USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > San Francisco, a history of the Pacific coast metropolis, Volume I > Part 30
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Recatt Methods of 1856
The thugs and thieves had been completely intimidated but the same effect had not been produced on the city officials. This early attempt to put the recall into effect met with no success. Its outcome was the reverse of what those who urged the demand for resignations expected. Instead of resigning the officials turned upon those who made the demand and charged that the object of the Vigilantes was to secure the offices, and that their resort to violence and irregular methods was solely for that purpose. County Judge Thomas Freelon; sheriff, David Scannell; district attorney, Henry H. Byrne; mayor, James Van Ness; clerk, Thomas Hayes; re- corder, Frederick D. Kohler; assessor, James W. Stillman; surveyor, James J. Gardener ; coroner, J. Horace Kent, flatly refused to comply with the behest of the petitioners, while some of the minor officials ignored it entirely.
Purifying the Jury Lists
Prior to this failure the Vigilance Committee had caused a list of eligibles for jury service, whose characters made them undesirable, to be made, which was ac- companied by the request that any member of the committee, or others who knew of cause why anyone should not be permitted to serve on juries, should make known the facts. This list was posted in conspicuous places. The suggestion of the com- mittee to add to it was liberally acted upon and caused great indignation and con- siderable flutter in the breasts of numerous persons, whose past reputations were not of the best, but the movement undoubtedly had an excellent effect.
Organization of People's Party
The refusal to accept the recall was perhaps the best thing that could have happened for the cause of municipal reform, because it resulted in action of the sort which must be exhibited in a conspicuous fashion if good government is to be maintained under a system which calls for manhood suffrage. A People's party was organized, which was something more than a mere name, for it embraced all classes of citizens anxious to assist in putting an end to political corruption. Men who had formerly, for various reasons, refrained from going to the polls, now displayed a lively interest in the movement to "get out the vote." There were no excuses of the kind covered by the expression "what is the use?" nor was there anyone found ready to suggest important business as an explanation of failure to act. There was a complete revolution. Incivicism of the worst type had been re- placed by devotion to the public interest, and the community, for the time being, experienced a complete political regeneration.
Platform of New Party
The platform of the new party was something more than a promise. It con- tained an indictment of past conduct of those who framed it. It demanded that the administration of justice should be in the hands of pure minded men, and that good men should devote at least a few weeks of their time to public affairs. There were numerous other reforms asked for, but they may have appeared in previous
A Sense of Civic Duty Created
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party professions. The chief reform, however, was contained in the pledge to devote a few weeks' time to the public interest, for on it depended the whole situa- tion, If it were lived up to all the rest would come easy, for when good men make up their minds to have things done properly, and give their attention to bringing about the results they aim to achieve, they usually succeed in their endeavors, be- cause the actively and passively good element in any community always greatly outnumbers the corruptly inclined.
The People's party elected their candidates to office at the election in Novem- ber, 1856, without any difficulty and the good citizens of San Francisco could have done the same thing during the previous years had they stood together. There has been much stress laid on the number of "Sydney coves," who were lured to the coast by the hope of finding gold, and the fact that there were numerous bad men among the adventurers who flocked to San Francisco between 1849 and 1856, but a fair survey of the composition of the immigrants does not warrant the conclusion that the community as a whole, at any time during the period, had a much larger proportion of the viciously inclined than any other seaport. We are told by a historian in a review of the character of the immigrants who made their way to San Francisco, that they were composed of three classes. A tenth of the number, he estimated, were politicians who had outlived their period of usefulness in their old homes; another tenth were idle loungers around gambling saloons, men who had come to San Francisco with the idea that they could pick up gold without working for it; "but much the largest class, comprising at least four-fifths of the American immigrants, who seemed to outnumber all others twenty to one, and per- haps a large share of the immigrants from other lands, were honest and industrious workers."
The story of the Vigilance Committee is not completed by the relation of its tri- umphs at the polls. That triumph secured something like decency in the adminis- tration of local affairs, but the overshadowing national political questions had so divided good citizens that corrupt practices at the polls were still the order of the day where the legislature was concerned. At the same election, which resulted in the return of men to whom it seemed safe to confide the administration of munic- ipal affairs, a politician who was past master of all the tricks known to Tammany, and resorted to by it for the preservation of power, so manipulated affairs that he was able to control the legislature.
One of the unfortunate features of the campaign made under the auspices of the Vigilance Committee in 1856, was the introduction of the undemocratic method of selecting candidates by a secret body. The resort to this plan indicated a dis- trust of the organization which it hardly deserved. A resolution was framed and adopted after some opposition to appoint a committee of twenty-one to name a ticket. This committee's deliberations were entirely secret, but its members appear to have been earnest in the determination to name first class men, and to that end thoroughly canvassed the names of all eligible candidates. On September 11th it completed its labors and presented a ticket for city and county officials, and mem- bers of the legislature. This was formally given the name of the People's Reform party, and this appellation was retained several years.
