USA > California > A history of California: the American period > Part 30
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The signers of this document were Agustín Olivera, Pio Pico, Benjamin Hayes, J. Lancaster Brent, Lewis Granger, John O. Wheeler, José Antonio Carrillo.
Though the movement of 1851 accomplished no practical end, the southern counties continued in a desultory fashion to talk of state division until 1859. The failure of the govern- ment at Sacramento to check the lawlessness and crime everywhere so prevalent in the state, or to provide any adequate defense for the exposed communities of the South against Indian frays, added to the irritation and discontent engendered by other grievances. Some southern residents may also have cherished the faint hope of establishing a pro-slave territory if the state should be divided, but the force of this motive was of minor significance, if, indeed, it ever had any real existence.
By 1859 conditions seemed favorable for the South to accomplish its long cherished purpose. A bill proposing state division was presented by Andrés Pico in the Legisla-
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ture, and on April 18th that body gave its consent to the formation of a separate government for the five counties of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Bernardino, and a part of Buena Vista.3 These were to be erected into a territory called the Territory of the Colorado, or by some other name the citizens might select. But in order to become effective, it was necessary for the proposed measure to receive a two-thirds vote in the counties affected, as well as the sanction of Congress. As the last requirement had not been met before the Civil War broke out, the measure died aborning.4
During this decade, unfortunately for the later history of the state, political morality was so lax and legislative stand- ards so low, that inefficiency and corruption became a sort of traditional heritage of the California Legislature for many years to come. The details of individual cases of graft and dishonesty of seventy years standing are of no great signifi- cance today; but this early surrender of the state to those who sought only personal profit or advantage from political control, set an unfortunate precedent whose consequences later decades had difficulty in escaping.
Many of the newspapers were outspoken enough in their criticisms of the government during these years, but little good seems to have come from such attacks. The Legisla- ture of 1851, to cite a random example, was spoken of by one of the San Francisco papers as "an infamous, ignorant, drunken, rowdy, perjured and traitorous body of men." The Daily Alta Californian, organ of the Independents, rejoiced that the Legislature of 1852 would rectify the evil done by its predecessors and
"rescue the state from the labyrinth of imbecility, vagueness, and iniquity into which it has strayed with scarcely a clue by which to retrace its erring steps, or life and strength enough to vindicate its honor and punish those who have shamelessly abused its confidence."
4 Other measures for state division were also proposed between 1850
3 Proposed but not created. and 1860, but it is scarcely neces- sary to discuss the subject at greater length.
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Before many days, however, according to the same writer, the new body gave unmistakeable evidence of following the "old system of combinations, arrangements, pledges, prom- ises, log-rolling, scheming and swapping of votes," which had characterized its predecessor. These charges were doubtless exaggerated. But trustworthy records, not only of these two sessions, but of nearly all other meetings of the Legislature during the decade, testify to the low political standards of the time.
Federal issues figured but little in the state's politics, though parties were organized along national lines and voters nominally cast their ballots as Whigs, Know Nothings, or Democrats, depending chiefly upon their previous party affiliations east of the mountains. There was also a small group of Independents, who occasionally held the balance of power between the regular parties; but while this group could sometimes determine the choice of rival candidates, it was rarely of sufficient importance or well enough organ- ized to fill state or national offices with its own men.
The regular parties were under a machine control that recognized no shadow of popular responsibility. The Dem- ocratic party, especially, which dominated the state during all but a year or two of the decade, when the Know Nothings held a brief supremacy, was led by a group of shrewd dicta- tors who regarded the state as a sort of private preserve for their own political advantage. The struggle for supremacy among these self constituted leaders furnished the chief element of excitement in state politics until the Civil War, and culminated in the bitter feud between Broderick and Gwin which disrupted the Democratic party and prepared the way for Republican control.
William M. Gwin was a Tennessean by birth, a physician by education, and a politician by instinct and deliberate choice. His early career had been determined very largely by his close association with Andrew Jackson, who, what- ever may have been his faults, seldom neglected to advance the political interests of personal friends. Gwin, accordingly, had acquired a certain reputation in Tennessee and Missis-
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sippi before the close of the Polk administration. But when the gold rush started, he set out for California, resolved to assume the leadership of politics in the new state and secure a seat in the United States Senate.
Gwin's ambitions were quickly realized, for in the first legislative session after the adoption of the constitution, in the framing of which he had played a prominent part, he was elected to the United States Senate for the full term of six years. As the most conspicuous of California's representa- tives at Washington, Gwin served his state with more than ordinary success and at home built up a constituency that seemed to render his position permanently secure. His supremacy, however, did not go long unchallenged. David C. Broderick of New York, son of an Irish stone mason, to which trade he himself had been apprenticed as a boy, reached California shortly before Gwin's election to the Senate and began at once to organize a rival political ma- chine.
