[p. 58] Chapter VII. Closing Years of Mexican Era. p. 58
For some time ill feeling had been growing between Governor Alvarado and the comandante general, M.G. Vallejo. Each had sent commissions to the Supreme government to present his side of the quarrel. The Supreme government finally decided to combine the civil and military offices in the person of a Mexican officer, and on January 22nd, 1842, Manuel Micheltorena, who had seen service with the Santa Anna in Texas, was appointed to this office. He was to be provided with a sufficient number of troops to prevent the intrusion of foreigners-particularly Americans-into California. The large force promised him finally dwindled down to 300 convicts, known as cholos, who were released from Mexican prisons on condition that they serve in the army.
[p. 58 Gen. M.G. Vallejo, 1908e]
Governor Micheltorena had landed with his ragged cholos at San Diego, in August, and was leisurely marching northward to the capital. On the night of October 24th, he arrived at a point twenty miles north of San Fernando when news reached him of the capture of Monterey by Commodore Jones. The valiant commander and his cholos retreated to San Fernando where they remained until they learned of the restoration of Monterey to the Californians. Then they fell back to Los Angeles. Here, Januaary 20th, 1843, Commodore Jones had a conference with the governor who made some exorbitant demands, among others that the United States government should pay $15,000 to Mexico for the expense incurred in the general alarm and for a set of musical instruments lost in the retreat, and also replace 1,500 uniforms ruined in the violent march. Commodore Jones did not deign an answer to these ridiculous demands; and Micheltorena did not insist upon them. The conference closed with a grand ball-and all the parties were pacified.
Micheltorena took the oath of office at Los Angeles, December 31st, 1842. Speeches were made, salutes wer fired and the city was illuminated for three nights. With his Falstaffian army, the governor remained at Los Angeles until mid-summer. The Angelenos had, for years, contended with the people of Monterey for the capital and had gone to war to gain it. Now that they had [p. 59] the coveted prize, they would gladly have parted with it, by so doing, they could rid themselves of Micheltorena's thieving soldiers. The men were not altogether to blame as their pay was long in arrears and they received but scant supplies of clothing or rations. It was a case of steal, or starve-and they stole.
In August Micheltorena and his cholo contingent reached Monterey. The Californians did not welcome the Mexican governor very heartily.
While indolent and vacillating, he was a man of considerable ability, and began his rule with the intention of improving conditions in California. Education had been sadly neglected both under Spanish and Mexican domination. One of his first attempts was to establish a public school system. Five hundred dollars was appropriated from the public funds for the maintenance of schools in each of the larger towns and arrangements were made for the opening of several schools for girls. Heretofore the public schools had been open only to boys. What was left of the mission estates was restored to the Padres and an earnest effort was made to reconcile sectional animosity, but with all of his efforts to be just and better the condition of California, there was still an undercurrent of hostility to him. Part of this was due to the thieving of his convict soldiers; but a more potent cause was the ambition of certain "hijos del pais" to rule the territory. They blamed the governor for retaining his cholos in the country, claiming that they were kept for the purpose of subjugating, or terrorizing, the natives.
The appointment of Micheltorena to fill both the civil and military offices was a bitter disappointment to Alvarado and Vallejo. They were not long in discovering that much as they hated each other, they hated the Mexican worse. They buried the hatchet and combined with Castro to do what the trio had done before-drive the Mexican governor out of the country. The depredations of the cholos had so embittered the people that they were ready to join the standard of anyone who would head a revolution. On November 15th, 1844, a meeting of the leaders of the dissatisfied was held at Alvarado's Rancho de Aliso, and a pronounciamento against Micheltorena was issued.
Alvarado and Castro headed a body of revolutionists, numbering about thirty, who moved northward to San José, where they were largely reinforced. Micheltorena set out in pursuit of them; after some maneuvering, a treaty was finally effected between the belligerents. Micheltorena pledged his word of honor to send back to Mexico, within three months, his vicious soldiers and officers; while Alvarado and Castro, on their part, agreed to go into winter quarters at San José, with their troops, who were to constitute the military force of the territory after the departure of the convict soldiers. Micheltorena returned to Monterey, but the censure of his officers for the surrender caused him to break his word and secretly plot for the capture of the insurgents. He [p. 60] secured the aid of Captain John A. Sutter, a Swiss gentleman, who had an establishment at New Helvcetia [sic], now Sacramento, and a company of Indians drilled in military maneuvers and the use of arms. Besides his Indians, Sutter secured for Micheltorena the services of a number of foreigners, mostly Americans. Alvarado and Castro learned of the perfidy of Micheltorena through the capture of one of his messengers with a letter to Sutter. Not being prepared to sustain an attack from the combined forces of Micheltorena and Sutter, they hurriedly broke camp at San José and with a portion of their force marched to Los Angeles where they arrived, January, 21st, 1845. They endeavored to fire the southern heart against the governor, but the old animosity was as strong as ever and the southerners regarded with suspicion the friendly advances of their old enemies. The Pico brothers were finally won over and Pio Pico, who was primer-vocal, of the "junta departmental" or assembly, called that body together, to meet at Los Angeles, on January 28th. It declared Micheltorena a traitor to the country who must be deposed.
