USA > California > A history of the new California, its resources and people; Vol I > Part 6
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It was an event of the age when ships arrived from eastern American ports with "Yankee notions." The people welcomed the traders and their
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merchandise, much of which was of a character wholly new to the early set- tlers of the Far West.
Early visitors say they were impressed that the natives were a proud and boasting people. Their occasional insurrections years before were full of swagger and declamation, but quite free from bloodshed and the hor- rors of war.
The domestic lives of the masses were examples for their visitors. Careful investigation compels the rejecting of the opinion set forth by Rich- ard Dana and others to the effect that the women were of loose morals. The men were inclined to be reckless about gambling,* given to peccadillos, horse-racing, and like sports-but the women were quite true to the teach- ings of the holy fathers. Yet the male folks were neither cruel nor ruffianly. The frontiersmen of the middle west, the "bad man from Bitter Creek" type were almost unknown to early California. They appeared after the discovery of gold, and they were dealt with under a system of so-called pop- ular justice with which this work will deal later. Fandangoes and bull- fights, bear-baiting and lariating were the chief sins and the principal amuse- ments of the populace.
In one phase of their character they were very much like the Ha- waiians and Samoans, They spread feasts before visitors, never hesitat- ing to give the new arrival the very best they could secure. The killing of bullocks before the guest, that he might see the character of his meal, was common. Jerked beef was a favorite dish, and in many parts of the country the humidity was so slight that such meat soon "cured" itself in the sunlight, or hanging from the limb of a tree. Beans in various forms were an almost universal diet-and the Spanish dishes-heavy with cayenne and other peppers-were popular then, as they are throughout California to- day.
Church-going on Sundays was the prevailing habit, but after the sim- ple services the people sought amusement. Guitar playing, singing, danc- ing the fandango, and like amusements were very much enjoyed. Notice should be made of the famous riders of the time-and the world has never surpassed those primitive people in horsemanship.
*Note .- Monte was the favorite game of the people, enjoyed alike by men and women. They accepted their good fortune without any lively demonstrations of joy, and their losses did not disturb their composure .- Tuthill.
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Tuthill-the most accurate and interesting of all the early historical writers-says that it was a poor man that owned less than a dozen horses, but he that owned one saddle was rich. But such a saddle! It was elabor- ately carved and artistically made in every detail. In many a tile house of one-story adobe there hung the proud owner's saddle. The house-wife cooked tortillas (meal cakes) before an open fire, the smell of onions and red pepper scented the air, and the vaquero polished his saddle and handled it as carefully as a miser hoards his wealth.
A great event in those days was the rodeo, or annual rounding up and branding of cattle. For this purpose the animals were driven or herded together in bunches, and branded. Each owner's brand was deposited with the alcalde, whose judicial and advisory powers were almost absolute within his field of jurisdiction.
Though the native loved his country and gave it up with deep re- gret he was really nor progressive nor calculated to stand and fight his bat- tles in the new time that was fast dawning. He was not mechanical, not even a good sportsman, because never a good shot, and never much of an agriculturist. His herds and his horses were his wealth and his delight, and for more than two decades-between 1827 and 1847-it is estimated that Indian thieves stole more than ten thousand horses from the Cali- fornians. Bands of Indian horse-thieves were the pest of the country. They ate the flesh of the stolen animals.
AMERICANS BEFORE THE CONQUEST.
Few people remember one incident in the history of California before the conquest, though it is mentioned briefly in nearly every volume that treats of the subject. Reference is here made to the flurry caused by Com- modore Thomas Ap Catesby Jones, who heard while at Callao an unfounded report that the United States and Mexico had gone to war over the Texas controversy; so he decided to seize the ports of California before he got orders from the government. He landed at Monterey with his two ships -the United States and the Cyane-on October 19, 1842. Meeting no resistance from the surprised populace he at once hoisted the United States flag over the town, and declared California a part of the United States. He next day received news which convinced him that he had acted precipi-
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tately. He took down the flag, declared the whole proceeding a mistake, and apologized handsomely to the frightened officials. The mass of the people were disappointed at his speedy withdrawal, as they were ready to welcome any government that would better their condition, by permitting them to develop the resources of their country.
