USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > San Francisco, a history of the Pacific coast metropolis, Volume I > Part 15
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They were not, however. The mixed condition of the law relating to the missions and pueblos created such uncertainties that had Leese and a few others who made their way into Yerba Buena before 1846 been possessed by the spirit of the modern boomer, they could have done nothing. The abolition of the mission system, and the attempt to convert the missions into Indian pueblos which had proved unsuccessful, resulted in complete disorganization. Strictly speaking, there was no pueblo in the sense of an organized municipality. The control had passed into the hands of the political government which responded to pressing needs slowly, and never anticipated them. In 1839, the prefect, Jose Castro, when urged by the inhabitants of Dolores, made application to the government to establish a pueblo, which brought forth a permit to grant building lots, but the place failed to receive the same authoritative sanction as Los Angeles, Los Flores and other pueblos.
It is not surprising, therefore, that no improvements were made and that the settlement remained pretty much in the same condition down to the time of occu- pation, and for that matter until a few years after the Americans had taken possession
Progress of Yerba Buena
Importance of Monterey
No Public Improvements
Political Conditions
Yerba Buena SInmbers
Vol. I-7
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and caused the name of Yerba Buena to be changed to San Francisco. A few scat- tered houses, without any well defined streets, gave it the appearance of an illy regulated village. In 1844, William Sturges Hinckley, who had arrived in 1840, was elected the first alcalde of Yerba Buena, and he distinguished himself by inaugurating a public improvement.
In 1844, in the locality now bounded by Montgomery, Washington, Kearny and Jackson streets, there was a salt water lagoon or lake connected with the bay by a creek or slough. The tide ebbed and flowed through this slough which at all times contained water separating the original village of Yerba Buena and Tele- graph hill. For years those who wished to pass in a direct line between the then harbor and the eastern point of the hill were obliged to jump or wade across the slough. The enterprising alcalde caused a rude bridge to be thrown across the watery obstacle and his action was regarded as so extraordinary that the rancheros came from considerable distances to view the marvelous structure that apparently excited more interest and admiration than the erection now-a-days of a bridge costing millions of dollars.
This important improvement, the achievement of eleven years of the close inter- course of village life and the commercialism of the day, appears to be the only recorded instance of what might be termed public activity if it were not for the suspicion that the bridge was built at the personal expense of Hinckley, and not by the people in their collective capacity. The relation of the fact will serve to impress on the reader the utter absence of enterprise existing in California before the occupation and will, perhaps, enable him to form a judgment of the obstacles to growth which would have been encountered had the Mexicans retained their hold on the territory.
This solitary instance of municipal enterprise, a few straggling houses and the mission establishment at Dolores were the net product of seventy years of effort on the shores of the bay which was found after centuries of vain search for a short cut to the wealth of the Indies. The absurdly inadequate results achieved can fairly be attributed to one primary cause. Had not the spirit of industrialism been almost extinguished by the feudal system of the middle ages which was trans- planted to California, and all the vices of which were inherited by Californians, they would have found a way to produce wealth in quantities that would have paled into insignificance even the fabulous hoards of the isles of gold and silver which the Spanish explorers so eagerly sought.
They and their successors failed to achieve the object of their desires. They did not discover the passage to Anian, but they found a country abounding in un- told possibilities. It is true that they did not recognize them, and never appreciated California at its real value, but there must have been something resembling an instinctive recognition that the land they regarded as so unpromising would eventu- ally demonstrate its worth. Some such feeling may account for the zealous effort to preserve the territory from encroachment, but while adherence to so narrow a sentiment must be set down as something far from admirable, Americans have no reason to find fault with it, as it preserved for them in almost virgin state a vast region with illimitable resources, which are being intelligently developed, and in such a way that the whole of mankind, and not merely those engaged in their exploitation, will be benefited.
