tion, was not very far wrong when, apostrophizing the city, he said, "Your boundaries will not hold the riches and the blessings in store for you; they must needs overflow into the hands of the needy and suffering and make your name the balm and cordial of want and sorrow," and still less so, when speaking of the "Pacific and California, with San Francisco at the head," he called them "the good Samaritan for the first time appearing in the proportions of a great city-of a whole state-of a vast area." But the state, and San Francisco with it, was very prosperous. Though the season of 1863 was one of comparative drought, having only fourteen inches of rain as against the forty-nine inches of the flood season of 1861-2, and the crops were small, yet prices were high and profits large. In the same year the Comstock lode of Nevada yielded twelve millions of dollars or twice as much as the year before. Everything seemed to have an upward tendency. On January 8, 1863, ground was broken at Sacramento for the construction of the Central Pacific or transcontinental railroad; and in the course of the same year the San Francisco and San José railroad was opened, while enterprises of many kinds were started in all directions. In San Francisco the North Beach and Mission and the Central streetrailroads were completed and in Oakland the railroad wharf, twelve hundred yards long, that reached out to the deep water of the bay and obviated the necessity of navigating and the liability of sticking on the bars and mud-flats of San Antonio creek.1

Meanwhile on Monday, April 27, 1863, the legislature, the last of the annual ones held under the old constitution before the amendments of 1862 were declared ratified, adjourned. The session had been a most important one. A great deal of farreaching legislation had been carried through, among which, in addition to the acts already referred to, may be mentioned a number of statutes granting subsidies and privileges to the Central Pacific and other railroads, then the subjects of popular favor, that will be noticed further on. But the chief merit, if not glory, of this legislature was the hearty, sincere and outspoken support that it gave to the federal government in its conflict with 1 Hittell's San Francisco, 335-339.

secession. There were many expressions of the general feeling on this subject; nearly every senator and assemblyman, except those notoriously unsound, gave voice to their loyalty on more than one occasion. And at the end of the session, besides the always-ready patriotism of T. N. Machin, speaker of the assembly, Lieutenant-governor John F. Chellis seized the opportunity of his valedictory to the senate to express himself as well satisfied with the work that had been done. "That you have promptly and courageously met every emergency," said he, "is manifest by the grateful and general response which comes back to us from the loyal people of the east, who no longer doubt the loyalty of California nor tremble lest the beloved flag of our country should be lowered to the bands of treason on this frontier post of freedom."1

1Senate Journal, 1863, 553.

UN

CHAPTER XIV.

STANFORD (CONTINUED).

NDER the amendments to the constitution adopted in 1862, and in accordance with the acts of the legislature of 1863 designed to carry out the new provisions, a general state election was to be held on September 2 and a special judicial election for judges and superintendent of public instruction on October 21, 1863. The state officers to be elected were to hold their offices for four years, except that the justices of the supreme court, after the first five had drawn lots for terms of two, four, six, eight and ten years, were to hold for ten years and the fourteen district judges for terms of six years. In view of these elections and for the purpose of adopting platforms and nominating candidates, two opposing political conventions were called, in one or other of which everybody, whatever may have been his individual principles or preferences, seemed willing for the time at least to range himself. The first or Union state convention, which represented the administration, the prosecution of the war and the Republican party, met at Sacramento on June 17, 1863. A series of ringing resolutions, substantially like those of the Union state convention of 1862, were adopted, and then nominations were proposed. Conness, who had made himself very active in the preliminary work and management of this convention, succeeded in getting Frederick F. Low preferred for governor to Leland Stanford, who withdrew before the convention was held, and over Aaron A. Sargent, who, however, received a very large vote. T. N. Machin was nominated for lieutenantgovernor over John F. Chellis, and thereupon followed a complete Union ticket, including justices of the supreme court and superintendent of public instruction.

The second convention, which for the time comprised all the

enemies of the administration and all who opposed the prosecution of the war against secession, was called the Fusion Democratic state convention. It met at Sacramento on July 8, 1863. Its resolutions professed love for and a desire to preserve the Union, but charged the administration with open and avowed disregard of state rights, designated almost all its acts as arbitrary and fanatical usurpations, denounced with unqualified condemnation the emancipation proclamation and set forth as the spirit and meaning of its aims and endeavors the phrase, “The Constitution as it is and the Union as it was." It nominated John G. Downey, by an overwhelming vote, over Joseph W. McCorkle, John B. Weller and several others, for governor; Elisha W. McKinstry for lieutenant-governor, and a full ticket for all the offices to be filled at both the approaching elections. On July 13, only a few days after the adjournment of the Democratic convention, Downey issued a lengthy address to the public expounding his views on the relative rights and powers of the national and state governments; and on August 24 Low, representing the other side, also issued an address devoted to public affairs. The campaign was comparatively very short and rather one-sided-all the prestige and nearly all the enthusiasm being strongly Union.'

Notwithstanding it was well known beforehand that the result of the election of September 2, 1863, could not be otherwise than favorable for the Union ticket, there was a very large poll. The entire count of the state was nearly one hundred and nine thousand votes, of which Low received a few hundred over sixty-four thousand and Downey a few hundred over forty-four thousand, giving Low a majority of nearly twenty thousand. Machin's majority over McKinstry was over twenty-one thousand, and so generally with the other Union nominees. At the special judicial election, which was held on October 21, 1863, there was little interest manifested, the vote amounting to less than sixtysix thousand, of which Silas W. Sanderson, Augustus L. Rhodes, John Currey, Lorenzo Sawyer and Oscar L. Shafter received a little over forty-five thousand for justices of the supreme court and John Swett nearly as many for superintendent of public 'Davis' Political Conventions, 193-200.

23 VOL. IV.

instruction. Throughout the state the district, county and municipal elections resulted as a rule in the same manner, so that when the new legislature met, and the new administration commenced in the early part of December, 1863, all the officers in general, high and low, were Union men.

Meanwhile the war in the eastern states continued. Lincoln's emancipation proclamation of January 1, 1863, while it was received with extraordinary favor in the north, evoked loathing and curses from the south. It had been long delayed, but had come at last; and its effect abroad was almost as important as its effect at home. From the moment of its issue, the Union cause and the cause of the administration, which were seen to be the same thing, was recognized as the cause of freedom, philanthropy and civilization as against the virtual barbarism of slavery; and the great European powers, however they may have been disposed before, were obliged by the force of public opinion to so regard it. There was from that time no longer any danger of the Confederacy receiving European aid; and the war was left to be fought out without anything like avowed foreign intervention or interference.

men.

Towards the end of April, 1863, General Hooker, who had been placed in command of the army of the Potomac, after spending several months in reorganizing his forces, marched towards Richmond. He had about one hundred and twenty thousand Sending a portion of them under General John Sedgwick to cross the Rappahannock below Fredericksburg, he crossed with the main body a few miles above and advanced to Chancellorsville. There he was met by Lee with an army of about onehalf Hooker's number; and a desperate battle took place, which commenced on May 1, lasted several days and resulted in a victory for the Confederates and the discomfiture of the Union army. It was known as the battle of Chancellorsville. The main features of the fight consisted in a well-planned and admirably conducted attack by Stonewall Jackson upon Hooker's right wing, which he took by surprise and drove back in confusion. By this time Sedgwick, who had taken the heights of Fredericksburg, came up on Hooker's left, when Lee attacked him with his 1 Senate Journal, 1863-4, 18; Davis' Political Conventions, 201.