USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > A history of California and an extended history of Los Angeles and environs : also containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present, Volume I > Part 26
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Pacific coast. At the breaking out of the re- bellion in 1861 he joined the Confederates and was made a brigadier general. He was killed at the battle of Carrick's Ford July 15, 1861.
The constitution was completed on the 11th of October and an election was called by Gov- ernor Riley to be held on the 13th of November to vote upon the adoption of the constitution and to elect state officers, a legislature and mem- bers of congress.
At the election Peter H. Burnett, recently from Oregon territory, who had been quite active in urging the organization of a state gov- ernment, was chosen governor; John McDon- gall, lieutenant governor, and George W. Wright and Edward Gilbert members of con- gress. San José had been designated by the constitutional convention the capital of the state pro tem.
The people of San José had pledged them- selves to provide a suitable building for the meeting of the legislature in hopes that their town might be made the permanent capital. They were unable to complete the building de- signed for a state capital in time for the meet- ing. The uncomfortable quarters furnished created a great deal of dissatisfaction. The leg- islature consisted of sixteen senators and thirty- six assemblymen. There being no county or- ganization, the members were elected by districts. The representation was not equally distributed; San Joaquin district had more sen- ators than San Francisco. The senate and as- sembly were organized on the 17th of Decem- ber. E. K. Chamberlain of San Diego was elected president pro tem. of the senate and Thomas J. White of Sacramento speaker of the assembly. The governor and lieutenant-gov- ernor were sworn in on the 20th. The state government being organized the legislature proceeded to the election of United States sen- ators. The candidates were T. Butler King, John C. Fremont, William M. Gwin, Thomas J. Henly, John W. Geary, Robert Semple and H. W. Halleck. Fremont received twenty-nine out of forty-six votes on the first ballot and was declared elected. Of the aspirants, T. Butler King and William M. Gwin represented the ultra pro-slavery element. King was a cross-
roads politician from down in Georgia, who had been sent to the coast as a confidential agent of the government. The officers of the army and navy were enjoined to "in all matters aid and assist him in carrying out the views of the government and be guided by his advice and council in the conduct of all proper measures within the scope of those instructions." He made a tour of the mines, accompanied by Gen- eral Smith and his staff; Commodore Ap Catesby Jones and staff and a cavalry escort under Lieu- tenant Stoneman. He wore a black stovepipe hat and a dress coat. He made himself the laughing stock of the miners and by traveling in the heat of the day contracted a fever that very nearly terminated his existence. He had been active so far as his influence went in trying to bring California into the Union with the hope of representing it in the senate. Gwin had come a few months before from Mississippi with the same object in view. Although the free state men were in the majority in the legislature they recognized the fact that to elect two sena- tors opposed to the extension of slavery would result in arraying the pro-slavery faction in con- gress against the admission of the state into the Union. Of the two representatives of the south, Gwin was the least objectionable and on the second ballot he was elected. On the 2Ist Governor Burnett delivered his message. It was a wordy document, but not marked by any very brilliant ideas or valuable suggestions. Burnett was a southerner from Missouri. He was hobbied on the subject of the exclusion of free negroes. The African, free to earn his own living unrestrained by a master, was, in his opinion, a menace to the perpetuity of the com- monwealth.
On the 22d the legislature elected the remain- ing state officers, viz .: Richard Roman, treas- urer; John I. Houston, controller; E. J. C. Kewen, attorney general; Charles J. Whiting, surveyor-general; S. C. Hastings, chief jus- tice; Henry Lyons and Nathaniel Bennett, as- sociate justices. The legislature continued in session until April 22, 1850. Although it was nicknamed the "Legislature of a thousand drinks," it did a vast amount of work and did most of it well. It was not made up of hard
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drinkers. The majority of its members were above the average legislator in intelligence, temperance and patriotism. The members were not there for pay or for political preferment. They were there for thegood oftheir adopted state and labored conscientiously for its benefit. The op- probrious nickname is said to have originated thus: A roystering individual by the name of Green had been elected to the senate from Sac- ramento as a joke. He regarded the whole pro- ceedings as a huge joke. He kept a supply of liquors on hand at his quarters and when the legislature adjourned he was in the habit of call- ing: "Come, boys, let us take a thousand drinks."
