Emperor Norton's Overdue Notices
Evidence That the Emperor Kept Track of His Proclamations — And Was Able to Reinforce His Moral Authority By Reminding His Audience What He Had Decreed Years Earlier
CERTAIN THEMES come up again and again in the Proclamations of Emperor Norton. The Emperor’s demand for revised or completely new national and California state Constitutions, for example. Or his insistence on being provided with accommodations or clothing better suited to his status as Emperor.
Most often, when the Emperor returns to an earlier theme, he simply issues a fresh iteration of the imperative that reads as though he is stating it for the first time.
Sometimes, though, he makes a point of referencing his original Proclamation on the subject, as if to say: “I shouldn’t have to repeat myself, but your inaction on the matter leaves me with no other choice.
Here are three examples of the latter type of Proclamation:
Bridge or tunnel from Oakland to San Francisco
This is a familiar example.
In January and March of 1872, Emperor Norton issued Proclamations calling for the survey and construction of a bay-crossing bridge from Oakland to San Francisco via Goat Island (Yerba Buena Island). The Proclamations were published in the Pacific Appeal newspaper.
In May 1872, the Emperor issued a third Proclamation, also published in the Appeal — this time adding for consideration “a tunnel underwater…for a railroad communication” between Oakland and San Francisco.”
Four months later, in September 1872, Emperor Norton issued a fourth and final Proclamation on this subject that he framed this way:
Whereas, we issued our decree…and whereas, the said citizens have hitherto neglected to notice our said decree; and whereas, we are determined our authority shall be fully respected; now, therefore, we do hereby command the arrest, by the army, of both the Boards of City Fathers, if they persist in neglecting our decrees.
Proclamation of Emperor Norton, Pacific Appeal, 21 September 1872, p. 1. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
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Equal access to streetcars for Black citizens
Emperor Norton did not limit his reminders to Proclamations of the immediate past.
In May 1871, he issued the followed Proclamation insisting on the right of Black people to ride streetcars:
Proclamation of Emperor Norton, Pacific Appeal, 27 May 1871, p. 1. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
The Emperor begins by noting that “We ordered the colored people some years back to be permitted to ride in the street rail-road cars….”
We’ve yet to find the earlier Proclamation that Emperor Norton references here. But, the most likely occasion for him to have weighed in on the issue would have been the racially discriminatory incidents that led to lawsuits and court challenges to private streetcar companies in the 1860s: by Charlotte Brown (1839–1914) in 1863–64 and by Mary Ellen Pleasant (1814–1904) in 1866–68.
If so, the Emperor would have issued his 1871 Proclamation 3–8 years after he initially addressed the issue.
The 1871 Proclamation reflects the fact that denial of streetcar service to Black people continued to be a problem in San Francisco.
The state of California outlawed streetcar segregation in 1893.
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Water preparedness infrastructure
An even longer “arc of obligation” is brought to bear on an issue that Emperor Norton appears to have first addressed in early August 1864:
Proclamation of Emperor Norton, Semi-Weekly Independent (Red Bluff, Calif.), 8 August 1864, p. 3. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
He writes:
Whereas, it is necessary to provide for contingencies, and the failure of rain to moisten the earth has been severely felt; therefore, be it Decreed, That all owners of stock ranches shall forthwith cause to be sunk artisian [sic] wells on their ranches to provide for such contingencies….
Thirteen years later, in June 1877, the Emperor returned to issue of water preparedness, pointing out how the failure to prepare had adversely affected California’s wool production:
Proclamation of Emperor Norton, Oakland Daily News, 12 June 1877, p. 3. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
The Emperor opens:
Many years ago we ordered the sinking of artesian wells and more recently we recommended the building of extensive reservoirs for the saving of the winter rains for irrigating purposes; and whereas by reason of your neglect of our Imperial command the State of California alone has this last past year lost more than half of her valuable wool-bearing sheep, throwing the State back many years in her wool production….
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ONE THING that seems clear from these three examples: Emperor Norton had a good memory, and over the course of his reign was able to strategically deploy his recall of Proclamations he had issued years earlier.
Which leads me to wonder: Did the Emperor keep his own written record of each Proclamation, including
(a) what he decreed, and when
(b) whether or not the Proclamation was published
(c) where and when published Proclamations were printed
When Emperor Norton died in January 1880, the San Francisco Coroner catalogued the personal effects that were collected from the Emperor’s person and from his single-room apartment at the Eureka Lodgings, on Commercial Street.
By resolution of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, most of these items were conveyed to the Society of California Pioneers and then, alas, were lost in the earthquake and fires of April 1906.
Here is the record of this information that was included in the Coroner’s Report published in the San Francisco Municipal Reports for the 1879–80 fiscal year:
Listing for Joshua A. Norton in Coroner’s Report (Property of Deceased Persons), in San Francisco Municipal Reports for the Fiscal Year 1879–1880, p. 381. See original here. Collection of the San Francisco Public Library. Source: Internet Archive.
Collected from both the Emperor’s person and his apartment — and conveyed to the Pioneers — were “papers.” The Coroner’s report also mentioned that the Emperor’s “scrapbooks” were among the items delivered to the Pioneers.
As far as I know, the contents of these “papers” and “scrapbooks” were never documented.
Did the papers and scrapbooks include a “Proclamation log” along the lines I envision above?
We may never know (see: 1906). But it’s fascinating to contemplate — especially if such a log included original handwritten copies of the Proclamations that Emperor Norton delivered to newspapers.
This would reveal any gaps between what the Emperor wrote versus published versions that often reflected editorial meddling.
Too: Occasionally, a newspaper ran a brief item mentioning that Emperor Norton had brought the paper a Proclamation on a given subject — but noting that space limitations prevented publication. It stands to reason that the Emperor must have delivered Proclamations that were neither published nor mentioned.
A complete log would include all of these Proclamations, too: a testament to those issues, trends, and episodes that Emperor Norton thought worthy of a Proclamation — but which may never have had the Emperor’s formal position on them entered into the historical record.