F 
 
 865 
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 1918 
 
 ,-Kjfa *t ** >y -V f^L faftf. cntt <yws -(Q * k uncw 
 
 THWART EDWARD 
 


 
 THE FORTY-NINERS
 
 THE CHRONICLES 
 
 OF AMERICA SERIES 
 
 ALLEN JOHNSON 
 
 GERHARD R. LOMER 
 
 CHARLES W. JEFFERYS 
 
 ASSISTANT EDITORS
 
 3 
 
 3 H 
 
 B 
 
 O e 
 
 12 
 
 " s 
 
 Q O
 
 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 A CHRONICLE OF THE 
 
 CALIFORNIA TRAIL AND EL DORADO 
 
 BY STEWART EDWARD WHITE 
 
 NEW HAVEN: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
 TORONTO: GLASGOW, BROOK & CO. 
 
 LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD 
 
 OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
 
 Copyright, 1918, by Yale University Press
 
 CONTENTS |<?|# 
 
 I. SPANISH DAYS Page 1 
 
 II. THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION " 13 
 
 III. LAW MILITARY AND CIVIL " 46 
 
 IV. GOLD " 55 
 V. ACROSS THE PLAINS " 67 
 
 VI. THE MORMONS " 77 
 
 VII. THE WAY BY PANAMA " 96 
 
 VIII. THE DIGGINGS " 106 
 
 IX. THE URBAN FORTY-NINER " 119 
 
 X. ORDEAL BY FIRE " 140 
 
 XI. THE VIGILANTES OF '51 " 150 
 
 XII. SAN FRANCISCO IN TRANSITION " 159 
 
 XIII. THE STORM GATHERS " 174 
 
 XIV. THE STORM BREAKS " 210 
 XV. THE VIGILANTES OF '56 " 231 
 
 XVI. THE TRIUMPH OF THE VIGILANTES " 258 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE " 267 
 
 INDEX - 271
 
 SUNDAY MORNING IN THE MINES 
 
 From the painting, 1849, by Charles Nahh 
 In the E. B. Crocker Art Gallery, 
 Sacramento. California. Frontispiece 
 
 IX
 
 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 SPANISH DAYS 
 
 THE dominant people of California have been 
 successively aborigines, conquistador es, monks, 
 the dreamy, romantic, unenergetic peoples of 
 Spain, the roaring melange of Forty-nine, and 
 finally the modern citizens, who are so distinctive 
 that they bid fair to become a subspecies of their 
 own. This modern society has, in its evolution, 
 something unique. To be sure, other countries 
 also have passed through these same phases. But 
 while the processes have consumed a leisurely five 
 hundred years or so elsewhere, here they have 
 been subjected to forced growth. 
 
 The tourist traveler is inclined to look upon the 
 crumbling yet beautiful remains of the old mis- 
 sions, those venerable relics in a bustling modern
 
 2 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 land, as he looks upon the enduring remains of old 
 Rome. Yet there are today many unconsidered 
 New England farmhouses older than the oldest 
 western mission, and there are men now living 
 who witnessed the passing of Spanish California. 
 
 Though the existence of California had been 
 known for centuries, and the dates of her first visi- 
 tors are many hundreds of years old, nevertheless 
 Spain attempted no actual occupation until she 
 was forced to it by political necessity. Until that 
 time she had little use for the country. After 
 early investigations had exploded her dream of 
 more treasure cities similar to those looted by 
 Cortes and Pizarro, her interest promptly died. 
 
 But in the latter part of the eighteenth century 
 Spain began to awake to the importance of action. 
 Fortunately ready to her hand was a tried and 
 tempered weapon. Just as the modern statesmen 
 turn to commercial penetration, so Spain turned, 
 as always, to religious occupation. She made 
 use of the missionary spirit and she sent forth 
 her expeditions ostensibly for the purpose of con- 
 verting the* heathen. The result was the so-called 
 Sacred Expedition under the leadership of Juni- 
 pero Serra and Portola. In the face of incredible 
 hardships and discouragements, these devoted,
 
 SPANISH DAYS 3 
 
 if narrow and simple, men succeeded in establish- 
 ing a string of missions from San Diego to Sonoma. 
 The energy, self-sacrifice, and persistence of the 
 members of this expedition furnish inspiring read- 
 ing today and show clearly of what the Spanish 
 character at its best is capable. 
 
 For the next thirty years after the founding of 
 the first mission in 1769, the grasp of Spain on 
 California was assured. Men who could do, suffer, 
 and endure occupied the land. They made their 
 mistakes in judgment and in methods, but the 
 strong fiber of the pioneer was there. The original 
 padres were almost without exception zealous, 
 devoted to poverty, uplifted by a fanatic desire 
 to further their cause. The original Spanish 
 temporal leaders were in general able, energetic, 
 courageous, and not afraid of work or fearful of 
 disaster. 
 
 At the end of that period, however, things 
 began to suffer a change. The time of pioneering 
 came to an end, and the new age of material 
 prosperity began. Evils of various sorts crept 
 in. The pioneer priests were in some instances 
 replaced by men who thought more of the flesh- 
 pot than of the altar, and whose treatment of the 
 Indians left very much to be desired. Squabbles
 
 4 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 arose between the civil and the religious powers. 
 Envy of the missions' immense holdings undoubt- 
 edly had its influence. The final result of the 
 struggle could not be avoided, and in the end 
 the complete secularization of the missions took 
 place, and with this inevitable change the real 
 influence of these religious outposts came to an 
 end. 
 
 Thus before the advent in California of the 
 American as an American, and not as a traveler 
 or a naturalized citizen, the mission had disap- 
 peared from the land, and the land was inhabited 
 by a race calling itself the genie de razon, in presumed 
 contradistinction to human beasts with no reason- 
 ing powers. Of this period the lay reader finds such 
 conflicting accounts that he either is bewildered 
 or else boldly indulges his prejudices. According 
 to one school of writers mainly those of modern 
 fiction California before the advent of the 
 gringo was a sort of Arcadian paradise, populated 
 by a people who were polite, generous, pleasure- 
 loving, high-minded, chivalrous, aristocratic, and 
 above all things romantic. Only with the coming 
 of the loosely sordid, commercial, and despicable 
 American did this Arcadia fade to the strains of 
 dying and pathetic music. According to another
 
 SPANISH DAYS 5 
 
 school of writers mainly authors of personal 
 reminiscences at a time when growing antagonism 
 was accentuating the difference in ideals the 
 "greaser" was a dirty, idle, shiftless, treacherous, 
 tawdry vagabond, dwelling in a disgracefully 
 primitive house, and backward in every aspect 
 of civilization. 
 
 The truth, of course, lies somewhere between 
 the two extremes, but its exact location is difficult 
 though not impossible to determine. The influ- 
 ence of environment is sometimes strong, but hu- 
 man nature does not differ much from age to age. 
 Racial characteristics remain approximately the 
 same. The Californians were of several distinct 
 classes. The upper class, which consisted of a very 
 few families, generally included those who had held 
 office, and whose pride led them to intermarry. 
 Pure blood was exceedingly rare. Of even the 
 best the majority had Indian blood; but the 
 slightest mixture of Spanish was a sufficient claim 
 to gentility. Outside of these "first families," 
 the bulk of the population came from three sources: 
 the original military adjuncts to the missions, 
 those brought in as settlers, and convicts imported 
 to support one side or another in the innumer- 
 able political squabbles. These diverse elements
 
 6 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 shared one sentiment only an aversion to work. 
 The feeling had grown up that in order to main- 
 tain the prestige of the soldier in the eyes of the 
 
 
 
 natives it was highly improper that he should ever 
 do any labor. The settlers, of whom there were 
 few, had themselves been induced to immigrate by 
 rather extravagant promises of an easy life. The 
 convicts were only what was to be expected. 
 
 If limitations of space and subject permitted, it 
 would be pleasant to portray the romantic life of 
 those pastoral days. Arcadian conditions were 
 then more nearly attained than perhaps at any 
 other time in the world's history. The picturesque, 
 easy, idle, pleasant, fiery, aristocratic life has been 
 elsewhere so well depicted that it has taken on the 
 quality of rosy legend. Nobody did any more 
 work than it pleased him to do; everybody was 
 well-fed and happy; the women were beautiful 
 and chaste; the men were bold, fiery, spirited, 
 gracefully idle; life was a succession of picturesque 
 merrymakings, lovemakings, intrigues, visits, 
 lavish hospitalities, harmless politics, and revolu- 
 tions. To be sure, there were but few signs of 
 progressive spirit. People traveled on horseback 
 because roads did not exist. They wore silks and 
 diamonds, lace and satin, but their houses were
 
 SPANISH DAYS 7 
 
 crude, and conveniences were simple or entirely 
 lacking. Their very vehicles, with wooden axles 
 and wheels made of the cross-section of a tree, 
 were such as an East African savage would be 
 ashamed of. But who cared? And since no one 
 wished improvements, why worry about them? 
 
 Certainly, judged by the standards of a truly pro- 
 gressive race, the Spanish occupation had many 
 shortcomings. Agriculture was so little known 
 that at times the country nearly starved. Con- 
 temporary travelers mention this fact with wonder. 
 "There is," says Ryan, "very little land under 
 cultivation in the vicinity of Monterey. That 
 which strikes the foreigner most is the utter 
 neglect in which the soil is left and the indifference 
 with which the most charming sites are regarded. 
 In the hands of the English and Americans, Monte- 
 rey would be a beautiful town adorned with 
 gardens and orchards and surrounded with pictur- 
 esque walks and drives. The natives are, unfortu- 
 nately, too ignorant to appreciate and too indolent 
 even to attempt such improvement." And 
 Captain Charles Wilkes asserts that "notwith- 
 standing the immense number of domestic animals 
 in the country, the Californians were too lazy 
 to make butter or cheese, and even milk was rare.
 
 8 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 If there was a little good soap and leather occasion- 
 ally found, the people were too indolent to make 
 them in any quantity. The earth was simply 
 scratched a few inches by a mean and ill-contrived 
 plow. When the ground had been turned up by 
 repeated scratching, it was hoed down and the 
 clods broken by dragging over it huge branches 
 of trees. Threshing was performed by spreading 
 the cut grain on a spot of hard ground, treading it 
 with cattle, and after taking off the straw throwing 
 the remainder up in the breeze, much was lost 
 and what was saved was foul." 
 
 General shiftlessness and inertia extended also 
 to those branches wherein the Californian was 
 supposed to excel. Even in the matter of cattle 
 and sheep, the stock was very inferior to that 
 brought into the country by the Americans, and 
 such a thing as crossing stock or improving the 
 breed of either cattle or horses was never thought 
 of. The cattle were long-horned, rough-skinned 
 animals, and the beef was tough and coarse. The 
 sheep, while of Spanish stock, were very far from 
 being Spanish merino. Their wool was of the 
 poorest quality, entirely unfit for exportation, 
 and their meat was not a favorite food. 
 
 There were practically no manufactures on the
 
 SPANISH DAYS 9 
 
 whole coast. The inhabitants depended for all 
 luxuries and necessities on foreign trade, and 
 in exchange gave hide and tallow from the semi- 
 wild cattle that roamed the hills. Even this 
 trade was discouraged by heavy import duties 
 which amounted at times to one hundred per 
 cent of the valuer Such conditions naturally 
 led to extensive smuggling which was connived 
 at by most officials, high and low, and even by 
 the monks of the missions themselves. 
 
 Although the chief reason for Spanish occupancy 
 was to hold the country, the provisions for defense 
 were not only inadequate but careless. Thomes 
 says, in Land and Sea, that the fort at Mon- 
 terey was "armed with four long brass nine- 
 pounders, the handsomest guns that I ever saw 
 all covered with scroll work and figures. They 
 were mounted on ruined and decayed carriages. 
 Two of them were pointed toward the planet 
 Venus, and the other two were depressed so that 
 had they been loaded or fired the balls would 
 have startled the people on the other side of the 
 hemisphere." This condition was typical of those 
 throughout the so-called armed forts of California. 
 
 The picture thus presented is unjustly shaded, of 
 course, for Spanish California had its ideal, noble,
 
 10 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 and romantic side. In a final estimate no one 
 could say where the balance would be struck; but 
 our purpose is not to strike a final balance. We 
 are here endeavoring to analyze the reasons why 
 the task of the American conquerors was so easy, 
 and to explain the facility with which the original 
 population was thrust aside. 
 
 It is a sometimes rather annoying anomaly of 
 human nature that the races and individuals about 
 whom are woven the most indestructible mantles 
 of romance are generally those who, from the stand- 
 point of economic stability or solid moral quality, 
 are the most variable. We staid and sober citizens 
 are inclined to throw an aura of picturesqueness 
 about such creatures as the Stuarts, the dissipated 
 Virginian cavaliers, the happy-go-lucky barren 
 artists of the Latin Quarter, the fiery touchiness of 
 that so-called chivalry which was one of the least 
 important features of Southern life, and so on. 
 We staid and sober citizens generally object strenu- 
 ously to living in actual contact with the unpunctu- 
 ality, unreliability, unreasonableness, shiftlessness, 
 and general irresponsibility that are the invariable 
 concomitants of this picturesqueness. At a safe 
 distance we prove less critical. We even go so 
 far as to regard this unfamiliar life as a mental
 
 SPANISH DAYS 11 
 
 anodyne or antidote to the rigid responsibility of 
 our own everyday existence. We use these his- 
 torical accounts for moral relaxation, much as 
 some financiers or statisticians are said to read 
 cheap detective stories for complete mental 
 relaxation. 
 
 But the Californian's undoubtedly admirable 
 qualities of generosity, kindheartedness (when- 
 ever narrow prejudice or very lofty pride was not 
 touched), hospitality, and all the rest, proved, in 
 the eyes of a practical people confronted with a 
 large and practical job, of little value in view of his 
 predominantly negative qualities. A man with 
 all the time in the world rarely gets on with a man 
 who has no time at all. The newcomer had his 
 house to put in order; and it was a very big house. 
 The American wanted to get things done at once; 
 the Californian could see no especial reason 
 for doing them at all. Even when his short-lived 
 enthusiasm happened to be aroused, it was for 
 action tomorrow rather than today. 
 
 For all his amiable qualities, the mainspring of 
 the Californian's conduct was at bottom the 
 impression he could make upon others. The 
 magnificence of his apparel and his accoutrement 
 indicated no feeling for luxury but rather a fond-
 
 12 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 ness for display. His pride and quick-tempered 
 honor were rooted in a desire to stand well in the 
 eyes of his equals, not in a desire to stand well 
 with himself. In consequence he had not the 
 builder's fundamental instinct. He made no 
 effort to supply himself with anything that did not 
 satisfy this amiable desire. The contradictions of 
 his conduct, therefore, become comprehensible. 
 We begin to see why he wore silks and satins and 
 why he neglected what to us are necessities. We 
 see why he could display such admirable carriage 
 in rough-riding and lassoing grizzlies, and yet 
 seemed to possess such feeble military efficiency. 
 We comprehend his generous hospitality coupled 
 with his often narrow and suspicious cruelty. In 
 fact, all the contrasts of his character and action 
 begin to be clear. His displacement was natural 
 when confronted by a people who, whatever their 
 serious faults, had wants and desires that came 
 from within, who possessed the instinct to create 
 and to hold the things that would gratify those 
 desires, and who, in the final analysis, began to 
 care for other men's opinions only after they had 
 satisfied their own needs and desires.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION 
 
 FROM the earliest period Spain had discouraged 
 foreign immigration into California. Her object 
 was neither to attract settlers nor to develop the 
 country, but to retain political control of it, and 
 to make of it a possible asylum for her own people. 
 Fifty years after the founding of the first mission 
 at San Diego, California had only thirteen inhabi- 
 tants of foreign birth. Most of these had become 
 naturalized citizens, and so were in name Spanish. 
 Of these but three were American! 
 
 Subsequent to 1822, however, the number of 
 foreign residents rapidly increased. These people 
 were mainly of substantial character, possessing a 
 real interest in the country and an intention of per- 
 manent settlement. Most of them became natural- 
 ized, married Spanish women, acquired property, 
 and became trusted citizens. In marked contrast 
 
 to their neighbors, they invariably displayed the 
 
 13
 
 14 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 greatest energy and enterprise. They were gener- 
 ally liked by the natives, and such men as Hartnell, 
 Richardson, David Spence, Nicholas Den, and 
 many others, lived lives and left reputations to 
 be envied. 
 
 Between 1830 and 1840, however, Americans 
 of a different type began to present themselves. 
 Southwest of the Missouri River the ancient town 
 of Santa Fe attracted trappers and traders of all 
 nations and from all parts of the great West. There 
 they met to exchange their wares and to organ- 
 ize new expeditions into the remote territories. 
 Some of them naturally found their way across the 
 western mountains into California. One of the 
 most notable was James Pattie, whose personal 
 narrative is well worth reading. These men were 
 bold, hardy, rough, energetic, with little patience 
 for the refinements of life in fact, diametrically 
 opposed in character to the easy-going inhabitants 
 of California. Contempt on the one side and 
 distrust on the other were inevitable. The trap- 
 pers and traders, together with the deserters 
 from whalers and other ships, banded together in 
 small communities of the rough type familiar to 
 any observer of our frontier communities. They 
 looked down upon and despised the "greasers,"
 
 THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION 15 
 
 who in turn did everything in their power to harass 
 them by political and other means. 
 
 At first isolated parties, such as those of Jedediah 
 Smith, the Patties, and some others, had been 
 imprisoned or banished eastward over the Rockies. 
 The pressure of increasing numbers, combined 
 with the rather idle carelessness into which all 
 California-Spanish regulations seemed at length 
 to fall, later nullified this drastic policy. Notori- 
 ous among these men was one Isaac Graham, an 
 American trapper, who had become weary of wan- 
 dering and had settled near Natividad. There he 
 established a small distillery, and in consequence 
 drew atiout him all the rough and idle characters 
 of the country. Some were trappers, some sailors; 
 a few were Mexicans and renegade Indians. Over 
 all of these Graham obtained an absolute control. 
 They were most of them of a belligerent nature and 
 expert shots, accustomed to taking care of them- 
 selves in the wilds. This little band, though it 
 consisted of only thirty-nine members, was there- 
 fore considered formidable. 
 
 A rumor that these people were plotting an 
 uprising for the purpose of overturning the govern- 
 ment aroused Governor Alvarado to action. It is 
 probable that the rumors in question were merely
 
 16 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 the reports of boastful drunken vaporings and 
 would better have been ignored. However, at this 
 time Alvarado, recently arisen to power through 
 the usual revolutionary tactics, felt himself not en- 
 tirely secure in his new position. He needed some 
 distraction, and he therefore seized upon the 
 rumor of Graham's uprising as a means of solidify- 
 ing his influence an expedient not unknown to 
 modern rulers. He therefore ordered the prefect 
 Castro to arrest the party. This was done by sur- 
 prise. Graham and his companions were taken 
 from their beds, placed upon a ship at Monterey, 
 and exiled to San Bias, to be eventually delivered 
 to the Mexican authorities. There they were 
 held in prison for some months, but being at last 
 released through the efforts of an American lawyer, 
 most of them returned to California rather better 
 off than before their arrest. It is typical of the 
 vacillating Californian policy of the day that, 
 on their return, Graham and his riflemen were 
 at once made use of by one of the revolutionary 
 parties as a reinforcement to their military power! 
 By 1840 the foreign population had by these 
 rather desultory methods been increased to a 
 few over four hundred souls. The majority could 
 not be described as welcome guests. They had
 
 THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION 17 
 
 rarely come into the country with the deliberate 
 intention of settling but rather as a traveler's 
 chance. In November, 1841, however, two par- 
 ties of quite a different character arrived. They 
 were the first true immigrants into California, and 
 their advent is significant as marking the beginning 
 of the end of the old order. One of these parties 
 entered by the Salt Lake Trail, and was the 
 forerunner of the many pioneers over that great 
 central route. The other came by Santa Fe, over 
 the trail that had by now become so well marked 
 that they hardly suffered even inconvenience on 
 their journey. The first party arrived at Monte 
 Diablo in the north, the other at San Gabriel 
 Mission in the south. Many brought their fami- 
 lies with them, and they came with the evident 
 intention of settling in California. 
 
 The arrival of these two parties presented to the 
 Mexican Government a problem that required 
 immediate solution. Already in anticipation of 
 such an event it had been provided that nobody 
 who had not obtained a legal passport should be 
 permitted to remain in the country; and that even 
 old settlers, unless naturalized, should be required 
 to depart unless they procured official permission 
 to remain. Naturally none of the new arrivals
 
 18 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 had received notice of this law, and they were in 
 consequence unprovided with the proper passports. 
 Legally they should have been forced at once to 
 turn about and return by the way they came. 
 Actually it would have been inhuman, if not 
 impossible, to have forced them at that season of 
 the year to attempt the mountains. General 
 Vallejo, always broad-minded in his policies, used 
 discretion in the matter and provided those in his 
 district with temporary permits to remain. He 
 required only a bond signed by other Americans 
 who had been longer in the country. 
 
 Alvarado and Vallejo at once notified the 
 Mexican Government of the arrival of these 
 strangers, and both expressed fear that other and 
 larger parties would follow. These fears were 
 very soon realized. Succeeding expeditions set- 
 tled in the State with the evident intention of 
 remaining. No serious effort was made by the 
 California authorities to keep them out. From 
 time to time, to be sure, formal objection was 
 raised and regulations were passed. However, 
 as a matter of plain practicability, it was mani- 
 festly impossible to prevent parties from starting 
 across the plains, or to inform the people living 
 in the Eastern States of the regulations adopted
 
 THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION 19 
 
 by California. It must be remembered that 
 communication at that time was extraordinarily 
 slow and broken. It would have been cruel and 
 unwarranted to drive away those who had already 
 arrived. And even were such a course to be con- 
 templated, a garrison would have been necessary at 
 every mountain pass- on the East and North, and 
 at every crossing of the Colorado River, as well as 
 at every port along the coast. The government 
 in California had not men sufficient to handle 
 its own few antique guns in its few coastwise 
 forts, let alone a surplus for the purpose just 
 described. And to cap all, provided the garri- 
 sons had been available and could have been 
 placed, it would have been physically impossible 
 to have supplied them with provisions for even a 
 single month. 
 
 Truth to tell, the newcomers of this last class were 
 not personally objectionable to the Calif ornians. 
 The Spanish considered them no different from 
 those of their own blood. Had it not been for an 
 uneasiness lest the enterprise of the American 
 settlers should in time overcome Californian in- 
 terests, had it not been for repeated orders from 
 Mexico itself, and had it not been for reports that 
 ten thousand Mormons had recently left Illinois
 
 20 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 for California, it is doubtful if much attention 
 would have been paid to the first immigrants. 
 
 Westward migration at this time was given an 
 added impetus by the Oregon question. The 
 status of Oregon had long been in doubt. Both 
 England and the United States were inclined to 
 claim priority of occupation. The boundary 
 between Canada and the United States had not 
 yet been decided upon between the two countries. 
 Though they had agreed upon the compromise of 
 joint occupation of the disputed land, this arrange- 
 ment did not meet with public approval. The 
 land-hungry took a particular interest in the 
 question and joined their voices with those of men 
 actuated by more patriotic motives. In public 
 meetings which were held throughout the country 
 this joint occupation convention was explained 
 and discussed, and its abrogation was demanded. 
 These meetings helped to form the patriotic 
 desire. Senator Tappan once said that thirty 
 thousand settlers with their thirty thousand 
 rifles in the valley of the Columbia would quickly 
 settle all questions of title to the country. This 
 saying was adopted as the slogan for a campaign 
 in the West. It had the same inspiring effect as 
 the later famous "54-40 or fight." People were
 
 THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION 21 
 
 aroused as in the olden times they had been aroused 
 to the crusades. It became a form of mental 
 contagion to talk of, and finally to accomplish, 
 the journey to the Northwest. Though no accu- 
 rate records were kept, it is estimated that in 
 1843 over 800 people crossed to Willamette 
 Valley. By 1845 this immigration had increased 
 to fully 3000 within the year. 
 
 Because of these conditions the Oregon Trail 
 had become a national highway. Starting at 
 Independence, which is a suburb of the present 
 Kansas City, it set out over the rolling prairie. 
 At that time the wide plains were bright with 
 wild flowers and teeming with game. Elk, 
 antelope, wild turkeys, buffalo, deer, and a great 
 variety of smaller creatures supplied sport and food 
 in plenty. Wood and water were in every ravine; 
 the abundant grass was sufficient to maintain the 
 swarming hordes of wild animals and to give rich 
 pasture to horses and oxen. The journey across 
 these prairies, while long and hard, could rarely 
 have been tedious. Tremendous thunderstorms 
 succeeded the sultry heat of the West, an occa- 
 sional cyclone added excitement; the cattle were 
 apt to stampede senselessly; and, while the Indian 
 had not yet developed the hostility that later
 
 22 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 made a journey across the plains so dangerous, 
 nevertheless the possibilities of theft were always 
 near enough at hand to keep the traveler alert and 
 interested. Then there was the sandy country 
 of the Platte River with its buffalo buffalo by 
 the hundreds of thousands, as far as the eye could 
 reach a marvelous sight: and beyond that again 
 the Rockies, by way of Fort Laramie and South 
 Pass. 
 
 Beyond Fort Hall the Oregon Trail and the 
 trail for California divided. And at this point 
 there began the terrible part of the journey 
 the arid, alkaline, thirsty desert, short of game, 
 horrible in its monotony, deadly with its thirst. 
 It is no wonder that, weakened by their sufferings 
 in this inferno, so many of the immigrants looked 
 upon the towering walls of the Sierras with a 
 sinking of the heart. 
 
 While at first most of the influx of settlers was by 
 way of Oregon, later the stories of the new country 
 that made their way eastward induced travelers 
 to go direct to California itself. The immigra- 
 tion, both from Oregon in the North and by the 
 route over the Sierras, increased so rapidly that 
 in 1845 there were probably about 700 Ameri- 
 cans in the district. Those coming over the
 
 THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION 23 
 
 Sierras by the Carson Sink and Salt Lake trails 
 arrived first of all at the fort built by Captain 
 Sutter at the junction of the American and 
 Sacramento rivers. 
 
 Captain Sutter was a man of Swiss parentage 
 who had arrived in San Francisco in 1839 without 
 much capital and with only the assets of consider- 
 able ability and great driving force. From the 
 Governor he obtained grant of a large tract of 
 land "somewhere in the interior" for the purposes 
 of colonization. His colonists consisted of one 
 German, four other white men, and eight Kana- 
 kas. The then Governor, Alvarado, thought this 
 rather a small beginning, but advised him to 
 take out naturalization papers and to select a loca- 
 tion. Sutter set out on his somewhat vague quest 
 with a four-oared boat and two small schooners, 
 loaded with provisions, implements, ammunition, 
 and three small cannon. Besides his original party 
 he took an Indian boy and a dog, the latter prov- 
 ing by no means the least useful member of the 
 company. He found at the junction of the 
 American and Sacramento rivers the location that 
 appealed to him, and there he established himself. 
 His knack with the Indians soon enlisted their 
 services. He seems to have been able to keep his
 
 24 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 agreements with them and at the same time to 
 maintain rigid discipline and control. 
 
 Within an incredibly short time he had estab- 
 lished a feudal barony at his fort. He owned 
 eleven square leagues of land, four thousand two 
 hundred cattle, two thousand horses, and about as 
 many sheep. His trade in beaver skins was most 
 profitable. He maintained a force of trappers 
 who were always welcome at his fort, and whom he 
 generously kept without cost to themselves. He 
 taught the Indians blanket-weaving, hat-making, 
 and ether trades, and he even organized them into 
 military companies. The fort which he built was 
 enclosed on four sides and of imposing dimensions 
 and convenience. It mounted twelve pieces of 
 artillery, supported a regular garrison of forty in 
 uniform, and contained within its walls a black- 
 smith shop, a distillery, a flour mill, a cannery, 
 and space for other necessary industries. Outside 
 the walls of the fort Captain Sutter raised wheat, 
 oats, and barley in quantity, and even established 
 an excellent fruit and vegetable garden. 
 
 Indeed, in every way Captain Sutter's environ- 
 ment and the results of his enterprises were in signi- 
 ficant contrast to the inactivity and backwardness 
 of his neighbors. He showed what an energetic
 
 THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION 25 
 
 man could accomplish with exactly the same hu- 
 man powers and material tools as had always 
 been available to the Calif ornians. Sutter him- 
 self was a rather short, thick-set man, exquisitely 
 neat, of military bearing, carrying himself with 
 what is called the true old-fashioned courtesy. 
 He was a man of great generosity and of high spirit. ' 
 His defect was an excess of ambition which in 
 the end o'erleaped itself. There is no doubt that 
 his first expectation was to found an independent 
 state within the borders of California. His loyalty 
 to the Americans was, however, never questioned, 
 and the fact that his lands were gradually taken 
 from him, and that he died finally in comparative 
 poverty, is a striking comment on human injustice. 
 The important point for us at present is that 
 Sutter's Fort happened to be exactly on the line 
 of the overland immigration. For the trail- 
 weary traveler it was the first stopping-place 
 after crossing the high Sierras to the promised 
 land. Sutter's natural generosity of character in- 
 duced him always to treat these men with the 
 greatest kindness. He made his profits from such 
 as wished to get rid of their oxen and wagons in ex- 
 change for the commodities which he had to offer. 
 But there is no doubt that the worthy captain
 
 26 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 displayed the utmost liberality in dealing with 
 those whom poverty had overtaken. On several 
 occasions he sent out expeditions at his personal 
 cost to rescue parties caught in the mountains 
 by early snows or other misfortunes along the road. 
 Especially did he go to great expense in the matter 
 'of the ill-fated Donner party, who, it will be re- 
 membered, spent the winter near Truckee, and 
 were reduced to cannibalism to avoid starvation. 1 
 Now Sutter had, of course, been naturalized 
 in order to obtain his grant of land. He had also 
 been appointed an official of the California- 
 Mexican Government. Taking advantage of this 
 fact, he was accustomed to issue permits or pass- 
 ports to the immigrants, permitting them to 
 remain in the country. This gave the immi- 
 grants a certain limited standing, but, as they 
 were not Mexican citizens, they were disqualified 
 from holding land. Nevertheless Sutter used his 
 good offices in showing desirable locations to the 
 would-be settlers. 2 
 
 1 See The Passing of the Frontier, in " The Chronicles of America." 
 
 2 It is to be remarked that, prior to the gold rush, American settle- 
 ments did not take place in the Spanish South but in the unoccupied 
 North. In 1845 Castro and Castillero made a tour through the Sacra- 
 mento Valley and the northern regions to inquire about the new ar- 
 rivals. Castro displayed no personal uneasiness at their presence and 
 made no attempt or threat to deport them.
 
 THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION 27 
 
 As far as the Californians were concerned, 
 there was little rivalry or interference between 
 the immigrants and the natives. Their interests 
 did not as yet conflict. Nevertheless the central 
 Mexican Government continued its commands to 
 prevent any and all immigration. It was rather 
 well justified by its experience in Texas, where 
 settlement had ended by final absorption. The 
 local Californian authorities were thus thrust be- 
 tween the devil and the deep blue sea. They were 
 constrained by the very positive and repeated 
 orders from their home government to keep out 
 all immigration and to eject those already on the 
 ground. On the other hand, the means for doing 
 so were entirely lacking, and the present situation 
 did not seem to them alarming. 
 
 Thus matters drifted along until the Mexican 
 War. For a considerable time before actual hos- 
 tilities broke out, it was well known throughout 
 the country that they were imminent. Every 
 naval and military commander was perfectly 
 aware that, sooner or later, war was inevitable. 
 Many had received their instructions in case of 
 that eventuality, and most of the others had indi- 
 vidual plans to be put into execution at the earli- 
 est possible moment. Indeed, as early as 1842
 
 28 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 Commodore Jones, being misinformed of a state 
 of war, raced with what he supposed to be Eng- 
 lish war-vessels from South America, entered the 
 port of Monterey hastily, captured the fort, and 
 raised the American flag. The next day he dis- 
 covered that not only was there no state of war, 
 but that he had not even raced British ships! 
 The flag was thereupon hauled down, the Mexican 
 emblem substituted, appropriate apologies and 
 salutes were rendered, and the incident was con- 
 sidered closed. The easy-going Calif ornians ac- 
 cepted the apology promptly and cherished no 
 rancor for the mistake. 
 
 In the meantime Thomas O. Larkin, a very 
 substantial citizen of long standing in the country, 
 had been appointed consul, and in addition re- 
 ceived a sum of six dollars a day to act as secret 
 agent. It was hoped that his great influence 
 would avail to inspire the Californians with a 
 desire for peaceful annexation to the United 
 States. In case that policy failed, he was to use 
 all means to separate them from Mexico, and so 
 isolate them from their natural alliances. He 
 was furthermore to persuade them that England, 
 France, and Russia had sinister designs on their 
 liberty. It was hoped that his good offices would
 
 THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION 29 
 
 slowly influence public opinion, and that, on the 
 declaration of open war with Mexico, the United 
 States flag could be hoisted in California not only 
 without opposition but with the consent and 
 approval of the inhabitants. This type of peace- 
 ful conquest had a very good chance of success. 
 Larkin possessed the confidence of the better 
 class of Californians and he did his duty faithfully. 
 Just at this moment a picturesque, gallant, 
 ambitious, dashing, and rather unscrupulous 
 character appeared inopportunely on the horizon. 
 His name was John C. Fremont. He w r as the son 
 of a French father and a Virginia mother. He was 
 thirty-two years old, and was married to the daugh- 
 ter of Thomas H. Benton, United States Senator 
 from Missouri and a man of great influence in 
 the country. Possessed of an adventurous spirit, 
 considerable initiative, and great persistence, 
 Fremont had already performed the feat of cross- 
 ing the Sierra' Nevadas by way of Carson River 
 and Johnson Pass, and had also explored the Col- 
 umbia River and various parts of the Northwest. 
 Fremont now entered California by way of Walker 
 Lake and the Truckee, and reached Sutter's 
 Fort in 1845. He then turned southward to meet 
 a division of his party under Joseph Walker.
 
 30 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 His expedition was friendly in character, with 
 the object of surveying a route westward to 
 the Pacific, and then northward to Oregon. It 
 supposedly possessed no military importance 
 whatever. But his turning south to meet Walker 
 instead of north, where ostensibly his duty called 
 him, immediately aroused the suspicions of the 
 Californians. Though ordered to leave the dis- 
 trict, he refused compliance, and retired to a 
 place called Gavilan Peak, where he erected 
 fortifications and raised the United States flag. 
 Probably Fremont's intentions were perfectly 
 friendly and peaceful. He made, however, a 
 serious blunder in withdrawing within fortifica- 
 tions. After various threats by the Californians 
 but no performance in the way of attack, he 
 withdrew and proceeded by slow marches to Sut- 
 ter's Fort and thence towards the north. Near 
 Klamath Lake he was overtaken by Lieutenant 
 Gillespie, who delivered to him certain letters and 
 papers. Fremont thereupon calmly turned south 
 with the pick of his men. 
 
 In the meantime the Spanish sub-prefect, Guer- 
 rero, had sent word to Larkin that "a multitude 
 of foreigners, having come into California and 
 bought property, a right of naturalized foreigners
 
 THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION 31 
 
 only, he was under necessity of notifying the 
 authorities in each town to inform such pur- 
 chasers that the transactions were invalid, and 
 that they themselves were subject to be expelled." 
 This action at once caused widespread conster- 
 nation among the settlers. They remembered 
 the deportation of Graham and his party some 
 years before, and were both alarmed and thor- 
 oughly convinced that defensive measures were 
 necessary. Fremont's return at precisely this 
 moment seemed to them very significant. He 
 was a United States army officer at the head of a 
 government expedition. When on his way to 
 the North he had been overtaken by Gillespie, an 
 officer of the United States Navy. Gillespie had 
 delivered to him certain papers, whereupon he 
 had immediately returned. There seemed no 
 other interpretation of these facts than that the 
 Government at Washington was prepared to up- 
 hold by force the American settlers in California. 
 
 This reasoning, logical as it seems, proves mis- 
 taken in the perspective of the years. Gillespie, it 
 is true, delivered some letters to Fremont, but it is 
 extremely unlikely they contained instructions 
 having to do with interference in Calif ornian affairs. 
 Gillespie, at the same time that he brought these
 
 32 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 dispatches to Fremont, brought also instructions to 
 Larkin creating the confidential agency above de- 
 scribed, and these instructions specifically forbade 
 interference with Calif ornian affairs. It is un- 
 reasonable to suppose that contradictory dis- 
 patches were sent to one or another of these two 
 men. Many years later Fremont admitted that the 
 dispatch to Larkin was what had been communi- 
 cated to him by Gillespie. His words are: "This 
 officer [Gillespie] informed me also that he was 
 directed by the Secretary of State to acquaint 
 me with his instructions to the consular agent, 
 Mr. Larkin." Reading Fremont's character, 
 understanding his ambitions, interpreting his 
 later lawless actions that resulted in his court- 
 martial, realizing the recklessness of his spirit, 
 and his instinct to take chances, one comes to the 
 conclusion that it is more than likely that his 
 move was a gamble on probabilities rather than a 
 result of direct orders. 
 
 Be this as it may, the mere fact of Fremont's 
 turning south decided the alarmed settlers, and 
 led to the so-called "Bear Flag Revolution." A 
 number of settlers decided that it would be expedi- 
 ent to capture Sonoma, where under Vallejo were 
 nine cannon and some two hundred muskets.
 
 THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION 33 
 
 It was, in fact, a sort of military station. The 
 capture proved to be a very simple matter. 
 Thirty-two or thirty-three men appeared at dawn 
 before Vallejo's house, under Merritt and Semple. 
 They entered the house suddenly, called upon 
 Jacob Leese, Vallejo's son-in-law, to interpret, 
 and demanded immediate surrender. Richman 
 says "Leese was surprised at the 'rough looks' of 
 the Americans. Semple he describes as 'six feet 
 six inches tall, and about fifteen inches in diameter, 
 dressed in greasy buckskin from neck to foot, 
 and with a fox-skin cap." The prisoners were 
 at once sent by these raiders to Fremont, who was 
 at that time on the American River. He im- 
 mediately disclaimed any part in the affair. How- 
 ever, instead of remaining entirely aloof, he gave 
 further orders that Leese, who was still in attend- 
 ance as interpreter, should be arrested, and also 
 that the prisoners should be confined in Sutter's 
 Fort. He thus definitely and officially entered 
 the movement. Soon thereafter Fremont started 
 south through Sonoma, collecting men as he went.. 
 The following quotation from a contemporary- 
 writer is interesting and illuminating. "A vast 
 cloud of dust appeared at first, and thence in 
 long files emerged this wildest of wild parties*
 
 34 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 Fremont rode ahead, a spare active looking man, 
 with such an eye! He was dressed in a blouse 
 and leggings, and wore a felt hat. After him 
 came five Delaware Indians who were his body- 
 guard. They had charge of two baggage-horses. 
 The rest, many of them blacker than Indians, 
 rode two and two, the rifle held by one hand 
 across the pummel of the saddle. The dress of 
 these men was principally a long loose coat 
 of deerskin tied with thongs in front, trousers of 
 the same. The saddles were of various fashions, 
 though these and a large drove of horses and a 
 brass field gun were things they had picked up in 
 California." 
 
 Meantime, the Americans who had collected in 
 Sonoma, under the lead of William B. Ide, raised 
 the flag of revolution "a standard of somewhat 
 uncertain origin as regards the cotton cloth 
 whereof it was made," writes Royce. On this, 
 they painted with berry juice " something that they 
 called a Bear." By this capture of Sonoma, and 
 its subsequent endorsement by Fremont, Larkin's 
 instructions that is, to secure California by quiet 
 diplomatic means were absolutely nullified. A 
 second result was that Englishmen in California 
 were much encouraged to hope for English inter-
 
 THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION 35 
 
 vention and protection. The Vallejo circle had 
 always been strongly favorable to the United 
 States. The effect of this raid and capture by 
 United States citizens, with a United States officer 
 endorsing the action, may well be guessed. 
 
 Inquiries and protests were lodged by the Cali- 
 fornia authorities with Sloat and Lieutenant 
 Montgomery of the United States naval forces. 
 Just what effect these protests would have had, 
 and just the temperature of the hot water in 
 which the dashing Fremont would have found 
 himself, is a matter of surmise. He had gambled 
 strongly on his own responsibility or at least 
 at the unofficial suggestion of Benton on an 
 early declaration of war with Mexico. Failing 
 such a declaration, he would be in a precarious 
 diplomatic position, and must by mere force 
 of automatic discipline have been heavily pun- 
 ished. However the dice fell for him. War 
 with Mexico was almost immediately an actual 
 fact. Fremont's injection into the revolution had 
 been timed at the happiest possible moment for 
 him. 
 
 The Bear Flag Revolution took place on June 
 14, 1846. On July 7 the American flag was hoisted 
 over the post at Monterey by Commodore Sloat.
 
 36 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 Though he had knowledge from June 5 of a state 
 of war, this knowledge, apparently, he had shared 
 neither with his officers nor with the public, and 
 he exhibited a want of initiative and vigor which 
 is in striking contrast to Fremont's ambition and 
 overzeal. 
 
 Shortly after this incident Commodore Sloat 
 was allowed to return "by reason of ill health," 
 as has been heretofore published in most histories. 
 His undoubted recall gave room to Commodore 
 Robert Stockton, to whom Sloat not only turned 
 over the command of the naval forces, but whom he 
 also directed to "assume command of the forces 
 and operations on shore." 
 
 Stockton at once invited Fremont to enlist 
 under his command, and the invitation was ac- 
 cepted. The entire forces moved south by sea 
 and land for the purpose of subduing southern 
 California. This end was temporarily accom- 
 plished with almost ridiculous ease. At this dis- 
 tance of time, allowing all obvious explanations of 
 lack of training, meager equipment, and internal 
 dissension, we find it a little difficult to understand 
 why the Californians did not make a better stand. 
 Most of the so-called battles were a sort of 
 opera bouffe. Californians entrenched with cannon
 
 THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION 37 
 
 were driven contemptuously forth, without casual- 
 ties, by a very few men. For example, a lieu- 
 tenant and nine men were sufficient to hold Santa 
 Barbara in subjection. Indeed, the conquest was 
 too easy, for, lulled into false security, Stock- 
 ton departed, leaving as he supposed sufficient 
 \j men to hold the country. The Californians man- 
 aged to get some coherence into their councils, 
 attacked the Americans, and drove them forth 
 from their garrisons. 
 
 Stockton and Fremont immediately started 
 south. In the meantime an overland party under 
 General Kearny had been dispatched from the East. 
 His instructions were rather broad. He was to 
 take in such small sections of the country as New 
 Mexico and Arizona, leaving sufficient garrisons 
 on his way to California. As a result, though his 
 command at first numbered 1657 men, he arrived 
 in the latter state with only about 100. From 
 Warner's Ranch in the mountains he sent word 
 to Stockton that he had arrived. Gillespie, 
 whom the Commodore at once dispatched with 
 thirty-nine men to meet and conduct him to San 
 Diego, joined Kearny near San Luis Rey Mission. 
 
 A force of Californians, however, under com- 
 mand of one Andres Pico had been hovering
 
 38 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 about the hills watching the Americans. It was 
 decided to attack this force. Twenty men were 
 detailed under Captain Johnston for the purpose. 
 At dawn on the morning of the 6th of Decem- 
 ber the Americans charged upon the Californian 
 camp. The Californians promptly decamped 
 after having delivered a volley which resulted 
 in killing Johnston. The Americans at once 
 pursued them hotly, became much scattered, and 
 were turned upon by the fleeing enemy. The 
 Americans were poorly mounted after their 
 journey, their weapons were now empty, and 
 they were unable to give mutual aid. The 
 Spanish were armed with lances, pistols, and 
 the deadly riata. Before the rearguard could 
 come up, sixteen of the total American force were 
 killed and nineteen badly wounded. This battle 
 of San Pascual, as it was called, is interesting as 
 being the only engagement in which the Cali- 
 fornians got the upper hand. Whether their 
 Parthian tactics were the result of a preconceived 
 policy or were merely an expedient of the moment, 
 it is impossible to say. The battle is also notable 
 because the well-known scout, Kit Carson, took 
 part in it. 
 
 The forces of Stockton ' and Kearny joined a
 
 THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION 39 
 
 few days later, and very soon a conflict of author- 
 ity arose between the leaders. It was a childish 
 affair throughout, and probably at bottom arose 
 from Fremont's usual over-ambitious designs. To 
 Kearny had undoubtedly been given, by the 
 properly constituted authorities, the command 
 of all the land operations. Stockton, however, 
 claimed to hold supreme land command by in- 
 structions from Commodore Sloat already quoted. 
 Through the internal evidence of Stockton's 
 letters and proclamations, it seems he was a trifle 
 inclined to be bombastic and high-flown, to usurp 
 authority, and perhaps to consider himself and his 
 operations of more importance than they actually 
 were. However, he was an officer disciplined 
 and trained to obedience, and his absurd conten- 
 tion is not in character. It may be significant 
 that he had promised to appoint Fremont Gover- 
 nor of California, a promise that naturally could 
 not be fulfilled if Kearny 's authority were fully 
 recognized. 
 
 Furthermore, at this moment Fremont was at 
 the zenith of his career, and his influence in such 
 matters was considerable. As Hittell says, "At 
 this time and for some time afterwards, Fremont 
 was represented as a sort of young lion. The
 
 40 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 several trips he had made across the continent 
 and the several able and interesting reports he 
 had published over his name attracted great 
 public attention. He was hardly ever mentioned 
 except in a high-flown hyperbolical phrase. Ben- 
 ton was one of the most influential men of his day, 
 and it soon became well understood that the 
 surest way of reaching the father-in-law's favor 
 was by furthering the son-in-law's prospects; 
 everybody that wished to court Benton praised 
 Fremont. Besides this political influence Benton 
 exerted in Fremont's behalf, there was an almost 
 equally strong social influence." It might be added 
 that the nature of his public service had been 
 such as to throw him on his own responsibility, 
 and that he had always gambled with fortune, 
 as in the Bear Flag Revolution already mentioned. 
 His star had ever been in the ascendant. He was a 
 spoiled child of fortune at this time, and bitterly 
 and haughtily resented any check to his ambition. 
 The mixture of his blood gave him that fine sense 
 of the dramatic which so easily descends to posing. 
 His actual accomplishment was without doubt 
 great; but his own appreciation of that accomplish- 
 ment was also undoubtedly great. He was one of 
 those interesting characters whose activities are so
 
 THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION 41 
 
 near the line between great deeds and charlatanism 
 that it is sometimes difficult to segregate the pose 
 from the performance. 
 
 The end of this row for precedence did not 
 come until after the so-called battles at the San 
 Gabriel River and on the Mesa on January 8 and 
 9, 1847. The first of these conflicts is so typical 
 that it is worth a paragraph of description. 
 
 The Californians were posted on the opposite 
 bank of the river. They had about five hundred 
 men, and two pieces of artillery well placed. 
 The bank was elevated some forty feet above the 
 stream and possibly four or six hundred back from 
 the water. The American forces, all told, con- 
 sisted of about five hundred men, but most of 
 them were dismounted. The tactics were ex- 
 ceedingly simple. The Americans merely forded 
 the river, dragged their guns across, put them in 
 position, and calmly commenced a vigorous 
 bombardment. After about an hour and a half 
 of circling about and futile half-attacks, the Cali- 
 fornians withdrew. The total American loss in 
 this and the succeeding "battle," called that of 
 the Mesa, was three killed and twelve wounded. 
 
 After this latter battle, the Californians broke 
 completely and hurtled toward the North. Be-
 
 42 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 yond Los Angeles, near San Fernando, they ran 
 head-on into Fremont and his California battalion 
 marching overland from the North. Fremont 
 had just learned of Stockton's defeat of the 
 Californians and, as usual, he seized the happy 
 chance the gods had offered him. He made 
 haste to assure the Californians through a messen- 
 ger that they would do well to negotiate with him 
 rather than with Stockton. To these suggestions 
 the Californians yielded. Commissioners ap- 
 pointed by both sides then met at Cahuenga on 
 January 13, and elaborated a treaty by which the 
 Californians agreed to surrender their arms and not 
 to serve again during the war, whereupon the vic- 
 tors allowed them to leave the country. Fremont 
 at once proceeded to Los Angeles, where he reported 
 to Kearny and Stockton what had happened. 
 
 In accordance with his foolish determination, 
 Stockton still refused to acknowledge Kearny's 
 direct authority. He appointed Fremont Gover- 
 nor of California, which was one mistake; and 
 Fremont accepted, which was another. Un- 
 doubtedly the latter thought that his pretensions 
 would be supported by personal influence in 
 Washington. From former experience he had 
 every reason to believe so. In this case, however,
 
 THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION 43 
 
 he reckoned beyond the resources of even his 
 powerful father-in-law. Kearny, who seems to 
 have been a direct old war-dog, resolved at once 
 to test his authority. He ordered Fremont to 
 muster the California battalion into the regular 
 service, under his (Kearny *s) command; or, if 
 the men did not wish to do this, to discharge them. 
 This order did not in the least please Fremont. 
 He attempted to open negotiations, but Kearny 
 was in no manner disposed to talk. He said 
 curtly that he had given his orders, and merely 
 wished to know whether or not they would be 
 obeyed. To this, and from one army officer to 
 another, there could be but one answer, and that 
 was in the affirmative. 
 
 Colonel Mason opportunely arrived from Wash- 
 ington with instructions to Fremont either to 
 join his regiment or to resume the explorations 
 on which he had originally been sent to this 
 country. Fremont was still pretending to be 
 Governor, but with nothing to govern. His game 
 was losing at Washington. He could not know 
 this, however, and for some time continued to 
 persist in his absurd claims to governorship. 
 Finally he begged permission of Kearny to form 
 an expedition against Mexico. But it was rather
 
 44 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 late in the day for the spoiled child to ask for 
 favors, and the permission was refused. Upon 
 his return to Washington under further orders, 
 Fremont was court-martialed, and was found 
 guilty of mutiny, disobedience, and misconduct. 
 He was ordered dismissed from the service, but 
 was pardoned by President Polk in view of his past 
 services. He refused this pardon and resigned. 
 
 Fremont was a picturesque figure with a great 
 deal of personal magnetism and dash. The halo of 
 romance has been fitted to his head. There is no 
 doubt that he was a good wilderness traveler, a 
 keen lover of adventure, and a likable personality. 
 He was, however, over-ambitious; he advertised 
 himself altogether too well; and he presumed on 
 the undoubtedly great personal influence he 
 possessed. He has been nicknamed the Path- 
 finder, but a better title would be the Pathfol- 
 lower. He found no paths that had not already 
 been traversed by men before him. Unless the 
 silly sentiment that persistently glorifies such 
 despicable characters as the English Stuarts 
 continues to surround this interesting character 
 with fallacious romance, Fremont will undoubtedly 
 take his place in history below men now more 
 obscure but more solid than he was. His services
 
 THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION 45 
 
 and his ability were both great. If he, his friends, 
 and historians had been content to rest his fame 
 on actualities, his position would be high and 
 honorable. The presumption of so much more 
 than the man actually did or was has the unfortu- 
 nate effect of minimizing his real accomplishment.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 LAW MILITARY AND CTVIL 
 
 THE military conquest of California was now an 
 accomplished fact. As long as hostilities should 
 continue in Mexico, California must remain under a 
 military government, and such control was at once 
 inaugurated. The questions to be dealt with, as 
 may well be imagined, were delicate in the extreme. 
 In general the military Governors handled such 
 questions with tact and efficiency. This ability 
 was especially true in the case of Colonel Mason, 
 who succeeded General Kearny. The under- 
 standing displayed by this man in holding back 
 the over-eager Americans on one side, and in 
 mollifying the sensitive Californians on the other, 
 is worthy of all admiration. 
 
 The Mexican laws were, in lack of any others, 
 supposed to be enforced. Under this system all 
 trials, except of course those having to do with 
 military affairs, took place before officials called 
 
 46
 
 LAW MILITARY AND CIVIL 47 
 
 alcaldes, who acknowledged no higher authority 
 than the Governor himself, and enforced the 
 laws as autocrats. The new military Governors 
 took over the old system bodily and appointed 
 new alcaldes where it seemed necessary. The 
 new alcaldes neither knew nor cared anything 
 about the old Mexican law and its provisions. 
 This disregard cannot be wondered at, for even a 
 cursory examination of the legal forms convinces 
 one that they were meant more for the enormous 
 leisure of the old times than for the necessities 
 of the new. In the place of Mexican law each 
 alcalde attempted to substitute his own sense of 
 justice and what recollection of common-law 
 principles he might be able to summon. These 
 common-law principles were not technical in the 
 modern sense of the word, nor were there any 
 printed or written statutes containing them. In 
 this case they were simply what could be recalled 
 by non-technical men of the way in which business 
 had been conducted and disputes had been arranged 
 back in their old homes. But their main reliance 
 was on their individual sense of justice. As 
 Hittell points out, even well-read lawyers who 
 happened to be made alcaldes soon came to pay 
 little attention to technicalities ard to seek the
 
 48 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 merit of cases without regard to rules or forms. 
 All the administration of the law was in the hands 
 of these alcaldes. Mason, who once made the ex- 
 periment of appointing a special court at Sutter's 
 Fort to try a man known as Growling Smith for 
 the murder of Indians, afterwards declared that he 
 would not do it again except in the most extra- 
 ordinary emergency, as the precedent was bad. 
 
 As may well be imagined, this uniquely in- 
 dividualistic view of the law made interesting 
 legal history. Many of the incumbents were of 
 the rough diamond type. Stories innumerable 
 are related of them. They had little regard for 
 the external dignity of the court, but they strongly 
 insisted on its discipline. Many of them sat with 
 their feet on the desk, chewing tobacco, and 
 whittling a stick. During a trial one of the 
 counsel referred to his opponent as an "oscillating 
 Tarquin." The judge roared out "A what?" 
 
 "An oscillating Tarquin, your honor." 
 
 The judge's chair came down with a thump. 
 
 "If this honorable court knows herself, and she 
 thinks she do, that remark is an insult to this 
 honorable court, and you are fined two ounces." 
 
 Expostulation was cut short. 
 
 "Silence, sir! This honorable court won't
 
 LAW MILITARY AND CIVIL 49 
 
 tolerate cussings and she never goes back on her 
 decisions ! " 
 
 And she didn't! 
 
 Nevertheless a sort of rough justice was gen- 
 erally accomplished. These men felt a respon- 
 sibility. In addition they possessed a grim 
 commonsense earned by actual experience. 
 
 There is an instance of a priest from Santa 
 Clara, sued before the alcalde of San Jose for a 
 breach of contract. His plea was that as a 
 churchman he was not amenable to civil law. 
 The American decided that, while he could not 
 tell what peculiar privileges a clergyman enjoyed 
 as a priest, it was quite evident that when he 
 departed from his religious calling and entered 
 into a secular bargain with a citizen he placed 
 himself on the same footing as the citizen, and 
 should be required like anybody else to comply 
 with his agreement. This principle, which was 
 good sense, has since become good law. 
 
 The alcalde refused to be bound by trivial 
 concerns. A Mexican was accused of stealing 
 a pair of leggings. He was convicted and fined 
 three ounces for stealing, while the prosecuting 
 witness was also fined one ounce for bothering 
 the court with such a complaint. On another
 
 50 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 occasion the defendant, on being fined, was found 
 to be totally insolvent. The alcalde thereupon 
 ordered the plaintiff to pay the fine and costs 
 for the reason that the court could not be expected 
 to sit without remuneration. Though this na'ive 
 system worked out well enough in the new and 
 primitive community, nevertheless thinking men 
 realized that it could be for a short time only. 
 
 As long as the war with Mexico continued, 
 naturally California was under military Governors, 
 but on the declaration of peace military govern- 
 ment automatically ceased. Unfortunately, ow- 
 ing to strong controversies as to slavery or 
 non-slavery, Congress passed no law organizing 
 California as a territory; and the status of the 
 newly-acquired possession was far from clear. 
 The people held that, in the absence of congres- 
 sional action, they had the right to provide for 
 their own government. On the other hand, 
 General Riley contended that the laws of Cali- 
 fornia obtained until supplanted by act of Con- 
 gress. He was under instructions as Governor to 
 enforce this view, which was, indeed, sustained 
 by judicial precedents. But for precedents the 
 inhabitants cared little. They resolved to call 
 a constitutional convention. After considerable
 
 LAW MILITARY AND CIVIL 51 
 
 negotiation and thought, Governor Riley resolved 
 to accede to the wishes of the people. An election 
 of delegates was called and the constitutional 
 convention met at Monterey, September 1, 1849. 
 
 Parenthetically it is to be noticed that this 
 event took place a considerable time after the 
 first discovery of gold. It can in no sense be 
 considered as a sequel to that fact. The numbers 
 from the gold rush came in later. The con- 
 stitutional convention was composed mainly of 
 men who had previous interests in the country. 
 They were representative of the time and place. 
 The oldest delegate was fifty-three years and the 
 youngest twenty-five years old. Fourteen were 
 lawyers, fourteen were farmers, nine were mer- 
 chants, five were soldiers, two were printers, one 
 was a doctor, and one described himself as "a 
 gentleman of elegant leisure." 
 
 The deliberations of this body are very interest- 
 ing reading. Such a subject is usually dry in the 
 extreme; but here we have men assembled from 
 all over the world trying to piece together a form 
 of government from the experiences of the different 
 communities from which they originally came. 
 Many Spanish Californians were represented on 
 the floor. The different points brought up and
 
 52 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 discussed, in addition to those finally incorporated 
 in the constitution, are both a valuable measure 
 of the degree of intelligence at that time, and an 
 indication of what men considered important in 
 the problems of the day. The constitution 
 itself was one of the best of the thirty-one state 
 constitutions that then existed. Though almost 
 every provision in it was copied from some other 
 instrument, the choice was good. A provision 
 prohibiting slavery was carried by a unanimous 
 vote. When the convention adjourned, the new 
 commonwealth was equipped with all the neces- 
 sary machinery for regular government. 1 
 
 It is customary to say that the discovery of 
 gold made the State of California. As a matter 
 of fact, it introduced into the history of California 
 a new solvent, but it was in no sense a determining 
 factor in either the acquisition or the assuring 
 of the American hold. It must not be forgotten 
 that a rising tide of American immigration had 
 already set in. By 1845 the white population had 
 increased to about eight thousand. At the close 
 of hostilities it was estimated that the white 
 
 1 The constitution was ratified by popular vote, November 13, 
 1849; and the machinery of state government was at once set in 
 motion, though the State was not admitted into the Union until 
 September 9. 1850.
 
 LAW MILITARY AND CIVIL 53 
 
 population had increased to somewhere between 
 twelve and fifteen thousand. Moreover this 
 immigration, though established and constantly 
 growing, was by no means topheavy. There was 
 plenty of room in the north for the Americans, 
 and they were settling there peaceably. Those 
 who went south generally bought their land in 
 due form. They and the Calif ornians were get- 
 ting on much better than is usual with conquering 
 and conquered peoples. 
 
 But the discovery of gold upset all this orderly 
 development. It wiped out the usual evolution. 
 It not only swept aside at once the antiquated 
 Mexican laws, but it submerged for the time being 
 the first stirrings of the commonwealth toward 
 due convention and legislation after the American 
 pattern. It produced an interim wherein the 
 only law was that evolved from men's consciences 
 and the Anglo-Saxon instinct for order. It 
 brought to shores remote from their native lands 
 a cosmopolitan crew whose only thought was 
 a fixed determination to undertake no new re- 
 sponsibilities. Each man was living for himself. 
 He intended to get his own and to protect his own, 
 and he cared very little for the difficulties of his 
 neighbors. In other words, the discovery of gold
 
 54 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 offered California as the blank of a mint to receive 
 the impress of a brand new civilization. And 
 furthermore it gave to these men and, through 
 them, to the world an impressive lesson that social 
 responsibility can be evaded for a time, to be sure, 
 but only for a time; and that at the last it must be 
 taken up and the arrears must be paid.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 GOLD 
 
 THE discovery of gold made, as everyone knows, 
 by James Marshall, a foreman of Sutler's, engaged 
 in building a sawmill for the Captain came at a 
 psychological time. 1 The Mexican War was just 
 over and the adventurous spirits, unwilling to 
 settle down, were looking for new excitement. 
 Furthermore, the hard times of the Forties had 
 blanketed the East with mortgages. Many sober 
 communities were ready, deliberately and without 
 excitement, to send their young men westward 
 in the hope of finding a way out of their financial 
 difficulties. The Oregon question, as has been 
 already indicated, had aroused patriotism to 
 such an extent that westward migration had 
 become a sort of mental contagion. 
 
 It took some time for the first discoveries to 
 leak out, and to be believed after they had gained 
 
 1 January 24, 1848, is the date usually given. 
 
 55
 
 56 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 currency. Even in California itself interest was 
 rather tepid at first. Gold had been found in 
 small quantities many years before, and only the 
 actual sight of the metal in considerable weight 
 could rouse men's imaginations to the blazing point. 
 
 Among the most enthusiastic protagonists was 
 one Sam Brannan, who often appeared after- 
 wards in the pages of Californian history. Bran- 
 nan was a Mormon who had set out from New 
 York with two hundred and fifty Mormons to 
 try out the land of California as a possible refuge 
 for the persecuted sect. That the westward 
 migration of Mormons stopped at Salt Lake may 
 well be due to the fact that on entering San 
 Francisco Bay, Brannan found himself just too 
 late. The American flag was already floating 
 over the Presidio. Eye-witnesses say that Bran- 
 nan dashed his hat to the deck, exclaiming, "There 
 is that damned rag again." However, he proved 
 an adaptable creature, for he and his Mormons 
 landed nevertheless, and took up the industries 
 of the country. 
 
 Brannan collected the usual tithes from these 
 men, with the ostensible purpose of sending them 
 on to the Church at Salt Lake. This, however, 
 he consistently failed to do. One of the Mormons,
 
 GOLD 57 
 
 on asking Sutler how long they should be expected 
 to pay these tithes, received the answer, "As 
 long as you are fools enough to do so." But they 
 did not remain fools very much longer, and Bran- 
 nan found himself deprived of this source of 
 revenue. On being dunned by Brigham Young 
 for the tithes already collected, Brannan blandly 
 resigned from the Church, still retaining the assets. 
 With this auspicious beginning, aided by a burly, 
 engaging personality, a coarse, direct manner that 
 appealed to men, and an instinct for the lime- 
 light, he went far. Though there were a great 
 many admirable traits in his character, people 
 were forced to like him in spite of rather than 
 because of them. His enthusiasm for any public 
 agitation was always on tap. 
 
 In the present instance he rode down from 
 Sutler's Fort, where he then had a store, bringing 
 with him gold-dust and nuggets from the new 
 placers. "Gold! Gold! Gold from the American 
 River!" shouted Brannan, as he strode down the 
 street, swinging his hat in one hand and holding 
 aloft the bottle of gold-dust in the other. This he 
 displayed to the crowd that immediately gathered. 
 With such a start, this new interest brought about 
 a stampede that nearly depopulated the city.
 
 58 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 The fever spread. People scrambled to the 
 mines from all parts of the State. Practically 
 every able-bodied man in the community, except 
 the Spanish Californians, who as usual did not 
 join this new enterprise with any unanimity, 
 took at least a try at the diggings. Not only did 
 they desert almost every sort of industry, but 
 soldiers left the ranks and sailors the ships, so that 
 often a ship was left in sole charge of its captain. 
 All of American and foreign California moved to 
 the foothills. 
 
 Then ensued the brief period so affectionately 
 described in all literalness as the Arcadian Age. 
 Men drank and gambled and enjoyed themselves 
 in the rough manner of mining camps; but they 
 were hardly ever drunken and in no instance 
 dishonest. In all literalness the miners kept 
 their gold-dust in tin cans and similar recep- 
 tacles, on shelves, unguarded in tents or open 
 cabins. Even quarrels and disorder were practi- 
 cally unknown. The communities were indivi- 
 dualistic in the extreme, and yet, with the 
 Anglo-Saxon love of order, they adopted rules and 
 regulations and simple forms of government that 
 proved entirely adequate to their needs. When 
 the "good old days" arfe mentioned with the
 
 GOLD 59 
 
 lingering regret associated with that phrase, the 
 reference is to this brief period that came between 
 the actual discovery and appreciation of gold and 
 the influx from abroad that came in the following 
 
 years. 
 
 This condition was principally due to the class 
 of men concerned. The earliest miners were a very 
 different lot from the majority of those who arrived 
 in the next few years. They were mostly the origi- 
 nal population, who had come out either as pioneers 
 or in the government service. They included 
 the discharged soldiers of Stevenson's regiment of 
 New York Volunteers, who had been detailed 
 for the war but who had arrived a little late, the 
 so-called Mormon Battalion, Sam Brannan's im- 
 migrants, and those who had come as settlers 
 since 1842. They were a rough lot with both the 
 virtues and the defects of the pioneer. Neverthe- 
 less among their most marked characteristics were 
 their honesty and their kindness. Hittell gives 
 an incident that illustrates the latter trait very 
 well. "It was a little camp, the name of which 
 is not given and perhaps is not important. The 
 day was a hot one when a youth of sixteen 
 came limping along, footsore, weary, hungry, and 
 penniless. There were at least thirty robust
 
 60 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 miners at work in the ravine and it may well be 
 believed they were cheerful, probably now and 
 then joining in a chorus or laughing at a joke. 
 The lad as he saw and heard them sat down upon 
 the bank, his face telling the sad story of his 
 misfortunes. Though he said nothing he was not 
 unobserved. At length one of the miners, a 
 stalwart fellow, pointing up to the poor fellow on 
 the bank, exclaimed to his companions, 'Boys, 
 I'll work an hour for that chap if you will.' All 
 answered in the affirmative and picks and shovels 
 were plied with even more activity than before. 
 At the end of an hour a hundred dollars' worth of 
 gold-dust was poured into his handkerchief. As 
 this was done the miners who had crowded around 
 the grateful boy made out a list of tools and said to 
 him: 'You go now and buy these tools and come 
 back. We'll have a good claim staked out for 
 you; then you've got to paddle for yourself.' ' 
 
 Another reason for this distinguished honesty 
 was the extent and incredible richness of the dig- 
 gings, combined with the firm belief that this rich- 
 ness would last forever and possibly increase. 
 The first gold was often found actually at the 
 roots of bushes, or could be picked out from the 
 veins in the rocks by the aid of an ordinary
 
 GOLD 61 
 
 hunting-knife. Such pockets were, to be sure, 
 by no means numerous; but the miners did not 
 know that. To them it seemed extremely possible 
 that gold in such quantities was to be found 
 almost anywhere for the mere seeking. Authenti- 
 cated instances are known of men getting ten, 
 fifteen, twenty, and thirty thousand dollars within 
 a week or ten days, without particularly hard 
 work. Gold was so' abundant it was much easier 
 to dig it than to steal it, considering the risks 
 attendant on the latter course. A story is told 
 of a miner, while paying for something, dropping a 
 small lump of gold worth perhaps two or three 
 dollars. A bystander picked it up and offered 
 it to him. The miner, without taking it, looked 
 at the man with amazement, exclaiming: "Well, 
 stranger, you are a curiosity. I guess you haven't 
 been in the diggings long. You had better keep 
 that lump for a sample." 
 
 These were the days of the red-shirted miner, of 
 romance, of Arcadian simplicity, of clean, honest 
 working under blue skies and beneath the warm 
 California sun, of immense fortunes made quickly, 
 of faithful "pardners," and all the rest. This life 
 was so complete in all its elements that, as we look 
 back upon it, we unconsciously give it a longer
 
 62 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 period than it actually occupied. It seems to be an 
 epoch, as indeed it was; but it was an epoch of less 
 than a single year, and it ended when the immi- 
 gration from the world at large began. 
 
 The first news of the gold discovery filtered to 
 the east in a roundabout fashion through vessels 
 from the Sandwich Islands. A Baltimore paper 
 published a short item. Everybody laughed at 
 the rumor, for people were already beginning to 
 discount California stories. But they remembered 
 it. Romance, as ever, increases with the square 
 of the distance; and this was a remote land. But 
 soon there came an official letter written by Gover- 
 nor Mason to the War Department wherein he said 
 that in his opinion, "There is more gold in the 
 country drained by the Sacramento and San Joa- 
 quin rivers than would pay the cost of the late 
 war with Mexico a hundred times over." The 
 public immediately was alert. And then, strangely 
 enough, to give direction to the restless spirit 
 seething beneath the surface of society, came a 
 silly popular song. As has happened many times 
 before and since, a great movement was set to 
 the lilt of a commonplace melody. Minstrels 
 started it; the public caught it up. Soon in every 
 quarter of the world were heard the strains of
 
 GOLD 63 
 
 Oh, Susannah! or rather the modification of it made 
 to fit this case: 
 
 
 "I'll scrape the mountains clean, old girl, 
 
 I'll drain the rivers dry. 
 
 I'm off for California, Susannah, don't you cry. 
 Oh, Susannah, don't you cry for me, 
 I'm off to California with my wash bowl on my 
 knee!" 
 
 The public mind already prepared for excitement 
 by the stirring events of the past few years, but 
 now falling into the doldrums of both monoto- 
 nous and hard times, responded eagerly. Every 
 man with a drop of red blood in his veins wanted 
 to go to California. But the journey was a long 
 one, and it cost a great deal of money, and 
 there were such things as ties of family or business 
 impossible to shake off. However, those who saw 
 no immediate prospect of going often joined the 
 curious clubs formed for the purpose of getting 
 at least one or more of their members to the El 
 Dorado. These clubs met once in so often, talked 
 over details, worked upon each other's excitement, 
 even occasionally and officially sent some one of 
 their members to the point of running amuck. 
 Then he usually broke off all responsibilities and 
 rushed headlong to the gold coast.
 
 64 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 The most absurd ideas obtained currency. Stor- 
 ies did not lose in travel. A work entitled Three 
 Weeks in the Gold Mines, written by a menda- 
 cious individual who signed himself H. I. Simp- 
 son, had a wide vogue. It is doubtful if the author 
 had ever been ten miles from New York; but he 
 wrote a marvelous and at the time convincing tale. 
 According to his account, Simpson had only three 
 weeks for a tour of the gold-fields, and considered 
 ten days of the period was all he could spare the 
 unimportant job of picking up gold. In the ten 
 days, however, with no other implements than 
 a pocket-knife, he accumulated fifty thousand 
 dollars. The rest of the time he really preferred 
 to travel about viewing the country! He con- 
 descended, however, to pick up incidental nuggets 
 that happened to lie under his very footstep. Said 
 one man to his friend: "I believe I'll go. I know 
 most of this talk is wildly exaggerated, but I am 
 sensible enough to discount all that sort of thing 
 and to disbelieve absurd stories. I shan't go with 
 the slightest notion of finding the thing true, but 
 will be satisfied if I do reasonably well. In fact, 
 if I don't pick up more than a hatful of gold a day 
 I shall be perfectly satisfied." 
 
 Men's minds were full of strange positive
 
 GOLD 65 
 
 knowledge, not only as to the extent of the gold- 
 mines, but also as to theory and practice of the 
 actual mining. Contemporary writers tell us of the 
 hundreds and hundreds of different strange ma- 
 chines invented for washing out the gold and actu- 
 ally carried around the Horn or over the Isthmus of 
 Panama to San Francisco. They were of all types, 
 from little pocket-sized affairs up to huge arrange- 
 ments with windmill arms and wings. Their des- 
 tination was inevitably the beach below the San 
 Francisco settlement, where, half buried in the 
 sand, torn by the trade winds, and looted for 
 whatever of value might inhere in the metal parts, 
 they rusted and disintegrated, a pathetic and 
 grisly reminder of the futile greed of men. 
 
 Nor was this excitement confined to the eastern 
 United States. In France itself lotteries were 
 held, called, I believe, the Lotteries of the Golden 
 Ingot. The holders of the winning tickets were 
 given a trip to the gold-fields. A considerable 
 number of French came over in that manner, so 
 that life in California was then, as now, consider- 
 ably leavened by Gallicism. Their ignorance of 
 English together with their national clannishness 
 caused them to stick together in communities. 
 They soon became known as Keskydees. Very
 
 66 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 few people knew why. It was merely the frontiers- 
 men's understanding of the invariable French 
 phrase "Qu'est-ce qu'il dit?" In Great Britain, 
 Norway, to a certain extent in Germany, South 
 America, and even distant Australia, the adven- 
 turous and impecunious were pricking up their 
 ears and laying their plans. 
 
 There were offered three distinct channels for 
 this immigration. The first of these was by sailing 
 around Cape Horn. This was a slow but fairly 
 comfortable and reasonably safe route. It was 
 never subject to the extreme overcrowding of the 
 Isthmus route, and it may be dismissed in this 
 paragraph. The second was by the overland 
 route, of which there were several trails. The 
 third was by the Isthmus of Panama. Each of 
 these two is worth a chapter, and we shall take up 
 the overland migration first.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 ACROSS THE PLAINS 
 
 THE overland migration attracted the more hardy 
 and experienced pioneers, and also those whose 
 assets lay in cattle and farm equipment rather 
 than in money. The majority came from the 
 more western parts of the then United States, and 
 therefore comprised men who had already some 
 experience in pioneering. As far as the Mississippi 
 or even Kansas these parties generally traveled 
 separately or in small groups from a single locality. 
 Before starting over the great plains, however, it 
 became necessary to combine into larger bands 
 for mutual aid and protection. Such recognized 
 meeting-points were therefore generally in a state 
 of congestion. Thousands of people with their 
 equipment and animals were crowded together in 
 some river-bottom awaiting the propitious mo- 
 ment for setting forth. 
 
 The journey ordinarily required about five 
 67
 
 68 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 months, provided nothing untoward happened 
 in the way of delay. A start in the spring there- 
 fore allowed the traveler to surmount the Sierra 
 Nevada mountains before the first heavy snow- 
 falls. One of the inevitable anxieties was whether 
 or not this crossing could be safely accomplished. 
 At first the migration was thoroughly orderly and 
 successful. As the stories from California became 
 more glowing, and as the fever for gold mounted 
 higher, the pace accelerated. 
 
