news of his incarceration went to Texas, 
 the State whence he emigrated to California. 
 The Texas Legislature, being in session, prompt- 
 ly prepared a memorial to Congress, prayhig, if 
 the Federal Government or Congress could con- 
 sistently, that 'it would interfere in his behalf. 
 This memorial Sam Houston presented to the 
 Senate on the 29th of August, and the judge Au,ij.29. 
 became the topic of the morning hour. Mr. 
 Houston simply called attention to the evidence 
 of the intense interest that the case excited in 
 Texas, which was proven by the memorial. He 
 remarked that while in Texas, Judge Terry had 
 borne a high character as an honorable man, 
 and was an ornament to the community. Mr. 
 Brown stated that a more honorable man than 
 Judge Terry did not breathe the air of heaven. 
 He had known him from infancy, and his pa- 
 
484 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, ents before him, and all liis connections. 
 
 ^^^^^^- There was not a blemish on his character. 
 
 1856. But John Bell, of Tennessee, saw the matter 
 in a different light. He had in his pocket a 
 letter from a gentleman in whom he put great 
 confidence, who bore testimony to Terry's 'high 
 character, but who alleged that it was his rash 
 impulsiveness that got him into this trouble ; 
 and that if it had not been for this unfortunate 
 occurrence, the Vic-ilance Committee would 
 have been dissolved before that time. The 
 writer of the letter was not a member of the 
 committee, but was deeply concerned for Terry's 
 safety. He stated in his letter that there was 
 no party interest involved in the formation of 
 the committee, and no disloyal sentiment about 
 it. An attempt was afterwards made to give 
 it a party complexion, but it was without foun- 
 dation or success. 
 
 Mr. Weller, of California, entirely disagreed 
 with Ml". Bell. He believed that the commit- 
 tee, after executing two or three men, and caus- 
 ing the deportation of ten or fifteen more, 
 would not stop there. If they had five thou- 
 sand men under arms, he was satisfied they 
 would preserve their organization until the 
 next Presidential term. Judge Teny was an 
 honorable, high-minded, prudent man, who felt 
 1 )ound to use the whole of his moral influence 
 in favor of sustaining the laws. He would not 
 
THE EXILES. 485 
 
 undertake to say whether all the members of chap. 
 
 • XXXII 
 
 the Vigilance Committee were loyal to the J_^_] 
 Federal Government or not, but there were isog. 
 men in California who were not loyal, and who 
 had openly advocated secession. From the 
 first Wednesday in September of that year, 
 until November, there was no Legislature that 
 could be convened in California, and during that 
 interregnum, he thought, the President, who 
 had scruples about lending the Governor aid 
 Avhile the Legislature could be convened, had 
 full legal authority to furnish arms and ammu- 
 nition to help put down the revolution. 
 
 The memorial was referred to the Judiciary 
 Committee, and never reported upon. 
 
 The 4th of July came and went, without any 
 special celebration in the city. General How- 
 ard's charge of secession tendencies, which, as 
 we have seen, Mr. Weller echoed a month or 
 two later in the Senate, were not deemed of 
 sufficient importance to require a formal exhi- 
 bition of patriotism to disprove them. 
 
 Edward McGowan, who was under indict- 
 ment as an accessory to the murder of James 
 King, was, about this time, earning renown for 
 his ubiquity. One day he Avas reported in 
 Carson Valley, begrimed with the dust of the 
 alkaline plains and the sweat of his rapid es- 
 cape. The next he was said to be in Philadel- 
 phia. The next he was announced in Lower 
 
486 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP. California. Then lie was seen near Hangtown 
 ^___,' Creek. Then he was at Santa Barbara. This 
 185(3. last report came up fully verified. He arrived 
 there on horseback, found that he was recog- 
 nized, and took to the tule marsh. Somebody 
 fired the tules, but they were green and would 
 not burn. The Vigilance Committee, hearing 
 this, dispatched a schooner with ten of its po- 
 licemen to Santa Barbara to capture the fugi- 
 tive. When they arrived McGowan had disap- 
 peared, and no one knew where he had gone. 
 
 The question was forced on the committee, 
 what they would do if their banished should 
 return to the city. Charles Duane, the exiled 
 ex- chief of the Fire Department, left the Golden 
 Age at Acapulco, on her downward trip. When 
 the John L. Stephens touched at Acapulco on 
 the upward trip, Duane got on board and 
 stowed himself away until the Stephens was out 
 of the harbor. Captain Pierson hailed the 
 Sonora, bound to Panama, put his stow-away 
 on board her, and so saved the San Franciscans 
 an awkward job. 
 
 One of those who had been banished to the 
 Sandwich Islands, soon after reappeared in 
 San Francisco. The committee on investiga- 
 tion dis'covered, and published the fact, that 
 owino; to the exile's nervousness, the readinsr of 
 his sentence in his hearing was omitted when 
 
HETHERINGTON SHOOTS RANDALL. 487 
 
 lie went abroad. This omission saved liim from chap. 
 tlie death penalty. w-v— 
 
 It was tlie boast of the Vigilance Committee, i856. 
 that, since they had taken control, deeds of vio- 
 lence had become very uncommon. The streets 
 at any hour of the night were safe. The man- 
 traps in the wharves caught an astonishingly 
 small number of victims. Whereas, before, it 
 was rare to open a morning paper that did not 
 have an item, "Found drowned" — and quite 
 accidentally, of course ; now the coroner seldom 
 held an inquest. 
 
 But suddenly, on the 24th of July, a murder July 24 
 was committed in broad daylight. Joseph 
 Hetherington, an Englishman by birth, w^ho 
 had lived at the South several years, and came 
 to California from St. Louis — a gambler, an 
 acquaintance (though not by his own volition) 
 of the Vigilance Committee of 1851, and who, 
 in 1853, fatally shot his man in a land dispute — 
 this Hetherington had a business difficulty 
 with Dr. Andrew Randall, a native of Ohio,- 
 who came first to California in 1859, bring-iuo; 
 with him a commission as postmaster for Mon- 
 terey. Randall was afterwards a member of 
 Assembly ; then a dealer in real estate ; and he 
 had acquired a good deal of wealth, especially 
 in land. A judgment against him for a large 
 amount had been bought by Hetherington, 
 and Randall refused, or at least failed, prompt- 
 
488 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, ly to pay it. So many hard words had passed 
 ,_^_,' between them, that they both went armed, ex- 
 1856. pecting an encounter. 
 
 On the afternoon of the 24th, they met in 
 the St Nicholas Hotel, on Sansome Street. 
 Hetherington caught Randall by the beard, 
 and uttered some insulting remarks. Kandall 
 felt for his pistol, and Hetherington fired. 
 Several shots ]3assed between them ; Hether- 
 ington's third took effect, and Kandall received 
 a wound of which he died two days after- 
 wards. 
 
 A city policeman arrested the murderer, but 
 the Vigilance police relieved him of his charge, 
 and Hetherington went to the Sacramento 
 Street prison. His trial resulted in a convic- 
 tion, and the Vigilance troops were ordered to 
 be in their armories at two o'clock on the 
 July 29 morning of tbe 29th. By three o'clock the 
 troops, to the number of three thousand, took 
 possession of the streets in the vicinity of the 
 gallows, which was erected on Davis Street, be- 
 tween Sacramento and Commercial. An im- 
 mense crowd flocked to see the execution. 
 
 At the sio;nal from the bell, Hethering-ton 
 was brouu'ht out, and with him Philander 
 Brace, who had been tried and convicted of 
 the murder of Captain Joseph B. West, near 
 the Mission. Brace was a native of New York 
 State, only twenty-one years of age, and not 
 
EXECUTION OF HETHEPvINGTOI^ AND BRACE. 489 
 
 wanting in early education. He committed chap. 
 tlie murder for whicli lie was now to suffer 
 some two years before, and liad passed un- i85G. 
 harmed through the farce of a trial by tbe 
 court. After that, he spent a month in the 
 county jail, in punishment for a petty larceny — 
 was there arrested by the Vigilance Commit- 
 tee, tried for the murder, convicted, and con- 
 demned to death. 
 
 Preceding the two doomed and pinioned 
 men, as they rode towards the gallows, walked 
 twenty-nine members of the Executive Commit- 
 tee. On the scaffold, Hetherington bore him- 
 self decorously ; but Brace, who in prison had 
 evinced penitence, showed great impatience for 
 the end. Hetherington addressed the crowd. 
 He protested that he shot Eandall in self- 
 defence, denied that he had done a dishonorable 
 act, and challenged them to observe that he 
 would die, as he had lived, a gentleman. While 
 he spoke, Brace frequently interrupted him 
 with the most horrid blasphemies, and urged 
 expedition. At ten minutes of six the Vigil- 
 ance bell sounded, and the drop fell. The 
 bodies of Brace and Hetherington were sur- 
 rendered to the coroner, who held an in- 
 quest. The members of the Vigilance Com- 
 mittee, who were called in as witnesses, gen- 
 erally declined to answer any questions. The 
 jury brought in a verdict of " death by hang- 
 
490 THE HISTORY OF CALnOEXI^. 
 
 CHAP, ing, at tlie hands of — — (tliey named the 
 ,_^_," executioner) and a person unknown, aided and 
 1850. abetted by a party of men styling themselves 
 the Committee of Vigihmce of San Francisco." 
 
 This certainly was a reio:n of terror to evil- 
 doers, but not to others ; for though the usu- 
 ally gay, volatile, driving town wore an air of 
 " sad sincerity " during the three months of 
 strict vigilance rule, men whose record was 
 clean, and who intended right, felt a rare sense 
 of freedom from danger. But dubious charac- 
 ters were in a very unhappy way. They felt 
 unsafe in the cities, and they suifocated in the 
 thin air of solitary places. They could not 
 well escape out of the State excej^t through 
 San Francisco, and if they ventured into that 
 port they were pretty sure to lodge the very 
 first night in the Vigilance prison. A very bold, 
 bad man might join the Committee of Vigilance 
 to escape suspicion, ]jut that ]-equired a genius 
 for hypocrisy to prove a success. 
 
 Indeed, the Executive Committee arrested 
 more than one of the members of the Vii^'ilance 
 Committee. The brothers Green were notable 
 examples : — 
 
 Alfred A, Green had often heard old Cali- 
 fornians, who when sober had never a word to 
 say on the subject, babble in their cups about 
 the stupid blunders of the Americans as to land 
 titles ; they said the Land Commission was ah 
 
THE SA]S^ FRANCISCO PUEBLO PAPERS. 491 
 
 ways confirming the fraudulent titles, and reject- chap. 
 ino" genuine ones. Especially lie liad heard one ^_..^^_^' 
 Sanchez say, that there was no good title to i856. 
 land on the peninsula of San Francisco, north 
 of the Buri Buri Kanche. General James Mc- 
 Dougall filed a petition with the Laud Commis- 
 sioners in behalf of the city for the pueblo 
 lands. Green was among those whom McDou- 
 gali employed to assist him, and he had already 
 reached the conclusion from what he had heard 
 the tipsy Imbbler say, that there were in exist- 
 ence papers which would prove the clear title 
 of the city, as the pueblo's successor, to all the 
 common lands which claunants tinder a variety 
 of fi-audulent claims were appropriating. Green 
 mentioned his surmises to McDougall, who en- 
 couraged him to proceed, then slipping a couple 
 of bottles of liquor into his buggy, drove off to 
 see Sanchez. 
 
 The old Californian was pleased to see his 
 visitor, and especially his bottles. They drank 
 together and grew confidential. They talked 
 of the changes that had come over the times, 
 of the old and the new, and of titles. At last, 
 Green putting on an air of indignation, charged 
 Sanchez Avith slandering his countrymen, and 
 saying that they held possession of their land 
 under forged papers. That aroused the Spanish 
 pride of Sanchez, who proceeded to make good 
 his charge, and to prove that it was no slander, 
 
492 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, but the honest truth. He said that when the 
 ^_ " ■ Americans conquered the country, the old Cali- 
 1856. fornians believed the English would soon come 
 and restore the Mexican Government. In this 
 expectation, a few of them agreed to gather up 
 the public titles, not to burn, but carefully to 
 conceal them. They did so, and the precious 
 papers were safe now under the floor of Tibur- 
 cio Vasquez's bedroom. Just as so much had 
 been said, Sanchez's wife came in and begged 
 Green not to pay the slightest attention to what 
 he had heard, as if it were simply absurd. 
 Green eased the lady's mind with a jest, and 
 soon after returned home. 
 
 He reported proceedings to General McDou- 
 gal], and was advised to get the papers by any 
 stratagem. No court was at that hour in ses- 
 sion ; if he waited till morning, Sanchez would 
 probably take measures to avert the mischief 
 he had been beguiled into, and McDougall 
 would be off in a few days to Washington, to 
 take his seat in Congress. Time was precious. 
 
 Green went directly to a friend and said, 
 "Nat., take your pen and write," and Nat. 
 Hicks wrote at his dictation an order to Ti- 
 burcio Vasquez, to deliver to A. A. Green cer- 
 tain papers mentioned, signed it " By order of 
 the Court," sealed it with a bit of red sealing- 
 wax, and stamped the seal with the face of a 
 coin. Then, with his accomplice and one of his 
 
GEEEN's ruse to OBTAIlSr THEM. 493 
 
 own brothers, Green rode over to Vasquez's chap. 
 
 • XXXII 
 
 place, handed him the order, and m a stern _^' 
 voice demanded why the documents had been i856. 
 concealed so long. The old gentleman listened 
 to the " order of the Court," looked at the seal, 
 turned pale, produced at once the papers, and 
 asked for a receij^t. Green wrote a receipt, and 
 signed it with his own name, though it looked 
 more like a " Crane " than a " Green." 
 
 This is the version of the story that Green 
 gave four years later in court. Vasquez, under 
 oath, said he was administrator, and held the 
 papers in charge as such ; he kept them on a 
 bench, not under the floor ; they were not con- 
 cealed. An American once before had them 
 for two months, took copies of them, and re- 
 turned them according to agreement. He could 
 not read, but when Green showed and read to 
 him a letter from the Government, he delivered 
 the titles and took a receipt for them. 
 
 So Green had got the papers, but he very 
 soon began to think he had won an elephant. 
 He could not get rid of them again — at least 
 not with any such profit as he had hoped. 
 General McDougall's hasty departure for Wash- 
 ington forbade nesrotiations. He called on 
 Mayor Brenham, and the mayor thought he 
 might decently ask fifty thousand dollars for 
 them. The mayor appointed a commission to 
 see the papers. Green said that on the com- 
 
494 THE HISTOPtY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, mission was one gentleman who, reading Span- 
 ,_^_^' isli, saw tlieir value, but, being interested in a 
 1856. fraudulent title, assured the rest of the commis- 
 sion that they were worthless. Distinguished 
 counsel advised the mayor that there were val- 
 uable papers in the budget, but did not advise 
 their purchase, and the city did not buy. 
 When C. K. Garrison was elected mayor, Green 
 called on him about this business. Over a bot- 
 tle of wine, Garrison told him that he had an 
 interest in the Potrero ; after he got rid of that, 
 and some other conflicting]: interests, he would 
 join him to prosecute the city's title to the 
 pueblo. He called on Colonel Crockett, but 
 the colonel was retained for the Fund Commis- 
 sioners to fix the Vallejo line. Green could 
 not get the confidence of the press, and the 
 law}^ers were against him. He lectured at 
 Musical Hall, and the people were stirred with 
 his story; but when they asked the lawyers 
 about it, they were told that it was all non- 
 sense. So his suit nowhere prospered, and the 
 papers lay in a box under Green's bed, more 
 jealously watched than while Vasquez kept 
 them. 
 
 Now among the multitude who rushed to 
 sign the Vigilance roll, soon after James King's 
 death, were this same Alfred A. Green, and 
 Jolin L. Green, his brother; indeed, some said 
 that all the brothers were members of the com- 
 
THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE GET THE PAPEE8. 495 
 
 mittee, tliougli probably none of tliem signed chap. 
 the constitution, wliicli was not prepared for v_^_,' 
 signatures until the committee had been about 1856. 
 a month in 02:)eration. The question of their 
 membershij:), however, was not debated when 
 the Executive Committee determined, in view 
 of the grave interests that might be involved, 
 to possess these papers for the city's sake. As 
 Green had obtained them by stratagem, it 
 would not be surprising if he should attempt 
 to drive a very hard bargain before surrender- 
 ing them, if warned of their intentions. So, 
 suddenly the two Greens, Alfred A. and John 
 L., were arrested, confronted with Vasquez, 
 and the papers demanded. 
 
 At first, Alfred asked fifty thousand dollars 
 for his treasure. Afterwards, when he saw 
 how matters Avere managed by his captors, he 
 agreed to take twenty-five thousand. On that 
 he was sent under escort to his house, but, 
 when he arrived there, and learned how his 
 family had suffered in his absence, he told his 
 guards they should have his papers at no price. 
 So he was taken back to his cell a2:ain, and 
 there he lay a week longer. Then they gave 
 him a memorandum " exculpating all his fami- 
 ly," and tendered him twelve thousand five hun- 
 dred dollars for his papers, which he accepted, 
 his brother being dispatched for the documents, 
 and executing his errand faithfully. The com- 
 
496 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, mittee paid tlie price, the Greens were free, and 
 ■ at a later date the papers, whatever they were 
 1856. worth, were turned over to the city. 
 
 All this while Judge Terry was a prisoner in 
 Fort Vigilance. There was some talk of get- 
 ting the United States Circuit Court judge to 
 issue a writ of habeas corpus for him, which 
 would have been a very good move if Judge 
 McAllister could have been brouojht to issue it. 
 Since Terry himself had vainly issued such a 
 writ for Reuben Maloney's body, the committee 
 had professed more respect for habeas co/pas- 
 State officers armed with it had been politely 
 admitted to the building, and invited to rum- 
 mage all cells and corners, though it ha])pened 
 that they could never find the men they sought. 
 Maloney's testimony in court, years afterwards, 
 threw a little light on this mystery. He said 
 that once he was taken out of the main build- 
 ing, handcuffed, and secreted in another house 
 near by ; and he was told, at a later date, that 
 it was because an officer was searching for 
 him. 
 
 Then, by this time, the committee had come 
 to be very chary of a collision with the Federal 
 Government. They had not, indeed, scrupled 
 to arrest Dr. Ashe, the United States Navy 
 Agent, and they had possessed themselves of 
 arms which had just gone out of Federal into 
 State hands. But in that case, when the 
 
JUDGE TERRY FREE. 497 
 
 United States Marshal wanted Dnrkee, he chap. 
 
 • XXXII 
 
 found him, and Durkee was a Federal prisoner " ^_^' 
 
 until he was admitted to bail. If the Circuit 1856. 
 judge had interposed, he would have made a 
 very awkward complication of affairs. But he 
 declined to interfere, and about that time news 
 came from the East that President Pierce did 
 not see his way clear to meddle with such local 
 matters. 
 
 Meanwhile Hopkins was pronounced out of 
 danger, and that fact divested Terry's case of 
 its most alarmins: features. Finallv, his trial, 
 which had occupied five weeks, and on which 
 some hundred and fifty witnesses had been ex- 
 amined, came to an end. With the adoption 
 of a resolution that he was unwoi-thy the con- 
 fidence of. the people, and ought to resign his 
 judgeship, his case was dismissed, and at two 
 and a half o'clock on the morning of the 7th of Aug. 7 
 August, he was set at liberty. 
 
 The news was received almost angrily by the 
 masses of the Vio;ilants. Seeins: how strons: the 
 tide of sentiment ran against them, the Execu- 
 tive Committee called the Board of Deleo-ates 
 
 o 
 
 together, and talked over the reasons of the de- 
 cision. There were l)ut two ways of dealing 
 with the committee's convicts — they were doom- 
 ed either to banishment or death. Terry was 
 not guilty of murder, for the man he had 
 stabbed was alive yet, and quite recovered. He 
 
 32 
 
498 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, could not be banished without maldnof a llvino: 
 
 XXXII • . . 
 
 ^_^_^' martyr of him, and, with the influence he could 
 185(5, rally, there could be no guarantee that he would 
 not return though banished. After a three 
 hours' session the delegates separated, and the 
 Vigilants admitted the policy, if not the impar- 
 tial justice, of the decision. 
 
 Free again, flfter nearly seven weeks of con- 
 finement, Terry took the advice of the Execu- 
 tive Committee, and sought refuge on board the 
 United States vessel Jolin Adams, which was 
 still in the harbor. There he met sympathiz- 
 ing, admiring friends. When he was trans- 
 ferred to the steamer bound to Sacramento, a 
 gun was fired from the John Adams, and cheers 
 in his honor rang out from the men in the 
 rigging. Arriving at Sacramento, a torchlight 
 procession greeted and escorted him to the Or- 
 leans Hotel, where there were congratulatory 
 speeches by Tod Robinson, Colonel E. D. Ba- 
 ker, Volney E. Howard, Vincent E. Geiger, Hor- 
 ace Smith, and others, and feasting until 
 mornino". A few weeks later he was with 
 Judge Murray " running the Supreme Court," 
 which, because Terry had been in seclusion, and 
 Heydenfelt was in Europe, in lack of a quorum, 
 had stood idle during these stirring times. 
 
THE VIGILANTS PREPAEE TO DISBAND. 499 
 
 CHAPTER XXXm. 
 
 THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE DISBANDS. 
 
 And now (August 12tli) the cells of Fort chap. 
 Vigilance were empty. The Vigilauts had ^^' 
 evinced a moderation that was marvellous, i856. 
 joined with a promptness in execution that *' ^^ 
 held the guilty in awe. They were disposed to 
 restore the power they had used to the hands 
 of those who gave it them. But dare they do 
 it ? Dare they let go the tiger that they held 
 by the ears? Would not the banished swarm 
 back and fill the courts with complaints against 
 them? Of course their exiles who stayed away 
 would lie in wait for the members as they ar- 
 rived at the Atlantic ports, and annoy them 
 in every conceivable way. Billy Mulligan had 
 already in New York exercised his muscle, pun- 
 ishing some whom he came across. Would 
 Judge Terry, on the Supreme Court bench, with 
 Judge Murray ever ready to concur, let them 
 live in peace ? Would not the State employ 
 its authority to punish them for past contempt ? 
 Would it be safe to disband before the Legis- 
 lature should meet and pass a general Amnesty 
 
500 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOEKIA. 
 
 OHAP. Act ? What should they do with their arms ? 
 X5XIII. rpj^^g^ were the sharp rocks long foreseen by 
 1856. the Vigilants, now eai-nestly desu'ous of bring- 
 ing their ship to port and beaching her. In 
 self-protection the committee must act shrewdly 
 in this grave^ final act of their career. 
 
 Their opponents had always prophesied that 
 they would mei'ge into a political concern. Per- 
 haps it was the rapidly approaching Presiden- 
 tial election that hastened them to their con- 
 clusions. 
 
 The two National Conventions had met and 
 nominated. The Democrats had put foi'ward 
 James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania ; the Repub- 
 licans had chosen as their standard-bearer John 
 C. Fremont, of California. The news had 
 reached the reputed State of the latter while 
 Terry was in confinement, but had scarcely pro- 
 duced a ripple of sensation. The " honest mi- 
 ners " in the foot-hills were eager as ever to hear 
 the news "from below," but it was vigilance 
 news, not political, for which they were hungry. 
 The Repuldicans had as yet no organization in 
 the State, and leading Democrats were setting 
 their faces against the Vigilants. The Young 
 Men's Democratic Club refused to admit Vigil- 
 ants to membership, and Superintendent Lott, 
 of the Branch Mint, gave the employes in that 
 establishment the alternative of going out of 
 the Vigilance Committee, if they were in it, or, 
 
THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE DISBANDS. 501 
 
 out of the mint. Clearly, it was time for the chap 
 Vigilance Committee to disband, or be crowded 
 into a false position; yet, before dissolving, it 1856. 
 was natural to set in operation some method 
 for preserving from waste the advantages that 
 had been gained, and for insuring the continu- 
 ance of the reforms they had begun. 
 
 • There had been made several popular move- 
 ments to induce the city officers, from mayor to 
 constables, to resign. The Vigilance Commit- 
 tee had not openly given these movements any 
 aid, the nearest approach to it being their arrest 
 of some persons who were distui'bing a public 
 open-air meeting, called to forward the fruitless 
 effort. The office-holders clung to their posts, 
 and would not think of resigning. Happily, 
 however, an act of the Lea;islature consolidating: 
 the city and county into one municipality had 
 gone into effect, and there was to be an entirely 
 ne\v force of municipal officers elected in No- 
 vember. What the committee had to do with 
 the 2^^1'ty that sprang into existence in time to 
 take good care of that election may hereafter 
 be fairly inferred. So fai- as the open record 
 goes, the Vigilance Committee, as such, had 
 nothing to do with it, for now they proceeded 
 to prove at once the fears of friends baseless, 
 and the proi:)hecies of foes false, that, whatever 
 their original intentions, they would grow enam- 
 ored of power. They gave notice of prepara- 
 
502 THE HISTORY OF CAUFOEIOA. 
 
 CHAP, tions to disband, and all concerned went into 
 
 ■ training for a demonstration that should carry 
 
 1856. conviction to the eye, that in their retii*ement 
 
 they must not he trifled with, nor trampled on. 
 
 Monday, the 18th of August, was devoted to 
 
 Ang, I8.a grand final parade. Business was more gen- 
 erally suspended than was the custom on Sun- 
 days or ordinary holidays. From all the vicin- 
 ity the people swarmed in, either to see or swell 
 the pageantry. At noon there was a review of 
 the Vigilance troops, when five thousand one 
 hundred and thirty-seven men, all well armed 
 and thoroughly equipped, answered at roll-call. 
 After the review came the procession through 
 the principal streets. It was like a floral pro- 
 cession or a triumphal march of veterans from 
 the wars, so abounded the flowers whicli 
 ladies showered on them as they passed, so gay 
 was the display of flags, so cheerily rang out 
 the music of the bands. 
 
 At the head of the column were three com- 
 panies of artillery, with eighteen pieces of can- 
 non. Next came the Executive Committee, on 
 horseback, twenty-nine in number, with Presi- 
 dent Coleman and General Doane at their head ; 
 then the mounted dragoons, two hundred and 
 ninety in number ; then the medical staff of 
 forty-nine physicians and smgeous, mounted; 
 then one hundred and fifty members of the 
 Executive Committee of 1851, carrying a flag, 
 
THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEe's ADDliESS. 503 
 
 on one side of wliicli was inscribed : " Present- chap. 
 ed to the Vigilance Committee of the City of ,_^_' 
 San Francisco, by the ladies of Trinity Parish, i856. 
 as a testimony of their approval. Do right and 
 fear not. August 9th, 1851;" and, on the 
 other, " The Vigilance Committee of the City 
 of San Francisco, instituted June 9th, 1851, for 
 the protection of the citizens and residents of 
 San Francisco. — Art. I., Constitution^ Next 
 came thirty-three companies of infantry ; then 
 the vigilance police ; and then citizens, mounted. 
 On reaching the Sacramento Street head-quar- 
 ters, which had already been partially dis- 
 mantled, and its sand-bag barricades removed, 
 the procession halted, the military broke up by 
 regiments, the companies returning to their 
 armories, which wei'e still guarded by trusty 
 men, and disposing of their arms. 
 
 The Executive Committee now published an 
 address to the General Committee, which, after 
 a brief rehearsal of the causes and motives of 
 the organization, and a statement of its results, 
 recommended the members to return to their 
 avocations, and forget the animosities which 
 may have estranged them from those good citi- 
 zens who had honestly differed with them. 
 They claimed that their errors had been on the 
 side of clemency. Rogues there were still un- 
 punished, but the archives of the committee 
 contained a large amount of testimony which 
 
604 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, could liereiiiter be used to punisli crime, and 
 
 XXXIII • • 
 
 ■prevent political abuses, by the employment of 
 1856. those ordinary remedies which were not likely 
 to remain, as they had been, inoperative. They 
 advised the General Committee to retain its or- 
 ganization, Imt without active service. For 
 themselves they promised to be ever vigilant, 
 investigating and reforming abuses, urging and 
 aiding the constituted authorities to the per- 
 formance of their duties. They w^ould reserve 
 the discretion to reassemble the Board of Dele- 
 gates or the general body, should either of the 
 following occasions demand : The return of 
 the banished ; the necessity of protecting any 
 member from violence or malicious prosecution, 
 growing out of acts performed by authority of 
 the committee ; the assault of any citizen, 
 should it be apparent that the laws were ineffi- 
 cient for his protection or for the pursuit of the 
 offenders ; or, in case of a violation of the purity 
 of the ballot-box, or the sanctity of the elective 
 franchise. 
 
 Two days later the rooms of the committee 
 were thrown open to the inspection of the pub- 
 lic, and many thousands of people embraced 
 the opportunity to gratify their curiosity during 
 the three days of the exhibition. On the first 
 floor they found rooms devoted to the sutler's, 
 quartermaster's, and commissary's departments, 
 and a large hall, chiefly for the use of the artil- 
 
THE VIGILANCE ROOMS IlSrSPECTED, 505 
 
 lery and cavalry companies. In the centre of chap. 
 
 ' XXXIII 
 
 the hall were several brass field-pieces. There ,1^__* 
 were racks of arms along the walls, which were 1856. 
 relieved by the bulletin-boards and framed 
 muster-rolls of the various companies, paintings, 
 portraits of notables, among which figured the 
 head of General Wool, flags presented by 
 ladies, floral wreaths, and emblematic devices 
 wrought in evergreens. The air was fragrant 
 Avith the bouquets and vases of flowers that 
 loaded the tables. 
 
 On the second floor were the drill-rooms and 
 head-quarters of a few of the infantry compa- 
 nies, most of them renting armories in different 
 parts of the city. Here many relics were 
 pointed out; the ropes mth which men had 
 been hanged; the burglars' tools found on 
 Brace; " iihe pirate Durkee's sword" — a rusty 
 blade used in the capture of the tTulia ; Terry's 
 rifle ; the original patent ballot-box, and the 
 muster-roll of Balie Peyton's reserve corps, 
 which was never regularly attached to the 
 Vigihmce Committee. Among the arms dis- 
 played was the lance which a whaleman bore, 
 in the silent procession that captui'ed the jail 
 on Sunday morning. 
 
 The executive chamber on this floor was 
 visited, not without a sense of awe, in remem- 
 brance of the grave deliberations it had wit- 
 nessed. On a low platform was the president's 
 
506 THE inSTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, chair, behind a table furnished with bell and 
 xxxiir.g.^^^^2^ 111 front was the secretary's desk, and 
 1856. then the seats and tables of members. Ante- 
 rooms for clerks, witnesses, and sub-committees 
 opened into this room. 
 
 The cells in which Casey, Cora, Terry, and 
 other notables were confined, were pointed out, 
 on the second floor. They were not such apart- 
 ments as men select, as especially roomy and 
 commodious, at first-class hotels, but for cells 
 they were tolerable, being about seven by 
 twelve feet in dimensions, and ventilated by 
 auQ^er-holes and the cracks between the shrunk- 
 en boards. The visitor was told that the former 
 occupants had all the conveniences compatible 
 with safe keeping, their meals being served at 
 their order, from nei^hborino; restaurants. If 
 there were any subterranean paths or secret 
 passages, through which prisoners were rushed 
 to the adjoining buildings, to evade the liaheas 
 corpus, they escaped the eyes of the reporters, 
 as well as of the multitude. 
 
 There was still some last work on the hands 
 of the Executive Committee. General Kibbe, 
 Aug.23. on the 23d of August, demanded the State's 
 arms and ammunition, which were needed to 
 put down hostile Indians with, in Siskiyou 
 County. Whether the committee doubted if 
 the Indian hostilities were any thing more than 
 a ricse, well calculated to enlist the sympathies 
 
WINDING UP. 50Y 
 
 of the interior with the State authorities, or chap. 
 thought it not yet safe to part with the arms, '^^^^' 
 they refused to comply with the demand. i85g. 
 
