USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > San Francisco, a history of the Pacific coast metropolis, Volume I > Part 26
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There were other causes of division than those produced by national politics, but in some manner they were always linked up with the latter. The connection may not have been obtrusively apparent, but it existed nevertheless, and had its effect in aligning men against each other who would have naturally been found in the same group if the disturbing influence had not kept them apart. In the elections of January, 1849, evidence of the disturbing element may be easily traced. On the surface it appeared to be a contest to decide which were the best men to carry out local policies, but the squabbles which resulted in three sets of claimants to the town councilship, all of them attempting to exercise authority simultaneously, would not have engendered so much bitterness if there had not been back of them the factional feeling which divided the City into hostile camps.
In April, 1849, the military still assumed to have charge of civil affairs. Briga- dier General Bennett Riley on the 13th of that month announced that in addition
A Political Battle Ground
Local Matters Subordinated
Municipal Government Weak
Canses of Division
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to commanding the tenth military department, he would also attend to "the admin- istration of civil affairs in California." A district legislature had been elected on the 21st of February, 1849, which ordered the abolition of the office of alcalde and the substitution of justices of the peace in their stead, but Leavenworth, when or- dered to deliver the documents in his possession refused to do so, being instigated to take that stand by General Persifer Smith. The legislative assembly also or- dered an election for the purpose of choosing a sheriff, who was to take steps to oust Leavenworth from office, but the latter contrived to resurrect the council of 1848, which gave its sanction to his proceedings. Riley finally ended the dispute by declaring the legislative assembly to be an illegal body, and issued the proclama- tion directing the election of certain specified municipal and district provisional officers, to which reference has already been made.
Military Usurpation Denounced
The issuance of this proclamation by General Riley was denounced at a large public meeting as a gross usurpation, and an interference with the right of the people to organize a government for their own protection, but it ended in accepting his order for the holding of an election to choose delegates to attend a convention to be held at Monterey. But the committee chosen by the meeting, while making this concession, let it be known that they regarded Riley's proclamation as "dis- courteous and disrespectful," and the legislative assemblymen announced their in- tention to hold until deprived of their offices by the people who had chosen them. With the view of securing an expression of opinion on the subject an election was held on the 9th of July, at which 167 voted for their continuance and only seven against. The main body of the electorate having declined to take the trouble to vote, the assembly, regarded the indorsement as unsatisfactory and dissolved it- self, and Leavenworth was reinstated.
Election Under Military Auspices
On the 1st of August another election was held under the auspices of the mili- tary. It succeeded in bringing out a larger number of the electorate, the vote for the successful candidates ranging from 1,516 for John W. Geary, to 691 for Ga- briel B. Post. At this election Peter H. Burnett was chosen judge of the supreme court; Horace Hawes, prefect; John W. Geary, first alcalde; Frank Turk, second alcalde; Francis Guerrero and James R. Curtiss, sub-prefects. A town council designated as the ayuntamiento was also chosen. It consisted of Talbot H. Green, Henry A. Harrison, Alfred J. Ellis, Stephen C. Harris, Theodore B. Winton, John Townsend, Rodman M. Price, William H. Davis, Bezer Simmons, Samuel Bran- nan, William M. Stewart, and Gabriel B. Post.
Delegates to Monterey Convention
At this election delegates to the convention to be held at Monterey were chosen. There were several tickets in the field and the vote was much split up. Edward Gilbert, Myron Norton, William M. Gwin, Joseph Hobson, William M. Stewart, William D. M. Howard, Francis J. Lippett, Alfred J. Ellis, Francisco Sanchez and Rodman M. Price were elected. The convention, which met at Monterey on the first of September, completed its organization on the 4th. Its deliberations were continued during the month and extended well into October, the constitution framed by it being finished and signed on the 13th of that month. Its adoption affected the future growth of San Francisco in many important particulars, but, as will be seen, as the story unfolds, hardly in the way that the sanguine believer in the efficacy of forms imagined it would.