 A book by a man named Harlan, written in 
 the County Farm to which his old age had brought 
 him, gives a most interesting picture of the times. 
 His party consisted of fourteen persons, one of 
 whom, Harlan's grandmother, was then ninety 
 years old and blind! There were also two very 
 small children. At Indian Creek in Kansas they 
 caught up with the main body of immigrants and 
 soon made up their train. He says: "We pro- 
 ceeded very happily until we reached the South 
 Platte. Every night we young folks had a dance 
 on the green prairie." Game abounded, the 
 party was in good spirits and underwent no 
 especial hardships, and the Indian troubles fur- 
 nished only sufficient excitement to keep the 
 men interested and alert. After leaving Salt
 
 ACROSS THE PLAINS 69 
 
 Lake, however, the passage across the desert 
 suddenly loomed up as a terrifying thing. "We 
 started on our passage over this desert in the 
 early morning, trailed all next day and all night, 
 and on the morning of the third day our guide 
 told us that water was still twenty-five miles 
 away. William Harlan here lost his seven yoke 
 of oxen. The man who was in charge of them went 
 to sleep, and the cattle turned back and recrossed 
 the desert or perhaps died there. . . . Next day I 
 started early and drove till dusk, as I wished to 
 tire the cattle so that they would lie down and 
 give me a chance to sleep. They would rest for 
 two or three hours and then try to go back 
 home to their former range." The party won 
 through, however, and descended into the smil- 
 ing valleys of California, ninety-year-old lady 
 and all. 
 
 These parties which were hastily got together for 
 the mere purpose of progress soon found that they 
 must have some sort of government to make the 
 trip successful. A leader was generally elected to 
 whom implicit obedience was supposed to be 
 accorded. Among independent and hot-headed 
 men quarrels were not infrequent. A rough sort 
 of justice was, however, invoked by vote of the
 
 70 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 majority. Though a "split of blankets" was not 
 unknown, usually the party went through under 
 one leadership. Fortunate were those who pos< 
 sessed experienced men as leaders, or who in 
 hiring the services of one of the numerous plains 
 guides obtained one of genuine experience. In- 
 experience and graft were as fatal then as now. 
 It can well be imagined what disaster could 
 descend upon a camping party in a wilderness 
 such as the Old West, amidst the enemies which 
 that wilderness supported. It is bad enough 
 today when inexperienced people go to camp 
 by a lake near a farm-house. Moreover, at that 
 time everybody was in a hurry, and many sus- 
 pected that the other man was trying to obtain 
 an advantage. 
 
 Hittell tells of one ingenious citizen who, in 
 trying to keep ahead of his fellow immigrants as 
 he hurried along, had the bright idea of setting 
 on fire and destroying the dry grass in order to 
 retard the progress of the parties behind. Grass 
 was scarce enough in the best circumstances, and 
 the burning struck those following with starvation. 
 He did not get very far, however, before he was 
 caught by a posse who mounted their best horses 
 for pursuit. They shot him from his saddle and
 
 ACROSS THE PLAINS 71 
 
 turned back. This attempt at monopoly was thus 
 nipped in the bud. 
 
 Probably there would have been more of this 
 sort of thing had it not been for the constant 
 menace of the Indians. The Indian attack on the 
 immigrant train has become so familiar through 
 Wild West shows and so-called literature that it 
 is useless to redescribe it here. Generally the 
 object was merely the theft of horses, but occa- 
 sionally a genuine attack, followed in case of 
 success by massacre, took place. An experience 
 of this sort did a great deal of good in holding 
 together not only the parties attacked, but also 
 those who afterwards heard of the attempt. 
 
 There was, however, another side to the shield, 
 a very encouraging and cheerful side. For 
 example, some good-hearted philanthropist es- 
 tablished a kind of reading-room and post-office 
 in the desert near the headwaters of the Humboldt 
 River. He placed it in a natural circular wall of 
 rock by the road, shaded by a lone tree. The 
 original founder left a lot of newspapers on a 
 stone seat inside the wall with a written notice 
 to "Read and leave them for others." 
 
 Many trains, well equipped, well formed, well 
 led, went through without trouble indeed, with
 
 72 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 real pleasure. Nevertheless the overwhelming 
 testimony is on the other side. Probably this was 
 due in large part to the irritability that always 
 seizes the mind of the tenderfoot when he is con- 
 fronted by wilderness conditions. A man who is a 
 perfectly normal and agreeable citizen in his own 
 environment becomes a suspicious half-lunatic 
 when placed in circumstances uncomfortable and 
 unaccustomed. It often happened that people 
 were obliged to throw things away in order to 
 lighten their loads. When this necessity occurred, 
 they generally seemed to take an extraordinary 
 delight in destroying their property rather than in 
 leaving it for anybody else who might come along. 
 Hittell tells us that sugar was often ruined by 
 having turpentine poured over it, and flour was 
 mixed with salt and dirt; wagons were burned; 
 clothes were torn into shreds and tatters. All of 
 this destruction was senseless and useless, and was 
 probably only a blind and instinctive reaction 
 against hardships. 
 
 Those hardships were considerable. It is esti- 
 mated that during the height of the overland 
 migration in the spring of 1849 no less than fifty 
 thousand people started out. The wagon trains fol- 
 lowed almost on one another's heels, so hot was the
 
 ACROSS THE PLAINS 73 
 
 pace. Not only did the travelers wish to get to 
 the Sierras before the snows blocked the passes, 
 not only were they eager to enter the gold mines, 
 but they were pursued by the specter of cholera 
 in the concentration camps along the Mississippi 
 Valley. This scourge devastated these gatherings. 
 It followed the men across the plains like some 
 deadly wild beast, and was shaken off only 
 when the high clear climate of desert altitude was 
 eventually reached. 
 
 But the terrible part of the journey began with 
 the entrance into the great deserts, like that of 
 the Humboldt Sink. There the conditions were 
 almost beyond belief. Thousands were left be- 
 hind, fighting starvation, disease, and the loss of 
 cattle. Women who had lost their husbands from 
 the deadly cholera went staggering on without 
 food or water, leading their children. The trail 
 was literally lined with dead animals. Often in 
 the middle of the desert could be seen the camps 
 of death, the wagons drawn in a circle, the dead 
 animals tainting the air, every living human being 
 crippled from scurvy and other diseases. There 
 was no fodder for the cattle, and very little water, 
 The loads had to be lightened almost every mile 
 by the discarding of valuable goods. Many of
 
 74 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 the immigrants who survived the struggle reached 
 the goal in an impoverished condition. The road 
 was bordered with an almost unbroken barrier of 
 abandoned wagons, old mining implements, clothes, 
 provisions, and the like. As the cattle died, the 
 problem of merely continuing the march became 
 worse. Often the rate of progress was not more 
 than a mile every two or three hours. Each mile 
 had to be relayed back and forth several times. 
 And when this desert had sapped their strength, 
 they came at last to the Sink itself, with its long 
 white fields of alkali with drifts of ashes across 
 them, so soft that the cattle sank half-way to their 
 bellies. The dust was fine and light and rose 
 chokingly; the sun was strong and fierce. All but 
 the strongest groups of pioneers seemed to break 
 here. The retreats became routs. Each one put 
 out for himself with what strength he had left. 
 The wagons were emptied of everything but the 
 barest necessities. At every stop some animal fell 
 in the traces and had to be cut out of the yoke. 
 If a wagon came to a full stop, it was abandoned. 
 The animals were detached and driven forward. 
 And when at last they reached the Humboldt River 
 itself, they found it almost impossible to ford. 
 The best feed lay on the other side. In the
 
 ACROSS THE PLAINS 75 
 
 distance the high and forbidding ramparts of the 
 Sierra Nevadas reared themselves. 
 
 One of these Forty-niners, Delano, a man of 
 some distinction in the later history of the mining 
 communities, says that five men drowned them- 
 selves in the Humboldt River in one day out of 
 sheer discouragement. He says that he had to 
 save the lives of his oxen by giving Indians fifteen 
 dollars to swim the river and float some grass 
 across to him. And with weakened cattle, dis- 
 couraged hearts, no provisions, the travelers 
 had to tackle the high rough road that led across 
 the mountains. 
 
 Of course, the picture just drawn is of the 
 darkest aspect. Some trains there were under 
 competent pioneers who knew their job; who 
 were experienced in wilderness travel; who under- 
 stood better than to chase madly away after every 
 cut-off reported by irresponsible trappers; who 
 comprehended the handling and management of 
 cattle; who, in short, knew wilderness travel. 
 These came through with only the ordinary hard- 
 ships. But take it all in all, the overland trail 
 was a trial by fire. One gets a notion of its deadli- 
 ness from the fact that over five thousand people 
 died of cholera alone. The trail was marked
 
 76 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 throughout its length by the shallow graves of 
 those who had succumbed. He who arrived in 
 California was a different person from the one 
 who had started from the East. Experience had 
 even in so short a time fused his elements into 
 something new. This alteration must not be 
 forgotten when we turn once more to the internal 
 affairs of the new commonwealth.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE MORMONS 
 
 IN the westward overland migration the Salt Lake 
 Valley Mormons played an important part. These 
 strange people had but recently taken up their 
 abode in the desert. That was a fortunate circum- 
 stance, as their necessities forced them to render 
 an aid to the migration that in better days would 
 probably have been refused. 
 
 The founder of the Mormon Church, Joseph 
 Smith, Jr., came from a commonplace family. 
 Apparently its members were ignorant and super- 
 stitious. They talked much of hidden treasure and 
 of supernatural means for its discovery. They be- 
 lieved in omens, signs, and other superstitions. As 
 a boy Joseph had been shrewd enough and super- 
 stitious enough to play this trait up for all it was 
 worth. He had a magic peep-stone and a witch- 
 hazel divining-rod that he manipulated so skill- 
 fully as to cause other boys and even older men 
 
 77
 
 78 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 to dig for him as he wished. He seemed to delight 
 in tricking his companions in various ways, by tell- 
 ing fortunes, reeling off tall yarns, and posing as 
 one possessed of occult knowledge. 
 
 According to Joseph's autobiography, the dis- 
 covery of the Mormon Bible happened in this wise: 
 on the night of September 21, 1823, a vision fell 
 upon him; the angel Moroni appeared and directed 
 him to a cave on the hillside; in this cave he found 
 some gold plates, on which were inscribed strange 
 characters, written in what Smith described as 
 "reformed Egyptian"; they were undecipherable 
 except by the aid of a pair of magic peep-stones 
 named Urim and Thummim, delivered him for the 
 purpose by the angel at Palmyra; looking through 
 the hole in these peep-stones, he was able to inter- 
 pret the gold plates. This was the skeleton of the 
 story embellished by later ornamentation in the 
 way of golden breastplates, two stones bright and 
 shining, golden plates united at the back by rings, 
 the sword of Laban, square stone boxes, cemented 
 clasps, invisible blows, suggestions of Satan, and 
 similar mummery born from the quickened imagi- 
 nation of a zealot. 
 
 Smith succeeded in interesting one Harris to 
 act as his amanuensis in his interpretation of these 

 
 THE MORMONS 79 
 
 books of Mormon. The future prophet sat be- 
 hind a screen with the supposed gold plates in his 
 hat. He dictated through the stones Urim and 
 Thummim. With a keen imagination and natural 
 aptitude for the strikingly dramatic, he was able 
 to present formally his ritual, tabernacle, holy of 
 holies, priesthood and tithings, constitution and 
 councils, blood atonement, anointment, twelve 
 apostles, miracles, his spiritual manifestations and 
 revelations, all in reminiscence of the religious 
 tenets of many lands. 
 
 Such religious movements rise and fall at peri- 
 odic intervals. Sometimes they are never heard 
 of outside the small communities of their birth; 
 at other times they arise to temporary nation-wide 
 importance, but they are unlucky either in leader- 
 ship or environment and so perish. The Mormon 
 Church, however, was fortunate in all respects. 
 Smith was in no manner a successful leader, but 
 he made a good prophet. He was strong physi- 
 cally, was a great wrestler, and had an abundance 
 of good nature; he was personally popular with the 
 type of citizen with whom he was thrown. He 
 could impress the ignorant mind with the reality of 
 his revelations and the potency of his claims. He 
 could impress the more intelligent, but half un-
 
 80 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 scrupulous, half fanatical minds of the leaders with 
 the power of his idea and the opportunities offered 
 for leadership. 
 
 Two men of the latter type were Parley P. Pratt 
 and Sidney Rigdon. The former was of the narrow, 
 strong, fanatic type; the latter had the cool con- 
 structive brain that gave point, direction, and 
 consistency to the Mormon system of theology. 
 Had it not been for such leaders and others like 
 them, it is quite probable that the Smith move- 
 ment would have been lost like hundreds of 
 others. That Smith himself lasted so long as 
 the head of the Church, with the powers and 
 perquisites of that position, can be explained 
 by the fact that, either by accident or shrewd 
 design, his position before the unintelligent masses 
 had been made impregnable. If it was not 
 true that Joseph Smith had received the golden 
 plates from an angel and had translated them 
 again with the assistance of an angel and had 
 received from heaven the revelations vouchsafed 
 from time to time for the explicit guidance of the 
 Church in moral, temporal, and spiritual matters, 
 then there was no Book of Mormon, no new revela- 
 tion, no Mormon Church. The dethronement of 
 Smith meant that there could be no successor
 
 THE MORMONS 81 
 
 to Smith, for there would be nothing to which 
 to succeed. The whole church structure must 
 crumble with him. 
 
 The time was psychologically right. Occa- 
 sionally a contagion of religious need seems to 
 sweep the country. People demand manifesta- 
 tions and signs, and will flock to any who can 
 promise them. To this class the Book of Mormon, 
 with its definite sort of mysticism, appealed 
 strongly. The promises of a new Zion were con- 
 crete; the power was centralized, so that people 
 who had heretofore been floundering in doubt felt 
 they could lean on authority, and shake off the 
 personal responsibility that had weighed them 
 down. The Mormon communities grew fast, and 
 soon began to send out proselyting missionaries. 
 England was especially a fruitful field for these 
 missionaries. The great manufacturing towns 
 were then at their worst, containing people des- 
 perately ignorant, superstitious, and so deeply 
 poverty-stricken that the mere idea of owning 
 land of their own seemed to them the height of 
 affluence. Three years after the arrival of the 
 missionaries the general conference reported 4019 
 converts in England alone. These were good 
 material in the hands of strong, fanatical, or un-
 
 82 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 scrupulous leaders. They were religious enthusi- 
 asts, of course, who believed they were coming to 
 a real city of Zion. Most of them were in debt to 
 the Church for the price of their passage, and their 
 expenses. They were dutiful in their acceptance 
 of miracles, signs, and revelations. The more 
 intelligent among them realized that, having come 
 so far and invested in the enterprise their all, it was 
 essential that they accept wholly the discipline 
 and authority of the Church. 
 
 Before their final migration to Utah, the Mor- 
 mons made three ill-fated attempts to found the 
 city of Zion, first in Ohio, then in western Mis- 
 souri, and finally, upon their expulsion from 
 Missouri, at Nauvoo in Illinois. In every case 
 they both inspired and encountered opposition 
 and sometimes persecution. As the Mormons 
 increased in power, they became more self-suf- 
 ficient and arrogant. They at first presumed to 
 dictate politically, and fhen actually began to 
 consider themselves a separate political entity. 
 One of their earliest pieces of legislation, under the 
 act incorporating the city of Nauvoo, was an 
 ordinance to protect the inhabitants of the Mor- 
 mon communities from all outside legal processes. 
 No writ for the arrest of any Mormon inhabitants
 
 THE MORMONS 83 
 
 of any Mormon city could be executed until it had 
 received the mayor's approval. By way of a mild 
 and adequate penalty, anyone violating this ordi- 
 nance was to be imprisoned for life with no power 
 of pardon in the governor without the mayor's 
 consent. 
 
 Of course this was a welcome opportunity for the 
 lawless and desperate characters of the surround- 
 ing country. They became Mormon to a man. 
 Under the shield of Mormon protection they could 
 steal and raid to their heart's content. Land 
 speculators also came into the Church, and bought 
 land in the expectation that New Zion property 
 would largely rise. Banking grew somewhat 
 frantic. Complaints became so bitter that even 
 the higher church authorities were forced to 
 take cognizance of the practices. In 1840 Smith 
 himself said: "We are no longer at war, and you 
 must stop stealing. When the right time comes, 
 we will go in force and take the whole State 
 of Missouri. It belongs to us as our inheritance, 
 but I want no more petty stealing. A man that 
 will steal petty articles from his enemies will, 
 when occasion offers, steal from his brethren too. 
 Now I command you that have stolen must steal 
 no more. "
 
 84 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 At Nauvoo, on the eastern bank of the Missis- 
 sippi, they built a really pretentious and beautiful 
 city, and all but completed a temple that was, from 
 every account, creditable. However, their arro- 
 gant relations with their neighbors and the extreme 
 isolation in which they held themselves soon earned 
 them the dislike and distrust of those about them. 
 The practice of polygamy had begun, although 
 even to the rank and file of the Mormons them- 
 selves the revelation commanding it was as yet 
 unknown. Still, rumors had leaked forth. The 
 community, already severely shocked in its eco- 
 nomic sense, was only too ready to be shocked in 
 its moral sense, as is the usual course of human 
 nature. The rather wild vagaries of the converts, 
 too, aroused distrust and disgust in the sober 
 minds of the western pioneers. At religious meet- 
 ings converts would often arise to talk in gibberish 
 utterly nonsensical gibberish. This was called 
 a "speaking with tongues," and could be trans- 
 lated by the speaker or a bystander in any way 
 he saw fit, without responsibility for the saying. 
 This was an easy way of calling a man names 
 without standing behind it, so to speak. The 
 congregation saw visions, read messages on stones 
 picked up in the field messages which disap-
 
 THE MORMONS 85 
 
 peared as soon as interpreted. They had fits in 
 meetings, they chased balls of fire through the 
 fields, they saw wonderful lights in the air, hi 
 short they went through all the hysterical vagaries 
 formerly seen also in the Methodist revivals under 
 John Wesley. 
 
 Turbulence outside was accompanied by tur- 
 bulence within. Schisms occurred. Branches 
 were broken off from the Church. The great 
 temporal power and wealth to w r hich, owing to the 
 obedience and docility of the rank and file, the 
 leaders had fallen practically sole heirs, had gone 
 to their heads. The Mormon Church gave every 
 indication of breaking up into disorganized smaller 
 units, when fortunately for it the prophet Joseph 
 Smith and his brother Hyrum were killed by a mob. 
 This martyrdom consolidated the church body 
 once more; and before disintegrating influences 
 could again exert themselves, the reins of power 
 were seized by the strong hand of a remarkable 
 man, Brigham Young, who thrust aside the logical 
 successor, Joseph Smith's son. 
 
 Young was an uneducated man, but with a deep 
 insight into human nature. A shrewd practical 
 ability and a rugged intelligence, combined with 
 absolute cold-blooded unscrupulousness in attaining
 
 86 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 his ends, were qualities amply sufficient to put 
 Young in the front rank of the class of people who 
 composed the Mormon Church. He early estab- 
 lished a hierarchy of sufficient powers so that 
 always he was able to keep the strong men of the 
 Church loyal to the idea he represented. He paid 
 them well, both in actual property and in power 
 that was dearer to them than property. Further- 
 more, whether or not he originated polygamy, he 
 not only saw at once its uses in increasing the 
 population of the new state and in taking care of 
 the extra women such fanatical religions always 
 attract, but also, more astutely, he realized that 
 the doctrine of polygamy would set his people apart 
 from all other people, and probably call down upon 
 them the direct opposition of the Federal Govern- 
 ment. A feeling of persecution, opposition, and 
 possible punishment were all potent to segregate 
 the Mormon Church from the rest of humanity 
 and to assure its coherence. Further, he under- 
 stood thoroughly the results that can be obtained 
 by cooperation of even mediocre people under able 
 leadership. He placed his people apart by thor- 
 oughly impressing upon their minds the idea of 
 their superiority to the rest of the world. They 
 were the chosen people, hitherto scattered, but now
 
 THE MORMONS 87 
 
 at last gathered together. His followers had just the 
 degree of intelligence necessary to accept leadership 
 gracefully and to rejoice in a supposed superiority 
 because of a sense of previous inferiority. 
 
 This ductile material Brigham welded to his own 
 forms. He was able to assume consistently an 
 appearance of uncouth ignorance in order to retain 
 his hold over his uncultivated flock. He delivered 
 vituperative, even obscene sermons, which may 
 still be read in his collected works. But he was 
 able also on occasions, as when addressing agents 
 of the Federal Government or other outsiders 
 whom he wished to impress, to write direct and 
 dignified English. He was resourceful in obtain- 
 ing control over the other strong men of his 
 Church; but by his very success he was blinded to 
 due proportions. There can be little doubt that at 
 one time he thought he could defy the United States 
 by force of arms. He even maintained an organi- 
 zation called the Danites, sometimes called the 
 Destroying Angels, who carried out his decrees. r 
 
 Brigham could welcome graciously and leave 
 
 1 The Mormon Church has always denied the existence of any such 
 organization; but the weight of evidence is against the Church. In 
 one of his discourses, Young seems inadvertently to have admitted the 
 existence of the Danites. The organization dates from the sojourn of the 
 Mormons in Missouri. See Linn, The Story of the Mormons, pp. 189-192.
 
 88 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 a good impression upon important visitors. He 
 was not a good business man, however, and almost 
 every enterprise he directly undertook proved to 
 be a complete or partial failure. He did the most 
 extraordinarily stupid things, as, for instance, when 
 he planned the so-called Cotton wood Canal, the 
 mouth of which was ten feet higher than its source ' 
 Nevertheless he had sense to utilize the business 
 ability of other men, and was a good accumulator 
 of properties. His estate at his death was valued 
 at between two and three million dollars. This 
 was a pretty good saving for a pioneer who had 
 come into the wilderness without a cent of his own, 
 who had always spent lavishly, and who had sup- 
 ported a family of over twenty wives and fifty 
 children all this without a salary as an officer. 
 Tithes were brought to him personally, and he 
 rendered no accounting. He gave the strong men 
 of his hierarchy power and opportunity, played 
 them against each other to keep his own lead, and 
 made holy any of their misdeeds which were not 
 directed against himself. 
 
 The early months of 1846 witnessed a third 
 Mormon exodus. Driven out of Illinois, these 
 Latter-day Saints crossed the Mississippi in or- 
 ganized bands, with Council Bluffs as their first
 
 THE MORMONS 89 
 
 objective. Through the winter and spring some 
 fifteen thousand Mormons with three thousand 
 wagons found their way from camp to camp, 
 through snow, ice, and mud, over the weary stretch 
 of four hundred miles to the banks of the Missouri. 
 The epic of this westward migration is almost 
 biblical. Hardship brought out the heroic in 
 many characters. Like true American pioneers, 
 they adapted themselves to circumstances with 
 fortitude and skill. Linn says: "When a halt 
 occurred, a shoemaker might be seen looking for a 
 stone to serve as a lap-stone in his repair work, 
 or a gunsmith mending a rifle, or a weaver at a 
 wheel or loom. The women learned that the 
 jolting wagons would churn their milk, and when 
 a halt occurred it took them but a short time to 
 heat an oven hollowed out of the hillside, in which 
 to bake the bread already raised. " Colonel Kane 
 says that he saw a piece of cloth, the wool for 
 which was sheared, dyed, spun, and woven, during 
 the march. 
 
 After a winter of sickness and deprivation in 
 camps along "Misery Bottom," as they called the 
 river flats, during which malaria carried off hun- 
 dreds, Brigham Young set out with a pioneer band 
 of a hundred and fifty to find a new Zion. Toward
 
 90 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 the end of July, this expedition by design or chance 
 entered Salt Lake Valley. At sight of the lake 
 glistening in the sun, "Each of us," wrote one of 
 the party, "without saying a word to the other, 
 instinctively, as if by inspiration, raised our hats 
 from our heads, and then, swinging our hats, 
 shouted, 'Hosannah to God and the Lamb!" 
 
 Meantime the first emigration from winter 
 quarters was under way, and in the following 
 spring Young conducted a train of eight hundred 
 wagons across the plains to the great valley where 
 a city of adobe and log houses was already building. 
 The new city was laid off into numbered lots. 
 The Presidency had charge of the distribution of 
 these lots. You may be sure they did not reserve 
 the worst for their use, nor did they place about 
 themselves undesirable neighbors. Immediately 
 after the assignments had been made, various 
 people began at once to speculate in buying and 
 selling according to the location. The spiritual 
 power immediately anathematized this. No one 
 was permitted to trade over property. Any sales 
 were made on a basis of the first cost plus the value 
 of the improvement. A community admirable in 
 almost every way was improvised as though by 
 magic. Among themselves the Mormons were
 
 THE MORMONS 91 
 
 sober, industrious, God-fearing, peaceful. Their 
 difficulties with the nation were yet to come. 
 
 Throughout the year, 1848, the weather was 
 propitious for ploughing and sowing. Before the 
 crops could be gathered, however, provisions ran 
 so low that the large community was in actual 
 danger of starvation. Men were reduced to eating 
 skins of slaughtered animals, the raw hides from 
 the roofs of houses, and even a wild root dug by 
 the miserable Ute Indians. To cap the climax, 
 when finally the crops ripened, they were attacked 
 by an army of crickets that threatened to destroy 
 them utterly. Prayers of desperation were mir- 
 aculously answered by a flight of white sea-gulls 
 that destroyed the invader and saved the crop. 
 Since then this miracle has been many times 
 repeated. 
 
 It was in August, 1849, that the first gold rush 
 began. Some of Brannan's company from Cali- 
 fornia had already arrived with samples of gold- 
 dust. Brigham Young was too shrewd not to 
 discourage all mining desires on the part of his 
 people, and he managed to hold them. The 
 Mormons never did indulge in gold-mining. But 
 the samples served to inflame the ardor of the im- 
 migrants from the east. Their one desire at once
 
 92 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 became to lighten their loads so that they could 
 get to the diggings in the shortest possible time. 
 Then the Mormons began to reap their harvest. 
 Animals worth only twenty-five or thirty dollars 
 would bring two hundred dollars in exchange for 
 goods brought in by the travelers. For a light 
 wagon the immigrants did not hesitate to offer 
 three or four heavy ones, and sometimes a yoke of 
 oxen to boot. Such very desirable things to a new 
 community as sheeting, or spades and shovels, 
 since the miners were overstocked, could be had 
 for almost nothing. Indeed, everything, except 
 coffee and sugar, was about half the wholesale 
 rate in the East. The profit to the Mormons from 
 this migration was even greater in 1850. The 
 gold-seeker sometimes paid as high as a dollar a 
 pound for flour; and, conversely, as many of the 
 wayfarers started out with heavy loads of mining 
 machinery and miscellaneous goods, as is the habit 
 of the tenderfoot camper even unto this day, they 
 had to sell at the buyers' prices. Some of the enter- 
 prising miners had even brought large amounts of 
 goods for sale at a hoped-for profit in California. 
 At Salt Lake City, however, the information was 
 industriously circulated that shiploads of similar 
 merchandise were on their way round the Horn,
 
 THE MORMONS 93 
 
 and consequently the would-be traders often sacri- 
 ficed their own stock. x 
 
 This friendly condition could not, of course, long 
 obtain. Brigham Young's policy of segregation was 
 absolutely opposed to permanent friendly relations. 
 The immigrants on the other hand were violently 
 prejudiced against the Mormon faith. The valley 
 of the Salt Lake seemed to be just the psycho- 
 logical point for the breaking up into fragments of 
 the larger companies that had crossed the plains. 
 The division of property on these separations some- 
 times involved a considerable amount of difficulty. 
 The disputants often applied to the Mormon courts 
 for decision. Somebody was sure to become dis- 
 satisfied and to accuse the courts of undue influ- 
 ence. Rebellion against the decision brought upon 
 them the full force of civil power. For contempt of 
 court they were most severely fined. The fields 
 of the Mormons were imperfectly fenced; the cattle 
 of the immigrants were very numerous. Trespass 
 cases brought heavy remuneration, the value 
 being so much greater for damages than in the 
 States that it often looked to the stranger like an 
 injustice. A protest would be taken before a 
 bishop who charged costs for his decision. An 
 
 1 Linn, The Story of the Mormons, 406.
 
 94 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 unreasonable prejudice against the Mormons often 
 arose from these causes. On the other hand there 
 is no doubt that the immigrants often had right on 
 their side. Not only were the Mormons human 
 beings, with the usual qualities of love of gain and 
 desire to take advantage of their situation; but, 
 further, they belonged to a sect that fostered the 
 belief that they were superior to the rest of man- 
 kind, and that it was actually meritorious to "spoil 
 the Philistines. " 
 
 Many gold-diggers who started out with a com- 
 plete outfit finished their journey almost on foot. 
 Some five hundred of these people got together 
 later in California and compared notes. Finally 
 they drew up a series of affidavits to be sent 
 back home. A petition was presented to Congress 
 charging that many immigrants had been murdered 
 by the Mormons; that, when members of the Mor- 
 mon community became dissatisfied and tried to 
 leave, they were subdued and killed ; that a two per 
 cent tax on the property was levied on those im- 
 migrants compelled to stay through the winter; 
 that justice was impossible to obtain in the Mor- 
 mon courts; that immigrants' mail was opened and 
 destroyed; and that all Mormons were at best 
 treasonable in sentiment. Later the breach be-
 
 THE MORMONS 95 
 
 tween the Mormons and the Americans became 
 more marked, until it culminated in the atrocious 
 Mountain Meadows massacre, which was probably 
 only one of several similar but lesser occurrences. 
 These things, however, are outside of our scope, 
 as they occurred later in history. For the moment, 
 it is only necessary to note that it was extremely 
 fortunate for the gold immigrants, not only that 
 the half-way station had been established by the 
 Mormons, but also that the necessities of the 
 latter forced them to adopt a friendly policy. By 
 the time open enmity had come, the first of the 
 rush had passed and other routes had been well 
 established.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE WAY BY PANAMA 
 
 OF the three roads to California that by Panama 
 was the most obvious, the shortest, and therefore 
 the most crowded. It was likewise the most ex- 
 pensive. To the casual eye this route was also the 
 easiest. You got on a ship in New York, you dis- 
 embarked for a very short land journey, you re- 
 embarked on another ship, and landed at San 
 Francisco. This route therefore attracted the 
 more unstable elements of society. The journey 
 by the plains took a certain grim determination 
 and courage; that by Cape Horn, a slow and 
 persistent patience. 
 
 The route by the Isthmus, on the other hand, 
 allured the impatient, the reckless, and those who 
 were unaccustomed to and undesirous of hard- 
 ships. Most of the gamblers and speculators, 
 for example, as well as the cheaper politicians, 
 went by Panama. 
 
 96
 
 THE WAY BY PANAMA 97 
 
 In October, 1848, the first steamship of the 
 Pacific Steamship Company began her voyage 
 from New York to Panama and San Francisco, 
 and reached her destination toward the end of 
 February. On the Atlantic every old tub that 
 could be made to float so far was pressed into 
 service. Naturally there were many more vessels 
 on the Atlantic side than on the Pacific side, and 
 the greatest congestion took place at Panama. 
 Every man was promised by the shipping agent 
 a through passage, but the shipping agent was 
 careful to remain in New York. 
 
 The overcrowded ships were picturesque though 
 uncomfortable. They were crowded to the guards 
 with as miscellaneous a lot of passengers as were 
 ever got together. It must be remembered that 
 they were mostly young men in the full vigor of 
 youth and thoroughly imbued with the adventur- 
 ous spirit. It must be remembered again, if the 
 reader can think back so far in his own experience, 
 that youth of that age loves to deck itself out both 
 physically and mentally in the trappings of ro- 
 mance. Almost every man wore a red shirt, a slouch 
 hat, a repeating pistol, and a bowie knife; and most 
 of them began at once to grow beards. They came 
 from all parts of the country. The lank Maine
 
 98 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 Yankee elbowed the tall, sallow, black-haired 
 Southerner. Social distinctions soon fell away 
 and were forgotten. No one could tell by speech, 
 manners, or dress whether a man's former status 
 was lawyer, physician, or roustabout. The days 
 were spent in excited discussions of matters per- 
 taining to the new country and the theory and 
 practice of gold-mining. Only two things were 
 said to be capable of breaking in on this inter- 
 minable palaver. One was dolphins and the other 
 the meal-gong. When dolphins appeared, each 
 passenger promptly rushed to the side of the ship 
 and discharged his revolver in a fusillade that was 
 usually harmless. Meal time always caught the 
 majority unawares. They tumbled and jostled 
 down the companionway only to find that the wise 
 and forethoughtful had preempted every chair. 
 There was very little quarreling. A holiday spirit 
 seemed to pervade the crowd. Everybody was more 
 or less elevated in mood and everybody was imbued 
 with the same spirit of comradeship in adventure. 
 But with the sight of shore, the low beach, and 
 the round high bluffs with the castle atop that 
 meant Chagres, this comradeship rather fell 
 apart. Soon a landing was to be made and 
 transportation across the Isthmus had to be ob-
 
 THE WAY BY PANAMA 99 
 
 tained. Men at once became rivals for prompt 
 service. Here, for the first time, the owners of the 
 weird mining-machines already described found 
 themselves at a disadvantage, while those who 
 carried merely the pick, shovel, and small personal 
 equipment were enabled to make a flying start. 
 On the beach there was invariably an immense 
 wrangle over the hiring of boats to go up the river. 
 These were a sort of dug-out with small decks in 
 the bow and in the stern, and with low roofs of 
 palmetto leaves amidships. The fare to Cruces 
 was about fifteen dollars a man. Nobody was 
 in a hurry but the Americans. 
 
 Chagres was a collection of cane huts on level 
 ground, with a swamp at the back. Men and 
 women clad in a single cotton garment lay about 
 smoking cigars. Naked and pot-bellied children 
 played in the mud. On the threshold of the doors, 
 in the huts, fish, bullock heads, hides, and carrion 
 were strewn, all in a state of decomposition, while 
 in the rear was the jungle and a lake of stagnant 
 water with a delicate bordering of greasy blue mud. 
 There was but one hotel, called the Crescent City, 
 which boasted of no floor and no food. The new- 
 comers who were unsupplied with provisions had 
 to eat what they could pick up. Unlearned as yet
 
 100 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 in tropical ways, they wasted a tremendous lot of 
 nervous energy in trying to get the natives started. 
 The natives, calm in the consciousness that there 
 was plenty of demand, refused to be hurried. 
 Many of the travelers, thinking that they had 
 closed a bargain, returned from sightseeing only 
 to find their boat had disappeared. The only safe 
 way was to sit in the canoe until it actually started. 
 
 With luck they got off late in the afternoon, and 
 made ten or twelve miles to Gatun. The journey 
 up the lazy tropical river was exciting and inter- 
 esting. The boatmen sang, the tropic forests came 
 down to the banks with their lilies, shrubs, man- 
 goes, cocos, sycamores, palms; their crimson, 
 purple, and yellow blossoms; their bananas with 
 torn leaves; their butterflies and paroquets; their 
 streamers and vines and scarlet flowers. It was 
 like a vision of fairyland. 
 
 Gatun was a collection of bamboo huts, in- 
 habited mainly by fleas. One traveler tells of 
 attempting to write in his journal, and finding 
 the page covered with fleas before he had inscribed 
 a dozen words. The gold seekers slept in ham- 
 mocks, suspended at such a height that the native 
 dogs found them most convenient back-scratchers. 
 The fleas were not inactive. On all sides the na-
 
 THE WAY BY PANAMA 101 
 
 lives drank, sang, and played monte. It generally 
 rained at night, and the flimsy huts did little to 
 keep out the wet. Such things went far to take 
 away the first enthusiasm and to leave the travel- 
 ers in rather a sad and weary -eyed state. 
 
 By the third day the river narrowed and became 
 swifter. With luck the voyagers reached Gor- 
 gona on a high bluff. This was usually the end 
 of the river journey. Most people bargained for 
 Cruces six miles beyond, but on arrival decided 
 that the Gorgona trail would be less crowded, and 
 with unanimity went ashore there. Here the bar- 
 gaining had to be started all over again, this time 
 for mules. Here also the demand far exceeded 
 the supply, with the usual result of arrogance, 
 indifference, and high prices. The difficult ride 
 led at first through a dark deep wood in clay soil 
 that held water in every depression, seamed with 
 steep eroded ravines and diversified by low passes 
 over projecting spurs of a chain of mountains. 
 There the monkeys and parrots furnished the 
 tropical atmosphere, assisted somewhat by in- 
 numerable dead mules along the trail. Vultures 
 sat in every tree waiting for more things to happen. 
 The trail was of the consistency of very thick mud. 
 In this mud the first mule had naturally left his
 
 102 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 tracks; the next mules trod carefully in the first 
 mule's footprints, and all subsequent mules did 
 likewise. The consequence was a succession of 
 narrow deep holes in the clay into which an animal 
 sank half-way to the shoulder. No power was 
 sufficient to make these mules step anywhere else. 
 Each hole was full of muddy water. When the 
 mule inserted his hoof, water spurted out violently 
 as though from a squirt-gun. Walking was simply 
 impossible. 
 
 All this was merely adventure for the young, 
 strong, and healthy; but the terrible part of the 
 Panama Trail was the number of victims claimed 
 by cholera and fever. The climate and the un- 
 wonted labor brought to the point of exhaustion 
 men unaccustomed to such exertions. They lay 
 flat by the trail as though dead. Many actually 
 did die either from the jungle fever or the yellow- 
 jack. The universal testimony of the times is 
 that this horseback journey seemed interminable; 
 and many speak of being immensely cheered when 
 their Indian stopped, washed his feet in a wayside 
 mudhole, and put on his pantaloons. That in- 
 dicated the proximity, at last, of the city of 
 Panama. 
 
