USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > San Francisco, a history of the Pacific coast metropolis, Volume I > Part 45
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Exhaustion of the Placers
It could never have entered into the minds of the pioneers of the Fifties that their state would produce minerals in greater abundance after the exhaustion of the placers than when the diggings were making their greatest showing, but there was a certain degree of confidence in the future of the mining industry which was warranted by discoveries made long before the depletion of what were regarded as the chief because they were the easiest worked sources of supply. In 1852 a Frenchman named Chabot, who was operating near Nevada City, conceived the idea of washing down a gravel bank which he believed was rich in gold. With a good head of water he tried the experiment, and it was so entirely successful that in a comparatively brief period hydraulicking became quite common, and considerable quantities of gold were added to the supply obtained by the more primitive methods adopted immediately after the discovery. It was not long, however, before fears began to be entertained that the wholesale washing down of hills would prove inju- rious to agriculture, and ultimately the apprehension created by their denudation and the filling up of the rivers with detritus brought about a cessation of hydraulicking until means were devised which permitted the exploitation of gravel deposits without causing injury to the farmer.
Diminishing Output of Gold
As early as 1854 we find discussions of the probable exhaustion of the placers, and conjectures concerning the effect of a diminishing output on the future of San Francisco. There was a wide divergence of opinion, but through it all there was apparent distrust of mining as a perpetual and dependable resource. One writer who seemed to have given the subject anxious consideration, opined that "with the aid of proper scientific appliances" the . placers might still be made to render
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a bounteous reward to the miner, and that "generations must pass before the Cali- fornia gold regions" give up all their treasures. "This may be more particularly said," he added, "of the gold-bearing quartz rocks and veins which in many places are exceedingly numerous and rich."
There was no disposition to underrate the future of the gold mining industry, but it was beginning to be perceived that its returns, even with rich quartz veins to draw upon, would be on a diminishing scale. In 1852 the gold output attained its maximum, the California production in that year reaching the enormous value of $81,294,700, but every succeeding twelvemonth's record showed smaller figures, and at the close of the decade the product was little more than half as great as it was eight years earlier. And thus while mining at the beginning of the Sixties was still the most important industry of the state, and as such was still the main dependence of the City, which was the provider of supplies, and had become a manufacturer of mining machinery, the demand for which had grown with the introduction of hydraulicking, and the exploitation of quartz veins, it was beginning to be understood that agriculture would gradually usurp preeminence and become the greatest source of the state's prosperity.
This conviction was not strong enough to prevent the liveliest interest in mining operations. San Francisco, long after the realization of the expectation that agri- culture would rival mining in importance, retained its early sympathies and point of view, and was disposed to give more attention to a reported strike than to the development of the resources of the soil. Its population was permeated with the mining man's desire for quick results, and the foot loose were always ready to rush to the region which held out hopes of making a speedy fortune. This pro- pensity had at times affected the growth of the City, and it continually militated against its stability. There was a still more injurious characteristic to contend with. The men who had made money in the mines, or who had profited by the enormous production of gold in the earlier years were more disposed to expend their energies and capital in prosecuting doubtful mining schemes than in pushing slower but more certainly profitable enterprises. Men who were not afraid to put their money into a hole in the ground, looked with distrust upon projects that people in older communities would consider perfectly safe.
This condition of mind endured several years after the Fifties. During that decade it resulted in greatly stimulating prospecting which resulted in laying the foundation for the achievement of results in the future. Many excellent mines were opened which produced a steady if smaller output of the precious metal, and thus helped agriculture by providing a market for a growing population, which in turn was served by the trading and industrial activities of the people of San Fran- cisco. The City long before the close of the decade had learned to take notice of the possibilities of the opening up of the region lying outside of the boundaries of the state and gave close attention to developments in Nevada, which later became a great customer for California products and an outlet for the surplus energy of its inhabitants with mining proclivities.
