The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-12-20
1850. finally approved the act which adj
mitted California to the Union.
A Greater niH;cuItx.


A task of greater difficu.ly remained
10 formally erect a commonwealth and
to obtain a ratification of this act FROM
the national legislature was far easier
IMAM the subsequent labor of extending
the jurisdiction of the government thus
constituted over vast and almost un
known region, over people hastily gath
cred together from all parts of the world.
representing many races and many ideals
of life and social duty. To digest and
assmilate this heterogeneous mass was
the effort Of the succeeding decade. The
grand obstacle to be overcome was the
epnemeral character of the population
The average man who journeyed to Cali
fornla in the late '40s and the early sos
came for single purpose. His household
goods were ler. behind in his Eastern
home. whittier he hoped to return and
end his days. His attachment to the
political and social interests of the new
state was therefore feeble. The charac-
ter of lie early mining operations the
small amount of capital invested in tools,
the ease with which the prospecting mii,-
er could pack his pan and camp equip
ment and move onward to more promis-
ing fields We're conditions which gave to
the early population of California fiuc-
tuating and migratory character little
adapted for the purposes of stable gov
eminent. The hasty abandonment of one
mining camp and the sudden erection Of
another at a distance from the earlier
centers of population greatly increased
the difficulty which the government ex-
The result was what might have been
expected. In the camps rough and
ready social compact was devised. Just
sufficient to satisfy the few needs of this
primitive society, a kind of border JUS
tice, which made the least demand upon
the individual, whose whole interest was
conferred in the feverish search for gold,
and nevertheless afforded such protec-
ton to life and property as made Sucn
occupation possible.
Mistaken Idea of Border Justice.
Cur impressions of early days in Cali
fornia are gathered largely from the
"reminiscences of men who lived amid
those stirring times and from the works I
of othef5 who have sought in them ma
terial for fiction. In both instances the (
colcring is for obvious reasons unduly I
heightened In the case of the observer. I
man accustomed to the relative monot-
ony of an older society, the exceptional
occurrences impress themselves strongly
upon the memory and come in the course
of time to obscure the true relation of the
exceptional to the ordinary. The writer
of fiction is perforce dealer in the ex-
traOrdinary.
More careful investigation has shown.
however, that border justice was neither}
ferocious nor sanguinary. American 1deasi
of justice prevailed the culprit came be-
fore a jury of his peers; expulsion was
the rule and only in cases of repeated Of
Tending and weil-estabished guilt was
the death penalty exacted.
1t must be borne IN mln0, however,
that the demands of frontier justice, espe-
cially in mining camps where accumula-
lions of great treasure in small bulk
have no other safeguard than the vigI.
lance of the poSseSSor or the consensus
of rude society may Afford attribute
an Importance to theft that under other
circumstances would be unjuStifable. 1t
stands next to murder in the category of
crimes and it's swift and summary
punishment could not fail to strike the
imagination of men accustomed to the
administration Of justice under less ex-
ceptionaI conditions
AS California grew in permanent popu-
Iation the causes of disorder ceased
With the home and all that it implies
wife, children, churches, schools and So
cial intercourse-men were stimulated to
make greater efforts and sacrifices to OBJ
tain the comfort and security that regu-
lated government affords. To this con-
tributed in no small degree the later
processes in mining. The primitive pan
and cradle gave way to costly fumes
and elaborate machinery for the reduc-
ton of ore, demanding large investments
of capital. Those changes. together with
the Increasing interest in agriculture.
gradually gave to the population of Cali
fornia a substantial and permanent char
acter, before which the elements of disor-
der disappeared.
Copyright. 1909