Historical and biographical record of Los Angeles and vicinity : containing a history of the city from its earliest settlement as a Spanish pueblo to the closing year of the nineteenth century ; also containing biographies of well known citizens of the past and present, Part 14

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : Chapman Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 996

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Castro, finding the "foreign adventurers" too numerous and too aggressive in the northern part of the territory, determined, with what men he could induce to go with him, to retreat to the south; but before so doing he sent a mediator to Pico to negotiate a treaty of peace and amity be- tween the factions. On the 12th of July the two armies met at Santa Margarita, near San Luis Obispo. Castro brought the news that Commo- dore Sloat had hoisted the United States flag at Monterey and taken possession of the country for his government. The meeting of the governor and the comandante-general was not very cordial, but in the presence of the impending danger to the territory they concealed their mutual dislike and decided to do their best to defend the country they both loved.

Sorrowfully they began their retreat to the cap- ital; but even threatened disaster to their common country could not wholly unite the north and the south. The respective armies-Castro's 11um1- bering about 150 men, and Pico's 120-kept about a day's march apart. They reached Los Angeles, and preparations were begun to resist the invasion of the Americans. Pico issued a proclamation ordering all able bodied men be- tween 15 and 60 years of age, native and natural- ized, to take up arms to defend the country; any able-bodied Mexican refusing was to be treated as a traitor. There was no enthusiasm for the cause. The old factional jealousy and distrust was as potent as ever. The militia of the south would obey none but their own officers; Castro's troops, who considered themselves regulars, ridi- culed the raw recruits of the sureños, while the naturalized foreigners of American extraction secretly sympathized with their own people.

Pico, to counteract the malign influence of his Santa Barbara proclamation and enlist the syn- pathy and more ready adhesion of the foreign element of Los Angeles, issued the following cir- cular: (This circular or proclamation has never before found its way into print. I find no allusion to it in Bancroft's or Hittell's Histories. A copy,

probably the only one in existence, was donated some years since to the Historical Society of Southern California. I am indebted to Prof. Car- los Bransby for a most excellent translation. )

SEAL OF

Gobierno del Dep. de Californias.

"CIRCULAR .- As owing to the unfortunate condition of things that now prevail in this de- partment in consequence of the war into which the United States has provoked the Mexican Nation, some ill feeling might spring up between the citizens of the two countries out of which un- fortunate occurrences might grow, and as this government desires to remove every cause of friction, it has seen fit, in the use of its power, to issue the present circular.

"The Government of the department of Cali- fornia declares in the most solemn manner that all the citizens of the United States that have come lawfully into its territory, relying upon the honest administration of the laws and the observ- ance of the prevailing treaties, shall not be mo- lested in the least, and their lives and property shall remain in perfect safety under the protection of the Mexican laws and authorities legally con- stituted.

"Therefore, in the name of the Supreme Gov- ernment of the Nation, and by virtue of the authority vested upon me, I enjoin upon all the inhabitants of California to observe towards the citizens of the United States that have lawfully come among us, the kindest and most cordial conduct, and to abstain from all acts of violence against their persons or property; provided they remain neutral, as heretofore, and take no part in the invasion effected by the armies of their nation.

"The authorities of the various municipalities and corporations will be held strictly responsible for the faithful fulfillment of this order, and shall, as soon as possible, take the necessary measures to bring it to the knowledge of the people. God and Liberty. Angeles, July 27, 1846.

"PIO PICO. "JOSÉ MATIAS MARENO,

Secretary pro tem."

When we consider the conditions existing in California at the time this circular was issued. its sentiments reflect great credit on Pico for his hu- manity and forbearance, A little over a month before a mob of Americans, many of them in the country contrary to its laws, had without cause or provocation seized General Vallejo and several other prominent Californians in their homes and incarcerated them in prison at Sutter's Fort. Nor was this outrage mitigated when the stars

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

and stripes were raised. The perpetrators of the outrage were not punished. These native Cali- fornians were kept in prison nearly two months without any charge against them. Besides, Governor Pico and the leading Californians very well knew that the Americans whose lives and property this proclamation was designed to pro- tect would not remain neutral when their coun- trymen invaded the territory. Pio Pico deserved better treatment from the Americans than he re- ceived. He was robbed of his landed possessions by unscrupulous land sharks, and his character defamed by irresponsible historical scribblers.

