USA > California > A history of California: the American period > Part 22
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44
As a whole, the convention was typical of the people who made up California in the fifties. Its membership included eight native Californians, among whom the most conspicu- ous were Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo of Sonoma, José Antonio Carrillo of Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara's sole delegate, Pablo De la Guerra. All of these were excellent representatives of the Mexican régime. Thomas O. Larkin and Don Abel Stearns of Los Angeles belonged to the older foreign residents, who had come to the coast long before the conquest and acquired something of a common interest and a common outlook with the Californians.
Most of the delegates, however, were typical of the new day and the new order ushered in by American occupation.
252
A HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
They were nearly all young men, of serious purpose, not exceptionally well versed in political affairs, but practical enough to frame a constitution suited to the needs of the time, and little influenced by peculiar hobbies or personal political ambitions. From the standpoint of occupations, lawyers, ranchers, and merchants predominated; but nearly every other profession or business was also represented; for in its composition the convention was a true cross section of the entire population.
In accordance with the date set by Riley's proclamation, a few of the delegates met at Monterey on September 1st; but it was not until the following Tuesday (the 4th) that the convention was formally organized. Dr. Robert Semple of tall stature and Bear Flag fame, was elected president; and Captain William G. Marcy of the Stevenson regiment, chosen secretary. The meetings of the convention were held in a school house newly erected by the American alcalde, through "the labor of convicts, the taxes on rum and the banks of the gamblers."
In honor of its builder it was known as Colton Hall. The convention met in the upper story, which consisted of a single room, some sixty feet long by twenty-five feet wide. The following paragraph from a contemporary description gives a picture of the convention and its meeting place:
"A railing, running across the middle of the hall, divided the members from the spectators. The former were seated at four long tables, the President occupying a rostrum at the further end, over which were suspended two American flags and an extraordi- nary picture of Washington, evidently the work of a native artist. The appearance of the whole body was exceedingly dignified and intellectual, and parliamentary decorum was strictly observed."
The most skillful member of the convention in the art of political manipulation, and in many respects the most capable statesman as well, was William M. Gwin of Tennessee, whose future for ten years was to be inseparably connected with the history of the state he was then helping to create. Through Gwin's foresight, copies of the recently drafted
253
STATEHOOD
Iowa constitution were printed for the use of the convention, and the document thus became a sort of working model for the guidance of the delegates. Other state constitutions were also made use of, notably that of New York. But for some of the peculiar needs of the new commonwealth there was no pattern. To meet these, the delegates were forced back upon their own ingenuity and common sense.
It is scarcely necessary here to attempt a further descrip- tion of the constitution of 1849. Drafted under peculiar conditions by men little used to politics, and designed to meet an emergency, the document was naturally defective in many particulars and nearly thirty years later had to be abandoned for a new instrument. Nevertheless it met the needs of its time with a fair measure of satisfaction, and was not an unworthy product of the earnest and conscientious, if not brilliant men who framed it.
On most matters the convention worked without friction; but an occasional hotly debated issue broke the otherwise harmonious sessions. One of these disturbing questions was that of the eastern limits of the state. To the west the Pacific Ocean settled the boundary beyond dispute. The northern boundary had been definitely fixed along the 42nd parallel by the Treaty of 1819 with Spain. Similarly, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo had determined the interna- tional line to the south. But on the east there was an empire of uncertain extent, vaguely known to the Spaniards as part of their province of Alta California. Whether the territory to be included in the new state should follow these old boundaries to the Rocky Mountains, or stop at the Sierra Nevadas, was the vital question before the convention.
Two parties soon formed over this issue. The one led by Gwin, Halleck, Sherwood, and a few others, might prop- erly be called the "large state" party, from their advocacy of the Rocky Mountains as the eastern limit. The second group sought just as vigorously to confine the state between the Pacific and the Sierras. After prolonged debate, by a vote of 32 to 7, a compromise line was chosen, fixing the boundary as we have it now.
