The Bradley Administration 1871-1878: Rise and Decline of the Silver Bonanzas (1935)

The total population of the state at that time was 42,491. Over three-fourths of the population was of the male sex - 32,379 males, 10,112 females. There were 357 "colored" and 3,152 Chinese. As in all mining states the population of Nevada was extremely fluid. Except in a few localities where there was a balance between agriculture, industry and trade, the statistics of population were subject to considerable variation not only from decade to decade but from year to year. Thus the census of 1870 found approximately 13,500 persons within the three new counties of Elko, Lincoln and White Pine.[1]

The state of one's birth does not necessarily establish one's political and social views. In accounts of Nevada's political history, even until the late '70s, frequent reference is made to the influence of the "southern element." It was claimed that a large element in the Democratic party was made up of men who "sympathized with or had assisted the Southern Confederacy."1a Whatever may have been the strength of "southern sympathy," the census records of 1875 reveal the fact that Nevada then had only a scattering few persons who had been born in any of the "cotton states." Only here and there will be found a native of Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, or the Gulf states. Even Storey County, perhaps the most cosmopolitan of all the counties, had few natives from any of the states south of the Ohio River. The men who raised the Confederate flag and otherwise made their influence felt in public affairs during the early '60s either eluded the census takers of 1875 or, what is more probable, had been secessionists by principle or policy and not "to the manner born."

In the Nevada state election of November, 1870, the Republican and Democratic forces reached an equilibrium, and those elected to office were apparently the beneficiary of some special factors such as personal popularity. The democratic candidate for governor, L. R. Bradley, won over the Republican, F. A. Tritle, by a vote of 7,200 to 6,149. Charles W. Kendall was the first Democrat to represent Nevada in Congress.[2] The Democrats also elected the lieutenant governor, the state treasurer, and the judge of the Supreme Court, John Garber. The Fifth Legislature, which convened in 1871, had ten Democrats and twelve Republicans in the Senate, twenty-two Democrats and twenty-two Republicans in the Assembly, and there was also one independent senator and two independent members of the Assembly.

industry are almost certain to dominate the political and economic interests of the state. In a single year, from 1870 to 1871, the bullion assessments in the state increased by more than eight million dollars. While more than half of this increase was in Storey County, Elko, Lander, Lincoln and Nye counties more than doubled their bullion assessment during the year. Every assessment of taxes against this bullion decreased by that amount the returns to the owners. It was a tax "at the source," and one which could not be passed on to the consumer. A current explanation of the time as to how the mine interests sought to avoid these exactions, with particular reference to the influences that brought about the passage of the act of 1871, described above, is the following.[3]

But these were only minor features of the tremendous phenomena centering at the Comstock Lode. It was the stocks of the Comstock companies which attracted the greatest attention on the boards of the mining exchanges. Apparently the wealth of the Comstock was inexhaustible. The oldest bonanzas on the Comstock had been steadily producing for over a dozen years and new ones were being constantly opened. The following table gives the names of some of the more prominent of these mines, the date of discovery and the total estimated production up to August, 1877.[4]

The importance of the Comstock is not to be measured alone in its output of ore. "The Comstock Lode has been called the mining school of the world and so it seems, for the training acquired there was considered a fitting equipment for foremen, superintendents and managers, who were called all over the world to take charge of similar extensive operations."[5] Here many of primitive Mexican methods as developed in the placer mining regions of California had to be radically modified. As the miners burrowed deeper and deeper into the mountain side they discarded one by one the early features of quartz-mining practice. At the Ophir mine was installed the first steam hoist. "The almost insurmountable difficulties experienced in supporting a large excavation in the weak rock masses, led to the invention of a system of timbering, which at first met with considerable opposition, owing to the expense, but was ultimately generally adopted in all of the mines of the Lode, and has since found wide application in practically all kinds of metal mines the world over. This method of timbering is known as square-setting, owing to the manner in which the timbers are framed together in the square or rectangu-

lar sets. This form of timber support is said to have been devised by Mr. P. Deidesheimer of the Ophir mine in 1860."[6]

pany declared its first dividend, three dollars a share, but not until the summer of 1874 was the extent and value of the great discovery appreciated by the outside public. The immediate response was the rise of the stock of these two mines from a par value of $100 to $580. The immense ore body uncovered was declared to contain ore to the value of $1,500,000,000. During 1875 the product of the Consolidated Virginia was "greater than that of all the other mines on the Comstock combined ; it was almost twice as great as that of all the rest of the mines in the state outside of Storey County. . . . . This is the most productive silver mine that has ever been discovered."[7] During 1873 the Consolidated Virginia produced over $300,000 in gold and $300,000 in silver, while in 1875 the production rose to an excess of $7,000,000 in gold and over $9,600,000 in silver, or an aggregate of $16,700,000. The president of the mine reported that regular monthly dividends had been paid, aggregating $27,000,000. In addition, the California mine had begun paying dividends in 1876 and yielded bullion to the value of $13,400,000 in that year.

