USA > California > History of the State of California and biographical record of Coast Counties, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 31
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As with cattle, so also it was with horses. Little attention was given to improving the breed. While there were a few fine race horses and saddle horses in the country before its American occupation, the prevailing equine was the mustang. He was a vicious beast, nor was it strange that his temper was bad. He had to endure starvation and abuse that would have killed a more aristocratic animal. He took care of himself, subsisted on what he could pick up and to the best of his ability resented ill treat- ment. Horses during the Mexican régime were
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
used only for riding. Oxen were the draft ani- mals. The mustang had one inherent trait that did not endear him to an American, and that was his propensity to "buck." With his nose between his knees, his back arched and his legs stiffened, by a series of short, quick jumps, he could dismount an inexperienced rider with neatness and dispatch. The Californian took delight in urging the bronco to "buck" so that he (the rider) might exhibit his skillful horse- manship. The mustang had some commenda- ble traits as well. He was sure-footed as a goat and could climb the steep hillsides almost equal to that animal. He had an easy gait under the. saddle and could measure off mile after mile without a halt. His power of endurance was wonderful. He could live off the country when apparently there was nothing to subsist on ex- cept the bare ground. He owed mankind a debt of ingratitude which he always stood ready to pay when an opportunity offered. The passing of the mustang began with the advent of the American farmer.
The founding of agricultural colonies began in the '50s. One of the first, if not the first, was the German colony of Anaheim, located thirty miles south of Los Angeles. A company of Germans organized in San Francisco in 1857 for the purpose of buying land for the cultiva- tion of the wine grape and the manufacture of wine. The organization was a stock company. Eleven hundred acres were purchased in a Spanish grant. This was subdivided into twenty and forty acre tracts; an irrigating ditch brought in from the Santa Ana river. A por- tion of each subdivision was planted in vines and these were cultivated by the company until they came into bearing, when the tracts were divided among the stockholders by lot, a cer- tain valuation being fixed on each tract. The man obtaining a choice lot paid into the fund a certain amount and the one receiving an infe- rior tract received a certain amount, so that each received the same value in the distribution. The colony proved quite a success, and for thirty years Anaheim was one of the largest wine- producing districts in the United States. In 1887 a mysterious disease destroyed all the vines and the vineyardists turned their attention
to the cultivation of oranges and Englishi walnuts.
The Riverside colony, then in San Bernardino county, now in Riverside county, was founded in 1870. The projectors of the colony were eastern gentlemen. At the head of the organiza- tion was Judge J. W. North. They purchased four thousand acres of the Roubidoux or Jurupa rancho and fourteen hundred and sixty acres of government land from the California Silk Cen- ter Association. This association had been or- ganized in 1869 for the purpose of founding a colony to cultivate mulberry trees and manu- facture silk. It had met with reverses, first in the death of its president, Louis Prevost, a man skilled in the silk business, next in the revoca- tion by the legislature of the bounty for mul- berry plantations, and lastly in the subsidence of the sericulture craze. To encourage silk cul- ture in California, the legislature, in 1866, passed an act authorizing the payment of a bounty of $250 for every plantation of five thousand mul- berry trees two years old. This greatly stimu- lated the planting of mulberry trees, if it did not greatly increase the production of silk. In 1869 it was estimated that in the central and southern portions of the state there were ten millions of mulberry trees in various stages of growth. Demands for the bounty poured in upon the commissioners in such numbers that the state treasury was threatened with bank- ruptcy. The revocation of the bounty killed the silk worms and the mulberry trees; and those who had been attacked with the sericulture craze quickly recovered. The Silk Center As- sociation, having fallen into hard lines, offered its lands for sale at advantageous terms, and in September, 1870, they were purchased by the Southern California Colony Association. The land was bought at $3.50 per acre. It was mesa or table land that had never been cultivated. It was considered by old-timers indifferent sheep pasture, and Roubidoux, it is said, had it struck from the tax roll because it was not worth tax- ing.
