History of California, Volume VI, Part 72

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe
Publication date: 1885-1890
Publisher: San Francisco, Calif. : The History Company, publishers
Number of Pages: 816

USA > California > History of California, Volume VI > Part 72

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The history of Alcatraz, White, or Bird Island is more simple. It was granted by Pio Pico, governor of Cal., to Julian Workman, in 1846. Work- man granted it to his son-in-law, Temple, who in March 1849 conveyed it to Frémont, governor of Cal., for $5,000, 'as the legal representative of the U. S.' Frémont subsequently conveyed it to Palmer, Cook, & Co., without paying the $5,000 to Temple, for which Temple sued him. Palmer, Cook, & Co. sued the govt; but as the island was purchased in the name of the U. S. they had no claim. Sac. Union, Feb. 14, 1856. This island is a rock about one fourth of a mile long, 525 feet wide, 140 feet high, and lies a mile from the wharf at North Beach. Fortifications were commenced on the island in 1854, the cost of which was estimated by Maj. J. G. Barnard at $600,000, but $850,000 was appropriated. Three batteries, mounting 43 guns, 68, 42, and 28 pounders. Magazines were cut in the rock, and the works were strong and complete. A Fresnal light was erected, 160 feet above sea-level. S. F. Alta, Aug. 2, 1855; Sac. Union, Nov. 14, 1855; Engineer Repts, in U. S. E.r. Doc., 33, i., no. 82, 1-6. Fort Point, which was fortified at the same time,

633

COAST SURVEY.

pay to the officers32 and men of the army and navy who served in California in the high-priced times of the first gold period. A settlement was made also with the military collectors of the civil fund, who were allowed a percentage; and payment was made to the California battalion of mounted riflemen, which, under Frémont, joined in the conquest of California.33

An important object was helped forward by Gwin while chairman of the naval committee, namely, the coast survey on the Pacific, important not only to the shipping interest, but necessary before light-houses and fortifications could be erected. The work of sur- veying the coast had been commenced in 1849, and was much interrupted by the disturbed condition of the population, and the extraordinary expenses attend- ing it during that and the succeeding two years. Con- gress, as not infrequently happens, made an injudicious selection of objects on which to practise a spasmodic economy, and the ways and means committee and the committee on finance would have appropriated no more than $40,000; but the California senator brought to bear proper arguments on the chairman of the com-

cost $1,038,000. Granite was brought from Folsom to be used in its con- struction. S. F. Alta, Dec. 22, 23, 1853; June 12, 1854; and May 5, 1856; U. S. Sen. Doc., 24, vi., 33d Cong., 2d Sess .; U. S. Sen. Misc., 15, vol. i., 33d Cong., 2d Sess .; U. S. Sen. Doc., 50, vol. viii., 33d Cong., Ist Sess .; U. S. H. Ex. Doc., 82, vol. x., 33d Cong., Ist Sess .; Id., Doc., i., pp. 109-10, vol. i., pt. ii., 33d Cong., 2d Sess .; Cal. Mil. Scraps, 82-3; Cal. Reg., 1837, 134. The other places fortified about the harbor at a somewhat later period were Lime Point, 50 guns; Angel Island, 50; Point San Jose and Presidio Hill, 50 each; Fort Point, 164; Alcatraz, 47. I have spoken elsewhere of Lime Point. Angel Island was ceded to the U. S. by the state as early as 1852 or 1853. Cal. Jour. Assem., 1852, 840. It was claimed in 1855 by Antoine María Osio; but the claim was adjusted.

32 Mrs Major Canby copied papers for the convention at Monterey to gain much-needed means of living; and Mrs Colonel Casey lived on board of an old ship; and Mrs Captain Westcott, when her husband entertained his friends at dinner, served, with her mother, at table. These things were because officers could not afford servants, a cook costing all a colonel's salary; and the chivalrous Gwin was much shocked at the impropriety of women being engaged in menial services, or even copying papers for money. Memoirs, MS., 47-8.

33 The battalion received $130,000. Frémont had, besides, a claim for beef furnished, amounting to $235,000, which was paid. The extra pay of the army amounted to $30,000 annually, from 1848 to 1852, and was continued at a lessened rate still longer. Cong. Globe, 1851-2, pt. i. lxxx. U. S. H. Ex. Doc., 77, vol. x., 33d Cong., Ist Sess.

