CHAPTER XXIII.

POLITICAL HISTORY.

1850-1854.

QUALITY OF OUR Early Rulers-Governor Burnett-Governor McDouGAL SENATORIAL ELECTION-SOWING DRAGON'S TEETH-DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION-SENATOR GWIN, THE ALMIGHTY PROVIDENCE OF CALIFOR NIA-PARTY ISSUES-GOVERNOR BIGLER-BRODERICK-WHITE VS BLACK -SLAVERY OR DEATH!-LEGISLATIVE PROCEEDINGS-TALK OF A NEW CONSTITUTION-WHIGS, DEMOCRATS, AND INDEPENDENTS - ANOTHER

LEGISLATURE.

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THE Composition of Governor Burnett's character was such that he could without friction accommodate himself to circumstances, and make friends, or at least avoid making enemies, on either side of a question. He was suave, correct, with enough of a judicial air to give his opinions weight in ordinary affairs, with enough lightness and elasticity of intellect to enable him to float safely upon the surface of public opinion, and from extraordinary issues to escape scathless. Whatever in the heat of conflict we may say of such men, they are of a recognized value in society, holding the balance even when anarchy would result from more able management. His life, though crowned by no great or noble achievement, has not been marred by a single conspicuous error. As superior judge, under Riley's administration, he occupied the highest position to which he could be chosen under the government de facto; and as first governor of California he again stood approved by the voters of 1850. But he was a little too slow in action and too wordy in speech for quick-witted men of deeds; a little too con

servative for the men of 1851, so rapidly did things change at this period; and had some prejudices which he did not care to render prominent, had changed his religion from protestant to catholic-a matter which he thought greatly concerned him, but did not in the least other people; besides which, he wished to attend to private affairs; so he resigned the executive office on the 9th of January of that year, just after the sec

1 Burnett, Rec., MS., passim; Sac. Transcript, Jan. 14 and Feb. 1, 1851; Cal. Jour. Sen., 1851, 43, 44, 45, 46. Peter H. Burnett was born in Nashville, Tenn., Nov. 15, 1807, of Va parentage, to which may be attributed his ineradicable dislike of the free negro. When 10 years of age he removed with his father to Howard co., Mo., and a few years later to Clay co., where he attained the age of 19 years, in contact with a rude border society. In 1826 he returned to Tenn., where he became clerk in a store at $100 a year, and later at $200. He married, before he was quite 21, Harriet W. Rogers, started in business, studied law, and became editor of a weekly newspaper at Liberty, Mo., The Far West. His first law business was in prosecuting some Mormons for debt, and afterward was employed as counsel by the Mormon leaders whom Judge King had committed to jail in Liberty, they being charged with arson, robbery, and treason. In 1843 he emigrated to Or., where he became a farmer, lawyer, legislator, and judge. In 1848 he came to Cal. in the first company of gold-seekers, and was unpronounced enough never to have made any conspicuous failures either in business or politics. In 1857 he was appointed a justice of the sup. court of California, which position he held until Oct. 1858. He afterward became president of the Pacific Bank of S. F., in which he held a large interest. He retired from business about 1880. A lengthy dictation which I took from him he had copied and printed as Personal Recollections.

2 The senate consisted in 1851, in addition to the members holding over, of W. Adams of Butte and Shasta districts, whose seat was contested, and who resigned April 28, 1851; E. O. Crosby, of Yuba and Sutter districts; P. de la Guerra, of Sta Bárbara and San Luis Obispo districts; D. F. Douglas, of Calaveras; S. C. Foster, of Los Angeles, elected to fill vacancy; T. J. Green, of Sac.; B. S. Lippincott, of Tuolumne; S. E. Woodworth, of Monterey; M. E. Cooke, Sonoma; E. Heydenfeldt and D. C. Broderick, S. F.; A. W. Hope, Los Angeles; who resigned Jan. 11th; T. B. Van Buren, San Joaquin; J. Warner, San Diego. The assembly consisted by D. P. Baldwin and B. F. Moore, Tuolumne, F. C. Bennett, I. Ñ. Thorne, J. D. Carr, J. S. Wethered, W. W. Wilkins, W. C. Hoff, S. F.; J. Bigler, D. J. Lisle, C. Robinson, Sac.; T. Bodley, A. C. Campbell, Sta Clara; J. S. Bradford, A. Stearns, Sonoma; E. Brown, Contra Costa; H. Carnes, Sta Bárbara; J. Cook, San Diego; J. S. Field, Yuba; C. J. Freeman, San Luis Obispo; G. D. Hall, J. J. Kendrick, El Dorado; E. B. Kellogg, Sta Cruz; J. Y. Lind, D. W. Murphy, Calaveras; A. G. McCandless, Shasta; J. W. McCorkle, Sutter; W. C. McDougall, F. Yeiser, San Joaquin; A. Pico, Los Angeles; S. A. Merritt, H. S. Richardson, Mariposa; A. Randall, Monterey; R. F. Saunders, Butte. Cal. Reg., 1857, 192–6. Of that body of men I find here and there mention of one who has gone over to the silent majority. Thomas Bodley, born in Lexington, Ky, in 1821, came to Cal. in 1849, via N. O., and engaged in merchandising at San José with Thomas Campbell. He was also in the grain business, and at one time collector at Alviso. He served as under-sheriff during the term of Wm McCutchen. During this period he completed the study of the law, begun some years previous, and at the expiration of his service as sheriff began a successful practice. He sustained a character for integrity and liberality in his

FIRST GOVERNORS.

