USA > California > A picture of pioneer times in California, illustrated with anecdotes and stores taken from real life > Part 12
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aid of the lowest and worst elements of the community, and these elements always get the upper hand and run the Com- mittee to serve their own purposes. In this case, though the Committee did the good I name, it at the same time did incalcu- lable injury to the State. It checked the immigration of good and solid men from the older States to ours, particularly of families. Capital, always sensitive, shrank away in fear from our shores. The many law-abiding people of other States and lands, who had begun to send large sums of money to San Francisco for investment, at once countermanded their orders, and turned away their eyes from a State where it was evident anarchy was possible, if not probable, at any moment. If those really worthy men, who had sanctioned the formation of this Vigilance Committee and supported it with their money, had spent half that money and given half the personal attention they gave in controlling the action of the Committee to bring about a reformation in the administration of the laws of the State, they would have effected ten times the good, and, instead of repelling capital and immigration, they would have invited a vast increase of both. The formation of the Committee was like sending forth the declaration, which was untrue in fact, that we were unable to live like other civilized communities, under laws framed by ourselves. This, of course, could not but retard our progress in every way. No good man who had connected him- self with the committee wanted himself paraded as an actor in its doings. Such men joined it with great reluctance, as I have already said, and wanted it forgotten as soon as possible. But the authors of the "Annals " drag them all out to view by name, besmearing them with laudations and exhibiting them in wood- cuts as all crowded around Sam Brannan and men of his stamp, with their mouths open in wondering admiration at his reckless, lawless harangues they report as made at public meetings called by the Committee. They go yet further, and have woodcuts of the hanging of the wretches who were executed by the Commit- tee inserted in their book. Recollect that this book, the "An- nals," was dedicated to the "California Pioneers," and the dedication was understood to be acceptable to them. This fact undoubtedly indorsed the Vigilance Committee of '51 in all its parts by that society.
What was the consequence of this? In the first place, all the small, weak-minded men who saw themselves paraded in the
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pages of the "Annals" as the heroes whose self-sacrificing deeds the authors of the "Annals " felt bound to rescue from oblivion, became puffed up, and now boasted of what before they had taken care to keep to themselves, The really good men, who saw themselves paraded with unasked and unwished-for praise, did not think it prudent to bring on any discussion by repudi- ating what they in sorrow had deemed themselves obliged to do in that trying time. This begat a very widespread feeling that a Vigilance Committee was a first-rate mode of reforming abuses. The restless loafers of the community, who longed once more for the handling of other people's money and for a brief notori- ety that they could not get in any other way, lost no opportu- nity of urging the renewed action of the Vigilance Committee, or of the formation of a new one. In this they failed for a long time, and San Francisco began to feel the good effects of the re- stored confidence of the outside world. Suddenly, in 1856, an event occurred which again dashed back our prosperity and clouded over the fair name we had begun to recover with a darker shadow than had yet fallen on it. James King of Wm., a gentleman of the highest character, universally esteemed and respected by all who knew him, had commenced the publication of the Evening Bulletin as a reform paper. He had but little ex- perience as a journalist, and attacked corruption in office in such a rough, violent way that he defeated his own object and made the man attacked seem the object of personal persecution by the editor. However, King was regarded by the well-disposed of the community as their champion, and they urged him on and promised him protection from actions at law or otherwise, until he almost challenged and seemed to seek personal encounter in the streets. The result was that in January, 1856, he was assas- sinated, or, as some prefer to say, killed in the streets by a man of the name of Casey, whom he had attacked in his paper. Had the Evening Bulletin then been conducted with the judg- ment and ability we now see displayed in that same paper, how different might have been the result, for its noble, uncompro- mising war on the villainies of the day would not, in that case, have endangered the life of its great reform editor, and lie would have lived to do the city and whole State incalculable services. As it was, he was struck down in his usefulness, and his young life lost to us. His death brought into life the old Vigilance Committee, the dead body of which had been so carefully en-