In 1853 the celebrated Comstock lode was found and the argentiferous quality of its ores ascertained. It was not, however, until 1859 that the richness of the discovery became known, and the usual rush resulted. Ores were extracted which indicated a yield of $1,595 a ton and $3,196 of silver. It was in this group of mines that the widely celebrated "Big Bonanza" was discovered some years later. The
Future of Mining Industry
Interest in Mining Persists
Prospecting Stimulated
The Comstock Lode
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importance of these Nevada discoveries was at no time underrated by San Fran- ciscans, but the most optimistic believer in mines as a source of prosperity could not foresee to what the exploitation of the new mines would lead. The San Fran- cisco manufacturer and merchant saw in their development the creation of new customers, and the enterprising a fresh field for investment, but no one dreamed that the abundance of their product would lead to a revolution in the monetary system of the world, and to political and sociological consequences which have still to be worked out.
Although San Franciscans were not sufficiently gifted with the prophetic fac- ulty to indulge in detailed predictions of a sort that always harmonized with the event, they were possessed of an overweening optimism and faith in the future of their port, which enabled them to review their career and conclude the retrospect with words which breathed the spirit of "I told you so." In surveying the growth of their City from the time of the gold discovery at Sutter's fort down to the out- break of the Civil war they had abundant cause for satisfaction. The population had increased fifty fold, and wealth had grown proportionately. The people had passed through many vicissitudes with courage unimpaired, and disaster, instead of dis- couraging, only spurred to new effort, and mistakes merely suggested methods of repairing them.
The place which was only a hamlet twelve years earlier had reached a stage of development which entitled its inhabitants to claim that so far as those things go which contribute to the physical comfort of man, and to his enjoyment and ele- vation, it was far more advanced than many cities on the Atlantic seaboard which had been a far longer time in the upbuilding. It had provided itself with good hotels and restaurants in abundance; it had more than its share of theaters and other places of amusement, and it presented an attractive appearance to the stranger. The work of reducing its site to a condition which seemed adapted to growing requirements had advanced far enough to make a considerable section take on a real urban appearance, and there were ambitious projects for further extension.
Many miners who had made their "piles" in the early Fifties had gone back to their old homes. One of these returning to San Francisco in 1861 would have found many changes in the City he had left. Plenty of familiar landmarks remained to remind him of "the days of gold," but he would have missed much that was characteristic of the period when he thought that California could never be made a congenial place to dwell in; one in which a man would care to bring up a family. He would have been compelled to note that the City was furbishing up; that its streets were less like country roads, and that its stores had ceased to present the appearance of a water front emporium. If he ventured forth at night, he would not be compelled to carry a lantern as formerly, for the streets were fairly well lighted for the period. Gas had been introduced as early as 1854 through the energy and foresight of Peter Donohue, and its use had become more or less general. In 1855 the company had ten miles of mains and charged $15 per thousand cubic feet for the illuminant. There were not many consumers at that price, the number being only 563 in the year named. But the illuminant soon grew in favor and in 1856 there were 4,080 consumers who paid $12.50 a thousand for 32,623,790 cubic feet consumed by them. In 1860 the rate per thousand had fallen to $8.00, and 6,172 consumers paid for 60,000,000 cubic feet, and the boast was made that in San Francisco oil had been displaced by "the light of the future."
Optimism of the Argonauts
Comparison with astern Cities
n Francisco in 1861
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Eight dollars a thousand smacks of the extravagance of the earlier period but San Franciscans paid it cheerfully and had something left to put in the bank, as may be inferred from the establishment of a Savings and Loan Society in 1857 which, when its first report was made in 1858 showed deposits at the close of the first half of the year amounting to $20,000. There were other evidences of thrift. When the decade of 1860 opened Eastern life insurance companies began to take notice of San Francisco, and reached the conclusion that the conditions were not as bad as had once been imagined. Prior to 1860 all the companies made an extra charge of $10 per $1,000 when according to policy holders the privilege of living in San Francisco. Just how much the danger of living in the Pacific coast metropolis had to do with this extra imposition is not clear; probably a good deal as the inhabitants of Los Angeles had to pay the same penalty, on the ground that the country below the 35th parallel was in the deadly tropics. The removal of the discrimination paved the way to the development of a business which rapidly be- came important enough to call into existence a commission to weed out unreliable companies.
