USA > California > History of California, Volume VI > Part 71
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DRAIN FOR TRANSPORTATION.
manner. At the low average of $175 each for these 412,813 passengers, the amount of passage money paid to New York steamship companies was $72,242,275. The freight earned by these companies on the specie shipped since 1849, at one and a half per cent, amounted to $4,835,907. Other freights had yielded at a low estimate $11,000,000, making a sum total of $88,078,183, from these three sources alone, paid out of California pockets to New York steamship companies. Yet nobody thought of organizing a California steamship company. Fire and marine in- surance companies in England and New York drew
in 11 months $475,413.23. The salary of each of these directors was $3,500. Their term of office was 3 years, but so classified that a new director was chosen at each annual election to fill the place of one going out. The alarm- ing expenditures of these directors caused the legislature of 1856 to authorize a contract for the care of the prisoners, and the erection of such buildings as should be required, at a cost of not over $15,000 per month, and appointed the lieut-gov., state comp., and treas. a board of coms. to make rules for the gov- ernment of the prison. An appropriation of $500 for the travelling expenses of each was their only pay. They let the contract to Estill for $10,000 per month, who had the lease also of the prisoners' labor. The directors were made simply a police by being required ' to give their daily attention to the enforcement of such rules ' as were provided by the commissioners. The pay- inent of $10,500 annually for these superfluous officers was discontinued, when the legislature of 1857 abolished the office. Through such abuses of trust as the state prison legislation exhibited during a period of several years, the peo- ple became stirred up finally to take reprisal.
No action was taken providing for the erection of the state capitol before 1856, when the legislature passed an act providing for its construction. Pre- viously that body, after it ceased its peripatetic practices, had occupied a building erected by the county at a great cost, and which being paid for in county bonds drawing $20,000 interest per annum, rented only for $12,000 yearly, leaving the county to pay $8,000 for the glory of possessing the cap- ital; but the rents paid by the state amounted to $29,000 annually. The commissioners appointed to contract for and superintend the work were D. F. Douglas, G. W. Whitman, and Gilbert Griswold, and the sum of $300,000 was appropriated. The warrants drawn from time to time on the treasury were made redeemable in bonds of the state bearing 7 per cent interest, in sums of $500 and $1,000. To meet the indebtedness, the proceeds of the sales or leases of lands donated to the state by the United States, or which might be thereafter donated for public buildings, was set apart as a fund from which to pay the interest and principal, the first payment to be made in January 1857. Should not the fund equal by Nov. of that year, and every year, the suin of $10,000 over the interest, enough was to be added from the general fund to make it $10,000, which was to constitute a sinking fund for the gradual redemption of the bonds. In 1854 the city of Sac. had donated a site for the capital, and upon that the structure was being erected by Joseph Nougucs when the decision of the sup. court, that the debts contracted by the state above $300,000 were unconstitutional, arrested proceedings. The erection of the capitol building therefore belongs to another period. Roach's Stat., MS., 11; An. Mess. Gov., 1858, 13; Cal. Statutes, 1850-6, passim; Sac. Union, March 31, 1856; S. F. daily journals, 1850-6, passim.
HIST. CAL., VOL. VI. 40
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FINANCES.
annually $2,000,000; yet not one of these corpora- tions, owned anything in California which could be taxed. . Their capital, derived largely from California, returned California nothing, and secured no claims against them. The state greatly needed water com- panies for mining and agricultural purposes, but there were few canals, and entirely inadequate to the exist- ing want, not to mention the wants that could have been created.
The constitution of the state was not favorable to corporations, special legislation being prohibited. Under the indebtedness in which the state had become involved, and considering the time required to call a convention to amend that instrument, men hesitated to make the movement. Had legislation been all that was desired, labor was too high in California to make manufactures profitable, even where the mate- rial was present; therefore merchants continued to order from the east cargoes of costly merchandise- they could not afford to order cheap articles and pay high freight-for which the laboring as well as the wealthy class were forced to pay. This was another drain on the money of the country. All the world sent of its productions to this young and undisciplined commonwealth; and like a boy at a fair, the common- wealth would buy anything offered.
