USA > California > San Bernardino County > Ingersoll's century annals of San Bernadino County, 1769-1904 : prefaced with a brief history of the state of California : supplemented with an encyclopedia of local biography and portraits of many of its representative people > Part 8
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General Pico, on assuming command, appointed Francisco Rico and Francisco de La Guerra, to go with Jesus Pico and confer with Colonel Fre- mont. Fremont appointed as commissioners to negotiate a treaty, Major P. B. Reading, Major W. H. Russell and Captain Louis McLane. On the return of Rico and de La Guerra to the Californian camp, General Pico ap- pointed as commissioners Jose Antonio Carillo and Augustin Olvera, and then
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moved his army to a point near the river at Cahuenga. On the 13th, Fremont moved his camp from San Fernando to Cahuenga. The commissioners met in a deserted ranch house at that place and the treaty, or capitulation, of Cahuenga was drawn up and signed. The principal stipulations of treaty were that the Californians should surrender their arms and agree to conform to the laws of the United States. They were to be given the same privileges as citizens of the United States and were not to be required to take an oath of allegiance until a treaty of peace was signed between the United States and Mexico. General Pico surrendered two pieces of artillery and a few muskets and disbanded his men.
On January 14th, Fremont's battalion marched through the Cahuenga pass and entered Los Angeles, four days after its surrender to Stockton. Commodore Stockton approved the treaty, although it was not altogether satisfactory to him. On the 16th, he appointed Colonel Fremont governor of the territory. General Kearny claimed that under his instructions from the War Department, he should be recognized as governor. For some time there had been ill feeling between Stockton and Kearny. This precipitated a quarrel. General Kearny and his dragoons left Los Angeles on the 18th for San Diego, and on the 20th, Commodore Stockton with his sailors and marines left the city for San Pedro, where they embarked on a man-of-war to rejoin their ships at San Diego. Stockton, was, shortly after this, superseded in the command of the Pacific squadron by Commodore Shubrick. Colonel Fremont was left in command at Los Angeles. Colonel P. St. George Cooke arrived on January 27th, with his Mormon battalion, at San Luis Rey. This force consisted of five companies of Mormons who had been recruited at Kanesville, near Omaha, and after a long march by way of New Mexico and Arizona had reached California too late to assist in its conquest. From San Diego, General Kearny sailed to San Francisco and from there went to Monterey, where he established his governorship. California now had a gov ernor in the north and one in the south. Colonel Cooke was appointed mil tary commander of the south and brought his Mormon troops to Los Angeles. Fremont's battalion was mustered out and he was ordered to report to General Kearny at Monterey. He did so and passed out of office. He was nomi- nally governor of California for two months. General Kearny turned over the command of the troops in California to Colonel R. B. Mason, who became military governor of the territory. General Kearny returned to the states by the Salt Lake route. He required Colonel Fremont to accompany him, and at Fort Leavenworth preferred charges against Fremont for disobedience of orders. He was tried by court martial at Washington, found guilty and dismissed from the service. President Polk remitted the penalty and ordered him to resume his sword and report for duty. Fremont did so, but shortly afterward resigned from the army.
The First New York Infantry had been recruited in eastern New York
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in the summer of 1846, for the double purpose of conquest and colonization. It came to the coast well supplied with provisions and with implements of husbandry. It reached California via Cape Horn, in three vessels. The first, the Perkins, arrived at Yerba Buena, March 6th, 1847; the second, the Drew, March 6th, and the third, the Loo Choo, March 19th. The regiment was divided up and sent to different places on guard duty. Two companies, A and B, under Lieutenant-Colonel Burton, were sent to Lower California, where they saw some hard service and took part in several engagements.
Colonel Cooke resigned his position as commandant of the south and Colonel J. D. Stevenson, of the New York volunteers was assigned to the command. The Mormon battalion was mustered out in July and Companies E and G, of the New York Volunteers and a company of U. S. dragoons did guard duty at Los Angeles.
Another military organization that reached California after the conquest was Company F, of the Third U. S. Artillery. It landed at Monterey, Jan- uary 27, 1847, under command of Captain C. Q. Thompkins. With it came Lieutenant E. O. C. Ord, William T. Sherman and H. W. Halleck, all of whom were prominent afterward in California and attained national reputa- tion during the civil war.
