History of California, Volume VI, Part 79

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

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699

TENOR OF THE TIMES.

slavery, he conceived it to be his duty to aid the knownothings; to which Broderick replied that he agreed with him that such was his duty; adding, "Flint,25 I will load the democratic party down with three tons of lead in this canvass." And he nominated Mr Bigler. This episode I introduce here to explain what followed later.

The knownothings stormed and threatened, but Flint was firm. Convinced there would be no elec- tion, Crabb withdrew in favor of W. I. Ferguson, a young lawyer, with nothing to recommend him but a handsome person, active brain, finished education, and dissolute habits. He was mortally wounded in a duel in August 1858 by George Pen Johnston, having gone back to the democratic party and aspired to con- gressional honors. Foote, a few years later, found his appropriate place in the confederate senate.

Sarshel Bynum was born in Ky, and came overland to Cal. in 1849. He was the first clerk of Solano co., and represented Yolo, Napa, and Solano in the legislature. He removed to Lakeport in 1862, where he became clerk of Lake co., holding the office until 1875. He died the following year. Vallejo Chronicle and Napa Register, Nov. 25, 1876.

R. C. Haile, born in Tenn., educated at Nashville, was a merchant in Sumner co. from 1836 to 1839, when he removed to Miss., and thence to Cal. in 1849, engaging in mining in Nevada City. After a year in the mines he settled in Napa valley, at farming and laboring, to which he added merchan- dising in 1857. Again in 1858 he removed, this time to Suisun valley, where he purchased 510 acres of land. He was elected to the legislature from So- lano co. in 1868 and 1876. Solano Co. Hist., 410-11.

Horace Hawes, a native of one of the eastern states, came to Cal. in 1845, as consul to some of the Polynesian groups of islands. In 1846 he resided at Honolulu, but returned to Cal., and was prefect of the district of S. F. in 1849. Unbound Docs., 57. He had trouble with alcaldes Colton and Geary, whose land grants he opposed. By profession a lawyer, he resumed practice on the establishment of the state govt. He was the framer of the consolida- tion bill, which effected a great reform in the govt of S. F. He represented the co. of S. F. and San Mateo in the senate in 1863-4. In 1866 he drew up the registry law. He was a shrewd business man, and accumulated a large estate. His death occurred in 1871. He was the first man of wealth in Cal. to offer to give any considerable portion of it to a public institution; but the conditions of his gift of $1,000,000 were such that it was not practicable to accept it, and the property reverted to his heirs. S. F. Alta, March 10, 1871.

25 Wilson G. Flint was a native of Ohio, born 1820. He engaged in mer- cantile pursuits in New York at an early age, and afterward went to Texas, whence he came to Cal. in 1849. He erected a warehouse at North Point, in which he conducted business for several years. In 1854 he turned his atten- tion to farming, making experiments, and writing many treatises upon the subject. He was an ardent and firm friend of freedom, as his course in the legislature gave proof. He died at S. F. in Jan. 1867. S. F. Call, Jan. 6, 1867.

700

POLITICAL HISTORY.

The state officers who came in with the knownoth- ings were expected to bring in some reforms.26 The governor promised very solemnly in his inaugural, and gave much earnest advice to the legislature. But it required a man of extraordinary nerve and a powerful personal magnetism to impress himself upon the tur- bulent and evil times to which the state was reduced by politicians who cared nothing for the welfare of the people, and everything for money and personal ag- grandizement. The welfare of the people! Why, these lawyers, judges, and fire-eating politicians were the scum of the state! They were thieves, gamblers, murderers, some of them living upon the proceeds of harlotry, and all of them having at heart the same consideration for the people that had the occupants of the state prison, where these ought to have been; yet they were no whit worse, and could not possibly be, than the politicians of to-day. Johnson was a very weak individual. He could no more control the hybrid legislature than could a child. Even Bigler could have done little, as it was here too much like what he had complained of in his farewell message, that to be "made responsible for the acts of others, or for mat- ters over which he could exercise no direct control," was bitter injustice. He advocated economy and pro- bity, and the legislature did what it could at that late day, and yet the state treasurer elected with him was a defaulter to the amount of $124,000. He pointed out the illegality and unconstitutionality of the fund- ing acts by which the state had sustained its credit, and thus led to an examination of the subject, and to the decision by the people to pay the debt and save the honor of California.