 It was a quaint old place. The two-story
 
 THE WAY BY PANAMA 103 
 
 wooden houses with corridor and verandah across 
 the face of the second story, painted in bright colors, 
 leaned crazily out across the streets. Narrow and 
 mysterious alleys led between them. Ancient 
 cathedrals and churches stood gray with age before 
 the grass-grown plazas. In the outskirts were 
 massive masonry ruins of great buildings, convents, 
 and colleges, some of which had never been finished. 
 The immense blocks lay about the ground in con- 
 fusion, covered by thousands of little plants, or 
 soared against the sky in broken arches and cor- 
 ridors. But in the body of the town, the old 
 picturesque houses had taken on a new and tempor- 
 ary smartness which consisted mostly of canvas 
 signs. The main street was composed of hotels, 
 eating-houses, and assorted hells. At times over a 
 thousand men were there awaiting transportation. 
 Some of them had been waiting a long time, and 
 had used up all their money. They were broke 
 and desperate. A number of American gambling- 
 houses were doing business, and of course the 
 saloons were much in evidence. Foreigners kept 
 two of the three hotels; Americans ran the gam- 
 bling joints; French and Germans kept the restaur- 
 ants. The natives were content to be interested 
 but not entirely idle spectators. There was a
 
 104 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 terrible amount of sickness aggravated by Ameri- 
 can quack remedies. Men rejoiced or despaired 
 according to their dispositions. Every once in a 
 while a train of gold bullion would start back across 
 the Isthmus with mule-loads of huge gold bars, so 
 heavy that they were safe, for no one could carry 
 them off to the jungle. On the other hand there 
 were some returning Californians, drunken and 
 wretched. They delighted in telling with grim joy 
 of the disappointments of the diggings. But prob- 
 ably the only people thoroughly unhappy were the 
 steamship officials. These men had to bear the 
 brunt of disappointment, broken promises, and 
 savage recrimination, if means for going north 
 were not very soon forthcoming. Every once in a 
 while some ship, probably an old tub, would come 
 wallowing to anchor at the nearest point, some 
 eleven miles from the city. Then the raid for 
 transportation took place all over again. There 
 was a limited number of small boats for carrying 
 purposes; and these were pounced on at once by 
 ten times the number they could accommodate. 
 Ships went north scandalously overcrowded and 
 underprovisioned. Mutinies were not infrequent. 
 It took a good captain to satisfy everybody, and 
 there were many bad ones. Some men got so des-
 
 THE WAY BY PANAMA 105 
 
 perate that, with a touching ignorance of geogra- 
 phy, they actually started out in small boats to 
 row to the north. Others attempted the overland 
 route. It may well be believed that the reaction 
 from all this disappointment and delay lifted the 
 hearts of these argonauts when they eventually 
 sailed between the Golden Gates. 
 
 ,This confusion, of course, was worse at the be- 
 ginning. Later the journey was to some extent 
 systematized. The Panama route subsequently 
 became the usual and fashionable way to travel. 
 The ship companies learned how to handle and 
 treat their patrons. In fact, it was said that every 
 jewelry shop in San Francisco carried a large stock 
 of fancy silver speaking-trumpets because of the 
 almost invariable habit of presenting one of 
 these to the captain of the ship by his grateful 
 passengers. One captain swore that he possessed 
 eighteen of them!
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE DIGGINGS 
 
 i 
 
 THE two streams of immigrants, by sea and over- 
 land, thus differed, on the average, in kind. They 
 also landed in the country at different points. The 
 overlanders were generally absorbed before they 
 reached San Francisco. They arrived first at 
 Fort Sutter, whence they distributed themselves; 
 or perhaps they even stopped at one or another of 
 the diggings on their way in. 
 
 Of those coming by sea all landed at San Fran- 
 cisco. A certain proportion of the younger and 
 more enthusiastic set out for the mines, but only 
 after a few days had given them experience of the 
 new city and had impressed them with at least a 
 subconscious idea of opportunity. Another cer- 
 tain proportion, however, remained in San Fran- 
 cisco without attempting the mines. These were 
 either men who were discouraged by pessimistic 
 tales, men who had sickened of the fever, or more 
 
 106
 
 THE DIGGINGS 107 
 
 often men who were attracted by the big oppor- 
 tunities for wealth which the city then afforded. 
 Thus at once we have two different types to con- 
 sider, the miner and the San Franciscan. 
 
 The mines were worked mostly by young men. 
 They journeyed up to the present Sacramento 
 either by river-boats or afoot. Thence they took 
 their outfits into the diggings. It must have 
 seemed a good deal like a picnic. The goal was 
 near; rosy hope had expanded to fill the horizon; 
 breathless anticipation pervaded them a good deal 
 like a hunting-party starting off in the freshness 
 of the dawn. 
 
 The diggings were generally found at the bottoms 
 of the deep river-beds and ravines. Since trails, 
 in order to avoid freshets and too many crossings 
 of the water-courses, took the higher shoulder 
 of the hill, the newcomer ordinarily looked down 
 upon his first glimpse of the mines. The sight 
 must have been busy and animated. The miners 
 dressed in bright-colored garments, and dug them- 
 selves in only to the waist or at most to the 
 shoulders before striking bed rock, so that they 
 were visible as spots of gaudy color. The camps 
 were placed on the hillsides or little open flats, and 
 occasionally were set in the bed of a river- They
 
 108 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 were composed of tents, and of rough log or bark 
 structures. 
 
 The newcomers did not spend much time in 
 establishing themselves comfortably or luxuriously. 
 They were altogether too eager to get at the actual 
 digging. There was an immense excitement of 
 the gamble in it all. A man might dig for days 
 without adequate results and then of a sudden 
 run into a rich pocket. Or he might pan out an 
 immense sum within the first ten minutes of strik- 
 ing his pick to earth. No one could tell. The 
 fact that the average of all the days and all the 
 men amounted to very little more than living wages 
 was quite lost to sight. At first the methods 
 were very crude. One man held a coarse screen 
 of willow branches which he shook continuously 
 above an ordinary cooking pot, while his partner 
 slowly shovelled earth over this impromptu sieve. 
 When the pots were filled with siftings, they were 
 carried to the river, where they were carefully sub- 
 merged, and the contents were stirred about with 
 sticks. The light earth was thus flowed over the 
 rims of the pots. The residue was then dried, and 
 the lighter sand was blown away. The result was 
 gold, though of course with a strong mixture of 
 foreign substance. The pan miners soon followed;
 
 THE DIGGINGS 109 
 
 and the cradle or rocker with its riffle-board was 
 not long delayed. The digging was free. At first 
 it was supposed that a new holding should not be 
 started within fifteen feet of one already in oper- 
 ation. Later, claims of a definite size were 
 established. A camp, however, made its own laws 
 in regard to this and other matters. 
 
 Most of the would-be miners at first rather 
 expected to find gold lying on the surface of the 
 earth, and were very much disappointed to learn 
 that they actually had to dig for it. Moreover, 
 digging in the boulders and gravel, under the 
 terrific heat of the California sun in midsummer, 
 was none too easy; and no matter how rich the 
 diggings averaged short of an actual bonanza 
 the miner was disappointed in his expectations. 
 One man is reported saying: "They tell me I can 
 easily make there eleven hundred dollars a day. 
 You know I am not easily moved by such reports. 
 I shall be satisfied if I make three hundred dollars 
 per day. " Travelers of the time comment on the 
 contrast between the returning stream of dis- 
 couraged and disgruntled men and the cheerfulness 
 of the lot actually digging. Nobody had any 
 scientific system to go on. Often a divining-rod 
 was employed to determine where to dig. Many
 
 110 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 stories were current of accidental finds; as when 
 one man, tiring of waiting for his dog to get through 
 digging out a ground squirrel, pulled the animal 
 out by the tail, and with it a large nugget. An- 
 other story is told of a sailor who asked some 
 miners resting at noon where he could dig and as a 
 joke was directed to a most improbable side hill. 
 He obeyed the advice, and uncovered a rich 
 pocket. With such things actually happening, 
 naturally it followed that every report of a real or 
 rumored strike set the miners crazy. Even those 
 who had good claims always suspected that 
 they might do better elsewhere. It is significant 
 that the miners of that day, like hunters, always 
 had the notion that they had come out to Cali- 
 fornia just one trip too late for the best pickings. 
 The physical life was very hard, and it is no 
 wonder that the stragglers back from the mines 
 increased in numbers as time went on. It was a 
 true case of survival of the fittest. Those who 
 remained and became professional miners were the 
 hardiest, most optimistic, and most persistent of 
 the population. The mere physical labor was 
 very severe. Any one not raised as a day laborer 
 who has tried to do a hard day's work in a new 
 garden can understand what pick and shovel
 
 THE DIGGINGS 111 
 
 digging in the bottoms of gravel and boulder 
 streams can mean. Add to this the fact that every 
 man overworked himself under the pressure of 
 excitement; that he was up to his waist in the cold 
 water from the Sierra snows, with his head exposed 
 at the same time to the tremendous heat of the 
 California sun; throw in for good measure that he 
 generally cooked for himself, and that his food 
 was coarse and badly prepared; and that in his 
 own mind he had no time to attend to the ordinary 
 comforts and decencies of life. It can well be 
 imagined that a man physically unfit must soon 
 succumb. But those who survived seemed to 
 thrive on these hardships. 
 
 California camps by their very quaint and 
 whimsical names bear testimony to the over- 
 flowing good humor and high spirits of the early 
 miners. No one took anything too seriously, not 
 even his own success or failure. The very hard- 
 ness of the life cultivated an ability to snatch 
 joy from the smallest incident. Some of the 
 joking was a little rough, as when some merry 
 jester poured alcohol over a bully's head, touched 
 a match to it, and chased him out of camp yelling, 
 "Man on fire put him out!" It is evident 
 that the time was not one for men of very refined
 
 112 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 or sensitive nature, unless they possessed at 
 bottom the strong iron of character. The ill- 
 balanced were swept away by the current of excite- 
 ment, and fell readily into dissipation. The 
 pleasures were rude; the life was hearty; vices 
 unknown to their possessors came to the surface. 
 The most significant tendency, and one that had 
 much to do with later social and political life in 
 California, was the leveling effect of just this hard 
 physical labor. The man with a strong back and 
 the most persistent spirit was the superior of the 
 man with education but with weaker muscles. 
 Each man, finding every other man compelled to 
 labor, was on a social equality with the best. The 
 usual superiority of head-workers over hand-work- 
 ers disappeared. The low-grade man thus felt 
 himself the equal, if not the superior, of any one 
 else on earth, especially as he was generally able to 
 put his hand on what were to him comparative 
 riches. The pride of employment disappeared 
 completely. It was just as honorable to be a cook 
 or a waiter in a restaurant as to dispense the law, 
 where there was any. The period was brief, but 
 while it lasted, it produced a true social democ- 
 racy. Nor was there any pretense about it. The 
 rudest miner was on a plane of perfect equality
 
 THE DIGGINGS 113 
 
 with lawyers, merchants, or professional men. 
 Some men dressed in the very height of style, 
 decking themselves out with all the minute care 
 of a dandy; others were not ashamed of, nor did 
 they object to being seen in, ragged garments. 
 No man could be told by his dress. 
 
 The great day of days in a mining-camp was 
 Sunday. Some over-enthusiastic fortune-seekers 
 worked the diggings also on that day; but by 
 general consent uninfluenced, it may be re- 
 marked, by religious considerations the miners 
 repaired to their little town for amusement and 
 relaxation. These little towns were almost all 
 alike. There were usually two or three combined 
 hotels, saloons, and gambling-houses, built of logs, 
 of slabs, of canvas, or of a combination of the 
 three. There was one store that dispensed 
 whiskey as well as dryer goods, and one or two 
 large places of amusement. On Sunday every- 
 thing went full blast. The streets were crowded 
 with men; the saloons were well patronized; the 
 gambling games ran all day and late into the night. 
 Wrestling-matches, jumping-matches, other ath- 
 letic tests, horse-races, lotteries, fortune-telling, 
 singing, anything to get a pinch or two of the dust 
 out of the good-natured miners all these were 
 
 8
 
 114 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 going strong. The American, English, and other 
 continentals mingled freely, with the exception 
 of the French, who kept to themselves. Success- 
 ful Germans or Hollanders of the more stupid 
 class ran so true to type and were so numerous 
 that they earned the generic name of "Dutch 
 Charley." They have been described as moon- 
 faced, bland, bullet-headed men, with walrus mous- 
 taches, and fatuous, placid smiles. Value meant 
 nothing to them. They only knew the difference 
 between having money and having no money. 
 They carried two or three gold watches at the end 
 of long home-made chains of gold nuggets fastened 
 together with links of copper wire. The chains 
 were sometimes looped about their necks, their 
 shoulders, and waists, and even hung down in long 
 festoons. When two or three such Dutch Charleys 
 inhabited one camp, they became deadly rivals 
 in this childlike display, parading slowly up and 
 down the street, casting malevolent glances at each 
 other as they passed. Shoals of phrenologists, 
 fortune-tellers, and the like, generally drunken 
 old reprobates on their last legs, plied their trades. 
 One artist, giving out under the physical labor 
 of mining, built up a remarkably profitable trade 
 in sketching portraits. Incidentally he had to pay
 
 THE DIGGINGS 115 
 
 two dollars and a half for every piece of paper! 
 John Kelly, a wandering minstrel with a violin, 
 became celebrated among the camps, and was 
 greeted with enthusiasm wherever he appeared. 
 He probably made more with his fiddle than he 
 could have made with his shovel. The influence 
 of the "forty-two caliber whiskey" w r as dire, and 
 towards the end of Sunday the sports became 
 pretty rough. 
 
 This day was also considered the time for the 
 trial of any cases that had arisen during the week. 
 The miners elected one of their number to act as 
 presiding judge in a "miners' meeting." Justice 
 was dealt out by this man, either on his own 
 authority with the approval of the crowd, or by 
 popular vote. Disputes about property were ad- 
 judicated as well as offenses against the criminal 
 code. Thus a body of precedent was slowly built 
 up. A new case before the alcalde of Hangtown 
 was often decided on the basis of the procedure at 
 Grub Gulch. The decisions were characterized 
 by direct common sense. It would be most 
 interesting to give adequate examples here, but 
 space forbids. Suffice it to say that a Mexican 
 horse- thief was convicted and severely flogged; 
 and then a collection was taken up for him on
 
 116 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 the ground that he was on the whole unfortunate! 
 A thief apprehended on a steamboat was punished 
 by a heavy fine for the benefit of a sick man on 
 board. 
 
 Sunday evening usually ended by a dance. As 
 women were entirely lacking at first, a proportion 
 of the men was told off to represent the fair sex. 
 At one camp the invariable rule was to consider 
 as ladies those who possessed patches on the seats 
 of their trousers. This was the distinguishing 
 mark. Take it all around, the day was one of 
 noisy, good-humored fun. There was very little 
 sodden drunkenness, and the miners went back 
 to their work on Monday morning with freshened 
 spirits. Probably just this sort of irresponsible 
 ebullition was necessary to balance the hardness 
 of the life. 
 
 In each mining-town was at least one Yankee 
 storekeeper. He made the real profits of the 
 mines. His buying ability was considerable; his 
 buying power was often limited by what he could 
 get hold of at the coast and what he could trans- 
 port to the camps. Often his consignments were 
 quite arbitrary and not at all what he ordered. 
 The story is told of one man who received what, 
 to judge by the smell, he thought was three
 
 THE DIGGINGS 117 
 
 barrels of spoiled beef. Throwing them out in 
 the back way, he was interested a few days later 
 to find he had acquired a rapidly increasing flock 
 of German scavengers. They seemed to be investi- 
 gating the barrels and carrying away the spoiled 
 meat. When the barrels were about empty, the 
 storekeeper learned that the supposed meat was in 
 reality sauerkraut! - 
 
 The outstanding fact about these camps was 
 that they possessed no solidarity. Each man 
 expected to exploit the diggings and then to 
 depart for more congenial climes. He wished 
 to undertake just as little responsibility as he 
 possibly could. With so-called private affairs 
 other than his own he would have nothing to do. 
 The term private affairs was very elastic, stretch- 
 ing often to cover even cool-blooded murder. 
 When matters arose affecting the whole public wel- 
 fare in which he himself might possibly become in- 
 terested, he was roused to the point of administering 
 justice. The punishments meted out were fines, 
 flogging, banishment, and, as a last resort, lynch- 
 ing. Theft was considered a worse offense than 
 killing. As the mines began to fill up with the 
 more desperate characters who arrived in 1850 
 and 1851, the necessity for government increased.
 
 118 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 At this time, but after the leveling effect of uni- 
 versal labor had had its full effect, the men of 
 personality, of force and influence, began to come 
 to the front. A fresh aristocracy of ability, of in- 
 fluence, of character was created.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE URBAN FORTY-NINER 
 
 IN popular estimation the interest and romance of 
 the Forty-niners center in gold and mines. To 
 the close student, however, the true significance 
 of their lives is to be found even more in the city 
 of San Francisco. 
 
 At first practically everybody came to Cali- 
 fornia under the excitement of the gold rush and 
 with the intention of having at least one try at the 
 mines. But though gold was to be found, in 
 unprecedented abundance, the getting of it was at 
 best extremely hard work. Men fell sick both 
 in body and spirit. They became discouraged. 
 Extravagance of hope often resulted, by reaction, 
 in an equal exaggeration of despair. The prices 
 of everything were very high. The cost of medi- 
 cal attendance was almost prohibitory. Men 
 sometimes made large daily sums in the placers; 
 but necessary expenses reduced their net income to 
 
 119
 
 120 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 small wages. Ryan gives this account of an inter- 
 view with a returning miner: "He readily entered 
 into conversation and informed us that he had 
 passed the summer at the mines where the exces- 
 sive heat during the day, and the dampness of the 
 ground where the gold washing is performed, to- 
 gether with privation and fatigue, had brought on 
 fever and ague which nearly proved fatal to him. 
 He had frequently given an ounce of gold for the 
 visit of a medical man, and on several occasions 
 had paid two and even three ounces for a single 
 dose of medicine. He showed us a pair of shoes, 
 nearly worn out, for which he had paid twenty- 
 four dollars." Later Ryan says: "Only such men 
 as can endure the hardship and privation inciden- 
 tal to life in the mines are likely to make fortunes 
 by digging for the ore. I am unequal to the task 
 ... I think I could within an hour assemble in 
 this very place from twenty to thirty individuals 
 of my own acquaintance who had all told the same 
 story. They were thoroughly dissatisfied and 
 disgusted with their experiment in the gold coun- 
 try. The truth of the matter is that only traders, 
 speculators, and gamblers make large fortunes." 
 Only rarely did men of cool enough heads and 
 far enough sight eschew from the very beginning
 
 THE URBAN FORTY-NINER 121 
 
 all notion of getting rich quickly in the placers, 
 and deliberately settle down to make their for- 
 tunes in other ways. 
 
 This conclusion of Ryan's throws, of course, 
 rather too dark a tone over the picture. The 
 "hardy miner" was a reality, and the life in the 
 placers was, to such as he, profitable and pleasant. 
 However, this point of view had its influence in 
 turning back from the mines a very large propor- 
 tion of those who first went in. Many of them 
 drifted into mercantile pursuits. Harlan tells us: 
 "During my sojourn in Stockton I mixed freely 
 with the returning and disgusted miners from 
 whom I learned that they were selling their min- 
 ing implements at ruinously low prices. An idea 
 struck me one day which I immediately acted 
 upon for fear that another might strike in the 
 same place and cause an explosion. The heaven- 
 born idea that had penetrated my cranium was 
 this : start in the mercantile line, purchase the kits 
 and implements of the returning miners at low 
 figures and sell to the greenhorns en route to the 
 mines at California prices." In this manner 
 innumerable occupations supplying the obvious 
 needs were taken up by many returned miners. A 
 certain proportion drifted to crime or shady de
 
 122 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 vices, but the large majority returned to San 
 Francisco, whence they either went home com- 
 pletely discouraged, or with renewed energy 
 and better-applied ability took hold of the des- 
 tinies of the new city. Thus another sort of 
 Forty-niner became in his way as significant and 
 strong, as effective and as romantic as his brother, 
 the red-shirted Forty-niner of the diggings. 
 
 But in addition to the miners who had made 
 their stakes, who had given up the idea of mining, 
 or who were merely waiting for the winter's rains 
 to be over to go back again to the diggings, an ever 
 increasing immigration was coming to San Fran- 
 cisco with the sole idea of settling in that place. 
 All classes of men were represented. Many of the 
 big mercantile establishments of the East were 
 sending out their agents. Independent merchants 
 sought the rewards of speculation. Gamblers also 
 perceived opportunities for big killings. Pro- 
 fessional politicians and cheap lawyers, largely 
 from the Southern States, unfortunately also 
 saw their chance to obtain standing in a new 
 community, having lost all standing in their own. 
 The result of the mixing of these various chemical 
 elements of society was an extraordinary boiling 
 and bubbling.
 
 THE URBAN FORTY-NINER 123 
 
 When Commander Montgomery hoisted the 
 American flag in 1846, the town of Yerba Buena, 
 as San Francisco was called, had a population of 
 about two hundred. Before the discovery of gold 
 it developed under the influence of American 
 enterprise normally and rationally into a prosper- 
 ous little town with two hotels, a few private 
 dwellings, and twp wharves in the process of 
 construction. Merchants had established them- 
 selves with connections in the Eastern States, 
 in Great Britain, and South America. Just be- 
 fore the discovery of gold the population had 
 increased to eight hundred and twelve. 
 
 The news of the placers practically emptied 
 the town. It would be curious to know exactly 
 how many human souls and chickens remained 
 after Brannan's California Star published the 
 authentic news. The commonest necessary activi- 
 ties were utterly neglected, shops were closed 
 and barricaded, merchandise was left rotting 
 on the wharves and the beaches, and the prices 
 of necessities rose to tremendous altitudes. The 
 place looked as a deserted mining-camp does now. 
 The few men left who would work wanted ten or 
 even twenty dollars a day for the commonest 
 labor.
 
 124 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 However, the early pioneers were hard-headed 
 citizens. Many of the shopkeepers and mer- 
 chants, after a short experience of the mines, 
 hurried back to make the inevitable fortune that 
 must come to the middleman in these extraordi- 
 nary times. Within the first eight weeks of the gold 
 excitement two hundred and fifty thousand dollars 
 in gold dust reached San Francisco, and within 
 the following eight weeks six hundred thousand 
 dollars more came in. All of this was to purchase 
 supplies at any price for the miners. 
 
 This was in the latter days of 1848. In the first 
 part of 1849 the immigrants began to arrive. 
 They had to have places to sleep, things to eat, 
 transportation to the diggings, outfits of various 
 sorts. In the first six months of 1849 ten thou- 
 sand people piled down upon the little city built 
 to accommodate eight hundred. And the last six 
 months of the year were still more extraordinary, 
 as some thirty thousand more dumped themselves 
 on the chaos of the first immigration. The result 
 can be imagined. The city was mainly of canvas 
 either in the form of tents or of crude canvas and 
 wooden houses. The few substantial buildings 
 stood like rocks in a tossing sea. No attempt, 
 of course, had been made as yet toward public
 
 THE URBAN FORTY-NINER 125 
 
 improvements. The streets were ankle-deep in 
 dust or neck-deep in mud. A great smoke of dust 
 hung perpetually over the city, raised by the trade 
 winds of the afternoon. Hundreds of ships lay at 
 anchor in the harbor. They had been deserted by 
 their crews, and, before they could be re-manned, 
 the faster clipper ships, built to control the 
 fluctuating western trade, had displaced them, 
 so that the majority were fated never again to 
 put to sea. 
 
 Newcomers landed at first on a flat beach of 
 deep black sand, where they generally left their 
 personal effects for lack of means of transportation. 
 They climbed to a ragged thoroughfare of open 
 sheds and ramshackle buildings, most of them in 
 the course of construction. Beneath crude shel- 
 ters of all sorts and in great quantities were goods 
 brought in hastily by eager speculators on the 
 high prices. The four hundred deserted ships 
 lying at anchor in the harbor had dumped down 
 on the new community the most ridiculous assort- 
 ment of necessities and luxuries, such as calico, 
 silk, rich furniture, mirrors, knock-down houses, 
 cases and cases of tobacco, clothing, statuary, 
 mining-implements, provisions, and the like. 
 
 The hotels and lodging houses immediately
 
 126 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 became very numerous. Though they were in 
 reality only overcrowded bunk-houses, the most 
 enormous prices were charged for beds in them. 
 People lay ten or twenty in a single room in row 
 after row of cots, in bunks, or on the floor. Be- 
 tween the discomfort of hard beds, fleas, and over- 
 crowding, the entire populace spent most of its 
 time on the street or in the saloons and gambling- 
 houses. As some one has pointed out, this custom 
 added greatly to the apparent population of the 
 place. Gambling was the gaudiest, the best- 
 paying, and the most patronized industry. It 
 occupied the largest structures, and it probably im- 
 ported and installed the first luxuries. Of these 
 resorts the El Dorado became the most famous. 
 It occupied at first a large tent but soon found 
 itself forced to move to better quarters. The 
 rents paid for buildings were enormous. Three 
 thousand dollars a month in advance was charged 
 for a single small store made of rough boards. A 
 two-story frame building on Kearny Street near 
 the Plaza paid its owners a hundred and twenty 
 thousand dollars a year rent. The tent containing 
 the El Dorado gambling saloon was rented for 
 forty thousand dollars a year. The prices sky- 
 rocketed still higher. Miners paid as high as
 
 THE URBAN FORTY-NINER 127 
 
 two hundred dollars for an ordinary gold rocker, 
 fifteen or twenty dollars for a pick, the same 
 for a shovel, and so forth. A copper coin was 
 considered a curiosity, a half-dollar was the mini- 
 mum tip for any small service, twenty-five cents 
 was the smallest coin in circulation, and the least 
 price for which anything could be sold. Bread 
 came to fifty cents a loaf. Good boots were a 
 hundred dollars. 
 
 Affairs moved very swiftly. A month was 
 the unit of time. Nobody made bargains for more 
 than a month in advance. Interest w r as charged 
 on money by the month. Indeed, conditions 
 changed so fast that no man pretended to estimate 
 them beyond thirty days ahead, and to do even 
 that was considered rather a gamble. Real estate 
 joined the parade of advance. Little holes in 
 sand-hills sold for fabulous prices. The sick, 
 destitute, and discouraged were submerged be- 
 neath the mounting tide of vigorous optimism that 
 bore on its crest the strong and able members 
 of the community. Every one either was rich 
 or expected soon to be so. Opportunity awaited 
 every man at every corner. Men who knew how 
 to take advantage of fortune's gifts were assured 
 of immediate high returns. Those with capital
 
 128 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 were, of course, enabled to take advantage of 
 the opportunities more quickly ; but the ingenious 
 mind saw its chances even with nothing to start on. 
 
 One man, who landed broke but who possessed 
 two or three dozen old newspapers used as packing, 
 sold them at a dollar and two dollars apiece and so 
 made his start. Another immigrant with a few 
 packages of ordinary tin tacks exchanged them 
 with a man engaged in putting up a canvas house 
 for their exact weight in gold dust. Harlan tells 
 of walking along the shore of Happy Valley and 
 finding it lined with discarded pickle jars and 
 bottles. Remembering the high price of pickles 
 in San Francisco, he gathered up several hundred 
 of them, bought a barrel of cider vinegar from a 
 newly-arrived vessel, collected a lot of cucumbers, 
 and started a bottling works. Before night, he 
 said, he had cleared over three hundred dollars. 
 With this he made a corner in tobacco pipes by 
 which he realized one hundred and fifty dollars 
 in twenty-four hours. 
 
 Mail was distributed soon after the arrival of 
 the mail-steamer. The indigent would often sit 
 up a day or so before the expected arrival of the 
 mail-steamer holding places in line at the post- 
 office. They expected no letters but could sell
 
 THE URBAN FORTY-NINER 129 
 
 the advantageous positions for high prices when 
 the mail actually arrived. He was a poor-spirited 
 man indeed who by these and many other 
 equally picturesque means could not raise his gold 
 slug in a reasonable time; and, possessed of fifty 
 dollars, he was an independent citizen. He could 
 increase his capital by interest compounded every 
 day, provided he used his wits; or for a brief span 
 of glory he could live with the best of them. A 
 story is told of a new-come traveler offering a 
 small boy fifty cents to carry his valise to the 
 hotel. The urchin looked with contempt at the 
 coin, fished out two fifty-cent pieces, handed them 
 to the owner of the valise, saying "Here's a dollar; 
 carry it yourself. " 
 
 One John A. McGlynn arrived without assets. 
 He appreciated the opportunity for ordinary team- 
 ing, and hitching California mules to the only and 
 exceedingly decrepit wagon to be found he started 
 in business. Possessing a monopoly, he charged 
 what he pleased, so that within a short time he 
 had driving for him a New York lawyer, whom he 
 paid a hundred and seventy-five dollars a month. 
 His outfit was magnificent. When somebody 
 joked with him about his legal talent, he replied, 
 "The whole business of a lawyer is to know how
 
 130 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 to manage mules and asses so as to make them 
 pay." When within a month plenty of wagons 
 were imported, McGlynn had so well established 
 himself and possessed so much character that he 
 became ex officio the head of the industry. He 
 was evidently a man of great and solid sense and 
 was looked up to as one of the leading citizens. 
 
 Every human necessity was crying out for its 
 ordinary conveniences. There were no streets, 
 there were no hotels, there were no lodging-houses, 
 there were no warehouses, there were no stores, 
 there was no water, there was no fuel. Any one 
 who could improvise anything, even a bare substi- 
 tute, to satisfy any of these needs, was sure of 
 immense returns. In addition, the populace 
 was so busy so overwhelmingly busy with its 
 own affairs that it literally could not spare a 
 moment to govern itself. The professional and 
 daring politicians never had a clearer field. They 
 went to extraordinary lengths in all sorts of graft- 
 ing, in the sale of public real estate, in every "she- 
 nanigan " known to skillful low-grade politicians. 
 Only occasionally did they go too far, as when, in 
 addition to voting themselves salaries of six 
 thousand dollars apiece as aldermen, they coolly 
 voted themselves also gold medals to the value of
 
 THE URBAN FORTY-NINER 131 
 
 one hundred and fifty dollars apiece "for public 
 and extra services." Then the determined citi- 
 zens took an hour off for the council chambers. 
 The medals were cast into the melting-pot. 
 
 All writers agree, in their memoirs, that the 
 great impression left on the mind by San Fran- 
 cisco was its extreme busyness. The streets were 
 always crammed full of people running and darting 
 in all directions. It w T as, indeed, a heterogeneous 
 mixture. Not only did the Caucasian show him- 
 self in every extreme of costume, from the most 
 exquisite top-hatted dandy to the red-shirted 
 miner, but there were also to be found all the 
 picturesque and' unknown races of the earth, 
 the Chinese, the Chileno, the Moor, the Turk, the 
 Mexican, the Spanish, the Islander, not to speak of 
 ordinary foreigners from Russia, England, France, 
 Belgium, Germany, Italy, and the out-of-the-way 
 corners of Europe. All these people had tre- 
 mendous affairs to finish in the least possible time. 
 And every once in a while some individual on 
 horseback would sail down the street at full speed, 
 scattering the crowd left and right. If any one 
 remarked that the marauding individual should 
 be shot, the excuse was always offered, "Oh, well, 
 don't mind him. He's only drunk," as if that
 
 132 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 excused everything. Many of the activities of the 
 day also were picturesque. As there were no 
 warehouses in which to store goods, and as the few 
 structures of the sort charged enormous rentals, 
 it was cheaper to auction off immediately all 
 consignments. These auctions were then, and 
 remained for some years, one of the features of the 
 place. The more pretentious dealers kept brass 
 bands to attract the crowd. The returning miners 
 were numerous enough to patronize both these 
 men and the cheap clothing stores, and having 
 bought themselves new outfits, generally cast the 
 old ones into the middle of the street. Water was 
 exceedingly scarce and in general demand, so that 
 laundry work was high. It was the fashion of these 
 gentry to wear their hair and beards long. They 
 sported red shirts, flashy Chinese scarves around 
 their waists, black belts with silver buckles, six- 
 shooters and bowie-knives, and wide floppy hats. 
 The business of the day over, the evening was 
 open for relaxation. As the hotels and lodging- 
 houses were nothing but kennels, and very crowded 
 kennels, it followed that the entire population 
 gravitated to the saloons and gambling places. 
 Some of these were established on a very extensive 
 scale. They had not yet attained the magnificence
 
 THE URBAN FORTY-NINER 133 
 
 of the Fifties, but it is extraordinary to realize 
 that within so few months and at such a great 
 distance from civilization, the early and enter- 
 prising managed to take on the trappings of lux- 
 ury. Even thus early, plate-glass mirrors, expen- 
 sive furniture, the gaudy, tremendous oil paintings 
 peculiar to such dives, prism chandeliers, and the 
 like, had made their appearance. Later, as will 
 be seen, these gambling dens presented an aspect 
 of barbaric magnificence, unique and peculiar to 
 the time and place. In 1849, however gorgeous 
 the trappings might have appeared to men long 
 deprived of such things, they were of small impor- 
 tance compared with the games themselves. At 
 times the bets were enormous. Soule tells us 
 that as high as twenty thousand dollars were 
 risked on the turn of one card. The ordinary 
 stake, however, w r as not so large, -from fifty cents 
 to five dollars being about the usual amount. 
 Even at this the gamblers were well able to pay 
 the high rents. Quick action was the word. 
 The tables were always crowded and bystanders 
 many deep waited to lay their stakes. Within a 
 year or so the gambling resorts assumed rather the 
 nature of club-rooms, frequented by every class, 
 many of whom had no intention of gambling.
 
 134 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 Men met to talk, read the newspapers, write 
 letters, or perhaps take a turn at the tables. But 
 in 1849 the fever of speculation held every man 
 in its grip. 
 
 Again it must be noted how wide an epoch can 
 be spanned by a month or two. The year 1849 
 was but three hundred and sixty-five days long, 
 and yet in that space the community of San Fran- 
 cisco passed through several distinct phases. It 
 grew visibly like the stalk of a century plant. 
 
 Of public improvements there were almost 
 none. The few that were undertaken sprang from 
 absolute necessity. The town got through the 
 summer season fairly well, but, as the winter that 
 year proved to be an unusually rainy time, it 
 soon became evident that something must be 
 done. The streets became bottomless pits of 
 mud. It is stated, as plain and sober fact, that in 
 some of the main thoroughfares teams of mules 
 and horses sank actually out of sight and were 
 suffocated. Foot travel was almost impossible 
 unless across some sort of causeway. Lumber 
 was so expensive that it was impossible to use 
 it for the purpose. Fabulous quantities of goods 
 sent in by speculators loaded the market and 
 would sell so low that it was actually cheaper to
 
 THE URBAN FORTY-NINER 135 
 
 use bales of them than to use planks. Thus 
 one muddy stretch was paved with bags of Chilean 
 flour, another with tierces of tobacco, while over 
 still another the wayfarers proceeded on the tops 
 of cook stoves. These sank gradually in the soft 
 soil until the tops were almost level with the mud. 
 Of course one of the first acts of the merry jester 
 was to shy the stove lids off into space. The 
 footing especially after dark can be imagined. 
 Crossing a street on these things was a perilous 
 traverse watched with great interest by spectators 
 on either side. Often the hardy adventurer, after 
 teetering for some time, would with a descriptive 
 oath sink to his waist in the slimy mud. If the 
 wayfarer was drunk enough, he then proceeded 
 to pelt his tormentors with missiles of the sticky 
 slime. The good humor of the community saved 
 it from absolute despair. Looked at with cold 
 appraising eye, the conditions were decidedly 
 uncomfortable. In addition there was a grimmer 
 side to the picture. Cholera and intermittent 
 fever came, brought in by ships as well as by over- 
 land immigrants, and the death-rate rose by leaps 
 and bounds. 
 
 The greater the hardships and obstacles, the 
 higher the spirit of the community rose to meet
 
 136 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 them. In that winter was born the spirit that has 
 animated San Francisco ever since, and that so 
 nobly and cheerfully met the final great trial of 
 the earthquake and fire of 1906. 
 
 About this time an undesirable lot of immigrants 
 began to arrive, especially from the penal colo- 
 nies of New South Wales. The criminals of the 
 latter class soon became known to the populace as 
 "Sydney Ducks." They formed a nucleus for an 
 adventurous, idle, pleasure-loving, dissipated set 
 of young sports, who organized themselves into 
 a loose band very much on the order of the East 
 Side gangs in New York or the "hoodlums" in 
 later San Francisco, with the exception, however, 
 that these young men affected the most meticulous 
 nicety in dress. They perfected in the spring 
 of 1849 an organization called the Regulators, 
 announcing that, as there was no regular police 
 force, they would take it upon themselves to 
 protect the weak against the strong and the new- 
 comer against the bunco man. Every Sunday 
 they paraded the streets with bands and banners. 
 Having no business in the world to occupy them, 
 and holding a position unique in the community, 
 the Regulators soon developed into practically a 
 band of cut-throats and robbers, with the object
 
 THE URBAN FORTY-NINER 137 
 
 of relieving those too weak to bear alone the 
 weight of wealth. The Regulators, or Hounds, as 
 they soon came to be called, had the great wisdom 
 to avoid the belligerent and resourceful pioneer. 
 They issued from their headquarters, a large tent 
 near the Plaza, every night. Armed with clubs 
 and pistols, they descended upon the settlements 
 of harmless foreigners living near the outskirts, 
 relieved them of what gold dust they possessed, 
 beat them up by way of warning, and returned 
 to headquarters with the consciousness of a duty 
 well done. The victims found it of little use to 
 appeal to the alcalde, for with the best disposition 
 in the world the latter could do nothing without 
 an adequate police force. The ordinary citizen, 
 much too interested in his own affairs, merely took 
 precautions to preserve his own skin, avoided dark 
 and unfrequented alleyways, barricaded his doors 
 and windows, and took the rest out in contemptu- 
 ous cursing. 
 