able commodities in the markets of the world, the regions in the vicinity of these mines would prosper and attain a high level of civilized comforts and culture. The spectre of overproduction had not yet threatened the white metal. But great as the production was, it was not sufficient as a foundation to sustain the amazing structure of stocks built up by the financial promoters and manipulators who used the engraved paper representing ownership of a share in these mines to feed the fires of speculation until it had burned not only the unlucky outsiders, but many of the fortunate insiders. Fair and Mackay were both practical mining men,[8] but many of their associates were concerned only with the financial transactions involved in the promotion of mining securities and the buying and selling of stocks. For all practical purposes the destiny of the Comstock was controlled, not in Virginia City, but in San Francisco.

the opening of the new bonanzas, the Consolidated Virginia and California mines. Having practically exhausted the ore bodies in their mines, Sharon and his associates were no longer concerned with the exemption of this class of property from taxation. But a heavier tax on mines would increase the Storey County sinking fund out of which their railroad bonds were to be paid. Consequently there was no objection on their part when the Legislature by almost unanimous vote passed a bill, which became a law February 20, 1875. In effect this act repealed the law of 1867 which had limited the tax on bullion in Storey County to twenty-five cents on the hundred dollars, and authorized the boards of county commissioners of the different counties to assess and collect an ad valorem tax for county purposes not exceeding $1.50 on each hundred dollars on all taxable property in the county "including the proceeds of mines and mining claims." Since, as has been noted, the product of the Consolidated Virginia mine in 1875 was greater than that of all the other mines on the Comstock combined, it was evident that the Mackay-Fair mines would bear the onus of the new tax, from which the Sharon mines had escaped. This was the beginning of the war between the Bank of California on the one hand and Flood and O'Brien and their associates on the other, culminating in a crisis which rocked the financial district of San Francisco in the summer of 1875. The following account of the failure of the Bank of California in August, 1875, is in words of a California historian:[9]

still are in great doubt as to the prospects for the future."[11] Referring particularly to Storey County the state mineralogist said: "The past two years have been an era of the greatest prosperity in this county. At no former period since the discovery of the Comstock Lode, have the mines been so productive. During this period, too, the greatest calamity which has ever befallen this

latter company, were reduced to ashes.[12] The governor in his message referred to this fire as follows: "At no time in our history has the indomitable energy of our people been so fully displayed as in removing all traces of this great fire. Legislation could not provide for the wants of a situation so unexpected. All the public buildings—county and state—were swept away. A better system of defense against the recurrence of a destructive fire had to be established. As a consequence, both the county and city governments had to assume doubtful powers in order to meet the emergency successfully."

Just two years before the great fire, in August, 1873, there had been great rejoicing and a celebration over the completion of a remarkable achievement in hydraulic engineering bringing to Virginia and Gold Hill a supply of pure mountain water from the Sierra Nevada Mountains. From the source of supply about a thousand feet higher than Virginia City an iron pipe was laid dropping down into the Washoe Valley and then raised by means of an inverted syphon to an elevation above Virginia and Gold Hill. The pipe was about seven miles long and at its outlet the water was delivered into a flume through which it flowed twelve miles to Virginia City. (An interesting story of this achievement is found in William Wright's History of the Big Bonanza.) But through lack of hydrants, proper pressure in the mains, and adequate equipment, the full efficiency of this system was not available at the time of the fire. But long before the smoldering ruins had ceased to smoke, the work of rebuilding had commenced, and in less than one year from the time of the fire, the city was rebuilt."[13]

"Early in May, 1877, this court rendered a decision, sustaining fully the right of the state of Nevada to tax the proceeds of mines.[14]

5. The Comstock mill-ring, which owned the entire political and judicial organization of the state.[15]

Jones was extremely loyal to the interests of Nevada, and for thirty consecutive years represented that state in the United States Senate. To quote his biographer writing in 1881[16]: "As a guardian of the people's interest he has been faithful, and as an advocate of questions of great national importance has won a fame that places him among the first students of political economy, the most conservative and just of statesmen and the most brilliant of orators of our country."

In the campaign of 1874 there was a partial fusion between the Democrats and the Independents or "Dolly Vardens." They had no difficulty in uniting to support Governor Bradley for re-election. Governor Bradley was not identified with the Comstock ring, and could command support from the agrarian as well as the industrial interests. He was easily reelected for another term and the Democrats also elected the lieutenant-governor, Jewett W. Adams, the attorney-general and state treasurer. For Congress the Democrats nominated Col. A. C. Ellis[17] instead of C. W. Kendall. This alienated Kendall and probably contributed to the defeat of the democratic candidate and the election of William Woodburn, who was chosen to represent Nevada in the Forty-fourth Congress, 1875-77.[18]

can and in joint convention January 13, 1875, forty-nine votes were cast for Sharon, twenty-one for H. K. Mitchell, and four for Thomas P. Hawley.[19] Sharon was the financial genius and leader of one group who battled for the control of the Comstock proper-ties. In the opposite group, comprising the developers and owners of the "new bonanzas," was James G. Fair, who in 1881 was destined to succeed Sharon in the United States Senate. Fair was a Democrat. With his term in the Senate the "Comstock dynasty" may be said to have come to an end, and for his successor the Legislature turned to a man of humbler fortune in the person of former senator William M. Stewart.[20]

granting franchises to railroads and other corporations there was a typical proviso "that no Chinese or Mongolians shall be employed in the construction or maintaining of said road, and such employment of Chinese laborers shall work a forfeiture of the franchise, subsidies and all rights hereby granted."[21] These restrictive features disappeared from the franchise acts of 1873 and 1875, though there was an assembly concurrent resolution in 1875 declaring that "the importation of labor that does not benefit the general interests of the people is detrimental to good government," and requested that Nevada's representatives in Congress should work to secure a modification of "the existing treaties with China so as to prevent the importation of Chinese, male and female, under servile contract."