The knownothing legislature enacted the law drawn

26 R. M. Anderson was lieut-gov .; David F. Douglass, sec. of state; George W. Whitman, controller, suspended in Feb. 1857, when E. F. Burton was appointed; Henry Bates, treasurer (resigned in 1857, and James L. English appointed in his place); William T. Wallace, atty-gen .; John H. Brewster, sur. - gen .; Paul K. Hubbs, supt pub. instruction, succeeded by A. J. Moulder, in 1857; W. C. Kibbe, quarter-master-gen .; state printer, James Allen; state translator, Augistin Ainsa. Cal. Reg., 1857, 189.

701

RISE OF THE REPUBLICANS.

up by Horace Hawes, by which San Francisco city and county governments were consolidated, the old charter repealed, and the whole list of city and county officers given their congé at the next general election ; and they were forbidden to contract any debt in the interim not authorized by the act.27 The consolidation act, and the benefits which flowed from it, gave great relief to San Francisco, and together with the acts of the vigilance committees, produced a revolution and reform, the greatest ever achieved with so little blood- shed. The most important and exciting events of the new administration I have reserved for a separate chapter. Under all the circumstances of this remark- able period, it was no doubt fortunate that no Charles the First occupied the executive office in California, and that Johnson subsided before that moral force which resides in the soul of an aroused people. It was the providence of almighty power among a suffer- ing people that California at this juncture should have only the semblance of a man for governor. Had he been of better metal, it had been worse for him and all concerned.

The knownothing party enjoyed but a brief exist- ence. 28 As a native American party it secured no standing in California, appropriated as it was for the shelter of hopeless whigs and disaffected chivalry. It was divided by the rise of the republican party in 1856. This year there were three parties in the field, and a president of the United States to be elected. There were three state conventions in California, sup- porting three candidates for the presidency : Frémont, republican; Fillmore, native American; 29 Buchanan,

27 Cal. Stat., 1856, 145-178. San Mateo co. was created out of the south end of S. F. co. by the same act.

28 Fillmore had 36,165 votes in Cal .; Buchanan, 53,365; Frémont, 20,693; Tuthill, Hist. Cal., 428. Joseph Mckibben and Charles Scott were elected congressmen, over Whitman and Dibble, native Americans, and Rankin and Turner, republicans.

29 The knownothings used to meet in a hall on Sac. street near Montgom- ery. Coleman, Vig. Com., MS., 33; Morrell, in Roman's Newspaper matter, 76-7; Sac. Union, Jan. 5 and 22, and Sept. 1, 3, 6, 1856; S. F. Bulletin, Sept. 3, 4, and Oct. 22, 1856.

702

POLITICAL HISTORY.

democratic. The whigs had some organizations, in clubs, and gave their support to Fillmore. The re- publicans made their maiden effort in California this year,30 but the candidate they had to indorse was not popular with any party in the. state. No bear-flag reminiscences could suffice now to extenuate certain other and more secret deeds connected with beef contracts and Mariposa estates.31 Republicanism, too, at this time, was regarded as sectional, and therefore not to be encouraged. The election of Frémont, it was urged, would bring on disunion. Southern whigs, who deplored the attitude of the chivalry, whom they denounced as misrepresenting southern character, could not be drawn into the republican ranks, fearing that in the event of disunion they should be found taking sides against their own kindred and friends. The times were indeed out of joint in the political arena.

30 Merrill claims to have organized the first republican club in Cal. 'They gave their influence to Broderick because he was anti-chivalry.' Merrill, Statement, MS., 10. In San Joaquin co. the chivalry said the republicans would not be permitted to organize or sit in convention. 'The convention was held, for all that.' Staples, Statement, MS., 15-16.