 On the 27th, " 33, Secretary," issued a public Aug.2T. 
 notice to certain parties, among whom was a 
 former supervisor of the county, who, having 
 been notified to leave the State, liad fled to the 
 interior, giving them opportunity to depart by 
 either of the next two steamers, never to return, 
 under penalty of death. 
 
 Durkee and Rand were still to be tried in 
 the Federal Court for piracy, in seizing the 
 State arms on the his-h seas — that is, in San 
 Pablo Bay. Both had been admitted to bail, 
 soon after the offence was committed, in the 
 sum of twenty-five thousand dollars each ; E. 
 W. Godard, James Dowes, J. W. Brittain, and 
 Samuel Soule being bondsmen for Durhee, and 
 J. H. Fish, and T. J. L. Smiley, O. Arrington, 
 and Jules David for Rand. On granting the 
 application for admission to bail. Judge Hoflf- 
 man had remarked upon the violation of law by 
 the Vigilance Committee, whose order for the 
 seizure was admitted. True, the peoj)le sus- 
 tained them, he said, but, none the less for that, 
 they had trampled on the law. 
 
 As the law and order people expressed loudly 
 their confidence that "the pirates" would be con- 
 victed and punished, the committee opened its 
 
508 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, books asrain for the enrolment of members, and 
 
 XXXIII • . 
 
 'many accessions to their roll were made. 
 185G. A grand jury, consisting in part of Sacra- 
 mentans, was impanelled, which found indict- 
 ments. Durkee's trial came first. All mem- 
 bers of the Vigilance Committee were rejected 
 from the jury, as were all members of the 
 Young Men's Democratic Club. The testimony 
 was brief; the judge charged that unless it was 
 found that the prisoner had taken the arms 
 feloniously for his own benefit, he could not be 
 convicted. The jury were out four minutes, 
 and returned with a verdict of not guilty. The 
 District Attorne}^ declined to prosecute Rand, 
 and that peril was passed. 
 
 And now the Executive Committee hauled 
 down their flag, closed entirely their rooms, and 
 sold their furniture at auction. They kept 
 sjuard for a while lomxer, but never had occa- 
 sion to summon the Board of Delegates, or to 
 strike the bell for another rally. 
 
 Shall the Vigilants be judged by their fruits ? 
 They took the law into their own hands and 
 executed it. Law had been used as a machin- 
 ery for screening villains fi'om punishment. 
 They broke up the combinations of the lawless 
 and set law in an honored seat again. They 
 purified the city. At first it seemed as if this 
 had been done at the expense of the rest of the 
 State. Tlie dispersal of the city rogues led to 
 
SUMMAPwY OF VIGILAIN'CE WOEK. 5U9 
 
 an unusual number of liio-liwav robberies in the citap. 
 
 XXXIII 
 
 interior; but the villains soon learned how truly 
 the whole State sympathized with the Vigilants, 1856. 
 and that they were ready on the spur of an ag- 
 2jravated case to imitate the Vis^ilant method of 
 quickening the steps of Justice. They made 
 the ballot-box sacred once more. It was very 
 certain that there would be no moi'e farces on 
 election-day, and that men would be elected 
 by honest votes or left in private life. Guilds 
 of crime and organized gangs of thieves, burg- 
 lars, and murderers were thoroughly l^roken up. 
 It was loosely estimated that eight hundred 
 persons, the scum of society, had been forced to 
 leave the country. To secure that happy result, 
 they had arrested not a few who were set free 
 again on their parole. They had inflicted the 
 death-penalty upon four: Casey, Cora, Brace, 
 and Hetherington. The list of those whom they 
 banisbed from the State was oflicially published 
 by the secretary " No. 33," on the 4th of Octo- 
 ber, as follows : — 
 
 June 5th, Charles P. Duane, William Mul- 
 ligan, and AVilliam alias Wooley Kearney, ship- 
 ped by the Golden Age to New York ; William 
 Carr and Martin Gallagher, shipped by the 
 bark Yankee to the Sandwich Islands. June 
 20th, John Crowe, ship2:)ed by the Sonora to 
 New Orleans; William Lewis, John Lawler, 
 William Hamilton, and Terence Kelly, shipped 
 
510 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORTTIA. 
 
 CHAP, by the Sierra Nevada to New York. July 
 
 XXXIII 
 
 _^_," 5tli, James Reuben Maloney, Alexander Purffle, 
 1856. alias Purple, Thomas Mulloy, Daniel Aldrieh, 
 and F. B. Cunningham, shipped by the Jolm 
 L. Stephens to New York. July 21st, James 
 White, James Burke alias Activity, William 
 McLean, and Abraham Kraft, shipped l^y the 
 Golden Age to New York. August 5 th, Ed- 
 ward Bulger, Michael Brannegan, and John 
 Cooney, shipped by the Sonora to New York. 
 September 5th, John Thompson, alias Liver- 
 pool Jack, and John Stephens, shipped by the 
 Golden Age to Ne^v York. 
 
 The following were ordered to leave by the 
 steamers of August 20th and September 5th : — 
 
 W. Bagley, James Henessy, James Cusick, 
 and J. D. Musgrove. 
 
 Two of the banished and one of the executed 
 were members of the Board of Supervisors. 
 
 The Vigilance Committee had not accom- 
 plished their reforms by sprinkling with rose- 
 water; they had performed a most ungracious 
 task. They drew a long breath and felt a grate- 
 ful sense of relief when it was clearly safe to re- 
 tire again to their private pursuits, and they had 
 laid again upon all the people alike the burden 
 of preserving the peace and maintaining order. 
 
 We have said that most of the clergy either 
 went into the Vigilance movement heartily, or 
 at least stood aloof from its opponents. There 
 
EEV. DR. SCOTT ON THE VIGILANTS. 511 
 
 was one notable exception. Tlie Rev. Dr. Scott chap. 
 (Presbyterian), of Calvary Church, was away >_^' 
 when Casey was executed, and, when he re- i856. 
 turned to town, he refused to recognize the new 
 measures as just or right. It was evident from 
 his public prayers that he did not believe in 
 them ; still he did not say any thing to offend 
 his congregation, nine-tenths of whom sympa- 
 thized with, or were themselves active Vigilants. 
 Not until the organization had disbanded and 
 a letter got back to San Francisco, which he 
 had addressed to the editor of the Pacific, 
 through a Philade]j)liia Presbyterian paper, 
 was it seen that the Doctor had rans^ed himself 
 with the opposition, and put himself on record 
 as against it, while the excitement was the great- 
 est. Of course the papers pounced upon him ; 
 he was drawn into a discussion; the whole mat- 
 ter was argued over again, and much hard feel- 
 ing was produced. 
 
 To the scandal of everybody, one Sabbath 
 morning, an effigy, labelled with the Doctor's 
 name, was found hanging by Calvary Church 
 door. The law and order men said the Vigil- 
 ants did it. The Vigilants denied it, asking 
 what they could gain by hanging a bundle of 
 rags ; and intimated that their enemies did it, 
 kno^ving it would Idc charged on them. The 
 Doctor took the matter to heart and resigned 
 his place. His people refused to accept the res- 
 
512 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, iofuation, the matter blew over, and Dr. Scott 
 xxxni ° ' . ' . 
 
 _^^_,'vvas spared to enjoy the popularity that one 
 
 1856. earns who buffets a strong tide and emerges 
 without damage. 
 
 The great political reform had not 1)een 
 achieved without some other social disturb- 
 ances. All the passions that are aroused by a 
 civil war had been stirred. Bosom friends, and 
 brothers in business together, divided and 
 avoided each other. A Vigilant met one whom 
 he had not seen for several weeks, and extend- 
 ed his hand with a friendly salutation. " There's 
 blood on it," said the old acquaintance, drawing 
 back ; " I don't know you, sir." The papers 
 were not remarkably violent, but they were 
 very rough in their treatment of men in public 
 life. They did not much abuse each other, per- 
 haps not more than in an ordinary election 
 campaign, when party spirit runs high; but 
 they published official records, and raked up 
 forgotten facts, and ])lurted out stories which 
 they thought they had reason to believe con- 
 cerning men in public i^ositions, without the 
 sli2:htest reo-ard to the law of libel. 
 
 Allusion was made to the general sympathy 
 of the people of the interior of the State with 
 the Vigilants. It was manifested by the tone 
 of the press ; l3y the loss of subscribers tkat 
 some papers suffered because they sj^oke sneer- 
 ingly of King, and would not take back their 
 
SYMPATHT ES" THE INTERTOE. 513 
 
 words ; by tlie closing of stores and the tolling chap. 
 of bells at Sacramento, Marysville, Stockton, 
 and elsewhere, on the day of King's funeral ; i856. 
 and by public meetings at San Jose, Columbia, 
 and many other places, which adopted resolu- 
 tions approving the committee's decisive action. 
 In the mining districts the public sentiment was 
 not at all shocked to learn that men in the Bay 
 City were taking a short cut to justice — they 
 were rather fond of short cuts themselves. 
 Down the coast, too, the people were quite re- 
 signed, as a random example shall prove : — 
 "Within one week four persons were taken out 
 of the Monterey jail and hanged. However, 
 between an infuriated populace met to lynch a 
 heinous transgressor, and a coolly deliberating, 
 thoroughly organized Vigilance Committee, 
 there was as wide a diiference as between a 
 mob and a court. Nothing similar to the San 
 Francisco Vigilance Committee was ever organ- 
 ized in the interior. 
 
 Hap23y for all that the Presidential election 
 was approaching. Its excitement would help 
 distract attention from the painful events of 
 the i:)ast three months, and give the wounds of 
 society opportunity to heal. 
 
 On the 3d of November, the committee, Nov.3. 
 ha^ng surrendered the State arms to the au- 
 thoi'ities, the Governor withdrew his proclama- 
 tion of insurrection, and so the local election 
 
 33 
 
 f 
 
514 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAR wbicli followed in San Francisco had no cloud 
 xxxin.^£ illegality about it. Then, by swift degrees, 
 
 1856. the subject dropped out of the list of topics 
 that men much debated. The Democratic State 
 Convention, that met in the fall of 1856, was 
 expected to glance by resolution at the suli- 
 ject, but wiser covmsels prevailed, and no men- 
 tion of it was made. In the American State 
 Convention a resolution condemnatory of the 
 Vigilants was introduced, but instantly tabled 
 with hisses. Governor Johnson unl)osomed 
 himself to the Legislature in 1857, but most 
 that came of it was a controversy between His 
 Excellency and General Wool. Governor 
 Weller indulg^ed in a flino^ at the committee, 
 when in 1855 he wrote his inaugural, but in the 
 same connection admitted that the necessities 
 of the times demanded something of the sort. 
 The Legislature has generally kept their hands 
 
 1856- ^^' only through its relief bills for McGowan, 
 
 1800. Duane, and others, showing that its animus was 
 hostile, though policy dictated forgiving and 
 forgetting. Occasionally some speaker, young 
 to the platform on the Pacific coast, has branch- 
 ed off upon the subject, but he seldom has 
 found his audience demonstrative about that 
 time. The suits for damages that have been 
 brought by the returned exiles fill the court- 
 rooms with thoughtful, earnestdooking men, 
 who say little, and heai* all. 
 
SUITS BROUGHT AGAINST THE VIGILANTS. 5t5 
 
 The members of the committee were subject- chap. 
 
 XXXIII. 
 
 ed to some annoyances at the East. Several of J_^ , 
 
 them were assaulted in the streets of New York i857- 
 by the friends of the banished. Maloney, ^ ' 
 Duane, and Mulligan brought suits for damages 
 against William T. Coleman, and others of the 
 committee, whom they found in New York, but 
 the courts denied their jurisdiction, and the 
 complainants obtained no satisfaction. In 1859, 1859. 
 Martin Galla2:her srot a decree from Judge Hoff- 
 man, of the United States District Court in Cali- 
 fornia, awarding to him three thousand dollars 
 damagjes and costs ag-ainst the master of the 
 bark Yankee. The brothers Green brought 
 suit separately for damages in the Twelfth Dis- 
 trict Court of California. The first case that 
 came to trial was that of John L. Green, before 
 Judge Norton, in 1860. The complainant al- i860, 
 leged fifty thousand dollars damages by the in- 
 jury to his own health from imprisonment in 
 the committee's jail, and by the death of his 
 wife, which, he said, was hastened by the shock 
 it gave her. The trial occupied several days, 
 and, while it lasted, was the sensation of the 
 town. The jury gave a verdict for the plain- 
 tiff^, awarding the damages at one hundred and 
 fifty dollars, which left the plaintiff to pay his 
 own costs, and made it necessary for him to 
 pay the jurors' fees. The result was not so 
 flattering as to encourage the ])rothers to urge 
 
516 THE IIISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, tlieir cases, and they liave not yet been deter- 
 
 XXXIII. . -1 
 ,^_^ mmeci. 
 
 I860. Duane, returning to the State in 18G0, filed 
 libels in the United States District Court 
 against Captain Goodall, the master of the 
 steam-tug Hercules^ which conveyed him, when 
 banished, manacled to the Golden Age^ off the 
 mouth of San Francisco harbor; against Cap- 
 tain Watkins, of the steamer Age^ which took 
 bim to Acapulco ; and against Captain Pear- 
 son, of the steamer Joliii L. Stephens^ who, find- 
 ing him on board, a stow-away, trying to return 
 to San Francisco from Acapulco, transferred 
 him \o the steamer Soiiora, bound to Panama, 
 The ag-o-reo-ate damasres claimed were one hun- 
 dred and twenty-five thousand dollars. In the 
 case of Pearson, Judge Hoffman decreed four 
 
 3864 thousand dollars damages in 1864, and Circuit 
 Judo-e Field affirmed the decision. The other 
 
 o 
 
 cases were understood to be compromised, at 
 rates sufficient to give the returned exile a com- 
 fortable living. 
 
 Several of the banished manifested an over- 
 weening desire to return to San Frsncisco, as if 
 mischief done in any other place lacked its 
 relish, and reform nowhere else were half as 
 meritorious. Some of them were helped back 
 by Vigilants themselves years later, and, while 
 some became tolei'ably fair citizens, practising 
 their old tricks only ixi primary elections, which 
 
RETUENING EXILES. 517 
 
 tbe law does not recognize, and wliere conse- chap. 
 quently stuffing and colonizing are not misde- 
 meanors, except in the moral sense, no one of i8*>4. 
 them has so distinguished himself for either pri- 
 vate or public virtues, as to start a suspicion. of 
 any gross injustice in his sentence. 
 
 By common consent, old San Franciscans 
 still avoid discussing: the revolution of 1856 in 
 miscellaneous company, as one on which neither 
 party has tempered its acerbity, unprofitable, 
 and a quarrel-breeder. Occasionally, some one 
 in his wrath calls a Vigilant " a strano-ler," and 
 the other retorts upon him as one of the " law 
 and murder party." It would have seemed 
 scarcely time yet to write the history of these 
 doings, but that, in the great events that have 
 lately convulsed our country, these local matters, 
 that used to hold the peaceful, law-abiding 
 world breathless, will be forgotten, if the record 
 is much longer delayed ; and then, again, a large 
 portion of the people now in the State were not 
 here in 1856, and they, a sor«t of premature pos- 
 terity, have a right to know what was going 
 on in the home that was preparing for them, 
 before their arrival. 
 
THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXiy. 
 
 PRESERVING THE FRUITS OF THE REFORM. 
 
 CHAP. About a week before the Vigilance Commit 
 
 XXXIV ° 
 
 Aug. 
 
 tee disbanded, there was a mass meeting of cit- 
 1856. izens in front of the American Exchange in San 
 Francisco, to organize a party, irrespective of all 
 political leanings, which should rescue the city 
 offices from the clutch of irresponsible men, and 
 keep unsullied its rights — in short, a People's 
 Reform Party. The names of the men who 
 figured in it were not those of prominent Vigil- 
 ants, though its opponents charge that it was 
 the heir of the Vigilance Committee's opinions, 
 and was inaugurated, in degree, at least, for 
 their protection. 
 
 Ira P. Rankin was called to the chair, a pre- 
 vious nominee having been voted down. Mi\ 
 Rankin admitted that he was not sure whether 
 he was in favor of the objects of the meeting, 
 but as it was a people's gathering, he ^vould 
 obey theii* orders. A preamble and resolutions 
 were introduced. These charged that the po- 
 litical parties, as organized, had bred many of 
 their troubles. They had tried the American 
 
THE people's party oeganizatioi^. 519 
 
 party, but discovered in it no higher grade of chap. 
 political integrity than in the old parties. Now 
 the politicians must stand back; the people i856. 
 would attend to their own affairs. With the 
 Presidential nominations they had nothing to 
 do, with their local affairs every thing. The 
 practical proposition of the resolutions was to 
 appoint a committee of twenty-one, among 
 whom were named J. B. Thomas, E. H. Wash- 
 burn, Louis McLean, Frederick Billings, A. B. 
 Forbes, and T. O. Larkin, to encourage and 
 recommend the election of members of the Leg- 
 islature, pledged to reform, and to nominate 
 city and county officers. 
 
 If, as was averred, the meeting was packed 
 by the Vigilants, it is very curious that it was 
 not better managed, for at an early hour it was 
 captured by the Republicans, and its object 
 almost frustrated. Trenor W. Park opposed 
 nominating until the other parties had com- 
 pleted their tickets. After his speech, the res- 
 olutions were put and lost. William Duer 
 essayed to save them, but he had already com- 
 mitted himself so openly to the Know Nothings 
 that his appeal lost its force. Others spoke, 
 but it was wasting words, until E. H. Wash- 
 burn took the stand, and, with an address 
 which turned the tide of feeling, induced a re- 
 consideration, and finally the adoption of the 
 
520 THE lUSTOllY OF CALLFOKXIA. 
 
 CHAP, policy of the resolutions. The committee of 
 
 XXXIV., , •4-1 
 
 twenty-one was apponited. 
 
 185G. In good time it suLmitted a reform ticket to 
 the people for their votes, and on election-day 
 it was carried by a large majority. 
 
 The Consolidation Act was now in force in 
 San Francisco. It greatly reduced the powers 
 of the city legislature, limited the tax that 
 might be levied for each specific object, required 
 the scrupulous separation of the funds, prohib- 
 ited the use of money in one fund for objects 
 legitimately covered by another fund, and tied 
 the officers down to a very strict accountability. 
 This act, devised by Horace Hawes, w^as adopted 
 by a Legislature which got little credit for good 
 intentions towards the city, but it was an admi- 
 rable measure for the thriftless times. It has 
 been said, in later days, that to this act rather 
 than to the election of the people's tickets is 
 due the good order and improved financial con- 
 dition of the city. That this was not so is clear 
 enough from a solitary consideration : Sacra- 
 mento obtained a similar charter for its use, 
 but failed to put good men in office, and to 
 watch them with all diligence. So, w'hile San 
 Francisco from that time prospered in her 
 finances, Sacramento dashed on in her old 
 career until she stood on the verge of bank- 
 ruptcy. 
 
 Nov. The newly-elected city and county officers 
 
THE EEFORIM CITY GOVERNMENT. 521 
 
 were for tlie most part good men ; and those chap. 
 in whom the people afterwards concluded that" 
 they were mistaken, they watched so narrowly i856. 
 that abuses were infrequent, corruption went 
 out of practice, and economy became the rule 
 in office. When the gas-bills were complained 
 of as unreasonably large, and the gas company 
 denied that it could make them less, the re- 
 formers brought tallow dips into the super- 
 visors' chamber, and transacted business by 
 their flickering light. When the district judges 
 asked for stoves to warm their court-rooms, 
 the supervisors reminded them that, in the fa- 
 vored climate of California, stoves were a costly 
 luxury, and fuel an unnecessary bill of expense. 
 City improvements — the reduction of the streets 
 over the irregular surface of the city to the 
 official grade — had been the ruin of many who 
 unfortunately owned real estate. The new au- 
 thorities were, by the new charter and their 
 own pledges, required to stop improving, except 
 as property-owners petitioned for it. The city 
 did not spread itself quite so rapidly as before, 
 but bankruptcy was avoided by the delay. It 
 was estimated that not less than eio-ht hundred 
 persons — the scum of the earth's villany — had 
 left the city, and most of them the State, during 
 the Vigilance Committee's rule. Kelieved of 
 this great burden, the criminal courts travelled 
 easily in the road of justice, and rogues found 
 
522 THE IIISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, that crime was the swift forerunner of punish- 
 XXXIV • • . 
 
 ,_^_,' ment. It remains so to this day. The police are 
 
 1856. few in number, but active and vigilant. There 
 have, indeed, been some mysterious murders, 
 of which the perpetrators were never discov- 
 ered ; still, in no other city of its size in the 
 Union is there a more cheerful assurance that 
 life is safe from violence, and property from 
 thieves and robbers. The period was not by 
 any means supposed to be within millenuial 
 limits, yet the city rapidly became famous for 
 its economy, its good order, and its financial 
 responsibility. 
 
 The extent of the financial reform will be 
 obvious from a few comparisons. The revolu- 
 tion occurred in 1856. The year before that, 
 things were at the worst. The second year 
 after it, the reform was fairly fruit-bearing. 
 The city's bills for advertising and stationery, 
 in 1855, were $65,231 ; in 1858, $2,727. As- 
 sessment expenses, in 1855, were $45,011; in 
 1858, $9,100. Election expenses, in 1855, Avere 
 $22,920; in 1858, nothing. The fire depart- 
 ment, in 1855, cost $263,120; in 1858 it was 
 in better condition for $29,972. The hospital 
 department, in 1855, cost $278,328; in 1858, 
 the sick were better cared for at $43,880. For 
 extra legal services, in 1855, the city was taxed 
 $31,821 ; in 1858 the amount was a little over 
 one-fourth that sum. The police and prisoners 
 
FINANCES BEFOEE AND AFTEE EEFOKM. 523 
 
 cost the city, in 1855, $236,690; in 1858, chap. 
 
 . XXXIV 
 
 $59,943. The salaries of officers amounted, in <_1.^_' 
 
 1858, to little more tlian one-fourtli as much as 1854- 
 in 1855. The annual expenditures of the city 
 
 and county were as follows: In 1854, $1,831,- 
 825; in 1855, $2,646,190; in 1856, $856,120; 
 in 1857, $353,292; in 1858, $366,427; in 
 
 1859, 480,895; in 1860, $706,719; in 1861, 
 $512,896. 
 
 The largest item of expenditure every year, 
 with a solitary exception, since 1856, has been 
 paid in satisfaction of old debts contracted dur- 
 ing the old regime ; and in 1863 nearly one- 
 third of all the city taxes went to meet the in- 
 terest of these debts. The city has no floating 
 debt. Every demand against it is paid upon 
 presentation. 
 
 Each successive year, as the municipal elec- 
 tion draws nigh, several thousands of the people 
 petition the nominating committees of the two 
 preceding years to nominate a committee as its 
 successor. This new committee pledges its 
 members, as its predecessors did, to receive no 
 nomination in a given number of years follow- 
 ing. This system avoids the primary elections 
 of the political parties, where trickery and 
 money shape tickets for honest men to indorse 
 at the legalized election, and experience seems 
 to show it the best that has been devised. The 
 nominating committee thus selected, canvasses 
 
524 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, quietly and secretly the merits of candidates, 
 ■ and gives the result in a full municipal ticket. 
 
 185a. Except in the case of here and there an indi- 
 vidual, these tickets have always been elected. 
 The people rule San Francisco, and in conse- 
 quence it has abroad, as at home, the reputa- 
 tion of being the best-governed city in the 
 Union. 
 
THE STATE CREDIT BRUISED. 525 
 
 CHAPTEK XXXV, 
 
 FINANCIAL BREAKERS. 
 
 But just as the people were beginning to chap. 
 manage their own affairs creditably in San _^_] 
 Francisco, the financial credit of the State re- 1856. 
 ceived a most damaging blow. When the 
 interest on the State bonds came due at New 
 York, July, 1856, no funds were there to meet 
 it. The Treasurer had punctually deposited 
 enough with Palmer, Cook & Co. for the 
 purpose, and that firm alleged that its agent, 
 ex-Congressman Wright, one of the partners, 
 had instructions to attend to the punctual pay- 
 ment, but he had no money when the fatal day 
 arrived, and the State was disgraced. The 
 same thing had happened in 1854, when Dun- 
 can, Sherman. <fe Co. came to the rescue, and 
 saved California's honor; but the Legislature 
 allowed Palmer, Cook & Co. to reimburse that 
 house months afterwards without interest. Of 
 course no one acquainted with that story would 
 be in haste to sacrifice himself now. 
 
 The Treasurer scraped together what he could, 
 and as soon as he could, and, forwarding it to 
 
526 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP. New York, paid the interest, and the affair re- 
 ^_^__ ■ doimded more to the discredit of the bankers 
 185G- than of the State. But Californians were much 
 ■ stirred up about it, and demanded that there 
 should l)e no more of bankers going between 
 them and their creditors — taking their money 
 on deposit, with a pledge of expressing it sea- 
 sonably, and instead turning it to electioneering 
 account. For by this time it was known that 
 Palmer, Cook & Co. w^ere Fremont's bankers, as 
 well as California's, and it was suspected that 
 they were furnishing money for the Presidential 
 campaign, with the Mariposa mine as security. 
 But the bankers were not alone to blame. 
 The Constitution prohibited the creation of a 
 debt exceeding three hundred thousand dollars ; 
 yet the excess of State expenditures above the 
 receipts into the treasury for the year ending 
 with June, 185G, was more than douljle that 
 amount. By New Year's Day, 1857, the State 
 debt was over four million dollars. It had been 
 contracted to carry on the legislative, judicial, 
 and executive functions of the Government on an 
 extravagant scale, for hospital, prison, and 
 school purposes, for taking the census of 1852, 
 for printing, and for Indian ^\^ar expenses. But 
 whatever its object, it was contracted in clear 
 violation of the organic law. The Supreme 
 Court decided that so much of it as was in ex- 
 cess of three hundred thousand dollars was un- 
 
AN UNCONSTITUTIONAL DEBT. 527 
 
 constitutional and void, and that, though the chap. 
 Legislature should tax the people to pay it, that _,^' 
 tax would be illegal, and its collection could i856- 
 not be enforced. ^ 
 
 Here was a frightful vision of repudiation 
 presented to the good people, who gloried in an 
 exclusive metallic currency, and that they had 
 no bill-emitting banks. Now they began to 
 doubt if they had not been too fast in rushing 
 into the responsibilities of a State. Except 
 Texas, all the other Western States had been 
 kept a while in Territorial leading-strings, and 
 during their patient waiting had their expenses 
 paid out of the national treasury. California 
 had set up housekeeping without a dollar to 
 buy furniture, pay rent, or hire service with. 
 To run the State at the start, she issued bonds, 
 bearing interest at three ^er cent, a month. 
 When she redeemed them in 1856, the interest 
 had far outgrown the principal. Had not the 
 Constitution provided too much government 
 machinery for the little governing that was 
 wanted ? — too grand an engine for a craft that 
 had but a handful of a crew to man it ? Too 
 many officers, too high salaries, exorbitant fees, 
 extravagant jobs ; too frequent and too long leg- 
 islative sessions; swarms about the treasury, 
 clamoring that party services gave them a right 
 to live off the State — these were suckins: the life 
 out of the commonwealth. The people suspected 
 
528 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, tliat they had been too ambitious; that they 
 ,_^^ would better liave waited a while in Territorial 
 1856- pupilage. 
 ^ ■ But regrets were in vain. Besides, it had 
 never been a question of admission as a State 
 or remaining a Territory. Congress refused 
 California any kind of government ; it was a 
 choice between a State oro-anization or nothins;. 
 Indeed, if they had another commonwealth to 
 found ifnder similar circumstances, they would 
 do the job in the same way. They would pre- 
 fer a State's dignity to a Territory's economy 
 and thrift — genteel sovereignty rather than full- 
 fed dependence — officers of their choice, bad as 
 they might be, rather than those of other men's 
 appointment. Certainly the love of the Union 
 was strengthened by early admission into it ; 
 and whatever California may have lost in 
 money by her haste, she gained in patriotism. 
 As to the Union, none could doubt that it lost 
 nothing and made much by California's early 
 welcome to all its honors. 
 
 The Supreme Court had indicated a solitary 
 way for the State's escape from the disgrace of 
 repudiation. That was for the question of as- 
 suming the unconstitutional debt to be sub- 
 mitted to the people. The Legislature quickly 
 passed an act of submission, and the people, by 
 overwhelming numl:>ers, voted to pay every 
 dollar of the debt. But it was one thing cheer- 
 
THE DEBT ASSUMED BY THE PEOPLE. 529 
 
 fully to assume the debt illegally contracted by chap. 
 careless servants, and anotlier to pay it. — v—' 
 
 Governor Johnson zealously urged retrench- i85G- 
 ment, and the Legislature vigorously essayed re- ^^^^' 
 form. Year by year, hoping to abolish the scrip 
 system, the debt had been funded at seven per 
 cent, annual interest. Still, there was a great 
 deal of scrip afloat, some of which, being unsup- 
 ported by any satisfactory vouchers, v^as re- 
 fused payment. A board of examiners was 
 created, to pass upon all claims and comptrol- 
 ler's warrants required, where the cash could 
 not be paid for authorized expenditures. The 
 Governor made one more effort to induce Con- 
 gress to restore the "civil fund" to the State, 
 but it was vain. The Su23reme Court of the 
 United Statefe had decided the action of the 
 Federal authorities in collecting customs after 
 the cession of California as a conquered prov- 
 ince of Mexico, and while it was under the 
 sway of military officers, though in a time of 
 peace, warrantable and right; so that long- 
 cherished resource for extinguishing the debt 
 was abandoned. The appropriation by Con- 
 gress towards meeting the Indian war debt was 
 ample to have covered the whole claim ; but 
 Jefferson Davi,s, Secretary of War, refused to 
 transfer the money called for by the appropria- 
 tion, and required the production of original 
 accounts and vouchers, many of which were 
 
 34 
 
530 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOKNIA. 
 
 CHAP. lost. Under this delay the debt grew by the 
 
 ■^__^_," accumulation of interest, and the State was at 
 
 1856- some expense to obtain an additional appro- 
 
 ^^^^' priation. The effort was fruitless, and there 
 
 was nothing better than to divide what had 
 
 been appropriated, so far as it would go among 
 
 the claimants. 
 
 Free, fearless taxation was resorted to as the 
 only means left to reduce the debt, but expen- 
 ditures, after all the legislative pruning, were 
 enormous. It was hard to conquer the extrav- 
 agant habits of early days. Governor Downey 
 estimated the local indebtedness of the cities 
 and counties, on the iirst of January, 1861, at 
 near ten million dollars; and Governor Stan- 
 ford quoted the State debt in the beginning of, 
 18G3 at over five and a half millions. 
 
 For neither the local nor the State debts was 
 there much to show ; a few court-houses and 
 jails, a few public halls, a State-prison at San 
 Quentin inadequate to its purj^ose, an insane 
 asylum at Stockton, not half large enough for 
 the number of its inmates, the foundations of a 
 capitol at Sacramento, a small State library, 
 richest in law boohs, a reform-school building 
 at Marysville, with a handful of boys in its 
 echoinsc halls— one Avondei's where the millions 
 of borrowed money went. Salaries, fees, inter- 
 est consumed a large share of it ; some chari- 
 table institution^, mainly maintained by the 
 
THE DEBT ASSUMED BY THE PEOPLE. 531 
 
 contributions of cliurches and individuals, en- chap. 
 joyed a meagre portion; peace with Indians ^__^ 
 cost something ahnost every year, and the pets ises. 
 of party and the sharpers of the lobby took 
 toll of all they could reach. 
 