This amendment proposal was again approved by the 1879 Legislature and submitted to popular vote in November, 1880. The vote in favor was 14,215, almost unanimous.[22]

The Legislature in 1879 had passed an act to ascertain and express the will of the people on the subject of Chinese immigration. In the election of 1880 the voters had the opportunity of signifying on their ballot their will in favor or disfavor of Chinese immigration. Only 183 voters favored such immigration. The Legislature of 1879 also struck a blow at the alleged system by which Chinese were being imported to this country under terms equivalent to slavery.[23] The same Legislature passed a general act prohibiting the employment directly or indirectly in any capacity of Chinamen on public works, around buildings or institutions or grounds controlled by the state and declared that no railroad or other franchise be granted except on the express condition that Chinese should be prohibited from construction work.

years. Then in 1882 Congress passed a bill prohibiting immigration from China for a period of ten years.[24]

Nevada had no sooner obtained the great boon of a railroad than it began to complain of the exactions and discriminatory practices of the Central Pacific Company. These complaints were by no means a phenomenon peculiar to Nevada. Throughout the Middle West a "farmers' revolt" was in progress demanding legislative or popular control of railway corporations. Illinois had led off in the matter of "granger legislation" against railroads in 1869, being followed by Minnesota in 1871 and by Iowa and Wisconsin in 1874. These laws declared the principle that the state had the right to regulate and control corporations of its own creation. The application of the principle was fiercely fought by the railway companies, but the principle was firmly imbedded in American economic doctrine by the decisions of the United States Supreme Court in October, 1876.[25]

While little progress was made toward settling the railroad rate problem during the Bradley administration, some actual additions were made to the railroad mileage of the state during the years 1871-78. But aside from the Virginia and Truckee, completed in September, 1872, the new lines were built on the narrow gauge pattern and primarily for ore carrying purposes.[26] One of the first of these was the Pioche and Bullionville Railroad, a narrow gauge line about twenty miles long, built in 1872-73, primarily for the purpose of transporting ore from the mines to the mills. This pioneer railroad in Lincoln County served its purpose, and when the mines played out the road itself soon fell into disuse.

In February, 1875, the Legislature passed over Governor Bradley's veto an act to encourage the construction of a railroad from Battle Mountain Station to the City of Austin. The act authorized the county to issue $200,000 in bonds to aid the road. Such a line, it was hoped, would restore some of the diminishing prestige of Austin as the mining capital of the Reese River region. While Governor Bradley himself came from this section of the state, it was known that he was opposed to railroad subsidies, which, as has been noted, was an important issue in the political campaign of 1874. At the same time Lander County elected to the State Senate, M. J. Farrell of Austin, who for a long time had been agitating the public mind concerning the feasibility of constructing a narrow gauge road. He introduced the bill mentioned above and fought it through both houses. Though its passage did not result in immediate construction, Farrell did not allow the matter to rest, and his persistent advocacy brought to the project the name "Farrell's Hobby." His persistence was finally rewarded in the organization of the Nevada Central Railroad Company, September 2, 1879. The work of building was commenced and on February 9, 1880, the road was completed over the distance of ninety-two miles from Austin to Battle Mountain. It was a three-foot gauge road.[27]

Thus the total amount of assets over all the state debt was in excess of $230,000. In explaining the causes which brought about this satisfactory financial condition state controller W. W. Hobart said : "First and foremost, it must be conceded that the principal factors in the causes that have made possible the present flattering showing in our state finances, have been the extraordinary yield of our mines for the past eight years, and the consequent increase in assessed values of real and personal property in the state. Still it is not too much to claim that something is due to wise legislation, and prudence in expenditure by the executive officers of the state."[28]

of the Supreme Court; less than $9,000 to the office of the surveyor general and land register; about $16,000 for the upkeep and care of the state capitol building and capitol grounds ; $8,000 for the state library. For the support of the charitable institutions for the care of the indigent insane, the deaf, dumb and blind and the state orphan home, the state expended during the year about $52,000, while about $87,000 went for the support of the Nevada State Prison. For the support of the state university during that year Nevada expended less than $4,500, and the total expenditure of the state for the support of public schools was slightly less than $50,000.[29]

At this time Nevada had a state capitol, a state prison and a state orphans home, all located at Carson City.[30] The few deaf, dumb and blind under the age of twenty-one were cared for at Berkeley, California. Nevada's indigent insane, to the number of 115 in 1878, were cared for under contract at the Woodbridge Insane Asylum near Stockton, California.[31]

In speaking of the services rendered by the state government it should not be overlooked that there was also a responsibility to the state to protect its citizens from riot and invasion. This was primarily the duty of the organized state militia. The Indians had been put on reservations, and one by one the federal garrisons had been withdrawn, leaving only a nominal command at Fort Halleck. Early in September, 1875, Governor Bradley was besieged by telegrams describing the imminence of an Indian raid in the eastern part of the state. This has been referred to as the White Pine or Spring Valley war. It was reported that one or two men had been killed in Spring Valley, a place about sixty miles from the nearest telegraph station. It was one of the isolated settlements in White Pine and Lincoln County in which there were a number of men, women and children who would be at the mercy of savages in any sudden outbreak. Since no United States troops could be obtained from Fort Halleck, the governor determined to throw into the field all the available forces of Eureka, White Pine and Lincoln counties, and the state troops and volunteers quickly mobilized, reaching the scene only to find that reports of the danger had been greatly exaggerated.[32]

