Peter Hardeman Burnett (November 15, 1807May 17, 1895) was an American politician who served as the first elected
Governor of California
The governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard.
Established in the Constitution of California, the g ...
from December 20, 1849, to January 9, 1851. Burnett was elected Governor almost one year before California's
admission to the Union
Admission may refer to:
Arts and media
* "Admissions" (''CSI: NY''), an episode of ''CSI: NY''
* ''Admissions'' (film), a 2011 short film starring James Cromwell
* ''Admission'' (film), a 2013 comedy film
* ''Admission'', a 2019 album by Florida s ...
as the 31st state in September 1850.
Raised in a
slave-owning family in
Missouri
Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
, Burnett moved westward after his career in business left him heavily in debt.
Initially residing in
Oregon Country
Oregon Country was a large region of the Pacific Northwest of North America that was subject to a long dispute between the United Kingdom and the United States in the early 19th century. The area, which had been created by the Treaty of 1818, co ...
, he became Supreme Judge of the
Provisional Government of Oregon
The Provisional Government of Oregon was a popularly elected settler government created in the Oregon Country, in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Its formation had been advanced at the Champoeg Meetings since February 17, 1841, a ...
. While in
Oregon
Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
politics, he pushed for the total exclusion of
African-Americans
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
from the territory. He authored the infamous "Burnett's lash law" that authorized the
flogging
Flagellation (Latin , 'whip'), flogging or whipping is the act of beating the human body with special implements such as whips, rods, switches, the cat o' nine tails, the sjambok, the knout, etc. Typically, flogging has been imposed on ...
of any
free blacks who refused to leave Oregon;
the law was deemed "unduly harsh" and went unenforced prior to voters rescinding it in 1845.
In 1848, Burnett moved to California during the height of the
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...
. He re-established his political career and was appointed to serve on the
Supreme Court of California
The Supreme Court of California is the highest and final court of appeals in the courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sacra ...
. In this capacity, Burnett ordered the infamous extradition of
Archy Lee Archy Lee was an African-American born into slavery in Mississippi in 1840.
Lee's slave-owner, Charles Stovall, brought Lee with him to Sacramento, California on October 2, 1857. While in California, Stovall rented out Lee for his wages.
In Januar ...
, a formerly
enslaved man living in
Sacramento
)
, image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg
, mapsize = 250x200px
, map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...
, back to Mississippi. Though Burnett himself had enslaved two people, he opposed calls to make California a
slave state
In the United States before 1865, a slave state was a state in which slavery and the internal or domestic slave trade were legal, while a free state was one in which they were not. Between 1812 and 1850, it was considered by the slave states ...
, instead pushing for the total exclusion of
African-Americans
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
in California.
As Governor, Burnett signed into law the so-called
Act for the Government and Protection of Indians
The Act for the Government and Protection of Indians (Chapter 133, Cal. Stats., April 22, 1850), nicknamed the Indian Indenture Act was enacted by the first session of the California State Legislature and signed into law by the 1st Governor of Ca ...
, which enabled the
enslavement
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
of
Native Californians and contributed to their
genocide
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...
. He declared in an 1851 speech "
at a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the races until the
Indian race becomes extinct must be expected. While we cannot anticipate the result with but painful regret, the inevitable destiny of the race is beyond the power and wisdom of man to avert."
Efforts by federal negotiators to preserve some
Native land rights were fought by the administration of Burnett, who favored the elimination of California's indigenous peoples.
Furthermore, Burnett is noted for being an early proponent of the exclusion of
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
immigrant laborers from California, and following his governorship would advocate for the federal
Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law excluded merchants, teachers, students, travelers, and diplom ...
.
Early life and career
Burnett was born in
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...
, but raised in rural Missouri. He was raised in a family of
slave owner
The following is a list of slave owners, for which there is a consensus of historical evidence of slave ownership, in alphabetical order by last name.
