USA > California > A history of the new California, its resources and people; Vol I > Part 12
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 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59
114
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
made notice in his paper that any whom he denounced in its columns had the privilege of adopting their own mode of recourse; stated the route he usually took to and from his office, and with the significant hint, 'Gold help any one who attacks me,' defied that method of redress. Casey took him at his word. King was borne to the room in Montgomery Block, in which he died a few days afterward. The ball had penetrated his body from the left side of his breast, just below the line of the armpit, and ranging up- ward and outward to the back of the left shoulder. The surgeons pro- nounced it a dangerous but not a mortal wound. Dr. Beverly R. Cole was surgeon-general to the Committee Brigade, and a member of the commit- tee. Months afterward he declared in a public statement of the case that King died from the unskilful treatment of the surgeons, and maintained that with proper treatment he would have recovered. Still it was the wound which superinduced his death ; and Casey had fired the ball which made it."
O'Meara says there is ample evidence for the statement that the work of the famous committee of 1856 was not free from the bias, "pulls" and like weaknesses of mankind. Among other instances he cites the follow- ing :
"In the county jail at the time was Rod. Backus, a young man of good family, cousin of Phil Backus, an auctioneer of considerable prominence in mercantile and social circles. Rod. Backus had shot dead a man whose face he had never seen until the moment before he shot him, a dozen paces dis- tant. It was in Stout's Alley. It was a murder, a wanton murder, without provocation, excuse, extenuation or palliation whatever. Rod. Backus was a frequent visitor at a house of one Jennie French. As he came to visit her one evening, at dusk, she was standing in the doorway, at the head of the iron stairway which led to the entrance on the second floor. On the opposite side of the alley, walking slowly toward Jackson street was a man of ordinary appearance. As Rod. met her on the top platform, Jennie said to him: 'Rod, that fellow has insulted me; shoot him!' At the word, Backus drew his pistol and fired. The man fell. He had turned his face the mo- ment Backus fired. It was instantly a fatal shot. Backus had influential friends among business men and politicians. The coroner held an inquest. A jury to hold Backus blameless had been secured, but they overshot their mark-the thing was too transparent, too bare-faced. The murdered man
1
115
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
was a German, much respected by his countrymen. They determined to press the matter to justice.
"Backus was indicted, tried, convicted of murder and sentenced to death. None of just mind questioned the righteousness of the sentence. But his case was appealed, and at last he had his crime reduced in degree, and re- ceived sentence of a short term-three or five years in San Quentin prison. This easy let-off did not satisfy him; he wanted a verdict of acquittal, and expected still to get it. Accordingly he again appealed his case, and while in the county jail awaiting the action of the supreme court upon his ap- peal, the committee had seized and taken away Casey and Cora. He was not molested, nevertheless his fear of consequences impelled him to with- draw his appeal, submit to his sentence, and serve his term at San Quentin. He even begged to be taken there at once, and he was. The explanation made by the committee leaders for not taking Backus was that the law had already passed judgment in his case, and the committee was not disposed to interfere with the judgments of the courts. The explanation was puerile . and inconsistent with their action in the case of Cora, who was also in the hands of the court, and awaiting another trial. A portion of the jury, among this portion Front street merchants and other respectable business men, had held him to be not guilty; and surely this was more than any juror had ex- pressed in the case of Backus. Moreover Backus had himself demonstrated his dissatisfaction with the very mild verdict in his last trial, and was, the same as Cora, awaiting the issue of another trial. The common belief was that Backus owed his exemption from the grasp of the committee and from the dread penalty which Casey and Cora suffered, not to any doubt as to his guilt, but solely on account of his relationship and his social standing. He had been boon companion of many of the young men of the committee be- fore he committed the murder in Stout's alley."
In conclusion Mr. O'Meara thus pays his respects to the committee :
"Colonel E. D. Baker had defended Charles Cora, at his trial, as I have related. He was positive and unreserved in his denunciation of the committee. Whether he was ever threatened with arrest I do not know; but he likewise left the city and went into the interior northern counties and there practiced his profession until September, when he entered into
116
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
the presidential campaign as chief orator of the Republican party, for Fre- mont, and in November returned to his practice in San Francisco.
