Pulitzer Prize – The Intelligent Collector Magazine

Efforts Under Way (Again) to Divide the Golden State

Albert Bierstadt’s 1872 oil on canvas *Mount Brewer from King’s River Canyon, California*, sold for $602,500 at a November 2012 auction.

By Jim O’Neal

On June 4, 1965, the California State Senate voted 27-12 to divide California into two separate states. To make the proposal effective, it required approval by the State Assembly, followed by both California voters and the U.S. Congress. The plan failed to generate enough support in the State Assembly and did not proceed. In 1992, the State Assembly passed a proposal to allow a referendum vote in each county to partition California into three states: North, South and Central California. In a twist, this time the proposal died in the Senate.

These were not new or even unique legislative actions. Since California became the 31st state to join the United States in 1850, there have been more than 220 similar attempts, obviously none successful. Even while California was under Spanish rule, the province was divided into Alta California (upper) and Baja California (lower). Alta California was the portion that entered the Union, while Baja remained a territory under Mexico rule. It is now one of Mexico’s 31 states … an extremely nice place for turistas to enjoy the sun, sand, fishing and golf.

After Lewis and Clark finished their historic expedition to map out exactly what we actually acquired from France via the Louisiana Purchase, President Jefferson envisioned the Northwest area eventually becoming an independent country … the “Pacific Empire.” He thought it might include a good chunk of Canada, along with what is now Washington, Oregon and Idaho. The war with Mexico trumped that idea when we ended up with the United States expanding into the western Pacific area from San Diego to the Canadian border, followed by the discovery of gold, which ensured dramatic migration from east to west.

One of the more interesting episodes in carving up California in the 20th century is worth re-telling. In October 1941, the mayor of a small town in Oregon announced that four counties in Oregon planned to unite with three counties in Northern California to form the new state of Jefferson, in honor of the late president. On Nov. 27, 1941, a group of armed men stopped all traffic on U.S. Route 99 and handed out copies of their Proclamation of Independence for the State of Jefferson, along with their intent to secede from the Union. On Dec. 4, 1941, they selected local district attorney John Childs to be the governor of Jefferson. Alas, their efforts were foiled by Japanese bombers at Pearl Harbor three days later.

My friend Stan Delaplane won the 1942 Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles on the State of Jefferson that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle. However, Stan’s bigger claim to fame was convincing the owner of the Buena Vista Café in San Francisco to introduce Irish coffee (after he had it at an airport in Ireland). The café is now one of the “must do” destinations in San Francisco, near the wharf area where the cable cars turn around. The BV claims they sell more Irish whiskey than anywhere in the world: 100 bottles a day, equal to 2,000 special recipes of Irish coffee. It is also a great people-watching place. Everyone you know will end up in the BV (if you are patient).

Stan worked for the Chronicle for 53 years and one of his favorite lines was, “Years ago, someone tilted the United States and all the loose nuts and bolts rolled to California.” What a terrific place for a writer, with new stuff happening every day!

Currently, there is another effort to create a New California as authorized and certified in Article 4, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution. (The last time it was invoked was on June 20, 1863, when West Virginia detached from Virginia). The current proposal envisions New California (population 15 million) and California (population 25 million), and on Jan. 15, 2018, issued a Declaration of Independence with the intent to form a 51st state. These plans have been revamped to include an “autonomous Native American Nation.” The Calexit proposal (modeled after Brexit) establishes a non-reservation nation for American Indians through retrocession, primarily using federal land.

This form of reparation will see the state sliced down the middle, from Oregon to Mexico, with the coastal half remaining the home for two-thirds of the existing population. All that’s left to get the proposal on the 2021 ballot is 365,000+ signatories.

Let’s hope that what happens in California stays in California!

JIM O’NEAL is an avid collector and history buff. He is president and CEO of Frito-Lay International [retired] and earlier served as chair and CEO of PepsiCo Restaurants International [KFC Pizza Hut and Taco Bell].

Roosevelt Used Radio to Encourage, Hitler to Fuel Rage

A Franklin D. Roosevelt photograph, signed and inscribed to Eleanor Roosevelt, sold for $10,000 at an October 2016 Heritage auction.

By Jim O’Neal

Saul Bellow was a Canadian-born writer who became a nationalized U.S. citizen when he discovered he had immigrated to the United States illegally as a child. He hit the big time in 1964 with his novel Herzog. It won the U.S. National Book Award for fiction. Time magazine named it one of the 100 best novels in the English language since “the beginning of Time” (March 3, 1923).

Along the way, Bellow (1915-2005) also managed to squeeze in a Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only writer to win the National Book Award for Fiction three times.

