USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > A history of the city of San Francisco; and incidentally of the state of California > Part 11
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
170
HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO.
The fifth and last fire (loss two million dollars), that of June 22, 1851, began on Pacific, near Powell, and burned eight blocks, bounded by Broadway, Jack- son, Powell and Montgomery; three blocks between Stockton, Montgomery, Jackson and Washington; and fractions of five other blocks. The principal buildings burned were the city hall (formerly the Graham House), the city hospital, the Jenny Lind theater, and the old adobe on the plaza. The losses may ap- pear great for a city which had so few fine buildings, but a shanty in those days with its merchandise might cost almost as much as a palace now.
These fires exercised great influence upon the politics, building and trade of the city. The May fire in 1851 was attributed to incendiarism; and it was reported that one man charged with arson was beaten to death while the fire was raging. The amount of property ex- posed in the streets was so great that the citizens organ- ized into a patrol or committee of vigilance, which soon extended its jurisdiction, and hanged murderers as well as protected property. Merchants, unable to secure their property on land, put their goods into store ships, and the harbor was filled with old hulks until 1854, when the brick stores, really fire-proof, began to furnish room and safety on shore. Unable to make bricks or to cut stone, except at terrific prices, orders were sent abroad for incombustible building materials. Granite was brought from China and Quincy; lava from Honolulu; and bricks from Sydney, New York and London.
171
THE GOLDEN ERA.
The scenes at conflagrations were as remarkable as was the city itself. Most of the inhabitants were men between the ages of twenty and forty, of rare activity and energy, and deeply interested in protect- ing the place against destruction. At the cry of fire, they rushed out, anxious to check the flames at the start, and the streets became the scene of won- derful confusion. At first there was a current of peo- ple running at full speed to the fire, with engines and hose carts thundering over the sonorous planks; fore- men shouting through their hoarse speaking-trumpets, while the men at the ropes yelled mutual encourage- ment for higher speed. When the conflagration be- came large, the scene was terrific and sublime. The roaring of the fire, the crackling of the timbers, and the shouts of the firemen and of the citizens engaged in saving merchandise or furniture, combined to make a frightful noise. The flames of the light pine and redwood shot up in immense sheets, dense clouds of smoke made a contrast to the bright fire, and the furious gusts of wind carried up into the air burning shingles, and large pieces of blazing wood. The fire- men rushed desperately into the most dangerous posi- tions with their hose, their axes, their hooks and lad- ders; and an excited crowd of Americans, Frenchmen, Germans, Mexicans, and Chinamen struggled to carry away furniture, clothing, and other valuables beyond the reach of the danger. Man and fire engaged in a fierce but brief struggle; in a few hours the destruc- tive element had exhausted its fury; millions of prop-
172
HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO.
erty had been destroyed; hundreds of men before wealthy were almost penniless, and smouldering ruins were all that remained of costly edifices and precious merchandise.
The day after the fire another wonderful scene was presented. Instead of sorrow, idleness or despair, the city seemed to be gifted with new life. The ground burned over was covered with men pouring water upon the embers; wagons were busy everywhere haul- ing away the ashes or unloading bricks and lumber; the saw and hammer were heard on every hand. The price of labor and building materials rose suddenly ; the merchant of the day before had become a laborer or mechanic, and within a week many of the houses were already open for business again.
SEC. 85. Vigilance Committee of 1851. On the twenty-second of February, a mob collected to pun- ish two men arrested under the names of Stuart and Windred on a charge of having robbed and tried to murder C. J. Jansen. Though grave crimes had been committed in large numbers, none of the of- fenders had been punished. The police were ineffi- cient if not criminal, and the judges and prosecuting attorneys showed no zeal in their business. The people saw that if they wanted an effective adminis- tration of justice they must take charge of it them- selves, and accordingly about three thousand citizens gathered at the City Hall to take decisive action. Twelve men were selected as a jury; W. T. Coleman was appointed public prosecutor, and D. D. Shattuck
173
THE GOLDEN ERA.