634

FINANCES.

mittee on commerce in both houses, who added an appropriation of $250,000 to their list for coast survey purposes, and so brought the sum up to a working figure. The result of this more liberal policy was to so hasten the progress of the surveys that as much was accomplished in ten years on the Pacific as had been done in thirty on the Atlantic coast.34

A measure in which Californians were interested almost more than any other was the settlement of private land claims, and the survey of the remaining public lands. Until this was done, no man could be sure when he settled upon a piece of land that he would be allowed to remain there. It was obvious that such a state of landed affairs must be prejudicial to the permanency of society, as well as to its morals and its financial standing. I have already pointed out how it affected legislation. Among the first bills presented by the California delegation was one "to provide for the ascertainment of private land claims in California, and for the adjudication and settlement of the same."

The bill as presented by Gwin was opposed strongly by Benton on the ground of injustice to Mexican claimants, in putting their claims to the proof in courts of law, and allowing them to be appealed, even to the United States supreme court, thereby exhausting their means, and practically robbing many of the greater portion of their lands,35 which went to enrich lawyers. His view of the working of the law proved

34 Its success was also due to the ability and energy of the officers detailed by the superintendent to carry out the work. The first corps for the land portion of the survey consisted of Asst Supt James S. Williams, Capt. D. P. Hammond, and Joseph S. Ruth; the naval survey being conducted by Lieut WV. P. McArthur in the schooner Ewing, commanded by Lieut Washington Bartlett. At a late period, Prof. George Davidson became the head of the coast survey on land, which work he carried on for many years with distin- guished success.

35 Said Benton: 'Such a principle applied to Cal. or New Mex. would be perfectly equivalent to a general confiscation of landed property in the coun- try, and that of the two, it would be more merciful at once to pass an act of general confiscation, so as to permit the people to go to work in some other way to obtain land, and to save the expenses, anxieties, and I believe I may say the horrors of going through three lawsuits for their property, and one of these lawsuits 3,000 miles from where they live.' Cong. Globe, 1850-1, 158.

635

LAND COMMISSION.

to be the correct one, as I have shown, although the author of it afterward claimed that by its means the land titles had been settled in California in one third of the time occupied in litigating those of Louisiana and Florida, some of which were still un- settled. Other persons in California believed two or three years a sufficient time in which to adjudicate the Hispano-California titles, by simply creating a commission of registration to sit in the northern and southern districts, to receive from claimants such writ- ten evidence of title and rights of possession as they might have received, or chose to present, together with whatever other evidence they had to offer in support of their claim, all of which should be regis- tered, and furnished to the surveyor-general of the state, who should proceed to segregate these claims as fast as their examinations were completed ; 36 and where disputes as to boundaries occurred, which could not be adjusted by the claimants, arbitrators should be called in, and their decisions should be final, the United States issuing a patent for the land as thus bounded. Had this been done, most of the lands in

36 Crosby says he knew many instances where the claimants would have been glad to sell their land at a merely nominal price-25 or 50 cents per acre-but could not because their titles were not confirmed, or were in litiga- tion. Other persons supposed that, under the rigorous application of the equity powers conferred on the commissioners and the U. S. courts, many claims would be set aside, and the lands revert to the govt, when they could take them by preemption, which they thought the safer course; and still others feared that if they bought of the original claimants they might have to buy again of the U. S .; and altogether a condition of uncertainty was created which greatly retarded settlement. Many were forced to retain their lands waiting for their titles to be perfected, struggling along as best they could, until the final confirmation, and until the growth of the state had made them enormously valuable, when finding themselves in possession of incomes sufficient to enable them to hold them, they would not part with their acres to those who desired to cultivate them, which was another form of the evils resulting from dragging a claimant through the land commission, after which by the operation of the law all confirmations stood appealed to the U. S. dist court, and again to the U. S. sup. court, a process which in a majority of cases made bankrupt the original claimant. Speculators bought up their claims for nominal prices, and prosecuted them in the courts, finally getting possession, so that the native Californians were practically despoiled. 'I think the political influence, by pandering to the squatter vote, had more or less to do with the enacting of the law creating the land commission, and the continuance of cases by appeal through the different courts.' Early Events in Cal., MS., 72-4. Often during the period a lawless squatter population held possession.

636

FINANCES.

