History of California, Volume VI, Part 80

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

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But the device was apparent, and the chivalry loudly indignant. That their leader should have to purchase his seat in the senate of Boderick, the stone-cutter's son, a man of the lower stratum of the people, a mud- sill 39 of the north, was an outrage to their sensibilities not to be endured. And strangely as it seemed to Broderick, the majority of his party sympathized with them. He was intensely mortified and disappointed. Latham chose to consider himself badly used; and Til- ford through him was also wounded.40 He was no

and dependent on your magnanimity.' Hittell, Hist., S. F., 298. It was true that his friends had betrayed him; but it was not true that he was anxious to be entirely relieved of the patronage which had kept him in place ever since Cal. was a state, as his appeal to Broderick's magnanimity rendered evident. The Gazette, issued at Monitor, in June 1864, published the follow- ing correspondence between Gwin and Broderick, in 1854, when the great contest began. If it be authentic, Gwin was the first to offer a trade. Both communications were marked confidential: 'Dear Sir: If you will consent to withdraw your name for the U. S. senate I will use my influence-and you know its value-to have you nominated for governor. The nomination is equivalent to an election. Your obedient servant, W. M. Gwin.' To which Broderick replied: 'D. C. Broderick presents his compliments to Senator Gwin, and begs to inform him Broderick is in the habit of making the gov- ernor of California himself. To W. M. Gwin.'

39 This famous term 'mudsill,' applied to the laboring classes, originated with Senator J. H. Hammond of S. C., in a speech as follows: 'In all social systems there must be a class to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life; that is, a class requiring but a low order of intellect and but little skill. Its requisites are vigor, docility, fidelity. Such a class you must have, or you would not have that other class which leads progress, civilization, and refinement. It constitutes the very mudsill of society, and of political gov- ernment, and you might as well attempt to build a house in the air as to build the one or the other except on this mudsill.' Broderick quoted this, and more of the speech in which it occurred, in a speech of his own to which I shall refer later. For Hammond's speech, see Cong. Globe, 1857-8; App., 69.

40 In a speech made at Nevada, Aug. Ist, Latham gave the history of the senatorial bargaining, so far as he was concerned in it. He said he told

709

SYMPATHY FOR GWIN.

better friend with Gwin than formerly; and was led to have a contempt for him which, with the renewed hostility of the chivalry, resulted in a complete estrange- ment, so that no communications passed between them.

There were doubtless other reasons for Broderick's final decision besides the love of power, or the pecca- dilloes of his rivals. Like all democrats of the ante- bellum type, party unity was a governing motive. He wished to be on good terms with the new administra- tion. Gwin had his implied promise to support the party. He was aware of the hold which Gwin had upon the people of the state, who generally regarded him as having done a great deal for California, and he felt a pride in not taking a mean revenge on his polit- ical foe.

But in demanding the resignation of the patronage to him, he saw no injustice. For all the years that Gwin had been in the senate of the United States, none but pro-slavery men had received the gift of office from his hand, except in the case of Hoffman, of which I have before spoken; and during most of that period he had enjoyed the patronage alone. Broderick, being now in a position to make terms, thought this a good opportunity to give northern democrats a chance, and to reward his political friends, as well as to remove the odium from Cali- fornia of being a Virginia poor-house. From his point of view, there was no reason for the howl that went up all over the state, that he had taken advan- tage of Gwin, and that he had done so out of revenge. Admitting that he had, was there not sufficient prov- ocation in the sneering tone of the chivalry toward the Broderick men ?41

An acknowledged trait of this genius of the people

Broderick that he had agreed to go for Tilford for collector, Crandall for sur- veyor of the port, and Solomon for U. S. marshal. Hayes' Coll., C'al. Pol., · ii. 33.

41 It was openly reported that Gwin declared he would not associate with Broderick if he should be elected.

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POLITICAL HISTORY.

was the strength of his own convictions, without which, indeed, he could never have risen from the trade to which he was bred to be a senator of the United States. Knowing that he had associated with New York roughs, and that he had used a simi- lar class in San Francisco to elevate himself to power, it is natural to look for in him some habits of profli- gacy or wildness of deportment. On the contrary, hc was known among his friends as one who smiled but seldom; who mourned because he had no kindred left on earth; a man of few confidences, often gloomy, and never gay. His loves and hates were intense, as was his power to inspire others with similarly strong sentiments. His personal adherents were lovers more than friends. Proud with the consciousness of his abilities, with womanly sensibilities held in control only by a powerful will, to those who knew him best he was a mystery.

