March, 1852.
When I arrived at San Francisco, I found the authorities very busy altering the grades of the streets, and covering them with planks.
As the rear of the town had been built on sand, at an elevation of some twenty feet above the new grade, the houses there had soon the appearance of being built on the edge of a dry ravine, into which most of them tumbled one by one. These house-slips would generally take place by night, but as the buildings were of the band-box style of architecture no harm was done when one of them rolled down the hill, further than an awful smashing of the domestic crockery. Those tenements that outlived this trying season, were seized with a panic, and changed their quarters.
Some were raised bodily by means of lever screws, and being placed on rollers, were pushed and hauled into a position of safety, whilst the very small ones were removed down the ravine by the help of half-a-dozen yoke of oxen, and were planted somewhere else; but the appearance of these was so far marred by this operation, that they presented ever afterwards a crushed appearance, and the two front windows seemed to squint.
The Americans are very clever at raising houses and removing them; I have often seen one prised from one side of the street to the other without injury, and a house that I have since inhabited in San Francisco, was raised bodily four feet, to correspond with the new grade, without in any way interfering with our internal arrangements. Brick houses have thus been raised and a new basement built under them; but one peculiarity is apparent after all is completed, that the doors and windows that have been left open cannot be afterwards shut, and those that have been shut cannot, by the same rule, be opened.
I was present at more than one of the general elections at San Francisco, and in connection with this ceremony lies one of the greatest drawbacks of the country.
Setting aside the means by which governors and legislators are brought into office by a majority of votes, I will take the case alone of the elected judges of the state of California. Many who have barely a knowledge of common law, here come forward for the office of judge, and are elected—how, it matters not—but such men have been elevated to the bench, and once there, have detracted as much from its dignity as men well could. Murderers passed and re-passed before them unpunished, and this in part gave rise to the actions of the Vigilance Committee.
It has been unfortunate for California that the elections have been long controlled by a dishonest class, the least likely to support such candidates as would place a check upon crime; however, the press of the country and the people, are fully alive to the existence of this evil,[27] and it is possible that before long, the Judiciary will be appointed by the governor and senate, when good men, of whom there are plenty, will come forward for office.
It has been very difficult to get a jury to convict a murderer in this country; I am puzzled to say why, for self-interest would dictate an unusual degree of severity—still the fact stands, that in twelve hundred murders, but two men have been publicly executed. One man acting under jealousy, ill-founded as it appeared on trial, walked up behind his victim in the street, and then and there blew his brains out; yet the jury would not convict this man, and he was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment only.
The judge should not have been bound by such a verdict, for either the man was guilty of cold-blooded murder, or was altogether innocent.