THE KEARNEY AGITATION IN CALIFORNIA. 443 



and keep out their enemies, as they aim to use, and generally succeed 

 in using, all parties, and men of high social standing did not hesitate, 

 when it served their purpose, to furnish points and matter for sand-lot 

 harangues, or to speak at meetings which Kearney and his gang had 

 captured ; for, until they met a very warm reception at a Democratic 

 meeting, they arrogated to themselves the right to interrupt and "hull- 

 doze " any meeting that did not suit them. 



Kearney had quickly come to the head of the movement, changing 

 his first place of secretary for that of president shortly after taking to 

 the sand-lot, and having, by the time he and his companions emerged 

 from jail in triumph, got so well to the head as to become in the popu- 

 lar eye its representative and embodiment. lie showed great address 

 in keeping the place. The organization which he managed to give the 

 new party was admirably designed for this purpose. The weekly as- 

 semblage on the sand-lot, where anybody could shout and vote, was 

 recognized as the great parliament and plebiscitum, and in the State 

 conventions, in which the country as well as the city clubs were repre- 

 sented, the supremacy of the city clubs was provided for by the inter- 

 diction of proxies. As president of the party (something new in 

 American politics, but an idea probably borrowed from the Commit- 

 tee of Public Safety), Kearney was anything but a mere figure-head. 

 He has seemed to see, as clearly as any philosophical student of history 

 has seen, the true spring and foundation of arbitrary power the con- 

 nection between Coesar and the proletariate. 



He appeared on all occasions in rough working-dress ; he announced 

 that he would take no office, but, as soon as he had led the people to a 

 victory, he would go back to his dray, and must in the mean time be 

 supported by collections, for which he passed around the hat at every 

 meeting. These things, the style of his oratory, the prominence he 

 had attained, his energy, tact, and temperance, gave him command of 

 that floating element which will travel around to the most meetings 

 and do the loudest shouting. And, commanding this, he commanded 

 his party. 



Presiding at the sand-lot, he claimed the right to say who should 

 speak and to put all questions, and, traveling around from club to club, 

 accompanied by a crowd of admiring followers, who voted just as the 

 Parisian rabble did in the Revolutionary clubs and conventions, he took 

 possession wherever he went. Availing himself of the feeling against 

 politicians and political chicanery, he declared parliamentary law to be 

 political trickery, and put motions as he pleased, or didn't put them at 

 all, and for him to denounce any mutineer as a politician was to doom 

 him to immediate " firing out." This was the fate, one after the other, 

 of all the men who had begun with him the agitation, and of all those 

 who from time to time began to gain any prominence which might 



could not harm them, while a confidential attorney of large moneyed interests has been 

 the reputed confidential adviser of Kearney. 



