indications of California's 30,000 majority" for Lincoln over McClellan began to come in from such portions of the state as could be heard from by telegraph. The excitement was as tense as it was quiet. The city waited breathless, far into the night, for the first news from east of the Missouri, and while it waited. windows were illuminated and few households thought of sleep. Toward midnight there began to move through the principal streets a solid column of 4,000 of San Francisco's chief citizens, singing in one grand chorus the Battle cry of Freedom and other songs of the war, not forgetting John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave, etc., while women crowded the balconies and windows waving handkerchiefs and flags, laughing and weeping together in a contagion of exultant emotion; for then it was known that the president whom all trusted was to remain in his place, and his policy, which was believed to be wise and right, carried out.

What a different scene was that which San Francisco witnessed on the following 15th of April. The city was in gala dress in honor of victories on the field and in the cabinet. A waving sea of starry banners flooded every house-top with a crimson radiance, and a glad light was reflected on thousands of faces. Suddenly the crimson sea was calmed, the banners, drooped and lowered, were darkened by bands of crape -the shadow of a monstrous crime, and a nation's despair. Shudderingly the bells of the city tolled forth the dread intelligence. On every face the gladness was quenched beneath a pallor such as blanches the cheeks of strong men seldom in a lifetime. Grasping each others' hands, looking in each others' eyes, unable to syllable the emotions of grief mingled with horror and rage which possessed them, the citizens,

34 The vote of S. F. was 21,024, while Boston with a population nearly double, returned 20,807 votes. The preponderance of adult males is not sufficient to account for the vote of S. F., and even the absence of a registry law in addition, is hardly sufficient to do so. There was an increase of 6,000 in one year.

forsaking all business, congregated on the streets, or wandered restlessly about, benumbed by the unparalleled calamity of the tragedy at Washington.

But soon hot blood began to stir. Terrible denunciation and threats of retribution passed from quivering lip to lip. Nothing more fitting could be thought of than that those newspapers which had encouraged treason should be destroyed, and to this work the people lent themselves with a will. Four years of patient tolerance of too great freedom of speech was revenged by demolishing a number of newspaper offices. It was a spontaneous expression which was not checked until the Democratic Press, owned by Beriah Brown; the Occidental, owned by Zachariah Montgomery; the Monitor, a disloyal, catholic journal, owned by T. A. Brady; the Franco-Americaine, and the News Letter, were destroyed. The Echo du Pacifique would have received the same treatment but for the fact of its press being in the Alta building, which would have shared in the loss." As soon as possible the military were called out to assist the police in suppressing the riot, but only a few arrests were made. Public feeling would not condemn the demonstration, although to prevent bloodshed it was necessary to check the proceedings. Addresses were made by McDowell and others, and 5,000 men were placed under arms to patrol the streets. By the next morning quiet was restored.

35

But public confidence was much shaken. It was feared that the war would be reopened in the east, where it was confidently expected the loyal troops would avenge the president's death by the slaughter of confederates. Greenback currency, the national barometer, went down to thirty-three. Before the 20th, however, when the obsequies of the president were to be celebrated, the people had been brought back from

35 Brady of the Monitor applied to the legislature of 1865-6 for relief, and a bill was introduced for that purpose, but the S. F. delegation, to whom it was referred, reported against it. Cal. Jour. Sen., 1865-6. App. No. 62, iii.

TRIBUTES OF RESPECT.

313

their implicit reliance on one man to realize that the government was not of men, but of laws, and that irreparable as was their loss, the nation remained, and the laws would be executed. Then they paid their last sad tribute of respect and love in a grand funeral pageant, in which the whole city participated amid the tolling of bells, the booming of guns, the measured beating of muffled drums, and the music of bands playing solemn marches. Fourteen thousand people were said to have been in the procession which followed the catafalque to the Mechanics' pavilion, where the literary services were conducted. Among these were the reading of Lincoln's second inaugural address, the devotional tenor of which made it peculiarly appropriate to the time and scene; Horatio Stebbins, Starr King's successor in the Geary street unitarian pulpit, delivered the address; Frank Soulé read an original poem; the Bianchi opera troop rendered an anthem; but the most thrilling effect was produced when all the thousands present sang in chorus the Battle cry of Freedom, as it had not been sung since that night in November when it celebrated the triumph of the nation's chief at the polls. It was a happy augury then; it was the revival of hope now.

