Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-02-12
SPEECH OF HON. G. L. JOHNSON,
Delivered in the State Senate Tuesday,
February 8, 1881.

f@'--0'N
Mr.. JOHNSON said
propose, Mr. President. to comply with the re-
quest made by the Senator from the Thirteenth tAr
Enos) that shall speak first upon this bill, so as to
enable him to reply to what few feeble remarks
might make in reference TO the matter. | also de.
sire to say that trust the Senator from Marin VIII
not leave the Senate Chamber until he has heard
portion Of my remarks, because ne VIII undoubtedly
he called tlpOn TO explain at least some matters TO
which may call attention IN this debate. NOW, MI
President, at the outset permit me to say that IN
the consideration of this bill that IN the Votesl nave
given or shall give upon TINS measure, occupy
somewhat Of peculiar and abnormal position. AS
said apOn the floor Of the Senate at the last session,
in the opening of the speech that l intended TO
deliver, but which sickness compelled me 10 cutshort
was not then in favor OF the bill as II stood, and 1
simply voted for il as an experimental measure
] desire to say that l am not III favor OF TINS
debris Act, SO called as it stands; that personally
l would wish 10 have it either changed or wiped
from the books and other acts take its place, and
that nv ideas upon this subject are sOmeWfat IN &C
cord with those Of the Senator from Santa Cara (Mr
Baker, and that Ike him, shall endeavor to carry
out the views Of my mmedat constituents, residents
in Sacramento city and county, upon this important
and overshadowlng issue. My personal views upon
this question are FREELY these. Had | the power TO
shape the legislation OF this Senate and Assembly
would prepare bill containing two propositions, anu
two only. One would be that from this time hence
forward no hydraul or other miner should be per-
mit'ed TO the tailngS OF his mine INTO or upon
any stream Of water within the State OF California;
III.
take the work OF eveeing the rivers OF the State
and dredging out their channels so as TO rest re the
rivers TO their normal condition before hydraulic
mining was carried on in the State OF California.
There is my position upon the question. Therefore
| have offered the amendments which have intro
duced to the Senate, and which have been voted
down by the solid vote of Senator's who favor the
repealof the so-called Debris Act, and who are men
who have pretended thing and who have acted
another. Who come here with the bills which they
themselves introduced come here making long
speeches to the Committee on Irrigation, making
long speeches to reporters OF newspapers outside OF
the Senate Chamber and, if | may use the express
sion bowling of their luminosity TO the hydraulic
miner, and when asked TO vote upon the question,
which they say they favor take refuge in voting no.
The Senator from YolO (dr. Harlan) mas introduced
these very bills, and | have copied them into the
amendment. introduced, word for word, from the
bills introduced by him.
Mr.. Harian-lf these bills were introduced and
came up here aparateiy would vote for them but
10 tack them on to another bill, which may defeat
it. / am mpelled to vote against it..
Mr. 10 ns0n-3Ir President. had the honor to
remark here, some time ago, whenever aman wishes
TO fall down upon q propOsltlon, he can always ma
something easy to fall dow on, and the attitude of
the Senator from GOlo and the two Senators from
San Joaquin and the Senator from Alameda, upon
this question, reminds of a story that once
heard OF a man, who bet that he could jump down
one hundred feet on to straw placed beneath
He jumped, and after he got down fifty feet, his
brother halooed to him that there glass IN the
straw, ana Ne jumped DdCh again 70 iUt VI lut
bluff Now these Senators may come here and say
they opposed to hydraulic mining, and that they
want something done, and when any proposition Is
presented to them by which they can secure egisla-
ton upon the very questions they say they favor,
they take refuge in eXcuse-if may use the Ian
guage OF the Senator from Fresno-In frivolous
excuse, because they are anxious to do no harm to
hydraulic mining. man would suppose from their
votes that they all interested in hydraulic min
ing. Having stated my views upon this ques-
ton, Mr. President not that they psrhaps make any
particular difference to any man or woman or child
in this State, but simply because from the beginning
of this session up to the present time have been,
in session and out OF session, in the committee,
upon the floor of this Senate, upon the streets of
Sacramento and elsewhere, upon and above board,
l have expressed the same opinion that now ad-
vance, and have never swerved from tAat opinion.
