Californios and American Union

The notion that Americans stole California from Mexico is not just.

By Ron Kirk

According to the book The Making of American California based in original source documents and the first hand witness of Richard Henry Dana Jr. in Two Years before the Mast, it is true enough that Mexico and the U.S. represented two very different views of government, and both existed uncomfortably together in California for a time.

After Americans began to migrate to California pre-Gold Rush, they would chafe under the aristocratic stratification of society planted here by Spain. As Dana would observe, California was largely a feudal order—with the elite, aristocratic ruling class, and the peasants who had little hope or vision for anything better. The stratification was rigid, and little middle class existed. Indians were slaves.[i] This heavy class stratification inhibited economic growth so that most successful enterprise came at the hand of American immigrants.[ii]

Americans found Roman Law objectionable. In opposition to the often arbitrary Roman or Civil Law based legal system based in the human judgment of magistrates, Americans desired the liberty and justice-based English common law, which better protected the individual and his property. Capital cases were decided by the alcalde (mayor). “No protestants have any civil rights, nor can he hold any property, or, indeed, remain more than a few weeks on shore, unless he belong to some vessel.”[iii] The Zorro legend imaginatively illustrates the differences between these two worldviews. Soon both Latin and Anglo Californians would overwhelmingly agree on this point.

General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo was destined to become one of California’s great statesmen. Concerned only with its best interest, General Vallejo favored government under the United States as ensuring California’s best defense and progress.[iv] At one point, General Vallejo declared that dependence on Mexico for welfare and safety would be “idle and absurd.”[v]

Under such leadership Americans in California took governmental authority after attacks by Mexican forces in 1846.[vi] After a brief fight engaged by the Mexicans in California in and the subsequent surrender of California by Mexico at Cahuenga Pass in 1847,[vii] Californios would overwhelmingly support American-style government.

California elected first to form itself as an independent state rather than a U.S. territory in order to stop Congress from appointing it a slave state. California outlawed slavery to itself.[viii] The new constitution provided for the Common Law and the right to vote by both Americans and Californios.[ix] No revenue would be allowed from state-sponsored gambling or lottery.[x] Latin and Anglo Californians together ratified the new American-style constitution almost unanimously.[xi] Subsequently, as an independent state, California successfully petitioned Congress to become a state in the union. Congress found no flaw in the California Constitution.[xii]

An interesting sidebar lies in the story of Ventura County’s own Camarillo family. In a phenomenal shift from the earlier feudal viewpoint and instead adopting an American-style enterprise, Juan Camarillo, in migrating from Mexico, formed a traveling sales business along El Camino Real—a dangerous affair. Later he established a store in Santa Barbara. In buying and selling land with his profits, Juan purchased the Calleguas Rancho in 1876. Juan’s son Adolfo, studied scientific agriculture. He introduced the lima bean to California agriculture. Adolfo and his brother Juan employed the best in free enterprise thinking and modern farming. In this, Adolfo came to be considered the last of the Dons. This was due to Adolfo’s enterprise in contrast to the old feudal system that left the other great ranchos in growing decline.

In developing curriculum for the Master’s School in the late 80s, we discovered a high degree of expression of a Biblical spirit and character in the Camarillo family—faith, education, industry, magnanimity toward neighbors of diverse religious and cultural background, civic spirit and participation, and generosity. The Camarillo family significantly contributed to the success of their town. These things gave us reason to be proud of our local heritage.[xiii]

© 2015, published with permission of author

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Ron Kirk is a pioneering educator, author, editor, and landscape architect. His educational career spans nearly forty years, including twenty-two years of crafted curriculum and methodology development and classroom teaching. This system derived and refined from the best Christian era historic principles, emphasizes applied Biblical faith, Christian liberty, character, excellence in accomplishment, and wisdom. His work now supplies a unique and growing movement in Uganda, supported by national leaders, where a Biblical worldview is displacing the materialistic mainstream. You can see more of this work at www.getwisdom.us.

End Notes

[i] Richard Henry Dana Jr., Two Years before the Mast (New York: The Macmillan Co, 1921), 82.

[ii] Dana, 89.

[iii] Dana, 88.

[iv] Dorothy Dimmick, The Making of American California, a Providential Approach (Dorothy Dimmick, 1990), 148.

[v] Dimmick, 152.

[vi] Dimmick, 194.

[vii] Dimmick, 198.

[viii] Dimmick, 240.

[ix] Dimmick, 241.

[x] Dimmick, 245.

[xi] Dimmick, 250.

[xii] Dimmick, 261.

[xiii] Greater Camarillo, Then and Now (Camarillo Chamber of Commerce, 1978), 5, 17-20.