When Emperor Norton Became Protector of Mexico
His Concern for Mexico Was There from the Start — But the Title Seems to Have Arrived a Little Later Than Many Think (And, Contrary to Myth, He Never Dropped It)
AT GATHERINGS in San Francisco and elsewhere where the the memory of Emperor Norton is invoked, Norton traditionalists often insist on referring to the Emperor reverentially by what they see as his full, formal title — the one that he frequently used in his Proclamations and that is memorialized on his headstone in Colma, Calif.:
“Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico.”
Cutting against the grain of this practice is a story that some of these same traditionalists have been telling for generations. The basic story is in two parts:
1) Emperor Norton adopted the secondary title “Protector of Mexico” sometime in 1862–64 — most likely either when “Emperor of the French” Napoleon III invaded Mexico in May 1862 or when Napoleon’s puppet emperor Maximilian I arrived in Mexico two years later, in May 1864.
2) The Emperor dropped the “Protector” title a few years later.
The timing of (1) is not supported by the evidence; (2) is demonstrably incorrect.
This little undocumented nugget of the Norton myth may originate with Robert Ernest Cowan’s brief 1923 essay on Emperor Norton for the California Historical Society, in which — after noting the Emperor’s residence at the Metropolitan Hotel in 1862 — Cowan writes:
One day at this period, some important news was received from Mexico, and in this as in all such matters, the Emperor was greatly interested. In a spirit of levity some joker stated that Mexico needed a protector, and suggested that Norton was the logical choice. There upon "Protector of Mexico" was added to the official title and retained for almost a decade. It was dropped during the unhappy career of Maximilian, for, as Norton sanely and even prophetically observed: "It is impossible to protect such an unsettled nation."
Four years later, in 1927, Albert Dressler published his little booklet on Emperor Norton in which he repeats Cowan’s one-two.
Both Allen Stanley Lane in his 1939 biography of the Emperor and William Drury in his 1986 biography back Cowan’s timing for when Emperor Norton claimed his title “Protector of Mexico.”
But Lane points out that the Emperor never relinquished the title — and Drury doesn’t address the “tenure” issue at all.
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IN FACT, Emperor Norton had his sights on Mexico’s affairs from the beginning of his reign — and before Napoleon III started his Mexico maneuvers in 1862. Here’s one of the Emperor’s earliest Proclamations, published in the San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin in January 1860 [emphases mine in the text reproduced below]:
Proclamation of Emperor Norton, San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, 18 January 1860, p. 3. Source: Genealogy Bank
Proclamation.
WHEREAS, It is an undoubted truth that Mexico is entirely unfit to manage her own affairs, the country being in a constant state of internal distraction, anarchy and civil war; AND WHEREAS, His Imperial Majesty Napoleon III. is throwing his protecting arm around unfortunate Italy, we consider it our duty to shield and protect bleeding Mexico.
NOW, THEREFORE, We do hereby order and direct that a Convention of the Nation shall assemble, in the Halls of the Montezumas, on the 5th day of July next — then and there to adopt such measures as will effectively protect her from future internal dissensions and give security for her future stability, and protection to the great foreign interests: And We also do hereby order and direct 10,000 troops of our army to assemble in the said city of Mexico, on the said 5th day of July next, to enforce a proper and firm government adapted to the wants of the nation, to be composed of the proper men for such an object.
NORTON I.,
Emperor of the U.S. of North America.
Dated from Headquarters, San Francisco, California,
January 17, 1860.
Notice that the substance and tone of this Proclamation mirrors, to a significant degree, Emperor Norton’s original Proclamation of September 1859 — down to his call for an assembly in Mexico City in July 1860, something that echoes the assembly in San Francisco that his earlier Proclamation had scheduled for February 1860.
Note, too, the theme of protection.
A year-and-a-half later, in July 1861, the Emperor issued the following Proclamation, in which he augmented his original Proclamation of 1859 by declaring himself “Emperor of the United States and Mexico”:
Proclamation of Emperor Norton, Sonoma County Journal, 26 July 1861, p. 2. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
PROCLAMATION. — Whereas, I, Norton I., by the grace of God and will of the people, Emperor of the United States, have been called upon by the Mexican nation to assume the charge of the government of the country, and as its Emperor, to restore order to the finances, to put down rebellion, to protect the people in all their just rights, and provide for the national defense and welfare, as a separate and independent country, it is therefore made known to all the world that I have accepted the office and its responsibilities, and from this day must be recognized as Emperor of the United States and Mexico.
By order of the Emperor
Once again: “Protect.”
The venue for this Proclamation — the Sonoma County Journal, published in Petaluma, Calif., and later known as the Petaluma Weekly Argus — suggests the possibility that the Proclamation came together during one of Emperor Norton’s many visits to his friend Charles Chaffee Champlin (1812–1892) at Champlin’s ranch nearby.
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NEWSPAPERS occasionally used the “Emperor of the United States and Mexico” designation.
The Daily Alta California did when it wished Emperor Norton a happy birthday in February 1865. (Surely, had the “Protector of Mexico” title been in place at the time, the Alta would have used that.)
