A history of California and an extended history of its southern coast counties, also containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present, Volume I, Part 38

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1184

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

jury mildly condemned the outrage and there the matter ended.

The Indians kept up hostilities, rendering travel and traffic unsafe on the borders of Hum- boldt, Klamath and Trinity counties. Governor Stanford in 1863 issued a proclamation for the enlistment of six companies of volunteers from the six . northwestern counties of the state. These recruits were organized into what was known as the Mountaineer battalion with Lieut .- Col. Stephen G. Whipple in command. A num- ber of Indian tribes united and a desultory war- fare began. The Indians were worsted in nearly every engagement. Their power was broken and in February, 1865, fragments of the different tribes were gathered into the Hoopa Valley reservation. The Mountaineer battalion in what was known as the "Two Years' War" settled the Indian question from Shasta to the sea for all time.

The Modoc war was the last of the Indian disturbanees in the state. The Modocs inhab- ited the country about Rhett Lake and Lost river in the northeast part of the state, bordering on Oregon. Their history begins with the mas- sacre of an immigrant train of sixty-five per- sons, men, women and children, on their way from Oregon to California. This brought upon them a reprisal by the whites in which forty- one out of forty-six Indians who had been in- vited by Benjamin Wright to a pow wow after they had laid aside their arms were set upon by Wright and his companions with revolvers and all killed but five. In 1864 a treaty had been made with the Modoes by which they were to reside on the Klamath reservation. But tiring of reservation life, under their leader. Captain Jack, they returned to their old homes on Lost river. A company of United States troops and several volunteers who went along to see the fun were sent to bring them back to the reser- vation. They refused to go and a fight ensued in which four of the volunteers and one of the regulars were killed, and the troops retreated. The Modocs after killing several settlers gath- ered at the lava beds near Rhett Lake and prepared for war.

Lieutenant-Colonel Wheaton with about four hundred men attacked the Indians in the lava

beds January 17, 1873. Captain Jack had but fifty-one men. When Wheaton retreated he had lost thirty-five men killed and a number wounded, but not an Indian had been hurt. A few days after the battle a peace commission was proposed at Washington. A. B. Meacham, Jesse Applegate and Samuel Case were ap- pointed. Elijah Steele of Yreka, who was on friendly terms with the Indians, was sent for. He visited the lava beds with the interpreter, Fairchild, and had a big talk. He proposed to them to surrender and they would be sent to Angel Island near San Francisco, fed and cared for and allowed to select any reservation they wished. Steele, on his return to camp, reported that the Indians accepted the terms, but Fair- child said they had not and next day on his re- turn Steele found out his mistake and barely escaped with his life. Interviews continued without obtaining any definite results, some of the commission became disgusted and returned home. General Canby, commanding the depart- ment, had arrived and taken charge of affairs. Commissioner Case resigned and Judge Ros- borough was appointed in his place and the Rev. E. Thomas, a doctor of divinity in the Metho- dist church, was added to the commission. A man by the name of Riddle and his wife Toby, a Modoc, acted as go-betweens and negotiations continued.

A pow wow was arranged at the council tent at which all parties were to meet unarmed, but Toby was secretly informed that it was the in- tention of the Modocs to massacre the commis- sioners as had been done to the Indian com- missioners twenty years before by Benjamin Wright and his gang. On April 10, while Meacham and Dyer, the superintendent of the Klamath reservation, who had joined the com- missioners, were away from camp, the Rev. Dr. Thomas made an agreement witlı a dele- gation from Captain Jack for the commission and General Canby to meet the Indians at the council tent. Meacham on his return opposed the arrangement, fearing treachery. The doctor insisted that God had done a wonderful work in the Modoe camp, but Meacham shocked the pious doctor by saying "God had not been in the Modoc camp. this winter."