It is time I should mention the gifts, not few in- deed, nor small, which the state received from the general government, in return for this river of wealth which she was pouring forth so lavishly to enrich the people of the earth. The short time left after the California delegation obtained their seats, before the first session of the thirty-first congress expired, pro- hibited much discussion of the merits of the several bills introduced. Those that were passed in the three weeks before congress adjourned were four; namely, an act changing the collection districts already exist- ing, and creating six additional ones; an act extending the judicial system of the United States to the state
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GENERAL GOVERNMENT.
of California, which was divided into two judicial dis- tricts;21 an act to authorize the appointment of Indian agents in California;22 and an act making appropriations for light-houses.2% Neither of these brought much
21 California was divided into northern and southern districts. The salary of the judges, being fixed at $3,500 and $2,800, was inadequate to their expenses. Gwin gave notice that he should ask for an increase of pay at the next session, Cong. Globe, 1849-50, 20-68, and the legislature of 1852 passed a joint resolution instructing their senators to obtain an increase of salary for the U. S. district judges. Cal. Statutes, 1852, 282.
22 Said McCorkle, democratic congressman in 1852: 'An appropriation was made, and the president authorized to appoint 3 commissioners, with full powers to treat with them, and to make such other arrangements as the cir- cumstances might require. As in other cases, in pursuance of the fixed policy toward Cal. adopted by the present administration [whig], 3 gentlemen, en- tirely ignorant, not only of the country, but especially of the nature and habits of our Indians, were sent out from the Atlantic to protect the people of the Pacific from the savages who inhabit our state. These men, as might have been expected under the circumstances, have committed the most egregious blunders, and find opposed to them and the policy they adopted, not only the entire population of Cal., but the senate of the U. S., which has rejected every treaty made by them with the Indians unanimously. The enormous debts, amounting in all to nearly $1,000,000, have been repudiated, and un- fortunately, while depriving these imported officers of their portion of the profits and speculation, many innocent third parties, who from their ranches and stores have, in good faith, furnished them supplies, are also compelled to suffer losses.' McCorkle spoke as a partisan, but in the main correctly, al- though he knew that one at least of the commissioners, O. M. Wozencraft, was a pioneer of Cal., and a man of affairs in the state, who therefore should bear one third of the blame of the rejected treaties. The other commissioners were George W. Barbour and Redick McKee. The people of Cal. did com- plain of the treaties because they reserved to the Indians, according to the miners, 'every acre really rich in minerals, or really adapted to agricultural pursuits,' S. F. Alta, July 26, 1851, in all the valleys along the base of the Sierra Nevada, from the Stanislans to Kern River. The miners were ordered off, also the farmers, ferries removed, and the Indians placed between the mines and the commercial points of supply. At the same time, the tract reserved to each tribe, except in one instance, was too small for Indian modes of life, and too large for farming purposes, could they be brought to learn agriculture. Rept of special committee on public lands, in the senate of Cal., in Cal. Jour. Sen., 1852, 575-92. The amount first appropriated for the ex- penses of the commission was $25,000. The Indians were in a hostile atti- tude, caused by their frequent depredations and the retaliatory acts of the miners. The commissioners therefore travelled with a military escort, and incurred heavy expenses, accomplishing nothing more than to secure a tem- porary peace by yielding the point, and making presents and promises to the Indians, quite transcending their powers in making and executing treaties. For this they were dismissed, and the 32d congress established the office of superintendent of Indian affairs, and appropriated $100,000.
23 An appropriation of $90,000 was made in 1850 for the ercction of light- houses on the coast of Cal. and Oregon, and to this was added $15,000 in 1851. The appropriation, however, remained untouched in the treasury for a year and a half, and then all the material, workmen, and mechanics needed were shipped from the east, depriving Cal. of any participation in the benefits of the expenditure of this money. So the hungry politicians complained, with- out reflecting that men and material were not to be obtained so easily in this country. There were 8 lights to be established, the contract given to Gibbons and Kelly, who sent out their men and material in the bark Oriole, Cong.
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FINANCES.
money to California. The prevailing impression of the expense of building in this state made congress- men careful of voting appropriations. At the second session something more tangible was secured, though by no means as much as had been looked for, since it was firmly believed the civil fund, then amounting to $1,500,000, would be restored to the people from whom it was collected, as they maintained illegally, in addi- tion to appropriations which they had a right to ex- pect; whereas the whole amount obtained from the thirty-first congress aggregated not much over a mil- lion. This amount, too, had been lessened by the mis- management of agents appointed by the government to take charge of disbursements.24
One of the things most desired in California was a mint. The subject was discussed during the short time that remained of the first session of the thirty- first congress, but not finally. A short time previous to the admission of California, Senator Dickinson of New York had brought up a bill for the establishment
Globe, 1849-50, app. 1083, which was finally wrecked at the mouth of the Columbia.
