Indian hostilities or, more properly speaking, for exterminating those of the Indians who still remained unslaughtered. 1861 Downey stated that he had loaned arms to some of the citizens of Nevada, who had become involved in an Indian war, but that, so far as California was concerned, no troops had been called out by him for Indian war purposes. It was true that requisitions had been made upon him; but he had found upon investigation that the reports of depredations were exaggerated or untrue; and he knew that most of the expeditions, which had been gotten up for the suppression of alleged Indian aggressions, were mere forays for the indiscriminate slaughter of defenseless women and children.'

Next in order was a revival of the proposition to dismember the state. It took the shape of a resolution, introduced by Daniel Rogers into the assembly in January, 1860, to lop off the six southern counties and form a separate territorial government for them. The resolution was adopted in the assembly by a vote of thirty-seven ayes to twenty-six noes. And action favorable to the same proposition was taken in the senate. But there the scheme stopped; for, before anything further could be done, the war of secession came on and any further talk of concession to the south would have been regarded as not only useless but treasonable. At the same time that talk of dividing the state was thus going on, the question of a state capitol came up and was in effect decided and determined. Though Sacramento had been fixed upon as the capital city, there was no suitable building there for the capitol. That city claimed that it had donated the necessary ground for the erection of such structures as might be needed and that it had offered the use of the building, then used as a capitol, free of expense, though the state saw fit to pay rent for its use. It also appeared that the state had already in 1856, as before shown, decided upon the erection of the capitol at Sacramento, and that, though the act passed for that purpose had been pronounced unconstitutional, its unconstitutionality for other reasons did not affect the deliberate expression of will on the part of the state to 1Assembly Journal, 1860, 318-325; Senate Journal, 1861, 38, 39.

* Assembly Journal, 1860, 155, 412, 413; Senate Journal, 1860, 415.

accomplish the object contemplated or the propriety of its accomplishment. On the other hand, Santa Clara county claimed that the original removal of the capital from San José was unconstitutional, and so with every subsequent removal. But as soon as the question was thus resuscitated, San Francisco renewed its offer of any public square in the city that might be selected, with the exception of the plaza; and it further offered to appropriate one hundred and fifty thousand dollars towards the construction of buildings. Jacob C. Beideman and Robert C. Page, on their own behalf, offered four blocks of land, bounded by Van Ness avenue, Eddy, Gough and O'Farrell streets, and to plank those streets and connect them by two planked streets with the other planked streets of the city. At the same time Oakland offered ten acres of ground in any part of that city that might be selected. These various offers, however, did not appear to have any effect; and the committee in whose hands the subject rested decided in favor of Sacramento. The final result was the passage on March 2, 1860, of a bill for the construction of the state capitol at Sacramento. Under that act, which expressly provided that the entire cost of the building should not exceed five hundred thousand dollars, a start was made in the erection of the granite structure in the capital city, which before completion cost several millions but is famed far and wide as one of the handsomest of state capitols.1

Contemporaneous with the start of the state capitol was another notable event, which attracted much attention and was of very great importance to the state. This was the establishment of the "pony express." An overland mail stage line, connecting San Francisco with St. Louis and running by the southern or so-called Butterfield route through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Arkansas, had been established in September, 1858, and mail stages left each end of the line regularly twice a week; but the time required to make the trip was about the same as that needed on the ocean trip by mail steamers; and nothing in the way of time was gained, except that an overland mail arrived eight times a month, while a steamer mail came

1 Senate Journal, 1860, 394-401; Assembly Journal, 1860, 311, 312, 459466; Stats. 1860, 128.

in only twice a month. The regularity and safety of the service by the southern route suggested that a mail could be carried on horseback from St. Joseph in Missouri, the most westerly point then reached by eastern railroads, and on an almost direct course to Sacramento on the Pacific side with equal safety and in much less time. The distance from one point to the other was about nineteen hundred miles, which at an average speed of eight miles an hour could be made in ten days. A company or rather partnership, known as Russell, Majors & Waddell, then engaged in running a daily stage between the Missouri river. and Salt Lake city, was induced, particularly by the representations of United States Senator Gwin, to undertake the enterprise. Stations already existed every ten miles as far west as Salt Lake; and proper arrangements were made for stations west of Salt Lake about every twenty-four miles, which was to be the limit of each horse's travel at a heat, and for relays. At each station, a fresh horse was to be ready to start on with the mail-pouch the moment it arrived and could be handed over either to the same rider or to a new one-one man sometimes riding a couple of hundred miles. There were to be two mails a week, each way; but not much more than two hundred letters could be carried at a time; and usually a much smaller number was taken. To save weight, tissue paper was ordinarily used; and, on account of the limited traffic and great expense, the postage was fixed at five dollars for each half ounce.1