254
A HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
The motives behind this division of the convention into "large" and "small" state parties were not particularly complex. Those who advocated the wider boundary be- lieved that it more nearly approximated the historical limits of California under Spanish rule-a view entirely correct-and that the larger state could eventually bear the expenses of a government more easily than one of smaller size. There was also an immediate need for courts, and the enforcement of law, in the region beyond the Sierras through which the immigrants were coming into California. Finally, the members of this party believed that Congress would more readily admit the state if the convention set its eastern boundary at the Rockies, instead of at the Sierra Nevada.
The small state advocates, curiously enough, argued from the same premises to a directly opposite conclusion. It would be impossible, they said, for a state located on the Pacific to administer a government for the vast, semi- desert region across the Sierras. Nor did they believe that the people of California had any right to extend their boun- daries so as to include the Mormon inhabitants of Utah, who were already seeking to establish their own state of Deseret. Furthermore, it would be utterly preposterous for the convention to expect Congress to admit California to the Union with the larger boundaries proposed, and the attempt to secure Congressional sanction for the constitu- tion, under such circumstances, would only result in com- plete rejection of the plea for statehood.
It should be remarked, also, that the older historical writers commonly ascribed to the party advocating the larger boundaries a sort of Machiavellian shrewdness, by which, through subsequent division of the enormous state, they hoped to provide for the extension of slavery to the coast. This tradition, which never had much foundation in fact, of late years has been so thoroughly disproven as to require little comment here.1
The truth is, the people who emigrated to California
I See Goodwin, Cardinal, Establish-
ment of state government in California,
Ch. VII, for a full discussion of this question.
255
STATEHOOD
from the eastern states, whatever may have been their views in the older communities from which they came, realized clearly enough that slavery had no place in the new environment, and never supported it in any way as a local institution. The unanimous vote of the constitutional convention in favor of a clause which read "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, unless for the punishment for crimes, shall ever be tolerated in this state," ought to be clear enough evidence of the attitude in California toward this question. And one feels free to dismiss the whole subject without further consideration.
Amid the firing of salutes and an impromptu celebration, the members of the convention completed their work and signed the constitution on Saturday afternoon, October 13, 1849. Bayard Taylor, who was present at the scene, paid tribute to the framers of the document in the following words:
"The questions they had to settle, were often perplexing, from the remarkable position of the country and the absence of all precedent. Besides, many of them were men unused to legislation. Some had for years past known no other life than that of the camp; others had nearly forgotten all law in the wild life of the mountains; others again were familiar only with that practiced under the rule of a different race. Yet the courtesies of debate have never been wantonly violated, and the result of every conflict of opinion has been a quiet acquiescence on the part of the minority. Now, at the conclusion, the only feeling is that of general joy and con- gratulation."
November 13th, a Tuesday, was fixed as the date for sub- mitting the constitution to the people for ratification. At the same election state officials, including a governor and members of the legislature, were to be chosen, and also the two federal Congressmen to which the state, according to its population, was entitled. The first legislature, provided the constitution carried, was to meet at San José, the capital, on December 15, 1849.
Rain, apathy, difficulty in reaching the polling centers,
256
A HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
and various other causes, reduced the vote on election day to an unsatisfactory minimum. From a population of approximately 100,000, most of whom were men of voting age, only 12,875 ballots were returned. The lightness of the vote, however, was much more than counter-balanced by the percentage in favor of the constitution. Only 811 votes were cast against it, while the total affirmative vote was 12,064. From among a number of candidates, Peter H. Burnett, a former Oregon pioneer, was chosen governor; and Gilbert and Wright were elected to Congress.
From all accounts, the election was conducted with reason- able honesty; but circumstances and public sentiment alike threw embarrassing legal regulations to the winds. Some of the candidates spent both money and energy in their campaigns. And in addition, Governor Riley, Halleck, and President Tyler's personal representative, Thomas Butler King, waged a very vigorous fight to insure the ratification of the constitution.