and Hall McAllister, lawyers, were designated to de- fend the accused, who were then tried. Jansen testi- fied that the prisoner called Stuart, who however truly declared that his name was Burdue, was one of the robbers who attacked him in his store on the nineteenth of February, and as the prosecuting wit- ness bore a good reputation, and had no known motive for perjury, the multitude were convinced. But three of the jury refused to convict, whereupon many of the outsiders demanded the acceptance of the verdict of the majority, and cried, "hang them !" being dis- posed to execute Windred too, though Jansen did not recognize him distinctly, and the chief evidence against him was that he had been caught in Burdue's com- pany. The leaders would not disregard the decision of their own jury, but they had great difficulty in preventing the execution of the prisoners by the mob, which surrounded and threatened the City Hall till one o'clock the next morning. Burdue was dis- charged.
In the first week of June some of the same persons, who had been active in the previous February, held meetings, and formed " a committee of vigilance," with a constitution, records and officials. The main pur- pose was to punish incendiaries suspected of having set the great fires, but they soon found other work to do. They had scarcely organized, when, on the evening of June tenth, John Jenkins, reputed to be an ex-convict from Sydney, was caught in a boat while carrying off a small safe which he obtained by burglary from a
174
HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO.
store on Commercial street. The evidence against him was conclusive, and the committee, after trying him in its rooms, pronounced a verdict of guilty, and sen- tenced him to death. The multitude outside approved the verdict, and at two o'clock in the morning he was hanged to a beam of an adobe building on Brenham Place, opposite to Portsmouth Square.
SEC. 86. Coroner's Verdict. A coroner's jury, on the twelfth of June, found a verdict that Jenkins was executed by certain persons styling themselves " a committee of vigilance," of which nine persons, whose names were given, were members. The publi- cation of this verdict was immediately followed by a manifesto signed by one hundred and eighty-two citi- zens of the committee, expressing their surprise at the invidious verdict after the signers had informed the jury that they were all participators in the trial and execution, and declaring that the nine persons named were unnecessarily picked out from the members of the committee, when the jury had full evidence that all were equally implicated and equally responsible. These one hundred and eighty-two signers included a majority of the leading business men of the city, and their conduct was generally approved by the citizens who had not joined their organization. Nobody doubt- ed the guilt of Jenkins, the inefficiency of the courts, or the intention of the committee to exercise its power with prudence and decision. They made no secret that they had violated the law, and were leagued to- gether to violate the law in the future, but they were
175
THE GOLDEN ERA.
faithful servants of the cause of justice, for whose sake they assumed very serious personal responsibilities. When they made a public avowal of their participation in the execution of Jenkins, they could not know what the future had in store for them. At the same time that they protested against any attempt to single out a few of their number for prosecution or odium, they published an address stating that they were convinced of the presence of a band of robbers and incendiaries in the city, that the criminals arrested by the police had escaped punishment, that the committee was ready to receive information about crime and criminals, that convicts then in the city should leave within five days, and that convicts arriving by sea should be forbidden to land.
SEC. 87. Execution of Stuart. The committee soon found more work to do. James Stuart, a professional murderer and robber, for whom Thomas Burdue had been arrested by mistake in February and tried, fell into their hands in July, and on the eleventh of that month was tried. He complained during the progress of the trial that the proceedings were "tiresome," asked for a chew of tobacco, and confessed that he had committed a multitude of capital crimes. The evidence was conclusive, the verdict guilty, and the sentence hanging on the same day. He was left two hours with a clergyman, and then marched down to the end of Market street wharf, where a framework, built to support a pulley used in hoisting freight in and out of vessels, served for the execution.
176
HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO.