The first American ship to arrive in Monterey harbor, however, was the Otter, in command of Captain Ebenezer Dorr. She flew the Ameri- can flag, and Captain Dorr made a favorable impression on the people, for he was a fine type of the old American commander.
In 1822 the Sachem arrived at Monterey from Boston. It carried away a considerable quantity of tallow and hides, and thereafter it and other ves- sels built up a thriving trade with the coast. The rulers soon grew shrewd enough to impose pretty stiff customs duties on the traders-and it is sus- pected that these duties never found their way to the home government in Mexico. The American traders prospered so much that three or four vessels took out licenses to do a coasting trade between San Francisco and San Diego. It was customary to display attractive wares in show cases on shipboard, and these lured the natives to part with their hides and tal- low for the boots, shoes, calicoes, and like merchandise carried by the traders. The principal imports from Mexico at that time were food stuffs such as rice. It was easy to capture the native trade with the famous line of Ameri- can wares that has led many simple-minded races to part with their wealth.
So far as can be learned, the Boston traders and the earliest of the American trappers-even from as far back as 1828, when Jedediah Smith arrived in California half famished from his overland journey-were men of brains, energy, and more than average character. This exemplifies the old rule that weaklings seldom leave home.
Many of the settlers that arrived between the years 1826 and 1846 became leaders, some of them prominent in the professions, as well as in commerce.
Franklin Tuthill says that many of the two thousand Americans liv- ing in upper California early in 1846 were retired trappers, though they soon embraced other pursuits in which they succeeded. They had come from over the mountains into the inviting climate west of the Sierras, had tar- ried from vessels that stopped at the various harbors, or had drifted from the
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Columbia river region. Trappers retiring from their hardy pursuits had taken up their residence in valleys that suited their fancy, far away from points of contact with the Mexican settlers, and in portions of the coun- try that the missionaries had neglected. Though the friars universally opposed the settling of strangers in California for more than a hundred years, adventurers of a bold disposition now and then broke in upon the isolation of the soldiers, fathers, mission Indians, and others of the remote population.
One cannot study the remarkable fertility of resources and the rare pow- ers of endurance of many of the pioneers of the early part of the nineteenth century-from 1826 to 1846 in particular-without feeling that reverence that all races have paid to heroes. The annals of those early times abound in revelations of virtue, courage, skill, and remarkable vitality. Emerson found inspiration and delight in the story of George Nidevir's contact with a grizzly, and many a hero of battlefields has contended with less than con- fronted the plainmen of the virgin west in the early forties. There is a fascination in the stories of arduous life that come from that far-away era of western history. Stories of those frontier times charm and hold one as did the legends and Arabian tales of our youth.
It has been the observation of the later generations that the bold men that first ventured from the older communities of the east to the regions beyond the Sierras became rugged and generous. Their experiences made them broad-minded and resourceful, good-natured and liberal if there were any such tendencies in their character. The fathers of the early west were noticeable for their frankness and generosity. Though their manners often were unconventional, their good motives were seldom questioned. Their open hospitality was known to all. The rugged path-finders and mountain- climbers abolished greed, stinginess, and petty quibbling. For many years their smallest measure of value was five times the sum paid for a loaf of bread or a glass of beer in the east. The plentifulness of landscape, the wastes of mountains and plains, and the grandeur of snowy peaks made the early settlers liberal with their friends, bold in danger, and fearless in the presence of mortal foes.
Unfortunately for the native Californians, unfortunately, also, for the good name of our country, all men were not of the generous type here por-
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trayed. There were vagabonds and quarrelsome men among the early set- tlers, and at times they caused much trouble and delayed the coming of good-feeling between the natives and the native population, after the con- quest. To this day many of the descendants of the original Californians abhor the memory of General John C. Fremont and his men. In this con- demnation of his conduct they are joined by many of the pioneers, as well as by some careful historians, notably by Professor Josiah Royce, professor of philosophy at Harvard, who wrote a short history of the state for the American Commonwealth series. These circumstances bring us to the con- sideration of the conquest proper and of the events that immediately pre- ceded it.
