USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > San Francisco, a history of the Pacific coast metropolis, Volume I > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64
The desire of Britain took a preventive rather than an acquisitive form. Al- though there is some testimony which points to plans for the acquirement of Cali- fornia, the preponderance of evidence favors the belief that the British merely boped to see it erected into an independent state, whose authority might be guar- anteed and thus prevent it falling into the hands of the United States.
Something like an active intrigue to produce that result was begun during the vice consulship of James A. Forbes, who had been appointed to represent the British government at Monterey. In 1842 Forbes began an inquisition into the feelings of the Californians with a view of ascertaining how they would regard the extension of a protectorate over them by Great Britain. Forbes seems to have shared the opinion expressed by Eugene de Mofras, who in 1841 had predicted that it would be the fate of California to be conquered by Great Britain or the United States unless she placed herself under the benevolent protection of some European monarchy, preferably that of France. But he must have been compelled to modify it to con- form to the more reasonable plans of his superiors, who made use of California as a club to beat down the American demand of extension to the line of fifty-four- forty on the north.
Both de Mofras and Forbes were convinced that the Californians were antipa- thetic to Americans, but they differed in regard to their attitude toward the Brit- ish. De Mofras said that all the people of California were by religion, manners, language and origin out of sympathy with Americans and English; Forbes had reason to believe that the feeling against his own countrymen was not general, but on the contrary that they were well liked. He was certainly justified in thinking that there were many Englishmen who were appreciated and who stood high in the esteem of the Californians, while it is not so certain that the points of resemblance indicated by the Frenchman predisposed the Californians to an alliance with a country like France.
As a matter of fact both of these foreign critics were wrong. They did not understand the situation, and but imperfectly comprehended the workings of the Californian mind. They misinterpreted the indisposition shown at an earlier date to sever relations with Spain and wholly failed to recognize the import of the opposition to centralization, which was an exhibition of extreme republican senti- ment rather than antagonism to Mexico. In short, they overlooked the fact that Californians, like the Mexicans, and the other Latin American peoples who estab-
French and British Intrigues
Unavailing Efforts of a Briton
Stimulating Dislike of Americans
Mistakes of Foreign Observers
76
SAN FRANCISCO
lished republics after the destruction of Spanish rule, were admirers of the institu- tions of the republic of the United States and that it would be difficult to persuade them to any step which would oblige them to relinquish the desire to model upon that country.
Larkin, the American consul, who was well informed concerning the efforts of Forbes, who made no serious effort to conceal them, apparently had no doubt about his ability to head off British and French intrigue. With or without authority he at once started to back fire the work of the British consul, and fortunately for his efforts the influence gained by the commercially inclined Americans proved suffi- cient to nullify the advantage Forbes might have gained had all immigrants from the United States been of the kind who made it their business to stir up animosity by plainly betraying their contempt for Californians of every degree.
There were several, however, who contrived to remove, or at least modify the bad impression made by the intemperate criticism of native shortcomings. They were usually men of substance and had married women of the country. These few without attempting to disguise their object persuaded some of the more influential Californians that they would be wise to retain their original predilection for re- publicanism, and that their best chance of achieving their desire for material pros- perity would be to cast in their fortunes with the nation which had pioneered the path of liberty in America and had announced its determination to prevent the introduction or restoration of monarchial institutions in the western world.
The accounts all agree that these considerations and the arguments of Larkin would have prevailed had it not been for the precipitate action of John C. Fre -. mont who, from the time of his first advent in California, had caused considerable friction. It seems inconceivable that he should have planned to thwart a pro- gramme of peaceful acquisition, but many of his actions point to something of that sort. That he was not in complete accord with the authorities in Washington is shown by the fact that he and Commodore Sloat worked at cross purposes. The latter was acting under instructions which assumed that Americans would be re- ceived with open arms; Fremont on the other hand was pursuing a course which has been characterized as a deliberate attempt to promote hostilities, and some of his critics did not hesitate to assert that his object in so doing was to further his personal ambitions.