The founding and opening of the state university also come within the annals of the Bradley administration. The act of March 7, 1873, located the university at the town of Elko, provided that the people of Elko should convey to the board of regents a tract of land at least twenty acres in extent having on it a building furnished and ready for occupancy suitable for the uses of the preparatory department. One of the provisions was that tuition should be free, and "that none shall be excluded on account of sex, race or color." The act appropriated only $4,000 for the conduct of the university during the first year. The school was started with only one teacher, the principal, D. R. Sessions, a graduate of Princeton College, who opened the institution October 12, 1874, with seven pupils. In 1875 the number of pupils increased to sixteen, and to twenty-three in 1876. The building erected by the citizens of Elko was used for the school room. It was a two-story brick building, with four rooms below and an assembly hall above. Of the $20,000 appropriated from the general fund for the university during the four years up to 1877, a portion was used for the construction of a two-story dormitory containing eleven rooms, designed primarily to accommodate out-of-town students. The dormitory was for men students only.[33]

[1] Some of the detail figures for towns and precincts in Elko County are:

Bruno---------------------------122

Bull Run-------------------------43

Camp Halleck-----------------160

Carlin---------------------------295

Clover Valley-------------------80

Elko---------------------------1160

Humboldt Wells----------------42

Lamoille Valley---------------134

Mineral Hill--------------------212

Mound Valley-------------------88

Mountain City-----------------467

Pine Valley----------------------35

Placerville----------------------160

Rail------------------------------110

Ruby Valley--------------------153

Star Valley-----------------------69

Toano---------------------------117

In White Pine County the metropolis at that time was Hamilton, with a population of 3,913, whereas in the 1920 census Hamilton precinct was credited with sixty-two persons. In 1870 Shermantown had 932 and Treasure 1,920, and other smaller precincts in the county named in the census figures were Diamond Valley, Egan Canyon, Kern, Newark Valley, Piermont, Pinto, Robinson, Spring Valley, Steptoe Valley.

The principal centers in Lincoln County in 1870 were:

Hiko------------110

Panaca----------493

Pioche---------1620

Rio Virgin-----762

1a Thompson and West History speaking of the election of 1874.

[2] Lewis R. Bradley was born in Virginia in 1806. In early life he was a farmer and horse trader. He lived in Kentucky and Missouri and in 1852 took a band of cattle across the plains to California. He became a resident of Nevada in 1862, settling in Lander County, where he engaged in stock raising. Thus he represented that element of Nevada's population which was frequently described as from the "Cow Country."

Charles W. Kendall, the first Democratic congressman from Nevada, was born in Waldo County, Maine, April 22, 1828. He attended Yale College, went to California in 1849, was editor of the San Jose Tribune from 1855 to 1859, practiced law at Sacramento and was a member of the California Legislature. In 1862 he went to Hamilton, Nevada. He was in Congress from March, 1871 to March, 1873. After the end of his term he removed to Denver, and later was assistant librarian in the Interstate Commerce Commission at Washington from 1892 until his death June 25, 1914.

Henry G. Worthington, Nevada's first congressman, was born in Maryland February 9, 1828. After being admitted to the bar he moved to California, served in the Legislature of that state, and in 1862 settled at Austin, Nevada. He was in the Thirty-eighth Congress from October 31, 1864 to March 3, 1865. Afterwards he was appointed collector of the port at Charleston, South Carolina, under appointment from President Johnson served as United States minister to Uruguay and Argentina, was a United States district judge. He died at Washington July 29, 1909.

Nevada's second congressman, Delos R. Ashley, was born in Arkansas February 19, 1828. He was admitted to the bar in 1849, in the same year moved to California, where he was district attorney, member of both houses of the Legislature and state treasurer. In 1864 he moved to Virginia City and in 1871, after his term in Congress, located at Pioche. Reasons of failing health caused him to move to California in 1872, and he died at San Francisco July 18, 1873.

[3] Thompson and West's History, 124.

[4] The Comstock Lode, by J. A. Church.

[5] Walter R. Crane's Gold and Silver, an economic history.

[6] Op. cit. 352. Philipp Deidesheimer was born in Germany in 1832, went to California in 1851 and came to the Comstock in 1860. The history of his invention of the "square sets" was described by William Wright in the History of the Big Bonanza and also in Thompson and West's publication of 1881.

[7] State mineralogist's report for 1877.

[8] "For many years Mr. Fair spent a great deal of his time in the depths of his mines, visiting the different workings at all times of the day or night, and thus became thoroughly conversant with every part of the vast labyrinths of drifts, cross-cuts, winzes, stopes, shafts and inclines, as well as with the army of men under his charge. There are few bodies so robust as to bear the strain, and few minds so clear as to retain all the great works and workmen in memory, giving directions with perfect confidence, managing the greatest work of the age with unparalleled success, and making reports with the remarkable accuracy and clearness shown by Superintendent Fair." (Sketch in Thompson and West's History.)