Everything being arranged, the first horseback or pony mail left Sacramento on the Pacific side and St. Joseph in Missouri on the other side on April 3, 1860. The mail from St. Joseph coming west passed from rider to rider, by the way of South Pass, Salt Lake, Humboldt river and Carson valley, to Sacramento, which it reached on April 13. The news of its coming was hailed with great enthusiasm; and both houses adjourned in honor of and to welcome it. It came in time for the regular afternoon steamboat; and the horse and rider with the mail-bag, just as they had come into Sacramento, took passage on the boat 'Seventy Years on the Frontier (Alexander Majors' Memoirs), Chicago and New York, 1893, 173-185; Hittell's San Francisco, 269, 324. "Senate Journal, 1860, 649; Assembly Journal, 1860, 666, 667.

and arrived at the wharf in San Francisco at one o'clock on the morning of April 14. There they were met by an enthusiastic crowd with bands and torches; a procession was formed; and, with music and continuous cheers, they were escorted to the post-office. The quickest time ever made between San Francisco and New York by the overland mail over the Butterfield route was twenty-one days; the pony express shortened this time to ten days and kept up the service in schedule time till superseded by the progress of the transcontinental railroads and telegraph lines. It required, to do its work, nearly five hundred horses, about one hundred and ninety stations, two hundred station-keepers and eighty riders. Each rider usually rode three horses or about seventy-five miles, though sometimes much greater distances. One rider, named Robert H. Haslam, usually known as "Pony Bob," on one occasion made a continuous ride of three hundred and eighty miles within a few hours of schedule time; and another, William F. Cody, who afterwards became famous under the name of "Buffalo Bill," rode in one continuous trip three hundred and eighty-four miles, without stopping except for meals and to change horses. The pony express in December, 1860, carried President Buchanan's last annual message from the Missouri river to Sacramento in a little over eight days and in March, 1861, President Lincoln's message over the same route in seven days and about seventeen hours, which is supposed to have been the quickest time, considering distance, ever made on horseback. With such riding, the regular time for letters between San Francisco and New York was reduced to thirteen days; but for news it was brought down to nine days-that being the time between the telegraphic stations at St. Joseph in Missouri and Carson City in Utah, which was by that time in direct telegraphic communication with San Francisco. A short time before the establishment of the pony express, a telegraph wire had been run from San Francisco to Stockton and up through the San Joaquin valley and over the mountains and across the Mojave desert and on to Los Angeles, with the object principally of supplying the San Francisco newspapers in advance of the arrival of the overland stage; but the pony express at once destroyed its use for such

purpose and for the time superseded every other means of rapid communication.'

Meanwhile several other matters, illustrative and very significant of the times, with which Downey had more or less connection, came up in the legislature of 1860. In February he recommended that highway robbery should be made a capital offense; but neither that legislature nor any subsequent one has agreed with him. Soon afterwards, John J. Warner of the assembly committee on public morals reported against a bastardy act; and no act of that kind has so far obtained place on the statutebook. A bill was passed and approved by Downey to pay R. A. Thompson and Ferris Forman for services in going to Washington and endeavoring to induce the president to precipitate the United States troops upon the committee of vigilance in 1856. Another bill was passed, and approved by Downey to settle the state prison muddle for two hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, as before stated. A bill which might have been of immense importance, if it could have been properly drawn and executed, was presented in the senate by R. A. Redman against “lobbying and log-rolling;" but after passing the senate and reaching the assembly, on motion of Thomas B. Shannon, the word "log-rolling" was rejected; and subsequently, on motion of A. J. King, the enacting clause was stricken out by a vote of forty-one ayes to fifteen noes. But the matter which caused the most excitement and made the most noise at the session of 1860 was the San Francisco bulkhead. This scheme, gotton up chiefly by persons who had made money out of the old wharves and had organized under the name of the San Francisco Dock and Wharf Company, was, as already stated, to build a stone bulkhead on the water front, maintain possession and control of it and have the exclusive privilege of collecting wharfage and tolls for fifty years. It had been agitated in several previous legislatures and had been growing in strength every year. It was in the hands of adroit managers and backed by 1Majors' Seventy Years on the Frontier, 173–185; Hittell's San Francisco 324, 325.

Assembly Journal, 1860, 384, 389.

3 Senate Journal, 1860, 359, 407, 687, 796; Assembly Journal, 1860, 384, 389, 588, 642, 682.