question, it was readily embraced by the legislature of 1863. An opportunity occurred in January to fill a vacancy in the office of trustee of the state library, made by the resignation of John R. McConnell, who had been Lecompton candidate for governor in 1861; and the position was filled in joint convention by the election of Dr. John F. Morse, an anti-Lecompton Union man. Stanford himself did not hesitate to appoint out-and-out Republicans to all the offices within his own gift, though there were none of much importance. But the principal office to be filled at this session of the legislature-and more important at that time than at any other to be filled by a man entirely sound on the Union-was that of United States senator in place of Milton S. Latham, who, after a short incumbency of Henry P. Haun under appointment by Governor Weller in 1859, had been elected in 1860 to fill the unexpired term of David C. Broderick, as has been already stated. The principal candidates were Timothy G. Phelps, Aaron A. Sargent, Trenor W. Park and John Conness. The first two were congressmen from California, the third a sharp and energetic attorney and the fourth a politician, who had in 1861 been an assemblyman from El Dorado county. The first three were Republicans; the last a Union Democrat.

The Union caucus, held for the purpose of agreeing upon a candidate to fill the office, began its sessions almost immediately after the commencement of the legislature. There was a very bitter contest and for several weeks little or no progress was made. The most prominent candidate seemed to be Phelps; but the others had determined adherents, and Phelps could not secure enough by five or six votes for a nomination. Towards. the end of January rumors of bargain and sale on the part of Phelps and Conness and of corrupt trickery on the part of Park became rife. It was reported that F. M. Smith, an attorney, who had been elected an assemblyman from Butte county and was an adherent of Park, had been approached by Charles Watrous, postal agent of the United States and a friend of Phelps, and by him offered three thousand dollars in cash and a nomination by the Union party to a position on either the district or supreme bench as night be desired for his vote and influence in favor of Phelps. At the same time it was said that Cyrus Palmer, an

assemblyman from San Francisco, favorable to Park, had been approached by Ezekiel Wilson, an employee of the United States marine hospital at San Francisco and a supporter of Phelps, and offered anything in the political line he might ask either for himself or any friend he wished to advance, if he would bring over six more votes to Phelps; and it was added that Wilson proposed to take Palmer to Alfred Barstow and Richard Chenery, who were said to be the only agents authorized to bind Phelps, to make the necessary pledges. The subject of these rumors came up before the caucus, in the shape of an inquiry as to what truth was in them, on Tuesday, January 27, 1863, when a very extraordinary state of affairs, disgraceful to the state and to nearly all the persons connected with it, was divulged.

John G. McCullough of Mariposa, a son-in-law of Park and a newly-elected state senator, rose in the caucus and stated that on the morning of January 16 Smith of Butte had notified him of Watrous' corrupt proposition and asked him and R. C. Gaskill of Butte county, another state senator and friend of Park, to be present at noon of that day at his private apartments in the Golden Eagle Hotel in Sacramento and hear a repetition of it. He said that he and Gaskill accordingly repaired to Smith's room a little before noon and concealed themselves in a wardrobe they found there, closing the door. They presently heard a knock and Watrous came in and was welcomed in the most suave and polite manner by Smith. In a few moments Watrous commenced speaking of Smith's vote and influence for Phelps, and said that in consideration for them Smith should be elected judge of his judicial district or, if he preferred, a justice of the supreme bench. Smith remarked that he did not like contingent fees. Watrous answered that in addition he could have one thousand dollars. Smith replied that he had understood the amount of cash to be three thousand dollars, when Watrous rejoined that the amount was correct but that he could pay only one thousand down and the payment of the balance would be secured by Richard Chenery. At this moment Watrous' attention was attracted by a noise in the wardrobe, which he first tried to open and then demanded who was in it. Smith assured him that the wardrobe was a part of the hotel under the exclusive control of the proprietor, and

that there was no one in it. And with this answer Watrous went away. This statement by McCullough was in substance corroborated by Gaskill. As to the charge against Wilson, Palmer himself stated that he had been approached by Wilson on January 15; that the corrupt offer was made as reported, and that he had rejected it.