John W. Mackay, who acquired a two-fifths interest in the new bonanza mines of 1873, reaped an enormous fortune. Subsequently he organized and became president of the Bank of Nevada. An attempt to corner the wheat market nearly wrecked the bank and destroyed his fortune. In 1884 he joined James Gordon Bennett in forming the Commercial Cable Company and the Postal Telegraph Company. His son, Clarence H. Mackay, is still president of the Postal Telegraph. John W. Mackay disposed of his wealth in many public benefactions. He died at London, England, July 20, 1902.

[9] Bailey Millard, in the San Francisco Bay Region.

[10] From that date (1875) to this (1881) there has been a general decline in the value of mining stocks on the Comstock Lode, and though an occasional flutter occurs in prices, the thousands who invested their hard earnings in the certificates of shares, turn away heartsick as the prices recede day by day. Those who built fine residences costing sixty thousand dollars to a hundred thousand dollars; those who built modest cottages; those who sought to lift themselves above the drudgeries of daily labor, have been disappointed and obliged to surrender all. (Thompson and West's.)

[11] State mineralogist's report.

[12]

[13] The governor in his message referred to this fire as follows: "At no time in our history has the indomitable energy of our people been so fully displayed as in removing all traces of this great fire. Legislation could not provide for the wants of a situation so unexpected. All the public buildings—county and state—were swept away. A better system of defense against the recurrence of a destructive fire had to be established. As a consequence, both the county and city governments had to assume doubtful powers in order to meet the emergency successfully."

The act of February 3, 1877, authorized the commissioners of Storey County to pay a long list of claims, chiefly in amounts of five to fifteen dollars, "for services rendered by them (the claimants) in the preservation of the peace and the maintenance of the law, order and quiet of the city of Virginia and the protection of the lives and property of the citizens thereof." Another act of the same Legislature legalized the contract made by the city with the Virginia and Gold Hill Water Company, but one clause in the act required that during the existence of the contract the city should "at any and all times have the right to use the said water for the extinguishment of fire and for the protection of said city from damage from fire." As a result of the fire a new charter was granted Virginia City, authorizing a paid fire department.

Just two years before the great fire, in August, 1873, there had been great rejoicing and a celebration over the completion of a remarkable achievement in hydraulic engineering bringing to Virginia and Gold Hill a supply of pure mountain water from the Sierra Nevada Mountains. From the source of supply about a thousand feet higher than Virginia City an iron pipe was laid dropping down into the Washoe Valley and then raised by means of an inverted syphon to an elevation above Virginia and Gold Hill. The pipe was about seven miles long and at its outlet the water was delivered into a flume through which it flowed twelve miles to Virginia City. (An interesting story of this achievement is found in William Wright's History of the Big Bonanza.) But through lack of hydrants, proper pressure in the mains, and adequate equipment, the full efficiency of this system was not available at the time of the fire.

[14] The United States Supreme Court in this decision, handed down May 7, 1877 (4 Otto, 762-767), gave a very concise and clear statement as to the property right developed by miners working on the public lands. Among other things, the decision is a justification for the views of the members of the constitutional convention who insisted that it would not be feasible to tax the property of mines or mining claims in themselves, but only the proceeds of mines. The collection of the tax levied against the Consolidated Virginia Company had been resisted on the ground that title in the land from which mineral was taken was in the United States and not for that reason liable to state taxation. The Supreme Court in affirming the decision of the United States District Court of Nevada said:

It is very true that Congress has, by statutes and tacit consent permitted individuals and corporations to dig out and convert to their own use the ores containing the precious metals, which are found in the land belonging to the government, without exacting or receiving any compensation for those ores, and without requiring the miner to buy or pay for the land. It has gone farther and recognized the possessory rights of these miners, as ascertained among themselves by the rules which have become the laws of the mining districts as regards mining claims. . . . But in doing this it has not parted with the title to the land, except in cases where the land has been sold. . . . If the tax of the state of Nevada is, in point of fact, levied on this property right of the United States, we are bound by our previous decisions and by sound principle to hold that it is void. If, on the other hand, it is levied on property of the miners and may be collected without affecting or embarrassing the title of the United States to property which belongs to the government, then there is no ground for interference with the processes of the state in its collection.

The four essential points in the decision were:

1. The moment mineral or ore becomes detached from the soil of the public lands in which it is embedded, it becomes personal property, the ownership of which is in the man whose labor, capital and skill discovered the mines and extracted the ore.

2. It is then free from lien, claim or title of the United States, and is rightfully subject to taxation by the state, as any other personal property is.

3. The Nevada statute which makes a tax on such ore a lien on the mines or mining claims from which the ore is extracted, is not an interference with the right of property of the government in the lands from which the ore is extracted.

4. Mining claims on public lands are property in the fullest sense of the word, which may be sold, transferred, mortgaged and inherited, without infringing the title of the United States.

[15] Engineering and Mining Journal, Vol. 28, 356—Quoted in Walter R. Crane's Gold and Silver.

[16] In Thompson and West's History. Senator Jones was elected to the United States Senate five terms. During the '90s he separated himself from the Republican party when the money question became the leading issue, but in his final years resumed that allegiance. After leaving the Senate in 1903 he retired to a home at Santa Monica, California. He died November 27, 1912.