2} An appropriation of $50,000 was made in 1850 for the erection of a marine hospital at S. F., and $100,000 for a new custom-house, with the promise of $300,000 more to complete it, under certain conditions, among which were these two-that S. F. should donate an eligible site on the plaza, and that neither state nor other taxes should be levied on the property. Allen A. Hall was appointed supt of public buildings in S. F., with a salary of $16 per diem. He spent six months in Cal. and did nothing. Whether it was alto- gether his fault, or whether it was not partly because the S. F. people were uudetermined as to the proper sites, the whig administration was made chargeable with the delay. On the 10th of Dec., 1852, the common council and mayor of S. F. conveyed to the U. S. govt six fifty-vara lots on Rincon Point, where the U. S. marine hospital was erected, the total cost of which was about $250,000. It was completed in Dec. 1853. In May 1852 congress appropriated $40,000 to improve a site selected on the corner of Washington and Battery sts, where the custom-house and post-office building was finally erected in 1854. In the mean time the govt purchased the 'custom-house block' on the corner of Sansome and Sacramento sts, at a cost of $150,000, where a building costing $140,000 was erected, and where the offices of the customs and naval departments of the govt were kept. T. Butler King suc- ceeded Collier as collector in Jan. 1851. C. K. Greene was deputy collector. The ports of entry established were at Sac., Benicia, Stockton, Monterey, San Diego, and Humboldt. 'It was an experiment,' says Gwin, 'to ascertain where commerce would most develop itself.' Jesse B. Hambleton was col- lector at Sac., and W. G. Gallaher at Benicia, and Robert A. Parker inspector of customs at Trinidad. All the ports of entry were finally abolished and made ports of delivery, except S. F.
629
BRANCH MINT.
of a branch mint at New York city. Benton pro- posed to amend by establishing a branch mint and assay office at San Francisco, in which form the bill passed the senate, but failed in the lower house in consequence of the opposition of the Pennsylvania delegation to the New York branch mint. At the next session, the bill being before the committee of the whole, and not likely to pass, a substitute was offered for the whole bill, proposing to make coins issued by the assay office of Moffat & Co.25 a legal tender, and to enlarge and improve that institution. The Cali- fornia delegation affected to oppose the substitute bill, and to be still hopeful of securing a mint. Want of time, however, in the short session was given as a reason for abandoning their object, and it was left to be prosecuted by their successors. A bill was finally passed July 1852, authorizing the erection of a branch mint at San Francisco, and appropriating $300,000 for that purpose; but the money was expended in pur- chasing and extending the United States assay office. A mint finally went into operation in April 1854, with machinery capable of coining $30,000,000 annually.
Among the first appropriations was $100,000, for commencing the construction of a dry dock on the coast of California. Gwin being appointed on the committee of naval affairs, of which he was chairman from 1851 to 1855, was in a position to report and to push bills connected with naval and marine interests, and did so with commendable energy and persever- ance. The final cost of the dry-dock, and removal to Mare Island, was about $1,000,000, all but the first $100,000 being appropriated by the thirty-second
25 Moffatt & Co. were U. S. assay contractors under an act passed during the pendency of the mint bill. Augustus Humbert was the assayer appointed to affix the U. S. stamp to the gold assayed at this office. At the suggestion of Gwin, 850, $100, and $200 gold pieces were permitted to be manufactured at this establishment. Gwin's Memoirs, MS., 115. Previons to the establish- ment of the U. S. assay office, private companies had issued coins, which now began to be repudiated, making a panic in the money market, while at the same time nothing was substituted for the small coins rejected. After the establishment of the mint in 1854, Gwin reported a bill for the coinage of $50 . and $100 pieces, which failed in the house,
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FINANCES.
congress. 26 Gwin was also on the finance committee, which gave him opportunities which he improved. California having but one representative in the senate for two sessions, Gwin may be credited with having secured most of the large sums appropriated by this congress. He reported a bill in January 1852, pro- viding for the establishment of a navy-yard on a large scale. Some trouble was experienced after the pas- sage of the bill in selecting a location for the work, Mare Island being the site at length fixed upon. It cost the government $50,000 to secure a title to the land.27 The first appropriation for general purposes
26 S. F. Pac. News, Dec. 2, 1850; U. S. Acts and Res., 158-9, 31st Cong., Ist Sess .; U. S. Laws, 4; U. S. H. Ex. Doc., 37, vol. v., 33d Cong., 2d Sess .; Cal. Reg., 1857, 135; Cong. Globe, 1849-50, 1920, 2020, 206]; 1851-2, 1499-1504; Gwin, Memoirs, MS., 105; U. S. H. Ex. Doc., 31, v., 31st Cong., 2d Sess .; Solano Co. Hist., 247-62; Savage, Coll., MS., iii., p. 140; Gwin's Speech, in U. S. Sen., March 23, 1852; S. F. Alta, April 12, 1852; Id., March 19, 1852; Cal. Mil. Affairs, Scraps, 12; Rept of com., in U. S. Sen. Rept, 14, vol. i., 32d Cong., Ist Sess.