Sutter with his forces numbering about two hundred men, one hundred of whom were Indians, joined Micheltorena at Salinas early in January. The combined forces-about four hundred-began a leisurely march to the south. The fear of a raid by Micheltorena's cholos and Sutter's Indians had stimulated recruiting in the south, and Castro and Pico soon found themselves at the head of about four hundred men. A commission from Los Angeles met the governor at Santa Barbara on February 7th with propositions for a settlement of the difficulty. He treated the commission with scant respect and offered but one condition-unconditional surrender of the rebels.
A week later the departmental assembly met at Los Angeles and passed resolutions deposing Micheltorena and appointing Pio Pico temporary governor. In the meantime, disgusted with Micheltorena's slow movements, about half of the foreigners in his army deserted. Micheltorena's army moving down by way of Encinas, and Castro's forces advancing from Los Angeles, met on the Cahuenga plain. Artillery firing began at long range and thus continued all day. The foreigners in the respective armies got together in a ravine during the fight and agreed to let the Mexicans and Californians settle their dispute in their own way.
Toward evening, Micheltorena undertook to make a flank movement and marched his troops to the eastward, evidently intending to follow the river down to the city. Castro and Alvarado moved back through the Cahuenga Pass and again encountered the opposing force at the Verdugo rancho. A few cannon shots were fired when Micheltorena displayed a white flag in token of surrender. Terms of capitulation were drawn up by which he and his convict army were to be sent back to Mexico. Pio Pico was recognized as temporary governor and Castro was made commadante general of the military force. As [p. 61] a sedatove to his military pride, Micheltorena was granted permission to march his army to San Pedro with all the honors of war, taking with them their three pieces of artillery, but the guns were to be given up at the embarcadero. The governor and his soldiers were sent to Monterey and there, joined by the garrison that had been stationed at the capital, all were sent to San Blas, Mexico. Captain Sutter was taken prisoner during the battle and was held under arrest for some time after the departure of Micheltorena. He was at length released and allowed to return with his Indians, by way of Tejon Pass and the Tulares, to New Helvetia.
Pio Pico, by virtue of his position as senior vocal of the assembly, became governor, and Castro, in accordance with the treaty of Cahuenga, was comandante general. Alvarado was made administrator of the custom house in Monterey. Thus the "hijos del pais" were once again in power and the factional fight between the "uppers" and the "lowers" was once more declared off. Pico established his government at Los Angeles and that "ciudad," ten years afer the Mexican congress had decreed it the capital, became the seat of government. Castro established his military headquarters at Monterey and José Antonio Carrillo, one of the leaders of the "lowers," was made comandante of the military in the south. Pico began his rule with a desire to benefit the territory. He might have succeeded, had he been able to control the discordant factions.
As has been previously stated, Micheltorena restored, as far as possible, the mission property to the Padres; but it was impossible to establish the old order-even on a small scale. The few Indians remaining at the missons were unmanageable. Through the neglect or incompetency of the administradors, debts had been incurred and creditors were importune. The Padres in charge were mostly old men, unable to cope with the difficulties that beset them on every side. Pico, with the concurrence of the junta, decided to make a change in the mission policy. In June, 1845, he issued a decree, warning the Indians at San Rafael, Soledad, San Miguel and Purisima to return to their respective missions. Failing to do so, they were to be declared vagrants and punished as such. At Carmel, San Juan Bautista, San Juan Capistrano and Solano, where pueblos had been established, the church and the curate's home were to be reserved and the balance of the property sold at auction to pay the debts of the missions. The abandoned missions and the mission pueblos before mentioned were sold in December, 1845, and ten of the missions were rented for a term of nine years. The proceeds of the sale were to be used for the benefit of the Indians and the supoort of the Padres. In those rented, the Indians were at libety to remain in the service of the lessees. A portion of the proceeds were to be used for the support of religious services. The change brought no improvement in the conditions of the neophytes. They sank still lower in degradation, while the mis- [p. 62] sions, deprived of income and of power, ceased to exist. Notwithstanding Pico's efforts to conciliate the discordant elements, it soon became evident that the old spirit of turbulence was still dominant. The first insurrectionary movement originated with José Antonio Carillo, Pico's own brother-in-law. This was suppressed and Carillo and Vareles, one of his auxiliaries, were shipped to Mexico for trial; but were released and returned to California. Castro ignored Pico in military affairs and soon a bitter quarrel was on between the gefe politico and the comandante general.
For a number of years there had been a steady influx of foreigners-mostly Americans. Many of them had married into prominent families and had come by nationalization, Mexican citizens. In 1841, the first train of immigrants arrived in California overland. The immigration over the plains continued to increase after this. The leading Californians saw that it was their manifest destiny to become a territory of the United States. Texas had been wrested from Mexico by the same foreign element that was now invading California. Early in 1846, Castro called a junta of his officers at Monterey. This council issued a pronunciamento declaring hostility to the United States and the members pledged themselves to defend the honor of the Mexican nation against the perfidious attacks of its rivals-the North Americans. In this council, Pico had been ignored and the hostile feelings between the political and military chiefs grew more bitter. Pico had been appointed constitutional governor by President Herrera and, April 18th, 1846, in the presence of the territorial assumbly and a large concourse of people gathered at Los Angeles, he took the oath of office.