The deliberations of the convention clearly indicate that the dominating idea of the majority of the framers of the constitution was to prevent the introduction
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of slavery into California, San Francisco had been particularly insistent that every "honorable means" should be used to frustrate the attempt that would be made to foist the institution upon the people of the territory, and resolutions were adopted at mass meetings to instruct the delegates elected by the voters of the town to that effect. Apart from the absorbing interest in the slavery question the gen- eral public, and for that matter the delegates themselves when assembled in con- vention, had no such well defined ideas respecting the relations of municipalities to the state government as those now existing. As a result the instrument con- tained no innovations of consequence, the delegates being content to accept and copy the methods of the states of the Union which assumed that the sort of local autonomy which guarantees to the people the right to conduct their own immediate affairs was a dangerous privilege to confer.
The experiences through which the City had passed, and the condition in which it was while the convention was sitting certainly were not of a nature to create the impression that municipalities do not require guidance and excessive regulation by an authorty only indirectly affected by the prosperity or adversity of the regu- lated community. John W. Geary, who had been elected at the same time that the delegates to the convention were chosen, gave some information on this point. In his capacity of first alcalde he addressed the ayuntamiento on its assemblage and told them that affairs were in very bad shape. He dwelt particularly on the neces- sity of taking precautions to preserve order and insure security, and emphasized the desirability of economy, giving point to this part of his address by declaring that there was not a dollar in the treasury and that the City was greatly in debt.
"You are without a single police officer," he said, "and have not the means of confining a prisoner for an hour. There is no place to shelter sick strangers or bury them when dead. In short, you are without a single requisite for the promo- tion of prosperity or for the maintenance of order." Having made perfectly clear the deficiencies of the City the chief magistrate recommended the addition of a license tax to supplement that on real estate, which he claimed, should not bear all the burden of government. He indicated among the classes of business that should pay a license tax that of auctioning, which was very prevalent at the time, and urged that drays and lighters should be licensed.
Another part of his address disclosed the fact that the public documents were in the custody of private individuals, probably because the City had no place to keep them. The failure to provide a place of detention for criminals was not the. only instance of neglect; it appears that there was no building or office in the town, which the people could call their own, and that there was no attempt made to keep the records together. The omission to make provision for the detention of criminals was promptly repaired, the first money appropriated by the ayuntamiento being for the purchase of a deserted brig lying in the harbor, which was used as a jail for some months by the City.
It is worth noting that the system thus temporarily resorted to by the pioneers was essentially the same as that now extolled as a novelty. When the ayuntamiento met on the 6th of August, 1849, it organized and immediately proceeded to ap- point a list of officials now selected by popular vote. The tax collector, city attor- ney, sheriff and treasurer were all designated by the governing body. The prac- tical effect of this method was to reduce the number of elective officers to a mini- mum and to repose all power in the legislative body. It was a nearer approach to
Municipal Affairs in Bad Shape
Deficiencies Pointed ont by Geary
No Public Building or Office
Appointive Officials
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the short ballot than is likely to be again attained, despite the growing distrust of the popular judgment, which the advocacy of a limited number of elective officers implies.
The first state or general election under the constitution was held November 13, 1849. The vote for the instrument was 12,064 and 811 against. In San Francisco 2,051 votes were cast for adoption and only 5 against. Considering the eagerness of the demand for an organic law, and the liveliness of the campaign for the selection of delegates the ballotting was very light. Heavy rains, however, served to keep people from the polls in the interior, and certain defects in the tickets caused a large number of ballots to be thrown out, but the small vote was not wholly due to those causes. The indifference to public affairs, which later caused so much trouble, was in part responsible, and was the subject of adverse comment.
Partisan Politics in 1850
On January 8, 1850, there was an election at which John W. Geary was reelected first alcalde, receiving 3,425 votes. At this same election David C. Brod- erick, whose name appears so conspicuously in the annals of the City, state and nation, was elected to the state senate. The annalist of San Francisco tells us that in this election partisan politics began to play their part, but this ignores the fact already noted by him, that the slavery question exercised a great influence during the preceding year, which manifested itself in many other places than at the polls. The expression "began" refers more particularly to the disposition shown to separate on party lines, and also directs attention to the significant signs that the scandals growing out of the sales of the water front and other lands of the City were to be participated in by the people of the state and not confined as there- tofore to San Francisco.