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balmed by the authors of the " Annals." The merits and de- merits of this new movement is a sore subject to discuss, in San Francisco, to this very day, though more than twenty years have elapsed since the second Vigilance Committee was disbanded. The death of Mr. King was universally regretted, and the whole people felt it as a terrible outrage, and if, in this excitement, the man Casey had been hanged within an hour after his capture, no one would have been surprised, and not a grumble would have been heard; but in an evil hour the Vigilance Committee was re- organized; they captured the city, defied all law, and commenced to deal out what they called justice. Many good men of course there were, who joined them, but nothing to the good men who refused. The Brannan stamp of men were of course leaders in this second Vigilance Committee, and before long every rough and scalawag in the city was on their side, but even with all this they would have been unable to maintain themselves a week in power, but that it so happened that, a few months before this time, some twelve hundred Frenchmen had been landed in San Francisco, who were banished from France on account of riotous conduct in Paris. In banishing them the French Government had given them a free passage to their choice of countries, and, unfortunately for us, they chose our State. The Vigilance Com- mittee organized many of these Frenchmen into a sort of a stand- ing army. A fort was erected, partly of stuffed gunny bags. It was of considerable strength, and was known as "Fort Gunny Bag." With this French army and the fort as a prison house, the Committee found no difficulty in maintaining their authori- ty. What all this was for no one could explain, for in the state of intense hate that sprung up between what was known as the " Vigilantes " and the "Law-and-Order" men, no reform of a lasting character was possible. Johnson, the Governor of the State, was called on by the inhabitants to disband the Commit- tee; but he was a weak man, with neither the courage nor ability to face the difficulty. He responded by the usual proclamation, and notified the county militia to hold themselves in readiness in case he should need their services. At the same time he an- nounced that the command of the State forces was to be given to General (then Captain) Wm. T. Sherman.
Everywhere in the country preparations began to be made to respond to the Governor's call, when suddenly it was announced that Captain Sherman had thrown up the command, and that
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Governor Johnson had some negotiations with the Vigilance Committee, in which they outwitted him. This brought such contempt on the legally constituted authorities that almost everybody proclaimed himself a " Vigilante." The Committee continued in power nearly all Summer, hanging and banishing every one they saw fit to hang or banish. They established a kind of inquisition, through which, by secret trials, many acts of tyranny and oppression were committed. At length, their funds failed them, and they were obliged to send adrift the Paris ruf- fians and give up the fort. So ended the second Vigilance Committee, leaving heartburnings and hates on both sides, that smolder even now in the breasts of many. General Sherman at first accepted the command offered by the Governor, but sud- denly resigned. The general public did not know his reason for this resignation, and the Law-and-Order men found great fault with him; but in his " Memoirs," recently published, he explains fully and in the most satisfactory manner all about his resignation of that command, from which it appears that it was impossible for him to have done otherwise than resign, after General Wool had broken his promise and refused to give the necessary arms for the use of the State forces. Yes; the second Vigilance Committee is dead. Let no one write its history. The sooner it is forgotten the better. The fruits were dissen- sions and hates in the community; a destruction of all business for a long period; the discouragement of immigration to our State, and the spread throughout the whole State of a disrespect. for the laws, from which we have not recovered to this day. As we look back on it for good results, we cannot see even the shadow of one compared to the misfortunes it brought upon us. Notwithstanding all this, many-very many-good and true men stood by it to the last. The recollection of the first Vigi- lance Committee in the minds of the people who lived in San Francisco at that time is altogether different. That Committee was supported in power by no French outlaws. The first act they did that was disapproved of by the community caused them to disband. It all comes to this: Either let us have no constitution and laws, and leave the people, as they were in '49, to govern themselves in their primary capacity; or, if we do have a constitution and laws, let us never, under any circum- stances, sanction their violation, as a means of temporary relief. Either form of government might do, but the two systems can- 8
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not work together, for the reason to which I have before drawn your attention.