In the mining sections, which then contained the bulk of the state's population, the event was regarded with that semi-humorous attitude typical of the western pioneer toward most political questions.
"The choosing of candidates from lists, nearly all of whom were entirely unknown, was very amusing," wrote Bayard Taylor, "names, in many instances, were made to stand for principles; accordingly a Mr. Fair got many votes. One of the candidates, who had been on the river a few days previous wearing a high crowned silk hat, with narrow brim, lost about twenty votes on that account. Some went no further than to vote for those whom they actually knew. One who took the opposite extreme, justi- fied himself in this wise: 'When I left home,' said he, 'I was de- termined to go it blind. I went it blind in coming to California, and I'm not going to stop now. I voted for the constitution and I've never seen the constitution. I voted for all the candidates and I don't know a damned one of them.' "
The ratification of the constitution and the election of state officials by no means solved California's problem of
257
STATEHOOD
statehood. The great difficulty was to secure the sanction of Congress for an act which no Congressional statute had authorized, and for which no precedent could anywhere be found. The chief obstacle, however, in the way of Cali- fornia's admission to the union was slavery-the same barrier that had prevented Congress from establishing a territorial form of government for the province, and which now, for a number of weary and dangerous months, threat- ened the state with a chaos bordering upon revolution.
It was once pretty generally believed that the annexation of California was due to the sinister influence of the south, which, forever reaching out for more slave territory, finally brought about the Mexican War in order to obtain Cali- fornia as a slave state. This view, which neither facts nor logic ever justified, has been elsewhere effectually disproved. But, while slavery did not figure as a motive for the acquisi- tion of California, it undeniably did figure in the heated con- flict over the disposition of the territory, once it had come into the possession of the United States.
Little thought seems to have been given to the establish- ment of slavery in California, even by the most radical southern members of Congress, until David Wilmot of Pennsylvania introduced his famous amendment to the appropriation bill, which President Polk had requested from Congress to enable him to open confidential negotiations with Mexico. The Wilmot Proviso, first brought forward in August, 1846, aimed at the exclusion of slavery from all territory which the United States might secure from Mexico as a result of the war. The southern representatives were at first strangely apathetic regarding this amendment- a measure, which assuredly would have caused an im- mediate storm of opposition had any southerner at that time attached much importance to California as a slave holding state-and the House voted favorably upon it. Its passage through the Senate also seemed assured until, in the closing minutes of a very crowded session, one of its own supporters, "Honest" (but loquacious) John Davis of Massachusetts, talked it to an unexpected death.
258
A HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
In the next session of Congress, the pro-slavery element were in a very different temper regarding the Mexican ces- sion. Without much hope that slavery would flourish on a large scale in New Mexico or California, because of the natural obstacles in its path, the south was almost a unit in demanding the right to share at least nominally in the fruits of the conquest. The practical question, as to whether negroes could be carried to California and profitably used there, was wholly lost sight of in the determination to main- tain the equality of slave states with free. The fight over California, in the acquisition of which the south was much less interested than New England and the west, thus be- came an intense, bitter struggle over a principle that in- volved far more than the status of the territory in question.
By 1850 the question whether California should be free or nominally slave had brought the Union face to face with one of the few real crises in its history. Three parties were definitely in the field. Following the earlier lead of Polk, who believed that slavery in any part of California could never be more than an "abstract question," a very large group of moderates wished to extend the line of the Missouri Compromise (36° 30') to the Pacific. A radical southern element, however, was demanding the whole area for slavery, and advancing the new doctrine that Congress had no authority to legislate against slavery in any of the national territory. Finally, a decidedly vigor- ous party in the north was insisting that the principle of the Wilmot Proviso should be adopted, and that the whole of the ceded region must be kept free.
