nately he was addicted to strong drink and too often, when his head should have been clear, acted under its influence. This habit seems to have grown upon him and in the course of a few years undermined his otherwise vigorous and robust constitution. Though never, properly speaking, insane, his mind became affected and he did things for which he could hardly be said to be responsible. As his health began to give way, he imagined that he was going to die a horrible death and at least once, and according to some accounts several times, attempted to commit suicide. He died in San Francisco on March 30, 1866, from a stroke of apoplexy.'

'San Francisco newspapers of March 31, 1866.

CHAPTER III.

BIGLER.

OHN BIGLER, the third state governor, was born near Carlisle in Pennsylvania on January 8, 1805. He belonged to a family of talent, which gave a governor to its native state as well as to California. He became a printer by occupation, but soon rose to be an editor and then studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1840. In 1849, having in the meanwhile married and had a daughter, he came out overland, accompanied by wife and child, to the far-off Pacific and settled at Sacramento. At first he turned his attention to almost anything that offered employment, at one time doing odd jobs, at another unloading steamboats at the landing, at another cutting wood and at another crying goods at auction. He was quick-witted, goodnatured, fond of company, ready and glib of tongue and had persuasive powers; while at the same time he was rather low in his tastes, unrefined in his conversation and slovenly in his dress. These qualities and a remarkable degree of energy, pliancy and ability to seize advantage of circumstances fitted him to take up the trade of politics and were of great avail in the rough surroundings of the early mining times; and he almost from his start in California put himself upon that path and with considerable success pursued it for the remainder of his life.

At the first election under the constitution in 1849, he became a candidate for the assembly from the Sacramento district; but the returns showed him to have been beaten by W. B. Dickenson. When the legislature met, however, he contested Dickenson's right to the office; and a special committee on contested elections with Edmund Randolph as chairman having reported in his favor, he was seated in Dickenson's place. On January 10, 1850, he was elected speaker pro tempore of the house by a

vote of seventeen as against two for Alexander P. Crittenden; and on February 6, 1850, upon the resignation of Thomas J. White as speaker, he was unanimously elected in his place. At the next election, in the autumn of 1850, he was returned to the assembly from Sacramento county and at the first meeting of that body on January 6, 1851, was again with practical unanimity chosen speaker. These votes showed that he was not only an excellent presiding officer, well versed in parliamentary rules and practice, but also a popular man and of course what was called a staunch Democrat. It was in the course of his service as such speaker that he joined forces with David C. Broderick and thereby formed a very strong political partnership, in which each was very helpful to the other; and it was in great part owing to this arrangement that, after the adjournment of the legislature of 1851, he was nominated to the office of governor and, as has been seen, elected, though by a very small majority and that subject to some dispute, over Pearson B. Reading.1

On January 8, 1852, in presence of the two houses of the legislature which had declared him duly elected, after being sworn into office, Bigler delivered his inaugural address. After a few preliminary remarks, he said that no state could prosper so long as its counsels were governed by schemes of speculation and private aggrandizement and no community flourish under the influence of a wild, vacillating and unsettled policy. California had been, perhaps, more unfortunate in this respect than any of the other states of the Union. It should be his purpose, so far as the executive arm could reach the evil, to apply the remedy. It was better, he continued, to adhere to the principles and systems exemplified in the practice of the other states, which had been sustained by time and tested by experience, than follow after ideal and imaginary good. The highways, which had been successfully trodden in the other states, might be safely and prudently pursued by California. So long as American precedents were adopted and adhered to, there would be no need to blush on account of plagiarisms. He was a believer in the wisdom of the aphorism "that the fewer and plainer the laws by which a people are governed, the better." There was much Journals of Legislature, 1850, 581, 582, 647, 780; 1851, 778.

truth in the remark "that danger to popular government is to be apprehended from being governed too much." Few laws, well directed, would effect more good than numberless statutes, restraining, fettering and interfering with private enterprise. The greatest liberty consistent with good government was the true principle of republicanism and would contribute most to the development of the resources and energies of a people.

The country was rapidly advancing. But a short time had passed since the people were roving and unsettled and were "dwellers in tents;" the valleys were wild and unbroken by the plow, and even the cities were only places of temporary sojourn. Now the prospect was changed; the valleys began to teem with the rich products of agriculture; and on every side neat and comfortable dwellings, surrounded by well-cultivated farms, were to be met with. The greatest strength and wealth of a state consisted in its hardy yeomanry. He was in favor of the most liberal policy towards those who led the way in bringing into subjection the unsettled lands of the wilderness and would. use every exertion to obtain an extension of the pre-emption and donation system over the state. The mechanical arts were also to be encouraged. But commerce was, in this country, of native growth and required no stimulus, save that of free trade and unrestricted competition. The mines, also, should be left as free as the air and no proposition to lease or sell them should for a moment be entertained. The inevitable tendency of such a policy would be to establish monopolies, which more than anything else would serve to paralyze the energies of the most enterprising and the enterprise of the most energetic class of men the world had ever seen. In diversified capabilities-commercial, agricultural, grazing, mining and manufacturing-California might challenge the world to present a parallel. Nowhere else were combined so many elements of greatness. But in working out the problem of national greatness, all the efforts of government could exercise only an auxiliary influence. The true components of greatness were in the people-in their economy, their industry, integrity, intelligence and prudence. And upon them, in the main, must reliance be placed. There was a passion for wealth and luxury abroad, than which nothing could be more

inimical to the purity and stability of republican government. The destructive tendency of those vices was one of the lessons of history. When a people become so enamored of gold as to gloss guilt and bid ignorance become clothed in the garb of wealth, then virtue and wisdom, the only true and stable pillars of the commonwealth, begin to totter and the reins of power to lapse into the hands of the inefficient and dishonest.

In conclusion-and it was the main point of all his remarks— he approached the slavery question. He said that those who opposed the spread of slavery were governed by a spirit of disaffection towards the Union and a disposition to interfere with the affairs and domestic institutions of other states. Those who indulged such dangerous sentiments entirely mistook the object of the confederation and the true duties of good citizens. It was not the part of the people, as politicans, to become the fanatical propagandists of mere moral tenets. The Union was formed for no such purpose, but for the mutual protection of each state in such form of republican government and such domestic regulations as each might choose to adopt. He hoped that California would always be found the earnest and unwavering friend and advocate of union, devoting its energies sedulously and exclusively to the modeling and development of its own domestic institutions and freely permitting to others the enjoyment of the same high privilege. The storm, brought about by the opponents of slavery, which had lately agitated the country and well-nigh razed to its foundations the most glorious of civil governments, had not yet ceased to howl. As for the people of California, devoted as they were to the national institutions, it was scarcely necessary to affirm that they were in full accord with and warmly approved the compromise measures, which had been adopted by congress for the purpose of preserving the peace and integrity of the Union. As for himself, the first executive chosen by the people of the state since its admission into the Union, he was pledged to exercise all the power vested in him to enforce obedience to the requirements of those measures; and it was a duty which he cheerfully assumed and would promptly discharge.'

Lieutenant-governor Purdy, when inducted on the same day 1 Senate Journal, 1852, 28-31.