I had it at the last session of the Legislature.
have the same opinion still, and had not been pre-
vented by sickness last session, would have elab-
grated those views than | to-day in the
limited time at my disposal and with my limited
strength, and wish now to say again II proper
law could be framed embodying these two provis-
ions, and repeating the so called debris Act pro-
nOunce it correctly, do l not, Senator Neumann ?
thus providing that from now onward hydraulic
miners should be obliged to take OF the taiings
of their mines, and that from now onward the State
of California will pay a little something towards
securing out the channels OF the rivers towards
rectifying their channes-I thank you, Senator
Sears, for that expression - and building
levees upon them, / would favor such
law by voice and vote But, sir, | am opp sed
to the bald repeal Of the present socaed Debris
Act, because it takes from what little good We
have received in the past, what little good we are
receiving III the present, what little good we may
receive in the future, and presents to US nothing
not even an APPLE save one of discard with which
to help ourselves in our present emergency. The
Senator from Monterey (lr. Hil), in the very able
and abOrate argument which he delivered to this
Senate seconded by the Senator from Santa Barbara
(Mr Chasel followed by the Senator from Santa
Clara Oh. Baker, and assume since the other SEN
atOrs, sympathiziug with these three who have
spoken, keep quiet, that those three Senator's voice
the views of a majority of the Senator'S upon
this floor; that their uttrances, as they have made
Them represent the views OF those who favor the
peal of the debris Act. They object to this debris
Act, apparently, solely because it taxes the whole
State OF California for the improvement or benefit OF
a part only | submit, Mr.. President, that if that
argument, if argument you may call It, had come
from those representing the ideas of States rights
if that statement had come from the Democratic
members OF this body, it might have merited atten
ton, it might have merited refutatiOn, 1t might
have merited denial because such has been the pre-
dominating idea of the Democratic party for years ;
but when Republican Senators, men imbued with
the principles OF the Republican party, as Senator
Hill and Senator Baker are, and as We know the
other Senator Mr.. Chase, says that he has always
been Republican, but has got a greenback flag
tackled onto hlnl-w when those men advocate such
doctrines, it ought to meet know not what word
to express it. IL is but himsy put forward
to cover real objections 1t is masquerade by Re-
DuhtlclnS Democratic garments. IL TO
all the political teachings of the Republican party
rs proclaimed and advocated by those Senators
themselves upon many stump and from many an
editorial. Why, the very theory, the very founda-
tombstone of the Republican party, is that we are
nation that it is the duty of the Federal Govern
ment to take charge of all the interests of the
ton; that the people OF one portion Of the nation
should be taxed 10 assist and maintain every other
portiou-t0 improve part Of the nation that the
whole may be advanced and to render valuable that
which was vaIueess before the money Of the nation
had been applied to the assistance OF particular sec
tons. Why, this doctrine so frequently de-
nounced,, but cody advocated by
the -rC5ealers upon this floor, if carried
to It's legitimate extent, would justify secession
would Justify the acts Of JEFF Davis and his COM
peers and would in the inception OF the late re-
belliou have resulted in making this Government
nothing but warning 5 -ates, and would have given
Us, instead of q united country now, miserable
confederation in the South and in the North in the
East and in the West, too weak to protect them
selves from danger within or without their borders.
Why, sir, the very idea upon which the Republican
party at the last election appealed To the people Of
the United States and received, after the hardest
fought battle OF the century, the Endorsement Of the
people Of this nation, that Of nationality, was
that the nation responsible in all Its broad
domain for the acts OF the humblest citizen in the
farthcst part Of the country, and the and i'm
provemeut OF all portions of the United States Of
America: responsible alike in Louisiana IS in New
York for the land and inhabitants; respon ible alike
for the of tue great rivers OF California - fer
10 resist the elcro1chmeuts Of the surgng Atlantic
that threatens the integrity Of New Eagland and
New Jersey shores, and 10 also resist the surging
Pacific ocean as it rolls its resistless swells upon
Monterey OF Humboldt. If the doctrine new so
suddenly proclaimed by these repealers had been
enuucated ami accepted by the people of the
United States and carried out to its legitimate eX-
tent at the beginning OF the war, We would not have
seen, as we do now, the flag Of cur Union waving
triumuhantly over this united people Had It not
been for the crushing out Of such sentiment for the
crushing out OF such sectional feeling, would not
be permitted to travel as we can now, thirty five
hundred miles over one country, from ocean to
ocean. Senators, if You have made the trip from
one ocean u the other, if you have traversed the
whole Of this United states reaching from the
Atlantic on the East TO the Pacific the
West. and reflected that it was ore country,
your country, all Tor you and your children,
made So, because sectional feeling crushed and
ground beneath the iron heel of the warrior from
1851 70 lS65-why last year as ! Travelled from
where Bunker Iiill monument threw its shadow
upon the spot made sacred by the blood Of Warren,
rs I journeyed TO the West and cane across the
broad Empire State, teeuing with its wealth and its
riches; as the iron horse Of progress carried me
over Pennsylvania ard New Jersey, with their work
shops filed with bTawny artisans, fashioning the
product Of the mines; as it carried and on TO
the West through tie bread fields of Ohio, where
happy husbandmen united in praise OF this country