That was the opinion entertained by many who had hoped to see California accept the inevitable without protest, and who believed that the interests of natives, and of Americans who were expected to seek homes in the country then so sparsely settled, would be best served by maintaining harmonious relations. It should be kept in mind that during the years immediately preceding the Mexican war the outlook to Americans in California must have presented itself in a manner quite different from that which shapes itself in our minds when dealing with the subject retrospectively. There was then no thought of a rapid influx and swift growth of population such as followed the gold discovery at Sutter's fort.
The probabilities must have formed the belief that the work of settlement would proceed slowly, and there was reasonable ground for the fear that the crea- tion of unnecessary enmities would retard development, and thus frustrate the hopes which those familiar with the resources of the region had formed and which furnished the excuse some of them desired to offer for violating an obligation they had assumed when they sought Mexican citizenship.
Larkin Starts a Back Fire
Fremont's Marplot Actions
Efforts to Preserve Harmony
CHAPTER XII
LABOR PROBLEM BEFORE AMERICAN OCCUPATION
CALIFORNIA AND THE SLAVEHOLDERS OF THE UNITED STATES-CHINESE LABOR SUG- GESTED AS EARLY AS 1806-INDIANS AS SLAVES THE INDIAN AN OBJECT OF DREAD -THE ATTEMPT TO ELEVATE THE INDIAN-ENSLAVEMENT OF INDIAN CHILDREN- INDIANS CRUELLY TREATED-NO REWARDS FOR THE INDIAN LABORER-OPPOSITION TO INDIAN PUEBLOS-INDIAN PUEBLOS NOT A SUCCESS-RELIGIOUS TRAINING OF MISSION INDIANS-UNSATISFACTORY RESULTS.
CIT
T MAY be interesting to conjecture how two difficult prob- lems would have been solved by the people of California had they been permitted to work out their solution slowly. What would have happened if the reasonable anticipation that population would necessarily grow slowly had been OF SAN FR OF JOSEAL realized, and instead of mining proving the dominating factor, the cultivation of the soil had been the main occu- pation of the inhabitants?
California and Slavery
The subject is usually approached from a standpoint which obscures the prob- ability that California would have become a slave state had gold not been discov- ered in sufficient quantities in 1848 to draw to it people from all quarters of the earth, the majority of whom were opposed to the extension of the evil on American soil. In that event it is not unlikely that the agricultural community which would have grown up slowly would have been made up chiefly of recruits from the South- ern states and they might have succeeded in carrying out the purpose which was at the bottom of the aggressions upon Mexico of extending slavery to the coast.
The labor question in the province of California and later under Mexican rule had never been very acute, because the inhabitants were indifferent to their advan- tages, and by inherited disuse of the faculty which prompts enterprise they had al- most ceased to desire improvement of any kind. They were like children and de- sired the good things of earth, but when they did not see them they were contented and put up with what they had.
It does not appear that at any time the Californians showed a disposition to use the Indians they were able to command for any other purpose than to relieve themselves from the drudgery of work. There was slavery of a genuine sort, but it was wholly different from that which existed in the South before the Civil war, and it was never employed, as it was in many parts of Latin America, for objects of gain, such as the increase of productivity with the view of creating a surplus for sale, or to extract gold from the soil.
The Russian, Rezanoff, who visited California in 1806, was so impressed by
Labor Qnes- tion in Early Days
77
78
SAN FRANCISCO
the failure of the Californians to make use of their fertile soil that he could not refrain from comment and suggestion. In a letter to his government in which he outlined the possibilities of trade between Siberia and California, and somewhat significantly hinted that if the Californians did not make use of their opportunities some other people should step in and show them how, he discussed the labor ques- tion in a fashion which indicates that he must have considered the possibility of making the Indians useful, but that he had dismissed the idea as impracticable.
