all anxiety by the knownothing legislature, which did not go into joint convention 24 on a senatorial election. Foote had been nominated in caucus, but Wilson Flint, democrat, of San Francisco, who was opposed to Broderick on the senatorial question at the previous session, defeated the motion for convention in the senate, on the ground that Foote was a pro-slavery politician who would never have come to California except to obtain office. In this action he was governed by his own convictions, but approved and encouraged by Broderick, to whom he went with the matter. According to Flint's testimony, given in 1860, at a dinner of the republican members of the legislature, he said to Broderick that, feeling as he did about

24 The senate of 1856 was composed of W. Flint, F. Tilford, W. W. Hawkes, W. J. Shaw, S. F.; W. I. Ferguson, A. S. Gove, Sac.; J. C. Hawthorne, C. Westmoreland, Placer; W. C. Burnett, P. C. Rust, Yuba and Sutter; H. M. Fiske, A. French, G. W. Hook, J. G. McCallum, El Dorado; D. R. Ashley, Monterey and Sta Cruz; E. F. Burton, E. G. Waite, Nevada; S. Bynum, Napa, Solano, and Yolo; J. D. Cosby, Trinity and Klamath; D. Crandall, W. B. Norman, Calaveras and Amador; S. Day, Alameda and Sta Clara; S. H. Dash, Shasta and Colusa; H. P. Heintzelman, Sonoma, Marin, etc.; C. E. Lippincott, Yuba; W. H. McCoun, Contra Costa and San Joaquin; J. B. McGee, Butte and Plumas; J. A. McNeil, Mariposa; J. D. Scellen, Sierra; B. D. Wilson, San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino. Prest of the senate, R. M. Anderson; prest pro tem., D. R. Ashley; sec., W. Bausman; asst sec., R. Biven; enrolling clerk, A. E. Waite; engrossing clerk, W. Miller; sergt-at-arms, J. W. Ross; door-keeper, J. McGlenchy. The assembly was composed of J. Ewalt, J. George, T. Gray, H. Hawes, N. Holland, B. S. Lippincott, E. W. Moulthrop, S. A. Sharp, H. Wohler, S. F.; G. H. Cartter, G. Cone, G. W. Leihy, J. N. Pugh, Sac.; J. Borland, E. Bowe, S. T. Gage, T. D. Heiskell, J. W. Oliver, W. H. Taylor, L. S. Welsh, J. D. White, El Dorado; T. H. Reed, S. Sellick, L. Stout, R. L. Williams, Placer; J. W. Hunter, B. S. Weir, San Joaquin; V. G. Bell, S. W. Boring, D. Dustin, T. B. McFarland, G. A. F. Reynolds, Nevada; J. Dick, Butte; R. B. Sherrard, Sutter; J. T. Farley, G. W. Wagner, Amador; T. C. Brunton, M. McGehee, T. J. Oxley, J. T. Van Dusen, Tuolumne; A. J. Batchelder, J. Shearer, J. Sterritt, R. M. Turner, W. B. Winsor, Yuba; H. A. Gaston, A. A. Hoover, Sierra; R. C. Haile, Napa; A. R. Andrews, Shasta; W. McDonald, Klamath; E. J. Curtis, Siskiyou; R. Swan, Tulare; T. W. Taliaferro, E. T. Beatty, Calaveras; R. B. Lamon, G. H. Rhodes, Mariposa; E. J. Lewis, Colusa; G. R. Brush, Marin; J. M. Covarrubias, Sta Bárbara; J. J. Kendrick, San Diego; J. L. Brent, J. G. Downey, Los Angeles; A. M. Castro, San Luis Obispo; R. L. Matthews, Monterey; W. Blackburn, C. Davis, G. Peck, Sta Clara; E. Bynum, Yolo; J. C. Callbreath, Stanislaus; T. M. Coombs, Alameda; H. G. Heald, J. S. Rathburn, Sonoma; R. C. Kelly, J. Winston, Plumas; A. R. Meloney, Contra Costa; C. S. Ricks, Humboldt; A. M. Stevenson, Solano; W. W. Upton, Trinity. Speaker, J. T. Farley; speaker pro tem., T. B. McFarland; chief clerk, J. M. Anderson; asst clerk, A. M. Hayden; enrolling clerk, J. Powell; engrossing clerk, T. Moreland; sergt-at-arms, E. Gates; door-keeper, J. D. G. Quirk. Cal. Reg., 1857, 191.

25

TENOR OF THE TIMES.

699

slavery, he conceived it to be his duty to aid the knownothings; to which Broderick replied that he agreed with him that such was his duty; adding, "Flint, I will load the democratic party down with three tons of lead in this canvass." And he nominated Mr Bigler. This episode I introduce here to explain what followed later.