Official Turpitnde
These scandals indicated a degree of official turpitude never exceeded in this or any other country. The worst feature disclosed by them is the fact that the at- tempts at reform met with little encouragement and brought the principal advocate of a searching investigation more kicks than honors. Horace Hawes, who entered upon the work of cleaning the municipal stables, lacked the quality known as magnetic, but there is no question regarding his knowledge and ability. His dis- position was not an engaging one, and he had complicated the situation by putting those whom he assailed in a position to retort by "calling him another" because he was the owner of city lands, which had also been acquired, if not irregularly, at least in such a manner that his purse was not seriously depleted through their acquisition.
A Well HIated Reformer
Hawes was what is called a self made man. He was born in New York in 1813 and when he reached a suitable age learned the trade of carpenter, which he abandoned to try house painting and later cabinet making. He also did some farm- ing and read law. In 1837 he left New York and adopted the profession of teach- ing, to which he adhered until he received the appointment of consul to the Society islands. He came to California from Tahiti in 1848 and, after the discovery of gold, which resulted in the rapid growth of population and prospective clients, he resumed the practice of law. In July, 1849, he was selected by the people to prosecute the "hounds," a band of criminals who were terrorizing San Francisco, and at the election of August Ist of that year he was elected to fill the office of prefect, whose importance he never lost sight of, nor did he permit the community to do so, as he insisted on exercising its powers to the fullest extent.
Vote on Adoption of Constitution
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On the 10th of September he vetoed an appropriation of the ayuntamiento on the ground that it would raise more revenue than would be required, but Henry W. Halleck, as secretary of state, representing General Riley, denied his authority to interfere, and the council thus supported refused to pay any attention to Hawes and after holding a large sale of the city lands on January 3, 1850, they refused to make an accounting. Hawes laid the matter before Governor Burnett, and on February 15 that official issued a proclamation suspending all further sales until the legislature should act in the premises. The order of the governor was brought to the attention of the ayuntamiento several times, but no account was forthcoming from them.
Hawes again appealed to the governor and in a letter addressed to him on the 27th of February, 1850, he declared that it evidently was the determination of the ayuntamiento to proceed with the sale of municipal lands until all the property of the City was disposed of, and that its members were not going to render an accounting, plainly intimating that their reason for acting in this fashion was dis- inclination to expose that they had criminally taken advantage of their official positions. The ayuntamiento by formal resolution declared that the governor had no right to interfere with the sale of town lands, and another sale was announced for March 15, 1850.
Before this sale took place, the attorney general, E. J. C. Kewen, advised the governor that the transfer of sovereignty over California to the United States divested Mexican law of all power to alienate American soil, and that his proper course was to issue a quo warranto, requiring the ayuntamiento to show by what authority it presumed to act. On the day fixed for the sale the ayuntamiento re- ceived a letter from Kewen, advising them of his intention to resort to quo war- ranto proceedings. It is doubtful, however, whether Kewen's intimation had as much to do with the abandonment of the sale as Hawes' threats of exposure. He had transmitted to the ayuntamiento on March 13th, and caused to be recorded in the archives, a long list of sales made in November and December of 1849, and on January 3, 1850, in which members of the ayuntamiento figured as purchasers. The names of some of this delectable lot are still perpetuated and honored by the people of San Francisco. Among the councilors who figured in the role of grab- bers were Samuel Brannan, J. W. Osborn, his business partner, Osborn and Bran- nan as a firm, Wm. H. Davis, Gabriel B. Post, Talbot H. Green and Rodman Price.