31 Says the S. F. Morning Globe, Aug. 19, 1856: 'Fremont's pleading induced congress to pass a bill for his relief, and flush again, he redeemed his Mari- posa estate, and bullied Corcoran and Riggs, who held the claim of King of William for $40,000, advanced on the beef contract, to accept $20,000 to $30,000 less than their due. Through Palmer, Cook, & Co. he shaved the patient Californians who had waited for the beef contract money, forcing them to take half. The cunning Palmer made the Mariposa deed over to himself, and then took a confession of judgment from Frémont for upward of $73,000 at 3 per cent per month interest. Hence Frémont's creditors had to take what Palmer offered. In this way most of the congressional appropria- tions fell into Palmer, Cook, & Co.'s hands, and saved them from bankruptcy in 1854. After that Frémont received $1,000 per month as Palmer's agent to aid them in their negotiations in the east, to raise money on the Mariposa and Bolton & Barron claims, but failed. Palmer's fortunes were hard pressed, and he ordered Frémont and Wright to bribe a black republican speaker into place. Thus Banks became speaker, and he made a committee report a bill to confirm the Bolton & Barron claims without ordeal of the U. S. courts. Herbert was the tool to lobby the bill, which he would have passed had he not killed the Irish waiter. Emboldened by success, Fremont struck for the

black republican nomination. Selover alone spent $49,000 to get the nomi- nation, says the Placer Herald, and the state's money, placed in Palmer's hands to pay the interest on her bonds, was so used. Unable to borrow money to cover the $102,000 of Cal. bond money, their game collapsed, and Cal. was dis- honored. If Frémont were elected, Palmer would be sec. of treas., Wright sub-treas., and Selover collector of the port.' Such were the charges and revelations which the republican nominee for the presidency had to meet in Cal. The various capitalists with whom Fremont had to deal finally deprived him of his Mariposa estate, valued at $10,000,000, according to his own testi- mony. N. Y. World, Dec. 22, 1864; Hayes' Scraps, Mining, iv. 25.

703

VIGILANCE COMMITTEES.

The democratic party, feeling itself hard pushed by the two others in the field, again united, and assessed office-holders ten per cent upon the income of heads of departments, and five per cent upon the incomes of subordinates, to meet the expenses of the campaign and election. Thus in a circuitous manner the admin- istration paid out of the public funds large sums of money for continuing itself in power; and either the salaries of the officials assessed were too large, or the holders of offices were oppressed to serve the purposes of the managers of their party.

State politics partook of the excitement of the late acts of the vigilance committees, and the legislative candidates of the native American party were called upon to define their position upon this question.32 A. pledge was required that such candidates, if elected, should vote for the passage of a law granting a gen- eral amnesty to the vigilance committee of San Fran- cisco and their coadjutors; and against expending the public money to pay improvident bills made for the purpose of suppressing or exterminating the commit- tee. The outrageous frauds perpetrated at former elections, and particularly in San Francisco, by ballot- box stuffing, and which had been one of the crimes against which the vigilance committee warred, was carefully guarded against in the general election of this year.33 The municipal election in this city, in the spring, had been so managed that the city govern- ment was retained in the hands of the same corrupt officials against whom the honest citizens had for years

32 S. F. Bulletin, Aug. 30, 1856; Fay's Historical Facts, MS., 21-2; Sar. Union, Oct. 10, 1856. Robert Robinson, Henry Palley, L. W. Ferris, J. Powell, A. P. Catlin, Robert C. Clark, and W. C. Wallace, of Sacramento co., declared their intention to give their support to the vigilance committee. 33 The Sac. Union of Oct. 22, 1856, has a description of a plate-glass ballot- box, with a brass frame, a small opening for the ballot in a brass cap or con- trivance that seized the same inside and rang a bell. Another ballot-box, described in the issue of the 29th of Sept., was made of strong brass wires, tightly woven, but which allowed of seeing the ballot introduced. The false ballot-boxes used by the stuffers are described in my Popular Tribunals, ii. pp. 7, 8; in Frink, MS., 22-3. Dempster speaks of them in manuscript, 55-7; also Sayward, MS., 33-4; Brown, Statement, MS., 20.