Indian Labor Un- dependable
As for the natives he was under no illusions regarding them. He left them completely out of the reckoning, summing up their deficiencies in a general state- ment which virtually indicted them as a people too lazy to do hard work, and too incapable to successfully engage in any occupation requiring skill. So thor- oughly was he impressed with their deficiencies, and so little importance did he attach to the possibility of converting the Indians into a dependable labor supply, he proposed to introduce Chinese, whose industry and skill he extolled as only second to their tractability.
This judgment was formed after thirty-six years of experimentation by mis- sionaries and rancheros, and is probably a far more accurate estimate of the value of the Indian as a laborer than any made by later travelers, some of whom, misled by the achievements in the immediate vicinity of the missions, overlooked the general condition of the country, which was very much down at the heel because of the incapacity of the rancheros and the absence of a reliable supply of labor.
The Southerners had attempted in some sections of the Union to make slaves of the Indians but without success, but the material they dealt with was not of the same sort as that found in California. They might easily have been induced to believe that they could achieve success where the missionaries and the native Californians had failed. The testimony that many thought along these lines is abundant and there is no reason to doubt, had the gold rush not interfered to mar their plans, that slavery would have been introduced into California and that the Indian would have formed part of the institution.
Had that turned out to be the case it is doubtful whether the attempt would have proved successful. The aborigine in California was not made of the same stuff as the Seminoles and Creeks, but he was by no means the docile creature which his acceptance of the yoke imposed upon him by the padres implied. As already observed his propensity to relapse into the ways of the gentiles could hardly be restrained, and as the process of creating neophytes advanced, and he was thrown more and more in contact with his own kind he began to develop an organizing ability which was unknown to him when he was a member of an isolated family or tribe.
When he was a nomad the California Indian expended his energies in an al- most fruitless struggle for existence. He showed little disposition to cultivate re- lations with his own kind, and, although not made of fighting stuff easily collided with other tribes or bands when they approached his neighborhood too closely. This antagonism was practically wiped out by the mission policy, which assembled considerable numbers of Indians closely together, and enabled them to compare notes, with the result that on several occasions they were able to combine in upris- ings which, although they never proved successful, sufficed to keep the Californians uneasy and made the Indian an object of dread rather than the useful draught creature into which they sought to convert him.
Attempts to Enslave Indians
The California Aborigine
Fruitless Struggle for Existence
79
SAN FRANCISCO
That the California Indian was so regarded after the years of effort made by the missionaries will be gathered from an expression in the "Annals of San Fran- cisco," which seems to have epitomized the general opinion. The writer, after extolling the goodness of heart of those who sought to make a good citizen of the Indian, summed up the situation by saying: "Therefore it may be concluded that
* * the sooner the aborigines of California are altogether quickly weeded out, the better for humanity. Yet the fathers would retain them: then sweep away the fathers too."
This language breathes a spirit of intolerance which owed much of its bitter- ness to the prevalent "know-nothingism" of the period, but it distinctly indicates the line of cleavage in the efforts for the uplift of the California Indian. The religious motive which prompted the missionaries to engage in the work of the redemption of the Indian, and the political object of making him a good citizen were always conflicting, and by some the conflict is held responsible for the poor results achieved; but candor compels the admission that they were no worse than those attained by Americans in dealing with the aborigines; and that the Anglo Saxons never made as serious an effort to help them as the Latins of California.
Some years before the successful revolution of Mexico the Spanish Cortes laid the foundations for the later attempts to secularize the missions. It had been the design from the beginning that these establishments should, when the fitting time arrived, be converted into civil or municipal corporations. In various documents the object of their creation was stated to be the civilization and education of the Indians so as to prepare them for citizenship. In 1813 the Cortes declared that the missions ought to be converted into ordinary parish churches, but as often happened in the dealings of the mother country Spain with her colonies, the Cortes proposed and the missions disposed.
