USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > History of the San Francisco Committee of vigilance of 1851 : a study of social control on the California frontier in the days of the gold rush > Part 12
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Even the elements seemed to conspire against the peace of California in the critical winter of 1849 to 1850, for the rainy season was of unusual length and severity. Many miners were forced to remain idle until want stared them in the face, while loaded wagons, mired along the rough highways, offered irresistible temptation to the needy and the dishonest.37 Cattle thieves also began the most outrageous operations,38 and theft and violence became matters of daily occurrence.
The citizens at large were quite aware of the unfortunate tendencies of the period, but with the same optimism that had carried them through the discomforts of the interregnum they accepted their troubles as inevitable accompaniments of a transi- tional era, and hoped for speedy improvement as soon as the new order could be established. Meanwhile the demands of commercial life were insistent and exacting, and they devoted themselves to their private business, leaving public matters to the men they had placed in office. The frontiersman, as a rule, is an out and out individualist, who awakens slowly to the importance of communal interests.39 This trait was a marked characteristic of the early Californian, for the state, as a field of social activity, did not quickly arouse the enthusiasm of the self-absorbed pioneer. It did, however, appeal with tremendous allurement to another type of American-the professional office seeker, of petty or magnificent aspirations, and many political pilgrims from the East had followed the star of empire in its westward course.40
37 Popular Tribunals, I, 73; Delano, Life on the Plains and among the Diggings, 268, 359-362.
38 By January, 1850, Sutter had been robbed of almost all his live stock (see supra, p. 67 note 3). A rancher near Stockton lost nearly $3000 worth of cattle in a single night (T. H. Hittell, Adventures of James Capen Adams, 1860, pp. 11-12).
39 The persistence of individualism in the West is discussed by Hill in his Public Domain and Democracy, 130-146.
40 William Carey Jones wrote to the Secretary of the Interior: "A number of persons seem to have come out during the summer of 1849 with no other view than to go back with four thousand miles of mileage in their pockets" (Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 118).
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Chief among them were William M. Gwin and David C. Broderick, both of whom reached San Francisco in June, 1849. Absolutely unlike in personality and experience, they were equally resolved on seeuring a political leadership that would win for them seats in the Senate of the United States.41 Gwin was a Southern man, genial, educated, experienced as a C'on- gressman from Mississippi from 1841 to 1843, and with Southern views on the extension of slavery. Broderick was of Irish extrac- tion, rugged and unpolished, without friends or fortune, self- educated in matters intellectual, but thoroughly schooled in the practices of Tammany Hall and of the New York Fire Depart- ment. He was opposed to the involuntary servitude of the colored raee, but unscrupulous in fastening upon a negligent public the shackles of political despotism.
Gwin won immediate popularity, participated in the trial of the Hounds, became a delegate to the constitutional convention, assumed a leading part in the discussion there, and promptly realized his ambitions by securing the election to the United States Senate. 42 He held the office for two terms and secured the passage of important legislation for the benefit of the state, while annual visits to California enabled him to maintain a firm grip upon local politics.
Broderick's earliest opportunity for leadership in California developed after the first great fire in San Francisco, December 24, 1849,43 when he was conspicuous in organizing the Empire
41 The long rivalry between the two Democratic leaders ended only with Broderick's death after a duel with Gwin's adherent, Judge David S. Terry, on Sept. 13, 1859. In addition to the references found in Bancroft and Hittell, see James O'Meara, Broderick and Gwin, 1881; Alonzo Phelps, Contemporary Biography of California's Representative Men, 1881-1982, I, Sketch of Gwin, 231-239; Jeremiah Lynch, A Senator of the Fifties [Broderick ], 1911; E. R. Kennedy, The Contest for California in 1861, 1912, pp. 32-63; R. C. O'Connor, "David Colbert Broderick," American Irish Historical Society, Journal, XIII (1914), 132-162; sketch of Brod- erick, San Francisco Chronicle, 1876, June 16.
42 See Bancroft, California, VI, 311.
43See infra, p. 164.