 The resources of the State are so abundant, 1865. 
 the prosperity of the inhabitants so general, 
 that the debt does not much trouble the people 
 now. Its interest is met with punctuality. 
 The bonds of the State and of most of the cities 
 stand well in the market, and our general credit 
 is excellent at home and abroad. 
 
 But the debt rather waxes than wanes, and 
 there is no such wholesome impatience to be 
 rid of it as a proper regard to economy would 
 require. During the war of the rebellion, a 
 new source of indebtedness was necessarily 
 created. Bounties to soldiers, arming and 
 drilling the militia, all means of defence against 
 foreign foes or traitors at home, were welcomed 
 by those who most cherished thrift. Yet each 
 new outlay demanded sharper watch that none 
 be wasted, closer scrutiny that disbursing 
 agents make no illegal commissions. 
 
532 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 LAND TITLES. 
 
 CHAP. It is scarcely possible to overstate the annoy- 
 
 XXXVI 
 
 ^^^,w ances that Californians have suffered iu the 
 1850- past from the uncertainty of land titles. Be- 
 fore the country came into the possession of 
 the United States a very considerable ];)ortion 
 of the best lands for agricultural purposes, and 
 of the region about the bays, including the 
 natural sites for many future cities, had been 
 granted to individuals by the Mexican author- 
 ities. They valued their gifts very cheaply, 
 because there were few competitors, and 
 bounded them most loosely. The grant might 
 convey a definite number of square leagues 
 within a certain valley, or inside the exterior 
 limits of a named rancho, leaving the graotee to 
 locate his tract anywhere within those limits. 
 As little accurate surveying was done and lit- 
 tle attention i^aid to topography, grants often 
 oveilappcd and encroached upon each other, 
 and sometimes a person was given all the 
 gores, corners, and odd pieces of some favorite 
 tract, not appropriated by grants of earlier 
 
CONFLICTING LAND CLAIMS. 533 
 
 date. Tbougli tbei-e had been never a fraudu- chap. 
 lent claim for a rood of ground, tlie lax method ^-^^^^ 
 of Mexican conveyancing would have insured 
 a rich harvest of litigation, for, by the treaty 
 of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the American Govern- 
 ment agreed not to disturb existing titles, and 
 to respect all grants derived through the Mexi- 
 can or Spanish authorities. 
 
 The gold discovery opened tlie gates to a 
 flood of population which must have homes of 
 some sort, and laud to build their homes on. 
 When the new-comers asked who owned the 
 soil, they were distracted with the variety of 
 answers. One authority named a distant ranch- 
 man as the proprietor. Another pointed out 
 the man whose cattle ransjed over it. Another 
 quoted a clamorous claimant, but admitted that 
 his title was generally supposed to be fraudu- 
 lent — for, as lauds came into demand, there 
 sprang up a populous tribe of claimants, with 
 manufEXctured papers sufficiently resembling the 
 genuine in the breadth of boundaries and un- 
 certainty of extent and location called for, and, 
 perhaps, more careful than they to bear abun- 
 dance of seals and sis-natures. 
 
 Most of the American settlers bouirht the 
 lots they coveted of the claimant presumed to 
 have the best title ; others were satisfied to 
 buy the cheapest, and still others put up their 
 fences and cabins as if settling on Government 
 
534 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, land, asking no one's permission, confident that 
 ■ possession and a rifle would give them as good 
 
 1851. a chance as was to be bought. They were not 
 at liberty to wait for conflicting claims to be 
 adjudicated, for the homeless must have shel- 
 ter, the markets must be supplied with vege- 
 tables and grain, and there was no movement 
 to determine by law who owned the land, until 
 busy cities replaced the drowsy solitude of the 
 coast, and a vigorous American State was im- 
 proving the premises that so long lay waste as 
 a sleepy province of Mexico. 
 
 In 1851, three years after the treaty of peace 
 
 1851- was sio;ned, Con<};ress enacted a law for the 
 
 1856 o ' D 
 
 settlement of land claims in California — it 
 might with propriety have been entitled an act 
 to retard their settlement. Colonel Benton in- 
 sisted that patents ouglit to issue to all lands 
 whose titles should be found perfect and fairly 
 recorded at Mexico ; but he was overi'uled, and 
 a commission was created to sit in San Fran- 
 cisco, and decide the validity of claims accord- 
 ing to the usages, laws, and customs of the 
 Government from which the titles were de- 
 rived. 
 
 Before this Board of Land Commissioners all 
 claimants under Spanish or Mexican grants 
 must present their evidences of title within two 
 years of the date of the passage of the act, or 
 the land would be deemed part of the domain 
 
THE LAND COMMISSIONEES. 535 
 
 of the United States. Tlie board must decide oiiap. 
 upon the validity of the claim within thirty ,1^^_' 
 days after its presentation. The claimant, or 185G. 
 the district attorney, could appeal from the 
 board's decision to the United States District 
 Court, and from that to the Federal Supreme 
 Court. When a claim was finally confirmed, 
 unless other claimants intervened, a patent for 
 the land was to issue, and the surveyor-gene».*al 
 was to " locate " it. From his survey the appeal 
 was to the Department of the Interior, at 
 Washington. 
 
 For commissioners, President Fillmore ap- 
 pointed Harry L. Thornton, Augustus Thomp- 
 son, and Alpheus L. Felch. His Democratic 
 successor thrust them out, and appointed others 
 in their places. 
 
 As neither commissioners nor counsel were 
 familiar with Mexican law and practice, tedious 
 delays and grave blunders were unavoidable. 
 The board, before its final adjournment, March, 
 1856, to which time the amended law extended 
 its existence, had some eight hundred claims 
 presented. More than half of them it con- 
 firmed ; some, for obvious fraud, it rejected, and 
 some for gross informalities ; while some, be- 
 cause they called for land, afterwards granted in 
 a hirge tract to the same parties, were with- 
 drawn. 
 
 The area of land called for by the claims pre- 
 
5S6 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, sented was nineteen thousand one hundred and 
 
 XXXVI 
 
 ,^_,^^__,' forty-eight square miles. Many of the rejected 
 1856, claims were allowed, and confirmed in the dis- 
 tiict courts, which also finally rejected some 
 very important ones that the board confirmed. 
 The labor is by no means ended yet. Some 
 stubborn cases are still pending in the district 
 courts; the Supreme Court of the United States 
 has its docket still burdened with appeals, and 
 Congress at every session is invoked for special 
 enactments to relieve sojue party who suffers 
 by virtue of a decision that the testimony made 
 inevitable. 
 
 Indeed, it is scarcely possible that every final 
 decision should not work a hardship to some- 
 body. Every genuine claim that is confirmed 
 requires a large body of squatters and holders 
 under adverse titles to l^e ousted. Seldom can 
 a survey be approved for a claim whose gen- 
 uineness is no surprise, without forfeiting some 
 honest settler's improvements. It was a griev- 
 ance loudly complained of, that an appeal from 
 the survey made necessary a journey to Wash- 
 ington to watch proceedings under a subordi- 
 nate of the Land Ofiice, and many a disap- 
 pointed claimant has come home, alleging that 
 the party which accommodated the clerk with 
 the lar2:est loan won the decision. 
 
 Few of the original grantees have found their 
 fortune in the grants that seemed princely to 
 
JUDGE black's sensation LETTER. 537 
 
 the landless. Though tlieir claims were con- chap. 
 
 • • XXXVI 
 
 filmed, they were generally fought with ruinous J.^^_, 
 obstinacy. Enormous counsel fees, huge bills issG. 
 of cost, money hired at frightful interest, and its 
 payment secured by mortgage upon mortgage, 
 have compelled many an original grantee to 
 lament the day that he asked for a grant, and 
 when his patent has come, it was not for him, 
 l3ut for his lawyers. Some relief was afforded 
 when the Supreme Court, in 1858, decided that 1858. 
 the district courts had power to supervise the 
 surveys, and so spare the trip to Washington. 
 Congress bas tried to relieve sufferers by open- 
 ing cases once closed, but every such opening 
 has involved another set of claimants in litiga- 
 tion. 
 
 . President Buchanan, in 1860, sent a message i860. 
 to the House of Hepresentatives, accompanied 
 by some correspondence concerning this sub- 
 ject, that caused a sensation. Appropriations? 
 amounting to $114,000, had been made by the 
 Thirty-fourth and Tliii'ty-fi.ftli Congresses for 
 legal assistance, and other expenditures, in the 
 disposal of private land claims in California. 
 The House of the Thirty-sixth Congress asked 
 for a detailed statement of these expenditures, 
 and Mr. Buchanan furnished it. 
 
 Judge Black, of Pennsylvania, was Attorney- 
 General. His letters said it was incredible that 
 80 many grants could have been made in good 
 
538 THE mSTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 OHAP. faith by any Government as were claimed in 
 
 XXXVI . ' . 
 
 ^_^__,' California, under titles, real or fabricated, from 
 I860. Governors Alvarado, Micheltorena, or Pio Pico. 
 They covered a very large portion of the best 
 mineral and ao:ricultural reo^ions. There seem- 
 ed to be not an island or place for a fort, a 
 custom-house, hospital, or post-office but must 
 be purchased on his own tei'ms from some pri- 
 vate claimant. But they were supported by an 
 array of testimony that had already secured 
 their confirmation by the Land Commissioners 
 and the district courts, and rendered defence 
 liopeless unless extraordinary means for inves- 
 tigation were resorted to. The examination of 
 records in the city of Mexico, "led to the con- 
 clusion that even the archives of that Govern- 
 ment had, in some way, become an instrument 
 of sanctionino^ frauds ao-ainst the United States." 
 In February, 1858, Edwin M. Stanton (since 
 United States Secretary of War) was sent to 
 San Francisco as special counsel for the Govern- 
 ment in pending cases, and especially charged 
 to resist the Limantour claim. The scattered 
 archives of the Mexican Government were 
 hunted out of their careless concealment, 
 whether in public offices or in the keej^ing of 
 ex-officials, and dej^osited with the Surveyor- 
 General. Official coi'i'espondence, seals, and 
 suspicious grants were copied photographically, 
 and important documents translated for the use 
 
FRAUDULENT LAND CLAIMS. 539 
 
 of the court at Washington. Irresistible proof chap. 
 was obtained " that there had been an organ- ^,.^^_* 
 ized system of fabricating land titles carried on i860. 
 for a long time in California by Mexican offi- 
 cials; that forgery and perjury had been re- 
 duced to a regular occupation ; that the making 
 of false grants, with the subornation of false 
 witnesses to prove them, had become a trade 
 and a business." " The richest part of San 
 Francisco was found to be covered by no less 
 than live different grants, every one of them 
 forged after the conquest : Sacramento, Marys- 
 ville, Stockton, and Petaluma were claimed on 
 titles no better." The value of the lands 
 claimed under fraudulent titles was estimated 
 at not less than one hundred and fifty million 
 dollars! More than two-thirds of them (in 
 value) had already been exposed and defeated. 
 He enumerated some of the cases disposed 
 of in favor of the Grovernment. Prominent in 
 the list was Limantour's claim for two square 
 leagues of San Francisco land, and for Alcatras, 
 the Farallones, and Fort Point, Mr. Stanton, 
 before the District Court, produced overwhelm- 
 ing proofs of its fraud. Its rejection by Judge 
 Hoffman has already been noticed. Limantour 
 was prosecuted for forgery and setting up a 
 claim known to be false. He gave bail in the 
 sum of thirty-five thousand dollars for his ap- 
 pearance, and left the country. To this day his 
 
540 THE HISTO*RY OF CALIFOKNIA. 
 
 CHAP, sureties have not paid the forfeited bonds. 
 _^_,' Captain Sutter, under two grants, claimed thir- 
 1800. ty-iive square leagues in the Sacramento Valley. 
 One of them, made by Alvarado, in 1841, for 
 eleven leagues, was genuine. The other, pro- 
 fessing to be from Mieheltorena, for twenty-two 
 leagues, covering the sites of Sacramento and 
 Marysville, and embracing portions of five 
 counties, was shown to have been made, if by 
 Mieheltorena at all, after a successful revolution 
 had expelled bim from his capital. The Su- 
 preme Court rejected it. In this case, as in many 
 others, not the slightest suspicion was cast on the 
 claimant who held in good faith, and in perfect 
 honesty conveyed large tracts covered by his 
 title to third parties. Nye's claim to four 
 leagues on the Sacramento was a sample of 
 claims under the general permission granted by 
 Mieheltorena, after his expulsion from office, to 
 Sutter to issue certificates of title to persons who 
 bad previously petitioned for land. The SujDreme 
 Court treated the general title as a nullity. The 
 claim of Fuentes, a young nephew of Mieheltore- 
 na, for eleven leagues near the Mission of San 
 Jose, was rejected when the Sujireme Court was 
 shown that, though it was dated at Monterey, 
 1843, the Governor whose signature was at- 
 tached had never at that time been to Monterey. 
 The claim of the two brothers of General Valle- 
 jo, better known as the Teschemacher claim, for 
 
FRAUDULENT LAND CLAIMS. 541 
 
 sixteen leasrues, was reiected as spurious. The chap. 
 
 . . . . X-KXVI 
 
 claim of Santillan, a priest at tlie Mission Dolo- _^_^* 
 res, to the site of San Francisco, purported to i860. 
 be derived from a grant by Pio Pico in 1846. 
 It was prosecuted in the name of James R. 
 Bolton, and held by Palmer, Cook & Co. and 
 a Philadelphia company, when the Supreme 
 Court, to the great jo}^ of San Franciscans, re- 
 versed the judgment of the commissioners and 
 the District Court, and rejected it. Other 
 claims of less note and value it rejected, some 
 for lack of proof of their genuineness, some for 
 clearly discovered though adroitly perpetrated 
 fraud. 
 
 The Attorney-General's figures, as quoted 
 above, especially his estimate of the value of the 
 land saved from the operation of spurious titles, 
 were recklessly extravagant; but though he 
 wrote as an attorney, and not as a judge, even 
 he does not picture too vividly the audacity 
 and gigantic proportions of the frauds at- 
 tempted. 
 
 The chaotic confusion concerning land titles 
 in California that prevailed a few years ago can 
 never again return. Most of the important claims 
 have been determined by the highest judicial 
 authorities, and Congress grows less and less dis- 
 posed to reopen cases adjudicated, or by enact- 
 ment to disturb what is apparently firm. Most 
 that now remains is to settle and aj)poiut the 
 
542 THE HISTOEY OF OALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, boundaries of grants confirmed. A man may at 
 "last buy a homestead lot in the city, or a farm 
 
 I860, in the country, with some comfortaljle assurance 
 that, if he has the j^roper searches for title made, 
 he is not simply purchasing a lawsuit. 
 
THE STATE PKISON. 543 
 
 1864. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVn. 
 
 BITTER PARTY STRIFES. 
 
 Within the eight years after the Vigilance chap. 
 revolution, California enjoyed or suffered 'the ■^"^^^^^' 
 control of four different political parties : tlje isse- 
 Know Nothing, Democi'atic, Republican, and 
 Union. The Know Nothing, or American, as 
 it called itself, rode into power on the wave of 
 reform. Governor Johnson kept faith with the 
 reformers, and under his spur the Legislature 
 did really apply the pruning-knife to govern- 
 mental expenses with effect. But his adminis- 
 tration committed an eo;reo:ious blunder in the 
 matter of the State Prison. 
 
 In 1851, by an unfortunate contract for a 
 term of ten years, that institution was turned 
 over to the control of James M. Estill. There 
 were so many abuses, so many escapes of pris- 
 oners, sometimes encouraged if not even planned 
 by the keepers, so much and such well-grounded 
 complaint, that the Legislature declared the 
 lease forfeited, and the State officers resumed 
 its management. They erected a wall twenty 
 feet high about the premises at San Queutin, 
 
544 THE HISTORY OF CALTTORinA. 
 
 CHAP, enclosing a square of five hundred feet on eacli 
 ■ side, and initiated many reforms. 
 
 1856. Still the concern did not prosper, and the 
 Legislature of 1856, doubtless thinking it wise 
 economy, made a new lease of the prison build- 
 ings and labor to the same Estill, he engaging 
 to maintain and keep safely the convicts, and 
 the State to pay him ten thousand dollars a 
 year for five years. Very soon he assigned the 
 lea^e to one McCauley at half the agreed rate 
 of compensation. The abuses now were worse 
 than ever. Prisoners were maltreated and con- 
 tinually escaping. 
 
 The Legislature again declared the lease for- 
 feited, and Governer Weller, in the spring of 
 1858, took forcible possession of the property, 
 and gave the keys to a new warden. The as- 
 signee prosecuted for his rights and for dam- 
 ages, and the Supreme Court sustained him. 
 A compromise was effected, but its terms were 
 not punctually met on the part of the State. 
 Finally, a bonus was paid the assignee in Gov- 
 ernor Downey's day, and, though there have 
 been several wholesale escapes, the manage- 
 ment has improved ever since, and, but for the 
 lack of room to classify prisoners and keep the 
 adepts in crime separate from mere novices, it 
 is in tolerable condition. 
 
 1857. The Administration suffered also from the 
 scandal of a defalcation by one of its principal 
 
A DEFALCATING OFFICER. 545 
 
 officers. There was suddenly missiusj from tlie chap 
 
 XXXVII 
 
 treasury some one hundred and forty thousand >_^_ ' 
 dollars. Dr. Bates, the Treasurer, pretended 1857. 
 that it was set aside to pay the interest on the 
 debt, but all he could show for it was a penal 
 bond of the Pacific Express Company, engaging 
 to j)ay one hundred and twenty-four thousand 
 dollars into the treasury in default of the pay- 
 ment of the interest due in New York in July. 
 Bates was impeached, convicted, and declared 
 by the Senate disqualified to hold office. He 
 was indicted, too, for embezzlement, stood two 
 or three trials, but by virtue of a change of 
 venue, was finally acquitted. His sureties were 
 prosecuted, and judgment recovered against 
 them, but they proved insolvent, and the State 
 abandoned the claim. 
 
 Know Nothingism was a temporary expedi- 
 ent, and short-lived. Here, as elsewhere, it 
 died before the term of its first victors exj^ired. 
 Johnson sent his second annual message (1857) 
 to a Legislature which on joint ballot had forty- 
 six Democratic majority. 
 
 As Gwin's seat in the United States Senate 
 had been vacant nearly two years, and Weller's 
 was just about to be, there should l^e no diffi- 
 culty, if the two factions would be satisfied each 
 with an abundant j^rize. Broderick was king 
 of caucus that year. On the 10th of January Jan.io. 
 (1857), in joint convention, he had seventy- 
 
 35 
 
546 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOEIN^IA. 
 
 CHAP, nine votes, E. C. Stanley fourteen, and J. W. 
 ^_^ ■ Coffroth seventeen, on tlie first ballot, and Brod- 
 1857. erick was declared elected United States Sena- 
 tor, to fill the place that Weller would vacate 
 in March. 
 
 But who should be his colleague ? who oc- 
 cupy for four years Gwin's long-vacant se^at? 
 Broderick wanted Judge McCorkle, but caucus, 
 ^ rebelling, refused him, Gwin, Broderick's bit- 
 ter enemy, bade high for it. Milton S. Latham 
 wanted it, who, as member of Congress, and es- 
 pecially as Collector of the Port of San Fran- 
 cisco, had earned a fair reputation. Both paid 
 court to Broderick, for the decision lay with 
 him. Gwin professed great disgust of Federal 
 patronage ; meddling with it had caused all his 
 woes ; men whom he helped to office were work- 
 ing for Latham ; he would be glad to give up 
 all pretensions to any claim in the appoint- 
 ments. But Broderick distrusted him. La- 
 tham, with reservations about two or three 
 trivial places, had assured Broderick's friends 
 that they should have his aid to obtain what- 
 ever they wanted, and it was understood that 
 Latham was to be the lucky man. 
 
 Suddenly Frank Tilford, candidate for the 
 San Francisco collectorship, told Broderick that 
 he missed a letter from his desk in which La- 
 tham had pledged his support of him for the 
 position; he suspected that Latham had sur- 
 
BRODERICK MAKES A COLLEAGUE FOR THE SENATE. 547 
 
 reptitiously regained possession of it. On this, chap, 
 Brodei'ick professed that all faith in Latham l.i^_ ' 
 deserted him, and he ordered caucus to give its 1S57. 
 vote for Gwin. 
 
 When Broderick told this story on the stump 
 two years afterwards, Latham indignantly de- 
 nied the petty larceny, and Tilford in writing 
 indorsed the denial, saying that he found the 
 letter next morning, on closer search, where he 
 left it. 
 
 Latham's version of his defeat was this: Jan. 13. 
 Broderick sent for him to visit him at the 
 "Magnolia," in Sacramento. He declined to 
 go to his room, but consented to meet him at 
 David Mahoney's room, in the same house. So 
 at night, l:)etween eleven and a half and two 
 o'clock, the Senator elect, and the young aspi- 
 rant for senatorial honors, met. Broderick told 
 Latham he would make him Senator if he would 
 write a full relinquishment of all his claims 
 upon the Federal patronage. Latham answered 
 that he should lose his selfrespect if he did it, 
 and declined. Upon that they separated, but 
 Estill, of infragrant State Prison memory, es- 
 sayed to compromise their differences. Finally, 
 Latham consented that if Estill would write, he 
 would sign the required relinquishment, except 
 as to three persons and places. Broderick's ul- 
 timatum was an unconditional surrender, which 
 Latham refused. 
 
048 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 OHAP. Caucus obeyed orders promptly. At its next 
 
 XXXTII • J. J. ./ 
 
 _^^_, ■ session, on the fourteentli ballot, Gwin received 
 1857. forty-seven votes (seven more than was neces- 
 sary to a choice), Latham but twenty-six. On 
 the 13th of January, the Legislative Joint Con- 
 vention met again, when the first ballot stood : 
 Gwin, eighty-one ; H. A. Crabb, seventeen ; A. 
 M. Sargent, eleven ; E. C. Stanley, one; O. L. 
 Sbafter, one ; so Gwin was at last elected his 
 own successor, to serve four years. 
 
 As if to convince even the simplest that it 
 was not Broderich's magnanimity, but a most 
 corrupt and disgraceful bargain that restored 
 Gwin to the Senate, there ap]3eared in print, a 
 day or two later, an astounding " Letter to the 
 People," bearing even date with his election, 
 and sio'ned with Gwin's name. In it occurred 
 the following remarkable sentences : " A rep- 
 resentative whose evil destiny itis.tobethe 
 indirect dispenser of Federal patronage, will 
 strangely miscalculate if he expects to evade 
 the malice of disappointed men. To the Federal 
 patronage in the State do I attribute, in a great 
 degree, the malice and hostile energy which, 
 after years of faithful service, have nearly cost 
 me the indorsement of a re-election to the United 
 States Senate. From patronage, then, and the 
 curse it entails, I shall gladly in future turn, 
 and my sole lal^or and ambition shall be to 
 deserve well of the State, and to justify the 
 
GWIN CONFESSES HIS INDEBTEDNESS. 549 
 
 cLoice of the Legislature in lionorinar me a chap. 
 
 • • • XXXVII 
 
 second time as a representative of its interests. ' 
 * * * * I have hinted at aid other than i857. 
 that received from those whom I re2:arded as 
 friends, I refer to the timely assistance accord- 
 ed to me by Mr. Broderick and his friends. 
 Although at one time a rival, and recognizing 
 in him a fierce ])ut manly opponent, I do not 
 hesitate to acknowledge, in this public manner, 
 his forgetfulness of all grounds of dissension 
 and hostility, in what he conceives to be a step 
 necessary to allay the strifes and discords which 
 had distracted the party and the State. To 
 him I conceive, in a great degree, my election is 
 due ; and I feel bound to him and them in com- 
 mon efforts to unite and heal, where the result 
 heretofore has been to break down and de- 
 stroy." 
 
 That spring, there was a grand hegira of the 
 politicians to Washington, to secure the spoils 
 that Buchanan had to distribute. But at the 
 national capital Broderick's rod had no magic 
 power, while Gwin's open house and profuse 
 hospitality, and Mrs. Grwin's fancy balls and 
 gay receptions, had all the effect that such 
 things aim to produce on impressible senators 
 and cabinet officers. Though Gwin may have 
 kept the promise of his lettei-, the choicest of 
 the Federal patronage for California came out 
 with the senior Senator's brand upon it. Wash- 
 
550 THE HISTORY OF CALITOElSriA. 
 
 CHiVP. ins^ton, whom Broderick did not love, was 2:iven 
 _^_ ■ the collectorship at San Francisco. Bigler was 
 
 1857. exiled with a mission to Chili. 
 
 At home, in the fall, Broderick tried to get 
 McCorkle nominated for Governor on an Anti- 
 Lecompton platform, but failed. Weller re- 
 ceived the nomination, and was elected by the 
 undivided Democracy over Edward Stanley, 
 the candidate of the Whigs. 
 
 The Legislature chosen that fall was largely 
 
 1858. Democratic. Meeting in 1858, it adopted a 
 resolution iudoreing the President's Kansas 
 policy, and instructing the State's senators to 
 vote accordingly. 
 
 There was occasion this year to try the virtue 
 of the Fugitive Slave Law, one of the series of 
 Compromise Acts of 1850. A Mr. Stovall, from 
 Mississippi, came into the State with his slave, 
 Archy, in the summer of 1857. Though he pro- 
 fessed that he did not intend to stay long^ he 
 so far settled as to engage for a w^hile as teacher 
 of a private school in Sacramento. In Janu- 
 ary, he prepared to send the slave South again, 
 when suddenly Archy assumed his liberty, and 
 declined to go. Stovall had the boy arrested ; 
 but the friends of the alleged slave sued out a 
 writ of habeas corpus^ under which he was dis- 
 charp:ed, on the oTound that Stovall was not a 
 traveller, and Archy not a fugitive, under the 
 act of 1850. Instantly that he was discharged, 
 
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT. 551 
 
 lie was rearrested, and his case hastened up to chap. 
 the Supreme Court, where Chief-Justice Bur- 11^_' 
 nett gave the law to the negro, and, Terry con- 1858. 
 curring, the negro to his claimant. Stovall now 
 brought his chattel to San Francisco, and took 
 the steamer for home ; but when off the Heads, 
 both were arrested and brought back — the for- 
 mer on a charge of kidnapping ; the latter by 
 writ of habeas corpus. The U. S. Commissioner, 
 George Pen Johnston, though a man of strong 
 Southern sympathies, heard the case, when it 
 came up before him, with impartiality. Colonel 
 Baker befriended Archy; J. A. Hardy (who 
 was impeached, in 1862, for using treasonable 
 language) pleaded tlie cause of Stovall. After 
 an exciting trial, in course of vdiich counsel came 
 once to the verge of a physical collision, and the 
 blacks in town were very much stirred up, the 
 negro was set free. 
 
 The second Legislature during Weller's gu- 1^59. 
 bernatorial term was more than simply Demo- 
 cratic ; it was chivalric and very "high-toned" 
 on the Lecompton question. By resolution it 
 denounced a speech made by Broderick in the 
 Senate — in which he had spoken with great 
 freedom of the Executive — as insultine: to the 
 nation and humiliating to the people. 
 
 So soon as Congress adjourned the two sena- 
 tors came home to have the fi2:ht over asrain, on 
 the soil native to it. Gwin brought with him 
 
552 THE IIISTOEY OF CALtFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, tlie efood wishes of the Administration ; Brod- 
 
 XXXVII « 
 
 " _^_ ' erick the sympathies of the Douglas Democrats 
 1859. and the Eepablicans, who had fraternized on 
 many matters, though maintaining distinctly 
 party lines. In Administrative circles, Weller 
 was the candidate of the ultra Southern men, 
 Latham of the Conservatives, and in Conven- 
 tion Latham won the nomination for Governor, 
 For Congressmen, Burch and Scott were nomi- 
 nated by the same convention. The anti-Le- 
 compton Convention nominated John Curry for 
 Governor, and Joseph C. McKibben and S. A. 
 Booker for Congress. The Republicans nomi- 
 nated Leland Stanford for Governor, and Colo- 
 nel E. H. Baker and P. H. Sibley for Congress. 
 Here there was am2:)le occasion for the hostile 
 senators to get a verdict, principle enough in- 
 volved in the contest to dignify it, personal ani- 
 mosity enough to make sure that each would 
 struggle to the extent of his power for victory. 
 Gwin had on his side the patronage of the Gov- 
 ernment, the custom-house, the post-ofiice, the 
 mint, each of which had a long list of employes, 
 and a list ten times longer of expectants of 
 places there. Besides, he had the odor of regu- 
 larity, so dear to Democrats. Broderick had 
 the sympathies of the Republicans, but their 
 votes were thought to he mortgaged to candi- 
 dates of their own. As Avas the Democratic 
 custom, the candidates went into the outskirts, 
 
BEODERICK DECLINES PEELEY's CHALLENGE. 553 
 
 avoidins: San Francisco, and even Sacramento, as chap. 
 long as possible, evidently dreading the phonog- _^^_, " 
 rapliers and the 2:)ress of the chief cities. 1859. 
 
 But at the very opening of the campaign, an ""^^ ' 
 affair occurred which was augury of a bitter 
 strife coming. Judge Terry was a defeated can- 
 didate Ijefore the Lecompton Convention for a 
 renomiuation to the supreme bench. In a 
 speech professing resignation to the will of the 
 majority, he said some harsh things of Broder- 
 ick, intimating that while it was true enough 
 that he rallied to the call of a Douglas, it was 
 not of Stephen A., but of Frederick Douglass, 
 the eloquent mulatto. Broderick read the re- 
 port of this speech at the breakfast-table of the 
 International Hotel in San Francisco, and as he 
 laid aside the paper uttered some remark not 
 complimentary to Terry. D. W. Perley heard 
 the remark, and replied to it. Broderick re- 
 torted. Perley, seeing there were ladies at the 
 table, withdrew, and soon after sent a hostile 
 message to Broderick by the hands of S. H. 
 Brooks, Lecompton candidate for State Comp- 
 troller. E. J. C. Kewen, arriving the same 
 night, relieved Brooks, and himself took on the 
 part of Perley's friend. Broderick, because 
 there was some informality about it, chose to 
 send his reply — it was dated Jmie 29th, 1859 — 
 to Perley direct. He said the publicity given 
 to the affair put it out of his power to afford 
 
554 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORA^IA. 
 
 CHAP, the satisfaction demanded. He had told bim 
 
 , , in the presence of gentlemen, at the time of the 
 
 1859. alleged insult, that he would not accept a chal- 
 lenge from him, who, within a few days, had 
 made oath that he was a subject of Great Brit- 
 ain, and, consequently, had no political rights 
 to be affected by giving or receiving a chal- 
 lenge. "For many years," wrote Broderick, 
 " and up to the time of my elevation to the posi- 
 tion I now occupy, it was well known that I 
 w^ould not have avoided any issue of the char- 
 acter proposed. If compelled to accept a chal- 
 lenge, it could only be with a gentleman holding 
 a position equally elevated and responsible, and 
 there are no circumstances which could induce 
 me even to do thus during the pendency of the 
 present canvass. When I authorized the an- 
 nouncement that I w^ould address the people of 
 California during the campaign, it was suggest- 
 ed that efforts would be made to force me into 
 difficulties, and I determined to take no notice 
 of attacks from any source during the canvass. 
 If I were to accept your challenge, there are prob- 
 ably many other gentlemen who would seek 
 similar opportunities for hostile meetings, for 
 the purpose of accomplishing a political object, 
 or to obtain public notoriety. I cannot affoi'd, 
 at the j)resenl time, to descend to a violation 
 of the Constitution and the State laws to 
 subserve either their or your purposes." 
 