27 Victor Castro, who owned Mare Island and property on the mainland, being troubled by the Indians stealing horses, conveyed a band of brood mares to the island for security; hence its name of Isla de la Yegua, or Mare Island. Its advantages for a naval station began early to be observed, and J. B. Frisbie, a capt. in the U. S. army, purchased it from Castro in 1849. In 1850 he sold an interest in the island to Capt. Bezer Simmons; and subsequently an in- terest was sold to W. Aspinwall, of the firm of Howland & Aspinwall, who later purchased the whole island. Capt. Blunt, commissioner U. S. N., had recommended this location to the govt in 1850, for a navy-yard. In 1851, Com. McCauley, who was instructed by the dept to report upon the most eligible site for the naval arsenal of the Pacific coast, decidedly favored Sauza- lito; but the dept, not being satisfied, instructed Com. Sloat to make an exam- ination of the most eligible points on the bay, and he recommended Mare Island, which the govt finally purchased in 1852 of Aspinwall for $50,000. In Sept. 1852 the dry-dock, built in New York in sections, began to arrive, a portion on the merchant ship Empire reaching the island Sept. 11th, having grounded near the present site of the magazine, and remained 3 days before she was floated again by lightering. She was followed by the packet Queen of the East, and later in the year by the Defiance with the remainder of the dock. Under the superintendence of Theodore C. Deane, agent of the contractors, and Darius Peckham, foreman, the vessels were moored, and the ships dis- charged by means of booms and scows. By Christmas 3 sections were framed, and in the autumn of 1853 6 sections were complete. The first vessel taken on for repairs was the steamer Pacific in 1853. In 1854 admiral (then captain) Farragut was appointed to the command of the island, with instructions to carry on the work of completing a naval station. Isaiah Hanscom had been sent out to superintend the construction of the marine railway and basin, and was appointed subsequently naval constructor. The frigate Independence was the first U. S. ship which tested the dry-dock. She was taken upon 8 sec- tions, with her batteries, spars, stores, and crew of 500 men on board. Dec. 11 and 12, 1855. The trial was superintended by P. Burgess, of the N. Y. Co. which built the dock. Sac. Rescue, Feb. 2, 1871; Vallejo Chronicle, Feb. 16, 1878; S. F. Alta, June 6, 1854. The state ceded its interest in Mare Island
631
NAVY-YARD.
was $100,000, and the second $100,000 for a black- smith-shop.28 Then there was $150,000 for a floating wharf and basin in 1853, besides about $30,000 for other objects in connection with it. The thirty-third congress appropriated about $1,000,000 for completing blacksmith-shop, storehouses, basin, and railway at Mare Island, and in 1856 the appropriations for con- struction reached29 $441,000 for that year.
Large sums were appropriated for fortifications 30 on Alcatraz Island and Fort Point, and for an arsenal at Benicia, at least $1,933,000 being expended on the two first-mentioned works from 1854 to 1856.31 Besides
to the U. S. in 1854. Cal. Stat., 1854, 161-2; Cal. Jour. Sen., 1854, 218, 284-6, 505; App., no. 4. It is stated in the S. F. Herald, Jan. 22, 1853, that $85,000 was paid for the island; but Gwin says $50,000. He also states that after 25 years, and the most thorough investigation of all claims, parties were found setting up claims to this property. "The law officers of the govt must have strangely neglected their duty if these claims have any validity.' Memoirs, MS., 82.
28 Cong. Globe, 1851-2, pt. iii., Laws xxi. Gwin says he meant to correct the policy in regard to navy-yards on the Atlantic coast; to have only one on the Pacific coast, and that one equal to the necessities of the govt. As this was to be on a grand scale, and the workshops were to exist for all time, he thought it right that their construction should be equal to the demands of the service. The blacksmith-shop was to contain 196 furnaces, and cover acres of ground; and at the high prices then ruling in Cal. would cost $100,000. He endeavored to smuggle the appropriation into the finance committee's budget, but the sharp eyes of Mason of Va detected it, and with much solcin- nity, stated to the senate that Gwin had put down $100,000 for a blacksmith- shop, whereas he had never seen one in Va which cost more than $100. The appropriation was stricken out, but Gwin got it at the next session. Memoirs,. MS., 82. It will require $15,000,000 or $20,000,000 to complete the navy- yard as designed. Cal. Register, 1857, 135-6.
