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The More Things Change…
As adopted December 19, 1849 – four days into California’s first legislative session – the 6th Rule of the Senate reads:
“No member shall speak to another or otherwise interrupt the business of the Senate or read any newspaper while the journals or public papers are reading and while the President is putting a question, no senator shall walk out of, or across the house, nor while a senator is speaking pass between him and the chair.”
Englishman William Kelly in his exhaustively titled Excursion to California Over the Prairie, Rocky Mountains and Great Sierra Nevada With a Stroll Through the Diggings and [....]
Happy Belated Birthday Governor Bigler!
John Bigler, California’s third governor and the only chief executive to serve two terms in the 19th Century, was born January 8, 1805 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
No other governor until Hiram Johnson in 1911 would win a first and second term.
At his political height, the roly-poly Bigler was popular enough that lawmakers named a lake after him. For a few years anyway.
Bigler was the second speaker of the state assembly and the first to be re-elected to a second term.
California’s public education system was created during Bigler’s first term as governor. When he left office in 1856, 221 schools [....]
California’s First Police Force and — The Supposed — Capture of Joaquin Murrieta
(California’s third governor, John Bigler, signed legislation passed May 17, 1853 by the Legislature authorizing the raising of a company of up to 20 State Rangers, to be led by Captain Harry Love, a bounty hunter and veteran of the Mexican American War. They were charged – for three months or less – to “capture the party or gang of robbers commanded by the five Joaquins whose names are, Joaquin Murietta, Joaquin O’Comorenia, Joaquin Valenzuela, Joaquin Betellier, and Joaquin Carrillo, and their banded associates.” The gang was considered responsible for a series of murders and robberies throughout the Mother Lode. The rangers, California’s first [....]
Happy Belated Birthday Governor Gage!
Christmas Day 1852 is the birthdate of California’s 20th governor, Henry Tifft Gage, whose one term at the turn of the 20th Century was overshadowed by a bubonic plague outbreak in San Francisco that the Los Angeles Republican spent most of his tenure denying.
The political issues during his term straddled the two centuries, highlighting the state’s metamorphosis into a global power.
In his 1899 inaugural address, Gage called for annexation of the Philippines, a territory won through the Untied States’ victory in the Spanish-American War, as a means to improve the state’s trading posture.
At the same time, the [....]
110-Year-Old Gubernatorial Advice on Legislating
“The evil of an individual, as a general rule, affects him alone, for his power of injuring the few around him can be summarily restrained.
“But the wrong of a bad law affects the whole community and its poison may spread before discovery and the injury may be irreparable, though afterward annulled by a decision of a court or repealed by an act of a future Legislature.
“Hence, it becomes your duty not to rely upon the Executive (Branch), with his limited assistance, for a remedy by way of veto.
“You should carefully scrutinize each measure introduced both in committee [....]
The Origin of California’s Great Seal
The state seal was approved during the constitutional convention convened September 4, 1849, one year prior to California’s 1850 admission as the 31st state.
Major Robert S. Garnett, a native of Virginia, was the designer. Twenty-seventh in his class at West Point and sent to California to deliver dispatches, Garnett became the academy’s commandant in 1852.
He submitted his sketch for the seal through Caleb Lyon, one of the participants in the constitutional convention.
Garnett used Lyon as a go-between, afraid his idea would be rejected because of his being a member of the Army and a supporter of Thomas Butler King, a [....]
Brown the Elder & Brown the Younger
At a wide-ranging meeting with reporters to discuss his accomplishments in 2011, Gov. Jerry Brown “invoked” — his verb — his father, Gov. Pat Brown several times.
Discussing the role of the chief executive and the Legislature and how, in the interest of “comity” the governor sometimes signs bills with little impact or import merely to forge a better working relationship with lawmakers, Brown noted that his father was “very hesitant to veto” bills that had a “strong vote” in the Legislature.
Asked what was different about his third time as governor, the 73-year-old Democrat said, “I’m more focused on being [....]
Happy Birthday Governor Merriam!
Born December 22, 1865, Frank Finley Merriam – nicknamed “Marble Top” because of his bald pate – was California’s 28th governor.
At 68, the Long Beach Republican was the oldest man to become governor until the current occupant of the Capitol’s corner office began his third four-year turn in the wheelhouse at age 72.
Despite his conservatism, Merriam brought California its state income tax – much criticized at the time by Hearst newspapers, among others – as well as an increase to 3 percent in the sales tax and creation of the bank and corporations tax and fuel tax.
California’s first governor to marry in office, [....]
Happy Birthday Governor Knight!
Goodwin Jess Knight, the tap-dancing 31st governor of the 31st state in the union was born December 9, 1896 in Provo Utah.
The genial moderate Republican, who spokes fluent Spanish, had more in common with his successor, Democrat Pat Brown, than the Cold War ideologue U.S. Sen. William Knowland.
It was Knowland’s presidential ambition and efforts – along with ally Richard Nixon – to control the state Republican Party that led to the end of both Knight and Knowland’s political careers in 1958.
Knight’s father, Jesse, was a lawyer and mining engineer. His mother, Lillie, a concert singer and suffragette.
“Goodie,” [....]
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