BRODEEICK ON THE STUMP. 555 
 
 Perley then issued a card to tlie public, chap. 
 pronouncing Broderick's letter a tissue of false- J__^_, ' 
 hoods, a mean, quibbling, dastardly evasion, is59. 
 and expressing the opinion that Broderick was 
 as devoid of courage as of principle, and had no 
 longer any right to call himself a gentleman. 
 
 Broderick made his first stump speech at 
 Placerville, July 9th. He recited the points of July, 
 his career in California. He was elected to the 
 first Senate of the State, and in 1851 re-elected 
 for two years, and chosen by that body to pre- 
 side over it, when the Lieutenant-Governor, 
 McDougall, was called to fill the chair of Gov- 
 ernor, made vacant by Burnett's resignation. 
 In 1852 and 1853 he was chairman of the State 
 Central Committee. In 1852 he was a candi- 
 date for the United States Senate, but caucus 
 preferred the claims of Weller. In 1854 he 
 was again a candidate, and caucus gave him 
 the nomination, but a combination of Ameri- 
 cans, Old Line "Whigs, and Federal ofiice- 
 holders defeated him. He protested that " no 
 thieving bill, or corruj^t measure, designed to 
 rob the treasury, ever received support or coun- 
 tenance" from him. 
 
 Said he, " I have lived among you for more 
 than ten years. From the commencement, and 
 during the period when the gross vices of pub- 
 lic men were winked at or forgotten, on account 
 of the general laxity of morals that prevailed 
 
556 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CEAP. in society unleavened by the presence of 
 'virtuous woman, no man, living or dead, ever 
 1859. saw me at a gaming-table, or in a brothel, or 
 under the influence of liquors, or ever knew me 
 to refuse to pay an honest debt. No one ever 
 dared to charge me with being influenced by 
 pecuniary considerations in any vote which I 
 gave." He had been told that the San Fran- 
 cisco Vigilance Committee undertook to inves- 
 tigate his history. The principles of that 
 organization he did not approve ; he had no 
 sympathy with them ; but many men in it had 
 since become friendly. He had sought to reduce 
 the salaries of Federal oflicers in California. He 
 claimed credit for defeatiuo; the Lime Point 
 swindle ; read letters from Governor Weller, 
 urging the purchase of the Point at three hun- 
 dred thousand dollars ; produced the evidence 
 of a clerk in the Treasury Department, describ- 
 ing that precipitous rock at the door of the 
 ocean, as a property valuable for warehouses, 
 and eligible for villas and suburban residences, 
 and stating that six hundred acres of it was 
 good for agricultural purposes ! 
 
 At Nevada, Broderick told the story of 
 Gwin's last election to the Senate, giving that 
 version which made Latham party to the larce- 
 ny of the Tilford letter. Latham, at Shasta, 
 pronounced the story untrue in every respect. 
 Gwin, at Yreka, called it a " lie," and vile and 
 
BITTER PEESONALITIES. 557 
 
 slanderous. In another place lie ridiculed chap. 
 
 . . • XXXVII 
 
 Broderick's pretensions to ability to address m- _1^_^' 
 telligent audiences ; his first speech in the Sen- 1859. 
 ate was a failure, his second he read from a 
 manuscript. Broderick, at Quincy, Jnly 21st, 
 spoke of " Gwin's low scurrility," accused him 
 of being^ the paid ao-ent of the Pacific Mail 
 Steamship Company, and repeated a confident 
 belief that both Gwin and Weller were inter- 
 ested in the Line Point swindle. Latham, at 
 Nevada, told his version of the Senatorial bar- 
 gain, which is incorporated in our account of 
 that abominable transaction. At Sacramento he 
 said, in a strain quite foreign to the campaign, 
 that the future historian would put this down 
 among the remarkable features of the year 1859, 
 that while Barnum was lectuiing in England 
 upon honesty, and Lola Montez was lecturing 
 in Scotland upon feminine virtue, David C. 
 Broderick was lecturing in California upon 
 political honesty. Broderick, at Red Blufi*, 
 spoke of Gwin's "utter worthlessness of char- 
 acter, his unreliability of word, his sneaking 
 manner of acting." Gwin, at Alleghany Town, 
 said of Broderick, " He is at my feet ; I have 
 my foot upon his neck. ... I intend ... to lash 
 him with a scourge of scorpions, and shingle 
 him over with the falsehoods and libels he has 
 uttered against me and others." He pronounced 
 the charge of his being the paid agent of the 
 
558 THE IIISTOET OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 (jiiAP. Pacific Mail Steamship Company false, and the 
 
 XXXVII . . 
 
 J_^^_, author of it a slanderer and calumniator. " Such 
 1859. a man will soon be banished from eveiy gentle- 
 man's house, if he is now tolerated in any." In 
 a card, dated August 11th, Gwin claimed it 
 proven that Broderick intended to use the posi- 
 tion he held to j)ay his electioneering debts. 
 
 The liepublicans, all this time, were much 
 divided as to whether they should fuse with the 
 anti-Lecompton party, with a fair prospect of 
 electing a portion of their ticket, or maintain 
 Iheir isolation, plead their distinctive doctrines 
 from the stamp, avoid all entangling alliances, 
 and boldly accept immediate defeat as part of 
 the drill necessary to " organize victory " in the 
 future. 
 
 A distino-uished stranorer had arrived — Hor- 
 ace Greeley, of the New York Tribune^ covered 
 with boils, and very much fatigued with the 
 overlan-d journey, yet lecturing on literary sub- 
 jects, addressing great cro^vds concerning the 
 Pacific Railroad, giving audience to admirers, 
 and not loath to tender advice to his Ilepul)lican 
 friends. Being urged to do so, he wrote a let- 
 ter to the public (August 20th), giving the 
 I'easons why it is l)etter to take half a loaf than 
 no bread, why McKibben, Democrat as he was, 
 should be re-elected to Congress, and wdiy Re- 
 publicans and anti-Lecompton men should unite 
 to defeat the Lecompton ticket. 
 
HORACE GEEELEy's ADVICE. 559 
 
 Tlie advice was not well relished in all Ee- chap. 
 
 • XXXVII 
 
 publican quarters. Frank M. Pixley published ^^ , ' 
 
 in pamplilet form a bold denunciation of the 1859. 
 fusing scheme. He believed that all the rough 
 things Broderick had said of Gwin, Weller, and 
 Denver were true, but he charged that Brod- 
 erick was no better. He regarded Broderick 
 responsible for the acts of the Executive of the 
 State " while Bigler cumbered the guberna- 
 torial chair/' for he ruled the Governor with a 
 rod of iron, dispensed his patronage, and dis- 
 posed of his bounty. He could see nothing to 
 choose between Gwin and Broderick ; both were 
 " equally bad, equally corrupt, both unscrupu- 
 lous, and both surrounded by equally bad and 
 contemptible men." Broderick had voted with 
 Bepublicans in the Senate simply because the 
 President had tabooed him, and there was no 
 place for him on the Administration benches. 
 In his political career he saw nothing but the 
 shrewd, imperious, self-willed, unscrupulous pol- 
 itician. While admittiiis: his freedom from the 
 stain of personal immorality, if he " should give 
 a list of all the blacko-uards that ever infested 
 San Francisco, that ever stuffed a ballot-box, or 
 raised a 2:)lug-muss on election-day, he would 
 name the political friends of the Hon. David C. 
 Broderick." 
 
 One of the Republican candidates for Con- 
 gress withdrew on the eve of election, and the 
 
560 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOKN"!!. 
 
 CHAP. Republicans cast their votes for Baker and 
 "^_^^McKibben. It was in vain, however; Latham 
 1859. was elected Governor, and Biu^ch and Scott to 
 Congress. 
 
JUDGE TERRY AND BRODEEICK. 0(j1 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVm. 
 
 BRODERICK'S DEATH.— NOTABLE DUELS. 
 
 Election beino: over, Juds-e Terry descended ^^-^^Vt 
 from the Supreme bench, to demand of Broder- ■ — , — > 
 ick an apology foi- the uncomplimentary remark ]^^^- 
 which Perley heard at the breakfast-table of the 
 International more than two months previous, 
 and excepted to. By note he asked a retraction 
 of the language used. Broderick asked what 
 he understood the language to be. Terry re- 
 plied : " You said, ' 1 have heretofore considered 
 and spoken of him (Terry) as tlie only honest 
 man on the Supreme Court bench ; but I now 
 take it all back.' " But if that was not the 
 exact language, it made no dijfference ; he asked 
 a retraction of any words which were calculated 
 to reflect on his character as an officer or a gen- 
 tleman. Broderick responded, repeating his 
 exact language, which was about as the other 
 had heard it, with this addition, " During Judge 
 Terry's incarceration l:»y the Vigilance Commit- 
 tee, I paid two hundred doUars a week to sup- 
 port a newspaper in Lis defence." , " You are 
 the best judge," added the writer of this note, 
 
 36 
 
502 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CEiAP. evidently snrpnsed that at a time wlien such 
 
 ' ^_^_ violence of speech was tolerated, language so 
 
 185!). very temperate and mild should be selected to 
 
 shoot him for, " as to whether the lano;ua2:e 
 
 affords good grounds of offence." 
 
 As mortal combat was predetermined, they 
 wasted little more time on preliminaries. Brod- 
 erick's friends held, that if his remarks at the 
 International table were to be withdrawn, 
 Terry's, at Mr. Benton's church, which provoked 
 them, should also be withdrawn. But Terry 
 had nothing to retract, nor had Broderick. So, 
 on the morning of the 11th, they met for a 
 duel just over the San Francisco line, in San 
 Mateo County ; but Chief Burke, armed witli a 
 warrant from each county, came suddenly up, 
 arrested them, and put a stop to proceed- 
 ings. The police court dismissed the charge, 
 because no violation of the law had been 
 committed. 
 
 At seven o'clock on the morning of Septem- 
 ber loth, the combatants met again at another 
 point in San Mateo County, some twelve miles 
 from the city, and no police interfered. About 
 fifty spectators were present. Terry's seconds 
 were Thomas Hayes and Calhoun Benham ; 
 Broderick's were McKibben and D. D. Colton. 
 Broderick won the choice of positions and the 
 word of fire. Terry won the choice of weapons, 
 which were duelling pistols ; distance, ten paces. 
 
brodekick's death. 583 
 
 At the word, tlie principals raised tlaeir pistols, chap. 
 but Broderick's discliara:ed itself before beins:^ 
 brought to a level — tlie ball striking the ground 1859. 
 some distance in front of his opponent. Terry's 
 fire followed but a second later — he exclaiming, 
 " The shot is not mortal ; I have struck two 
 inches to the right ;" then, as he saw Broderick 
 slowly falling, he and his friends retired. The 
 ball had entered Broderick's breast near the 
 right nipple, and lodged in the left side. He 
 was taken on a litter to the road, and then con- 
 veyed to Leonidas Haskell's residence at Black 
 Point. He was in great pain, and oppressed 
 with a heavy load on the chest, except when 
 relieved of sensibility by anaesthetics. One 
 who was by his bedside says that he ex- 
 claimed, " They have killed me because I was 
 opposed to the extension of slavery and a cor- 
 rupt Administration." Occasionally he appeared 
 to rally, but he soon fell into delirium again, 
 and, at twenty minutes after nine on the morn- 
 ing of the 17th of September, he died. 
 
 On the coroner's inquest, the gunsmith who 
 loaded the pistol Broderick used said it was 
 more delicate on the trigger than Terry's; 
 though the seconds declared that- they were 
 ignorant of the fact. S. H. Brooks, the new- 
 ly elected State Comptroller, loaded Terry's 
 weapon. 
 
 The remains of the deceased Senator were 
 
564 THE HISTOET OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, removed to the Union Hotel, there to He in 
 state for a time. On Sunday, the 18th, the 
 1859. funeral was celebrated. Colonel Baker deliv- 
 ered one of his matchless orations over the 
 body, to a gi^eat crowd assembled on the plaza. 
 It was a glowing tribute to the memory of his 
 friend, which told the more emphatically be- 
 cause it was not unrelieved eulogy. He said, 
 that in his judgment, when Broderick sought 
 to anticipate the senatorial election, he commit- 
 ted an error which he lived to regret. He 
 urged that no man suppose his friend's death 
 " was caused by any other reason than that to 
 which his own words assicrned it. It had been 
 long foreshadowed ; it was predicted by his 
 friends ; it was threatened by his enemies ; it 
 was the consequence of intense jDolitical hatred. 
 His death was a political necessity, poorly 
 veiled beneath th^ guise of private quarrel." 
 Concerning the code to which this costly sac- 
 rifice was brouo:ht, the orator said : " Fellow- 
 citizens, one year ago I performed a duty such 
 as I perform to-day, over the remains of Senator 
 Ferguson, who died as Mr. Broderick died, 
 tangled in the meshes of the code of honor- 
 To-day there is another and a more eminent 
 sacrifice. To-day I renew my protest ; to-day I 
 utter yours. The code of honor is a delusion 
 and a snare ; it palters with the hope of a true 
 courage, and binds it at the feet of crafty and 
 
baker's eulogy of broderick. 565 
 
 cruel skill. It surrounds its victim with the chap. 
 pomp and grace oi the procession, but leaves _.^_, 
 him bleeding on the altar. It substitutes cold 1859. 
 and deliberate preparation for courageous and 
 manly impulse, and arms the one to disarm the 
 other. It may prevent fraud between practised 
 duellists, who should be forever without its 
 pale, but it makes the mere 'trick of the 
 weapon' superior to the noblest cause and 
 truest courage. Its pretence of equality is a 
 lie: it is equal in all the form; it is unjust in 
 all the substance — ^the habitude of arms — the 
 early training — the frontier life — the border 
 war — the sectional custom — the life of leisure ; 
 — all these are advanta2:es which no neojotiation 
 can neutralize, and which no courage can over- 
 come." 
 
 From the Plaza, the body was borne to Lone 
 Mountain Cemetery, accompanied by the Pio- 
 neers, a benevolent society, some two thousand 
 citizens on foot, and a long procession of car- 
 riages. At the grave, two Catholic clergymen 
 officiated. Father Gallagher, to the mourners, 
 said their friend died repenting his misguided 
 act : " He addressed me as a father; I regarded 
 him as a son in Christ." A monument of 
 granite has since been erected on the hio^hest 
 ground in the cemeteiy, whence the ocean and 
 the city, and the mountains of the coast range 
 across the bay, are together visible, marking the 
 
Di5& THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, spot wliere Broderick's remains repose. At a 
 short distance from it is the grave of liis friend 
 
 1859. who pronounced the oration over his bier. 
 Colonel Baker, soon after these funeral cere- 
 monies, went to Oregon, assisted in the political 
 campaign that carried that State in opposition 
 to the Buchanan Democracy, and was elected 
 
 1860. (I860) United States Senator. On his way to 
 Washington, he was received at San Francisco 
 with triumphal honors by the Republicans, 
 who claimed him to be theirs quite as much as 
 Oregon's Senator. In the Senate chamber, his 
 eloquence shone no less illustriously than in 
 the halls and from " the stump" of the Pacific 
 coast. 
 
 Baker was born in England, but reared, 
 since six years of age, in America. Deprived 
 in youth of all near relatives, except a younger 
 brother, whom he supported by his work as a 
 weaver, in Philadelphia, he went to Blinois, 
 studied law, was elected to Congress, raised a 
 regiment of Illinoisans, whom he led into Ihe 
 Mexican war, where he won distinction, and in 
 1851 removed to San Francisco. 
 
 The Slaveholders' Rebellion bursting out 
 into open war soon after he had taken his seat 
 as Senator from Oregon, he raised a regiment 
 of volunteers at the East, during the Congres- 
 sional recess, which gloried in the name of the 
 " California Reo-iment," and took it into service. 
 
TEREY ESCAPES UNPUNISHED. 507 
 
 At Ball's Bluff, wliile gallantly leading his chap. 
 brigade against tlie enemy, lie fell pierced by " 
 six bullets. His body was taken to San Fran- i860. 
 cisco, where it was received with memorable 
 ceremonies, including a funeral oration by Ed- 
 ward Stanly, and another at the grave by the Aug. 18. 
 Rev. T. Stan- King, and buried at Lone Moun- 
 tain. 
 
 A will was found in Washington bearing 
 Broderick's signature. As the propei-ty it dis- 
 posed of was valued at some four hundred 
 thousand dollars, the will was vigorously 
 contested, but it was finally admitted to pro- 
 bate. 
 
 ^ Terry, when he saw that he had seriously 
 wounded his opponent, hastened to Sacramento, 
 and thence to his farm near Stockton. He had 
 left with a friend his resignation of the judge- 
 ship before the duel came off, to be sent in to 
 the Governor only on condition of such a result 
 as did follow. And now he signified his readi- 
 ness for trial. The case was postponed from 
 time to time, moved from court to court, and at 
 last, on a change of venue, taken into Marin 
 County, where the Seventh District Court was 
 in session, temporarily presided over by Judge 
 Hardy, who came all the way from Mokelumne 
 Hill for the purpose. On the day set for ti'ial, 
 the witnesses from San Francisco were becalmed 
 on the bay. The court waited a little while, 
 
568 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, tlien the prosecuting^ attornev moved a 7iolle 
 
 X.XXVIIT . '' 
 
 __^_^ 'prosequi., and the farce was ended. After the 
 
 I860, war of the rebellion broke out, Terry went 
 overland to Texas, joined the rebels, and troub- 
 led California no more. 
 
 There had been some notable duels in the 
 State before this one which proved fatal to 
 Broderick. The bloodless ones brought a storm 
 of ridicule upon all concerned ; some very 
 bloody ones, where the principals hacked each 
 other with swords till both were shockingly 
 mutilated, and one party or the other butchered, 
 were quite as much calculated to disgust sen- 
 sible people with ^^ the code." 
 
 Edward Gilbert, senior editor of the AUa 
 
 1852. California newspaper, and one of the first Con- 
 gressmen chosen by the State after its organiza- 
 tion, challenged J. W. Denver, State Senator 
 from Trinity, for reflections on him in a polit- 
 ical letter. Denver accepted, and on the 2d 
 of August, 1852, at Oak Grove, near Sacra- 
 mento, the duel came off, the weapons being 
 rifles, the distance forty paces. At the first fire 
 both missed — Denver purposely, it was said. 
 At the second Gilbert fell, and in a few minutes 
 died. 
 
 On the 21st of August, 1858, at Angel Isl- 
 
 1858. and, George Pen Johnston, and Mr. Ferguson, of 
 Sacramento, a State Senator, fought a duel, the 
 cause being the offensive way in which the Sen- 
 
NOTABLE DUELS. 569 
 
 ator, in a drinlciDg saloon, told a story in wMcli cnAP. 
 
 a young lady of Johnston's acquaintance fig-" , , ' 
 
 ured. They fought with pistols, at ten paces dis- 1858. 
 tance, which, in the unsatisfactory progress of 
 the engagement, was shortened to six paces. 
 Four shots w^ere exchanged. On the fourth, 
 Fero-uson fell with a fractured tliiojh-boiie. 
 Twenty-four days afterwards he died, while the 
 surgeons were amputating his leg. Johnston 
 surrendered himself to the Marin County author- 
 ities, was tried, and acquitted, on the ground 
 that Ferguson died not from the effects of the 
 wound, but because he had refused to allow an 
 earlier amputation. 
 
 Since the Broderick duel, there has been but 1861. 
 one "affair of honor'' that has caused much 
 sensation in the State. It was between Daniel 
 Showalter, of Mariposa, aged thirtj^-two, of 
 Breckinridge Democratic politics, and Speak- 
 er j97'6> tempore of the Assembly of 1861, and 
 Charles W. Piercy, aged twenty-four, Douglas 
 Democratic member from San Bernardino. The 
 Union resolutions came to a vote in Asseml^ly 
 under operation of the previous question. Sho- 
 walter asked leave to explain his vote. Piercy 
 objected. Showalter said he had " nothing but 
 contempt for any gentleman who objects." The 
 quarrel was nursed till the Legislature adjourn- 
 ed. Then Piercy sent a challenge, which was 
 accepted. They met eight miles from San Ra- 
 
5 TO THE HISTORY OF CALIFORIilA. 
 
 CHAP, fael, at four o'clock of tlie 25tli of May (1861\ 
 ,_^_^ "with rifles, at forty paces, and in presence, as 
 1861. was customary, of a considerable number of 
 witnesses. At the second shot Piercy fell dead. 
 The law is stringent enough in letter, but it 
 has never punished the duellist, and still it is 
 felt that duelling is not likely again to be re- 
 sorted to by gentlemen in the State. A drunk- 
 en vagabond may, and not nnfrequently does, 
 challenge some one to mortal combat, with the 
 effect of bringing himself into the station-house 
 and into contempt. The change of politics, the 
 decay of bogus Chivalry, and the constantly in- 
 creasins: influence of the New En2:land senti- 
 ment, have effected the reform. 
 I860. Governor Weller surpi'ised the people by ap- 
 pointing Henry P. llaun, of Marysville, to oc- 
 cupy the Senatorial seat made vacant by Brod- 
 erick's death, until the Legislature should 
 choose a permanent occupant. Haun served for 
 one term, and then died. On the 13th of Feb- 
 ruary he announced to the Senate his prede- 
 cessor's death. He said that he fell "in an 
 unfortunate conflict, which was engendered by 
 the use of unguarded expressions by the de- 
 ceased, personal in their character towards an- 
 other distinguished gentleman, who occupied a 
 high and honorable position in the State of 
 California." He moved resolutions of respect, 
 and an adjournment for the day. 
 
SENATORS ON BEODEEICK. 571 
 
 Mr. Critteudeii reminded Senators that Brod- chap. 
 erick always made his mark wherever he 
 stood. Mr. Seward said impartiality would re- i860. 
 quire the historian to raise Houston, and Rusk, 
 and Broderick to the rank among the organi- 
 zers of our States, which the world has assigned 
 to Winthrop and Villiers, Raleigh and Penn, 
 Baltimore and Oglethorpe. Foster said he 
 must vote ao;ainst the resolutions, on the ground 
 that the subject of their eulogy died by a duel 
 They were adopted. 
 
i)i^ . THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXIX. 
 
 A POLITICAL REVOLUTION. 
 
 CHAP. So soon as the Legislature of 1860 assembled, 
 ■ the struggle for Broclerick's place began. The 
 
 I860. Democrats were in power as usual. Ninety- 
 seven of them went into caucus together, and 
 on the first ballot Ex-Governor Weller had 
 thirty-eight votes ; Ex-Congressman Denvei', 
 thirty-one ; Judge Baldwin, eleven ; Collector 
 Washington, nine; and General McDougall, 
 eight. They tried it again on an early ensuing 
 evening; Baldwin was withdrawn, Denver 
 stepped aside, and the first ballot showed La- 
 tham, fifty-one ; Weller, forty-three; Washing- 
 ton, two. The result startled the people, who 
 had just elected Latham Governor, but caucus 
 asked no permission from the people. The two 
 houses met in Joint Convention on the 11th of 
 January. A Sacramento member nominated 
 Latham, a San Franciscan nominated Oscar L. 
 Shatter, and John Conness for the Anti-Lecomp- 
 tonites nominated Edmund Randolph. The 
 first ballot gave Latham (who the day before 
 
LATHAM ELECTED UNITED STATES SENATOR. 573 
 
 was iiiaiig-uratecl Governor) ninety-seven, Ran- chap. 
 
 > -, . XXXIX 
 
 dolpli fourteen, Sliafter tliree. 
 
 Latham, having achieved the object of his i860. 
 ambition, resigned the reins of State Govern- 
 ment to John G. Downey, Lieutenant-Governor, 
 a man without political history or experience, 
 but not destined to be without a popularity, 
 especially in San Francisco, quite new to Chief 
 Executives in California. The Leo;islature 
 shaped its labors mainly with the view of se- 
 curing all the patronage possible for the Demo- 
 cratic party, that it might go with reasonable 
 expectations into the Presidential election of 
 the coming fall. It passed l)ills for the inspec- 
 tion of beef and pork, and multiplied licenses, 
 not so mucb for I'e venue purposes, or because 
 those staples needed inspection, as because fa- 
 vorites and men skilled in the tactics of primary 
 conventions wanted paying places. It crowned 
 its unwelcome labors with an act authorizing 
 substantially the joint wharf companies of San 
 Francisco to build a sea-wall, or bulkhead, along 
 the city front, and to take toll of all that passed 
 it into the city for fifty years to come ; mean- 
 while mocking the State with the tender of the 
 reserved right to buy the work on completion 
 at cost and ten per cent, yearly interest. It 
 was a barefaced imposition of a heavy tax on 
 commerce for the benefit of speculators, whicli 
 
574 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP. San Francisco resented with profound indigna- 
 
 XXXIX.,. ^ ^ 
 
 , tion. 
 
 I860. Now it had been claimed that Latham was 
 pledged against the scheme, and that, knowing 
 he could not be moved to favor it, he was sent 
 to the Senate by the Bulkheaders' influence, to 
 get him out of the way. If so, they calculated 
 without their true host. Governor Downey 
 lacked experience, Init not resolution, and when 
 the enrolled bill went to him for the executive 
 sanction he vetoed it. 
 
 The Bulkheaders were boiling with wrath ; 
 San Francisco went into ecstasies. The citi- 
 zens demanded a visit from the little Governor 
 of Irish birth and iron backbone, and, when he 
 reluctantly consented, they met him at the 
 Sacramento boat, with a torchlight procession 
 that shamed every precedent in that line. They 
 escorted him to his temporary residence with 
 music, and banners, and cheers, through streets 
 illuminated with bonfires, costly pyrotechnics, 
 and transparencies, exhibiting mottoes of wel- 
 come, and with rockets and Roman candles, 
 often defined triumphal arches, over the route. 
 
 This veto killed the bulkhead, Avhich, in one 
 form or another, had been the great topic of strife 
 ever since Bigler advised the water-front exten- 
 sion. After that it was heard of no more as 
 a living lobby scheme. The Union Legisla- 
 ture of 1863 passed an act creating a commis- 
 
DOWNEY VETOES THE BULKHEAD BILL. 575 
 
 sion composed of three citizens, to be elected in chap. 
 a way satisfactory to the whole people, to 
 manage the wharves and apply their reve- i860. 
 nues, hitherto stopping mostly in private hands, 
 to needful repairs and the construction of such 
 a sea-wall as the wants of commerce and the 
 protection of the harbor demand. The work, 
 though just beginning, is in satisfactory shape, 
 and promises the happiest results. 
 
 Downey won the gratitude of the friends of 
 a free press, too, by pocketing a bill concerning 
 libel, intended to punish for their outspoken, 
 honest editorials, certain papers at the Bay that 
 lashed the Treasury thieves into continuous 
 fury. The gratitude of the Bay City people 
 towards the Los Angeles apothecary, who played 
 the part of Governor so much better than any 
 of his predecessors had done, was unbounded. 
 There was nothing they would not have given 
 him, but that his Southern proclivities drew 
 him, towards the close of his term, upon a rock 
 which, in the stormy times, no craft could graze 
 without serious damao-e. 
 
 That year, for the third time, the people, by 
 direct vote, repudiated the proposition for a 
 convention to revise the Constitution. Desirous 
 as they were to secure and enjoy certain changes 
 in the organic law, especially to place the Su- 
 preme Court on a more satisfactory footing, and 
 reduce the ordinary expenses of government, 
 
576 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, they refused the risks incident to a general 
 XXXIX . . 
 
 ,_^'revisal. As early as 1852 the Chivaliy had 
 
 I860, unsuccessfully attempted a convention, with the 
 secret purpose of dividing the State and erect- 
 ing the southern half into a Slave Territory. 
 From that time the friends of Union and of 
 freedom were very chary of creating any oppor- 
 tunities that secessionists or slavery extension- 
 ists might possibly use mischievously. 
 
 The result of the fall election (18(30) proved 
 that the anti-slavery doctrines, urged with so 
 much persistency in regions that seemed to give 
 no token of respect for them, by Kepublican 
 stump speakers and a portion of the press, not 
 always without peril of insult, and for the ora- 
 tors showers of stale eggs, had taken unex- 
 pected hold of the interior; that the Northern 
 sentiment was strengthening in the larger cities; 
 that the quarrels of the Democracy and the cor- 
 ruption of a party that ran the State for its 
 spoils, had worked out their legitimate result 
 in the dissfust of its more intellii^ent adherents. 
 The popular vote gave Lincoln, for President, 
 a plurality of seven hundred over Douglas, and 
 three thousand more for Douglas than for 
 Breckinridge — the total vote cast being one 
 hundred and nineteen thousand eight hundred 
 and twelve. Mr. Lincoln received the four 
 votes of the State in the Electoral College. 
 The influence of Broderick dead was even 
 
THE CHIVALRY CRUSHED. 577 
 
 i^reater than lie had exerted liviner. To the chap. 
 
 party of which he had been the leader belonged , ^ 
 
 half the credit of the change. The Chivalry 18(50. 
 were utterly crushed. 
 
 The Legislature then elected, and which met 
 in January, 186-1, had few Republicans in it, i^^i- 
 but the color of the new Democracy differed 
 materially from that of the old. Both houses 
 adopted a concurrent resolution pronouncing 
 untrue and expunging the resolutions of cen- 
 sure on Broderick, passed t"wo years before. 
 They rather distinguished themselves by their 
 more generous than just gifts and franchises to 
 individuals and comj)anies, of which the privi- 
 lege of laying horse railroads in the streets of 
 San Francisco was chief The first three of 
 these popular institutions were granted that 
 year, and, whether the scandal about the cor- 
 rupt appliances used to obtain their charters 
 was true or not, it is certain that on the rail- 
 road question, as on a pivot, turned almost all 
 the other local legislation. 
 
 That Legislature accomplished £?lso the al- 
 ways difficult job of electing a United States 
 Senator, taking nearly three months for it. 
 Gwin's seat was to become vacant on the 3d 
 of March. The split in the Democracy was too 
 wide to be bridged by any caucus, and it was 
 not attempte;]. The Assembly, willing to tiy 
 the paces of candidates, invited all aspirants to 
 
 37 
 
578 THE HISTiOKT OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CWAF. address it publicly. General McDongall alone 
 ^_^__, ■ ventured to the platform, for it was a time, just 
 1861. on the eve of war, when trimming politicians 
 shrank from committing themselves. Edmund 
 Randolph was sick in bed, and lost that oppor- 
 tunity to pledge himself to loyalty. But 
 McDoagall made an excellent Union speech. 
 
 About the middle of February the Douglas 
 men began to assemble in caucus. One even- 
 ing, twenty-six members being present, McDou- 
 gall received thirteen votes, Randolph six (not- 
 withstandino^ that his name was withdra^\ii 
 during the progress of the voting), Edgerton 
 three, Griffith two. So McDougall was the 
 nominee of the Douglas caucus. 
 
 The other kind of Democrats tried in vain to 
 obtain a caucus. The Republicans were more 
 harmonious, and on the twelfth ballot nomina- 
 ted Timothy G. Phelps. 
 
 The Legislature went into joint convention 
 on the 9th of March, with the following result : 
 Weller twenty-seven, Phel2:)s twenty-three, Mc- 
 Dougall twenty-seven, Nugent nine, Denver 
 sixteen, Wbitesides sixteen, Hoge five, and 
 others three. On the 19th, the Breckinridge 
 and anti-McDougall Democrats met to the num- 
 ber of forty-six in caucus, and nominated John 
 Nugent, formerly proprietor and editor of the 
 San Francisc(3 Herald. In joint convention 
 next day, on the twenty-second and last ballot, 
 
UNION MAY MSiETING. 579 
 
 McDougall had fifty-six, Nugent forty-seven, chap. 
 Weller six, Phelps one, Creanor one. To obtain 
 this result, which gave just the necessary uum- isGi. 
 ber to elect McDougall, Phelps changed his 
 vote v^^hen he stiw that the Republicans, by 
 uniting with the Douglas men, could elect a 
 man firmly pledged to the Union, and save the 
 State from being represented in the United 
 States Senate by John Nugent. 
 
