NORTHERN DEMOCRACY.

677

sonal friend Wilkes, and the governor's strong supporter Estill, were connected with the extension bill, much feeling was created in San Francisco against both Broderick 55 and Bigler, and great the fear that should Bigler be reëlected the next legislature would revive and pass the obnoxious bill. Broderick, however, was not in pursuit of riches obtained by ruining the city of his adoption. Whatever his faults, no spoils clung to him, though he walked continually in the midst of those who lived by them. His aim was now the high one of the United States senate.56 Το secure this it became necessary to attach to himself the whole of his party, or that wing of it which, including the Bigler following, was beginning to be known as the Broderick wing. The course which he pursued to that end will be presented in the following chapter.

55 Hittell, in Hist. S. F., 315, labors to bring evidence of Broderick's complicity to bear upon this case. The circumstantial proof is strong; only one thing being against it, that if Broderick had been in favor of its passage, the bill would have passed. But Wilkes, its author, explains that such was Broderick's hostility to it that he, Wilkes, abandoned the cause and returned to New York, Broderick having shown him that on account of their intimacy he would be held responsible, and his prospects injured in the race for the U. S. senatorship. Wilkes' Affidavit, 1.

56 Wilkes says that it was expected in 1853 that Gwin would be taken into Pierce's cabinet, which apparent opportunity caused Broderick to ask him to canvass the legislature for votes in favor of Broderick, which he did. He does not give the results.

CHAPTER XXIV.

POLITICAL HISTORY.

1854-1859.

WARM AND WICKED ELECTION-ONE PARTY THE SAME AS ANOTHER, ONLY WORSE-SENATORIAL CONTEST-BRODERICK'S ELECTION BILL—BITTER FEUDS A TWO-EDGED CONVENTION-BIGLER'S ADMINISTRATION-RISE AND FALL OF THE KNOWNOTHING PARTY-GWIN'S SALE OF PATRONAGE -BRODERICK IN CONGRESS-HE IS MISREPRESENTED AND MALIGNED ANOTHER ELECTION - CHIVALRY AND SLAVERY-BRODERICK'S DEATH DETERMINED ON-THE DUEL-CHARACTER OF BRODERICK.

THE pro-slavery division of the democratic party in California, managed by the agents of Gwin, had achieved its successes in a skilful manner, with mysterious grace and gentlemanly arts and accomplishments, and by that eternal vigilance which is the price of all great achievements on the field of politics. But when Fillmore went out and Pierce came in, the eagerness for spoils brought the chivalry and the northern democracy into collision, Gwin not having any patronage for men of the northern wing of his party, all the places and fat salaries going to his southern friends. Broderick did not care for these favors, but he did care that the course pursued by the chivalry forced him into alliance with a class of men whom he could not recognize socially, and compelled him to join hands with Governor Bigler for the purpose of strengthening the opposition to the southern faction.1

1 Broderick made use of McGowan and of Billy Mulligan, both shoulderstrikers. He once said to a friend: You respectable people I can't depend on. You won't go down and face the revolvers of those fellows; and I have to take such material as I can get hold of. They stuff ballot-boxes,

MAGNIFICENT FRAUDS.

679

Edmund Randolph,' Park A. Crittenden, and Tod Robinson, styling themselves leaders of a reform party, to catch the ear of the long-suffering people, desiring to defeat the reëlection of Bigler, canvassed the state in 1853, assisted by E. D. Baker, whig, then a recent immigrant to California. Few rivalled Randolph in eloquence; few surpassed Baker; but neither these nor the less impassioned whigs were strong enough to prevail against the Broderick-Bigler combination. As chairman of the state central committee, Broderick issued an address to the people, in which he denounced as traitors the seceders, and as traitors they were treated.

The whigs nominated for governor William Waldo, a man credited with pure principles and a firm will. As far as any one could see, the division of the democrats favored the election of a whig; but the ballotbox told a different story. In the whig city of San Francisco there was a majority of five for Bigler; in the county of San Francisco there were seventy-one for Waldo. The total vote of the state was 76,377, and the whole majority for Bigler 1,503. In Los Angeles men were disguised and sent to the polls sev

and steal the tally lists; and I have to keep these fellows to aid me.' Merrill's Statement, MS., 10. Broderick was the first man that made a successful stand against the so-called chivalry, or southern element. Gwin himself admits that. Memoirs, MS., 117.

