of which he recommended as the best. The result was the adoption of the substitute resolution for three overland roads; and a start was thus given to what in a few years afterwards became the overland mail routes. In connection with the same general subject, Flint presented a memorial from W. N. Walton for the establishment of an overland express by means of camels and dromedaries; but, though camels were afterwards tried, they did not prove a success. The routes were soon made practicable for fast horses and stage-coaches, against which camels and dromedaries could not compete, and eventually for transcontinental railways.'

Two other subjects, which might have been of great importance to the state if they had proved practicable, engaged Bigler's attention and were deemed worthy of special paragraphs in his messages. One was the fact that wild hemp of excellent quality abounded at and about Tulare Lake and that it might be so utilized as to become a source of much needed supply and great economic wealth. But unfortunately the Tulare hemp never proved of any practical value and nothing ever came of it. The other subject referred to was that tule, the peculiar growth of the swamp and overflowed lands of California, was calculated to make printing paper of superior quality. He said that almost all the land acquired by the state under the act of September, 1850, was covered with a luxurious growth of tule, indigenous to the soil and averaging at least two tons to the acre annually. The stalk, when ripe and before discolored by rain, was nearly white; and, having a heavy and strong fiber, it was believed to possess all the qualities required. Indulging in fancy, he said that the material from which printing paper was at that time manufactured was worth in the Atlantic states about six cents per pound. But at only two cents per pound or one-third the then market price of rags, each acre of the almost unlimited tule lands of California would annually yield at least eighty dollars or about twelve thousand eight hundred dollars for each one hundred and sixty acres; and this without expense except for collecting it when fully ripe. But unfortunately the tule, like the hemp, did not

1Senate Journal, 1855, 139, 211, 213, 678; Assembly Journal, 1855, 426-430; Stats., 1855, 308.

turn out well and no one ever reveled in the uncounted streams of wealth which were expected to pour into the country from these indigenous and uncultivated sources.'

In 1854 Bigler called attention to the exorbitant rates of passage and freight allowed under the corporation laws to steam navigation companies and railroads, amounting to twenty cents per mile for passage and sixty cents per ton for freight. Under such a law five hundred dollars could be charged for fare to the Missouri river and fifteen hundred dollars per ton for freight; and the question of reduction was left entirely to the companies. He recommended an amendment; and one was made by the legislature of that year reducing fare to ten cents per mile and freight to fifteen cents per ton. At the same session he called attention to the fact of the absence of Judge Delos Lake from the bench of the fourth district court and took occasion to state that the resolution of the legislature had granted him leave of absence for four months. He proceeded to state that the number of cases on the calendar of the fourth district court for the April and May term, 1854, was four hundred and seventy at issue and about three hundred not at issue. In one instance of similar absence, he had directed another judge to officiate; but he was now, upon further consideration, of opinion that such action was outside the scope of executive duty and improper. The limit of his power, he thought, was only to appoint in case of a vacancy; and under all circumstances the practice of allowing leave of absence was bad. He therefore recommended a consideration of the circumstances by the legislature; and, to illustrate his own opinion on the subject, he vetoed a resolution allowing leave of absence for four months to Edward P. Fletcher, county judge of Klamath county. About the same time the judiciary committee of the senate expressed its opinion that the governor had full power to appoint a judge to fill a temporary vacancy caused by absence of a district judge, and that the governor's doubt on the subject had been resolved by the supreme court in favor of the power.

1 Senate Journal, 1856, 34; Senate Journal, 1855, 33.

2 Senate Journal, 1854, 396-398; Stats. 1854, 176, 269; Assembly Journal, 1854, 361-363, 391, 392.

In person Bigler was comparatively short and inclined to corpulency. He was regarded as easy and good-natured in disposition, but could get angry, was occasionally obstinate and sometimes coarse. No other governor bickered so much with the legislature. His disagreements with and pedagogic lecture to the legislature of 1854 were only paralleled by his experiences with and treatment of the legislature of 1855. One of his main quarrels with the latter was on account of their passage of several bills for toll-road and bridge franchises. Bigler vetoed several of them and used expressions in his veto messages, which did not comport with the dignity to which a co-ordinate branch of the government was entitled. In reply the judiciary committee of the assembly took occasion to make a lengthy report, defining and insisting upon the rights of the legislature as opposed to those of the governor. It, however, had little effect; and the bickering went on. In one case he sent word that he had approved an unconstitutional bill for the appointment of judges in certain cases, in the hope that a supplemental act would be passed providing otherwise. On a subsequent occasion he approved an act for a wagon road over the Sierra Nevada in the faith that a supplemental act would be passed to provide for interest on and redemption of bonds to be issued. Still later he vetoed a bill, designed to supersede the old board of land commissioners for the sale of water-lot property in San Francisco, and in doing so took occasion to say in substance that the superseding act was useless; but the legislature thought differently and almost unanimously passed it over the veto. He approved a bill to pay William S. Jewett twenty-five hundred dollars for a portrait of Major John A. Sutter; but said in substance that he ought not to do so and had not done so, except upon a written. promise, made to him by Jewett, to furnish a portrait of General John E. Wool without further compensation; and, in approving a bill for the government of the state prison, he took occasion to say that, though it might be inoperative, he thought proper to give it a place on the statute-book.'

