Francisco in immediate communication with New York in October, 1861. Another result, which was intended in part to provide a quicker and more secure communication between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and in part to reward the loyalty of California by granting a prayer which it had been preferring for a number of years, was the passage of an act by congress, approved July 1, 1862, for the construction of a railroad across the continent from the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean. Still another result was a great accession to the population of California by persons, who fled from the scenes of tumult and war in the east, and the stimulation of business of all kinds on the Pacific coast. San Francisco in particular felt the effect. It rose, all at once as it were, from the depression caused by the Fraser river drain into wonderful activity. More than a thousand new houses were built or contracted for and among them the large and for those days magnificent Russ and Lick Houses and Occidental Hotel. The water supply of the city was increased by the bringing in of Pilarcitos creek from San Mateo; and the old omnibus lines on the main city thoroughfares began to be superseded by the street railroads."

Another remarkable result of the breaking out of the civil war, which was claimed to have been occasioned by the victory of the Republican party in the United States in 1860, was the making of California a Republican state. It had always been strongly Democratic. But almost immediately after the receipt of news of the firing upon Sumter, a call was made for a Republican state convention, which met at Sacramento on June 18, 1861, and nominated Leland Stanford for governor and John F. Chellis for lieutenant-governor. On the other hand the antiLecompton Democrats nominated John Conness for governor, and the Lecompton Democrats, John R. McConnell. On August 2, in the midst of the campaign, came news of the battle of Bull Run, which, though lost to the Union arms, intensified the feeling against secession, strengthened the Union cause and made many Republican votes. The election took place on September 4 and resulted, to the surprise of many, in a complete triumph of the Republicans—the first state victory in California they gained. 'Hittell's San Francisco, 333, 334.

The vote stood a little over fifty-six thousand for Stanford; nearly thirty-one thousand for Conness, and thirty-three thousand for McConnell. The great change in public sentiment became apparent by a comparison of the tally with that of the gubernatorial election of only two years previous, when Stanford, the Republican, received only ten thousand votes; Currey, the anti-Lecompton Democrat, thirty-one thousand, and Latham, the Lecompton Democrat, over sixty-two thousand.'

Soon after the election, which manifested and made patent to all eyes the preponderating Union sentiment of the state, a number of military men, who had made California their home, departed for or came forward in the east and tendered their services to the government. In October Henry W. Halleck left for this purpose. Among the Californians or persons who had for some time resided in California and became prominent in the war, were William T. Sherman, Joseph Hooker and Ulysses S. Grant. Each of these was for a time at the head of the United States army. Many other Californians, equally patriotic though in less advanced positions, gave their services to and merited well of the country. Edwin V. Sumner, who had relieved Johnston and who upon the call of the president in May for seventy-five thousand troops had started the volunteering, organizing and drilling of the Californian regiments, departed towards the end of October for more active operations in the east, leaving however an able and reliable Union soldier, in the person of Brigadier-general George Wright, to administer all necessary military affairs on the Pacific in his place. Edward D. Baker, who had served in the Mexican war and was a soldier as well as an orator and who, though a United States senator from Oregon, was in heart a citizen of California which had been his home and residence for many years, was one of the very first to sacrifice his life in the Union cause. Upon the breaking out of hostilities, he volunteered for active service in the field. Without resigning his seat in the United States senate, he raised a body of men in the east composed mainly of Californians and known there as the "California regiment." It was while leading this body of men against the enemy at Ball's Bluff that he fell, pierced with many 'Davis' Political Conventions, 108, 173, 180.

bullets. The news of his death, one of the first dispatches that came over the transcontinental telegraph line after its completion, was received in San Francisco on October 24 and caused great sorrow. His body, which was brought back by steamer, received a public burial on November 11, 1861, and was deposited near that of Broderick in Lone Mountain cemetery.