Other changes the returning miner would have discovered in abundance, but they were all of a sort which he, if he were conservative in his instincts, would have regarded as for the better. He would have found a police force which had taken the place of the constabulary of the days when only sporadic attempts were made to keep the peace. It was not large in numbers, but its effectiveness was shown in a greatly decreased criminal record, and in the preservation of order under circumstances which were sometimes trying. In fact San Francisco before the close of the Fifties had become a very orderly city and a model in many particulars for other communities. There was a high tide of strenuous political feeling running, but it was kept within bounds. Even in the matter of Chinese labor, which was a very vexed subject in the interior, San Francisco remained tolerant while riotous demonstrations were being made against the Oriental in the mining regions.
On the whole the people of San Francisco would have had good reason to be satis- fied with themselves, and their accomplishments, if they could have escaped the depression in which the whole nation was plunged on the eve of the Civil war; but they were bound up with the rest of the Union and had to suffer with it. Curiously enough, however, San Francisco was the earliest city to recover from the effects of the depression, and her prompt recovery was due to the use of the metal which had first attracted world wide attention to California. When the nation abandoned gold California determined to stand by it. Gold was her fetich. It had made her and she would have no other money. Her resolution had consequences about which men differ, but it did not impair her devotion to the Union. Perhaps it strengthened it for there came a time when the people of San Francisco, and the rest of the state, were enabled to do a good turn for their country by adhering to what they called "sound money."
Growth of Thrift
An Orderly City
Depression on Eve of Civil War
A PERIOD OF EXPECTANCY AND GROWTH 1861-1871
CHAPTER XXXVI
SAN FRANCISCO'S ATTITUDE DURING THE CIVIL WAR
THE CITY LOYAL TO THE UNION-ATTEMPTS TO TURN OVER ITS DEFENSES TO THE CON- FEDERATES-A MINISTER WHO UPHELD THE SOUTH-FIRE-EATING SOUTHERNERS- THE CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS-CONFEDERATE ATTEMPTS ON MEXICO CHECKED-DEP- REDATIONS OF PRIVATEERS-HARBOR DEFENSES IN WRETCHED CONDITION-CON- TRIBUTIONS TO THE SANITARY COMMISSION FUND-EAGERNESS FOR WAR NEWS- ATTEMPT TO CAPTURE A PACIFIC MAIL STEAMER-CONFEDERATE LAND PIRATES- A GREAT CHANGE OF SENTIMENT-MONUMENTS ERECTED TO HONOR BRODERICK AND BAKER-MONUMENT TO THOMAS STARR KING-THE NEGRO QUESTION-SENA- TORIAL ELECTION SCANDALS MERCHANTS PROFIT THROUGH THE WAR.
HOUGH far removed from the scene of hostilities during the Civil war San Francisco felt that it was more vitally T interested in the outcome than any other city in the Union. The position of Baltimore may at times have seemed pre- SEAL OF OF SAN F carious to ardent Unionists, but the fact that it lay under CO the shadow of the capitol assured the thoughtful that all the forces at the command of the government would be exerted to hold it securely. But San Franciscans had no such assurance. The re- moteness of California from the seat of government almost made it imperative that the question of its position in the great struggle should be settled by its own people independently of outside assistance, which indeed, neither North nor South was prepared to extend when the war actually began.
Although a majority of the people of California were undoubtedly devoted to the preservation of the Union, and inexorably opposed to the introduction of slavery. into the state, there was a large and very active minority whose sympathies were with the South, and it included many able and influential men. The early California bar contained a number of Southerners whose political training was far superior to that of the men they were competing with, and the federal offices almost up to the last moment before the flag was fired upon in Charleston harbor were filled with persons who were devoted to the policy of the extension of slavery. But what their opponents lacked in political acumen they made up in earnestness and devotion to the cause of freedom, and those qualities proved equal to the task of circumventing the many cunning schemes devised to take the state out of the Union.