Pico made strenuous efforts to raise men and means to resist the threatened invasion. He had mortgaged the government house to de Celis for $2,000, the mortgage to be paid "as soon as or- der shall be established in the department." This loan was really negotiated to fit out the ex- pedition against Castro, but a part of it was expended after his return to Los Angeles in pro- curing supplies while preparing to meet the American army. The government had but little credit. The moneyed men of the pueblo were averse to putting money iuto what was almost sure to prove a lost canse. The bickerings and jealousies between the factions neutralized to a considerable degree the efforts of Pico and Castro to mobilize the army.

Castro established his camp on the mesa across the river, near where Mrs. Hollenbeck's residence now is. Here he and Andres Pico undertook to drill the somewhat incongruous collection of hom- bres in military manenvering. Their entire force at no time exceeded 300 men. These were poorly armed and lacking in discipline.

We left Stockton at Monterey preparing an ex- pedition against Castro at Los Angeles. On tak- ing command of the Pacific squadron July 29, he issued a proclamation. It was as bombastic as the pronunciamiento of a Mexican governor. Bancroft says, "The paper was made up of false- hood, of irrelevant issues and bombastic ranting in about equal parts, the tone being offensive and impolitic even in those inconsiderable portions which were true and legitimate." His only object in taking possession of the country was "to save from destruction the lives and property of the for- eign residents and citizens of the territory who had invoked his protection." In view of Pico's humane circular and the uniform kind treatment that the Californians accorded the American resi- dents, there was very little need of Stockton's interference on that score.

Commodore Sloat did not approve of Stock- ton's proclamation or his policy.

On the 6th of August Stockton reached San Pedro and landed 360 sailors and marines. These were drilled in military movements on land and prepared for the march to Los Angeles.

Castro sent two commissioners-Pablo de La Guerra and José M. Flores-to Stockton, asking for a conference and a cessation of hostilities while negotiations were pending. They asked that the United States forces remain at San Pedro while the terms of the treaty were under discussion. These requests Commodore Stock- ton peremptorily refused, and the commissioners returned to Los Angeles without stating the terms on which they proposed to treat.

In several so-called histories I find a very dra- matic account of this interview. "On the arrival of the commissioners they were marched up to the mouth of an immense mortar shrouded in skins save its huge aperture. Their terror and discomfiture were plainly discernible. Stockton received them with a stern and forbidding coun- tenance, harshly demanding their mission, which they disclosed in great confusion. They bore a letter from Castro proposing a truce, each party to hold its own possessions until a general pacifi- cation should be had. This proposal Stockton rejected with contempt, and dismissed the com- missioners with the assurance that only an imme- diate disbandment of his forces and an uncon- ditional surrender would shield Castro from the vengeance of an incensed foe. The messengers remounted their horses in dismay and fled back to Castro." The mortar story, it is needless to say, is a pure fabrication, yet it runs through a number of so-called histories of California. Cas- tro, on the 9th of August, held a council of war with his officers at the Campo en La Mesa. He announced his intention of leaving the country for the purpose of reporting to the supreme gov- ernment, and of returning at some future day to punish the usurpers. He wrote to Pico: "I can count on only 100 men, badly armed, worse sup- plied and discontented by reason of the miseries they suffer; so that I have reason to fear that not even these few men will fight when the necessity arises." And this is the force that some imag- inative historians estimate at 800 to 1,000 men.

Pico and Castro left Los Angeles on the night of August 10th for Mexico; Castro going by the Colorado River route to Sonora, and Pico, after being concealed for a time by his brother-in-law, Juan Froster, at the Santa Margarita and nar- rowly escaping capture by Fremont's men, finally reached Lower California and later on crossed the Gulf to Sonora.

Stockton began his march on Los Angeles Att- gust 11th. He took with him a battery of four

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL, RECORD.

guns. The guns were mounted on carretas, and each gun drawn by four oxen. He had with him a good brass band.

Major Fremont, who had been sent to San Diego with his battalion of 170 mien, had, after considerable skirmishing among the ranchos, se- cured enough horses to move, and on the 8th of August had begun his march to join Stockton. He took with him 120 men, leaving about 50 to garrison San Diego.

