Monterey County CA Archives History - Books .....Chapter X Raising Of American Flag At Monterey 1893
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Book Title: Memorial And Biographical History Of The Coast Counties Of Central California.

CHAPTER X.
RAISING OF AMERICAN FLAG AT MONTEREY.

COMMODORE Sloat, of the Pacific squadron, on his flag-ship, Savannah, fifty-four
guns, arrived at Monterey, July 1, 1846, from Mazatlan. There were in port, on
his arrival, the Cayne, Captain Mervine, and the Levant, Captain Page,
twenty-four guns each. Several days passed before Sloat decided to take
possession of the town, and to order Captain Montgomery of the Portsmouth, then
at San Francisco, or Yerba Buena, as it was more generally known, to raise the
American flag at that point.

  On July 7, however, having completed all his arrangements for the important
step, he sent Captain Mervine ashore with a force of 250 men, who hoisted the
stars and stripes over the custom house, which was saluted with three cheers by
the marines and spectators, and by twenty-one guns from each of the three United
States vessels of war in the harbor.* A proclamation in both Spanish and
English, addressed "to the inhabitants of California," was posted in various
public places; the necessary steps for the preservation of order were taken; and
information of what had been done was sent to Montgomery, Fremont, Castro,
Stearns and others.





  *Mr. Thomas Bralee (a sketch of whose life appears elsewhere), who was one of
the actors in the raising of the American flag at Monterey, in 1846, gives some
interesting details, not heretofore published, concerning that important event.
Mr. Bralee served on the Savannah, a sixty-four gun, double bank, frigate, the
flag-ship of Commodore Sloat. He says the American frigate sailed out of
Mazatlan several times, and Admiral Seymour of the Collingwood would follow them
to learn in which direction the Savannah would head. But every time she would
return to port, and back again would come the British admiral. Once, on the
occasion, of a court martial having tried and found guilty a young sailor, who
had struck an officer, the penalty of which was death, the Savannah put to sea
to carry out the sentence of hanging at the yard-arm, which was not permissible
in a foreign port, under international law. The poor boy was pardoned by
Commodore Sloat. But the incident served as a pretext to put to sea. The Admiral
got tired of following the movements of the Commodore. Meanwhile, on the arrival
of Gillespie, with later news from Washington Sloat set sail in earnest for
Monterey, where he arrived July 1, having entirely eluded the Briton, who
supposed the sallying forth this time, as before, was only a feint.

  On July 3, some of the men from the Savannah were allowed to go ashore at
Monterey. But on July 4, they were not allowed ashore, as they were liable to
get too merry on our Nation's birthday, and thereby make trouble. Neither on the
5th were they allowed to go ashore, and the men began to grumble. But on the 6th
matters were made clear to them. The declaration of war with Mexico was read and
active arrangements were made to them to go ashore the next morning. About 400
men, Mr. Bralee thinks (or one-half the force of the Savannah and the sloops of
war, Cyane, Captain Mervine, and Levant, Captain Page), disembarked on the
morning of July 7, and marched, under command of Captain Mervine, up to the
custom house in tbe center of town to demand the surrender of the place, and
detachments of the United States forces then took possession of the cuartel and
other points in the town. Of course the inhabitants recognized that they could
not successfully defend the place against the gun United States men of war, and
their well armed, formidable crews, and therefore no attempt was made to do so.
It is customary for a conqueror, in taking possession of country or port, to go
through the formality of lowering the flag of the conquered before raising his
own. But the Mexican flag had been removed, which caused some delay in the
proceedings, while messengers were sent aboard the frigate to bring a Mexican
flag. This was raised to the top of the flag-staff. Whereupon it was duly
lowered, and the United States flag was elevated in place of it. Three cheers
were given by the seamen and spectators, and a salute of twenty-one guns was
fired by the men-of-war.

  At San Francisco Montgomery raised the American Standard two days later,
without opposition, and on the same day Lieutenant Revere performed the same act
at Sonoma. Thus was the change of government in central California effected
quietly, as an event that was expected by all, and gladly welcomed by many.

  On the 15th of July, Commodore R. F. Stockton arrrived [sic] on the Congress
from Norfolk, via Honolulu. On the 16th, nine days after the raising of the
American flag by Sloat, Admiral Sir Geo. F. Seymour, on the English man-of-war,
Collingwood, arrived at Monterey from Mazatlan. Whatever views Seymour, as
commander of the British squadron in the Pacific ocean, may have entertained
concerning the desirability or feasibility of establishing a British
protectorate over California; and whatever may have been the wishes and hopes of
resident partisans of any such scheme, all now saw that the time had passed in
which it was possible of realization. At any rate, Seymour remained only a week
in port, and then left for the Sandwich Island.

