USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > San Francisco, a history of the Pacific coast metropolis, Volume I > Part 46
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Operations of Confederates
The operations of the Confederates in the southwest were more or less influ- enced by plans formed many years before the war of secession began. The slave owners of the South had long looked with covetous eyes upon the territory of Mex- ico and were desirous of extending their institution southward. The filibustering schemes of Walker and others were linked up with this desire, and there is abun- dant evidence that many who were hostile to the extension of slavery north or west- ward were disposed to regard the acquisition of Mexican territory as a welcome solution of a difficult problem. After the passage of the ordinance of secession by South Carolina and the other slave states the disposition to give effect to the desire crystallized rapidly, and what Walker had vainly essayed would have been accom- plished had the Southern arms proved successful, and Mexico's free institutions would have been subverted.
Checking the South's Move on Mexico
The promptitude displayed by the federal government saved the situation. General Sumner was ordered to employ the troops at his command to checkmate the Confederate designs on the neighboring republic. It was with this object that a second call for troops was issued. It was at first contemplated sending them by sea to Mazatlan with the view of marching them across Mexican territory to Texas, and northward toward the American border to meet the Confederate force that had penetrated to Arizona, but this project was abandoned to avoid involving Mexico by converting neutral territory into a battleground. Thus it happened that the energies of the California troops were expended chiefly in Arizona, although at times it was found necessary to employ a portion of them in hunting down sym- pathizers in the southern part of the state who were bent on assisting the Confed- erates to enter California, or, as in the case of a band captured on Warner's ranch, who were on their way to join the Southern forces in Arizona.
Interest in the War
The remoteness of San Francisco from that part of the Union where military operations were carried on extensively in no wise abated the interest of the people in the doings of the combatants. Those who were not called upon to take part in
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the active work of saving the neighboring territory of Arizona, and the republic of Mexico from being overrun by Confederate troops went about their ordinary occupations, but a large part of the thought of the community was given up to the struggle, and there were active and successful efforts to help the cause by other means than fighting in the field. The war became the engrossing political issue, and until peace was concluded at Appomattox public sentiment was like tinder. Feeling ran high and suspicion was rife, but it never developed into intolerance. Occasionally an imprudent secession sympathizer would express himself too freely, and find himself immured in the military prison on Alcatraz island as the result of his indiscretion, but such cases were rare, and hardly warranted the vigorous denunciations of tyranny which they called forth, for the victim only needed to take the oath of allegiance to secure his liberty.
Perhaps the most disquieting feature connected with the long protracted hos- tilities was the knowledge possessed by San Franciscans that rebel privateers were scouring the Pacific and destroying American merchant vessels wherever they found them. In addition to the evil effect upon commerce of the depredations of the "Florida" and "Shenandoah," there was constant uneasiness growing out of the possibility that they might have the temerity to make a descent on the City. The information concerning these cruisers was comparatively limited, and their activi- ties had created an exaggerated idea of their formidableness. The apprehension caused the legislature to take action, and in 1862 a bill was introduced appropriat- ing $500,000 for the defense of the harbor. It did not become a law, but had the effect of inducing the authorities at Washington to send out the material for build- ing a monitor. It was shipped to the coast in sections and put together in this city. Cruisers were also promised, but for a long time the City was wholly dependent upon its forts for protection and there was not much confidence in their strength.
As a matter of fact the defenses of San Francisco at the outbreak of the Civil war were more amusing than assuring. While not exactly following the traditions of the Spanish and Mexicans, the federal government had never greatly exerted itself to put the defenses of the port in first class condition. At the time of the occupation there were some vestiges of the ancient batteries, the guns of which had almost reached the stage of usefulness which many of them afterward attained when converted into hitching posts. No attempt was made to improve on this condition until July, 1854, when two lines of batteries inside the entrance to the harbor were begun, which were to be additions to the works at Fort Point and Alcatraz island. Point San Jose and Angel island were also to be fortified, and guns were to be mounted on Lime Rock Point opposite Fort Point. Not all of these projected defenses had been provided. Although military critics of the period were doubtful concerning the sufficiency of the scheme, some of those regarded as important were wholly neglected.
