USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > The beginnings of San Francisco : from the expedition of Anza, 1774, to the city charter of April 15, 1850 : with biographical and other notes, Vol. II > Part 3
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Most of the states of the Union were peopled by a steady influx of settlers from other communities.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
California was suddenly changed from a quiet pastoral community, to a mining camp. A great population was poured into it from all quarters of the globe, all actuated by the most intense and absorbing of motives, the quest of gold. Some to mine for it, some to supply the gold miner with the means of existence, and some to prey upon him. Some saw fortunes in trade and in the building of cities; others sought to reap the great profits result- ing from the cultivation of the fertile soil. The farming class found a large amount of the best lands in private ownership under the Spanish grants. They were not disposed to submit quietly to this condition of affairs and in many cases "preempted" what they chose to consider unoccupied land, ignoring the obligations of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which guaranteed to the Californians the enjoyment of their liberty and property. Both Colonel Mason the governor, and General Riley his successor, endeavored to protect the owners of property, but the failure of Congress to provide a civil government for the territory, together with an insufficient force to compel obedience to their mandates, made the matter a difficult one. As James Bryce says, a great population had gathered before there was any regular government to keep it in order .* The great mass of the population was American, and the inhabitants formed for their own government and preservation local laws regarding the punishment of crime-un-
* Bryce: The American Commonwealth, ii, 385.
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THE RULE OF ROB ROY
written, but none the less understood-the size, manner of locating and recording mining claims, and they visited summary punishment on those who violated the code. All things else were left to individual taste and discretion. The alcalde of Monterey, Walter Colton, a chaplain in the navy, sold the land on which was situated the old Spanish fort (Castillo de San Carlos). This transaction brought from Colonel Mason a letter asking what law or decree conferred on an alcalde the right to sell the title of a Mexican fort or battery. In reply the alcalde writes: "No Mexican law or decree, as I can find, designates any particular spot as sites for forts or batteries. Each military chief put up a post where he chose, or demolished those put up by his predecessor. He asked no leave to build, and none to abandon. When guns were mounted no alcalde ventured with his right to sell, but eagerly extended that right over an abandoned position.
"The only rule which appears to have governed the military and civil authorities in these matters seems to have been that of Rob Roy-
'The simple plan, That they shall take who have the power, And they shall keep who can.'"
This flippant reply well illustrates the American ignorance of and contempt for the Spanish law and Spanish methods. Colton was an educated man, a graduate of Harvard College and of Andover Theo-
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THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
logical Seminary, and should have known better. A rebuke was administered him by Henry W. Hal- leck, captain of engineers and secretary of state. In a formal report to the governor Halleck says: "Monterey is the next point on the coast deemed of sufficient importance at the present time for perma- nent works. The old battery (San Carlos) was built soon after the establishment of the mission of the same name (1770) and though much dilapidated was maintained up to about the time the Americans took possession of the country. Another battery in the rear of and auxiliary to this was begun by the Mexicans previous to July 7, 1846, and afterwards enlarged by the Americans, and occupied by them, without intermission, to the present time. Copies of the several claims to the land on which these batteries are situated, or which lie so immediately in the vicinity as to be necessary for the public service, if the batteries themselves are retained, are given in appendix No. 27, papers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, and the accompanying letters of the alcalde, dated March 23, June 14, and August 10, 1848. It ap- pears from these papers that titles Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4, were given while Monterey was in possession of the American troops, and by an alcalde who was an officer in the United States navy; that Nos. I and 2 were given while the troops were occupying and hold- ing the ground so deeded away and after both
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CAPTAIN HALLECK'S REPORT
seller and buyers had been informed that the land would be required for government purposes .*
"Unfortunately for the plea set up by the alcalde, the laws relating to the granting of lands in California are, as has already been shown, very minute and perfect, resting upon no such doubtful authority as that of Rob Roy, but upon positive and definite decrees of the Mexican Congress, and the subor- dinate but no less distinct enactments of the terri- torial legislature-laws which seem to have been perfectly understood and pretty generally obeyed here previous to the irregular proceedings springing out of the mania for land speculations following the conquest of the country by the Americans. *
* Nor is the alcalde more accurate in his opinion, that the Mexican government has never designated any particular spot or site for forts or batteries. If he had examined the subject with care, he would have found that the ground which he sold has been occu- pied by works of military defence from about the year 1772 to the present moment; that when, in 1775, it was proposed by the authorities here to remove these works to a point on the bay further north, the viceroy positively forbid the removal; that there are in the government archives numerous orders, both from the viceroys of New Spain and the ministers of the Mexican republic, for the repair
* The buyers were Commodore Shubrick and Lieutenant-commander Bailey of the United States navy, and they were both notified by Halleck himself that the land would be required by the government. In these days of investi- gations the whole thing looks a little queer.
