USA > California > California; an intimate history > Part 12
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After this no further attempt was made to interfere with the committee, but neither were they called upon to execute further vengeance. Those of the Coves that had dared to linger on fled like rats, and for a while the city had a complete rest from crime, although seldom from excitement.
It was now a substantial-looking city, with real hotels and solid houses in place of shacks and tents; a hospital, a mercantile library, a cemetery (for a time the dead had been buried where they fell and often sickened in the streets), churches, brick and granite business buildings, and an orderly population-for a time. The better class no
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longer gambled in public or attended bull-fights at the mission; and although the city was still unpaved and the rats ran over the citizens' feet as they floundered through the mud at night, and the prices remained so high that the San Franciscans of the '50's would have laughed to scorn the complaints of to-day, at least the proud citizens could go unarmed once more and enjoy the knowledge that their belongings were their own and that there was a reasonable prospect of dying in bed.
The population of California at the close of 1853 was estimated at 326,000, of whom 204,000 were Americans, 30,000 Germans, 28,000 French, 20,000 Hispano-Amer- icans, other foreigners of white extraction 5,000, Chinese 17,000, Indians 30,000, Negroes 2,000. Of this number one hundred thousand were supposed to be working miners, the others forming the population of the towns and rural communities. The population of San Francisco was fifty thousand, thirty-two thousand of whom were Americans. By this time the metropolis boasted about eight thousand women, good, bad, and indifferent. Three hundred children, many of them the abandoned offspring of the criminal class, had wandered into a town which had little welcome for the unprotected. In 1851 my grand- father, Stephen Franklin, assisted by several ladies of the different churches, succeeded in founding an orphan- asylum, and gathered up such of the waifs as had sur- vived neglect or had not gasped out their feeble lives, abandoned among the sand-hills.
There were fifteen fire-companies in this ambitious but inflammable city, which now had nearly two hundred and fifty streets and alleys, two public squares, sixteen hotels, sixty-three bakeries, five public markets, twenty bathing-
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establishments, fifteen flour and saw mills, thirteen foun- dries and iron-works, nineteen banking-firms, eighteen public stables, ten public schools with twenty-one teach- ers and 1,259 scholars, besides private schools, eighteen churches with 8,000 members, six military companies with 350 members in all, two government hospitals and one private one, an almshouse, eight lodges of secret be- nevolent societies, a fine law library, two hundred attor- neys, four public benevolent societies, twelve newspapers, a Philharmonic Society, five theaters, two race-courses, several lecture - halls, twelve large wharves, forty - two wholesale liquor houses, and five hundred and thirty- seven saloons. It was now five years since the great immigration had given a fresh impulse to the once serene little city, and it had lived at the rate of fifty. It cov- ered three square miles, and its real estate was valued at thirty-eight million dollars. Since it had risen from the ashes of the last fire in 1851 it had begun to feel more like a veritable city, not quite like other cities perhaps, but still one of which its indomitable and sorely tried founders could well be proud. After its sweeping clean- up it breathed freely for almost three years; but although it had few delusions about the permanence of good con- duct in that town of many nationalities and temptations, nothing was further from its mind than tolling the bell for another Committee of Vigilance.
But before describing those tragic and far-reaching events which led to the organization of the most formi- dable public tribunal in the history of modern civilization it is necessary to devote a chapter to the politics of the state from the time of the American occupation, in 1846, until the assassination of James King of Wm.
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THE military governors of California immediately fol- lowing the occupation were Sloat, Stockton, Kearney, Mason, and Riley. On April 13, 1849, Brig .- Gen. Ben- nett Riley, upon his arrival in California, announced that he had assumed the administration of the civil affairs of California. He found a territory seething with political problems in no wise obscured by the ex- citement of the gold discovery.
Congress had provided no territorial government for its new possession on the Pacific coast, although the treaty with Mexico had been ratified in May of the previous year. It was not long before the anxious and indignant Californians, their need of definite laws increasing daily, learned the reason. The two great parties in Congress had locked horns over the question of the introduction of slavery into the vast territory extending to the Rocky Mountains and known as California. The South had advocated the annexation of Texas and the Mexican War solely in the hope of increasing its own strength, Con- gress being equally divided on the slave question.