The state had set up housekeeping without a cent on hand to defray expenses. There was not a quire of paper, a pen, nor an inkstand belong- ing to the state and no money to buy supplies. After wrestling with the financial problem some time an act authorizing a loan of $200,000 for current expenses was passed. Later on in the session another act was passed authorizing the bonding of the state for $300,000 with interest at the rate of three per cent a month. The legislature divided the state into twenty-seven counties, created nine judicial districts, passed laws for the collection of revenue, taxing all real and personal property and imposing a poll tax of $5 on all male inhabitants over twen- ty-one and under fifty years of age.
California was a self-constituted state. It had organized a state government and put it into successful operation without the sanction of congress. Officials, state, county and town, had been elected and had sworn to support the con- stitution of the state of California and yet there was really no state of California. It had not been admitted into the Union. It was only a state de facto and it continued in that condition nine months before it became a state de jure.
When the question of admitting California into the Union came before congress it evoked a bitter controversy. The senate was equally divided, thirty senators from the slave states and the same number from the free. There were among the southern senators some broad minded and patriotic men, willing to do what was right, but they were handicapped by an
ultra pro-slavery faction, extremists, who would willingly sacrifice the Union if by that they could extend and perpetuate that sum of all villainies, human slavery. This faction in the long controversy resorted to every known parliamentary device to prevent the admission of California under a free state constitution. To admit two senators from a free state would de- stroy the balance of power. That gone, it could never be regained by the south. The north was : increasing in power and population, while the south, under the blighting influence of slavery, was retrograding.
Henry Clay, the man of compromises, under- took to bridge over the difficulty by a set of resolutions known as the Omnibus bill. These were largely concessions to the slave holding faction for the loss of the territory acquired by the Mexican war. Among others was this, that provision should be made by law for the restitu- tion of fugitive slaves in any state or territory of the Union. This afterward was embodied into what was known as the fugitive slave law and did more perhaps than any other cause to destroy the south's beloved institution.
These resolutions were debated through many months and were so amended and changed that their author could scarcely recognize them. Most of them were adopted in some form and effected a temporary compromise.
On August 13th the bill for the admission of California finally came to a vote. It passed the senate, thirty-four ayes to eighteen noes. Even then the opposition did not cease. Ten of the southern pro-slavery extremists, led by Jefferson Davis, joined in a protest against the action of the majority, the language of which was an insult to the senate and treason to the government. In the house the bill passed by a vote of one hundred and fifty ayes to fifty-six ultra southern noes. It was approved and signed by President Fillmore September 9, 1850. On the IIth of September the California senators and congressmen presented themselves to be sworn in. The slave holding faction in the sen- ate, headed by Jefferson Davis, who had been one of the most bitter opponents to the admis- sion, objected. But their protest availed them nothing. Their ascendency was gone. We
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might sympathize with them had their fight been made for a noble principle, but it was not. From that day on until the attempt was made in 1861 these men schemed to destroy the Union. The admission of California as a free state was the beginning of the movement to destroy the Union of States.