A grand jury of the county soon afterwards made a report containing the following justification of the course of the committee :
When we recall the delays, and the inefficient, and we believe that with truth it may be said, the corrupt, administration of the law, the incapacity and indifference of those who are its sworn guardians and ministers, the frequent and unnecessary postponement of important trials in the district court, the disre- gard of duty and impatience while attending to perform it man- ifested by some of our judges having criminal jurisdiction, the many notorious villains who have gone unwhipped of justice, lead us to believe that the members of the association have been governed by a feeling of opposition to the manner in which the law has been administered and those who have administered it, rather than a determination to disregard the law itself. * * The grand jurors, believing, whilst they deplore their acts, that the association styling themselves " the vigilance committee," at a great personal sacrifice to themselves, have been influenced in their actions by no personal or private malice, but for the best interest of the whole, and at a time, too, when all other means of preventing crime and bringing criminals to direct pun- ishment had failed, here dismiss the matter.
SEC. 88. Whittaker and Mckenzie. Soon after the execution of Stuart, the committee arrested Samuel Whittaker and Robert Mckenzie, who, on the twen- ty-first of August, before dawn, were taken from the rooms of the committee by the sheriff, under a writ of habeas corpus, issued on petition of Governor Mc- Dougal. At half-past two, P. M., on Sunday, August 24, twenty-nine members of the committee went to the county jail, overawed the jailors, took the two prisoners to the rooms of the committee on Battery street between Pine and California, and there, amidst
177
THE GOLDEN ERA.
a vast concourse of people summoned by the tap of the fire-alarm bell, hanged them. This was the last public act of that committee. It never dissolved for- mally, but it ceased to hold its meetings. No judicial proceedings were ever taken against its members on behalf of the state, but several suits for damages were instituted by those whom the committee had treated as suspicious characters.
After Burdue had been released by the committee, he was arrested by the police as James Stuart, to whom he bore a resemblance so close that their famil- iar acquaintances could not readily see any difference. A criminal court found him guilty of robbery and afterwards of murder, and he would doubtless have been hanged (the judicial tribunal made a mistake which the mob of February 22 avoided), had not the right man been caught in time. One of the vigilan- tes took the proper steps to secure the release of Burdue, who was thrice saved from unmerited punish- ment by the influence of the committee. It thus protected the innocent as well as punished the guilty.
The committee ordered many professional criminals to leave, and having obtained a list of vessels which had carried convicts from England to Australia, with the names of the passengers on each, sent a commit- tee on board of every vessel from that country so soon as she entered the harbor, and made inquiry about the time when, and conveyance by which, every native of Great Britain had reached the colony; and if it ap- peared that he or she had been transported for crime,
12
178
HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO.
permission to land was denied, and the passage-money for the return was paid. The precise number of Aus- tralian convicts exiled and ordered to return before landing was never reported, but probably exceeded fifty.
SEC. 89. Land Commission. Congress passed the act to settle the land titles in California in March, 1851, providing a special tribunal or board of commis- sioners with authority to examine all claims made to land under grant under Mexico, and confirm all valid grants. The act made no reference to the promise given by Commodore Sloat in his proclamation issued on the seventh of July, 1846, when in taking posses- sion of the country on behalf of the American govern- ment, he declared that thenceforth California would be a portion of the United States; and as an induce- ment for accepting cordially, or at least peaceably, the change, he assured the people that " all persons hold- ing titles to real estate, or in quiet possession of land under color of right, shall have those titles guaranteed to them." This language was doubtless used under express instruction from the cabinet; we know that Commodore Sloat had been ordered in 1845, to seize California at the first outbreak of hostilities, and we may presume that directions were given to him in re- gard to what he should say when he made the seizure. " Color of right" is a phrase common in American jurisprudence, and would not have been adopted ex- cept under the suggestion of a lawyer. Even if Sloat exceeded the authority conferred by his instructions,
179
THE GOLDEN ERA.
that fact could not be known to the native Californians, and they were justified in believing that he had full power to make the promise, which thus became a sol- emn contract under the law of nations with every one who submitted to the American authority.