President Polk in his message of December 5, 1848, had pointed out that California with its abnormal con- ditions demanded the immediate organization of a terri- torial government. Its inhabitants, already numbering
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many hundreds of Americans, were entitled to the pro- tection of the laws and Constitution of the United States, and yet were left without any provision according them their rights. It was true that the very limited power of the executive had been exercised to preserve and protect them from anarchy; but the only government in the country was that established by the military authority. In other words, California had a mere de facto govern- ment-resting on the presumed consent of the inhabi- tants-consisting of nine parts military authority and the rest such efforts as minor officials might make to in- sure peace by the enforcement of the old Mexican ma- chinery. The Americans in California had accepted this condition on the understanding that Congress, immedi- ately upon the consummation of the treaty with Mexico, would legislate a legal and authoritative government. New-comers and old cherished nothing but contempt for the rusty and inadequate Mexican laws, and they liked the undemocratic military rule no better. As time passed and no relief came from Washington they grew more and more indignant, holding mass-meetings all over the state, save at the gold-mines, which preferred their own laws.
All that Washington had done at the beginning of 1849 was to extend the revenue laws over the new terri- tory, making San Francisco a port of entry, and Monterey, San Diego, and what was called later Fort Yuma, ports of delivery; authorize the President to appoint a col- lector of customs, and provide a complete revenue system; appoint William van Voorhies agent for the establishment of post-offices and the transmission of mails throughout the territory; and, in January, to ap-
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point a commission under John B. Weller to run and mark the boundary line between Mexico and the United States. At the end of the Polk administration, in March, 1849, with the free and slave states equal numerically, it looked as if California might precipitate the death- struggle between the North and the South.
There were already many able men in California apart from the hardy pioneers seeking fortune at the mines; men of brains, education, political experience, executive ability, and sense of public responsibility. Some of the men- Sutter, Leese, Howard, Pacificus Ord, Walter Colton, Larkin, Hartnell, Semple, Brannan, Don Timeteo Mur- phy, Josiah Belden, first mayor of San José -had lived in the country for many years before the dis- covery of gold. A few were native Californians-Valle- jo, Pablo de la Guerra (son of the redoubtable old Don José), Romualdo Pacheco, Carrillo, Covarrubias. But the ablest by far were William Gwin and David Broderick, two men who had come to the future great state to gratify their political ambitions more quickly than was possible in older communities, and share in its spectacular oppor- tunities. Gwin was from Tennessee, a gentleman by birth, upon whom fortune continued to smile until the Civil War, a man of wide experience in politics, and, what was rare for that day, of considerable personal ex- perience of Europe. He also had had adventures enough to harden him for the rôle of pioneer. He may be ranked as the most intellectual, brilliant, subtle, suave, and un- scrupulous leader California has ever had. His one rival was Broderick, an Irish-American, a stone-mason's son, who had been a fireman and ward politician in New York. His native abilities were as great as, if not greater
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than, Mr. Gwin's, but he had had little education and at that time was rough in dress and manner. But there was no political trick he did not know, nor had he the least scruple in using the basest henchmen to accomplish his ends. But he was a man in whom good predominated outside of politics, as will be seen; and he possessed, and gradually developed, real greatness. Both men were Democrats, but Gwin was proslavery, Broderick violently opposed to it and determined that it should never be in- troduced into California. He was twenty-nine years old at this time, Gwin forty-four-so advanced an age in that era of young men that he was always mentioned as "old Gwin." He was a very handsome man, however, tall, stately, smooth-shaven, patrician. Broderick, it must be confessed, looked like a chimpanzee; his upper lip was abnormally long, and his face fringed from ear to ear, but he was quite as impressive in his way as Mr. Gwin, and had a cold blue-gray eye of extraordinary penetration and power.