 The news that Secessionists had fired on Fort 
 Sumter reached the Pacific coast late in April, 
 and it fired the Union-loving heart of Califor- 
 nia. A great meeting was held in San Francis- 
 co on the 11th of May, business being susj)end- 
 ed, and the day devoted to it. Several promi- 
 nent citizens, of dubious tendencies before, took 
 then their stand openly for the Federal Govern- 
 ment and against the seceders. In September, 
 Captains Halleck, Naglee, and others of mili- 
 tary education went East, tendering their ser- 
 vices to the Administration. The election that 
 fall was a positive triumph for the Republicans, 
 an overwhelming one for the two Union par- 
 ties. Three candidates for Governor were in 
 the field : Leland Stanford, Republican ; John 
 Conness, Douglas Democrat ; J. R. McConnell, 
 Breckinrido-e Democrat. Their votes were, for 
 Stanford, fifty-six thousand and thirty-six ; for 
 Conness, thirty thousand nine hundred and 
 
580 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, forty-four ; for McConnell, thirty-two thousand 
 seven hundred and fifty-one. 
 
 1862. Still, the Legislature that met January, 1862, 
 was not Republican; the party never had a 
 nominal control in the Legislature, thou2:h that 
 year the Federal and State offices were filled by 
 Republicans. The majority of the members 
 were of Democratic antecedents, elected by a 
 union of the Republican and Free-Soil Demo- 
 cratic votes. For the local reputation of the 
 party that elected Mr. Lincoln it was just as 
 well so. A Hood that submerged Sacramento, 
 and made its streets only passable for boats, 
 compelled an early adjournment of the Legisla- 
 ture to San Francisco, where the session was 
 completed. It did a wholesale business in the 
 way of franchises for ferries, bridges, and toll- 
 roads. It abounded in local and special legis- 
 lation. But it submitted some wholesome 
 amendments of the C(.)nstitution, which the 
 people adopted cheerfully, and on the great 
 national question it was sound. It impeached 
 Judge Hardy (of the Terry farce), and the 
 Senate, sitting as a court, found him guilty of 
 using treasonable language, and deposed him 
 from the bench of the Sixteenth District. 
 
 The Legislature of 1803 was almost entirely 
 
 1863. Union. The distinction between Republican 
 and Douglas Democrat had vanished. It is 
 strange that, without opposition enough to act 
 
LEGISLATIVE CONDUCT. 581 
 
 as a brake upon it, the party did nothing to chap. 
 damage tlie commonwealth; for it cannot be 
 denied that party needs j)arty to check it, and 18G3. 
 that nothing is so wholesome for a majority as a 
 comj^act, stubborn minority to watch it. Phelps 
 and Sargent, who were both in the House of 
 Eepresentatives, Trenor W. Park, and John 
 Conness, were candidates before caucus for 
 United States Senator. After a long and 
 heated struggle, Conness won the caucus nomi- 
 nation, and the joint convention ratified it. 
 
 The Legislature of 1864 was, like its prede- 1864. 
 cessor, loyal in all its utterances, and reflecting 
 by its acts no discredit upon the party to which 
 an overwhelming majority of its members be- 
 longed. But the importance of the subject jus- 
 tifies a more extended reference to the temper 
 with which California has re2:arded her relations 
 to the Federiil Government. 
 
582 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAFTER XL. 
 
 EELATIONS TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 When the Southern States began to secede, 
 California was ruled by a Democratic Governor, 
 1861. a Democratic Legislature occupied its capital, 
 and four Democrats were its representatives in 
 Congress. Her foi'ts were garrisoned by men 
 whose loyalty in so trying an hour could only 
 be surmised. It was not without fears for the 
 result that the position of the State was ob- 
 served from "Washino-ton. 
 
 The Kepublicans and Douglas Democrats in 
 the Legislature united to elect General James 
 A. McDougall to the United States Senate, who, 
 though a Democrat, placed himself squarely on 
 a coercion and war platform. They also se- 
 cured the passage of a resolution declaring that 
 the people would not fail in fidelity and fealty 
 to the Constitution and the Union, and the 
 State would at all times respond to any requi- 
 sition that might be made upon it to defend 
 the republic against foreign and domestic 
 foes. 
 
 Brigadier-General Albert Sydney Johnston, 
 
PERILOUS POSITION. 583 
 
 a native of Kentucky, commanded the Pacific chap. 
 Department. While it was not supposed that _^^^ 
 a soldier of his honorable antecedents could isGi. 
 betray a trust as Twiggs had done in Texas, his 
 sympathies were known to be with the South, 
 and if Kentucky should secede it was feared 
 that he mio:ht " g:o with his State," as was the 
 political fashion of the time. 
 
 It is said that Edmund Eaudolph (for till 
 Virginia seceded he was for the Union) com- 
 municated information, which, through Colonel 
 Baker, was transmitted to President Lincoln, to 
 the effect that a scheme was meditated for turn- 
 ing California over to the Confederacy. It was 
 known, too, at Washington, that Jefferson Da- 
 vis had offered Johnston the major-generalship 
 of the rebel armies, a fact which Johnston did 
 not communicate to his superiors in authority. 
 General Edwin V. Sumner received orders to 
 proceed to the Pacific coast at once. He board- 
 ed the Aspinwall steamer after she left her 
 wharf at New York, and came unannounced. 
 Arriving at San Francisco, he immediately 
 called upon General Johnston, and conveyed to 
 him the proofs that he was relieved. Johnston 
 was not surprised. A friend in Washington, 
 who was afterwards dismissed the [service, had 
 surreptitiously notified him by pony express 
 that Sumner was coming, and, availing himself 
 of that information, Johnston had already dis- 
 
584 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, patclied his resignation to the Department. 
 ^^..^ He turned over the forts, arsenals, tfec, to 
 1861. his successor, and soon proceeded South by the 
 overland route throuo-h Texas. He was intrust- 
 ed with an important command in the Confed- 
 erate service, and was killed in l^attle on the 
 field of Shiloh. Sumner arrived here in April 
 (1861), but not a day too early. 
 
 The great May meeting in San Francisco 
 cheered the friends of the Administration as to 
 the stand of that city, but whether the State 
 would back up the city was still somewhat in 
 doubt. The leading independent papers which, 
 while there was any hope of a compromise, 
 pleaded for peace, and deprecated coercion, 
 with the news of the attack on Fort Sumter 
 earnestly pronounced for the war, and brought 
 their support to the Administration, in its 
 most vigorous efforts to crush out the rebel- 
 lion. The pulpit was eloquent for Union, and 
 for the war necessary to preserve it. In San 
 Francisco the national flao; was hoisted over 
 most of the churches, not including those of the 
 Episcopalians and Catholics, who, though pro- 
 fessing equal respect for the flag and all it sym- 
 bolizes, thought that even it should not be 
 placed on a consecrated building. 
 
 But to the rule of loyal utterance from the 
 pulpit there was one marked exception. The 
 Rev. Dr. Scott, of Calvary, preached peace with 
 
THE REV. J. STAKE KING. 585 
 
 offensive zeal. In liis public prayers he would chap. 
 not omit the petition for blessings on " all 
 presidents and vice-presidents," which the public I86I. 
 interpreted into a prayer for Jefferson Davis as 
 fervent as for Lincoln. One morning, in Sep- Sept. 
 tember (1861), an effigy of the doctor was 
 found hanging in front of his church. He 
 trimmed hi^ words, and read carefully wi'itten 
 prayers, but he could not conceal his sympathy 
 with the seceders. Great crowds gathered 
 about his church on Sunday, and there was 
 much danger of some disgraceful outbreak. 
 But the bold stand of the independent press 
 against mob law, and the prudent management 
 of the police, averted the dreaded riot. Hap- 
 pily, Dr. Scott resigned and left the country. 
 His warmest friends (and his personal traits 
 and popular preaching made him many friends) 
 were glad to see him safely out of the way of 
 the mischief that his inability to keep silence 
 on stirring pertinent themes was always l)rew- 
 ing. 
 
 Among the clergy who did great service to 
 the Union was the Rev. T. Starr Kino;, who 
 came from Boston to San Francisco to take 
 pastoral charge of the First Unitarian Church. 
 Besides his reputation as a pulpit orator, he 
 brought with him an enviable name as a lec- 
 turer. He delivered a course of lectures, soon 
 after his arrival in 1860, on miscellaneous 
 
586 THE IIISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, literary subjects, wbich were very mucli 
 '^^' relished by critical audiences. Being pretty 
 18G2. fully reported by the press, every corner of the 
 State was soon demanding him to repeat the 
 course, and invitations were showered in upon 
 him to speak on extraordinar}^ occasions and 
 special topics. Though his first lectures were 
 purely literary, he soon began to mix in the 
 wholesome doctrines of free speech, human 
 rights, abhorrence of slavery, and the impei'a- 
 tive necessity of Union. There was a charm in 
 his delivery that few could resist. He was re- 
 ceived with applause where Republican orators, 
 saying things no more radical, could not be 
 heard without hisses. Delicately feeling his 
 way, and never arousing the prejudices of his 
 Learers, he adroitly educated his audiences to a 
 lofty style of patriotism. The effect was obvious 
 in San Francisco, where audiences were accus- 
 tomed to every style of address ; it was far 
 more noticeable in the interior. 
 
 Afterwards, as politics became simply a ques- 
 tion of Union or Dissolution, he construed 
 sermons, lectures, addresses, orations, all to the 
 one end of deepening the Union sentiment, and 
 even occasionally took the stump for candidates 
 who promised best to keep the State headed 
 right for Union. 
 
 When, in 1863, a United States Senator was 
 to be elected, there was much desire to secure 
 
PAETY PEOCEDUEES. 587 
 
 his services for the honorable position, but he char 
 modestly dissuaded his friends, and discouraged ,_^J^ 
 all thought of it. He had a higher ambition. 1863. 
 The senatorship was for six years ; of the sacred 
 office he already held, his tenure was for life. 
 Though holding a faith rejected by most of the 
 clergy with whom he cordially co-operated for his 
 country, they allowed no question of sectarianism 
 to divide their patriotic labors. His valuable life 
 was cut short by diphtlieria, in the Spring of 
 1864. The people of the State mourned his 
 departure as if news of the loss of a battle had 
 been telegraphed to them. He was buried in 
 the enclosure of the beautiful church which his 
 enterprise had just pushed to completion, and 
 which constitutes his appropriate monument. 
 
 The political parties had soon found their 
 places and taken them. The Republicans July, 
 dropped all but their name, and came out un- 
 conditionally for the Union. The Central Com- 
 mittee of the Breckinridge Democrats coquetted 
 with the Committee of the Douglas Democrats 
 for a fusion, but the latter declined all offers, 
 and the factions parted companj^ The conven- 
 tion of the DouQ-las Democrats met on the 4th 
 of July (1861), under the name of the Union 
 Democratic party — Douglas was dead — and 
 nominated John Conness for Governor ; Downey 
 having ruined his chances for a nomination, by 
 a letter to the great May meeting at San Fran- 
 
588 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, cisco, ill wiiich lie said : " I did not believe, 
 nor do I now, that an aggressive war should be 
 waged upon any section of the Confederacy, nor 
 do I believe that this Union can be preserved 
 by a coercive policy." 
 
 The Breckinridge Democracy met July 23d. 
 Their convention was less remarkable for its 
 milk-and-water resolutions, and its list of un- 
 successful candidates nominated for office, than 
 for a crazy speech, made by the eccentric Ed- 
 mund Randolph. That able lawyer, who had 
 a passion for siding with hopeless minorities, 
 was almost dying with the disease that shortly 
 afterwards proved fatal to him. Appearing in 
 this convention, where his presence was a sur- 
 prise, and being tempted into a speech, he 
 said, among other things : " Gentlemen, my 
 thoughts and my heart are not here to-night in 
 this house. Far to the East, in the homes from 
 which we came, tyranny and usurpation, with 
 arms in its hands, is this night, perhaps, 
 slaughtering our fathers, our brothers, and our 
 sisters, and outraging our homes in every con- 
 ceivable way shocking to the heart of humanity 
 and freedom. To me, it seems a waste of time 
 to talk. For God's sake, gentlemen, tell me of 
 battles fought and won. Tell me of usurpers 
 overthrown ; that Missouri is again a free State, 
 no longer crushed under the armed heel of a 
 reckless and odious despot. Tell me that the 
 
Randolph's crazy harangue. 589 
 
 State of Maryland lives again ; and oil ! gentle- chap. 
 men, let us read, let us hear at the first moment ._^_ 
 that not one hostile foot now treads the soil of I86I. 
 Virginia, [Applause and cheers.] If this be 
 rebellion, then I am a rebel. Do you want a 
 traitor, then I am a traitor. For God's sake 
 speed the ball; may the lead go quick to his 
 heart, and may our country be free from this 
 despot usurper that now claims the name of 
 President of the United States. [Cheers.]" 
 
 The result of the election settled the status of 
 California abroad. The Kepublicans and Union 
 Democrats together polled eighty-six thousand 
 nine hundred and eighty votes; the Breckinridge 
 Democrats, thirty-two thousand seven hundred 
 and fifty-one. In his retiring: messao-e, Govern- 
 or Downey claimed that he had faithfully rep- 
 resented the people on the Union and War 
 questions. "Although," said he, "with one 
 single exception, the only Executive of all the 
 Free States entertaining political proclivities at 
 variance with the party administering the Na,- 
 tional Government, not one of them can have 
 displayed a greater promptitude in obeying 
 every constitutional requisition of the Presi- 
 dent." However, when, a few days later, Leland 
 Stanford was inaugurated, the people breathed 
 more freely, for now their Executive was un- 
 equivocally, and without any reservations, for 
 the Union. 
 
590 THE HISTOET OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 In Congress, Cnlifornia was unfortunately rep- 
 resented at first. The course that Senator 
 Gwin has since taken was expected of him. 
 Still, in his last session, he denied that he had 
 said in case of a disruption California would go 
 with the South, and protested that she was for 
 the Union. His exit from the Senate was oc- 
 casion of great joy to the State that so long 
 honored him. 
 
 Senator Latham, before the election of Lin- 
 coln, had predicted that California, if the divi- 
 sion came, would either go with the South or set 
 up for herself. At the session of 1860-61, he 
 took back the prediction, saying he was satis- 
 fied he had mistaken the sentiments of the j)eo- 
 ple. Returning to California in the spring of 
 1861, he made Union speeches on the stump. 
 In the Senate, he voted generally to sustain the 
 war policy of the Administration ; but, return- 
 ing in the summer of 1862 to California, he 
 went about denouncing the Administration, 
 parading its alleged corruption, charging that 
 it had perverted the Avar into a war of aboli- 
 tion. So he was quietly shelved. 
 
 Senator McDougall, who succeeded Gwin, 
 grievously disappointed those to whom he 
 owed his election. He voted most -war meas- 
 ures, but he seemed at heart with the opposi- 
 tion. The Legislature of 1864, by concurrent 
 resolution, charged him with violating the let- 
 
CALIFORNIA SENATOES ON UNION. 591 
 
 ter and spirit of Lis pledges, and repudiated chap. 
 him as a wilful misrepreseutative of the wishes, _1.^J^ 
 the opinions, and habits of the people. I86I- 
 
 Senator Conness, who succeeded Latham on 
 the great questions involving the life of the 
 nation, has, so far, truly represented his constit- 
 uents. 
 
 In the early summer of 1862, impressed with 
 the necessity of uniting more firmly all friends 
 of the Union to prevent accidents that would 
 damage the reputation of the State, or cause in 
 the General Government any possible suspicion 
 of the loyalt}/' of California, the Kepublicans 
 and Union Democrats united in one strong 
 Union party. The Kepublicans laid down their 
 old organization at once ; the Union Democratic 
 leaders, lagging behind the rank and file, still 
 adhered to theirs. The only State ofiBcer to be 
 elected that year was the Superintendent of 
 Common Schools. The Union candidate re- 
 ceived some thirteen thousand majority over 
 both the other candidates, though one of them 
 was the nominee of the still surviving Union 
 Democratic organization. In the fall of 1863 a 
 better opportunity was afforded for a test of 
 the strength of parties. The Union party nomi- 
 nated F. F. Low for Governor ; the Democrats 
 chose their strongest man, ex-Governor Downey, 
 who still professed Unionism; and there was 
 no third candidate. Low had nineteen thou- 
 
592 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORlSnA. 
 
 CHAP, sand six liiindredand sixty-one maiorlty, and was 
 elected. Three members of Congress were 
 
 i8()i- elected — all tLoronghly for the Union, and dis- 
 ^" posed to stand by the Administration in its 
 most earnest measures for the vigorous prose- 
 cution of the war. The Legislatures for the 
 years 1862, 18G3, and 1864 vied with each 
 other in the expression of the immovable deter- 
 mination of the people to sustain the Union at 
 every hazard. Nothing more could be asked in 
 the way of pledges. 
 
 And now, as in every department the State 
 was right loyally represented, it was fortunate 
 that the amendments to the Constitution had 
 gone into effect, under which the State officers 
 were to serve four years, the Legislature to 
 . meet but once in tw^o years, and the Supreme 
 Court to l)e reorganized l)y the election of five 
 judges, and the one of them who drew the 
 longest term to hold office for ten years. The 
 Judicial election (1863) resulted in the election 
 of five first-class lawyers to the l)euch — -S. W. 
 Sanderson, O. L. Shatter, John Curry, Lorenzo 
 Sawyer, and A. L. Rhodes ; men whose ability, 
 purity, and patriotism were alike unquestioned. 
 In whatever other way California could prove 
 her loyalty, she did it heartily. In accordance 
 with the requisition of the General Govern- 
 ment, t^vo regiments of cavalry and five of 
 infantry w^ere organized in the fall of 1861. A 
 
UJS^EQUIVOCAL UNIONISM. 593 
 
 part of tliese troops were set lo garrison tlie char 
 forts on the Pacific, a part were sent East by ,_\ 
 steamer, and a column of seventeen companies, 186I- 
 five of them cavalry, crossed the plains for New ^^^*' 
 Mexico. There was no draft in California, her 
 quota never having been announced to the 
 provost-marshal. 
 
 She expressed her eagerness through the press 
 and her representatives to furnish her full 
 quota of men for the army, but her great dis- 
 tance from the seat of war led the Government 
 to decline her tendered aid to any large extent. 
 However, many citizens left business, went East, 
 and entered the service, being accredited to 
 other States. 
 
 There was not the zeal for volunteering here 
 that sometimes swept over that portion of the 
 North nearer to the field of action ; for the 
 prospect of being shut up in Pacific coast forts, 
 or sent to hunt Indians, was not as well calcu- 
 lated to kindle enthusiasm, as when, by enlist- 
 ing, one might reasonably expect to meet rebel 
 foes, and expend on them the indignation he 
 felt at the sight of traitors struggling to over- 
 throw the best of human governments. 
 
 At a time when relief for wounded soldiers 
 was most needed, citizens of the State contribu- 
 ted seven hundred thousand dollars in gold to 
 the Sanitary Commission ; and to other organ- 
 ized devices for aiding those on whom the war 
 
 38 
 
594 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, bore heavily, tbey were proportionately gener- 
 
 _^__, ous. 
 
 1861- Congress, at the special session of 18G1, im- 
 ■ posed a direct tax upon all the States. Califor- 
 nia was the first to collect and pay her propor- 
 tion, which amounted to nearly two hundred and 
 fifty-five thousand dollars. Though mostly col- 
 lected in gold, the State Treasurer paid it over 
 in greenbacks, to the great disgust and indigna- 
 tion of the people, who felt that such economy 
 was at the expense of their reputation. The 
 Legislature turned the difference in the exchange 
 over to the benefit of the United States volun- 
 teers from the State. 
 
 There was only one point on which the pa- 
 
 1863. triotism of California could be misunderstood. 
 Gold and silver constituted the exclusive cur- 
 rency of the State, yet United States paper, 
 which early depreciated from the gold value 
 expressed by its face, had been made a legal 
 tender by act of Congress. To avoid collisions 
 between debtors and creditors, and to maintain 
 credit upon a sound basis, the Legislature of 
 1863 enacted a law which required the- 
 payment of debts in any specified currency 
 agreed upon by a written contract. The whole 
 mercantile community had urged the law. 
 Without it, they said, credit must vanish; no 
 man would lend gold, or sell goods at gold 
 prices, when there was danger that on the day 
 
CURRENCY QUESTIONS. 595 
 
 of settlement he would be tendered depreciated chap. 
 paper in payment. The opponents of the law ._^_ 
 protested that it was a virtual nullification of 1803. 
 an act of Congress ; every State should encour. 
 age the Government by accepting its money. 
 Then, would capital flow into a country where 
 the national dollar lost half its value making 
 the transit? 
 
 The act went into instant operation, and the 1864, 
 same Supreme Court that pronounced the legal- 
 tender act in accordance with the Constitution 
 of the United States, decided the sj)ecific con- 
 tract act in harmony with the State Constitu- 
 tion. The result was gratifying. Public sen- 
 timent settled down upon the use of two dis- 
 tinct currencies. Even without a written con- 
 tract it was understood that an honorable man 
 paid his debts in gold, unless he had originally 
 stipulated to pay in paper. The difference in 
 exchange upon Eastern capitals greatly favored 
 purchasers in those markets under the high 
 prices ruling there. Californians, on striking 
 the balance, could scarcely discover that they 
 suffered at all from the war or war prices. One 
 obtains a fresh impression of the extent of our 
 country when lie sees so vast a war raging over 
 such wide fields, yet sees a State within the 
 Union, sympathizing heartily with the Govern- 
 ment, busy in all the arts of peace, experiencing 
 
596 THE mSTOEY OF CALIFOE]S"IA. 
 
 CKAP. no financial inconvenience, and feeling no appre- 
 ciable share of tlie burden. 
 1864. No political party had dared for years to 
 suggest the propriety of a tax upon the mines. 
 The General Government owned them, yet it was 
 obviously to the general benefit that they be 
 diligently worked, and that nothing hinder 
 their production. Without the gold of Califor- 
 nia the expenses of the war could not be met; 
 nothing must discourage its constant and steady 
 flow. But every thing else was being roundly 
 taxed. Was it right to exempt one business so 
 profitable — one class of laborers so able to pay ? 
 In 1864, Congress levied a tax of one-half of 
 one per cent, upon gold and silver bullion, to 
 be paid by the assayer ; and the patriotism of 
 the people restrained them from even a murmur 
 of objection. 
 
 When, in November, the fairest of opportu- 
 nities was afforded, by a Presidential election, 
 to test the sentiment of the State, the ticket 
 pledged to Lincoln and Johnson was elected by 
 thirty thousand majority. 
 
 Californians could not be indifferent specta- 
 tors of the great events passing in the Missis- 
 sippi Valley and the Atlantic and Gulf States. 
 Even if they had had no stake in the struggle 
 between barbarism and civilization, no share in 
 the glory of establishing the Union in perpetu- 
 ity, or the shame of permitting its dissolution, 
 
CALirOENIANS OK THE FIELD. 597 
 
 tliey knew too many of tlie actors on bott sides chap. 
 to stand by as cool observers* without emo- 
 tion, 1864. 
 
 The regular army and navy being small be- 
 fore the war, most of the officers of rank had in 
 their turn spent some time upon the Pacific 
 coast. Grant was lono; stationed in Oreojon. 
 The leading men of California were on terms of 
 intimacy with Sherman, who was resident part- 
 ner of the banking house of Lucas, Turner & 
 Co., having narrowly escaped with his life on 
 his arrival, in 1853, by swimming ashore from 
 the wreck of the steamer S. S. Lewis^ just 
 north of the Golden Gate ; with Farrao-ut, the 
 hero of New Orleans and Mobile, who was at 
 Mare Island during the Vigilance Committee 
 rule ; with Hooker, who owned a ranch in So- 
 noma County; with Fremont, whose Mariposa 
 estate embraced a notable gold mine ; with 
 Halleck and Baker and Shields, who had prac- 
 tised law in San Francisco; with Stoneman, 
 who tried with Hooker, but failed, to make a 
 saw-mill profitable at Bodega; with McPher- 
 son, who went from Alcatraz to the war, and 
 was killed in front of Atlanta; with Lander, 
 Buell, Ord, Keyes, Heintzelman, and Sumner, 
 who chafed at his lono; detention on the Pacific 
 side while younger men were reaping such har- 
 vests of fame; with the veteran Wool, with 
 Harney, Denver, Naglee, and Geary, the first 
 
598 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORXIA. 
 
 CHAP, mayor of San Francisco; with Hancock and 
 
 _^^_, Stone, Porter, Boggs, and many others whose 
 
 I8fi4. achievements, in different degrees, contributed 
 
 to the lustre of American arms, and heljDed to 
 
 crush the great rebellion. 
 
 Nor in the enemy's j-anks were there lacking 
 men who had cut some fio-ure in the State's his- 
 tory. Gwin maintained a show of neutrality at 
 first ; then escaped through the lines to Missis- 
 sippi. When Grrant's army came into those 
 parts, the house where his daughter lived was 
 burned ; the family retired to Richmond, and 
 afterwards, running the blockade at Wilming- 
 ton, escaped into France. Albert Sydney 
 Johnston went from commanding the Pacific 
 Department to commanding Confederate sol- 
 diers. Major Garnett, who was sent out with 
 T. Butler King by President Taylor, to urge 
 the organization of a State Government, and 
 who devised the State seal, which, with amend- 
 ments, was adopted, went East when Virginia 
 seceded, and fell in battle, rallying his men to 
 resist McClellan's force in West Virginia. B. F. 
 Cheatham,of Stockton, was made a major-general 
 in the Confederate service, and was at Belmont 
 and Shiloli, Perryville, Murfreesboro', and 
 Chickamauga. Comptroller Brooks was a vol- 
 unteer aide in Cheatham's staff at Chickamauga. 
 Calhoun Benham was on Johnston's staff at 
 Shiloh, and afterwards with Breckinridge. 
 
CALIFORNIA'S ON" THE FIELD. 599 
 
 Judge Terry was on Bragg's staff at Chieka- chap. 
 manga. Magruder, femous, wlien a captain in ^_^ 
 the United States army on this coast, for being i864. 
 so generally intoxicated, had charge of the de- 
 fences of Yorktown when McClellan attempted 
 the peninsular route to Kichmond. Herbert, 
 the member of Congress who killed the Irish 
 waiter, was killed on occasion of Banks's Red 
 River expedition. Many another resident, 
 whom California was happy to spare, joined the 
 Confederates, and kept their sympathizers at 
 home well posted with rebel news. 
 
 The patriotism of California, in its popular 
 form, was excessively radical. It believed in 
 the extirpation of slavery as the root and cause 
 of the war. The loyal press maintained jealous 
 watch . over suspicious quarters. Loyal Leagues 
 were extensively organized, and did good ser- 
 vice quietly in keeping the peace. 
 
 One little schooner, the Ohapman, was fitted 
 out from San Francisco secretly, for a piratical 
 excursion, but she was overhauled before sail- 
 ing, and confiscated. The two principals to 
 this nefarious scheme were tried, convicted, and 
 imprisoned. But one of them (Rubery, the 
 Englishman) was ' pardoned by the President, 
 at the solicitation of John Bright; the other 
 (Ridgley Greathouse) was released, after a brief 
 confinement, by Judge Hoffman's strict con- 
 
600 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, struction of the President's Amu estvProclama- 
 
 XL. ,. "^ 
 
 ^_^_^ tion. 
 
 1864. Until tlie Presidential campaign of 1864, it 
 was rare to hear a public disloyal utterance in 
 California. A few violent haranguers, such as 
 " General " Chipman, E. J. C. Kewen, and C. L. 
 Weller, ex-postmaster of San Francisco, were 
 arrested and lodged in Alcatraz, for using trea- 
 sonable language publicly and defiantly, but 
 their own jDolitical friends refused them any 
 capital or special consideration in the conven- 
 tions on the strength of their martyrdom. 
 Brigadier-General Wright, who, after Sumner's 
 return East, and until General McDowell in 
 1864 relieved him, had command of the Pacific 
 Department, was as prudent as prompt, and as 
 delicate as firm, in the exercise of militaiy au- 
 thority. The general unanimity of the people 
 made his task easy ; yet a less judicious com- 
 mander might have ^precipitated trouble any 
 month. 
 
EESOUECES OF CALIFOKNIA. 601 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 RESOURCES OF THE STATE. 
 
 Notwithstanding that every year more and chap. 
 more of the treasure of the mines is detained in ,_^ 
 the country for permanent investment in its en- i864. 
 terprises, and for improvement of its homes, the 
 export keeps steadily on at nearly the old 
 figures. The steamers, for years leaving three 
 times a month, with a regularity quite surpris- 
 ing, took each more than a million to cast into 
 the circulation of the world. This is a marvel, 
 considering the alleged hazards of every mine, 
 and the lottery that gold-hunting is said to be, 
 even when the enlarged area of the gold-field is 
 taken into account. It forces the conclusion 
 that the business, after all, is much more steady 
 and regular than is generally admitted. 
 
 The export of treasure from San Francisco, 
 as manifested at the Custom-House, was, in 
 1857, $48,976,697; in 1858, $47,548,025; in 
 1859, $47,640,462 ; in 1860, $42,303,345 ; in 
 1861, $40,639,089 ; in 1862, $42,561,761 ; and 
 in 1863, $46,071,920. Since 1858, the amounts 
 named embrace several millions a year, from 
 
602 THE niSTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, mines outside of California ; more tlian enougli 
 ^_^ to balance the increasing amounts retained in 
 1864. the State, for it is not to be doubted that the 
 gold yield of California, after increasing till 
 1853, when over fifty-seven millions were ex- 
 ported, has since gradually fallen off, for rea- 
 sons to be named hereafter. 
 
 The shallow placers or " dry diggings " of 
 1849 and 1850 appeared, before 1863, to be, 
 for profitable American work, about exhausted. 
 They were wrought almost exclusively by 
 Chinese, whose earnings are a clear gain to the 
 country, for they glean with profit where whites 
 could not make wages. John hoards some of 
 it, but he is a good liver after his fashion, and 
 is by no means a bad customer of the moun- 
 tain storekeepers. The heavy rains of the 
 winter of 1861 and 1862, by suj^plying the 
 mines with plenty of water at just the right 
 time for their operations, and still more by wash- 
 ing away the accumulated tailings of several 
 years' work, laid bare many a rich deposit, and 
 made the placer-mining profitable again. 
 
 The hydraulic method still pays well, though 
 not as well as a year or two ago ; for the rich- 
 est hills have been sifted, and hydraulicing in- 
 volves such large expenditures for water, for 
 sluice-boxes, for quicksilver, and for gunpowder 
 to loosen the compact gravel, that, unless the 
 ground is very rich, they cannot be aflbrded. 
 
VARIOUS METHODS OF MINING. 603 
 
 Very costly, ratlier I'isky, yet, on tlie whole, chap. 
 very remunerative is the system of tunnelling, 
 which, by 1862, had outgrown in favor most i864. 
 other methods. It bores deep into mountains 
 to the supposed beds of ancient rivers. The 
 peril .of missing the deposit is great, but when 
 it is hit the reward is munificent. 
 
 Attempts to separate gold from the quartz 
 rock were early made on a large scale, and 
 vdth results that discouraged capitalists. In 
 1856 quartz-mining took a new start, and 
 now there is not a mining county in the 
 State but has several large, expensive, well- 
 appointed mills, stamping and crushing the 
 rock to a powder, and yielding lucrative re-- 
 turns to owners. 
 