The news of the admission of California reached San Francisco on the morning of Oc- tober 18, by the mail steamer Oregon, nearly six weeks after congress had admitted it. Business was at once suspended, the courts were ad- journed and the people went wild with excite- ment. Messengers, mounted on fleet steeds, spread the news throughout the state. News- papers from the states containing an account of the proceedings of congress at the time of admission sold for $5 each. It was decided to hold a formal celebration of the event on the 29th and preparations were begun for a grand demonstration. Neither labor nor money was spared to make the procession a success. The parade was cosmopolitan in the fullest meaning of that word. There were people in it from almost every nation under the sun. The Chi- nese made quite an imposing spectacle in the parade. Dressed in rich native costumes, each carrying a gaudily painted fan, they marched under command of their own marshals, Ah He and Ah Sing. At their head proudly marched a color bearer carrying a large blue silk ban- ner, inscribed the "China boys." Following them came a triumphal car, in which was seated thirty boys in black trousers and white shirts, representing the thirty states. In the center of this group, seated on a raised platform, was a young girl robed in white with gold and silver gauze floating about her and supporting a breast plate, upon which was inscribed "Cali- fornia, the Union, it must and shall be pre- served." The California pioneers carried a ban- ner on which was represented a New Englander in the act of stepping ashore and facing a na- tive Californian with lasso and serape. In the center the state seal and the inscription, "Far west, Eureka 1846, California pioneers, or- ganized August, 1850." Army and navy offi- cers, soldiers, sailors and marines, veterans of the Mexican war, municipal officers, the fire de-
partment, secret and benevolent societies and as- sociations, with a company of mounted native Californians bearing a banner with thirty-one stars on a blue satin ground with the inscription in gold letters, California, E Pluribus Unum, all these various organizations and orders with their marshals and aids mounted on gaily caparisoned steeds and decked out with their gold and silver trimmed scarfs, made an impos- ing display that has seldom if ever been equaled since in the metropolis of California.
At the plaza a flag of thirty-one stars was raised to the mast head. An oration was de- livered by Judge Nathaniel Bennett and Mrs. Wills recited an original ode of her own compo- sition. The rejoicing over, the people settled down to business. Their unprecedented action in organizing a state government and putting it into operation without the sanction of congress had been approved and legalized by that body.
Like the Goddess Minerva, represented on its great seal, who sprung full grown from the brain of Jupiter, California was born a fully ma- tured state. She passed through no territorial probation. No state had such a phenomenal growth in its infancy. No state before or since has met with such bitter opposition when it sought admission into the family of states. Never before was there such a medley of nation- alities-Yankees, Mexicans, English, Germans, French, Spaniards, Peruvians, Polynesians, Mongolians-organized into a state and made a part of the body politic nolens volens.
The constitutional convention of 1849 did not definitely fix the state capital. San José was designated as the place of meeting for the legis- lature and the organization of the state govern- ment. San José had offered to donate a square of thirty-two acres, valued at $60,000, for cap- itol grounds and provide a suitable building for the legislature and state officers. The offer was accepted, but when the legislature met there December 15, 1849, the building was unfinished and for a time the meetings of the legislature were held at a private residence. There was a great deal of complaining and dissatisfaction. The first capitol of the state was a two-story adobe building 40x60, which had been intended for a hotel. It was destroyed by fire April 29,
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1853. The accommodations at San José were so unsatisfactory that the legislature decided to locate the capital at some other point. Prop- ositions were received from Monterey, from Reed of San José, from Stevenson & Parker of New York of the Pacific and from Gen. M. G. Vallejo. Vallejo's proposition was accepted. He offered to donate one hundred and fifty-six acres of land in a new town that he proposed to lay out on the straits of Carquinez (now Val- lejo) for a capital site and within two years to give $370,000 in money for the erection of pub- lic buildings. He asked that his proposition be submitted to a vote of the people at the next general election. His proposition was accepted by the legislature. At the general election, Octo- ber 7, 1850, Vallejo received seventy-four hun- dred and seventy-seven votes; San José twelve hundred and ninety-two, and Monterey three hundred and ninety-nine. The second legisla- ture convened at San José. General Vallejo ex- erted himself to have the change made in accord- ance with the previous proposition. The cit- izens of San José made an effort to retain the capital, but a bill was passed making Vallejo the permanent seat of government after the close of the session, provided General Vallejo should give bonds to carry out his proposals. In June Governor McDougal caused the gov- ernmental archives to be removed from San José to Vallejo.
When the members of the third legislature met at the new capital January 2, 1852, they found a large unfurnished and partly unfinished wooden building for their reception. Hotel ac- commodations could not be obtained and there was even a scarcity of food to feed the hungry lawmakers. Sacramento offered its new court house and on the 16th of January the legislature convened in that city. The great flood of
March, 1852, inundated the city and the law- makers were forced to reach the halls of legis- lation in boats and again there was dissatisfac- tion. Then Benicia came to the front with an offer of her new city hall, which was above high water mark. General Vallejo had become financially embarrassed and could not carry out his contract with the state, so it was annulled. The offer of Benicia was accepted and on May 18, 1853, that town was declared the permanent capital.