Frémont also had come back to California to play a political rôle in the territory so romantically associated with his name, but his California career was practically at an end. Other men to figure in the history of the state and of San Francisco particularly were William T. Cole- man, Horace Hawes, Eugene Casserly, Hall McAllister, Peter Burnett, John McDougal, Thomas B. King, James King of Wm., Joseph H. Folsom, John W. Geary, Theo- dore Payne, and a future chief justice of the United States, Stephen J. Field, at that time identified with Marysville.
These men were not tempted, or but briefly, by the mines. They recognized their own mental abilities as well as the future greatness of California; but they were
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appalled by the conditions bordering on chaos, and they had asked Governor Mason to call a constitutional con- vention. But although Mason was the best and most sympathetic of the military governors, he was a cool and wary officer and felt no disposition toward so radical a measure. Before his administration came to an end, however, he was convinced that California in the absence of protection from Washington and with a vast and increasing number of problems, must do something for herself, and advised his successor, General Riley, to call the convention.
Riley demurred and hesitated, but when he learned that once more Congress had adjourned without organizing a territorial government for California he issued a proclama- tion to the effect that it was necessary to call a constitu- tional convention, and appointed August Ist as election day for delegates. These elections caused great excite- ment all over the territory, but most of the men who wished to be delegates and had organized their forces properly were sent to Monterey. It was, on the whole, a notable gathering, and among the thirty-seven delegates were many of the men already mentioned. The conven- tion met in Colton Hall, Monterey, on September Ist, and lasted until the middle of October. There was no ques- tion from the beginning of a practically universal senti- ment against the introduction of slavery into the territory; and Gwin, too wise ever to advocate a lost cause openly, strove to preserve the territorial boundaries of the cession, which embraced the present Nevada, Utah, and Arizona, and foist it upon Congress for admission into the Union as one vast state. Inevitably it would fall to pieces of its own weight, and it would then be an easy matter not only
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to deliver portions of it to the Southern faction, but to separate southern California from the north and capture it for slavery. The native Californians, who were already disgusted and alarmed, favored the division at once, but the whole scheme, subtle and open, was defeated. North- ern men were on the watch for every move of the enemy, and the Americans of the intermediate period in Cali- fornia were determined upon a compact state between the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.
The state constitution, closely following that of the state of New York, was drawn up finally, and in No- vember submitted to the people. They adopted it promptly, and Peter H. Burnett was elected governor, John McDougal lieutenant-governor, Edward Gilbert and George W. Wright Representatives to Congress. On Saturday, December 15th, the first legislature under the constitution met at San José, and Gwin and Frémont were elected United States Senators; but Frémont drew the short term and enjoyed the coveted honor for only six months.
When the Senators and Representatives arrived in Washington the fight over the admission of California was at white-heat. Clay, curiously enough, advocated it without the slave clause, and Webster refused to vote for the prohibition, "as California was destined for freedom, and he would not take the pains to reaffirm an ordinance of nature or re-enact the will of God!" Calhoun, on the other hand, expended his dying energy in denouncing the Californians for daring to make a state without the con- sent of Congress, insisted that it should be remanded back to its old condition, as its admission would irretriev- ably destroy the equilibrium between the two national
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sections. Having exhausted their thunder, they put the momentous question to the vote; and in August, 1850, the bill providing for the admission of California as a state passed the Senate, all members from free states and six from slave states voting in its favor. On September 19, 1850, President Fillmore signed the bill, and California became the thirty-first state of the Union.
When the news made its slow way to the Pacific coast there was ringing of bells in San Francisco, and, in all the towns of the state, bonfires, balls, and general rejoicing. One great question was settled for all time, and the new constitution had given them the laws of an old and highly civilized state. But the laws proved to be more civilized than the inhabitants. As we have seen, the responsible citizens of San Francisco had twice been obliged to take the law into their own hands; and this was done again and again at the mines.