During 1847-48, until the treaty of peace between the United States and Mexico was proclaimed, garrisons were kept in all of the principal towns. The government of the territory was quasi-military. Attempts were made to establish municipal government in the towns. In the northern towns these efforts were successful; but in Los Angeles there was some clashing between Colonel Stevenson and the "hijos del pais." There were rumors of uprisings and of Mexican troops on the way to recapture the place. Colonel Stevenson completed the fort on the hill, begun by Lieutenant Emory, and named it Fort Moore. There were no hostile acts by the citizens and the asperities of war were gradually forgotten. The natives became reconciled to the situation.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was concluded February 2, 1848. It was ratified at Washington, March Ioth ; at Querataro, May 30th and was proclaimed by the President of the United States, July 4th. The news reached California August 6th and was proclaimed next day by Governor Mason. The war was over and California had become a territory of the United States.
Governor Pio Pico returned to California from Mexico in August, 1847. Colonel Stevenson, fearing that he might incite rebellion placed him under arrest, but he was soon convinced that Pico's intentions were harmless and gave him his liberty.
A large overland immigration from the United States arrived in California in 1846 and 1847. The Donner party, made up principally of immigrants from Illinois, were caught in the snows of the Sierra Nevadas in October, 1846, and wintered at a lake since known as Donner's Lake. Of the original party,
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numbering eighty-seven, thirty-nine perished of starvation and exposure ; the remainder were brought to Sutter's Fort by rescuing parties sent out from California.
CHAPTER IX.
TRANSITION FROM A CONQUERED TERRITORY TO A FREE STATE.
While the treaty negotiations were pending between the United States and Mexico, an event occurred in California that ultimately changed the destinies of that territory. That event was the discovery of gold at what is now known as Coloma, on the American River, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, about thirty-five miles above Sutter's Fort. The dis- covery was made January 24th, 1848.
Gold had previously been discovered on the San Francisquito Rancho, about forty-five miles northwesterly from Los Angeles, in the spring of 1841. Placers had been worked here, principally by Sonoran miners, up to the break- ing out of the Mexican war. But the gold fields were of limited extent, water was scarce, the methods of mining crude and wasteful and this discovery created little excitement.
Both discoveries were purely accidental. The first discoverer, Lopez, was hunting for stray horses. While resting under an oak tree and amusing himself by digging wild onions with his sheath knife, he turned up a nugget of gold. Continuing his digging he found more gold. He made known his discovery and a number of persons came from Santa Barbara and Los Angeles to work in these placers.
James W. Marshall, who had made the second discovery, was at the time engaged in building a saw mill for Captain Sutter, proprietor of Sutter's Fort and owner of an extensive grant at the junction of the American and Sacra- mento rivers. Marshall, to deepen the race, turned a head of water through it. The next morning while examining the effect of the water, he picked up in the race a round piece of yellow metal, which he thought might be gold. Searching further he found several of these nuggets. He went to the Fort to notify Sutter of his discovery. Sutter tested the metal with aqua fortis and pronounced it gold. He returned with Marshall to the mill to make further investigations. The men working on the mill had discovered the nature of the metal and had also been collecting it. Sutter found several nuggets and before leaving the mill exacted a promise from the men to keep
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the discovery a secret for six weeks. Beside the saw mill he was building a large flouring mill near the fort and he feared all of his men would desert for the mine. But the secret could not be kept. Mrs. Wimmer, who did the cooking for the men at the mill, told a teamster and he reported it at the fort. The news spread slowly at first and there were many who would not believe the report. It was three months before the rush began. Kemble, the editor of the California Star, visited the mines two months after their discovery and upon his return to San Francisco pronounced them a sham and advised people to stay away.
During April considerable quantities of gold were received in San Fran- cisco and the excitement became intense. The city had been building up rapidly since the conquest ; but now the rush to the mines almost depopulated it. Houses were left tenantless, business was suspended, ships were left in the bay without sailors, soldiers deserted from the forts and rancheros left their grain unharvested.