  On the 23d of July, Commodore Sloat turned over the command of the United
States land forces in the conquered Territory to his successor, Commodore
Stockton, who, on the 29th, assumed command of the naval squadron, and Commodore
Sloat sailed for home on the Levant.

  After having appointed Walter Colton, who had been a navy chaplain, as
alcalde, Stockton, in the Congress, with 360 marines and seamen, on the 1st of
August, set out for San Pedro, to complete the conquest of the Territory in the
south, the Cyane, with Fremont's battalion having sailed for San Diego two or
three days before. The Savannah, Captain Mervine, remained at Monterey, whither
Stockton returned in September.

  Alcalde Colton and Robert Semple published the first newspaper in California,
at Monterey, from August 15, 1846, till May 1847, when it was moved to San
Francisco. The old press and Spanish type, which they used, they found in the
government house, where they had been stored since the time of Governor
Figueroa. As there is no letter w in the Spanish alphabet, the printers, in
setting up matter for the English portion of this pioneer weekly journal of
western civilization, which was called The Californian, were compelled to use
two v's, thus, vv for w.

  The following is Colton's own account of this journalistic enterprise, as
recorded in his diary of Saturday, August 15, 1846: "To-day the first newspaper
ever published in California made its appearance. The honor, if such it be, of
writing its prospectus fell to me. It is to be issued on every Saturday, and is
published by Semple & Colton. Little did I think when I relinquished the
editorship of the North American in Philadelphia, that my next feat in this line
would be off here in California. My partner is an immigrant from Kentucky, who
stands six feet eight, in his stockings. He is in a buckskin dress, a fox-skin
cap; is true with his rifle, ready with his pen, and quick at the type-case.

  "He created the materials of our office, out of the chaos of a small concern,
which had been used by a Roman Catholic monk in printing a few sectarian tracts.
The press was old enough to be preserved as a curiosity; the mice had burrowed
in the balls; there were no rules, no leads, and the types were rusty and all in
pi. It was only by scouring that the letters could be made to show their faces.
A sheet or two of tin were procured, and these, with a jack-knife, were cut into
rules and leads. Luckily we found with the press the greater part of a keg of
ink; and now came the main scratch for paper. None could be found, except what
is used to envelop the tobacco of the cigar smoked here by the nations. A
coaster (vessel) had a small supply of this on board, which we procured. It is
in sheets a little larger than the common-sized foolscap. And this is the size
of our first paper, which we have christened The California. Though small in
dimensions, our first number is as full of news as a black-walnut is of meat. We
have received by couriers during the week intelligence from all the military
posts throughout the Territory. Very little of this has transpired; it reaches
the public for the first time through our sheet. We have also the declaration of
war between the United States and Mexico, with an abstract of the debate in the
Senate. A crowd was waiting when the first sheet was thrown from the press. It
produced quite a little sensation. Never was a bank run upon harder; not,
however, by people with paper to get specie, but exactly the reverse. One-half
of the paper is in English, the other in Spanish. The subscription for a year is
$5.00; the price of a single sheet is 12 1/2 cents, and is considered cheap at
that."

  Colton, in his book, "Three Years in California," gives some detached but
exceedingly graphic pictures of the California of nearly half a century ago,
which lose nothing of their interest by contrast with the California of to-day.
Thus, all old-timers will recognize the following: "A Californian is most at
home in his saddle; there he has some claims to originality, if not in
character, then in costume. His hat, with its conical crown and broad rim,
throws back the sun's rays from its dark, glazed surface. It is fastened on by a
band which passes under his chin, and rests on a red handkerchief, which turbans
his head, from beneath which his black locks flow out upon the wind.

  "The collar of his linen rolls over that of his blue spencer, which is open
under the chin, is fitted closely to his waist, and often ornamented with double
rows of buttons and silk braid. His trousers, which are fastened around his
loins by a red sash, are open to the knee, to which his buckskin leggins ascend
over his white cotton drawers. His buckskin shoes are armed with heavy spurs,
which have a shaft some ten inches long, at the end of which is a roller, which
bristles out into six points, three inches long, against which steel plates
rattle with a quick, sharp sound.