Stockton consumed three days on the march. Fremont's troops joined him just south of the city, and at 4 P. M. of the 13th the combined force, numbering nearly 500 men, entered the town without opposition, "our entry," says Major Fremont, "having more the effect of a parade of home guards than of an enemy taking possession of a conquered town." Stockton re- ported finding at Castro's abandoned camp ten pieces of artillery, four of them spiked. Fremont says he (Castro) "had buried part of his guns." Castro's troops that he had brought down with him took their departure for their northern homes soon after their general left, breaking up into small squads as they advanced. The south- ern troops that Pico had recruited dispersed to their homes before the arrival of the Americans. Squads of Fremont's battalion were sent out to scour the country and bring in any of the Cali- fornian officers or leading men whom they could find. These, when found, were paroled. The American troops encamped on the flat near where the Southern Pacific Railroad now crosses the river.

Another of those historical myths like the mortar story named above, which is palmed off on credulous readers as genuine history, runs as follows: "Stockton, while en route from San Pedro to Los Angeles, was informed by a courier from Castro 'that if he marched upon the town he would find it the grave of himself and men.'

'Then,' answered the commodore, 'tell the geil- eral to have the bells ready to toll at eight o'clock, as I shall be there by that time.'" As Castro left Los Angeles the day before Stockton began his march from San Pedro, and when the con- modore entered the city the Mexican general was probably two hundred miles away, the bell tolling myth goes to join its kindred myths in the category of history as it should not be written.

On the 17th of August Stockton issued a sec- ond proclamation, in which he signs himself commander-in-chief and governor of the territory of California. It was milder in tone and more dignified than his first. He informed the people that their country now belonged to the United States. For the present it would be governed by martial law. They were invited to elect their local officers if those now in office refused to serve.

Four days after the capture of Los Angeles the Warren, Captain Hull commander, anchored at San Pedro. She brought official notice of the declaration of war between the United States and Mexico. Then for the first time Stockton learned that there had been an official declaration of war between the two countries. United States officers had waged war and taken possession of Califor- nia upon the strength of a rumor that hostilities existed between the countries.

The conquest, if conquest it can be called, was accomplished without the loss of a life, if we ex- cept the two Americans, Fowler and Cowie, of the Bear Flag party, who were brutally mur- dered by a band of Californians under Padillo, and the equally brutal shooting of Beryessa and the two de Haro boys by the Americans at San Rafael. These three men were shot as spies, but there was no proof that they were such, and they were not tried. These murders occurred before Commodore Sloat raised the stars and stripes at Monterey.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

CHAPTER XVII.

SIEGE OF LOS ANGELES.

ITH California in his possession and the official information that war had been de- clared by the United States against Mexi- co, Stockton set about organizing a gov- ernment for the conquered territory. Fremont was to be appointed military governor. Detach- ments from his battalion were to be detailed to garrison different towus, while Stockton, with what recruits he could gather in California and his sailors and marines, was to undertake a naval expedition against the West Coast of Mexico, land his forces at Mazatlan or Acapulco and march overland to "shake hands with Gen- eral Taylor at the gates of Mexico." Regarding the conquest of California as complete, Com- modore Stockton appointed Captain Gillespie military commandant of the southern department, with headquarters at Los Angeles, and assigned him a garrison of fifty men. He left Los An- geles for the north September 2. Fremont, with the remainder of his battalion, took up his line of march for Monterey a few days later. Gillespie's orders were to place the city under martial law, but to remove the more burdensome restrictions to quiet and well-disposed citizens at his discretion, and a conciliatory policy in accord- ance with instructions of the secretary of the navy was to be adopted and the people were to be encouraged to "neutrality, self government and friendship." Nearly all historians who have written upon this subject lay the blame for the subsequent uprising of the Californians and their revolt against the rule of the military command- ant, Gillespie, to his petty tyrannies. Col. J. J. Warner, in his Historical Sketch of Los Angeles County, says, "Gillespie attempted by a coercive system to effect a moral and social change in the habits, diversions and pastimes of the people and to reduce them to his standard of propriety." Warner was not an impartial judge. He had a grievance against Gillespie which embittered him against the captain. Gillespie may have been