FREMONT AND THE CONQUEST CONSIDERED.
For the storm center that culminated in the conquest of California we must glance toward the fertile Sacramento Valley, where a sturdy Ameri- can settlement, starting in 1839, had become quite strong by 1846. Ow- ing to the aggressive character of some of the settlers, as well as to the presence of increasing numbers of foreigners, the Californians naturally be- came suspicious of the colony. This suspicion was confirmed by the knowl- edge that some of the people of the colony had really plotted for the over- throw of the rather weak government. It is certain that many of the set- tlers fretted under the tyrannical and shifting rule of Mexico. As many had been awarded rich grants of land by the government, however, they felt bound to support it. Captain John A. Sutter was one of the most re- markable characters of this era. He was a Swiss, having been born in 1803. He was educated at a military academy at Bern, Switzerland. In 1834 he settled at St. Louis, Missouri, but soon abandoned that place for the west. In 1838 he went to Fort Vancouver, then to Honolulu, then to Sitka, and finally to San Francisco, which he reached in 1839. In 1841 he obtained a large tract of land in the Sacramento Valley. This tract he named New Helvetia, and cultivated it in wheat, raised cattle and em- ployed hundreds of Indians and domestic laborers.
In 1844 he joined Governor Micheltorena with more than one hun- dred men, and aided in opposing a rebellion led by José Castro, for many years a leader of the disaffected. Castro finally triumphed, however, and he was in power when Fremont and his men appeared on the scene. It
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should be said that Sutter was not on good terms with the Mexican author- ities after the success of Castro, because he had taken part with the los- ing forces.
In January, 1844, Sutter was visited by Lieutenant Fremont and a party of army engineers. The party was well-nigh exhausted on its arri- val at Sutter's Fort, and the hospitality of Sutter was greatly appreciated and commented on eloquently in Fremont's report, a well written account of the land, the people, and the hardships of path-finding. As a truth, how- ever, the country was already well traversed by the trappers, though Fre- mont's report first made it known to the outside world.
Fremont's best service to the people of the new territory was beyond question the writing of a report that awakened world interest in California ; his worst service-from the native point of view-was the starting in mo- tion a policy that led to the overthrow of the government, though the Mexi- can war would inevitably have led to the same result.
The events that took place after Fremont's arrival are complicated and in many aspects unfortunate, the mysteries surrounding the situation are still quite inexplicable, and the entire truth is obscure to this day. The outlines of the story should be given in such a way, however, as to leave the reader free to decide the ethical points intelligently.
In spite of the bitter opposition of men like Abraham Lincoln, the United States made active preparations for the war with Mexico, this as early as 1845. Even as late as 1848 (when he was a congressman from Illinois) Lincoln denounced the policy that had waged this war, and in no unsparing voice he called it unconstitutional and sought to explain that the unlawful acts of President Polk in declaring the war were not to be charged to the country at large.
Alas, these prophetic words of Lincoln's have been forgotten in many phases of history since they were uttered. It is extremely doubtful whether the career of the mistaken but gallant Fremont can stand analysis in the light of the Lincoln definition of right. The episodes connected with Fre- mont's occupation of the territory that is now California have been dis- cussed often, but it is doubtful whether a more careful analysis than that of Professor Josiah Royce, of Harvard, has ever been made. Though the Professor is loth to discuss California in these days, his time being taken
.
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up with matters philosophical, his brochure on Fremont stands as a long- drawn but careful analysis of the question. No writer can afford to over- look his painstaking interviews with Fremont and his cautious conclusions. Reduced to brief form his views would be acceptable to most all fair critics, unless perhaps to such men as Professor W. C. Jones, of Berkeley, who in his declining years has become a bitter expounder of Fremont and a de- fender of everything that Fremont did.
In the formative times under consideration Buchanan was secretary of state, Marcy of war, and Bancroft of the navy. Whatever plans occupied the attention of the administration were doubtless kept a deep secret, and years have hardly disturbed the secrecy of those old plans. That the idea of acquiring California was uppermost in the minds of the country's political leaders there is little or no doubt, but the outlines of the method have never been made public.