The affair between the "Monitor" and "Merrimac" in Hampton Roads in March, 1862, had greatly unsettled opinion respecting the value of defenses. The accounts of the encounter received in San Francisco were calculated to create the impression that a new style of war vessel, invulnerable to such guns as were mounted on the forts in the harbor, had been invented and it was believed by some that British shipbuilders would not be slow to provide the Confederates with armored vessels which might steam past the batteries and shell and sack the City. The belief did not endure long even in the minds of the few who were first to entertain it, as
Depredations of Privateers
Wretched Harbor Defenses
The Monitor and the Merrimac
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information deemed more accurate was soon received which dispelled the idea that heavily armored ships could he successfully sent into the Pacific.
An appeal made to the Californians by the Sanitary Commission was taken up with great enthusiasm by the people of San Francisco who, at a meeting held on the 6th of September, subscribed $6,000 to the fund for the care of sick and wounded soldiers. This was followed by the formation of committees for the purpose of receiving contributions, and in the course of ten days $160,000 in gold was remitted to the East to the head of the commission. This was followed by another remit- tance of $100,000 in October and a third one of $100,000 was made before the close of the year. Thomas Starr King was foremost in the movement and his eloquence greatly stimulated the enthusiasm of the donors. The generous response to the invitation to help made a profound impression at the East, and called forth from the Rev. Henry W. Bellows, the organizer of the commission, a compliment which was keenly appreciated by the people of San Francisco.
In October, 1863, Dr. Bellows, in acknowledging the receipt of a remittance, declared that California had been the chief support of the commission and added that its organizers felt they could not get along without its assistance. He stated that the expense involved in carrying on the work was heavy, and that $50,000 monthly would be required, half of which amount he suggested might be contribu- ted by the Pacific coast. The suggestion was promptly heeded by the San Francisco committee, which answered that it would provide $200,000 during 1864, and that the rest of the state could be depended upon to contribute an additional $100,000. When the message was received by Dr. Bellows he sent the following telegram: "Noble, tender, faithful San Francisco, City of the heart, commercial and moral capital of the most humane and generous state in the world." San Franciscans and Californians generally felt that their devotion was amply repaid by this trib- ute, and when the accounts of the commission were made up at the close of the war it was found that California had supplied nearly a million and a quarter of the $4,800,000 contributed by the people of the loyal North. Oregon and Nevada displayed equal liberality, their contribution aggregating a quarter of a million, which added to that of California formed nearly a third of the entire amount raised by the commission.
The long protracted struggle did not touch the Pacific coast as closely as it did the people of the East, but the eagerness for news of the happenings of the war was as intense in San Francisco as in any other city of the Union. Telegraphic communication by this time had become well established, and the newspapers were promptly supplied with information concerning battles and other important occur- rences. The dispatches were not as voluminous as a later generation has become accustomed to, but they were supplemented by detailed accounts scissored from the Eastern papers when they were received by mail. There was a great deal of vig- orous discussion, and it is claimed that the modern method of emphasizing asser- tion by using the largest size type obtainable in the editorial columns had its birth at this period in a San Francisco office. Calvin B. McDonald, who wrote for the "American Flag," startled the readers of his paper and set the community agog by printing an editorial entirely in "caps." The vigor with which he expressed himself when denouncing the "copperheads" hardly needed such assistance and the innovation was only temporary.