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Two of the Indian leaders, Boston Charley and Bogus Charley, came to headquarters to accompany the commission. Riddle and his wife, Toby, bitterly opposed the commissioners' going, telling them they would be killed, and Toby going so far as to seize Meacham's horse to prevent him from going, telling him, "You get kill." Canby and. the doctor insisted upon going, despite all protests, the doctor saying, "Let us go as we agreed and trust in God." Meacham and Dyer secured derringers in their side pockets before going. When the commissioners, the interpreters, Riddle and his wife, reached the council tent they found Captain Jack, Schonchin John, Black Jim, Shancknasty Jim, Ellen's Man and Hooker Jim sitting around a fire at the council tent. Concealed behind some rocks a short distance away were two young Indians with a number of rifles. The two Char- leys, Bogus and Boston, who had come with the commissioners from headquarters, informed the Indians that the commissioners were not armed. The interview began. The Indians were very insolent. Suddenly, at a given signal, the Indians uttered a war whoop, and Captain Jack drew a revolver from under his coat and shot Gen- eral Canby. Boston Charley shot Dr. Thomas, who fell, rose again, but was shot down while begging for his life. The young Indians had brought up the rifles and a fusillade was begun upon the others. All escaped without in- jury except Meacham, who, after running some distance, was felled by a bullet fired by Hooker Jim, and left for dead. He was saved from being. scalped by the bravery of Toby. He recovered, however, although badly disfigured. While this

was going on, Curly Haired Doctor and several other Modocs, with a white flag, inveigled Lieu- tenants Boyle and Sherwood beyond the lines. Seeing the Indians were armed, the officers turned to flee, when Curly Haired Jack fired and broke Lieutenant Sherwood's thigh. He died a few days later. The troops were called to arms when the firing began, but the Indians escaped to the lava beds. After a few days' preparation, Colonel Gillem, who was in command, began an attack on the Indian stronghold. Their position was shelled by mountain howitzers. In the fighting, which lasted four days, sixteen soldiers were killed and thirteen wounded. In a recon- noissance under Captain Thomas a few days later, a body of seventy troops and fourteen Warm Spring Indians ran into an ambush of the In- dians and thirteen soldiers, including Thomas, were killed. Gen. Jefferson C. Davis was placed in command. The Indians were forced out of the lava beds, their water supply having been cut off. They quarreled among themselves, broke up into parties, were chased down and all cap- tured. Captain Jack and Schonchin John, the two leaders, were shackled together. General Davis made preparations to hang these and six or eight others, but orders from Washington stopped him. The leading Indians were tried by court-martial. Captain Jack, Schonchin John, Black Jim and Boston Charley were hung, two others were sentenced to imprisonment for life. The other Modocs, men, women and chil- dren, were sent to a fort in Nebraska and after- wards transferred to the Quaw Paw Agency in Indian Territory. This ended the Modoc war and virtually put an end to the Modoc Indians.

CHAPTER XXXIV. SOME POLITICAL HISTORY.

T HE first Chinese emigrants to California arrived in the brig Eagle, from Hong Kong, in the month of February, 1848. They were two men and one woman. This was before the discovery of gold was known abroad. What brought these waifs from the Flowery

Kingdom to California does not appear in the record. February 1, 1849, there were fifty-four Chinamen and one Chinawoman in the territory. January 1, 1850, seven hundred and eighty-nine men and two women had arrived. January I, 1851, four thousand and eighteen men and seven

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women; a year later their numbers had in- creased to eight thousand one hundred and twenty-one men and eight women; May 7, 1852, eleven thousand seven hundred and eighty men and seven women had found their way to the land of gold. The Alta California, from which 1 take these figures, estimated that between seven and ten thousand more would arrive in the state before January 1, 1853. The editor sagely remarks: "No one fears danger or mis- fortune from their excessive numbers." There was no opposition to their coming; on the con- trary, they were welcomed and almost lionized. The Alta of April 27, 1851, remarks: "An American barque yesterday brought eighty worshippers of the sun, moon and many stars. These Celestials make excellent citizens and we are pleased to notice their daily arrival in large numbers." The Alta describes a Great Chinese meeting on Portsmouth Square, which took place in 1851. It seems to have been held for the purpose of welcoming the Chinese to Cali- fornia and at the same time doing missionary work and distributing religious tracts among them. The report says: "A large assemblage of citizens and several ladies collected on the plaza to witness the ceremonies. Ah Hee assem- bled his division and Ah Sing marched his into Kearny street, where the two divisions united and then marched to the square. Many carried fans. There were several peculiar looking Chi- namen among them. One, a very tall, old Celes- tial with an extensive tail, excited universal at- tention. He had a huge pair of spectacles upon his nose, the glasses of which were about the size of a telescope lens. He also had a singu- larly colored fur mantle or cape upon his shoul- ders and a long sort of robe. We presume he must be a mandarin at least.