The knownothings stormed and threatened, but Flint was firm. Convinced there would be no election, Crabb withdrew in favor of W. I. Ferguson, a young lawyer, with nothing to recommend him but a handsome person, active brain, finished education, and dissolute habits. He was mortally wounded in a duel in August 1858 by George Pen Johnston, having gone back to the democratic party and aspired to congressional honors. Foote, a few years later, found his appropriate place in the confederate senate.

Sarshel Bynum was born in Ky, and came overland to Cal. in 1849. He was the first clerk of Solano co., and represented Yolo, Napa, and Solano in the legislature. He removed to Lakeport in 1862, where he became clerk of Lake co., holding the office until 1875. He died the following year. Vallejo Chronicle and Napa Register, Nov. 25, 1876.

R. C. Haile, born in Tenn., educated at Nashville, was a merchant in Sumner co. from 1836 to 1839, when he removed to Miss., and thence to Cal. in 1849, engaging in mining in Nevada City. After a year in the mines he settled in Napa valley, at farming and laboring, to which he added merchandising in 1857. Again in 1858 he removed, this time to Suisun valley, where he purchased 510 acres of land. He was elected to the legislature from Solano co. in 1868 and 1876. Solano Co. Hist., 410–11.

Horace Hawes, a native of one of the eastern states, came to Cal. in 1845, as consul to some of the Polynesian groups of islands. In 1846 he resided at Honolulu, but returned to Cal., and was prefect of the district of S. F. in 1849. Unbound Docs., 57. He had trouble with alcaldes Colton and Geary, whose land grants he opposed. By profession a lawyer, he resumed practice on the establishment of the state govt. He was the framer of the consolidation bill, which effected a great reform in the govt of S. F. He represented the co. of S. F. and San Mateo in the senate in 1863-4. In 1866 he drew up the registry law. He was a shrewd business man, and accumulated a large estate. His death occurred in 1871. He was the first man of wealth in Cal. to offer to give any considerable portion of it to a public institution; but the conditions of his gift of $1,000,000 were such that it was not practicable to accept it, and the property reverted to his heirs. S. F. Alta, March 10, 1871. 25 Wilson G. Flint was a native of Ohio, born 1820. He engaged in mercantile pursuits in New York at an early age, and afterward went to Texas, whence he came to Cal. in 1849. He erected a warehouse at North Point, in which he conducted business for several years. In 1854 he turned his attention to farming, making experiments, and writing many treatises upon the subject. He was an ardent and firm friend of freedom, as his course in the legislature gave proof. He died at S. F. in Jan. 1867. S. F. Call, Jan. 6,

The state officers who came in with the knownothings were expected to bring in some reforms.26 The governor promised very solemnly in his inaugural, and gave much earnest advice to the legislature. But it required a man of extraordinary nerve and a powerful personal magnetism to impress himself upon the turbulent and evil times to which the state was reduced by politicians who cared nothing for the welfare of the people, and everything for money and personal aggrandizement. The welfare of the people! Why, these lawyers, judges, and fire-eating politicians were the scum of the state! They were thieves, gamblers, murderers, some of them living upon the proceeds of harlotry, and all of them having at heart the same consideration for the people that had the occupants of the state prison, where these ought to have been; yet they were no whit worse, and could not possibly be, than the politicians of to-day. Johnson was a very weak individual. He could no more control the hybrid legislature than could a child. Even Bigler could have done little, as it was here too much like what he had complained of in his farewell message, that to be "made responsible for the acts of others, or for matters over which he could exercise no direct control,” was bitter injustice. He advocated economy and probity, and the legislature did what it could at that late day, and yet the state treasurer elected with him was a defaulter to the amount of $124,000. He pointed out the illegality and unconstitutionality of the funding acts by which the state had sustained its credit, and thus led to an examination of the subject, and to the decision by the people to pay the debt and save the honor of California.

The knownothing legislature enacted the law drawn

26 R. M. Anderson was lieut-gov.; David F. Douglass, sec. of state; George W. Whitman, controller, suspended in Feb. 1857, when E. F. Burton was appointed; Henry Bates, treasurer (resigned in 1857, and James L. English appointed in his place); William T. Wallace, atty-gen.; John H. Brewster, sur.-gen.; Paul K. Hubbs, supt pub. instruction, succeeded by A. J. Moulder, in 1857; W. C. Kibbe, quarter-master-gen.; state printer, James Allen; state translator, Augistin Ainsa. Cal. Reg., 1857, 189.

RISE OF THE REPUBLICANS.