It was truly wonderful how obedient the people of '49 were to the edicts of the despotic Alcaldes they themselves had placed in power in all the mining camps and small communities throughout the State. If an Emperor, surrounded by powerful armies, had placed these Alcaldes in power, the obedience to their fiats could not have been more complete, while it certainly would not have been half so cheerfully yielded. Let me relate in the next chapter a little incident that helps to illustrate this.
CHAPTER X.
BILL LIDDLE-A DANGEROUS PASS IN THE MOUNTAINS-OLD KATE'S INTELLI- GENCE-THE MEETING IN THE PASS-VALOR OF OLD KATE-THE DISCOM- FITED CONDUCTOR-THE TRIAL AND THE ALCALDE'S DECISION-COMPARISON BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW METHODS OF SETTLING DISPUTES-LIFE OF A POLITICIAN-A CABINET MINISTER'S ADVICE TO A YOUNG APPLICANT FOR A POSITION.
In 1849, I owned a pack train of eight large American mules. They were in charge of a conductor of the name of Bill Liddle. Bill had them on the American river, packing merchandise for a trader in the northern mines. In one case he loaded his train heavily and started for a mining camp far in the interior. On this trip he was obliged to pass along a dangerous trail of some two miles in length. It was cut into the side of a rugged cliff that overhung the river. It was just wide enough for a loaded mule or horse to walk on safely, with the cliff on one side and a fearful precipice on the other. Bill started his train in on this pass, with old Kate, a heavy, square-built bay mule, as usual, on the lead. Old Kate was a favorite with us all. Bill used to insist that she understood English just as well as he did, and he always addressed her as if he was sincere in this assertion, and I was often forced to laugh at the wonderful intelligence she showed in obeying him. Sometimes, when he turned her loose in the corral and went away, she would come to the stable door, unlatch it herself, proceed directly to a bin where Bill kept barley in sacks, raise the cover, take out a sack, set it up on one end, rip the sewing as neatly as Bill could, and then stand quietly feeding out of it until she was discovered. On these occasions Bill would shake his head, and exclaim: "I wonder who Kate is. Oh ! I wish I knew, for of course she is some famous woman, condemned to live on earth as a mule."
On the day I speak of, Bill had not advanced more than a quar- ter of a mile on the narrow trail, riding quietly behind his train,
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when he was startled by hearing a loud bray from Kate, and in a moment all the mules were standing still. Bill now looked ahead and saw that a return, unloaded train of fifteen California mules was approaching from the other direction on a jog trot. It was impossible for Bill to turn his mules around with their loads on, and there was no room to unload; nor was there room for the mules of the two trains to pass without almost sure de- struction. Bill raised himself in his saddle and in a furious voice called on the other conductor to stop his train. This he did, but told Bill that he would not go back on the trail, be- cause it was two miles to the end of the cliff, and Bill would lose only a few hundred yards by going back. Bill explained the impossibility of turning his large American mules with their heavy packs, or of unloading them on such a narrow trail. All this while old Kate stood right in the center of the trail, her forelegs well apart, as if to brace herself. Her nose dropped lower than usual, and her long, heavy ears were thrown forward as if aimed at the head mule of the other train, while her large, bright eyes were fixed on the animal's motions. " Well," said the conductor of the California mules, "I don't care a d-, I will not go back; I am too infernal tired, and I am willing to take my chances. It is your place to go back, and if I lose a mule you will have to pay for it."
