chased the state of California from Governor Bigler as a warehouse in which to store consigned goods, and he wanted to know why he was kept out of his bargain.' Though the insane asylum thus appeared to have been well managed, with two hundred and seventy-two patients, at an expense of only forty thousand dollars and with no indebtedness, a far different account came from the state prison. From a report of a committee on that institution to the senate of 1854, it appeared that the management of James M. Estell, the lessee, had been and was seriously objectionable. It was even difficult to obtain from him any satisfactory evidence of the number of convicts. There seemed to be about three hundred, nearly onehalf of whom were worked at Marin Island in San Pablo bay, others at the prison and in running vessels transporting stone and brick to San Francisco, and still others in getting wood from the hills to burn brick-kilns. They were all required to labor from sunrise to sunset, except at meal times. There were forty-eight cells in the second story of the prison, in each of which four convicts were confined at night. At Marin Island the prisoners were confined at night in an old brig, secured to the shore. There were about thirty men acting as officers and guards—not enough to suppress a revolt or intimidate a combination. It was the lessee's custom to send from six to ten convicts to the hills to procure wood with but a single guard; and escapes were frequent in these parties. A number of prisoners had been sent out to work on ranchos, some with guards and some without. The plan adopted was what was known as the "trusty system"-the trusty being one whose term was about to expire or who was supposed to have behaved well. He was allowed to go on errands for miles about the country, to visit San Francisco on the state prison boats, to sleep without a guard off the grounds, and many other liberties. Estell had admitted making forty-five thousand dollars within the previous six months; but he claimed that he had lost one hundred and twenty-seven thousand dollars before. His contract gave him sole charge of the convicts for ten years; but he was to properly feed and clothe them, pay all necessary expenses 1 Senate Journal, 1854; Appendix, 23-26. for guards and tools to work with, and prepare suitable buildings upon the grounds or prison ships in the bay to keep them secure. Unfortunately there was no provision confining the labor of the prisoners within the prison walls, or to any particular place or class of work; nor was there any requiring the convicts to dress in uniform, or have their heads shaved, or clothes changed, or otherwise to be kept clean. In various instances liquor had been used to excess by officers and guards, and sometimes even by prisoners. There was in fact nothing like a systematic or adequate management, and none could be compelled. As matters stood, on account of the defects in the contract and the danger not only of escapes but of a combined revolt, of which the neighborhood of the prison was in constant fear, the committee recommended that the state should buy the lease back from Estell, who offered to sell out for one hundred thousand dollars and as much more as his brick yards, engines, machinery and stock on hand might be appraised at by commissioners to be appointed one by himself and the other two by the legislature. As affairs turned out, however, nothing of importance was done; and state prison management continued to be a subject of public trouble and annoyance for a numbers of years longer.1 Another subject, in reference to which something was accomplished under Bigler, was the disposal of what was known as "custom-house block" in San Francisco. This property was a portion of the land below high-water mark, which belonged to the state. The United States required it for custom-house purposes and applied for it. In 1854, Bigler by special message advised against relinquishing the state's title but intimated that it might be done if the United States would assume the Indian war debt of 1850 and 1851 and restore the civil fund. Without entering into a huckstering bargain, however, the legislature consented to an appraisement of the property and to accept. one-half its appraised value. This was fixed in the summer of 1854 at three hundred thousand dollars, one-half of which was paid down; the title passed, and immediately afterwards the construction of the United States custom-house began. Sub Senate Journal, 1855, 512-520; Senate Journal, 1858, 28. sequently in 1855 an investigation was set on foot in the assembly as to what became of the one hundred and fifty thousand dollars; and, though it appeared that the money was applied to the payment of interest on state bonds, it turned out that it had passed through the objectionable hands of the bond-speculating banking firm of Palmer, Cook & Co.' The anti-Chinese cry, which Bigler was the first to invoke as a political shibboleth, did not prove of much advantage to him. Though the Chinese were frequently abused, as was to have been expected under the repeated assaults made by him as governor of the state, there were a number of citizens and some legislators who thought Chinamen not an undesirable portion of the community and that, in certain occupations at least, they might become exceedingly valuable. Among the latter was Wilson Flint, senator from San Francisco and one of the most prominent and reputable men in the state. In a report, made to the senate in 1855, upon a memorial from Shasta county asking for the removal of the Chinese, Flint, though opposed to their working in the mines, expressed himself as decidedly opposed to the object sought and the recommendations to the same effect by the governor. "I appeal," said he, "to the reflecting