[p. 49] Chapter V. Revolution and Secularization. p. 49
Manuel Victoria succeeded Echandia as gefge politico of Alta California in January 1831. Victoria was a soldier, arbitrary and tyrannical, and refused to convoke the diputacion or territorial assembly. From the outset he was involved in quarrels with the leading men of the territory. Exiles, imprisonment and banishment were meted out to small offences and sometimes for none at all. At length José Antonio Carrillo and Don Abel Stearns, who had been exiled to Lower California with Juan Bandini and Pio Pico, residents of San Diego, formulated a plot for the overthrow of Victoria, and issued a promounciamento arraigning him for misdeeds and petty tyrannies. The soldiers at the presidio, with their Captain, Portilla, joined the revolt, and with the leading conspirators, and fifty men marched northward. At Los Angeles they released the prisoners from the jail and chained up instead Alcalde Sanchez, the petty despot of the pueblo who had been very ready to carry out the arbitrary decrees of Victoria.
The San Diego army, augmented by the liberated prisoners and volunteers from Los Angeles, to the number of 150 men, marched out to meet Victoria, who with a small force was moving southward to suppress the rebellion. The two armies met west of Los Angeles in the Cahuenga valley. In the fight that ensued José Maria Avila, who had been imprisoned by Victoria's orders in the pueblo jail, charged single-handed upon the governor himself. He killed Captain Pacheco, of Victoria's staff and dangerously wounded the governor himself. Avila was killed by one of Victoria's men. Victoria's army retired with the wounded governor to San Gabriel mission and the revolutionists retired to Los Angeles. Next day, the governor, who supposed himself mortally wounded, abdicated; later he was deported to Mexico. Pio Pico, senior vocal of the diputacion, was elected gefe-politico by that body, but Echandia on account of his military rank, claimed the office and Pico, for the sake of peace, did not insist upon his rights.
Echandia did not long enjoy in peace the office obtained by threats. Captain Augustin V. Zamorano, late secretary of the deported Victoria, raised an army of [p. 50] about one hundred men, some of whom were cholos, or convicts, which under the command of Captain Ibarra marched southward and met no opposition until it reached El Paso de Bartolo, on the San Gabriel river. Here Captain Barrosa, of Echandia's force, with fourteen men and a piece of artillery stopped the onward march of the invaders. Echandia had gathered an army of neophytes, said to have been a thousand strong. On the approach of this body, Ibarra's men retreated to Santa Barbara. The diputacion, which was really the only legal authority in the country, finally effected a compromise between the two rivals. Echandia was to be recognized as militrary chief for the country south of San Gabriel and Zamorano for all territory north of San Fernando, while Pico, who by virtue of his rank as senior-vocal, was the lawful governor was left without jurisdiction. After this adjustment there was peace.
On January 14th, 1833, José Figueroa, "gobernador proprietario" of Alta California by appointment of the Supreme government of Mexico, arrived at Monterey. Zamorano at once turned over to him whatever authority he had and Echandia did the same. Figueroa was Mexican born, of Aztec descent, and is regarded as one of the ablest and most efficient of our Mexican governors. He instituted a policy of concilation and became very popular with the people. He inaugurated a number of reforms, especially in the treatmento of the neophytes and in his attention to the conditions of secularization, which took place during his term of office. Antoher important event of this time was the arrival of the Hijar colonists.
In 1833, Jose Maria Hijar, a Mexican gentleman of considerable property, aided by Jose Maria Padres, set about organizing a scheme for the founding of an extensive colony in California. Each settler was promised a ranch and was to receive rations to the amount of four reales per day with a certain amount of live stock and tools. All to be repaid later from the products of the farm. A corporation known as the "Compania Cosmopolitana" was organized for the purpose of buying vessels and carrying on a shipping business between Mexico and California. About 250 colonists were recruited and left the City of Mexico for San Blas where they wer to be given free passage. One of the vessels bringing them landed at San Diego, September 1st, 1834, and the other reached Monterey, September 25th.