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of these identical works, for the mounting of guns in them, etc .; that these are the very works that were captured by the insurgents under Alvarado and Graham in 1836, by the naval forces under Com- modore Jones in 1842, and, though greatly dilapi- dated, constituted the only defences for the harbor and town of Monterey on the 7th of July, 1846."*
In the winter of 1846-47, a party of immigrants from the United States applied to the priests in charge of the missions of San José and Santa Clara for shelter. This was readily granted them and in the spring they proceeded to plant the mission fields and make themselves at home. So much at home did they become that they finally put the priests out and excluded them from the premises altogether. The priests complained to Col. Mason and he ordered Captain Henry M. Naglee, of the New York volun- teers, to proceed with his command to Pueblo de San José and assist the alcalde in ejecting the intruders. If the alcalde did not act promptly and efficiently in the matter, then the officer must proceed to execute the order himself. He instructed him to use mild and persuasive means to induce the intruders to vacate the premises before resorting to force. "Say to those people they have no right whatever to dis- possess the priest and occupy those missions con- trary to his consent, any more than they have to dispossess the rancheros and occupy their ranches;
* Report of Halleck to Mason, Mar. 1, 1849, on Land Titles in California Ex. Doc. 17, pp. 119-182.
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THE SQUATTERS' LEAGUE
that they must respect the rights of others before they can claim any respect for their own; that we are bound to protect, and will protect, the priests in the quiet possession of the mission at Santa Clara and San José, and not suffer their premises to be wrested from them even by the Californians, much less by a people who have just come into the country, who have not a shadow of claim to the premises, and who, in the first place, were permitted from motives of charity to occupy them temporarily to shield them from the last winter's rains. "*
The immigrants did dispossess the rancheros and occupy their ranchos, in a great many instances. In Santa Clara county the "Squatters' League" organized an armed force, resisted the execution of the sheriff's writ, held public meetings and bar- becues-which the sheriff's men attended-and in- dulged in many speeches regarding their rights as American citizens, while their women kind presented flags to the riflemen and extolled the defenders of their homes. In the contra costa armed men took possession of the San Antonio rancho (Oakland), mounted a cannon, and announced that they would defend their rights (to the Peraltas' property) to the death. They even put Don Domingo Peralta in jail, kept him there six months, and made him pay a heavy fine, for attempting to drive them off his rancho.
* Mason to Naglee, July 10, 1847. Ex. Doc. 17, P. 341.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
The better class of immigrants did not approve the squatter method and strongly condemned all such proceedings; but a portion of the early im- migration was from the western frontier states and of the class that considered a dead Indian the only good Indian, and to whom a Spaniard, no matter what his condition or degree of culture and refinement, was a "greaser" and entitled to no respect or consideration when their several claims were in conflict. They were in full sympathy with and consistent believers in the good old rule of Rob Roy, and did not hesitate to take when they had the power and hold when they could. In 1848, thousands of Indians were engaged in washing gold in the placers,* some on their own account, others employed by Americans, who turned their labor to good profit. The men of the later emigration, and in particular those who came from Oregon, abused the Indians shamefully and began a war of extermination upon them, shooting them down on the slightest pretext and driving them from their claims which they took for themselves.t They also undertook to drive all foreigners from the gold mines under color of a proclamation from General Smith informing all foreign adventurers coming to California to search for gold, that trespassing on the public lands was punishable by fine and imprison- ment, and that the laws relating thereto would be
* Mason's report. Ex. Doc. 17, P. 532.
t Johnson: Sights in the Gold Region, p. 152.
