Peter Burnett

Peter Burnett

Peter Hardeman Burnett (born November 15, 1807 in Nashville , Tennessee , † May 17, 1895 in San Francisco , California ) was an American politician and the first regular governor of the state of California.

youth

Burnett came from a lower class family and grew up in rural Missouri . He did not receive a regular school education. So he taught himself a lot. He was particularly interested in the judiciary and government work. At first he tried his hand at being a shopkeeper; after that he became a lawyer. In this capacity he defended a group of Mormons including Joseph Smith . The charges were treason, arson and robbery. Burnett requested that the venue be relocated, and the resulting pause was used by the defendants to flee. In 1843 Burnett left Missouri for Oregon to escape his growing debt. There he became politically active. Between 1844 and 1848 he was a member of the provisional parliament of the region. During this time he also converted to the Catholic faith.

politics

As a member of parliament, he became known as a conservative racist. He successfully campaigned for a law that banned African Americans from living in Oregon. Black people who remained there were whipped and mistreated until they left voluntarily or were expelled. This law remained in effect in Oregon until 1926, and it was not until 1927 that African Americans were allowed to vote there.

When gold was discovered in California in 1848 , Burnett also made his way south. After only moderate success in gold prospecting, he turned back to justice and politics. On behalf of Johann August Sutter , he sold lots of land on which the city of Sacramento was built. In 1849 California made the transition from military to civil administration. Burnett was elected the state's first civilian governor and took office in San José on December 20, 1849 . Now he started building a new administrative structure. The country was divided into 27 districts ( counties ). The cabinet was established and two senators, John C. Frémont and William M. Gwin , were appointed to Congress in Washington, DC . Ironically, California was not officially a state in the United States at the time. Long discussions on this topic followed in Washington. It was not just about the approval of California, but about the dispute as to whether slavery should be allowed or prohibited in the newly admitted states of the Union . This conflict was resolved with the so-called compromise of 1850 . One result of this compromise was the approval of California as a state on September 9, 1850.

Meanwhile in California there had been tension between Governor Burnett and the State Assembly . This included the status of the cities of Los Angeles and Sacramento; another point of contention was the question of race. As in Oregon, Burnett wanted to prevent the immigration of blacks or other minorities to California, which angered the supporters of the southern states against him, as they wanted to transfer the slavery system to the west coast. Burnett's proposals failed to find a majority in the House of Representatives. He also wanted to tax foreign immigrants to California heavily and drastically tighten the laws against capital crimes, as well as expand the definition of capital crimes by including simple theft, among other things. The opposition to Burnett quickly gained strength and his legislative proposals failed to win majorities. As a consequence of the lack of success of his policy, he resigned in January 1851 after a little more than a year in office for allegedly personal reasons.

Age

A year after his resignation, he was finally able to pay off his old Missouri debt. He worked briefly in various areas. Among other things, he was a judge at the Supreme Court of California from 1857 to 1858 , then a councilor in Sacramento, a lawyer in San José and finally president of the Pacific Bank in San Francisco. In 1882 he briefly stepped into the political limelight again as a proponent of a law against Chinese immigrants. He died in San Francisco on May 17, 1895, at the age of 88.

literature

• R. Gregory Nokes: The Troubled Life of Peter Burnett: Oregon Pioneer and First Governor of California. Oregon State University, Corvallis 2018, ISBN 978-0-87071-932-5 .

Web links

• Peter Hardeman Burnett (English)
• Profile the Governor's Library (English)
• Peter Burnett in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Peter H. Burnett: Recollections and Opinions of an Old Pioneer, By the First Governor of the State of California , ISBN 1-58976-256-8