The ticket had arrayed against it candidates of the Democratic and Know Nothing parties. The Republican party, then a newcomer in the field of politics, endorsed the ticket of the People's party. The Vigilance Committee in the election
People's Party Elects its Candidates
Corrupt Political Practices
A Secret Nominating Body
The Opposition
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did not depend on the efficacy of putting forward good names. Before the election stirring addresses were made urging upon good citizens the necessity of going to the polls, and assurances were given that the old time practices would be completely suppressed and that the election would be honestly conducted. To secure that object the City was districted and a Vigilante police force was created to preserve order at the polls, and to see that there was no stuffing of ballot boxes or cheating in the count.
The close scrutiny which resulted in an election, the honesty of which was a subject of felicitation, while it undoubtedly gave the City a purer and better ad- ministration, failed to interfere with the machinations of Broderick, who had se- cured absolute control of the legislature. Writers whose criticisms in general were favorable to the Vigilance Committee movement were disposed to regard this as "the fly in the ointment;" perhaps because Broderick had not heartily entered into the campaign for purification, or because they knew that he was opposed to the attempt of the Vigilantes to control municipal affairs.
The only definite knowledge of Broderick's position toward the Vigilance Com- mittee is that disclosed by a statement made by him some three years later, that during Terry's incarceration by the Vigilance Committee he had paid $200 a week to a newspaper to print articles in his defense. The journal alluded to was the "Herald," probably the most ably conducted daily paper in 1856, and the most prosperous. Because of its attitude towards the Vigilantes it was destroyed by the business men of the City, who withdrew their advertisements in a body.
It would have been extraordinary had Broderick sympathized with the efforts to purify municipal government, for he, more than any other man in San Francisco, was responsible for the wretched condition of affairs. Broderick's subsequent ca- reer has cast a glamour over his life, but the truth of history demands the statement that for a long period his methods were utterly vicious, and that he shrunk from no infamy which would promote his objects. He had been in politics for several years, having been elected state senator in 1849, and his political career in Cali- fornia was a stormy one. He had come to the state a year earlier from New York, where he had learned all the arts of the political rogue of the period, and was soon recognized as a past master.
It may be necessary to relate his career more fully later, when the causes of his tragic death are examined; here it is merely desired to make clear the fact that the undoubted "boss" in municipal politics concurrently with a vigorous and ag- gressive effort to effect the reform of municipal government was able to secure control of the legislature, a body which had the power, and often chose to exercise it, of nullifying the efforts of the better elements of San Francisco to manage their affairs for the benefit of the community rather than for the comfort of ex- travagant politicians.
Methods of Broderick
The methods of Broderick differed in no essential particular from those of his numerous successors. When he arrived in San Francisco there was no party sys- tem and he applied his undoubted organizing talent to create one modeled on that of New York. He professed to stand aloof from local affairs, interfering in them only to the extent of making them pay for keeping up the organization, but his professions do not relieve him from responsibility for all the evil practices which resulted in the misgovernment of the City, for his attitude was that of the boss who sells offices to the highest bidder with permission to recoup themselves at the
Broderick's Plans not Interfered With
Broderick and the Vigilantes
Broderick's Politicai Career
His Successful Bossism
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expense of the taxpayer. He was virtually the dictator of the municipality, and his dictatorship was secured by stimulating the belief that it was of the highest importance to keep up the national party organization, even though the methods employed directly promoted the corrupt conduct of municipal affairs.
One of the sources of his popularity was his early identification with the volun- teer fire department. In 1852 he organized a company, and soon introduced the idea that firemen should be an important factor in politics. No opportunity to popularize himself was neglected, and it was not long before he was in a position which permitted him to say to the candidate ambitious for the shrievalty, "this office is worth $50,000 a year; keep half of the amount, and turn over the other half to me for the use of the organization." The biographers of Broderick acquit him of personal jobbery, and say that he never descended to vulgar venality, but this verdict hardly accords with the notorious fact that he participated in numerous grabbing schemes, and that the foundation of his wealth was the purchase of water front lots sold at Peter Smith scrip sales.
Whether Broderick used any of the money ostensibly collected to advance the purposes of the organization to increase his store of wealth, or devoted it wholly to securing the election of men adhering to the party to which he belonged matters little, for so far as the public was concerned the results were the same. The Brod- erick plan permitted unscrupulous men to gain local office and fleece the taxpayer, and the success of the organization inured to the advancement of the personal am- bitions of the boss. That his political eminence and practices were not seriously regarded at the time by the majority of those who contributed to the success of the municipal ticket nominated by the Vigilance Committee seems evident, for they voted for the men put forward by Broderick, and perhaps in the full knowledge that he was their sponsor.
