History of California, Volume VI, Part 77

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 77

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 whigs nominated for governor William Waldo, a man credited with pure principles and a firm will. As far as any one could see, the division of the dem- ocrats favored the election of a whig; but the ballot- box told a different story. In the whig city of San Francisco there was a majority of five for Bigler; in the county of San Francisco there were seventy-one for Waldo. The total vote of the state was 76,377, and the whole majority for Bigler 1,503. In Los Angeles men were disguised and sent to the polls sev-

and steal the tally lists; and I have to keep these fellows to aid me.' Merrill's Statement, MS., 10. Broderick was the first man that made a successful stand against the so-called chivalry, or southern element. Gwin himself ad- mits that. Memoirs, MS., 117.

2 Edmund Randolph was of the lineage of the celebrated Randolphs of Va, and a lawyer by descent and education. He came to Cal. in 1849 from N. O., being at the time of his leaving that city clerk of the U. S. circuit court for La. In N. O. he married a daughter of Dr Meaux. He was a member of the first Cal. legislature, but not being a politician by nature, was not prominent in party affairs. He was gifted, eccentric, excitable in temper, and proud of his standing as a lawyer. He was usually retained in important land cases, and made a national reputation in the New Almaden quicksilver mine case. He was opposed to the vigilance committee, and defied it, out of a regard for law in the first and personal pride in the second instance. Yet, like all of his class, he would break a law to gratify a passion, but would not allow others to do so to sustain a principle. In the conflict between the two wings of the democratic party in 1857-8 he espoused the cause of Douglas. When the civil war came on he bitterly opposed the Lincoln administration, and died denouncing it, for his most virulent and last speech was made in August 1861, and his death occurred in Sept. How futile are the efforts of a great mind warped all ont of place! Cal. Jour. Sen., 1854, 52-4; Yolo Democrat, Aug. 14, 1879; Cal. Reg., 1857, 164. It was alleged that Bigler owed 3,000 votes to frauds perpetrated on the ballot-box. Bell, Reminis., 21; S. F. Alta, Sept. 9, 1853.

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POLITICAL HISTORY.

eral times to deposit votes. The amount expended in San Francisco alone in influencing votes was estimated to be not less than $1,500,000 in money and water- front property This was exclusive of several hundred steamer tickets to the states, with which returning miners were bribed. What must have been the value attached to victory, when such prices were paid for preferment ?

There was little to choose between parties. Both resorted to dishonest practices, although on the side of the whigs it was individual, and not party, acts. A whig editor was discovered distributing democratic tickets, entire, with the exception of his own name and that of one other aspirant for the legislature. If he could not get in at the door he might by the window.

Gloomy views were taken of the political situation by the whig and independent press.3 The state was indeed approaching a dark period in its history, a moral, political, and financial night out of which was to arise the morning of a pure day. The eternal mutation in human events always gives hope of mending when matters are at their worst. But they were not to mend in California until they had become more evil than they yet were; and they were not to mend through any favorable change in the policy of the dominant political party. When and how will mend these later times? Governor Bigler, governor now for another term, and perfectly cognizant of the in- dignant protest of San Francisco to his extension measures, vaunted his opposition, and his purpose to recommend the passage of the obnoxious bill by the next legislature. According to his asseverations, in that way only could the civil debt of the state be paid,

3 Says the Alta, reproaching those who failed to vote at the election, to defeat the extension-bill candidates: 'They will be still more amazed when they find the second stories of their houses below the level of the streets, and the third stories sold to pay the expense of burying the others; all the slips closed up; and the bay piled, and filled in 200 feet east of the outer end of long wharf. Their indignation against extension will then be as violent as need be.'