Hijar had succeeded in securing an appointment as gefe-politico; but after his departure for California, President Santa Anna countermanded the order and sent a courier overland by the way of Sonora with an order to Figueroa not to give up the governorship. By one of the most remarkable rides in history, the courier reached Monterey before Hijar, and delivered his message to Governor Figueroa. Hijar, on his arrival at the capital found himself shorn of all authority. Part of the scheme of Hijar and Padres was the sub-division of the mission property among themselves and their colonists. But the revoca- [p. 51] tion of his commission deprived him of his power to enforce his plans. An attempt was made to form a settlement at San Francisco Solano, but was not successful and many of the colonists returned to Mexico, while the remainder were scattered about the territory. Hijar and Padres were accused of instigating a plot to overthrow Figueroa and seize the mission property. They were shipped out of the country and thus ended in disaster to the promoters the first California colonization scheme.
The missions had been founded by Spain for the purpose of converting the Indians to the "holy faith" and transforming them into citizens. The natives residing between the Coast Range and the ocean from San Diego to San Francisco had been gathered into the different mission establishments, each of which held in possession, in trust, for its neophyte retainers, large areas of the most fertile lands in the territory. This absorbtion of the public domain by the missions prevented the colonization of the country by white settlers.
The first decree of secularization was passed by the Spanish Cortes in 1831; but Spain was then engaged in a death struggle with her American colonies and she had neither power nor opportunity to enforce it. In July, 1830, the territorial diputacion adopted a plan of secularization formulated by Echandia in 1828; but before it could be carried out, he was superseded by Victoria who was a friend of the padres and strongly opposed to secularization. Governor Figueroa was instructed to examine into the condition of the neophytes and report upon the best method of bringing about a gradual emancipation of the Indians from missionary rule. He visited some of the older missions himself and, after careful study, was convinced that any general measure of secularization would be disastrous to the neophytes. A few might be given their liberty and entrusted with prooerty; but the great mass of them were incapable of self-government or self support.
In the meantime, the Mexican Congress, without waiting for the information from Figueroa as to the advisability of the step, ordered the immediate emancipation of the neophytes. August 17th, 1833, a decree was passed ordering the secularization of all the missions. It was provided that each mission should constitute a parish, served by a priest, or curate, who should be paid a salary. The Franciscans and Dominicans who had taken the oath of allegience to the republic were to return to their colleges or monasteries; while those who refused to take the oath of allegiance were to quit the country,. The expense of putting the decree into operation was to be paid out of the "Pious Fund." The Pious Fund of California was made up of contributions for the founding and maintenance of missions in the Californias. It was begun for the benefit of the missions of Lower California, in 1697, and increased until it amounted to one and a half million dollars, in 1842. It was confiscated by the Mexican government; but after long litigation the money was finally awarded to the Catholic church of California by the Hague Tribuanal of 1902.
[p. 52] Figueroa and the territorial diputacion, under instructions from the Supreme Government, June 31, 1834, adopted a plan for the secularization of the missions and the colonization of the neophytes into pueblos. Each head of a family was to receive from the mission lands a lot not more than 500 nor less than 100 varas square. One half of the cattle and one half of the farming implements and seed grains were to be diviided pro rata among those receiving lands for cultivation. Out of the proceeds of the remaining property which was to be placed under a major domo, the salaries of the administrator and the priest in charge of the church were to be paid. No one could sell or incumber his land or slaughter cattle-except for subsistence. The government of the Indian pueblo was to be administered the same as that of the other pueblos in the territory. Before the plan of the diputacion had been promulgated, Figueroa had experimented with the neophytes of the San Juan Capistrano mission and a pueblo had been organized there. For a time it promised to be a success but ended in a failure.
