Starr King in California | Page 6

been dispelled by the careful researches of conscientious
scholars, it must still be admitted that here also were developed certain
characteristics and here a kind of foundation for the future laid,

ignorant of which we can not understand either the California of 1860
or even the State as we of today know and love it. If it is true that the
first settlers in any community leave a lasting impress upon after
generations it is evident that the Franciscan and Spanish background of
California must be reviewed as we approach the more serious days of
American conflict and conquest.
Although the first American settler arrived in California in 1816 his
example seems to have been without effect for in 1822 there were but
fourteen persons not of Mexican or Spanish blood in all the province.
In the early '40's emigrants from the "States" began to come in parties,
but so slowly that by January 1, 1848, the entire population (not
including Indians) numbered only 14,000, and Yerba Buena (San
Francisco) the only Pueblo of any size contained barely 900 inhabitants.
This be it noted was but twelve years before the arrival of Starr King,
so close was the old aristocratic rule of Spain to that stirring conflict in
which he was to become a central figure.
As we have already observed it is the unexpected that happens in
California history. In this same month of January, 1848, gold was
discovered in the upper Sacramento Valley, an event that rivals the
discovery of America by Columbus, if regarded in the light of results
affecting the development of modern society. "The Gold that Drew the
World" so Edwin Markham heads his story of that strange hegira which
converted far-away California into a new Mecca and made of San
Francisco, that sleepy Spanish Pueblo, in a few months' time a
cosmopolitan city of fifty thousand people. Two years earlier, as a
result of the Mexican War, California had been declared an American
Territory, though not formally ceded to the United States until February
2, 1848. It was generally believed that the Mexican War had been
waged and California acquired in the interest of negro slavery. James
Russell Lowell voices this belief in the Bigelow papers as follows:
"They just wanted this California So's to lug new slave states in, To
abuse ye and to scorn ye, And to plunder ye like sin."
However this may have been, it is certain that among the immigrants of
the fifty's there was a large number of forceful and brilliant men, loving

the old South, and fully determined to swing the new state into line as a
pro-slavery asset. It is true they were not strong enough to prevent the
adoption in 1849 of a constitution prohibiting slavery, yet for all that,
as Southern men they rejoiced when September 9, 1850, California was
admitted to the Union.
It is no part of our purpose to give in detail the strange story of
California during her first ten years as an American Commonwealth.
By 1850 her population had increased to 120,000 people, mostly young
men drawn by the lure of gold from every quarter of the civilized world,
including not less than 4000 Chinese. Yet the majority were Americans,
and of the Americans the larger number were from the slave states. Nor
was this condition much altered up to the outbreak of the Civil War.
Trustworthy authorities estimate that not less than forty per cent of her
entire population were at that time of Southern birth, naturally
Democratic in politics and for the most part pro-slavery in sentiment. It
should be remembered that during the decade under consideration the
national government was under the brilliant leadership of the
slave-masters who were ever alert as to the attitude of this new
Eldorado of the West. Consequently every position of trust and honor
under national control in California was given to "safe men" whose
attitude towards the "peculiar institution" was favorable beyond
suspicion. To such an extent was this a matter of public knowledge that
the Customs Station of San Francisco was popularly dubbed the
"Virginia Poor House." During all these years California was under the
absolute control of the Democratic Party, and the party was under
control of its Pro-slavery leaders.
"The common people," says a late historian, "stood in awe for many
years of these suave, urbane, occasionally fire-eating and always
well-dressed gentlemen from this most aristocratic section of the Union.
The Southerners, born leaders of men, and with politics the paramount
interest in their lives, controlled both San Francisco and California."
J. W. Forney, a politician and reporter of the time, is more emphatic
and declares that "California was a secession rendezvous from the day
it became a part of the Union."

That the State was strongly Southern in sympathy