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new constitution which was to be made, leaving the state entirely in the hands of this mongrel party, made out of pro-slavery men and disaffected whigs.

Another legislative iniquity which was very nearly perpetrated, and which was recommended by the governor in his message, was a project set on foot by George Wilkes and J. M. Estill, with a few others, to increase the water-lot property in San Francisco by extending the city front 600 feet into the bay, beyond the line established by law in 1851, and to which the grade of the city had been accommodated. The inducement offered to the governor to support the scheme was the proffer of one third of the property so created to the state, which it was estimated would bring $2,000,000, and go far toward redeeming the state's credit. But if the legislature had the power to make the addition, and to accept a third, why not take more, and cancel the whole of the state's indebtedness, or take all? That was a secret between the authors of the measure, and the governor and legislature.

The original beach and water lot property had not brought to the state treasury what it should have returned, having been sold under an attachment, by the city physician, Peter Smith, to secure the payment of a bill. The sale being generally regarded as invalid, the lots commanded only a trifling price, and the one fourth reverting to the state had been small accordingly. Considering the condition of the state's finances, the governor earnestly advocated the passage of the bill. To this the San Francisco delegation was as earnestly opposed, Snyder and Heydenfeldt resigning from the assembly in order to test the sentiment of their constituency. They were immediately reëlected. The bill failed in the senate, after passing the house, the president, Purdy, giving the casting vote. From the circumstance that Broderick's most intimate per

54 S. F. Alta, April 18, 1853; Hayes' Constit. Law, i. 40, 41, 49; Cal. Jour. Sen., 1853, 633; Cal. Jour. Assem., 1855, 699.

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 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.58 To 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 KNOW NOTHING PARTY-GWIN'S SALE OF PATRONAGE -BRODERICK IN CONGRESS-HE IS MISREPRESENTED AND MALIGNEDANOTHER 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.'

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