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BANDS OF DESPERADOES
strictly enforced .* In this movement the Americans were joined by English, Irish, and German emigrants, and it was especially directed against the Sonorans, Chilians, and Peruvians .; They even included Californians among the "foreigners." They at- tempted to drive Don Andrés Pico from a claim he was working on the Mokelumne river, but the hero of San Pascual was not to be frightened as easily as the timid Sonorans and he maintained his rights as an American citizen.#
With the immigration there came, as was to be expected, a plentiful supply of the scum and riff-raff of the world; escaped convicts and ticket-of-leave men from Botany bay, desperadoes, fugitives from justice, ne'er-do-wells, and gamblers from all parts of the globe, drawn to California by the promise of easy money which the rapid accumulation of gold by the people seemed to hold out. Armed bands of desperadoes rode through the country committing the most atrocious crimes until the citizens, unable to endure longer the reign of disorder, rose and hunted the criminals like wild beasts and drove them from the country. Mason, in an official communication to the war office, reports a number of murders and the hanging of several men by the citizens, and says: "You are perfectly aware that no competent civil courts exist in this country, and that strictly speaking
* Ex. Doc. 17, pp- 719-720.
Bennet Riley to Adj. Gen. Aug. 30, 1849. Ex. Doc. 17, pp. 785-792.
# Taylor: El Dorado, p. 87.
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there is no legal power to execute the sentence of death; but the necessity of protecting their lives and property against the many lawless men at large in this country, compels the good citizens to take the law into their own hands. I shall not disapprove of the course that has been taken in this instance, and shall only endeavor to restrain the people so far as to insure to every man charged with a capital crime an open and fair trial by a jury of his countrymen. "*
It is evident from the military dispatches that the deserters from the army contributed to the gen- eral disorder and committed many outrages against life and property. These deserters were protected by the great mass of the citizens of the mining region who thought it a shame that the soldiers should be obliged to serve for what was really a . nominal sum while all those around them were reaping an extraordinary reward for their labor. Riley recommended the restoration of the war penalty for desertion, and in a letter to the general commanding the division said: "Information from the south shows that, with very few excep- tions, the dragoons of the squadron of the Ist regi- ment deserted upon being ordered to San Luis Rey. Many had previously deserted from Los Angeles, carrying with them their horses, arms and equip- ments; and it is believed that the desertions at that place will be greatly increased when the order
* Mason to Adj. Gen. Ex. Doc. 17, p. 653.
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DESERTION OF TROOPS
breaking up the companies of the 2d dragoons is received; so that I fear I shall not be able to organ- ize from four companies of dragoons one required for the escort of the commissioners .* It is known that these deserters had committed many outrages upon the property, and, it is feared, upon the persons of the inhabitants they encountered in the route to the mines. * * The disposition I have proposed (that of establishing a four company post in the min- ing region and allowing the men limited furloughs) will be an experiment, but one that should be tried, if only for the sake of preventing a repetition of the outrages unoffending people have suffered from those they have been led to suppose would protect them from Indian depredations and domestic violence."t
The Indians of the Tulares, who, joined by many of the neophytes of the missions, had for some years been a source of great annoyance to the rancheros by stealing their cattle and horses, now renewed their depredations, emboldened by the withdrawal of the troops from the south. The situation was further complicated by robberies committed by Sonorans, driven from the northern mines, on their way out of the country. The troops under command of General Riley were the 2d infantry; companies A and E, Ist dragoons; companies D and E, 2d
* The boundary commissioners. The escort was under command of Lieuten- ant Cave J. Coutts. Later, in August, Riley reports that more than one half of the escort had deserted.
t Riley to Sherman, Asst. Adj. Gen. April 16, 1849. Ex. Doc. 17, p. 899.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
dragoons; and companies F and M, 3d artillery; in all six hundred and fifty men, the number being constantly reduced by desertion .* With this force he had to garrison the forts at San Francisco, Monterey, and San Diego, furnish an escort for the boundary commission, guard the government stores, send expeditions against marauding Indians, succor starving emigrants, establish relief stations at War- ner's pass and in the Sacramento, and police the territory.
