which he visited the eastern states and Europe, remaining abroad for several years. In 1882, having returned from his travels, he was elected mayor of the city and county of San Francisco and re-elected in 1884, serving two full terms and always with credit. In September, 1886, as already stated, he was nominated by the Democratic party for governor and at the November election chosen over John F. Swift, having the advantage in his favor on the one hand of Swift's impolitic letter against the American party, and the disadvantage on the other hand of the candidacy of Charles C. O'Donnell, who carried off many votes that would otherwise have gone Democratic.

On account of several delays in the transmission of election returns, Bartlett was not inaugurated as governor until Saturday, January 8, 1887. He had prepared his inaugural remarks with care and read them on that day to the houses in joint convention. He commenced by saying that, after a retirement of nearly a quarter of a century, the Democratic party was again in power and the national government being administered according to the precepts of Jefferson, Madison and Jackson; that the bitterness engendered by the civil war was, under an equal and just administration of federal affairs, giving place to fraternal love, and that he believed the day not far distant when political divisions on sectional lines would be unknown in the land. The time had come when wise legislation-the adoption of a comprehensive system adapted to the wants of the country-must be formulated and put in operation. There was a general feeling of discontent in the community and a demand for more stringent measures against Chinese immigration, including the abrogation of the Burlingame treaty, which had wrought very great injury to the Pacific states and territories by encouraging the coming and settling in their midst of several hundred thousand people of inferior race and radically dissimilar in physical, mental and moral constitution. Their presence prevented the immigration of white laborers and caused wide-spread dissatisfaction among the white laboring classes. While every one within the jurisdiction of the state was entitled to and should receive the protection of the laws, still the policy of admitting in such large numbers a race, who were distasteful to the white people, detrimental to

their prosperity and calculated to breed trouble, could not be upheld; and it was to be hoped that the national government might heed the remonstrances that had been made, and afford the necessary relief.

He thought it the duty of the national government to see to the better defense of the coast and expressed himself in favor of supporting the national guard of California; keeping it in a state of efficiency and readiness to maintain the civil authorities, and especially so in view of the presence of "a turbulent and disorderly element," lately come into the country, that was "inclined to resort to the most diabolical methods in order to gratify its revenge or show its contempt for our laws and institutions, and could only be reached by the strong arm of the law, supported by a sufficient physical force. In reference to the state finances, he regarded the situation as very unfavorable, in consideration of the "astonishing fact" that the expenses of the last two years had exceeded those of the previous two years over two millions of dollars. There was great need of severe scrutiny into public expenditures and unsparing retrenchment and reform. He was in favor of work-schools and industrial training-a subject which he deemed of absorbing interest to all good citizens-and he gave it as his opinion that the ordinary methods of education were calculated more to make lovers of books than pupils trained for actual practical life. He deprecated the abuses of corporations in issuing and disposing of bonds, while the capital stock had not been paid up, and called attention to the fact that stocks. still continued in various ways to be sold on margins, notwithstanding the prohibitions of the constitution. The winding up of bankrupt banking institutions needed amendment; laws should be passed to regulate electric lines, including steam, salt-water and hot-air pipes, in cities and towns, for the reason that the practice in vogue of erecting poles and stretching wires was becoming an intolerable nuisance. Limitations should also be placed upon municipal corporations in regard to privileges of using public streets by railroad and other corporations; and franchises should not be given for more than twenty-five years. Such a prohibition, he thought, would tend to prevent the indiscriminate giving away for too long periods of franchises, which

in the city of San Francisco alone were worth many millions of dollars. And he desired it to be understood that, so far as he was concerned, he would not deem every failure of the legislature to perform its duty as an "extraordinary occasion" or justify him in calling it together in extra session. On the contrary he would accept it as a deliberate act and leave the responsibility with those who were thus negligent, and their constituencies. It was his intention to the best of his abilities to administer his office upon business principles and in a business-like manner.'