Eager for War News
Contributions to Sanitary Commission
A Tribute to San Francisco's Generosity
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The editors with secessionist proclivities, and the politicians afflicted with the same leanings were not slow in firing back, but their execution was slight. Occa- sionally they exceeded the limit of temperate discussion and provoked riots which never assumed serious proportions. It is surprising that the result was not other- wise, for the aggressive tactics of the "American Flag" and its personalities, made it almost impossible for the criticized editors to contain themselves in peace. The good sense of the community usually prevailed, and even as late as July, 1863, a convention of those opposed to the war against secession was permitted to meet at Sacramento, and its members were allowed to unburden their minds without molestation. Freedom of speech and of the press were recognized as desirable, and only under the great provocation of the assassination of Lincoln were there demonstrations resulting in mob violence. On the day of the death of the president the enraged people visited the offices of the "Democratic Press," the "Occidental" and the "News Letter" and destroyed their type and other property, but the editors escaped the summary punishment the mob designed inflicting upon them.
At this late day it seems difficult to realize that there should have been such fluctuations of opinion as those caused by the varying fortunes of the war. Cali- fornia, like the rest of the Union, had its moments of despondency and of exulta- tion. These were reflected in a message of Governor Stanford to the legislature of 1863-4, in which he spoke of "the dissensions that had crept into loyal states, the doubts that prevailed as to our ultimate success, and the growing fear of interven- tion," all of which he declared were overcome by the glories of Gettysburg, Vicks- burg and Port Hudson. While the victories to which he referred greatly elated the Unionists of California, they by no means suppressed the activities of the sympathizers with the Confederacy, who continued scheming and talking about Northern tyranny and denouncing the war as an unholy attempt on the part of the abolitionists to revolutionize the government with the view of centralizing power and subverting the rights of the states. In July, 1864, Charles L. Weller was thrown into Alcatraz prison by General Irwin McDowell for utterances which re- flected those of a large section of the democratic party in the North and which had only a short time before been expressed in the platform formulated by San Francisco democrats at a public meeting.
During the first years of the war there were secession sympathizers in San Francisco who had large hopes of converting the port into a base for rebel pri- vateers, but these ideas were dissipated by observation of the undoubted loyalty of the majority of the citizens, and the realization that no project of importance could be carried out unless effective assistance could be had from the outside, but the Confederacy was at no time in a position to extend help of any sort. It was thought at one time that aid might be rendered by Great Britain or France, who did not disguise their wish that the Union should be dissolved, but this expectation was of short duration. In abandoning hopes of help, however, there were plotters who did not dismiss the belief that San Francisco's shipping facilities might be made to serve the Confederates and advance their fortunes.
In the early part of 1863 a group of Confederate sympathizers, through the energy of a scamp named Harpending, had obtained letters of marque from Jeffer- son Davis, which authorized him to prey upon the commerce of the United States, to burn, bond or take any vessel flying the American flag or its citizens. Harpend- ing, who was an ingenious rogue, as his later history in San Francisco proved, had Vol. 1-22
Advocacy of Secession
Sympathy for the South
A Base for Rebel Privateers
Attempt to Steal a Mail Steamer
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suggested a plan of seizing a Pacific mail steamship, and after obtaining possession of it to capture other vessels and thus create a rebel navy in the Pacific. Harpend- ing, who was a Kentuckian, was joined in the enterprise by Ridgley Greathouse, William C. Law, Alfred Rubery and Lorenzo C. Libbey. Rubery, an Englishman, next to Harpending, was the most active in the affair. Law was to be captain of the first steamer captured and Greathouse was to finance the seizure. Libbey was to act as mate.
The scheme was to purchase a schooner ostensibly for the Liberal party in Mexico, and to load it with a cargo for Manzanillo. The schooner "J. M. Chapman" was acquired for the purpose and her sailing was to be timed to intercept the Pa- cific mail steamship "San Francisco," bound to Panama with treasure. After capturing the "San Francisco" the would-be privateers intended to sail with her to the scene of the wreck of the "Golden Gate" off the Mexican coast, where another vessel of the company was engaged in an effort to recover treasure from the wrecked steamer. This ship was also to be seized and with the force thus augmented the work of sweeping American commerce from the Pacific was to be prosecuted.