29 A man named Vance had a fat contract with Mare Island in 1856, when 'he furnished thousands of millions of lumber at $40 per M.' Eureka West Coast Signal, Nov. 5, 1873.
30 Defences were earnestly desired by the Cal. people. An attack was feared from the French. U. S. Sen. Doc., 16, 57, 58-9, 61, vol. vi., 33d Cong., 2d Sess. And there appears to have been some foundation for their apprehen- sions, for on the 13th of June, 1855, a French corvette and Russian frigate fought a battle off the harbor of San Diego. The Russian poured a broadside into the Frenchman, which blew up at half-past 11 o'clock. The Russian then entered the harbor for repairs. She had 68 killed and 150 wounded. The vessel carried 83 guns and 900 men. The French vessel was the Egalite, carried 23 and 320 men. It was said her captain, Duchene, fired the maga- zine rather than strike his flag. Hayes' Coll., San Diego Co. Local Hist., i.
31 The subject of fortifying the harbor of S. F. engaged the attention of the govt soon after the treaty with Mexico in 1848. A commission was appointed consisting of majors Ogden, Smith, and Leadbetter of the army, captains Goldborough, Van Brunt, and Blunt of the navy, and R. P. Hammond, J. M. Williams, and James Blair, who jointly were to select sites for fortifica- tions and navy-yards. They selected for the navy-yard Mare Island, as I have stated. They also selected Benicia for the storehouses and arsenals of
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the direct appropriations to California, congress, on the representations of the California delegation, voted extra
the army, helping, with the P. M. S. S. Co., which had its depot at Benicia, to establish a rivalry between that point and S. F. Sherman's Mem., 67-8; Vinton, Qr-master's Rept, U. S. A., 1850, 248-52, 274-80; Pac. News, Jan. 10, 1850. Gen. Persifer Smith gave it as his opinion that S. F. was 'in no way fitted for military or commercial purposes.' Smith's rept, in Frost's Hist. Cal., 418-9. Says Gwin: 'Every important site in Cal. was covered by a private claim-Fort Point, Alcatraz, Goat Island, Angel Island, and Mare Island. I at first thought it best to settle those claims without inquiring into their validity, in order to proceed with the public works that were so much in de- mand on the Pacific coast. It was by my advice and counsel that the sum of $50,000 was paid to claimants to Mare Island, in order that the work on the navy-yard should be promptly commenced. But it was soon perceived that there would be no limit to these demands.' Memoirs, MS., 178. Castro claimed Yerba Buena or Goat Island, so called from being a pasture for goats from 1841 to 1849. Nathan Spear bought off Castro, and with Jack Fuller, kept goats and cattle upon it from 1847 to Feb. 1849, when Spear sold to Ed- ward A. King, harbor-master of S. F., his interest for the consideration of 100 cents. Spear, Papers, MS., 3, S. F. Alta, June 12, 1868. King erected a cabin with posts, sods, and a thatched roof, for the use of a herder. The island appears to have been claimed by a Dr Jones in Feb. 1849, who employed John Hall to survey it and make a plat. In 1850 Jones had it resurveyed by A. R. Flint. Or. Sketches, MS., 2. His intention was to lay out a town on the island. But in May 1851 Jones sold to James Brady, S. Black, Selim Franklin, and E. Franklin. Subsequently, in May, Brady sold a one-fourth interest to Joel S. Polack. King, whose rights do not appear to have been considered, went to Utah, after vainly endeavoring to sell his claim. Trans- fers were made, by Polack and Franklin, to Morrison and Tennent; and fur- ther transfers to Carptentier, and to Frank M. Pixley, in 1855; and from Pixley to Eliza J. Hall in 1857. John Hall also had a deed from King in 1858. In that year Eliza J. Hall brought suit against Thomas J. Dowling, who occupied the island with John G. Jennings. The plaintiff was nonsuited on account of a suit pending between the govt and Polack, the U. S. claim- ing the island. Dowling and Jennings claimed to have settled upon the island in 1849, and to have occupied it in person or by tenant until 1867, when the U. S. dispossessed them with troops. As late as 1878 a petition was pre- sented in the U. S. senate, from the atty of Benjamin Brooks, Egbert John- son, and John Turner, alleging that they had purchased the island from Dowling and Jennings. They asserted that the title was derived from a city ordinance of 1855, a state law of 1855, and a congressional act of 1864; but the govt retained possession.
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