Early California Impeachment Proceedings

Abstract

FOLLOWING the example of the federal constitution and the constitutions of other states, the California constitution of 1849 gave the assembly the power of impeachment and the senate the trial of all impeachments. Officials subject to impeachment for any misdemeanor in office included the governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, comptroller, treasurer, attorney general, surveyor general, justices of the supreme court, and judges of the district courts.' During the first and second sessions of the legislature, 1849-1851, three controversies were brought to the assembly and impeachment requested. One involved the first governor of the state, Peter H. Burnett. The other two concerned district judges Levi Parsons at San Francisco and William R. Turner at Marysville. A study of these proceedings will furnish pertinent facts about the personalities and issues involved, illustrate impeachment procedure, and perhaps contribute material of value on the political, constitutional, and social history of a frontier state. Under proclamation of Governor Bennett M. Riley, an election was held on August i, 1849, to select temporary officials to administer Mexican laws in force at the time of the American conquest until a state government could be established. Peter H. Burnett was elected a member of the superior court and Horace Hawes prefect of San Francisco. Within the next few months, Burnett was destined to become the first governor of California under the constitution of 1849, and Hawes was to present the only impeachment charges against a governor in the history of California. Burnett was born at Nashville, Tennessee, on November 15, 1807. During his early life in Tennessee and Missouri he engaged in the mercantile business, practiced law, and became editor of a weekly newspaper. In 1840 he was appointed district attorney and served for over three years. Emigrating to Oregon in 1843, he became a farmer, lawyer, legislator, and judge. Leader of a party to California in 1848, he engaged briefly in mining and then began the practice of law in Sacramento.