704

POLITICAL HISTORY.

had no redress and no protection until the vigilance committee assumed the temporary government. By the consolidation act, these men would go out and new officers be elected under the act. To nominate compe- tent and honorable men was the care of the people's party, an organization without reference to national affairs, which was bent upon correcting local abuses. Such was the political situation in 1856. The elec- tion went, as it was sure to go, to the now united democrats. Buchanan received a large vote in Cali- fornia, more than double that of Fremont.34 The people's party effected some important reforms in city government; the whigs and knownothings and the republicans had received a lesson which was useful to them in 1860.

The potency of Broderick was shown in the spring of 1856, when he seized upon the democratic convention and welded the two factions, thus securing democratic presidential electors and a democratic legislature.35

34 The presidential electors chosen were Della Torre, native of S. C .; Oli- vera, of Cal .; Bradford, of Pa; Freanor, of Md. Of the congressmen, Scott was from Va, and Mckibben from Pa. Fairfax, clerk of the sup. court, was from Va, and also Moulder, supt of public instruction. Sac. Union, Sept. 15, 1856. This impartial (!) distribution of offices was a timely device of the party to unite it.

30 The senate in 1857 was composed of W. J. Shaw, S. Soule, E. L. Sulli- van, F. Tilford, resigned, and F. A. Woodworth elected to vacancy, S. F .; W. I. Ferguson, J. Johnston, Sac .; J. Walkup, C. Westmoreland, Placer; J. W. Coffroth, J. W. Mandeville, Tuolumne; G. J. Carpenter, H. M. Fiske, S. M. Johnson, J. G. McCallum, El Dorado; J. B. McGee, Butte and Plumas; P. de la Guerra, Sta Bárbara and San Luis Obispo; B. D. Wilson, San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino; D. R. Ashley, Monterey and Sta Cruz; S. B. Bell, Alameda and Sta Clara; W. C. Burnett, J. O. Goodwin, Yuba and Sutter; S. Bynum, Napa, Solano, and Yolo; S. H. Chase, E. G. Waite, Ne- vada; J. D. Cosby, Trinity and Klamath; D. Crandall, W. B. Norman, Calaveras and Amador; S. H. Dosh, Shasta and Colusa; A. R. Meloney, Contra Costa and San Joaquin; S. A. Merritt, Mariposa; R. S. Mesick, Yuba; A. W. Taliaferro, Sonoma and Marin; W. T. Ferguson, Sierra. Prest, R. M. Anderson; prest pro tem., S. H. Dosh; sec., G. S. Evans; asst sec., T. Ward; enrolling clerk, J. C. Shipman; engrossing clerk, J. H. Webster; sergt-at-arms, A. Hunter; door-keeper, J. McGlenchy. The assembly was composed of M. C. Blake, R. Chenery, V. J. Fourgeaud, R. M. Jessup, E. Miro, R. Murphy, C. Palmer, T. G. Phelps, W. W. Shepard, S. F .; A. P. Catlin, R. C. Clark, L. W. Ferris, J. W. McKune, Sac .; G. D. Hall, J. Car- penter, S. F. Hamm, J. Hume, G. McDonald, C. Orvis, M. N. Mitchell, J. Turner, El Dorado; H. Barrett, W. Burns, M. Fuller, D. W. C. Rice, G. N. Swezy, Yuba; C. Gilman, G. W. Patrick, G. H. Rogers, J. R. Underwood, Tuolumne; W. W. Carpenter, J. O. Neil, A. P. K. Safford, S. B. Wyman,

705

LEGISLATURE OF 1857.

