USA > California > A history of California: the American period > Part 21
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"Broken wagons, dead, shrivelled-up cattle, horses and mules as well, lay baking in the sun, around the dried up wells that had been opened, in the hopes of getting water. Not a blade of grass or green thing of any kind relieved the monotony of the parched, ash-colored earth, and the most melancholy scene presented itself that I had seen since I left the Rio Grande.
Travel, even over the well established routes to California, was thus beset with hardship during the period of the gold rush. But where parties turned off to seek new trails, fate dealt with them even more relentlessly. The most tragic of such cases occurred in that grim region lying east of Owen's River, which ever since has borne the name of Death Valley. Two companies, at least, were caught in this waste
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of sand and desolation during the migration of 1849, and the valley dealt with them in pitiless fashion.
The story of the first of these parties has been left us by William Lewis Manly, one of its members. His company, having reached Green River by way of the South Pass, attempted the impossible feat of going down the Colorado in an old ferry boat. They succeeded in getting somewhat beyond the spot where Ashley had painted his name on the cañon walls in 1824, but at last were compelled to abandon the river and strike out on foot toward the west. Without serious difficulty they reached the regular Salt Lake-Los Angeles trail, where they found a large number of wagons
bound for California. Manly and his associates joined this company of emigrants. But instead of following the regular route to the Mojave villages, a part of the train, led by Captain Smith, turned off near Mountain Meadows, intending to travel directly west to the San Joaquin. Manly and a friend of his named Bennett, who was in command of several wagons, together with one of the Green River adven- turers known as Rogers, followed Smith's party.
Before the desert was reached several of the company turned back to the regular Los Angeles trail. The rest split into two divisions. One of these, calling themselves the Jay- hawkers and composed almost entirely of unmarried men, set off ahead, leaving the men with women and children to get on as best they could. Before this main company had proceeded very far, the outlook became alarming; and when they at last entered the sandy wastes of Death Valley, it was seen that help must be secured or the entire party would perish.
Manly and Rogers volunteered to go for aid, and with such provisions as could be spared set out for the California settlements. Of the privations experienced by Manly and Rogers on this trip, or of the sufferings endured by the thir- teen grown persons and seven children who remained be- hind, the writer is not competent to speak. It is enough to say that the two messengers, after conquering starvation, sand, fatigue and thirst, at last reached the little town of San
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Fernando, a few miles north of Los Angeles, where they obtained supplies and a few pack animals, and then set out again for the valley of death to rescue their companions.
When the two came again within sight of the camp, which they had left twenty-six days before, some of the wagons were missing, and there was no sign of life about. A few miles back they had already passed one member of the company, dead on the sand, "with his arms extended wide, and his little canteen, made of two powder flasks, lying by his side." It was doubtful whether any of the company, which they had risked so much to rescue, had survived. Manly fired off his gun. A man came out from under a wagon, looked all around without seeing any one.
"Then," to use Manly's words, "he threw up his arms high over his head and shouted-'The boys have come, the boys have come!' . . . The great suspense was over and our hearts were first in our mouths, and then the blood all went away and left us almost fainting as we stood and tried to step. . . . Bennett and Arcane caught us in their arms and embraced us with all their strength, and Mrs. Bennett when she came fell down on her knees and clung to me like a maniac in the great emotion that came to her, and not a word was spoken."
The story of the final escape of the party, though cer- tainly not the least heroic in the annals of the westward movement, cannot be given here. Once out of Death Valley the route lay along the eastern slope of the Sierras, past Walker's Pass, through Red Rock Cañon, across the Mojave, through Soledad Cañon, and on to San Fernando. The Salt Lake Trail near Mountain Meadows was left on November 4, 1849. The survivors reached the plenty and safety of the California settlements March 7, 1850.
As for the Jayhawkers and the few other members of the train who had separated from the Bennett-Manly party, their story is also one of tragedy and suffering. Small groups became detached from the main company and sought to make their own way across the valley. One of these parties, consisting of eleven members, remained
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unheard of for many years. Two of its number were after- wards found working in the gold mines of Northern Cali- fornia; and in 1856 a prospecting expedition in Death Valley came upon an abandoned camp around which were the skeletons of nine men. In addition to these victims, at least two more of the Jayhawkers died in the valley, and one succumbed while crossing the Mojave desert.
Travelling sometimes with and sometimes apart from the Jayhawkers, was a clergyman named Brier, his wife, and three small children, the oldest of whom was nine. Like the noble women of the Donner party, Mrs. Brier proved a constant source of inspiration and courage to her com- panions; and in the many stories of California heroism none deserves a higher place than hers. Many years after the ex- pedition she was induced to tell something of her experiences. The following brief extract is taken from that narrative:
"The valley ended in a canyon with great walls rising up almost as high as we could see. There seemed no way out, for it ended almost in a straight wall. . .. Father Fish died that night. I made coffee for him, but he was all worn out. Isham died that night, too. It was always the same-hunger and thirst and an awful silence. .