A community large enough for the making of money in more than living quantities would seem to be much like the human body afflicted with certain microbous diseases: the germs can be frozen out or dried out by change of climate and drastic measures, but when vigil- ance is relaxed they swarm back to devour the body or the body politic. If it were not for this eternal warfare between good and evil life would be dull enough, no doubt, and anathema to the reformers; but it is certainly a remarkable fact that with advancing civilization there is little or no diminution of the number and prowess of the forces of evil. As quickly as the surgeon's knife is applied to one spot and the world triumphantly informed that this particular abuse is gone for ever, the same malig- nant elements rooted in human nature break out in an-
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FIRST ADMISSION-DAY CELEBRATION, 1850, CALIFORNIA AND MONTGOMERY STREETS
POLITICS
other spot, are called by another name, and eat their vile way until once more they are cut from the surface and forced to burrow toward a new pasture. In other words, the good men (or the better) go to sleep after a grand display of all their latent forces, and the bad men (who have enjoyed a rest and recuperated) move silently to the fore.
In a young community like San Francisco, which had skipped the intermediate stages of growth and developed abruptly from an almost innocent and quite contented childhood to a raging, crude, and heterogeneous ma- turity, life was a matter of extremes. Men grew rich in a month by the inflation of prices and lost all in the reac- tion after a wild period of speculation; they were upright patriotic citizens, behaving themselves astonishingly well, considering the atmosphere in which they lived, or they were disreputable gamblers, pimps, and outlaws. All classes and kinds had but one thing in common-they were as extravagant as if the very sand-dunes behind the ugly uncomfortable little city were composed of grains of gold and would be renewed until the end of time. Wives and daughters had been sent for before the fifties were well advanced, and they dressed quite as brilliantly as the ladies of the lower ten thousand; many private carriages looked singularly out of place in those uneven streets fringed with garbage; there were nightly balls, and the theaters were crowded whenever artists found the way to that remote coast. In that feverish unreal life the domestic settled existence of older communities was almost unknown; business, politics, and the ever- increasing problems of the town, furnished a constant excitement for the men, who preferred to spend their
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evenings in the private rooms of public resorts discussing ways and means. The women had to find excitement for themselves; and the consequence was many divorces. In fact, unless a woman had young children to ab- sorb her, or abnormally high principles, or some inner capital, flirtation was practically the only distraction in that new community absolutely without the common resources of civilization. It was for that reason that when such natural social leaders as Mrs. Hall McAllister, Mrs. Gwin, and other Southern women did take hold and organize society, their laws were more stringent than anything they had left behind them. Women who would remain members of that select band must at least exer- cise prudence in their indiscretions; and although no one in that gossiping community was free from slander, if sufficiently prominent, at least there was a high standard, and this standard existed until almost the present time.
But these women numbered hundreds, and the women of commerce swarmed into San Francisco by the thou- sand and paraded the streets constantly, bolder than they have ever dared to be since-although any woman in a crinoline and a coal-scuttle bonnet must have found some difficulty in making herself look bold and unclassed -and these, besides being the decoys for the gambling- houses, saloons, and restaurants, furnished cause for many of the divorces.
And as for the underworld, it might flee the immediate wrath, but it invariably crept back-unless lynched-and was augmented by villains of a new dye. After the sup- pression of lawlessness in 1851 the citizens had much to oc- cupy their attention for several years. Until 1854 money came freely, people seemed to grow richer every day. As
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a natural result they became intoxicated with prosperity and over-built, over-speculated, over-imported, and spent with mad extravagance. In 1854 came the inevitable re- action, which was precipitated by a dry winter and crop failures, the ruinous speculation and even dishonesty of business men and bankers, the looting of the city treasury by officials. In 1854 three hundred out of a thousand business houses failed, and in the course of the year there were filed in the courts seventy-seven petitions of in- solvency, aggregating many millions of dollars. In the following year the insolvencies numbered one hundred and ninety - seven, and several banking - houses failed, crippling or ruining outright a large number of depositors and business firms.
It may be imagined that during this stormy period the excitement was greater than ever before, men were more individual and self-centered in their interests. This was the opportunity for thousands of human buzzards, and they swarmed in, fattening on prosperity and ruin alike.
By far the most devastating of these to the distracted city were the professional politicians, men of the lowest type, who had been educated in the wards of the Eastern cities, and whose sole attitude to the world was that of the looter in search of loot. Either finding it expedient to vanish from their native haunts, or scenting heavier dividends in vice, they came to the new city by every ship; and while its citizens were using all their energies, first in aggrandizement and pleasure and then to keep their unseaworthy ship above the storm waters, they quietly took political possession.
