governor Daggett gave his casting vote against the bill as it originally stood. It was then sent back to the assembly, which concurred in a few of the amendments but refused to concur in the most important of them and returned the bill to the senate with a request that it should recede from all amendments not concurred in; but the majority of that body, as was to be expected, declined to recede and finally indefinitely postponed further consideration of it. Another bill in relation to the powers and duties of county boards of equalization, having the same general objects in view, which passed the assembly by a vote of fifty-nine ayes to five noes, was placed on file in the senate, and there it remained. It may be added that among the concurrent resolutions adopted, were one against the acquisition of large landed estates in the United States, and one relative to making August 29, 1884, the centennial anniversary of the burial of Junipero Serra, the great founder of the missions in California, a legal holiday as a tribute of respect to his memory -and in accordance with the latter the governor afterwards directed that day to be so observed.1

Meanwhile the presidential campaign was approaching. Already on April 30, the Republican convention to select delegates to attend the Republican national convention, which was to convene at Chicago on June 4, had met at Oakland; adopted a platform, the main characteristic of which was favoring James G. Blaine for the presidency, and elected twelve delegates. On June 10, the Democratic convention was held at Stockton and, besides selecting delegates to the Democratic national convention to be held in Chicago on July 8, adopted a platform, the chief clauses of which were denunciations against "certain Democratic officers and legislators, who co-operated with the Republicans at the late extra session in frustrating the will of the people and antagonizing the true interests of the state," and specially naming among such officers Railroad-commissioners Carpenter and Humphreys, Lieutenant-governor Daggett and Attorney-general Marshall. It also named Samuel J. Tilden and Thomas A. Hendricks as the choice of the Democracy of California for president 1Assembly Journal, Extra Session, 1884, 15, 45, 80, 81, 156, 180, 181–184, 187, 205; Senate Journal, Extra Session, 1884, 51-81, 111, 112, 124, 125.

and vice-president of the United States, with Allen G. Thurman as second choice for president, and repudiating the aspirations of Stephen J. Field for that office. On June 17, the Prohibition party held a convention at San Francisco; nominated delegates to attend a Prohibition national convention to be held at Pittsburg on July 23 and adopted a platform against the manufacture, sale and use of alcoholic drinks as the greatest evil of the country and the age. A convention, consisting of delegates from what called themselves the National Anti-Monopoly, Greenback, Labor and National Union parties, also convened at San Francisco on May 23 and indorsed the nominations of Benjamin F. Butler and A. M. West for president and vice-president. The national conventions, to which delegates were thus elected, chose as their candidates the Republicans, James G. Blaine and John A. Logan; the Democrats, Grover Cleveland and Thomas A. Hendricks; the Prohibitionists, John P. St. John and William Daniels, and the Greenback Anti-Monopolists, Benjamin F. Butler and A. M. West. Each of the parties nominated presidential electors; and the result of the election, held on November 4, 1884, was an average vote for Blaine of one hundred and two thousand four hundred and six; for Cleveland eighty-nine thousand two hundred and twenty-five; for St. John two thousand nine hundred and sixty, and for Butler two thousand and ten. California's vote for Blaine, however, like its previous vote for Hancock, was not sufficient to make a majority in the electoral college; and Cleveland and Hendricks were declared chosen. At the same election, the different parties put into nomination candidates for twenty senators from odd-numbered districts and eighty assemblymen; and a large majority of those on the Republican ticket headed by Blaine, being elected, made the new senate, with the old hold-over members, almost equally divided between Democrats and Republicans, and the new assembly very preponderatingly Republican.

The legislature of 1885, thus constituted, met on January 5. In the senate, a long contest occurred in reference to a president pro tempore, which after one hundred and eighty-four ballots was decided on January 16 by twenty-one votes in favor of

Benjamin Knight. In the assembly, William H. Parks was elected speaker by fifty-seven out of seventy-five votes. Directly after the completed organization of the houses on January 17, Stoneman sent in his first biennial message. He represented the condition of the state as "reasonably prosperous;" there was abundant production but unsatisfactory prices; warehouses were filled with wool, wine and cereals, which were awaiting increase in rates; and fructifying rains assured bountiful harvests and a revival of the mining industry for the coming year. He said that the expenses of the state were not so high as they had been -those of 1883 and 1884 being nearly a million and a quarter dollars less than those of 1881 and 1882; while the receipts were only about three hundred and eighty thousand dollars less than in the previous two years. At the same time, the rate of taxation had steadily decreased from sixty-five and a half cents per hundred dollars valuation in 1881 to fifty-nine and a half in 1882; forty-nine and seven-tenths in 1883, and forty-five and a fifth in 1884-the lowest recorded in the history of the state government. He further said that, according to the report of the controller, the state had lost in various state offices, including those of the San Francisco harbor-commissioners, the commissioner of immigration, the secretary of state and clerk of the supreme court, the sum of one hundred and sixty-seven and a half thousand dollars, of which C. P. Bunker, a former commissioner of immigration, had paid in, after judgment, a little over twenty thousand dollars, and John W. McCarthy, a former clerk of the supreme court, a little over twenty-one hundred dollars in full of his delinquencies.

