Starr King in California | Page 9

renders it
forever impossible for any just man to belittle the deeds or influence of
Edward D. Baker. What he might have effected had he remained in
California, or had his life been longer spared, we may not say. The fact
remains that after his mission among us was over Southern and

Democratic sentiment was still in the ascendant. It was reserved for
another, - the privilege and the honor of "saving California to the
Union."
One other phase of the situation merits careful attention. Almost from
the very beginning of American Settlement in California a dream of
Pacific Empire, separate and independent of "the States" had fascinated
many of her strongest men. And little wonder, for here by the Pacific
Sea was a vast territory walled away by lofty mountains and wide
deserts, two thousand miles west of the frontier settlements of
Minnesota and Kansas. Not until after the outbreak of the Civil War
was there telegraphic communication with the East, and the nearest
railway ended somewhere in central Missouri. Mail was received
regularly once in twenty-six days, sometimes as often as once in two
weeks. But there was little direct communication and less unity of
purpose between the older sections of the United States and far away
California. In fact there was considerable antagonism felt and
expressed toward the government of Washington. The original Mexican
population cordially hated, and with good reason, the national authority.
Foreigners in the mines cared nothing for the Union or the quarrel
between the states, and many of the settlers from the East, which they
still lovlingly called "back home," felt that they had a real grievance
against the general government. This feeling, which was of long
standing, was naturally intensified by the troubled outlook in 1860.
Men prominent in state and national politics openly advocated
independence as the proper policy for the Pacific Coast.
"Why depend on the South or the North to regulate our affairs," wrote
our junior Senator from Washington. "And this, too, after they have
proved themselves incapable of living in harmony with one another."
Starr King had been a resident of the state nearly a year when the San
Francisco Herald published the following letter received from
Congressman John C. Burch:
"The people of California should all be of one mind on this subject of a
Pacific Republic. Raise aloft the flag of the hydraheaded cactus of the
western wilds and call upon the enlightened nations of the earth to

acknowledge our independence and protect us from the wreck of a once
glorious Union."
Governor John B. Weller, a man not only holding the highest office
within the gift of the people of the state, but also one who had
represented California in the United States Senate made deliberately
this declaration:
"If the wild spirit of fanaticism which now pervades the land should
destroy the magnificent confederacy - which God forbid - California
will not go with the south or north, but here on the shores of the Pacific,
found a mighty republic, which may in the end prove the greatest of
all."
These quotations which might be greatly extended are sufficient to
prove that a strong feeling existed in favor of a Pacific Republic
standing wholly aloof from the coming struggle. It is unthinkable that a
Senator and a Congressman, and especially the Governor of the State,
should have voiced such sentiments had there not been at least a
probability that this might be the course adopted in case the Union was
broken up.
James G. Blaine, whose history of the time must be regarded as
impartial so far as California is concerned, makes this statement:
"Jefferson Davis expected, with confidence amounting to certainty, and
based, it is believed, on personal pledges, that the Pacific Coast, if it
did not actually join the South, would be disloyal to the Union."
This beyond reasonable doubt was the situation in the Spring of 1860:
Our immense State with its coast line of more than seven hundred miles,
sharply divided as between Southern and Northern California; the
majority of our people in Los Angeles and neighboring counties frankly
favoring the proposed confederacy of slave-holding states; many of the
larger towns in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys of a similar
mind; the political leaders of the State almost solidly Democratic and
the majority with strong Southern leanings; many of our foremost men
believing that the time had come to launch the long dreamed of Pacific

Republic, and our ranches and mines containing a large population
either hostile or indifferent to the cause of Union and Liberty. Over
against these varied forces a probable patriotic majority scattered from
one end of California to the other, some belonging to the new
Republican Party and some to the Douglas Democracy, and many
without party affiliation, unorganized,