681

A NEW TRICK.

and the burden of taxation lessened. But the people of San Francisco saw in it a bribe for politi- cal support; and with good reason, the water-lot property having been secured by Bigler's supporters with the expectation that its extension would place $4,000,000 in their pockets. Broderick, though he labored for the reelection of Bigler, did so as a means to his own ends. The governor had also aspirations toward the United States senate, and unless he should be continued in his present office, might make a serious diversion of interest from himself. As another means to the same end, Purdy, who would have liked to run for governor, was persuaded to content himself again with the office of lieutenant-governor. The vote for Purdy was 10,000 more than for Bigler; and had he not yielded to Broderick's persuasions he might have had the higher office; and all because he had voted against the extension bill.4 As soon as the election was decided, Broderick, at the head of the victorious faction, prepared to secure his election to the United States senate by the legislature elect, to succeed Gwin in 1855.5 There was no precedent for an election by a legislature not the last before the expiration of a senatorial term; but Broderick was of the order of men who make precedents; and having a legislature 6

* The state officers elected in 1853, besides the gov. and lieut-gov., were J. W. Denver, sec. of state (he resigned in Nov. 1856, and C. H. Hempstead was appointed to the vacancy); Samuel Bell, cont .; S. A. McMeans, treas .; J. R. McConnell, atty-gen .; S. H. Marlette, snr .- gen .; P. K. Hubbs, supt pub. inst .; W. C. Kibbe, qr-master genl; state printers, George Kerr & Co. The contract system was repealed May 1, 1854, and B. B. Redding elected by the legislature, who was succeeded in Jan. 1856 by James Allen; W. E. P. Hartnell was state translator. Cal. Reg., 1857, 189.

5 Wilkes says that on his return to California in the autumn of 1853 Broderick consulted him upon the propriety and legality of asking the legis- lature to fill a vacancy 2 years in advance; and that his opinion was that the effort if undertaken would be useful as a preliminary canvass, and would give him, Broderick, a start in the way of organization, over any other aspirant for the same place.

6 The senate in 1854 consisted of W. W. Hawkes, J. S. Hager, D. Mahoney, W. M. Lent, E. J. Moore, S. F .; A. P. Catlin, G. W. Colby, Sac .; G. D. Hall, G. W. Hook, H. G. Livermore, El Dorado; C. A. Leake, E. D. Sawyer, Cala- veras; J. Henshaw, W. H. Lyons, Nevada; C. H. Bryan, J. C. Stebbins, Yuba; C. A. Tuttle, J. Walkup, Placer; J. H. Wade, Mariposa; B. C. Whiting, Monterey; S. B. Smith, Sutter; E. T. Peck, Butte; W. B. Macy, Trinity and Klamath; E. McGarry, Napa, Solano, and Yolo; J. P. McFarland, Los Angeles;

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POLITICAL HISTORY

upon which he believed he might depend,7 he purchased a newspaper, the Alta, and repaired to the capital ac-

D. B. Kurtz, San Diego; T. Kendall, Tuolumne; J. M. Hudspeth, Sonoma and Marin; J. Grewell, Sta Clara and Contra Costa; J. H. Gardner, Sierra; P. de la Guerra, Sta Barbara and San Luis Obispo; H. A. Crabb, San Joaquin and Contra Costa.