This "lone, strange, extraordinary man" 42 was struck dumb with surprise that so much sympathy should be awakened for Gwin. He could not see any good reason for it; nor, I confess, do I. But if he was pained and angered at this sudden defection in California, he was stung in his innermost nature to find in the national capital, the goal of his long strife, an organized hostility to him in the democratic sen- ate, presumably upon the ground of the bargain with Gwin; while Gwin, who had condescended to pur- chase his place, was attitudinizing as a martyr. What he had expected for his services, in the party of which President Buchanan was a leader, was friendliness, even approbation; but on calling upon the president at Wheatland, he was undeceived. "It was cold outside the house," he said, " but it was ice within." 43 He had yet to learn that chivalry had captured the president,44 and that his free-state de-

42 S. F. Argonaut, April 28, 1878.

43 John W. Forney, in S. F. Post, March 8, 1879.

44 Nothing could better illustrate the perfect and tyrannical system of the democratic party of this period than the fact that a regular espionage had

711

BRODERICK AT WASHINGTON.

mocracy had no standing in the senate. As to the federal patronage, while Gwin kept to the letter of his agreement, Broderick found his recommendations ignored, and the president making his appointments through Gwin's advice, which he asked, and of course obtained.45 This peculiar relative position of the sena- tors left the congressmen the better opportunity to bring forward their friends. The grand prize of the collector's office was given to B. F. Washington, an old friend of Gwin, who approved of Mckibben's choice. J. D. Fry became postal agent; Thomas J. Henley, superintendent of Indian affairs; Richard Roman, appraiser-general ; Michael Kane of Penn- sylvania, appraiser at San Francisco; P. L. Solomon, United States marshal; Della Torre of South Caro- lina, United States district attorney; and Charles Hempstead, a young man who had been Governor Bigler's private secretary, was made superintendent of the mint. Bigler, who had gone to Washington in the hope of the collectorship for himself, failing of that, was consoled by a mission to Chili; and men of lesser pretensions had to be satisfied with what they could get. Of the office-seekers who had built their hopes upon Broderick, few received anything, and they not the first places. 46

Broderick's was not a nature to be cowed by the president's disapproval. Highly incensed, he re-

been exercised over Cal. ever since Gwin had been in the senate. Judge Crane, in his pamphlet, The Past, the Present, and the Future of the Pacific Coast, complains of this espionage, and remarks that no such thing had ever been thought of or practised concerning the other states. It never would have been in Cal., had not the slave power determined to control, by any and every means, the affairs of this coast. 'The reports,' said Crane, 'are kept a profound secret from the public and the parties concerned. How do we know but what our people are grossly libelled and maligned by these secret agents? The character of some of them was most grossly traduced under Mr Fillmore's administration, by the secret agent then in Cal.' J. H. Clay held this office under Fillmore, and J. Ross Browne under Pierce. Browne's commission required him to examine the accounts of federal officers and to direct their official acts. S. F. Bulletin, Oct. 8, 1856. Another part of Browne's duty was to dismiss from office any man suspected of not being a supporter of the administration. Fillmore was nearly as much under Gwin's influence as was Pierce, and removed or appointed whom he would.

45 Gwin, Memoirs, MS., 33.

46 His return to New York was celebrated with the firing of 100 guns.

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POLITICAL HISTORY.

turned in April to California to explain his failure as a patron to his friends, and to labor for the control of the state convention which was to nominate a gover- nor and lieutenant-governor. By the steamer which brought him came a letter from Gwin to a political friend who would know how to use it, stating Brod- erick's purpose to nominate his followers to the state offices, and to censure the administration for the fed- eral appointments.

Any attack on a democratic administration by democrats was, according to party usage, treason, and Broderick was at once called upon to state his position. The questions he was asked to reply to were, whether he had declared himself hostile to the administration while in Washington; whether it was true that he had entered into any contract with Gwin concerning the federal patronage; whether the rumor that Gwin had secured several appointments in the face of his address from Sacramento was well founded; and whether he had any intention to disrupt the party in the state convention.

