Peter Hardeman Burnett
Encyclopedia
Peter Hardeman Burnett was an American
politician and the first state governor of California
, serving from December 20, 1849 to January 9, 1851. He was also the first California governor to resign from office. Burnett previously served briefly during December 1849 as the territorial civilian governor of California.
, but raised in rural Missouri
, Burnett received no formal education, but educated himself in law and government. After owning a general store, he turned to his law career; in defending a group of Mormons
— including Joseph Smith — who were accused of treason, arson and robbery. Burnett requested a change of venue for the court proceedings, and during transportation to the next venue, the defendants escaped.
In 1843, Burnett became part of the exodus of Easterners moving Westward
, moving his family to the Oregon Country
(now modern-day Oregon
) to take up farming in order to solve growing debts in Missouri, an agricultural endeavour that failed. While in the Oregon Country, Burnett began his forays into politics, getting elected to the provisional legislature
between 1844 to 1848. In 1844, he completed construction of Germantown Road between the Tualatin Valley
and what became Portland
. It was during his time in Oregon that Burnett, a traditional Southern Protestant, began to question the practices of his faith, drifting his religious views more to Roman Catholicism. By 1846, Burnett and his family made the complete transition from Protestant to become Catholic.
While in the Legislature
, and later in the Provisional Supreme Court, Burnett proposed and openly advocated one of Oregon's first exclusion laws, barring African-Americans from moving to the territory. Blacks who did remain were to be arrested and flogged every six months until they did leave. The measure successfully passed, with similar exclusion laws adopted by the Legislature over the next several decades. Oregon's Black exclusion laws would remain in effect until 1926 when referendums removed the clause from the Oregon Constitution
. The barring of Blacks from voting remained until 1927.
Upon news of the discovery of gold
in Coloma, California
on January 24, 1848, Burnett and his family moved south to take part in the rush. After modest success in getting gold, Burnett envisioned a career in law in San Francisco
, a rapidly-growing boomtown
thanks largely to the Gold Rush. On the way to the Bay Area, Burnett met John Augustus Sutter, Jr.
, son of German
-born Swiss
pioneer John Sutter
. Selling his father's deeded lands in the near vicinity of Sutter's Fort
, the younger Sutter offered Burnett a job in selling land plots for the new town of Sacramento
. Over the next year, Burnett made nearly US$50,000 in land sales in Sacramento, a city ideally suited due to its closeness to the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the neighboring Sacramento River
's navigability for large ships.
, where territorial politicians drafted documents suitable to admit California as a state
in the United States
. During the 1849 referendum to adopt the California Constitution, Burnett, now with name recognition in Sacramento and San Francisco, and a resume that included the Oregon Provisional Legislature, decided to run for the new territory's first civilian governor, replacing the string of military governors and bureaucracy from the U.S. military. Burnett easily won the election over four other candidates, including John Sutter
, and was sworn in as California's first elected civilian governor on December 20, 1849 in San Jose
in front of the California State Legislature
.
In the first days of the Burnett Administration, the governor and the California Legislature set out to create the organs of a state government, creating state cabinet
posts, archives, executive posts and departments, subdividing the state into 27 counties and appointing John C. Fremont
and William M. Gwin
as California's senators to the federal U.S. Senate. Despite home proclamations and bureaucratic reorganizations that recognized California now as a U.S. state, the U.S. Congress and President Zachary Taylor
had in fact not even signed authorization of statehood for California. Part of this miscommunication was due to California's relative remoteness to the rest of the U.S. during the time, but also to over-enthusiastic attitudes by politicians and the public alike to get California into the Union as quickly as possible. Following long contentious debates in the U.S. Senate, California was admitted as a state on September 9, 1850 as part of the Compromise of 1850
. Californians did not learn of their official statehood until one month later, when on October 18, the steamer Oregon entered San Francisco Bay
, with a banner strapped to her rigging reading "California Is Now A State."