The phrase "quiet possession of land, under color of right," means any possession authorized by the law; or any possession that is not a wrong to the govern- ment or some individual. A tenancy at will-the weakest of all lawful tenures-which may be termi- nated by the owner at any moment and without notice or condition, is a tenure under color of right. By Sloat's promise, the government was bound in honor and law to confirm the titles of all the Californians who had taken possession of ranchos with permission of the local authorities, and had petitioned the govern- ment for grants. They held " under color of right." They were entitled to the confirmation of their titles, after an examination as brief and simple as the circum- stances would permit, and with as little expense as possible to the claimants. The government should have made a list of all ranchos, the possession of which was matter of common notoriety, and mentioned in the archives; should have confirmed them summarily, then surveyed them and issued patents for them. The claims which were not mentioned in the archives or had not been reduced to possession, might properly have been subjected to a careful judicial inquiry. Above all things, it was important, in a country that changed so rapidly as California did after the treaty of
180
HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO.
cession, that the action should be prompt. To leave the land titles in doubt was to deprive the people of their property.
These plain principles of justice and reason were utterly disregarded by congress and the politicians. No provision was made for confirming claims held under mere color of right; those which had been held in notorious possession for generations, as well as those of the most suspicious character, were alike subjected to a hostile, costly and tedious investiga- tion, a large part of the cost being thrown upon the owners.
The Mexican land system was entirely different from that of the United States. The Californian ranchos were granted not by the acre, but by the square league. There were no surveys, seldom any precise boundaries. It was sufficient in the descrip- tion of a rancho to say that it was a tract of ten square leagues, including a certain place, or that it was a small valley, or that it extended from one range of hills to another. The change from that system to the new one should have been made at the expense of the new government, not of the claimants, and especially not at a time when the government denied their title. The native Californians suddenly sur- rounded by a strange population, strange laws, a strange language, strange customs, and strange in- dustries, were virtually deprived of the bulk of their wealth, and then compelled to raise money to defend themselves against complete spoliation by the gov-
181
THE GOLDEN ERA.
ernment. They had to go to San Francisco, where all the cases were tried (though some witnesses were heard at Los Angeles) take their witnesses with them, and employ lawyers who in many cases measured their fees by thousands of dollars or thousands of acres.
Nor did the trouble and expense thus imposed upon the land owner come to an end when he had gained his case in the land commission. As the boundaries as well as the titles were in doubt, the Americans, who wanted to buy farms for the purposes of making permanent homes, were afraid to pay for deeds in which they could place no confidence. Under com- pulsion, it may be said, they became squatters, that is they seized and occupied, as their own, land claimed under Mexican grant. Having once made their set- tlement, they acquired interests which they defended in the courts. If they could defeat the Mexican grants they would acquire the land for a trifle. They were numerous, and became a political power. The governor, the legislature, the courts, the federal sen- ators, the congressmen, and the federal attorneys, who managed the suits against the Mexican grants, courted them. Squatterism tainted legislation and jurisprudence. Senator Gwin went so far in sub- serviency to it that he introduced a bill providing that if the courts should finally confirm any Mexican grant, including land occupied before March 3, 1851, by a squatter, the latter should hold the property and the lawful owner might take the same amount of land
182
HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO.
elsewhere, perhaps in some remote place. The federal attorney, instead of striving to do justice, made every effort to defeat and delay the confirmation of hundreds of claims since recognized as valid, appealed them first to the United States district court, and from there to the United States supreme court, making three trials on the title, and as many on the bound- aries, and each at great expense to the owners. There were squatter governors, squatter legislatures, and a squatter press. An act was passed in 1856 to provide that all lands should be deemed public till the legal title had passed from the government to private parties (Mexican grants were declared not legal titles till finally confirmed); that actual and peaceable possession should be presumptive proof of the right of possession; and that in ejectment suits, if the verdict were against the defendant, the jury should appraise the value of the improvements put upon the land by the defendant, and the value of the land without the improvements; and the plaintiff could get the land by paying for the improvements, or take the money-price fixed upon the land. The juries were impaneled by squatter sheriffs, and the appraisements were always in favor of the squatter defendants. The statute was declared unconstitu- tional, so that plundering trick was defeated.
