USA > California > A history of the new California, its resources and people; Vol I > Part 7
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
Royce and others conclude that the policy of the United States through- out the conquest was tricky, infinitely petty and far beneath the dignity of a great nation. Royce submitted all the evidence to Fremont himself in his latter years, and after a thorough examination and refreshing of his mem- ory the general was not able to extricate himself from the unpleasant po- sition of having been a false hero this far-his acts were accidental and un- authorized, and he and his men did the natives a grave injustice.
To recur to the revolution proper it may be stated briefly that, after raising the American flag and issuing a proclamation on July 7, Commodore Sloat almost immediately resigned his command at Monterey to Commo- dore Robert F. Stockton, who had gone to Monterey on the frigate Con- gress. Robert Ritchie thus summarizes for this work the main events of the conquest from that time forward :
"To Stockton Fremont reported with his riflemen and ex-Independents and by Stockton was created major of the band, which was known as the California Battalion. Stockton abandoned the project entertained by Sloat of making terms with Pico and Castro and determined to compel their sur- render by force of arms. He therefore dispatched Fremont by sea to San Diego. following himself with the Congress, which put into San Pedro harbor.
59
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
"Stockton treated contemptuously a message from Castro, praying for terms, and with his force of marines and six small guns pushed on to conflict with the Californians. But Castro and Pico fled without awaiting an at- tack, and Stockton, after having joined forces with Fremont, entered Los Angeles on August 13 and ran up the flag. All opposition to American rule seemingly at an end, Stockton now created Fremont provisional gov- ernor of California. Lieutenant Gillespie was left in command of Los Angeles with a garrison of only forty men, a nominal garrison was sta- tioned at Santa Barbara and Stockton and Fremont took their departure for the north.
"Scarcely had the tiny army of occupation been withdrawn when Lieu- tenant J. M. Flores of the native Californian forces broke his parole, organ- ized a considerable body of malcontents and on September 23 attacked Los Angeles and forced the capitulation of Gillespie. Santa Barbara was like- wise quickly recaptured and the whole south was aflame with rebellion.
"A messenger, spurring his jaded steeds all the way from Los Angeles to San Francisco without a day's rest, brought the news of the uprising to Commodore Stockton. Opposed to the pitiful handful of men left to garri- son the southern cities were from 1200 to 1400 armed and mounted Cali- fornians, who were now complete masters of the country which had seemed to be so easily subdued. Stockton and Fremont were a thousand miles away. With their number of less than a thousand men and with no means of ob- taining reinforcements from the east the new Territory of California seemed lost to the Union.
"Lost it would have been had not Stockton and Fremont acted with great promptness and daring. Stockton immediately dispatched Captain Mervine with the frigate Savannah to stem the tide until he could appear on the scene with fresh troops. Fremont was sent to Santa Barbara with 160 hastily enlisted troops, while Stockton himself set out for San Pedro. Fre- inont failed to reach Santa Barbara when expected, but put in to Monterey for more men. After a trying march over the Santa Inez Mountains in the midst of winter, Fremont, with 50 men, again took possession of Santa Barbara and pursued his march south.
"Stockton, meanwhile, had proceeded to San Diego, built a temporary fort and was anxiously awaiting relief from Fremont. Help from an unex-
60
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
pected quarter came to him in the person of General Stephen W. Kearney, who, having completed the subjugation of New Mexico, had pushed on to California with a sinall force to assist in its conquest. Learning of the state of affairs, Kearney had sent word to Stockton in San Diego, that he wished to effect a junction with him. Meeting Gillespie and a small force which Stockton had sent out to him, Kearney engaged the Californians at San Pasqual, near San Diego, with disastrous results and had to be rescued from his perilous position by a second relief force from Stockton.
"With their combined forces of about 500 men, Stockton and Kearney set out for Los Angeles. But near San Gabriel on January 8, 1847, they engaged in the final and most serious battle of the war in California. The enemy with 600 mounted men and four field pieces attacked the American force with all the despairing energy of a dying cause. Again and again the beautifully mounted and utterly fearless vaqueros charged the American squares, only to be mowed down by the steady, galling fire of the trained marksmen. At last the Californians broke and fled. In their rapid retreat northward they met the tardy Fremont, coming down from Monterey with reinforcements, and to him surrendered on January 14. With the signing of the articles of capitulation at the Rancho de Cahuenga there was closed the only real war which has ever reddened California soil.