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Engine Company, of which he became the first foreman. On January 8, 1850,44 he was elected to a vacant seat in the state senate, immediately became prominent in the movement for organization of the Democratic party and within a year was recognized as a party leader.45 He was always fearless and uncompromising in his affiliations and animosities, and believed in using heavy tools for rough work. His influence as foreman of the Empire Engine Company was an asset which stood him in good stead. In addition, he gathered for use in hours of need a band of followers who were ready to do his bidding at mass meeting, election, and secret rendezvous. His effective machine did not become fully apparent in San Francisco until a year or two later; some of his future henchmen, however, were already well known as manipulators at local elections, and the names of a few of them appear in the papers of the Committee of Vigilance.46
The gentleman from the South and the ward boss from the North, with their allies and rivals, had a curious constituency with which to deal. About sixty per cent of the American popu- lation had been born north of Mason and Dixon's line.47 The sentiment of the state was overwhelmingly opposed to the local introduction of slavery and therefore to the most cherished policy of many of the national leaders of the Democratic party. Nevertheless California emerged into political life as a
44 Annals, 266.
45 For the earliest Democratic organization, see supra, p. 116. The Whigs organized Feb. 9, 1850 (Davis, Political Conventions, 6-9; Annals, 267-269). 46 See C. of V., Papers, Index under "Broderick," "Charles Duane," and "Ira Cole." Broderick is said to have defended his use of such men by the argument: "Your respectable people I can't depend on, You won't go down and face the revolvers of those fellows; and I have to take such material as I can get hold of. They stuff the ballot boxes and steal the tally-lists; and I have to keep these fellows to aid me" (Bancroft, Califor- nia, VI, 678 note).
47 See analysis of ceusus of 1850, in H. E. Bolton, "The Obligation of Nevada Toward the Writing of Her Own History," Nevada Historical Society, Reports, III (1911-1912), 71.
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Democratic state, basing party affiliations not on the fundamental question of slavery, but rather on the secondary issne of the Mexican War, which was more generally approved by the Demo- crats than by the Whigs.48 All intense questions of national polities and of personal convictions were thus eliminated from the local arena for a large number of these anti-slavery Demo- crats. As a result. an ambition for office became the sole incen- tive in the conduct of campaigns, and the astute Democratic politicians, willing to devote their best ability to a promising field, rapidly gained control of the situation. The men to whom they distributed the spoils of victory were not, as a rule, those builders of the commonwealth who had met the problems of the transition period. Useful adherents of the political machine were placed in office, and it became a matter of moment in the later history of the state that Gwin and his followers selected many of their protégés from Southern families who soon became a well defined social and political influence in the population. The ascendancy and arrogance of the "Southern Chivalry" is a theme on which Bancroft waxed bitterly eloquent.49 The day of their supremacy was somewhat later than the period of the first Committee of Vigilance, yet as early as 1850 the master mechanics of the politi- cal craft were assembling and coordinating the elements of their future structure.
During the months in which California was pushing forward her self-assumed task of organization, the national capitol was seething with the protracted conflict over the extension of slavery. When Congress reassembled in December, 1849, the question of the western lands might no longer be evaded. Cali- fornia asked for admission as a sovereign state and claimed the privilege of such a state in the adjustment of her domestic institutions. The question of her admission had a significance
48 Hittell, California, IV, 50.
49 Bancroft, California, VI, "Political History," chaps. 23-24.
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far wider than the mere recognition of a new commonwealth. Fifteen of the thirty states of the Union had already prohibited slavery. While these states controlled a majority in the House of Representatives, the Senate was evenly divided on sectional lines and could nullify the action of the House. If California should be admitted there would be a free-state majority in the Senate and an end to the power of the South to control or delay legislation inimical to the slave-holding interests.
