Dawn and the Dons/THE CRY OF GOLD
CHAPTER XVII
THE CRY OF GOLD
AMID such scenes of happiness and content were these people living when, suddenly, the cry of “Gold!” startled the world, and for a brief space the fever that spread over the earth laid hold of Monterey. But not for long. The lure of gold was never strong among its people, and if to gain this precious metal they must abandon the pleasures, the customs and the habits which for the greater part of a century had brought them continued happiness and content; and if in addition they must leave the loved environment that had become a part of their lives, then others might have the gold. What need had they for gold anyway? They already had what they wanted, and all they wanted. And so Monterey went back to her happy, care-free life; to her sunny skies and verdant hills; to her sounding surf and enchanted ravines; to her merry making and her love making; and again she was content. It had another flutter when the Argonauts of California assembled at Monterey in September, 1849, to frame
a constitution preliminary to seeking statehood for the new Eldorado. There were forty-eight delegates, and they went about their work with dignity and ability.
This is the more surprising as they were mostly young men, and were overwhelmed with the generous hospitality of Monterey. There were a few native Californians among the delegates, the most notable being General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo of Sonoma, born at Monterey. He was a man of exceptional ability, and had long been a staunch and loyal friend of the United States. Captain John A. Sutter of Sutter’s Fort was a delegate, and Dr. Robert Baylor Semple, a towering Kentuckian of Bear Flag fame, presided.
Bayard Taylor, world-famous
traveler, was in Cali-
fornia on one of his extensive tours, and went to Monte-
rey to witness the deliberations of this unusual assemblage. In his account of what he saw and heard he expressed surprise at the dignity and ability displayed, the parliamentary decorum observed, and the generous yielding of individual, racial and sectional differences. Of the delegates composing the convention, some had come from the free states of the north, some from the
slave states of the south, some from the frontier western prairies, and some were native Californians. Commenting after adjournment upon the convention, Taylor says, “Where was there ever a body convened under such peculiar circumstances?
Where was ever such harmony evolved out of so wonderful, so dangerous, so magnificent a chaos?
The elements of which the convention was composed were no less various, and in some respects antagonistic, than those combined in the mining population. The questions they had to settle were often perplexing from the remarkable position of the country, and the absence of all precedent. Besides, many of them were men unused to legislation. Some had for years past known no other life than that of the camp; others had nearly forgotten all law in the wild life of the mountains; others, again, were familiar only with that practiced under the rule of a different race. Yet the courtesies of debate have never been wantonly violated, and the result of every conflict of opinion has been a quiet acquiescence on the part of the minority. Now, at the conclusion, the only feeling is that of general joy and congratulation.”
It would be interesting to know how much of this gratifying result was due to the calm, deliberative mind of the Anglo-Saxon, and how much to the kindness, the hospitality and the social amenities heaped upon the delegates by the people of Monterey. The convention was held in Colton Hall, a rather fine building for that time, built by Walter Colton while Alcalde of Monterey. Of the origin and architecture of this building, he says in an entry of March 8, 1849, “The town-hall, on which
I have been at work for more than a year, is at last finished. It is built of a white stone quarried from a neighboring hill, and which easily takes the shape you desire. The lower apartments are for schools; the hall over them —seventy feet by thirty—is for public assemblies. The front is ornamented by a portico, which you enter from the hall. It is not an edifice which would attract any attention among public buildings in the United States, but in California it is without-a rival. It has been erected out of the slender proceeds of town lots, the labor of the convicts, taxes on liquor shops, and fines on gamblers.
“The scheme was regarded with incredulity by many; but the building is finished, and the citizens have assembled in it and christened it after my name, which will now go down to posterity with the odor of gamblers, convicts and tipplers. I leave it as an humble evidence of what may be accomplished by rigidly adhering to one purpose, and shrinking from no personal effort necessary to its achievement.”
Colton Hall still stands, an
historic monument to the birth of a great state. California’s admission to the union soon followed, and a Mexican province became an American commonwealth. And thus the “Gringo” came. And he proceeded at once to change the social and industrial complexion of California. He swarmed over her mountains and through her canyons in his feverish search for gold. He drove the flocks and herds from her fertile valleys, and planted grains and fruits. He introduced strange customs, and insisted on people paying for things. The lotus land of the cavalier was yielding to the spirit of commercial adventure, save here and there where old Spain lingered on, as at Monterey.