"The Vigilance Committee disbanded their military forces late in Au- gust. The Executive Committee held to them for future emergencies, but ceased their meetings. Fort Gunny Bags was dismantled. The rooms were abandoned; but as a closing scene a grand review of the military was held near South Park, and the rooms were thrown open to the public. Thou- sands, ladies and gentlemen and children went there, and looked at the stuffed ballot-box, at the nooses and ropes used in the hanging of Casey and Cora, of Hetherington and Brace, at the shackles and gyves, at all the other in- struments and paraphernalia of the gallows and the cells, into the narrow cells and their scant furniture, and at all the ghastly curios of these haunted rooms of life and death, of mental torture and bodily suffering, of forced suicide and the mocking of the crazed victim of his own despair and des- peration. It was a remarkable sight for women, an astounding treat to ladies, and such an example to children, boys and girls! But comment is not re- quired.
"The city and county election was soon to follow. The committee men did not neglect the opportunity which their powerful organization had given them. The Executive Committee became practically a self-consti- tuted nominating convention. Their rank and file were not forgotten. Gen- eral Doane was nominated for sheriff. For every other office Vigilance men were named the candidates. None others had chance or hope. Their ticket was elected. They obtained the reward of their services in the organiza- tion, and profited accordingly. Thirty-one years have now passed since the existence of the committee. Many of its executive members are numbered with the dead. Some of them passed away in a manner to remain as an en- during sorrow to their kindred and connections. A few have prospered and occupy high places in community. A very few enjoy office bestowed by the party they aided so much to destroy in 1856. On the monument erected over the ashes of Casey is the scriptural admonition for all mankind 'Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, and I will repay.' Retribution is with God alone. The generation of this period will best subserve the good of community by conformity to the divine injunction. And this would never have been writ- ten were it not for the many and frequent exparte, and incorrect publica-
117
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
tions which have been put forth as faithful and impartial accounts of the Vigilance Committee of 1856, of the character of those who suffered death and banishment at its hands, and of the causes which led to its'organiza- tion. The task is done. May another similar to it never be required. The law of the land should suffice for every exigency. It sets no bad or danger- ous example, but is always the conservator of the public welfare, the best protector of all, the voice of the people in accordance with the laws of God."
In concluding this chapter it may be well to say that during the trial of Cora there was no definite reference to the nature of the dispute between General Richardson and his slayer. On the authority of Judge Oscar T. Shuck, a prominent legal author, Cora was a sober man, and General Rich- ardson was drinking and in a quarrelsome mood the night before the kill- ing.
The fame of Colonel E. D. Baker grew after his able defense of Cora. He was one of the greatest of California's orators. Here are two extracts from his defense of Cora:
"The profession to which we belong is, of all others, fearless of pub- lic opinion. It has ever stood up against the tyranny of monarchs on the one hand, and the tyranny of public opinion on the other; and if, as the humblest among them, it becomes me to instance myself, I may say with a bold heart, and I do say it with a bold heart, that there is not in all this world a wretch, so humble, so guilty, so despairing, so torn with aveng- ing furies, so pursued by the arm of the law, so hunted to cities of refuge, so fearful of life, so afraid of death ;- there is no wretch so steeped in all the agonies of vice and crime, that I would not have a heart to listen to his cry, and a tongue to speak in his defense, though around his head all the wrath of public opinion should gather, and rage, and roar, and roll, as the ocean rolls around the rock. And if ever I forget, if I ever deny, that high- est duty of my profession, may God palsy this arm and hush my voice for- ever.