For years the threat of secularization had hung over the missions, but heretofore something had always occurred to avert it. When it became evident that the blow would fall, the missionaries determined to save something for themselves. There were, on the various mission ranges, in 1833, nearly half a million head of cattle. San Gabriel, the richest of the missions had over fifty thousand head. Thousands of these were slaughtered on shares for their hides alone and the carcasses left on the ground to rot. So terrible was the stench arising that the ayuntamiento of Los Angeles, in 1834, passed an ordinance compelling every one slaughtering cattle for the hides to cremate the carcasses. The disputacion finally issued a reglamento prohibiting the wholesale destruction of the mission cattle. What remained of the mission property was inventoried by commissioners appointed by the governor and a certain portion distributed to the Indians of the pueblo into which the missions had been converted. The property was soon wasted; for the Indian was improvident and indolent and took no thought for the morrow. His property soon passed out of his hands and he became virtually the slave of the white man.
Governor Figueroa died at San Juan Bautista, September 29, 1835 and was buried in the mission church at Santa Barbara, with much ceremony. He was called the "Benefactor of California." Before his death, he had resigned his political command to José Castro, primer-vocal of the disputacion, who held the office for four months. By order of the Supreme Government, he delivered it over to Col. Nicholas Guiterrez, who held the military command of the territory, until the arrival in May, 1836, of Mariano Chico, the regularly appointed "gobernador proprietario." Chico was a man of inordinate self-conceit and of but little common sense. He very soon secured the ill-will of the Californians. Shortly before his arrival a vigilance committee, or as it was called by its organizers, "Junta Defensora de la Seguridad Publica," the first ever formed [p. 53] in the territory, had taken from the legal authorities at Los Angeles, two criminals, under arrest for the murder of the woman's husband, and had executed them by shooting them to death. This violation of law greatly enraged Governor Chico and one of his first acts on taking office was to sentd Col. Guiterrez with troops to Los Angeles to punish the vigilantes. Victor Prudon, the presdent of the Junta Defensora, Manuel Argaza, the secretary, and Francisco Aranjo, the military officer who had commanded the members of the Junta, were arrested and committed to prison until such time as the governor could come to Los Angeles and try them. He came in June and after heaping abuse and threats upon them, finally pardoned the three leaders of the "Defenders of Public Security." Then he quarreled with Manuel Requena, the alcalde of Los Angeles, who had opposed the vigilantes, and threatened to imprison him. He returned to Monterey where he was soon afterward involved in a disgraceful scandal which ended in his placing the alcalde of that town under arrest. The people, disgusted with him, arose en mass assuming a threatening attitude. Alarmed for his safety, Chico took passage for Mexico and California was rid of him, after three months of his rule. Before his departure he turned over the political and military command of the territory to Col. Gutierrez.
[p. 53 Mexican Custom House, Monterey, p. 53, 1908a, 1908e ]
Guiterrez, like Chico, was a man of violent temper. It was not long before he was involved in a quarrel that eventually put an end to his official career. In his investigation of governmental affairs at Monterey, he charged fraud against Angel Ramirez, the administrator, and Juan Bautista Alvarado, the auditor, of the custom house. Volleys of words were fired by both sides adn Gutierrez threatened to put th two officials in irons. This was an insult that Alvarado, young, proud and hot-blooded, could not endure in silence, He left the capital and with José Castro, at San Juan, began preparation for a revolt against the governor. His quarrel with Gutierrez was not the sole cause of his fomenting a revolution. He was president of the diputacion and the governor had treated that body with disrespect, or at least, the members, of whom Castro was one, so claimed. General Vallejo was invited to take command of the revolutionary movement but, while he sympathized with the cause, he did not enlist in it.
[p. 54] News of the projected uprising spread rapidly. Castro and Alvarado without much effort soon collected an army of seventy-five Californians. They also secured the services of an auxillary force of twenty-five Americans-hunters and trappers-under the command of Graham, a backwoodsman from Tennessee. With this force they marched to Monterey, and by a strategetic [sic] movement captured the castillo. The revolutionists demanded the surrender of the presidio and the arms. Upon the refusal of the governor a shot from the cannon of the castillo crashed through the roof of the comandante's house and scattered Gutierrez and his staff. This-and the desertion of most of his soldiers-brought the governor to terms. November 5, 1836, he surrendered the presidio and resigned his office. With about seventy of his adherents, he was placed on board a vessel in the harbor and a few days later departed for Mexico.