CALIFORNIA. 



77 



shot themselves. The settlers continued in 

 quiet possession of the lands after this fatal 

 encounter, the Government refusing to employ 

 troops to eject them. 



The effect of the new Constitution upon 

 business in San Francisco was in many ways 

 injurious. The business of the Mining-Stock 

 Exchange was in great part transferred to 

 other cities, and the loan market, building 

 trade, and other branches whose activity be- 

 tokens the general prosperity of a community, 

 suffered under the effects of laws in which 

 novel discriminations are made against capital. 

 The deterrent influence upon enterprise of the 

 innovations already accomplished and of an- 

 ticipations of further legislation in the same 

 direction, and the locking up and withdrawal 

 of floating capital, began to affect the interests 

 of small tradesmen and other classes who had 

 regarded the agitation of the Workingmen's 

 party with sympathy or indifference. The in- 

 dignation against the Sand-lotters became quite 

 general, and when a Citizens' Protective Union 

 was formed, the hope was frequently expressed 

 that they would put an end to the agitation, 

 by unlawful measures, if lawful means were 

 insufficient. The effect of the new laws upon 

 capital had thrown many laborers out of em- 

 ployment, whose presence in the city, together 

 with the order of the health authorities con- 

 demning the Chinese quarter, and the question 

 of the validity of the act forbidding the em- 

 ployment of Chinese by corporations, pending 

 before the Supreme Court, afforded the Sand- 

 lot agitators material for their extravagant 

 oratory. The vaguely menacing tone of the 

 Sand-lot and ward-club speeches was resented 

 by the citizens of San Francisco and denounced 

 by the press of the country, and the leaders 

 of the Workingmen were freely charged with 

 having produced the depression in San Fran- 

 cisco by their incendiary bearing. There were 

 rumors of impending riots, and the fact that 

 such fears could arise was alleged as an excuse 

 for breaking up the obnoxious agitation by 

 violent means. The Council of Two Hundred 

 of the Citizens' Union had no intention, how- 

 ever, of exceeding the provisions of the law. 

 Their first measures were to strengthen the 

 resources of the city for the suppression of 

 riots by providing the police with firearms, in- 

 creasing the stock of weapons in the armories, 

 and improving the discipline of the militia. 

 The Workingmen in turn procured arms and 

 practiced military drill; but it soon became 

 apparent that they were determined, like their 

 opponents, to keep strictly within the limits 

 of the law. After several weeks of watchful 

 inactivity, Kearney, the leader of the Labor 

 party, was arrested at the instigation of the 

 Council on the charge of having broken certain 

 of the city ordinances by using profane and 

 threatening language in an invective against a 

 manufacturer named Spreckels, a member of 

 the Council of Two Hundred. He was tried 

 by Police-Justice Rix, and, having waived a 



jury, was found guilty of the misdemeanor by 

 the Judge, March 16th, and sentenced to six 

 months' imprisonment in the House of Correc- 

 tion and to pay a fine of one thousand dol- 

 lars, this being the extreme penalty of the law. 

 The sentence was confirmed when brought 

 up before the full bench on a writ of habeas 

 corpus, the Court holding that it could not 

 review the decision of one of its members. 

 Kearney had been convicted under an ordi- 

 nance of the Board of Supervisors making it a 

 misdemeanor to "address to another or utter 

 in the presence of another any words, language, 

 or expression having a tendency to create a 

 breach of the peace." The case was carried 

 before the State Supreme Court, sitting in full 

 bench, May 27th, on a writ of habeas corpus, 

 and the decision of the Police Court was re- 

 versed. The Court declared, in its opinion, 

 against the doctrine of any judge or jury by 

 ordinance being allowed to say what they deem 

 language calculated to create a breach of the 

 public peace, and that such doctrine infringes 

 constitutional right and the liberty of speech. 

 It held that while the reasonableness of the or- 

 dinance is in doubt, its want of harmony with 

 general State laws is also a serious question. 

 It held that the Police Court of San Francisco 

 is an inferior court, and that all jurisdictional 

 facts must appear in its records affirmatively. 

 It was the intent of the ordinance, even if all 

 other objections to it be waived, that the words 

 which constitute the offense shall be uttered, 

 not only of another, but in his presence. In 

 this case it is not averred that the words 

 were uttered in the presence of the person 

 denounced. 



The next manifestation in the movement 

 was the impeachment of Rev. I. S. Kalloch, 

 Mayor of the city, who had been elected the 

 preceding year on the Workingmen's ticket, by 

 the Board of Supervisors. The charges were 

 all of a vague and general import, specifying 

 nothing which legally amounts to malfeasance. 

 The Superior Court was, therefore, obliged to 

 dismiss the case without argument, on the same 

 day on which Kearney obtained his release. 



In the mean time the Citizens' Union had or- 

 ganized a political party in opposition to the 

 Workingmen, and placed a ticket for city offi- 

 cers in the field, which, in the charter election, 

 held in April, defeated the Workingmen's nom- 

 inees. There was a question raised as to the 

 legality of the count, owing to the fact that 

 the Citizens' ballots differed somewhat in the 

 thickness and color of the paper from the 

 Workingmen's, which had been procured from 

 the State Secretary, when the Constitution re- 

 quires uniformity; but the election was not 

 contested. In the Presidential campaign a di- 

 vision occurred in the Workingmen's party, a 

 part of them following Kearney, who identified 

 himself with the Greenback party, while a 

 larger number, including Mayor Kalloch, voted 

 with the Democrats. A sequel to the attempt 

 to assassinate Kalloch in the preceding year by 