[Colonel Baker here went into a long analysis of all the evidence. ]
"Mrs. Knight swears that Richardson had one arm raised. Two others, for the prosecution also, say he had not. Remember that the raising of his arm is life or death to us. If Cora killed him with his hands down, it is murder; if there was a struggle, it was different. I believe Richard-
118
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
son was brave. I don't believe that the man lives who, twice in one day, could back Richardson up against a door, and put a pistol to his bosom and hold it there, while he, Richardson, cowered like a slave. Is there no moral law to be
observed ? there no correspondence in the nature of things? Did Richardson, as Mrs. Knight says, raise his arms? Did he, as Cotting says, have his arms pinioned? Now, before you go one step farther toward a conclusion, you must be satisfied on that point, and you must all agree upon it. Again, a pistol, cocked, was found near his hand. Now, I want to utter a word upon which eternal things may depend. I ask you, was that pistol drawn before Rich- ardson was shot? Can you believe he stood up in that doorway for four minutes with a pistol cocked and say he was unarmed? Mr. Cook may have been mistaken, but whether he was or not the pistol was there, the knife was there. The were drawn; he drew them; they were drawn in combat; and being drawn, it justified the utmost extremity of arms, before men or angels."
After a further analysis of the evidence in his own matchless manner Colonel Baker reached his peroration. In part he said :
"That a woman should, in adversity and bitterness, and sorrow and crime, stand by her friend in the dungeon, on the scaffold, with her money, and tears, and defiance, and vengeance, all combined, is human and natural. This woman is bad; she has forgotten her chastity-fallen by early tempta- tion from her high estate; and among the matronage of the land her name shall never be heard. She has but one tie, she acknowledges but one obliga- tion, and that she performs in the gloom of the cell and the dread of death; nor public opinion, nor the passions of the multitude, nor the taunts of angry counsel, nor the vengeance of the judge, can sway her for a moment from her course. If any of you have it in your heart to condemn, and say 'Stand back! I am holier than thou,' remember Magdalene, name written in the Book of Life.
"I feel prouder of human nature. I have learned a new lesson. Hide him in the felon's grave, with no inscription consecrated to the spot; and when you have forgotten it, and the memories of the day are past, there will be one bosom to heave a sigh in penitence and prayer, there will be one eye to weep a refreshing tear over the sod, one trembling hand to plant flowers above his head. Let them make the most of it. I scorn the imputation that
119
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
infamy should rest on him for her folly and her faith. Let them make the most of it, and when the great Judge of all shall condemn,-when, in that dread hour, you and I and she shall stand at the common tribunal for the deeds done or aimed to be done at this day,-if this be remembered against her at all, it will be lost in the record of a thousand crimes perpe- trated by high and noble souls. Let a man who feels in his heart no re- sponsive type of such traits of goodness, of truest courage in darkest destiny, let that man be the first to put his hand to the bloody verdict.
"There is public opinion now; there was no such thing as genuine pub- lic opinion at the time of the homicide-it was bastard. It is now calm, in- telligent, reflecting, determined, and just. If you mean to be the oracles of this public opinion, in God's name, speak! If you mean to be priests of the divinity which honest men may worship, answer! If you are the votaries of the other, you are but the inflamed Cassandra of a diseased imagination and of a prurient public mind. If of the former, I bow at your feet, in honor of the mysteries of your worship. Against this man the public press, so po- tent for good, so mighty for evil, inflames and convulses the public mind and judgment. There is not one thing they have said that is in accordance with truth and justice; there is not one version they have given that is based on testimony and facts."
Now, that the reader has had a fair report of both sides of the great and world-famous Vigilance Committee he may judge whether San Fran- cisco acted rightly or wrongly in her struggle for social order in the wonder- ful era that followed the discovery of gold.
120
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
CHAPTER IX. THE GOOD CITIZENSHIP MOVEMENT.
Just before the famous Vigilance Committee abandoned its organiza- tion a number of public-spirited citizens, many of whom had been a part of the Vigilance Committee, decided to organize an independent political party. Their purpose was, as they said, to "rescue the city of San Francisco from the clutch of irresponsible men." The result of their deliberations was the People's Reform Party.
The opponents of the original Vigilance Committee have always main- tained that the new reform party was really organized for the protection of those who had participated in the affairs of the Vigilance Committee.