Bill protested, but there was no use. The conductor swore and talked, and then, cracking his whip, called out to his lead mule: " Get up, Sal! take the rocks; take the inside. The right hand is ours by law. Make a dash, old gal, and go ahead!" Then he gave a loud halloo and again cracked his whip for an advance. His mules seemed to know that there was danger. Sal, the leader, hugged close to the rocks, and made an excited rush forward to get inside Kate. Up to this time Kate had never moved a muscle, and stood just in the center of the trail as at first. Bill feared for a moment that she did not see the danger of letting Sal get inside of her, and, again raising himself in his saddle, called out at the top of his voice: " Kate, my girl, go for them; pitch them all, and the driver with them, to h-1!" Before Bill's order was fairly past his lips Kate gave an unearthly bray, as if in answer; at the same time she dropped on her knees, with her head stretched out close along the rocks, her neck and lower jaw rubbing the trail, and received Sal across her neck. In a second more poor Sal was high in the air, and then soused
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heavily into the river below. Kate, keeping her kneeling posi- tion, rushed on for the next mule, which she sent ou to follow Sal. The Californians now huddled back close together in fear of the kneeling monster before them, but their driver, maddened by his loss, hallooed and whipped them on. He was in hopes that by a sudden and furious rush they could be made to leap and dash over Kate, and then he had no fears but that he would dislodge the rest of the train and get even for his loss. But he did not know Kate, or he never would have tried such a desper- ate game. Bill continued to halloo: " Well done, my beauty! Down with them, Kate! Down with every last one of them, driver and all!"
In a minute, one, two and three more of the Californians were on their headlong way to the river. The remainder now sat back with a sullen determination not to move a step forward, which neither swearing, hallooing nor whips could shake. Kate now arose to her feet and took her old position just as before, with her ominous ears dropped forward as though nothing had happened. "Well," said the discomfited conductor, " I will go back, but when we get out of this trail you and I will settle ac- counts." Bill made no reply, but waited patiently while the conductor turned his mules one by one on the narrow trail, and started back with five less than he had on meeting Bill's train. Bill examined his revolver; it was all right. He drew his knife from the sheath; it was all right. The moment they emerged from the cliff, Bill took his revolver in hand, and, driving his spurs into his horse, was in a moment face to face with the loser of the mules, saying, with perfect coolness: " Shall we settle this business here, or shall we go before the Alcalde of the next dig- gings ?" Without answering at once, the man addressed took a good look into Bill's quiet, almost stolid face, and, appearing to think that Bill meant business, he answered : "Damn me, if you have not got a great look of that she-devil of a mule of yours that threw mine down the cliff ! Are you and she any blood relations that you know of ?" Not at all offended, Bill answered: "I cannot say positively that we are, but one thing I can say, I would rather be a full brother to a mule that would act as Kate did to-day, than a forty-second cousin to a man that would act as you did." " Well, well," said the other, "put up your damned revolver, and let us settle matters before the Alcalde. His camp is only half a mile farther back, so I will just leave my mules
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here to pick grass, and go on with you." They now rode side by side, and talked as though they were good friends. They soon reached the miners' camp, and found the Alcalde down in a shaft he was sinking for the purpose of prospecting his claim deeper. It was old John Spruce, well known in early days on the Sacramento river. The mule drivers asked him to come up, but he said that was unnecessary, as they could just tell him the case and he would decide it at once. He then took a large bucket he and his partner had been using to elevate the earth out of the shaft, and, turning it upside down, sat on it. He then took a cigar from his vest pocket, lit it, and commenced smoking, lean- ing his back against the wall of the shaft, He folded his arms across his breast, and told the windlass-man, his partner, to go and get his Bible, the only one in the diggings. When it was brought he told Bill to take it. The Alcalde then repeated the oath to him, and Bill assented and kissed the book. The other conductor did the same, and then, lying forward on the wind- lass, looking down on the Alcalde, he made his complaint against Bill, and stated the facts very clearly, asking that Bill be adjudged to owe and pay him six hundred dollars, five hun- dred for the mules and one hundred for the pack-saddles lost with them. Bill now took his place at the windlass and made his statement, and the case was submitted. The Alcalde took the cigar from his mouth, and, looking up at the two men, gave his decision in these words: " My friends, I find for the defend- ant. The driver of the unloaded mules acted outrageously in try- ing to pass the American mules while heavily loaded on that narrow trail, that I know so well. If he had made such an at- tempt without himself losing heavily, and with loss to the oppo- site party, I would have given heavy damages against him. As it is, I dismiss the case and order plaintiff to pay the costs of Court, which are only one ounce." Here the Alcalde rose, turned up his bucket, and commenced to shovel away to fill it. As he worked on, he told the plaintiff to go to a store kept by one Meyer, not far off, and weigh out the ounce of dust and leave it there for him. This was done without hesitation. Bill went along and stood the treats, and paid for a bottle of the best brandy Meyer had, to be given in the evening to the Alcalde and his partner as they returned from their work.