He called attention to the fact that at the last election amendments to the constitution had been adopted relative to the compiling, printing, publishing and distributing of text-books for the use of common schools, and stated that it would involve a cost of one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars, after the copy of such books had been furnished by the state board of education. He recommended the encouragement of the state boards of horticulture and viticulture, and suggested that, as the United States government had practically abandoned the fish-supply 'business, the state should take it up and have state hatcheries.

He also recommended the continuance of the state mining bureau, and in the same connection stated the mining product in 1883 to have been of the value of fourteen million one hundred and twenty thousand dollars-nearly one-half of all produced in all the states of the Union and more than one-sixth of all produced in the world. He likewise favored the permanent continuance of the state engineer department, and in connection with the subject said that the doctrine of riparian rights, as decided by the supreme court of the state, stood in the way of the proper development of the country; that there was a necessity for legislation to insure the prosperity of the commonwealth in general in this respect, and that, among other things of immediate need, there should be required a title to and record of water claims as clear and indefeasible as to real estate holdings. He next adverted to the fact that in the course of the preceding two years charitable institutions, including orphan asylums, old people's and veterans' homes, had received nearly four hundred and sixteen and a half thousand dollars, and that the insane asylums. at Stockton and Napa were filled to repletion. On the subject of pardons, of which he had granted one hundred from the state prison, twenty-seven from county jails and commuted thirty-five sentences, he took occasion to remark that the pardons from the state prison had in almost every case been at the recommendation of the state prison directors. It may be added that this entirely too frequent exercise of the pardoning power, instead of diminishing, increased during the remainder of his term-the number from January 1, 1885, to January 1, 1887, being one hundred and two from the state prison, thirty-one from county jails and one hundred and three commutations of sentence.

Stoneman next spoke of the railroad; but said nothing about the extra session or its failure. He reiterated that the railroad had not complied with its contracts or done anything in consideration of the interest paid by the state on fifteen hundred railroad bonds, amounting to two million one hundred thousand dollars. It had not paid its taxes, but resorted to litigation to delay and hinder the state. The amount of those taxes due for the years 1880-1, 1881-2, 1882-3 and 1883-4 was within a fraction of six hundred and thirty-two thousand dollars, which with

penalties and interest amounted to upwards of one million and forty-one thousand. He recommended, as he had recommended before, that the most stringent laws should be enacted to enforce payment, as the life of the sovereign government depended to a great extent upon its use. In addition to the suggestions thus made, he thought that little legislation would be necessary; and in conclusion he referred to the claim of Attorney-general Marshall that he had money of the state in his hands, which the state refused to receive. Marshall had said in his report, addressed to the governor, that although he felt how worse than useless any suggestions from his office, in regard to the many and pressing exigencies of the state, would be, he congratulated the administration on its success in borrowing at a high rate of interest from its own debtors money necessary to support the state prison; in exhausting the fund sacred to the education of the people, and in flooding the country with warrants upon the treasury, discounted at ruinous rates by employees of the state; while more than enough coin to meet the obligations of the state lay in his office without interest and almost without security. Stoneman, in a more seemly tone, replied in substance that the money in Marshall's hands had been received by him in compromise of the tax suits at much smaller sums than were due; that the administration was unwilling to accept such sums in satisfaction of the debt, and that even if accepted the money could not have been used as suggested by the attorney-general.'

The first important matter that came up before the houses was the election of a United States senator for six years commencing March 4, 1885, in place of James T. Farley, whose term was to end on March 3. It came up, in accordance with law, on Tuesday, January 27. Previous thereto, the contest of Stanford against Sargent had been decided in the Republican caucus, as was perhaps to have been expected, in favor of Stanford; and, when the nominations came to be made in the respective houses, Sargent was not named. The candidates put forward were Stanford on the part of the Republicans and George Hearst on the part of the Democrats. In the senate, out of thirty-nine votes Stanford received twenty and Hearst sixteen, leaving three which * 1 Appendix to Legislative Journals, 1885.

44 VOL IV.