During these advancements into statehood, Governor Burnett's popularity among the State Legislature, the press and the public plummeted. Relations between the Legislature and Burnett began to immediately sour in early 1850, when bills pressing for the incorporation of Sacramento and Los Angeles
as city municipalities, with Los Angeles being a special incorporation due to its earlier pueblo status during the previous Spanish and Mexican rule
, passed the State Assembly
and Senate
. Burnett vetoed both bills, citing special incorporation bills as unconstitutional, and that reviews for municipal incorporation were best left to county courts.
While the Legislature failed to override Burnett's veto of the Los Angeles bill, it did however successfully override the Sacramento bill, making Sacramento California's first incorporated city.
As in Oregon, Burnett pushed for the exclusion of Blacks from California, raising the ire of pro-slavery supporters who wanted to import the Southern slave system to the West Coast. His proposals were defeated in the Legislature. Similarly, Burnett also pushed for heavy taxation on foreign immigrants. An 1850 Foreign Miners Tax Act, signed into law by Burnett, required every miner of non-American origin to pay US$20. In addition to these proposals and laws, Burnett also argued heavily for increased taxation and for the expansion of capital punishment
to include larceny
.
Characterized as an aloof politician with little support from the Legislature by the San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles press, Burnett grew frustrated as his agenda ground to a halt, and his governance style increasingly criticized. He became a regular fixture of ridicule in the state's newspapers and on the floor of the Legislature. With little over a year in office, Burnett, the first governor of the state, became the first to resign, announcing his resignation in January 1851. Burnett cited personal matters for his departure. Lieutenant Governor
John McDougall replaced Burnett as the Governor of California on 9 January.
Peter Burnett founded the city of Oregon City in Butte County, California.
One year after leaving the governorship, Burnett was finally able to repay the heavy debts he had incurred in Missouri nearly two decades before. He entered a number of careers, serving briefly as a justice in the California Supreme Court between 1857 and 1858, the Sacramento City Council, as well as becoming a San Jose-based lawyer, a noted proponent of Catholicism during the Victorian period, and then the president of the Pacific Bank of San Francisco. Although never venturing into politics much after the 1860s, Burnett was an active supporter of the federal Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. He died May 17, 1895 at the age of 87 in San Francisco, and is buried in the Santa Clara Mission Cemetery at Santa Clara, California.
have blackened his name today. Burnett's period in the Oregon Provisional Legislature helped facilitate the exclusion of Blacks from the state until 1926. One of his Oregon proposals was to force free Blacks to leave the state, and to institute floggings, every six months, of any who continued to remain. Also, his open hostility to foreign laborers influenced a number of federal and state California legislators to push future xenophobic legislation, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act thirty years after his departure from the governorship. Burnett was also an open advocate of exterminating local California Indian tribes, a policy that continued with successive state governmental administrations for several decades, where the state offered US$25 to US$50 for evidence of dead Natives.
San Francisco's Burnett Avenue near the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood is named after him.
The Burnett Child Development Center, a preschool in a predominantly black San Francisco neighborhood, had been named for Burnett. However, when Burnett's racist positions were discovered, the school was renamed in 2011 to the Leola M. Havard Early Education School, in honor of San Francisco's first African-American principal.
From Burnett's Second Annual Message to the Legislature, January 7, 1851:
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
politician and the first state governor of California
Governor of California
The Governor of California is the chief executive of the California state government, whose responsibilities include making annual State of the State addresses to the California State Legislature, submitting the budget, and ensuring that state laws are enforced...
, serving from December 20, 1849 to January 9, 1851. He was also the first California governor to resign from office. Burnett previously served briefly during December 1849 as the territorial civilian governor of California.
Personal background
Born in Nashville, TennesseeNashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
, but raised in rural Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, Burnett received no formal education, but educated himself in law and government. After owning a general store, he turned to his law career; in defending a group of Mormons
Mormons
The Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, a religion started by Joseph Smith during the American Second Great Awakening. A vast majority of Mormons are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while a minority are members of other independent churches....