 Encouraged by this indifference, the Hounds 
 naturally grew bolder and bolder. They con- 
 sidered they had terrorized the rest of the com- 
 munity, and they began to put on airs and swagger 
 in the usual manner of bullies everywhere. On 
 Sunday afternoon of July 15, they made a raid
 
 138 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 on some California ranches across the bay, osten- 
 sibly as a picnic expedition, returning triumphant 
 and very drunk. For the rest of the afternoon 
 with streaming banners they paraded the streets, 
 discharging firearms and generally shooting up the 
 town. At dark they descended upon the Chilean 
 quarters, tore down the tents, robbed the Chileans, 
 beat many of the men to insensibility, ousted the 
 women, killed a number who had not already fled, 
 and returned to town only the following morning. 
 This proved to be the last straw. The busy 
 citizens dropped their own affairs for a day and got 
 together in a mass meeting at the Plaza. All work 
 was suspended and all business houses were closed. 
 Probably all the inhabitants in the city with the 
 exception of the Hounds had gathered together. 
 Our old friend, Sam Brannan, possessing the gift 
 of a fiery spirit and an arousing tongue, addressed 
 the meeting. A sum of money was raised for 
 the despoiled foreigners. An organization was 
 effected, and armed posses were sent out to arrest 
 the ringleaders. They had little difficulty. Many 
 left town for foreign parts or for the mines, where 
 they met an end easily predicted. Others were 
 condemned to various punishments. The Hounds 
 were thoroughly broken up in an astonishingly
 
 THE URBAN FORTY-NINER 139 
 
 brief time. The real significance of their great 
 career is that they called to the attention of the 
 better class of citizens the necessity for at least a 
 sketchy form of government and a framework of 
 law. Such matters as city revenue were brought 
 up for practically the first time. Gambling- 
 houses were made to pay a license. Real estate, 
 auction sales, and other licenses were also taxed. 
 One of the ships in the harbor was drawn up on 
 shore and was converted into a jail. A district- 
 attorney was elected, with an associate. The 
 whole municipal structure was still about as rudi- 
 mentary as the streets into which had been thrown 
 armfuls of brush in a rather hopeless attempt to 
 furnish an artificial bottom. It was a beginning, 
 however, and men had at last turned their eyes 
 even momentarily from their private affairs to 
 consider the welfare of this unique society which 
 was in the making.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 ORDEAL BY FIRE 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO in the early years must be con- 
 sidered, aside from the interest of its picturesque- 
 ness and aside from its astonishing growth, as a 
 crucible of character. Men had thrown off all 
 moral responsibility. Gambling, for example, was 
 a respectable amusement. People in every class 
 of life frequented the gambling saloons openly 
 and without thought of apology. Men were lead- 
 ing a hard and vigorous life; the reactions were 
 quick; and diversions were eagerly seized. Decent 
 women were absolutely lacking, and the women 
 of the streets had as usual followed the army of 
 invasion. It was not considered at all out of the 
 ordinary to frequent their company in public, and 
 men walked with them by day to the scandal of no- 
 body. There was neither law nor restraint. Most 
 men were drunk with sudden wealth. The battle 
 was, as ever, to the strong. 
 
 140
 
 ORDEAL BY FIRE 141 
 
 There was every inducement to indulge the 
 personal side of life. As a consequence, many 
 formed habits they could not break, spent all of 
 their money on women and drink and gambling, 
 ruined themselves in pocket-book and in health, 
 returned home broken, remained sodden and 
 hopeless tramps, or joined the criminal class. 
 Thousands died of cholera or pneumonia; hundreds 
 committed suicide; but those who came through 
 formed the basis of a race remarkable today for 
 its strength, resourcefulness, and optimism. Char- 
 acters solid at bottom soon come to the inevitable 
 reaction. They were the forefathers of a race 
 of people which is certainly different from the 
 inhabitants of any other portion of the country. 
 
 The first public test came with the earliest of 
 the big fires that, within the short space of eighteen 
 months, six times burned San Francisco to the 
 ground. This fire occurred on December 4, 1849. 
 It was customary in the saloons to give negroes a 
 free drink and tell them not to come again. One 
 did come again to Dennison's; he was flogged, and 
 knocked over a lamp. Thus there started a confla- 
 gration that consumed over a million dollars' worth 
 of property. The valuable part of the property, 
 it must be confessed, was in the form of goods,
 
 142 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 as the light canvas and wooden shacks were of 
 little worth. Possibly the fire consumed enough 
 germs and germ-breeding dirt to pay partially for 
 itself. Before the ashes had cooled, the enter- 
 prising real estate owners were back reerecting 
 the destroyed structures. 
 
 This first fire was soon followed by others, each 
 intrinsically severe. The people were splendid in 
 enterprise and spirit of recovery; but they soon 
 realized that not only must the buildings be 
 made of more substantial material, but also that 
 fire-fighting apparatus must be bought. In June, 
 1850, four hundred houses were destroyed; in 
 May, 1851, a thousand were burned at a loss 
 of two million and a half; in June, 1851, the town 
 was razed to the water's edge. In many places 
 the wharves were even disconnected from the 
 shore. Everywhere deep holes were burned in 
 them, and some people fell through at night and 
 were drowned. In this fire a certain firm, Dewitt 
 and Harrison, saved their warehouse by knocking 
 in barrels of vinegar and covering their building 
 with blankets soaked in that liquid. Water was 
 unobtainable. It was reported that they thus 
 used eighty thousand gallons of vinegar, but 
 saved their warehouse.
 
 ORDEAL BY FIRE 143 
 
 The loss now had amounted to something like 
 twelve million dollars for the large fires. It be- 
 came more evident that something must be done. 
 From the exigencies of the situation were developed 
 the volunteer companies, which later became 
 powerful political, as well as fire-fighting, organi- 
 zations. There were many of these. In the old 
 Volunteer Department there were fourteen engines, 
 three hook-and-ladder companies, and a number 
 of hose companies. Each possessed its own house, 
 w T hich was in the nature of a club-house, well 
 supplied with reading and drinking matter. The 
 members of each company were strongly partisan. 
 They were ordinarily drawn from men of similar 
 tastes and position in life. Gradually they came 
 to stand also for similar political interests, and 
 thus grew to be, like New York's Tammany 
 Hall, instruments of the politically ambitious. 
 
 On an alarm of fire the members at any time 
 of the day and night ceased their occupation 
 or leaped from their beds to run to the engine- 
 house. Thence the hand-engines were dragged 
 through the streets at a terrific rate of speed by 
 hundreds of yelling men at the end of the ropes. 
 The first engine at a fire obtained the place of 
 honor; therefore every alarm was the signal for a
 
 144 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 breakneck race. Arrived at the scene of fire, 
 the water-box of one engine was connected by 
 hose with the reservoir of the next, and so water 
 was relayed from engine to engine until it was 
 thrown on the flames. The motive power of the 
 pump was supplied by the crew of each engine. 
 The men on either side manipulated the pump 
 by jerking the hand-rails up and down. Putting 
 out the fire soon became a secondary matter. The 
 main object of each company was to "wash" its 
 rival; that is, to pump water into the water box 
 of the engine ahead faster than the latter could 
 pump it out, thus overflowing and eternally dis- 
 gracing its crew. The foremen walked back and 
 forth between the rails, as if on quarter-decks, ex- 
 horting their men. Relays in uniform stood ready 
 on either side to take the place of those who were 
 exhausted. As the race became closer, the foremen 
 would get more excited, begging their crews to 
 increase the speed of the stroke, beating their 
 speaking trumpets into shapeless and battered 
 relics. 
 
 In the meantime the hook-and-ladder companies 
 were plying their glorious and destructive trade. 
 A couple of firemen would mount a ladder to the 
 eaves of the house to be attacked, taking with
 
 ORDEAL BY FIRE 145 
 
 them a heavy hook at the end of a long pole or 
 rope. With their axes they cut a small hole in 
 the eaves, hooked on this apparatus, and de- 
 scended. At once as many firemen and volunteers 
 as could get hold of the pole and the rope began 
 to pull. The timbers would crack, break; the 
 whole side of the house would come out with a 
 grand satisfying smash. In this way the fire within 
 was laid open to the attack of the hose-men. This 
 sort of work naturally did little toward saving 
 the building immediately affected, but it was in- 
 tended to confine or check the fire within the area 
 already burning. The occasion was a grand jubi- 
 lation for every boy in the town which means 
 every male of any age. The roar of the flames, 
 the hissing of the steam, the crash of the timber, 
 the shrieks of the foremen, the yells of applause 
 or of sarcastic comment from the crowd, and the 
 thud of the numerous pumps made a glorious row. 
 Everybody, except the owners of the buildings, 
 was hugely delighted, and when the fire was all 
 over it was customary for the unfortunate owner 
 further to increase the amount of his loss by deal- 
 ing out liquid refreshments to everybody con- 
 cerned. On parade days each company turned 
 out with its machine brought to a high state of
 
 146 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 polish by varnish, and with the members resplend- 
 ent in uniform, carrying pole-axes and banners. If 
 the rivalries at the fire could only be ended in 
 a general free fight, everybody was the better 
 satisfied. 
 
 Thus by the end of the first period of its growth 
 three necessities had compelled the careless new 
 city to take thought of itself and of public con- 
 venience. The mud had forced the cleaning and 
 afterwards the planking of the principal roads; 
 the Hounds had compelled the adoption of at 
 least a semblance of government; and the re- 
 peated fires had made necessary the semi- 
 official organization of the fire department. 
 
 By the end of 1850 we find that a considerable 
 amount of actual progress has been made. This 
 came not in the least from any sense of civic 
 pride but from the pressure of stern necessity. 
 The new city now had eleven wharves, for ex- 
 ample, up to seventeen hundred feet in length. 
 It had done no little grading of its sand-hills. 
 The quagmire of its streets had been filled and in 
 some places planked. Sewers had been installed. 
 Flimsy buildings were being replaced by sub- 
 stantial structures, for which the stones in some 
 instances were imported from China.
 
 ORDEAL BY FIRE 147 
 
 Yet it must be repeated that at this time little 
 or no progress sprang from civic pride. Each 
 man was for himself. But, unlike the native 
 Californian, he possessed wants and desires which 
 had to be satisfied, and to that end he was forced, 
 at least in essentials, to accept responsibility and 
 to combine with his neighbors. 
 
 The machinery of this early civic life was very 
 crude. Even the fire department, which was by 
 far the most efficient, was, as has been indicated, 
 more occupied with politics, rivalry, and fun, than 
 with its proper function. The plank roads were 
 good as long as they remained unworn, but they 
 soon showed many holes, large and small, jagged, 
 splintered, ugly holes going down into the depths 
 of the mud. Many of these had been mended 
 by private philanthropists; many more had been 
 labeled with facetious signboards. There were 
 rough sketches of accidents taken from life, and 
 various legends such as "Head of Navigation," 
 " No bottom, " " Horse and dray lost here, " " Take 
 sounding," "Storage room, inquire below, " "Good 
 fishing for teal, " and the like. As for the govern- 
 ment, the less said about that the better. Re- 
 sponsibility was still in embryo; but politics and 
 the law, as an irritant, were highly esteemed.
 
 148 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 The elections of the times were a farce and a 
 holiday; nobody knew whom he was voting for 
 nor what he was shouting for, but he voted as 
 often and shouted as loud as he could. Every 
 American citizen was entitled to a vote, and 
 every one, no matter from what part of the world 
 he came, claimed to be an American citizen and 
 defied any one to prove the contrary. Proof 
 consisted of club, sling-shot, bowie, and pistol. 
 A grand free fight was a refreshment to the soul. 
 After "a pleasant time by all was had," the 
 populace settled down and forgot all about the 
 officers whom it had elected. The latter went their 
 own sweet way, unless admonished by spasmodic 
 mass-meetings that some particularly unscrupu- 
 lous raid on the treasury was noted and resented. 
 Most of the revenue was made by the sale of 
 city lots. Scrip was issued in payment of debt. 
 This bore interest sometimes at the rate of six 
 or eight per cent a month. 
 
 In the meantime, the rest of the crowd went 
 about its own affairs. Then, as now, the American 
 citizen is willing to pay a very high price in dis- 
 honesty to be left free for his own pressing affairs. 
 That does not mean that he is himself either dis- 
 honest or indifferent. "When the price suddenly
 
 ORDEAL BY FIRE 149 
 
 becomes too high, either because of the increase 
 in dishonesty or the decrease in value of his own 
 time, he suddenly refuses to pay. This happened 
 not infrequently in the early days of California.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE VIGILANTES OF '51 
 
 IN 1851 the price for one commodity became too 
 high. That commodity was lawlessness. 
 
 In two years the population of the city had 
 vastly increased, until it now numbered over thirty 
 thousand inhabitants. At an equal or greater 
 pace the criminal and lawless elements had also 
 increased. The confessedly criminal immigrants 
 were paroled convicts from Sydney and other 
 criminal colonies. These practiced men were 
 augmented by the weak and desperate from other 
 countries. Mexico, especially, was strongly repre- 
 sented. At first few in numbers and poverty- 
 stricken in resources, these men acted merely as 
 footpads, highwaymen, and cheap crooks. As 
 time went on, however, they gradually became 
 more wealthy and powerful, until they had estab- 
 lished a sort of caste. They had not the social 
 importance of many of the "higher-ups" of 1856, 
 
 150
 
 THE VIGILANTES OF '51 151 
 
 but they were crude, powerful, and in many cases 
 wealthy. They were ably seconded by a class 
 of lawyers which then, and for some years later, 
 infested the courts of California. These men had 
 made little success at law, or perhaps had been 
 driven forth from their native haunts because of 
 evil practices. They played the game of law ex- 
 actly as the cheap criminal lawyer does today, but 
 with the added advantage that their activities were 
 controlled neither by a proper public sentiment 
 nor by the usual discipline of better colleagues. 
 Unhappily we are not yet far enough removed 
 from just this perversion to need further explana- 
 tion of the method. Indictments were fought 
 for the reason that the murderer's name was 
 spelled wrong in one letter; because, while the 
 accusation stated that the murderer killed his 
 victim with a pistol, it did not say that it was 
 by the discharge of said pistol; and so on. But 
 patience could not endure forever. The decent 
 element of the community was forced at last to 
 beat the rascals. Its apparent indifference had 
 been only preoccupation. 
 
 The immediate cause was the cynical and open 
 criminal activity of an Englishman named James 
 Stuart. This man was a degenerate criminal
 
 152 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 of the worst type, who came into a temporary 
 glory through what he considered the happy cir- 
 cumstances of the time. Arrested for one of his 
 crimes, he seemed to anticipate the usual very 
 good prospects of escaping all penalties. There 
 had been dozens of exactly similar incidents, but 
 this one proved to be the spark to ignite a long 
 gathering pile of kindling. One hundred and 
 eighty -four of the wealthiest and most prominent 
 men of the city formed themselves into a secret 
 Committee of Vigilance. As is usual when any- 
 thing of importance is to be done, the busiest men 
 of the community were summoned and put to 
 work. Strangely enough, the first trial under 
 this Committee of Vigilance resulted also in a 
 divided jury. The mob of eight thousand or 
 more people who had gathered to see justice 
 done by others than the appointed court finally 
 though grumblingly acquiesced. The prisoners 
 were turned over to the regular authorities, and 
 were eventually convicted and sentenced. 
 
 So far from being warned by this popular 
 demonstration, the criminal offenders grew bolder 
 than ever. The second great fire, in May, 1851, 
 was commonly believed to be the work of incen- 
 diaries. Patience ceased to be a virtue. The
 
 THE VIGILANTES OF '51 153 
 
 time for resolute repression of crime had arrived. 
 In June the Vigilance Committee was formally 
 organized. Our old and picturesque friend Sam 
 Brannan was deeply concerned. In matters of 
 initiative for the public good, especially where a 
 limelight was concealed in the wing, Brannan 
 was an able and efficient citizen. Headquarters 
 were chosen and a formal organization was per- 
 fected. The Monumental Fire Engine Com- 
 pany bell was to be tolled as a summons for the 
 Committee to meet. 
 
 Even before the first meeting had adjourned, 
 this signal was given. A certain John Jenkins 
 had robbed a safe and was caught after a long 
 and spectacular pursuit. Jenkins was an Austral- 
 ian convict and was known to numerous people as 
 an old offender in many ways. He was therefore 
 typical of the exact thing the Vigilance Committee 
 had been formed to prevent. By eleven o'clock 
 the trial, which was conducted with due decorum 
 and formality, was over. Jenkins was adjudged 
 guilty. There was no disorder either before or 
 after Jenkins's trial. Throughout the trial and 
 subsequent proceedings Jenkins's manner was un- 
 afraid and arrogant. He fully expected not only 
 that the nerve of the Committee would give out,
 
 154 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 but that at any moment he would be rescued. 
 It must be remembered that the sixty or seventy 
 men in charge were known as peaceful unwarlike 
 merchants, and that against them were arrayed 
 all the belligerent swashbucklers of the town. 
 While the trial was going on, the Committee 
 was informed by its officers outside that already 
 the roughest characters throughout the city had 
 been told of the organization, and were gathering 
 for rescue. The prisoner insulted his captors, 
 still unconvinced that they meant business; then 
 he demanded a clergyman, who prayed for three- 
 quarters of an hour straight, until Mr. Ryckman, 
 hearing of the gathering for rescue, no longer 
 contained himself. Said he: "Mr. Minister, you 
 have now prayed three-quarters of an hour. I 
 want you to bring this prayer business to a halt. 
 I am going to hang this man in fifteen minutes." 
 
 The Committee itself was by no means sure at 
 all times. Bancroft tells us that "one time during 
 the proceedings there appeared some faltering 
 on the part of the judges, or rather a hesitancy to 
 take the lead in assuming responsibility and 
 braving what might be subsequent odium. It 
 was one thing for a half-drunken rabble to take 
 the life of a fellow man, but quite another thing
 
 THE VIGILANTES OF '51 155 
 
 for staid church-going men of business to do it. 
 Then it was that William A. Howard, after watch- 
 ing the proceedings for a few moments, rose, and 
 laying his revolver on the table looked over the 
 assembly. Then with a slow enunciation he said, 
 'Gentlemen, as I understand it, we are going to 
 hang somebody.' There was no more halting." 
 
 While these things were going on, Sam Brannan 
 was sent out to communicate to the immense 
 crowd the Committee's decision. He was in- 
 structed by Ryckman, "Sam, you go out and 
 harangue the crowd while we make ready to move." 
 Brannan was an ideal man for just such 'a purpose. 
 He was of an engaging personality, of coarse 
 fiber, possessed of a keen sense of humor, a com- 
 plete knowledge of crowd psychology, and a 
 command of ribald invective that carried far. 
 He spoke for some time, and at the conclusion 
 boldly asked the crowd whether or not the Com- 
 mittee's action met with its approval. The 
 response was naturally very much mixed, but 
 like a true politician Sam took the result he 
 wanted. They found the lovers of order had 
 already procured for them two ropes, and had 
 gathered into some sort of coherence. The 
 procession marched to the Plaza where Jenkins
 
 156 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 was duly hanged. The lawless element gathered 
 at the street corners, and at least one abortive 
 attempt at rescue was started. But promptness 
 of action combined with the uncertainty of the 
 situation carried the Committee successfully 
 through. The coroner's jury next day brought in 
 a verdict that the deceased "came to his death on 
 the part of an association styling themselves a 
 Committee on Vigilance, of whom the following 
 members are implicated." And then followed nine 
 names. The Committee immediately countered 
 by publishing its roster of one hundred and eighty 
 names in full. 
 
 The organization that was immediately per- 
 fected was complete and interesting. This was 
 an association that was banded together and close- 
 knit, and not merely a loose body of citizens. It 
 had headquarters, company organizations, police, 
 equipment, laws of its own, and a regular routine 
 for handling the cases brought before it. Its police 
 force was large and active. Had the Vigilance 
 movement in California begun and ended with the 
 Committee of 1851, it would be not only necessary 
 but most interesting to follow its activities in detail. 
 But, as it was only the forerunner and trail-blazer 
 for the greater activities of 1856, we must save our
 
 THE VIGILANTES OF '51 157 
 
 space and attention for the latter. Suffice it to 
 say that, with only nominal interference from the 
 law, the first Committee hanged four people and 
 banished a great many more for the good of their 
 country. Fifty executions in the ordinary way 
 would have had little effect on the excited populace 
 of the time; but in the peculiar circumstances 
 these four deaths accomplished a moral regenera- 
 tion. This revival of public conscience could not 
 last long, to be sure, but the worst criminals were, 
 at least for the time being, cowed. 
 
 Spasmodic efforts toward coherence were made 
 by the criminals, but these attempts all proved 
 abortive. Inflammatory circulars and newspaper 
 articles, small gatherings, hidden threats, were 
 all freely indulged in. At one time a rescue of 
 two prisoners was accomplished, but the Monu- 
 mental bell called together a determined band 
 of men who had no great difficulty in reclaiming 
 their own. The Governor of the State, secretly in 
 sympathy with the purposes of the Committee, 
 was satisfied to issue a formal proclamation. 
 
 It must be repeated that, were it not for the 
 later larger movement of 1856, this Vigilance 
 Committee would merit more extended notice. 
 It gave a lead, however, and a framework on
 
 158 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 which the Vigilance Committee of 1856 was built. 
 It proved that the better citizens, if aroused, 
 could take matters into their own hands. But 
 the opposing forces of 1851 were very different 
 from those of five years later. And the transition 
 from the criminal of 1851 to the criminal of 1856 
 is the history of San Francisco between those two 
 dates.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO IN TRANSITION 
 
 BY the mid-fifties San Francisco had attained 
 the dimensions of a city. Among other changes 
 of public interest within the brief space of two 
 or three years were a hospital, a library, a ceme- 
 tery, several churches, public markets, bathing 
 establishments, public schools, two race-courses, 
 twelve wharves, five hundred and thirty-seven 
 saloons, and about eight thousand women of 
 several classes. The population was now about 
 fifty thousand. The city was now of a fairly sub- 
 stantial character, at least in the down-town dis- 
 tricts. There were many structures of brick and 
 stone. In many directions the sand-hills had been 
 conveniently graded down by means of a power 
 shovel called the Steam Paddy in contradistinc- 
 tion to the hand Paddy, or Irishman with a shovel. 
 The streets were driven straight ahead regardless 
 of contours. It is related that often the inhabi- 
 
 159
 
 160 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 tants of houses perched on the sides of the sand- 
 hills would have to scramble to safety as their 
 dwellings rolled down the bank, undermined by 
 some grading operation below. A water system 
 had been established, the nucleus of the present 
 Spring Valley Company. The streets had nearly 
 all been planked, and private enterprise had 
 carried the plank toll-road even to the Mission 
 district. The fire department had been brought 
 to a high state of perfection. The shallow waters 
 of the bay were being filled up by the rubbish 
 from the town and by the debris from the opera- 
 tions of the Steam Paddies. New streets were 
 formed on piles extended out into the bay. Houses 
 were erected, also on piles and on either side of 
 these marine thoroughfares. Gradually the rub- 
 bish filled the skeleton framework. Occasionally 
 old ships, caught by this seaward invasion, were 
 built around, and so became integral parts of the 
 city itself. 
 
 The same insistent demand that led to increasing 
 the speed of the vessels, together with the fact 
 that it cost any ship from one hundred to two 
 hundred dollars a day to lie at any of the wharves, 
 developed an extreme efficiency in loading and 
 unloading cargoes. Hittell says that probably
 
 SAN FRANCISCO IN TRANSITION 161 
 
 in no port of the world could a ship be emptied as 
 quickly as at San Francisco. For the first and last 
 time in the history of the world the profession of 
 stevedore became a distinguished one. In addition 
 to the overseas trade, there were now many ships, 
 driven by sail or steam, plying the local routes. 
 Some of the river steamboats had actually been 
 brought around the Horn. Their free-board had 
 been raised by planking-in the lower deck, and 
 thus these frail vessels had sailed their long and 
 stormy voyage truly a notable feat. 
 
 It did not pay to hold goods very long. Eastern 
 shippers seemed, by a curious unanimity, to send 
 out many consignments of the same scarcity. The 
 result was that the high prices of today would be 
 utterly destroyed by an oversupply of tomorrow. 
 It was thus to the great advantage of every merchant 
 to meet his ship promptly, and to gain knowledge 
 as soon as possible of the cargo of the incoming; 
 vessels. For this purpose signal stations were 
 established, rowboat patrols were organized, and 
 many other ingenious schemes was applied to the 
 secret service of the mercantile business. Both in 
 order to save storage and to avoid the possibility 
 of loss from new shipments coming in, the goods 
 were auctioned off as soon as they were landed.
 
 162 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 These auctions were most elaborate institutions 
 involving brass bands, comfortable chairs, elo- 
 quent "spielers," and all the rest. They were a 
 feature of the street life, which in turn had an 
 interest all its own. The planking threw back a 
 hollow reverberating sound from the various 
 vehicles. There seemed to be no rules of the 
 road. Omnibuses careered along, every window 
 rattling loudly; drays creaked and strained; non- 
 descript delivery wagons tried to outrattle the 
 omnibuses; horsemen picked their way amid the 
 melee. The din was described as something ex- 
 traordinary hoofs drumming, wheels rumbling, 
 oaths and shouts, and from the sidewalk the blare 
 and bray of brass bands before the various auction 
 shops. Newsboys and bootblacks darted in all 
 directions. Cigar boys, a peculiar product of 
 the time, added to the hubbub. Bootblacking 
 stands of the most elaborate description were 
 kept by French and Italians. The town was full 
 of characters who delighted in their own eccen- 
 tricities, and who were always on public view, 
 One individual possessed a remarkably intelligent 
 pony who every morning, without guidance from 
 his master, patronized one of the shoe-blacking 
 stands to get his front hoofs polished. He pre-
 
 SAN FRANCISCO IN TRANSITION 163 
 
 sented each one in turn to the foot-rest, and stood 
 like a statue until the job was done. 
 
 Some of the numberless saloons already showed 
 signs of real magnificence. Mahogany bars with 
 brass rails, huge mirrors in gilt frames, pyramids 
 of delicate crystal, rich hangings, oil paintings of 
 doubtful merit but indisputable interest, heavy 
 chandeliers of glass prisms, the most elaborate 
 of free lunches, skillful barkeepers who mixed 
 drinks at arm's length, were common to all the 
 better places. These things would not be so 
 remarkable in large cities at the present time, but 
 in the early Fifties, only three years after the tent 
 stage, and thousands of miles from the nearest 
 civilization, the enterprise that was displayed 
 seemed remarkable. The question of expense did 
 not stop these early worthies. Of one saloon- 
 keeper it is related that, desiring a punch bowl 
 and finding that the only vessel of the sort was a 
 soup-tureen belonging to a large and expensive 
 dinner set, he bought the whole set for the sake of 
 the soup-tureen. Some of the more pretentious 
 places boasted of special attractions: thus one 
 supported its ceiling on crystal pillars; another 
 had dashing young women to serve the drinks, 
 though the mixing was done by men as usual;
 
 164 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 a third possessed a large musical-box capable of 
 playing several very noisy tunes; a fourth had 
 imported a marvelous piece of mechanism run 
 by clockwork which exhibited the sea in motion, 
 a ship tossing on the waves, on shore a windmill 
 in action, a train of cars passing over a bridge, 
 a deer chased by hounds, and the like. 
 
 But these barrooms were a totally different 
 institution from the gambling resorts. Although 
 gambling was not now considered the entirely 
 worthy occupation of a few years previous, and al- 
 though some of the better citizens, while frequenting 
 the gambling halls, still preferred to do their own 
 playing in semi-private, the picturesqueness and 
 glory of these places had not yet been dimmed by 
 any general popular disapproval. The gambling 
 halls were not only places to risk one's fortune, 
 but they were also a sort of evening club. They 
 usually supported a raised stage with footlights, 
 a negro minstrel troop, or a singer or so. On one 
 side elaborate bars of rosewood or mahogany ran 
 the entire length, backed by big mirrors of French 
 plate. The whole of the very large main floor 
 was heavily carpeted. Down the center generally 
 ran two rows of gambling tables offering various 
 games such as faro, keeno, roulette, poker, and the
 
 SAN FRANCISCO IN TRANSITION 165 
 
 dice games. Beyond these tables, on the opposite 
 side of the room from the bar, were the lounging 
 quarters, with small tables, large easy-chairs, 
 settees, and fireplaces. Decoration was of the 
 most ornate. The ceilings and walls were gener- 
 ally white with a great deal of gilt. All classes 
 of people frequented these places and were wel- 
 comed there. Some were dressed in the height 
 of fashion, and some wore the roughest sort of 
 miners' clothes floppy old slouch hats, flannel 
 shirts, boots to which the dried mud w T as clinging 
 or from which it fell to the rich carpet. All were 
 considered on an equal plane. The professional 
 gamblers came to represent a type of their own, 
 weary, indifferent, pale, cool men, who had not 
 only to keep track of the game and the bets, 
 but also to assure control over the crowd about 
 them. Often in these places immense sums were 
 lost or won; often in these places occurred crimes 
 of shooting and stabbing; but also into these 
 places came many men who rarely drank or gam- 
 bled at all. They assembled to enjoy each other's 
 company, the brightness, the music, and the soci- 
 able warmth. 
 
 On Sunday the populace generally did one of two 
 things: either it sallied out in small groups into
 
 166 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 the surrounding country on picnics or celebrations 
 at some of the numerous road-houses ; or it swarmed 
 out the plank toll-road to the Mission. To the 
 newcomer the latter must have been much the 
 more interesting. There he saw a congress of 
 all the nations of the earth: French, Germans, 
 Italians, Russians, Dutchmen, British, Turks, 
 Arabs, Negroes, Chinese, Kanakas, Indians, the 
 gorgeous members of the Spanish races, and all 
 sorts of queer people to whom no habitat could be 
 assigned. Most extraordinary perhaps were the 
 men from the gold mines of the Sierras. The 
 miners had by now distinctly segregated them- 
 selves from the rest of the population. They led a 
 hardier, more laborious life and were proud of the 
 fact. They attempted generally to differentiate 
 themselves in appearance from all the rest of the 
 human race, and it must be confessed that they 
 succeeded. The miners were mostly young and 
 wore their hair long, their beards rough; they 
 walked with a wide swagger; their clothes were 
 exaggeratedly coarse, but they ornamented them- 
 selves with bright silk handkerchiefs, feathers, 
 flowers, with squirrel or buck tails in their hats, 
 with long heavy chains of nuggets, with glitter- 
 ing and prominently displayed pistols, revolvers,
 
 SAN FRANCISCO IN TRANSITION 167 
 
 stilettos, knives, and dirks. Some even plaited 
 their beards in three tails, or tied their long hair 
 under their chins; but no matter how bizarre they 
 made themselves, nobody on the streets of blase 
 San Francisco paid the slightest attention to them. 
 The Mission, which they, together with the crowd, 
 frequented, was a primitive Coney Island. Bear 
 pits, cockfights, theatrical attractions, side-shows, 
 innumerable hotels and small restaurants, saloons, 
 races, hammer-striking, throwing balls at negroes' 
 heads, and a hundred other attractions kept the 
 crowds busy and generally good-natured. If a 
 fight arose, "it was," as the Irishman says, "con- 
 sidered a private fight," and nobody else could 
 get in it. Such things were considered matters 
 for the individuals themselves to settle. 
 
 The great feature of the time was its extrava- 
 gance. It did not matter whether a man was a 
 public servant, a private and respected citizen, 
 or from one of the semi-public professions that 
 cater to men's greed and dissipation, he acted as 
 though the ground beneath his feet were solid 
 gold. The most extravagant public works were 
 undertaken without thought and without plan. 
 The respectable women vied in the magnificence 
 and ostentation of their costumes with the women
 
 168 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 of the lower world. Theatrical attractions at high 
 prices were patronized abundantly. Balls of great 
 magnificence were given almost every night. Pri- 
 vate carriages of really excellent appointment were 
 numerous along the disreputable planked roads or 
 the sandy streets strewn with cans and garbage. 
 
 The feverish life of the times reflected itself 
 domestically. No live red-blooded man could be 
 expected to spend his evenings reading a book 
 quietly at home while all the magnificent, splendid, 
 seething life of down-town was roaring in his 
 ears. All his friends would be out; all the news 
 of the day passed around; all the excitements of 
 the evening offered themselves. It was too much 
 to expect of human nature. The consequence was 
 that a great many young wives were left alone, 
 with the ultimate result of numerous separations 
 and divorces. The moral nucleus of really re- 
 spectable society and there was a noticeable 
 one even at that time was overshadowed and 
 swamped for the moment. Such a social life as 
 this sounds decidedly immoral but it was really 
 unmoral, with the bright, eager, attractive un- 
 morality of the vigorous child. In fact, in that 
 society, as some one has expressed it, everything 
 was condoned except meanness.
 
 SAN FRANCISCO IN TRANSITION 169 
 
 It was the era of the grandiose. Even conversa- 
 tion reflected this characteristic. The myriad 
 bootblacks had grand outfits and stands. The 
 captain of a ship offered ten dollars to a negro 
 to act as his cook. The negro replied, "If you 
 will walk up to my restaurant, I'll set you to 
 work at twenty-five dollars immediately." From 
 men in such humble stations up to the very highest 
 and most respected citizens the spirit of gambling, 
 of taking chances, was also in the air. 
 
 As has been pointed out, a large proportion of 
 the city's wealth was raised not from taxation 
 but from the sale of its property. Under the 
 heedless extravagance of the first government the 
 municipal debt rose to over one million dollars. 
 Since interest charged on this was thirty-six per 
 cent annually, it can be seen that the financial 
 situation was rather hopeless. As the city was 
 even then often very short of funds, it paid for 
 its work and its improvements in certificates of 
 indebtedness, usually called "scrip." Naturally 
 this scrip was held below par a condition that 
 caused all contractors and supply merchants to 
 charge two or three hundred per cent over the nor- 
 mal prices for their work and commodities in order 
 to keep even. And this practice, completing the
 
 170 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 vicious circle, increased the debt. An attempt was 
 made to fund the city debt by handing in the scrip 
 in exchange for a ten per cent obligation. This 
 method gave promise of success; but a number of 
 holders of scrip refused to surrender it, and brought 
 suit to enforce payment. One of these, a physician 
 named Peter Smith, was owed a considerable 
 sum for the care of indigent sick. He obtained 
 a judgment against the city, levied on some of its 
 property, and proceeded to sell. The city com- 
 missioners warned the public that titles under 
 the Smith claim were not legal, and proceeded to 
 sell the property on their own account. The 
 speculators bought claims under Peter Smith 
 amounting to over two millions of dollars at 
 merely nominal rates. For example, one parcel 
 of city lots sold at less than ten cents per lot. 
 The prices were so absurd that these sales were 
 treated as a joke. The joke came in on the other 
 side, however, when the officials proceeded to 
 ratify these sales. The public then woke up to 
 the fact that it had been fleeced. Enormous 
 prices were paid for unsuitable property, os- 
 tensibly for the uses of the city. After the 
 money had passed, these properties were often 
 declared unsuitable and resold at reduced
 
 SAN FRANCISCO IN TRANSITION 171 
 
 prices to people already determined upon by 
 the ring. 
 
 Nevertheless commercially things went well 
 for a time. The needs of hundreds of thousands 
 of newcomers, in a country where the manufac- 
 tures were practically nothing, were enormous. 
 It is related that at first laundry was sent as far as 
 the Hawaiian Islands. Every single commodity of 
 civilized life, such as we understand it, had to be 
 imported. As there was then no remote semblance 
 of combination, either in restraint of or in en- 
 couragement of trade, it followed that the market 
 must fluctuate wildly. The local agents of eastern 
 firms were often embarrassed and overwhelmed by 
 the ill-timed consignments of goods. One Boston 
 firm was alleged to have sent out a whole shipload 
 of women's bonnets to a community where a 
 woman was one of the rarest sights to be found! 
 Not many shipments were as silly as this, but the 
 fact remains that a rumor of a shortage in any 
 commodity would often be followed by rush 
 orders on clipper ships laden to the guards with 
 that same article. As a consequence the bottom 
 fell out of the market completely, and the un- 
 fortunate consignee found himself forced to auc- 
 tion off the goods much below cost.
 
 172 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 During the year 1854, the tide of prosperity be- 
 gan to ebb. A dry season caused a cessation of 
 mining in many parts of the mountains. Of course 
 it can be well understood that the immense pros- 
 perity of the city, the prosperity that allowed it to 
 recover from severe financial disease, had its spring 
 in the placer mines. A constant stream of fresh 
 gold was needed to shore up the tottering com- 
 mercial structure. With the miners out of the 
 diggings, matters changed. The red-shirted digger 
 of gold had little idea of the value of money. 
 Many of them knew only the difference between 
 having money and having none. They had to have 
 credit, which they promptly wasted. Extending 
 credit to the miners made it necessary that credit 
 should also be extended to the sellers, and so on 
 back. Meanwhile the eastern shippers continued 
 to pour goods into the flooded market. An auc- 
 tion brought such cheap prices that they proved 
 a temptation even to an overstocked public. 
 The gold to pay for purchases went east, draining 
 the country of bullion. One or two of the sup- 
 posedly respectable and polished citizens such as 
 Talbot Green and "honest Harry Meiggs" fell 
 by the wayside. The confidence of the new com- 
 munity began to be shaken. In 1854 came the
 
 SAN FRANCISCO IN TRANSITION 173 
 
 crisis. Three hundred out of about a thousand 
 business houses shut down. Seventy-seven filed 
 petitions in insolvency with liabilities for many 
 millions of dollars. In 1855 one hundred and 
 ninety-seven additional firms and several banking 
 houses went under. 
 
