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THE GREY-EYED MAN OF DESTINY

President of Lower California, Emperor of Nicaragua, doctor, lawyer, writer—these were some of the titles claimed by William Walker, the greatest American filibuster

California of the 1850s saw dreamed of riches vanished, doors of opportunity closed and disillusioned gold seekers fearing a humdrum life. Out of these unsettled conditions of an unpoliced and relatively isolated frontier emerged the phenomenon of Filibustering. A product of youthful and restless America convinced of its Manifest Destiny, filibusters were men who went abroad to "free" unprotected territory from foreign control. Southerners were especially attracted to the concept of spreading slavery to lands further south. Federal policy from the White House on down rarely discouraged the practice.

Born in 1824 in Tennessee, Walker graduated from the University of Nashville at the age of 14 and by 19 had earned a medical degree. He spent a year touring Europe and then began practicing medicine in Philadelphia. Walker studied law in New Orleans, and then became co-owner of a newspaper, the Crescent. When the paper was sold, Walker moved on to California, where he worked as a reporter in San Francisco. His caustic pen led to an arrest and some jail time. Moving north, he established a law office in Marysville. When he was 29, he became the leader of a group plotting to detach parts of northern Mexico. Recruiting a small army, he sailed to Baja California and conquered La Paz, declaring himself president of Lower California. He then decided to extend his empire to include Sonora, and renamed it "The Republic of Sonora." Marching on to the Colorado River, Walker found himself faced with harsh conditions and a high desertion rate, forced to retreat to California, he surrendered to U.S. authorities on charges of violating U.S. neutrality laws.

. Acquitted of criminal charges, Walker returned to his law practice and next turned his attention to Central America. Throughout this region, forces known as Democrats and Legitimists fought each other. The leader of the Democratic faction in Nicaragua invited Walker to bring an army and join the struggle against the Legitimists. In 1855, with his army of 58 Americans, later called "The Immortals," he landed in Nicaragua. Within a year, leading "The Immortals" and a native rebel force, he routed the Legitimists and captured Granada. His success raised concern in the other Central American countries, especially Costa Rica, which sent in a well-armed force to invade Nicaragua. Walker’s army defeated the invasion in which disease killed more soldiers on both sides than enemy bullets. Cornelius Vanderbilt, the shipping magnate, seeking control of the San Juan River-Lake Nicaragua route from the Caribbean to the Pacific, armed Walker’s enemies, while the British navy, attempting to reverse American influences in the region, regularly fought efforts to supply him. In spite of these factors, Walker had himself elected president of Nicaragua. He is the first and only U.S. citizen to be elected by a foreign nation. The United States briefly recognized his government but never sent him aid. Soon the other countries of Central America formed an alliance against him, and in mid 1857 he surrendered once again to a U.S. naval officer and returned to the U.S.

Seeking support for another venture, Walker wrote a book, The War in Nicaragua. Knowing that his best support was in the South, he advocated a strong pro-slavery stance. This proved successful, and in 1860 he sailed south. He was not able to land in Nicaragua because of the British, and choose Honduras, planning to march overland. The British soon captured him and turned him over to the Hondurans. Six days later, at the age of 36, he was executed by a firing squad. Had he been successful, he might have brought several Central American countries into the United States as pro-southern states, altering the balance in Congress and postponing The Civil War.

Other Californians, less well known and no more successful, engaged in filibustering also. In 1851, Alexander Bell planned to reinstate a deposed president of Ecuador. Before he could reach Quito, the rival factions had settled their differences and united to expel the Americans. Forced to retreat to Panama, Bell’s party was stranded. In that same year, Sam Brannan a renegade from Mormonism led a party to Hawaii on a ship called Game Cock. In his attempt to capture the islands, Brannan was lucky to escape the Hawiian pikemen who wanted to run their spears through him. One of the last filibusters was Henry A. Crabb who had been a schoolmate of Walker’s in Tennessee. By 1855 and now a resident of Stockton, he had one failed attempt in Nicaragua and a failed election in California politics. He married into a prominent Sonoran family and in 1857 organized the Arizona and Gadsden Colonization Company intending to take over part of the Mexican state of Sonora. "General" Crabb outfitted his men in Los Angeles and El Monte and set out south past Yuma. Here also, the rival factions had come together to protect themselves from American invasion and they shattered his forces. Crabb and his men surrendered to the Mexican forces and were quickly executed. Crabb’s head was pickled in a jar and sent around to demonstrate how Mexicans felt about filibusters.