Spanish Occupation a Failure
First Yerba Buena Public Improvement
A Solitary Instance of Enterprise
Seventy Years of Rest and Quiet
CHAPTER XV
THE EVE OF THE OCCUPATION BY AMERICANS
SPANISH FAILURE TO DISCOVER GOLD IN QUANTITY-A FEW OUNCES FOUND IN LOS ANGELES BEFORE THE SUTTER FORT DISCOVERY-HOPES OF THE AMERICAN SETTLERS -SOUTHERNERS HOODWINK THE NORTHERN PEOPLE-THE PLOTS OF THE SLAVE- HOLDERS-JACKSON'S OFFER TO PURCHASE SAN FRANCISCO BAY-THE WAR WITH MEXICO-FREMONT'S EXPEDITION-FREMONT'S POLICY OF PROVOCATION-WASH- INGTON AUTHORITIES MISLED-FREMONT AND IDE-THE BEAR FLAG EPISODE --- WHAT MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED.
Spauiards Find no Gold
HE irony of fate was never exhibited in a more striking fashion than in the failure of the Spanish to discover that the El Dorado they were seeking lay concealed beneath the soil of California. From the day that Columbus blun- dered upon the island of San Salvador, when trying to reach OF SAN India, down almost to the time that the Spaniards were + SEAL OF driven from Continental America they were constantly in quest of the precious metals. No stories concerning their existence seemed too improbable for belief, and to some extent their credulousness was justified, for the most rapacious of the adventurers sent forth by them secured gold and silver in such quantities that the supply of them must have seemed really inexhaustible to the people of the old world, who, for centuries preceding 1492, had been suffering from their scarcity.
The early successes of the adventurers, like Pizarro and Cortez, were partly responsible for the failure of the Spanish to discover the metallic riches of the territory which came to be known as the Golden State. They had obtained the sup- plies of gold accumulated by the Indians with such surprising ease that they fan- cied it could be picked up from the ground without exertion. This self deception, combined with an indolence bred in their bones, prevented them, when they finally reached the field in which the object of their desires might be gratified, from making use of their opportunities. And thus it came to pass that they sojourned in the country for nearly eighty years unconscious of the fact that they were living in a land of gold, and that diligent search would have rewarded them beyond the dreams of avarice.
They did not wholly neglect the search; that would have been impossible while the eager desire for the metals was the animating purpose of so many who made their way into the new country. They did hunt for gold after a fashion, but their success was so meager and the reward so scant that the search was not persistent. In a report made by Mannel Victoria in 1831 he declared that no mines worth working had been discovered in the occupied portions of the territory and it was generally believed by those who gave the matter a thought that there were no valua-
Why no Gold was Found
A Perfunctory Search
99
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ble minerals in the country. There were reports that Jedediah S. Smith, the first American who reached California by traveling overland, had found gold in the Sierra Nevada about 1826, but they have not been authenticated and the story, in view of his later exploits and his failure to make further search, seems improbable. The accounts given by Drake's party that the Indians seen by them when they landed had gold in their possession are utterly discredited by the fact that none of the aborigines later encountered by the Spanish had any of the metal. Investigators who have given the subject attention regard the statement concerning gold, and also that which represents the Indians as possessing tobacco, as an interpolation.
Traces of Gold in 1841
It was not until 1841, during the incumbency of Alvarado that Andreas Castilero, the man who afterward discovered the quicksilver mines at New Almaden, saw a num- ber of water-worn pebbles which he said were always found in the vicinity of gold, that interest was excited. A ranchero named Francisco Lopez, who had heard this statement, while pulling up some wild onions at San Francisquito, about thirty-five miles north of Los Angeles, found similar pebbles and immediately began a search for the precious metal and was rewarded by finding some. The news of the dis- covery soon spread, but the gold hunters were not very lucky and the diggings never were important. But there is no question respecting the genuineness of the dis- covery, for in 1842 a package containing eighteen ounces was sent East to be assayed at Philadelphia where it was found to be worth $344.