Somewhere within the nebulous designs of the administration there was the covetous idea that the California pear was about ripe to be shaken into the laps of the expectant country, somewhat in the manner that Hawaii was plucked and coveted by the aid of our minister in 1893. Details were not fully outlined, but Washington believed that California would be one of the prizes of the Mexican war-and it was not regarded as a capital prize, either.
THE BEAR FLAG EPISODE INTERVENES.
Pending definite movements by any of the troops or authorized agents of the United States a peculiar and rather unique revolution ensued in Cali- fornia, an event that reminds one somewhat of comic opera-and this was the famous Bear Flag Revolution, of which many strange accounts have been written.
The Bear Flag men believed they were the victims of great injustice at the hands of the government, and they fancied themselves a band of Spartans. Doctor Semple, afterward editor of the Californian, wrote much in justification of the revolution, but it is not clear that there was a per- fect right to do what was done by the bear flag patriots.
When Pio Pico was governor-during the time now under considera- tion-his commander-in-chief of the military forces was José Castro, whose judgment was rather hot and impulsive. About June 1, 1846, he issued an
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order to Lieutenant Francisco de Arce to remove a number of government horses from the Mission San Rafael to his headquarters at Santa Clara. Davis thus describes what then occurred :
"The officer, with a guard of fourteen men, proceeded to execute the order, and was compelled to cross the Sacramento river at New Helvetia, now Sacramento, the nearest point at which the horses could swim the stream. On his way he was seen by an Indian, who reported to the Ameri- can settlers that two or three hundred armed men were advancing up the valley. At this time Captain Fremont, with his exploring party, was en- camped at the Buttes, near the confluence of the Feather and Sacramento rivers, about sixty miles above Sutter's Fort. It was inferred by the set- tlers that the Californian force was marching north to attack Fremont. The alarm was immediately spread throughout the valley, and most of the set- tlers joined Fremont at his camp. There they met William Knight, who stated that he had seen the party of Californians in charge of the horses, and that de Arce had told him that Castro had sent for the horses for the purpose of mounting a battalion of two hundred men to march against the Americans settled in the Sacramento Valley and to expel them from the country ; that then he proposed to fortify the Bear River pass in the moun- tains and prevent the further ingress of immigrants from the United States. After consultation it was resolved that a force should pursue the Californians and capture the horses, so as to weaken Castro and for the time frustrate his designs. Twelve men volunteered for the expedition, and Ezekial Merritt, the eldest of the party, was chosen captain. At daylight on the Ioth of June, 1846, they surprised the Californians, who surrendered without resistance, and the horses were taken. De Arce and his men were permitted to go on with- out further molestation. The revolutionary movement on the part of the Americans was then fairly commenced. The party being increased to thir- ty-three, still under the command of Merritt, marched to Sonoma, and on the morning of the 14th of June captured and took possession of that town and military post. They made prisoners of General M. G. Vallejo, his brother Salvador, and Victor Prudon, and had them conveyed to Sutter's Fort at Sacramento for safe-keeping. As nearly as can be ascertained, the names of the members of the Bear Flag party are :
"From Sacramento Valley-Ezekial Merritt, Robert Semple, Henry L.
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Ford, Samuel Gibson, Granville P. Swift, William Dickey, Henry Booker, John Potter, William B. Ide. William Fallon, William M. Scott, Henry Beason, William Anderson, James A. Jones, W. Barti, or 'Old Red,' and Samuel Neal.
"From Napa Valley-Benjamin Dewell, Harvey Porterfield, John Grigsby, Frank Grigsby, William B. Elliott, Ab Elliott, William Knight, David Hudson, Franklin Bedwell, Joseph Wood, William Hargrave, An- drew Kelsey, Horace Sanders, John H. Kelly, John Gibbs, Thomas Cowie, and George Fowler.