Item noting Emperor Norton’s 47th birthday, Daily Alta California, 4 February 1865, p. 1. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
Ten years later, in May 1875, the Oakland Daily Evening Tribune used the title when introducing its coverage of the Pacific Appeal’s publication of an unsigned Proclamation against real estate speculator Charles R. Peters — an incident which ultimately, given the alternative of being sued for libel by Peters, led the Appeal’s proprietor and editor Peter Anderson to refuse to publish anything further from the Emperor.
Introduction to article, “Tripartite Disagreement: Charley Peters vs. Emperor Norton and Brother Anderson,” Oakland Daily Evening Tribune, 27 May 1875, p. 3. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
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EMPEROR NORTON himself identifies as “Emperor of these United States and Mexico” in this Proclamation from July 1874 about the use of alcoholic beverages.
Proclamation of Emperor Norton, Pacific Appeal, 25 July 1874, p. 1. Source: Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
This appears to have been a rare exception — perhaps an exception the Emperor sported himself because, by 1874, Maximilian long since had come to grief, executed by the restored Mexican Republic in June 1867 following the fall of the Second Mexican Empire.
But, when Maximilian arrived as the new Mexican emperor three years earlier, in May 1864, Emperor Norton may have felt that it was unproductive to continue to assert himself as Emperor of Mexico — however illegitimate he knew Maximilian to be.
Still, a title of some kind would be useful to the Emperor in preserving his stature as a moral guardian of the dignity of the Mexican people and, indeed, of the dignity of Mexico in the family of nations.
So, it seems, Emperor Norton simply chose a new title — Protector of Mexico — that echoed the imperative of the protection of Mexico that he’d been highlighting since 1860. The Emperor doesn’t appear to have announced the title with any particular fanfare. Rather, he just started using it.
The earliest instance I find of Emperor Norton calling himself “Protector of Mexico” is in the following Proclamation from February 1866:
Proclamation of Emperor Norton, Daily Alta California, 9 February 1866, p. 1. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
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FEBRUARY 1866 was during Maximilian’s tenure — so, Emperor Norton was making a point.
But it was two years in — and the subject matter has nothing to do with Mexico. So, if this is in fact the Emperor’s first use of “Protector of Mexico,” one would have to say that the point was understated.
Arguably, the real power of “Protector of Mexico” is in the cumulative effect of Emperor Norton’s persistent and continuing use of the title — both to advocate for Mexico and for general purposes — for the rest of his life.
Here are several examples from the 1870s:
1871
Proclamation of Emperor Norton, Pacific Appeal, 18 November 1871, p. 4. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
1875
In this Proclamation, Emperor Norton addresses the United States and Mexico, and reminds “the good and peaceful people of both nations…that while he is Emperor of the United States he is also Protector of Mexico.”
Proclamation of Emperor Norton, Pacific Appeal, 15 May 1875, p. 1. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
1876
Proclamation of Emperor Norton, Oakland Daily Evening Tribune, 15 May 1876, p. 3. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
1879
Two of Emperor Norton’s preoccupying concerns in the last year of his life were the drafting and ratification of the new Constitution of California and the ongoing menace of the anti-Chinese demagogue Denis Kearney.
In March 1879, the Emperor issued the following Proclamation on the new Constitution:
Proclamation of Emperor Norton, San Francisco Examiner, 28 March 1879, p. 3. Source: Newspapers.com
Two months later, in May 1879, he paid a visit to the offices of the Oakland Daily Times, where he weighed in once again on the Constitution and issued this Proclamation about Kearney, mincing no words.
Proclamation of Emperor Norton, Oakland Daily Times, 28 May 1879, p. 1. Source: Genealogy Bank
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NOTICE, once again, exactly when Robert Ernest Cowan claimed, in his 1923 article, that Emperor Norton “dropped” his “Protector of Mexico” title.
Cowan wrote:
…"Protector of Mexico" was added to the official title and retained for almost a decade. It was dropped during the unhappy career of Maximilian….
Maximilian’s career in Mexico was from May 1864 until June 1867 — meaning that, according to Cowan, the Emperor dropped “Protector of Mexico” sometime between 1864 and 1867.
Cowan doubled down on this 15 years later when he included the passage from his 1923 article in the privately published version of a 1938 talk he gave at the Zamarano Club — a Los Angeles-based men’s club, dedicated to book collecting and the books arts generally, that Cowan had had a hand in founding in 1928. (This later was reprinted as the title essay in the 1964 book The Forgotten Characters of San Francisco.)
Four years earlier, on 30 June 1934, Cowan attended the public dedication ceremony for Emperor Norton's reburial in Woodlawn cemetery in Colma, Calif.
Cowan was not an officer of the Emperor Norton Memorial Association, the group who secured the plot and headstone, and who organized the dedication. But, he was an esteemed figure among those who were. No doubt, Cowan was gratified that the Association selected his (erroneous) birth year of 1819 for the marker.
But, surely the Association would not have memorialized the title “Protector of Mexico” on the stone if it had believed, as Cowan did, that the Emperor dropped that title more than a decade before his death.
It’s nice to think that somebody at the Emperor Norton Memorial Association knew the score.
Headstone of Emperor Norton’s grave, Woodlawn Memorial Park, Colma, Calif., in 2021, following Woodlawn’s restoration of the gilding. Photograph: Jonathan Robert Pamplin
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