Discovery Canses no Excitement
The discovery created scarce a ripple on the surface of the even life of the missions and on the ranches, and was no factor in the promotion of the interest in California which developed rapidly after 1842. Unlike the Spaniards, whose search for the golden fleece led them to the acquisition of new territory, the Americans appeared to give the possibility of mining little or no consideration. Their thoughts were directed into the broader channel of the creation of wealth by the practice of industry and the pursuit of commerce. If the first Americans who entered the territory heard of the discovery of gold at Los Angeles attached any importance to it, there is no evidence of the fact. The lure of gold was a force that operated later, but its story does not begin until a couple of years after the American flag was floating over Portsmouth square in San Francisco and over the custom house at Monterey.
What Might Have Happened
Those whose arrival anticipated that event had an opportunity to study the question of development uninfluenced by the excitement which attends the extraction of gold and the sudden acquirement of wealth by lucky finds. The problem they were creating for themselves, as it appeared to them, was uncomplicated by questions of rapid transit. They looked forward to the settlement of the country by Americans, but they imagined that the invasion of immigrants would be chiefly by land, and not a few hoped that it would be of the kind that would clear the way for the introduction of slavery and thus settle a question which was continually threatening the de- struction of the Union.
Aims of First Ameri- can Settiers
Men engrossed by ideas of that sort were less inclined to adversely criticize the shortcomings of the people whose places they hoped to usurp, than those who arrived later filled with the lust for gold, and with all the intolerance which con- sciousness of a wrong done invariably begets. The early Californians who had received large land grants, and who lived upon them in a style which showed that they were strangers to excrtion, were not as incomprehensible to the man who hoped to share the land with them as they were to the Yankees and other Eastern men
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who had been in the scramble for existence, and who had flocked to the coast with no other purpose than to "make their pile" and return home.
The Missourians and others familiar with the institution of slavery could re- gard with a lenient eye habits that were not entirely foreign to communities in which servile labor was depended upon almost exclusively, and there is reason to believe that there were many wholly disconnected from the movement for acqui- sition who would welcome any class of workers who would make it possible to develop the broad lands which the finger of destiny pointed out to them as being intended for their countrymen.
It was the presence of this advance guard in California that facilitated the easy acquisition of the territory. Had the men who were on the ground before Wilkes surveyed the Bay of San Francisco, or who were present when the premature attempt of Thomas Catesby Ap Jones to seize the port of Monterey was made, been of a different material, it is not impossible that they might have dissuaded by their advice and action the projectors from carrying out their purpose which at that time was generally understood to be the addition of more territory to the American Union to permit the expansion of slavery.
It is not improbable, however, that other motives were mixed with the predomi- nating one, and it is even susceptible of demonstration that in its inception the desire to secure California was as much felt in the North as in the South. The manifest destiny idea had a strong hold on the popular imagination. It prevailed to such an extent that cunning politicians had no difficulty in making use of it to carry out purposes which were not always apparent on the surface.
The facility with which the dispute on the northern boundary question was turned to the advantage of the advocates of slavery illustrates the ease with which the popu- lar mind could be diverted from the real object of the slave oligarchy, and induced to start in full cry after something else when put on a wrong scent. When the democratic convention which nominated Polk in 1844 demanded "the occupation of Oregon up to fifty-four degrees forty minutes regardless of consequences," such a manifest destiny dust was kicked up that the North was completely blinded. "Fifty-four forty or fight" was the slogan which elected the man who within nine months after his inauguration recommended the speedy settlement of the Oregon boundary question, not by a resort to arms, but by peaceful diplomacy.
It is not very creditable to the perception of the North that it could be so easily fooled as the events immediately preceding and following the Ashburton treaty imply. When Webster effected the convention there was as much rejoicing over the event as though he had accomplished a remarkable diplomatic feat and saved the country from the consequences of a disastrous war. It is possible that England might have been ready to proceed to extremes if the United States had persisted in its demand that the boundary should be fixed at 54° 40" North, but it is absolutely certain that Polk had no intention of forcing a war.