San Francisco was the key of the situation. At the election in 1860 it had given a plurality of its votes to the Lincoln electors, who received 6,825 of the 14,360 votes cast in the City, Breckenridge receiving 2,560, Bell 940 and Douglas 4,035. The complexion of the vote exhibited unmistakably that San Francisco was on the right
Under Which Flag ?
Southern Sympathizers
San Francisco Votes for Lincoln
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side, but the position of the state was not so well assured. Governor Downey in his message to the legislature in 1861, had urged that California should by joint resolution express its disapprobation of any measures with which the Confederacy might be "justly dissatisfied, or their constitutional rights in the humblest degree affected," and he plainly intimated that he thought it would be an outrage to act in any manner subversive of the rights of those interested in slave property.
Mixed Opinions
There is no gainsaying that Downey's views reflected the sentiment of a large number of Californians who, while opposed to any action calculated to extend the institution of slavery were at the same time convinced that the South had constitu- tional rights which it would be an outrage to encroach upon, and a still greater number who were under the domination of the idea that it would be wisest to let the wayward sisters go in peace. The strong sentiment of unionism was a later development, and the danger, so far as California was concerned lay in the fact that while it was crystallizing it had to encounter a mind already made up, for the active Southerners were in no doubt as to the course which they meant to pursue, and were quite ready to act while their opponents were debating.
The military commander of the department at the time of the outbreak of the war was Brigadier General Albert Sidney Johnston of Kentucky. His devotion to the secession cause was shown subsequently but he has been acquitted of complicity in an alleged plot to turn over the City defenses to the Confederates. Floyd, who was secretary of war under Buchanan, was charged with having arranged for the turning over of forts and arsenals in the South, and there was a rumor current in San Francisco that General Johnston had been sent to California to cooperate with the secession element of the City. There were detailed accounts of a plot in which Charles Doane, then sheriff of San Francisco, was to have taken part. Doane's inclinations were undoubtedly towards secession, but the story runs that he dis- appointed the expectations of the men who projected the movement, and that in- stead of lending aid to seize the forts Doane had arranged with David Scannell to secure the help of 1,000 firemen in the event of any attempt being made to seize United States property.
Johnston has denied knowledge of the alleged plot, but Scannell many years after the conclusion of the war intimated that the story was not entirely without foundation, and that there was a project of which cognizance was taken in an un- official way, but which never came to a head. His expressions regarding the mat- ter were too ambiguous to be accepted as confirmation of the current story which the historian Hittell, after investigation, dismissed as apocryphal. Johnson was superseded by General Edwin V. Sumner, who arrived in the City on the 24th of April, 1861, the same day that the news of the firing on Fort Sumter was received by Pony Express. As Johnson had been secretly apprised of the contemplated change he was not surprised and was entirely prepared to turn over the command.
The news of the firing on Sumter occasioned great excitement and called forth a demonstration a few days later which effectually put a quietus on all talk of turning over the City to the secessionists. A mass meeting was called for May 11th. The day was declared a public holiday and there was a great outpouring accompanied by evidences of loyalty in the shape of flying flags, and mottoes which proclaimed devotion to the Union. There were many impassioned speeches made, some of them by men who had been wavering before an overt act was committed by the South. They were brought into line, as they declared, by the assault on the
Plot to Seize the City
Fort Sumter Fired Upon
General Johnston'e Attitude
--
& NOTHING BUT THE UNION
ACY
---
RA
ONE AND INSEPARABLE
MASS MEETING, MAY 11, 1861, AT THE JUNCTION OF MARKET AND POST STREETS
The building on which the signs appear occupied the site on which the Crocker National Bank stands at present. At this meeting San Francisco declared in favor of adhesion to the Union
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flag. The utterance attributed to General Dix, "If any man pull down the Amer- ican flag, shoot him on the spot" was quoted, and there were intimations that any attempt of the kind in San Francisco would be summarily treated.