The news did not spread abroad in time to bring many gold-seekers into California during 1848. In the spring of 1849, the great rush from the out- side world began-both by land and by sea. Gold had now been discovered over an area of more than two hundred miles and new fields were constantly being opened. San Francisco, which was the great entry port for commerce and travel by sea, grew with astonishing rapidity. At the time of the dis- . covery of gold the population of San Francisco was about 800, and the white population of California about 6000. At the close of 1849, the population of the territory numbered one hundred thousand, four-fifths of which had reached the land of gold in that one year. During 1848, Sutter's Fort, or New Helvetia, as it was called, was the great distributing point for the mines. Sacramento was laid out in 1849, and soon became the chief commercial city of the interior. At the end of the year its population had reached 5000.
California, at the time of the discovery of gold, was still held as a con- quered country. The Mexican laws were in force and the government was half civil and half military. The rapid influx of population brought complica- tions in the government. After the treaty was proclaimed in California, August 7th, 1848, Governor Mason promulgated a code of laws that were in- tended to tide over affairs until a territorial government could be established by Congress. It was not satisfactory to Americans.
Governor Mason was a faithful and conscientious military officer with but little knowledge of civil affairs. He did the best he could under the cir- cumstances, but he was able to exercise very little authority, either civil, or military. His soldiers deserted to the gold fields and the municipal govern- ments were anomalous affairs, generally recognizing no authority above them- selves.
Colonel Mason, who had been in the military service for thirty years, asked to be relieved. April 12, 1849, Brigadier General Bennett K. Riley
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arrived at Monterey and the next day entered upon the duties of his office as governor. Brigadier General Persifer F. Smith, was made military com- mander of the U. S. troops on the Pacific coast. Most of the troops he brought with him deserted at the first opportunity after their arrival in California.
A year had passed since the treaty of peace was signed and California became United States territory ; but Congress had done nothing for it. The pro-slavery element in that body was determined to fasten the curse of slavery on a portion of the territory acquired from Mexico and all legislation was at a standstill. The people were becoming restive under the mixed military and civil government. The question of calling a convention to form a state constitution had been agitated for some time. Conforming to the expressed wish of many leading men of the territory, Governor Riley called an election August Ist, 1849, to elect delegates to form a state constitution, or a terri- torial government, if that should seem best, and to elect judges, prefects and alcaldes for the principal municipal districts. The convention was to consist of thirty-seven delegates but forty-eight were elected and when the conven- tion met at Monterey, September Ist, 1849, in Colton hall, this number was seated. Colton hall was a stone building erected by Alcalde Walter Colton for a town hall and school house. The money to build it was derived partly from fines and partly by subscription and the greater part of the construction work was done by prisoners. It was at that time the most commodious public building in the territory.
Of the forty-eight delegates, twenty-two were from the northern states, fifteen from the slave states, four were of foreign birth and seven were native Californians. Several of the latter neither spoke nor understood English and Wm. E. P. Hartnell was appointed interpreter. Dr. Robert Semple, of Bear Flag fame was elected president ; Wm. G. Marcy, secretary, and J. Ross Browne, reporter. Early in the session the slavery question was disposed of by adopting a section, declaring that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, unless for the punishment of crimes, shall ever be tolerated in this state."
The question of fixing the boundaries of the future state excited the most discussion. The pro-slavery faction was led by Wm. M. Gwin, who had recently come to the territory with the avowed intention of representing the new state in the United States Senate. The scheme of Gwin and his southern associates was to make the Rocky Mountains the eastern boundary. This would create a state with an area of about four hundred thousand square miles. They reasoned that when the admission of the state came before Con- gress the southern members would oppose the admission of so large a territory under a free state constitution and that ultimately a compromise would be effected. California would be split in two from east to west, the old dividing line, the parallel of 36 deg. 30 min. would be established, and Southern Cali-
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fornia would come into the union as a slave state. There were, at this time, Sfteen free and fifteen slave states. ' If two states, one free and one slave were made out of California territory, the equilibrium would be preserved. The Rocky Mountain boundary was adopted at one time, but in the closing days of the session, the free state men discovered Gwin's scheme and it was defeated. The present boundaries were established by a majority of two.