One of the first important measures that came before the legislature of 1887 was the election of a United States senator for a full term commencing on March 4 of that year. This was the place made vacant by the expiration of the term to which John F. Miller had been elected in 1881. The majority of the two houses being Democratic, there was but one candidate having any chance of success; and this was George Hearst. On the Republican side, Henry Vrooman, a state senator, who had been and was the most active supporter of United States Senator Leland Stanford in the legislature, received a complimentary nomination. In the senate, Hearst received twenty-six votes and Vrooman twelve; in the assembly, Hearst thirty-eight and Vrooman forty. On Wednesday, January 19, in accordance with law, the two houses met in joint-assembly for the final ballot, when Hearst received sixty-five votes to Vrooman's fifty-two, and was declared elected. The next important business was the legislation of the session, commencing with "an act to provide for the organization and government of irrigation districts and to provide for the acquisition of water and other property and for the distribution of water thereby for irrigation purposes." This important statute, intended to meet the great question of utilizing the arid wastes of the southern portion of the state, was usually known, on account of C. C. Wright, assemblyman from Stanislaus county, who brought it forward, as the "Wright act." It passed the assembly unanimously, as it also did the senate, after many amendments which were concurred in by the assembly, and was approved by Bartlett on March 7, 1887. It immediately

2

1 Appendix to Legislative Journals, 1887.

Assembly Journal, 1887, 401, 494, 48, 693; Stats. 1887, 29.

became the guide for numerous irrigation works, involving millions of dollars; and, though frequently amended, remains in substance the law upon the subject. But at the same time, notwithstanding numerous decisions in the state supreme court in its favor,' it was violently attacked in the United States circuit court for the southern district of California as unconstitutional, and was in fact so pronounced by that court; but on appeal the decision declaring its unconstitutionality has been reversed by the supreme court of the United States, and the act remains in full force.

Another important measure passed at this session was "an act to provide for the permanent support of the university of California by the levy of a rate of taxation and the creation of a fund therefor." It was by virtue of this law that, in the language of William H. Jordan, the speaker of the assembly, “the university-ever the pride of the state-has been placed upon an independent and substantial footing." Another interesting act was an amendment of a statute of 1878 allowing what is known as "accumulative voting," whereby every member of a corporation was allowed to cast as many votes for one director as there were directors to be elected. This provision, however good it might have been in some cases, had been found to work very badly in an election for directors of the Society of California Pioneers; and at their instance the law was so amended that cumulative voting should not apply to literary, religious, scientific, social or benevolent societies, unless so provided in their by-laws or rules. Another act passed at this session and approved by the governor was one, already referred to, appropriating five thousand dollars for the erection of a monument over the grave of James W. Marshall, the discoverer of gold in California.'

Bartlett exercised the veto power in only two instances. One was a senate bill in reference to what he regarded as an excessive

Turlock Irrigation District vs. Williams 76 Cal. 360; Woodward vs. Fruitvale Sanitary District, 99 Cal. 854.

2 Assembly Journal, 1887, 869; Stats. 1887, 2.

Senate Journal, 1887, 77; Amendments to Codes, 1877-8, 7, 8; Stats. 1887.95.

Stats. 1887, 50.

appropriation for a permanent fund for the purchase of jute to be manufactured at the San Quentin state prison; and the veto was unanimously sustained by the senate. The other was in reference to a too broad and indefinite assembly bill, requiring "every maker or manufacturer of any article made or manufactured in this state" to label or stamp it with his name and place of manufacture under liability of being punished as a criminal. It was probably intended as an anti-Chinese measure; but, whether so or not, the governor regarded it as crude and illiberal; and his veto was sustained in the assembly by forty-two votes against thirty-one.' But there was still another method of throttling bills passed within ten days before the adjournment of the legislature, besides vetoing them. This was by what was commonly called "pocketing" them or, in other words, by simply refusing to approve them. In accordance with the constitution, such unapproved bills did not become laws; and Bartlett disposed of a number of inproper enactments in that way.

Among the propositions presented to this legislature was one, on behalf of Hubert H. Bancroft, for the purchase of a library of books and manuscripts collected with a view to a history of the Pacific states and territories of North America, and upon which the volumes, some forty in number and commonly known as "Bancroft's Histories," were founded. They were said in the offer to the state to consist of upwards of forty thousand volumes. According to some estimates, their value could not have much, if at all, exceeded fifty thousand dollars, though the price asked was two hundred and fifty thousand. A somewhat remarkable circumstance was the extensive advertising work that was done and the great number of petitions presented from prominent persons in favor of the purchase. On account of these petitions and active solicitation, a bill, introduced in the senate, to pay two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the collection and add it to the state library was received with apparent approval, and being referred to the state library committee, was almost immediately reported back favorably. The plan evidently was to rush the project through as fast as possible; but, as soon as inquiries began to be made, objections sprang up. In the assembly, a 1 Senate Journal, 1887, 555, 556; Assembly Journal, 1887, 693, 765.