Broderick treated these allegations as calumnies. He replied that he did not return to make war upon the administration of Buchanan. He declared that his election was effected by the free choice of his friends, "without bargain, contract, alliance, combina- tion, or understanding with any one;" that after his election Gwin sought his aid to secure his own. "Regarding him as the acknowledged leader of the other wing of the party, I believed his election would heal dissensions and effect a reunion." "Between Mr Gwin and myself there was no condition whatever in regard to the distribution of patronage." He defended Gwin from the imputation of controlling the recent federal appointments, in the face of his public declara- tion that he would not do so. "Surely," said he, " the combination at Washington of the late and present members of the lower house of congress, of the senator whose term has expired, of the three presidential

713

LEGISLATURE OF 1858.

electors, and a throng of active supporters, well prac- tised in the trade of soliciting offices, all against me, would seem to be enough without the personal interfer- ence of my colleague. In the absence of positive evi- dence, I must, therefore, regard the report of which you speak as a mistake. I am not here to distract the party, nor to control its nominations." 47

Broderick's motive for this denial of all the charges was probably the single one of preserving the unity of the party.48 He had now more powerful enemies than ever before. Ex-senator Weller, whose friends regarded him as having been tricked out of a reelection, was unfriendly. Latham, who was, as he thought, not fairly treated, was also unfriendly. Tilford, who expected a fat office, was disappointed, and of course not friendly; and there were others disaffected on ac- count of the rumors sent in advance of Broderick from Washington. Finding affairs in this state, he refrained from any strenuous effort to control the state politics. In convention he nominated McCorkle49 for governor ; but Weller, who had been welcomed back to California with effusion by the chivalry, was the favorite of the party,50 received the indorsement of the convention

47 Correspondence of Alfred Reddington and J. P. Dyer, with D. C. Brod- erick, in S. F. Post, March 8, 1879.

48 Gwin denies that there was any bargain, and declares that he renounced the federal patronage because he was exasperated by having his reelection opposed 'by some of the most influential men, whose promotion to office he had secured. In his cooler moments, no one regretted it more than Gwin himself.' Memoirs, MS., 133. But even his champion, O'Meara, declares that he sold the patronage to Broderick for his influence in reelecting him.

49 McCorkle was the leader of the democracy in Butte co., said the Oroville North Californian. 'He gives the cue to the young cockerels who are just learning to crow, and allows them to strut and swell, and flap their wings, and jostle him about with the utmost familiarity. The old, full-fledged fowls he clucks into a corner, and explains to them with owl-like gravity the plots and mysteries of the party. He then clucks the whole brood up to the bar, and they take a drink.' Sar. Union, Nov. 21, 1856.

50 Mr O'Meara does not like vigilance committees. There have been many men in Cal. who felt the same way. He says that John Nugent, editor of the S. F. Herald, whose business had been ruined by the committee, was pre- sented in candidacy, on account of his determined hostility to the committee, 'in order to vindicate his course; but his name had been withdrawn before the balloting, as his friends found it impossible to prevail against Weller. During the discussion on a proposed platform resolution denouncing the vigilance or- ganization, Colonel Joseph P. Hoge, the acknowledged leader of the conven- tion, stated that the committee had hanged 4 men, banished 28, and arrested

714

POLITICAL HISTORY.

by a vote of 254 to 61, and was elected. Joseph Walkup of Placer was chosen lieutenant-governor. The only Broderick man on the ticket, of more than local prominence, was Stephen J. Field, elected su- preme judge. John O'Meara, another of Broderick's friends, was elected state printer. The knownothings had disappeared, and the opposition to democracy was in a chaotic state.

The legislature chosen for the session of 1858,51

280; and that these were nearly all democrats.' This was certainly bad for the democrats. The truthful colonel might have gone further in his investi- gations, and have ascertained that the criminals sentenced by the regularly organized courts were democrats almost to a man. It was because the courts, in the interest of that party, had obstructed the course of ordinary justice that the committee was organized.

51 The senate of 1858 consisted of hold-over members, S. A. Merritt, Aaron R. Meloney, Josiah Johnson, Alfred W. Taliaferro, S. H. Chase, Samuel M. Johnson, George J. Carpenter, Wm B. Norman (vacancy filled by Wm L. Lewis), Wm I. Ferguson, Richard S. Mesick, Jesse O. Goodwin, Samuel Bell, Samuel Soule, Eugene L. Sullivan. Senators newly elected, Cameron E. Thom, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and San Diego; Romualdo Pacheco, Santa Bárbara and San Luis Obispo; D. S. Gregory, Sta Cruz; Wmn Holden, George H. Rogers, Stanislaus and Tuolumne; Wm I. Ferguson, Sac .; Hum- phrey Griffith, Napa, Solano, and Yolo; J. Berry, Del Norte, Klamath, and Siskiyou; E. Garter, Colusa, Shasta, and Tehama; A. S. Hart, John Colter, Butte and Plumas; Isaac Allen, Yuba; J. H. Baker, James Anderson, Placer; S. Hamm, W. B. Dickinson, El Dorado; L. N. Ketchum, Amador and Cala- veras; John C. Burch, Humboldt and Trinity; E. F. Burton, Nevada; Gilbert A. Grant, T. G. Phelps, S. F. Prest, R. M. Anderson; prest pro tem., S. A. Merritt; sec., Thomas N. Cazneau; asst sec., James T. Ewing; enrolling clerk, J. T. Shipman; engrossing clerk, Louis Bartlett; sergt-at-arms, J. W. Hawkins; door-keeper, John McGlenchy.

