At the pre-emptory request of a large majority of the citizens
of these United States, I Joshua Norton, formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape
of Good Hope, and now for the last nine years and ten months past of
San Francisco, California, declare and proclaim myself the Emperor of
These United States.
Emperor Norton I
On September 16, 1854 ,
Emperor
Norton I (1811
- 1880), Emperor of the United
States of America and Protector of Mexico, ascended the throne.
Joshua Norton, born in London, grew up in a pioneer British family in South Africa, and inherited the fortune of his merchant father. At the age of 30, Joshua went to San Francisco from Brazil, where he had accumulated a considerable treasure of his own. California had become the scene of perhaps the world's greatest-ever gold rush, and Joshua Norton wanted to be a part of the excitement and prosperity.
By 1853 he had amassed a vast fortune of more than $250,000 by trading in real estate and high-demand goods such as coffee, tea and flour. His success brought him some fame in California, and he earned the nickname ‘Emperor’.
Soon, however, he lost his fortune and was even in $50,000 debt when he lost a gamble of cornering the market in rice. He worked at menial jobs and disappeared from view, only to re-emerge on September 16, 1854 when he walked into the office of the San Francisco Call, dressed like a Gilbert and Sullivan-style monarch. He asked the editor to publish what he called a "decree".
Famous
throughout San Francisco
The decree, proclaiming himself "Emperor of the United States and
Protector of Mexico", was published without editorial comment or
charge, as were many to follow:
WHEREAS, a body of men calling themselves
the National Congress are now in session in Washington City, in
violation of our Imperial edict of the 12th
of October last, declaring the said Congress abolished;
WHEREAS, it is necessary for the repose of our Empire
that the said decree should be strictly complied with;
NOW, THEREFORE, we do hereby Order and Direct Major-General Scott,
the Command-in-Chief of our Armies, immediately upon receipt of this,
our Decree, to proceed with a suitable force and clear the Halls of
Congress. Decree of January, 1860
On July 26, 1860, he
even decreed the dissolution of the USA.
Over subsequent years until Joshua Norton's death on January 8,
1880, he was a famous character in San Francisco and his decrees were
regularly published in the Call.
Emperor Norton I was accepted with generous good humour by the citizens of
his adopted empire, at least those in California who would allow him to eat,
travel and live without payment. Restaurants and other businesses that he
frequented added brass plaques in their entrances that declared 'By
Appointment to his Imperial Majesty, Emperor Norton I of the United States'.
He was even accorded honours by the
legislature in Sacramento, and the Central Pacific railroad company gave him
free travel and dining service for life. The census of 1870 records a
Joshua Norton residing at 624 Commercial St, and lists him with the
occupation of 'Emperor'.
He was written about by such
luminaries as Mark Twain and Robert Louis Stevenson, attended society
functions and gave lectures to schools and colleges. The King in Twain's Huckleberry Finn
is reportedly modelled after him.
On November 11, 1865 Twain
wrote an epitaph for Bummer, Emperor Norton’s
dog, the long-time companion of Lazarus (whose own funeral had been a
public affair). Twain was very moved by Norton and
the way he was treated by the citizenry of San Francisco. As David Brown, of
The
Daily Bleed, writes,
"Mark Twain hated those – especially ‘Colonel Mustard’ (Arthur Evans) – who belittled Norton. Twain worked next door to Norton's pathetic flophouse and saw the man nearly every day. Later in life, Twain hinted to others something of the torment that Joshua Norton suffered and the cruelty others showed him. Upon hearing of the Emperor's death, Twain wrote to his editor, William Howells, suggesting that the Emperor would make a fine subject for a book; a fit of writer’s block removed itself and Twain was able to complete two novels: Huckleberry Finn, which featured a lost Dauphin, and The Prince and the Pauper, a story of confused identities.
"Through these, he paid homage to the man he'd known."
Le
Roi est Mort
On January 8, 1880, America’s greatest leader was on his way to a lecture at the Academy of Natural Sciences in San Francisco when he dropped dead on Grant Avenue.
When he died, the Chronicle newspaper featured the headline:
'Le Roi est
Mort':
Last night at 8:15, Joshua Norton, universally known, and known almost only as Emperor Norton, died suddenly in this city. The similar death of the first citizen of San Francisco, or the highest municipal officer of the city, would not have caused so general a sensation as that of the harmless old man whose monomania never distorted at least a heart which was wholesome, and hardly affected a mind which had once been of the shrewdest, other than in the method of his sovereignty of the United States and Protectorate of Mexico. He had started from Kearny Street up California Street, with the intention of occupying a seat in the rooms of the Academy of Science during the debate of the Hastings Society. Almost as he reached the East line of Dupont Street on the south pavement of California, he halted for a moment, then staggered forward, halted again and then fell prone on the sidewalk. Wm. Proll, doing business at 537 California Street, was going up California Street immediately behind the Emperor, saw him fall, and hastened to aid him. With the assistance of others who quickly arrived, the Emperor was placed in a sitting posture on the wet pavement and his back supported against the wall of the corner house. His speechlessness and his head fallen forward on his breast indicated to the rapidly gathering crowd, every one of whom knew him and knew him to be highly temperate, that something serious had befallen him and the police officer on the beat hastened for a carriage to convey him to the City Receiving Hospital. Speedily as the hack had been procured, when it arrived at the place Norton was dead.
On the reeking pavement, in the darkness of a moonless night under the dripping rain, and surrounded by a hastily gathered crowd of wondering strangers, Norton I, by the grace of God, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, departed this life. Other sovereigns have died with no more of kindly care--other sovereigns have died as they have lived with all the pomp of earthly majesty, but death having touched them, Norton I rises up the exact peer of the haughtiest King or Kaiser that ever wore a crown. Perhaps he will rise more than the peer of most of them. He had a better claim to kindly consideration than that his lot "forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne and shut the gates of mercy on mankind." Through his harmless proclamations can always be traced an innate gentleness of heat, a desire to effect uses and a courtesy, the possession of which would materially improve the bitterful living princes whose names will naturally suggest themselves.
Norton I lay in state for a few days, his body dressed in a new imperial uniform provided by the city fathers of San Francisco, and respectfully visited by more than 30,000 of his loyal subjects; the cortege was two miles long. Area flags were hung at half mast; businesses were closed. The funeral arrangements were the most elaborate San Francisco had ever seen. On January
11, the day after his funeral, the gods blackened the San Franciscan
skies with a total solar eclipse.
The people of San Francisco erected a monument over his grave, with the epitaph:
NORTON I, EMPEROR OF THE UNITED STATES,
PROTECTOR OF MEXICO, JOSHUA A. NORTON,
1819-1880
In 1934,
the remains of Emperor Norton I were transferred, again at the expense of
the City of San Francisco, to a gravesite of moderate splendour at Woodlawn
Cemetery.
In the religion of Discordianism,
Emperor Norton is considered a Saint, Second Class, the highest spiritual
honour attainable by an actual (non-fictional) human being.
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