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ond legislature met in session, and was succeeded by the lieutenant-governor, John McDougal, a gentlemanly drunkard, and democratic politician of the order for which California was destined to become somewhat unpleasantly notorious.*

adopted city. San José Pioneer, Sept. 21, 1878; Santa Cruz Co. Times, Feb. 23, 1867. John S. Bradford came to Cal. from Ill. in 1848 or 1849. In the latter year he had a pack-train carrying goods from Sac. to Auburn. Later he used wagons, and had a store at Stony Bar, on a fork of the American river, where he built the first house of logs. Moore, Pioneer Express, MS., 2–7. He was in partnership with Semple at Benicia, as one of the firm of Semple, Robinson, & Co., for the transaction of general business. This firm purchased the Chilian bark Conferacion, with an assorted cargo of East Indian goods, which was dismantled and used as a wharf. Solano Co. Hist., 154-5. He was the first assemblyman from Sonoma dist. In 1853 he returned to Springfield, Ill., where he was several times elected mayor. Benicia Tribune, Feb. 7, 1874.

3 The prest of the senate was D. C. Broderick; prest pro tem., E. Heydenfeldt; secretary, J. F. Howe; asst sec., W. B. Ólds; enrolling clerk, H. W. Carpenter; engrossing clerk, E. Covington; sergt-at-arms, C. Burnham; doorkeeper, W. B. Stockton. Broderick was elected clerk of the supreme court Feb. 21st, and John Nugent filled the vacancy. Cal. Reg., 1857, 191. W. E. P. Hartnell was awarded the contract for translating the laws into Spanish. His pay was limited by law to $1.50 per folio. He was required to give bonds in the sum of $30,000 for the correct and entire translation of the statutes. Cal. Stat., 1851, p. 404-5; Val., Doc., MS., 35, 296, 307, 317. John Bigler was speaker of the assembly.

John McDougal was born in Ohio in 1818, and in boyhood removed to the vicinity of Indianapolis, Ind., where he was supt of the state prison in 1846. He was a captain in the Mexican war, in which he distinguished himself. The Black Hawk war breaking out about the time he arrived at his majority, he became captain of a company of volunteers, and served the country faithfully. In 1849 he came to Cal. with his brother George, and served in the const. convention. He was fine-looking, and adhered to the old style of ruffled shirt front, buff vest and pantaloons, and blue coat with brass buttons. He used to say that there were two beings of whom he stood in awe-God almighty and Mrs McDougal. The latter always treated him with patient kindness, although often compelled to bring him home from a midnight debauch. He had occasional fits of despondency, which peculiarity is not uncommon among wits and good livers. It is even said that on several occasions he attempted suicide. Although not at that stage of his ruinous career when elected lieut-governor, he was seldom fit for the discharge of his duties. Yet such was the influence of his naturally genial and generous deportment, cultivated mind, and brilliant social talents, that only his political enemies, and not always those, could bring themselves to treat him with the contempt another man in his position would have received. He owned prop

erty in Sutterville. He died March 30, 1866. S. F. Monitor, April 7, 1866; Buffalo Express, in Hayes' Cal. Notes, v. 86; Buffum, Six Months in Cal., 153; Placer Times, Nov. 10, 1849; Hayes' Cal. Notes, iii. 46; S. F. Alta, March 31, 1866; Crosby's Early Events, MS., 37-8; Gwin's Memoirs, MS., 13; S. F. Call, Sept. 6, 1868; Overland Monthly, xiv. 329; Sac. Transcript, March 14, 1851. His brother George, a man of herculean proportions, engaged in cattle-dealing in Utah, and among the Navajos, was at Bent's Fort on the Arkansas River for some time. He absented himself so long from Cal. that he was supposed to be dead, and his estate was administered upon. Again he disappeared and was recognized in Patagonia, but could not be at that time induced to leave that barbarous coast. He returned, however, to Washington to prosecute a

Previous to this session of the legislature, although some political flourishes had been put forth, particularly by the democrats, there had been little attention given to party marshalling in California. Naturally, after the admission of the state, it became for the interest of office-seekers to consider whether they would support the administration or oppose it. The composition of the legislative body of 1851, chosen in the autumn of 1850, was, democrats, 27; whigs, 18, and independents, 5.5