" In the morning the men returned with the same story: 'No water.' Even the stoutest heart sank then, for nothing but sage- brush and dagger trees greeted the eye. My husband tied little Kirk to his back and staggered ahead. The child would mur- mur occasionally, 'Oh, father, where's the water?' His pitiful, delirious wails were worse to hear than the killing thirst. It was terrible. I seem to see it all over again. I staggered and struggled wearily behind with our other two boys and the oxen. The little fellows bore up bravely and hardly complained, though they could barely talk, so dry and swollen were their lips and tongue. John would try to cheer up his brother Kirk by telling him of the wonderful water we would find and all the good things we could get to eat. Every step I expected to sink down and die. I could hardly see."
That any of the California immigrants who entered Death Valley in 1849 emerged from it alive was due to the
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cooler weather of the winter months and the kindness of fate. Not even the latter could have saved them if they had sought to cross in the heat of mid-summer. Such miracles are not performed when the thermometer stands at 140° in a valley below the level of the sea, where all but one per cent of the moisture has been sucked from the atmosphere, and where men go insane if deprived of water for so much as an hour.
The Death Valley tragedy occupies a unique place in the annals of the Forty Niners because of the horrors connected with it. Yet a fate scarcely less terrible, but of a different nature, was narrowly averted in the case of thousands of emigrants who left Salt Lake toward the close of summer or early in the fall, intending to cross the Sierras before snow closed the passes. These late comers found the grass along the route almost used up by earlier trains. Water was scarce and so unfit to drink that beasts and men alike were made sick by it. In places the road was so cut up by con- stant use that clouds of alkali dust enveloped every wagon, making travel difficult and slow. Cholera and scurvy attacked many of the companies, and exhaustion from the long journey and lack of food reduced others to a condition of despair.
The chief danger, however, was the coming of winter. If this should set in before the worn out emigrants were safely through the mountains, the tragedies of Donner Lake and Death Valley would be multiplied a hundred fold. Fortunately, as early as August, this danger was realized by General Persifor H. Smith, who had recently arrived, by way of Panama, to take charge of the United States forces in California; and in conjunction with Governor Riley, he despatched a few relief trains across the Sierras to aid the stragglers to get through.
As the season grew later, reports reached the cities and mining communities of California that thousands of emi- grants still east of the mountains were in desperate straits, and unless help were sent would perish before they could reach a place of safety. Lack of food had driven many of
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them, with disastrous results, to eat the putrifying flesh of oxen or mules that had died along the way. Others had lost all their animals from disease, or at the hands of the Indians, who were now becoming much more troublesome, and were striving to make their way across the mountains on foot. To add to the danger, snow had commenced to fall much earlier than usual in the high Sierras, making the passes more difficult every day and threatening a complete blockade before the emigrants could get through.
The emergency, great as it was, was met successfully by the organization of relief trains and the transportation of large quantities of supplies across the mountains. The work was largely in the hands of United States Army officers, with Major Rucker in command. In the face of great difficulties, he succeeded in bringing the last of the emi- grant trains of 1849 through the snows before the route be- came impassable, though some of the parties had already been three days without food when the government supplies arrived.
Many of the companies which reached Salt Lake late in the summer of 1849, instead of completing their journey that year, remained until spring in the Mormon City. Much has been written of the treatment received by the gold seekers from Brigham Young's followers during this period; but the testimony is too nearly divided between good and ill for an authoritative conclusion to be reached. The Mor- mons certainly took advantage of the emigrants' needs to charge high prices-75c a pound for meat, 50c a gallon for milk, $500 for a wagon, were the prevailing rates-but later on, when the gold seekers reached the Sierras they found their fellow Gentiles at least as skillful at profiteering as the Mormons.
The story of the migration of 1850, except in detail, differs little from that of the preceding year. The spring months saw thousands of wagons, filled with men, women, children, household goods, food, and treasured possessions of every kind, taking the westward way. Along the route the drama of 1849 was reenacted. Cholera, scurvy, dysentery, acci-
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dent, thirst, hunger, fatigue, Indian attack, quarrels, dis- couragement, and every other ill attacked the trains. Against these foes were set hope, ambition, steady determi- nation, patience, humor, and the fighting spirit of the fron- tier. Here a train pauses in its slow progress toward the Pacific to bury one of its members; another within sight stops a few brief hours while a woman gives birth to a child. Days of easy travel with abundance of food, grass for the animals, light heartedness, music and good cheer around the evening camp, alternate with days of tragedy and unspeakable hardships.
