Between September 1870 and May 1875, the Black-owned, San Francisco-based Pacific Appeal newspaper published some 250 Proclamations from Emperor Norton — by far, more than any other publication.

In an unsigned Proclamation published in the Appeal on 8 May 1875, the Emperor warned unsuspecting immigrants against purchasing lots in what he saw as a fraudulent real estate scheme by Charles R. Peters to build a new town called “Newark” on swampy land along the eastern edge of the narrow southern tip of San Francisco Bay.

After the exceptionally thin-skinned and litigious Charles Peters responded by suing the Appeal’s editor, the editor — Peter Anderson — published a retraction of the Proclamation in which he forbade Emperor Norton from bringing the Appeal any more Proclamations.

A Proclamation of Emperor Norton never again appeared in the Pacific Appeal during the Emperor’s lifetime.

The received wisdom has been that the unsigned Proclamation that ran in the Appeal on 8 May 1875 was the Emperor’s opening salvo against Charles Peters.

In fact, as we recently discovered — and as we believe is documented here for the first time — a shorter signed Proclamation on the same subject had appeared five days earlier — on 3 May 1875 — in the Oakland Tribune.

The differences in how the Tribune and the Appeal dealt with Charles Peters and Emperor Norton — and in how Peters dealt with the respective papers — is its own fascinating and very telling story.