lacking in tact, and his schooling in the navy under the tyrannical régime of the quarterdeck of fifty years ago was not the best training to fit him for governing a people unused to strict govern- ment, but it is hardly probable that in two weeks time he could enforce any "coercive system" looking toward an entire change in the moral and social habits of the people. Los Angeles, as we have learned in a previous chapter, was a hot bed of revolutions. It had a turbulent and rest- less element among its inhabitants that was never happier than when fomenting strife and conspir- ing to overthrow those in power. Of this class Colton writing in 1846, says: "They drift about like Arabs. If the tide of fortune turns against them they disband and scatter to the four winds. They never become martyrs to any cause. They are too numerous to be brought to punishment by any of their governors and thus escape justice." There was a conservative class in the territory made up principally of the large landed proprietors both native and foreign-born, but these exerted small influence in controlling the turbulent. While Los Angeles had a monopoly of this turbulent and revolutionary element other

settlements in the territory furnished their full quota of that class of political knight errants whose chief pastime was revolution, and whose capital consisted of a gaily caparisoned steed, a riata, a lance, a dagger and possibly a pair of horse pistols. These were the fellows whose "habits, diversions and pastimes" Gillespie u11- dertook to reduce "to his standard of propriety."

That Commodore Stockton should have left Gillespie so small a garrison to hold the city and surrounding country in subjection shows that either he was ignorant of the character of the people, or that he placed too great reliance in the completeness of their subjection. With Castro's men in the city or dispersed among the neighboring ranchos, many of them still retain- ing their arms and all of them ready to rally at a

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

moment's notice to the call of their leaders; with no reinforcements nearer than five hundred miles to come to the aid of Gillespie in case of an up- rising, it was foolhardiness in Stockton to en- trust the holding of the most important place in California to a mere handful of men, half dis- ciplined and poorly equipped without fortifica- tions for defense or supplies to hold out in case of a siege.

Scarcely had Stockton and Fremont, with their men, left the city before trouble began. The turbulent element of the city fomented strife and seized every occasion to annoy and harass the military commandant and his men. While his "petty tyrannies" so called, which were prob- ably nothing more than the enforcement of mar- tial law, may have been somewhat provocative, the real cause was more deep seated. The Cali- fornians, without provocation on their part and without really knowing the cause why, found their country invaded, their property taken from them and their government in the hands of an alien race, foreign to them in customs and re- ligion. They would have been a tame and spiritless people indeed, had they neglected the opportunity that Stockton's blundering gave them to regain their liberties. They did not waste much time. Within two weeks from the time Stockton sailed from San Pedro hostilities had begun and the city was in a state of siege. Gillespie, writing in the Sacramento Statesman in 1858, thus describes the first attack: "On the 22d of September, at three o'clock in the morn- ing, a party of sixty-five Californians and Sonoreños made an attack upon my small com- mand quartered in the government house. We were not wholly surprised, and with twenty-one rifles we beat them back without loss to our- selves, killing and wounding three of their num- ber. When daylight came Lieutenant Hensley, with a few men, took several prisoners and drove the Californians from the town. This party was merely the nucleus of a revolution commenced and known to Colonel Fremont before he left Los Angeles. In twenty-four hours six hun- dred well-mounted horsemen, and armed with escopetas (shotguns), lances and one fine brass piece of light artillery, surrounded Los Angeles and summoned me to surrender. There were three old honeycombed iron guns (spiked) in the corral of my quarters which we at once cleared and mounted upon the axles of carts."

Serbulo Varela, a young man of some ability, but of a turbulent and reckless character, had been the leader at first, but as the uprising as- sumed the character of a revolution, Castro's old officers came to the front. Captain José Maria Florés was chosen as comandante-general; José

Antonio Carrillo, major general; and Andres Pico, comandante de escadron. The main camp of the insurgents was located on the mesa, east of the river, at a place called Paredon Blanco (White Bluff), near the present residence of Mrs. Hollenbeck.