Honest men, in fact, learned to avoid the polls, gangs
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of bullies being on hand to relieve the political organiza- tion from the embarrassment of honest men's votes. Conventions were a mere matter of form, the inner ring having made its decisions in secret conclave; votes were sold to the highest bidder, ballot-boxes were stuffed, the type in vogue having a "double improved back action," and in which any number of tickets could be hidden in advance: there was always danger that a few honest men might get by the bullies and cast their vote.
As this gang of clever rascals appointed all the officials it followed that the judges were as corrupt as most of the lawyers, and their social status may be inferred by the fact that they chewed and expectorated in court, sat on the bench in their shirt-sleeves, swore and shouted, and even cut their corns.
The people of the better class of San Francisco were well aware that their city was worm-eaten and threatened with decay, but, absorbed in personal matters, were unwilling to face the fact and unite in a tribunal which must mean the neglect of business for several months at least. Be- tween 1849 and 1856 over a thousand murders had been committed, and only one legal conviction secured. The lawsuits following the failures of 1854-55 had revealed the utterly corrupt state of the law. No one was con- victed, no one could obtain satisfaction; the lawyers were masters of every technicality that permitted evasion or defeat of justice; lawsuits threatened to outlast a life- time, and an apathetic despair, which may be compared to the proverbial lull, settled upon the citizens of San Francisco, half or wholly ruined, as they watched pros- perity ebbing daily; politics and law in the hands of crooks and criminals; and thieves, looters, and murderers
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as thick as the fleas in the sand. Even the newspapers were terrorized; and although the editors had many duels, they were not with the men they most feared.
The times were ripe for the man, and, as ever, he arrived.
XII
JAMES KING OF WM.
OF all the personalities that stand out so compell- ingly in the annals of that formative period of San Francisco James King of Wm. is the most appealing. Gifted with a brilliant mind, an upright character, an honest and generous heart, no one ever developed a more passionate scorn of corruption and love of civic decencies, no one ever was less discouraged by the remonstrances of timid men and the threats of the powerful and un- scrupulous. Single-handed this dauntless little gentleman undertook to clean up San Francisco. He accomplished his end far sooner than he anticipated, but with his life, not his pen.
James King of Wm. was born in Georgetown, D. C., January 28, 1822. When he was sixteen, finding another James King in his immediate circle, he affixed his father's patronymic, and to the day of his death was rarely alluded to more briefly.
He married in 1843, worked too hard in the banking- house of Corcoran & Riggs, in Washington, broke down early in 1848, visited Peru and Chili with the view of en- gaging in business, but heard of the gold discovery in Cali- fornia and sailed at once for San Francisco. He was not strong enough for the hard physical work and exposure at the mines, however, and after a few months of indifferent
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JAMES KING OF WM.
luck went to Sacramento and obtained a position in the mercantile firm of Hensley, Reading & Co. His abilities seem to have been recognized at once, for he was made a partner in the same year. In the following year, however, he opened a banking-house in San Francisco in partner- ship with Jacob B. Snyder; the firm was called James King of Wm. & Co. His family now joined him, and for a time his home was one of the conspicuous centers of hos- pitality, refinement, and luxury, where the talk was as sparkling as the wines. But this brilliant social episode lasted less than four years. In June, 1854, his associates having involved him by speculations, he merged his firm with that of Adams & Co., and went down to disaster with that house in the panic of 1855. He surrendered to his creditors everything he possessed, and in order to explain to an excited public his connection with the out- rageous frauds of Adams & Co., which he had been unaware of before the merger and powerless to arrest later, he wrote a number of pamphlets and newspaper articles. The style of these-brilliant, forcible, and direct-arrested immediate attention; and as it was known that he wished to edit a newspaper, the money was raised at once. On October 8, 1855, he issued the first number of the Daily Evening Bulletin, a newspaper that again and again has played its part in the history of the state.
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