A San Francisco resident proclaims himself Emperor of the United States of America - September 17th, 1859

On this day in 1859, failed Gold Rush-era businessman named Joshua Norton became the first self-proclaimed emperor of the Untied States.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show that shines a light on the lesser known
stories of everyday history. I'm Gabe Louisier, and today we're
talking about Joshua Norton, a San Francisco icon and the

(00:23):
first self proclaimed emperor of the United States. The day
was September eighteen fifty nine. A failed Gold Rush Arab
businessman named Joshua Norton visited the offices of the San

(00:45):
Francisco Bulletin. He gave the editor a short notice to
be published in that day's paper, and it began as follows.
At the peremptory request of a large majority of the
citizens of these United States, I Joshua Norton of San Francisco, California,
declare and proclaim myself Emperor of these United States. Now

(01:11):
not much is known about Norton's early life before his
time as a self proclaimed emperor. But what we do
know is he was born around eighteen eighteen to a
Jewish family of merchants in present day London. When he
was to his family moved to South Africa, where his
father established a successful ship supply business. Norton tried to

(01:34):
get into the family business himself, but his own ships
supply company wound up going bankrupt after less than two years.
By the time he was thirty years old, both of
his parents and two of his siblings had died, so
one year later, in eighteen forty nine, Norton left South
Africa for good and made his way to San Francisco.

(01:58):
Like many aspiring businessmen of his day, Norton had traveled
to California hoping to capitalize on the recent gold rush.
After receiving his inheritance, he was worth about forty thousand dollars,
which is well over a million dollars in today's money.
In San Francisco. He invested that money in real estate,
including waterfront property. He also started a successful commodities business,

(02:23):
selling staple foods like rice and flour. By eighteen fifty two,
Norton had turned his forty thousand dollar investment into a
quarter million dollar fortune. He was now one of the
most influential and respected citizens of the city. But in
a boom and bus town like gold Rush era San Francisco,

(02:44):
what goes up will certainly come down, and often sooner
than you'd expect. In Norton's case, his fall came when
he tried to corner the rice market in eighteen fifty two.
China was dealing with a rice famine that year, and
as result, the price of the grain was expected to skyrocket.
Seeing an opportunity, Norton bought a twenty five thousand dollar

(03:08):
stake in Peruvian rice. But unfortunately for him, so did
every other speculator. When shipload after shipload of Peruvian rice
began arriving in the ports, the price plummeted. At that point,
Norton probably should have cut his losses and moved on,
but instead he sued the man who had tipped him

(03:30):
off about the Peruvian rice scheme. The ensuing court case
dragged on for four years. By the time the California
Supreme Court finally ruled against him, Norton was bankrupt for
a second time. News of his financial ruin spread, and
just as quickly Norton lost his social standing. He moved

(03:51):
out of his big house and disappeared from the public
eye entirely for the next year or two. When he
re emerged, it was on at Fateful Day in September
eighteen fifty nine, when, at age forty one, he dubbed
himself Emperor of the United States. It's worth noting that
there's no record of Norton's mental health, either before or

(04:14):
after his bankruptcy. Some historians speculate that becoming Emperor Norton
was a way for him to cope with the depression
he felt over his money troubles. Still, it's possible that
he simply grew tired of life as a serious minded
businessman and decided instead to reinvent himself as an eccentric

(04:34):
Whatever his motivation, readers were charmed by the idea of
a zany self appointed emperor in the hope of boosting
their readership. Local papers started so listening Norton to write
new proclamations, and when even those weren't enough, they would
make up their own fake decrees under his name. Things
continued like this for the next twenty years, with Norton

(04:57):
issuing proclamations on everything from banning presidential elections to complaining
about a skating rank operator who refused to lend him
a pair of skates. Some of his decrees were surprisingly
local minded for a national emperor, like the time he
imposed the twenty five dollar fine about five hundred dollars

(05:18):
today on anyone who abbreviated the city's name to Frisco.
His most famous and prescient proclamation, though, was the one
he made calling for the construction of a new bridge
between Oakland and San Francisco. The city would eventually adopt
this idea in the nineteen thirties when it built the

(05:39):
Bay Bridge in the exact spot where Norton suggested. Norton
also started dressing as the emperor he claimed to be.
During the Civil War, he would alternate between either a
blue or gray military jacket in order to maintain his
imperial neutrality. After the war, he stuck with the win

(06:00):
team and wore a blue officers jacket with big gold
epaulets on the shoulders. For headwear, The Emperor switched between
a small military cap and a beaver for top hat
for more formal occasions. Although his made up title did
not come with a salary, the people of San Francisco
made sure Norton was provided for. Theater owners reserved him

(06:24):
a seat on opening nights, Train and ferry companies let
him ride for free, and some restaurants comped his meals
in exchange for his royal seal. Of approval. Norton still
didn't have much money, but thanks to the quote unquote
taxes paid by some of his generous subjects, the Imperial
Treasury always held enough to pay for his rented room,

(06:47):
which cost about fifty cents a night. Over time, Norton
learned to distinguish between those in the city who were
in on his joke and those who thought he was one.
For example, in eighteen seventy, Norton shunned the newspapers that
ran phony proclamations under his name. Instead, he began publishing

(07:07):
most of his real proclamations and an abolitionist weekly called
The Pacific Appeal, which was owned and operated by African Americans.
Much of his work for The Pacific Appeal was progressive
for its time. He called for black children to have
the right to attend public schools and ride public street cars.
He chastised law enforcement for its unfair treatment of Chinese immigrants,

(07:32):
and he argued in support of Native American rights. Beyond
his writing, Norton would spend most days playing chess and
reading and libraries, or taking long walks through his city.
It was during one of these walks on January eight,
eight eighty that Joshua Norton collapsed on the street and

(07:52):
died from a suspected stroke. Dozens of newspapers across the
country reported on his passing, and about ten thousand people
attended his funeral a few days later. He was buried
in a rosewood casket donated by a group of local businessmen. Today,
San Francisco still holds Emperor Norton in high regard. He's

(08:17):
become a symbol of the city's counterculture roots and as
a promoter of fairness and tolerance and a bit of
a weirdo. Many locals still consider him the perfect embodiment
of the spirit of San Francisco. I'm Gabe Lousier and
hopefully you now know a little more about history today

(08:37):
than you did yesterday. If you have any proclamations of
your own to make, you can send to me at
this day at i heart media dot com. Thanks as
always to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank
you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow
for another Day in History Class m m. For more

(09:06):
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