The pro-slavery element had other fish to fry at that particular moment. They were too acute to think it possible that the United States could successfully carry on a war on its northern and southern boundaries at the same time, and it had been decided by them that one should be waged against Mexico. Not only were the Southerners determined upon attacking the republic, they were equally determined that their proposed addition of territory on the south and west should
The Missourians
Advance Gnard of Americans
Northern Boundary Question
Northern People Hoodwinked
The "54-40 or Fight" Fizzie
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not be balanced by acquisitions on the north which would permit the creation of more free states.
These are facts of history and must be related, as they are linked up with the events which led to the occupation of California and its subsequent annexation by conquest. If the warlike cry of "Fifty-four forty or fight" had been a genuine national demand, and had it been backed by force, there might have been a wholly different story to tell. There might, in that event, have been a Pacific coast metropolis at some future day, but its history probably would have been wholly different from that which it has made for itself under American auspices.
Early Efforts to Secure California
It has already been told how Jackson as early as 1839 began his intrigues to secure Mexican territory, and how, in that year, he offered the republic $5,000,000 for Texas, as his overtures to purchase the Bay of San Francisco made in 1835 have also been related. Reference has been made likewise to Waddy Thompson's eulogy of the resources of California, and his suggestion that Mexico might be induced to part with it in settlement of the claims of American citizens. These movements were made with little or no attempt at concealment. Some of them were freely discussed by the American people who read without resenting the sug- gestions contained in such books as that of Captain Benjamin Morrell of the schooner "Tartar," whose smuggling experiences on the coast had qualified him to speak understandingly, that if the United States had possession of the harbor of San Francisco commerce would be quickly developed and that the resources of the region about the bay, which he described in a fashion calculated to appeal to the manifest destinarian, would be exploited with benefit to the people of California and of the whole world.
Offer Made by Presi- dent Jackson
The necessities of the whalers and Morrell's description and persuasive argu- ments probably had a good deal to do with the offer made by Jackson to purchase the Bay of San Francisco, which was accompanied by the proposal that a line should be run northward along the east bank of the Rio del Norte to the 37th par- allel and then west to the Pacific. It was diplomatically suggested that Monterey might be excluded, as there was no wish to interfere with the actual settlements of Mexico on the Pacific coast, which implied that the president had ample knowledge of the fact that nothing had been accomplished in the way of development of the shores of the body of water which he sought to gain possession of for the United States.
Question of Acquisition
After 1835, the question of acquisition appears to have been little considered from the commercial side. From that time forward the matter engaged the atten- tion of the Southerners more particularly, and they regarded it solely from the standpoint of the needs of the institution of slavery. The struggle which ensued is part of the history of the nation, and to attempt to describe it would necessitate the relation of the cvents which led up to the Civil war. San Francisco and Cali- fornia were merely pawns on the political chessboard of the period, but they were often moved with such dexterity that the bigger pieces were endangered, and at no time after the slave-holding element had set its covetous eyes on the terri- tory so glowingly described by Butler, Thompson and others were they wholly negligible quantities.
War Declared Against Mexico
War was declared against Mexico by the United States on the 13th of May, 1846, but hostilities were looked for much earlier by those not behind the scenes, and the result was occasional exhibitions of precipitate action. In 1842 Commo- dore Jones, on the strength of rumors related to him by the American consul at
Plotting Slave Owners
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Mazatlan, to the effect that the British were negotiating with the Mexicans for the cession of California, set sail for Monterey to head off the supposed intended occupation. The story ran that Great Britain had agreed to take over the province in satisfaction for debts aggregating $50,000,000 owed by Mexicans to British subjects, and it was accompanied by rumors that the expected war between the United States and Mexico had begun.
Jones crowded on sail in order to reach the coast of California first. British war vessels had been cruising off Mexico when the consul reported the alleged negotiations between England and that country and Commodore Jones thought he was engaging in a race for possession. When he arrived at Monterey he promptly summoned Governor Alvarado to surrender, and as the Californian was powerless to resist, he did so, not, however, without demurring to what he regarded as a breach of the rules of war. The American flag was hoisted over the fort or castle and the bloodless victory was celebrated by the victors and those in sympathy with the desire to place California under the protection of the United States. Subsequently, Jones, upon learning of his error, struck his colors, apologized and saluted the Mexican flag.