In August, 1856, at a spontaneous public meeting in front of the Ameri- can Exchange, in San Francisco, Ira P. Rankin was elected chairman. Reso- lutions declaring the unfitness of the old parties were adopted without delay. To the old parties and their greed for spoils were attributed many of the evils that had called for summary methods.
Twenty-one men, among whom were J. B. Thomas, E. H. Washburn, Louis McLean, Frederick Billings. A. B. Forbes and T. O. Larkin, were ap- pointed a committee to draw up resolutions recommending the election of legislators pledged to reform. It was also part of their duty to see to the nomination of city and county officers.
A strange event occurred about an hour after the organization of the meeting that meant the birth of the People's Reform Party, and that was the fact that the Republicans gained control, and the purpose of the organiza- tion was almost frustrated. To the masterful eloquence of E. H. Wash- burn is attributed the fact that the committee was permitted to carry out its work. In due time it submitted a reform ticket which triumphed at the polls.
The newly elected city and county officers are said to have been efficient and patriotic. To this fact and the great watchfulness of the awakened public may be attributed the infrequency of corruption and the reign of
121
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
economy that followed. So strict was the desire to save the public funds that the judges of the nisi prius courts were reminded, when they asked for stoves for their court rooms, that fuel was not needed in the land of per- petual summer.
An immediate result of the new régime was the swift and certain ad- ministration of justice, and a decrease of crime. There were not many police, but they were efficient and were well backed up by public sentiment and by judges not afraid to sentence criminals.
· Under the reform movement almost every expense connected with the administration of the city government was less than under the sparser pop- ulation of Vigilance Committee days.
As the city of San Francisco prospered and set a good example to the state, showing a remarkable recovery from the heat and excitement of earlier years, so, too, the state itself prospered and the world beheld the spectacle of "a might empire of pioneers" righting the ship of state at a time when many critics feared that California and chaos were one.
Royce has aptly said that the race that has grown up in California as the outcome of these early struggles, is characterized by peculiar qualities of strength and weakness. The genesis of society accounts for much of the free Americanism, the disregard of old social custom, and the free-hearted generosity of the native Californian.
Within ten years after the conclusion of the work of the Vigilance Com- mittee the gold fever had greatly abated so that men other than miners and adventurers began to people the state. Even in the mines the demand was for capital, inventors, skilful scientists to unlock the hidden treasures of the mountains. Speaking of the mere fortune hunter, a writer in the San Fran- cisco Chronicle aptly said some years ago:
"With the disappearance of the migratory element the population of the state tended to become fixed, and California was now a home for her people and not merely a treasure chamber to be rifled. The settlement of land titles was a labor of immense complexity, and its gradual completion gave rise to many heart burnings. The survey of the state went on apace, and men began to recognize that gold was by no means the greatest of California's products and that her true and permanent wealth was to be found in her climate, of which the like was not upon earth, in the phenome-
122
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
nal fertility of her soil, and in the royal guerdon which she offered to those who would call her mother, and who would place within her guardianship their own future and the future of their families.
"It was not until the gold fever began to wane that California's perma- nent resources become recognized, and even then the process of recogni- tion was a slow one. California was believed to be a land in which to get rich, but not in which to reside. Upon the very floor of the United States Senate, California's representative had placed his ignorance upon rec- ord by saying: 'I would not give six bits an acre for the best agricultural land in California.' The immigration which eventually set in was of men and women who came with peace and contentment in their hearts to a new land, where seed time and harvest do not fail, and where a man shall cer- tainly reap whatsoever he has sowed."
When the Civil war broke out California's geographical position made it impossible for her to be a battlefield. Even if there had been an attempt to lead her out of the Union, however, it must have failed for her people were with the cause that won. Though many citizens left California to enter one side or the other of the great conflict, there was tranquillity at home, and the close of the war found the state prosperous. A careful stu- cient of the situation has put the case clearly, as follows:
"Although the conclusion of the Civil war with the tragedies which ac- companied it was two thousand miles from her frontiers, California was not unmindful of her pledge to freedom, the pledge which had sanctified the hour of her statehood's birth, and in the election of 1860 she upheld the hands of Lincoln, and added her godspeed to the northern cause.