Officers of the senate: S. Purdy, prest; B. F. Keene, prest pro tem .; J. Y. Lind, sec .; J. H. Stewart, asst; H. St Clair, enrolling clerk; J. C. Tucker, engrossing clerk; W. H. Harvey, sergt-at-arms; E. C. Dowdigan, door-keeper. Members of the assembly: J. W. Bagley, J. A. Gilbert, A. A. Green, J. C. Hubbard, N. Hubert, F. W. Koll, E. Nichols, E. B. Purdy, W. J. Sweasey, S. F .; T. R. Davidson, F. A. Park, J. M. McBrayer, J. W. Park, Sac., died at S. F. in 1870; W. C. Daniels, C. S. Fairfax, J. C. Jones, H. B. Kellogg, J. Y. McDuffie, Yuba; B. L. Fairfield, B. F. Meyers, J. O. Neil, G. H. Van Cleft, Placer; E. O. F. Hastings, Sutter; H. B. Goddard, J. J. Hoff, B. D. Horr, T. J. Hoyt, J. M. Mandeville, Tuolumne; A. C. Bradford, J. Stemmons, San Joaquin; J. H. Bostwick, E. F. Burton, H. P. Sweetland, I. N. Dawley, W. H. Linsey, Nevada; S. Ewer, R. Irwin, J. B. McGee, Butte; F. Ander- son, J. C. James, Sierra; R. D. Ashley, Monterey; W. D. Aylett, Siskiyou; S. A. Ballou, A. E. Stevenson, A. Briggs, J. Conness, E. G. Springer, D. P. Tallmadge, H. Hollister, G. McDonald, El Dorado; J. W. Bennett, Sonoina; G. W. Bowie, Colusa; C. E. Carr, E. Hunter, Los Angeles; P. C. Carrillo, Sta Barbara; D. Clingan, Marin; G. N. Cornwall, Napa; P. H. French, San Luis Obispo; M. W. Gordon, A. J. Houghtaling, C. A. McDaniel, W. C. Pratt, M. Rowan, Calaveras; H. Griffith, Yolo; W. B. Hagans, Sonoma; J. C. Henry, P. T. Herbert, Mariposa; J. Hunt, San Bernardino; W. S. Letcher, J. Mckinney, Sta Clara; J. Musser, Trinity; C. P. Noel, San Diego; J. A. Ring, Shasta; M. Spenser, Humboldt; W. W. Stowe, Sta Cruz; J. T. Tivy, Tulare; F. M. Warmcastle, Contra Costa; J. S. Watkins, Alameda; S. G. Whipple, Klamath; B. C. Whitman, Solano. C. S. Fairfax was chosen speaker, J. M. Mandeville, speaker pro tem .; B. McAlpin, chief clerk; J. W. Scobey, asst clerk; John Kimmell, enrolling clerk; E. A. Kelley, engrossing clerk; G. H. Blake, sergt-at-arms; J. H. Warrington, door-keeper.

Charles S. Fairfax, speaker of the assembly, was a descendant of the last Lord Fairfax, and himself entitled to the succession as the 10th Lord Fairfax. He was born in Vancluse, Fairfax co., Va, in 1829, and came to Cal. in 1849, wintering in a cabin near Grass Valley. After 1854, he was clerk of the sup. court for 5 years; was chairman of the Cal. delegation to the dem. nat. con. at N. Y. in 1868, and died in Baltimore in April 1869. Colusa Sun, April 11, 1874; S. F. Alta, April 6, 1869; S. F. Call, April 6, 1869; Sutter Co. Hist., 26; Field's Reminis., 107-12. John C. James came to Cal. in 1850, being then 23 years of age. In 1858 he went to reside at Genoa, Carson Valley, then a part of Utah, and from there he was elected to the Utah legislature, the only gen- tile member. In 1866 he was a member of the Nevada legislature, and speaker pro tem. of the assembly. He is spoken of as being intelligent, gen- erous, and fond of humor. He died in Carson in 1874. Los Angeles Star, Feb. 14, 1874; Gold Hill News, Jan. 26, 1874.

7 A scandal of the senate at this term was an alleged attempt on the part of J. C. Palmer, of the banking firmn of Palmer, Cook, & Co., to induce the newly elected senator from Butte, E. T. Peck, and W. B. May from Trinity, whigs, to vote for, and use their influence to bring on, a senatorial election at this session. Peck related the interview with Palmer in the senate. Palmer's argument to him was that the whigs were in no way interested in the matter, so it could be no treachery to party; it was 'a war between two fac- tions of the democratic party,' and if Peck would do as desired, he, Palmer, would count him down $5,000; but he 'did not wish Broderick to know that the offer had been made.' Peck declined to be purchased. Palmer was brought before the senate, and denied everything on his side, accusing Peck

683

BRODERICK'S SCHEME.

companied by his friend and mentor, Wilkes, who had accepted an invitation from him to come to California.