Other aspects of the abolitionist propaganda complicated the situation. The public slave trade had become an offense to many who might have ignored unseen evils, and there was a strong demand that, in the District of Columbia at least, it should be abolished by Congress. Moreover, throughout the Northern states, there was a disposition to obstruct the execution of laws that enforced the return of fugitive slaves, and their owners insisted upon more stringent regulations. There was also a dis- pute over the boundary between Texas and New Mexico. Slavery was permitted in Texas, and the South therefore felt that it was extremely important to extend that area as far as possible. In the face of all these questions the slave states still had the strength to delay any change in the existing balance of power, while the Northern states, not content to exclude slavery from California alone, continued to insist upon its prohibition in all of the terri- tory acquired from Mexico, and to agitate for modifications in the matter of the slave trade.
The struggle that ensued was long and bitter. Bills and reso- lutions of opposing import indicated the futile effort of both parties to establish control of the situation. More than once in the endless discussions a smouldering spirit of disunion flamed into open threats of secession.5º The political leaders of a passing
50 See G. P. Garrison, Westward Extension, 1906, pp. 294-333; W. H. Smith, Political History of Slavery, 1903, I, 113-129; Rhodes, History of the United States, I, 116-198; J. B. McMaster, History of the People of the United States, VIII (1913), 10-43.
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era met for the last time in the memorable debates of that session. Henry Clay strove to avert impending civil war by concessions important to both the contending factions, and Daniel Webster supported him with all the resources of his passionate eloquenee, while John C. Calhoun, rising from his deathbed. stirred the Senate with ringing words of opposition, although his mortal weakness imposed the delivery of his message upon the voice of a colleague.
In the end the statemanship of Clay effected a compromise. He was the author of a series of eight resolutions, which contem- plated the admission of California according to the terms of her constitution ; the organization of territorial governments for New Mexico and Utah without restriction as to slavery, and their sub- sequent admission as states with such regulations as their people should determine; the adjustment of the boundary dispute in favor of New Mexico, with liberal remuneration to Texas; the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia to placate Northern sentiment, and the imposition of more stringent fugitive slave laws to satisfy the demands of Southern slave owners. After seven months of diseord and struggle, such pro- visions were finally adopted as separate measures. The act admitting California to statehood51 was signed by President Fill- more on September 9. 1850, and the Compromise of 1850 relieved for a time the tension in national affairs.
The Oregon, bearing the news of admission, steamed through the Golden Gate on October 18, 1850, firing preconcerted signals which heralded her long awaited message. At the sound of her first gun the men of San Franeiseo paused to listen in tense expectation. Then, as the recurrent detonations confirmed their hopes, the voiees of exultant thousands broke out in a mighty shout of universal joy. Dressed in all the flags her lockers could boast, the Oregon rounded Clark's Point, and came to anchor
51 U. S., Statutes at Large, IX, 452.
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abreast of the city, while the city rushed shoreward to meet her-laborers from the streets, merchants from the stores, law- yers from the offices, judges from the bench-until a solid mass of humanity surged back and forth between the water front and the Plaza, repeating the news and devouring the editions of the papers that appeared as if by magie within an hour of the steamer's arrival.52
The four year interregnum was over, the military command- ant was no more, the de facto government was buried in the graveyard of political theories, the constitutional convention was approved, the organization of the state, and the acts of the first legislature were validated. The commonwealth of California had come into her own!
52 See Annals, 293-295.
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CHAPTER VII
THE FAILURE TO ESTABLISH SOCIAL CONTROL
By the time the welcome news of admission was received in California the organization of the state had made substantial progress, but, instead of the expected improvement in social order, it became more and more evident that the new govern- ment failed to control erime and to cheek the evils that had taken root in the country during the long period of the inter- regnum. The system which had been outlined in the state con- stitution and developed in the first session of the legislature, was modeled on the institutions of older states, where Amerieans were habituated to self-control, where there was ready eommuni- eation between the centers and the outskirts of social life, where families had long been planted in permanent homes, and where mutual acquaintance had ripened during years or generations of neighborly contact. In California conditions were still far from normal.