A
* Adelicia Acklen (1817–1887), at one time the wealthiest woman in Tennessee, she inh ...
s, later enslaving two of his own. In 1828, he married Harriet Rogers.
Burnett never received any formal education aside from elementary school, but educated himself in law and government. After owning a general store, he turned to his law career. Defending a group of
Mormons
Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...
—including
Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805June 27, 1844) was an American religious leader and founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. When he was 24, Smith published the Book of Mormon. By the time of his death, 14 years later, he ...
—who were accused of treason, arson and robbery, Burnett requested a change of venue for the court proceedings. During transportation to the next venue, the defendants escaped.
Political career in Oregon
In 1843, having failed as a merchant and heavily in debt,
Burnett became part of the exodus of
Easterners moving westward, moving his family from
Barry, Missouri to
Oregon Country
Oregon Country was a large region of the Pacific Northwest of North America that was subject to a long dispute between the United Kingdom and the United States in the early 19th century. The area, which had been created by the Treaty of 1818, co ...
(now modern-day
Oregon
Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
) to take up farming in order to solve growing debts in Missouri, an agricultural endeavor that failed. While in Oregon Country, Burnett began his forays into politics, getting elected to the
provisional legislature between 1844 and 1848. In 1844, he completed construction of Germantown Road between the
Tualatin Valley
The Tualatin Valley is a farming and suburban region southwest of Portland, Oregon in the United States. The valley is formed by the meandering Tualatin River, a tributary of the Willamette River at the northwest corner of the Willamette Valley, ...
and what became
Portland
Portland most commonly refers to:
* Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States
* Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...
. It was during his time in Oregon that Burnett, a traditional Southern
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
, began to question the practices of his faith, his religious views drifting more to
Roman Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
. By 1846, Burnett and his family made the complete transition from Protestant to become Catholic.
While in the
Legislature
A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its p ...
, and later as Provisional Supreme Judge, Burnett signed Oregon's first
exclusion laws. Under an 1844 law passed by the provisional government—just after the same government abolished slavery—slave holders could keep their slaves for up to three years, after which all black people, free or slave, had to leave Oregon Country or face flogging.
Move to California
Upon news of the
discovery of gold in
Coloma, California
Coloma (Nisenan: ''Cullumah'', meaning "beautiful") is a census-designated place in El Dorado County, California, US. It is approximately northeast of Sacramento, California. Coloma is most noted for being the site where James W. Marshall found g ...
on January 24, 1848, Burnett and his family moved south to participate in the rush. After modest success in getting gold, Burnett envisioned a career in law in San Francisco, a rapidly growing
boomtown
A boomtown is a community that undergoes sudden and rapid population and economic growth, or that is started from scratch. The growth is normally attributed to the nearby discovery of a precious resource such as gold, silver, or oil, although ...
thanks largely to the Gold Rush. On the way to the
Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...
, Burnett met
John Augustus Sutter, Jr., son of German-born
Swiss
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
*Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
*Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
*Swiss Internation ...
pioneer
John Sutter
John Augustus Sutter (February 23, 1803 – June 18, 1880), born Johann August Sutter and known in Spanish as Don Juan Sutter, was a Swiss immigrant of Mexican and American citizenship, known for establishing Sutter's Fort in the area th ...
. Selling his father's deeded lands in the near vicinity of
Sutter's Fort
Sutter's Fort was a 19th-century agricultural and trade colony in the Mexican ''Alta California'' province.National Park Service"California National Historic Trail."/ref> The site of the fort was established in 1839 and originally called New Helve ...
, the younger Sutter offered Burnett a job in selling land plots for the new town of Sacramento. Over the next year, Burnett made nearly US$50,000 in land sales in Sacramento, a city ideally suited due to its closeness to the
Sierra Nevada
The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...
and the neighboring
Sacramento River
The Sacramento River ( es, Río Sacramento) is the principal river of Northern California in the United States and is the largest river in California. Rising in the Klamath Mountains, the river flows south for before reaching the Sacramento–S ...
's navigability for large ships.