The latter he depended upon to elevate him to the United States senate, and the former to give him standing with the president.

The expiration of Weller's term would leave two places to be filled in the senate, and remove one diffi- culty in the way of continuing unbroken the demo- cratic patronage in California. If Broderick could be brought to relinquish the pursuit of Gwin's place, and content himself with Weller's, harmony might be re- stored, and the friends of one might work for the other. That, indeed, was the compact entered into early in the spring between Broderick's managers and the chivalry, and which secured harmony in the demo- cratic ranks through the campaign.

The legislature met on the 5th of January, 1857, which was to decide the senatorial contest now in its third year. The aspirants were several, Ex-senator Weller, Ex-congressman Latham, who as collector of customs had a rather numerous following, Ex-congress- man McCorkle, B. F. Washington, Stephen J. Field, Frank Tilford, J. W. Denver, and P. A. Crittenden. The agents of the four principal candidates, Gwin, Broderick, Weller, and Latham, were industriously at work long before the legislature met. Broderick, in summing up the results of his labor, ascertained that he lacked two votes in the legislative body.

But now a bold idea presented itself, which was no

Placer; E. T. Beatty, G. L. Shuler, J. S. Watkins, Calaveras; M. Cassin, E. M. Davidson, P. Moore, P. H. Pierce, W. C. Wood, Nevada; J. S. Long, J. S. Morrison, Butte; B. J. Coil, S. M. Miles, Sierra; W. J. Howard, D. Sho- walter, Mariposa and Merced; S. R. Warrington, Sutter; B. F. Varney, Sis- kiyou; I. Hare, Shasta; B. H. Miles, Sta Cruz; W. J. Graves, San Luis Obispo; E. Castro, Monterey; J. M. Covarrubias, Sta Bárbara; J. L. Brent, E. Hunter, Los Angeles; J. J. Kendrick, San Diego; J. Hunt, San Bernar- dino; O. K. Smith, Tulare and Fresno; N. Palmer, J. A. Quimby, Sta Clara; J. B. Larue, Alameda; J. M. Estill, Marin; T. H. Anderson, Napa; T. M. Aull, T. Jenkins, San Joaquin; J. C. Burch, Trinity; J. S. Curtis, Yolo; U. Edwards, R. Harrison, Sonoma and Mendocino; W. Holden, Stanislaus; A. Inman, Contra Costa; R. Irwin, Plumas; J. Livermore, W. M. Seawell, Amador; C. S. Ricks, Humboldt; D. M. Steele, Colusa and Tehama; A, M. Stevenson, Solano; S. G. Whipple, Klamath. Speaker, E. T. Beatty; speaker pro tem., J. O'Neil; chief clerk, W. Campbell; asst clerk, J. W. Scobey; enrolling clerk, R. Lambert; engrossing clerk, S. B. Harris; sergt-at-arms, S. F. Brown; door-keeper, J. J. Frazier. Cal. Rey., 1857, 191-96.

HIST. CAL., VOL. VI. 45

706

POLITICAL HISTORY

less than to prevail upon his friends in the legislature to make the nominations in caucus before going into convention, and to nominate the successor to Weller first. Such a proceeding had never been heard of, as electing a successor to a man still in office, while the place vacant two years before remained unfilled; but original methods were quite in Broderick's line. The more he thought of it, the more fortunate it seemed that it had occurred to him. Bargaining was not neglected, some of Latham's friends being brought into the arrangement by intimations that Latham was his choice for a colleague.

A resolution was adopted in caucus, "that in making the nominations for United States senators, the following order of business shall be observed: 1st. The nomination of a senator to fill the long term, to succeed Hon. John B. Weller; 2. The nomination of a senator to fill the short term, to succeed the Hon. Wil- liam M. Gwin." The vote stood 42 to 35 for adoption, only Mandeville of Tuolumne moving a substitute to nominate first for the short term. The caucus then balloted for a nomination for the long term, when Broderick had 42 votes, Weller 34, and Tilford 3. The nomination was then made unanimous. But the nomi- nee for the short term was not decided upon, no one having more than 26 votes, and 40 were necessary to a choice. On the 9th the legislature went into joint convention, and elected Broderick as the successor of Weller, his commission being immediately made out by the governor.