It is quite true that there were more than a hundred thousand men in California in 1850, but the mere faet that they had ineor- porated themselves into a state did not instantly weld the hetero- geneous mass into social unity. And one eurious thing must be remembered : they were, in each other's eyes, a hundred thousand men without any past that antedated their arrival in California. No questions were asked as to a man's family or associations, his success or failure in any previous environment, or his influence for good or evil on any community east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The initiation into California existenee was briefly described by the observant Frenehman, Saint-Amant, who wrote
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of the arrival in the port of San Francisco:1 "Personne ne vous demande qui vous êtes, ni d'òu vous venez. Vous quittez votre numéro de bord, et vous prenez le nom qui vous convient." The virile democracy of California towns and mining camps has often been depicted with enthusiasm as a splendid example of Ameri- can manhood, and such it truly was; but a man without a past, be he never so fearless and independent, is not always a citizen of the highest constructive ability.
Another circumstance exerted a profound influence on the men of California : there was a persistent feeling on the part of the large majority that they were on the Pacific Coast only for a short time, and that they would return to their former homes as soon as their fortunes would allow. The state did not at first seem very attractive as a place of continued residence. There was a general anticipation that the placers would quickly be exhausted, and agriculture was a doubtful venture on account of the long season of summer drought .? Even the men who desired to make permanent homes in California were checked in their ambitions by the confusion over land titles which dis- tracted the state for many years. Holders of Mexican grants still laid claim to most of the desirable agricultural tracts, and cautious settlers feared to invest funds in the purchase of their doubtful titles. The covetous on the other hand wished to set all former ownership aside, and to appropriate whatever they might desire. Squatters went so far as to attempt armed
1 Pierre Charles de Saint-Amant, Voyages en Californie et dans l'Oregon, 1854, p. 73.
2 "Not one out of ten thousand then in California thought seriously of making the Pacific Coast his continual abiding place. All men were so- journers and everybody habitually talked about going home" (Memoirs of Cornelius Cole, 75). See also Buffum, Six Months, 136; Helper, Land of Gold, 17-18; Ryan, Personal Adventures, II, 184. Compare these con- ditions with the spirit of permanent settlers as portrayed by Esarey Logan, "The Pioneer Aristocracy," Indiana Magazine of History, XIII (1917), 270-287.
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violence, in Sacramento in the summer of 1850." Such open efforts to steal private land were largely checked by publie sen- timent, although the original owners were in the end despoiled of most of their heritage by the tedious process of predatory laws.+
Aside from the gross injustice wrought against the Mexican proprietors, this condition greatly retarded the development of any elass of small landholders, and seriously delayed the agri- cultural and industrial growth of the state. Mining was, there- fore, the one important industry of California, and by its very nature imposed upon the people an abnormal excitement and restlessness. The mining eamps were of necessity ephemeral in their existenee, and shifting in their elements. Hundreds or thousands of men would flock to new diggings in a few weeks, only to desert the region as suddenly as they came.5 The towns were no less changeable in their composition. Burnett, a promi- nent member of the San Francisco legislative assembly, who had known nearly every one of his fellow-citizens in September. 1849, could not recognize one in ten after an absence of six
3 See Royce, California, 467-491, and his "Squatter Riot of '50," Overland Monthly. ser. 2, VI (1885), 225-246; Bancroft, California, VI, 529-51; Ilittell, California, III, 666-704; Upham, Notes of a Voyage to California, 333-351. The spirit of the times was illustrated by a card printed in the Sacramento I'nion, and copied in the San Francisco Herald, 1851, Sept. 17 24, in which T. O. Selby warned whom it might concern that as trespassers had attacked his son, he would kill anyone repeating such an act.
4 The land bill (U. S. Statutes at Large, IX, 631), required the Mexican owners to prove their titles, with the United States in the position of a rival claimant. Decisions could be appealed to the United States District Court, and then to the Supreme Court, a process which ultimately im- poverished even successful litigants. Their position is told with graphie pathos in a petition for relief, published by C. H. Shinn in the Magazine of American History, XXV (1891), 394-402.
5 A condition typical of several years was described by residents of Dry Diggings, when on Sept. 20, 1849, they petitioned for a special local election, as, at the regular date on the first of August, the settlement had been too small to need magistrates, while at the time of writing it was very large. and would swell to thousands by winter ( Archives, "Unbound Does .. " 47-48. 325-326). The placers at Kennebec Hill were discovered in March, 1850, and within thirteen days 8000 miners rushed to the camp (Shinn, Mining Camps, 244-245).