Broderick, like Gwin, came to California with the purpose of realizing certain definite political ambitions. Like Gwin, too, he was already trained in practical politics before he reached the Pacific; but his education along this line had been very different from that of his southern opponent. For while Gwin represented the traditions and practices of the Demo- crats of the southwest, Broderick had learned his art in the shrewdest of all political schools-the Tammany or- ganization of New York. To the training thus acquired he added a native aptitude for controlling men, an aggressive determination, and a contemptuous disregard for the methods and traditions of the older school of politics.
In the rivalry between these two men-the bitterest and most intense in the history of the state-Gwin found his chief support among the southern and western Democrats in California. His followers were commonly dubbed the Chivalry Wing, or more popularly, the "Chivs," and were supposed to hold aristocratic ideals of government as opposed to the more democratic conceptions of Broderick's suppor- ters, most of whom were men of northern extraction. Gwin's
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followers were also charged with pro-slavery views. And as Gwin himself has frequently been styled the arch-champion of the slave-holding interests in California, the Gwin- Broderick fight is often explained as a contest between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces of the state. As a matter of fact, however, the issue was not so much one of principle as of personal ambition; and neither Gwin's attitude on the negro question, nor Broderick's, much affected it either way.
Gwin's chief advantage, aside from his reputation and established leadership in state affairs, lay in his monopoly of federal patronage and his control, because of this, of a very effective political machine in which federal office holders played an important part. Broderick, on the contrary, though almost shut off from this source of influence, suc- ceeded in building up a powerful following, both through the organization of municipal politics in San Francisco and Sacramento, and by the adroit use of state patronage and the manipulation of nominating conventions for state offices.
One of the most notable encounters in the struggle for supremacy between these two men came in the Legislature of 1854. Normally, the election of United States Senator was not due until the session of 1855; but Broderick, think- ing he controlled the situation, sought to force the Legisla- ture then in session to proceed with the election. This plan almost succeeded; but after a bitter, and at times an appar- ently losing fight, the Gwin faction finally defeated the maneuver and deferred the election until its regular time. In the contest, it is needless to remark, both sides resorted to every means, legal and illegal, at their command; and the money spent to influence the legislative vote ran far ahead of anything the state had ever known before.
The bitterness engendered by this fight naturally led to a widening of the breach in the Democratic party. The next state convention, which met in Sacramento, broke up in confusion; and for a time, since most of the delegates were armed, it looked as though a pitched battle would
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certainly result. The next day the two factions held separate conventions and each put its own ticket into the field, thus apparently assuring success for the Whig party in the fall elections. The latter party, however, was not able to take advantage of its opportunity; and the election returns gave the Gwin candidates a decided majority in the Legislature.
But Broderick was by no means put out of California politics by this defeat. With a persistency and shrewdness seldom equalled, he continued his struggle for the state's mastery; and after throwing the Legislature of 1855 into a deadlock over the senatorial election, succeeded in reëstab- lishing his control over much of the party machinery through- out the state. The continued schism in the ranks of the Democrats was largely responsible, however, for the victory of the Know Nothing party in the election of 1856. But this victory left Broderick in a much stronger position when the triumph of the Know Nothings came to an end in the following year.
In the legislative session of 1857 the senatorial election was again the absorbing issue. In this contest Broderick proved strong enough not only to secure his own election, but in some degree to dictate to the Legislature the choice of his colleague. For Broderick's unquestioned authority forced Gwin into a compromise with his former rival that might well be called the "Bargain and Corruption " episode of California politics.
Under the terms of this agreement, which was arranged in a secret interview between Gwin and Broderick per- sonally, the latter undertook to secure for Gwin the election to the United States Senate; and Gwin, on his part, pledged himself to turn over to Broderick his monopoly of federal patronage in the state. In previous years this had been Gwin's chief political asset and a prize greatly sought after by his rival.
The first provision of the compromise was successfully carried out. Despite universal astonishment, much chagrin, and vigorous denunciation of the "Bargain," Gwin accepted
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the senatorial election from Broderick's hands, and even went so far as to publish in the newspapers a formal renunci- ation of any part of the federal patronage. The question of appointments to federal office in California, however, was not thus easily disposed of, for President Buchanan did not take kindly to Broderick or his recommendations, and filled various important positions in California with men to whom the new Senator from the coast was opposed.
Coupled with this issue of the federal patronage, was Broderick's opposition to Buchanan's course in the heated controversy over the slavery issue in Kansas. Broderick vigorously opposed the Lecompton Constitution, to which Buchanan had definitely committed himself, so that the breach between the President and Broderick was still further widened. As an upshot of the situation, Broderick returned to California in 1859, out of favor with the administration and unable to reward his followers with the federal appoint- ments to which they so confidently looked forward.