Again in 1850, as in 1849, disaster threatened many of the emigrants who attempted to cross the Sierras late in the season. In September the Humboldt route was crowded with trains, most of them in desperate straits because of loss of animals, sickness, or lack of food; while farther north along the Pitt river, were other emigrants equally destitute, and subject in addition to Indian depredations.
Once more relief parties were formed and supplies sent to the sufferers. Voluntary organizations in Stockton, San Francisco, Marysville, and other communities, collected money with which to purchase food, and despatched pack trains across the mountains. Newspapers and individuals spread the appeal for funds; and money soon poured in from mining settlements and ranches, as well as from the cities. The heart of all California was touched with that sympathy and liberality which have since become the proverbial heritage of the state.
Perhaps the chiefest of the Good Samaritans of this early day was William Waldo, a member of the relief committee of Sacramento. No man was more untiring in his efforts to rescue the threatened emigrants, or so quick in his sym- pathies for their sufferings. Early in September he des- patched a letter from his camp on the Humboldt, where he had gone with supplies, to the relief committee at Sacra- mento. An extract from this despatch will show, better than any other description, something of Waldo's generosity, and the desperate need he found among the trains.
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"Should your committee," wrote Waldo, "still be unable to collect funds, I then ask that the committee, city council, or some other body of men, advance to the amount of eight or ten thousand dollars, and forward the amount in flour and little articles for the sick, to this point, and to the summit, for which I pledge my honor, if I live to return where it can be legally done, to set over all my right, title and interest to real estate in Sacra- mento City, that has cost me ten thousand dollars. This sum will send between twenty and twenty-five thousand pounds of flour to the summit. This in connection with the beef, horses, mules, and dead stock, that can be jerked before it putrifies, will save ten thousand human beings from starvation. A man can live very well upon half a pound of beef and a quarter of a pound of flour per day. I again repeat that these people must be relieved or they must die, and that by starvation. . .. Can you believe that the destitution is so general that during an absence of six days from this station, I found but two trains of which I could procure a piece of bread and a cup of coffee? I have known a cup of soup, containing not more than one spoonful of flour, to sell for one dollar, and the buyer considered himself fortunate to get it on those terms."
Thanks to the efforts of Waldo, Colonel Ralson, Major Sherman and others of like kind, and the generous response of the people of California, disaster was averted in 1850 as it had been in 1849. Aid was given not only to those on the central and northern routes, but also to the equally un- fortunate caravans coming by way of the Gila. One cannot picture the outcome if this help had been denied. Even so, it is said, fifteen hundred graves were counted between Salt Lake and Sacramento along the Truckee route alone. Of such magnitude was the toll paid in the "Great Migra- tion."
CHAPTER XVIII
STATEHOOD
WHILE the immigration spoken of in the previous chapter was in progress, California was face to face with the serious problem of establishing a government adequate to meet the new conditions. The American conquest, in fact, had ushered in an era of political transition. During the first three years of American possession, from 1846 to 1849, the newly acquired territory enjoyed almost as many rulers as in the old days of Mexican control, when frequently the province was "blessed with two governors at a time and once with triplets."
Sloat, who assumed command of California in his proc- lamation of July 7, 1846, gave place to Stockton before the month was out. Stockton, despite the claims of General Kearny, remained in control until shortly after the middle of January, 1847. He then passed over the governorship to Frémont who, in turn, was superseded by Kearny early in March. Within sixty days Kearny was succeeded by Mason, and Mason resigned in favor of Riley on April 12, 1849.
During much of this period, particularly after the ratifi- cation of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the political status of the newly acquired territory was in a state of curious uncertainty. The government during this year has been described as
"Part military and part civil, and part no government at all. . .. The laws were most variant and variously conceived, the civil law, the Pike County code, the New York code, the com- mon law, maritime law, the law of the plains, military law, and the miners' law, were all jumbled up together, and the Courts were as unique as the government and the laws; they were Amer- ico-Mexican, military-civil, with a good degree of the vigilante."
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Presumably, under international law, the laws and institu- tions of Mexico already existing in California should have remained in effect until definitely superseded by congressional legislation. As a matter of fact, however, the Mexican form of government was so ill-suited to American tastes and the needs of the country, that this theory, except in occasional instances, was wholly abandoned, and the suc- cessive governors found themselves compelled to work out a more practical program of their own.
The most striking instance of the few attempts to main- tain institutions of Mexican origin was in the case of the alcalde appointments made by Commodore Stockton. One of the Americans, who sat in this seat of old time Spanish authority, was the Reverend Walter Colton, chosen by Stock- ton to serve as alcalde at Monterey. For three years Colton filled this office, the duties of which he thus described :-
"By the laws and usages of the country, the judicial functions of the Alcalde of Monterey extend to all cases, civil and criminal, arising within the middle department of California. He is also the guardian of the public peace, and is charged with the mainte- nance of law and order, whenever and wherever threatened, or violated; he must arrest, fine, imprison, or sentence to the public works, the lawless and refractory, and he must enforce, through his executive powers, the decisions and sentences which he has pronounced in his judicial capacity. His prerogatives and official duties extend over all the multiplied interests and concerns of his department, and reach to every grievance and crime, from the jar that trembles around the domestic hearth, to the guilt which throws its gloom on the gallows and the grave."