As was to have been expected these charges created great excitement. Phelps and Phelps' friends denied that he had had anything to do with Watrous' offer; and Watrous himself charged that, instead of his approaching Smith, Smith had approached him and made the corrupt offer to desert Park for the consideration named. Phelps' friends immediately began to ask whether men like Smith, McCullough and Gaskill, who would engage in such a scheme as the "wardrobe business" as it was called, were worthy of belief and particularly under the circumstances that they had waited eleven days and until Phelps was on the point of being elected before making the exposure. They charged that the whole scheme was a trick conceived in the fertile brain of Park, who finding himself about to be defeated had got it up and then for eleven days held it "in terrorem" over the Phelps men, proposing to say nothing if they would vote for him, but otherwise to expose it and prosecute them criminally. These threats having had no effect, they said, upon the Phelps men and an agreement having been made with Conness to throw his support to Phelps and elect him, Park had brought forward his bomb and exploded it. Thus there were charges and counter-charges, criminations and re-criminations; and the more the pool was stirred the filthier it appeared. The Union caucus deemed it necessary to make a sort of investigation; and witnesses were called and testimony taken; but, with reciprocal asseverations on one side and denials on the other and no power in the caucus to proceed in a judicial manner, there was nothing of importance done. On January 29, a resolution was introduced into the assembly for an investigation before that body; but it was immediately laid on the table-whence it was never taken up-by a vote of forty-two ayes against twenty-nine noes. And there the matter dropped.1

1San Francisco newspapers of January 28, 1863, and following days; Assembly Journal, 1863, 151

22 VOL. IV.

Whatever may have been the truth as to the wardrobe business, it had the effect of destroying Phelps' chances of election. It however did not help Park, who it was said by the Phelps men had been "hoist with his own petard." But the result was the throwing of Conness to the surface-a man who, though for the Union, had, as a Democratic politician, done much to injure the Union party and in whose politics many of the people had no great amount of confidence. He was nominated by the caucus and, on February 10, elected in joint convention by a vote of ninety-eight to fifteen for Benjamin Shurtleff, who represented the Breckenridge Democrats. The two incumbents then holding office were Milton S. Latham, whose place Conness was to fill, and James A. McDougall. The latter had been elected in 1861 as a Union man in place of Gwin and was to serve until 1867, but he had become very dissipated, and no reliance could be placed on him. Latham, who had been elected to Broderick's place, though he made a few half-hearted Union speeches, never had been sound on the Union question. On the contrary, even before he vacated his office, he manifested violent opposition to the abolition of slavery and in fact, as far as he dared, took part with the south. But for some reason or other it had got to be rumored around that Lincoln contemplated appointing him, after the expiration of his office as senator, United States circuit judge for California. Upon this understanding, Chancellor Hartson, member from Napa county, on February 12, 1863, introduced into the assembly a concurrent resolution, remonstrating against such an appointment, and it was on February 18 adopted by forty-four ayes to thirteen noes; but the next day the vote was reconsidered and the resolution indefinitely postponed by even a larger vote than that by which it had been adopted. It may be added, however, that Latham never became judge.'

Another move of the Union party at this same session of 1863, in the direction of filling offices with only sound Union men, was one against Leander Quint, senator from It appears that at the election

Tuolumne and Mono counties.

Senate Journal, 1863, 157-160.

2 Assembly Journal, 1863, 208, 219–224.

of 1861, according to the returns, Quint received two thousand two hundred and eight votes against two thousand and thirtysix for Joseph M. Cavis and was therefore given a certificate of election and took his seat. At the session of 1862, Cavis appeared and contested Quint's seat; and a committee was appointed to take the testimony presented. From this it appeared that there had been a false return as to four hundred and six votes said to have been cast for Quint at a place called Big Springs in Mono county-no such election having been held there and the returns being fraudulent and forged. Notwithstanding these *facts, the senate of 1862, declared Quint entitled to the seat. In the senate of 1863, on January 20, Gaskill introduced a preamble reciting the circumstances and a resolution to the effect that Quint was not entitled. The subject-matter was referred to the committee on elections, which reported its opinion that Quint had been wrongfully allowed to retain his seat; that the senate had a right to review the action of its predecessor and change, alter or rescind the same; that the resolution of the senate of 1862 declaring Quint entitled to the office ought to be rescinded and he declared not legally elected. The recommendations were adopted, by a vote of nineteen to ten on the first proposition and sixteen to five on the second, only a month before the end of the session and after the incumbent had been sitting and filling the office for very nearly a full term of two years.1

The series of important amendments to the constitution, making the sessions of the legislature biennial instead of annual, enlarging the terms of state officers to four years, increasing the number of justices of the supreme court to five and providing for their election for terms of ten years at special judicial elections, and making other changes in the judicial system of the state-which amendments were proposed by the legislature of 1861, agreed to by the legislature of 1862 and adopted at the election of September 3, 1862, as has been already stated—came up for canvass before the legislature of 1863. A joint resolution, declaring the amendments ratified, was adopted by the assembly on January 29. There appears, however, to have been some unimportant differences in the draft of the amendments as pro1Senate Journal, 1863, 102, 287, 288, 352, 355.