 There were two immediate results of this state 
 of affairs. In the first place, every citizen became 
 more intensely interested and occupied with his 
 own personal business than ever before; he had 
 less time to devote to the real causes of trouble, 
 that is the public instability; and he grew rather 
 more selfish and suspicious of his neighbor than 
 ever before. The second result was to attract 
 the dregs of society. The pickings incident to 
 demoralized conditions looked rich to these men. 
 Professional politicians, shyster lawyers, political 
 gangsters, flocked to the spoil. In 1851 the law- 
 lessness of mere physical violence had come to a 
 head. By 1855 and 1856 there was added to a 
 recrudescence of this disorder a lawlessness of 
 graft, of corruption, both political and financial, 
 and the overbearing arrogance of a self-made 
 aristocracy. These conditions combined to bring 
 about a second crisis in the precarious life of this 
 new society.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE STORM GATHERS 
 
 THE foundation of trouble in California at this time 
 was formal legalism. Legality was made a fetish. 
 The law was a game played by lawyers and not an 
 attempt to get justice done. The whole of public 
 prosecution was in the hands of one man, generally 
 poorly paid, with equally underpaid assistants, 
 while the defense was conducted by the ablest and 
 most enthusiastic men procurable. It followed that 
 convictions were very few. To lose a criminal case 
 was considered even mildly disgraceful. It was a 
 point of professional pride for the lawyer to get his 
 client free, without reference to the circumstances 
 of the time or the guilt of the accused. To fail was 
 a mark of extreme stupidity, for the game was con- 
 sidered an easy and fascinating one. The whole 
 battery of technical delays was at the command of 
 the defendant. If a man had neither the time nor 
 the energy for the finesse that made the interest of 
 
 174
 
 THE STORM GATHERS 175 
 
 the game, he could always procure interminable 
 delays during which witnesses could be scattered 
 or else wearied to the point of non-appearance. 
 Changes of venue to courts either prejudiced or 
 known to be favorable to the technical interpre- 
 tation of the law were very easily procured. Even 
 of shadier expedients, such as packing juries, there 
 was no end. 
 
 With these shadier expedients, however, your 
 high-minded lawyer, moving in the best society, 
 well dressed, proud, looked up to, and today 
 possessing descendants who gaze back upon their 
 pioneer ancestors with pride, had little directly to 
 do. He called in as counsel other lawyers, not 
 so high-minded, so honorable, so highly placed. 
 These little lawyers, shoulder-strikers, bribe-givers 
 and takers, were held in good-humored contempt 
 by the legal lights who employed them. The 
 actual dishonesty was diluted through so many 
 agents that it seemed an almost pure stream of 
 lofty integrity. Ordinary jury-packing was an 
 easy art. Of course the sheriff's office must con- 
 nive at naming the talesmen; therefore it was 
 necessary to elect the sheriff; consequently all the 
 lawyers were in politics. Of course neither the 
 lawyer nor the sheriff himself ever knew of any
 
 176 THE FORTY-NINEIIS 
 
 individual transaction! A sum of money was 
 handed by the leading counsel to his next in 
 command and charged off as "expense." This 
 fund emerged considerably diminished in the 
 sheriff's office as "perquisites." 
 
 Such were the conditions in the realm of criminal 
 law, the realm where the processes became so stand- 
 ardized that between 1849 and 1856 over one thou- 
 sand murders had been committed and only one 
 legal conviction had been secured ! Dueling was a 
 recognized institution, and a skillful shot could 
 always "get" his enemy in this formal manner; but 
 if time or skill lacked, it was still perfectly safe to 
 shoot him down in a street brawl provided one 
 had money enough to employ talent for defense. 
 
 But, once in politics, the law could not stop at 
 the sheriff's office. It rubbed shoulders with 
 big contracts and big financial operations of all 
 sorts. The city was being built within a few 
 years out of nothing by a busy, careless, and shift- 
 ing population. Money was still easy, people 
 could and did pay high taxes without a thought, 
 for they would rather pay well to be let alone than 
 be bothered with public affairs. Like hyenas to a 
 kill, the public contractors gathered. Immense 
 public works were undertaken at enormous prices.
 
 THE STORM GATHERS 177 
 
 To get their deals through legally it was, of course, 
 necessary that officials, councilmen, engineers, and 
 others should be sympathetic. So, naturally, the 
 big operators as well as the big lawyers had 
 to go into politics. Legal efficiency coupled with 
 the inefficiency of the bench, legal corruption, 
 and the arrogance of personal favor, dissolved 
 naturally into political corruption. 
 
 The elections of those days would have been a 
 joke had they been not so tragically significant. 
 They came to be a sheer farce. The polls were 
 guarded by bullies who did not hesitate at command 
 to manhandle any decent citizen indicated by the 
 local leaders. Such men were openly hired for the 
 purposes of intimidation. Votes could be bought 
 in the open market. "Floaters" were shame- 
 lessly imported into districts that might prove 
 doubtful; and, if things looked close, the election 
 inspectors and the judges could be relied on to 
 make things come out all right in the final count. 
 One of the exhibits later shown in the Vigilante 
 days of 1856 was an ingenious ballot box by which 
 the goats could be segregated from the sheep as the 
 ballots were cast. You may be sure that the sheep 
 were the only ones counted. Election day was one 
 of continuous whiskey drinking and brawling so
 
 178 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 that decent citizens were forced to remain within 
 doors. The returns from the different wards were 
 announced as fast as the votes were counted. It 
 was therefore the custom to hold open certain 
 wards until the votes of all the others were known. 
 Then whatever tickets were lacking to- secure the 
 proper election were counted from the packed 
 ballot box in the sure ward. In this manner five 
 hundred votes were once returned from Crystal 
 Springs precinct where there dwelt not over thirty 
 voters. If some busybody made enough of a row 
 to get the merry tyrants into court, there were 
 always plenty of lawyers who could play the ultra- 
 technical so well that the accused were not only re- 
 leased but were returned as legally elected as well. 
 With the proper officials in charge of the execu- 
 tive end of the government and with a trained crew 
 of lawyers making their own rules as they went 
 along, almost any crime of violence, corruption, 
 theft, or the higher grades of finance could be 
 committed with absolute impunity. The state of 
 the public mind became for a while apathetic. 
 After numberless attempts to obtain justice, the 
 public fell back with a shrug of the shoulders. The 
 men of better feeling found themselves helpless. 
 As each man's safety and ability to resent insult
 
 THE STORM GATHERS 179 
 
 depended on his trigger finger, the newspapers of 
 that time made interesting but scurrilous and 
 scandalous reading. An appetite for personalities 
 developed, and these derogatory remarks ordinarily 
 led to personal encounters. The streets became 
 battle-grounds of bowie-knives and revolvers, as 
 rivals hunted each other out. This picture may 
 seem lurid and exaggerated, but the cold statistics 
 of the time supply all the details. 
 
 The politicians of the day were essentially 
 fighting men. The large majority were low-grade 
 Southerners who had left their section, urged 
 by unmistakable hints from their fellow-citizens. 
 The political life of early California was colored 
 very largely by the pseudo-chivalry which these 
 people used as a cloak. They used the Southern 
 code for their purposes very thoroughly, and 
 bullied their way through society in a swash- 
 buckling manner that could not but arouse admi- 
 ration. There were many excellent Southerners 
 in California in those days, but from the very start 
 their influence was overshadowed by the more 
 unworthy. Unfortunately, later many of the 
 better class of Southerners, yielding to prejudice 
 and sectional feeling, joined the so-called "Law 
 and Order" party.
 
 180 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 It must be remembered, however, that whereas 
 the active merchants and industrious citizens were 
 too busy to attend to local politics, the professional 
 low-class Southern politician had come out to Cali- 
 fornia for no other purpose. To be successful, he 
 had to be a fighting man. His revolver and his 
 bowie-knife were part of his essential equipment. 
 He used the word "honor" as a weapon of defense, 
 and battered down opposition in the most high- 
 mannered fashion by the simple expedient of claim- 
 ing that he had been insulted. The fire-eater was 
 numerous in those days. He dressed well, had 
 good manners and appearance, possessed abun- 
 dant leisure, and looked down scornfully on those 
 citizens who were busy building the city, "low 
 Yankee shopkeepers" being his favorite epithet. 
 
 Examined at close range, in contemporary docu- 
 ments, this individual has about him little of 
 romance and nothing whatever admirable. It 
 would be a great pity, were mistaken sentimentality 
 allowed to clothe him in the same bright-hued 
 garments as the cavaliers of England in the time 
 of the Stuarts. It would be an equal pity, were 
 the casual reader to condemn all who eventually 
 aligned themselves against the Vigilance move- 
 ment as of the same stripe as the criminals who
 
 THE STORM GATHERS 181 
 
 menaced society. There were many worthy people 
 whose education thoroughly inclined them towards 
 formal law, and who, therefore, when the actual 
 break came, found themselves supporting law 
 instead of justice. 
 
 As long as the country continued to enjoy the 
 full flood of prosperity, these things did not greatly 
 matter. The time was individualistic, and every 
 man was supposed to take care of himself. But in 
 the year 1855 financial stringency overtook the 
 new community. For lack of water many of the 
 miners had stopped work and had to ask for credit 
 in buying their daily necessities. The country 
 stores had to have credit from the city because the 
 miners could not pay, and the wholesalers of the 
 city again had to ask extension from the East 
 until their bills were met by the retailers. The 
 gold of the country went East to pay its bills. 
 Further to complicate the matter, all banking 
 was at this time done by private firms. These 
 could take deposits and make loans and could issue 
 exchange, but they could not issue bank-notes. 
 Therefore the currency was absolutely inelastic. 
 
 Even these conditions failed to shake the public 
 optimism, until out of a clear sky came announce- 
 ment that Adams and Company had failed. Adams
 
 182 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 and Company occupied in men's minds much the 
 same position as the Bank of England. If Adams 
 and Company were vulnerable, then nobody was 
 secure. The assets of the bankrupt firm were 
 turned over to one Alfred Cohen as receiver, with 
 whom Jones, a member of the firm of Palmer, 
 Cook, and Company, and a third individual were 
 associated as assignees. On petition of other 
 creditors the judge of the district court removed 
 Cohen and appointed one Naglee in his place. 
 This new man, Naglee, on asking for the assets 
 was told that they had been deposited with Palmer, 
 Cook, and Company. The latter firm refused to 
 give them up, denying Naglee's jurisdiction in the 
 matter. Naglee then commenced suit against 
 the assignees and obtained a judgment against 
 them for $269,000. On their refusal to pay over 
 this sum, Jones and Cohen were taken into cus- 
 tody. But Palmer, Cook, and Company influenced 
 the courts, as did about every large mercantile or 
 political firm. They soon secured the release of 
 the prisoners, and in the general scramble for the 
 assets of Adams and Company they secured the 
 lion's share. 
 
 It was the same old story. An immense amount 
 of money had disappeared. Nobody had been pun-
 
 THE STORM GATHERS 183 
 
 
 
 ished, and it was all strictly legal. Failures resulted 
 right and left. Even Wells, Fargo, and Company 
 closed their doors but reopened them within a 
 few days. There was much excitement which 
 would probably have died as other excitement had 
 died before, had not the times produced a voice of 
 compelling power. This voice spoke through an 
 individual known as James King of William. 
 
 King was a man of keen mind and dauntless 
 courage, w T ho had tried his luck briefly at the 
 mines, realized that the physical work was too 
 much for him, and had therefore returned to 
 mercantile and banking pursuits in San Francisco. 
 His peculiar name was said to be due to the fact 
 that at the age of sixteen, finding another James 
 King in his immediate circle, he had added his 
 father's name as a distinguishing mark. He was 
 rarely mentioned except with the full designation 
 James King of William. On his return he opened a 
 private banking-house, brought out his family, and 
 entered the life of the town. For a time his bank- 
 ing career prospered and he acquired a moderate 
 fortune, but in 1854 unwise investments forced 
 him to close his office. In a high-minded fashion, 
 very unusual in those times and even now somewhat 
 rare, he surrendered to his creditors everything on
 
 184 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 
 
 earth he possessed. He then accepted a salaried 
 position with Adams and Company, which he held 
 until that house also failed. Since to the outside 
 world his connection with the firm looked dubious, 
 he exonerated himself through a series cf pam- 
 phlets and short newspaper articles. The vigor 
 and force of their style arrested attention, so that 
 when his dauntless crusading spirit, revolting 
 against the carnival of crime both subtle and 
 obvious, desired to edit a newspaper, he had no 
 difficulty in raising the small sum of money neces- 
 sary. He had always expressed his opinions 
 clearly and fearlessly, and the public watched 
 with the greatest interest the appearance of the 
 new sheet. 
 
 The first number of the Daily Evening Bulletin 
 appeared on October 8, 1855. Like all papers of 
 that day and like many of the English papers now, 
 its first page was completely covered with small 
 advertisements. A thin driblet of local items 
 occupied a column on the third and fourth pages, 
 and a single column of editorials ran down the 
 second. As a newspaper it seemed beneath con- 
 tempt, but the editorials made men sit up and take 
 notice. King started with an attack on Palmer, 
 Cook, and Company's methods. He said nothing
 
 THE STORM GATHERS 185 
 
 whatever about the robberies. He dealt exclu- 
 sively with the excessive rentals for postal boxes 
 charged the public by Palmer, Cook, and Company. 
 That seemed a comparatively small and harmless 
 matter, but King made it interesting by mention- 
 ing exact names, recording specific instances, avoid- 
 ing any generalities, and stating plainly that this 
 was merely a beginning in the exposure of methods. 
 Jones of Palmer, Cook, and Company that same 
 Jones who had been arrested with Cohen immed- 
 iately visited King in his office with the object of 
 either intimidating or bribing him as the circum- 
 stances seemed to advise. He bragged of horse- 
 whips and duels, but returned rather noncommittal. 
 The next evening the Bulletin reported Jones's 
 visit simply as an item of news, faithfully, sarcas- 
 tically, and in a pompous vein. There followed 
 no comment whatever. The next number, now 
 eagerly purchased by every one, was more interest- 
 ing because of its hints of future disclosures rather 
 than because of its actual information. One of 
 the alleged scoundrels was mentioned by name, and 
 then the subject was dropped. The attention of 
 the City Marshal was curtly called to disorderly 
 houses and the statutes concerning them, and it 
 was added " for his information" that at a certain
 
 186 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 address, which was given, a structure was then 
 actually being built for improper purposes. Then, 
 without transition, followed a list of official 
 bonds and sureties for which Palmer, Cook, and 
 Company were giving vouchers, amounting to over 
 two millions. There were no comments on this 
 list, but the inference was obvious that the firm 
 had the whip-hand over many public officials. 
 
 The position of the new paper was soon formally 
 established. It possessed a large subscription 
 list; it was eagerly bought on its appearance in the 
 street; and its advertising was increasing. King 
 again turned his attention to Palmer, Cook, and 
 Company. Each day he explored succinctly, 
 clearly, without rhetoric, some single branch of 
 their business. By the time he had finished with 
 them, he had not only exposed all their iniquities, 
 but he had, which was more important, educated 
 the public to the financial methods of the time. 
 It followed naturally in this type of exposure that 
 King should criticize some of the legal subterfuges, 
 which in turn brought him to analysis of the firm's 
 legal advisers, who had previously enjoyed a good 
 reputation. From such subjects he drifted to 
 dueling, venal newspapers, and soon down to the 
 ordinary criminals such as Billy Mulligan, Wooley
 
 THE STORM GATHERS 187 
 
 Kearny, Casey, Cora, Yankee Sullivan, Ned Mo 
 Gowan, Charles Duane, and many others. Never 
 did he hesitate to specify names and instances. 
 He never dealt in innuendoes. This was bringing 
 him very close to personal danger, for worthies of 
 the class last mentioned were the sort who carried 
 their pistols and bowie-knives prominently dis- 
 played and handy for use. As yet no actual vio- 
 lence had been attempted against him. Other 
 methods of reprisal that came to his notice King 
 published without comment as items of news. 
 
 Mere threats had little effect in intimidating 
 the editor. More serious means were tried. A 
 dozen men publicly announced that they intended 
 to kill him and the records of the dozen were 
 pretty good testimonials to their sincerity. In the 
 gambling resorts and on the streets bets were made 
 and pools formed on the probable duration of 
 King's life. As was his custom, he commented 
 even upon this. Said the Bulletin's editorial 
 columns: "Bets are now being offered, we have 
 been told, that the editor of the Bulletin will not 
 be in existence twenty days longer. And the case 
 of Dr. Hogan of the Vicksburg paper who was 
 murdered by gamblers of that place is cited as a 
 warning. Pah! . . . War then is the cry, is it?
 
 188 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 War between the prostitutes and gamblers on one 
 side and the virtuous and respectable on the other ! 
 Be it so, then! Gamblers of San Francisco, you 
 have made your election and we are ready on our 
 side for the issue!" A man named Selover sent 
 a challenge to King. King took this occasion to 
 announce that he would consider no challenges 
 and would fight no duels. Selover then announced 
 his intention of killing King on sight. Says the 
 Bulletin: "Mr. Selover, it is said, carries a knife. 
 We carry a pistol. We hope neither will be 
 required, but if this rencontre cannot be avoided, 
 why will Mr. Selover persist in imperiling the 
 lives of others? We pass every afternoon about 
 half-past four to five o'clock along Market Street 
 from Fourth to Fifth Streets. The road is wide 
 and not so much frequented as those streets 
 farther in town. If we are to be shot or cut to 
 pieces, for heaven's sake let it be done there. 
 Others will not be injured, and in case we fall our 
 house is but a few hundred yards beyond and the 
 cemetery not much farther." Boldness such as 
 this did not act exactly as a soporific. 
 
 About this time was perpetrated a crime of 
 violence no worse than many hundreds which 
 had preceded it, but occurring at a psychological
 
 THE STORM GATHERS 189 
 
 time. A gambler named Charles Cora shot and 
 killed William Richardson, a United States 
 marshal. The shooting was cold-blooded and 
 without danger to the murderer, for at the time 
 Richardson was unarmed. Cora was at once 
 hustled to jail, not so much for confinement as 
 for safety against a possible momentary public 
 anger. Men had been shot on the street before 
 many men, some of them as well known and as 
 well liked as Richardson but not since public 
 sentiment had been aroused and educated as the 
 Bulletin had aroused and educated it. Crowds 
 commenced at once to gather. Some talk of 
 lynching went about. Men made violent street- 
 corner speeches. The mobs finally surged to 
 the jail, but were firmly met by a strong armed 
 guard and fell back. There was much destructive 
 and angry talk. 
 
 But to swing a mob into action there must be 
 determined men at its head, and this mob had no 
 leader. Sam Brannan started to say something, but 
 was promptly arrested for inciting riot. Though 
 the situation was ticklish, the police seem to have 
 handled it well, making only a passive opposition 
 and leaving the crowd to fritter its energies in 
 purposeless cursing, surging to and fro, and harm-
 
 190 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 less threatenings. Nevertheless this crowd per 
 sisted longer than most of them. 
 
 The next day the Bulletin vigorously counseled 
 dependence upon the law, expressed confidence 
 in the judges who were to try the case Hager 
 and Norton and voiced a personal belief that 
 the day had passed when it would ever be ne- 
 cessary to resort to arbitrary measures. It may 
 hence be seen how far from a contemplation of 
 extra legal measures was King in his public at- 
 titude. Nevertheless he added a paragraph of 
 warning: "Hang Billy Mulligan that's the 
 word. If Mr. Sheriff Scannell does not remove 
 Billy Mulligan from his present post as keeper 
 of the County Jail and Mulligan lets Cora escape, 
 hang Billy Mulligan, and if necessary to get rid 
 of the sheriff, hang him hang the sheriff!" 
 
 Public excitement died. Conviction seemed 
 absolutely certain. Richardson had been a public 
 official and a popular one. Cora's action had 
 been cold-blooded and apparently without pro- 
 vocation. Nevertheless he had remained undis- 
 turbed. He had retained one of the most brilliant 
 lawyers of the time, James McDougall. McDou- 
 gall added to his staff the most able of the younger 
 lawyers of the city. Immense sums of money
 
 THE STORM GATHERS 191 
 
 were available. The source is not exactly known, 
 but a certain Belle Cora, a prostitute afterwards 
 married by Cora, was advancing large amounts. 
 A man named James Casey, bound by some 
 mysterious obligation, was active in taking up 
 general collections. Cora lived in great luxury 
 at the jail. He had long been a close personal 
 friend of the sheriff and his deputy, Mulligan. 
 When the case came to trial, Cora escaped con- 
 viction through the disagreement of the jury. 
 
 This fiasco, following King's editorials, had a 
 profound effect on the public mind. King took 
 the outrage against justice as a fresh starting- 
 point for new attacks. He assailed bitterly and 
 fearlessly the countless abuses of the time, until 
 at last he was recognized as a dangerous opponent 
 by the heretofore cynically amused higher crimi- 
 nals. Many rumors of plots against King's life 
 are to be found in the detailed history of the day. 
 Whether his final assassination was the result of one 
 of these plots, or simply the outcome of a burst 
 of passion, matters little. Ultimately it had its 
 source in the ungoverned spirit of the times. 
 
 Four months after the farce of the Cora trial, 
 on May 14, King published an attack on the 
 appointment of a certain man to a position in the
 
 192 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 federal custom house. The candidate had hap- 
 pened to be involved with James P. Casey, in a 
 disgraceful election. Casey was at that time one 
 of the supervisors. Incidental to his attack on the 
 candidate, King wrote as follows: "It does not 
 matter how bad a man Casey had been, or how 
 much benefit it might be to the public to have him 
 out of the way, we cannot accord to any one 
 citizen the right to kill him or even beat him, 
 without justifiable provocation. The fact that 
 Casey has been an inmate of Sing Sing prison in 
 New York is no offense against the laws of this 
 State; nor is the fact of his having stuffed himself 
 through the ballot box, as elected to the Board of 
 Supervisors from a district where it is said he was 
 not even a candidate, any justification for Mr. 
 Bagley to shoot Casey, however richly the latter 
 may deserve to have his neck stretched for such 
 fraud on the people. " 
 
 Casey read this editorial in full knowledge 
 that thousands of his fellow-citizens would also 
 read it. He was at that time, in addition to his 
 numerous political cares, editor of a small news- 
 paper called The Sunday Times. This had been 
 floated for the express purpose of supporting the 
 extremists of the legalists' party, which, as we have
 
 THE STORM GATHERS 193 
 
 explained, now included the gambling and law- 
 less element. How valuable he was considered 
 is shown by the fact that at a previous election 
 Casey had been returned as elected supervisor, 
 although he had not been a candidate, his name 
 had not been on the ticket, and subsequent private 
 investigations could unearth no man who would 
 acknowledge having voted for him. Indeed, he 
 was not even a resident of that district. However, 
 a slick politician named Yankee Sullivan, who ran 
 the election, said officially that the most votes had 
 been counted for him; and so his election was an- 
 nounced. Casey was a handy tool in many ways, 
 rarely appearing in person but adept in selecting 
 suitable agents. He was personally popular. In 
 appearance he is described as a short, slight man 
 with a keen face, a good forehead, a thin but florid 
 countenance, dark curly hair, and blue eyes; a 
 type of unscrupulous Irish adventurer, with per- 
 haps the dash of romantic idealism sometimes 
 found in the worst scoundrels. Like most of his 
 confreres, he was particularly touchy on the sub- 
 ject of his "honor." 
 
 On reading the Bulletin editorials, he proceeded 
 at once to King's office, announcing his intention 
 
 of shooting the editor on sight. Probably he 
 13
 
 194 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 would have done so except for the accidental cir- 
 cumstance that King happened to be busy at a 
 table with his back turned squarely to the door. 
 Even Casey could not shoot a man in the back 
 without a word of warning. He was stuttering 
 and excited. The interview was overheard by two 
 men in an adjoining office. 
 
 "What do you mean by that article?" cried 
 Casey. 
 
 "What article?" asked King. 
 
 ''That which says I was formerly an inmate of 
 Sing Sing. " 
 
 "Is it not true?" asked King quietly. 
 
 "That is not the question. I don't wish my 
 past acts raked up. On that point I am sensi- 
 tive." 
 
 A slight pause ensued. 
 
 "Are you done?" asked King quietly. Then 
 leaping from the chair he burst suddenly into 
 excitement. 
 
 "There's the door, go! And never show your 
 face here again. " 
 
 Casey had lost his advantage. At the door he 
 gathered himself together again. 
 
 "I'll say in my paper what I please, " he asserted 
 with a show of bravado.
 
 THE STORM GATHERS 195 
 
 King was again in control of himself. 
 
 "You haVe a perfect right to do so, " he rejoined. 
 S< I shall never notice your paper. " 
 
 Casey struck himself on the breast. 
 
 "And if necessary I shall defend myself," he 
 cried. 
 
 King bounded again from his seat, livid with 
 anger. 
 
 "Go," he commanded sharply, and Casey went. 
 
 Outside in the street Casey found a crowd 
 waiting. The news of his visit to the Bulletin 
 office had spread. His personal friends crowded 
 around asking eager questions. Casey answered 
 with vague generalities: he wasn't a man to be 
 trifled with, and some people had to find out! 
 Blackmailing was not a healthy occupation when 
 it aimed at a gentleman! He left the general 
 impression that King had apologized. Bragging 
 in this manner, Casey led the way to the Bank 
 Exchange, the fashionable bar not far distant. 
 Here he remained drinking and boasting for some 
 time. 
 
 In the group that surrounded him was a certain 
 Judge Edward McGowan, a jolly, hard-drinking, 
 noisy individual. He had been formerly a fugitive 
 from justice. However, through the attractions
 
 196 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 of a gay life, a combination of bullying and 
 intrigue, he had made himself a place in the new 
 city and had at last risen to the bench. He was 
 apparently easy to fathom, but the stream really 
 ran deep. Some historians claim that he had 
 furnished King the document which proved Casey 
 an ex-convict. It is certain that now he had 
 great influence with Casey, and that he drew 
 him aside from the bar and talked with him some 
 time in a low voice. Some people insist that he 
 furnished the navy revolver with which a few 
 moments later Casey shot King. This may be 
 so, but every man went armed in those days, 
 especially men of Casey's stamp. 
 
 It is certain, however, that after his interview 
 with McGowan, Casey took his place across the 
 street from the Bank Exchange. There, wrapped 
 in his cloak, he awaited King's usual promenade 
 home. 
 
 That for some time his intention was well 
 known is proved by the group that little by little 
 gathered on the opposite side of the street. It is a 
 matter of record that a small boy passing by was 
 commandeered and sent with a message for Peter 
 Wrightman, a deputy sheriff. Pete, out of 
 breath, soon joined the group. There he idled,
 
 THE STORM GATHERS 197 
 
 also watching, an official charged with the main- 
 tenance of the law of the land! 
 
 At just five o'clock King turned the corner, his 
 head bent. He started to cross the street di- 
 agonally and had almost reached the opposite 
 sidewalk when he was confronted by Casey who 
 stepped forward from his place of concealment 
 behind a wagon. 
 
 "Come on," he said, throwing back his cloak, 
 and immediately fired. King, who could not have 
 known what Casey was saying, was shot through 
 the left breast, staggered, and fell. Casey then 
 took several steps toward his victim, looked at him 
 closely as though to be sure he had done a good 
 job, let down the hammer of his pistol, picked up 
 his cloak, and started for the police-station. All 
 he wanted now was a trial under the law. 
 
 The distance to the station-house was less than 
 a block. Instantly at the sound of the shot his 
 friends rose about him and guarded him to the 
 shelter of the lock-up. But at last the public was 
 aroused. Casey had unwittingly cut down a 
 symbol of the better element, as well as a fearless 
 and noble man. Someone rang the old Monu- 
 mental Engine House bell the bell that had been 
 used to call together the Vigilantes of 1851. The
 
 198 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 news spread about the city like wildfire. An 
 immense mob appeared to spring from nowhere. 
 
 The police officials were no fools; they recog- 
 nized the quality of the approaching hurricane. 
 The city jail was too weak a structure. It was 
 desirable to move the prisoner at once to the 
 county jail for safe-keeping. A carriage was 
 brought to the entrance of an alley next the city 
 jail; the prisoner, closely surrounded by armed 
 men, was rushed to it; and the vehicle charged out 
 through the crowd. The mob, as yet unorganized, 
 recoiled instinctively before the plunging horses 
 and the presented pistols. Before anybody could 
 gather his wits, the equipage had disappeared. 
 
 The mob surged after the disappearing vehicle, 
 and so ended up finally in the wide open space 
 before the county jail. The latter was a solidly 
 built one-story building situated on top of a low 
 cliff. North, the marshal, had drawn up his 
 armed men. The mob, very excited, vociferated, 
 surging back and forth, though they did not 
 rush, because as yet they had no leaders. At- 
 tempts were made to harangue the gathering, but 
 everywhere the speeches were cut short. At a 
 crucial moment the militia appeared. The crowd 
 thought at first that the volunteer troops were
 
 THE STORM GATHERS 199 
 
 coming to uphold their own side, but were soon 
 undeceived. The troops deployed in front of the 
 jail and stood at guard. Just then the mayor 
 attempted to address the crowd. 
 
 "You are here creating an excitement," he 
 said, "which may lead to occurrences this night 
 which will require years to wipe out. You are 
 now laboring under great excitement and I advise 
 you to quietly disperse. I assure you the prisoner 
 is safe. Let the law have its course and justice 
 will be done. " 
 
 He was listened to with respect, up to this 
 point, but here arose such a chorus of jeers that 
 he retired hastily. 
 
 "How about Richardson?" they demanded of 
 him. "Where is the law in Cora's case? To hell 
 with such justice!" 
 
 More and more soldiers came into the square, 
 which was soon filled with bayonets. The favor- 
 able moment had passed and this particular 
 crisis w r as, like all the other similar crises, 
 quickly over. But the city was aroused. Mass 
 meetings were held in the Plaza and in other 
 convenient localities. Many meetings took place 
 in rooms in different parts of the city. Men armed 
 by the thousands. Vehement orators held forth
 
 200 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 from every balcony. Some of these people were? 
 as a chronicler of the times quaintly expressed it, 
 "considerably tight." There was great diversity 
 of opinion. All night the city seethed with ill- 
 directed activity. But men felt helpless and 
 hopeless for want of efficient organization. 
 
 The so-called Southern chivalry called this 
 affair a "fight." Indeed the Herald in its issue 
 of the next morning, mistaking utterly the times, 
 held boldly along the way of its sympathies. It 
 also spoke of the assassination as an "affray," 
 and stated emphatically its opinion that, "now 
 that justice is regularly administered," there 
 was no excuse for even the threat of public vio- 
 lence. This utter blindness to the meaning of 
 the new movement and the far-reaching effect of 
 King's previous campaign proved fatal to the 
 paper. It declined immediately. In the mean- 
 time, attended by his wife and a whole score of 
 volunteer physicians, King, lying in a room in the 
 Montgomery block, was making a fight for his 
 life. 
 
 Then people began to notice a small advertise- 
 ment on the first page of the morning papers, 
 headed The Vigilance Committee. 
 
 "The members of the Vigilance Committee in
 
 THE STORM GATHERS 201 
 
 good standing will please meet at number 105^ 
 Sacramento Street, this day, Thursday, fifteenth 
 instant, at nine o'clock A. M. By order of the 
 COMMITTEE OF THIRTEEN. " 
 
 People stood still in the streets, when this 
 notice met the eye. If this was actually the old 
 Committee of 1851, it meant business. There 
 was but one way to find out and that was to go 
 and see. Number 105^ Sacramento Street was a 
 three-story barn-like structure that had been built 
 by a short-lived political party called the "Know- 
 Nothings." The crowd poured into the hall to 
 its full capacity, jammed the entrance ways, and 
 gathered for blocks in the street. There all waited 
 patiently to see what would happen. 
 
 Meantime, in the small room back of the stage, 
 about a score of men gathered. Chief among 
 all stood William T. Coleman. He had taken a 
 prominent part in the old Committee of '51. 
 With him were Clancey Dempster, small and mild 
 of manner, blue-eyed, the last man in the room 
 one would have picked for great stamina and 
 courage, yet playing one of the leading roles in 
 this crisis; the merchant Truett, towering above 
 all the rest; Farwell, direct, uncompromising, in- 
 spired with tremendous single-minded earnest-
 
 202 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 ness; James Dows, of the rough and ready, humor- 
 ous, blasphemous, horse-sense type; Hossefross, 
 of the Committee of '51; Dr. Beverly Cole, high- 
 spirited, distinguished-looking, and courtly; Isaac 
 Bluxome, whose signature of "33 Secretary" was 
 to become terrible, and who also had served well 
 in 1851. These and many more of their type 
 were considering the question dispassionately and 
 earnestly. 
 
 "It is a serious business," said Coleman, 
 summing up. "It is no child's play. It may 
 prove very serious. We may get through quickly 
 and safely, or we may so involve ourselves as 
 never to get through. " 
 
 "The issue is not one of choice but of 
 expediency," replied Dempster. "Shall we 
 have vigilance with order or a mob with 
 anarchy?" 
 
 In this spirit Coleman addressed the crowd 
 waiting in the large hall. 
 
 "In view of the miscarriage of justice in the 
 courts," he announced briefly, "it has been 
 thought expedient to revive the Vigilance Com- 
 mittee. An Executive Council should be chosen, 
 representative of the whole body. I have been 
 asked to take charge. I will do so, but must
 
 THE STORM GATHERS 203 
 
 stipulate that I am to be free to choose the first 
 council myself. Is that agreed?" 
 
 He received a roar of assent. 
 
 "Very well, gentlemen, I shall request you to 
 vacate the hall. In a short time the books will be 
 open for enrollment. " 
 
 With almost disciplined docility the crowd arose 
 and filed out, joining the other crowd waiting 
 patiently in the street. 
 
 After a remarkably short period the doors were 
 again thrown open. Inside the passage stood 
 twelve men later to be known as the Executive 
 Committee. These held back the rush, admitting 
 but one man at a time. The crowd immediately 
 caught the idea and helped. There was abso- 
 lutely no excitement. Every man seemed grimly 
 in earnest. Cries of "Order, order, line up!" 
 came all down the street. A rough queue was 
 formed. There were no jokes or laughing; there 
 was even no talk. Each waited his turn. At the 
 entrance every applicant was closely scrutinized 
 and interrogated. Several men were turned back 
 peremptorily in the first few minutes, with the 
 warning not to dare make another attempt. 
 Passed by this Committee, the candidate climbed 
 the stairs. In the second story behind a table sat
 
 204 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 Coleman, Dempster, and one other. These ad- 
 ministered to him an oath of secrecy and then 
 passed him into another room where sat Bluxome 
 behind a ledger. Here his name was written and he 
 was assigned a number by which henceforth in the 
 activities of the Committee he was to be known. 
 Members were instructed always to use numbers 
 and never names in referring to other members. 
 
 Those who had been enrolled waited for some 
 time, but finding that with evening the applicants 
 were still coming in a long procession, they gradu- 
 ally dispersed. No man, however, departed far 
 from the vicinity. Short absences and hastily 
 snatched meals were followed by hurried returns, 
 lest something be missed. From time to time 
 rumors were put in circulation as to the activities 
 of the Executive Committee, which had been in 
 continuous session since its appointment. An 
 Examining Committee had been appointed to 
 scrutinize the applicants. The number of the 
 Executive Committee had been raised to twenty- 
 six; a Chief of Police had been chosen, and he in 
 turn appointed messengers and policemen, who 
 set out in search of individuals wanted as 
 door-keepers, guards, and so forth. Only regis- 
 tered members were allowed on the floor of the
 
 THE STORM GATHERS 205 
 
 hall. Even the newspaper reporters were gently 
 but firmly ejected. There was no excitement or 
 impatience. 
 
 At length, at eight o'clock, Coleman came out 
 of one of the side-rooms and, mounting a table, 
 called for order. He explained that a military 
 organization had been decided upon, advised 
 that numbers 1 to 100 inclusive should assemble 
 in one corner of the room, the second hundred 
 at the first window, and so on. An interesting 
 order was his last. "Let the French assemble in 
 the middle of the hall," he said in their language 
 an order significant of the great numbers of French 
 who had first answered the call of gold in '49, and 
 who now with equal enthusiasm answered the call 
 for essential justice. Each company was advised to 
 elect its own officers, subject to ratification by the 
 Executive Committee. It was further stated that 
 arrangements had been made to hire muskets to 
 the number of several thousands from one George 
 Law. These were only flintlocks, but efficient 
 enough in their way, and supplied with bayonets. 
 They were discarded government weapons, brought 
 out some time ago by Law to arm some mysterious 
 filibustering expedition that had fallen through. 
 In this manner, without confusion, an organization
 
 206 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 of two thousand men was formed sixteen mili- 
 tary companies. 
 
 By Saturday morning, May 17, the Committee 
 rooms were overwhelmed by crowds of citizens 
 who desired to be enrolled. Larger quarters 
 had already been secured in a building on the 
 south side of Sacramento Street. Thither the 
 Committee now removed en masse, without in- 
 terrupting their labors. These new headquarters 
 soon became famous in the history of this eventful 
 year. 
 
