THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN CALIFORNIA, 1856-1868 Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Stanley, Gerald, 1941- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 30/09/2021 08:34:09 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/288108 INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1. 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THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN CALIFORNIA, 1856-1868 by Gerald Stanley A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 19 7 3 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE I hereby recommend that this dissertation prepared under my direction by Gerald Stanley entitled THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN CALIFORNIA, 1856-1868 be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement of the degree of DCCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY y^oissertation Director Date ' * After inspection of the final copy of the dissertation, the following members of the Final Examination Committee concur in its approval and recommend its acceptance:- Mi r/j/?3 This approval and acceptance is contingent on the candidate's adequate performance and defense of this dissertation at the final oral examination. The inclusion of this sheet bound into the library copy of the dissertation is evidence of satisfactory performance at the final examination. STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SI GNED: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS For assistance in documenting this interpretation of California's early Republican party, I express gratitude to the staffs of the following institutions: California Historical Society; California State Archives; California State Library; Henry E. Huntington Library; Stanford University Library; University of California, Berkeley, Bancroft Library; University of California, Los Angeles, Graduate Library; University of Southern California, Graduate Library; Arizona Pioneers' Historical Society Library; University of Arizona, Computer Center; University of Arizona, Interlibrary Loan Department; and University of Arizona, Special Collections Department. For their careful reading of the dissertation, I thank Herman E. Bateman, Roger L. Nichols, and especially John V. Mering, who directed the dissertation and served as its most valuable critic. I also express gratitude to my parents and my wife for their patience and encouragement. A University of Arizona Dissertation Fellowship facilitated completion of the study. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vi LIST OF TABLES vii ABSTRACT viii CHAPTER 1. REPUBLICAN ORIGINS: A NEW PARTY 1 2. RACE AND REPUBLICANS: THE 1856 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 28 3. CONCESSION AND DEFEAT: 1857-59 56 4. WINNING: THE I860 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION .... 88 5. THE REPUBLICAN AS EMANCIPATIONIST: 1861-63 . 116 6. THE REPUBLICAN AS ABOLITIONIST: 1864-65 .... 149 7. THE REPUBLICAN AS RADICAL: 1866-67 . 179 8. REPUBLICAN RETREAT: THE 1868 ELECTION AND THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT 213 REFERENCES 238 V LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Election Maps 1854, 1855 21 2. Election Maps 1860, 1863 147 3. Election Maps 1864, 1867 211 vi LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Pre-1856 Party Affiliation 9 2. Correlation Coefficients of Voting Percentages at the County Level for the 1860 Election 110 3. Correlation Coefficients of Voting Percentages at the County Level for the 1861, 1862, and 1863 Elections 146 vii ABSTRACT The conventional interpretation of California's political history for the Civil War period maintains that provincial issues exerted a dominant influence on the state's politics. In addition to emphasizing personality conflicts between party leaders, historians of California's antebellum politics contend that political divisions stemmed from differing attitudes regarding the construction of a transcontinental railroad. For the Reconstruction period, the railroad subsidy issue stands as the explana­ tion for political divisions as well as election outcomes. In the main, the prevailing thesis subordinates national issues to the largely unchallenged railroad rule of Cali­ fornia politics. The thesis of this dissertation is that the dominant factor in California's early Republican party and in the state's politics during the Civil War and Reconstruction period was race. More than railroads or any other issue, the slavery extension controversy explains the formation of California's Republican party in 1856. Because Whigs, Know- Nothings, and Democrats countenanced the spread of slavery into the western territories, Californians organized a new party that had as its chief goal opposition to the extension of slavery. The slavery issue was new to California politics viii ix as were most of the activists who joined the early Repub­ lican party. When the slavery issue hastened the collapse of California's Whig and Know-Nothing parties, most of their leaders, if they remained active in politics, joined the Democratic party because of its stand on the slavery extension issue. Although the Republicans opposed the extension of slavery into the western territories, they did not oppose slavery itself, as some historians argue. Nor did party members advocate basic rights for the black race. A political consensus on the status of black Americans per­ sisted throughout the antebellum period as Republicans and Democrats disagreed with one another only over the geo­ graphical location of blacks. Notwithstanding this con­ sensus, Democrats effectively labelled Republicans as abolitionists; and by arousing racial fears in other ways, the Democrats won every election until 1860. In the 1860 presidential election, a divided Demo­ cratic party, effective Republican organization, and ex­ ploitation of the slavery and race issues yielded a Repub­ lican victory in California. Then, during the Civil War, the party supported limited emancipation and finally the total abolition of slavery, initially as a means of re­ storing the Union but later as morally urgent. Though Democrats continued to raise the race issue, a patriotic war for the restoration of the Union kept the Republicans in X power. More important, the Civil War and white southern intransigence to any rights for freedmen gradually trans­ formed the Republicans' attitude toward the black race, creating genuine ideological conflict for the first time in California's political history. Unlike the Democrats, Republicans favored granting basic rights to blacks on humanitarian grounds. Democratic racism and Republican radicalism toward the black race peaked in the election of 1867; and, even though the Republican