The "Eyes of the Emperor" in 1879
Until His Death in Early 1880, Emperor Norton Kept a Close Watch on Those Who “Counsel Any Outrage or Wrong on the Chinese”
SO FAR, The Emperor Norton Trust has documented sixteen Proclamations of Emperor Norton in which the Emperor addresses various aspects of “the Chinese question.” Probably, the best-known phrase in all sixteen — and the phrase that sums up the central message of these Proclamations — is in the Proclamation of 1 February 1873, which Emperor Norton concludes by warning that “the eyes of the Emperor will be upon anyone who shall council [sic] any outrage or wrong on the Chinese.”
Denis Kearney, undated. Collection of the Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley. Calisphere.
So it was that, when, on 28 April 1878, the anti-Chinese demagogue Denis Kearney held his regular Sunday afternoon rally on the sand-lot across from City Hall, Emperor Norton showed up; positioned himself near the stage; and — just before the proceedings began — stood atop a small box, looked directly at Kearney, and told Kearney and the assembled crowd to disperse and go home.
Kearney and his followers remained. But, the Emperor had made his point that Kearney and his cause were illegitimate — and that he, the Emperor, was not going to be cowed into silence on the matter.
The Proclamations on the Chinese that we’ve discovered thus far were published between 1868 and 1878, making the Chinese question one of the Emperor’s most abiding concerns.
The latest of these Proclamations was published on 10 April 1878 — just 2½ weeks before the sand-lot encounter.
But, we’ve made three recent discoveries that speak to Emperor Norton’s continuing engagement on behalf of the Chinese in 1879, indicating — given that the Emperor died in early January 1880 — that he maintained his vigil until the end.
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ALTHOUGH Denis Kearney primarily was a California figure, his reputation was increasingly national — and, he harbored pretensions of becoming a national leader.
In late July 1878, Kearney left San Francisco to embark on a kind of “grand tour” of the East and Midwest, giving speeches to crowds large and small — and meeting with sympathizers — in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, Chicago and more.
Kearney’s tour lasted four months, bookended by his return to San Francisco in late November 1878.
Kearney was back to the sand-lot by early December. But, what interests us here is his appearance on Sunday 12 January 1879. The following report, apparently reprinted from the newish — and excellently named — Oakland Daily Radiator, suggests that the Emperor had his eyes on the situation:
Item putting Emperor Norton at Denis Kearney sand-lot speech of 12 January 1879, reprinted from Oakland Daily Radiator in Red Bluff (Calif.) Daily People’s Cause, 15 January 1879, p. 2. Source: Newspapers.com
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2
Certainly, being fresh from such an encounter with Denis Kearney would help to explain another appearance and “speech” of Emperor Norton that is reported to have taken place on the same day.
Starting with a little background…
Grand Central Hall was inside the original David Hewes Building, at the southeastern corner of 6th and Market Streets, San Francisco. The hall appears to have been a feature of the building from the time the building went up c.1870 until it was destroyed in the earthquake and fires of April 1906.
A wide variety of clubs and societies used Grand Central Hall for their regular meetings. One of these groups was the Theanthropic Society, one of a number of freethinking, reform-minded, Chautauqua-esque discussion forums — like the Lyceum for Self-Culture — that Emperor Norton attended during his reign.
The Theanthropic Society arrived on the scene in September 1878 and had faded out by the end of 1880. Meetings were held on Sunday afternoons.
Original David Hewes Building, 6th and Market Streets, San Francisco, c.1870. This appears to be an artist's or architect's rendering. It is an illustration for an autobiographical article by David Hewes (1822–1915) that is included in a book of family genealogy that Hewes commissioned and had printed in 1913. Source: Internet Archive
On 13 January 1879, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Emperor Norton attended the previous day's meeting of the Theanthropic Society at Grand Central Hall and spoke to the Chinese question. This would have been the same day when Denis Kearney is reported to have addressed the Emperor at the sand-lot. Here’s the Chronicle’s report of the Theanthropic Society meeting:
"Finance and Chinese: Money as Related to Chinese Immigration," article on 12 January 1879 meeting of the Theanthropic Society, San Francisco Chronicle, 13 January 1879, p.3. Source: Newspapers.com
The specific framing of this report — that the Emperor had read out a communique from "his royal cousin" the Emperor of China requesting that the anti-Chinese demagogue Denis Kearney and his faction be sent to China for beheading — seems fantastical.