[17] Col. A. C. Ellis was born in Missouri July 12, 1840, graduated from the State University, completed his law course in Kentucky and had entered upon a professional and political career of much promise when the Civil war broke out. He was an officer with the Confederate forces in the campaign in Southern Missouri and Northwest Arkansas, but in 1863 came to Carson City, Nevada. He was candidate for governor in 1870. As a delegate to the national Democratic Convention of 1876 he presented the resolution against Chinese immigration, and in the convention of 1880 again took a prominent part in securing the adoption of the resolution against the Chinese.

[18] William Woodburn was born in Ireland April 14, 1838, and died at Carson City January 15, 1915. He was admitted to the bar in 1866, began practice at Virginia City, was district attorney of Storey County in 1871-72. In 1884 he was again elected to Congress, and served in the Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Congresses, 1885-89.

[19] On the previous day a preamble and resolution had been introduced into both Houses declaring that "it is a notorious and indisputable fact that William Sharon, candidate for senator, now is, and for more than three years last past has been, residing with his family, at his only and permanent family residence on Sutter Street in the city of San Francisco." In the Assembly the speaker ruled that the resolution was out of order, and in the Senate it was indefinitely postponed by a vote of sixteen to nine.

Sharon had moved to Virginia City in 1864 as manager of the branch of the Bank of California. He represented Nevada in the United States Senate from 1875 to 1881. He was born in Jefferson County, Ohio, January 9, 1821, and died at San Francisco November 13, 1885.

[20] When Fair became a candidate for the Senate in ½880 he was twitted for his lack of education and other qualifications that would enable him to move in the select circles of Washington. In replying to some of these criticisms the Gold Hill News declared that he was much more than a successful miner, mine manager and mining engineer. Though he had never graduated from any university of learning and most of his education had been acquired in the great school of the world, he was not by any means deficient in many of the higher branches of learning. "For practical ability, intelligence, general information, good judgment and sound common sense, Col. James G. Fair will average well with his fellow senators and congressmen at Washington."

[21] One act containing such a restriction has a curious interest. It was "to promote the introduction and use of steam power for transportation purposes on common roads in the state." It permitted companies to purchase toll roads or build special roads or make use of the public roads, for the purpose of maintaining "lines of steam traction wagons or locomotives." While this was a long look ahead to the modern motor highway, it was not altogether a fantastic theory, since a genius in Nebraska during the Civil war had built a steam tractor engine, called "the steam wagon" for pulling a string of loaded wagons over the highway from Nebraska City to Fort Kearney. This steam tractor engine actually pulled a train of wagons for about eight miles until a casting broke, and after that the steam wagon remained at the side of the road for ten years, but gave a name to the highway which still remains.

In this connection may be noted another curious piece of legislation regarding public highways, an act of 1875 which made it a misdemeanor for the owner of camels, dromedaries, to permit them to run at large on or about the public roads of the state.

[22] At the same election and by an even larger vote the people ratified another constitutional amendment reading: "No public funds of any kind or character whatever, state, county or municipal, shall be used for sectarian purpose."

[23] Whereas, all Chinese who come to this Coast arrive here under a contract to labor for a term of years, and are bound by such contract, not only by the superstitions of their peculiar religions, but by leaving their blood relations, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, or cousins, as hostages in China for the fulfilment of their part of the contract; and whereas, such slave labor and involuntary servitude is opposed to the genius of our institutions, opposed to the prevailing spirit of the age, as well as to the humanity and Christianity, and degrades the dignity of labor, which is the foundation of Republican Institutions; and whereas, Section Seventeen of Article one of the Constitution of the State of Nevada reads as follows: "Neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude, unless for the punishment of crimes, shall ever be tolerated in this State;" therefore, the people of the State of Nevada, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

Section 1. The immigration to this State of all slaves and other people bound by contract to involuntary servitude for a term of years, is hereby prohibited.

Sec. 2. It shall be unlawful for any company, person or persons, to collect the wages or compensation for the labor of the persons described in the first section of this Act.

Sec. 3. It shall be unlawful for any corporation, company, person or persons, to pay to any owner, or agent of the owner of any such persons mentioned in section one of this Act, any wages or compensation for the labor of such slaves, or persons so bound by said contract to involuntary servitude.

Sec. 4. Any violation of any of the provisions of this Act, shall be deemed a misdemeanor, and shall be punished by a fine of not less than three hundred dollars, nor more than one thousand dollars, or by imprisonment in the County Jail for a term of not less than three months or more than six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment. (Act of March 8, 1879.)

[24] Many acts of violence and outrage against the Chinese occurred during the decade of the '80s, from Wyoming to the Pacific Coast. The United States Supreme Court upheld the act of ½888 which prohibited the issuance of further certificates to Chinese laborers, thus preventing their return to the United States. The same court upheld the exclusion act of 1892 in spite of the fact that it was in "contravention of stipulations in an earlier treaty."

