Stow's Antisemite
Remarks & More
May 28, 1854...
I have no sympathy with the Jews, and would, were it in my power, enforce a regulation that would eliminate them from not only our county, but from the entire state. I am for a Jew-tax that is so high, that [Jews] would not be able to operate any more shops. The basis of republican institutions is the Christian Sabbath and the Christian religion. The Jews must join the majority. They are a class of people who come here only to make money, and who leave the country as soon as they have money. They do not invest any money, and they do not erect any of the beautiful houses that decorate our country. They all hope someday to settle in their Jerusalem. The Bible is the basis of our institutions, and the law making process must support its commandments.
Jewish Voices of the California Gold Rush
A Documentary History, 1849-1880
2002 [link]
The following ventilation of Stow's case by the Sacramento Bee is appropriate at this time :
" The chairman of the State Convention, which nominated Gorham for Governor, was W. W. Stow, who while he was Know Nothing
Speaker of the Assembly in 1855, made an attack upon the Jews, so fierce and unwarranted, as to create public disgust, and which forced him into private life from that day to this. Why he should have been placed there when his very seat was contested and before that question was decided, is a matter of general inquiry. He was inimical to the nomination of Judge Currey, and came here, it is said, for the sole purpose of defeating him; but, of course, save by the appointment of committees and his influence with delegates, he could not control the Convention on that subject-although, strange as it may appear, the Secretaries counted Currey out on the first ballot, when everybody else, who kept tally, knew that he was clearly and fairly nominated! Stow was chief cook of the slate, and to him, and Parks, and Gorham, and Howell are the Union party indebted or the wretched ticket presented. Stow packed the Committee on Credentials, allowing not a single place upon it to a friend of Bidwell; and, of course, it reported against the admission of the "Long Hairs" from this county. He was packed into the chair by Parks and Gorham, and he packed them upon the ticket."
Speaking of these things the San Francisco Bulletin says:
"The chairman of the Union State Central Committee, which gave the San Francisco Boys their seats before a vote of the Convention established their right, is William H. Parks, who was the chief agent of the tide-land swindle during the session of the last Legislature. The chairman elected through the vote of the Boys to preside over the Convention, is W. W. Stow, the very head-devil in engineering the same swindle in this city, and also one of the chief men who nominally owned the Western Pacific Railroad at the time when Gorbam was lobbying for the bill which gave them $1,500,000. Thus has triumphed the most stupendous conspiracy to rob the State and crush the people with taxes, that was ever organized in California."
Weekly Trinity Journal - Sat - June 22, 1867
Boss Stow's Intolerance
In this issue of the EXAMINER we reproduce some proceedings of the Assembly when Mr. W. W. Stow was Speaker of that body, including his declaration of a desire to drive out of the State a class of the community that he does not happen to like. We give, also, the pertinent reply that was made to him at the time by one of the class of people whom he sought to proscribe.
We may be asked why we produce this record on Mr. Stow; it may be said that he is not a candidate for office, and that, as a private citizen, he is entitled to think what he pleases about the Jews. We admit that Mr. Stow is not a candidate. He is more than a candidate, however. He is a candidate maker ! The men nominated on the Republican ticket are his puppets. He is behind the screen, and there manipulates the wires that make the Republican nominees dance. They are his mouthpieces and agents; and it is s good rule of law and common sense to hold the principal responsible for the acts of his agent. The legal maxim is : " Who dues a thing through another does it himself." (Qui facit per alium facit per se.) As the "Boss" of the Republican party, he is responsible for the misrule and corruption of his fraction; and we appeal to every Israelite in the State to resent the insult given to his race by the leading California Republican.
Our Jewish fellow-citizens know that the Republican party and its leaders have no liking for them. Grant insulted the whole race in his General Orders at Vicksburg, yet the Republicans have the assurance to ask the Israelitish element of our population to support the Republican ticket.
A Democratic victory means that the railroad shall be driven from the political arena and made to attend strictly to its legitimate business. When this consummation is reached Mr. Stow's occupation will be gone. There will be no more conventions to fix and no more Legislatures or other bodies to bribe. To bring about this desirable state of affairs, the Democratic party has placed upon its ticket men untainted by contact with this railroad power or influence; and we know that our Hebrew fellow-citizens will rally as one man, " from the Sierras to the sea," to the support of the party of pure government, religious toleration and reform.
The San Francisco Examiner - Sat - Oct. 7, 1882
The San Francisco Examiner - Sat - Oct. 7, 1882
STOW'S HARANGUE.
" The Speaker, Mr. Stow, here left his seat and descended to the floor and took a hand in the debate. He said he was in favor of the bill, and had no sympathy with the Jews, who ought to reaped the laws and opinions of the majority. They were a class of people who only came here to make money and leave as soon as they effected their object. They did not invest their money in the country or erect any of the fine stores which embellished our cities. They all intended or hoped to settle in the ' New Jerusalem.' He was in favor of inflicting such a tax upon them as would act as a prohibition to their residence amongst us.
[...]
The arguments of Messrs. Watkins, Buffum and Smith prevailed over the race prejudice of Mr. Stow, and the bill was defeated.
Mr. Stow's cruel, unjust and uncalled for attack upon a portion of our population did not go unanswered. On the day following the proceedings in the Legislature, a prominent Jewish merchant of Sacramento addressed an open letter to Mr. Stow, which we give in full, as it is excellent reading and very appropriate at the present time when the Sunday question is under such eager discussion...
ITS NATURAL FREEDOM
Associate Justice Lewis thus concludes...
I am in favor of the Sunday Law, and I go in for a majority to rule in religious matters; and whatever they hold to be good religion, the minority of the people ought to yield submission thereto, and especially the Jews. I hate them above all others ; and, although I have sworn to support, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and of this State, which guarantees to every ' man the right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, yet I am in favor of making such laws as would drive the Jews all out of the State. My best legal reasons for so doing are :
1. Because they claim the privilege of going to their house of worship twenty-four hours ahead of us every week.
2. Because they come to this country for the purpose of gain only, while they are too ignorant to know or too stupid to inquire what brought me here or what my future intentions are.
3. Because what they make they put in their own pockets, instead of depositing it with some pious keeper of a savings bank, where, by the wise laws which I have helped to frame in days gone by, such beautiful safeguards are thrown around the people's deposits.
4. Because they don't possess that inventive skill of manufacturing land titles or monopolizing the soil whereby they, too, could become extensive property-holders.
5. Because one individual in my county has refused to close his store on my Sunday.
6. Because they all either intend to go or hope to go to a place called New Jerusalem. where I, and many others as uncharitable as myself, expect to go.
We will now leave the subject and the reader to draw his own conclusions, whether the reasons assigned by this modern specimen of a California tyrant are such as would justify him in driving us and our families