 In the meantime the representatives of the 
 law had not been less alert. The regular police 
 force was largely increased. The sheriff issued 
 thousands of summonses calling upon citizens for 
 service as deputies. These summonses were made 
 out in due form of law. To refuse them meant to 
 put oneself outside the law. The ordinary citizen 
 was somewhat puzzled by the situation. A great 
 many responded to the appeal from force of habit. 
 Once they accepted the oath these new deputies 
 were confronted by the choice between perjury, 
 and its consequences, or doing service. On the 
 other hand, the issue of the summonses forced 
 many otherwise neutral men into the ranks 
 of the Vigilantes. If they refused to act when
 
 THE STORM GATHERS 207 
 
 directly summoned by law, that very fact placed 
 them on the wrong side of the law. Therefore they 
 felt that joining a party pledged to what prac- 
 tically amounted to civil war was only a short step 
 further. Against these the various military com- 
 panies were mustered, reminded of their oath, called 
 upon to fulfill their sworn duty, and sent to various 
 strategic points about the jail and elsewhere. The 
 Governor was informally notified of a state of in- 
 surrection and was requested to send in the state 
 militia. By evening all the forces of organized 
 society were under arms, and the result was a 
 formidable, apparently impregnable force. 
 
 Nor was the widespread indignation against 
 the shooting of James King of William entirely 
 unalloyed by bitterness. King had been a hard 
 hitter, an honest man, a true crusader; but in the 
 heat of battle he had not always had time to make 
 distinctions. Thus he had quite justly attacked 
 the Times and other venal newspapers, but in so 
 doing had, by too general statements, drawn the 
 fire of every other journal in town. He had 
 attacked with entire reason a certain Catholic 
 priest, a man the Church itself would probably 
 soon have disciplined, but in so doing had managed 
 to enrage all Roman Catholics. In like manner
 
 208 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 his scorn of the so-called "chivalry" was certainly 
 well justified, but his manner of expression offended 
 even the best Southerners. Most of us see no 
 farther than the immediate logic of the situation. 
 Those perfectly worthy citizens were inclined 
 to view the Vigilantes, not as a protest against 
 intolerable conditions, but rather as personal 
 champions of King. 
 
 In thus relying on the strength of their position 
 the upholders of law realized that there might be 
 fighting, and even severe fighting, but it must be 
 remembered that the Law and Order party loved 
 fighting. It was part of their education and of 
 their pleasure and code. No wonder that they 
 viewed with equanimity and perhaps with joy 
 the beginning of the Vigilance movement of 1856. . 
 
 The leaders of the Law and Order party chose 
 as their military commander William Tecumseh 
 Sherman, whose professional ability and integrity 
 in later life are unquestioned, but whose military 
 genius was equaled only by his extreme inability 
 to remember facts. When writing his Memoirs, 
 the General evidently forgot that original docu- 
 ments existed or that statements concerning 
 historical events can often be checked up. A 
 mere mob is irresponsible and anonymous. But
 
 THE STORM GATHERS 209 
 
 it was not a mob with whom Sherman was faced, 
 for, as a final satisfaction to the legal-minded, 
 the men of the Vigilance Committee had put 
 down their names on record as responsible for 
 this movement, and it is upon contemporary 
 record that the story of these eventful days must 
 rely for its details.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE STORM BREAKS 
 
 THE Governor of the State at this time was J. 
 Neely Johnson, a politician whose merits and 
 demerits were both so slight that he would long 
 since have been forgotten were it not for the fact 
 that he occupied office during this excitement. 
 His whole life heretofore had been one of trim- 
 ming. He had made his way by this method, 
 and he gained the Governor's chair by yielding to 
 the opinion of others. He took his color and his 
 temporary belief from those with whom he hap- 
 pened to be. His judgment often stuck at trifles, 
 and his opinions were quickly heated but as 
 quickly cooled. The added fact that his private 
 morals were not above criticism gave men an 
 added hold over him. 
 
 On receipt of the request for the state militia 
 by the law party, but not by the proper authori- 
 ties, Governor Johnson hurried down from Sacra- 
 
 210
 
 THE STORM BREAKS 211 
 
 mento to San Francisco. Immediately on arriving 
 in the city he sent word to Coleman requesting 
 an interview. Coleman at once visited him at 
 his hotel. Johnson apparently made every effort 
 to appear amiable and conciliatory. In answer to 
 all questions Coleman replied: 
 
 "We want peace, and if possible without a 
 struggle." 
 
 "It is all very well," said Johnson, "to talk 
 about peace with an army of insurrection newly 
 raised. But what is it you actually wish to 
 accomplish?" 
 
 "The law is crippled," replied Coleman. "We 
 want merely to accomplish what the crippled 
 law should do but cannot. This done, we will 
 gladly retire. Now you have been asked by the 
 mayor and certain others to bring out the militia 
 and crush this movement. I assure you it cannot 
 be done, and, if you attempt it, it will cause 
 you and us great trouble. Do as Governor 
 McDougal did in '51. See in this movement 
 what he saw in that a local movement for a 
 local reform in which the State is not concerned. 
 We are not a mob. We demand no overthrow 
 of institutions. We ask not a single court to 
 adjourn. We ask not a single officer to vacate
 
 212 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 his position. We demand only the enforcement 
 of the law which we have made." 
 
 This expression of intention, with a little elabo- 
 ration and argument, fired Johnson to enthusi- 
 asm. He gave his full support, unofficially of 
 course, to the movement. 
 
 "But," he concluded, "hasten the undertaking 
 as much as you can. The opposition is stronger 
 than you suppose. The pressure on me is going 
 to be terrible. What about the prisoners in the 
 jail?" 
 
 Coleman evaded this last question by saying 
 that the matter was in the hands of the Com- 
 mittee, and he then left the Governor. 
 
 Coleman at once returned to headquarters 
 where the Executive Committee was in session, 
 getting rid of its routine business. After a dozen 
 matters were settled, it was moved "that the 
 Committee as a body shall visit the county jail at 
 such time as the Executive Committee might 
 direct, and take thence James P. Casey and 
 Charles Cora, give them a fair trial, and adminis- 
 ter such punishment as justice shall demand." 
 
 This, of course, was the real business for which 
 all this organization had been planned. A mo- 
 ment's pause succeeded the proposal, but an
 
 THE STORM BREAKS 213 
 
 instantaneous and unanimous assent followed the 
 demand for a vote. At this precise instant a 
 messenger opened the door and informed them 
 that Governor Johnson was in the building 
 requesting speech with Coleman. 
 
 Coleman found Johnson, accompanied by Sher- 
 man and a few others, lounging in the anteroom. 
 The Governor sprawled in a chair, his hat pulled 
 over his eyes, a cigar in the corner of his mouth. 
 His companions arose and bowed gravely as 
 Coleman entered the room, but the Governor 
 remained seated and nodded curtly with an air of 
 bravado. Without waiting for even the ordinary 
 courtesies he burst out. 
 
 "We have come to ask what you intend to do," 
 he demanded. 
 
 Coleman, thoroughly surprised, with the full 
 belief that the subject had all been settled in the 
 previous interview, replied curtly. 
 
 "I agree with you as to the grievances," rejoined 
 the Governor, "but the courts are the proper 
 remedy. The judges are good men, and there is 
 no necessity for the people to turn themselves into 
 a mob." 
 
 "Sir!" cried Coleman. "This is no mob! 
 You know this is no mob!"
 
 214 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 The Governor went on to explain that it might 
 become necessary to bring out all the force at his 
 command. Coleman, though considerably taken 
 aback, recovered himself and listened without 
 comment. He realized that Sherman and the 
 other men were present as witnesses. 
 
 "I will report your remark to my associates," 
 he contented himself with saying. The question 
 of witnesses, however, bothered Coleman. He 
 darted in to the committee room and shortly 
 returned with witnesses of his own. 
 
 "Let us now understand each other clearly," 
 he resumed. "As I understand your proposal, 
 it is that, if we make no move, you guarantee 
 no escape, an immediate trial, and instant 
 execution?" 
 
 Johnson agreed to this. 
 
 "We doubt your ability to do this," went on 
 Coleman, "but we are ready to meet you half- 
 way. This is what we will promise: we will take 
 no steps without first giving you notice. But in 
 return we insist that ten men of our own selection 
 shall be added to the sheriff's force within the 
 jail." 
 
 Johnson, who was greatly relieved and delighted, 
 at once agreed to this proposal, and soon withdrew.
 
 THE STORM BREAKS 215 
 
 But the blunder he had made was evident enough. 
 With Coleman, who was completely outside the 
 law, he, as an executive of the law, had no business 
 treating or making agreements at all. Further- 
 more, as executive of the State, he had no legal 
 right to interfere with city affairs unless he were 
 formally summoned by the authorities. Up to 
 now he had merely been notified by private citi- 
 zens. And to cap the whole sheaf of blunders, 
 he had now in this private interview treated with 
 rebels, and to their advantage. For, as Coleman 
 probably knew, the last agreement was all for 
 the benefit of the Committee. They gained the 
 right to place a personal guard over the prisoners. 
 They gave in return practically only a promise to 
 withdraw that guard before attacking the jail a 
 procedure which was eminently practical if they 
 cared anything for the safety of the guard. 
 
 Johnson was thoroughly pleased with himself 
 until he reached the hotel where the leaders of the 
 opposition were aw r aiting him. Their keen legal 
 minds saw at once the position in which he had 
 placed himself. After a hasty discussion, it was 
 decided to claim that the Committee had waived 
 all right of action, and that they had promised 
 definitely to leave the case to the courts. When
 
 16 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 this statement had been industriously circulated 
 and Coleman had heard of it, he is said to have 
 exclaimed: 
 
 "The time has come. After that, it is either 
 ourselves or a mob." 
 
 He proceeded at once to the Vigilance head- 
 quarters and summoned Olney, the appointed 
 guardian of the jail. Him he commanded to get 
 together sixty of the best men possible. A call 
 was sent out for the companies to assemble. 
 They soon began to gather, coming some in rank 
 as they had gathered in their headquarters outside, 
 others singly and in groups. Doorkeepers pre- 
 vented all exit: once a man was in, he was not 
 permitted to go out. Each leader received explicit 
 directions as to what was to be done. He was 
 instructed as to precisely when he and his command 
 were to start; from what given point; along exactly 
 what route to proceed; and at just what time to 
 arrive at a given point not a moment sooner or 
 later. The plan for concerted action was very 
 carefully and skillfully worked out. Olney 's sixty 
 men were instructed to lay aside their muskets 
 and, armed only with pistols, to make their way 
 by different routes to the jail. 
 
 Sunday morning dawned fair and calm. But as
 
 THE STORM BREAKS 217 
 
 the day wore on, an air of unrest pervaded the 
 city. Rumors of impending action were already 
 abroad. The jail itself hummed like a hive. 
 Men came and went, busily running errands, and 
 darting about through the open door. Armed 
 men were taking their places on the flat roof. 
 Meantime the populace gathered slowly. At first 
 there were only a score or so idling around the 
 square; but little by little they increased in num- 
 bers. Black forms began to appear on the roof- 
 tops all about; white faces showed at the windows; 
 soon the center of the square had filled; the con- 
 verging streets became black with closely packed 
 people. The windows and doors and balconies, the 
 copings and railings, the slopes of the hills round 
 about were all occupied. In less than an hour 
 twenty thousand people had gathered. They took 
 their positions quietly and waited patiently. It was 
 evident that they had assembled in the role of spec- 
 tators only, and that action had been left to more 
 competent and better organized men. There was 
 no shouting, no demonstration, and so little talking 
 that it amounted only to a low murmur. Already 
 the doors of the jail had been closed. The armed 
 forces on the roof had been increased. 
 
 After a time the congested crowd down one of
 
 218 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 the side-streets was agitated by the approach ol 
 a body of armed men. At the same instant a 
 similar group began to appear at the end of another 
 and converging street. The columns came steadily 
 forward, as the people gave way. The men wore no 
 uniforms, and the glittering steel of their bayonets 
 furnished the only military touch. The two 
 columns reached the convergence of the street 
 at the same time and as they entered the square 
 before the jail a third and a fourth column de- 
 bouched from other directions, while still others 
 deployed into view on the hills behind. They all 
 took their places in rank around the square. 
 
 Among the well-known characters of the times 
 was a certain Colonel Gift. Mr. Hubert H. 
 Bancroft, the chronicler of these events, describes 
 him as "a tall, lank, empty -boweled, tobacco- 
 spurting Southerner, with eyes like burning 
 black balls, who could talk a company of listeners 
 into an insane asylum quicker than any man in 
 California, and whose blasphemy could not be 
 equaled, either in quantity or quality, by the 
 most profane of any age or nation." He remarked 
 to a friend nearby, as he watched the spectacle 
 below: "When you see these damned psalm- 
 singing Yankees turn out of their churches,
 
 THE STORM BREAKS 219 
 
 shoulder their guns, and march away of a Sun- 
 day, you may know that hell is going to crack 
 shortly." 
 
 For some time the armed men stood rigid, four 
 deep all around the square. Behind them the 
 masses of the people watched. Then at a com- 
 mand the ranks fell apart and from the side-streets 
 marched the sixty men chosen by Olney, dragging 
 a field gun at the end of a rope. This they wheeled 
 into position in the square and pointed it at the 
 door of the jail. Quite deliberately, the cannon 
 was loaded with powder and balls. A man lit a 
 slow match, blew it to a glow, and took his position 
 at the breech. Nothing then happened for a 
 full ten minutes. The six men stood rigid by the 
 gun in the middle of the square. The sunlight 
 gleamed from the ranks of bayonets. The vast 
 multitude held its breath. The wall of the jail 
 remained blank and inscrutable. 
 
 Then a man on horseback was seen to make 
 his way through the crowd. This was Charles 
 Doane, Grand Marshal of the Vigilantes. He 
 rode directly to the jail door, on which he rapped 
 with the handle of his riding-whip. After a 
 moment the wicket in the door opened. With- 
 out dismounting, the rider handed a note within,
 
 220 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 and then, backing his horse the length of the 
 square, came to rest. 
 
 Again the ranks parted and closed, this time 
 to admit of three carriages. As they came to a 
 stop, the muskets all around the square leaped to 
 "present arms!" From the carriages descended 
 Coleman, Truett, and several others. In dead 
 silence they walked to the jail door, Olney's men 
 close at their heels. For some moments they 
 spoke through the wicket; then the door swung 
 open and the Committee entered. 
 
 Up to this moment Casey had been fully con- 
 tent with the situation. He was, of course, 
 treated to the best the jail or the city could afford. 
 It was a bother to have been forced to shoot 
 James King of William; but the nuisance of in- 
 carceration for a time was a small price to pay. 
 His friends had rallied well to his defense. He 
 had no doubt whatever, that, according to the 
 usual custom, he would soon work his way through 
 the courts and stand again a free man. His first 
 intimation of trouble was the hearing of the 
 resonant tramp of feet outside. His second was 
 when Sheriff Scannell stood before him with the 
 Vigilantes' note in his hand. Casey took one 
 glance at Scannell's face.
 
 THE STORM BREAKS 221 
 
 "You aren't going to betray me?" he cried. 
 "You aren't going to give me up?" 
 
 "James," replied Scannell solemnly, "there 
 are three thousand armed men coming for you 
 and I have not thirty supporters around the jail." 
 
 "Not thirty!" cried Casey astonished. For a 
 moment he appeared crushed; then he leaped to 
 his feet flourishing a long knife. "I'll not be 
 taken from this place alive!" he cried. "Where 
 are all you brave fellows who were going to see me 
 through this?" 
 
 At this moment Coleman knocked at the door 
 of the jail. The sheriff hurried away to answer 
 the summons. 
 
 Casey took the opportunity to write a note for 
 the Vigilantes which he gave to the marshal. 
 It read: 
 
 "To the Vigilante Committee. GENTLEMEN: 
 I am willing to go before you if you will let me 
 speak but ten minutes. I do not wish to have 
 the blood of any man upon my head." 
 
 On entering the jail door Coleman and his 
 companions bowed formally to the sheriff. 
 
 "We have come for the prisoner Casey," said 
 Coleman. " We ask that he be peaceably delivered 
 us handcuffed at the door immediately."
 
 22 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 "Under existing circumstances," replied Scan- 
 nell, "I shall make no resistance. The prison 
 and its contents are yours." 
 
 But Truett would have none of this. "We 
 want only the man Casey at present," he said. 
 "For the safety of all the rest we hold you strictly 
 accountable." 
 
 They proceeded at once to Casey's cell. The 
 murderer heard them coming and sprang back 
 from the door holding his long knife poised. 
 Coleman walked directly to the door, where he 
 stopped, looking Casey in the eye. At the end 
 of a full minute he exclaimed sharply: 
 
 "Lay down that knife!" 
 
 As though the unexpected tones had broken a 
 spell, Casey flung the knife from him and buried 
 his face in his hands. Then, and not until then, 
 Coleman informed him curtly that his request 
 would be granted. 
 
 They took Casey out through the door of the 
 jail. The crowd gathered its breath for a frantic 
 cheer. The relief from tension must have been 
 great, but Coleman, bareheaded, raised his hand 
 and, in instant obedience to the gesture, the cheer 
 was stifled. The leaders then entered the carriage, 
 which immediately turned and drove away.
 
 THE STORM BREAKS 223 
 
 Thus Casey was safely in custody. Charles 
 Cora, who, it will be remembered, had killed 
 Marshal Richardson and who had gained from 
 the jury a disagreement, was taken on a second 
 trip. 
 
 The street outside headquarters soon filled 
 with an orderly crowd awaiting events. There 
 was noticeable the same absence of excitement, 
 impatience, or tumult so characteristic of the 
 popular gatherings of that time, except perhaps 
 when the meetings were conducted by the parti- 
 sans of Law and Order. After a long interval 
 one of the Committee members appeared at an 
 upper window. 
 
 "It is not the intention of the Committee to 
 be hasty," he announced. "Nothing will be 
 done today." 
 
 This statement was received in silence. At last 
 someone asked: 
 
 "Where are Casey and Cora?'* 
 
 "The Committee hold possession of the jail. 
 All are safe," said the Committee man. 
 
 With this simple statement the crowd was 
 completely satisfied, and dispersed quietly and 
 at once. 
 
 Of the three thousand enrolled men, three
 
 224 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 hundred were retained under arms at headquarters, 
 a hundred surrounded the jail, and all the rest 
 were dismissed. Next day, Monday, head- 
 quarters still remained inscrutable; but large 
 patrols walked about the city, collecting arms. 
 The gunshops were picketed and their owners 
 were warned under no circumstances to sell 
 weapons. Towards evening the weather grew 
 colder and rain came on. Even this did not 
 discourage the crowd, which stood about in its 
 sodden clothes waiting. At midnight it reluct- 
 antly dispersed, but by daylight the following 
 morning the streets around headquarters were 
 blocked. Still it rained, and still apparently 
 nothing happened. All over the city .business 
 was at a standstill. Men had dropped their af- 
 fairs, even the most pressing, either to take part 
 in this movement or to lend the moral support of 
 their presence and their interest. The partisans 
 of Law and Order, so called, were also abroad. 
 No man dared express himself in mixed company 
 openly. The courts were empty. Some actually 
 closed down, with one excuse or another; but most 
 of them pretended to go through the forms of 
 business. Many judges took the occasion to 
 leave town on vacation, they announced. These
 
 THE STORM BREAKS 225 
 
 incidents occasioned lively comment. As our 
 chronicler before quoted tells us: "A good 
 many who had things on their minds left for the 
 country." Still it rained steadily, and still the 
 crowds waited. 
 
 The prisoners, Casey and Cora, had expected, 
 when taken from the jail, to be lynched at once. 
 But, since the execution had been thus long post- 
 poned, they began to take heart. They under- 
 stood that they were to have a clear trial "ac- 
 cording to law " a phrase which was in those 
 days immensely cheering to malefactors. They 
 were not entirely cut off from outside communica- 
 tion. Casey was allowed to see several men on 
 pressing business, and permitted to talk to them 
 freely, although before a witness from the Com- 
 mittee. Cora received visits from Belle Cora, 
 who in the past had spent thousands on his legal 
 defense. Now she came to see him faithfully 
 and reported every effort that was being made. 
 
 On Tuesday, the 20th, Cora was brought before 
 the Committee. He asked for counsel, and 
 Truett was appointed to act for him. A list of 
 witnesses demanded by Cora was at once sum- 
 moned, and a sub-committee was sent to bring 
 them before the board of trial. All the ordinary 
 
 IS
 
 226 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 forms of law were closely followed, and all the 
 essential facts were separately brought out. It 
 was the same old Cora trial over again with one 
 modification; namely, that all technicalities and 
 technical delays were eliminated. Not an attempt 
 was made to confine the investigation to the 
 technical trial. By dusk the case for the prose- 
 cution was finished, and that for the defense was 
 supposed to begin. 
 
 During all this long interim the Executive Com- 
 mittee had sat in continuous session. They had 
 agreed that no recess of more than thirty minutes 
 should be taken until a decision had been reached. 
 But of all the long list of witnesses submitted by 
 Cora for the defense not one could be found. They 
 were in hiding and afraid. The former perjurers 
 would not appear. 
 
 It was now falling dusk. The corners of the 
 great room were in darkness. Beneath the ele- 
 vated desk, behind which sat Coleman, Bluxome, 
 the secretary, lighted a single oil lamp, the better 
 to see his notes. In the interest of the proceed- 
 ings a general illumination had not been ordered. 
 Within the shadow, the door opened and Charles 
 Doane, the Grand Marshal of the Vigilantes, 
 advanced three steps into the room.
 
 THE STORM BREAKS 227 
 
 "Mr. President," he said clearly, "I am in- 
 structed to announce that James King of William 
 is dead." 
 
 The conviction of both men took place that 
 night, and the execution was ordered, but in 
 secret. 
 
 Thursday noon had been set for the funeral of 
 James King of William. This ceremony was to take 
 place in the Unitarian church. A great multitude 
 had gathered to attend. The church was filled 
 to overflowing early in the day. But thousands 
 of people thronged the streets round about, and 
 stood patiently and seriously to do the man honor. 
 Historians of the time detail the names of many 
 marching bodies from every guild and society in 
 the new city. Hundreds of horsemen, carriages, 
 and foot marchers got themselves quietly into the 
 line. They also were excluded from the funeral 
 ceremonies by lack of room, but wished to do 
 honor to the cortege. This procession is said to 
 have been over two miles in length. Each man 
 wore a band of crepe around his left arm. All the 
 city seemed to be gathered there. And yet the 
 time for the actual funeral ceremony was still 
 some hours distant. 
 
 Nevertheless the few who, hurrying to the
 
 228 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 scene, had occasion to pass near the Vigilante 
 headquarters, found the silent square guarded 
 on all sides by a triple line of armed men. The 
 side-streets also were filled with them. They stood 
 in the exact alignment their constant drill had 
 made possible, with bayonets fixed, staring straight 
 ahead. Three thousand were under arms. Like 
 the vast crowd a few squares away, they,' too, 
 stood silent and patiently waiting. 
 
 At a quarter before one the upper windows of 
 the headquarters building were thrown open and 
 small planked platforms were thrust from two of 
 them. Heavy beams were shoved out from the 
 flat roof directly over the platforms. From the 
 ends of the beams dangled nooses of rope. After 
 this another wait ensued. Across the silence of 
 the intervening buildings could be heard faintly 
 from the open windows of the church the sound 
 of an organ, and then the measured cadences of 
 an oration. The funeral services had begun. As 
 though this were a signal, the blinds that had 
 closed the window . openings were thrown back 
 and Cora was conducted to the end of one of the 
 little platforms. His face was covered with a 
 white handkerchief and he was bound. A mo- 
 ment later Casey appeared. He had asked not
 
 THE STORM BREAKS 229 
 
 to be blindfolded. Cora stood bolt upright, 
 motionless as a stone, but Casey's courage broke. 
 If he had any hope that the boastful promises 
 of his friends would be fulfilled by a rescue, that 
 hope died as he looked down on the set, grim faces, 
 on the sinister ring of steel. His nerve then de- 
 serted him completely and he began to babble. 
 
 "Gentlemen," he cried at them, "I am not a 
 murderer! I do not feel afraid to meet my God 
 on a charge of murder! I have done nothing 
 but what I thought was right! Whenever I was 
 injured I have resented it! It has been part of 
 my education during twenty-nine years! Gentle- 
 men, I forgive you this persecution! O God! 
 My poor Mother! O God!" 
 
 It is to be noted that he said not one word of 
 contrition nor of regret for the man whose funeral 
 services were then going on, nor for the heart- 
 broken wife who knelt at that coffin. His words 
 found no echo against that grim wall of steel. 
 Again ensued a wait, apparently inexplicable. 
 Across the intervening housetops the sound of the 
 oration ceased. At the door of the church a slight 
 commotion was visible. The coffin was being 
 carried out. It was placed in the hearse. Every 
 head was bared. There followed a slight pause;
 
 230 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 then from overhead the church-bell boomed out 
 once. Another bell in the next block answered; 
 a third, more distant, chimed in. From all parts 
 of the city tolled the requiem. 
 
 At the first stroke of the bell the funeral cortege 
 moved forward toward Lone Mountain cemetery. 
 At the first stroke the Vigilantes as one man pre- 
 sented arms. The platforms dropped, and Casey 
 and Cora fell into eternity.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE VIGILANTES OF '56 
 
 THIS execution naturally occasioned a great storm 
 of indignation among the erstwhile powerful ad- 
 herents of the law. The ruling, aristocratic class, 
 the so-called chivalry, the best element of the 
 city, had been slapped deliberately in the face, 
 and this by a lot of Yankee shopkeepers. The 
 Committee were stigmatized as stranglers. They 
 ought to be punished as murderers ! They should 
 be shot down as revolutionists! It was realized, 
 however, that the former customary street-shoot- 
 ing had temporarily become unsafe. Otherwise 
 there is no doubt that brawls would have been 
 more frequent than they were. 
 
 An undercurrent of confidence was apparent, 
 however. The Law and Order men had been 
 surprised and overpowered. They had yielded 
 only to overwhelming odds. With the execution 
 of Cora and Casey accomplished, the Committee 
 
 231
 
 232 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 might be expected to disband. And when the 
 Committee disbanded, the law would have its 
 innings. Its forces would then be better organized 
 and consolidated, its power assured. It could then 
 safely apprehend and bring to justice the ring- 
 leaders of this undertaking. Many of the hot- 
 heads were in favor of using armed force to take 
 Coleman and his fellow-conspirators into custody. 
 But calmer spirits advised moderation for the 
 present, until the time was more ripe. 
 
 But to the surprise and indignation of these 
 people, the Vigilantes showed no intention of 
 disbanding. Their activities extended and their 
 organization strengthened. The various military 
 companies drilled daily until they went through 
 the manual with all the precision of regular troops. 
 The Committee's book remained opened, and by 
 the end of the week over seven thousand men had 
 signed the roll. Loads of furniture and various 
 supplies stopped at the doors of headquarters and 
 were carried in by members of the organization. 
 No non-member ever saw the inside of the building 
 while it was occupied by the Committee of Vigi- 
 lance. So cooking utensils, cot-beds, provisions, 
 blankets, bulletin-boards, arms, chairs and tables, 
 field-guns, ammunition, and many other supplies
 
 THE VIGILANTES OF '56 233 
 
 seemed to indicate a permanent occupation. 
 Doorkeepers were always in attendance, and 
 sentinels patrolled in the streets and on the roof. 
 Every day the Executive Committee was in 
 session for all of the daylight hours. A black- 
 list was in preparation. Orders were issued for 
 the Vigilante police to arrest certain men and to 
 warn certain others to leave town immediately. 
 A choice haul was made of the lesser lights of the 
 ward-heelers and chief politicians. A very good 
 sample was the notorious Yankee Sullivan, an 
 ex-prize-fighter, ward-heeler, ballot-box stuffer, 
 and shoulder-striker. He, it will be remembered, 
 was the man who returned Casey as supervisor 
 in a district where, as far as is known, Casey was 
 not a candidate and no one could be found who had 
 voted for him. This individual went to pieces 
 completely shortly after his arrest. He not only 
 confessed the details of many of his own crimes 
 but, what was more important, disclosed valuable 
 information as to others. His testimony was im- 
 portant, not necessarily as final proof against those 
 whom he accused, but as indication of the need 
 of thorough investigation. Then without warn- 
 ing he committed suicide in his cell. On investi- 
 gation it turned out that he had been accustomed
 
 234 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 to from sixty to eighty drinks of whiskey each day, 
 and the sudden and complete deprivation had 
 unhinged his mind. Warned by this unforeseen 
 circumstance, the Committee henceforth issued 
 regular rations of whiskey to all its prisoners, a 
 fact which is a striking commentary on the 
 character of the latter. It is to be noted, further- 
 more, that liquor of all sorts was debarred from 
 the deliberations of the Vigilantes themselves. 
 
 Trials went briskly forward in due order, with 
 counsel for defense and ample opportunity to 
 call witnesses. There were no more capital 
 punishments. It was made known that the 
 Committee had set for itself a rule that capital 
 punishment would be inflicted by it only for crimes 
 so punishable by the regular law. But each out- 
 going ship took a crowd of the banished. The 
 majority of the first sweepings were low thugs 
 "Sydney Ducks," hangers-on, and the worst class 
 of criminals; but a certain number were taken 
 from what had been known as the city's best. 
 In the law courts these men would have been 
 declared as white as the driven snow; in fact, that 
 had actually happened to some of them. But 
 they were plainly undesirable citizens. The Com- 
 mittee so decided and bade them depart. Among
 
 THE VIGILANTES OF '56 235 
 
 the names of men who were prominent and influen- 
 tial in the early history of the city, but who now 
 were told to leave, were Charles Duane, Woolley 
 Kearny, William McLean, J. D. Musgrave, Peter 
 Wightman, James White, and Edward McGowan. 
 Hundreds of others left the city of their own 
 accord. Terror spread among the inhabitants 
 of the underworld. Some of the minor offenders 
 brought in by the Vigilante police were turned 
 over by the Executive Committee to the regular 
 law courts. It is significant that, whereas con- 
 victions had been almost unknown up to this 
 time, every one of these offenders was promptly 
 sentenced by those courts. 
 
 But though the underworld was more or less 
 terrified, the upper grades were only the further 
 aroused. Many sincerely believed that this move- 
 ment was successful only because it was organized, 
 that the people of the city were scattered and 
 powerless, that they needed only to be organized 
 to combat the forces of disorder. In pursuance 
 of the belief that the public at large needed merely 
 to be called together loyally to defend its institu- 
 tions, a meeting was set for June 2, in Ports- 
 mouth Square. Elaborate secret preparations, in- 
 cluding the distribution of armed men, were made
 
 236 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 to prevent interference. Such preparations were 
 useless. Immediately after the appearance of the 
 notice the Committee of Vigilance issued orders 
 that the meeting was to be in no manner dis- 
 couraged or molested. 
 
 It was well attended. Enormous crowds gath- 
 ered, not only in and around the Square itself, but 
 in balconies and windows and on housetops. It 
 was a very disrespectful crowd, evidently out for 
 a good time. On the platform within the Square 
 stood or sat the owners of many of the city's proud 
 names. Among them were well-known speakers, 
 men who had never failed to hold and influence a 
 crowd. But only a short distance away little could 
 be heard. It early became evident that, though 
 there would be no interference, the sentiment of the 
 crowd was adverse. And what must have been 
 particularly maddening was that the sentiment 
 was good-humored. Colonel Edward Baker came 
 forward to speak. The Colonel was a man of 
 great eloquence, so that in spite of his considerable 
 lack of scruples he had won his way to a pictur- 
 esque popularity and fame. But the crowd would 
 have little of him this day, and an almost continu- 
 ous uproar drowned out his efforts. The usual 
 catch phrases, such as "liberty," "Constitution,"
 
 THE VIGILANTES OF '56 237 
 
 "habeas corpus, " "trial by jury, " and "freedom, '* 
 occasionally became audible, but the people were 
 not interested. "See Cora's defender!" cried 
 someone, voicing the general suspicion that Baker 
 had been one of the little gambler's hidden counsel. 
 "Cora!" "Ed. Baker!" "$10,000!" "Out of that, 
 you old reprobate ! " He spoke ten minutes against 
 the storm and then yielded, red-faced and angry. 
 Others tried but in vain. A Southerner, Benham, 
 inveighing passionately against the conditions of 
 the city, in throwing back his coat happened in- 
 advertently to reveal the butt of a Colt revolver. 
 The bystanders immediately caught the point. 
 "There's a pretty Law and Order man!" they 
 shouted. "Say, Benham, don't you know it's 
 against the law to go armed?" 
 
 "I carry this weapon, " he cried, shaking his fist, 
 "not as an instrument to overthrow the law, but 
 to uphold it. " 
 
 Someone from a balcony nearby interrupted: 
 "In other words, sir, you break the law in order 
 to uphold the law. What more are the Vigilantes 
 doing?" 
 
 The crowd went wild over this response. The 
 confusion became worse. Upholders of Law and 
 Order thrust forward Judge Campbell in the hope
 
 238 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 that his age and authority on the bench would 
 command respect. He was unable, however, to 
 utter even two consecutive sentences. 
 
 "I once thought," he interrupted himself 
 piteously, "that I was the free citizen of a free 
 country. But recent occurrences have convinced 
 me that I am a slave, more a slave than any on a 
 Southern plantation, for they know their masters, 
 but I know not mine!" 
 
 But his auditors refused to be affected by 
 pathos. 
 
 "Oh, yes you do," they informed him. "You 
 know your masters as well as anybody. Two 
 of them were hanged the other day!" 
 
 Though this attempt at home to gain coherence 
 failed, the partisans at Sacramento had better luck. 
 They collected, it was said, five hundred men 
 hailing from all quarters of the globe, but chiefly 
 from the Southeast and Texas. All of them were 
 fire-eaters, reckless, and sure to make trouble. 
 Two pieces of artillery were reported coming down 
 the Sacramento to aid all prisoners, but especially 
 Billy Mulligan. The numbers were not in them- 
 selves formidable as opposed to the enrollment 
 of the Vigilance Committee, but it must be 
 remembered that the city was full of scattered
 
 THE VIGILANTES OF '56 239 
 
 warriors and of cowed members of the underworld 
 waiting only leaders and a rallying point. Even 
 were the Vigilantes to win in the long run, the 
 material for a very pretty civil war was ready 
 to hand. Two hundred men were hastily put to 
 filling gunnybags with sand and to fortifying not 
 only headquarters but the streets round about. 
 Cannon were mounted, breastworks were piled, and 
 embrasures were cut. By morning Fort Gunny- 
 bags, as headquarters was henceforth called, had 
 come into existence. 
 
 The fire-eaters arrived that night, but they were 
 not five hundred strong, as excited rumor had it. 
 They disembarked, greeting the horde of friends 
 who had come to meet them, marched in a body to 
 Fort Gunnybags, looked it over, stuck their hands 
 into their pockets, and walked peacefully away to 
 the nearest bar-rooms. This was the wisest move 
 on their part, for by now the disposition of the 
 Vigilante men was so complete that nothing short 
 of regularly organized troops could successfully 
 have dislodged them. 
 
 Behind headquarters was a long shed and stable 
 in which were to be found at all hours saddle 
 horses and artillery horses, saddled and bridled, 
 ready for instant use. Twenty-six pieces of artil-
 
 240 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 lery, most of them sent in by captains of vessels 
 in the harbor, were here parked. Other cannon 
 were mounted for the defense of the fort itself. 
 Muskets, rifles, and sabers had been accumulated. 
 A portable barricade had been constructed in the 
 event of possible street fighting a sort of wheeled 
 framework that could be transformed into lit- 
 ters or scaling-ladders at will. Mess offices and 
 kitchens were there that could feed a small army. 
 Flags and painted signs carrying the open eye 
 that had been adopted as emblematic of vigilance 
 decorated the main room. A huge alarm bell had 
 been mounted upon the roof. Mattresses, beds, 
 cots, and other furniture necessary to accommodate 
 whole companies on the premises themselves, had 
 been provided. A completely equipped armorers' 
 shop and a hospital with all supplies occupied the 
 third story. The forces were divided into four 
 companies of artillery, one squadron and two 
 troops of cavalry, four regiments and thirty-two 
 companies of infantry, besides the small but very 
 efficient police organization. A tap on the bell 
 gathered these men in an incredibly short space of 
 time. Bancroft says that, as a rule, within fifteen 
 minutes of the first stroke seven- tenths of the 
 entire forces would be on hand ready for combat.
 
 THE VIGILANTES OF '56 241 
 
 The Law and Order people recognized the 
 strength of this organization and realized that they 
 must go at the matter in a more thorough manner. 
 They turned their attention to the politics of the 
 structure, and here they had every reason to hope 
 for success. No matter how well organized the 
 Vigilantes might be or how thoroughly they 
 might carry the sympathies of the general public, 
 there was no doubt that they were acting in 
 defiance of constituted law, and therefore were 
 nothing less than rebels. It was not only within 
 the power, but it was also a duty, of the Governor 
 to declare the city in a condition of insurrection. 
 When he had done this, the state troops must put 
 down the insurrection; and, if they failed, then the 
 Federal Government itself should be called on. 
 Looked at in this way, the small handful of 
 disturbers, no matter how well armed and dis- 
 ciplined, amounted to very little. 
 