  "His feet rest in stirrups of wood carved from the solid oak, and extremely
strong and heavy. His saddle rises high, fore and aft, and is broadly skirted
with leather, which is stamped into figures, through the interstices of which
red and green silk flash out with gay effect. The reins of his bridle are thick
and narrow, and the headstall is profusely ornamented with silver plate. His
horse, with his long flowing mane, arching neck, broad chest, full flanks, and
slender legs, is full of fire. He seldom trots, and will gallop all day, without
seeming to be weary. On his back is the Californian's home. Leave him this home,
and yon may have the rest of the world."

  The main vehicle for transportation in use by Californians in early times was
the ox-cart, or careta, of solid wooden wheels, already mentioned. Concerning
this unique institution so serviceable in the primitive pastoral period, when no
other kind of carriage was attainable, and which has continued in use on some of
the interior ranches, even to the present day, Colton thus writes: "On gala days
it is swept out and covered with mats; a deep body is put on, which is arched
with hoop-poles, and over these a pair of sheets are extended for a covering.
Into this the ladies are tumbled, when three or four yoke of oxen, with as many
Indian drivers and ten times as many dogs, start ahead. The hallooing of the
drivers, the barking of the dogs, and the loud laughter of the girls, make a a
[sic] common chorus. The quail takes to the covert as the roaring establishment
comes on, and even the owl suspends his melancholy note. What has his sad tone
to do amid such noise and mirth? It is like the piping cry of an infant amid the
revelry and tumult of the carnival."

  "The wild Indians here (says Colton) have a vague belief in the soul's
immortality. They say, 'As the moon dieth and cometh to life again, so man,
though he die, will again live.' But their future state is material; the wicked
are to be bitten by serpents, scorched by lightning and plunged down cataracts,
while the good are to hunt their game with bows that never lose their vigor,
with arrows that never miss their aim, and in forests where the crystal streams
roll over golden sands. Immortal youth is to be the portion of each, and age and
pain and death are to be known no more." This is more like the idealized dream
of the white man of civilization than the creed of the ignorant aborigine of
California.

  Under date of September 14, 1846, Colton makes this note of the advance guard
of overland immigration: "A letter from the Sacramento received to-day informs
me of the arrival of 2,000 immigrants from the United States. They are under the
guidance of experienced men, and have been but a little over four months on the
way."

   The California of the period of which Col-ton writes was almost exclusively a
pastoral country; and the interior was occupied by many thousands of Indians, a
portion of whom had been partly Christianized by the missionaries, who had
labored zealously, but with indifferent success, three-quarters of a century, in
an almost hopeless attempt to make good Christians and good citizens of Indians,
who, by nature were incapable of any high degree of moral, intellectual, or
social development. Besides these so-called mission Indians, which came to be
known by the name of the mission with which they had been connected, as
"Miguelenos," "Barbarenous," "Dieguenos," etc., there were many wild or
"unconverted" or gentile Indians throughout the interior of California.

  But all the Indians, whether quasi-Christianized or not, were distinguished
from Mexicans or from people of European descent, by being called, not
altogether inaptly, bestias or gente sin razon, i. e., "beasts, or people
without reason;" for their reasoning powers, or capacity for mental development
seemed to have been extremely limited.

  Very probably, the fact that it was an impossibility to make full-fledged
citizens of the Indians of California, influenced the Mexican Government to
secularize the missions and grant the lauds, which they had claimed, to gente de
razon, - settlers who were capable of citizenship, and of self-government. The
liberal policy, adopted a dozen years before the transfer of the Territory to
the United States, of granting land to actual settlers was a wise one; and under
it California increased in population and prosperity. As the missionaries had
demonstrated, she was especially adapted to pastoral pursuits. And, although
they showed that her fertile valleys were also fitted for horticulture and
agriculture, it was better that her territory should be divided up into many
ranches managed by their owners, even if devoted to stock-raising, than that it
should be under the sway of a comparatively few friars, who, though they
controlled vast numbers of Indian laborers, could never, with such material, as
the result showed, build a State or a real commonwealth, with all that that term
implied. And, as in a civic sense, the era of ranches, or of actual settlers on
large farms, was an advance on the mission regime, so the later division of the
big ranches into small holdings, and the substitution of diversified industries
for the single occupation of stock-raising, are another and a longer step in the
process of State evolution.