The revolt of the Mexicans once successfully accomplished the new government began to interest itself actively in the condition of the Indians, a natural conse- quence of the fact that the success of the revolution was largely due to that race which produced some leaders, and not a few who afterward participated in the administration of Mexican affairs. In 1827, evidently acting under this inspira- tion, a territorial deputation which met at Monterey proposed to emancipate from mission tutelage all Indians within certain jurisdictions who were qualified to be- come Mexican citizens. At this same deputation a resolution was adopted which limited the right to inflict corporal punishment on the neophytes to fifteen lashes.
It is quite clear that the body which passed these resolutions had no definite idea concerning the qualifications necessary for good citizenship. The Mexican opinion on this point was extremely liberal, and it may be said without greatly straining the truth that it excluded all limitations. But while the deputation may have been somewhat hazy so far as the eligibility of the Indian to citizenship was concerned, it seems to have had well defined views on the subject of the desirability of not driving him forth to join the gentiles by a resort to harsh measures, hence the restriction on the use of the lash.
It is noteworthy that this deputation confined its attention to the treatment of the Indians by the missionaries. It was reserved for Governor Echeandia to attempt to put a period to a practice which resulted in the practical enslavement of the In- dians by the rancheros. In 1829 he ordered that no more Indian children should be seized under the pretense of teaching them Christian manners. The children
Pioneer Opinion of the Indian
Intolerant Attitude of Pioneers
Missions Secularized
Mexican Interest in the Indian
Missionaries and Indians
80
SAN FRANCISCO
thus seized were made use of as domestic servants, and were sometimes badly treated. Echeandia's order was aimed not only at future abuses, but was retroactive as it compelled the restoration of the children held at the time to their parents.
Indian Uprising in 1829
It is not impossible that the attempted application of remedies was responsible for an uprising which occurred in 1829, and which resulted in an exhibition of ferocity rarely surpassed by any people. In that year the Indians at the Mission San Jose were induced to desert and join a number of gentiles in the San Joaquin valley. They were pursued by troops from San Francisco, but the latter were repulsed in a thicket and compelled to retreat. Subsequently the defeated Cali- fornians were reinforced by a body of men under the command of Vallejo who descended on the camp of the recalcitrant neophytes, killing many of them and taking a number of prisoners. A cruel vengeance was inflicted on those supposed to have been responsible for the desertion. They were tortured in various ways, and the instruments selected to inflict the punishment were Indians, who, as was often the case with negro slaves in the South, delighted in the exercise of barbarity.
Cruelty to Indians
One of the padres protested against the cruelties, but nothing came of the pro- test except recrimination. As in former cases when priests were charged with gross abuses of Indians the testimony of the latter was disregarded, or the witnesses were charged with having perjured themselves. The Californians were not unlike the settlers in the regions east of the Rocky Mountains still infested with Indians. Their prejudice was so great that a charge against a white man was sufficient to array all the whites on his side. They honestly entertained the belief that any attempt to repair an injustice would create the impression in the minds of the Indians that it was inspired by fear. Hence a solidarity which put the poor neo- phyte at a great disadvantage and doubtless encouraged the naturally cruel who were in positions of command over them to commit acts of cruelty.
Indians Ungrateful
But acts of cruelty do not explain the undoubted fact that the Indians were quite as ready to assail the padres who were really kind to them as the major domos who freely employed the lash to secure obedience from their charges, or to compel them to perform their tasks in the field or elsewhere. In the uprisings of which we have knowledge there is every reason to believe that in the event of suc- cess they would have sacrificed the most benevolent missionary as ruthlessly as the cruelest overseer who made their lot .so bitter.
Perhaps such an attitude is inseparable from a system which does not recognize the right of the toiler to more than a bare existence. That was the condition of the California Indian who received absolutely no pecuniary advantage from his connection with the mission. He was a slave in all particulars except one. While he could be worked to death he could not be sold, although it was not impossible to transfer his services. That indeed was as common as the practice of making domestic servants under the pretense that they were to be taught Christian manners.