"Vice Consul F. A. Woodwortlı, His Honor, Major J. W. Geary, Rev. Albert Williams, Rev. A. Fitch and Rev. F. D. Hunt were present. Ah Hee acted as interpreter. The Rev. Hunt gave them some orthodox instruction in which they were informed of the existence of a coun- try where the China boys would never die; this made them laugh quite heartily. Tracts, scrip- tural documents, astronomical works, almanacs and other useful religious and instructive doct-

ments printed in Chinese characters were dis- tributed among them."

I give the report of another meeting of "The Chinese residents of San Francisco," taken from the Alta of December 10, 1849. I quote it to show how the Chinese were regarded when they first came to California and how they were flattered and complimented by the presence of distinguished citizens at their meetings. Their treatment a few years later, when they were mobbed and beaten in the streets for no fault of theirs except for coming to a Christian coun- try, must have given them a very poor opinion of the white man's consistency. "A public meeting of the Chinese residents of the town was held on the evening of Monday, November 19, at the Canton Restaurant on Jackson street. The following preamble and resolutions were presented and adopted:

"'Whereas, It becomes necessary for us, strangers as we are in a strange land, unac- quainted with the language and customs of our adopted country, to have some recognized coun- selor and advisor to whom we may all appeal with confidence for wholesome instruction, and, "'Whereas, We should be at a loss as to what course of action might be necessary for us to pursue therefore,

" 'Resolved, That a committee of four be ap- pointed to wait upon Selim E. Woodworth, Esq., and request him in behalf of the Chinese resi- dents of San Francisco to act in the capacity of arbiter and advisor for them.'

"Mr. Woodworth was waited upon by Ah Hee, Jon Ling, Ah Ting and Ah Toon and kindly consented to act. The whole affair passed off in the happiest manner. Many distinguished guests were present, Hon. J. W. Geary, alcalde; E. H. Harrison, ex-collector of the port, and others."

At the celebration of the admission of Cali- fornia into the Union the "China Boys" were a prominent feature. One report says: "The Celestials had a banner of crimson satin on which were some Chinese characters and the in- scription 'China Boys.' They numbered about fifty and were arrayed in the richest stuff and commanded by their chief, Ah Sing."

While the "China Boys" were feted and flat-

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tered in San Francisco they were not so enthiu- siastically welcomed by the miners. The legis- lature in 1850 passed a law fixing the rate of license for a foreign miner at $20 per month. This was intended to drive out and keep out of the mines all foreigners, but the rate was so excessively high that it practically nullified the enforcement of the law and it was repealed in 1851. As the Chinese were only allowed peace- able possession of mines that would not pay white man's wages they did not make fortunes in the diggings. If by chance the Asiatics should happen to strike it rich in ground aban- doned by white men there was a class among the white miners who did not hesitate to rob the Chinamen of their ground.

As a result of their persecution in the mines the Chinese flocked to San Francisco and it was not long until that city had more "China Boys" than it needed in its business. The legislature of 1855 enacted a law that masters, owners or consignors of vessels bringing to California persons incompetent to become citizens under the laws of the state should pay a fine of $50 for every such person landed. A suit was brought to test the validity of the act; it was declared unconstitutional. In 1858 the foreign miner's tax was $10 per month and as most of the other foreigners who had arrived in California in the carly '50s had by this time become citizens by naturalization the foreigners upon whom the tax bore most heavily were the Chinese who could not become citizens. As a consequence many of them were driven out of the mines and this again decreased the revenue of the mining counties, a large part of which was made up of poll tax and license.