2 Edmund Randolph was of the lineage of the celebrated Randolphs of Va, and a lawyer by descent and education. He came to Cal. in 1849 from N. O., being at the time of his leaving that city clerk of the U. S. circuit court for La. In N. O. he married a daughter of Dr Meaux. He was a member of the first Cal. legislature, but not being a politician by nature, was not prominent in party affairs. He was gifted, eccentric, excitable in temper, and proud of his standing as a lawyer. He was usually retained in important land cases, and made a national reputation in the New Almaden quicksilver mine case. He was opposed to the vigilance committee, and defied it, out of a regard for law in the first and personal pride in the second instance. Yet, like all of his class, he would break a law to gratify a passion, but would not allow others to do so to sustain a principle. In the conflict between the two wings of the democratic party in 1857-8 he espoused the cause of Douglas. When the civil war came on he bitterly opposed the Lincoln administration, and died denouncing it, for his most virulent and last speech was made in August 1861, and his death occurred in Sept. How futile are the efforts of a great mind warped all out of place! Cal. Jour. Sen., 1854, 52-4; Yolo Democrat, Aug. 14, 1879; Cal. Reg., 1857, 164. It was alleged that Bigler owed 3,000 votes to frauds perpetrated on the ballot-box. Bell, Reminis., 21; S. F. Alta, Sept. 9, 1853.

eral times to deposit votes. The amount expended in San Francisco alone in influencing votes was estimated to be not less than $1,500,000 in money and waterfront property This was exclusive of several hundred steamer tickets to the states, with which returning miners were bribed. What must have been the value attached to victory, when such prices were paid for preferment?

There was little to choose between parties. Both resorted to dishonest practices, although on the side of the whigs it was individual, and not party, acts. A whig editor was discovered distributing democratic tickets, entire, with the exception of his own name and that of one other aspirant for the legislature. If he could not get in at the door he might by the window.

3

Gloomy views were taken of the political situation by the whig and independent press. The state was indeed approaching a dark period in its history, a moral, political, and financial night out of which was to arise the morning of a pure day. The eternal mutation in human events always gives hope of mending when matters are at their worst. But they were not to mend in California until they had become more evil than they yet were; and they were not to mend through any favorable change in the policy of the dominant political party. When and how will mend these later times? Governor Bigler, governor now for another term, and perfectly cognizant of the indignant protest of San Francisco to his extension measures, vaunted his opposition, and his purpose to recommend the passage of the obnoxious bill by the next legislature. According to his asseverations, in that way only could the civil debt of the state be paid,

3 Says the Alta, reproaching those who failed to vote at the election, to defeat the extension-bill candidates: 'They will be still more amazed when they find the second stories of their houses below the level of the streets, and the third stories sold to pay the expense of burying the others; all the slips closed up; and the bay piled, and filled in 200 feet east of the outer end of long wharf. Their indignation against extension will then be as violent as need be.'

But the

and the burden of taxation lessened. people of San Francisco saw in it a bribe for political support; and with good reason, the water-lot property having been secured by Bigler's supporters with the expectation that its extension would place $4,000,000 in their pockets. Broderick, though he labored for the reëlection of Bigler, did so as a means to his own ends. The governor had also aspirations toward the United States senate, and unless he should be continued in his present office, might make a serious diversion of interest from himself. As another means to the same end, Purdy, who would have liked to run for governor, was persuaded to content himself again with the office of lieutenant-governor. The vote for Purdy was 10,000 more than for Bigler; and had he not yielded to Broderick's persuasions he might have had the higher office; and all because he had voted against the extension bill. As soon as the election. was decided, Broderick, at the head of the victorious faction, prepared to secure his election to the United States senate by the legislature elect, to succeed Gwin in 1855.5 There was no precedent for an election by a legislature not the last before the expiration of a senatorial term; but Broderick was of the order of men who make precedents; and having a legislature

*The state officers elected in 1853, besides the gov. and lieut-gov., were J. W. Denver, sec. of state (he resigned in Nov. 1856, and C. H. Hempstead was appointed to the vacancy); Samuel Bell, cont.; S. A. McMeans, treas.; J. R. McConnell, atty-gen.; S. H. Marlette, sur.-gen.; P. K. Hubbs, supt pub. inst.; W. C. Kibbe, qr-master genl; state printers, George Kerr & Co. The contract system was repealed May 1, 1854, and B. B. Redding elected by the legislature, who was succeeded in Jan. 1856 by James Allen; W. E. P. Hartnell was state translator. Cal. Reg., 1857, 189.

Wilkes says that on his return to California in the autumn of 1853 Broderick consulted him upon the propriety and legality of asking the legis lature to fill a vacancy 2 years in advance; and that his opinion was that the effort if undertaken would be useful as a preliminary canvass, and would give him, Broderick, a start in the way of organization, over any other aspirant for the same place.

"The senate in 1854 consisted of W. W. Hawkes, J. S. Hager, D. Mahoney, W. M. Lent, E. J. Moore, S. F.; A. P. Catlin, G. W. Colby, Sac.; G. D. Hall, G. W. Hook, H. G. Livermore, El Dorado; C. A. Leake, E. D. Sawyer, Calaveras; J. Henshaw, W. H. Lyons, Nevada; C. H. Bryan, J. C. Stebbins, Yuba; C. A. Tuttle, J. Walkup, Placer; J. H. Wade, Mariposa; B. C. Whiting, Monterey; S. B. Smith, Sutter; E. T. Peck, Butte; W. B. Macy, Trinity and Klamath; E. McGarry, Napa, Solano, and Yolo; J. P. McFarland, Los Angeles;