 Naturally the Governor had first to be won 
 over. Accordingly all the important men of San 
 Francisco took the steamer Senator for Sacramento 
 where they met Judge Terry, of the Supreme 
 Court of California, Volney Howard, and others 
 of the same ilk. No governor of Johnson's nature 
 could long withstand such pressure. He promised 
 
 16
 
 242 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 to issue the required proclamation of insurrection 
 as soon as it could be "legally proved" that the 
 Vigilance Committee had acted outside the law. 
 The small fact that it had already hanged two and 
 deported a great many others, to say nothing of 
 taking physical possession of the city, meant little 
 to these legal minds. 
 
 In order that all things should be technically 
 correct, then, Judge Terry issued a writ of habeas 
 corpus for William Mulligan and gave it into the 
 hands of Deputy Sheriff Harrison for service on the 
 Committee. It was expected that the Committee 
 would deny the writ, which would constitute legal 
 defiance of the State. The Governor would then 
 be justified in issuing the proclamation. If the 
 state troops proved unwilling or inadequate, as 
 might very well be, the plan was then to call on the 
 United States. The local representatives of the 
 central government were at that time General 
 Wool commanding the military department of 
 California, and Captain David Farragut in com- 
 mand of- the navy-yard. Within their command 
 was a force sufficient to subdue three times the 
 strength of the Vigilance Committee. William 
 Tecumseh Sherman, then in private life, had been 
 appointed major-general of a division of the
 
 THE VIGILANTES OF '56 243 
 
 state militia. As all this was strictly legal, the 
 plan could not possibly fail. 
 
 Harrison took the writ of habeas corpus and 
 proceeded to San Francisco. He presented him- 
 self at headquarters and offered his writ. Instead 
 of denying it, the Committee welcomed him cor- 
 dially and invited him to make a thorough search 
 of the premises. Of course Harrison found nothing 
 the Committee had seen to that and departed. 
 The scheme had failed. The Committee had in 
 no way denied his authority or his writ. But 
 Harrison saw clearly what had been expected of 
 him. To Judge Terry he unblushingly returned 
 the writ endorsed "prevented from service by 
 armed men. " For the sake of his cause, Harrison 
 had lied. However, the whole affair was now 
 regarded as legal. 
 
 Johnson promptly issued his proclamation. 
 The leaders, in high feather, as promptly turned 
 to the federal authorities for the assistance they 
 needed. As yet they did not ask for troops but 
 only for weapons with which to arm their own 
 men. To their blank dismay General Wool 
 refused to furnish arms. He took the position 
 that he had no right to do so without orders 
 from Washington. There is no doubt, however,
 
 244 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 that this technical position cloaked the doughty 
 warrior's real sympathies. Colonel Baker and 
 Volney Howard were instructed to wait on him. 
 After a somewhat lengthy conversation, they 
 made the mistake of threatening him with a 
 report to Washington for refusing to uphold the 
 law. 
 
 "I think, gentlemen," flashed back the veteran 
 indignantly, "I know my duty and in its perform- 
 ance dread no responsibility!" He promptly 
 bowed them out. 
 
 In the meantime the Executive Committee had 
 been patiently working down through its black- 
 list. It finally announced that after June 24 it 
 would consider no fresh cases, and a few days later 
 it proclaimed an adjournment parade on July 4. 
 It considered its work completed and the city safe. 
 
 It may be readily imagined that this peaceful 
 outcome did not in the least suit the more aristo- 
 cratic members of the Law and Order party. 
 They were a haughty, individualistic, bold, force- 
 ful, sometimes charming band of fire-eaters. In 
 their opinion they had been deeply insulted. 
 They wanted reprisal and punishment. 
 
 When therefore the Committee set a definite 
 day for disbanding, the local authorities and
 
 THE VIGILANTES OF '56 245 
 
 upholders of law were distinctly disappointed. 
 They saw slipping away the last chance for a 
 clash of arms that would put these rebels in their 
 places. There was some thought of arresting 
 the ringleaders, but the courts were by now so 
 well terrorized that it was by no means certain 
 that justice as defined by the Law and Order 
 party could be accomplished. And even if 
 conviction could be secured, the representatives 
 of the law found little satisfaction in ordinary 
 punishment. What they wanted was a fight. 
 
 General Sherman had resigned his command 
 of the military forces in disgust. In his stead 
 was chosen General Volney Howard, a man 
 typical of his class, blinded by his prejudices and 
 his passions, filled with a sense of the importance 
 of his caste, and without grasp of the broader 
 aspects of the situation. In the Committee's 
 present attitude he saw not the signs of a job 
 well done, but indications of weakening, and 
 he considered this a propitious moment to show 
 his power. In this attitude he received enthusi- 
 astic backing from Judge Terry and his narrow 
 coterie. Terry was then judge of the Supreme 
 Court; and a man more unfitted for the position 
 it would be difficult to find. A tall, attractive,
 
 246 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 fire-eating Texan with a charming wife, he stood 
 high in the social life of the city. His temper was 
 undisciplined and completely governed his judg- 
 ment. Intensely partisan and, as usual with his 
 class, touchy on the point of honor, he did precisely 
 the wrong thing on every occasion where cool 
 decision was demanded. 
 
 It was so now. The Law and Order party 
 persuaded Governor Johnson to order a parade 
 of state troops in the streets of San Francisco. 
 The argument used was that such a parade of 
 legally organized forces would overawe the citizens. 
 The secret hope, however, which was well founded, 
 was that such a display would promote the desired 
 conflict. This hope they shared with Howard, 
 after the Governor's orders had been obtained. 
 Howard's vanity jumped with his inclination. He 
 consented to the plot. A more ill-timed, idiotic 
 maneuver, with the existing state of the public 
 mind, it would be impossible to imagine. Either 
 we must consider Terry and Howard weak- 
 minded to the point of an inability to reason from 
 cause to effect, or we must ascribe to them more 
 sinister motives. 
 
 By now the Law and Order forces had become 
 numerically more formidable. The lower element
 
 THE VIGILANTES OF '56 247 
 
 flocked to the colors through sheer fright. A 
 certain proportion of the organized remained in 
 the ranks, though a majority had resigned. There 
 was, as is usual in a new community, a very large 
 contingent of wild, reckless young men without 
 a care in the world, with no possible interest in 
 the rights and wrongs of the case, or, indeed, in 
 themselves. They were eager only for adventure 
 and offered themselves just as soon as the prospects 
 for a real fight seemed good. Then, too, they 
 could always count on the five hundred Texans 
 who had been imported. 
 
 There were plenty of weapons with which to arm 
 these partisans. Contrary to all expectations, the 
 Vigilance Committee had scrupulously refrained 
 from interfering with the state armories. All 
 the muskets belonging to the militia were in the 
 armories and were available in different parts of 
 the city. In addition, the State, as a common- 
 wealth, had a right to a certain number of federal 
 weapons stored in arsenals at Benicia. These 
 could be requisitioned in due form. 
 
 But at this point, it has been said, the legal 
 minds of the party conceived a bright plan. The 
 muskets at Benicia on being requisitioned would 
 have to cross the bay in a vessel of some sort.
 
 248 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 Until the muskets were actually delivered they 
 were federal property. Now if the Vigilance 
 Committee were to confiscate the arms while on 
 the transporting vessel, and while still federal 
 property, the act would be piracy; the interceptors, 
 pirates. The Law and Order people could legally 
 call on the federal forces, which would be com- 
 pelled to respond. If the Committee of Vigilance 
 did not fall into this trap, then the Law and Order 
 people would have the muskets anyway. 1 
 
 To carry out this plot they called in a saturnine, 
 lank, drunken individual whose name was Rube 
 Maloney. Maloney picked out two men of his 
 own type as assistants. He stipulated only that 
 plenty of "refreshments" should be supplied. Ac- 
 cording to instructions Maloney was to operate 
 boldly and flagrantly in full daylight. But the 
 refreshment idea had been rather liberally inter- 
 preted. By six o'clock Rube had just sense enough 
 left to anchor off Pueblo Point. There all gave 
 serious attention to the rest of the refreshments, 
 and finally rolled over to sleep off the effects. 
 
 In the meantime news of the intended shipment 
 had reached the headquarters of the Vigilantes. 
 
 1 Mr. H. H. Bancroft, in his Popular Tribunals, holds that no 
 proof of this plot exists.
 
 THE VIGILANTES OF '56 249 
 
 The Executive Committee went into immediate 
 session. It was evident that the proposed dis- 
 banding would have to be postponed. A discus- 
 sion followed as to methods of procedure to meet 
 this new crisis. The Committee fell into the trap 
 prepared for it. Probably no one realized the 
 legal status of the muskets, but supposed them to 
 belong already to the State. Marshal Doane 
 was instructed to capture them. He called to him 
 the chief of the harbor police. 
 
 "Have you a small vessel ready for immediate 
 service?" he asked this man. 
 
 "Yes, a sloop, at the foot of this street." 
 
 "Be ready to sail in half an hour. " 
 
 Doane then called to his assistance a quick- 
 witted man named John Durkee. This man 
 had been a member of the regular city police 
 until the shooting of James King of William. At 
 that time he had resigned his position and joined the 
 Vigilance police. He was loyal by nature, steady 
 in execution, and essentially quick-witted, quali- 
 ties that stood everybody in very good stead as 
 will be shortly seen. He picked out twelve 
 reliable men to assist him, and set sail in the sloop. 
 
 For some hours he beat against the wind and the 
 tide; but finally these became so strong that he was
 
 250 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 forced to anchor in San Pablo Bay until conditions 
 had modified. Late in the afternoon he was again 
 able to get under way. Several of the tramps 
 sailing about the bay were overhauled and ex- 
 amined, but none proved to be the prize. About 
 dark the breeze died, leaving the little sloop barely 
 under steerageway. A less persistent man than 
 Durkee would have anchored for the night, but 
 Durkee had received his instructions and intended 
 to find the other sloop, and it was he himself who 
 first caught the loom of a shadow under Pueblo 
 Point. 
 
 He bore down and perceived it to be the 
 sloop whose discovery he desired. The twelve 
 men boarded with a rush, but found themselves in 
 possession of an empty deck. The fumes of 
 alcohol and the sound of snoring guided the 
 boarding-party to the object of their search and 
 the scene of their easy victory. Durkee trans- 
 ferred the muskets and prisoners to his own craft; 
 and returned to the California Street wharf shortly 
 after daylight. A messenger was dispatched to 
 headquarters. He returned with instructions to 
 deliver the muskets but to turn loose the prison- 
 ers. Durkee was somewhat astonished at the 
 latter order but complied.
 
 THE VIGILANTES OF '56 251 
 
 " All right, " he is reported to have said. "Now, 
 you measly hounds, you've got just about twenty- 
 eight seconds to make yourselves as scarce as your 
 virtues. " 
 
 Maloney and his crew wasted few of the twenty- 
 eight seconds in starting, but once out of sight they 
 regained much of their bravado. A few drinks 
 restored them to normal, and enabled them to 
 put a good face on the report they now made to 
 their employers. Maloney and his friends then 
 visited in turn all the saloons. The drunker they 
 grew, the louder they talked, reviling the Com- 
 mittee collectively and singly, bragging that they 
 would shoot at sight Coleman, Truett, Durkee, 
 and several others whom they named. They flour- 
 ished weapons publicly, and otherwise became 
 obstreperous. The Committee decided that their 
 influence was bad and instructed Sterling Hopkins, 
 with four others, to arrest the lot and bring them 
 in. 
 
 The news of this determination reached the 
 offending parties. They immediately fled to their 
 masters like cur dogs. Their masters, who 
 included Terry, Bowie, and a few others, hap- 
 pened to be discussing the situation in the office 
 of Richard Ashe, a Texan. The crew burst into
 
 252 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 this gathering very much scared, with a statement 
 that a "thousand stranglers" were at their heels. 
 Hopkins, having left his small posse at the foot of 
 the stairs, knocked and entered the room. He was 
 faced by the muzzles of half a dozen pistols and 
 told to get out of there. Hopkins promptly 
 obeyed. 
 
 If Terry had possessed the slightest degree of 
 leadership he would have seen that this was the 
 worst of all moments to precipitate a crisis. The 
 forces of his own party were neither armed nor 
 ready. But here, as in all other important crises 
 of his career, he was governed by the haughty and 
 headstrong passion of the moment. 
 
 Hopkins left his men on guard at the foot of the 
 stairs, borrowed a horse from a passer-by, and 
 galloped to headquarters. There he was instruc- 
 ted to return and stay on watch, and was told that 
 reinforcements would soon follow. He arrived 
 before the building in w y hich Ashe's office was 
 located in time to see Maloney, Terry, Ashe, 
 McNabb, Bowie, and Rowe, all armed with shot- 
 guns, just turning a far corner. He dismounted 
 and called on his men, who followed. The little 
 posse dogged the judge's party for some distance. 
 For a little time no attention was paid to them.
 
 THE VIGILANTES OF '56 253 
 
 but as they pressed closer, Terry, Ashe, and Ma- 
 loney turned and presented their shot-guns. This 
 was probably intended only as a threat, but Hop- 
 kins, who was always overbold, lunged at Maloney. 
 Terry thrust his gun at a Vigilante who seized 
 it by the barrel. At the same instant Ashe 
 pressed the muzzle of his weapon against the 
 breast of a man named Bovee, but hesitated to 
 pull the trigger. It was not at that time as 
 safe to shoot men in the open street as it had 
 been formerly. Barry covered Howe with a pistol. 
 Rowe dropped his gun and ran towards the arm- 
 ory. The accidental discharge of a pistol seemed 
 to unnerve Terry. He whipped out a long knife 
 and plunged it into Hopkins's neck. Hopkins 
 relaxed his hold on Terry's shot-gun and staggered 
 back. 
 
 "I am stabbed! Take them, Vigilantes!" he 
 said. 
 
 He dropped to the sidewalk. Terry and his 
 friends ran towards the armory. Of the Vigilante 
 posse only Bovee and Barry remained, but these 
 two pursued the fleeing Law and Order men to 
 the very doors of the armory itself. When the 
 portals were slammed in their faces they took up 
 their stand outside; and alone these two men held
 
 254 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 imprisoned several hundred men! During the 
 next few minutes several men attempted entrance 
 to the armory, among them our old friend Volney 
 Howard. All were turned back and were given the 
 impression that the armory was already in charge 
 of the Vigilantes. After a little, however, doubt- 
 less to the great relief of the "outside garrison" 
 of the armory, the great Vigilante bell began to 
 boom out its signals: one, two, three rest; one, 
 two, three rest; and so on. 
 
 Instantly the streets were alive with men. 
 Merchants left their customers, clerks their books, 
 mechanics their tools. Draymen stripped their 
 horses of harness, abandoned their wagons, and 
 rode away to join their cavalry. Within an 
 incredibly brief space of time everybody was off 
 for the armory, the military companies marching 
 like veterans, the artillery rumbling over the pave- 
 ment. The cavalry, jogging along at a slow trot, 
 covered the rear. A huge and roaring mob 
 accompanied them, followed them, raced up the 
 side-streets to arrive at the armory at the same 
 time as the first files of the military force. They 
 found the square before the building entirely 
 deserted except for the dauntless Barry and Bovee, 
 who still marched up and down singlehanded, hold
 
 THE VIGILANTES OF '56 255 
 
 ing the garrison within. They were able to report 
 that no one had either entered or left the armory. 
 
 Inside the building the spirit had become one of 
 stubborn sullenness. Terry was very sorry as, 
 indeed, he well might be a Judge of the Supreme 
 Court, who had no business being in San Fran- 
 cisco at all. Sworn to uphold the law, and osten- 
 sibly on the side of the Law and Order party, he 
 had stepped out from his jurisdiction to commit 
 as lawless and as idiotic a deed of passion and 
 prejudice as could well have been imagined. 
 Whatever chances the Law and Order party might 
 have had heretofore were thereby dissipated. 
 Their troops were scattered in small units; their 
 rank and file had disappeared no one knew where; 
 their enemies were fully organized and had been 
 mustered by the alarm bell to their usual alertness 
 and capability; and Terry's was the hand that had 
 struck the bell! 
 
 He was reported as much chagrined. 
 
 "This is very unfortunate, very unfortunate," 
 he said; "but you shall not imperil your lives for 
 me. It is I they want. I will surrender to them. " 
 
 Instead of the prompt expostulations which he 
 probably expected, a dead silence greeted these 
 words.
 
 356 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 "There is nothing else to do," agreed Ashe at 
 last. 
 
 An exchange of notes in military fashion fol- 
 lowed. Ashe, as commander of the armory and 
 leader of the besieged party, offered to surrender 
 to the Executive Committee of the Vigilantes if 
 protected from violence. The Executive Com- 
 mittee demanded the surrender of Terry, Maloney, 
 and Philips, as well as of all arms and ammunition, 
 promising that Terry and Maloney should be 
 protected against persons outside the organi- 
 zation. On receiving -this assurance, Ashe threw 
 open the doors of the armory and the Vigilantes 
 marched in. 
 
 "All present were disarmed," writes Bancroft. 
 "Terry and Maloney were taken charge of and 
 the armory was quickly swept of its contents. 
 Three hundred muskets and other munitions of 
 war were carried out and placed on drays. Two 
 carriages then drove up, in one of which was 
 placed Maloney and in the other Terry. Both 
 were attended by a strong escort, Olney forming 
 round them with his Citizens' Guard, increased 
 to a battalion. Then in triumph the Committee 
 men, with their prisoners and plunder enclosed 
 in a solid body of infantry and these again
 
 THE VIGILANTES OF '56 257 
 
 surrounded by cavalry, marched back to their 
 rooms. " 
 
 Nor was this all. Coleman, like a wise gen- 
 eral, realizing that compromise was no longer 
 possible, sent out his men to take possession of 
 all the encampments of the Law and Order forces. 
 The four big armories were cleaned out while 
 smaller squads of men combed the city house by 
 house for concealed arms. By midnight the job 
 was done. The Vigilantes were in control of the 
 situation.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE TRIUMPH OF THE VIGILANTES 
 
 JUDGE TERRY was still a thorny problem to handle. 
 After all, he was a Judge of the Supreme Court. 
 At first his attitude was one of apparent humility, 
 but as time went on he regained his arrogant 
 attitude and from his cell issued defiances to his 
 captors. He was aided and abetted by his high- 
 spirited wife, and in many ways caused the 
 members of the Committee a great deal of trouble. 
 If Hopkins were to die, they could do no less 
 than hang Terry in common consistency and 
 justice. But they realized fully that in executing 
 a Justice of the Supreme Court they would be 
 wading into pretty deep water. The state and 
 federal authorities were inclined to leave them 
 alone and let them work out the manifestly desir- 
 able reform, but it might be that such an act 
 would force official interference. As one member 
 of the Committee expressed it, "They had gone 
 
 258
 
 THE TRIUMPH OF THE VIGILANTES 259 
 
 gunning for ferrets and had coralled a grizzly." 
 Nevertheless Terry was indicted before the Com- 
 mittee on the following counts, a statement of 
 which gives probably as good a bird's eye view of 
 Terry as numerous pages of personal description: 
 
 Resisting with violence the officers of the Vigilance 
 Committee while in the discharge of their duties. 
 
 Committing an assault with a deadly weapon with 
 intent to kill Sterling A. Hopkins on June 21, 1856. 
 
 Various breaches of the peace and attacks upon 
 citizens while in the discharge of their duties, specified 
 as follows : 
 
 1. Resistance in 1853 to a writ of habeas corpus 
 on account of which one Roach escaped from the 
 custody of the law, and the infant heirs of the 
 Sanchez family were defrauded of their rights. 
 
 2. An attack in 1853 on a citizen of Stockton 
 named Evans. 
 
 3. An attack in 1853 on a citizen in San Fran- 
 cisco named Purdy. 
 
 4. An attack at a charter election on a citizen of 
 Stockton named King. 
 
 5. An attack in the court house of Stockton on a 
 citizen named Broadhouse. 
 
 Before Terry's case came to trial it was known 
 that Hopkins was not fatally wounded. Terry's 
 confidence immediately rose. Heretofore he had 
 been somewhat, but not much, humbled. Now his
 
 260 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 haughty spirit blazed forth as strongly as ever. 
 He was tried in due course, and was found guilty 
 on the first charge and on one of the minor charges. 
 On the accusation of assault with intent to kill, the 
 Committee deliberated a few days, and ended 
 by declaring him guilty of simple assault. He 
 was discharged and told to leave the State. But, 
 for some reason or other, the order was not 
 enforced. 
 
 Undoubtedly he owed his discharge in this form 
 to the evident fact that the Committee did not 
 know what to do with him. Terry at once took 
 the boat for Sacramento, where for some time 
 he remained in comparative retirement. Later he 
 emerged in his old role, and ended his life by being 
 killed at the hands of an armed guard of Justice 
 Stephen Field whom Terry assaulted without 
 giving Field a chance to defend himself. 
 
 While these events were going forward, the 
 Committee had convicted and hanged two other 
 men, Hetherington and Brace. In both instances 
 the charge was murder of the most dastardly 
 kind. The trials were conducted with due 
 regard to the forms of law and justice, and the 
 men were executed in an orderly fashion. These 
 executions would not be remarkable in any way,
 
 THE TRIUMPH OF THE VIGILANTES 261 
 
 were it not for the fact that they rounded out the 
 complete tale of executions by the Vigilance 
 Committee. Four men only were hanged in all 
 the time the Committee held its sway. Never- 
 theless the manner of the executions and the spirit 
 that actuated all the officers of the organization 
 sufficed to bring about a complete reformation in 
 the administration of justice. 
 
 About this time also the danger began to mani- 
 fest itself that some of the less conscientious and, 
 indeed, less important members of the Committee 
 might attempt through political means to make 
 capital of their connections. A rule was passed 
 that no member of the Committee of Vigilance 
 should be allowed to hold political office. Shortly 
 after this decision, William Rabe was suspended 
 for "having attempted to introduce politics into 
 this body and for attempting to overawe the 
 Executive Committee. " 
 
 After the execution of the two men mentioned, 
 the interesting trial of Durkee for piracy, the settle- 
 ment by purchase of certain private claims against 
 city land, and the deportation of a number of unde- 
 sirable citizens, the active work of the Committee 
 was practically over. It held complete power 
 and had also gained the confidence of probably
 
 262 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 nine-tenths of the population. Even some of the 
 erstwhile members of the Law and Order party, 
 who had adhered to the forms of legality through 
 principle, had now either ceased opposition, or 
 had come over openly to the side of the Committee. 
 Another date of adjournment was decided upon. 
 The gunnybag barricades were taken down on the 
 fourteenth of August. On the sixteenth, the 
 rooms of the building were ordered thrown open to 
 all members of the Committee, their friends, their 
 families, for a grand reception on the following 
 week. It was determined then not to disorganize 
 but to adjourn sine die. The organization was 
 still to be held, and the members were to keep 
 themselves ready whenever the need should arise. 
 But preparatory to adjournment it was decided 
 to hold a grand military review on the eighteenth 
 of August. This was to leave a final impression 
 upon the public mind of the numbers and power 
 of the Committee. 
 
 The parade fulfilled its function admirably. 
 The Grand Marshal and his staff led, followed by 
 the President and the Military Commanding 
 General with his staff. Then marched four 
 companies of artillery with fifteen mounted can- 
 non. In their rear was a float representing Fort
 
 THE TRIUMPH OF THE VIGILANTES 263 
 
 Gunnybags with imitation cannon. Next came 
 the Executive Committee mounted, riding three 
 abreast; then cavalry companies and the medical 
 staff, which consisted of some fifty physicians of 
 the town. Representatives of the Vigilance Com- 
 mittee of 1851 followed in wagons with a banner; 
 then four regiments of infantry, more cavalry, 
 citizen guards, pistol men, Vigilante police. Over 
 six thousand men were that day in line, all disci- 
 plined, all devoted, all actuated by the highest 
 motives, and conscious of a job well done. 
 
 The public' reception at Fort Gunnybags was 
 also well attended. Every one was curious to see 
 the interior arrangement. The principal entrance 
 was from Sacramento Street and there was also a 
 private passage from another street. The door- 
 keeper's box was prominently to the front where 
 each one entering had to give the pass-word. He 
 then proceeded up the stairs to the floor above. 
 The first floor was the armory and drill-room. 
 Around the sides were displayed the artillery 
 harness, the flags, bulletin-boards, and all the 
 smaller arms. On one side was a lunch stand 
 where coffee and other refreshments were dis- 
 pensed to those on guard. On the opposite side 
 were offices for every conceivable activity. An
 
 264 THE FORTY-NINERS 
 
 immense emblematic eye painted on the south- 
 east corner of the room glared down on each as he 
 entered. The front of the second floor was also a 
 guard-room, armory, and drilling floor. Here also 
 was painted the eye of Vigilance, and here was 
 exhibited the famous ballot-box whose sides could 
 separate the good ballots from the bad ballots. 
 Here also were the meeting-rooms for the Ex- 
 ecutive Committee and a number of cells for the 
 prisoners. The police-office displayed many hand- 
 cuffs, tools of captured criminals, relics, clothing 
 with bullet holes, ropes used for hanging, bowie- 
 knives, burglar's tools, brass knuckles, and all the 
 other curiosities peculiar to criminal activities. The 
 third story of the building had become the armor- 
 er's shop, and the hospital. Eight or ten workmen 
 were employed in the former and six to twenty 
 cots were maintained in the latter. Above all, on 
 the roof, supported by a strong scaffolding, hung 
 the Monumental bell whose tolling summoned the 
 Vigilantes when need arose. 
 
 Altogether the visitors must have been greatly 
 impressed, not only with the strength of the 
 organization, but also with the care used in prepar- 
 ing it for every emergency, the perfection of its 
 discipline, and the completeness of its equipment.
 
 THE TRIUMPH OF THE VIGILANTES 265 
 
 When the Committee of Vigilance of 1856 ad- 
 journed subject to further call, there must have 
 been in most men's minds the feeling that such a 
 call could not again arise for years to come. 
 
 Yet it was not so much the punishment meted 
 out to evil-doers that measures the success of the 
 Vigilante movement. Only four villains were 
 hanged; not more than thirty were banished. 
 But the effect was the same as though four hun- 
 dred had been executed. It is significant that not 
 less than eight hundred went into voluntary exile. 
 
 "What has become of your Vigilance Com- 
 mittee?" asked a stranger naively, some years 
 later. 
 
 "Toll the bell, sir, and you'll see," was the 
 reply. x 
 
 1 Bancroft, Popular Tribunals, ii, 695.
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 CALIFORNIA has been fortunate in her historians. 
 Every student of the history of the Pacific coast is 
 indebted to the monumental work of Hubert H. Ban- 
 croft. Three titles concern the period of the Forty- 
 niners: The History of California, 7 vols. (1884-1890); 
 California Inter Pocula, 1848-56 (1888); Popular Tri- 
 bunals, 2 vols. (1887). Second only to these volumes 
 in general scope and superior in some respects is T. H. 
 Hittell's History of California, 4 vols. (1885-1897). 
 Two other general histories of smaller compass and 
 covering limited periods are I. B. Richman's California 
 under Spain and Mexico, 1535-1847 (1911), and Josiah 
 Royce's California, 1846-1856 (1886). The former 
 is a scholarly but rather arid book; the latter is an 
 essay in interpretation rather than a narrative of events. 
 One of the chief sources of information about San 
 Francisco in the days of the gold fever is The Annals of 
 San Francisco (1855) by Soule and others. 
 
 Contemporary accounts of California just before the 
 American occupation are of varying value. One of 
 the most widely read books is R. H. Dana's Two Years 
 before the Mast (1840). The author spent parts of 
 1835 and 1836 in California. The Personal Narrative 
 of James 0. Pattie (1831) is an account of six years' 
 
 267
 
 268 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 travel amid almost incredible hardships from St. 
 Louis to the Pacific and back through Mexico. W. H. 
 Thomes's On Land and Sea, or California in the Years 
 1843, '44, and '45 (1892) gives vivid pictures of old 
 Mexican days. Two other books may be mentioned 
 which furnish information of some value: Alfred 
 Robinson, Life in California (1846) and Walter Colton, 
 Three Years in California (1850). 
 
 Personal journals and narratives of the Forty-niners 
 are numerous, but they must be used with caution. 
 Their accuracy is frequently open to question. Among 
 the more valuable may be mentioned Delano's Life on 
 the Plains and among the Diggings (1854) ; W. G. John- 
 ston's Experience of a Forty-niner (1849) ; T. T. John- 
 son's Sights in the Gold Region and Scenes by the Way 
 (1849) ; J. T. Brooks's Four Months among the Gold-Find- 
 ers (1849); E. G. Buffum's Six Months in the Gold 
 Mines (1850) the author was a member of the "Steven- 
 son Regiment"; James Delevan's Notes on California 
 and the Placers: How to get there and what to do after- 
 wards (1850); and W. R. Ryan's Personal Adventures 
 in Upper and Lower California, in 1848-9 (1850). 
 
 Others who were not gold-seekers have left their 
 impression of California in transition, such as Bayard 
 Taylor in his Eldorado, 2 vols. (1850), and J. W. Harlan 
 in his California '46 to '88 (1888). The latter was a 
 member of Fremont's battalion. The horrors of the 
 overland journey are told by Delano in the book already 
 mentioned and by W. L. Manly, Death Valley in '49 
 (1894). 
 
 The evolution of law and government in primitive 
 mining communities is described in C. H. Shiun's
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 269 
 
 Mining Camps. A Study in American Frontier Govern- 
 ment (1885). The duties of the border police are set 
 forth with thrilling details by Horace Bell, Reminis- 
 cences of a Ranger or Early Times in Southern California 
 (1881). An authoritative work on the Mormons is 
 W. A. Linn's Story of the Mormons (1902). 
 
 For further bibliographical references the reader is 
 referred to the articles on California, San Francisco, 
 The Mormons, and Fremont, in The Encyclopaedia 
 Britannica, llth Edition.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Alvarado, Governor of Califor- 
 nia, 15-16, 18, 23 
 "Arcadian Age," 58-62 
 Ashe, Richard, 251, 252 
 
 Baker, Edward, Colonel, 236, 
 
 244 
 "Bear Flag Revolution," 32- 
 
 36 
 Benton, T. H., father-in-law to 
 
 Fremont, 29; exerts influence 
 
 in Fremont's behalf, 40 
 Bluxome, Isaac, 202, 204 
 Bovee, 253 
 Bowie, 251, 252 
 Brannan, Sam, 56-57, 155, 189 
 
 Cahuenga, Treaty of (1847), 
 42 
 
 California, inhabitants, 1; occu- 
 pation by Spain, 2 et seq.', 
 classes, 5-6; life of early 
 settlers, 6 et seq.; advent of 
 foreign residents, 13 et seq.; 
 population in 1840, 16-17; 
 arrival of two parties of set- 
 tlers (1841), 17; Fremont's 
 expedition, 29; military con- 
 quest by U. S., 30 et seq.', 
 Mexican laws in, 46-50; con- 
 stitutional convention (1849), 
 50-52; influence of discovery 
 of gold, 52-54; overland mi- 
 gration to, 67 et seq.; journey 
 by way of Panama to, 96 et 
 seq.; life in the gold fields, 107 
 et seq.; city life in 1849, 119 
 et seq.; law, 174-76; politics, 
 
 176-80; financial stringency 
 
 (1855), 181-83 
 California Star, the, 123 
 Carson, Kit, 38 
 Casey, J. P., 191, 192 et seq., 220 
 
 et seq. 
 
 Chagres in 1849, 99-100 
 Cole, Beverly, 202 
 Coleman, W. T., 201, 202, 204, 
 
 205, 211 et seq., 251 
 Cora, Charles, trial of, 189-91; 
 
 re-trial by Vigilantes, 225- 
 
 226 
 
 Daily Evening Bulletin, 184-88. 
 
 190 
 
 Delano, 75 
 Dempster, Clancey, 01, 202. 
 
 204 
 
 Den, Nicholas, 14 
 Doane, Charles, 219 
 Donner party, 26 
 Dows, James, 202 
 Duane, Charles, 235 
 Durkee, John, 249-51 
 
 Farragut, David, 242 
 
 Farwell, 201 
 
 Fremont, J. C., expedition, 29 
 et seq.; personal characteristics, 
 40-41,44-45; negotiates treaty 
 with Calif ornians, 42; appoint- 
 ed Governor of California, 42; 
 asks permission to form expe- 
 dition against Mexico, 43- 
 44; court-martialed and dis- 
 missed from service, 44 
 
 271
 
 272 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Gatun in 1849, 100-01 
 
 Gavilan Peak, U. S. flag raised 
 at, 30 
 
 Gift, Colonel, 218 
 
 Gillespie, Lieutenant, 30, 31- 
 32 
 
 Gold, influence of discovery upon 
 life in California, 52-54; dis- 
 covered by Marshall (1848), 
 55; news brought to East, 62; 
 influence in Europe, 65-66; 
 the diggings, 106 ei seq. 
 
 Graham, Isaac, 15-16 
 
 Green, Talbot, 172 
 
 Harlan, William, account of 
 
 overland journey, 68-69; 
 
 quoted, 121; experience in 
 
 San Francisco, 128 
 Hartnell, 14 
 Herald, 200 
 Hittell, T. H., recounts incidents 
 
 of overland journey, 70, 72 
 Hopkins, Sterling, 251, 252 
 Hossefross, 202 
 "Hounds, "The, 137-39 
 Howard, Volney, 241, 244, 245, 
 
 246 
 
 Ide, W. B., 34 
 
 Indian menace to immigrant 
 trains, 71 
 
 Jenkins, John, trial of, 153- 
 
 156 
 Johnson, J. N., Governor of 
 
 California, 210 et seq. 
 Johnston, Captain, 38 
 
 Kearny, General Stephen Watts, 
 
 37 et seq. 
 
 Kearny, Woolley, 235 
 Kelly, John, 115 
 King, James, of William, 183, 
 
 184 et seq., 207-08, 227 
 
 Larkin, T. O., 28-29 
 
 "Law and Order" party, 179, 
 208; clash with Vigilantes, 
 236 et seq. 
 
 Leese, Jacob, 33 
 
 McGlynn, J. A., 129-30 
 
 McGowan, Edward, 195-96, 
 235 
 
 McLean, William, 235 
 
 McNabb, 252 
 
 Maloney, Rube, 248, 251, 252 
 
 Marshall, James, discovers gold, 
 55 
 
 Mason, Colonel R. B., 46 
 
 Meiggs, Harry, 172 
 
 Merritt, 33 
 
 Mesa, Battle of the, 41 
 
 Mexican government in Cali- 
 fornia, attitude toward set- 
 tlers, 17-19, 27 
 
 Mexican War, influence upon 
 affairs in California, 35 
 
 Missions established by "Sacred 
 Expedition," 3 
 
 Montgomery, Lieutenant, 35 
 
 Mormons, 19-20, 56-57, 77 et 
 seq. 
 
 Mountain Meadows massacre, 
 95 
 
 Musgrave, J. D., 235 
 
 Oregon question, effect upon 
 Western migration, 20-21, 55 
 Oregon Trail, 21-22 
 
 Panama as a route to California, 
 
 96 et seq. 
 Panama, city of, in 1849, 102- 
 
 103 
 
 Pattie, James, 14 
 Pico, Andres, 37 
 Portola, 2 
 Pratt, P. P., 80 
 
 "Regulators," the, 136-37 
 
 Richardson, W'illiam, 189 
 
 Rigdon, Sidney, 80 
 
 Rowe, 252 
 
 Ryan, W. R., quoted, 7, 120-21
 
 INDEX 
 
 273 
 
 "Sacred Expedition," 2 
 
 San Diego, first mission founded 
 (1769), 13 
 
 San Francisco, before discovery 
 of gold, 123; effect of dis- 
 covery of gold, 123-24; in 
 1849, 124 et seq.; fire of Dec. 
 4, 1849, 141; later fires, 
 142; Volunteer Fire Depart- 
 ment, 143-46; civic progress, 
 146-49; population in 1851, 
 150-51; in the mid-fifties, 159 
 et seq. 
 
 San Gabriel River, Battle of 
 (1847), 41 
 
 San Pascual, Battle of, 38 
 
 Santa Fe, 14 
 
 Semple, 33 
 
 Serra, Father Jumpero, 2 
 
 Sherman, W. T., 208-09, 242- 
 243, 245 
 
 Sloat, Commodore J. D., 35, 
 36 
 
 Smith, Growling, 48 
 
 Smith, Jedediah, 15 
 
 Smith, Joseph, Jr., founder of 
 the Mormon Church, 77-79; as 
 a leader, 79-80; death, 85 
 
 Smith, Peter, claims against 
 city of San Francisco, 170 
 
 Sonoma captured, 32-35 
 
 Spain, religious occupation of 
 California, 2 et seq.; dis- 
 
 courages immigration into, 
 
 13 
 
 Spence, David, 14 
 Stockton, Robert, Commodore, 
 
 36 et seq.; quarrels with 
 
 Kearny, 38-39 
 Stuart, James, 151-52 
 Sunday Times, the, 192 
 Sutler, Captain J. A., 23-26 
 Sutler's Fort, 24, 25, 29, 30, 33, 
 
 106 
 "Sydney Ducks," 136, 234 
 
 Terry, Judge, 241, 242, 243, 245- 
 
 46, 251, 252 
 
 Thomes, W. H., quoted, 9 
 Three Weeks in the Gold Mines, 
 
 Simpson, 64 
 Truett, 201, 220', 251 
 
 Vallejo, General, 18 
 Vigilantes, of 1851, 150 et seq.; 
 of 1856, 231 et seq. 
 
 Walker, Joseph, 29, 30 
 White, James, 235 
 Wightman, Peter, 235 
 Wool, General, 242 
 
 Yerba Buena, see San Francisco 
 Young, Brigham, 85-88, 89, 90 
 91
 
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