Alameda County
Biographies
ADDISON M. CRANE
Judge of the Superior Court of Alameda County
Memoir Written by Himself
I have been requested by the publishers of this book to allow my portrait to appear, and to contribute a brief memoir of myself. Inasmuch as I was a pioneer in the settlement and organization of the county, and because the people of it have repeatedly honored me with positions of public trust, I deem the request a reasonable one, and my compliance with it appropriate. It would more accord with the usual custom that such memoir should assume an impersonal form, but, since the information must necessarily be mainly obtained from myself, it would be only an affectation of modesty to shift the narrative from the first to the third person. I have concluded, therefore, to adopt the former mode. To begin with, I desire to disclaim all motives of vanity or self-laudation in what I may say, and to state that I simply aim to contribute something to the early history of Alameda County. In doing so, I must necessarily speak of myself and of my connection with public affairs. The life of every individual is made up of a succession of events and experiences. In the afternoon of life we recall the memories of childhood, of youth, and of early and mature manhood; and when one undertakes to write of himself the problem is one of condensation and omission. I shall therefore aim to make my narrative as brief as possible. I am descended directly from English stock transplanted to America in the seventeenth century. A glance at the birth and death record of my ancestors for two hundred years back shows that the family is imbued with strong vitality; and the history of individuals goes far towards establishing the fact that it is imbued also with good moral attributes. The record contains not one taint of conviction for a crime. I was born at the town of Litchfield, Herkimer County, State of New York, on July 2, 1814. My grandfather, Isaac Crane, of New York, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and was a commissioned officer. In 1810, before I was born, he died, at the age of fifty-seven – his life having been shortened by hardships incident to the war. My father, Henry Crane (who died in 1875, in his ninety-second year) was a country inn-keeper, carrying on a small farm of eighty acres in connection therewith, and also an ashery, or manufactory of potash. The family of my parents consisted of ten children – eight sons and two daughters – of whom all but two of the sons yet survive. I was the third in the family. I early became associated to all kinds of farm-work; the burden of so large a family rendered necessary the strictest economy and industry, and at an early age the boys were expected to shift for themselves. At the age of fourteen I first left home, and went one hundred and fifty miles away to serve as a farmer’s boy. I remained there six months, and then returned to my home. My opportunities for an education were limited mainly to the winter terms of the common school, which I managed, however, to supplement by academical instruction of about one year in all prior to my twenty-first year. These limited opportunities I aimed to improve to the best advantage. We had but few school-books in those days; but the pupils were made thoroughly to understand such as we had. At the age of seventeen I began teaching school, and continued to do so, winters, for the six succeeding years, receiving the meager compensation of the times. This was a period of hard study with the constant accompaniment of manual industry. An interesting feature of it to me was the fact that the public hall in my father’s house was the usual place of holding Justice’s courts for the trial of contested cases. From my earliest remembrance I had witnessed these trials before juries, often contested by able lawyers from Herkimer or Utica – such as the Fords, Hoffman, Judd, Spencer, and others. These early impressions may have given me a predilection for the law. I certainly enjoyed and was deeply interested in the contests. I may properly add that in my then legal infancy I was imbued with greater respect and admiration for the jury system than I can conscientiously admit in my mature age. In the autumn of 1835, having emigrated to western New York, I entered the law office of Benedict Bagley, at Nunda – then in Alleghany County, but now in Livingston County – and in June, 1837, received my first law license from the Alleghany Common Pleas Court. In July, 1841, I was licensed to practice in the Supreme Court and the Court of Chancery of the State of New York. In October, 1839, I married Miss Gertrude Ashley, and since then we have made the journey of life in harmony. I erected a house at Nunda, and we resided there until 1843 – my business as a lawyer being fairly remunerative. Here our two eldest children – a daughter and a son – were born. In the fall of 1843 I sold my property at Nunda, and removed with my family to Lafayette, Indians, and there entered upon the practice of my profession. For the first two years I was a partner of Daniel Mace, and for the next two was a partner of Edward H. Brackett. We did pecuniarily well in our profession. In January, 1847, I was elected by the Legislature of Indiana, on the recommendation of the Bar of Lafayette, to the office of Judge of the Court of Common Pleas – a special court, created to relieve the pressure on the Circuit Court, and having general common law and equity jurisdiction. This court during the four years of its existence, transacted nearly all the civil business of the county. It was abolished by the new constitution of Indiana, in 1851. I have noted with pardonable satisfaction I trust, that some of the decisions I then made, involving novel questions and original principles in jurisprudence, are quoted in recent text-books as the now accepted law. During our residence at Lafayette, four children – two son and two daughters – were born to us. My memories of Indiana, and especially of Lafayette, and my friends and acquaintances there, are quite vivid and very pleasant. If this could properly be elaborated beyond the limits of a mere outline personal sketch, it would give me great pleasure to record some of my recollections and impressions. During the winter of 1851 I made a journey down the Wabash, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans, and returned. In the spring of 1852 I commenced my emigration overland to California, and followed an ox-team from May 6th to September 1st, at which date we arrived at Stockton. This period of one hundred and eighteen days of toil was full of incident, and of the hardship common to all overland emigrants, respecting which much might be said. I came immediately to this valley, and located at San Lorenzo – then known as Squatterville – and engaged in farming with the design of abandoning law; but my professional services were soon demanded, at remunerative compensation, and I again entered the legal arena. Since then I have been constantly devoted to the law, either at the Bar or upon the Bench. In 1853 Alameda County was organized out of portions of Contra Costa and Santa Clara. In April of that year the first election of county officers was held, the candidates having been nominated without regard to party. At this election I was elected County Judge, and held the office for four years, practicing in the meantime in the other State and in the Federal Courts. In October, 1853, my wife, accompanied by our six children, rejoined me after a favorable passage “around the Horn,” and we located on my farm near Haywards; and with the exception of about one year, I have ever since then been a resident of Alameda County – thirteen years in Alameda, six years at Washington, and now in Oakland. During our residence in Alameda County three daughters were born to us – two of whom yet survive. In 1861 I was elected to the Senate from this county, being the first Senator elected after Alameda County became a separate Senatorial District. I served in the Senate two sessions, and during the latter was President pro tem of that body. On the 8th day of January, 1863, I participated in the ceremonies attending the breaking of ground at Sacramento, inaugurating the work of constructing the Central Pacific Railroad, and made the opening address on that occasion, which address was published in the papers of the day. In my Senatorial capacity I was diligent, and worked to improve the laws, and benefit society and the State. I introduced, amongst others, Acts to amend the laws relating to civil procedure; the new charter of the city of Oakland; the road law of Alameda County; and an Act to prohibit the carrying of concealed weapons. Subsequent observation convinced me that the last-named law had a powerful and excellent effect in reducing the number of altercations and assassinations in California. Those were the early days of the war. The Legislature was composed almost exclusively of Union men, but there was in the State a large leaven of Secessionists, and public opinion was not so decided upon the slavery question as it became during the following year. Believing that slavery must fall before the Rebellion could be suppressed, and considering it the duty of Union men everywhere to strengthen the administration, I took occasion to address the Senate at some length upon the introduction of Union resolutions. I thought then, and now think, that I interpreted and expressed the sentiments of the voters of Alameda County truthfully as regarded the institution of Slavery; and venture to extend this sketch by quoting briefly from that speech as follows: “At the foundation of all this lays that institution which as been the cause of this outbreak, as well as of all the other dangers that have even threatened our existence as a nation. An institution, sir, wicked in its inception, cruel, relentless and unpitying in all its forms, degrading alike to all classes, making honest labor a dishonor, merchandise of the bodies and souls of men, shutting out the light of the advancing civilization of the age, and reducing to mere chattels the laborers who till the soil. This institution of human slavery is the great black ulcer which has eaten the vitals of our national existence, through the ignorance and darkness which it carries in its train. Without this, and its attendant consequences, we should have had no rebellion, no war, no such attempt as now exists to overwhelm in blood and slaughter this great and free Government. And, sir, it was not in consequence of any threats which had been made against the institution that this sedition was stirred up. No, sir. The incoming Government had been faithful in all its acts to its protection. But the election had demonstrated that the power which the master class of the South had always held in the Government had departed from them forever; that the enlightened opinion of the North was against the further extension of this blighting curse, and that, although they could remain in the Union and enjoy all their rights under the Constitution, yet they could no longer rule as absolutely as they had done in every department of the Government. Public opinion – I mean the enlightened opinion, not only of the North, but the civilized world – a power, sir, far in advance of its laws, and more potent than constitutions and compacts, had made itself felt even among the cotton-fields, sugar-plantations, and rice-swamps of the South; that power which goes forth as the precursor of revolutions – still, silent, noiseless – but resistless in its might as the whirlwind, unchecked in its power as the earthquake – I mean the enlightened sense of Christian civilization – had penetrated the cimmerian darkness of every fastness where this great wrong existed. It then became evident, and such no