Gwin's return to the state a few months later was the signal for a renewal of the old feud, to which the "Bargain" of unsavory reputation was supposed to have made an end. The quarrel was pursued on either side with bitter vindictive- ness. Each man besmirched his own reputation in order to injure that of his opponent. But public opinion, strangely callous to these open confessions of corruption, failed to drive either of the guilty Senators out of politics.
It was not long, however, before Broderick's career came to a tragic close. As a result of certain charges made by Broderick against Judge David S. Terry of the State Su- preme Court (one of Gwin's stanchest supporters), the latter resigned his position and challenged Broderick to a duel. The challenge was accepted, and the two men met on the morning of September 13, 1859, in a little valley in the hills of Marin County not far from San Francisco. The weapons chosen were duelling pistols and the distance thirty paces.
Both men were known to be excellent shots. Broderick had participated in at least two similar encounters in earlier
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stages of his career; but at this time his health was under- mined and his nerves badly upset by the long continued strain of the campaign through which he had just passed. Consequently he was severely handicapped in the duel, and fell an easy victim to Terry's well directed aim. Broderick's own shot, though fired first, entered the ground barely nine feet from where he stood.
The death of Broderick, in some respects like that of Hamilton at the hands of Burr, aroused public opinion as the man himself had never succeeded in doing while alive. Though Terry escaped any legal consequences of his act, his name has not escaped the infamy, which justly or un- justly, it incurred because of Broderick's death. More important still, at least from the political standpoint, the death of Broderick reacted disastrously upon Gwin.
The breach between the two wings of the Democratic party was now too wide for any possible reconciliation. And as Broderick's followers had all along opposed Buchan- an's policy in Kansas, most of them joined with the newly formed Republican organization to bring about the over- throw of the long continued Democratic domination of the state. This occurred in the election of 1860. In California, as in other states, the campaign of that year was complicated by the confused condition of federal politics. The Demo- cratic party, divided between the Douglas and Breckenridge factions, with many of its former adherents also voting for Lincoln or Bell, could not stand against the growing power of the Republicans, and the four electoral votes of the state went for Lincoln.
With the approach of the Civil War, a critical situation arose in California. The isolated position of the state, and the lack of close political or economic ties to bind it to the rest of the nation, created a feeling of indifference among most of the northern sympathizers regarding the outcome of the great contest in which the national government was involved. A numerous foreign element in the population further accentuated this attitude of aloofness. On the other hand, there was a large and influential body of citizens of
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southern birth and sympathies that actively worked to bring about the secession of California from the Union.
It was not expected, nor even desired by this party, how- ever, that the state should formally join the Richmond Confederacy; but they hoped, by reviving the old plan of a Pacific Republic, to weaken the North through the with- drawal of California's important financial and moral support. The southern sympathizers also looked to see the new re- public serve as a source of supplies for the Confederacy, and it was expected that privateersmen would outfit along the coast for attacks upon Union merchantmen. More important still, the plan promised to divert the badly needed silver and gold bullion of the California and Nevada mines to the southern states.
The plans of the Confederate supporters were not defeated without the most vigorous efforts by a few of the state's loyal citizens. The union of many of the Douglas Democrats with the Republicans broke the political power of the Chivalry or Gwin faction, and so took most of the state offices out of the hands of the southern sympathizers. The fealty of the federal troops stationed in California was also assured when President Lincoln superseded Albert Sidney Johnston, then in command of the Pacific Division of the United States Army, by General Edwin V. Sumner.
But the real burden of keeping the state true to the gov- ernment fell upon a relatively few Union men, whose intense earnestness and loyalty were largely instrumental in arousing public opinion against the secession movement. San Fran- cisco was the headquarters of this Union group. Here great mass meetings were held and a secret organization formed, known as the "Home Guard," to prevent secession. Thomas Starr King, apostle of the Union cause, toured the state in a remarkably effective campaign to arouse the spirit of loyalty. The state Legislature pledged its support to the Lincoln gov- ernment. Thousands of volunteers enlisted in the state militia for home defense. Money was freely raised by public and private subscription to meet the state's war-time obli- gations. More than a million dollars were voluntarily
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contributed to the work of the Sanitary Commission. Fi- nally, some 15,000 men were enrolled from the state in various branches of the Union army.
Despite such efforts, however, the northern supporters could not wholly undo the work of their opponents. Many Southerners, among whom the most conspicuous was Albert Sidney Johnston, made their way back to the theater of war to join the armies of the Confederacy. Senator Gwin, who had come to California shortly after Lincoln's inauguration, proffered his services to the Richmond government and sailed for Havana by way of Panama. After numerous adventures and some months of confinement in a Union prison, he finally reached Mississippi. Afterwards he represented the Davis administration at the French Court.
More than one vessel, ostensibly fitted out for Mexican or South American ports, slipped away from California waters to prey upon Union commerce in the Pacific. In certain parts of the state, notably at Visalia and other cities of the San Joaquin, at Sonoma, and in the Santa Clara Valley, the secessionist feeling was far stronger than Union sympathy. In certain of these communities the newspapers boldly championed the southern cause, Confederate flags were everywhere in evidence, and military companies were organ- ized to offset the efforts of Union sympathizers.
Guerrilla bands, operating under the guise of southern irregulars, likewise interfered somewhat with the shipment of bullion through the mountains, and caused some loss of property to northern supporters. The whole air, indeed, during the four years of war, was full of the plots of southern adherents to overthrow or injure Union influence. Many of these were too fantastic ever to succeed; but the isolation of the state and the indifference of the public mind made the situation one of real danger, even as late as 1864.
Aside from the issue of seccession and the change from Democratic to Republican control, the politics of California during the Civil War period showed no material change. Some measures of local significance were passed by the Legislature; and various laws which profoundly affected
1.
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the state were enacted by Congress. From the standpoint of public morality, however, the government of California underwent but little change from the low level to which it had fallen during the early fifties. Professional politics and public indifference still prevented any radical departure from the accepted policy of turning a public trust to private gain.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE OVERLAND MAIL AND THE PONY EXPRESS
BEFORE the building of railroads, one of the most serious problems California had to face, from a social and political, as well as an economic standpoint, was the development of some means of carrying on local and transcontinental communication. To supply this pressing need for trans- portation facilities, measures of various kinds were under- taken by unofficial bodies as well as under state and national direction.
Road building was naturally regarded as one of the essen- tial means of solving the difficulty, and was undertaken both at private and public expense. In September, 1854, for instance, the people of Los Angeles raised $6,000 for the construction of a wagon road between their city and Fort Tejon. The work was completed in December of the same year. In 1855 the state Legislature appropriated $100,- 000 for a road through Johnston's cut-off in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, $7,000 for a road from San Diego to the Colorado River, and $20,000 for the old Mormon road from San Pedro through the Cajon Pass to Salt Lake City. 1
With the increase of population and the building of roads, transportation companies sprang up like mush- rooms to meet the increased demand for more adequate service. Nearly all of these companies carried freight, passengers, express or mail, as the opportunity arose. Many of them grew into large and flourishing organizations, and played a very vital part in the upbuilding of the state. It is manifestly impossible to list any considerable number of these lines, but a few may be cited by way of illustration.
I About the same time the federal government set aside $50,000 for the same road. Over it one of the earliest
of the overland mail services to the state was inaugurated.
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In 1854, for example, the Adams Express Company began a monthly express service between San Francisco and Salt Lake City, by way of Los Angeles. From the last named city, according to the company's advertisements, the route included the following settlements-El Monte, San Ber- nardino, Cold Creek, Johnston's Springs, Parowan, Ked Creek, Fillmore City, Nepthi City, Summit Creek, Payson's, Provo City, and American Fork. The following year the California Stage Company added a line of stages to this route; and of more importance still, a very considerable freight business sprang up between the two cities.
This service was all the more important because heavy winter snows ordinarily shut off communication between Salt Lake and St. Louis on the east, and San Francisco on the west, during a large part of the year, leaving the Los Angeles-Salt Lake road the only means of outside com- munication for the Mormon settlements. As a result of this "natural monopoly," the Los Angeles merchants prof- ited greatly from the Salt Lake trade, and built up a large trade between the two cities. An idea of the importance of this business may be gained from the fact that the single firm of Alexander and Banning frequently sent out a train with as many as fifteen ten-mule teams, transporting mer- chandise valued at $30,000 or $40,000. Freight charges over the route ranged from 18 to 25 cents a pound.
While these local, or semi-local lines were a material benefit to the communities they served, the most vital interest of California lay in the development of transcon- tinental means of communication. In the matter of mail service, for instance, for nearly ten years after the dis- covery of gold (with the few exceptions to be noted else- where), the people of the state were compelled to rely wholly upon the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. Although this company drew an annual subsidy of $700,000 for carrying a monthly mail between New York and San Francisco, it performed its functions in a most abominable manner, if the literature of the time is at all to be relied upon.
Even when the service was made semi-monthly in 1851,
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the southern part of the state still suffered most exasperating delays in receiving its eastern mail. Letters from New York were sometimes seven or eight months reaching Los Angeles. The Pacific Mail vessels frequently failed to stop at San Diego on either northward or southward voyage, but carried the Los Angeles mail from Panama to San Francisco, and back again to Panama, with fine disregard for the impatient citizens of the southern cities. Consequently, letters from New York sometimes required seven or eight months to reach Los Angeles.2
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