He

Meloney supposed it had mortally wounded himself. described where it struck and declared that he could feel the warm blood running from the wound on the inside of his pantaloons into his boots. But when he was removed in a fainting condition and examined, it was found that his skin had not been abraded and that the supposed hurt was altogether the result of scare and overheated imagination. The incident and its outcome were indicative of and very well represented the whole business. They were simply an interlude in what proved a huge farce. Neither side accomplished anything. The two factions kept sitting and snarling at each other until dusk, when a couple of candles were lighted, one in front of each president; and the abuse and vituperation continued. Early in the evening the trustees of the church made their appearance and complained of the riotous proceedings and the damage that had been done to the building; but little or no attention was paid to them. About nine o'clock, however, a sort of compromise or armistice was agreed to, by the terms of which the two presidents were to lock arms and march together out of the building, followed by pairs of opposing vice-presidents and these by pairs of opposing delegates the idea being that neither should have the advantage of the other. And thus they marched out and adjourned; and the church was then locked up and bolted against their return.'

The next day the McDougal or chivalry faction met at Musical Hall and the McGowan or Broderick faction at Carpenter's Hall. The Broderick faction, for the purpose of winning a point, sent a communication to the other faction, asking for the appointment of a joint committee of conference with a view of composing and settling their differences; but the chivalry rejected the proposition and proceeded to nominate James W. Denver as the Democratic candidate for congress in the first district and Philip T. Herbert in the second district. On the other hand the Broderick convention renominated Milton S. Latham and James A. McDougall for congress and issued an address, in which they substantially charged the opposite faction with raising sectional issues and being schismatics and bolters. Each side contributed several hundred dollars to repair damages claimed to have been 1 Davis' Political Conventions, 29, 30; O'Meara, 93-96.

done to the Baptist church the day before. But however much the Broderick faction claimed to represent the Democratic party pure and undefiled, it was very well understood that it was at bottom opposed to slavery or at least to southern domination, upon which the Democracy of that day was founded; and neither Latham nor McDougall, though both northern men, was willing to be understood as occupying any such position. When Latham returned a few weeks afterwards from Washington, he withdrew from the ticket and James Churchman of Nevada was nominated in his place. McDougall, though he did not formally withdraw, made no effort for election and was understood to be antiBroderick. Meanwhile the Whig party met and nominated George W. Bowie and Calhoun Benham for congress. The election took place on September 6, 1854, and resulted in the choice of Denver and Herbert by nearly thirty-seven thousand votes over nearly thirty-five thousand for Bowie and Benham and ten thousand for Churchman and McDougall.'

Broderick thus appeared to be completely beaten; and it was imagined by some, and particularly by the chivalry faction of the Democratic party, that he was politically ruined. But it was not so. It was far from being so. Though he had failed to gain the prestige of winning the congressional fight and at the same time of removing two rival candidates for the United States senatorship out of his way, he had succeeded in securing a sufficiently large number of members of the next legislature to prevent his enemies from gaining any points against him. And, as will be seen in the sequel, neither at that nor at the next subsequent legislature were his enemies able to overcome his opposition or elect any one of themselves to the coveted position, upon which he had set his heart and which he was still determined to win.

The legislature of 1855-and the one to which the election of a successor to United States Senator Gwin properly belonged— convened at Sacramento on January 1. Bigler on January 4, as soon as the houses were organized, presented his third annual message in which, as usual, he preached economy and the reduction of expenditures; and he again urged the extension of the San Francisco water front, though he now recommended 'Davis' Political Conventions, 30-38; O'Meara, 97–101.

