John Bigler

John Bigler

John Bigler (born January 8, 1805 in Carlisle , Pennsylvania , †  November 29, 1871 in Sacramento , California ) was an American politician and third governor of the state of California.

biography

youth

Bigler came from a family of German descent. He worked for a newspaper publisher from an early age. Since neither he nor his brother William had ever had a regular education, he taught himself and his brother the basics. In 1831 the brothers moved to Bellefonte , Center County . There they became publishers of the Center Democrat , a newspaper close to Andrew Jackson and the Democratic Party . In 1835, John left the paper to study law.

When the news of the Californian gold rush reached the east coast in mid-1848, Bigler, who had since graduated as a lawyer, decided to also go to California to do legal work there. When he arrived in Sacramento in 1849, he found there were no vacancies. As a result, he took on various embarrassment jobs in order to keep himself afloat financially. When the first general election in California came up, he made the decision to go into politics. He ran as a Democrat for the city of Sacramento and was elected.

Entry into politics

After gaining a foothold in politics, he quickly made a career. In February 1850 he was elected President ( Speaker ) of the California State Assembly and thus known nationwide. His personal commitment during a cholera epidemic raised his profile. In May 1851 he was nominated by the Democratic Party as a candidate for gubernatorial election. His opponent was Whig candidate Pierson B. Reading, who dismissed Bigler as a rough Northerner and grumpy Yankee while presenting himself as an educated Southerner. Bigler won the election by just over 1,000 votes. To date, this election result is the closest in the history of California's gubernatorial elections.

Time as governor

On January 8, 1852, John Bigler took up his new office. His primary focus was on protecting California's profitable mines from foreign monopolists. Another concern of Bigler's was the acceleration of the country's industrialization . In contrast to his immediate predecessor John McDougal , who had promoted immigration from China, he strictly rejected it. Gradually, he introduced a poll tax for the Chinese to make immigration more difficult. Most recently, he demanded a $ 50 head premium from each new immigrant from China, which had to be paid within three days. This law was later rejected as unconstitutional by the country's Supreme Court.

When an economic crisis broke out as a result of the gold discoveries in Australia and the simultaneous decline in California gold production in the early 1850s , racist attacks on the remaining Chinese took place in California, who were made the scapegoat for the crisis. Governor Bigler used this anti-Chinese sentiment to increase his popularity. From 1853 on, California was drawn into the American slavery dispute . Bigler's Democratic Party broke into two opposing camps over the issue. Bigler and his supporters founded the so-called Free Soil faction of the Democratic Party, which was formed in a similar way to the Free Soil Party that was formed at the federal level and wanted to prevent the spread of slavery. Both factions of the Democratic Party put up their own candidates for the next elections. Bigler was nominated by his parliamentary group and was able to prevail against his opponents. Until 1914 he remained the only governor of California to get direct re-election. In his second term in office, he continued the path he had already chosen. A new problem was determining the capital of California. Only a few years earlier the capital had been moved from San José to Vallejo . However, this city did not meet the requirements of a seat of government . There were hardly any buildings, furniture or other facilities in Vellejo. Given these circumstances, Bigler proposed that the seat of government be temporarily relocated to Sacramento, while Vallejo should remain the actual capital. Storms destroyed parts of both cities, so that the seat of government was initially moved to Benicia . But there was also a lack of the necessary infrastructure. When Sacramento again offered to take over the function of the capital, the governor signed a law on February 25, 1854, with the approval of parliament, which finally moved the capital to Sacramento.

Voting out Bigler

In 1855 Bigler was nominated for a third term. However, its popularity had since suffered. The anti-Chinese immigration policy no longer met with the same approval as in previous years. The governor was now also blamed for economic problems and rising national debt. In the end he was defeated by the candidate of the Know-Nothing Party , John Neely Johnson . Bigler was the first California governor to be voted out of office.

After his departure, he joined the diplomatic service of the federal government. On the advice of his brother William, who had now become governor of Pennsylvania, President James Buchanan appointed John Bigler as the United States Ambassador to Chile , succeeding David A. Starkweather . In 1863 he made a vain attempt to be elected to Congress . In 1868 he finally acquired the Capitol Reporter newspaper , which he published until his death on November 29, 1871.

Appreciation

For a time, today's Lake Tahoe in California was named Lake Bigler in his honor . However, the name could not establish itself and was no longer used from 1862.

Web links

• John Bigler in the National Governors Association (English)
• California State Library (English)

• John Bigler in the database of Find a Grave (English)