The general result was that the rancheros had to give on the average half of their land to get their titles confirmed, and then waited eight years before they could get out the patent. To obtain the means of
183
THE GOLDEN ERA.
living in the meantime, they had to sacrifice a consid- erable part of what was left to them by the lawyers and the courts. The Noe, Bernal, Sanchez, De Haro, Peralta, Moraga, Alvarado, Vasquez, Vallejo, Soto, Estudillo, and Castro families, which once owned lands now worth one hundred million dollars in and near San Francisco have entirely disappeared, or are re- duced to a few pitiful acres. But for all this injus- tice to the native Californians there was a compensation -the lawyers of San Francisco accumulated great wealth, and they and their grantees hold hundreds of leagues of the most valuable land in the state.
The land commission opened its sessions in San Fran- cisco on the second January, 1852, and received claims till the third of March, 1853, the total number being eight hundred and twelve. The filing of some of the petitions relating to lands in or near to San Francisco, made a lively sensation in the city. Among these the most notable were those of Limantour, Santillan, and Sherreback, who laid claim to nearly everything worth having south of California street.
SEC. 90. 1852. The gold shipment of 1852, as recorded in the custom-house books, was forty-six million dollars, and the number of immigrants by sea sixty-seven thousand; both figures showing a large increase over those of former years. According to a state census taken in June, California had a total pop- ulation of two hundred and fifty-five thousand one hundred and twenty-two, including thirty-six thou- sand one hundred and fifty-four in San Francisco, or
184
HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO.
about one seventh of the inhabitants of the state. The federal commission appointed to settle private land claims began its sessions, and made a very large and very profitable business for lawyers. The city council, acting jointly with the supervisors represent- ing the county, bought the Jenny Lind theater for a city hall and court house, paying two hundred thou- sand dollars for it (twice as much as it was worth), or rather promising to pay, for, in those times, the city debtors received scrip in payment, and the council, relying on the paper-mill for funds, was not troubled by any anxiety to make both ends meet. One public creditor, Dr. Peter Smith, who had maintained a hos- pital for the indigent sick of the city in 1850, having demanded payment of his dues in vain, (and nobody denied the debt), obtained judgment, and the council, instead of paying him, allowed him to sell a large area of land claimed by the city at sheriff's sale. It went for a mere trifle, because prominent officials de- clared that purchasers would get no title. The Peter Smith sales were sustained by the courts for much of the land, and the city was despoiled.
The "Herald's" insinuations of fraud in the pur- chase of the Jenny Lind theater provoked Alderman Cotter so much that he challenged John Nugent, its editor, and healed the official honor by breaking a journalistic arm. Edward Gilbert, editor of the " Alta," was killed by J. W. Denver, for ridiculing Governor Bigler, under whose appointment Denver held an office. Yerba Buena cemetery was opened
185
THE GOLDEN ERA.
for general use, and the removal to it of the remains in the cemetery near North Beach was commenced. Raousset went to Sonora with his first expedition of Frenchmen. The streets were lighted for the first time with city lamps, oil burners, of which there were ninety. A station for signaling vessels was erected on a hill near Point Lobos, and the signals repeated at Telegraph Hill, gave information of the arrival of ships when they were fifteen miles or more from the Golden Gate.
SEC. 91. French Immigration. Some Frenchmen who had been scattered over the Pacific islands and Spanish-America arrived in California with the first rush of adventurers in 1848, and their letters encour- aged their countrymen to come to the gold mines. Facilities for migration were offered by the frequent departure of vessels from Bordeaux with wines, bran- dies, sardines, olive-oil, sauces, canned meats, bottled fruits, and various other French products that found a ready sale in the diggings. In 1850, the Parisian " lottery of the golden ingot," in which a bar of gold was the chief bait, offered many passages to Califor- nia among its prizes, and in 1851 about five hundred French men and women, most of them nearly penni- less, were transported to San Francisco by their suc- cessful tickets. The advertisements of the lottery, and the articles about it in the newspapers, caused a gold fever in Paris, such as did not prevail in any other part of Europe, and the "ingots," as the lottery immigrants were called in France, instead of finding
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.