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weeks, and found himself such a stranger in November that he had grave doubts of securing his election as governor.6
As a result of these frequent and sudden migrations centers of population suddenly sprang up in remote and inaccessible places. There is much truth in Rudyard Kipling's aphorism : "Transportation is Civilization."" The social order transplanted to California had grown up in regions where highroads were naturally extended as the population increased. But as yet California had no facilities for transportation. The larger towns were linked by rough stage roads, but many mountain settlements communicated with the outside world only by the most primitive trails, which were practically impassable at certain seasons of the year. Numbers of such scattered and isolated communities were associated in the political bonds of county organization, and all the administration of local affairs was in the hands of the officers elected by the voters of the several townships or the county at large.
Of late years the students of political science have investi- gated with interest the effect on our national life of the self- governing county.8 The political conscience of the state at large makes the laws for the general commonwealth, but the American distrust of centralized authority has developed a system that places the enforcement of those laws chiefly in the hands of officials who are chosen by relatively small groups of electors. In many matters of the utmost importance these officers are practically independent of any higher authority, and are respon- sible only to the vague master called "the public," which assumes
6 Burnett, Recollections, 347.
7 Rudyard Kipling, "With the Night Mail," in his Actions and Re- actions (1910), 145.
8 See Howard, Introduction to the Local Constitutional History of the United States, I, 135-148; "County Government," American Academy of Political and Social Science, Annals, XLV11 (1913), 1-278, especially 271- 275; H. S. Gilbertson, The County, the "Dark Continent" of American Politics, 1917.
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tangible substance but once iu two or three years, when the neighbors whom they have placated or antagonized slip printed papers into a ballot box.º In consequence of this independence a local unit often nullifies unpopular statutes by the simple expedi- ent of ignoring their infraction. If on the other hand the local officials are anxious to execute the laws promptly and effectively, they must rely entirely upon their own resources and expect no help from without. When a system such as this was applied to the conditions that prevailed in California it was inevitable that all its latent weakness should develop with startling abruptness.
In April or May of 1850 the people of nearly every com- munity were ealled upon to fill a large number of elective offices. There was no requirement of pre-election registration although the law stipulated that a qualified elector must have resided thirty days in his county or district, and six months in the state.10 A voter of doubtful status might be challenged at the polls, but if he still affirmed under oath that he was entitled to the franchise he was permitted to cast a ballot, although subject to prosecution for perjury if he had sworn falsely.11 Such regula- tions fairly invited fraudulent voting, and at a later date the state became notorious for its wholesale corruption. At the earlier elections it is probable that the requirements as to resi- dence were not strictly enforced, and that the wandering miners voted wherever they tarried over election day. Indeed, in November, 1851, William B. Ide, judge of the County Court of Colusa County, wrote :12
9 See Bryce, American Commonwealth, I, 536 et seq .; J. A. Smith, Spirit of American Government, ed. of 1912, pp. 243-248; J. H. Mathews, Prin- ciples of American State Administration, 1917, pp. 401-473.
10 Calfornia, Statutes, 1850, chap. 38, p. 102, see. 10.
11 See "The People vs. Gordon et al.," Fifth California Reports, 235. Large numbers of Sonorans were voted in squads by unscrupulous politicians in San José in the spring of 1851, and for years the native Mexican vote was manipulated in the same way (Peckham, in San José Pioneer, 1877, July 28, Scrapbook, p. 32). One of the Sydney men hanged by the Com- mittee of Vigilance told of collecting a dozen ex-convicts to vote at a San Francisco primary election for city marshal (see infra, p. 292).
12 Letter in Biographical Sketch of William B. Ide, 231.
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Our population are like birds of passage, except their migrations are not exactly periodical. ... At present ten individuals pay more than three-fourths of the taxes paid within the county, and comprise nearly all its permanent residents. ... At the polls the non-residents (when they unite), have the elections as they please; and the usual result is, that transient, irresponsible persons are elected, and bonds of the like character are filed.
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