The classes most bitterly opposed to the Chi- nese in the mines were the saloon-keepers, the gamblers and their constituents. While the Chinaman himself is a most inveterate gambler and not averse to strong drink he did not divest himself of his frugal earnings in the white man's saloon or gambling den, and the gentry who kept these institutions were the first, like Bill Nye in Bret Harte's poem, to raise the cry. "We are ruined by Chinese cheap labor." While the southern politicians who were the 'rulers of the state before the Civil war were

opposed to the Chinese and legislated against them, it was not done in the interest of the white laborer. An act to establish a coolie system of servile labor was introduced in the pro-slavery legislature of 1854. It was intended as a sub- stitute for negro slavery. Senator Roach, a free state man. exposed its iniquity. It was defeated. The most intolerant and the most bitter oppo- nents of the Chinese then and later when opposi- tion had intensified were certain servile classes of Europeans who in their native countries had al- ways been kept in a state of servility to the aris- tocracy, but when raised to the dignity of Amer- ican citizens by naturalization proceeded to celebrate their release from their former serf- dom by persecuting the Chinese, whom they re- garded as their inferiors. The outcry these peo- ple made influenced politicians, who pandered to them for the sake of their votes to make laws and ordinances that were often burlesques on legislation.

In 1870 the legislature enacted a law impos- ing a penalty of not less than $1,000 nor more than $5,000 or imprisonment upon any one bringing to California any subject of China or Japan without first presenting evidence of his or her good character to the commissioner of immigration. The supreme court decided the law unconstitutional. Laws were passed pro- hibiting the employment of Chinese on the pub- lic works; prohibiting them from owning real estate and from obtaining licenses for certain kinds of business. The supervisors of San Fran- cisco passed an ordinance requiring that the hair of any male prisoner convicted of an of- fense should be cut within one inch of his head. This, of course, was aimed at Chinese convicts and intended to deprive them of their queues and degrade them in the estimation of their peo- ple. It was known as the Pig Tail Ordinance; the mayor vetoed it. Another piece of class legislation by the San Francisco supervisors im- posed a license of $15 a quarter on laundries using no horses, while a laundry using a one- horse wagon paid but $2 per quarter. The Cli- nese at this time (1876) did not use horses in their laundry business. The courts decided against this ordinance.

Notwithstanding the laws and ordinances

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against them the Chinese continued to come and they found employment of some kind to keep them from starving. They were indus- trious and economical; there were no Chinese tramps. Although they filled a want in the state, cheap and reliable labor, at the beginning of its railroad and agricultural development, they were not desirable citizens. Their habits and morals were bad. Their quarters in the cities reeked with filth and immorality. They maintained their Asiatic customs and despised the "white devils" among whom they lived, which, by the way, was not strange considering the mobbing and maltreatment they received from the other aliens. They made merchandise of their women and carried on a revolting sys- tem of female slavery.

The Burlingame treaty guaranteed mutual protection to the citizens of China and the United States on each other's soil; to freedom in religious opinions; to the right to reside in either country at will and other privileges ac- corded to civilized nations. Under this treaty the Chinese could not be kept out of California and agitation was begun for the modification or entire abrogation of the treaty.

For a number of years there had been a steady decline in the price of labor. Various causes had contributed to this. The productiveness of the mines had decreased; railroad communica- tion with the east had brought in a number of workmen and increased competition; the efforts of thelabor unions to decrease the hours of labor and still keep up the wages at the old standard had resulted in closing up some of the manu- facturing establishments, the proprietors finding it impossible to compete with eastern factories. All these and other causes brought about a de- pression in business and brought on in 1877-78 a labor agitation that shook the foundations of our social fabric. The hard times and decline in wages was charged against the Chinese. No doubt the presence of the Mongolians in Cali- fornia had considerable to do with it and par- ticularly in the lower grades of employment but the depression was mainly caused from over-production and the financial crisis of 1873, which had affected the whole United States. Another cause local to California was the wild

mania for stock gambling that had prevailed in California for a number of years. The bonanza kings of the Washoe by getting up corners in stocks running up fraudulent values and then unloading on outside buyers had impoverished thousands of people of small means and enriched themselves without any return to their dupes.

Hard times always brings to the front a class of noisy demagogues who with no remedy to prescribe increase the discontent by vitupera- tive abuse of everybody outside of their sym- pathizers. The first of the famous sand lot mass meetings of San Francisco was held July 23. 1877, on a vacant lot on the Market street side of the city hall. Harangues were made and resolutions passed denouncing capitalists, de- claring against subsidies to steamship and rail- road lines, declaring that the reduction of wages was part of a conspiracy for the destruction of the republic and that the military should not be employed against strikers. An anti-coolie club was formed and on that and the two succeeding evenings a number of Chinese laundries were destroyed. In a fight between the police (aided by the committee of safety) and the rioters sev- eral of the latter were killed. Threats were made to destroy the railroad property and burn the vessels of the Pacific Mail Steamship Com- pany unless the Chinese in their employ were immediately discharged.