While Bigler and the legisiature were thus engaged in carrying on the business of the commonwealth, great changes were going

1

1 Assembly Journal, 1855, 517–521, 590-595, 694, 799, 823-829, 853, 863.

on in their constituency. There was a political revolution. With the defeat of General Winfield Scott for the presidency of the United States in 1852, the great Whig party virtually went to pieces; and not long afterwards a mysterious political organization, known as the "Know Nothing" party, began to be heard of and to spread with great rapidity all over the country. It was a secret organization, based upon opposition to foreigners and foreign immigration, and got its name from the fact that its members, being sworn to secrecy, when asked about their order, invariably answered that they knew nothing about it. The first branches of the organization in California were formed in the early part of 1854; and soon afterwards a branch existed in every town and mining camp in the state. They absorbed not only most of the old Whigs but also many of the Democrats and particularly those who were dissatisfied with the faction in power. They were a power even in the early part of 1854; and in the autumn of that year they won a contest in San Francisco. In the early part of 1855 they were a great party. In many places they carried the spring municipal elections. In March at Marysville they carried everything, although their nominations were not made public until the morning of the election. At Sacramento in April the entire Know Nothing ticket was elected; and in many other places their success was so great that the Democratic journals called upon the divided wings of their party, the chivalry and tammany or the Gwin and Broderick factions, to unite and make a united assault upon a common enemy.1

The efforts to harmonize the Democratic factions, or what was left of them, were measurably successful. But they could not withstand the enthusiasm of the Know Nothings. In May the Democratic state committees united in a call for a Democratic state convention, which met at Sacramento on June 27, 1855. It adopted the usual resolutions, promising everything and especially to squatters and miners. In addition it reprobated, as unAmerican and anti-republican, the principles of the Know Nothing party and, in view of a recent very general agitation of the temperance question, it expressed an opinion that the time had come when "sober men, and sober men only, should be presented 'Davis' Political Conventions, 38, 39.

The

for the suffrages of moral and intelligent freemen." As soon as the matter of resolutions had been fixed, the convention proceeded to ballot for candidates; and it was almost immediately apparent that Broderick was again in the ascendant. His fight for the United States senatorship was still the engrossing object of his life. He still appears to have deemed it necessary to keep Bigler and Purdy in their positions of governor and lieutenantgovernor; and at his direction they were renominated-the former on the second ballot over Milton S. Latham, and the latter on the first ballot. Myron Norton and Charles H. Bryan were nominated for justices of the supreme court. On August 7, 1855, the Know Nothing or American party met in state convention for the first time in California, at Sacramento. Its first business, after organization, was a platform of principles. resolutions adopted had the merit of being very short, though they promised quite as much as the Democratic utterances. The main features in which they differed from them were in demanding a judicious revision of the naturalization laws, favoring only native born citizens for official position, and inflexible opposition to the appointment or election of any person who acknowledged allegiance to any foreign government-specially meaning the Roman Catholic hierarchy. The candidates for the principal nominations were very numerous; but the successful ones were John Neely Johnson for governor on the fourth ballot and Robert M. Anderson for lieutenant-governor on the first ballot. Hugh C. Murray and David S. Terry were nominated for justices of the supreme court. There was no Whig convention; but there were several conventions of other so-called parties-one of the Settlers and Miners, which however did not make nominations, and two of temperance organizations, whose main achievement was the nomination of Charles H. S. Williams as temperance candidate for justice of the supreme court against Hugh C. Murray.'

The election took place on September 5 and resulted in a triumph for the Know Nothings, all of whose ticket was elected. Johnson had received a little over forty-nine thousand votes to a little over forty-four thousand for Bigler and was thus elected by 1 1 Davis' Political Conventions, 39-49.