[25] "These court decisions established principles which even now are of vital concern to business and politics. From that time to this no one has denied the rights of state to fix maximum charges for any business which is public in its nature or which has been clothed with a public interest; nor has the inclusion of the railroad and warehouse businesses in that class been questioned. The opinion, however, that this right of the state is unlimited, and therefore not subject to judicial review, has been practically reversed. In 1890 the Supreme Court declared a Minnesota law invalid because it denied a judicial hearing as to the reasonableness of rates; and the courts now assume it to be their right and duty to determine whether or not rates fixed by legislation are so low as to amount to a deprivation of property without the process of law. In spite of this later limitation upon the power of the state, the granger decisions have furnished these legal bases for state regulation of railroads down to the present day. They are the most significant achievements of the anti-monopoly movement of the '70s." (Buck's The Agrarian Crusade.)

[26] One of the shortest of these was the "Eureka Mill Railroad" just a little over a mile long, constructed by the Union Mill Company to transport ore from the main line of the Virginia and Truckee road to the mill on the Carson River. It was completed in March, 1872.

[27] The responsibility of vetoing the railroad bill devolved upon Lieutenant-Governor Jewett W. Adams, who during the absence of Governor Bradley from the state on account of his health, was acting governor. The veto of Governor Adams is based not on opposition to a general policy of subsidizing railroad construction, but upon the same constitutional grounds which had caused Governor Blasdel to veto several special acts granting franchises. The act was, in the acting governor's opinion, a direct violation of the constitutional prohibition against special corporation acts. "A privilege is sought by the grantees of the franchise which could not be otherwise obtained. The general railroad law confers every power necessary to be used or acquired by the beneficiaries. The Legislature is approached for the sole purpose of imploring a privilege extraordinary and unusual in its nature, and which no other citizen or corporation may acquire."

[28] Following is the controller's detailed explanation of the operations by which the state debt was refunded:

In 1871 the State financial officers assisted in preparing, and urged the passage of the laws, enacted at that session, to fund the State debt and place it on a permanent cash basis. These laws divided the State debt into two classes, one to be known as the State Debt proper; amounting to $280,000.00, to be provided by the issuance of bonds running ten years, to be sold at par, and bearing interest at not more than ten per cent per annum, with a tax for Interest and Sinking Fund purposes of 25 cents on each 100 dollars assessed valuation. The other to be known as the Territorial Debt, being a consolidation of all the debts of the Territory of Nevada assumed by the State at its organization, amounting to $380,000.00, to be provided for by the issuance of bonds running fifteen years, likewise to be sold at par, and bearing interest at not more than 10 per cent per annum, with a like tax for Interest and Sinking Fund purposes, of 25 cents on each $100, assessed valuation. Thus it was that the entire bonded and floating debt of the State was consolidated and provided for, by the issue of $660,000 in State bonds, to be sold at not less than par, and bearing interest not exceeding 10 per cent per annum. Bonds to the amount of $160,000 were sold at par, bearing interest at 10 per cent, and the remaining $500,000 were likewise sold at par, bearing interest at 9% per cent. When these negotiations were completed, our bonded debt was $660,000 (with an Interest and Sinking Fund tax of 50 cents on each $100 assessed valuation), the annual interest on which was $63,500, in the place of a bonded debt of $500,000, bearing interest at the rate of 15 per cent per annum (with an Interest and Sinking Fund tax of 70 cents on each $100 assessed valuation), the annual interest on which was $75,000. This legislation gave twenty cents more of the then State tax of $1.25 to the general fund of the State, for the payment of current expenses; making that fund's pro-portion of the State tax 57 1/2 cents instead of 37 1/2 cents. It, also, saved the State $11,500 yearly in the amount paid out for interest on the State debt.

At that session (1871) the financial officers were assisted in preparing the law (still in force) to tax the "net proceeds of the mines," commonly known as the "Bullion Tax Law," through the operation of which a much larger proportion of revenue has been derived from that source than under previous laws on that subject. In fact, so far as legislation is concerned, the laws of 1871, funding the State debt, and taxing the proceeds of the mines, are the principal causes of a full treasury at this time.

At the session of the Legislature in 1875, this Department recommended that $190,000 be transferred from the large surplus then in the General Fund of the State to the State Interest and Sinking Fund; that the amount so transferred, together with the money already accumulated in the Interest and Sinking Fund, be used: first, in the redemption of the 10-year state bonds, if purchasable at such a rate as would guarantee the purchaser 6 per cent, per annum interest, on the amount paid, during the time they had to run; second, failing this, in the purchase of California or U. S. bonds, as an offset to the bonds of this character outstanding, and also the reduction of the tax for Interest and Sinking Fund purposes for the 10-year State bonds, from 25 cents to 5 cents on the $100 assessed valuation.

This department also recommended that the tax for all State purposes be reduced from $1.25 to 90 cents. These recommendations were enacted into laws by that Legislature, and the result has been a savings to the taxpayers of the State of over half a million of dollars in the past four years; ample means to defray the expenses of the State government, and such a surplus in the State treasury, that a further and large reduction can now safely be made in the rate of State taxation, thereby lightening the burdens of taxpayers.

[29] One minor extension of state service during this time resulted from an appropriation of $1000 by the Legislature of 1877, authorizing the appointment of a fish commissioner, who established a hatchery at Carson City and began stocking the Humboldt, Truckee and Carson rivers and Washoe and Walker Lake with game and food fish.