The failure to recognize that the Indian after he assumed the duties of Chris- tianity had any rights which his superiors were bound to respect was in large de- gree responsible for the facility with which conspirators could enlist him in enter- . prises against the authorities, or of men engaged in personal feuds to use him to accomplish their wicked ends. The California Indian could hardly be likened to a Hessian, for he was not a trained soldier, but his actions were as easily controlled as those of the men whose services were sold by princelings to fight against a cause
Indian Labor Unrewarded
...
SAN FRANCISCO IN 1849 From an old drawing
81
SAN FRANCISCO
in which they had no interest, and whose success or failure could not affect them in the slightest degree.
It was remarked that the Indians derived absolutely no advantage of a pecuni- ary sort from their connection with the missions, and this statement might be sup- plemented by the assertion that their condition was not greatly improved in this regard after the authority of the padres was wholly destroyed and the property of their establishments was dissipated among the eager crew who only awaited their dissolution to grab the wreckage. But it is true that something like an effort was made by the successful revolutionaries to carry out the declared purpose of the Spanish Cortes of fitting the tractable Indians for the duties of citizenship, and to that end an attempt was made to put into practice a municipal system which in a measure imposed the work of self government upon those participating in its expected benefits.
Manuel Victoria, the fourth Mexican governor, sought to effect the betterment of the Indians by other methods than those embraced in the plan of placing them in pueblos. He asserted that the project of Echeandia was not in their interest, and that it meditated a scheme of spoliation, the result of which would be the division among a few favorites of the property of the missions and the consequent waste of the labors of the padres and the neophytes who had built them up and made them worth plundering. His antagonism sufficed to temporarily block the scheme of secularization, but nothing ever came of his suggestion to select likely Indian youths with a view of sending them to Mexico to be educated so that they might in turn help in the uplift of their brethren.
Governor Alvarado, whose general course exhibited a greater desire for reform than was displayed by most Californians in 1839 appointed an Englishman named E. P. Hartwell, who had carried on a merchandizing business at Monterey since 1822, as "Visitador General of Missions." His duties embraced the investigation of complaints with the view of remedying the troubles of the Indians. Few of them remained at the missions and those who did were in a miserable condition and contemplated desertion. Hartwell was much in earnest, but the communities in which he worked were indifferent to the sufferings or needs of the Indians, re- garding them only as material for labor. The Indians on the other hand were bitterly hostile to the old families and could not be persuaded that any interest taken in their affairs was called forth by the desire to benefit them.
Hartwell's investigations caused a great deal of talk which sounded well. There were many propositions looking to giving the Indians complete liberty and of or- ganizing them into pueblos as was contemplated in the Mexican act of seculariza- tion. At this time the Indians in San Francisco were so few in number, and their condition was so wretched that Hartwell recommended that they should be asscm- bled at San Mateo and formed into a pueblo at that place; and it is probable that if he had retained his position something of the kind would have been done; but he resigned on September 7, 1840, disgusted with the opposition of the Vallejo and Pico factions and with the interference he met with in the appointment of major- domos.
The net result of the efforts of Hartwell and of the movement to help the In- dian was the creation of a pueblo at San Juan Capistrano which maintained a sickly sort of existence. Two years after its establishment the records showed that of Vol. I-6
The Indians Hopeless Life
Efforts to Improve the Indian
A Mexican Investigation
Proposals to Liberate Indians
82
SAN FRANCISCO
one hundred and fifty persons to whom lots had been given sixty-four, including forty-six Indians, had forfeited their grants.
It is not necessary to question the sincerity of the efforts of the Mexican gov- ernors to improve the condition of the Indians, and it is idle to assume that the failure of the pueblo plan was due to the avarice of men eager to secure possession of the property of the missions. Doubtless this desire existed, and the sequel shows that it prevailed; but all the evidence points to the utter inability of the wretched aborigines to do for themselves. After years of tutelage they were as inefficient and helpless as they were when the Spaniards first invaded the country, and had the latter turned over every rood of land in the vast territory to them, and left them to their own devices they inevitably must have reverted to their original nomadic habits.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.