— including Joseph Smith — who were accused of treason, arson and robbery. Burnett requested a change of venue for the court proceedings, and during transportation to the next venue, the defendants escaped.
In 1843, Burnett became part of the exodus of Easterners moving Westward
Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny was the 19th century American belief that the United States was destined to expand across the continent. It was used by Democrat-Republicans in the 1840s to justify the war with Mexico; the concept was denounced by Whigs, and fell into disuse after the mid-19th century.Advocates of...
, moving his family to the Oregon Country
Oregon Country
The Oregon Country was a predominantly American term referring to a disputed ownership region of the Pacific Northwest of North America. The region was occupied by British and French Canadian fur traders from before 1810, and American settlers from the mid-1830s, with its coastal areas north from...
(now modern-day Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
) to take up farming in order to solve growing debts in Missouri, an agricultural endeavour that failed. While in the Oregon Country, Burnett began his forays into politics, getting elected to the provisional legislature
Provisional Government of Oregon
The Provisional Government of Oregon was a popularly elected government created in the Oregon Country, in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. It existed from May 2, 1843 until March 3, 1849. Created at a time when no country had sovereignty over the region, this independent government...
between 1844 to 1848. In 1844, he completed construction of Germantown Road between the Tualatin Valley
Tualatin Valley
The Tualatin Valley is a farming and suburban region southwest of Portland, Oregon in the United States. The valley is formed by the meandering Tualatin River, a tributary of the Willamette River at the northwest corner of the Willamette Valley, east of the Northern Oregon Coast Range...
and what became Portland
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
. It was during his time in Oregon that Burnett, a traditional Southern Protestant, began to question the practices of his faith, drifting his religious views more to Roman Catholicism. By 1846, Burnett and his family made the complete transition from Protestant to become Catholic.
While in the Legislature
Provisional Legislature of Oregon
The Provisional Legislature of Oregon was the single-chamber legislative body of the Provisional Government of Oregon. It served the Oregon Country of the Pacific Northwest of North America from 1843 until early 1849 at a time when no country had sovereignty over the region...
, and later in the Provisional Supreme Court, Burnett proposed and openly advocated one of Oregon's first exclusion laws, barring African-Americans from moving to the territory. Blacks who did remain were to be arrested and flogged every six months until they did leave. The measure successfully passed, with similar exclusion laws adopted by the Legislature over the next several decades. Oregon's Black exclusion laws would remain in effect until 1926 when referendums removed the clause from the Oregon Constitution
Oregon Constitution
The Oregon Constitution is the governing document of the U.S. state of Oregon, originally enacted in 1857. As amended the current state constitution contains eighteen sections, beginning with a bill of rights. This contains most of the rights and privileges granted in the United States Bill of...
. The barring of Blacks from voting remained until 1927.
Upon news of the discovery of gold
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
in Coloma, California
Coloma, California
Coloma is a census-designated place in El Dorado County, California, USA. It is approximately northeast of Sacramento, California. Coloma is most noted for being the site where James W. Marshall first discovered gold in California, at Sutter's Mill on January 24, 1848, leading to the California...
on January 24, 1848, Burnett and his family moved south to take part in the rush. After modest success in getting gold, Burnett envisioned a career in law in San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, a rapidly-growing boomtown
Boomtown
A boomtown is a community that experiences sudden and rapid population and economic growth. The growth is normally attributed to the nearby discovery of a precious resource such as gold, silver, or oil, although the term can also be applied to communities growing very rapidly for different reasons,...
thanks largely to the Gold Rush. On the way to the Bay Area, Burnett met John Augustus Sutter, Jr.
John Augustus Sutter, Jr.
John Augustus Sutter, Jr. was the founder and planner of the City of Sacramento, California, a U.S. Consul in Acapulco, Mexico and the son of Swiss born American pioneer, John Augustus Sutter, Sr.-Biography:...
, son of German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
-born Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
pioneer John Sutter
John Sutter
Johann Augus Sutter was a Swiss pioneer of California known for his association with the California Gold Rush by the discovery of gold by James W. Marshall and the mill making team at Sutter's Mill, and for establishing Sutter's Fort in the area that would eventually become Sacramento, the...