The assembly consisted of Homer King, R. M. Briggs, Amador; J. H. Hobart, Alameda; James Hitchens, Butte; B. F. Marshall, E. Parker, T. O'Brien, Calaveras; F. M. Warmcastle, Contra Costa; E. J. Lewis, Colusa and Tehama; R. P. Hurst, Del Norte and Klamath; David E. Buell, J. B. Galbraith, J. Graham, J. S. Tipton, H. A. Moses, C. W. Pearis, Harvey Lee, B. F. Loofbourrow, El Dorado; A. H. Mitchell, Fresno, Tulare, and Buena Vista; H. W. Havens, Humboldt; Henry Hancock, Andreas Pico, Los Angeles; James T. Stocker, Marin; I. N. Ward, John H. Tatman, Mariposa; Hosea Abrego, Monterey; Thomas H. Anderson, Napa; Wm Hill, J. Cald- well, J. P. Warefield, James K. Smith, George A. Young, Nevada; D. B. Curtis, A. P. K. Safford, Nicholas Kabler, W. C. Stratton, Placer; J. L. C. Sherwin, S. L. Ballou, Plumas; E. A. Sheridan, R. D. Ferguson, C. S. Howell, Moses Stout, Sac .; J. W. Smith, San Bernardino; Robert M. Groom, San Diego; G. C. Holman, A. G. Stakes, San Joaquin; H. M. Osgood, San Luis Obispo; S. B. Gordon, San Mateo; Russell Heath, Sta Bárbara; Solon Simons, W. W. McCoy, Sta Clara; J. C. Wilson, Sta Cruz; Charles R. Street, Shasta; J. A. Clark, R. D. Hill, Sierra; A. B. Walker, Siskiyou; N. H. Davis, Solano; Uriah Edwards, J. S. Ormsby, Sonoma and Mendocino; George W. Thomas, Stanislaus; J. O. Harris, Sutter; Edward Neblett, Trin- ity; A. A. H. Tuttle, W. J. Markley, P. M. Haldeman, T. Hamblin, Tuol- umne; Wm Minnis, Yolo; N. E. Whitesides, F. L. Ord, B. E. S. Ely, C. E.

715

FUGITIVE SLAVES.

which the Bulletin called the reconsiderationists, from their vacillating course, adopted a resolution indors- ing the president's Kansas policy, which recognized the right of slavery to be extended into the territories, under the laws of the United States, and which could not be excluded until after the state had been admit- ted into the federation, and Broderick was instructed to vote for it. It happened also that the fugitive slave law, as applied to California, was tested in the courts this year,52 creating much excitement among the colored population, and not much less among the white inhabitants, the law being so construed by the United States commissioner that the negro claimed was liberated. This was not the only case since 1851, but it was decisive, and the last fugitive slave case in the courts of California.

In 1852 Peachy of San Joaquin introduced a reso- lution in the assembly to allow fifty southern families to immigrate to California with their slaves. Some, indeed, did come, who on finding they could not legally hold their slaves, sent a part of them back, while others became free. In 1855 two men, named Chase De Long; D. R. Spillen, Yuba; J. W. Cherry, J. Banks, J. B. Moore, Cyrus Palmer, Caleb Burbank, W. W. Sheppard, S. W. Holliday, Thomas Gray, S. F. Speaker, N. E. Whitesides; chief clerk, J. M. Scobey; asst clerk, J. W. Bingay; sergt-at-arms, James F. Qwin; enrolling clerk, T. J. Mitchell; engrossing clerk, W. McConnell; door-keeper, A. F. Wager.