It has been remarked that in the election which gave Broderick control of the legislature that no sectional lines were drawn. That assumption rests largely upon the fact that Broderick was warmly supported by many ardent Southerners, and that he was bitterly antagonized by some Northerners, some of them from his own state. But that establishes nothing; it simply recalls that in 1856 the opinions of men on the subject of slavery were in an unsettled condition, and that there were almost as many men living north of the line, which was drawn to prevent the en- croachments of the institution, who actively advocated its perpetuation, as there were in the states where slavery actually existed. It was sometime later before views became fixed. In 1856 Northerners were still ashamed to be regarded as abolitionists. They were still unable to perceive what a great statesman later pointed out, that slavery and freedom could not exist side by side, and that the conflict between them would continue until one or the other was destroyed.
This indecision of the masses, however, was not shared by the men who were guiding the destinies of the country. They had well defined views respecting the desirability of maintaining the institution at all hazards, and they did not intend to permit its expansion to be interfered with by those who were beginning to fear the effects of its encroachments upon free labor. These pro-slaveryites, however, found it necessary to proceed with caution in a state which had adopted a consti- tution emphatically inimical to the extension of slavery; they recognized that there was even less probability of a successful attempt to convert California by open methods to the idea that the institution should be permitted to expand than in the
Broderick and the Firemen
Funds for the Organization
Unsettled Opinions Concerning Slavery
California Sopport Sought
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Northern states east of the Rocky Mountains, whose close business relations with the South made them ready to accept political domination rather than provoke trouble.
It was owing to the indecision described that Southerners were found support- ing Broderick and not the absence of sectional feeling. That already found a harbor in many Southern bosoms in San Francisco, as is well attested by the sym- pathy extended at various times to men actively engaged in attempts to extend the area in which slavery might be maintained. The strength of "Know Nothingism" in California also furnishes evidence that Southern sentiment was very strong, for the movement undoubtedly had its stanchest supporters in those who feared that a great influx of foreign immigrants, by providing the country with an abundance of free labor, would menace the "institution" and the political supremacy of the South. But while conflicting views were causing a ferment which was producing a line of cleavage that created some antagonisms for Broderick his personal pop- ularity in a measure overcame them. In short, the campaign on the surface was for or against Broderick, and did not concern itself much with principles.
And to the personal popularity of Broderick we may look for an explanation of the fact that despite his record he was not openly antagonized by men who were fighting against the evils produced by the methods of the boss. They probably accepted his view that it was necessary in order to carry on the organization to obtain money from candidates, and did not seriously inquire to what obtaining funds by this plan tended; or it is not impossible that they were so engrossed by their purpose of purifying the municipal offices that they would not run the risk of defeating their own aims by engaging in a contest which might easily have dis- tracted attention from their main object by converting the fight into a partisan struggle in which the local must have been subordinate to the national issue.
This may suggest a compromise on the part of the Vigilantes with the powers of evil, of the kind the present generation is perfectly familiar with, and the pos- sibility that it may have been made, while it may not be defended, can at least be set down to their credit as an act of good political judgment, for it resulted in the achievement of the main purpose of the Vigilance Committee. The election of the ticket nominated and supported by the committee gave the City good govern- ment. It practically put an end to corruption, and extravagances, an assertion eloquently backed up by the statement that whereas the expenditures for municipal purposes in 1855 had aggregated $2,646,000 in 1857 they were only $353,000. That this great reduction of expenditures testifies to the honesty of the city offi- cials elected under the auspices of the Vigilance Committee is undeniable; that it furnishes evidence of their sagacity in the conduct of municipal affairs is open to grave doubt. It is true that the large sum expended by the deposed city govern- ment in 1855 was chiefly squandered on inefficient officials, and that much of it was corruptly made away with, but under the new regime a policy of do nothing was entered upon which endured for several years, during which the City added nothing to its attractiveness. Although the cost of administration after a while steadily increased there were no improvements to show for what was expended.
Suits Bronght Against Vigilantes
After the success in the election of 1856 the Vigilance Committee did not cease its activities entirely. It was obliged to maintain its existence as a measure of defense for lawsuits of various kinds were brought against its members in the United States courts. These, however, All came to naught; although they were
"For or Against Broderick"
National and Municipal Interests Collide
Political Judgment of Vigilante Leaders
ARFASE ELOEANCE
I
HE TROPOLITAR
IEXCHANGE
MINERS EXCHANGE BANK BUILDING, ON MONTGOMERY STREET BETWEEN WASHINGTON AND PACIFIC, AS IT APPEARED IN 1856
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provocative of much ill feeling and charges of bias and prejudice were freely made against the judge and the grand jury which brought the indictments. These suits were not confined to San Francisco; the federal courts were invoked in other states, but the suitors there were no more successful than in the City where the damages sued for were alleged to have been incurred.