More than two years had elapsed since the conquest. Congress had met and adjourned without providing California with a government. The au- thorities at Washington recognized the military government established in California, under the laws of war, as a government de facto, to continue until the congress should provide another. The people of California, with that executive instinct of self-govern- ment and self-preservation which first challenged the wonder of the civilized world and afterwards won its approbation, determined they would have a responsible and representative government. In full sympathy with this sentiment, Governor Riley issued, on June 3, 1849, a proclamation calling for the election of delegates to a convention to be held in Monterey on the first of September, for the purpose of forming a state constitution. The terri- tory was divided into ten districts, with thirty- seven delegates, and the election set for August Ist.
* Ex. Doc. 17, pp. 899, 938.
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CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
The number of delegates was later increased to forty-eight, owing to the rapid growth in population of some of the districts. The convention was com- posed of men in the full vigor of life, was fairly representative, contained several men of talent, and a good proportion of men of education and re- finement. There were five men of European birth, six Californians, twelve natives of New York, five of Maryland, three each from Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio, two from Massachusetts, and one each from Tennessee, Florida, Missouri, Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. All the men of European birth and nine or ten of the Americans were citizens of California
before the conquest. Among the Californians were the distinguished Mariano Guadelupe Vallejo, the courtly Pablo de la Guerra, the polished Jacinto Rodriguez, and the dignified and handsome José Antonio Carrillo. Among the Americans who later became more or less famous, were Henry W. Halleck, later general-in-chief of the United States army; W. M. Gwin, U. S. Senator; John McDougal, gov- ernor and U. S. Senator; Rodman M. Price, member of congress for and governor of New Jersey; Thomas O. Larkin, consul and special agent of the United States; Edward Gilbert, member of congress and editor of the Alta California; Pacificus Ord, Francis J. Lippitt, Stephen C. Foster, Robert Semple and others whose names are well known. The con- vention completed its labors October 12, 1849,
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and the same day Governor Riley issued his proc- lamation announcing the formation of a constitu- tion and calling for a vote on November 13th for its ratification by the people, and for the election at the same time of a legislature and state officials. The members presented to Governor Riley their bill for services, charging sixteen dollars per day, and sixteen dollars for each twenty miles traveled. This the governor paid from the civil fund .* The members now gave themselves up to congratulations on the success of the convention, and assessing themselves twenty-five dollars apiece for expenses cleared the hall for a grand ball given to the citizens of Monterey. The ball, held October 13th was a great success. General Riley was there in full uniform and wearing the yellow sash he won at Contreras; Majors Canby, Hill, and Smith, Captains Burton and Kane, and the other officers stationed at Monterey, accompanying him. Don Pablo de la Guerra acted as floor manager, and gallantly dis- charged the duties of his office. Conspicuous among the Californians were General Vallejo, Manuel Dominguez, and Jacinto Rodriguez, while Captain John A. Sutter, late of Switzerland, and Don Miguel de Pedrorena, formerly of Spain, took an active part in the festivities.
* The "Civil fund" was the money collected for duties by the military and civil governors of California during the period between the conquest and the inauguration of the state government.
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FOUNDATION OF THE STATE
On December 12th Governor Riley issued a proc- lamation declaring the constitution ratified Novem- ber 13th as the ordained and established constitution of the State of California. The legislature met December 15th and on December 20th Riley resigned his powers as governor into the hands of Peter H. Burnett,* the new executive. A great popu- lation, coming together from the four winds of heaven with but one idea, to enrich themselves as quickly as possible and then depart, had, recognizing the necessities of the situation, founded a common- wealth.35
Many who tried their luck at the mines returned to San Francisco. Even their great success in ob- taining gold could not compensate them for all their privations, the exposure, the sickness, the hard labor, and harder fare which fell to their lot. And the shrewd trader saw that, rich as were the gold placers, a richer field for acquiring wealth lay before him in the town itself. The great prices and great rise in various kinds of goods, provisions, and other necessaries of life, opened the brightest prospects to those who preferred trade to gold hunt- ing. The immigration from the nearest territory was but a mite to that which would flow from abroad when the wild reports of abundant gold
* Peter H. Burnett, the first governor of the State of California, was born in Tennessee in 1807, came to Oregon in 1843, and thence to California in 1848. In 1857, he was elected judge of the supreme court; in 1863 with Sam Brannan and J. W. Winans, he organized the Pacific Bank of which he was the first president, retiring in 1880.