men of California not to drive out of our borders this mighty labor power. Is it not better, with modern skill in engineering, to put tools into these fifty thousand pairs of willing hands and, in place of 'trickling ditches,' have torrents rushing along to make the miners glad and the people rich?" He also suggested their employment in reclaiming tule land and raising sugar, rice and cotton. And in conclusion he referred to treaty stipulations, which he claimed entitled them to protection. In the assembly several members entertained similar views. Very few in either house favored removal; not many exclusion; and the result was that, though several attempts were made in both directions, nothing was accomplished except to increase the foreign miners' license tax in a manner that could not be sustained, and to impose upon the masters, owners or consignees of vessels a tax of fifty dollars for the importation of every person ineligible to 1 Assembly Journal, 1854, 119, 120; Stats., 1854, 41; Assembly Journal, 1855, 26, 369, 609. citizenship, which was soon afterwards decided to be unconstitutional and void.1 Another matter, brought to the attention of the legislature by Bigler and in which every Californian agreed with him, was the importance of securing for the state the wintering of the whaling fleet. On March 16, 1855, he presented to the legislature a special message on the subject, in which he said that there were at that time engaged in the Pacific whale fisheries six hundred and fifty ships and barks, manned by fifteen thousand seamen. The American capital invested in them was not less than twenty millions of dollars. In 1853 two hundred and seventy-five of these vessels, manned by eight thousand seamen, visited the Sandwich Islands for repairs and supplies. It was desirable, he said, to divert this vast fleet from the islands to our own commodious ports as more convenient and safer places of rendezvous in the spring and fall seasons. Most of the vessels found their fishing grounds in the extreme northern part of the Pacific and, in going to and returning from the Sandwich Islands, passed by California and sailed several thousand miles further than was necessary. The real and important wants of whalers in the Pacific, he continued, were: first, a good market for oil and bone or adequate means for shipping the same home; secondly, early advices from owners and friends on the Atlantic seaboard; thirdly, money for disbursing ship, paying off crew and recruiting for another season; fourthly, suitable accommodations for repairing ships, and, fifthly, fresh provisions, vegetables and other sea stores and supplies. In all these respects San Francisco stood preeminent over any and all other ports on the coast and was far superior to the Sandwich Islands. The chief reason advanced by whalers against wintering at San Francisco was that under the laws of the state they were subjected to exorbitant charges for pilotage. The rate exacted was eight dollars per foot; and, as the average draught of whalers was about fourteen feet, the average charge for pilotage in and out of the harbor was two hundred and twenty-four dollars, while at the Sandwich Islands it was only a dollar a foot or twenty-eight dollars. This illiberal difference 1 Senate Journal, 1855, 496-500; Assembly Journal, 1855, 383-385, 402, 403; Stats. 1855, 194, 216; People vs. Downer, 7 Cal., 169. amounted virtually to an exclusion of the business and its advantages from California; and, such being the case, the governor recommended a change by reducing the charges of pilotage for whalers to the same figures as those demanded at the islands. He also in the same connection suggested improvements in the laws relating to sailor-contracts and to that disreputable class of persons who make a business of enticing seamen to desert and enter frivolous and vexatious lawsuits against their employers. In answer to the recommendations thus made, a bill was passed amending the pilot regulations for the port of San Francisco so as to allow whalers to enter or depart without paying pilotage, except when a pilot was employed; and in such cases the charge was to be only at the rate of one dollar for each foot of draught. It took some time for notice of this change in the pilot laws to spread abroad; but in the course of a few years its good effects became apparent in the attraction of whalers to San Francisco, which eventually became the main station for repairs and supplies of the whaling business in the Pacific.1 Still another subject, of even greater importance to California than the whaling business, was suggested by the governor and brought up and acted on by the same legislature of 1855. This was the establishment of military and post roads across the plains, connecting California with the Atlantic states. The matter was introduced into the senate by a joint resolution offered by Wilson Flint for the establishment of an overland mail-service from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It was referred to a committee, which brought in a substitute recommending to the United States government the construction and establishment of three military and post roads across the continent-the northern one through Noble's pass, the middle through Johnson's cut-off and Carson valley, and the southern through the Tejon or Walker's pass; and a fourth road from the junction of the Colorado and Gila rivers to San Diego. While the subject was under consideration, Caius T. Ryland of Santa Clara presented to the assembly a very full and complete report on the different passes over the Sierra Nevada, known as Noble's, Beckwith's and Cajon, together with the Gibsonville route, Diamond Springs route and Johnson's cut-off, the last 1 Senate Journal, 1855, 436-440; Stats. 1855, 119. |