A committee had been appointed to receive propositions and designs for a state seal. But one design was received, presented by Caleb Lyon, but drawn by Robert S. Garnett. It contained a figure of Minerva ; a grizzly bear feeding on a bunch of grapes ; a miner with his gold rocker and pan ; a view of the Golden Gate with ships in the bay and peaks of the Sierra Nevada in the distance ; thirty-one stars, and above all the word "Eureka." The con- vention adopted the design as presented. The constitution was completed on October roth and an election was called by Governor Riley for November 13th, to ratify the constitution, elect state officers, a legislature and members of Congress.
At the election Peter H. Burnett was chosen governor ; John McDougall, lieutenant governor; George W. Wright and Edward Gilbert, members of Congress. During the session of the legislature, Wm. M. Gwin and John C. Fremont were elected to the United States Senate.
San Jose had been designated as the state capital. On December 15th, the state government was inaugurated there. The legislature consisted of sixteen senators and thirty-six assemblymen. On the 22nd, the legislature elected the remaining state officers, viz .: Richard Roman, treasurer; John S. Houston, controller ; E. J. C. Kewen, attorney-general ; Charles J. Whiting, surveyor-general; S. C. Hastings, chief justice; Henry A. Lyons and Nathaniel Bennett, associate justices. The legislature continued in session until April 22nd, 1850. Although this law-making body was named the "Legislature of a thousand drinks," it did a vast amount of work and did most of it well. It divided the state into twenty-seven counties and provided for county government. It also provided for the incorporation of cities and towns, passed revenue laws and other necessary laws, both civil and criminal.
California was a self-constituted state. It had organized a state govern- ment and put it into operation without the sanction of Congress. It had not been admitted into the Union and it actually enjoyed the privileges of state- hood for nine months before it was admitted.
When the question of admitting California came before Congress it evoked a bitter controversy. The Senate was equally divided-thirty senators from slave states and thirty from the free states. There were among the southern senators some broad-minded men, but there were many extremists on the subject of negro slavery-men who would sacrifice their country in order to extend and perpetuate that "sum of all villainies"- slavery. This faction resorted to every known parliamentary device to pre-
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vent the admission of California under a free state constitution. On August 13th, the bill for admission finally came to a vote; it passed the Senate- thirty-four ayes to eighteen noes. Even then the opposition did not cease. Ten of the Southern extremists joined in a protest against the action of the majority. In the house the bill passed by a vote of one hundred and fifty to fifty-six. It was approved and signed by President Fillmore, September 9th, 1850. On the IIth of September, the California Senators and Congressmen presented themselves to be sworn in. The southern faction of the Senate. headed by Jefferson Davis, who had been one of the most bitter opponents to admission, objected. But their protest came too late.
The news of the admission of California as a state, reached San Francisco on the morning of October 18th, by the mail steamer, Oregon. Business was at once suspended, courts adjourned and the people went wild with delight. Messengers mounted on fleet horses spread the news throughout the state. Everywhere there was rejoicing. For ten months the state goverti- ment had been in full operation ; its acts were now legalized and it continued in power without change or interruption under the officers elected in 1849 for two years. The first state election after admission was held in October, 1851. John Bigler was elected governor.
CHAPTER X.
VIGILANCE COMMITTEES-GROWTH AND PROSPERITY.
Tales of the fabulous richness of the California gold fields were spread throughout the civilized world and drew to the state all classes and conditions of men-the bad as well as the good. They came from Europe, from South America and from Mexico; from far Australia and Tasmania came the ex- convict and the "ticket-of-leave" man; and from Asia came the "heathen Chinee."
In 1851 the criminal element became so dominant as to seriously threaten the existence of the chief city of the state-San Francisco. Terrible con- flagrations swept over the city that year and destroyed the greater part of the business portion. The fires were known to be of incendiary origin. The bold and defiant attitude of the lawless classes led to the organization of the better element into a tribunal known as the "Vigilance Committee." This organization disregarded the legally constituted authorities, who were either too weak or too corrupt to control the law-defying element and took the power in their own hands. They tried and executed by hanging four notorious criminals-Jenkins, Stuart. Whitaker and Mckenzie. Such vigorous meas- ures adopted by the Committee soon purified the city from the vile class that preyed upon it. Several of the smaller towns and some of the mining
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camps also formed "vigilance committees" and a number of the rascals who had fled from San Francisco met a deserved fate in these places.