The California legislature of 1862 met at Sacramento on Monday, January 6. On the next day James McM. Shafter of San Francisco was elected president pro tempore of the senate and George Barstow of San Francisco speaker of the assembly. Both were pronounced Republicans. Shafter did not deem it necessary to say anything in his inaugural remarks about secession or national affairs; but Barstow, who was very radical and outspoken and had won his election by the majority of a single vote, launched forth from the start in favor of a vigorous and uncompromising prosecution of the war.' On Friday, January 10, Leland Stanford, the new governor, and John F. Chellis, lieutenant-governor, were inducted into office. As was to be expected under the circumstances, much interest was felt in what Stanford, as the head of the new political régime, would have to say in his inaugural address. After a few introductory remarks, he spoke in favor of the policy of encouraging settlements upon public lands and, with that end in view, of offering liberal inducements to settlers. He was therefore of opinion that there was something wrong in the law or decisions of the Californian courts that the owner of an unsegregated part of a Mexican grant or of a Mexican grant within larger exterior boundaries could exclude and eject squatters from any portion of such exterior boundaries or, as he expressed it, "that a person, who owns or claims but one league of land should be able to hold, control and dispossess others from a hundred leagues." He consequently thought and recommended that a remedy should be supplied by legislation. He next took occasion to speak against the Chinese and said that their immigration and settlement in California should be discouraged by every legitimate means. "Asia," he continued, "with her numberless millions, sends to our shores the dregs of her population." There could be no doubt, he added, that the 1 Assembly Journal, 1862, 9, 10.

presence of numbers of that degraded and distinct people would exercise a deleterious influence upon the superior race; and he therefore announced that it would afford him great pleasure to concur "in any constitutional action having for its object the repression of the immigration of the Asiatic races."

1

At the same time he was in favor of steam communication with eastern Asia; and, with an eye to securing "the course of the great and vastly important trade of the eastern world," he earnestly advocated a speedy and effective overland communication between California and the Atlantic states. That subject had always engaged the attention of the people and it had not been. lessened by the lapse of time. It was not necessary at this late day to go into a general argument to prove the importance of a transcontinental railroad. But its military necessity was now more than ever apparent; and "I think," he went on, "the time has arrived when in consequence of local business, the most difficult and important part of the work can be accomplished without direct pecuniary aid from the national government. May we not, therefore, with the utmost propriety, even at this time, ask the national government to donate lands and loan its credit in aid of this portion of that communication, which is of the very first importance not alone to the states and territories west of the Rocky mountains but to the whole nation and is the great work of the age?" He was also in favor of asking the national government for the timber lands of the state for the support of eleemosynary institutions and works of internal improvement. He was against any interference by the general government with the working of the mines and in favor of retrenchment in the public expenditures; but at the same time he was opposed to any niggardly, mean or narrow spirit in withholding appropriations that would promote the general welfare and expressly favorable to munificent appropriations for charity and education.2

Stanford became, what Downey by his persistent opposition to the manifest spirit of the age missed being, the "war governor" of California. It cannot be claimed that he ever took any very important step forward that would have rendered the designation 1 Senate Journal, 1862, 99.

2 Senate Journal, 1862, 99, 100.

of "war governor" illustrious, as did some of his cotemporary governors in the east. But he was elected as a Republican and a Union man and he fully lived up to the undertakings and pledges of his party. In his inaugural he chalked out his position on the all-absorbing subject by saying, "The citizens of California are by birth the representatives of all parts of the Union and are naturally imbued with more or less of local sympathies. Let us be as tolerant and charitable of opinion as possible. But none should ever forget that California is one of the United States; that she is loyal to the Union; that her citizens have quite recently unmistakably declared their devotion to our national unity, their recognition of the supremacy of the national government and their determination to maintain both inviolate. Every citizen of California must remember his duty and, remembering, discharge it faithfully. His fellow-citizens are now in the field, armed against traitors and treason and for the preservation of the Union and the national government. The whole power of the state should, if necessary, be wielded to encourage, support and sustain those patriotic citizens and their compatriots. Let treason meet a just and speedy punishment; and may we soon, as I doubt not we shall, see peace restored to our beloved Union, our institutions more firmly implanted than ever and sustained by a national sentiment that shall pervade every section of our country." Immediately after Stanford's inaugural, John F. Chellis, the lieutenant-governor, upon being installed president of the senate, said to that body, "California is bound by every tie of gratitude, every incentive of interest and consideration of honor, to do all in her power to sustain the Union in its struggle to maintain its integrity and uphold the laws and constitution of our country."1

The winter of 1861-2 was remarkable for the most extraordinary floods ever known in the state. The rain commenced in November and it continued raining more than half the time until February. In November over four inches fell; in December nearly ten, and in January twenty-four and a half, much the largest monthly fall recorded in California. The result was the flooding of the greater portions of the Sacramento and San