Emperor Norton the Convener
Not the Autocrat He Often Is Made Out to Be
A CERTAIN conventional wisdom characterizes — and caricatures — Emperor Norton as an imperious, high-handed blusterer with something of a dictator complex.
But a countervailing body of evidence shows that, on matters that the Emperor saw as being of greatest consequence, his impulse often was not to try to rule by fiat — but rather to call a meeting of a national assembly or council, a few months hence, that would be constituted at the meeting and tasked with charting the most productive specific path forward within the general parameters that he had set.
Or, on occasion, the Emperor cast himself in a supporting role by offering himself as a neutral diplomat to broker a peace between disputing parties.
This precedent was set early. In his first Proclamation, issued and published on Saturday 17 September 1859, Emperor Norton wrote in part:
I…do hereby order and direct the representatives of the different States of the Union to assemble in Musical Hall, of this city, on the 1st day of February next, then and there to make such alterations in the existing laws of the Union as may ameliorate the evils under which the country is laboring, and thereby cause confidence to exist, both at home and abroad, in our stability and integrity.
Proclamation of Joshua Norton declaring himself Emperor of the United States, San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, 17 September 1859, p. 3. Source: GenealogyBank
Emperor Norton would reprise his convener role several more times in the course of his 20-year reign. There doesn’t appear to be evidence that any of these meetings took place. But the fact that the Emperor issued these calls suggests that his philosophy of leadership and governance was more nuanced than he usually is given credit for.
We don’t recall seeing this facet of Emperor Norton’s practice highlighted elsewhere.
Here are a few more examples:
Mexico (1860)
In January 1860, the Emperor issued a Proclamation about Mexico that mirrored, in significant respects, his September 1859 Proclamation about the United States.
He wrote in part:
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….
Proclamation of Emperor Norton, San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, 18 January 1860, p. 3. Source: Genealogy Bank
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Post-Civil War (1866)
As we saw, Emperor Norton’s original Proclamation of 17 September 1859 was issued and published on a Saturday. The occasion for the Proclamation was that the Emperor saw the storm clouds of civil war brewing.
On 15 September 1866, the Saturday closest to the 7th anniversary of this Proclamation — and something of a postwar bookend to it — the Emperor sounded similar themes in a Proclamation calling on “the American people [to] now meet in council, and make such alterations in the Constitution and form of government as will secure them from future external and internal strife.”
The Emperor concluded:
[W]e…do hereby command an election of two delegates from each State and Territory of the United States, to assemble in the town of Petaluma, California, on the 15th day of January next, 1867, for the object herein expressed.
Proclamation of Emperor Norton, Daily Alta California, 15 September 1866, p. 1. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
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Modoc War (1873)
Emperor Norton was well aware of the U.S. government’s policy of (a) dispossessing Native American tribes from their lands and of (b) adding insult to injury by enacting outsized punishments against Native resisters — up to, and including, death by hanging.
The Emperor did not approve of any of this and issued several Proclamations on the subject during the period of a notable land dispute that developed into an armed conflict, known as the Modoc War, between the Native American Modoc people and the United States Army. The conflict took place from July 1872 to June 1873 in northeastern California and southeastern Oregon. (Learn more here.)
The Modoc resistance was led by the Modoc chief Kintpuash — known by settlers and their U.S. government allies as Captain Jack.
As hostilities became entrenched, Emperor Norton offered himself as a diplomat to break the logjam by meeting with Captain Jack and other Modoc leaders.
In January 1873, the Emperor issued a Proclamation noting that
we believe the entire difficulty may be settled at once if [the Indian Chiefs] can be communicated with immediately; now, therefore, we...do hereby command Governor Booth to detail a suitable corps...to the scene of warfare, and if possible induce the Chiefs to come to San Francisco and smoke the Calumet [peace pipe] with the Emperor.
Proclamation of Emperor Norton, Pacific Appeal, 25 January 1873, p. 1. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
A couple of weeks later, the Emperor — clearly unhappy about the escalation of the conflict — followed up with a Proclamation
order[ing] a [cessation of hostilities] until communication can be sent to Captain Jack, for him to come and make peace with the Emperor.
Proclamation of Emperor Norton, Pacific Appeal, 15 February 1873, p. 2. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
Three months later, the Emperor had a similar message — this time, calling more specifically on
the army to cease hostilities at present against the Modocs until we can communicate with Captain Jack….
Proclamation of Emperor Norton, Pacific Appeal, 3 May 1873, p. 1. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
Ultimately, Kintpuash (Captain Jack) and others were court-martialed and executed by hanging on 3 October 1873.
On 30 August 1873, shortly after the court-martial, the Pacific Appeal published a Proclamation in which Emperor Norton wrote:
Whereas, the execution of Capt. Jack and the other Indians condemned by the Court Martial will tend to bring on a general Indian war, as also have an injurious effect on the prestige of the American Government by those not in accord with its best phrase, considering also that the Indian agents have always been on the make and grab as also of other Indian lands; now, therefore, we, Dei gratia Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, do hereby prohibit the carrying out of the Court Martial that our Imperial decree in their case be enforced.
The Emperor might have been referring here to his Proclamation of 7 June 1873, in which he proposed
that Captain Jack, his braves and his squaws, be placed in charge of Goat Island, to guard the interests of the city of San Francisco against the attacks of foreign war vessels.
One way to read Emperor Norton’s earlier Modoc War proclamations, issued before the summer of 1873: The Emperor believed that a key to lowering the temperature on both sides — and thus to reducing the potential for “a general Indian war” and the attendant hit on the reputation of the U.S. government — was for Captain Jack to be provided with an opportunity to dialogue with a non-government actor.
The Emperor wished to be that actor.
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CONSIDER Emperor Norton’s Proclamations on the Modoc War and his other Proclamations highlighted here — those calling for conventions, assemblies, or councils of national representatives and delegates to gather and deliberate to
put the United States on a better footing on the eve of the Civil War;
chart a better future for Mexico; and
recalibrate the U.S. government in the wake of the Civil War.
These are not the hallmarks of a “my way or the highway” autocrat.
Emperor Norton was much more complex than he often is given credit for.