For at least once in the course of history, the force of circumstance aided the cause of right. Following inter- national law, since California had been free under Mexican rule, it was difficult to see how slavery could exist in the territory after its acquisition by the United States unless Congress specifically imposed it there. Such positive laws, the anti-slavery majority in the House would not pass under any consideration. Furthermore, the action of the people of California in definitely excluding slavery by their
259
STATEHOOD
constitution made it doubly certain that Congress would never force the system upon the state.
The south, however, was too thoroughly antagonized to yield, even before these odds. Threats of secession were freely made; and thus, strangely enough, the Union faced disruption as a consequence of the great territorial gains of the Mexican War. With the country as a whole hotly divided over the slave or free state issue, and the situation in California demanding a speedy settlement to prevent grave consequences among that impatient population, Con- gress came together again in December, 1849. Among the members of that body, however, was a spirit of antagonism and discord that augured ill for the immediate admission of the state.
During this session, President Taylor, whose special agent had done much to encourage the adoption of the constitu- tion, repeatedly urged upon Congress the necessity of admit- ting California, and denied the right of that body to inter- fere with the free choice of the people of the prospective state, whether they favored or opposed slavery. His plan called for the settlement of the California question on its own merits, divorced from the other troublous issues con- nected with slavery which were then agitating the country. But Taylor was not to succeed in his plan. Intent, not only upon solving the California problem, but also upon settling the other questions in which slavery was concerned, Henry Clay, the great compromiser, insisted upon an inclusive program that embraced nearly all of the critical issues then before the nation.
Linked thus with some half a dozen other questions, the admission of California experienced a prolonged delay. The debate on Clay's compromise continued month after month. In the Senate, the great triumvirate of Webster, Clay, and Calhoun-the country's foremost statesmen for half a century-met in battle array for the last time. Calhoun died before the session closed. Webster marred a reputation and undeservedly lost political favor by his Seventh of March Speech. Clay, an old man worn out
260
A HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
by sickness and anxiety, labored incessantly to effect the compromises through which alone he believed the Union could be preserved.
Before the summer was well begun, President Taylor, who had consistently adhered to the admission of California divorced from all other issues, was taken suddenly ill and died. Fillmore, his successor, favored the plan of finding a common solution for all the slavery problems. But even with the support of the Executive, the compromise measures proposed by Clay could not be passed. The admission of California, the chief stumbling block to Clay's plan, was opposed on the ground that the people there had no shadow of authority to frame a constitution; that the boundaries of the proposed state were too large and could be fixed only by Congressional action; that the election, at which the constitution was adopted, was both irregular and unlawfully conducted; and finally, that the President had brought improper influence to bear upon the drafting and adoption of the constitution.
For some weeks longer the deadlock continued; until at last the compromise measure, in which Clay alone saw hope of adjusting the nation's difficulties, began to fall apart. Depressed in spirit and almost ready for death, the old Kentuckian left Washington for the sea coast, where he hoped to regain a little measure of his fast ebbing strength.
In the meanwhile, the internal situation in California had become acute. For two years the people had waited in vain for Congress to establish a territorial form of govern- ment. Another year had almost passed since the draft- ing of their constitution, and statehood seemed as far as ever from realization. It was during these months of debate and delay in Congress, while the problem of law and order and settled government was daily becoming more critical around them, that the people of the state talked openly of declaring their independence, and of setting up a separate republic on the Pacific, thus bringing to pass the old idea of Lansford W. Hastings and of other empire dream- ers in the days before the Mexican War.
261
STATEHOOD
But the measures Clay failed to carry in combination were finally voted favorably upon when presented separately. One by one the items of his compromise were embodied in separate bills and passed by Congress. The admission of California was finally carried in the Senate on August 13, 1850, by a vote of 38 to 14. On the 7th of the next month it was ratified in the House by a vote of 150 to 56. Two days later, September 9, 1850, the bill was signed by Fill- more, and California had become a state.