Harpending was an accomplished scoundrel and apparently entirely uninflu- enced by any other consideration than a desire for personal gain, and that was the chief if not the only motive of his accomplices. The scheme was not well conceived and the vigilance of the revenue officials prevented it being carried out. On the 15th of March, 1863, when the "J. M. Chapman" was about to sail she was boarded and taken possession of by the United States authorities, the seizure being made by a boat's crew of the United States sloop of war "Cyane." When the papers of the "Chapman" were examined a proclamation to the people of California to throw off the authority of the United States was found, also a plan for the capture of Alcatraz. When the seizure was made all of the conspirators were on board ex- cepting Law, who was prevented by intoxication from joining the gang. The pris- oners were taken to Alcatraz, and were subsequently tried. Greathouse, Harpend- ing and Rubery were found guilty and sentenced each to ten years imprisonment and a fine of $10,000 a piece. Rubery was pardoned by Lincoln through the in- tercession of John Bright of England, whose friendship for the Union cause earned for him the consideration of the president. The others were subsequently released on the ground that they were included in the amnesty proclamation issued by Lin- coln December 3, 1863.
The rebellion produced land robbers as well as sea pirates. On the night of June 30, 1864, the stage from Virginia City to Sacramento when near Placerville was attacked by a band of men who obtained a large quantity of bullion. The rob- bers gave a receipt to the driver in which the statement was made that the seizure was for the purpose of providing funds to be used in the work of obtaining recruits for the Confederate army. There is no evidence that they were authorized by any- one connected with the Confederacy to rob stage coaches, but they were part of a band trying to enlist men in Santa Clara county to join the rebel army. The con- tingent that made the descent on the coach was overtaken by a sheriff's posse on the following morning, and a fight ensued in which a deputy sheriff was killed. A few were captured, the remainder fled to Santa Clara county, where another fight took place, in which several of the robbers were killed and others taken as pris- oners. The grand jury of El Dorado county returned indictments against Thomas B. Pool and nine others. Pool was convicted and hanged at Placerville September
Rebel Land Pirates
Miscarriage of the Plot
The Privateers Captured
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29, 1865, and another of the gang was sentenced to twenty years imprisonment. The remainder of the band evaded punishment by the interposition of various technicalities.
Nothing more pertinently illustrates the great change in sentiment produced by the Civil war than the action taken by the legislature in 1863 in appropriating $5,000 to aid in the completion of a monument to David C. Broderick in Lone Mountain cemetery. A few years earlier the same body had denounced Broderick by resolution for ranging himself on the side of those opposed to the extension of slavery into the territories. The state government was then dominated by the Southern element, whose leaders were not backward in proclaiming the superiority of the "chivalry" of the South, to the "mud sills" of the North, a judgment which the democratic party of California, although the great majority composing it was made up of toilers, accepted without cavil. A resolution had previously been passed by the legislature, directing that the condemnation of his course in opposing the introduction of slavery into Kansas should be expunged from the record; the later action was taken because many of his fellow citizens had come to regard him as a martyr to the cause of the Union.
Although the memorial to Broderick was completed with the funds provided it is doubtful whether the sentiment of gratitude expressed in the resolutions accom- panying it made a deep impression. The monument stands in an accessible part of the City, but despite the fact that volumes have been written about Broderick and his opponent Terry, it attracts little or no attention. Its existence and where- abouts are known to the old timers, but the younger generation never stray in its direction ; nor are the footsteps of visitors ever guided to its precincts. Equal neglect of the memory of Colonel E. D. Baker, who fell at Ball's Bluff, is dis- played by the careless San Franciscan. He too has been honored by a monument, but the stranger who has been thrilled by the glowing accounts of his devotion to the Union cause, as told in the histories of the Civil war, is never reminded that the ashes of the man who left the comfortable precincts of the United States sen- ate chamber to defend his country on the battlefield, and who fell at the head of his command, are interred in a San Francisco cemetery.