Bellow loved to describe his personal experience listening to President Roosevelt, an American aristocrat (Groton and Harvard educated), hold the nation together, using only a radio and the power of his personality. “I can recall walking eastward on the Chicago Midway … drivers had pulled over, parking bumper to bumper, and turned on their radios to hear every single word. They had rolled down the windows and opened the car doors. Everywhere the same voice, its odd Eastern accent, which in anyone else would have irritated Midwesterners. You could follow without missing a single word as you strolled by. You felt joined to these unknown drivers, men and women smoking their cigarettes in silence, not so much considering the president’s words as affirming the rightness of his tone and taking assurances from it.”

The nation needed the assurance of those fireside chats, the first of which was delivered on March 12, 1933. Between a quarter and a third of the workforce was unemployed. It was the nadir of the Great Depression.

The “fireside” was figurative; most of the chats emanated from a small, cramped room in the White House basement. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins described the change that would come over the president just before the broadcasts. “His face would smile and light up as though he were actually sitting on the front porch or in the parlor with them. People felt this, and it bound them to him in affection.”

Roosevelt’s fireside chats and, indeed, all of his efforts to communicate contrasted with those of another master of the airwaves, Adolf Hitler, who fueled rage in the German people via radio and encouraged their need to blame, while FDR reasoned with and encouraged America. Hitler’s speeches were pumped through cheap plastic radios manufactured expressly to ensure complete penetration of the German consciousness. The appropriation of this new medium by FDR for reason and common sense was one of the great triumphs of American democracy.

Herr Hitler ended up committing suicide after ordering the building burned to the ground to prevent the Allies from retrieving any of his remains. So ended the grand 1,000-year Reich he had promised … poof … gone with the wind.

Intelligent Collector blogger JIM O’NEAL is an avid collector and history buff. He is president and CEO of Frito-Lay International [retired] and earlier served as chair and CEO of PepsiCo Restaurants International [KFC Pizza Hut and Taco Bell].

Robert Morris Deserves His Place on This $1,000 Bill

The rare 1863 $1000 legal tender note featuring Robert Morris could be the most attractive bill ever printed.

By Jim O’Neal

Imagine a situation where you write a terrific biography that is nominated for prestigious awards and stays on The New York Times best-seller list for three months. Not bad. But then, imagine the elation when 10 years later, it is turned into a Tony Award-winning musical and you are part of the team that created it. That actually happened to author Ron Chernow with his book about Alexander Hamilton.

Even more remarkable is that Hamilton is still the hottest ticket in town three years later, and playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda has racked up a Pulitzer Prize, three Tony Awards, two Grammys, an Emmy, and will be honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2018. The only thing left would be a film and, not surprisingly, Hamilton the movie is already in development.

Many people now know that Alexander Hamilton was the first Secretary of Treasury for the United States. However, he was not the first choice of George Washington when the president was forming his Cabinet. That distinction goes to another of the true Founding Fathers: Robert Morris Jr. (1734-1806), whose name has gradually faded from view. That was certainly not the case in 1775 when he was believed to be the richest man in America.

President Washington offered him the position primarily since he had been the First Superintendent of Finance for the United States (1781-84), but Morris recommended Hamilton since they shared similar views, including the idea of creating a national bank. Besides, next to George Washington, Morris was already considered the most powerful man in America.

After migrating to America from England as a teenager, he became a partner (at age 24) of Thomas Willing when they formed a banking-shipping firm, Willing, Morris & Co. This dual charter allowed them to self-finance their trading activities, which included slaves. However, disputes over tariffs and taxes like the Stamp Act inevitably drew Morris into politics and eventually the war for independence from England. Robert Morris and Roger Sherman of Connecticut are the only two people to sign the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution.

Robert Morris is also credited with being one of the founders of the financial system for the United States, along with Hamilton and Albert Gallatin, who was Treasury Secretary for Jefferson and Madison from 1801 to 1814, the longest tenure in this office in history. Morris used his great wealth and financial acumen to support Continental troops under Washington when the country was broke. The dome in the U.S. Capitol Building has a fresco painting (The Apotheosis of Washington) that includes a scene with Mercury, the Roman god of commerce, handing Morris a bag of gold to commemorate his service as “the Financier of the American Revolution.”

Twenty years ago, I had the pleasure of viewing Robert Morris on a $1,000 bill when Frank Levitan sold his wonderful collection of United States paper currency. It’s my personal choice for the most attractive bill ever printed and is ultra-rare (only two are known to exist). Lot #104 sold for $451,000 – a staggering amount at the time, but a fraction of the price it would bring today.

Thank you, Mr. Morris. I won’t forget.