The company had the land subdivided and laid off a town which was first named Jurupa, but afterwards the name was changed to River- side, The river, the Santa Ana, did not flow
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
past the town, but the colonists hoped to make a goodly portion of its waters do so. The lands were put on sale at reasonable prices, a ditch at a cost of $50,000 was constructed. Experi- ments were made with oranges, raisin grapes and deciduous fruits, but the colony finally set- tled down to orange producing. In 1877 the introduction of the Bahia or navel orange gave an additional impetus to orange growing in the colony, the fruit of that species being greatly superior to any other. This fruit was propa- gated by budding from two trees received from Washington, D. C., by J. A. Tibbetts, of River- side.
The Indiana colony, which later became Pasa- dena, was founded in 1873 by some gentlemen from Indiana. Its purpose was the growing of citrus fruits and raisin grapes, but it has grown into a city, and the orange groves, once the pride of the colony, have given place to business blocks and stately residences.
During the early 'zos a number of agricul- tural colonies were founded in Fresno county. These were all fruit-growing and raisin-pro- ducing enterprises. They proved successful and Fresno has become the largest raisin-pro- ducing district in the state.
CHAPTER XXX.
THE CIVIL WAR-LOYALTY AND DISLOYALTY.
T HE admission of California into the Union as a free state did not, in the opinion of the ultra pro-slavery faction, preclude the possibility of securing a part of its territory for the "peculiar institution" of the south. The question of state division which had come up in the constitutional convention was again agi- tated. The advocates of division hoped to cut off from the southern part, territory enough for a new state. The ostensible purpose of division was kept concealed. The plea of unjust taxa- tion was made prominent. The native Califor- nians who under Mexican rule paid no taxes on their land were given to understand that they were bearing an undue proportion of the cost of government, while the mining counties, pay- ing less tax, had the greater representation. The native Californians were opposed to slavery, an open advocacy of the real purpose would defeat the division scheme.
The leading men in the southern part of the state were from the slave states. If the state were divided, the influence of these men would carry the new state into the Union with a con- stitution authorizing slave-holding and thus the south would gain two senators. The division question came up in some form in nearly every session of the legislature for a decade after Cali- fornia became a state.
In the legislature of 1854-55. Jefferson Hunt, of San Bernardino county, introduced a bill in the assembly to create and establish, "out of the territory embraced within the limits of the state of California, a new state, to be called the state of Columbia." The territory embraced within the counties of Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, San Joaquin, Calaveras, Amador, Tuolumne, Stanislaus, Mariposa, Tulare, Monterey, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles, San Bernardino and San Diego, with the islands on the coast, were to constitute the new state. "The people residing within the above mentioned territory shall be and they are hereby author- ized, so soon as the consent of the congress of the United States shall be obtained thereto, to proceed to organize a state government under such rules as are prescribed by the constitution of the United States." The bill met with oppo- sition. It took in some of the mining counties whose interests were not coincident with the agricultural counties of the south. It died on the files.
At a subsequent session, a bill was introduced in the legislature to divide the state into three parts, southern, central and northern, the cen- tral state to retain the name of California. This was referred to a committee and got no farther. It was not satisfactory to the pro-slavery cle-
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
ment because the gain to the south would be .overbalanced by the gain to the north.
The success of border ruffianism, backed by the Buchanan administration, in forcing the de- testable Lecompton pro-slavery constitution on the people of Kansas, encouraged the division- ists to make another effort to divide the state. While California was a free state it had through- out its existence, up to 1857, when Broderick was elected to the senate, been represented in both houses either by slave-holders from the south or by northern "dough faces"-men of northern birth with southern principles. Most of the state offices had been filled by southern men who had come to the state to obtain office or men who had been imported by their friends or relatives to fill positions by appointment. Indeed, so notorious had this importation of office-holders become that California was often referred to as the "Virginia poorhouse." Scarcely a legislature had convened in which there was not some legislation against free ne- groes. A free colored man was as terrible to the chivalrous legislators as an army with ban- ners.