California covered by Mexican grants would have been disposed of to settlers at a low price; whereas, by the working of the act of congress passed in Feb- ruary 1851, by keeping claims in the courts for eight, ten, or twelve years, not only ruined the holders, but prevented the occupation and improvement of the lands by others who desired to purchase them. Whether this was a mistake in judgment on the part of Gwin, who labored hard to convince the senate that he was simply making it impossible for a fraudu- lent claim to be confirmed, or whether other consider- ations influenced him, would be hard to determine; but certain it is that the effect of the law was pointed out to him by advisers in California, as well as by the Missouri senator. On the passage of the act, com- missioners were immediately appointed, who proceeded to California to assume their duties about the last of December 1851.87

The first annual appropriation for this commission, with the surveys, was $106,000.38 The following year it was larger, and under the administration of Presi- dent Buchanan it had grown to be $114,000 for the commission alone. The appropriation for surveys and subdivision of the public lands in California, and for subdividing the islands on the southern coast, amounted in 1852 to $115,000; in 1853 to $160,200; in 1854 to $360,000.33 In 1854 California received in direct ap-

37 The commissioners appointed by Prest Fillmore were: Harry L. Thorn- ton, Augustus Thompson, and Alpheus L. Felch. The succeeding administra- tion thrust them out, and appointed others. Tuthill, Hist. Cal., 535. 'I will say this,' Crosby observes, 'in justice to the first land commission appointed under that law: they evinced a disposition to administer it upon a broad and liberal basis of equity and justice to the claimant, and if the U. S. had stopped there, and considered as confirmed and patented those claims which had been confirmed by the first commission, a vast amount of injustice would have been avoided.' Early Events in Cal., MS., 74.

38 For the expenses of the commission $50,000; for the cost of surveying private claims $150,000; and $6,000 for a law agent. In 1852 an appropria- tion was made for two law agents, 'skilled in the Spanish and English lan- guages,' $5,000 each, and $2,000 each for a secretary and 3 clerks. Cong. Globe, 1850-1, 821.

39 As an example of the ease with which money was obtained by appropri- ation, here is the list of grants in 1854, when Gwin and Weller were together in the senate: Ind. war debt, $950,000; survey of public lands, $360,000; for- tifications, $330,000; beef furnished by Frémont, $235,000; removing and sub-

637

FEDERAL APPROPRIATIONS.

propriations about four millions, and in appropriations in which the state was concerned, three millions more. Large amounts continued to be appropriated 40 so long

sistence of Indians, $225,000; navy-yard at Mare Island, $200,000; coast and island survey, $160,000; exploration of Pacific railroad, $150,000; Cal. land com., $105,000; erection of appraiser's store, $100,000; light-houses, $75,000; purchase of custom-house block, $150,000; survey of Mexican boundary, $250,000; mint, $100,000; Frémont battalion claim, $130,000; grading U. S. marine hospital lot, $14,000; expenses of land com., $13,000; miscellaneous ap- propriations in deficiency bill, $300,000. But at this time California was emptying millions a month into a lap of the east.

10 Sac. Union, May 5 and Sept. 19, 1856; S. F. Alta, April 25, 1856. The S. F. Chronicle's Washington correspondent in a letter of July 5, 1886, copies the list of appropriations received by Cal. from a recent treasury report made by the direction of congress, classifying the expenditures of the govt from 1789 to ISS2. As a good bit of history, California's portion is here condensed, and need not be again referred to: total amount for the custom-house, $793,522.39; marine hospital, $298,933.52; first appraiser's stores, $100,000; new appraiser's stores, $840,000; subtreasury, $107,000; post-office at Sac., $100,000; mint appropriations, $2,629,192.37; whole amount for public build- ings down to 1882, $4,868,684.28.

The first river and harbor improvement work authorized by congress to be done in Cal. was in 1852, the building of a levee across the mouth of San Diego River, to turn it into its former channel into False Bay, for which $30,000 was appropriated. Cong. Globe, 1831-2; U. S. Laws, App., p. xxviii. Since that time $2,638,600 has been expended on rivers and harbors as follows: S. F. harbor, $75,000; Humboldt harbor, $142,500; Oakland harbor, $874,600; Petaluma Creek, $30,000; Redwood harbor, $3,000; Sac. River, $390,000; Sac. and Feather Rivers, $45,000; San Diego River, $75,000; Mokelumne River, $8,500; San Joaquin River, $80,000; San Joaquin River and Stockton and Mormon sloughs, $60,000; Wilmington harbor, $705,000; harbor of refuge be- tween S. F. and the Straits of Fuca, $150,000.