This scheme of Broderick's has been, by his friends, declared to be the greatest error in his life. I do not so regard it. It was irregular; it was tricky; in a certain sense it was unfair. But the circumstances in which he was placed were remarkable and stringent. He could not begin too soon to meet the foe which must be faced at every turn. He was perfectly aware of the growing strength of the pro-slavery party, and that Gwin could only be defeated at the next senatorial election by the most strenuous measures. He sought to accomplish by strategy what he feared could not be done if the opportunity were neglected, namely, to rout the chivalry in California. They were routed, and through this act of Broderick, but not in the way he had contemplated.8

of offering himself for sale. After a trial, in which the counsel engaged was E. D. Baker for Peck, and that fine reasoner, Thomas H. Williams, on Palmer's side, the senate disagreed as to the guilt of the accused. Hall offered a resolution that Peck's allegations had not been sustained by the evidence ad- duced in the investigation. Leake, Gardner, and Moore took this ground, but Gardner 'resolved further' that the decision of the senate was 'not intended in any degree to reflect upon the honor and dignity of Mr Peck.' Catlin resolved that the collateral testimony of either side was not sufficient to support the respective charges made by each against the other, which reso- lution was lost. Crabb then resolved that it was not the intention of the senate to reflect upon the honor and dignity of Peck, which was finally agreed to. Cal. Jour. Sen., 1854, 83-4, 96-7, 118, 123-6.

8 In 1881 was printed by James O'Meara The Most Extraordinary Contest for a Seat in the Senate of the United States ever Known, under the general title of Broderick and Gwin. The author, an Irishman, was a chivalry democrat and a secessionist during the rebellion, serving the southern cause, or rather the cause of a Pacific republic, and his master Gwin, by starting disunion newspapers in various places on the coast, which were surpressed by order of Gen. Wright, who excluded them from the mails. O'Meara's talents as a writer were above the average. He was a follower of Gwin. He knew the ins and outs of the party warfare in Cal., of which he was a witness, and in which he was an actor, and has well related them, with as little bias as could be looked for from a person of his origin and quality. From his writings I draw some personal sketches of the legislature of 1854, and the wire-pullers present at this session. The book is subtly hostile to Broderick, cunningly exaggerating his faults, while affecting impartiality making him out a creature of no principles, but inspired alone by ambition and hate. 'At the bottom of Broderick's cunning scheine,' he says, 'was Broderick's earliest tutor and adviser in New York, George Wilkes, who had come to the state in 1851, and then stood nearer to him and closer in his confidence than any other.' This remark applied to the plan of a banquet got up ostensibly in honor of Gen. Wool and Ex-gov. Foote of Miss., both of whom were offended with the administration of Pierce on personal grounds, but really to give Broderick an

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POLITICAL HISTORY.

His plan was to have a bill passed fixing a day on which the legislature, then in session, should elect a successor to Gwin in the United States senate. On the 28th of January, such a bill was introduced in the assembly by Gordon of Calaveras. This was drawn up by, or at the dictation of, Broderick. It was made the special order for the 31st, when the vote being un- favorable, it was tabled to await the action of the senate. In that body another bill was introduced, by Henshaw of Nevada, whig, which it was the interest of the Broderick men to defeat, and which was in charge of the whigs and Gwin men, with some aid from the agents of Congressman McDougall,9 who also aspired to the senate of the United States along with many others.10

On the 6th of March, 1854, the election bill came up in the senate, the legislature having adjourned to Sacramento from Benicia. Every means was being used on both sides which persuasion and intrigue could render serviceable,11 including threats and imprison-

opportunity to arraign the administration an account of appointments, and promote his interests as against Gwin. Gov. Bigler presided at the banquet, and the affair did temporarily subserve the Broderick interest; but a reaction followed, when the purport of some of the speeches became known. It stirred up the whigs to defend Gwin and the administration. O'Meara's re- marks may be taken with several grains of allowance, on account of his prejudice in favor of Gwin.