The legislature of 1859 was intensely pro- slavery. The divisionists saw in it an oppor- tunity to carry out their long-deferred scheme. The so-called Pico law, an act granting the consent of the legislature to the formation of a different government for the southern counties of this state, was introduced early in the ses- sion, passed in both houses and approved by the governor April 18, 1859. The boundaries of the proposed state were as follows: "All of that part or portion of the present territory of this state lying all south of a line drawn east- ward from the west boundary of the state along the sixth standard parallel south of the Mount Diablo meridian, east to the summit of the coast range; thence southerly following said summit to the seventh standard parallel: thence due east on said standard, parallel to its inter- section with the northwest boundary of Los Angeles county; thence northeast along said boundary to the eastern boundary of the state, including the counties of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Bernardino and a part of Buena Vista, shall be
segregated from the remaining portion of the state for the purpose of the formation by con- gress, with the concurrent action of said portion (the consent for the segregation of which is hereby granted), of a territorial or other gov- ernment under the name of the "Territory of Colorado," or such other name as may be deemed meet and proper."
Section second provided for the submitting the question of "For a Territory" or "Against a Territory" to the people of the portion sought to be segregated at the next general election; "and in case two-thirds of the whole number of voters voting thereon shall vote for a change of government, the consent hereby given shall be deemed consummated." In case the vote was favorable the secretary of state was to send a certified copy of the result of the election and a copy of the act annexed to the president of the United States and to the senators and rep- resentatives of California in congress. At the general election in September, 1859, the ques- tion was submitted to a vote of the people of the southern counties, with the following result :
For.
Against.
Los Angeles county
1,407
441
San Bernardino
441
29
San Diego
207
24
San Luis Obispo
10
283
Santa Barbara
395
51
Tulare
17
...
Total
2.477
828
The bill to create the county of Buena Vista from the southern portion of Tulare failed to pass the legislature, hence the name of that county does not appear in the returns. The result of the vote showed that considerably more than two-thirds were in favor of a new state.
The results of this movement for division and the act were sent to the president and to con- gress, but nothing came of it. The pro-slavery faction that with the assistance of the dough- faces of the north had so long dominated con- gress had lost its power. The southern senators and congressmen were preparing for secession and had weightier matters to think of than the division of the state of California. Of late years. a few feeble attempts have been made to stir tip
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
the old question of state division and even to resurrect the old "Pico law."
For more than a decade after its admission into the Union, California was a Democratic state and controlled by the pro-slavery wing of that party. John C. Fremont and William H. Gwin, its first senators, were southern born, Fremont in South Carolina and Gwin in Mis- sissippi. Politics had not entered into their election, but the lines were soon drawn. Fre- mont drew the short term and his services in the senate were very brief. He confidently expected a re-election, but in this he was doomed to disappointment. The legislature of 1851, after balloting one hundred and forty-two times, adjourned without electing, leaving Cali- fornia with but one senator in the session of 1850-51. In the legislature of 1852 John B. Willer was elected. He was a northern man with southern principles. His chief opponent for the place was David Colbert Broderick, a man destined to fill an important place in the political history of California. He was an Irish- man by birth, but had come to America in his boyhood. He had learned the stone cutters' trade with his father. His early associations were with the rougher element of New York City. Aspiring to a higher position than that of a stone cutter he entered the political field and soon arose to prominence. At the age of 26 he was nominated for Congress, but was de- feated by a small majority through a split in the party. In 1849 he came to California, where he arrived sick and penniless. With F. D. Kohler, an assayer, he engaged in coining gold. The profit from buying gold dust at $14 an ounce and making it into $5 and $10 pieces put him in affluent circumstances.
His first entry into politics in California was his election to fill a vacancy in the senate of the first legislature. In 1851 he became president of the senate. He studied law, history and liter- ature and was admitted to the bar. He was ap- pointed clerk of the supreme court and had as- pirations for still higher positions. Although Senator Gwin was a Democrat, he had managed to control all the federal appointments of Fill- more, the Whig president, and he had filled the offices with pro-slavery Democrats.