For light-houses, beacons, buoys, etc., $1,273,272 have been expended as follows: Angel Island fog-signal, $4,500; Ano Nuevo Point light station, $100,000; beacons and buoys, $17,283; Cape Mendocino light station, $120,000; Crescent City light station, $15,000; East Brother Island light station, $50,000; Humboldt light station, $40,000; Mare Island light station, $29,989; North- west Seal Rock light station, $170,000; Oakland light station, $5,000; Piedras Blancas light station, $92,000; Pigeon Point light station, $90,000; Point Bonita light station, $60,000; Point Concepcion light station, $53,000; Point Firmin light station, $30,000; Point Hueneme light station, $32,000; Point Pinos light station, $6,000; Point Reyes light station, $140,000; Point Arenas light station, $93,000; Santa Bárbara light station, $52,000; Santa Cruz light station, $40,000; Trinidad head-light station, $20,000; Yerba Buena light station, $15,000.

For defences $6,617,257 have been appropriated and expended as follows: Arsenal at Benicia, SS25,757; defences at S. F., $1,027,000; Fort Alcatraz, $1,697,500; Fort Point, fortifications, $2,517,500; Lime Point fortifications, $500,000; San Diego fortifications, $50,000. The sum total of appropriations here mentioned amounted to $15,397,813. Concerning the project to estab- lish a permanent arsenal at Benicia, see report in U. S. Sen. Doc., 47, viii., 321 Cong., 2d Sess. It will be observed that the list of the Chronicle corre- spondent leaves out the millions appropriated for the Mare Island navy- yard, the payment of the Indian war debt, the com. on private land claims, the appropriations for surveys of public and private lands, the expenses of the post-office department over its income in carrying the mails by steamer from Panamá to S. F .; the appropriations to keep peace with the Indians; the ex- pense of supporting an armed force ashore and afloat, with other govt matters pertaining to Cal.

638

FINANCES.

as Gwin's great measures remained incomplete, or could be made to serve for political capital; and few could be found so mean-spirited as to wish to withhold a few millions annually from the busy young state which sent forth from forty to fifty millions every year in treasure. If they had, the California delegation un- derstood perfectly how to smuggle through an appro- priation for a single object in separate bills, and how to make presents to their friends among the deficiency appropriations; indeed, our people and their servants have never lacked skill in that first of political fine arts-bribery. A kind of moral intoxication, a gold- drunkenness, had debased the public mind and distorted the spiritual vision, until men esteemed it a distinction to become noted for procuring or handling, even for stealing, large sums of money; and it was only when their own fortunes, or their lives, were in danger, that their fellows plucked up courage to rebuke them.

Coordinate with the desire to have private land titles settled in California was the wish to secure large amounts of public lands for state purposes and pre- emptions. In order to provide for the failure of some, a number of bills were introduced together, which I have mentioned by their titles elsewhere. By an ac- cident of legislation the state received 5,000,000 acres of swamp and overflowed lands, which by reclamation became the most valuable of any of its lands. By the act of September 4, 1841, it was entitled to 500,000 acres for internal improvements, which the framers of the constitution devoted, instead, to the common-school fund. On the opening of the thirty-second congress, Senator Gwin, in a bill providing for the survey of the public lands in California, included the granting of donation privileges similar to those which were enjoyed by Oregon; but congress was no longer under the necessity to offer compensation to emigrants to the Pacific coast, and this bill failed. He also, being mindful of the squatter proclivities in the voting popu-

639

CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION.

lation of his state, addressed the senate in favor of allowing preemptors on Mexican claims to prove up their preemptions, and give the Mexican owners, should their titles be confirmed, a floating claim for the same amount of land, which could be located on any public lands in the state; in other words, making the whole state public land, and letting the native Californians take their chances with the Americans in securing claims. The proposition on its face had a piratical look, which caused it to be rejected with some severe criticism; yet the results of such a course could hardly have been more melancholy for the natives than the operations of the private claims commission.

At this session also the land question came up in the house in the form of a homestead bill, which received little encouragement in the senate, from a fear entertained by a majority that the government was overstepping the bounds of its authority in grant- ing lands belonging to all the states, for the benefit of one or more states. This feeling was engendered by the grant of a large amount of public land to the state of Illinois to build a railroad, and was entertained alike by senators from Maine to Louisiana, although, as a section, it was the south that was opposed to bestowing the public lands on railroad companies. The homestead bill therefore failed to pass at that or any session until 1862, when a republican congress enacted a homestead law.

