of Farley, reconsidered by unanimous vote; and the subject matter referred to a special committee, which subsequently reported, as a summing up of the whole business, without a word about the author or the truth of the report, that the publication was injudicious; that the action of the senate was hasty, and that the reconsideration of the vote of expulsion was prudent. It thereupon recommended that the resolution of expulsion should be rejected. This report was adopted; and there the Bell business dropped.' In the assembly, somewhat similar proceedings took place in reference to an individual named Charles P. Converse. He had made a statement that he could for money control the legislature. This seems to have so distressed the assembly that it at once issued a warrant and had him arrested. A committee, appointed to investigate the subject, reported that Converse had made the statement attributed to him but had not influenced any member, and had merely attempted to speculate on his charges of corruption. As a caution, however, to be more careful for the future, he was adjudged guilty of contempt and sent to jail for six days. Soon afterwards another committee of the assembly, appointed to look into the charges of bribery and corruption in the United States senatorial contest, reported that no money had been used for the election either of Booth or Hager, and in effect that everybody was pure and no one guilty-all of which appears to have been entirely satisfactory to those concerned.*

It was, perhaps, not an unusual thing to find a number of able men in a legislature, and at the same time to find that they had little or no influence; but in this respect the legislature of 1873-4 was prominent. As an instance, there was a very able and statesmanlike report in the senate by Thomas H. Laine against giving a state annuity to John A. Sutter, with abundant reasons why, however kind Sutter may have been to the early immigrants, the state could not properly become an almoner and had no right to dispose of money collected to carry on the government by giving it to any person, and especially to single out a particular person for bounty when there were others equally entitled to it. But these wise words had no apparent influence; and a new act passed 1 Senate Journal, 1873-4, 298, 300, 328. * Assembly Journal, 1873-4, 1002–1091.

and was approved, giving Sutter two hundred and fifty dollars per month for two years out of the state treasury, and at the same time providing that the warrants issued to him should not be assignable. A like bill, equally objectionable for the same reasons, though perhaps the object of the bounty was quite as deserving and much more needy, gave to James A. Marshall, the discoverer of gold, one hundred dollars per month for two years and made warrants in his favor unassignable? Another very able report was made in the senate by William T. Graves, John J. De Haven and Thomas H. Laine against the closing of certain streets, in the line of improvements of San Francisco, for the making of a race-track and the convenience of certain sporting men interested in the fashionable dissipation of horse-racing. But notwithstanding the best of reasons against it, the bill passed and was approved, and the streets were closed for more than twenty years. In the senate also, cogent reasons were given against a bill, which had been presented, ordering the courts of the state to dismiss any indictments found in them against Henry Meiggs, the famous fugitive from justice, who had made a great fortune in South America and seemed desirous of revisiting the scenes of his early adventures It was plain that such a statute would be an unwarrantable interference by the legislature with the judicial department and clearly unconstitutional; but the legislature seemed determined to pass it, and did so. Booth vetoed it, and in his veto message repeated the objections to it; but the legislature was still determined and passed it over the veto. As has already been stated, however, Meiggs was wise enough to remain in his South American home.

In the assembly there were likewise some able reports at this session. One was in reference to the new city hall of San Francisco, which had been commenced in 1870 and had already cost unconscionable sums and was destined to cost many times more than the work upon it was worth. The report exposed much expensive carelessness; but the business went on after the report about the same as it had gone on before. Up to

1 Senate Journal, 1873-4, 304; Stats. 1873-4, 105.

2 Stats. 1873-4, 517.

3 Senate Journal, 1873-4,462-465, 837, 838; Stats. 1873-4, 192, 749.

this time, it has cost five millions of dollars, though in many respects not well suited for its purposes, and it is still unfinished. Another was in regard to the so-called "governor's mansion," erected on the state capitol grounds at Sacramento at a cost of about sixty thousand dollars, which it pronounced “a huge failure" and characterized as "a gilded monument to public extravagance and folly." Still another report, and one of great although painful significance, was by F. S. Freeman, chairman of the committee on ways and means, on the practicability of reducing appropriations for incidental expenses in the several public offices. He said it was impossible, for the reason that officials, and the legislature as well, had become accustomed to an extravagant style and lavish expenditure, customary in aristocratic governments and to a certain extent sanctioned or at least tolerated by the public, which could not, under ordinary circumstances, be resisted. There were some indications in recent elections, he seemed to think, that the baneful public sentiment alluded to was being succeeded by a wholesome determination to check official extravagance. But that was a matter rather to be hoped for than expected. The administration of public affairs had advanced very far from the days of that true economy and light taxation which should characterize a republican government. "Thomas Jefferson," he said, casting his eyes back on the early history of American politics, "when inaugurated as president of the United States, rode on horseback to the front of the capitol, hitched his horse-without the aid of lackey or stirrup-holder-mounted to the place of inauguration, and, standing there in the plain costume of a refined gentleman, took the oath of office and entered upon the duties of his high position in a manner which can not but challenge the admiration of all who deplore the gaudy parade and pompous extravagance of a presidential inauguration of to-day." A more hopeful report was in relation to progress made at the state university at Berkeley; and in the same connection it may be added that the legislature passed an act prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquor within two miles of the university grounds."