52 This was the case of the slave Archy, claimed by a Mr Stovall, from Miss., who came to Cal. in 1857, and taught school at Sac. In Jan. 1858 he prepared to send Archy back to Miss., but the chattel refused to go, and escaped. He was arrested, and his friends sued out a writ of habeas corpus, on the ground that Stovall was not a traveller, nor Archy a fugitive under the acts of 1852, 1853, and 1854. He was rearrested as soon as discharged, and his case hastened up to the sup. court, Burnett being then upon the bench, having been appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Terry. Stretching at once conscience and the constitution, Burnett decreed the black man to be the property of the white man, and Stovall took him on board the steamer for the states; but when outside the entrance, Stovall was arrested for kidnapping, and Archy brought back by writ of habeas corpus. E. D. Baker was counsel for Archy, and J. A. Hardy, afterward impeached for treasonable utterances, pleaded Stovall's cause. George Pen Johnston, himself a southern pro-slavery man, was U. S. commissioner, but heard the case impartially, and ordered Archy liberated. The decision was upon the ground that his former master could not plead that he was a traveller passing through the country with his property, for he had been a year in the state engaged in business, knowing that Cal. was a free state. Tuthill, Hist. Cal., 550-1; S. F. Bulletin, Jan. 13 and March 5, 6, 8, 16, 1858; Grass Valley Union, Nov. 9, 1873.

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POLITICAL HISTORY.

and Day, were ridden on a rail, ducked, and otherwise maltreated in Alameda county for being abolitionists. In this year expired the fugitive slave law of Califor- nia, draughted to enable the slave-holders to reclaim any negroes brought into California before its constitution was framed. It had been twice extended, but was now inoperative; and the colored population, feeling that they were really free, held a convention in San Fran- cisco, at which they discussed their rights, treatment by white people, politics, and principles, and necessity of education. This convention was repeated in 1856, and an effort made to secure the repeal of the law pro- hibiting negro testimony in cases where white persons were parties. In December of this year a negro named Coffee purchased his freedom, paying $1,000 for himself, and sending the money to his former mas- ter in Missouri, who sent him his manumission papers. This self-sacrifice was entirely unnecessary, but prob- ably discharged in the mind of the man trained to slavery some sense of obligation, and secured for him the legal evidence that his freedom was not in dispute.

At the same time in San Bernardino county, two negro families, comprising fourteen persons, were claimed as slaves by a former master who wished to take them to Texas. An appeal was made in their behalf to the United States district court. The plea offered was that they were going of their own free- will, the mothers being willing for the children; but the court decided that the children should not be taken unless after being made fully aware of the condition awaiting them, and the marshal was ordered to pre- vent their abduction.

In 1858 there was introduced, or revived for the benefit of Americans, the long-disused practice of In- dian slavery in southern California. The person em- ployed in the purchase of Indians was Francisco Castillo, who carried goods to the San Pedro Martin mission, in Lower California, where he exchanged them with the chief Iatiniel for young Indians to be

717

SLAVERY AND THE CONSTITUTION.

sold in Los Angeles. Castillo made several of these trading excursions to procure slaves.53 Mr Tuthill, in his History of California, written with the advantages which a newspaper man possesses of collecting con- temporary history, makes the somewhat singular statement in his otherwise almost faultless narrative, that "the negro, though the staple topic of congres- sional legislation, did not much trouble that of Cali- fornia."

While it is true that California had not to bear the burdens of congress, being only a thirty-first part of the union, and having a free constitution, there had never been a session in which the negro, in some shape, or under some disguise, had not been the subject of legislation. Even while the constitution was forming to which he subscribed, Gwin was plotting against the freedom of at least a portion of the state, assisted afterward by the chivalry in the legislature and out. Such was the meaning of the law passed in 1856 and 1857, providing for the submission to the people of certain amendments, and recommending to each of the electors to vote for or against a convention to change the constitution. The result of the election in 1857 was that only 48,906, out of 93,881, voted on the question. Of those who did vote upon it, 30,226 were in favor of calling a convention, and 17,680 were opposed to it. Thus, taking the vote for lieutenant- governor for a basis, namely, 93,881, there were not one third of the electors who desired or consented to the proposition for a constitutional convention. This caused Governor Johnson to doubt the obligation im- posed upon the legislature to summon a convention, and he left it to that body to decide for themselves their duty on this point; "yet despite my wishes," he

53 Staples' Statement, MS., 16-17; S. F. Herald, June 10 and 19, 1852; S. F. Alta, Feb. 8, Aug. 31, Sept. 22, Oct. 6, 1852; Id., Feb. 18 and March 13, 1853; March 20 and 30, April 13, Ang. 21 and 28, Sept. 1 and 27, 1854; and Dec. 11, 1856; S. F. Bulletin, Dec. 1855; Proceed. Colored Citizens' 2d Ann. Convention; Sac. Union, Dec. 10, 1856; Sac. Union, Dec. 30, 1856; C'handler, MS., 306-7; Hayes' Los Angeles, i. 519-27; Gomez, MS., 85-6; Stephen Bar- ton, in Visalia Delta, Sept. 10, 1874.

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History of California, Volume VI, Part 80

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