It was not until March 3, 1853, that the public lands in California were admitted to preemption rights. The same act which conferred this privilege made a grant to the state of two entire townships for the use of a seminary of learning, to be selected by the governor of the state from the public domain, mineral land being excepted; and also ten sections, selected in the same manner, to aid in erecting the public buildings. No other grants were made to the state until nine years afterward, when congress do- nated to the several states and territories land for an

640

FINANCES.

agricultural college, to be apportioned at the rate of 30,000 acres for each senator and representative to which they were entitled in 1860, according to which distribution California received 150,000 acres. The 16th and 36th sections were granted for public school purposes by the act of March 3, 1853, the irregular manner of her admission having deprived congress of the opportunity of granting at that time the custom- ary dowry of a new state in school lands. Lieu lands were allowed to be taken in the place of the reserved sections, where those were absorbed by private grants.

In relation to these several grants of land, in 1869, all of the 500,000-acre grant had been sold, excepting 10,000 acres, represented by outstanding school war- rants. All of the seventy-two sections, and ten sec- tions, had been sold. Very little swamp-land remained, and only the least desirable of the surveyed common- school lands. The agricultural-college grant was con- verted to the use of the state university by an act of the legislature of 1868. By an act of the same body, provision was made for the sale of all the lands of every kind owned by the state, or in which she had any interest, the maximum price being fixed at $1.25 an acre.41

Thus in eighteen years the state had disposed of her vast landed possessions, making no attempt to increase their value by improvements, nor leaving any to rise in value along with the development of the country about them. The money realized was appro- priated in the manner heretofore shown, a large part of it having been dissipated by the extravagance of the early legislatures, or fraudulently disposed of by political tricksters in collusion with dishonest offi- cials.42 The funds created have been borrowed by the state, the interest on the money obtained by sac-

41 In 1864 congress granted to the state of Cal. the Yosemite Valley, and Mariposa big tree grove, not to sell, but to retain as a public resort, for rec- reation, to be 'inalienable for all time.' Gov. Mess., 1873, p. 33-4.

#2 Rept of Joint Committees on Swamp and Overflowed Lands, and Land Monopoly, presented at the 20th session of the legislature of Cal.

641

LAND FRAUDS.

rificing the state's lands, taking the place of the income which should have been derived from a judi- cious care for them.

Among all this waste, one idea has not been lost sight of, that the educational interests of the state must receive such aids as were possible; and accord- ingly much has been converted to education which was not intended by congress for the use of schools; namely, the internal improvement, seminary, and pub- lic buildings appropriations; and the state has drawn from the people to supply the deficiency created in its resources for public improvements. From the sale of tide-lands in the city and county of San Francisco, $200,000 was appropriated to the benefit of the state university in 1869. Subsequently, the legislature do- nated to the university a sufficient sum from the pro- ceeds of the sale of salt marsh and tide lands to produce an annual revenue of $50,000, which sum was invested in the state bonds. 43

It might reasonably be expected that, being involved in practices such as here are briefly touched upon, the history of land frauds, for example, being of sufficient bulk to fill a volume, the credit of the state would be destroyed. On the contrary, such is the vitality and such the resources of the people and country, that in defiance of oppressive taxation, and despite of waste, the upward tendency has been steady, and not slower than in other new states. No institution of public benefit customarily supported by the commonwealths but has been liberally provided for in California. The solid character of the people, underneath the political scum, has saved the reputation and the fortunes

43 I have made no mention of mineral lands, because they have remained the property of the gen. govt. After much discussion in congress, it was de- cided to leave them free and open to exploration and occupation, by and to all citizens of the U. S., and those who had declared their intention to become such, and to leave the govt of the mining districts to the local regulations of the miners, where they did not conflict with U. S. laws. Act of July 26, 1866, in Zabriskie, Land Laws, 199-207. At a subsequent period patents were allowed to a certain amount of mineral laud; since which time a large quantity of this class of lands have been sold.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of California, Volume VI, Part 72

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe Publication date: 1885-1890 Publisher: San Francisco, Calif. : The History Company, publishers Number of Pages: 816

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe
Publication date: 1885-1890
Publisher: San Francisco, Calif. : The History Company, publishers
Number of Pages: 816