Under the colorless title Three Years in California was published in 1850 the diary of Walter Colton, elected Alcalde of Monterey in 1846, who, during his term of office presented what was, for that day, a singular spectacle of tolerance, humanity and purity of administration. He can, indeed, be reasonably compared with Judge Lindsey in the courage and originality displayed in his dealings with the criminal cases brought before him.
Colton's work in Monterey succeeded a period spent as editor of the Philadelphia North American, and he established later The Californian, the first newspaper published in California.
The office of the Alcalde combined administrative and judicial functions and, not seldom, even legislative ones. Colton was oppressed by his power and its responsibility. "Such absolute disposal of questions affecting property and personal liberty," he observes, "never ought to be confided to one man. There is not a judge on any bench in England or the United States whose power is so absolute as that of the Alcalde of Monterey." But he brought to his work in all its details an unflagging zeal and constant personal attention which made his administration unique in the history of the time.
In minor matters, where, as he says, "the Alcalde is himself the law," Colton devised methods of appealing to the better instincts of the wrongdoer. "There is a string in every man's breast," he writes, "which, if you can rightly touch, will 'discourse music.'" Colton, we see from his diary, put a sensitive finger on this string in many a heart.
His ideas of punishment belong to the present. "It is difficult," he says, "to discriminate between offences which flow from moral hardihood and those which result in a measure from untoward circumstances. There is a wide difference between the two; and an Alcalde under the Mexican law has a large scope in which to exercise his sense of moral justice. Better to err a furlong with mercy than a fathom with cruelty. Unmerited punishment never yet reformed its subject; to suppose it is a libel on the human soul."
The following extracts from his account of cases brought before him are representative:
"A lad of fourteen years was brought before me today charged with stealing a horse. The evidence of the larceny was conclusive, but what punishment to inflict was the question. We have no house of correction, and to sentence him to the ball and chain on the public works, among hardened culprits, was to cut off all hope of amendment and inflict an indelible stigma on the youth; so I sent for the father, who had no good reputation himself, and placing a riata in his hand, directed him to inflict twenty-four lashes on his thieving boy. He proceeded as far as twelve, when I stopped him; they were enough. They seemed inflicted by one attempting to atone in this form for his own transgressions. 'Inflict the rest, Soto, on your own evil example; if you had been upright yourself, you might expect truth and honesty in your boy. You are more responsible than this lad for his crime; you can never chastise him into the right path, and continue yourself to travel in the wrong.'"
"Today I remitted the sentence of my prison cook. He is a Mulatto, a native of San Domingo; had drifted into California, was attached in a subordinate capacity to Colonel Fremont's battalion; and while the troops were quartered in town had robbed the drawer of a liquor shop of two hundred dollars. For this offence I had sentenced him to two years on the public works. Discovering early some reliable traits about the fellow, ... I soon made him cook to the rest of the prisoners, and allowed him the privilege of the town, so far as his duties in that capacity were required.... I have trusted him with money to purchase provisions, and he has faithfully accounted for every shilling. He has always been kind and attentive to the sick. For these faithful services I have remitted the remainder of his sentence, which would have confined him nine months longer, and have put him on a pay of thirty dollars per month as cook."
The Alcalde settled family difficulties of all varieties, from the case of the grown son who struck his mother to that of the man who wanted a divorce because of suspicions he entertained of his wife's conduct during his absence in Mexico. The judge questioned the plaintiff severely as to his own behavior during the stay in Mexico, and convinced him that the wife, though indiscreet, was too good for him.