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Volume 058-3 - July 2004 (6 pages)
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Page: of 6
NCHS Bulletin July 2004
In 1877 the Workingmen’s Party paraded Denis Kearney
through downtown San Francisco in a drayman’s wagon
after he served a jail term for inciting crowds with intemperate language. (I[lustration from History of Last QuarterCentury in the U.S. 1870-1895, by E. Benjamin Andrews.)
and China were to recognize “the inherent and inalienable
right of man to change his home and allegiance, and also
the mutual advantage of the free migration and emigration
of their citizens and subjects, respectively, for purposes of
curiosity, of trade, or as permanent residents.”
Increasingly political, the Workingmen’s Party platform,
relative to the proposed new constitution, called for, among
other things, compulsory education, state regulation of
banks, industry and railroads and a more equitable tax system. Also contained in the new constitution was a dramatic
public education funding reform and major corporate and
property tax changes.
Another divisive issue was that of home rule, or local
self-government. There was already a general discontent
with the state legislature, but the Workingmen’s delegates
were particularly opposed to centralized government (the
1849 Constitution reflected a conclusion that local government might be more oppressive to its citizens than the state
legislature).
2
The Convention
Election of convention delegates took place on June 19,
1878. There were 152 delegates to be elected: 32 at large,
the remaining 120 by county and district. The non-partisans
won 82 seats, while the Workingmen’s Party won 52 seats,
carrying San Francisco, Los Angeles and Nevada City. The
Republicans won 9 seats and the Democrats 6 seats.
Nevada County had 5 Workingmen’s Party delegates plus
one joint delegate with Sierra County.
The Nevada County delegates were Charles W. Cross
(age 30), a Nevada City lawyer; Hamlet Davis (69), a
Truckee merchant who had been one of the founding
fathers of Nevada City; John McCoy (47), a county supervisor in 1875-1876, Rufus Shoemaker (49), secretary of the
California Senate and former editor of the National and
Union newspapers at Grass Valley; and Grass Valley
schoolteacher John T. Wickes (43). The joint delegate with
Sierra County was Nevada City lawyer Edward Barry (31),
district attorney for Sierra County in 1874-1875.
The convention first met in the assembly chambers in
Sacramento on October 1, 1878. On October 3, Joseph P.
Hoge was elected president. After the election of subordinate officers, delegates began dealing with the elements of
the proposed new constitution. They were frequently
hampered by the shenanigans of the outnumbered Workingmen’s Party, which group ignored parliamentary procedure,
made delaying motions and generally engaged in obStructionist behavior. A Grass Valley Union editoria!
wondered about the delegates: “[How long will] ... intelligent men ... who are there for serious work, be willing to
endure the empty loquaciousness of these windy [Workingmen’s Party] orators, whose speeches are measured by
sound, not ideas.”
By early 1879 the convention had used the 100 days allotted to come up with a new constitution and had run out
of per diem funds, resulting in significant member absences
from sessions. The convention, however, plodded along
until March 4, 1879, when it adopted a new constitution by
a vote of 119 to 15, with 18 members absent, and adjourned
sine die.
Nevada County Sentiment
During the approximate two-month period between the
end of the convention and the ratification election, many
provisions in the new constitution evoked a predominantly
negative reaction in Nevada County, particularly evidenced
by the editorials appearing regularly in the Nevada City
Transcript and the Grass Valley Union. Denis Kearney, in
particular, was not well thought of in Nevada County. An
April 15, 1879, Transcript editorial described Kearney as:
... @ specimen brick taken from the most degradee™
element of human beings that can be scraped from the
dirtiest slums of San Francisco; that he is a scoffer at
religion and a ridiculer of priests and preachers; that he