On the 24th of September, from the camp at White Bluff, was issued the famous Pronuncia- miento de Barelas y otros Californios contra Los Americanos (The Proclamation of Barelas and other Californians against the Americans). It was signed by Serbulo Varela (spelled Barelas), Leonardo Cota and over three hundred others. Although this proclamation is generally credited to Florés, there is no evidence to show that he had anything to do with framing it. He promul- gated it over his signature October Ist. It is probable that it was written by Varela and Cota. It has been the custom of American writers to sneer at this production as florid and bombastic. In fiery invective and fierce denun- ciation it is the equal of Patrick Henry's famous "Give me liberty or give me death!" Its recital of wrongs are brief, but to the point: "And shall we be capable of permitting ourselves to be sub- jugated and to accept in silence the heavy chains of slavery ? Shall we lose the soil inherited from our fathers, which cost them so much blood ? Shall we leave our families victims of the most barbarous servitude? Shall we wait to see our wives outraged, our innocent children beaten by American whips, our property sacked, our teni- ples profaned-to drag out a life full of shame and disgrace ? No ! a thousand times no ! Com- patriots, death rather than that! Who of you does not feel his heart beat and his blood boil on contemplating our situation ? Who will be the Mexican that will not be indignant and rise in arms to destroy our oppressors? We believe there will be not one so vile and cowardly !"

Gillespie had left the government house (10- cated on what is now the site of the St. Charles Hotel) and taken a position on Fort Hill, where he had erected a temporary barricade of sacks filled with earth and had mounted his cannon there. The Americans had been summoned to surrender, but had refused. They were besieged by the Californians. There was but little firing between the combatants- an occasional sortie and a volley of rifle balls by the Americans when the Californians approached too near. The Cal- ifornians were well mounted, but poorly armed, their weapons being principally muskets, shot- guns, pistols, lances and riatas; while the Amer- icans were armed with long range rifles, of which the Californians had a wholesome dread. The fear of these arms and his cannon doubtless saved Gillespie and his men from capture.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

On the 24th Gillespie dispatched a messenger to find Stockton at Monterey, or at San Fran- cisco if he had left Monterey, and apprise him of the perilous situation of the Americans at Los An- geles. Gillespie's dispatch bearer, John Brown, better known by his Californian nickname, Juan Flaco or Lean John, made one of the most wonder- ful rides in history. Gillespie furnished Juan Flaco with a package of cigarettes, the paper of each bearing the inscription, "Believe the bearer;" these were stamped with Gillespie's seal. Brown started from Los Angeles at 8 P. M., September 24, and claimed to have reached Yerba Buena at 8 P. M. of the 28th, a ride of 630 miles in four days. This is incorrect. Colton, who was alcalde of Monterey at that time, notes Brown's arrival at that place on the evening of the 29th. Colton, in his "Three Years in California," says that Brown rode the whole distance (Los Angeles to Monterey) of 460 miles in fifty-two hours, during which time he had not slept. His intelligence was for Commodore Stocktou and, in the nature of the case, was not committed to paper, except a few words rolled in a cigar fastened in his hair. But the Commodore had sailed for San Francisco and it was necessary he should go 140 miles fur- ther. He was quite exhausted and was allowed to sleep three hours. Before day he was up and away on his journey. Gillespie, in a letter pub- lished in the Los Angeles Star, May 28, 1858, describing Juan Flaco's ride, says: "Before sun- rise of the 29th he was lying in the bushes at San Francisco, in front of the Congress frigate, waiting for the early market boat to come 011 shore, and he delivered my dispatches to Commo- dore Stockton before 7 o'clock."

In trying to steal through the picket line of the Mexicans at Los Angeles, he was discovered and pursued by a squad of them. A hot race ensued. Finding the enemy gaining on him he forced his horse to leap a wide ravine. A shot from one of his pursurers mortally wounded his horse, which after running a short distance fell dead. Flaco, carrying his spurs and riata, made his way on foot in the darkness to Los Virgines, a distance of twenty-seven miles. Here he secured another mount and again set off on his perilous journey. The trail over which Flaco held his way was not like "the road from Winchester town, a good, broad highway leading down," but instead a Camino de heradura a bridle path-now wind- ing up through rocky canons, skirting along the edge of precipitous cliffs, then zigzagging down chaparral covered mountains; now over the sands of the sea beach and again across long stretches of brown mesa, winding through narrow valleys and ont onto the rolling hills a trail as nature

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Historical and biographical record of Los Angeles and vicinity : containing a history of the city from its earliest settlement as a Spanish pueblo to the closing year of the nineteenth century ; also containing biographies of well known citizens of the past and present, Part 14

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918 Publication date: 1901 Publisher: Chicago : Chapman Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 996

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : Chapman Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 996