doc241 - Schoenherr Home Page in Sunny Chula Vista

civil rule. They constituted the first ayuntamiento, or town council.
The new town was governed by its own Council for only three years. The country
was not prosperous and population decreased until, in 1838, there were not enough
people to entitle it to a council, the number required being five hundred. Accordingly
from the 1st of January, 1838, until the Mexican War, San Diego was part of the subprefecture
of Los Angeles and governed by judges appointed annually by the governor.
José Antonio Estudillo was the first judge, or juez de paz.
In 1836 a tax was imposed on the hide-salting establishments of foreigners, as
had been done before in 1834.
In this year, soon after a revolution at Monterey, as a result of which Governor
Guiterrez had been banished and Juan B. Alvarado selected as governor in his place,
San Diego was again drawn actively into the political affairs of the time. There was considerable
local dissatisfaction with the course of events, and Juan Bandini and Santiago
E. Argüello were sent to Los Angeles and Santa Barbara as commissioners to consult
with the councils of those towns upon the situation. It was decided to insist upon the
carrying out of a law already upon the books making Los Angeles the capital, to invite
the co-operation of Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, and a provisional political chief was
to be selected to act until the national laws should be again in force. Provision for the
military support of the movement was also anticipated. The report of the commissioners
was approved upon their return, but obstacles to the program soon began to appear.
The soldiers showed a disposition to make the occasion a pretext for demanding their
arrears of pay. The Santa Barbara council, too, failed to endorse the plan in its entirety,
and proposed one of its own. It therefore appeared that nothing could be done, and at
the end of the year as the net result, the Los Angeles council awarded the San Diegans
a vote of thanks. Early in 1837, new town councils were elected and that of Los Angeles
evolved a new plan which was indorsed by the restless San Diego politicians.
Governor Alvarado left Monterey with an army of eighty-five Californians and foreigners,
about Christmas. At Santa Barbara he was kindly received, and entered Los
Angeles without opposition about the 22nd of January. Andrés Pico was present with a
body of twenty soldiers, and Pio Pico and Francisco M. Alvarado, also of San Diego,
were said to be on the way, but did not arrive until all was over. Alvarado succeeded in
temporarily pacifying the Los Angeles town council, and everything was quiet in the
southern district during February and March. On account of disquieting rumors, however,
Alvarado thought it necessary to send General José Castro southward, with orders,
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[Juan Bandini]
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in case these rumors should prove well founded, to remove or spike all the guns, carry
off the horses, and distribute the supplies in such a manner as to prevent their falling
into the hands of the enemy. A new assembly was gotten together at Santa Barbara on
April 10, 1837, and submitted a new series of propositions for the pacification of the