On the 21st of August, 1857, the executive committee and board of delegates of the Vigilance Committee, which still held joint meetings, adopted a resolution to the effect that order and perfect security had been established through the ef- forts of the People's party, which had complete control of municipal affairs and had established a modern government; and that the conditions were such that the committee might with propriety terminate its existence. This action was subse- quently made the subject of criticism, the preamble of the resolutions being par- ticularly objected to by the critics who succeeded in causing the subject to be taken up again at a meeting on October 12, 1857, when the original preamble and reso- lutions were adopted.
Within a year of this action many of the proscribed had returned to San Fran- cisco, and some of them brought suits for damages. There were two cases of recov- ery, those of Charles P. Duane who secured a decree in the United States circuit court against the owners of the steamer "John L. Stephens" for the sum of $4,000, and by the Greens who had earned some notoriety in disturbing titles. They asked for $50,000 and were awarded $150. This latter case was decided in 1860, and its connection with the Vigilante uprising directs attention to the committee's concern with other matters than the repression of the criminal classes, and the purification of municipal politics. It points to an alignment not much dwelt upon in the criti- cisms of the actions of the Vigilance Committee, but which was perfectly natural under the circumstances. The fraudulent land grants, and the irregularities at- tending the sale of water front and other city properties, together with the attempt of a part of the population to carry into effect the theory that the land belongs to the man who occupies it had greatly disturbed titles, and the Vigilance Com- mittee attempted to assist in the work of straightening out those that were most tangled.
In the case of the Greens they sought to effect this object by compromise. The family in question had been troublesome squatters, harder to deal with than some of the others who merely depended upon possession to hold their claims, for they professed to have valuable documents bearing on the moot question of pueblo lands. The alleged existence of these papers, which were said to have been de- rived from one Tiburcio Vasquez, were a cause of disquiet to property owners, and the Vigilance Committee determined to allay the apprehension by bringing the Greens before them with the view of making them produce the disturbing evi- dence. They were accordingly arrested and subjected to a searching inquisition which was at one stage converted into a negotiation, Alfred, one of the family, in- ducing the committee to consider a proposition for the purchase of the papers in their possession.
Whether these documents were of any value is not of as much interest in this connection as the fact that the Vigilance Committee regarded it as part of its duties to make an investigation, and that it endeavored to gain possession of the Green papers by purchasing them from the family. Alfred, who apparently was not its representative, soon realized that recalcitrancy might prove destructive, and
Termination of Committee's Labors
Return of Proscribed
Title Disturbers Bought off
The Green Family's Secrets
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instead of being defiant, he offered to sell. Although the Vigilance Committee had numerous lawyers on its roster they were evidently unable to agree as to the value of the documents. The question whether there had ever been a pueblo at San Francisco was an intricate one and the committee as a whole felt itself unable to cope with it, and took the short cut of attempting to buy off the possibly disturbing elements.
Accordingly they offered Alfred $12,500 for the papers, the sum he had de- manded, but he refused to give the papers up until his brothers who were held by the committee on their parole should be tried, and their cases disposed of by the inquisitors. They were subsequently examined by the executive committee on August 10th, and all were released excepting Alfred. The charges against them were probably baseless, not to use the harsher word "trumped up," as they were dismissed on the ground that they had not been substantiated. Later the committee reached the conclusion that Alfred had fooled them with worthless papers, but they had paid him the $12,500 he had demanded. The documents were subsequently turned over to the United States district court. It is doubtful, how- ever, whether that disposition would have been made of them had their tenor been different. If they had been of a character calculated to establish that there had been no pueblo, it is reasonably certain that the committee would have taken measures to prevent their proving a further disturbing element in the community.
Lynch Law Justified
The actions of the Vigilance Committee of 1856 have rarely been considered from the same standpoint as other departures from established methods of ad- ministering the law common in the United States almost from the foundation of the government. It has often been quoted as the one defensible instance of lynch law. It was so regarded at the time by a vast majority of the people of San Fran- cisco and California, and also by a very considerable proportion of the American people. The latter did not always understand the causes which had brought the Vigilance Committee into existence, but the belief was general that it was fighting criminals, and corruption of all kinds, and Americans were ready to applaud even if the methods adopted were not those which should suffice in a civilized com- munity.
The Critic's of Vigilante Methods
There was no disposition at any time on the part of those who championed Vigilante methods to go behind the returns and attempt to discover the causes which made them necessary. It was assumed without question that the conditions existing in San Francisco were wholly different from those which might be found in other American cities, and that they were entirely without precedent. The dis- covery of gold, and the rush of adventurers to the coast, was supposed to have inflicted upon San Francisco an overwhelming horde of criminals who could only be restrained by summary processes, and the safety of society and the preservation of civilization, it was urged, demanded that they should be put forth.
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