Meanwhile events were occurring in the interior, the significance of which may be as easily understood by the reader as by the Californians who were observing with jealous suspicion the action of certain unwelcome intruders on their soil. In 1842 John C. Fremont made a scientific expedition to the Rocky Mountains and a year later he started on a second trip, his objective this time being Oregon and California. In February, 1844, he crossed the Sierra near Tahoe and descended to the plains, reaching the Sacramento at Sutter's place, New Helvetia, in March. His presence caused a great stir among the defenceless Californians who disbe- lieved his profession that his mission was purely scientific.
It is not impossible that Fremont was technically within the limits of truth. His mission was undoubtedly scientific in the same sense that an engineer's movements in running lines before a beleaguered fort with the intention of springing a mine under it are scientific. He was undoubtedly performing work of a sort which in certain contingences might prove very useful and which were curiously linked up with the persistent and oft-expressed desire of Americans to secure the harbor of San Francisco.
In the early Forties the most of the country west of the Missouri river was a terra incognito. Land now recognized as the most fertile in the United States was then supposed to be desert. Among the numerous fictions there was one which Fre- mont had apparently decided upon investigating, because it might prove useful knowledge which could be made to contribute to the success of his enterprise. It was supposed up to the time of Fremont's expedition that there was a river which flowed from the Rocky Mountains to the Bay of San Francisco. This imaginary river was called the San Buenaventura, and had it existed it would have afforded facilities for penetrating the coveted land which an engineer could not afford to overlook.
When he discovered that the San Buenaventura was a myth Fremont made his way to the Sacramento valley and in 1844 he and his party began to be a source of worry to the Californians. About the same time Thomas O. Larkin, acting un- der instructions, was actively corresponding with Americans supposed to be friendly to the project of occupation. Larkin wrote to Jacob P. Leese at Sonoma, to John
Commodore Jones' Precipitate Action
Fremont's Expedition in 1842
An Imagin- ary River
San Buen- aventura River a Myth
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Warner at San Diego and Abel Stearns at Los Angeles, all Mexican citizens who, however, despite their relations to Mexico were well disposed towards the United States. The purpose of Larkin was to induce them to engage in the work of bring- ing about a favorable disposition towards the United States. Conviction and in- terest prompted them to make the attempt, but as the sequel shows they were not very successful, although they undoubtedly were under the illusion that they were and so reported to the consul, who in turn communicated his information to Wash- ington, producing there an impression that subsequently caused the issuance of some contradictory orders which caused the actors in the absorption drama to play at cross purposes.
Winning Favor for Americans
If at any time Leese and the others succeeded in cultivating the desired favor- able impression it was speedily converted into the opposite feeling by Fremont, whose course was the reverse of conciliatory and from the beginning seemed to have been adopted with the view of provoking the Californians to the commission of some act which would afford him an excuse to engage in hostilities. There was no such demonstration during the year 1844, but early in 1846, after a visit to the East, he again made his appearance on the coast with a party of sixty-two. His presence this time created great alarm, for the rumors of impending war were nu- merous, and the Californians could not help regarding him as an enemy.
Fremont and the Castros
Shortly after his arrival in California Fremont visited Castro at Monterey and attempted to allay the fear created by the presence of the small band of Americans by giving the Californians to understand that they were on their way to Oregon. Castro professed to accept these assurances but it is quite evident that he placed no faith in them, for a few days afterward while Fremont and his men were en- camped in the Gabilan Mountains, about thirty miles east of Monterey, they were ordered to leave the country. These orders, which were accompanied by threats that if they were not complied with forcible means would be used to expel the Americans, were sent by Manuel Castro, the prefect, and Jose Castro, the com- mandante of Monterey, who were acting in conformity with instructions sent from Mexico, which also embraced directions to get rid of the families of Americans who had established themselves on the frontiers.
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