"The anomaly of two governors sitting in authority lasted until Colonel Richard B. Mason arrived to supplant Kearney as head of affairs. The two rival governors went east. Fremont was court martialed for mutiny and disobedience and recommended for dismissal from the service. President Polk sanctioned the sentence, but ordered the penalty of dismissal to be remitted. Fremont, with his native high spirits, refused the indulgence of the president and resigned his position as lieutenant colonel in the army."
The events of the conquest have been set forth in succinct order in a paper by Honorable Winfield Davis, heretofore quoted. He thus sum- marizes the genesis of government in California for the period immediately following the conquest :
Commodore Jolin D. Sloat hoisted the American flag at Monterey July 7, 1846, and by proclamation took formal possession of California in the name of the United States government. Died on Staten Island, New York, November 28, 1867.
61
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
Commodore Robert F. Stockton, by proclamation dated at Los Angeles, August 17, 1846. Died at Princeton, New Jersey, October 7, 1866.
Captain John C. Fremont, appointed by Commodore Stockton, January 16, 1847. Died at New York City, July 13, 1890.
General Stephen W. Kearney, by proclamation dated at Monterey, March I, 1847. Died at St. Louis, Missouri, October 31, 1848.
Colonel Richard B. Mason, by proclamation dated at Monterey, May 31, 1847. Died at St. Louis, Missouri, July 25, 1850.
General Bennet Riley became military governor April 13, 1849, and served until the organization of the state government in December, 1849. Died at Buffalo, New York, June 9, 1853.
News of peace between the United States and Mexico reached Califor- nia August 7, 1848. A considerable population had been attracted to the country by the discovery of gold at Coloma in January of that year, and the laws of Mexico were found unsuited to the new conditions. The subject of forming a civil provisional territorial government had been agitated from the first of the year, but it did not assume an organized form until in De- cember. On the IIth of that month a large meeting was held at San José, at which were adopted resolutions in favor of holding a convention to form a provisional territorial government to be put into immediate operation, and to remain in force until Congress should supersede it by a regular territorial organization. The action of the meeting met with the approval of the people of the northern and middle portions of the country. On December 2Ist and 22d, two public meetings were held at San Francisco, and resolutions were passed concurring in the plan of action suggested by the people of San José. Similar resolutions were adopted at meetings held at Sacramento on January 6th and 8th, 1849, at Monterey on the 3Ist, and at Sonoma on February 5th. These five districts elected delegates to the proposed convention-the district of Sacramento 5, Sonoma 10, San Francisco 5, San José 3, and Monterey 5. But the five other districts-San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and San Diego-failed to concur in the movement. The San José meeting recommended that the convention should assemble at that place on the second Monday of January, 1849. The San Francisco meeting, be- lieving that date too early to allow communication with the remote districts, recommended that it should meet on March 5th, and that was concurred in
62
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
by the districts of Sonoma and Sacramento, and tacitly by San José. The district of Monterey constituted its elected delegates a committee to confer with those from the other districts to obtain a still further extension of the time of holding the convention. The Corresponding Committee, appointed in San Francisco, endeavored to spread intelligence of the action of the various meetings, but the inclemency of the weather and the impassable condition of the roads and streams had, up to January 24th, prevented all communica- tion with the five districts that were unrepresented. On the last named date the committee issued a recommendation "that the time for the proposed as- sembling of the Provisional Government Convention be changed to May I, 1849." Twelve of the delegates that had been elected to the proposed con- vention met at San Francisco early in March, 1849, and issued an address to the people, in which it was recommended that a new election be held for delegates to meet in convention at Monterey on the first Monday in August. and that the delegates "should be vested with full power to frame a state con- stitution to be submitted to the people of California." To provide for their immediate wants the citizens of Sonoma, San Francisco, and Sacramento districts elected, early in 1849, district legislative assemblies. In June the San Francisco assembly issued an address recommending the election of at least twelve delegates from that district to attend a convention at San José on the third Monday in August for the purpose of organizing a government for the whole territory of California, such conditional or temporary State government to be put into operation at the earliest practicable moment after its ratification by the people, and to become a permanent State government when admitted into the Union. Simultaneously with this action of the as- sembly, though without any knowledge of it, General Riley issued at Mon- terey a proclamation for the election of delegates to a constitutional conven- tion.