As suddenly as it began the war was ended, and with the exception of some secession outrages" in

36 The growing offensiveness of secession in the pro-slavery districts was exhibited by the rejoicings at the death of the president, and other acts. In Solano co., at Green valley, there were open rejoicings. The military at Benicia being notified, a company was sent to that place, the confederates firing upon them, having fortified themselves in the house of one David James. The fire was returned, and two of them wounded, when the party surrendered. They were David James and two sons, William P. Durbin and son, Charles Ramsey and son, A. O. Laramel and son, and John Stiltz. They were brought to Benicia to be tried for treason. They had threatened to shoot Capt. Robinson of the volunteers for recruiting in that district. This neighborhood contributed J. Milton Jones to the Chapman piratical crew, and offered others. In Tehachapi valley a band of guerrillas occupied themselves, in the spring cf 1865, in robbing union men of horses and other property, and committing occasional murders. The military were appealed to, but no troops could be spared for that service. During the first week in May 1865, the inhabitants of San Bernardino were greatly alarmed by the rumor that in their vicinity were 300 to 700 guerrillas from the confederate

certain localities for a time, there was no occasion to entertain further anxiety. It was some months before the California volunteers were released from the duty of holding forts and guarding routes of travel. It has been said that California cut no figure in the war, which assertion most assuredly was not true. California had few men on the battle-fields where most blood was spilt, not because they were not offered, but because they were not wanted there. The population of the whole Pacific coast of the United States, including Utah and Colorado, was not equal to one quarter of the population of the single state of Pennsylvania. Yet to the volunteers of this sparse population was entrusted the labor of aweing avowed secession at home, guarding against foreign interference, and fighting numerous Indian tribes from Oregon to New Mexico. The readiness with which war taxes were paid, the cheerful contributions to the sanitary fund, and the loyal expressions of every legislative body, were a moral as well as material support, without which the war must have been indefinitely protracted, or the union dismembered. The attitude of California discouraged rebellion, which had relied upon seizing the west coast of the continent whereon to found an empire for the perpetuation of slavery. In common with the other Pacific states, California poured forth like water her mineral treasure, without which the government would have been well-nigh bankrupt, and her currency selling probably at ten dollars to one of gold. For these services in the contest for freedom she should share in the glory of having helped to preserve the integrity of the union.

army, who proposed to sack and pillage that town, and proceed thence to Lower California. The settlers flocked into the place, and every citizen was under arms. See Los Angeles News, May 6, 1865; Marysville Appeal, May 14, 1865; Pajaro Times, May 20, 1865: Hayes' Scraps, S. Cal. Wilm., 56. San Diego was also threatened. S. F. Alta, May 9, 1865. These alarms resulted in nothing more than the loss of stock, and some personal encounters, and terminated in a few months, when the confederates were compelled to take the oath of loyalty

CHAPTER XIII.

PARTY CHANGES.

1865-1868.

INTRODUCTION OF THE PRIMARY SYSTEM-THE PEOPLE'S PARTY-SHORT HAIRS AND LONG HAIRS-BEARING OF THE CURRENCY QUESTION-THE BOYS AND THE BOSSES-DEATH OF THE UNION PARTY-THE CENTRAL PACIFIC-NATIONAL REPUBLICAN PARTY-DEMOCRACY IN THE ASCENDANT-LEGISLATURES, REPRESENTATIVES, AND GOVERNORS-CONVENTIONS AND ELECTIONS-TAXATION, MONGOLIANISM AND MONOPOLY-MUNICIPAL POLITICS.

CALIFORNIA had never more reason to regret the adoption of primary elections, than in 1865. The practice was begun by the democracy as early as March 1850, when a meeting was held at Portsmouth square for the purpose of organizing the county of San Francisco, and a county committee was appointed which a year and a half later called a primary election for December 23d, to elect delegates to the Sacramento state convention, who were to appoint others to the national convention for the nomination of president of the United States. The committee, to keep control of the organization, selected but one polling place in the city and county of San Francisco, and allowed but six hours for receiving votes. John A. McGlynn, chairman of the county committee, was appointed inspector, and his associates were Edward McGowan and T. A. Lynch. A large number of democrats protested, claiming the right of the people to set themselves in motion without any delegated authority, and published a call for the democratic electors of each ward and precinct of the city, to meet