The election of a senator to succeed Frémont, who, hoping and expecting to be reëlected, and having left Gwin to harvest all the honors at the second session of the thirty-first congress, as I have already shown, and who was present at the opening, was the signal to the dominant party in the legislature to put forth its anti-administration and anti-freesoil strength. In order to have time for a satisfactory canvass, the joint convention of both houses was put off until the 18th of February, when the balloting began. The nominees were Frémont, Solomon Heydenfeldt, T. Butler King, John W. Geary, John B. Weller, and James A. Collier. The whole number of votes was 49, and 25 were necessary to a choice. Frémont received but 8 on the first ballot, which was increased to 16 once or twice during the sitting of the convention, which balloted 142 times and sat ten days without being able to elect. Times were changed since 1850, when bear-flag memories and bear-flag men elected Frémont. King, being an administration man, and a southerner by adoption, was thus furnished

claim against the govt; but becoming disheartened by the tediousness of his suit, he killed himself.

5 Sac. Transcript, Feb. 28, 1851. The whole number elected was 52; assemblymen 36, senators 16. Cal. Reg., 1857, 190.

Frémont abandoned his duty for a whole session to electioneer for a reelection, only to be defeated. Morn. Globe, Aug. 19, 1856. Thus it was throughout his entire career-himself first and always.

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Nathaniel Bennett, P. de la Guerra, George W. Crane, D. C. Broderick, P. B. Reading, Alfred Morgan, J. Neely Johnson, George B. Tingley, Win D. M. Howard, T. H. Green, A. Pico, and S. A. Merritt received some scattering votes. Cal. Jour. Sen., 1851, 155-274; S. F. Alta, March 1 and 5, 1851.

ELECTION OF SENATOR.

647

with two strings to his bow, so that he ran ahead of his competitors on a majority of the ballotings Heydenfeldt, being the first choice of the democrats, ran next best after King, who was beaten by the opposition of the whig political journal at San Francisco, the whig members of the legislature holding a caucus to denounce its editor, and repudiating it thenceforward as a party organ. After a session of 116 days, the legislature adjourned, having passed a large number of laws, and made a few appointments. It had, however, not done any great amount of good for the state. 10

If the fable of the dragon's teeth had been intended to apply to California, it would have shown a remarkable crop of scoundrels from the sowing." In two

That is to say, the Courier, edited by G. W. Crane. The independent press of Cal. at this time was composed of the Herald and Alta of S. F.; the Herald of San Diego; the Herald of Sonora; the Journal of Nevada City; the Gazette of Benicia; and the Visitor of San José. The whig press consisted of the Morning Post, Evening Picayune, and Courier of S. F.; the Journal of Stockton; the Union of Sacramento; and the Herald of Marysville. There was but one democratic newspaper in S. F. in 1851, the Pacific Star; one in Stockton, the Republican; the Times and Transcript united was the democratic organ in Sac.

Atty-gen. E. C. Kewen resigned in 1850. James A. McDougall was elected to fill the vacancy, Q.-m.-gen. J. C. Moorehead was removed, and William H. Richardson appointed to his place, April 26, 1851. Adj.-gen. J. R. Perlee resigned Sept 24, 1850, and E. W. McKinstry was appointed in his stead. State printer H. H. Robinson resigned in May 1850, when J. Winchester was appointed, who resigned in March 1851. Eugene Casserly was elected by the legislature May 1, 1851, and continued in office till the contract system of 1852 was carried into effect. The first contract was awarded to G. K. Fitch and V. E. Geiger, in June 1852, who transferred it, with the consent of the legislature, to George Kerr & Co., in Feb. 1853. The contract system was repealed in May 1854, and B. B. Redding elected state printer, who was succeeded in 1856 by James Allen. Cal. Reg., 1857, 189.

10 S. F. Alta, Jan. 9, 1851; Hartnell, Convention, MS., pt. 17; Sac. Transcript, June 1, 1851; Field's Reminiscences, 73-81, 85-90; Hayes' Scraps, Angeles, i. 41.

li Alonzo W. Adams, elected to the senate from the district of Butte and Shasta, had been appointed poll-tax collector by the previous legislature. On the settlement of his accounts, after he took his seat, it was ascertained that they did not balance. A large number of written receipts were forwarded to one of the senate committees, showing that he had given these instead of the receipts furnished by the controller, and had diverted this portion of the public revenue to himself. He was examined before a committee, which recommended his expulsion from the senate; but through the influence of personal friends, he was permitted to remain to the close of the session upon his promise to resign and leave the state immediately after. This he did, and took a steamer at a southern port for a destination unknown. W. T. Sexton, in Oroville Mercury, Dec. 31, 1865; Cal. Stat., 1851, 537. 'At the