9 Henry B. Truett, formerly mayor of Galena, Ill., was McDougall's chief supporter. Reuben J. Maloney, of Ill., was another of McDougall's friends, and a well-known politician. Gwin's recognized agents were Maj. Folsom, Capt. Bissell, and the P. M. S. Co. Broderick was supported by Palmer, Cook, & Co., A. A. Selover, John Middleton, Ned McGowan, A. J. Butler, Tom Maguire, Robert J. Woods, a southern man of influence, Frank Til- ford, who was appointed district judge through his influence, and James M. Estill.

10 Early in the session W. W. Gift entered the assembly with revolver in hand, crying out that were he to point the weapon and threaten to shoot the first one who should venture to announce himself a candidate for congress, three fourths of them would dodge under their desks. Grimn pleasantry, this.

11 It is stated that J. H. Gardner, of Sierra, an anti-Broderick dem., and a poor man, who wanted to bring his family from S. C. and could not for lack of means, resisted a bribe of $30,000 offered for his vote. In another instance a clergyman was brought from Napa to plead with his brother, a senator from a northern co., to accept a still larger sum, which would have been divided between them; but this man also refused the bribe. On the other hand, Wilkes relates how he, at Broderick's request, solicited the influence of sev- eral members by promises that 'there was nothing in Mr Broderick's power which could gratify an honorable mind he, the said Broderick, and deponent for himself, was not ready to pledge to the service of said member.' "Depo-

685

AN IMPRESSIVE SCENE.

ment. Less strenuous measures sufficed to convert Jacob Grewell of Santa Clara, a whig, and an anti- electionist, but susceptible to cajolery by great men, having been an humble baptist preacher in Ohio. On the day before the senate bill was to be considered, he was captured, body and soul, and detained until the morning of the 6th, when to the surprise of his party he voted with the Broderick men to postpone Hen- shaw's bill to the 17th, by which time they hoped to secure the passage of the assembly bill.

The scenes in the senate-chamber during this period were the most impressive, for intense interest, which ever transpired in a legislative body in California. Every one was aware that the passage of the election bill meant Broderick for senator. Every man had done all that he could for or against it. The loss of one vote on either side would defeat one or the other party. By the loss of Grewell to the whigs and Gwin men, a tie resulted. The decision rested with the president of the senate. He voted for postponing the Henshaw bill. The star of Broderick was ascendant ! A sigh of suppressed excitement suddenly relieved was heard throughout the chamber. For a moment inore there was a strange silence, and then the friends of Broderick, whose steel-blue eyes shot sparks of fire, pressed around him to grasp his hand. It was not an immaculate palm; it was the hand of a stone-cutter's son; the hand of a rough-and-tumble politician, and man of the people; yet to his friends at that moment it was the hand of a king. They would have kissed it but for shame. As it was, their lips trembled, and Broderick himself was speechless, so nearly was he to the consummation of his heart's de- sires.

nent further says that this transaction occurred at a time when hostile rumor had charged that votes were being bought for $10,000 apiece; but deponent solemnly avers that no temptations beyond an appeal of said member's honor- able ambition, were used by deponent with said honorable member.' Affidavit, 4. Baker's speech in pamphlet form, 28 pp., argues strongly against Palmer's attempt.

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POLITICAL HISTORY

The shock of joy which so unmanned them was a blow bringing surprise and anger to the other side. To what end had been their lavish expenditure of money ? To what purpose had guard been kept over one senator twenty-four hours, to prevent his being kidnapped, since another had gone over to the enemy? Upon Grewell was fastened the responsibility of the defeat, and they determined that the mischief he had done he should undo.