. Selling his father's deeded lands in the near vicinity of Sutter's Fort
Sutter's Fort
Sutter's Fort State Historic Park is a state-protected park in Sacramento, California which includes Sutter's Fort and the California State Indian Museum. Begun in 1839 and originally called "New Helvetia" by its builder, John Sutter, the fort was a 19th century agricultural and trade colony in...
, the younger Sutter offered Burnett a job in selling land plots for the new town of Sacramento
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...
. Over the next year, Burnett made nearly US$50,000 in land sales in Sacramento, a city ideally suited due to its closeness to the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the neighboring Sacramento River
Sacramento River
The Sacramento River is an important watercourse of Northern and Central California in the United States. The largest river in California, it rises on the eastern slopes of the Klamath Mountains, and after a journey south of over , empties into Suisun Bay, an arm of the San Francisco Bay, and...
's navigability for large ships.
Governorship
In 1849, Burnett announced his intentions to return to politics. 1849 saw the first California Constitutional Convention in MontereyMonterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
, where territorial politicians drafted documents suitable to admit California as a state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. During the 1849 referendum to adopt the California Constitution, Burnett, now with name recognition in Sacramento and San Francisco, and a resume that included the Oregon Provisional Legislature, decided to run for the new territory's first civilian governor, replacing the string of military governors and bureaucracy from the U.S. military. Burnett easily won the election over four other candidates, including John Sutter
John Sutter
Johann Augus Sutter was a Swiss pioneer of California known for his association with the California Gold Rush by the discovery of gold by James W. Marshall and the mill making team at Sutter's Mill, and for establishing Sutter's Fort in the area that would eventually become Sacramento, the...
, and was sworn in as California's first elected civilian governor on December 20, 1849 in San Jose
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
in front of the California State Legislature
California State Legislature
The California State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of California. It is a bicameral body consisting of the lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members, and the upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members...
.
In the first days of the Burnett Administration, the governor and the California Legislature set out to create the organs of a state government, creating state cabinet
Cabinet (government)
A Cabinet is a body of high ranking government officials, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or an Executive Committee.- Overview :...
posts, archives, executive posts and departments, subdividing the state into 27 counties and appointing John C. Fremont
John C. Frémont
John Charles Frémont , was an American military officer, explorer, and the first candidate of the anti-slavery Republican Party for the office of President of the United States. During the 1840s, that era's penny press accorded Frémont the sobriquet The Pathfinder...
and William M. Gwin
William M. Gwin
William McKendree Gwin was an American medical doctor and politician.Born near Gallatin, Tennessee, his father, the Reverend James Gwin, was a pioneer Methodist minister under the Rev. William McKendree, his son's namesake. Rev. James Gwin also served as a soldier on the frontier under General...
as California's senators to the federal U.S. Senate. Despite home proclamations and bureaucratic reorganizations that recognized California now as a U.S. state, the U.S. Congress and President Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor was the 12th President of the United States and an American military leader. Initially uninterested in politics, Taylor nonetheless ran as a Whig in the 1848 presidential election, defeating Lewis Cass...
had in fact not even signed authorization of statehood for California. Part of this miscommunication was due to California's relative remoteness to the rest of the U.S. during the time, but also to over-enthusiastic attitudes by politicians and the public alike to get California into the Union as quickly as possible. Following long contentious debates in the U.S. Senate, California was admitted as a state on September 9, 1850 as part of the Compromise of 1850
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five bills, passed in September 1850, which defused a four-year confrontation between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican-American War...
. Californians did not learn of their official statehood until one month later, when on October 18, the steamer Oregon entered San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
, with a banner strapped to her rigging reading "California Is Now A State."
During these advancements into statehood, Governor Burnett's popularity among the State Legislature, the press and the public plummeted. Relations between the Legislature and Burnett began to immediately sour in early 1850, when bills pressing for the incorporation of Sacramento and Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
as city municipalities, with Los Angeles being a special incorporation due to its earlier pueblo status during the previous Spanish and Mexican rule
Alta California
Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...