In 1848, Burnett was among those who founded the city of
Oregon City in
Butte County, California
Butte County () is a county located in the northern part of the U.S. state of California. In the 2020 census, its population was 211,632. The county seat is Oroville.
Butte County comprises the Chico, CA metropolitan statistical area. It is ...
.
Governorship of California
![Peter Burnett by William F Cogswell, 1879](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Peter_Burnett_by_William_F_Cogswell%2C_1879.jpg)
In 1849, Burnett announced his intentions to return to politics. 1849 saw the first
California Constitutional Convention
The California Constitutional Conventions were two separate constitutional conventions that took place in California during the nineteenth century which led to the creation of the modern Constitution of California. The first, known as the 1849 ...
in
Monterey
Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under both ...
, where territorial politicians drafted documents suitable to admit California as a state in the United States. During the 1849 referendum to adopt the California Constitution, Burnett, now with name recognition in Sacramento and San Francisco, and a resume that included the Oregon Provisional Legislature, decided to run for the new territory's first civilian governor, replacing the string of military governors and bureaucracy from the
U.S. military
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...
. Burnett easily won the election over four other candidates, including
John Sutter
John Augustus Sutter (February 23, 1803 – June 18, 1880), born Johann August Sutter and known in Spanish as Don Juan Sutter, was a Swiss immigrant of Mexican and American citizenship, known for establishing Sutter's Fort in the area th ...
, and was sworn in as California's first elected civilian governor on December 20, 1849, in
San Jose in front of what would soon (after statehood in 1850) become the
California State Legislature
The California State Legislature is a bicameral state legislature consisting of a lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members; and an upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members. Both houses of the Legisla ...
.
The Burnett Administration
In the first days of the Burnett Administration, the governor and the California Legislature set out to create the organs of a state government, creating state
cabinet
Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to:
Furniture
* Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers
* Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets
* Filing ...
posts, archives, executive posts and departments, subdividing the state into
27 counties and appointing
John C. Fremont and
William M. Gwin
William McKendree Gwin (October 9, 1805 – September 3, 1885) was an American medical doctor and politician who served in elected office in Mississippi and California. In California he shared the distinction, along with John C. Frémont, of bein ...
as California's senators to the federal
U.S. Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and powe ...
. Despite home proclamations and bureaucratic reorganizations that recognized California now as a U.S. state, the
U.S. Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...
and President
Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military leader who served as the 12th president of the United States from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to th ...
had in fact not even signed authorization of statehood for California. Part of this miscommunication was due to California's relative remoteness to the rest of the U.S. during the time, but also to over-enthusiastic attitudes by politicians and the public alike to get California into the Union as quickly as possible. Following long contentious debates in the U.S. Senate, California was admitted as a (non-slave) state on September 9, 1850, as part of the
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850 that defused a political confrontation between slave and free states on the status of territories acquired in the Mexican–Ame ...
. Californians did not learn of their official statehood until one month later, when on October 18, the steamer ''Oregon'' entered
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland.
San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...
, with a banner strapped to her rigging reading "California Is a State".
During those advancements into statehood, Burnett's popularity among the legislature, the press, and the public plummeted. Relations between the Legislature and Burnett began to immediately sour in early 1850, when bills pressing for the incorporation of Sacramento and Los Angeles as city municipalities, with Los Angeles being a special incorporation due to its earlier pueblo status during the previous
Spanish and Mexican rule, passed the
State Assembly and
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
. Burnett vetoed both bills, citing special incorporation bills as unconstitutional and that reviews for municipal incorporation were best left to county courts. The legislature failed to override Burnett's veto of the Los Angeles bill but succeeded in overriding the Sacramento bill making it California's first incorporated city.
For
California's legal system, Burnett recommended to the first session of the state legislature that California should implement a hybrid legal system mixing significant elements of both
civil law and
common law
In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...