In the legislature of 1854 the capital question again became an issue. Offers were made by several aspiring cities, but Sacramento won with the proffer of her court house and a block of land betwen I and J, Ninth and Tenth streets. Then the question of the location of the capital got into the courts. The supreme court de- cided in favor of Sacramento. Before the legis- lature met again the court house that had been offered to the state burned down. A new and more commodious one was erected and rented to the state at $12,000 a year. Oakland made an unsuccessful effort to obtain the capital. Finally a bill was passed authorizing the erection of a capitol building in Sacramento at a cost not to exceed $500,000. Work was begun on the foundation in October, 1860. The great flood of 1861-62 inundated the city and ruined the foundations of the capitol. San Francisco made a vigorous effort to get the capital re- moved to that city, but was unsuccessful. Work was resumed on the building, the plans were changed, the edifice enlarged, and, finally, after many delays, it was ready for occupancy in De- cember, 1869. From the original limit of half a million dollars its cost when completed had reached a million and a half. The amount ex- pended on the building and grounds to date foots up $2,600,000.
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CHAPTER XXV.
THE ARGONAUTS.
W HEN or by whom the name argonaut was first applied to the early Cali- fornia gold seekers I have not been able to ascertain. The earliest allusion to the similarity of Jason's voyage after the Golden Fleece and the miners' rush to the gold fields of California is found in a caricature published in the London Punch in 1849. On the shore of an island is a guide board bearing the inscrip- tion "California;" near it is a miner digging gold and presumably singing at his work. In a boat near the shore is a fat individual, a typical "Johnny Bull." He is struggling desperately with two individuals who are holding him back from leaping into the water, so fascinated is he by the song of the miner. Under the drawing are the words, "The Song of the Sirens."
If we include among the argonauts all who traveled by land or voyaged by sea in search of the golden fleece in the days of '49 we will have a motley mixture. The tales of the fabulous rich- ness of the gold fields of California spread rap- idly throughout the civilized world and drew to the territory all classes and conditions of men, the bad as well as the good, the indolent as well as the industrious, the vicious as well as the virtuous. They came from Europe, from South America and from Mexico. From Australia and Tasmania came the ex-convict and the ticket-of-leave man; from the isles of the sea came the Polynesian, and from Asia the Hindoo and the "Heathen Chinee."
The means of reaching the land of gold were as varied as the character of the people who came. Almost every form of vehicle was pressed into service on land. One individual, if not more, made the trip trundling his impedimenta in a wheelbarrow. Others started out in carriages, intent on making the journey in comfort and ease, but finished on foot, weary, worn and ragged. When the great rush came, old sailing vessels that had long been deemed unseaworthy
were fitted out for the voyage to California. It must have been the providence that protects fools which prevented these from going to the bottom of the ocean. With the desperate chances that the argonauts took on these old tubs, it is singular that there were so few ship- wrecks and so little loss of life. Some of these were such slow sailers that it took them the greater part of a year to round Cape Horn and reach their destination. On one of these some passengers, exasperated at its slowness, landed near Cape St. Lucas and made the long journey up the peninsula of Lower California and on to San Francisco on foot, arriving there a month before their vessel. Another party undertook to make the voyage from Nicaragua in a whale boat and actually did accomplish seven hundred miles of it before they were picked up in the last extremities by a sailing vessel.
The Sierra Nevada region, in which gold was first found, comprised a strip about thirty miles wide and two hundred miles long from north to south in the basins of the Feather, Yuba, Bear, American, Cosumne, Mokolumne, Stanis- laus, Tuolumne and Merced rivers, between the elevations of one thousand and five thousand feet. In all these streams miners washed gold in 1848. The placer mines on the Upper Sacra- mento and in the Shasta region were discovered and worked late in the fall of 1848. The Kla- math mines were discovered later.