The grabbers, enraged at their exposure, or rather because Hawes attempted to make their actions appear odious, turned upon him, and charged him with hav- ing advised the Colton grants, with having corruptly granted lands and with the acceptance of illegal fees. All of these accusations were specifically denied by Hawes. His most malignant accusers were Brannan and Green, alias Geddes, who, like many others of the period, had a past which he sought to obliterate by the simple process of changing his name. These charges were taken up by the governor, and without investigation, or giving the accused man a chance to present his evidence he suspended Hawes, alleging as a reason for so doing that he had received a report of the finances from the ayuntamiento, covering the period from December 6, 1849, to March 4, 1850, and that it showed that additional revenues would be required to carry out certain projected improvements, for which funds could not be raised through the ordinary channels of taxation and that further sales of town lots would therefore be necessary.
A Bad Lot of Officials
Getting Rid of all the Public Lands
A Respectable Lot of Grabbers
Exposure of the Grabbers
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This action of the executive greatly exasperated Hawes and he demanded the impeachment of the governor for suspending him without cause. In his demand Hawes repeated his charges of improper purchases of town lots by members of the ayuntamiento, and added that an appropriation of $150,000, for the purpose of purchasing the Graham house, had been corruptly made, and that in receiv- ing a report of the council, which had not passed through the regular channels, the governor was guilty of malfeasance. The attempt of Hawes to defend himself by this method was treated with scant courtesy by the legislature. On the 4th of April Speaker John Bigler, in presenting the charges to the assembly, moved that they be laid on the table. The motion prevailed and that was the last ever heard of them.
Hawes Demands Impeach- ment of Governor
CHAPTER XXIV
MANY EARLY EXPERIMENTS IN MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT
CHARTER OF 1850 INSPIRES HOPES OF BETTER GOVERNMENT-SMALL REVENUES AND HIGH SALARIES-EARLY SALARY GRABBERS-CONDONATION OF OFFICIAL TURPITUDE -A SECOND CHARTER GRANTED IN 1851-DEBT CREATED AND CREDIT IMPAIRED- THE PETER SMITH JUDGMENTS-UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS TO REFUND-TAXATION BURDEN IN 1852-A CITY HALL SCANDAL-NEGLECT OF SANITARY PRECAUTIONS -ANOTHER NEW CHARTER IN 1853-THE CITY SUFFERS FROM SPECIAL LEGISLA- TION-A TAX ON GOODS CONSIGNED TO SAN FRANCISCO MERCHANTS-UNEQUAL TAXATION-WATER FRONT LINE SCANDAL-AN ABANDONED FREE PUBLIC DOCK SCHEME-HARRY MEIGG'S SPECTACULAR CAREER-HE FLIES THE COUNTRY, MAKES A BIG FORTUNE IN PERU AND WISHES TO RETURN TO CALIFORNIA-LEGISLATURE CONDONES HIS OFFENSES-DEATH OF MEIGGS.
F THE people hoped that a change for the better would be effected by depriving their municipal government of one or two of the features inherited from the Mexicans, they were doomed to disappointment. Unless they imagined + SEAL OF OF SAN that the names of political or governmental bodies exercised some mysterious and potent influence it is impossible to divine, why they should have thought that the new charter given them on the 15th of April, 1850, would work a revolution in conditions. This new measure of government provided for the division of the City into eight wards and prescribed that there should be a mayor and recorder and a board of alder- men and a board of assistant aldermen, which were to be styled the common coun- cil, the two bodies consisting of a member from each ward. A city treasurer, a comptroller, street commissioner, tax collector, city marshal, city attorney and two assessors for each ward were also prescribed.
Any illusions that may have existed concerning the efficiency of the new system to effect reforms were speedily dissipated. The financial condition was not of the brightest when the officials under the charter entered on their duties. When they took stock they found that the receipts from the three installments of the payment for the water front lots sold would aggregate $238,253, and that the liabilities, including the purchase of a city hall were $199,174.19, a surplus of $39,078.81 over immediate demands. But as the source of revenue furnished by the sale of town lots was practically dried up for the time being by the disposal of all the immediately marketable property of the City, by their predecessors of the ayunta- miento, the new council had to study up other methods of procuring funds for running the town government, which appeared to require considerable expenditures
The Charter of 1850
Illusions Soon Dissipated
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for its maintenance, despite the fact that it was unable to make any showing in the way of public improvements.
