PROCLAMATION TO THE PEOPLE OF THE DISTRICT OF SAN FRANCISCO: WHEREAS, PROOF HAS BEEN LAID BEFORE ME, THAT A BODY OF MEN, STYLING THEMSELVES "THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF THE DISTRICT OF SAN FRANCISCO" HAS USURPED POWERS...[caption title and intro

by [San Francisco]: Riley, Bennett:

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Book Description

[Monterey. 1849].. Broadside, 13 x 8 3/4 inches, printed in two columns. Staining and wear at folds, split neatly in half across the center horizontal fold and along one vertical fold. Contemporary ink numbers on verso. Overall, still very good. In a cloth chemise and slipcase, gilt leather label. The Thomas W. Streeter copy (one of only two known perfect copies of three total known copies), with his pencil notes at the top of the recto and his bookplate at the bottom of the verso. Streeter bought this proclamation from Edwin Grabhorn in 1936, and it sold at his sale in 1968 to the Carnegie Book Shop for $1800. It was later offered by Warren Howell. At the time of this proclamation California was still under the rule of the United States military, a state of affairs in place since the Mexican War. San Francisco's political situation in early 1849 was in a state of tumult, and the city was filled with lawlessness and crime. At the start of the year the city had three different town councils, all operating in opposition to each other. On March 12, 1849, a single, local "District Legislature" or "Legislative Assembly" was organized to exercise supreme power in San Francisco, and it acted over and above the power of the Alcalde, making laws, levying taxes, and filling offices. It was this Legislative Assembly that Bennett Riley condemned as illegitimate and illegal, usurping the power of the United States Congress. In this document Riley, the military governor of California, denounces the actions of the so-called "Legislative Assembly of the District of San Francisco," ordering citizens not to pay its taxes or support its officers. Further, Riley notes that someone "assuming the title of Sheriff under the authority of one claiming to be a Justice of the Peace" had seized the public records of the district from the lawfully constituted Alcalde. Riley calls on all law- abiding citizens to uphold the "legally constituted [i.e. federal] authorities of the land." He urges San Franciscans to aid in restoring the records to the Alcalde and in ignoring the claims to power of the "Legislative Assembly." Riley writes: "It can hardly be possible that intelligent and thinking men should be so blinded by passion, and so unmindful of their own true interests and the security of their property...as to countenance and support any illegally constituted body in their open violation of the laws and assumption of authority which in no possible event could ever belong to them." He closes by implying that if the Alcalde has in any way misruled, federal authorities will provide a remedy. Bennett Riley (1787- 1853) served as the military governor of California from April 12 to Dec. 20, 1849, and later assisted in creating the civil government of the state, calling for a constitutional convention and later a gubernatorial election. The broadside is signed in print by Riley at the end, dated at Monterey, June 4, 1849, and also signed in print by H.W. Halleck as Secretary of State. "This proclamation was undoubtedly printed as a broadside but I have not succeeded in locating a copy of it" - Wagner. Greenwood locates only this copy and a copy at the Bancroft Library. OCLC locates a copy at the University of California, San Diego, which is defective, with a large hole in the first nine lines of text (costing thirty-one words of text). A very rare and early California imprint, vividly describing the political instability in San Francisco in the early days of the Gold Rush. STREETER SALE 2556 (this copy). GREENWOOD 121. WAGNER, CALIFORNIA IMPRINTS 32. AII (CALIFORNIA) 94. FAHEY 119. OCLC 19807981.

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