Professor Royce holds that with July 7, the conquest was largely begun ; that Sloat hesitated at Monterey when he heard of the confusion produced by Fremont and the Bear Flag movement in the north, for the gallant old admiral had expected to find a peaceful territory, whose people were eager to become American citizens. Royce says: "Sloat seems to have been un- willing to commit his government to the direct support of what naturally appeared to be an irregular insurrection." Neither Sloat nor Consul Larkin
63
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
understood Fremont's instructions, and the mystery of his bold conduct per- plexed them, as they had received no orders to do anything in violence. After Sloat had raised the flag at Monterey he tried to ascertain from Fre- mont the exact nature of the authority under which the latter had acted, and the commodore was disappointed when Captain Fremont refused to confide in the naval authorities or to explain why he acted as he did. Sloat thought there should have been definite orders to warrant what Fremont did in the Bear Flag revolt. History shows that there were no such instruc- tions.
Note .- Some readers will desire a few more facts concerning the al- leged unauthorized actions of Fremont, as charged by Professor Royce and others. Careful students are referred to Royce's excellent history of the state, which covers the period from 1846 to 1856, but an outline of his views may be abridged here :
Royce holds that the evidence is definite that Fremont disobeyed his orders and acted hastily and arbitrarily, also that Sloat desired a peaceful revolution and even promised Pico that he would try to quiet the troubles in the north; so, under the circumstances, Fremont was to the commodore a disturbing force that it was difficult, even impossible, to control. Our au- thor says: "Thus here, as through all the subsequent months, Captain Fremont's conduct in the north remained effective as a serious hindrance in the way of the true conquest of California. It delayed the raising of the flag at Monterey a full week after Sloat's arrival, by making him uncertain how to apply his instructions to the anomalous conditions: and when Sloat had begun to act" the conduct of Fremont and his men in the Bear Flag epi- sode was a great obstacle in the path of peaceful settlement. Sloat and Consul Larkin realized that much had been lost by the ill-advised Sonoma episode. Says Royce: "For Larkin. the man who, of all Americans con- cerned with California during this crisis, best did his duty; the one official whose credit, both private and public, is unstained by the whole affair; and who personally, if dessert be considered, and not mere popularity, is every way by far the foremost among the men who won for us California,- Larkin had not been idle, not before Gillespie came, and much less after- ward. He had obeyed all orders. * * As an intriguer, he was dis- tinctly successful, and no drop of blood need have been shed in the conquest
64
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
of California, no flavor of the bitterness of mutual hate need have entered, at least for that moment, into the lives of the two peoples who were now jointly to occupy the land, had Larkin been left to complete his task. And although Sloat's coming would have found the work still incomplete, it would, without Captain Fremont's mischievous doings, have been well. enough advanced to insure with almost perfect certainty the peaceful change of flags."
It is then shown that two months before the Bear Flag absurdities Larkin had so far developed his plans as to have the direct assurance of Castro that he would aid the Americans in a plan to declare the country inde- pendent of Mexico "in 1847 to 1848." This information is in Larkin's let- ters to Buchanan, and may be found in the archives of the Department of State.
It is therefore concluded that Fremont had no just cause for his quarrel with Castro; that he could have had no trustworthy information of dangers that threatened the settlers from Castro or the native Californians, for there were no dangers; that Fremont had no secret message from Lieutenant Gil- lespie authorizing his acts of violence-and that his operations were purely aggressive, "and there will never again be a chance of making it appear otherwise."
