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Who
was the first (and last) emperor of the U.S.?
Abraham Joshua Norton
The
man who would become the first and last emperor of the United States of America
was born sometime in 1819, in London, England, although we don´t know the
exact date.
Abraham Joshua Norton and his family moved from England to Algoa
Bay, at the Cape
of Good Hope, and got wealthy there. In 1849, at the age
of 30, he came to San Francisco
with $40,000 and set up shop as a trader in
rice. Rice was immensely popular in San
Francisco due to the large number
of Chinese immigrants in the city at the time. He soon
made himself a fortune,
about a quarter of a million dollars by 1853, but lost it all in
1854 trying
to corner the market on rice with an ingenious scheme that unfortunately failed.
He bought up all the rice in the city, thus soon driving up the price to astronomical
levels.
Disaster struck when two Japanese ships unexpectedly arrived in the
harbor laden with
rice.
Norton was ruined. He vanished from public view for three years, and when he next
proclaimed himself, September 17, 1859, he did it in the following way; he walked
up to
the office of the San Francisco Bulletin, and handed over a note to
the editor which read: "At
the peremptory 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 past
nine
years and ten months of San Francisco, California, declare and proclaim
myself Emperor
of these US, and in virtue of the authority thereby in me vested,
do hereby order and
direct the representatives of the different States of
the Union to assemble in the Musical
Hall of this city on the 1st day of February
next, then and there to make such alterations
in the existing laws of the
Union as may ameliorate the evils under which the country
is laboring, and
thereby cause confidence to exist, both at home and
abroad, in our stability
and integrity." It
was published the following day, on the front page, under the headline; "An
Emperor
among us? It is not known how the good citizens of San Francisco initially
felt about
their new monarch, but they apparently soon got used to him, for
he was often seen
walking the streets of the city, dressed in his regal, although
frequently a bit worn,
alternating blue and gray uniform, to show his support
for both the Union and the
Confederacy, his beaver hat with its colored feathers,
his saber at his side and gnarled
cane and wiry umbrella in hand. When his
uniform was worn out, the Board of Supervisors,
with a great deal of ceremony,
presented him with another, for which he sent them
a note of thanks and a
patent for mobility in perpetuity for each supervisor. On
the 8th of January 1880, The Morning Call ran the headline; "Norton the First,
by
the grace of God Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico,
departed
this life." On the 10th of January 1880 Emperor Norton was buried
in the Masonic
Cemetery. Wealthy citizens of San Francisco paid for the coffin
and funeral expenses.
The funeral cortege was two miles long and an estimated
10,000 to 30,000 people turned
up for the funeral. It is reported that his
burial was marked by a total eclipse of the sun.
On January 7, 1980, San Francisco
marked the 100th anniversary of the death of its
only Emperor with lunch-hour
ceremonies at Market and Montgomery streets. A
few of Norton's edicts were way ahead of his time, such as the one ordering a
suspension
bridge to be built at the exact spot where the Golden Gate bridge
now stands ...
Read more at:
Emperor
Norton I
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