 The yield of gold has been further affected 
 by drought, by excessive rains, and lately by a 
 series of rushes to other mining fields, that 
 threatened to leave the interior of the State a 
 desert: to Fraser Kiver, in 1858, draining the 
 State, it was estimated, of twenty thousand of its 
 population, most of which, however, found its 
 way back again not long afterwards ; to Washoe, 
 in 1860 and 1861, when about the same num- 
 ber crossed from California to the eastern slope 
 of the Sierra Nevadas, and most of them stayed 
 there ; to the Salmon Kiver, and other Wash- 
 ington Territory placers, in 1861 and 1862 ; to 
 Idaho, as the Salmon River distiict is now 
 
604 THE HISTORY OF CAUFOETTLA. 
 
 cnA.p. called, and Arizona, in 1863 ; and to Idaho, the 
 Colorado region, and Mexico, in 1864. 
 
 1864. These annual rushes have left many a local- 
 ity, that was all alive with busy, boisterous 
 men in the fall, desolate and silent in the 
 spring ; and many a village that was full of 
 excitement in 1858, is now drowsy and still, 
 having parted with half its population since 
 then. The largest interior cities suffered much 
 by the depletion. Sacramento has not the pop- 
 ulation to-day that it had four years ago; 
 Marysville's growth was checked, Stockton's 
 progress arrested, though not so violently. 
 
 Since the spring of 1861, mines of silver, 
 copper, and coal have been opened within the 
 State, The silver veins of finest promise were 
 chiefly found in the tier of counties lying along 
 the western base of the Sierra Nevada, and in 
 • the Owen's River re2:ion. 
 
 Of copper, the richest and most explored de- 
 posits are in Calaveras County, where the new 
 business has started a new city into existence — 
 Copperopolis. The copper ore is convertible 
 into cash at the mouth of the mine. It is all 
 smelted abroad, and no outlay for mills or fur- 
 naces is required. The ore goes East or to 
 Europe as freight, and already appreciably helps 
 returning ships to eke out a return cargo. 
 
 The coal is not of the secondary, but of the 
 tertiary formation, good enough for creating 
 
KEW MINERAL mSCOVEEIES. 605 
 
 steam or for purposes of fuel, hut not the best chap. 
 
 • • ... XT T 
 
 to work iron with. It is bituminous, breaks ,Jl..^_l^ 
 readily, kindles easily, and burns with a flame. 1864. 
 It is already produced in large quantity, and at 
 a price that makes it unprofitable to import 
 coal for ordinary uses. 
 
 Inexhaustible quantities of iron have .been 
 developed, but none is yet rendered available 
 for use. Asphaltum in immense beds, and pe- 
 troleum springs, if ,2:eologists and experts are to 
 be trusted, are found in the southern part of 
 the State. The former article, taken from the 
 sea-shore, near Santa Barbara, is already exten- 
 sively used for pavements and roofs. 
 
 Besides these staples, other useful minerals, in 
 wonderful variety and astonishing abundance, 
 are found. Borax — a lake of it — salt, soda, sul- 
 phur, flavoring a thousand springs, chalk, gyp- 
 sum, nitre, marble, and building-stone — the 
 catalogue of those not found here would be 
 briefer than of those which are — are plenty. 
 Yet some that make up the bulk of mountains, 
 and are quite accessible, must wait for capital 
 to abound, and wages to fall, before coming 
 into market. 
 
 A curious mania possessed the people through 
 1863. "Prospecting" was the fever in the 1863. 
 blood of the masses. There was a gener- 
 al scouring of the State ; a ransacking in all 
 gulches ; a testing of the character of the rocks 
 
606 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, in all localities. In tlie most isolated resrions, 
 
 XLI . . . . & ' 
 
 ,__^__ and up to the fire limits of the cities, there were 
 1863. little parties of men with pick and hammer 
 breaking off the outcroppings of ledges, and 
 with acids testing them for copper, silver, quick- 
 silver, and other metals. Astonishing results 
 followed. The coveted minerals were found 
 in thousands of places. In the " cow counties " 
 as well as in the mining counties, in the Coast 
 Range as well as in the foot-hills of the Sierras^ 
 north and south, and up to the bluffs of the 
 ocean, amazing discoveries were reported. 
 
 These prospecters generally had their ex- 
 penses paid by a company, the members at home 
 furnishing capital, and the travellers the work. 
 Other enterprising men went out alone, and on 
 their own account, searched diligently, and 
 when they found what they sought, broke off 
 a bagful of specimens, entered their claims at 
 the nearest Recorder's office, and hastened to 
 San Francisco to organize a company to hold 
 and develop them. 
 
 There was, no doubt, a great deal of false in- 
 formation paraded, and many companies located 
 on ledges that had no existence, to open " leads " 
 entirely imaginary. Yet the greater number 
 acted upon honest if mistaken reports ; if the 
 members had visited the locality where their 
 hopes lay locked, they would not have been 
 undeceived ; though now to see the spot would 
 
A MINING-STOCK MANIA. 607 
 
 excite only merriment at tlie thought that such chap. 
 a commonplace rock could be accepted as the 
 corner-stone of the grand fortune fancy once i864. 
 reared on it. More than a thousand companies 
 were organized in the State. Brokers' offices, 
 with their windows full of choice specimens, 
 threatened to monopolize the best business 
 stands in the cities. Long-established firms 
 sacrificed the advertisement of their plate-glass 
 windows, brokers offering such tempting rent 
 for a desk and a few feet of glazed frontage. 
 Several boards of brokers were started, where 
 shares in all sorts of companies were sold and 
 reported daily. 
 
 The assessments upon stockholders in the 
 mining companies were very light at first, just 
 enough to pay for office rent, a set of books, the 
 engraving of a handsome certificate of stock, 
 and possibly to keep a man or two developing 
 the claim. 
 
 Almost everybody bought mining stock. 
 Nothing but war news could check the perpet- 
 ual talk of "feet," " outcroppings," "indica- 
 tions," sulphurets," and " ores," No profession 
 or class, age or sex, was exempt from the epi- 
 demic. Shrewd merchants and careful bankers 
 invested the profits of their legitimate business, 
 sometimes infringed upon their invested capital. 
 Sharp la^vyers sold their homesteads for shares. 
 Clerks anticipated their salaries, laborers " salt- 
 
608 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, ed away " their wages, and washerwomen their 
 
 XLI 
 
 earnings in " promising mines." 
 
 1864. Some, getting their "feet" rapidly off their 
 hands at an advance, made large gains, and 
 their good luck stimulated all the rest. Oftener, 
 as the assessments increased, the shareholders 
 agreed to consider the company that hired them 
 a "bilk," forfeit the stock, and plunge the deep- 
 er into some other stock, to make amends. The 
 lists of delinquent stockholders had to be pub- 
 lished for a given time, before the shares could 
 be sold at auction. These lists occupied a full 
 page in more than one of the largest newspapers 
 daily. It excited no surpi'ise to see the sound- 
 est merchants' names fio-urinc; in these lists for 
 large delinquencies, nor did it damage their 
 credit. Perhaps they ^vere there to " bear the 
 stock" — then the smallholders would cling the 
 tiirhter, determined not to be "frozen out." 
 Commercial speculations were almost entirely 
 neglected, and Front Street took its heaviest 
 risks in feet. The companies always had a 
 nominal capital of immense amount. Any 
 thine: under hundreds of thousands of dollars 
 was deemed a small affair. 
 
 The engraved mining-field was not limited 
 to California. The prospecters and claim-takers 
 traversed the desert far east of Virginia City 
 and Aurora, and made populous the barren 
 mountains of Eeese River and Humboldt. They 
 
A MINING-STOCK MAIHA. 609 
 
 crossed the Colorado to the San Francisco 
 Mountains of Arizona. They " took up " the 
 islands of the coast. They overran the Mexican i804. 
 border, and to the eastward of the Gulf of 
 California, and among the sterile mountains of 
 Lower California made their camps. 
 
 A stranger coming into the State and inocu- 
 lated asrainst the strang-e infection, in view of 
 the immense nominal capital of the companies, 
 observing how every knot of men discussed 
 little lumps of commonplace rock, and talked 
 geologically, hearing the wild talk of Presidents, 
 Secretaries, and Directors as to the value of 
 their claims, yet noting that many a President 
 of a company incorporated for a million dollars 
 could not pay for his lunch in lack of either 
 cash or credit, would have pronounced it a 
 sweeping madness, in which high and low, edu- 
 cated and ignorant, men, women, and children, 
 timid capitalists and penniless paupers, were 
 alike involved. 
 
 Some said they had seen fortune beckon be- 
 fore, and, in their scepticism refusing to follow, 
 lost what proved to be a splendid chance ; they 
 trusted they were wiser now. Some bought as 
 speculators, seldom paying cash, l:)ut exchanging 
 scrip — "wild-cat" for "promising," and that for 
 dividend-paying, of which, curiously enough, 
 there were but four or five companies in the 
 market, for few of the old, faithfully- wrought 
 
 39 
 
610 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, mines were called on Exchange. Their hope 
 _^ was that, by turning over their purchases every 
 
 1863. few (lays, and selling enough to pay assessments, 
 they would escape every peril of loss ; and they 
 did, until the crash came, and they still had a 
 hatful on hand worth only its weight at the 
 paper-maker s. Others said the man ^\ as a fool 
 who neglected such an opportunity, and sent 
 for all their brothers to come out with what 
 they could scrape together and be rich. 
 
 If one said the whole thing was a delusion, 
 he was pointed to the fact that the founderies 
 were busy day and night filling orders for ma- 
 chinery to go to these mines iu Mexico, Nevada, 
 and unnamed because unknown regions both 
 near and afar off. The fe^v sober ones, who 
 were not carried away by the excitement, held 
 that, while many must suffer as the result of 
 their stock speculations, the general effect of the 
 prospecting out of which tliey grew would not 
 be bad ; that the soil of the State, for all this 
 ransacking, would develop a noble harvest of 
 minerals at some early future day. 
 
 The bubble burst without any noise of ex- 
 
 1864. plosion. In the summer of 1864 there was a 
 sudden fall in the shares of the few dividend- 
 paying mines. Opliir dropped fifty per cent. ; 
 Gould and Curry, which had been taken as the 
 standard of successful mines, sank still more. 
 Then the wild-cat quietly stole out of sight. 
 
THE BUBBLE BURSTS. 611 
 
 The brokers vacated their offices ; a few men chap. 
 
 XLI 
 
 went into insolvency. The masses pocketed ._^_^ 
 their losses, and said little about them. They 1864. 
 filed away their certificates of stock, lately so 
 carefully treasured, as curious, useless pictures, 
 tokens of experience gained, and pushed on 
 with their legitimate business. It is astonish- 
 ing, considering the amount of money that 
 changed hands during the popular possession 
 by this mania, how few were seriously injured 
 by it. Wages were good, salaries high, busi- 
 ness brisk. They paid high for their expe- 
 rience, and could afl:brd it. The map of the 
 country was written over with the localities of 
 mineral deposits rich and abiding, though it 
 might not pay to work them for some time to 
 come. The prospecters had made a geological 
 reconnoissance in force. As of all such prelimi- 
 narv survevs, the advantao-es were not imme- 
 diately developed. 
 
 Agriculture grows rapidly in importance^ 
 Though little more than a third of the area of 
 the State is tillable land, not over a fortieth 
 part of that tillable portion is cultivated. With 
 the disadvantage of a summer so dry that much 
 of the grain land will not, or rather has not pro- 
 duced vegetables and fruit without irrigation, 
 the farmer is amply compensated in the warmth 
 of the winter, the length of the growing season, 
 the prolific character of all vegetable life in Cali- 
 
612 THE HISTOKY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, fornlaj and the Heedlessness of barns and gran- 
 ^^_^_^ aries. No vegetables are raised between Bos- 
 1804. ton and Charleston that do not thrive in its 
 soil. Fruit in every variety, common in semi- 
 tropical or temperate climates, comes into early 
 bearing, and for abundance, size, or flavor, has 
 no competitor. 
 
 It is held by some who have been in the 
 business abroad, that there is no better grape 
 land. All foreio'u varieties flourish, as well as 
 the old mission stock. The crop never fails. 
 No disease affects the vines thus far, and they 
 are productive beyond precedent. Our wine is 
 in the Eastern markets, and, though susceptible 
 of great improvement, stands well, and is likely 
 to be in greater demand every year. 
 
 It is settled that California can feed herself, 
 and comj)ete on favorable terms in supplying 
 Europe when its grain crop fails. The Califor- 
 nia wheat exceeds in strength and dryness, 
 qualities that especially adapt it for transporta- 
 tion through the tropics. The same qualities 
 added to its whiteness, thin skin, plumpness 
 and Aveii^ht, make it a favorite in all markets. 
 In 1861 the wheat and flour exported from San 
 Francisco was valued half a million of dollars 
 higher than the provisions imported, including 
 tea, coffee, and spices. 
 
 Hitherto little has been manufactured in 
 California which could be as well imported. 
 
EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. C)13 
 
 Wages, though still higher than in any other chap. 
 
 equally civilized country, are gradually falling, 
 
 and with tbeir fall manufactures will multiply. 1864. 
 
 Nothing else prevents the making of our 
 finest woollen cloths, for the finest qualities of 
 wool are liberally produced. The experiments 
 tJiat have been made in manufacturing the 
 coarser woollen goods, glass, powder, paper, and 
 wooden ware, are flattering. Raising no cotton, 
 smelting no iron as yet, here are large classes 
 of goods long hence to be imported. We make 
 our own lumber, and export much, but since 
 there is a lack of tough woods in the State, our 
 cari'iages, or at least our carriage materials, 
 must be imported. 
 
 San Francisco is inevitably destined to be 
 the principal port of the Pacific. Her imports 
 and her exports are about equal. Of the latter, 
 gold is the chief. It is easy to handle, and the 
 market is always clamorous for it. Unlike 
 wheat- which becomes a drug: whenever all 
 wheat-fields yield abundantly, our principal ex- 
 port always commands a fixed, unvarying price. 
 . Of our other exports, hides are at present an 
 important item, but that resource will fail as 
 better notions of ranching come into fashion, 
 and cattle are esteemed for something else than 
 their hides and tallow. Besides the vast 
 amounts of quicksilver used in the State, more 
 than a million dollars' worth was exported in 
 
614 THE HISTORY OF CALITORNIA. 
 
 CHAP. 1861. The silver and copper ore sent abroad 
 
 are rapidly increasing. The exports other than 
 
 1864. gold in 1861 equalled more than one-sixth of 
 
 the gold export — a fact of great significance 
 
 and promise. 
 
 Of the arrivals, during the year named, nearly 
 half the tonnage was from domestic Pacific 
 ports. Since then, the trade with Mexico has 
 grown beyond calculation, and that with the 
 northern coast enjoys a wholesome increase. 
 The tonnage arriving from China was almost 
 equal to that from Europe. Every year more 
 and more whalers turn in for supplies. 
 
 Business constantly assumes more stability, 
 and less the character of speculation. In 1859, 
 the applications for the benefit of the insolvent 
 act were less than one-third the applications 
 in 1855, and the number still decreases. Yet, 
 the ruling rate of interest, from one per cent, a 
 month on the best securities, to two and a half 
 per cent., shows that capital still regards all 
 business as perilous, or, at least, acts on the sus- 
 picion. 
 
 Gold and silver coins of the United States 
 are the almost exclusive currency, but no coin 
 less than a dime is in general use, though half- 
 dimes are occasionally given and taken at i-etail 
 stores in the cities. Coppers and nickels are 
 curious rarities. Leo-al-tender notes of the 
 United States are accepted for Federal taxes, 
 
EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. CJ 5 
 
 Ibr judgments rendered (in default of a specific chap. 
 contract) or fines inflicted by the courts. Other- 
 wise tliey pass only at the ruling discount from i864. 
 gold. 
 
OIG THE HISTOPwY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIL 
 
 QUARRELS WITH NATURE.— COMPENSATIONS FOR 
 APPARENT MISFORTUNES. 
 
 CHAP. It has been supi^osed that Nature, so lavish 
 
 ^__^^_' of gifts to California, like a jealous lover, had 
 
 1864. many quarrels v^^ith her. If it was so in the 
 
 beginning, time, society, and the presence of 
 
 stranccers are effecting: a cure. 
 
 The earthquakes which tradition and the 
 early Mission records make really serious affairs 
 though frequent, have seldom of late done even 
 the slightest harm. They inspire no more 
 terror than a thunderstorm at the East, and are 
 less to be dreaded. 
 
 Ignorance, or neglect of the warnings of na- 
 tives and old residents, exposed the sites of 
 several inland cities to overflow from the streams 
 on whose banks they were built. Thus Sacra- 
 mento was flooded January, 1850, in March, 
 1852, and from Christmas of that year to New 
 Years of 1853, while the place was still black 
 with the ruins of the great November fire, that 
 destroyed the entire business portion of the 
 city; and Marysville was flooded in 1852. Ex- 
 
FLOODS. 617 
 
 pei'ience taught the necessity of building strong chap. 
 levees above the level of the river at flood, and ,___!; 
 of raising the street grades. 1864. 
 
 This done, the cities enjoyed immunity from 
 floods until the winter of 1861-2, when double 
 the amount of rain fell that California had seen 
 any year since 'the American conquest. The 
 snows on the mountains melted under the 
 warm rain, and the rivers, whose beds were 
 filled with the tailings from the mines, soon 
 overflowed their banks. 
 
 The Sacramento levees would have held up 
 against it, but that a railroad company had 
 carelessly filled in with an embankment a space 
 intended to be left as a bridge. The waters of 
 the American, overflowing above the city, and 
 being prevented by the dam of the railroad em- 
 bankment from passing off behind it, flowed 
 over the eastern levee and filled the city. This 
 was the 9th of December. In a few hours the 
 southern levee burst, and the waters in the city 
 began to subside — small houses, furniture, cattle, 
 and horses being carried away in the torj-ent 
 through the crevasse. A million dollars' worth 
 of property was destroyed in this brief sub- 
 mergence, and more than five thousand sufferers 
 required aid from the Howard Association of 
 Sacramento, which disbursed some sixty thou- 
 sand dollars for their relief, two-thirds of it 
 being contributed by San Francisco. 
 
618 TIIE inSTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP. On the lOtli of Januarv, 1862, the flood came 
 ao;ain, stroiio-er and more devastatini^: than be- 
 
 1862. fore. The effort to repair the levees bad j)roved 
 a failure. As the waters rose in their dwell- 
 ings, the occupants of the larger buildings took 
 to the upper stories. Those in smaller houses 
 either fled to the pavilion prepared for . them, 
 or, if too late for that, climbed up on beds, ta- 
 bles, chairs, keeping their flag or light of distress 
 out to guide the reliefboats to their rescue. 
 The streets for weeks were traversed only by 
 boats. From the capitol roof no land was vis- 
 i1)le in or near the city, except a small portion 
 of the levee. Perhaps half the population of 
 fifteen thousand sought refuge temporarily in 
 other cities, chiefly in San Francisco, which sent 
 up relief steamers with cooked provisions, 
 money, and men, and put Piatt's Hall at the 
 service of the rescued. 
 
 But not Sacramento alone ; Stockton, Marys- 
 ville, Napa, Knight's Ferry, lone, Jacksonville, 
 and numerous other places were drowned. 
 Houses, furniture, goods, fences were washed 
 away. The cattle crowded in herds to the 
 knolls, and in herds perished, as, after days of 
 shivering and starvation, they tumbled into the 
 sea. Their carcasses dotted the plains a year 
 later. From the foot-hills of the Sierra to those 
 of the Coast lian^re, from the foot of Shasta to 
 the hills that lead up to the Tehon Pass, all the 
 
FLOODS. 619 
 
 plain was converted into a lake, not unlike in chap. 
 shape and size Lake Michigan. This immense 
 body of water discharged itself through Suisun i862. 
 Bay, the Straits of Carquines, San Francisco 
 Bay, and the Golden Gate to the ocean. The 
 height of the waters in the bay was not muck 
 increased, but there ceased to flow in any flood- 
 tide through the Golden Gate. For weeks the 
 turbid yellow stream rolled continuously out, 
 bearing tules, brush, and trees with it far out 
 to sea. 
 
 Is a flood to be anticipated periodically ? Is 
 it to be provided against and still dreaded ? 
 The straits at the head of Suisun Bay were too 
 narrow an outlet for the waters accumulated in 
 the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys ; that 
 cause of a wide-spread overflow is not likely to 
 be remedied until some other similar disaster 
 indicates the necessity. But the flood itself 
 washed out the tailings from thousands of 
 flumes that had filled the river-beds. As there 
 will be less' hei'eafter than heretofore of the 
 kind of mining which disturbs the courses of 
 the rivers, that prominent cause of floods is to 
 a large extent removed. The exposed cities 
 have lifted their main streets and levees above 
 the highest water-mark. The farmers on the 
 plains recognize the advantage of erecting their 
 houses on a shallow mound, or at least of hav- 
 ing one spot of higher ground on their premises 
 
620 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, as a place of refuc-e for the cattle. As there 
 
 XLII 1 o 
 
 ^__^ had been no precedent for such a flood within 
 1862. the memory of living men in the State, so no 
 other such is anticipated, especially as the 
 change from sluice and placer and hydraulic 
 to quartz mining, will diminish the main cause 
 of overflows that is suVyect to human control. 
 
 California has occasionally suffered in several 
 leading interests from drought. The stranger 
 travelling through the southern part of the State 
 in the late summer or early fall, would fancy him- 
 self on a desert. The rivers that were swollen 
 in December, are mere rills in their broad, dry 
 beds. The earth that in May was carpeted with 
 verdure, and gay with an endless variety of 
 flowers, is broum, and no sign of grass aj^pears. 
 Yet, to his astonishment, thousands of cattle 
 browse on the apparent desert and grow fat. 
 Closer examination shows the earth covered with 
 the burs and stalks of a clover which the cattle 
 enjoy and thrive on finely. With the first rains 
 of November the grasses start, and as the win- 
 ter deepens and spring approaches, flowers of all 
 hues glorify the abundant pasture-grounds. 
 
 But occasionally the fall rains come early and 
 spoil the dry feed, and the spring rains late, 
 which is hard for the cattle ; or the rains fail 
 altogether. 
 
 The season of 1809 and 1810 was an almost 
 rainless one. The old missionaries took the 
 
DEOUaHTS. 621 
 
 Lint, and after tliat saw that a stock of corn, chap. 
 
 • XLII 
 
 cbied beef, and beans sufficient for two years ^_^J^ 
 were laid in. They set their Indians to fishing, 1862. 
 too, that the sea might on emergency ehe out 
 the food-supplies of the land. 
 
 Ai^ain in 1820 and 1821 there was little rain. 
 The great flocks and herds were straitened for 
 pasture, and, by order of Governor Sola, hun- 
 dreds of mares were killed, to save the pasture 
 thev would eat. The Indians were sent out by 
 the Fathers to gather pine-nuts and acorns, and 
 thus economize their store. 
 
 Between 1828 and 1830, a drought of nearly 
 two years' duration afflicted the land, so that, 
 as was estimated, forty thousand cattle died. 
 The cropis (of the Southern Missions) were 
 scarcely more than sufficed for seed, and the 
 wells and springs of Monterey gave out. 
 
 In 1840 and 1841, there was no rain at the 
 south for fourteen months, but the range of the 
 cattle was greater, and they suffered less than 
 before. It is said that in 1855 and 1856, there 
 were seventy thousand cattle lost below Mon- 
 terey — dying of starvation and cold, after the 
 fall rains destroyed the old feed, and before the 
 new was fit to be eaten. 
 
 The winters of 1862-3 and 1863-4 were 
 unusually dry, and the cattle of the South suf- 
 fered severely. Thousands were driven to the 
 Matanzas to be slaughtered for their hides, and 
 
622 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORlSriA. 
 
 CHAP, other tlioiisands, too much wasted to endure 
 
 XT TT • • 
 
 the drive to the coast, perished on the pLxins. 
 18G2. The grain crop of the central part of the State 
 was scarcely half what was expected. But the 
 Russian River region, and certain other locali- 
 ties near the coast and in the foot-hills, were 
 singularly favored with rain, so that there was 
 no scarcity of grain, and in the short supply 
 the farmers got for their small crops about as 
 much as for their larsrer ones before. 
 
 The apparent misfortunes of California have 
 not generally proved as serious hinderances to 
 her growth as was anticipated. Some of them 
 have soon discovered themselves blessino-s in 
 disguise, while some, though very costly and 
 at first glance altogether ruinous, have de- 
 veloped afterwards undreamed-of compensa- 
 tions. Fires in the early days ravaged the 
 to^vns, and the value of the destroyed improve- 
 ments seemed utterly lost. The Mission Fa- 
 thers used to require the Indians to build their 
 huts of combustible material, so that when 
 they became intolerably filthy they could be 
 burned down and out of the way. Some of 
 our early fires did the same kindly office for 
 the pioneers. Often badly chosen sites for 
 cities were deserted because a fire swept off all 
 that tempted the settlers — already aware of 
 their mistake — to stay, and then a better site 
 was chosen. The floods, that seemed to fetch 
 
COMPENSATION FOR APPAEENT MISFORTUNES. 623 
 
 nothing hut ruin, had their compensations, chap. 
 Interior towns, "built below a safe grade, were _^_ 
 graded up while it cost comparatively little to 1862. 
 ^ do it, and levees were seasonably constructed ; 
 sterile hill-sides were made fruitfid ; the breadth 
 of the grain crop largely extended from the val- 
 leys up the slopes ; the tailings of old mines 
 were washed off, and new placers revealed. 
 
 The drought of 1863 and 1864 was not alto- 
 gether evil. The markets of meats, vegetables, 
 and grains were still abundantly supplied, and 
 the enhanced prices made the round year a 
 better one than its flushed predecessor, for many 
 farmers and ranchmen. If the event shows 
 that the negligent system prevalent in the 
 southern counties is to any large degree aban- 
 doned by the owners of herds, the drought 
 will prove to have benefited them immeasura- 
 bly. A man owns a hundred wild cattle, and 
 cannot produce a pound of butter or cheese 
 from them : to get a glass of milk, perhaps will 
 require an hour's labor with a vaquero to lasso 
 the "tame cow," and an assistant or two to 
 milk her. If drou2;ht or flood or famine will 
 conspire to break up the lazy style of herding 
 and farming at the south, the plains that are 
 at times deserts may become fruitful prairies, 
 and homesteads dot the long, dreary, solitary 
 leagues that lie waste between San Juan and 
 Los Angeles. A dozen well-conditioned tame 
 
624 THE mSTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 cattle miglit make riclier than he is the owner 
 of hundreds of wild cattle, worth only the tal- 
 1862. low and hides of their carcasses. 
 
 Every enforced change in the method of 
 mining has seemed to threaten ruin, yet gen- 
 erally has resulted in permanent benefit to the 
 region accepting the change. The exhausted 
 placers went into the hands of Chinamen, whose 
 aggregate washings and pickings are all clear 
 gain to the gold in circulation. The old placer 
 diggers, provided with the capital that the pan 
 and rocker helped them to, turned to tunnels 
 and hydraulics, which paid better dividends. 
 When the richest hills are worked and sifted, 
 and water charges are too high to leave hydrau- 
 licing profitable any longer, the livers scoop 
 out their beds again, and the danger of floods 
 is reduced. In some of the rivers, where three 
 years ago only a thin, yellow, muddy stream 
 was moving, the bars already begin to be re- 
 moved, and the channel to deepen, along which 
 pours a clear tide again, reminding the early 
 settlers of the look it bore when they first saw 
 it. Again, every failure of a paying bar dis- 
 perses a camp of miners to prospecting, and 
 new resources are ])roufrht to lig-ht. The re- 
 turning wave from Washoe, in 18G1, developed 
 the copper of Calaveras, and many a deposit of 
 silver; for the miners, when not too fiercely 
 bitten with the fury for the last discovery, pick 
 
COMPETCSATION FOR APPARENT MISFORTUNES. 625 
 
 both ways as tliey travel, and, es-pecially as chap. 
 tliey return, question all tlie promising crop- __'^^. 
 pings, and are geological surveyors of tlie most i8G2. 
 practical sort. 
 
 From 1860 to 1862, inclusive, the State's 
 interior population apparently decreased. As 
 it was owing principally to the rush to Wash- 
 ington Territory, Idaho, and Washoe, it did not 
 seem like so utter a loss as when, in 1858 and 
 1859, British Columbia was absorbinsj its en- 
 terprise and industry. This drifting into other 
 Territories belonging to the Union could be 
 borne the better, since it was only sowing, be- 
 yond the border, harvests that California and 
 the Union would jointly reap. But it was 
 rouo^h at first on California. The middle tier 
 of counties suffered most. Some of their mininsr 
 
 o 
 
 towns lost half their population. But the com- 
 pensation was surprisingly quick in coming. 
 Splendid roads over the mountains were con- 
 structed, to meet the demands of the new set- 
 tlements beyond the eastern border. A new 
 and profitable market was opened for all that 
 the orchardists and gardeners and fiT,rmers in 
 the foot-hills could raise, and agriculture com- 
 peted with mining as a profitable employment 
 in what had been deemed exclusively mining 
 counties. Factors appeared at the door of 
 every man who had any thing in the shape of 
 produce or grain to sell, with tempting prices 
 
 40 
 
626 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOE]ST[A. 
 
 CHAP, in hand. It stimulated the permanent settle- 
 ment of the rich little valleys, and men, who 
 
 1862. had drifted ever since their arrival, sent for 
 their families and improved homesteads. Wa- 
 shoe did for Californians what Congress should 
 have done long ago ; it gave the miner an in- 
 terest in the land. Then founderies started up 
 in all the cities to supply a clamorous demand 
 for machinery ; and when Washoe abated her 
 demand, the stock of machinery that could be 
 so easily turned out of these founderies stimu- 
 lated prospecting for other fields within our 
 borders to employ it. 
 
 The social compensations for those rushes, that 
 looked so frightful as they approached, were 
 still more remarkable. With each rush went 
 the worst class first. The gambling and drink- 
 ing saloons and houses of ill-fame were the 
 first to close up. They who remained gave 
 more attention to theh' homes, to the education 
 of their growing families, to their moral train- 
 ing. Cottages took on paint, flowers crept 
 more boldly up to the windows, vines trailed 
 their glories to the sun ; and the cottage owners 
 were not ashamed of these evidences of a taste 
 that was deemed effeminate by the departed 
 roysterers. School-houses were open longer in 
 the year ; churches lost their musty, un ven- 
 tilated air. 
 
 It is growing all the while clearer that these 
 
COMPENSATION FOE APPARENT MISFOETUNES. 627 
 
 rushes cause far more apparent than real loss chap. 
 to the community. The class that runs, quick ^^^ ' 
 as the mercury in the tilted level, at the first i8G2. 
 report of great diggings in the distance, is not 
 the most desirable class, though it is the noisi- 
 est. Streets that were ringing with the songs 
 of a score or two of riotous fellows, perambula- 
 ting them through the early night, and brilliant 
 with the light of open gambling and drinking 
 saloons, are still and dark now, and the hasty 
 observer might conclude that the life of the 
 town had gone. It is only its wild, unprofit- 
 able life that has vanished. A thousand well- 
 to-do, steady people, in their homes, are not as 
 noisy as the score of spenthriffcs ; a new mining 
 camp of five hundred makes more noise at night 
 than a New England village of five thousand 
 people. But send a popular lecturer, or a good 
 stump speaker, into these dull towns, and he 
 will see the population swarm out to meet and 
 cheer him. Unquestionably there are more 
 elements of permanent prosperity in the State 
 to-day than ever before; and though it is not 
 true of particular localities, of the State as a 
 whole, it is true that the growth has been steady 
 and healthfuL 
 
628 THE HISTORY OF CALLFOENIA. 
 
 18G4. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 THE PEOPLE AND THE PROSPECTS. 
 