that it should only be extended at special points, and only enough to pay off the state debt. He also took occasion to remark, in reference to the "civil fund," which he had hoped to get for California and about which he had expressed very positive views, that the supreme court of the United States had decided to the contrary or, in other words, to the effect that the state had no right to that fund; but, as if to get even with the federal government, he now advanced the doctrine that the state was, by virtue of its sovereignty, entitled to all the public land within its borders and that it had not by any means, by accepting the act of admission, agreed to the clause therein. contained not to interfere with the primary disposition of the public lands. Not only thus but likewise by direct recommendation of more complete protection to actual settlers, he appealed, even more powerfully than before, to the squatter interest; and he again insisted on the importance of securing the two and a half millions of the Leidesdorff, Auguste Deck and other escheated estates. On the school question he was as usual diffuse; and, though the country was in reality on the eve of the great financial storm of 1855, the breaking of the banks, almost universal insolvency and general stagnation of business, he drew a flattering picture of the extraordinary prosperity not only of the mines but of agriculture and great advances in commerce and manufactures. On the other hand, though he had much to say on the importance of the Pacific railroad and advised that congress should be again and again memorialized in its favor, he had not enough words of reprobation for the fearful monopolies which might have the power to blight the prospects of advancing prosperity and paralyze the energies of industrious and enterprising men. And with the apparent desire of furnishing a first-class campaign document, full to the brim of the then dominant Democratic doctrine of states rights, he not only repeated his previous fulminations against Asiatic immigration, but he went much further and at considerable length argued the exclusive right of the state to exclude it, free from the control of the general government.'

Very little attention, however, was paid to Bigler or his 1 Senate Journal, 1855, 24-54.

message. The absorbing subject of interest was the choice of Gwin's successor. Both houses of the legislature were largely Democratic; and, though a number of the members were Broderick men, it was perfectly well known before the session commenced that Gwin, as a candidate to succeed himself, had more than a majority of all the Democratic members, though not by considerable a majority of all the legislators taken together. The only possibility he had of winning was to induce the Democrats to go into caucus, because he was sure to become the caucus nominee; and, if he should become the caucus nominee, he was sure of re-election as his own successor. Broderick of course understood this perfectly well. He knew, as the result of what had taken place, that he himself could not be elected at this session and that his only chance to succeed Gwin was to stave off the election to some subsequent session at which he might be stronger. He therefore bent all his energies to this purpose and with this object in view determined to prevent a Democratic caucus. At the previous session it had been his interest to have a caucus and he and his friends had then insisted that a caucus was an eminently Democratic institution and could not be resisted by any one who desired to preserve his standing in the party. At that time his opponents took the contrary ground. But now the position of the two factions was reversed; the Gwin side insisting on a caucus and the Broderick side resisting and refusing. And in this fight, as might have been expected, Broderick won. He still declared that he and his friends represented the genuine Democracy and that the others were in reality bolters. He claimed that he had kept up the organization of the party and deserved well at its hands. He had been defeated; but he had accepted defeat and renewed the battle for the party with even greater energy and larger sacrifices than before.

It was with the most consummate skill that he took advantage of his opportunity. He not only played his own strength with commanding ability, but he made combinations with the other forces opposed to Gwin and with extraordinary adroitness kept them all out of caucus. He turned on Gwin with redoubled effectiveness the tactics by which he had himself been defeated the year before; and he in substance crushed him. The session

of the legislature was frittered away without any progress being made, and Gwin was weaker at the end than at the beginning. A whole month, commencing on January 17, was spent in vain efforts to elect. Fifty ballots were taken. It required fifty-six votes to elect. Gwin commenced with forty-two and ended with forty-one, never receiving over forty-three; Broderick had twelve; the other anti-Gwin Democratic vote amounted to an average of seventeen; and the Whig vote was thirty-six. On February 16, it being apparent that the time of the legislature was being wasted to no purpose, the joint convention adjourned sine die. On March 3 Gwin's term expired; and, as there had been no election, there was a vacancy, not in his term but in the office itself, which could not be filled by appointment; and, as it proved, the vacancy lasted for two years longer. Broderick had accomplished his purpose. He had not become senator but he had prevented Gwin from carrying off the prize. He had triumphed as far as it was possible under the circumstances to triumph. And he was still-and with much more chance than Gwin himself-a candidate for Gwin's place.'

'Senate Journal, 1855, 75-101, 125–313.