Henry A. Crabb of San Joaquin12 was leader of the whigs in the senate. Besides being a whig, he was a Mississippian, a true representative of the fight- ing chivalry, and a strong man intellectually and po- litically. Crabb called Grewell to account for his action, and gave him his choice of recantation or- worse. Other senators used their influence, and Grewell, after explaining his defection, agreed to move the reconsideration of the vote of the 6th of March on the following day, which he did, prefacing his mo- tion by a statement concerning despatches received from constituents to account for the change. His motion was carried by a vote of 18 to 15. Directly thereafter a message was received from the assembly, informing the senate that the bill fixing the time of electing United States senators had been passed by them on the 6th. Henshaw moved that the bill be rejected. Lent of San Francisco moved to postpone the consideration of the bill until the 17th. Sprague of Shasta, a Broderick man, moved to adjourn. After a rapid succession of motions and balloting, the vote recurred upon Henshaw's motion to reject the assem- bly bill, when the vote stood 17 for to 14 against re- jection. The senate bill was indefinitely postponed, and the defeat of the senatorial election measure was final. 13 The disappointment of the Broderick faction

12 Crabb was killed in Nicaragua while with Walker's expedition. Brod- erick spoke in the U. S. senate in favor of calling his murderers to account. Sac. Union, Aug. 13, 1859.

13 The friends of Broderick in Washington had given him considerable as- surance on a point upon which doubt was expressed in Cal .; namely, whether

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DENVER AND HEMPSTEAD

was in proportion to the elation experienced by the prospect of passing the assembly bill in the senate.14

The extension bill, which the governor did not fail to recommend in his annual message to the legislature, was also defeated by an adjournment of the senate be- fore it reached that body.15 In a special message at the close of the session, which lasted four and a half months, he expressed his regret for the failure of his favorite project, and that "all the more important measures required by the people have been defeated, either by a direct vote, or delay in acting upon them." While this was probably true, the same policy had defeated some that were not required or desired; from which it appears that there may be virtues as well as sins of omission.

On the 11th of January, the governor reappointed J. W. Denver secretary of state, he having been ap- pointed in 1853, in place of W. Van Voorhies, resigned. It was a small enough return to make to a man who had killed in a duel Edward Gilbert, ex-congressman and editor of the Alta, because he had ridiculed the immaculate John Bigler. Denver resigned in 1856, and the governor's private secretary, Charles H. Hempstead, son of a professional gambler, was ap- pointed in his place.

he would be admitted, being chosen under such conditions. It was said that the sec. of the senate had given it as his opinion that the action of the legis- lature would be sustained; and some of the ablest men in the senate were of the same opinion, including the southern whigs; and the republicans would vote for his admission on account of his antagonism to the Kansas-Nebraska bill, at that time the principal subject before congress. The assurance that he had powerful friends in the U. S. senate made Broderick's defeat in Cal. the more bitter. Among his supporters in the state were George Wilkes, A. J. Butler, J. C. Palmer, Stephen J. Field, John Middleton, A. A. Selover, Frank Tilford, Col Dick Snowden, Thomas Maguire, Ned McGowan, V. Turner, Charles Gallagher, and C. H. Hempstead. The governor, with his powerful patronage, was a strong right arm.

1+ O'Meara is in error when he says that the senatorial election bill passed in the senate, and was reconsidered next day. It never passed in the senate. The assembly bill was rejected, and the senate bill never came to a vote on its passage.

15 It is not probable the bill could have passed, the remonstrance of S. F. was too strong. A memorial of 8 pages, addressed to the legislature in 1854, and signed by the mayor, and committees from the board of aldermen, was presented by a special committee appointed to visit the capital in May for this purpose. See Remonstrance of the City of San Francisco, in Hist. and Incidents, S. F. Doc., 8.

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POLITICAL HISTORY.

Whatever the feuds in the democratic party previous to the senatorial election bill fiasco in the legislature, the factions had voted together at elections. But the Broderick and Gwin supporters could no longer do this; and as the regular senatorial election would occur at the next session, there was a Waterloo in prospect for one or the other faction. Efforts were made to unite them, but in vain.

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History of California, Volume VI, Part 77

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