Royce, through the courtesy of Hubert Howe Bancroft, had access to the original of the Gillespie dispatch, and, after calmly surveying every phase of the question and reading the proof-sheets of his forthcoming history to General Fremont, the Professor says: "Here, then, to sum it all up, is our country's honor involved in a violation of the laws of nations, under circum- stances of peculiar atrocity : a war brought among a peaceful, and, in part, cordially friendly people; anarchy and irregular hostilities threatened and begun without any provocation, and with consequences that were bad enough, as it happened, and that would have been far worse had not regular warfare just then, by a happy accident, announced its robust and soon irre- sistible presence. The irregular deeds are the immediate work of a gallant, energetic, and able young officer, who thenceforth gets general credit as a faithful secret agent of his government, and heroic defender of his country- men, as well ås savior to us of the territory of California. His reputation gained in this affair nearly makes him president in 1856. The warfare in
65
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
question is also thenceforth publicly justified by unfounded reports of Cali- fornian hostility. All this is authorized, as the story goes, by a government that thus orders sixty men to distress a vast and ill-organized land, without providing any support whereby the work of their rifles can be promptly util- ized to found any new and stable government in place of the one that they are commanded cruelly to harass, without warning to assault, and thus un- lawfully to overthrow."
Royce concludes that Fremont's explanation, made to Royce himself, "cuts off all hope that he has yet some entirely new and official revelation to make that would plainly put the responsibility for his action elsewhere than on his own shoulders or than on his father-in-law's." In spite of all, how- ever, Fremont is considered by Royce as a mistaken hero, because his fame came by either a wilful disobedience of orders, or a stupid misunderstanding of his duties under the circumstances.
66
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
CHAPTER V.
THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD.
WONDERFUL RESULTS OF JAMES MARSHALL'S ACCIDENTAL DISCOVERY AT SUTTER'S MILL ON JANUARY 24, 1848-How TOWNS AND FARMS OF CALIFORNIA WERE DEPOPULATED-GREAT INFLUX OF PIONEERS FROM ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD-THE TRANSFORMATION OF A WILDERNESS INTO AN EMPIRE WAS THE ROMANCE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
So long as men shall covet wealth under an industrial system that makes money the key to power, the history of the accidental discovery of gold in far-away California will appeal to mankind with the weird and luring fresh- ness of romance; and the story of the finding of the first tiny particles by the discoverer of 1848, the history of the ingots first smelted, and of the "dust" first used-the fact that men actually feared that the precious metal would become as common as iron-all this must ever remain the great romance of the nineteenth century. It was the romance that made an empire of a wil- derness, turned the heads of sturdy men of all nations, and worked won- ders with humble families, lifting the lowly to lordly power, and placing the cap of Furtunatus on the heads of many lucky pioneers.
The marvel of this entrancing and never tiresome story lies partly in the fact that so many generations had passed before anybody learned that what must often have been seen and handled was in fact the gold of which all nations have dreamt since the dawn of civilization; that it remained for a humble millwright to discover, quite by accident, in the glittering gravel of a tailrace, that which had lain hidden through the ages of Spanish explora- tion, and which was destined from that moment to revolutionize the history of men and countries.
And more marvelous yet does it all seem when it is remembered that all Spanish annals contained accounts of fabulous mines, supposed to abound in the west. Had any one looked for it seriously almost any day from the times of Cabrillo and Drake to the days of Sutter and Marshall gold must
Photo by Taber
OLD PLACER MINES, AMERICAN RIVER, FOLSOM, CAL.
67
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
have been discovered somewhere in the hills where it lay hid and expectant for the eye of man to behold it.
For many years it was supposed that gold was discovered by James W. Marshall on January 19, 1848, and the date is so named in so reliable a his- tory as that of Tuthill, published in 1865. The fact has since been estab- lished, however, that the date was January 24, 1848. The settling of the date belongs to the Pioneer Society of California, and the proper date is celebrated each year by the society and others interested in commemorating historical events of importance. The main outlines of the discovery may be summarized briefly :
James W. Marshall, who discovered the first gold, was a native of New Jersey, a good millwright, and an industrious and honest man. He was generous, but his companions regarded him as a man of rather visionary notions, without much balance or business acumen. His career showed that he failed to profit by his discovery.