 CHAP. The sixteen years of its occupation Lave not 
 ■^^^^- changed the early impression of the saluljrity 
 of the climate of California. In the low dis- 
 tricts, subject to overflow from the rivers, and 
 in the parts where the miners constantly turn 
 new soil to the sun, miasmatic diseases prevail. 
 Rheumatism naturally waits uj)on the miner 
 who exposes himself in ditches, or lies drilling 
 and picking all day or night in a damp tunnel ; 
 for, deep in a tunnel, night and day are indis- 
 ting-uishable. 
 
 The strong winds of the coast are severe for 
 persons with sensitive throat or lungs. In San 
 Francisco, throughout the year, the air is bra- 
 cing, and tempting to work. Probably most 
 of the ailments of the males in that city are due 
 to the inspiriting air — in winter sufficiently 
 cool to make gentle exercise agreeable, yet 
 scarcely cold enough to require a fire, except as 
 a cheerful addition to the picture of an evening 
 at home ; in summer serene and delicious in the 
 morning, a little chilly and invigorating with 
 
THE CLIMATE. 629 
 
 the westerly afternoon winds, wliicli would be chap. 
 
 • XLIEL 
 
 always grateful but for the dust and sand with ^_^_^ 
 which they are laden — a nuisance that will dis- 1804. 
 appear as the streets come to be more generally 
 planked down or paved, and new blocks of 
 buildings furnish a lee. This very bracing, 
 always stimulating condition of the air, tempts 
 to overwork, and induces the diseases that 
 grow out of constant, unremitting excite- 
 ment. 
 
 It will be remedied in part by fashion, which 
 will establish certain times of the year as the 
 proper ones to visit the coast or retire to the 
 interior, to fly to watering-places, to loiter 
 about the medicinal springs, to see the natural 
 cuiiosities of the country, Yosemite Valley, the 
 Big Tree groves of Mariposa and Calaveras, the 
 Geysers, or to make excursions to the grape 
 counties in the time of the vintage. At pres- 
 ent, fashion only dictates, when one is over- 
 worked, a trip to the Sandwich Islands, or 
 overland or by steamer to the East, or to 
 Europe. 
 
 Society has wondrously improved since the 
 Vigilance era. Most Californians were enter- 
 prising, or they would not have migrated so 
 long a distance ; intelligent, or they would have 
 lacked the enterprise their very presence proves. 
 They are great readers, because the majority 
 received at least a common-school education at 
 
630 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, home, and their love of home, and their isola- 
 tion, make reading a necessity to obtain the 
 
 18G4. news and pass their leisure pleasantly. The 
 newspaper is in every man's house, and it is 
 doubtful if anywhere the newspaper is more 
 admirably conducted to meet the wants of a 
 people that believe in it. No American papers 
 pay more for the earliest news than the leading 
 journals of San Francisco and Sacramento ; none 
 pay more attention to local news and interests ; 
 few, if any, are more carefully conducted to 
 prevent misleading those who leave their paper 
 to do their thinking for them. Almost every 
 sect and party has a representative and advo- 
 cate, if not an organ ; and the religious press, 
 though not at all profitable as a business spec- 
 ulation, is influential. 
 
 The common schools are at last upon such a 
 basis that in the settled parts of the State any 
 child may obtain as fair a primary education as 
 in an Eastern public school ; of course there are 
 regions sparsely populated, where the school- 
 houses are long distances apart, and the schools 
 kept but a small portion of the year. Private 
 and select schools of superior excellence abound 
 in the cities and their vicinity, and are exten- 
 sively patronized, because parents are suspicious 
 that their children learn too fast and too much 
 in the public schools. Several colleges and 
 professional schools have been planteLl. Such 
 
EDUCATIONAL CONDITION. 631 
 
 institutions are of slow growth, but tliey are chap. 
 rooting firmly and springing with fine promise. _^ 
 As the j^eople of the Ameiican colonies long 1864. 
 preferred to send their children to Europe to 
 be educated, so hitherto the custom has pre- 
 vailed in California of sending the boys to the 
 colleges and the girls to the seminaries of the 
 East. The custom will cease as the parents are 
 weaned from their old homes, for motives of 
 economy and the natural desire to keep one's 
 family together conspire to give home schools 
 the preference over even better ones abroad. 
 
 The census of 1860 was so shabbily taken, 
 that it almost demands an apology to quote it ; 
 yet, in its rude approximation to truth, it ex- 
 hibits some curious facts. According to its 
 returns, only a little more than one-fourth of the 
 white inhabitants were females. This dispro- 
 portion of the sexes, greatest in the mining dis- 
 tricts and least in the chief cities, accounts for 
 the large though decreasing number of divorces, 
 perhaps for some of the insanity and suicides 
 that startle the community. Add to this that 
 the mildness of the climate makes the people, 
 to a large extent, an out-door people, permits 
 them to hold exchange on the side- walk, tempts 
 them to pleasure excursions into the country the 
 year round, and requires no firesides in their 
 homes, and there are suggested some of the 
 chief social dangers of the State. 
 
632 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORI^IA. 
 
 C[iAP. In San Francisco the Sabbath is scarcely less 
 generally observed than in the Eastern cities. 
 
 1864. The most notable diiference is, that the theatres 
 are open on the Sabbath as on other evenings, 
 though principally attended by French, Ger- 
 man, and Spanish residents. In the country, 
 though church spires and towers give the 
 Christian aspect to all thriving interior towns, 
 the proportion of attendants is exceedingly 
 small, and it is easy to find men brought up 
 under church influences who have not heard 
 a sermon in a year, or only as among the curi- 
 osities of the metropolis on visiting it. 
 
 Away from the conserving influence of woman 
 and home, living lives of hazard and excitement, 
 there was danger that the masses would acquire 
 habits of intemperance in drinking. The fear 
 was not unfounded, nor the result other than 
 was feared. The bracing climate sustained the 
 hard drinker, and deluded him with the hope 
 of longevity in spite of his excesses, until sud- 
 den death terminated his career. The influence 
 of exemplary business partnerships, of Sabbath- 
 school, of church, of home, were potent within 
 their circle, but the mass was outside their 
 circle. A reform which proved widely influen- 
 tial was inaugurated January 1st, 1859. A 
 company of firemen ("Howard, No. 3"), sitting 
 in their engine-house late at night, celebrating 
 New Year after the custom of the country, fell 
 
MOEAL ASPECTS. 633 
 
 to musing over their prospects, aud were voucli- chap. 
 safed a vision of their probable fate. At last _^_J 
 they agreed solemnly to discontinue the use of 1864. 
 intoxicating liquor — to "dash away the cup." 
 They organized a society of Dashaways, with 
 Frank E. R. Whitney, chief engineer of the iire 
 department of San Francisco, as their j)resident, 
 pledging themselves to drink nothing intoxi- 
 cating for five and a half months. They kept 
 their promise, and, before reaching the limit of 
 their self-imposed pledge, renewed it for all 
 time. They rented a hall, started a library, 
 opened an intelligence office, had meetings every 
 Sabbath, at which clergymen and others were 
 invited to address them, experience meetings in 
 the afternoon, business and debating meetings 
 in the evenings, went out seeking among their 
 acquaintance for new men to be pledged, played 
 the Good Samaritan to all drunkards, estab- 
 lished branch Dashaway associations in other 
 cities, and were felt for good wherever they 
 went. Out of their efforts grew up the Asylum 
 for Inebriates, which has a fine permanent 
 building. They erected a hall of their own, 
 where all strangers are welcome. Many who 
 have been pledged have fallen away and been 
 lost; but scores and hundreds it has saved. 
 Many have doubted if the experiment could 
 finally and lastingly succeed, querying whether 
 the reformation it achieves is radical enough to 
 
634 THE HISTORY OF OALIFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, affect the fruit of a lifetime. Thus far it has 
 
 ^_^ succeeded beyond all expectation ; it has done 
 
 1864. immense good at a time when it was most 
 
 needed, and to a class not accessible to other 
 
 means of reform. 
 
 One question connected with this subject still 
 perplexes the people. The State is to become 
 a great wine-making country. But in wine- 
 growing States the thin wines supplant tea and 
 coffee as table drinks. How will this affect 
 California society ? The grapes of the land are 
 rich in sugar and excessive in the production 
 of alcohol. Will the common use of wine made 
 from them lead to abstinence from the poisonous 
 adulterations of imported liquors? or will it 
 but stimulate the appetite to a demand for still 
 fiercer drinks ? Opinion is divided on the ques- 
 tion, and there is too little experience yet to 
 ofuide to a correct conclusion. 
 
 There is no poor-house in California, and oiiO 
 reason is because there are not many poor. 
 The generation that settled the country is still 
 young and able-bodied. The high cost of re- 
 moval to the State prohibits poverty from in- 
 vading it in force, so that its poor are its own. 
 The people directly relieve utter destitution 
 when they hear of it, and, l^ecause at San Fran- 
 cisco there are hospitals, asylums, and many 
 societies organized to relieve suffering, ease 
 jooverty " over the centre," and assist the ailing, 
 
OIIAEITIES AND BENEVOLENCE. 635 
 
 a prevalent metliod of relief in the country is chap. 
 
 • • • XT TTT 
 
 to help the afflicted down to the city ; if there ,__^^_^ 
 they have no friends, and if to their other griefs 1864. 
 they add home-sickness, San Franciscans cheer- 
 fully help them back to their Eastern homes. 
 
 The Indians are estimated to number, instead 
 of the hundred thousand of the time of admis- 
 sion, from ten thousand to fifteen thousand; 
 and diseases acquired by their contact with the 
 whites, whiskey, to which they are devotedly 
 attached, and frequent skirmishes with the 
 whites, are rapidly reducing that number. The 
 opportunity to benefit them, the question what 
 to do with them, will soon pass. They only 
 haunt the outskirts, and are little real trouble 
 even now. 
 
 Governor Weller estimated the expenditures 
 of the State and General Government, in tak- 
 ing care of and fighting Indians, from the ad- 
 mission of the State to 1859, at three million 
 dollars. The Government, observing how the 
 old missionaries made the Indians support 
 themselves and lay up fat stores for the Fathers, 
 devised, in 1853, the Reservation system, but 
 committed the radical blunder of sending out 
 professional politicians as Indian Agents rather 
 than men with some tolerable idea of control- 
 ling Indians by moral means, of winning their 
 respect and benefiting them. The result was a 
 .digraceful failure. An appropriation of two 
 
686 THE HISTORY OF CALLFOENIA. 
 
 CHAP, hundred and fifty thousand dollars annually, 
 _^_ for six or seven years, built ample granaries for 
 18G4. the prospective crops, furnished pleasant head- 
 quarters for the superintendents and employes, 
 and helped to carry local elections as the Ad- 
 ministration at AVashington wished them car- 
 ried, but gave the Indians very little employ- 
 ment or clothing or provisions. 
 
 The money was wasted. The fertile nooks 
 composing the Keservatious were coveted by 
 the encroaching whites, and j^retexts for " clear- 
 ing out" the Indians were easy. In 1858-9, 
 at Nova Cult, one hundred and fifty Indians, 
 including women and children, were slaugh- 
 tered — the settlers said they killed their cattle, 
 but neither settlers nor their cattle had any 
 business in the valley. The settlers said the 
 Government did nothino; for its wards at Kino;'s 
 River, so they drove them over to Fresno. At 
 a station near Mendocino several Indians were 
 murdered. About Humboldt Bay and Pitt 
 Kiver there was a series of massacres ; the blood 
 cui'dles at the recital of the story by those who 
 apologize for the murderers. The massacres 
 were generally called " wars ;" sometimes the 
 State took a hand, often er the Government 
 troops came to the rescue, and, more by over- 
 awing whites than by shooting Indians, re-es- 
 tablished peace. 
 
 Since 1860 the annual appropriation has been 
 
THE CHINESE PUZZLE. 637 
 
 al-jout fifty thousand dollars. The Indians per- chap. 
 
 XLIII 
 
 haps get as much as when the sum was five ^,^_! 
 times greater. Probably all that can be done i864. 
 for the miserable remnant, is to give them 
 ao-ents who will treat them with kindness and 
 deal with the Government honestly. Men fit 
 for the post can secure their confidence and 
 rule them by kindness, can save their squaws 
 from being stolen, and their children from be- 
 ing kidnapped. Do that, and they are as harm- 
 less as cattle, as inoffensive as sheep. If the 
 General Government will only furnish them 
 supplies enough to pass them over seasons of 
 droup-ht, so that the alternative shall not be 
 famine or cattle-stealing, and compel the whites 
 to let them alone, the Indian question would 
 be settled. They are the wards of the Gov- 
 ernment at Washington. It, more than the 
 State, is to blame for their maltreatment and 
 abuse. If their fate reflects shame upon the 
 settlers, so does the fate of all their race upon 
 the settlers of the continent — a suggestion that 
 is not made in a spirit of apology, but that any 
 may consider well who meditate thK)wing the 
 first stone. 
 
 The Chinese puzzle is not solved yet. The 
 number of Chinese in the State is estimated at 
 from fifty to sixty thousand, and all belong to 
 one or other of the fur companies that have 
 their head-quarters at San Francisco. 
 
638 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 ^^^- In 1859 the miners in one of the northern 
 s— V — ' counties attempted to eject the Chinese from 
 1864. the mines. The local authorities interfered to 
 prevent the outrage, and Governor Weller, to 
 his credit, aided them against the mob. The 
 Legislature, impelled by a clamor about the 
 competition of coolie with white labor, indulged 
 in a series of spiteful legislation to the annoy- 
 ance of the Chinese. In 1857 it levied a tax 
 on Chinese immigrants, but the Supreme Court 
 annulled it. In 1859 it taxed Chinese fisher- 
 men four dollars a month, and the chief effect 
 was to cause the whites to pay John a little 
 more than they would have done for every 
 pound of fish they bought. In 1862 it passed 
 an act with the direct purpose of discouraging 
 immigration, but the Supreme Court declared 
 it unconstitutional and void. The cis-ar-makers 
 raised a howl against the Chinese in 1862, and 
 an attempt was made to drive them out of the 
 gardens about San Francisco. But because 
 they were neat and nimble-fingered and worked 
 cheaply, they outlived the persecution; and 
 now they make the cigars, pick the berries for 
 market, do light mechanical work in the wool- 
 len and other factories, and are appreciated as 
 quiet, profitable helj). The State over, they are 
 creating values out of nothing, of which Amer- 
 icans receive the lion's share. As society 
 
THE CHINESE PUZZLE. 639 
 
 grows stable they are sure to get better treat- chap. 
 ment than hitherto. w.^ 
 
 If the heathen moralist could say " whatever 1864. 
 is human pertains to me," Christians certainly 
 will not oppress these pioneers, though of a 
 heathen race, whose presence is a perpetual 
 challenge to the expansive missionary spirit to 
 do what it can for their Christianization. If, 
 when they meet us half-way, our Christianity 
 cannot impress them, what prospect that their 
 teeming land can be affected by any thing that 
 our missionaries can do ? 
 
 Kindness tells upon them as upon other 
 folks. A few gather every Sabbath in San 
 Francisco to the Mission Church, which, under 
 the Rev. Mr. Speer, of the Presbyterian Board, 
 or the Rev. Mr. Loomis, his successor, has been 
 maintained since 1852. A few stray into the 
 Sabbath schools and are welcome, while a con- 
 siderable number attend the evening school es- 
 tablished by the City Board of Education for 
 their benefit, and where competent teachers in- 
 struct them in English. 
 
 There are a few other elements composing 
 the population that do not easily mix with 
 Europeans, but they are feeble in numbers and 
 threaten no trouble. Cosmopolitan beyond 
 all other lands, there is every reason to believe 
 that after the first generation the people will 
 seem homogeneous. 
 
640 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 California lias conquered ocean and desert, 
 distance and isolation. Reg-ular lines of steam- 
 •1864. ers were early established to convey mails and 
 passengers from New York to San Francisco. 
 At first these steamers ran monthly ; then every 
 fortnight, and then, for several years, three 
 times a month. The favorite line is by Pana- 
 ma, especially since the railroad over that nar- 
 row isthmus is finished from ocean to ocean. 
 The fare is always high, seldom, except when 
 shai'p competition reduces it, falling below two 
 hundred and thirty dollars for the best, and 
 eighty dollars for the meanest accommodations. 
 Other routes occasionally compete for a share 
 of the travel. 
 
 In the early days there was much suffering 
 on the journey, whatever the route. The deten- 
 tion and hardships of the isthmus-crossing pre- 
 disposed to cholera, and the steerage passengers 
 especially were swept off with frightful mor- 
 tality. Now, however, the trip is generally 
 made in little over twenty-one days, and if the 
 passenger affords himself the comforts that 
 money and experience can command, he may 
 with ordinary weather make his first voyage a 
 pleasure excursion, though, after that, at the 
 best it will prove tedious and tiresome. 
 
 The terrors of the overland route, too, have 
 been greatly diminished. In October, 1858, by 
 act of Congress, a daily overland mail was 
 
COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE EAST. 641 
 
 started, and tlie contractors j)ut upon the line chap. 
 stages which whisk the passenger, paying about 
 the same as first-class steamer fare, from Atchi- i864. 
 sou to Placerville, in nineteen days. 
 
 In the spring of 1860 the pony mail was 
 stai'ted. Light, well-armed riders, carrying 
 nothing but letters, dashed from station to 
 station, on small, tough, fleet-footed horses, 
 making the trip across the continent in nine 
 days. It was a stirring thing to meet the pony 
 in the mountains. By the winding of his horn 
 the rider announced his coming, when team- 
 ster, emigrant, and even aristocratic stage- 
 driver 2:)ulled his team closer to the bank and 
 let the pony pass. With a yell, perhaps, but 
 no stop to parley, the rider flashed by on his 
 galloping mustang, and the next winding of his ' 
 horn showed him far off, already clambering the 
 hill or plunging into the distant canon. 
 
 But the pony was stabled forever on the com- 
 pletion of the telegraph across the continent. 
 This constant marvel was finished early in 1861, 
 and one of the first messages that travelled the 
 mysterious wire announced the death of Colo- 
 nel Baker at Ball's Bluff. With occasional in- 
 terruptions, chiefly from atmospheric causes east 
 of Omaha, the telegraph has kept the people of 
 California posted during the war with the news 
 of the day almost as promptly as were they of 
 the Eastern cities. The same dispatches tliat 
 
 41 
 
642 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOEKIA. 
 
 CHAP, went from Washington over niglit to New York 
 
 . ^__, and iBoston were read next morning in San 
 
 1864. Francisco. The difference in longitude operated 
 to the advantage of the West, and atoned for 
 the loss of time in repeating the message at 
 Chicago, Salt Lake, or elsewhere. 
 
 There still remains to be built that great 
 bond of union, the Pacific Railroad. It is, 
 begun, however, and the least sanguine expect 
 it to be completed so that one may ride by rail 
 from the ports of the Atlantic to the great 
 metropolis of the Pacific within the next dozen 
 years. Give us this, and the glory of the situ- 
 ation of California will be as apparent at the 
 East as at the West. There will be a contiu- 
 ous line of settlements from the Missouri to the 
 Sacramento, and both East and West must 
 speedily reap benefits tenfold the cost of the 
 gigantic undertaking. 
 
 Events in California have occurred so rapid- 
 ly, the country so lately an unknown land has 
 so quickly overtaken the civilization of the 
 Eastern States, that the incidents of sixteen 
 years ago seem as truly antique as if a century 
 intervened between them and the present. The 
 actors in the most stirrino; scenes of the coast 
 still live. It is a delicate task to write of them 
 with the same impartiality as if they were dead. 
 It is awkward to have the men who have fio-ured 
 
ca.lifob:n:ia a mother of teeritories. 643 
 
 in history usurping tlie place of posterity and chap. 
 criticising the historian's labors. — >,— - 
 
 But though the State has passed through so 1864. 
 much, produced so largely, achieved so nobly, 
 it is clearly, as yet, on the threshold of its great 
 career. With all its drawbacks, which are but 
 temporary, so charming is its climate, so rich 
 its resources, and so accessible are they to all 
 the industrious and energetic, that the intelli- 
 gent immigrant now, as he did in the past, and 
 doubtless will in the future for many a year, 
 feels the force of the Staters motto, and for him- 
 self exclaims, JEiireha. 
 
 Steadily the State grows in material wealth ; 
 rapidly it improves in its social aspect as a 
 home for a free, intelligent-people. Even if the 
 next census should not show as great a growth 
 in population during the current decennial pe- 
 riod as was anticipated a few j^ears ago, it must 
 be remembered how that may happen without 
 permanent injury to the State. 
 
 California is, like the older Eastern States, a 
 busy hive, whence new swarms go off annually, 
 yet are not lost to her. From her borders have 
 gone out the men who are developing the re- 
 sources of a region four times as great as the 
 original thirteen States. The Union is a perpet- 
 ual gainer, though California may appear to be 
 checked by this wonderfully elastic expansion, 
 Nevada, Idaho, Western Utah, Arizona, -and 
 
644 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CHAP, tlie four northern States of Mexico owe tlieir 
 ,_^ ■ population chiefly to California. They are fast 
 18G4. repaying her for the outlay on them in the 
 trade and commerce that they have created for 
 her principal port, in the market they make for 
 her agricultural products, in their demand for the 
 work of her factories and founderies, and the 
 gold, silver, copper, and other mineral products 
 that 0^0 throuo-h San Francisco into the markets 
 of the world. Looking at California in connec- 
 tion with the colonies that have gone from her, 
 and will ever be tributary to her, there is not 
 a more marvellous State growth recoided in all 
 the pages of history. 
 
 f 
 
COTJUT OF CLAIMS. 
 
 EULOGIO F. DE CELTS, ADMINISTRATOR OF THE ESTATE 
 OP EULOGIO DE CELIS, DECEASED, vs. THE UNITED 
 STATES. 
 
 FINDINGS OF FACT. 
 
 This case having been heard before the Court of Claims, the court, 
 upon the evidence, finds the facts to be as follows : 
 
 I. The claims set forth in the petition were referred to this court by 
 the Senate of the United States January 29, 1859, and on the same day, 
 a copy of the order of the Senate and the accompanying papers were 
 filed herein, and the case entered in the name of Eulogio De Cells. 
 
 II. Subsequently said Eulogio died, and the claimant, who was admit- 
 ted to prosecute this action in May, 1874, was duly appointed adminis- 
 trator on his estate by the probate court of the county of Los Angeles, 
 Cal., October 19, 1869. 
 
 III. On the 3d of March, 1847, said De Cells, now deceased, and J. C. 
 Fremont entered into a written contract, a copy of which is annexed to 
 the petition and marked Exhibit A. The 600 head of cattle therein 
 contracted for were delivered to said Fremont by said De Cells at An- 
 gelee, Cal., April 2G, 1847, and on that day said Fremont gave a receipt 
 therefor, a copy of which is annexed to the petition, and at the same 
 time an acknowledgment of indebtedness set forth in the claimant's 
 petition. 
 
 IV. Said Fremont delivered said cattle to one Abel Stearns, upon an 
 agreement between them that said Stearns should keep and pasture the 
 same for three years, and should receive as a compensation therefor one- 
 half the natural increase. Said Stearns thereupon removed the cattle 
 into Mexican territory, in Lower California, and pastured them there 
 during the three years agreed upon. At the expiration of that period, 
 the government not having taken any measures for completing said Fre- 
 mont's contract, nor for payment of the purchase-money, he directed 
 said Stearns to redeliver said cattle, with one-half the natural increase, 
 to said De Cells, and they were so delivered some time in the year 18.52. 
 
 V. In February, 1853, said De Cells imported said cattle into the 
 United States via San l>iego, Cal., and there paid to the collector of 
 customs $712.58 as duties thereon, without protest. The collector's re- 
 ceipt therefor is set forth in Exhibit B, annexed to the petition. 
 
 VI. On said March 3, 1847, said De Cells (since deceased), at said An- 
 geles, loaned to said Fremont $2,500, in silver dollars, and received from 
 said Fremont therefor a promissory note, a copy of which is annexed to 
 the petition, and marked Exhibit D. 
 
 VII. The money so borrowed was expended by said Fiemont in supply- 
 ing the wants of the officers and men under his command, but what 
 officers and men, and what wants, do not appear: no accounts, vouch- 
 ers, reports, or returns thereof having been proved. 
 
 VIII. In the year 1846, and for some time subsequently, said Fremont 
 was lieutenant-colonel of a regiment of mounted riflemen, United States 
 
Army, in coinmaud of a battalion of volnuteers organized in California 
 tor the service of the United States. 
 
 In January, 1847, Brig. Gen. S. W. Kearny, then in California with a 
 military command, was his superior officer by rank and by orders from 
 the War Department, and was commander-in-chief of the land forces of 
 tl!(> United States in Upper California. 
 
 IX. For refusing to obey the lawful commands of General Kearny, 
 and acting in defiance of his authority: in raising and attempting to 
 raise troops; in retaining in service an armed force contrary to the 
 orders of said Kearny; in refusing to march such part of his battalion 
 as refused to be mustered into service of the United States to Yerba 
 Buena, there to be discharged ; in proclaiming himself to be, and in 
 assuming to be, the governor of California; and other acts of insubor- 
 dination, and for mutiny ; all occurring between January 16, 1847, and 
 a time subsequent to the making the contract and executing the prom- 
 issory note mentioned in the 3d and Cth findings, said Fremont was 
 tried by a court-martial on three charges and twenty-three specifica 
 tions, was found guilty on all of them January' 31, 1848, and was sen- 
 tenced to be dismissed the service. 
 
 The action of the President thereon is set forth in an order, of which 
 the following is a copy : 
 
 "Upon an inspection of the record, I am not satisfied that the facts 
 in this case constitute the military crime of ' mutiny.' I am of opinion 
 that the second and third charges are sustained by the proof, and that 
 the conviction upon these charges warrants the sentence of the court. 
 The sentence of the court is therefore approved ; but, in consideration 
 of the i)eculiar circumstances of the case, of the previous meritorious 
 and valuable services of Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont, and of the fore- 
 going recommendations of a majority of the members of the court, the 
 penalty of dismissal from service is remitted. 
 
 " Lieutenant Colonel Fremont will accordingly be released from arrest, 
 \^ill resume his sword, and report for dntv. 
 
 "JAMES K. FOLK. 
 
 " WashinGt'I'ON, February 16, 1848." 
 
 On the 19th of February, 1848, said Fremont resigned as lieutenant- 
 tolonel in the Army, and his resignation was accepted March IS, 1848. 
 
 CONCLUSION OF LAW. 
 
 On the foregoing facts the claimant is not entitled to recover, and the 
 petition must be dismissed. 
 
 KiCHAKDSON, J., delivered the opinion of the court: 
 
 The claims upon which this action is founded were referred to the 
 court by an order of the Senate of the United States, and arose out of 
 the public operations of Lieut. Col. John C. Fremont, in California, in 
 the years 1846 and 1847, and events connected with the difficulties and 
 ■war between this country and the republic of Mexico, which resulted, 
 among other things, in the conquest and annexation to the United 
 Slates of that part of Mexican territory which was then called Upper 
 California. 
 
 These events and the operations of the military and naval forces, and 
 the transactions of the public officers of the United States serving in 
 that territory immediately before and after its final conquest, excited 
 
gT^at aud general public interest throughout the coautry at the time of 
 their occurrence, aud complete and trustworthy narratives, reports, and 
 records thereof have long since been spread before the public through 
 the proceedings of a general court-martial, held at Washington in 1847 
 and 184S, for the trial of Colonel Fremont, which were communicated 
 to Congress by the President, and printed in an executive document, as 
 well as through other Congressional documents and the historical wri- 
 tings of trustworthy authors. (First session of Thirtieth Congress, 1848, 
 Executive Documents of Senate, Nos. 33 and 70; Re2wrt of Committee, Sen- 
 ate, Ko. 75; Report of Committee, House, No. 817; Riplexfs War with 
 Mexico, vol. 1, 1849; The Mexican War, hy Matisjield, 1848; History of the 
 War between the United States and Mexico, by JenMns, 1849; TuthilVs 
 History of California, 1846; Bigelow^s Life of Colonel Fremont, 1856; Uj)- 
 hamh Life of J. C. Fremont, 1856; Memoirs of Gen. W. T. Sherman, vol. 
 1,1875.) 
 
 The claimant has not proved and does not rely upon any special 
 authority conferred upon Colonel Fre.uont to contract the obligations 
 on the part of the United Stites, set forth in the petition, but rests, 
 upon implied authority which he assumes that officer possessed from 
 his official relations to the government aud the circumstances in which 
 he was placed, as shown or known only through sources of information 
 of a historical and official character, open alike to the public as to this 
 court. 
 
 The court will take judicial notice of the leading and controlling 
 events in the history of the country and of the official relations of the 
 principal actors therein to the government; and, in elucidation thereof, 
 also of less important transactions of general aud public interest im- 
 mediately connected therewith, when they have passed into commonly 
 received authentic history. 
 
 The operations of the military and nlival officers of the United States 
 n the conquest of California, and immediately subsequent thereto, and 
 the action of the executive and legislative branches of the government 
 thereon, so far as they were of a public nature and indicate the true 
 relation of Colonel Fremont, who performed a leading and conspicuous; 
 part therein, to the national government, and his authority or lack of 
 authority to bind the United States by contracts entered into by him in 
 theoffioial capacity which he claimed as " governor of California," must 
 be regarded now, after the lapse of more than thirty years, as such his- 
 torical facts of public and general notoriety as may be here judicially 
 taken notice of by the court, especially as neither party relies upon any 
 other facts bv which his authority can be determined. 
 
 In Meade vs. The United States (9 Wall., 691), on appeal from this 
 court, the judges of the Supreme Court took judicial notice of historical 
 and national political facts bearing upon the merits of that case, of 
 much less general and public interest, notoriety, and comment, than the 
 material facts to which we shall have occasion to refer in this opinion, 
 and acted upon their own view§ thereof, independently of the specific 
 findings which were here made and sent up to them. 
 
 A concise narrative of the public movements of Colonel Fremont in re- 
 lation to the conquest of Upper California will afford, and are necessary 
 to, a clear understanding of the circumstances under which he claimed 
 authority as " governor " thereof, and a summary of the action of Con- 
 gress and the Executive will show how far his operations and assumed 
 authority were adopted and ratified by the government. 
 
 In the year 1845 John C. Fremont, then a brevet captain of Topo- 
 graphical Engineers in the United States Army, but afterwards, in 
 
iSiG, appointed lieutenant colonel of the then new regiment of mounted 
 Tiflemen, who had already distinguished himself by his intrepidity 
 and ability in two expeditions of exploration across the continent, was 
 sent out by the government at Washigton at the head of a third ex- 
 pedition of like character, and especially instructed to find, if possible, 
 a new and better route from the base of the western side of the Kocky 
 Mountains to the mouth of the Columbia River. 
 
 Arriving in California, then Mexican territory, some time in the winter 
 of 1845-'4G, and charged in his instructions not to provoke hostilities 
 with the Mexicans, he at once sought an interview with the governor, 
 -Castro, and easily obtained from him oral permission to go where he 
 pleased, the governor kindly saying that the whole country was open to 
 him. This permission Fiemont could not obtain in writing as he desired, 
 ^nd it was soon revoked by the governor, who ordered the young ex- 
 plorer with his party forthwith to leave the country, and followed up the 
 •order by the hostile array of a small force of infantry, cavalry, and artil- 
 lery, threatening the camp of the exploring party, but making no actual 
 attack. 
 
