Monterey County CA Archives History - Books .....Chapter XIII The State Organized 1893
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Book Title: Memorial And Biographical History Of The Coast Counties Of Central California.

CHAPTER XIII.
THE STATE ORGANIZED.

ON December 20, 1849, the governor elect Burnett was duly installed; Governor
Riley and his secretary of State, Halleck, at the same time resigning their
respective offices. Governor Riley remained at Monterey until July of the next
year. Before his return to the Atlantic States, the city of Monterey voted him a
medal of gold, weighing one pound, as a token of respect, the same being
presented to him in behalf of the city, at a large banquet given in his honor,
by P. A. Roach. One side of the medal bore the arms of the city; the other the
legend, "The man who came to do his duty and who accomplished his purpose."

  The first legislature (which consisted of sixteen senators and thirty-six
assemblymen) met at San Jose, December 15, 1849, though a quorum failed to
appear on the first and second days of the session. As there were yet no county
organizations, the members of the legislature had been elected, as were the
delegates to the constitutional convention, by districts. The senator from the
Monterey district was Selim E. Woodworth, son of the author of "The Old Oaken
Bucket;" and the assemblymen were T. R. Per Lee and J. S. Gray.

  E. K. Chamberlain of the San Diego district, was elected president of the
Senate pro tem, and Dr. Thomas J. White of the Sacramento district was elected
speaker of the assembly.

  John C. Fremont and William M. Gwin were elected United States Senators;
Richard Roman, state treasurer; J. S. Houston, comptroller; E. J. C. Kewen,
attorney-general; C. A. Whitney, surveyor-general; S. C. Hastings, chief justice
and H. A. Lyons and Nathaniel Bennett, associate justices of the Supreme Court,
and thus a constitutional State government was set in motion. The legislature
established nine judicial districts Monterey being included in the third
district; the territory of the newly organized State was divided into
twenty-seven counties. Monterey county including the present county of San
Benito, was one of the original number.

  The act of Congress admitting California as a State into the Union was signed
on September 9, 1850, after a prolonged and bitter contest in each House on the
question of the perpetual prohibition of slavery in the new Territory, in which
contest the cause of freedom triumphed. The news of the admission caused great
joy to Californians, when received by them, on October 18. The 9th of September
has become a State legal holiday.

SUPPRESSION OF DISORDER.

  The tremendous influx of adventurers into California after the discovery of
gold, from all parts of the world, of course, resulted in much disturbance to
public order. Many vicious, lawless characters roamed about the State, singly
and in bands, committing robberies and murders, till citizens were compelled to
defend their lives and property by summary, and sometimes irregular, methods,
inasmuch as the legal machinery of the State often proved altogether inadequate
to meet the extraordinary emergencies as they arose.

  Governor McDougal authorized Selim E. Woodworth to raise a military company in
1851, to pursue marauders, who were stealing stock in Monterey county. But
neither ordinary nor extraordinary legal methods, nor even vigilance committees,
could entirely exterminate the evil. A conglomerate population, suddenly
gathered together from the four quarters of the world, could hardly be expected
to assume, all at once, the customs and the decorous appearance of
old-established communities; and a long time elapsed before these disturbing
causes disappeared in California. "Healthy hangings" of murderers, outlaws, and
highway robbers, etc., by vigilance committees, when legal remedies failed,
tended powerfully to clarify the moral and social atmosphere. The alternative
was forced on people in many localities in California in early times, whether
cut-throats and murderers should be hung by the people or not at all; all other
remedies failing, the simple issue was: Shall a murderer be hang by the people,
or shall he go unhung?

  When corrupt political gamblers and ballot-box stuffers, through chicanery and
violence get control of the government, and paralyze the normal workings of its
machinery; when the dominance of gamblers and blacklegs, and the presence of the
vicious in overwhelming numbers, aided by shyster lawyers, make the
administration of justice by regular, or by legal methods, impossible, the
question may be fairly asked by philosophical students of history,-as it has
often been asked by Californians themselves, when actually confronted by
exigencies which required an immediate answer. Is it not in fact an evidence of
the highest moral virtue in a community that it summarily puts a stop to a state
of affairs which have become intolerable, rather than let it continue
indefinitely, with all the ruinous, demoralizing influences which inevitably
attend such indefinite continuance of crime unchecked?

  Did not the great vigilance movement of San Francisco in 1856 rise to the
dignity of a revolution? Was the "sacred right of revolution" ever more justly
invoked than on that occasion? Of course vigilance committees, great or small,
can only be vindicated by their results and by the justness of their cause on
precisely the same principles as are revolutions; for they are in fact
quasi-revolutions. When people, whether in large or small bodies, with good and
high motives and for justifiable ends, to save the life of the State, or their
own liberties, go back to first principles, and take political power into their
own hands, they thereby become responsible for the proper use of that power. If
they use it wisely, for the best good of all, then they justfy [sic] their acts;
if not, not.

  Better, sometimes, is aggressive revolution, if wisely directed, than is
imbecile submission to the murder of liberty; better vigilance committees than
stark anarchy! At least so think many old-time Californians, who have so often
seen both the necessity and the practical wisdom of these much-disputed maxims
exemplified.

  Many, many times, when the law failed, have the people themselves suppressed
criminals who, but for the uprising of the people, would not have been suppressed.

  The first Mayor of Monterey, under the State organization, was Philip A.
Roach, who had been judge of the first instance, under the military rule of
Governor Riley. In 1851, Roach was elected to the State Senate from Monterey.
The assemblyman this year was A. Randall, and for 1852 Isaac B. Wall. In the
legislatures of 1854-'55, Monterey's senator was B. C. Whiting, afterward United
States district attorney for the southern district of California, D. R. Ashley
being the assemblyman. In 1856, Ashley was senator (holding for two years); and
R. L. Matthews was assemblyman for this year, and E. Castro for the succeeding
year; and Jose Abrego was elected to the assembly in 1858; and Mariano Malarin
in 1859-'60; A. W. Blair in 1861; Juan W. Cot, in 1862; J. H. Watson was senator
in 1860-'61, and G. K. Porter for Monterey and Santa Cruz, in 1862-'63; Estevan
Castro was assemblyman in 1863.


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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