701

up by Horace Hawes, by which San Francisco city and county governments were consolidated, the old charter repealed, and the whole list of city and county officers given their congé at the next general election; and they were forbidden to contract any debt in the interim not authorized by the act.27 The consolidation act, and the benefits which flowed from it, gave great relief to San Francisco, and together with the acts of the vigilance committees, produced a revolution and reform, the greatest ever achieved with so little bloodshed. The most important and exciting events of the new administration I have reserved for a separate chapter. Under all the circumstances of this remarkable period, it was no doubt fortunate that no Charles the First occupied the executive office in California, and that Johnson subsided before that moral force which resides in the soul of an aroused people. It was the providence of almighty power among a suffering people that California at this juncture should have only the semblance of a man for governor. Had he been of better metal, it had been worse for him and all concerned.

28

The knownothing party enjoyed but a brief existence. As a native American party it secured no standing in California, appropriated as it was for the shelter of hopeless whigs and disaffected chivalry. It was divided by the rise of the republican party in 1856. This year there were three parties in the field, and a president of the United States to be elected. There were three state conventions in California, supporting three candidates for the presidency: Frémont, republican; Fillmore, native American; " Buchanan,

29

Cal. Stat., 1856, 145-178. San Mateo co. was created out of the south end of S. F. co. by the same act.

28 Fillmore had 36,165 votes in Cal.; Buchanan, 53,365; Frémont, 20,693; Tuthill, Hist. Cal., 428. Joseph McKibben and Charles Scott were elected congressmen, over Whitman and Dibble, native Americans, and Rankin and Turner, republicans.

29 The knownothings used to meet in a hall on Sac. street near Montgomery. Coleman, Vig. Com., MS., 33; Morrell, in Roman's Newspaper matter, 76-7; Sac. Union, Jan. 5 and 22, and Sept. 1, 3, 6, 1856; S. F. Bulletin, Sept. 3, 4, and Oct. 22, 1856.

democratic. The whigs had some organizations, in clubs, and gave their support to Fillmore. The republicans made their maiden effort in California this year, but the candidate they had to indorse was not popular with any party in the state. No bear-flag reminiscences could suffice now to extenuate certain other and more secret deeds connected with beef contracts and Mariposa estates. Republicanism, too, at this time, was regarded as sectional, and therefore not to be encouraged. The election of Frémont, it was urged, would bring on disunion. Southern whigs, who deplored the attitude of the chivalry, whom they denounced as misrepresenting southern character, could not be drawn into the republican ranks, fearing that in the event of disunion they should be found taking sides against their own kindred and friends. The times were indeed out of joint in the political arena.

30 Merrill claims to have organized the first republican club in Cal. They gave their influence to Broderick because he was anti-chivalry.' Merrill, Statement, MS., 10. In San Joaquin co. the chivalry said the republicans would not be permitted to organize or sit in convention. The convention was held, for all that.' Staples, Statement, MS., 15-16.

31 Says the S. F. Morning Globe, Aug. 19, 1856: 'Frémont's pleading induced congress to pass a bill for his relief, and flush again, he redeemed his Mariposa estate, and bullied Corcoran and Riggs, who held the claim of King of William for $40,000, advanced on the beef contract, to accept $20,000 to $30,000 less than their due. Through Palmer, Cook, & Co. he shaved the patient Californians who had waited for the beef contract money, forcing them to take half. The cunning Palmer made the Mariposa deed over to himself, and then took a confession of judgment from Frémont for upward of $73,000 at 3 per cent per month interest. Hence Frémont's creditors had to take what Palmer offered. In this way most of the congressional appropriations fell into Palmer, Cook, & Co.'s hands, and saved them from bankruptcy in 1854. After that Frémont received $1,000 per month as Palmer's agent to aid them in their negotiations in the east, to raise money on the Mariposa and Bolton & Barron claims, but failed. Palmer's fortunes were hard pressed, and he ordered Frémont and Wright to bribe a black republican speaker into place. Thus Banks became speaker, and he made a committee report a bill to confirm the Bolton & Barron claims without ordeal of the U. S. courts. Herbert was the tool to lobby the bill, which he would have passed had he not killed the Irish waiter. Emboldened by success, Frémont struck for the black republican nomination. Selover alone spent $49,000 to get the nomination, says the Placer Herald, and the state's money, placed in Palmer's hands to pay the interest on her bonds, was so used. Unable to borrow money to cover the $102,000 of Cal. bond money, their game collapsed, and Cal. was dishonored. If Frémont were elected, Palmer would be sec. of treas., Wright sub-treas., and Selover collector of the port.' Such were the charges and revelations which the republican nominee for the presidency had to meet in Cal. The various capitalists with whom Frémont had to deal finally deprived him of his Mariposa estate, valued at $10,000,000, according to his own testimony. N. Y. World, Dec. 22, 1864; Hayes' Scraps, Mining, iv. 25.