Among the agitators that this ebullition of dis- content threw to the front was an Irish dray- man named Dennis Kearney. He was shrewd enough to see that some notoriety and political capital could be made by the organization of a Workingmen's party.

On the 5th of October a permanent organiza- tion of the Workingmen's party of California was effected. Dennis Kearney was chosen president, J. G. Day, vice-president, and H. L. Knight, sec- retary. The principles of the party were the con- densed essence of selfishness. The working classes were to be elevated at the expense of every other. "We propose to elect none but com- petent workingmen and their friends to any of- fice whatever." "The rich have ruled us till they have ruined us." "The republic must and shall be preserved, and only workingmen will do it." "This party will exhaust all peaceable means of

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attaining its ends, but it will not be denied jus- tice when it has the power to enforce it." "It will encourage no riot or outrage, but it will not volunteer to repress or put down or arrest, or prosecute the hungry and impatient who manifest their hatred of the Chinamen by a cru- sade against John or those who employ him." These and others as irrelevant and immaterial were the principles of the Workingmen's party that was to bring the millennium. The move- ment spread rapidly, clubs were formed in every ward in San Francisco and there were organiza- tions in all the cities of the state. The original leaders were all of foreign birth, but when the movement became popular native born dema- gogues, perceiving in it an opportunity to ob- tain office, abandoned the old parties and joined the new.

Kearney now devoted his whole time to agi- tation, and the applause he received from his followers pampered his inordinate conceit. His language was highly incendiary. He advised every workingman to own a musket and one hundred rounds of ammunition and urged the formation of military companies. He posed as a reformer and even hoped for martyrdom. In one of his harangues he said: "If I don't get killed I will do more than any reformer in the history of the world. I hope I will be assassi- nated, for the success of the movement depends on that." The incendiary rant of Kearney and his fellows became alarming. It was a tame meeting, at which no "thieving millionaire, scoundrelly official or extortionate railroad mag- nate" escaped lynching by the tongues of la- borite reformers. The charitable people of the city had raised by subscription $20,000 to al- leviate the prevailing distress among the poor. It was not comforting to a rich man to hear himself doomed to "hemp! hemp! hemp!" simply because by industry, economy and enter- prise he had made a fortune. It became evident that if Kearney and his associates were allowed to talk of hanging men and burning the city some of their dupes would put in practice the teachings of their leaders. The supervisors, urged on by the better class of citizens, passed an ordinance called by the sand-lotters "Gibbs' gag law." On the 29th of October, Kearney and

his fellow agitators, with a mob of two or three thousand followers, held a meeting on Nob Hill, where Stanford, Crocker, Hopkins and other railroad magnates had built palatial residences. He roundly denounced as thieves the nabobs of Nob Hill and declared that they would soon feel the power of the workingmen. When his party was thoroughly organized they would march through the city and compel the thieves to give up their plunder; that he would lead them to the city hall, clear out the police, hang the pros- ecuting attorney, burn every book that had a particle of law in it, and then enact new laws for the workingmen. These and other utter- ances equally inflammatory caused his arrest while addressing a meeting on the borders of the Barbary coast. Trouble was expected, but hie quietly submitted and was taken to jail and a few days later Day, Knight, C. C. O'Donnell and Charles E. Pickett were arrested on charges of inciting riot and taken to jail. A few days in jail cooled them off and they began to "squeal." They addressed a letter to the mayor, saying their utterances had been incorrectly reported by the press and that if released they were will- ing to submit to any wise measure to allay the excitement. They were turned loose after two weeks' imprisonment and their release was cele- brated on Thanksgiving Day, November 29, by a grand demonstration of sand lotters-seven thousand of whom paraded the streets.

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A history of California and an extended history of its southern coast counties, also containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present, Volume I, Part 38

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company Number of Pages: 1184

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1184