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should reach and be accredited throughout the eastern states, in Europe, and among the nations of Asia.
It was inevitable that in a community composed almost entirely of men* and living far from the steadying influences of the eastern states there should develop a spirit of recklessness and an indul- gence in exciting pastimes that led to disorder. Every man did as seemed good in his own eyes until the lawless element aroused in the people the instinct of self-preservation, and a form of order was established. The Argonauts were like boys let loose from school. Overflowing with vigor and abounding in high spirits, their exuberance found vent in the ghastly names with which they afflicted the map of California.t
The struggle for wealth was redeemed by a whole- souled liberality and no tale of woe failed of a gener- ous response from the miners. The life, hard as it was, was not without its compensations and com- forts. Old distinctions of caste were abolished and the professional man dug for gold with his own hands or worked for wages by the side of the com-
'The census of 1850 placed the female population of the mining counties below two per cent.
t Jayhawk, Pinchemtight, Fleatown, Whisky Flat, Shirttail Cañon, Dog- town, Plugtown, Hangtown, Frogtown, Gouge Eye, Red Dog, Jim Crow, You Bet, Yankee Jims, Lousey Level, are examples of what Bret Harte calls "un- hallowed christenings." With advancing refinement some of these names were discarded for more euphonious ones; some died the death of abandoned mining camps, and some still ornament the map.
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DISTINCTIONS OF CASTE ABOLISHED
mon laborer. The angularities of the ungainly and illiterate in time wore off in the contact with educated men, and to many a farmer boy, raised within the narrow confines of a New England village, the experience of a few years in the mines was an edu- cation, while fitness to grasp opportunity brought independence.
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CHAPTER XIV. EL PARAJE DE YERBA BUENA 1792-1839
A MIDST the hills near the financial center of the present city of San Francisco, there was a little space free from brushwood, called El Paraje de Yerba Buena (the Place of Mint). It fronted on a little cove of about half a mile indentation with five-sixths of a mile space between the outer points. The only practical landing for small boats at low tide was at the northerly point where the shoulder of a high hill (Loma Alta) came down abruptly to the water. The cove was pro- tected on the south by another range of hills from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet in height, running out into the bay and forming the southerly point of the cove at a height of thirty or forty feet. The inside of the cove was shallow and the ebb tide uncovered a quarter of a mile of mud flats. Beyond that the water deepened to five or six fathoms and continued from six to twenty- two fathoms to a little island fronting the cove about a mile distant, also called Yerba Buena. The northerly point was called Punta del Embarcadero, later known as Clark's Point, and the southerly, Punta del Rincon, and still called Rincon Point. The bottom was mud and sand and was excellent holding ground, and at high tide boats could land at the beach. Beginning at the water's edge about where Sacramento street reached the shore and running thence beyond Washington street on the north a steep bank rose from the beach to a height
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THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
of ten feet at Clay street diminishing in both direc- tions until it disappeared; the flat below was about one hundred feet wide at Clay street where the bank touched the line of Montgomery street. This cantil shows on Richardson's map.
On the night of November 14, 1792, Captain George Vancouver in command of H. B. M. sloop- of-war Discovery sailed into the port of San Fran- cisco. As he passed the Punta del Cantil Blanco (Fort Point) he was saluted by two guns, to which he replied. As night closed in a fire was lighted on the beach before the presidio and other guns were fired; but as he did not understand their meaning he continued up the port under easy sail, taking soundings. He proceeded along the southern coast in constant expectation of seeing the lights of the town, off which he proposed to anchor. As these did not appear, he found himself at eight o'clock in a snug cove with six fathoms of water and a clear bottom, and he dropped his anchor to await the return of day. In the morning he discovered his anchorage to be in a most excellent small bay, three quarters of a mile from the nearest shore. The cattle and sheep grazing on the surrounding hills awakened in the sea-farers the most pleasing recollections, but they could perceive neither habi- tations nor inhabitants. Shortly after sunrise a party of horsemen were seen coming over the hills down to the beach and on sending a boat to the shore Vancouver was favored with the good company
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