Colton's apt description shows plainly enough why the American population of California, trained as it was to cherish the jury system and the constitutional limitation of authority, vigorously criticised the arbitrary powers lodged in the hands of the alcaldes, and did not willingly accept any of the other institutions of Spanish origin. As a result of this attitude, except in those communities like Monterey, where the new comers formed a comparatively small element of the population, the Mexican laws were
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never applied; or, having been put into effect, were speedily rendered ineffectual by the strong opposition that developed against them. So it came about that in most of the dis- tinctively American settlements, such as Sacramento or the mining communities, whatever government existed was almost wholly of local origin.
In San Francisco, where government for a time was lodged in the hands of an alcalde and ayuntamiento, or town council, the settlers finally took matters into their own hands (following a period in which two rival councils each claimed to be legally elected), and established a body, new both to American and Spanish law, known as the "legislative assembly." This assembly, consisting of fifteen members chosen by popular vote, sought to abolish the former ayuntamiento and alcalde, and with three justices of the peace, exercise all the functions of a city government. The members of the two rival councils resigned; but the alcalde, Thaddeus M. Leavenworth, refused to recognize the au- thority of the assembly, and appealed to General Persifor F. Smith, military commander, and Governor Riley, who held his office under federal appointment, for support.
Both Smith and Riley pronounced the assembly an illegal body and advised Leavenworth to maintain his office. The result was a temporary deadlock in San Francisco politics that brought to a head one of the most perplexing questions, both from a legal and practical standpoint, the United States government has ever faced in its dealings with new territory. In the technical sense of the term, California was plainly neither state nor territory. And yet, after the ratification of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, it was scarcely possible, in any constitutional sense, for the federal authorities to hold her people under military rule. But this latter form of government, however unconstitutional it might be, was the only alternative to anarchy. And with good Anglo-Saxon common sense, the President prolonged it until the people of California themselves made its con- tinuance no longer necessary.
Naturally, there was opposition to a form of government
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which owed its existence to circumstances rather than to law; and many of the California immigrants by 1849 were advocating a kind of squatter sovereignty, under which the settlers themselves should set up a government to supersede the authority exercised by the federal officials. Locally, as in San Francisco, this popular assumption of authority developed into a conflict with the government already in existence. As the months went by, and Congress, deadlocked by the slavery issue, failed to set up a territorial form of government or meet the situation in any other way, Cali- fornia faced a dubious future. Military authority was fast outliving its usefulness and there seemed no prospect of having it displaced by a regularly organized territorial government. To save themselves from anarchy in this emergency, the people were compelled to act upon their own responsibility.
As early as December 11, 1848, the citizens of San José came together to consider "the propriety of establishing a Provisional Territorial Government for the protection of life and property." San Francisco, Sacramento, and So- noma from time to time held similar meetings; and by the spring of 1849, only the expectation that the national Con- gress then in session would fulfill the promises of the federal government and establish a territorial organization, re- strained the people from framing a government of their own.
When this hope failed, with the adjournment of Congress in March, California, so long "sans law, sans order, sans government, " definitely set about organizing her own government and making an end of a situation that had always been anomolous, and was now fast becoming des- perate, because of the turbulent, restless hordes the gold migration was daily bringing within her borders.
With unexpected (and not entirely welcome) suddenness, the leadership in this new movement was taken by Governor Riley, who issued a proclamation for the election of dele- gates to a general constitutional convention. At the same time the governor condemned the settler's organization in San Francisco as an illegal body. This resulted in an imme-
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diate conflict between Riley and the leaders of the squatter sovereignty program; and for a time it looked as though the whole movement would end in failure. Fortunately, however, the settlers were more interested in securing order and settled government than in maintaining a technical right ; and when common sense had gotten the better of local pride, they prepared to carry out the plan proposed by Riley.
The election of delegates to the convention was set for August 1st, and on the same day the people were instructed to choose the local officials known to Mexican law to serve until the state government should formally be established. The territory was divided into ten districts, from which a total of thirty-seven delegates were to be returned. Of these thirty-seven, Monterey, San José, and San Francisco were each to send five delegates; Sacramento, Sonoma, San Joaquin and Los Angeles four each; and San Diego, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo two each. When the convention finally met, however, it was found that the number of delegates specified in the governor's proclama- tion had been disregarded by many of the districts, and a total of forty-eight representatives had been returned in- stead of thirty-seven. As most of these additional delegates came from northern districts, the final apportionment in the convention gave the north thirty-eight members and the south only ten.
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