  In 1846, when Colton was appointed alcalde of Monterey by Commodore Stockton,
California's beautiful and luxuriant valleys were all unfenced and unoccupied,
save by scattered rancheros and their countless herds of cattle, horses or
sheep; now they are very generally cultivated in grain or fruit, and not
infrequently fenced; then the roads were few and the only modes of locomotion
were on horseback or on foot, except that caretas, with solid wooden wheels,
hauled by oxen with yokes strapped to their horns with rawhide thongs, were used
by the rancheros to convey their families from ranch to ranch, or from ranch to
town, or to church on Sundays, or dias de fiesta. Now the principal valleys of
the State are traversed by railroads and cities are gridironed by street-car
lines. Thus Commodore Sloat was compelled, in returning to the Atlantic States,
to sail around Cape Horn, a distance of 15,000 miles; and Lieutenant Gillespie
found the quickest and safest route by which he could bring dispatches from
Washington to Consul Larkin and to the military and naval commanders on this
coast, was by way of Vera Cruz and across Mexico to Mazatlan, and from thence by
a United States sloop-of-war to Monterey; while Fremont, with an armed mounted
force had been sent out by Government to explore or find a path across the
continent on our own territory. Now a courier can travel from ocean to ocean in
palace cars by one of several continental routes in five or six days. On
entering upon his duties as alcade of Monterey, Colton records that when he went
ashore from the flag-ship, the Congress, he was hospitably received at the house
of Consul Larkin. "This," he adds, "is the more appreciated from the fact that
there is not a public table or hotel, in all California. High or low, rich or
poor, are thrown together on the private liberality of the citizens. Though a
quasi war exists, all the amenities and courtesies of life are preserved; your
person, life and liberty are as sacred at the hearth of the Californian as they
would be at your own fireside."

  All Americans who lived in California in the early times will bear witness to
the truthfulness of this picture. He further says: "My jurisdiction (as alcalde)
extends over an immense extent of territory, and over a most heterogeneous
population. Almost every nation has, in some emigrant, a representative here-a
representative of its peculiar habits, virtues and vices. And then he gives a
list, which includes with their characteristics, the Californian, the Indian,
the trapper of the West, the Mexican, Spaniard, Englishman, Frenchman, German,
Irishman, Russian and Mormon. "All have come here with the expectation of
finding but little work, and less law. Through this discordant mass, he
exclaims: "I am to maintain order, punish crime and redress injuries."

  He gives a few prices current thus: "Unbleached cottons, fifty cents the yard;
shirtings, seventy-five; plain knives and forks, $10 the dozen; the cheapest
tea, $3 the pound. The duty on a cheap straw hat is $3."

  Of the bigness of the ranches in those days, when land was not of much value,
he says: " It sounds strange to an American, and much more to an Englishman, to
hear Californians talk of farms. They never speak of acres or even miles; they
deal only in leagues. A farm of four or five leagues is considered quite small.
It is not so large, in the conception of this people, as was the one-acre farm
of Horace in the estimation of the Romans. Captain Sutter's farm in the valley
of the Sacramento is sixty miles long. The Californians speak in the same way of
the stock on their farms;" a thrifty ranchero having 2,000 horses, or 15,000
cattle, etc. Some families had from fourteen to twenty odd children.

  Colton's journal, August 12, 1846, records the arrival at Monterey, thirty
days from Mazatlan, of the United States ship Warren, bringing the exciting news
that war had been declared between the United States and Mexico, which he says
"produced a profound sensation." "It was an extinguisher on the hopes of those
who had looked to Mexico for aid, or who had clung to the expectation that the
American Government would repudiate our possession of California and order the
squadron withdrawn."

  October 1, the French man-of-war Brillante arrived, bringing J. A. Morenhout
as French Consul to Monterey. Afterward M. Morehout became vice-consul at Los
Angeles, where he resided many years and where he died in July, 1879.

  As war between the United States and Mexico was now being waged vigorously,
Commodore Stockton determined to raise as large a force as possible, and go
south and take a hand in the fight, on the west coast of Mexico. But the
unsettled state of affairs in California prevented him from carrying out his
intentions. Although the better class of Californians as a rule did not
countenance these uprisings, and took no part in them, the disturbances caused
considerable trouble to the new officials. They were mostly fomented by
restless, dissatisfied and irresponsible persons, to whom the new rule was
distasteful.

  Fremont, with his headquarters at Monterey, was very active in raising
recruits, and in securing horses for his battalion, which afterward became
somewhat famous. There are still many old-timers, both in central and southern
California, who remember well the exploits and marches of Fremont's battalion:
and quite a number of its members are still living in 1892.

  The battalion numbered over 400 men, mostly frontiersmen and expert marksmen,
and was really a formidable military force.