Perhaps the neglect is not reprehensible. The stream of humanity flows in channels fixed by convention and usage. People do not visit cemeteries for recre- ation or study. The epitaphs on tombstones do not appeal to them. They are too apt to heed the injunction to let the dead past bury its own dead. Hence the failure to perpetuate memories that deserve to be kept fresh and green. Fortu- nately for posterity that of Thomas Starr King and his devotion to the cause of the Union is thus preserved. The legislature of 1864, which on the announcement of his death on March 4 of that year, adjourned for a period of three days out of respect to his memory, after resolving "that he had been a tower of strength to the cause of his country," honored themselves and the eloquent orator whose voice was always raised for freedom, but the bronze effigy of the dead patriot in Golden Gate Park will tell the story of his devotion to the Union to hundreds of thousands long after the early legislative records have been forgotten.
There were other indications of the vastly changed sentiment of the people. Although the men who formed the constitution of California had gone on record as opposed to the introduction of slave labor into the new state, they had not wholly divested themselves of the spirit of illiberality begotten by race prejudice,
A Great Change of Sentiment
Monuments to Broderick and Baker
Monument to Thomas Starr King
The Negro Question
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and the legislature of 1850, finding no inhibition, passed laws prohibiting any black or mulatto person or Indian from giving testimony in any case in which a white person was a party. This discrimination stood on the statute books of California until 1863, when the law was repealed, but not until after a hard struggle, in which many compromises were suggested by men who were devoted Unionists, but could not suddenly abandon the beliefs of a lifetime. One of the half-way proposals which was rejected provided that negro testimony should only be accepted when corroborated by the evidence of whites. It was the same sort of prejudice which caused Broderick to resent the imputation that he was an abolitionist when he was making stalwart efforts for freedom. The opprobrions epithet of one day became a glorious appellation on the next.
The fires of war sometimes have a purifying effect, but they produced no such result on California politics. After the Vigilante uprising there was for several years something like an approach to good government in San Francisco, but its accomplishments were all of a repressive character. All efforts were concentrated upon the prevention of crime and the repression of corruption in the conduct of municipal affairs. The success achieved in this latter direction so far as the gov- ernment of San Francisco was concerned was remarkable, but the regeneration did not extend to all sorts of politics and politicians. The earlier performances attend- ing the election of United States senators were continued in a modified form after 1861. There were no longer demonstrations of the kind which marked the ante bellum selections of senators, but flagrantly corrupt methods were resorted to by candidates to secure votes. In the election to fill the place of Latham, who had succeeded Broderick, there was a tremendous scandal growing out of allegations of attempted bribery. It was reported that an interior member had been offered a bribe to desert Trenor W. Parks and give his vote to Timothy Gny Phelps, who lacked only five or six of having a majority on joint ballot. There was much re- crimination, and charges were made that nominations for judicial positions were freely promised to secure votes. The whole affair was made the subject of an investigation by a republican cancus on January 27, 1863, which professed itself unable to get at the facts and dismissed the matter. A resolution was subsequently introduced in the assembly to investigate, but it was tabled by a decisive vote. The contest created great excitement in San Francisco and was made the subject of vigorous newspaper comment, some of which equalled in virulence the editorial utterances of the days preceding the Civil war.
While the course of the rebellion engrossed much of the attention of the people of San Francisco and California, it by no means deprived domestic affairs of their interest. Those who lived through the exciting four years of the Civil war know that men went about their daily avocations in cities that were almost within hear- ing distance of the din of battle. General Sherman, whose early life was so closely identified with that of San Francisco, many years after the close of the struggle tersely described war as hell. He had in mind its horrible features: its cruelty, its disregard of life and of mine and thine, its brutalities and its destructiveness. He was a combatant, and those were the things which were forced on his attention ; but there were other evils which the observer whose vision did not take in the battlefield had borne in upon him. The greatest of these was the callousness pro- duced by the continned recital of killings and suffering. There are always some who escape this distressing influence, but the majority do not. A protracted war
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