So terminated a claim that now-a-days would probably reach the Supreme Court for a final decision, after the amount in dispute
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had been spent three times over in law fees. Who can blame us '49ers for sometimes sighing for the days when we had neither constitution nor Legislature, and when the people always acted honestly in their primary capacity. As I have before stated, in '49 there was no such thing as stealing or attempts at fraud. Every one seemed to act with honor, one with another. Of course there were exceptions to all this, but the exceptions were truly very few. Our troubles came with the advent of the office- holders and office-hunters, of courts and legislatures, forced on us, at least two years too soon, by hungry politicians who came here, not to work or pursue a legitimate business, but to live as such men can only live, by scheming and plundering the public crib. These were the men the "Annals" call the " first and most respectable citizens of the State," who " could wait no longer."
In anything I have said I do not want to give the impression that I am, in fact, in favor of having no organized State gov- ernment, but when I look back to our condition here in '49, and I may include most of 1850, I feel proud of the conduct, taken as a whole, of the first immigrants to California. If it had been such as described by the " Annals," I would have felt that our American institutions were a terrible failure, and wholly incapa- ble of producing a great and noble people, who could govern themselves in all, and under all circumstances. I have shown how comfortably we got on without an organized government, with nothing but our early training to guide us on, to show that we were not recreant to that early training, but most faith- ful to it, and fully alive to its meaning. I will ask my young readers to let me here digress for the purpose of saying a word to induce them to enlist in the cause of reform, so much needed in the administration of our State government. When you find yourself in a position of influence or power to do it, abolish every office in the whole State it is possible to do without, and curtail every expenditure it is possible to curtail without injury to the State. Open the way for the offices you do retain to women, old men and the maimed. In this way you will check the mania for office holding and hunting-a reform worth working for. This mania is the ruin of all young men who yield to it. Such a young man, let his talents be ever so promising, be- comes a dissembler, a sneak, a sycophant; he becomes an adept in political wire-pulling. He does not dare to express an hon-
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est political opinion of his own. In all things he must follow the lead of the party or man who put him in office. He per- forms the duties of that office with the constant fear that to- morrow his bread and butter will be cut off. He sacrifices not only his independence of action and thought, but his very man- hood. If he is successful in holding office for many years in his life, what is the result when at length he is dismissed, as he sure- ly will be, sooner or later? Why, the best years of his life are gone forever, and he is, most likely, poor and shunned by all.
From my own observations, I tell you truly, my young readers, that I would sooner see a son of mine take the position of hod- carrier for a start in life, if that were necessary, than that he should take the best paying clerkship in any government office, either State or National, or any of the petty county offices. If you are surprised at what I say, just get some one who can re- member for twenty years back to give you the history of the office holders of your own county, whatever county that may be, and after you have it I think you will adopt my views of office- holding for young men. With women the case is otherwise, and so it is with men who have accomplished the main battle of their lives, or are physically debarred from the usual avocations of men. I will conclude this digression from the object of my book by giving you an extract from a Washington letter I found in the Call a few weeks ago, as it is just in point:
" A LIVING TOMB."
[H. V. Redfield's Washington Letter.]
All the heads of the bureaus try to discourage young men from entering the departments, as it is a life without a future. The other day I heard a Cabinet minister talking to a young chap who wanted a place.
"My young friend, " said he, "don't apply. You may not be able to pass an examination; this would be mortifying. Save your money and your pa- tience, and go home. Saw wood, drive cows, anything honorable; but pre- serve your independence. A clerkship here is no qualification for anything. Not one in ten saves a dollar. Itis an expensive place to live. Board is high and the weather hot. I have a man in my department who has been in forty years."
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