During the early fifties the better elements in the population of San Francisco were too much engrossed in the rushing business affairs of that pe- riod of excitement, to give time or thought to political affairs and conse- quently the government of the city gradually drifted into the hands of vicious and corrupt men. Many of the city authorities had obtained their offices by fraud and ballot stuffing and instead of protecting the community against scoundrels they protected the scoundrels against the community.
James King, an ex-banker and a man of great courage and persistence. started a small paper called the Daily Evening Bulletin. He vigorously as- sailed the criminal elements and the county and city officials. His denun- ciations at last aroused public sentiment. The murder of United States Marshal Richardson by a gambler named Cora still further inflamed the public mind. It was feared that by the connivance of the county officials. Cora would escape punishment. The trial resulted in a hung jury and there were strong suspicions that some of the jury had been bribed. King con- tinued through the Bulletin to hurl his most bitter invectives against the corrupt officials. They determined to silence him. He published the fact that James Casey, a supervisor from the twelfth ward, was an ex-convict from Sing Sing prison. Casey waylaid King at the corner of Montgomery and Washington streets and in a cowardly manner shot him down. The shooting occurred on May 14, 1856. Casey immediately surrendered him- self to a deputy sheriff, Lafayette McByrne, who was near. King was not killed outright but the physicians, after an examination, pronounced the case hopeless. Casey was confined in the city jail and as a mob began to gather there, he was taken to the county jail for greater safety. A crowd pursued him crying, "Hang him, kill him." At the jail the mob was stopped by an array of deputy sheriffs, police officers and a number of Casey's per- sonal friends-all armed. The excitement spread throughout the city. The old Vigilance Committee of 1851, or rather a new organization out of the remnants of the old one, was formed. Five thousand men were enrolled with- in a few days. Arms were procured and headquarters secured on Sacramento street, between Davis and Front. The men were divided into companies. William T. Coleman, chairman of the old vigilantes, was made the president. or No. I, and Isaac Bluxom, Jr., was the secretary, or No. 30. Each mia11 was known by a number. Chas. Doane was elected chief marshal of the mili- tary division.
The San Francisco Herald, edited by John Nugent. then the leading paper of the city, came out with a scathing editorial denouncing the vigilance committee. The merchants at once withdrew advertising patronage. The next morning the paper appeared reduced from forty columns to a single page, but still hostile to the committee. It died for lack of patronage finally.
HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
Sunday, May 18, 1856, the military division was ready to storm the jail if necessary to obtain possession of the prisoners, Casey and Cora. The different companies marched from their headquarters and completely in- vested the jail. There were fifteen hundred vigilantes under arms. They had with them two pieces of artillery. One of these guns was planted so as to command the door of the jail. A demand was made on Sheriff Scannell for the prisoners, Casey and Cora. The prison guards made no resistance. The prisoners were surrendered at once and taken to the headquarters of the vigilantes.
On May 20th, while the murderers were on trial the death of King was announced. Both men were convicted and sentenced to be hanged. King's funeral, the largest and most imposing ever seen in San Francisco, took place on the 23d. While the funeral cortege was passing through the streets Casey and Cora were hanged in front of the windows of the vigilantes' headquarters. About an hour before his execution Cora was married to a notorious courte- san, Arabella Ryan, better known as Bell Cora.
Gov. J. Neely Johnson at first seemed not inclined to interfere with the vigilance committee : but afterward, acting under the advice of Volney E. Howard and David S. Terry and others of the dominant proslavery faction, issued a proclamation commanding the committee to disband-to which no attention was paid. The governor then appointed William T. Sherman Major General. Sherman called for recruits to suppress the uprising. Seven- ty-five or a hundred-mostly gamblers-responded. Gen. Wool, in com- mand of the troops in the department of the Pacific, refused to loan Gov. Johnson arms to equip his "Law and Order" recruits and Gen. Sherman re- signed. Volney E. Howard was then appointed Major General.
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