 Fremont, anxious to continue peaceably the important and interesting 
 work for which he had been sent out, and then earnestly devoted to the 
 line of that duty, seeing no prospects of being permitted to remain in 
 Mexican territory unmolested, broke up his camp and proceeded towards 
 Oregon. 
 
 Since he had left Washington tlie difSculties between the United 
 States and Mexico had increased and war was imininent. Captain Gil- 
 lespie, of the Marine Corps, had been dispatched to overtake him, with a 
 letter of introduction from Mr. Buchanan, Secretary of State, some oral 
 messages, and a letter from Mr. Benton, Senator from Missouri. Captain 
 Gillespie, who had crossed through Mexican territory in the guise of an 
 English merchant, reached the exploring party and communicated the 
 messages and delivered the letters about the 9th of May, 1846. The 
 exact terms of the letter from Senator Benton and the oral messages 
 have never been given to the public, but they made such an impression 
 upon Colonel Fremont as to induce him immediately to abandon his ex- 
 pedition of exploration and retrace his steps and return to California. 
 Arriving tlioie lie found some of the residents in a state of insurrection 
 against the txisting government, and joining the insurgents, he raised 
 and orgiiiiizcd a battalion of soldiers for active warfare, taking command 
 himselt w ithout appointment from any superior organization, and acting 
 wholly upon his own authority and on his own responsibility. 
 
 Early in July, 1840, the revolutionists at Sonoma issued a declaration 
 of independence, declaring the country free from the dominion of Mexico, 
 and established a nominal government under a flag bearing the emblem 
 of H grizzly bear, which gave to them the name of " bear party," and to 
 the insurrection the name of "the bear war." 
 
 Before that date, on the 13th of May, 1846, Congress had passed an 
 act and the President had issued a proclamation declaring that "by the 
 act of the republic of Mexico a state of war exists between that govern- 
 ment and the United States" (9 Stat, at Jj., 999), but the knowledge of 
 that fact did not reach, and could not have reached Colonel Fremont by 
 the then existing means oi conveyance, until long afterward, and he 
 continued to carry on his military operations on his individual respon- 
 sibility. 
 
 On the 7th of July, 1846, Commodore Sloat of the Navy, in command 
 of the Pacific squadron, reached Monterey, and finding Fremont exercis- 
 ing military command and a revolution apparently successful, took pos- 
 
session of that place aud raised the United States flag, whereupon Fre- 
 mont hauled down the flag of the grizzly bear aud raised that of his 
 own government. And this was the first act of his, after his return to 
 California from Oregon, in which he assumed to act in the interest and 
 for the benefit of the United States. 
 
 Commodore Sloat supposed that Colonel Fremont was acting under 
 orders from the government at Washington, and finding that suc^i was 
 not the fact he became alarmed at the authority and responsibility 
 which he himself had assumed, and refused to proceed further with Fre- 
 mont in his movements for the subjugation of the country. 
 
 On the 15th of Jul^^, 1846, Commodore Stockton arrived, and Sixui 
 afterward Commodore Sloat turned over to him the command of the 
 Pacific squadron and returned home. 
 
 Commodore Stockton forthwith entered into arrangements witli 
 Colonel Fremont to carry on active operations for conquest, aud on the 
 23d of July, 1840, appointed the latter " to the command of the Califor- 
 nia battalion of United States troops, with the rank of major," and 
 thus, so f;ir as he had authority, adopted Colonel Fremont's battalion 
 of volunt'-ers into government service. By the joint operations of the 
 military and naval forces thus under the command and direction of 
 Commodore Stockton, Upper California was substantially and practically 
 conquered for the United States before January 1, 1847. 
 
 Brigadier-General Kearny had been sent out under instructionsfrom the 
 Secretaryof War, dated June 3 and 18, 1846,in command of an expedition 
 " to take the earliest possession of Upper California," and the instruc- 
 tions set forth this direction : " Should you conquer and take f)ossession 
 of New Mexico aud Upjier California, or considerable places in either, 
 you will establish temporary civil government therein, abolishing all 
 arbitrary restrictions that may exist, so far as it may be done with 
 safety." 
 
 He arrived in California, not without obstruction and some severe en- 
 counters with the enemy, about the 1st of January, 1847, and claimed 
 to be the head of the civil as well as military power of the United States 
 in the Territory. This claim was opposed by Commodore Stockton, on 
 the ground that he himself was the conqueror of the country, and as 
 such, by the rules of war was entitled to establish a civil government, 
 and that the instructions given to General Kearny more than six months 
 previously, to establish such government, were conditioned upon his, 
 Kearny's, conquering the territory, and did not apply to the actual con- 
 dition of affairs which existed on his arrival. 
 
 On the IGth of January, 1847, the very day on which General Kearny 
 gave to Colonel Fremont his first written order, in which he directetl 
 that no change be made in the organization of his battalion of volunteers, 
 or officers appointed in it, without the sanction or approval of General 
 Kearney being first obtained. Lieutenant Colonel Fremont was form- 
 ally apiointed and commissioned by Commodore Stockton as "governor 
 and commander in-chief of the Territory of California." 
 
 In this controversy between Commodore Stockton and General 
 Kearny, Fiemout joined the side of the former, and so notified General 
 Kearny in writing the day following the receipt of his commission as 
 governor, saying that until those officers adjusted between themselves 
 the question of rank, he should have to report to and receive orders from 
 the commodore. And he setup or attempted to set up and maintain a civil 
 government, with himself at the head, "enlisted or retained soldiers in 
 his employment, refused to muster them into the service of the United 
 
states or to discharge them, or to obey the orders aud commands of 
 General Kearny." 
 
 Commodore Stockton was succeeded in command of the Pacific squad- 
 ron by Commodore Shubrick, who removed all further cause for any 
 possible claim of right on the part of Fremont to act under the authority 
 of the naval commander, by notifying him in February, 1847, that he 
 recognized General Kearny as commander in-chief of the land forces in 
 California. And yet Fremont still continued to defy the superior author- 
 ity of that otificer, and to assume civil power under the title of governor 
 for some time after the claims now in suit were contracted by him in 
 that capacity, and until he was obliged to yield by instructions from 
 Washington, which could no longer be misunderstood or misconstrued, 
 and a few months later he was sent home under arrest for these acts of 
 insubordination. 
 
 As to the relative or superior authority among military officers in the 
 tield of active operations, when a controversy arises and each assumes 
 responsibilities and obligations inconsistent with the authority claimed 
 by others, courts are conclusively bound by the determination of the 
 executive and legislative branches of the government thereon, as they 
 are by the determination of those branches as to how far the conduct of 
 military officers acting on their own responsibility and without lawful 
 authority previously conferred, is ratified, confirmed, and adopted bj^ 
 the government. 
 
 In relation to the military operations of Colonel Fremont in the con- 
 quest of Upper California and the controversy between him aud General 
 Kearny tliereafter, the action of the Executive and of Congress was 
 clear and decided at the time of the occurrence and afterward, and 
 leaves nothing in doubt or uncertainty respecting their true official rela- 
 tions to the Government of the United States. 
 
 The conduct of Colonel Fremont in raising a battalion and carrying on 
 Avar against the Mexican authorities on his own responsibility at the begin- 
 uingoftheinsurrectiou,andhisoperations generally up to January 1,1847, 
 have been adopted and approved. No complaint was made of his course 
 in abandoning the exploring expedition upon which he had been sent out, 
 nor of his engaging in private warfare while holding a military commis- 
 sion in the United States Army, and he was recognized as continuously 
 in the employment of the government during the whole of his opera- 
 tions and until he voluntarily resigned. The conspicuous part which 
 he took in the conquest, and the value and usefulness of his services, 
 were acknowledged by the Secretary of War, Mr. Marcy, and declara- 
 tions of approval and commendations for his gallantry were made under 
 executive authority. Congress passed an act August 31, 1852 {chap. 
 110, sec. 6, 10 Stat., 108) making an appropriation for the pay and 
 equipment of, and the settlement of claims for supplies for, the volun- 
 teers serving under him during the year 1840, and providing for the 
 appointment of a board of officers to examine and report to Congress 
 upon all such claims as might be presented for funds advanced and sub- 
 sistence aud supplies of all kinds furnished or taken for the use of said 
 command "'while thus engaged in the public service." But this act 
 iierither ratified nor referred to any service later than the year 1840. 
 
 On the other hand, the Executive fully recognized the authority 
 claimed by General Kearny after his arrival in California in January, 
 1847, to be at the head of the civil government and to be commander- 
 in-chief of all the land forces of the United States within the Territory, 
 aud never acknowledged Colonel Fiemont as governor, nor as having any 
 right to enlist, equip, and nuiintain officers aud men under his command 
 
aiul in bis employ iiu lit iudepoudeiitly of General Kearny as bis superior 
 officer. Tbe superior authority of General Kearny was officially acknowl- 
 edged in a letter from General Scott to tbat officer dated November 3, 
 1846; in a communication by tbe Secretary of tbe Navy to Commodore 
 Stockton, November 5, 1846 ; in a letter from tbe Secretary of War to 
 General Kearny, Jane 11, 1847, and in a communication from him to tbe 
 President January 19, 1848, all officially communicated to Congress and 
 l)rinted among tbe public documents. And, wbat is perhaps more decis- 
 ive, Colonel Fremont was tried by a general court-martial held at Wash- 
 ington in 1847 and 1848 on three charges and twenty-three specitications, 
 among which it was charged that be proclaimed himself to be and as- 
 sumed to act as governor of California, in contempt of the lawful 
 authority of his superior officer, Brigadier-General Kearny; that be 
 refused to march such i^art of bis battalion to Yerba Buena as refus(Ml 
 to be mustered into the service of the United States, there to be dis- 
 charged, and other acts of insubordination, and he was found guilty on 
 all the charges and specifications, and ordered to be dismissed tbe 
 service. Tbe finding of the court-martial was approved by the Presi- 
 dent, excei>t tbat be was not satisfied that tbe acts constituted tbe mili- 
 tary crime of mutiny, and the sentence was remitted. This was a 
 authoritative declaration by the President of the United States, the 
 Commander-in-Chief of tbe Army and Navy, that Colonel Fremont un- 
 lawfully assumed to be and to act as governor of California, and that 
 some of his military operations after January 16, 1847, were conducted 
 in insubordination. And Congress has never passed any act for the 
 general settlement and payment of the contracts entered into by him 
 during that time. 
 
 It is true that Colonel Fremont was sued in England in 1852 upon 
 four bills of exchange drawn by him as governor of California Marcli 
 18, 1847, upon James Buchanan, Secretary of State, and protested for 
 non-payment; that judgment was recovered thereon against him in tbe 
 court of exchequer {Gibbs vs. Fremont, 9 Exch., 25) ; and tbat Congress 
 by act of March 3, 1853, ch. 101, made an appropriation for the pay- 
 ment of that judgment (10 Stat, at L., 759); but that act ratifies and 
 adopts no other contracts than those specified therein, and it refers to 
 Fremont as "late a lieutenant colonel" and not as " governor of Cali- 
 fornia," and provides tbat " before payment the Secretary of the Treasury 
 shall be satisfied tbat tbe amount has been expended for the benefit of 
 the public service." 
 
 Congress might in like manner provide for the payment of the obli- 
 gations incurred by Colonel Fn^mont, which are the foundation of this 
 action, but as it has never done so, nor in any form recognized them as 
 valid and binding upon the government, the claimant has no remedy in 
 this court. 
 
 Tbe only claim earnestly pressed upon us in the argument is on a 
 promissory note of which tbe following is a copy : 
 
 "Eight months after date I, J. C. Fremont, governor of California, 
 and thereby tbe legal agent of tbe Government of tbe United States of 
 North America, in consideration of tbe sum of two thousand five hun- 
 dred dollars, being loaned or advanced to me for tbe benefit of said 
 Government of tbe United States by Eulogio de Cells, hereby promise 
 and oblige myself, in my fiduciary character as governor aforesaid, and 
 my successors in office, to pay to said Eulogio de Cells, his heirs, execu- 
 tors, administrators, and assigns, tbe aforesaid sum of two thousand 
 five hundred dollars without defalcation. It is agreed and understood 
 
8 
 
 that if tbe aforesaid sum of two thousand live hundred dollars is not 
 paid on or before maturity, that it is to draw interest at the rate of two 
 per cent, per month from the time it falls due. 
 
 "In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the 
 seal of the territory to be affixed at the city de Los Angeles, the capital 
 of California, this third day of March, in the year eighteen hundred 
 and forty-seven. 
 
 "J. C. FRfiMONT, 
 
 " Governor of'Galifornia.''^ 
 
 The exact purpose for which Colonel Fremont used the money ob- 
 tained upon this note is not found by the court and was not proved be- 
 cause he rendered no account and returned no vouchers. As he was 
 carrying on a civil government the authority for which was expressly 
 disavowed by the executive, and to some extent maintained a command 
 in defiance of the authority of his superior officer, enlisting men and 
 lefusingto muster them into the United States service, for all of which 
 he could draw no money or supplies in the ordinary and legal methods 
 ])rovided in the service, we may j)resume that the money borrowed by 
 him was used for purposes not recognized as legitimate by the govern- 
 ment, or at least in the absence of proof we are not at liberty to pre- 
 sume otherwise. And so the claimant does not stand in the position 
 of having advanced money which the United States have had the benefit 
 of, if that were his claim independently of the express contract proved by 
 the promissory note sued upon. Even if Colonel Fremont were then the 
 lawful military governor of California, it would not necessarily follow 
 that the United States would be liable for money borrowed by him in 
 his official capacity, without express proof, at least, that it was used in 
 the recognized public service. {The Jbioj/d acceptance case, 7 Wall., 666.) 
 
 Another claim set nj) in the jietition is for the price of 600 head of 
 cattle sold to Colonel Fremont under a contract of March 3, 1847. These 
 cattle were delivered April 26, 1847, when Fremont gave to the claim- 
 ant's intestate a certificate of acknowledgment, certifying that there 
 was due to him from the United States the sum of $16,975, subject to 
 interest at 2 per cent, per month after the expiration of eight months 
 from April 18, 1817, until paid. The claimant now seeks payment of 
 tlifit obligation, and $5,000 damages, and interest on the whole. 
 
 1 he facts in relation to these cattle are that when they were de- 
 li\» red to Fremont he had no use for them, and he turned them over to 
 one Stearns to be pastured for three years at the compensation of one- 
 hiiH their natural increase. Stearns drove them into Lower California^ 
 in ^Mexican territory, and there pastured them on his own land for the 
 time agreed upon. At the expiration of that time, Fremont, being no 
 lon.i;er in the i)ublic service, having resigned his military commission, 
 and not being able himself to j)ay for the same, and the United States 
 Go\ ernment not having adopted or ratified his contract, redelivered all 
 the cattle and half the increase to the original owner as agreed upon, 
 and they were accepted by him on the land of said Stearns in Mexico. 
 This claim, besides being open to all the objections found against the 
 promissory note sued on, is even less meritorious on. the part of the 
 claimant, because the property was returned to him, and it does not ap- 
 pear that he suffered any loss. 
 
 Still another claiuj is set forth for $712.58 paid for duties assessed and 
 collected by the collector of the port of San Diego on the cattle when 
 
9 
 
 brought from Mexican territory, after having- been pastured there three 
 years, into the United States, 
 
 Against the consideration of this claim by the court the assistant at- 
 torney-general sets up the plea of want of jurisdiction, on the authority 
 of Nichols vs. The United States (7 Wali., 122). It was held in that 
 case, as we have repeatedly held, that to claims for the recovery back of 
 taxes and duties illegally assessed, for which special provisions are 
 made by statute, giving jurisdiction to other tribunals and other courts, 
 the general jurisdiction of this court does not attach. {Kaufman vs. The 
 United States, 11 O. Cls. R., 659; Boughton vs. The United States, 12 
 C. Cls. R., 330; Wimiisimmet Company and other cases vs. The United 
 States, 12 C. Cls. R., 319; Walker vs. The United States, 12 C. Cls. R., 
 408). And the position of the assistant attorney-general would be cor- 
 rect if the claimant were hereof his motion voluntarily invoking the juris- 
 diction of the court. But this claim was specially referred to us by an 
 order of the Senate of the United States under that provision of the 
 statute which expressly confers jurisdiction upon this court over "all 
 claims which may be referred to it by either House of Congress." {Act 
 of February 24, 1855, ch. 122, § 1, 10 Stat., 612, now Revised Stat., § 1059.) 
 
 Upon the question whether or not we have jurisdiction of such a claim 
 thus referred to us, it is unnecessary now to express a final opinion, be- 
 cause there are two substantial grounds of defence on the merits which 
 have been fully argued, while the jurisdictional question was not con- 
 sidered by the claimant's counsel at the trial. First, the duties must be 
 held to have been voluntarily paid, no protest or objection having been 
 proved {Revised Statutes, § 3010-3014, and the acts revised therein); 
 and, second, it does not appear that they were not legally and properly 
 assessed and collected. The claimant's intestate owned the cattle in 
 Mexican territory and regularly imported them into the United States, 
 and thereby became liable to pay duties thereon, even although they 
 had previously been in this country. {Customs Regulations, Treasury 
 Department, 1874, Articles 373 378, and like regulations and laics pre- 
 viously existing.) 
 
 On the whole case the claimant has no legal cause of action, and his 
 petition must be dismissed. 
 No. 1785 2 
 
INDEX 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Alaecon finda mouth of the Colorado, 11. 
 
 Abaeoni's grand scheme for California, 57. 
 
 Alvakado's insurrection successful, 142. 
 
 Alcaldes of San Francisco, 216. 
 
 Alta Califoenia, 292. 
 
 Adams & Co., 405. 
 
 American Flag hoisted at Monterey, 180. 
 
 San Francisco, 181. 
 Aeea of the State, 275. 
 Ageicultuee, 353, 611. 
 Anian, Straits of, 16, 22. 
 Aborigines of California, 88. 
 
 B. 
 
 Beannan, Samuel, 214. 
 
 Baetlett, Washington A., 216. 
 
 Beace's crime and punishment, 488. 
 
 Bakee's eulogy on Broderick, 564. 
 
 Beancifoete established, 105. 
 
 Banished persons, list of, 509. 
 
 Balboa's discovery of the South Sea, 4. 
 
 Beae Flag, 173. 
 
 Bennett elected Governor, 282. 
 
 Benton, Colonel, writes to California, 254. 
 
 Biglee, Governor, and the Chinese, 870. 
 
 Beitish plots to get California, 179. 
 
 Brown, Captain John, 118. 
 
 Boscana's account of the Aborigines, 90.. 
 
 Brodeeiok, D. C, 305, 417. 
 
 elected Senator, 546. 
 
648 rNT>Ex. 
 
 BuoDERioK and Gwin, 549. 
 
 on tlie stump, 555. 
 
 death of, 563. 
 Boundary question vetoed, 275. 
 Bulkhead bill vetoed, 574. 
 Bulletin, Evening, 408. 
 
 c. 
 
 Cattle eodeos, 157. 
 Casey, James P., 432. 
 
 and Cora hung, 446. 
 Cabeillo goes up the North American coast, 12 
 California, meaning of the word, 13. 
 
 under Mexican rule, 121. 
 
 independence of, 152. 
 
 in 1849-50, 831. 
 
 bill for admission passes Senate, 319. 
 
 admitted to the Union, 321. 
 
 a mother of Territories, 343. 
 
 Star, 215. 
 Calm half century, 111. 
 Capitol on wheels, 391. 
 Charities and benevolence, 635. 
 Calhoun's eiforts for Slavery, 250, 313. 
 Clay's Compromise Measures, 309, 317, 321. 
 Climate of California, 629. 
 Chinese, 369. 
 
 puzzle, 637. 
 Cities, incorporation of, 289. 
 CoETEz's exploration on Mexican coast, 7. 
 Commerce while under Mexico, 158. 
 Congress on California, 249. 
 Convention, expenses of, 277. 
 Conservative influences, 343. 
 Commerce, 355. 
 
 Compensation for misfortunes, 625. 
 Constitutional Convention, 262. 
 Constitution adopted, 282. 
 
 provisions of, 277. 
 
LNDEX. 649 
 
 Cook, Captain, beware, 116. 
 Colonial SpanisJi scheme, 126. 
 Common law adopted, 287. 
 Columbus's theory of the South Sea, 3. 
 Columbia, warning against ship, 117. 
 County names, 2'J9. 
 CuREENCT in 1849, 328. 
 
 questions, 595. 
 Chdeoh, first Protestant, 294. 
 
 • 
 
 D. 
 
 Dashaways, 633. 
 
 Deake on coast of California, 22. 
 
 probably in San Francisco Bay, 23. 
 
 Deake's report of cHmate and gold of California, 21, 26. 
 
 Dragons that defended the coast, 2. 
 
 Deseeet's delegates to California, 287. 
 
 Dkess of natives, 158. 
 
 Demooeat, first meeting, 295. 
 
 Dwinelle's Colonial History, 107. 
 
 Difficulty between Kearny, Fremont, and Stockton, 207. 
 
 Domestic habits of natives, 156. 
 
 Downey, Governor, 573. 
 
 Douglas's efforts for the admission of California, 254. 
 
 Deoughts, 021. 
 
 Duelling in California, 509. 
 
 E. 
 
 Earthquakes, 116. 
 EcnEANDRiA, Governor, 130. 
 Emigeants, suffering of, 217. 
 
 rush of, 237. 
 Exiles attempt to return to San Francisco, 486. 
 Exports of treasure, 601. 
 Expoets and imports, 613. 
 Educational condition, 631. 
 
 F. 
 
 Franciscans tako Jesuit Missions of Lo;vcr California, 
 occupy Upper California, 72. 
 
650 INDEX. 
 
 Feaudulknt land claims, 539. 
 
 Frkmont and Castro confront each other, 162. C^S* 
 
 threatened by Castro, 103. 
 
 overtaken by Lieutenant Gillespie, 1(JG. 
 
 turns back to revolutionize the Government, 1&7. 
 
 battalion, 173, 201. 
 
 pursues Castro, 174. 
 
 and Sloat, 182. 
 
 pardons Jesus Pico, 203. 
 
 as Governor of California^ 208. 
 
 disobeys orders, 211. 
 
 is disgraced, 212. 
 
 indignation at, 223. 
 Financial storm, 402. 
 Finances of the State, 410. 
 Financial breakers, 525. 
 Fires in San Francisco, 333. 
 Field, Californians on the, 597. 
 
 FiLLIBTTSTEEISM, 393. 
 
 Floods, 617. 
 
 FiGUEEOA, 134. 
 
 his labors and death, 13&. 
 Floees's revolt, 191. 
 Fugitive Slave Act, 550. 
 
 G. 
 
 Gkaiiam, Isaac,, 142. 
 
 arrested, 146. 
 Geass Valley, 389. 
 
 Galvez's expeditions to Upper California, 72. 
 Gambling, 337. 
 
 Geeen, a. a., obtains Pueblo papers, 490. 
 Gkeeley, Horace, at San Francisco, 558. 
 GwiN, Dr., 417. 
 
 on the stump, 557. 
 GovEBNOES of Cahfornia under Spain, 123. 
 
 Mexico, 151. 
 Gold, discovery of, 226. 
 how found, 231. 
 Dana's report, 232. 
 
INDEX. 651 
 
 Gold, Sutter and Marshall on, 232. 
 
 Isaac Humphrey ou, 283. 
 
 Baptiste on, 234. 
 Gulf of California explored by Ugarte, 61. 
 
 H. 
 
 Habeas Corpus, how respected by Vigilance Committee, 496^ 
 
 Hanging, 287. 
 
 Haeboes, why difficult to find on the Pacific, 40. 
 
 Hetheeington's crime and punishment, 487. 
 
 IIijae's colony, 136. 
 
 Hounds, the, 293. 
 
 Houses in 1849-50, 331. 
 
 I. 
 
 Interest, rate of, 286. 
 
 Ide's Proclamation of Independence, 171. 
 
 Indian customs, 91. 
 
 wars, 359. 
 
 reservations, 367. 
 Indians, 636. 
 
 J. 
 
 Jealousy of foreigners, 116. 
 
 Jesuit missions in Lower California, 51. 
 
 life at, 64. 
 Jesuits' account of Lower California, 68. 
 Jiggees, remedy for, 110. 
 
 Jones, Commodore, mistake ia hoisting the flag, 148. 
 JuNiPEEO Seeea, 81. 
 
 characteristics of, 82. 
 
 his life, by Palou, 83. 
 
 K. 
 
 Keaent, General, in trouble, 195. 
 King, James, 407. 
 King, James, shot, 435. 
 
 Rev. T. Staee, 585. 
 
 death of, 587. 
 
G52 INDEX. 
 
 Kino, his antecedents, 42. 
 
 his attempts to colonize Lower Califoi'uia, 38. 
 
 L. 
 
 Land claims, 533. 
 
 Land Commissioners, 535. 
 
 Latham elected Senator, 573. 
 
 Law in California, 246. 
 
 Language : Missionaries' devices to convey ideas, 38. 
 
 Legislature, first, 284. 
 
 Libels, 275. 
 
 Limantoue's claim, 382, 539. 
 
 Loyalty of California, 577. 
 
 Loretto, mission of, 44. 
 
 Lower California proved to be a peninsula, 52. 
 
 Lotteries, 276. 
 
 Ltnoh Law, 339, 428. 
 
 M. 
 Magellan on the Pacific, 5. 
 Mason, Governor, report of, 227. 
 Marysville, 387. 
 MoKee, Eedick, 364. 
 Mervine, repulse of, 193. 
 Mendoza's fruitless expeditions, 10. 
 Mendocino visited by Viscaino, 33. 
 Cabrillo, 12. 
 Micheltorena's arrival, 147. 
 Mines, yield of, in 1848-56, 347. 
 Mineral discoveries, 605 
 Miracle at Loretto, 46. 
 Missions in Upper California, order of foundation, 86, 87. 
 
 theory of, 98, 108. 
 
 population of, 113. 
 
 meridian of prosperity, 129. 
 
 secularized, 130. 
 
 jurisdiction of, divided, 135. 
 
 government of, 100. 
 Mining processes. 349. 
 
INDEX. 653 
 
 Mining, various methods of, 003. 
 
 stock mania, GOT. 
 McGowAN, Edwards, ubiquity, 485. 
 MoEAL aspects, 633. 
 MoNTEEEY discovered, 30. 
 Mormons arrive, 214. 
 McDouGALL, elected Senator, 579. 
 
 N. 
 
 Natives of California, as found by Drake, 25. 
 
 Natives of California, 153. 
 
 great horsemen, 154. 
 Newspapers on the Vigilance Committee, 437. 
 Negeoes, question of free, 271. 
 Negroes in California, 37G. 
 
 O. 
 
 Otondo, Admiral, attempts to colonize, 37. 
 
 Padrez, 136. 
 
 Placerville, 389. 
 
 Page, Bacon & Co., 403. 
 
 Pacific Eailroad, 642. 
 
 Palou's life of Junipero Serra, 83. 
 
 Perley challenges Broderick, 553. 
 
 Peesidios, 101. 
 
 People's party organization, 519. 
 
 Priests' and soldiers' quarrels, 102. 
 
 Pio Pioo, Governor, 150. 
 
 Pioneer miners, 245. 
 
 Pious fund, 67. 
 
 diverted, 127. 
 
 sold, 128. 
 Polk and the Pacific Coast, 253. 
 Political blunders, 341. 
 Politics of California, 413 
 Portilla's treachery, 133. 
 Population of the State, 357. 
 
654 INDEX. 
 
 Pont mail, 641. 
 Pueblo papers, 491. 
 
 Vigilance Committee buy them, 495. 
 Pueblos, 105, 106. 
 
 various kinds, 109. 
 
 was San Francisco one ? 107. 
 Pulpit on the Vigilance Committee, 439. 
 
 Qu.\RTZ crushing, 350, 
 
 Q. 
 
 R. 
 
 Randolph, Edmund, 589. 
 Revenue laws extend to California, 261. 
 Reform city government, 521. 
 Riley, General Bennett, 247, 262. 
 Russians in California, 118, 120. 
 Ruen to California, 237. 
 
 S. 
 
 San Franoisoo, mysterious allusions to, 31. 
 
 found by Portala, 77. 
 
 its growth, 289, 291. 
 
 in 1856, 881. 
 Sacramento, 297, 386. 
 State resources, 601. 
 Slavery, 248, 269, 315. 
 San Diego discovered, 29. 
 
 settled, 76. 
 Seal of the State, 278. 
 Seward on admission of California, 313. 
 Senatorship, United States, 421. 
 Smith, Jedediah S., first overlander, 124. 
 Smith, Persifer F., 247. 
 Smith, Peter, judgments, 384. 
 Sloat, Commodore, at Monterey, 176. 
 alarmed, 182, 184. 
 returns home, 186. 
 
IISTDEX. 
 
 SoLiz's insurrection, 130. 
 
 SoNOEA captured by American insurgents, 170. 
 
 School, first public, 291. 
 
 Stockton, arrives at San Francisco, 184. 
 
 proclamation of, 186. 
 
 his marcli to Los Angeles, 189. 
 
 recovers his lost fruits, 193. 
 
 marches from San Diego to Los Angeles, 193, 
 Scott, Dr., and the Vigilance Committee, 511. 
 Squatter riots, 337. 
 Suttee and Micheltorena, 149. 
 Sutter, John A., 302. 
 Suits against the Vigilance Committee, 515. 
 
 T, 
 
 Tayloe's first message, 307. 
 Tent age of California, 325. 
 Treaty of Oouengo, 205. 
 
 ignored, 209. 
 between United States and Mexico, 235. 
 Teeey, Judge, in prison, 477. 
 
 friends at work, 480. 
 
 friends in United States Senate, 483. 
 
 freed, 497. 
 
 feted, 498. 
 
 and Broderick, 561. 
 
 escapes unpunished, 667. 
 TiBEEA, Salva, 43. 
 
 his death, 58. 
 
 u. 
 
 Ugaete in Lower California, 48. 
 
 death of, 61. 
 United States Senators on Union, 590. 
 Union meeting, May, 1861, 579. 
 Ulloa's explorations on Lower California t^oast, fl. 
 Unconstitutional debt, 527. 
 
 assumed by tlie people. 531. 
 
 655 
 
656 INDEX. 
 
 V. 
 
 Vessel, first one built in California, 60. 
 Veneg-a's History of California, 70. 
 ViscAiNo's explorations of the coast, 28. 
 results of, 35. 
 did he visit San Francisco? 32. 
 visits Mendocino, 33. 
 Vigilance Committee of 1856, 432, 461. 
 
 and Governor Johnson, 458. 
 
 and General Sherman, 458. 
 
 and General Wool, 458. 
 
 organization, 401. 
 
 and President of United States, 468. 
 
 board the Julia, 473. 
 
 collision with authorities, 475. 
 
 Governor Johnson repudiates commission to, 482. 
 
 disbands, 499. 
 
 final parade, 502. 
 
 address of Executive Committee, 503. 
 
 rooms inspected, 505. 
 
 winding up, 507. 
 
 summary of their work, 509. 
 VioTOKiA, Governor, 131. 
 
 resigns, 133. 
 
 Whalers' visits, 160. 
 Wages in 1849, 329. 
 Walker, William, 393. 
 
 schemes of, 397. 
 
 death of, 398. 
 Webstee on admission of California, 313. 
 Weller on Terry and the Vigilance Committee, 484, 
 
 X. 
 
 XiMENES discovers Lower California, 8. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Y. 
 
 Yankee Sullivan, 449. 
 Yeeba, Buena, 215. 
 
 Z. 
 
 Zabriskie, Colonel, on Vigilance Oommittee, 481, 482. 
 
 657 
 
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