"From the commercial point of view the Civil war, which was so dis- astrous to the Atlantic shore, enhanced the prosperity of the Pacific. Farm produce from the west found a ready sale, and the foundations of California agriculture were firmly laid. The necessity for communication between east and west became pressingly manifest under the exigencies of the war, and congress passed a bill to facilitate the building of a railroad from Missouri to the Sacramento. Large numbers of people emigrated to California in order to escape the miseries of the struggle, and as these were largely of the moneyed class a strong impetus was given to building speculation and to all real estate transactions. Hotels of unprecedented dimensions were
123
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
erected in San Francisco and elsewhere, and the water supply of the city was extended and improved.
"The fever which had attended upon the discovery of gold was repro- duced upon a smaller scale when the output of the Comstock silver mines reached very large dimensions in 1863. The fever was, of course, followed by corresponding chills and collapse when the limits of the lode were re- ported to be within sight, and in the ensuing panic a very large amount of wealth took unto itself wings and flew away. The winter of that year pro- duced only ten inches of rain, and the grain crop of 1864 was, therefore, the poorest upon record. Over a quarter of the farm animals throughout the state died of starvation, and California agriculture received its first se- vere check. None the less the treasure exports from San Francisco amounted to $55,000,000, representing an increase of $15,000,000 since 1860. New arrivals into the state numbered 9,500, and over 1,000 new houses made their appearance in San Francisco.
"During this time, and although so far removed from the theater of war, California never relaxed her interest in the vital issues that were be- ·ing decided, never waned nor grew cold in the northern cause. In his last message to the legislature, which met at Sacramento on December 7, 1863, Governor Stanford reviewed the situation existing in the state and in the country at large, and declared that the illumination of education shone upon the banner of the northern states:
"'At the north the principle of education is the governing law and binds into a solid phalanx that proud array of free communities. The north is united in battling for a principle which education has taught them to be the very life of their institutions. Had the system of common-school education that prevails in our northern states found an early entrance and been nourished into life in those states that are now at war with the Union, the civilization of the nineteenth century would never have been shocked by the rebillion that now disgraces its annals.'
"The clergy of California were almost unanimous in support of the Union, but the Reverend Thomas Starr King surpassed them all-not, per- haps, in the earnestness of his conviction, but certainly in the beauty and force of its expression.
"Arriving in California in 1860, the lectures which he at once proceeded
124
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
to deliver on a great range of subjects attracted widespread attention for the erudition which they displayed, as well as for the oratory and grace of dic- tion which distinguished them. He acquired at once a power over the pop- ular mind, which he exercised to the utmost, not only in support of the northern cause, but to increase the ardor of public enthusiasm for its suc- cess. Wielding an equal power over the learned and the unlearned, it would be hard to overestimate the extent of his sway or the measure of his services to the Union.
" Upon those who were politically undecided the effect of his oratory was immediate and permanent, and there were certainly many who, through lack of knowledge and information, were in need of the intellectual and moral leadership which he was so brilliantly qualified to give. Traveling through the state, the latent fires of patriotism sprang into a hot flame be- hind him, and the intensity of the feeling which he aroused was magnificently proved by the immense sums of money which, in answer to his appeals, were poured out for the beneficent work of the Sanitary Commission.
"His labors were, however, beyond his strength, and the efforts which he poured forth so prodigally proved a fatal drain upon a physical constitu- tion which was never robust. In March, 1864, Rev. Thomas Starr King died of a throat affection, at less than forty years of age, and the state has rarely witnessed so great an outburst of popular grief. During the four years of warfare the national flag had never been lowered from the walls of his church, and he lived long enough to see that flag raised to the posi- tion which it will occupy forever over the destinies of his country."
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.