Although the outlook was not encouraging the officials elected acted as if they were convinced that an Occidental pactolus was to discharge itself into their treas- ury. The excitement over the gold discoveries still ran high, and the almost fabu- lous quantities of the metal taken from the placers may have justified optimism of an exaggerated kind, but the community was too much infected with the demo- cratic idea that official life should be simple, and the rewards of the servants of the people moderate to patiently endure the attempt made by the aldermen within a couple of months of their installation, to raise salaries to an extravagant height.
By resolution the council voted that its members should receive $6,000 per annum, and that the mayor, recorder and some of the other officials, should be paid $10,000 a year. Public indignation flamed high and an immense mass meet- ing was held, at which resolutions were adopted denouncing in scathing terms the greed of the salary grabbers. A committee was appointed to wait on the ex- travagant officials, but the resolutions presented by the representative of the meet- ing were promptly laid upon the table with such a show of insolence that the pro- testant, Captain J. L. Folsom, was obliged to report to his fellow citizens that something stronger than mere expressions of disapprobation would be required to dislodge them from their position. A second meeting was held, which dealt with the matter even more vigorously than the first, and created a committee of 500, which was to have waited on the council on the 14th of June. This plan, which had something of a menace in it, was interrupted by one of the big fires, which at recurring intervals afflicted the town, but the council took the hint and subsequently made a big reduction in stipends, which touched the entire city government.
A Salary Grab
Salary grabs have occurred in so many other parts of the United States since 1850, even congress succumbing to the changed ideas respecting the simple life, it would hardly be fair to charge the first city council of San Francisco with venal- ity on that account. Perhaps if the grabbers had subsequently demonstrated by their devotion to duty that the laborer is worthy his hire, the community in reach- ing a verdict might have even gone the length of agreeing that an alderman, or a mayor, performs services as important as those rendered by carpenters, black- smiths and plasterers who, only a few months previously, had been earning as much as the councilors proposed to pay themselves.
A Gold Medal Scandal
But these councilors did not stop at appraising their services at a high figure; they went a great deal further and singled themselves out for special honors, which their fellow citizens, who had given them a vote of confidence only a few months earlier, were unwilling to bestow upon them or permit them to appropriate to themselves. The great event of the year 1850 was the admission of California into the Union and its celebration was on a scale adequate to its importance. San Fran- cisco made extraordinary preparations to render it memorable. The councilors appear to have been duly impressed with the importance of the occasion and their own importance, and to contribute to the latter they voted that gold medals, to cost $150 a picce, should be prepared for their use, to be worn by them in the parade, and to be retained by them as souvenirs. The medals were to be decorated with a star on one side, surrounded by the letters E U R E K A, and on the other with the date of admission, September 9, 1850, and were to be inscribed "Presented to .... Member of Board of Aldermen, by the City of San Francisco, October
Extravagant Officials
Small Revenues and High Salaries
E
-
ITHING RARE HOUSE
121
VIEW FROM STOCKTON STREET IN 1856
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19, 1850." The affair raised such a hubbub that the originators of the scheme of self laudation relinquished it, and the matter was turned into a joke. Some of the members, however, secured the coveted honor by paying for the medals out of their own pockets, and one so obtained is now available for the inspection of the curious in the Midwinter Memorial museum in Golden Gate Park. The others, presumably, went into the metal pot.
It would be a serious mistake to assume that this council and the other members of the city government in 1850 were hopelessly corrupt, or that their actions caused them to lose the confidence of the community. It will be seen as the narrative progresses, that when the day of purification came, men who were conspicuous as members of the ayuntamiento in 1849, which displayed extraordinary eagerness to save the City the trouble of taking care of a lot of property, were foremost in de- manding that the ordinary forms of law should be dispensed with in dealing with criminals, and that summary punishment should be inflicted on all accused persons believed to be guilty of crime, even if the evidence necessary to convict them was not always attainable.
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