Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo
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Don Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (4 July 1807 - 18 January 1890) was a Californian military commander, politician, and rancher. He was born a subject of Spain, performed his military duties as an officer of Mexico, and shaped the transition of California from a Mexican district to an American state. Vallejo, a city in California that he founded, is named for him.
Early career
Mariano Vallejo was born at Monterey, California, the eighth of thirteen children and third son of Ignacio Vallejo, a sergeant at the Presidio of Monterey and former Alcalde of San José, and his wife María Antonia Lugo de Vallejo. As a teenager, the young Vallejo, his nephew Juan Bautista Alvarado, and José Castro were given special instruction from Governor Pablo Vicente de Solá; the boys received government documents and newspapers from Mexico City, as well as access to the governor's personal library. Vallejo then worked as a clerk for English merchant William Hartnell, who taught Vallejo English, French, and Latin.Vallejo was serving as the personal secretary to the new Governor of California, Luis Argüello, when news of Mexico's independence reached Monterey. Argüello enrolled Vallejo as a cadet in the Presidial company in 1824. After being promoted to corporal, Argüello appointed Vallejo to the diputación, the territorial legislature. He was promoted to alférez (an ensign; equal to a modern army second lieutenant), and in 1829, Vallejo led a group of soldiers against the Miwoks, under chief Estanislao. After a three day battle, Vallejo's troops forced the Miwok to flee to Mission San José, seeking refuge from the padres.
Rise to power
In 1831 Vallejo participated in the "emergency installation" of Pío Pico as acting Governor. In 1832, Vallejo married Francisca Benicia Carrillo; the Carrillos were one of the leading families in San Diego. Vallejo became the Commander of the Presidio of San Francisco in 1833, oversaw the secularization of Mission San Francisco Solano, founded the town of Sonoma, and was granted Rancho Petaluma by Governor José Figueroa in 1834. In 1835 he was appointed Commandante of the Fourth Military District and Director of Colonization of the Northern Frontier, the highest military command in Northern California.Vallejo began construction of a presidio in Sonoma to counter the Russian presence at Fort Ross. Vallejo transferred most of the company from San Francisco to Sonoma, and began construction of his two-story Casa Grande adobe on the town plaza. He formed an alliance with Chief Solano of the Suisun tribe, providing Vallejo with over a thousand Suisun allies during his conflicts with other tribes.
Governor Figueroa died in September of 1835, and was replaced by Nicolás Gutiérrez, who was unpopular with the Californio population, resulting in an uprising headed by Juan Alvarado the next year. Alverado tried to employ Vallejo in the uprising, but he declined to become involved. One hundred-seventy Californios led by José Castro and fifty Americans led by Isaac Graham marched on Monterey. After the rebels fired a single canon shot into the Presidio, Gutiérrez surrendered on November 5, 1836. On November 7, Alvarado wrote to his uncle Mariano, letting Vallejo know he had claimed to be working under Vallejo's orders and asking him to come to Monterey to take a hand in the government. Vallejo came to Monterey as a hero, and on November 29, the diputación promoted Vallejo from alférez to colonel and named him Commandante General of the "Free State of Alta California", while Alvarado was named Governor. The Federal Government in Mexico City would later endorse Vallejo and Alverado's actions and new positions.
Troubles
In 1840, Graham began agitating for a Texas-style revolution in California. Alvarado notified Vallejo of the situation, and in April the Californian military began arresting American and English immigrants, eventually detaining about 100 in the Presidio of Monterey (at the time, there were fewer than 400 foreigners from all nations in the department). Vallejo returned to Monterey and ordered Castro to take 47 of the prisoners to San Blas by ship, to be deported to their home countries. The remaining prisoners were released. Under pressure from British and American diplomats, President Anastasio Bustamante released the prisoners and began a court martial against Castro. Graham and 18 of his associates returned to Monterey, with new passports from the Federal Government, in 1841.Early in 1841, the Russians in Fort Ross offered to sell the fort to Vallejo. After several months of negotiations and delays by the Mexican authorities and Governor Alvarado (who believed his uncle was plotting to overthrow him), John Sutter purchased the fort. This economic and military setback cemented Vallejo's belief that it would be better if California was no longer ruled from Mexico City. Although both France and the United Kingdom had expressed interest in acquiring Alta California, Vallejo believed the best hope for economic and cultural development lay with the United States.
In November of 1841, Vallejo was meeting with José Castro at Mission San José when he was informed of the arrival in California of an immigrant party led by John Bidwell and John Bartleson. Half of the group was staying with a Dr. John Marsh north of Mount Diablo, while the rest had continued on to San José; they were arrested prior to reaching the pueblo for illegally entering Mexico, and brought to Vallejo at the mission. Vallejo's orders from Mexico City were clear, Americans entering Mexico without valid passports were to be sent back to the United States. However, after the Graham affair, Vallejo was reluctant to deport another group of Americans, especially ones with skills useful for colonizing the northern frontier. These reasons, coupled with his disillusionment with the Federal Government, led Vallejo to grant passports to the immigrants detained in the mission and to give Dr. Marsh passports for those on his rancho.
In 1842, the Federal Government replaced Vallejo and his nephew Alvarado with Manuel Micheltorena as both civil and military Governor of Alta California. Micheltorena arrived with the batallón fijo, a force of 300 pardoned criminals, who out of desperation began to loot the population.
Bear Flag Revolt
On June 14, 1846, Vallejo was taken prisoner by a ragtag band of Americans who had decided to emulate the Texans by revolting against California's Mexican government. Surrounding the Casa Grande at dawn, the Americans proceeded to get roaring drunk and raise an improvised flag featuring a grizzly bear so badly drawn that some viewers mistook it for a pig. Although Vallejo was sympathetic to the advent of American rule, he deemed the perpetrators of the Bear Flag Revolt to be mere lowlife rabble. As he wrote in his five-volume history,
- if the men who hoisted the 'Bear Flag' had raised the flag that Washington sanctified by his abnegation and patriotism, there would have been no war on the Sonoma frontier, for all our minds were prepared to give a brotherly embrace to the sons of the Great Republic, whose enterprising spirit had filled us with admiration. Ill-advisedly, however, as some say, or dominated by a desire to rule without let or hindrance, as others say, they placed themselves under the shelter of a flag that pictured a bear, an animal that we took as the emblem of rapine and force. This mistake was the cause of all the trouble, for when the Californians saw parties of men running over their plains and forests under the 'Bear Flag,' they thought that they were dealing with robbers and took the steps they thought most effective for the protection of their lives and property.
Once the United States defeated Mexico in the Mexican-American War, Vallejo proved his allegiance to his new country by persuading wealthy Californios to accept American rule. An influential member of the State's Constitutional Convention, he was elected a member of the first State Senate (1850). In 1844, he had been deeded title to Rancho Soscol, which included what is now the town of Petaluma. In 1850, he offered to donate a large portion of that land to the new state on which to build a capitol city and also offered to pay for a considerable amount of construction. The offer was accepted by the new legislature and they convened in Vallejo, as the new city was named, for the first time in 1851. However, construction had lagged, and they were confronted with inadequate, leaky buildings and a soggy location, and within a year had moved the capitol to Sacramento.
He continued to devote his energies to the development of California for the remainder of his life. General Vallejo died at Sonoma, California.
Vallejo's large adobe home is now part of the Petaluma Adobe State Historic Park and a National Historic Landmark. The U.S. Navy submarine USS Mariano G. Vallejo was named in his honor.
References
- Alan Rosenus, General Vallejo and the advent of the Americans, 1995, ISBN 1-890771-21-X
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