  September 4, 1846, the first jury trial under the new regime took place, at
Monterey. The plaintiff, Isaac Graham, an Englishman, charged Carlos Roussillon,
a Frenchman, with stealng [sic] lumber. One-third each of the jury were
respectively, Americans, Mexicans and Californians, and the witnesses
represented about all the languages known in California. Hartnell, the linguist,
acted as an interpreter; there were no lawyers. The trial lasted all day, the
jury deliberated an hour, acquitted the defendant of intentional theft, but
ordered him to pay for the lumber, and decreed that the plaintiff should pay the
costs of court.

  On the night of November 15, Consul Larkin, while on his way from Monterey to
San Francisco, was captured at Gomez' ranche, by a squad of Castro's men, the
object being, apparently, to hold him as a hostage to be exchanged for certain
Californians who had broken their parole, Larkin was well treated, however.
Later, he was sent south and turned over to Flores, at Los Angeles, where he was
finally released, January 9, '47, just before Stockton's occupation of Los
Angeles; and he arrived back in Monterey early in the next month. Larkin
witnessed, as a prisoner, the desperate fight between the Californians and
Americans, at Natividad, where the former were dispersed. On the 17th of
November, Fremont with his force set out from Monterey in search of Castro's
men, but did not find them. At San Juan he completed the organization of his
battalion for service in the south.

  January 22, 1847, Commodore Shubrick, on the Independence, arrived at
Monterey, to take command of the United States Naval forces on the Pacific
coast; and a few days later came Captain Tompkins, with a company of artillery,
on the Lexington; and February 8, General Kearny, came up from San Diego, on the
Cyane.

  Commodore Stockton, January 16, had appointed Fremont as Governor, Russell as
Secretary of State, and a number of citizens as a Legislative Council; but this
latter body never met, as some of its members declined to serve.

  Referring to the conflict of authority which had arisen, between Stockton and
Fremont on the one hand, and Shubrick and Kearny on the other, and to the
difficulty of obtaining funds in the department for current expenses, Lieutenant
Colonel Cook, under date of March. 12, at San Luis Rey, wittily wrote: "General
Kearny is supreme, somewhere up the coast; Colonel Fremont is supreme at Pueblo
de los Angeles; Commodore Stockton is commander-in-chief at San Diego; Commodore
Shubrick the same at Monterey; and I at San Luis Hey; and we are all supremely
poor, the Government having no money, and no credit; and we hold the territory
because Mexico is poorest of all." On February 23, 1847, Colonel R. B. Mason, of
the dragoons, and Lieutenant Watson, of the navy, arrived at Monterey, bringing
later orders from Washington, directing that Kearny, and, in his absence, Mason,
should 'be recognized as civil and military governor; and that to the commander
of the naval forces should be committed the regulation of the import trade, and
of the conditions on which vessels should be allowed to enter the ports of the
Territory, etc.; and a joint notice or circular was published fixing Monterey as
the capital on the first of March, 1847. A separate proclamation by General
Kearny, as governor, in English and Spanish, at the same date, addressed to the
people of California, was published.

   On the 31st of May, General Kearny and escort, and Fremont, with nineteen
members of his original exploring party, and others, left Montery for the East,
overland, arriving at Fort Leavenworth on the 22d day of August. A month or two
later, Commodore Stockton and party also left for the East, arriving at St.
Joseph in November, and at Washington about December 1st.

   Colonel R. B. Mason, on the departure of Kearny, became his successor as
military governor. January 28, 1847, the United States vessel Lexington brought
to Monterey Company F of the Third Artillery, and also guns and military
supplies. Among its officers were names which have since become famous. Its
lieutenants were E. O. C. Ord and William T. Sherman, and H. W. Hal-leek, the
latter of the engineer corps. Its captain, H. S. Burton, was temporarily
attached to General Stevenson's regiment, but on the mustering out of the latter
in California, at the close of the war in 1848, he returned to his own command.
This company did garrison duty at Monterey for some time. Lieutenant (afterward
General) Sherman acted as assistant adjutant-general under Governor Mason.

  There may be yet living citizens who remember pleasantly the presence,
forty-five years ago, in Monterey, of this artillery company, with its genial
officers. While they were stationed here, gold was discovered, turning things
upside down in California, and electrifying the world.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Memorial and Biographical History of the Coast Counties of Central California.

Illustrated.

Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast from the
Earliest Period of its Discovery to the Present Time, together with Glimpses of
its Auspicious Future; Illustrations and Full-Page Portraits of some of its
Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers, and Prominent
Citizens of To-day.



HENRY D. BARROWS,
Editor of the Historical Department.

LUTHER A. INGERSOLL,
Editor of the Biographical Department.

"A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendants."—Macaulay.


CHICAGO: THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY.
1893.


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