Although San Francisco thus furnished unequivocal evidences of loyalty, the strong union demonstrations did not wholly discourage the Southern element in the City. The Reverend Dr. Wm. A. Scott, the pastor of Calvary Presbyterian church, was in the habit of introducing into his sermons reflections on the Northern cause, and was accustomed to praying for all presidents. His attitude provoked a great deal of adverse comment, and it was feared in some quarters that he might be sub- jected to treatment which would cause him something more than humiliation; but the public indignation expended itself in a harmless effigy, which was hung up in front of the door of the church on Sunday morning, September 22, and labeled "Dr. Scott, the Reverend traitor." He had an unusually large congregation that morning, but he discreetly omitted the offensive prayer. A few days later he re- signed his pastorate and on October 1st departed with his family for the South, where he remained until after the termination of the Civil war.
The other clergymen, or at least those who gave expression to their sentiments publicly, were on the side of the Union. Among them was the gifted Unitarian clergyman, Thomas Starr King, whose earnest efforts were recognized at the time as an important factor in the creation of the sentiment which attached the state to the North. King, who came to San Francisco from Boston in 1860, was a lec- turer of great power, and had the literary faculty highly developed. He was able to attract large audiences and generally made a powerful impression on his hearers when he threw himself into his subject. He labored indefatigably for the Union cause in the pulpit, on the rostrum and in the great work of gathering funds for the sanitary commission. He died in San Francisco in 1864, before the struggle for the preservation of the Union had ended. His fellow citizens many years later honored his efforts by erecting a bronze statue to his memory in Golden Gate Park.
The preacher Scott had some encouragement in his defiant attitude from the fire eating portion of what was nicknamed the "chiv" element of the democratic party. The bar of San Francisco at the time had a considerable Southern repre- sentation in it, and in this contingent there were several very able men who embraced the cause of secession. With rare exceptions they refrained from displays of trucu- lency, but occasionally one would break out in denunciation of the tyranny of the North. Edmund Randolph, who had identified himself with the filibuster Walker, was in this latter category. In a speech at a convention held in Sacramento in July, 1861, he defended the states that had seceded and passionately declared: "If this is rebellion, then I am a rebel." His words were applauded by the "chivs," but nothing came of his defiance.
It is to the credit of the City that the mixed opinion prevalent resulted in no collisions of a serious character. Before the firing on Sumter great bitterness of feeling existed, and more than one quarrel over the Lecompton measure resulted in a resort to the arbitrament of the pistol. But the firing on the flag had a sober- ing effect and men acquired the habit of expressing themselves with prudence. Ex- tremists like David S. Terry made haste to leave the state to cast in their fortunes with the South, and those who remained behind, recognizing the preponderance of Union sentiment, avoided trouble. It cannot be said, however, that there was much intolerance shown, for during the entire course of the war there were journals pub-
Loyal to the Union
Clergy on the Side of the Union
Fire Eating Southerners
The People Come Together
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lished in the City which betrayed an unmistakable sympathy with the cause of the South. There is an instance of legislative action in the case of a judge who was impeached and suspended from office for using seditious language, but the charge against him was in the nature of an echo of Vigilante days, for he was accused of having acted corruptly in the Terry case. If it were not for the survival of the acrimony growing out of the disturbances of 1856 he would probably not have been molested.
The Call for Volunteers
The first call for troops issued by the secretary of war in April, and a second one in the. September following, were promptly responded to by the required quota, and the enlisted men were mustered in at once. San Francisco furnished her full share, and had the demand been for a larger number of men it could easily have been filled. The troops raised in California had little prospect of serving where the blows would fall thickest, but they had what was regarded as an extremely important duty mapped out for them, no more nor less than the holding for the Union the vast territorial area of Arizona, New Mexico and the State of Califor- nia. It had been ascertained that the Confederate plans embraced the occupation of the territory mentioned and steps were actually taken to accomplish that result. A considerable force of Southerners marched from Texas and without much diffi- culty overran New Mexico and penetrated Arizona, but never succeeded in reach- ing the Colorado river, which was their objective.
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