No other free state in the Union had such odious laws against negroes as had California. The legislature of 1852 enacted a law "respect- ing fugitives from labor and slaves brought to this state prior to her admission to the Union." "Under this law a colored man or woman could be brought before a magistrate, claimed as a slave, and the person so seized not being per- mitted to testify, the judge had no alternative but to issue a certificate to the claimant, which certificate was conclusive of the right of the per- son or persons in whose favor granted, and pre- vented all molestation of such person or per- sons, by any process issued by any court, judge, justice or magistrate or other person whomso- ever."* Any one who rendered assistance to a fugitive was liable to a fine of $500 or imprison- ment for two months. Slaves who had been brought into California by their masters before it became a state, but who were freed by the adoption of a constitution prohibiting slavery, were held to be fugitives and were liable to arrest, although they had been free for several years and some of them had accumulated con- siderable property. By limitation the law should liave become inoperative in 1853, but the legis- lature of that year re-enacted it, and the suc- ceeding legislatures of 1854 and 1855 continued it in force. The intention of the legislators who enacted the law was to legalize the kid- napping of free negroes, as well as the arrest of fugitives. Broderick vigorously opposed the prosecution of the colored people and by so doing called down upon his head the wrath of the pro-slavery chivalry. From that time on he was an object of their hatred. While successive legislatures were passing laws to punish black men for daring to assert their freedom and their right to the products of their honest toil. white villains were rewarded with political preferment, provided always that they belonged to the domi- nant wing of the Democratic party. The Whig party was but little better than the other, for the same element ruled in both. The finances of the state were in a deplorable condition and continually growing worse. The people's money was recklessly squandered. Incompetency was
*Bancroft's History of California, Vol. VI.
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
the rule in office and honesty the exception. Ballot box stuffing had been reduced to a me- chanical science, jury bribing was one of the fine arts and suborning perjury was a recognized profession. During one election in San Fran- cisco it was estimated that $1,500,000 was spent in one way or another to influence voters. Such was the state of affairs just preceding the up- rising of the people that evolved in San Fran- cisco the vigilance committee of 1856.
At the state election in the fall of 1855 the Know Nothings carried the state. The native American or Know Nothing party was a party of few principles. Opposition to Catholics and foreigners was about the only plank in its plat- form. There was a strong opposition to for- eign miners in the mining districts and the pro-slavery faction saw in the increased foreign immigration danger to the extension of their beloved institution into new territory. The most potent cause of the success of the new party in California was the hope that it might bring reform to relieve the tax burdened people. But in this they were disappointed. It was made up from the same element that had so long mis- governed the state.
The leaders of the party were either pro- slavery men of the south or northern men with southern principles. Of the latter class was J. Neely Johnson, the governor-elect. In the leg- islature of 1855 the contest between Gwin and Broderick, which had been waged at the polls the previous year, culminated after thirty-eight ballots in no choice and Gwin's place in the senate became vacant at the expiration of his term. In the legislature of 1856 the Know Noth- ings had a majority in both houses. It was supposed that they would elect a senator to succeed Gwin. There were three aspirants: H. A. Crabb, formerly a Whig; E. C. Marshall and Henry S. Foote, formerly Democrats. All were southerners and were in the new party for of- fice. The Gwin and Broderick influence was strong enough to prevent the Know Nothing legislature from electing a senator and Califor- nia was left with but one representative in the upper house of Congress.