"A garrison of about eighteen men, under the command of William B. Ide, was left at Sonoma, and in a few days it was increased to about forty. On the 18th of June, Ide, with the consent of the garrison, issued a procla- mation setting forth the objects for which the party had gathered and the principles that would be adhered to in the event of success. About the same time the Bear Flag was hoisted by the revolutionists.
"Robert Semple, one of the members of the party, became editor of the first newspaper published in California. The Californian, the initial number of which was issued at Monterey on August 15, 1846. In the sec- ond issue of his paper, on the 22nd, he commenced the publication of a se- ries of articles on the history of the revolution, and in the issue of February 13, 1847, the following, in part, appeared: 'On the 14th of June, 1846, a party of Americans, without a leader, gathered and took possession of the fortified town of Sonoma, on the north side of the bay of San Francisco, and made prisoners of three Mexican officers-a general, a lieutenant- colonel, and captain. On the same day there was a partial organization under the name of the Republic of California, and agreed to hoist a flag made of a piece of white cotton cloth with one red stripe on the bottom, and on the white a grizzly bear, with a single star in front of him. It was painted, or rather, stained, with lampblack and poke berries. Along the top were the words, Republic of California.'"
The author of the present work has not seen so comprehensive an ac- count in so compact a space elsewhere as in the foregoing. It covers the field fully relative to the Bear Flag episode, but it may be well to give the following from the great Tuthill, master writer on Californian subjects : "Fremont himself, accompanied by Kit Carson, Lieutenant Gillespie, and
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half a score of others, crossed in a launch to the old fort near the presidio, spiked its ten guns, and returned to Sonoma. There on the 5th of July, 1846, he calied the whole force together, and recommended an immediate declaration of independence. All present united to make such a declaration, and with the same unanimity entrusted to Fremont the direction of affairs. Thus the bear party was absorbed into the battalion, whose roll-call showed one hundred and sixty mounted riflemen."
THE CONQUEST PROPER.
For many years it has been held by some writers that the Bear Flag Revolution was a logical forerunner of the conquest proper, in the sense that Fremont's secret orders were legitimate antecedents of all that fol- lowed, a part of one plan, in fact. It would be a gross blunder to assume that Commodore Sloat, who raised the American flag over Monterey on July 7, was acting in concert with Fremont, or that he really knew what Fremont's actions meant. Lucia Norman properly says :
"Colonel Fremont and Commodore Sloat, being ignorant of the actual existence of war between Mexico and the United States, and having acted without direct instructions from Washington, were each inclined, should any blame be attached to them, to throw the responsibility upon the other. Colonel Fremont claimed to have acted in self-defense; Commodore Sloat, from false ideas of Fremont's position, and also to guard the Californians from the English, who had placed a squadron upon the coast to seize any opportunity that might offer of adding the country to the possessions of the crown."
There has undoubtedly been much falsehood concerning the purposes of Admiral Seymour, referred to by Miss Norman. The presence of the British admiral in Pacific waters, with the Collingwood, has been miscon- strued, if we may believe the correctness of recent developments. The ad- miral was not on the coast with aggressive intentions, nor was he dis- . patched to look for an opportunity to seize anything. And there is strong evidence that Sloat and Fremont were working at cross purposes, neither knowing anything of the other's instructions and plans.
The following conclusions seem to be based on sufficient evidence : Fremont's primary conduct was unofficial, and until later developments in
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the course of the Mexican quarrel the California revolution had no color of sanction from the central government. From the outset the navy was with- cut definite or even vague instructions to co-operate with Fremont. It has long been held that Fremont received secret instructions from the govern- ment authorizing him to do all that was done toward reducing the natives to subjugation. The story runs to the effect that on the shores of the greater Klamath Lake, in Oregon, Fremont was handed dispatches by Lieutenant Gillespie, who had crossed the continent to convey a message that would authorize the aggressiveness that followed. It is now known that the lieu- tenant did bring messages and that, acting under instructions, he had com- mitted them to memory-but it is also known-thanks to the indefatigable energy ot Royce !- that the messages did not warrant what occurred. Gil- lespie merely made Fremont acquainted with the contents of a message to United States Consul Larkin, and there was never a message to Fremont that authorized him to become a conqueror.
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