1Assembly Journal, 1873-4, 599-602, 1095.

"Assembly Journal, 1873-4, 635, 1165–1168; Stats. 1873-4, 12.

2

The anti-railroad sentiment, which had not diminished since Booth's election, manifested itself at this session by the repeal of the various statutes, known as the "five per cent subsidy acts," authorizing counties to subscribe for the construction of railroads to the extent of five per cent of the assessed value of property within their boundaries.' There was considerable discussion as to railroad freights and fares, but nothing of importance was accomplished. One bill on the subject, introduced in the assembly by J. W. Snyder of Mariposa county, was on motion of John F. Swift, chairman of the committee on corporations, stricken from the records as “an insult to the people of the state of California." There was also an attempt to stir up the subject of land monopoly and the stupendous frauds said to have been perpetrated in reference to the subject; but it likewise ended in nothing. Another matter of importance, which had attracted much public attention and was made the object of some investigation at this session, was the law's delay or, in other words, why litigants were subjected to such long and seemingly unnecessary delays in the trial and decision of their causes in the various courts of the state. But as the committee, which had the matter in charge, referred the subject to the judges of the city and county of San Francisco, against whom the chief complaints were made, and accepted their statements in explanation of the delays complained of, it could not be expected that much progress would be made; and it is not to be wondered at that there was none at all. The subject of woman suffrage also received some attention; but the joint committee of both houses, to which it was referred, made a report, more amusing than instructive, stating that it had not deemed it necessary to recommend an amendment to the constitution allowing women to vote, for the reason that there was likely before very long to be a constitutional convention and that the "committee anticipate many good results therefrom."

Booth's vetoes at this session, though not so plentiful as at the last, were, with the exception of the Meiggs matter already

Stats. 1873-4, 26.

* Assembly Journal, 1873-4, 881, 1219.

Assembly Journal, 1873-4, 615, 1067, 1210, 1220.

noticed, quite as successful. One was to a senate bill designed to create a new county, to be called that of Vallejo, by a division of Solano county. Booth called attention to the fact that it was the first time an attempt of the kind had ever been made against the unanimous wish of the people of the county. His veto was sustained in the senate by a vote of twenty-four against eleven.' He also vetoed an assembly bill, which purported to regulate the hours of labor of street-car conductors and drivers. The law as it stood was that eight hours of labor should constitute a day's work, unless otherwise expressly stipulated by the parties to a contract. The act in regard to street-car conductors and drivers provided that twelve hours should constitute a day's work and that they should be entitled to recover a dollar an hour for every additional hour they might be required to work. Booth in his veto message remarked that the act proceeded upon the theory that all men of lawful age were competent to make their own contracts for wages and hours of labor, except insane persons and street-railroad conductors and drivers. He then went on to point out the impracticability and absurdity of the law and in fact of all legislation of the same general character. And his veto was sustained by a vote of thirty-nine to thirty-two."

On February 27, 1875, five days before his term as United States senator was to commence, Booth resigned his office of governor and Romualdo Pacheco, the lieutenant-governor, took his place and was sworn in. Pacheco was a native Californian, born at Santa Barbara on October 31, 1831, and the son of that Romualdo Pacheco who lost his life in the struggle, already related, between the troops of Governor Victoria and Pablo de Portilla respectively, near Los Angeles in December, 1831. He received his early education in part from private tutors and in part from a school at Honolulu in the Hawaiian Islands. As he grew up, he devoted some attention to nautical matters along the southern coast; but his chief pursuits were connected with the business of stock-raising, in the various branches of which, particularly horsemanship and the use of the reata, he became an expert and acquired a frame of great strength and agility. Senate Journal, 1873-4, 828, 829.

Assembly Journal, 1873-4, 1114, 1115.