The Know Nothing party was short lived. At the general election in 1856 the Democrats
swept the state. Broderick, by his ability in or- ganizing and his superior leadership, had se- cured a majority in the legislature and was in a position to dictate terms to his opponents. Wel- ler's senatorial term would soon expire and Gwin's already two years vacant left two places to be filled. Broderick, who had heretofore been contending for Gwin's place, changed his tactics and aspired to fill the long term. Ac- cording to established custom, the filling of the vacancy would come up first, but Broderick, by superior finesse, succeeded in having the caucus nominate the successor to Weller first. Ex- Congressman Latham's friends were induced to favor the arrangement on the expectation that their candidate would be given the short term. Broderick was elected to the long term on the first ballot, January 9, 1857, and his commission was immediately made out and signed by the governor. For years he had bent his energies to securing the senatorship and at last he had obtained the coveted honor. But he was not satisfied yet. He aspired to control the federal patronage of the state; in this way he could reward his friends. He could dictate the elec- tion of his colleague for the short term. Both Gwin and Latham were willing to concede to him that privilege for the sake of an election. Latham tried to make a few reservations for some of his friends to whom he had promised places. Gwin offered to surrender it all with- out reservation. He had had enough of it. Gwin was elected and next day published an address, announcing his obligation to Broderick and renouncing any claim to the distribution of the federal patronage.
Then a wail long and loud went up from the chivalry, who for years had monopolized all the offices. That they, southern gentlemen of aris- tocratic antecedents, should be compelled to ask favors of a mudsill of the north was too hu- miliating to be borne. Latham, too, was indig- nant and Broderick found that his triumph was but a hollow mockery. But the worst was to comc. He who had done so much to unite the warring Democracy and give the party a glo- rious victory in California at the presidential clection of 1856 fully expected the approbation of President Buchanan, but when he called on
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
that old gentleman he was received coldly and during Buchanan's administration he was ig- nored and Gwin's advice taken and followed in making federal appointments. He returned to California in April, 1857, to secure the nomina- tion of his friends on the state ticket, but in this he was disappointed. The Gwin ele- ment was in the ascendency and John B. Weller received the nomination for gov- ernor. He was regarded as a martyr, having been tricked out of a re-election to the sen- ate by Broderick. There were other martyrs of the Democracy, who received balm for their wounds and sympathy for their sufferings at that convention. In discussing a resolution de- nouncing the vigilance committee, O'Meara in his "History of Early Politics in California," says: "Col. Joseph P. Hoge, the acknowledged leader of the convention, stated that the com- mittee had hanged four men, banished twenty- eight and arrested two hundred and eighty; and that these were nearly all Democrats.
On Broderick's return to the senate in the session of 1857-58, he cast his lot with Senator Douglas and opposed the admission of Kansas under the infamous Lecompton constitution. This cut him loose from the administration wing of the party.
In the state campaign of 1859 Broderick ral- lied his followers under the Anti-Lecompton standard and Gwin his in support of the Bu- chanan administration. The party was hope- lessly divided. Two Democratic tickets were placed in the field. The Broderick ticket, with John Currey as governor, and the Gwin, with Milton Latham, the campaign was bitter. Brod- erick took the stump and although not an orator his denunciations of Gwin were scathing and merciless and in his fearful earnestness he be- came almost eloquent. Gwin in turn loosed the vials of his wrath upon Broderick and criminations and recriminations flew thick and fast during the campaign. It was a campaign of vituperation, but the first aggressor was Gwin.
Judge Terry, in a speech before the Lecomp- ton convention at Sacramento in June, 1859. after flinging out sneers at the Republican party, characterized Broderick's party as sailing "under
the flag of Douglas, but it is the banner of the black Douglass, whose name is Frederick, not Stephen." This taunt was intended to arouse the wrath of Broderick. He read Terry's speech while seated at breakfast in the International hotel at San Francisco. Broderick denounced Terry's utterance in forcible language and closed by saying: "I have hitherto spoken of him as an honest man, as the only honest man on the bench of a miserable, corrupt su- preme court, but now I find 1 was mistaken. I take it all back." A lawyer by the name of Per- ley, a friend of Terry's, to whom the remark was directed, to obtain a little reputation, challenged Broderick. Broderick refused to consider Per- ley's challenge on the ground that he was not his (Broderick's) equal in standing and beside that he had declared himself a few days before a British subject. Perley did not stand very high in the community. Terry had acted as a second for him in a duel a few years before.
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