[30] It was a pet project of Governor Bradley to build a new state prison and use the old one at Carson City as an asylum for the insane. Under authority conferred by an act of March, 1873, the state prison commissioners had selected as a site about 200 acres on the bank of the Truckee River about a mile east of Reno, and in June, 1875, the board made a contract for the construction of the walls of the new state prison. This contract was fulfilled in 1876. A majority report was brought in by a legislative committee approving the work that had been done and recommending appropriations to carry on the construction, while a minority of the committee declared that the proposed prison had been laid out on too expensive a scale and that it would be better to pay out $20,000 to confirm the title to the site of the old prison than to pay $250,000 for the construction of a building that was not needed at Reno. In the end the state prison remained at Carson City, and the asylum for the insane went to Reno.

[31] The sixth session of the Legislature in 1873 had set on foot some investigation as to the feasibility and cost of providing for the insane patients in Nevada instead of contracting them out to the institution in California. A special committee of the Assembly brought in a report as to the propriety of the state purchasing for an insane asylum a property that even today is one of the interesting landmarks of Nevada, the famous "Bowers Mansion." This property as described by the committee was located under a spur of the Sierra Nevada Mountains about the center of the Washoe Valley, the farm around it containing 120 acres of fine bottom land.

The house is situated immediately under a bluff of the mountain, about one mile from Franktown, the same distance from the Virginia and Truckee Railroad—thus being advantageously situated for access on the conveyance of patients and visitors. The dwelling is of itself one of the finest, if not the finest, in the State, built of dressed granite, containing sixteen rooms, which can for the purpose of an asylum be divided into about twenty-five rooms of suitable dimensions for the purposes required, which can be increased by the addition of another story on both main building and adjoining wings, as was the original idea of the architect thereby increasing the capacity at least one-third, which, with the present outbuildings, can be made to contain all the present and prospective inmates for some time to come. The present dwelling is furnished in good style, and would, so far as it goes, all be required in the institution. The dwelling and bath-house are supplied with both hot and cold water from springs upon the premises. The garden and lawn are laid out and planted with numerous varieties of ornamental plants, shrubs, and fruit trees, many of which are in bearing; besides, there is a grove of native pines, adding much to the beauty and comfort of the place, as do the miniature lakes, islands, etc. In connection with the garden and lawn, there is a fine green-house, well filled with tropical and exotic plants and shrubs. The library contains five hundred volumes of very choicely selected and costly books. The hall and other walls are covered with costly paintings and lithographs, besides many articles of necessity and luxury. There is a fine cellar under the dwelling of sufficient capacity for the wants of such an institution. The price at which the property above described can be pro-cured is thirty thousand dollars; or, with a reserve of the furniture of three rooms, viz: back parlor, billiard-room, and one bed-room, twenty-eight thousand dollars; or the grounds and dwelling, without furniture, twenty thousand dollars.

The Bowers Mansion originated in the typical prodigality of one of the early miners in the Washoe country who found himself possessed of more money than he knew how to spend to his own satisfaction. The story is well told in Thompson & West's History:

Lemuel S. Bowers, commonly known as "Sandy," was an ignorant easy going frontiersman, happening in 1859 to be mining for gold in Gold Canyon by the simple process of washing the mineral bearing earth in a rocker, and as developments continued found that his claim of ten feet covered a portion of the Comstock Lode. Adjoining was a claim of the same dimensions belonging to Mrs. Cowan, who also resided in the canyon and was washing and cooking for the miners. The two married, and the claims became one, proving of extraordinary richness. In a few years they were overwhelmed with wealth. Too ignorant of business, they knew nothing of prudent or cautious investments, and became the tools of harpies. The now wealthy couple were advised—as a good joke—to take a tour through Europe to see the sights and become polished in accordance with the station they were in the future to occupy. They were also advised to build a palace worthy such a party to reside in. Accordingly in 1861 the "Bowers Mansion" was commenced in the wilderness of Washoe Valley. . . . Sandy and his wife spent several years abroad, purchased much elegant furniture, laces and pictures for his mansion in Washoe, which was erected at a cost of over $400,000, and returned, and still had "money to throw at the birds"; the hawks and vultures and other birds of prey getting the greater portion. Without any good missionary to instruct, or any strong friend to advise or direct, he continued to throw money at the birds with the approval and encouragement of flatterers, sycophants and robbers, and his princely fortune was wasted. His widow earns a precarious livelihood near the scenes of her former toils—and glory.

[32] "It is easy to account for the widespread alarm caused by the Indian trouble in September, 1875. The facts developed in the Lee trial at Beaver, Utah, of the horrible cruelties and inhuman butcheries of the Mountain Meadows massacre were then fresh in the minds of the people. The assembling of a large band of Indians in August near Corinne, threatening that town and necessitating the presence of United States troops to disperse them, was additional cause of distrust of the Indians on our eastern border. The good faith, too, of our Mormon neighbors, who from reports in newspapers, had been particularly active of late in baptizing into their church hundreds of savages, was very generally doubted by our people."—From Governor Bradley's message of 1877.

[33] A legislative committee after investigating the university in 1877 reported that the cost of the dormitory building, the enclosure, the erection of outbuildings, the construction of 900 feet of sidewalk, some minor repairs of the university building, the furniture of the dormitory, the purchase of school apparatus, the other current expenses of the school, including salary of principal, had all been defrayed out of the $20,000 appropriation, leaving about $5,000 which reverted to the general fund.

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