, passed the State Assembly
California State Assembly
The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature. There are 80 members in the Assembly, representing an approximately equal number of constituents, with each district having a population of at least 420,000...
and Senate
California State Senate
The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature. There are 40 state senators. The state legislature meets in the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The Lieutenant Governor is the ex officio President of the Senate and may break a tied vote...
. Burnett vetoed both bills, citing special incorporation bills as unconstitutional, and that reviews for municipal incorporation were best left to county courts.
While the Legislature failed to override Burnett's veto of the Los Angeles bill, it did however successfully override the Sacramento bill, making Sacramento California's first incorporated city.
As in Oregon, Burnett pushed for the exclusion of Blacks from California, raising the ire of pro-slavery supporters who wanted to import the Southern slave system to the West Coast. His proposals were defeated in the Legislature. Similarly, Burnett also pushed for heavy taxation on foreign immigrants. An 1850 Foreign Miners Tax Act, signed into law by Burnett, required every miner of non-American origin to pay US$20. In addition to these proposals and laws, Burnett also argued heavily for increased taxation and for the expansion of capital punishment
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
to include larceny
Larceny
Larceny is a crime involving the wrongful acquisition of the personal property of another person. It was an offence under the common law of England and became an offence in jurisdictions which incorporated the common law of England into their own law. It has been abolished in England and Wales,...
.
Characterized as an aloof politician with little support from the Legislature by the San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles press, Burnett grew frustrated as his agenda ground to a halt, and his governance style increasingly criticized. He became a regular fixture of ridicule in the state's newspapers and on the floor of the Legislature. With little over a year in office, Burnett, the first governor of the state, became the first to resign, announcing his resignation in January 1851. Burnett cited personal matters for his departure. Lieutenant Governor
Lieutenant Governor of California
The Lieutenant Governor of California is a statewide constitutional officer elected separately from the Governor who serves as the "vice-executive" of California. The Lieutenant Governor of California is elected to serve a four year term and can serve a maximum of two terms...
John McDougall replaced Burnett as the Governor of California on 9 January.
Peter Burnett founded the city of Oregon City in Butte County, California.
Post governorship
Legacy
Peter Burnett's legacy is largely mixed. While regarded as one of the fathers of modern California in the state's early days, Burnett's openly racist attitudes towards Blacks, Chinese, and Native AmericansNative Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
have blackened his name today. Burnett's period in the Oregon Provisional Legislature helped facilitate the exclusion of Blacks from the state until 1926. One of his Oregon proposals was to force free Blacks to leave the state, and to institute floggings, every six months, of any who continued to remain. Also, his open hostility to foreign laborers influenced a number of federal and state California legislators to push future xenophobic legislation, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act thirty years after his departure from the governorship. Burnett was also an open advocate of exterminating local California Indian tribes, a policy that continued with successive state governmental administrations for several decades, where the state offered US$25 to US$50 for evidence of dead Natives.
San Francisco's Burnett Avenue near the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood is named after him.
The Burnett Child Development Center, a preschool in a predominantly black San Francisco neighborhood, had been named for Burnett. However, when Burnett's racist positions were discovered, the school was renamed in 2011 to the Leola M. Havard Early Education School, in honor of San Francisco's first African-American principal.
Quotes
From Burnett's First Annual Message to the Legislature, December 21, 1849:From Burnett's Second Annual Message to the Legislature, January 7, 1851:
External links
- Peter Burnett biography at the California State LibraryCalifornia State LibraryThe California State Library collects, preserves, generates and disseminates a wide array of information. It was founded in 1850 by the California State Legislature. Today, it is the central reference and research library for state government and the Legislature. The California State Library...
- Guide to the Peter H. Burnett Papers at The Bancroft Library
- He wrote this book in 1860 and can be read for free at Google Books The path which led a Protestant lawyer to the Catholic Church