doubt was the fact, that slavery, however faithfully the constitutional guaranties might be sustained, could not hope to flourish or extend, or even to be respected in the continued connection of the South with the North, but, on the contrary, like any other relic of barbarism, must, by the mere force of such public opinion, grow less and less, until finally it should be extinguished and cease to exist. This was the Southern view, and I am not prepared to deny its correctness. Acting upon this view, the designing traitors who have brought this rebellion upon the country, resolved to break up the Union, to sever the links of the golden chain which has so long and brightly connected and bound together the sovereign States of this great confederacy, and to form a nation and government by themselves, peculiar among all the nations and governments of the earth, and which, in the language of the Vice-President, should have for its “chief and corner-stone, African slavery.” This as what they resolved to do, and what they are now with arms and in battle attempting to accomplish. But in this they will fail. The attempt will prove futile. There is yet strength and power enough left in our Government to preserve itself. The people are aroused. Legions, unapproachable in numbers, or power, or courage by any thing which can be brought to oppose them, are now striking thick and fast, and with resistless force, and the recent victories which, following in such rapid succession, have attended our advancing armies everywhere show that the contest can be neither long nor doubtful. This great and irresistible host are going forth not only as an army of conquest, but of liberation, striking away the fetters with which the Southern masses have been bound, and carrying freedom to those whose liberties have been crushed out under the iron heel of the worst despotism which has ever elevated itself over the liberties of a people. And, sir, that I may be understood, I will say, that however much I may and do detest the institution which has brought upon us this calamity, yet this war is not waged for its extinction or overthrow. Such was not the object for which it was inaugurated. But, sir, while I say this, and say it in all sincerity, I will further say that this rebellion must be overcome, and the integrity of the Union in all its parts must be restored and maintained at all events, at every hazard, and at any cost. Better, sir, a thousand times better, than every human life, and every dollar of material wealth, in whatever shape it may exist, the whole of this rebellious territory, should be swept away as with the besom of destruction, than that this great Government, this last hope of freedom, should perish. No, sir, perish first all its foes, and let desolation blight their fairest possession; and if at last, and when all other means have been exhausted, it shall appear that this “chief corner-stone, African slavery,” presents the final obstacle, when then, sir, in the name of my country, of freedom, of humanity, and of God, I would say let slavery go down, if so be that by this means, and no other, the emblem of our nation’s greatness can again be elevated over all the land, with every star yet bright and unclouded, and all the stripes of freedom still there. And, sir, while it is true that this war has no such object in the view as the abolition of slavery, it is not and never can be tortured into a war for the protection of that institution. Like all other property and material things, negroes must take the chance of the contest. Before the grand army of the Union all obstacles to the end sought to be attained must give way, and we shall not stop to inquire whether such obstacle be a negro, a traitor, or a jackass. If the rebellion can be subdued, and union, and peace, and a hearty and honest submission to the laws be restored, we will extend to and over all the same aegis of constitutionals protection which they before enjoyed, and will trust that by the silent, slow, but sure operation of the advancing enlightenment of the age those States, by their own voluntary action, will hasten to be rid of an institution which has always carried with it the curse which follows wrong. Again, sir, while we wage no war for abolition, there are hundreds of thousands, in and out of the army in the South, as well as the North, who would rejoice to see a peaceful solution, by which this great curse should be so effectually disposed of as never again to cast its hateful black shadow across the pathway of our future greatness, and who would not regret the event, should it, as one of the incidents of the war, receive forever its quietus, and be blotted from existence.” I spent the winter of 1864-65 in Washington, D. C. While there I procured the passage of the Act to settle the title to the lands of the ex-Mission of San Jose, by which about thirty thousand acres of the land of this rejected Mexican grant claim was confirmed to the occupants of the land, embracing the largest portion of Washington Township. While in Washington I was admitted to the Supreme Court of the United States, and argued an important land case. At the general election in 1879 I was elected to the office which I now hold. I know of nothing further to add to this brief sketch that would be of public interest. The work done by me in my official capacity must speak for itself. I am conscious of integrity of purpose and motive. I have not the vanity to suppose that this brief memoir will immortalize my name or acts. In a few more years, at most, my mortal career must end, and should the children of some future age stumble upon this book amongst the rubbish of their grandfather’s garret, it may excite their interest for a passing moment – perhaps only their amusement.
History of Alameda County, California…, Oakland, M.W. Wood Publ., 1883
p. 865-869
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler