Appologises again for the lack of an update, just finished exams and such so I should be all good for the next few months. I was thinking for the next updates to focus more of the ongoing of California such as the cities an upstart famous people for the first 15 years of California? sound good?
-Zrew33
The Country of Bears and Gold
3rd Presidency of the Republic of California
Andrew Clark 1850 – 1854
Andrew Clark was the second president of the Republic of California, and pretty much had the best start in which a president could have on their first day officially in office. There were no wars, nor were there huge economic problems although he still needed to help with the unemployment issue that still had many of the ex-gold rushers out of work. Clark came from an underprivileged background born in Philadelphia to fairly poor parents but after a dispute with his father he ventured west to seek his own fortune. While in the west he helped create the Republic of California mostly through his marvelous use of persuasion to get people to join the cause and use their weapons against the Mexican Resistance. Following the creation of the Republic of California he used his influence during the rebellion to gain a foothold in Californian politics, pushing for acts to benefit his business which ventured from a series of stores in Sierra to warehouses in San Francisco and finally his ship building company. This made him very rich and popular amongst the Californian upper class although even so many in the upper class were not too sure what to make of him, being brought up in what would be considered the lower classes. The need for Clark to be seen as better than how he was born can be seen thought his presidency.
He continued to follow his predecessor’s acts and pushed for the further migration into the northern and eastern territories in attempts to alleviate the unemployment’s. They were far more successful in attempts of getting people to move north than they were to the east, with better prospects of jobs especially in the lumber companies that were growing with the help of grants by the Californian Governments. From between 1847 to late 1850 some 15 000 people had moved to the northern territory with around 5000 moving east. The lumber companies brought much revenue for California, with much of it being brought by the Californian Shipbuilding companies and being sold abroad. However the lumber sold abroad was not that of the famous Californian Redwoods as Clark saw them as being too valuable for other nations to acquire with the passing of the Act in 1850 which banned the sale of certain products abroad most notably that of the Californian Redwood.
Some of the 5000 Californias venturing to the western territories
It wasn’t just the change in demographics that was occurring but also socially. In on May 2nd 1851 the first University opened in the country. Monterrey University in Monterrey, which was going to be named after George Marshal who rejected it which lead to a one of his famous lines. After Clark asked him after he rejected the idea,
“You don’t want to be forgotten do you George?” to which he replied
“If I am to be forgotten I surly have not done enough.” The University was funded by much the Californian upper class, most notably that of Clark’s family (Who he had given the reigns to the company to his younger son James), Walsh Family, Bidwell Family and that of Pio Pico. Pio Pico who had originally been the Governor of Alta California under Mexican rule had become an affluent business man conducting in Monterrey. He owned two major railways lines from Monterey to San Francisco and Monterey to Patrick. The cities of the West Coast, namely that of Monterey, San Francisco and Los Angles, had a growing upper class many of whom were getting rich from the creation of industry sectors who before were fairly limited or non-existent. This lack of competition for the most part allowed many of these first companies to become extremely successful. Although Marshal previously had wanted to tighten the controls of these companies, with his view of focusing of the successfulness of California first, Clark become more relaxed when it came to the companies, allow for grants of land and pushing more money into certain industries he and his government felt were needed for California.
Clark saw the power that came with the growth of industry from that of the power the UK gained and the increasing industrialisation that was occurring in the west coast of the United States and following the discovery of Coal in the San Juan Basin along the eastern border of South Colorado and the United States gave Clark the opportunity to start. The major problem for Clark was that he didn’t have a good base to start the industrialisation process, many of California’s workers were still in agriculture and the economy still relied on the produces created by those farmers. Nether the less he pushed for the securing of the region with the government as well as with General Vallejo. Together they agreed to the building of forts in the region and the construction of a railway though the Southern Colorado territory. At the same time he issues out rewards of money for people to find more usable deposits of coal throughout California to varying degrees of success. Clark’s presidency would not see the full advantage gained by the coal gained from the San Juan Basin although it would lay the foundation for further development of Californian heavy industry in the future. It would take several years for the railway to be connected to the region with it connecting from San Juan to Los Angles then north towards Monterey and San Francisco.
Throughout Clark's presidency saw an influx of Chinese immigrants into California, many of whom were escaping the war that had occurred in China at the time. Some 110 000 immigrants ventured across the Pacific into California between 1850 to 1854, the huge influx pushed Clark to put a cap on the amount allowed into the nation, first at 20 000 in 1851 a year then to 30 000 the following year. Many of California’s companies were saw the immigrants as a way to boost production by getting them to work in the farms that had sprung up across the central valley in Sierra while the Government pushed many westward, to join the ranches in the Northern and Southern Colorado territories. While many found work in the growing Coal mines that were being set up along the western US-Californian border or put to work in building the network of railways that were being built either by Pico’s Californian Railway Company or the Pacific Railway Company. There were problems concerning the Chinese immigrants as many Californians were upset in being pushed out of work by the Chinese who were willing to work for less money than that of native Californians which the companies were happy to comply with. This lead to series of violent riots in California against the Chinese Immigration with the most serious in Patrick with recorded 200-300 attacks of Chinese workers. This lead to Clarke’s government having to step in, sending in troops to stop the riots and to protect the China-towns that sprung up around the outskirts of many of the cities. This however didn’t overly help much as many of the solders that sent in to stop the attacks were reported to have encouraged them once governmental officials had left. The impact of the Chinese immigrants also lead to the first editions of factories being set up in the major cities of the Republic. Much like how they were used in the other industries across the countries they were given lower wages than that of the native Californians which prompted higher profits for the early factory owners. This lead to organised labour movements by many of the Californian’s, many organised themselves into labour groups, such as the Shipbuilders, or Carpenters which mostly cried out for protection of their lively hoods. It soon lead to many residents boycotting the goods made by companies that relied a lot of Chinese labour forcing them to up their wages and higher native Californians, this was backed up by legislation by the Californian Government stating that companies had to have 80% of their workforce be of Californian Citizens.
Chinese Laborers who helped out in the up start coal mines of the San Juan Basin
1853 would see another turn in the Fate of California which the entrance of a man known as William Walker. He had ventured to California in early 1853 along with men he had recruited to join him in his vison of creating an English speaking slave state. He did this by personally invading the region of Baja California by with 200 men, many of whom he had gained while in Los Angles. He captured La Paz in the summer of 1853 setting up his own nation of Lower California. This however didn’t last long as Mexico, who had recovered quite well from War of Californian Independence and the Mexican-American War, moved their armies in a position to retake Baja California. They however blamed the occupation on California following reports stating that Walker and his men had ventured from Los Angles to attack La Paz. The Mexican President Santa Anna proclaimed it as an act of war by California sending an army to cross the Gila River into Southern Colorado. Once Clarke got word of this he was recorded to have flown into a violent rage, both at Mexico and that of Walker. Regardless of whether or not California had started the situation or not Clark retaliated sending 5000 men to counter the crossing of the Mexican troops and another 7000 into Beja California to “support” Walker and his 200 troops. When the Beja expedition reached La Paz General John S. Pike immediately arrested Walker and his followers, sending him back to Los Angles to await trial, and became creating a defensive line awaiting the Mexican army marching towards La Paz. Ultimately the Californian fought of both Mexican attacks, due to superior numbers and equipment thanks to British supplies of arms coming into Californian docks. This was a problematic situation for President Santa Anna as he wanted to commit more troops to the cause however he was fearful of a coup and possible American advancement across the Rio Grande luckily for Santa Anna, Clark wasn’t interested in a long drawn out war and ordered the Californian Armies to hold along the regions captured, which included the southern shore of the Gila River. The members of the Californian Government became overjoyed with the prospect of more land for California. Some felt that this could be used to show that California wasn’t a weak nation and that it will not be bullied. This pushed Clarke into negotiating a treaty between Mexico and California, that Mexico would give the Baja Peninsular to California in return for around $750 000.
The peace deal was signed on February 10th 1854 a few months shy of a year since it had started. The deal was signed and followed the handing over of William Walker and his top ranking men to the Mexican Government to allow them to deal with those who had invaded their nation. The handing over of William Walker only served to annoy the United States. They were upset that California were handing over American citizens to another nation without their own knowledge. Clark stood firm, riding of the victory against Mexico coupled with the gaining of more land, he didn’t want to ruin this prospect of Californian Victory to just to have California bully back down to square one. He sent a letter to President Pierce apologising for the incident but staying firm that Mr Walker had tarnished the Californian reputation by pushing it into a war which it had no original intention in doing and that the act that he did upon Mexico should be trialled by the Mexicans themselves. Although the incident itself never came to anything more than an exchanging of word, with the United States having to deal with internal problems before dealing with outside issues that in the grand scale of things was not in any way a serious matter to the United States Power, it did damage Clark’s political future. The idea was that Clark would use the incident to proudly show of himself for the presidential election in which he wanted to go for a second term however his part had other ideas. They were worried that he was too head-strong. That Clark would let California wander into another war which they didn’t have the capacity to wage for an extended period of time. They were fortunate in the war with Mexico that the Mexican Navy did not have much action against their own especially due to a large amount of California’s food intake was that of international trade, which was made the nation vulnerable to a blockade. The Republican Party instead went for a different approach, putting forward Noah Bidwell as presidential Candidate. Joseph Ford was put forward by the Federalist Party after Isaac Graham stood down from the race.
The election moved away from the American/British debates that were the main highlights of the previous election instead looking more at the direction of California itself. Now looking at the development of California’s economy though an increasing push towards industrialisation, Ford won the election in the end, only losing in Bidwell’s home-state of Bahia. He gained most of his power from his look of making California’s agricultural industry more efficient by advocating more mechanisation which proved popular in the rural regions as well as capitalising of the many Californians’ fear of Bidwell’s inexperience and the knowledge of his “on-the-fence” attitude to the short Mexican-Californian war giving him the vote amongst many of the highly patriotic Californians. This allowed Ford to take victory and become the next president of the Republic of California.