The southern mines, those on the San Joaquin, Fresno, Kern and San Gabriel rivers, were lo- cated between 1851 and 1855. Gold was found in some of the ravines and creeks of San Diego county. Practically the gold belt of California extends from the Mexican line to Oregon, but at some points it is rather thin. The first gold digging was done with butcher knives, the gold hunter scratching in the sand and crevices of the rock to find nuggets. Next the gold pan came into use and the miners became experts
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in twirling the pan in a pool of water, so as to wash out the sand and gravel and leave the gold dust in the pan. Isaac Humphreys, who had mined gold in Georgia, was the first person to use a rocker or gold cradle in California. Al- though a very simple piece of machinery those who reached the mines early found it quite an expensive one. Dr. Brooks in his diary, under date of June II, 1848, writes: "On Tuesday we set to work upon our cradle. We resolved upon the construction of two and for this purpose went down to the store in a body to see about the boards. We found timber extravagantly dear, being asked $40 a hundred feet. The next question was as to whether we should hire a carpenter. We were told there was one or two in the diggings, who might be hired, though at a very extravagant rate. Accordingly Brad- ley and I proceeded to see one of these gentle- men, and found him washing away with a hollow log and a willow branch sieve. He offered to help us at the rate of $35 a day, we finding pro- visions and tools, and could not be brought to charge less. We thought this by far too ex- travagant and left him, determined to undertake the work ourselves. After two days' work of seven men they produced two rough cradles and found that three men with a cradle or rocker could wash out as much gold in a day as six could with pans in the same time."
A rocker or gold cradle had some resemblance to a child's cradle with similar rockers and was rocked by means of a perpendicular handle fastened to the cradle box. The cradle box con- sisted of a wooden trough about twenty inches wide and forty inches long with sides four or five inches high. The lower end was left open. On the upper end sat the hopper, a box twenty inches square with sides four inches high and a bottom of sheet iron or zinc pierced with holes one-half inch in diameter. Where zinc or iron could not be obtained a sieve of willow rods was used. Under the hopper was an apron of canvas, which sloped down from the lower end of the hopper to the upper end of the cradle box. A wooden riffle bar an inch square was nailed across the bottom of the cradle box about its middle, and another at its lower end. Under the cradle box were nailed rockers, and near
the middle an upright handle by which motion was imparted. If water and pay dirt were con- venient two men were sufficient to operate the machine. Seated on a stool or rock the operator rocked with one hand, while with a long handled dipper he dipped water from a pool and poured it on the sand and gravel in the hopper. When the sand and earth had been washed through the holes in the sieve the rocks were emptied and the hopper filled again from the buckets of pay dirt supplied by the other partner. The gold was caught on the canvas apron by the riffle bars, while the thin mud and sand were washed out of the machine by the water.
In the dry diggings a method of separating the gold from the earth was resorted to prin- cipally by Sonorans. The pay dirt was dug and dried in the sun, then pulverized by pounding into fine dust. With a batéa or bowl-shaped Indian basket filled with this dust, held in both hands, the Mexican skillfully tossed the earth in the air, allowing the wind to blow away the dust and catching the heavier particles and the gold in the basket, repeating the process until there was little left but the gold.
The Long Tom was a single sluice with a sieve and a box underneath at the end and rif- fle bars to stop the gold. The pay dirt was shov- eled in at the upper end and a rapid current of water washed away the sand and earth, the gold falling into the receptacle below. Ground sluic- ing was resorted to where a current of water from a ditch could be directed against a bank of earth or hill with a sloping bedrock. The stream of water washing against the upper side of the bank caved it down and carried the loose earth through a string of sluices, depositing the gold in the riffle bars in the bottom of the sluices.
In the creeks and gulches where there was not much fall, sluice mining was commonly re- sorted to. A string of sluice boxes was laid, each fitting into the upper end of the one below, and in the lower ones riffle bars were placed to stop the gold. The sluice boxes were placed on trestles four feet from the ground and given an incline of five or six inches to the rod. The gravel from the bedrock up as far as there was any pay dirt was shoveled into the upper boxes and a rapid current of water flowing through the
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