. He advocated for enacting California versions of the
Louisiana Civil Code
The ''Louisiana Civil Code'' (LCC) constitutes the core of private law in the State of Louisiana. The Louisiana Civil Code is based on a more diverse set of sources than the laws of the other 49 states of the United States: substantive law between ...
and the Louisiana Code of Practice (Louisiana's name for what Americans would call a code of civil procedure), and adopting American common law for crimes, evidence, and commercial law. This touched off an uproar among the American lawyers who had flocked to California, with the majority pushing for common law and a minority (led by
John W. Dwinelle
John Whipple Dwinelle (September 9, 1816 – January 28, 1881) was an American lawyer and politician. He served in a number of political posts in California and played important roles in both the legal history of San Francisco and the establishm ...
) advocating adoption of civil law. The Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by
Elisha Oscar Crosby
Elisha Oscar Crosby (July 18, 1818 - June 25, 1895) was an American lawyer, politician and diplomat. He served as a member of the California State Senate from 1849 to 1852. As a state senator, he served as chair of the Judiciary Committee, and in ...
, published a report in February 1850 recommending adoption of the common law through the enactment of a
reception statute
A reception statute is a statutory law adopted as a former British colony becomes independent by which the new nation adopts, or receives, the English common law before its independence to the extent not explicitly rejected by the legislative body ...
; Burnett signed the resulting bill into law on April 13, 1850.
Characterized as an aloof politician with little support from the Legislature by the San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles press, Burnett grew frustrated as his agenda ground to a halt, and his governance style was increasingly criticized. He became a regular fixture of ridicule in the state's newspapers and on the floor of the Legislature. With little over a year in office, Burnett, the first governor of the state, became the first to resign, announcing his resignation in January 1851. Burnett cited personal matters for his departure.
Lieutenant Governor
A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...
John McDougall replaced Burnett as the Governor of California on 9 January.
His policies
![Recollections and opinions of an old pioneer](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Recollections_and_opinions_of_an_old_pioneer.jpg)
As in Oregon, Burnett pushed for the exclusion of blacks from California, raising the ire of pro-slavery supporters who wanted to import the Southern slave system to the West Coast, but his proposals were defeated in the legislature. From Burnett's First Annual Message to the Legislature, December 21, 1849:
["First Annual Message of the Governor of the State of California" (San Francisco), ''Daily Alta California'', 26 December 1849, 1 (this address should not be confused with Burnett's Inaugural Address, which can also be found in this issue).]
Similarly, Burnett also pushed for heavy taxation on foreign immigrants. An 1850 Foreign Miners Tax Act, signed into law by Burnett, required every miner of non-American origin to pay US$20. Burnett also argued heavily for increased taxation and for the expansion of capital punishment to include
larceny
Larceny is a crime involving the unlawful taking or theft of the personal property of another person or business. It was an offence under the common law of England and became an offence in jurisdictions which incorporated the common law of Engla ...
.
Burnett also attempted to remove Native Americans as well as foreign miners. In 1851, federal commissioners negotiated treaties with Native tribes in California, which were then blocked by the governor for being too generous in reserving land for the tribes. Instead, the greed for gold wealth led to a second option, with Burnett declaring
"t]hat a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the races until the Indian race becomes extinct must be expected. While we cannot anticipate the result with but painful regret, the inevitable destiny of the race is beyond the power and wisdom of man to avert."
[Hine, Robert V. and Mack Faragher, John, ''The American West: A New Interpretative History'', (Yale University Press: 2000), pp. 249][. Accessed July 26, 2020.]
Post-governorship
One year after leaving the governorship, Burnett was finally able to repay the heavy debts he had incurred in Missouri nearly two decades before. He entered a number of careers, serving briefly as a justice in the
California Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of California is the highest and final court of appeals in the courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sacra ...
between 1857 and 1858,
the Sacramento City Council, as well as becoming a San Jose-based lawyer, a noted proponent of Catholicism during the
Victorian period
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian ...
, and then the president of the Pacific Bank of San Francisco. Although never venturing into politics much after the 1860s, Burnett was an active supporter of the federal
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law excluded merchants, teachers, students, travelers, and diplom ...