To California this of course meant the dawn of a new and glorious era; and to the nation, also, it meant ultimately more than ever men dreamed of at that time. But with this lasting blessing came a temporary curse. For out of the admission of California grew that "dark sequence of slavery and free soil issues"-the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, the ques- tion of Squatter Sovereignty and the Dred Scott Decision -which led up to the election of 1860 and the Civil War. The local significance of California's admission was thus for a decade actually secondary to its national importance.
CHAPTER XIX
MINES AND MINERS
SOCIETY and population in the new state, which had so vigorously thrust itself into the Union, were far from homo- geneous. After excluding the native Californian and Indian elements, the citizenship was divided, both by geography and occupation, into three distinct types. First of these was the mining population, isolated for the most part from the rest of the state, with its own peculiar manner of life, its problems, and its unique institutions. Next came the tumul- tuous, hurrying life of San Francisco, full of corruption, generous impulses, and every other contradictory thing. Lastly, there was the long stretch of coast and valley land, as yet thinly populated and given over chiefly to cattle raising, which lay between Monterey and San Diego. Here a type of society developed which was neither that of the mines nor of San Francisco. It can best be studied, after the others have been described, in the local annals of Los Angeles from 1850 to 1860.
Roughly speaking, the mining regions of California during the first three years of the gold rush, embraced the mountain- ous portions of the territory lying between the San Joaquin River in the south and the Klamath and Trinity Rivers in the north. This area was later somewhat enlarged by the opening of mines in the Kern River district; but as late as 1852 Governor Bigler, in his annual message, classified as mining counties only those of Tuolumne, Calaveras, Sacramento, Yuba, and Butte.
In this mountainous region, which until 1848 had been uninhabited except by Indians, a population of many thou- sands sprang up as if by magic. Quiet river bars watched the development of cities over night; and many a lonely cañon,
262
LAWSON'S MAP ACTUAL WRVET Gold, Silver&-Quicksilver Krgums UPPER CALIFORNIA
N Jord high
WIVES.DIGall65.HOAX PATHS HerSAS. MILLS STORES, MISSIUN'Y &r &r
i I Janson ty foi. Together with a mainseture map of the I XITED STATES, MEXICO AND SIH'TH AMERICA
!
fele
....
de s'all these dreams
of
........
OCEAN
PACIFIC
.
LAWSON'S MAP OF THE GOLD REGIONS (A typical example of 1849 cartography.)
.
Gold .
263
MINES AND MINERS
visited some morning by a handful of prospectors-the first white men to traverse its course since the mountains them- selves were made-by sundown had become the center of an excited, roaring camp. Here, along the American, the Feather, the Yuba, the Stanislaus, and a hundred kindred streams, a new chapter was written in American history. Life was lived for a few brief years without the restraints of civilization. Democracy, as literal as the world has ever known, flourished on every hand. Romance came down and walked openly among men, leaving behind a record of heroic accomplishment that can never be blotted from American tradition.
To supply the manifold needs of this suddenly arisen mining population, the rest of California found full outlet for its energies for several years. Monterey, and other sea- port towns, after the first rush to the mines, when shops were closed and labor became almost unobtainable, experienced a phenomenal revival in business. Merchants became wealthy supplying miners' demands for every kind of goods. Real estate underwent an unheard of boom. The "miserable village of Yerba Buena" suddenly developed into the popu- lous, crowded city of San Francisco, with life and activity everywhere. Even Southern California, far removed from the mining fields as it was, felt the stimulus of the gold excitement.
At the entrance to the gold regions, two cities, springing out of nothing, profited from the mining trade more than any others, with the possible exception of San Francisco. These were Stockton and Sacramento. The latter, laid out on a portion of Sutter's grant, had as many as four houses in April, 1849. By November its population fell but little short of ten thousand. At that time, according to a contemporary writer, each store in town was daily taking in from $1,000 to $3,000 from its sale of mining supplies and provisions. Drinking and gambling saloons paid a monthly rental of a thousand dollars. Wages were so high that car- penters receiving $12.00 a day went on strike for better pay.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.