Thereupon Broderick resolved upon another bold movement. The election of the senator for the short term would be as he should direct, and the aspirants were openly anxious for his friendship. This led him to reflect upon the combinations. To Jonathan Car- penter, who had voted for him, and who desired Latham for the next place, he said: "If I go to the senate with Latham as my colleague, and Scott and Mckibben, being his friends in the lower house, I

707

SENATORIAL BARGAINING.

shall be a mere cipher ; but if I go with the other man [Gwin], I can have things my own way."

How could he have things his own way ? Confer- ring with Latham and Gwin, he found both willing to renounce the federal patronage to him for the sake of the senatorship. Latham, indeed, made a show of stipulating that three, or at the least one, of the most important offices should be at his disposal. This was, perhaps, because he had promised in writing that Frank Tilford should have the collector's office, in the event of his election; but finding Broderick quite serious about the patronage being left to him, he caused this writing to be abstracted from Tilford's desk,36 com- plaint of which being made to Broderick, the latter made this treatment of Tilford, who was his friend, as friends go in the political arena, a reason for deciding against Latham. 37 Gwin managed more adroitly, and made what appeared to be, and what he asserts in his Memoirs was, a voluntary surrender of a privilege which had only brought him ingratitude and anxiety. 38

36 Tilford, born 1822, was of Scotch-Irish descent, but a native of Lexing- ton, Ky. He came to Cal. overland with a company of young men in 1849. He was elected recorder of S. F. in 1850, and was candidate for mayor in 1851, but was beaten by the whig candidate. He then formed a law partner- ship with Edmund Randolph and R. A. Lockwood. He was nominated for judge of the superior court in S. F. in 1854, and again defeated, this time by the knownothings. In 1856 he was a candidate before the democratic con- vention for congressman, but Scott was chosen instead. In 1857 he supported Broderick, and received, not the collector's office, but the appointment of naval officer of the port of S. F. for 4 years. He was a Breckenridge demo- crat in 1860. He removed to Nevada co. in 1868, editing the Sun at Meadow Lake, but finally returned to S. F. Shuck, Representative Men, 277-87.

37 In the campaign of 1858, Latham endeavored to exonerate himself from the blame of purloining a letter from another man's desk, and had written evidence in his behalf. But there was just as much written evidence on the other side; and Tilford, when on the stand, would say nothing more definite than that he 'believed Mr Latham to be entirely innocent of all wrong and all criminality in relation to the transactions referred to in that letter, and mentioned by Mr Broderick.' Democratic Standard, in Hayes' Coll., Cal. Pol., ii. 43. It was, in fact, only one of the thousand political scandals from which no man in the politics of Cal. was entirely free.

38 Memoirs, 131-2. To Broderick he said: 'Provided I am elected, you shall have the exclusive control of this patronage, so far as I am concerned, and in its distribution I shall only ask that it may be used with magnanimity, and not for the advantage of those who have been our mutual enemies, and unwearied in their exertions to destroy us. This determination is unalter- able; and in making this declaration I do not expect you to support me for that reason, or in any way to be governed by it. But as I have been be- trayed by those who should have been my friends, I am powerless myself,

708

POLITICAL HISTORY.

As the price of this renunciation, he was elected to succeed himself on the 13th, receiving 82 out of 112 votes. On the following day he published an address to the people, acknowledging his obligation to Broder- ick for his election, and again renouncing the federal patronage, on the ground that those whom he had benefited had been false to him, that the distribution of offices had been a source of discord, and a weari- some care of which he was glad to be disburdened. This letter was intended to forestall any possible reve- lation by Broderick of the bargain and sale.

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History of California, Volume VI, Part 79

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