. In 1880, he published an autobiography, ''Recollections and Opinions of an Old Pioneer''. He died May 17, 1895, at the age of 87 in San Francisco, and is buried in the Santa Clara Mission Cemetery at Santa Clara, California.
Legacy
Burnett's legacy is largely mixed. While regarded as one of the fathers of modern California in the state's early days, his racist attitudes towards blacks, Chinese, and Native Americans have tarnished his name today. Burnett's period in the Oregon Provisional Legislature helped facilitate the exclusion of blacks from the state until 1926. In 1844, one of his Oregon proposals was to force free blacks to leave the state and to institute floggings of any who continued to remain.
Referred to as "Burnett's lash law", it was deemed "unduly harsh", and it was never enforced, voters rescinding it in 1845.
Also, his open hostility to foreign laborers influenced a number of federal and state California legislators to push future xenophobic legislation, such as the
Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law excluded merchants, teachers, students, travelers, and diplom ...
, 30 years after his departure from the governorship. Burnett was also an open advocate of exterminating local California Indian tribes, a policy that continued with successive state governmental administrations for several decades, which offered US$10 to US$25 for evidence of dead Natives. From Burnett's Second Annual Message to the Legislature, January 7, 1851:
San Francisco's Burnett Avenue near the
Haight-Ashbury
Haight-Ashbury () is a district of San Francisco, California, named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. It is also called The Haight and The Upper Haight. The neighborhood is known as one of the main centers of the counterculture ...
neighborhood is named after him.
The Burnett Child Development Center, a preschool in a predominantly black San Francisco neighborhood, had been named for Burnett. However, when Burnett's racist positions were rediscovered, the school was renamed in 2011 to the Leola M. Havard Early Education School, in honor of San Francisco's first African-American principal.
Similarly, the Peter H. Burnett Elementary School in Long Beach has been recently renamed, due to Burnett's views. It is now named after Bobbi Smith, the first African-American member of the Long Beach Unified School District's board.
In 2019, Peter Burnett Middle School in
San Jose was renamed Muwekma Ohlone Middle School in honor of
the original inhabitants of that area.
In July 2020, Peter Burnett Elementary School in
Hawthorne
Hawthorne often refers to the American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Hawthorne may also refer to:
Places
Australia
*Hawthorne, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane
Canada
* Hawthorne Village, Ontario, a suburb of Milton, Ontario
United States
* Hawt ...
was renamed to 138th Street Elementary School.
References
External links
Peter Hardeman Burnettat the Roman
Catholic Encyclopedia
The ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'' (also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedia'') i ...
Peter Burnett biographyat the
California State Library
The California State Library is the state library of the State of California, founded in 1850 by the California State Legislature. The Library collects, preserves, generates and disseminates a wide array of information. Today, it is the central ...
Guide to the Peter H. Burnett Papersat
The Bancroft Library
The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retai ...
He wrote this book in 1860 and can be read for free at Google Books The path which led a Protestant lawyer to the Catholic Church
Peter H. Burnett California Supreme Court Historical Society. Retrieved July 18, 2017.
California State Courts. Retrieved July 19, 2017.
''Recollections and opinions of an old pioneer''(1880), by Peter Hardeman Burnett. Digitized at Library of Congress. Retrieved April 13, 2019.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burnett, Peter Hardeman
1807 births
1895 deaths
Politicians from Nashville, Tennessee
Writers from Nashville, Tennessee
Catholics from Tennessee
Converts to Roman Catholicism from Baptist denominations
Democratic Party governors of California
Sacramento City Council members
Justices of the Supreme Court of California
California pioneers
California genocide
People of the California Gold Rush
Oregon pioneers
Justices of the Oregon Supreme Court
U.S. state supreme court judges admitted to the practice of law by reading law
Namesakes of San Francisco streets
Members of the Provisional Government of Oregon
Burials at Mission Santa Clara de Asís
19th-century American judges
American slave owners