Marshall was selected by Captain Sutter to find a site for a sawmill, and to superintend the work of building it. The location of the mill was in the small valley of Coloma, forty-five miles from Sutter's Fort, from which it was reached without trouble by wagon.
Early in January, 1848, this sawmill was almost completed. In the language of Marshall, "the water had been turned into the race to carry away some of the loose dirt and gravel, and then had been turned off again." On the afternoon of Monday, January 24, Marshall was walking in the tail- race, when on the rotten granite bed-rock he saw some yellow particles and picked up several of them, the largest about the size of grains of wheat. He told men at the mill, according to Hittell's version, that he had found a gold mine, but his story was ridiculed. He hammered his new found metal, and it was malleable. He compared it with a gold coin, and was con- vinced that he had really discovered gold. Sutter tested the substance with acids, after which the world soon knew the facts-the world of the west in a few months, the wide world within a year.
The Pioneer, a newspaper published in San José more than a generation ago, has a different version of the original discovery, and it is said to have basis in truth. According to that version Marshall tried hard to keep the discovery a secret. except from his employer. The account states that Sut-
68
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
ter and Marshall at once agreed to keep their secret, but they made the mis- take of searching for more gold, this within view of many other working- men. As the enthusiastic prospectors searched carefully together and gloated over new evidences of their treasure, finding many rich deposits, their eager gestures and looks betrayed their secret to a close-observing Mormon shoveler. He followed them cautiously, and soon guessed, then knew the truth. Hav- ing less reason than the original discoverer to keep his own counsel he at once told his fellows, and in a day or two the neighborhood knew what had happened. Soon the immediate vicinity was transformed into an eager band of gold hunters.
A number of Mormon immigrants were nearing California by the South- ern Pass through the Rocky Mountains, and they hastened to the spot of Marshall's discovery. Within a week the immediate neighborhood swarmed with diggers, and the excitement was intense. Within ten days more than a thousand people were busy with spades, shovels, picks, wooden bowls, and all manner of utensils that helped in the work of making the earth yield her secrets. The news spread fast all over California, and the excitement grew as the news got farther from home. Families were deserted by their male members. Masters and servants abandoned workshop and field, husbands and lovers went forth to dig ingots while wives and sweethearts dreamt of nuggets and castles. Sutter's Mill was the watchword, gold the ambition of all.
Yerba Buena and San José were then the chief towns of the territory, and they were abandoned by all save a few. The ships in San Francisco Bay were deserted by their crews, newspapers were suspended, and no enter- prise of any importance was undertaken during the first flush of excitement following the news of the discovery. Honorable S. O. Houghton passed through San José in the fall of 1848, and he describes the town as desolate. Grain and other crops lay unharvested save as cattle and horses ate it in the fields, business was abandoned, and there were none to do the work of life except women, children, and a few old men and cripples.
The first printed account of the remarkable discovery appeared in the Californian of March 15, 1848-an item to the effect that gold to the value of $30 had been received in San Francisco. In all the years that have passed since that date there has never been so significant a news item in any San
69
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
Francisco newspaper. Before the middle of June the entire country was awakened by the cry of "Gold! gold!" By September, 1849, the reports of fabulous amounts of gold in California had reached the Atlantic states, and long before that time some of the Californians had begun to fear that the new metal was to be as common as iron in Pennsylvania. There was no mint, however, until J. S. Ormsby & Company established a private one in Sacra- mento, late in the summer of 1849. Doctor Light, a dentist, was put in charge at a salary of $50 a day. This mint coined five and ten dollar pieces, and they bore the stamp of the mint. Miners and others were charged a royalty of $4 for each $20 coined.
We have it on good authority that San Francisco's population in the spring of 1847 was about seven hundred, and in March, 1848, it had grown to more than eight hundred. Two wharves were under construction, a pub- lic school was doing good work, and various other enterprises were under way. The atmosphere was that of a prosperous little American village. Real estate sales were going forward under O'Farrell's survey. It is in- teresting to know that lots north of Market street were selling for sixteen dollars, and those south of that street were bringing twenty-nine. The city embraced very little territory except Telegraph and Rincon hills.
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.