But, given Emperor Norton's penchant for participating in groups like the Theanthropic Society, together with his well-documented defense of the Chinese and distaste for Kearney, it's reasonable to believe that the Chronicle's report is accurate in essentials — that the Emperor attended this meeting and gave a brief anti-Kearney speech.
🡆 We’ve added Grand Central Hall as a pin to our interactive Emperor Norton Map of the World here. Click on the pin to open a sidebar with information, images and links.
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THE THIRD new indicator that Emperor Norton remained “on point” for the Chinese in 1879 is more of a data point for the Emperor’s “reputation index.”
Newspapers often sought to make Emperor Norton a figure of ridicule or to undermine the Emperor’s public credibility by drawing attention to his longstanding defense of the Chinese — or even simply to his friendship with Chinese people.
As early as February 1865, the San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin — the paper that, in September 1859, published Joshua Norton’s original Proclamation declaring himself Emperor — ran an item in which the San Francisco correspondent of the New York Christian Inquirer, a Unitarian weekly, mocked Emperor Norton as “the King of all the Chinese.”
Was it lost on this writer that the Emperor was Jewish and that Jesus himself was mocked as “the King of the Jews”?
Two years later, in January 1867, the Daily Alta California concluded its story of the false arrest of Emperor Norton by reporting that, when the Emperor signed for his belongings, he “caused Ah How, his Grand Chamberlain, to witness his Royal signature.”
The Daily Alta and its editor, Albert Evans, made quite a career in the 1860s of publishing fake proclamations and other fake stories about Emperor Norton. The fact that a Chinese man named Ah How was a noted petty criminal in San Francisco during this period makes it worth asking whether the Alta’s “Grand Chamberlain” bit was just a gag to make Emperor look silly.
Fast forward to September 1879 and we have the Sacramento Daily Bee getting in on the act by trying to disparage the “Protector of Mexico” — as Emperor Norton called himself — as the “Protector of China.”
Notice that the paper also turns Denis Kearney’s mantra “The Chinese must go” against the Emperor — writing that “The Emperor must go.”
Item criticizing Emperor Norton as “Protector of China,” Sacramento Daily Bee, 18 September 1879, p. 2. Source: Newspapers.com
One of the occasions the Bee pinned its anti-Chinese colors to the mast was with a 29 January 1879 editorial praising the passage of an anti-Chinese bill in the U.S. House of Representatives. Here’s the pertinent introductory excerpt:
Introductory excerpt of “California in Congress,” editorial, Sacramento Daily Bee, 29 January 1879, p. 2. Source: Newspapers.com
The Bee wasn’t exactly a Kearney mouthpiece. But, it was a pro-Kearney and pro-Workingmen’s Party of California (Kearny’s base) paper during this period. Even when acknowledging Kearney’s negatives, the Bee tended to be an apologist for him — writing, for example, in a 23 May 1879 editorial, “Kearney as a Leader,” that “[h]e may not be a great or a wise leader, but he is an effective leader nevertheless.” In general, the paper took a Rolling Stones approach to Denis Kearney: You can’t always get what you want / But if you try sometime you’ll find / You get what you need.
James S. McCue, undated, from McCue’s obituary in the San Francisco Call, 5 January 1910, p.5. Source: CDNC
The person for whom the Bee blew its Scooby Dooby Doo whistle, James “Jim” McCue (c.1830–1910) of Corte Madera, was a character with a “colorful” history of his own. One thread that tied together the wealthy McCue’s varied pursuits was his reputation as an ornery blowhard with a nasty, occasionally violent, temper.
Plenty of people took a dim view of Jim McCue. “That old political demagogue and blatherskite” and “this old fanatic” were the epithets of choice in an item about McCue that the Oroville (Calif.) Daily Mercury ran on 7 June 1878.
The Oroville item was about an event in which McCue had carried water for Denis Kearney. Indeed, Jim McCue was a Kearney partisan and member of a number of state-level committees of the Workingmen’s Party in 1879 — perhaps one reason why the Sacramento Bee took it easy on McCue.
The bottom line: Going into late 1879, the views of all three — the Sacramento Bee, Jim McCue and Emperor Norton — on the Chinese question were sufficiently well known that the Bee would have run its Norton jibe in the confidence that its readers would know exactly for whom the jibe was intended — and why.
One hopes that Emperor Norton wore the intended epithet as a badge of honor.
This much is certain: It makes no sense trying to insult the Emperor as the “Protector of China” in September 1879 unless he did — in fact — still regard himself as the protector of the Chinese.
All signs are that he did.
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