Peter Burnett lived a full life. From a Tennessee childhood; to a legal career in Missouri; to captain of a wagon train to Orgeon; to incipient government positions in Oregon and California where in both cases he played major roles in the development of those governments. His governmental experience in Oregon capped as Supreme Judge for the Provisional Government. In California, he served as the State’s first Governor, later becoming an associate judge on the State’s Supreme Court. For all of that, Burnett remains best known for his stance against most non-Caucasian people allowed to live in either Oregon or California.

Because of his attitudes on race – he was from Tennessee, after all – Burnett has become a sidenote in history for the most part. One recent biography has chronicled his life, otherwise his +400-page autobiography – still found online – suffices to fill out some of his varied wanderings.

A MAN OF THE SOUTH

Born 15 November 1807 in Nashville, Peter Burnet – he added an extra “t” to his last name in his teens – came from a family split between his father, a carpenter who built some of Nashville’s firs buildings and a mother – Hardeman – whose slave-owning family figured prominently in early Tennessee. Peter more yearned to be like the men of his mother’s side “seekers of fortune … good businessmen and good traders”.  Both the Burnet family and the Hardeman family – his mother’s – moved to Howard County, Missouri in 1816-1817. In Missouri, Peter’s father included four slaves among the household.

The Burnet family further moved to Clay County in 1822, settling on a 160-acre farm. Here, Peter gained what little education he would receive formally. From his time in school, he became a voracious reader. He left home at 19 to live with a wealthy uncle, Constant Hardeman, in Rutherford, Tennessee. His few years with the Hardemans led him to appreciate “riches more than knowledge” determining to follow a path to “employ my energies in the accumulation of a fortune.”

debts accrue

To do that, he started as a hotel clerk in the nearby town of Bolivar. He waited tables, serving meals to some of the prominent men of Tennessee at the time – David Crockett, Sam Houston. While working at the hotel, one of the guests, Reverend W. Blount Peck was impressed enough to hire Peter to manage a new mercantile store in nearby Clear Creek doubling Burnett’s $100 a year salary. Peck bought his merchandise from New Orleans while Peter handled sales and collected bills. Neither men proved up to the task of running a store with the store failing after a short time. Both men fell out, but even though Peter considered – at least in hindsight – the store to be a failing enterprise, he bought out the reverend in 1829.

Debts followed without any means of repayment. On top of that, he married in 1828 with the first of six children born in 1829. With debts of $700 to his name, he sold what he could and moved back to Missouri living in Liberty with his brother. Even while still a store owner, Burnett had been studying law which he continued to do in Missouri. In Liberty, he managed another mercantile store more successfully, this time. With an annual pay of $400 per year, he managed to pay off his debts in fifteen months and quit his time at the store to concentrate on beginning a legal practice.

MISSOURI LAWYER AND JOSEPH SMITH

Burnett gained a law license in 1834, moving to begin a practice in Richmond, the county seat of Clay County. Problems with the practice, and poor investments in a sawmill and a distillery led to losses of about $15,000 leading Burnett to have a “dread of steam saw-mills, steam distilleries and the mercantile business generally”.

In Liberty, Burnett edited a weekly newspaper known as The Far West. Far West also happened to be the name of a town founded by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints some 78 miles north of Liberty. Organized as the county seat of Caldwell County, established in 1836 expressly for Mormons who were then flooding into the country from Ohio. Caldwell County became established with the understanding the Mormons would not move beyond.

burnett and joseph smith

Relations between non-Mormons and Mormons in Missouri were never good. Slavery was a major issue, but Mormon clannish actions quickly became another as emigrants continued to move in. Events circled out of control as newer Mormon emigrants spilled into neighboring counties. Both sides eventually responded to each other with violence leading to Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs issuing an “extermination order” against Mormons on 27 October 1838. “Mormons must be treated as enemies and must be exterminated or driven from the state”.

Militia called out by Boggs marched on the Mormons in Far West. Surrounded by overwhelming forces, Joseph Smith, leader and prophet of the Mormons, surrendered without a fight. Smith was found guilty of treason and ordered to be executed but the militia general in charge, Alexander Doniphan, refused to carry out the order – “It is cold blooded murder. I will not obey your order. … if you execute these men, I will hold you responsible before an earthly tribunal, so help me God!” Doniphan became a lawyer to defend Smith and he brought in Burnett to help.

Burnett, as were others, was impressed by Smith on a personal level, but Smith was still indicted. Burnett was able to gain a change of venue for the trial. While the prisoners moved to Columbia, 150 miles away, they managed to escape. Smith and his Mormon contingent moved on to Nauvoo, Illinois and out of Burnett’s life.

WAGON TRAIN LEADER

Burnett’s legal career moved on. Governor Boggs appointed Burnett to three one-year terms as district attorney for a five-county jurisdiction. Burnett moved his family to Platte City, county seat for one of the five. But his debts continued and his income did not. Learning of free land in Oregon, he resigned his position in 1843 “to go to Oregon”.

Organizing a wagon train of 121 wagons – the first major wagon train to Oregon – they set out 21 May 1843. The Oregon Emigration Company included 900 settlers which more than doubled the white population of Oregon – the Great Migration of 1843. One of those members of the train was the family of Morton M. McCarver, Burnett’s future business partner.  McCarver came out of an Iowan churchgoing group who reflected prejudice toward African Americans in free territories or states – “No negroes or mullatoes shall be allowed to accompany the expedition under any circumstances.”

Burnett was 36, “I saw that a large American community would grow up, in the space of a few years, upon the shores of the distant Pacific; and I felt an ardent desire to aid in this most important enterprise.” Of course, 2,000 miles away kept Burnett farther away from his creditors, as well.

wagon train captain

Elected as captain of the wagon train 1 June, James Nesmith recalled Burnett, “He appealed to our patriotism by picturing forth the glorious empire we would establish on the shores of the Pacific. How, with our trusty rifles, we would drive out the British usurpers who claimed the soil, and defend the country from the avarice and pretension of the British lion …”

While John Gannt, a former fur trapper and US Army captain hired on as guide for the train. Marcus Whitman became a late addition. He was returning from consulting with his mission board in New York.

Burnett added a bunch of rules for those included in the vast train to abide to – single file travel; standing cattle guard at night even if those on guard had no cattle. Many of his orders went ignored. It was only a week into the trip that Burnett resigned as captain, supposedly because of “ill health”. It was not the first time he backed off from a responsibility and would not be the last time.

resignation

Once resigned from his leadership role, he concentrated upon the trail and his family. By 7 August, the train reached South Pass. Continuing on to Fort Hall at the junction of the Oregon and California Trails, here Captain Gannt left bound for California. Whitman took over guiding duties and led them the next 500 miles to his mission at Waiilatpu. The road after Fort Hall was much more difficult and it was not until 2 October the train started a five-day trek over the Blue Mountains.

Reaching Waiilatpu 10 October, the party rested for four days, purchasing new provisions for the final push. Burnett and others floated down the Columbia on rafts while others plodded down the south bank. The train broke up at The Dalles with emigrants making their way downriver the final 80 miles on their own.

Leaving his family at The Dalles, Burnett went on a Hudson’s Bay Company 40-foot boat to Fort Vancouver arriving 7 November. Dr John McLoughlin sent two boatloads of provisions upriver to The Dalles for sale to those emigrants left behind. Spending three weeks at the fort, he joined Captain John Fremont who was returning to his second of four western exploration parties. Burnett is remembered by others as making a good first impression. People turned to him for his leadership but found his ability to exercise it soon lacking.

OREGON PIONEER

Burnett teamed up with fellow emigrant McCarver to lay out a port city on the Willamette River. They named their townsite Linnton after Missouri senator Lewis Linn. Linn tried passing a law in Congress allowing emigrants to acquire 620 acres of land in the Oregon Country. The attempt passed the House but became tied up in the Senate. Linnton, the two men supposed was the farthest point sea-going ships could make it up the Willamette River. They built a wharf and a warehouse. They cleared a rough wagon road leading over the Tualatin Mountains to the Tualatin Valley where many pioneers staked claims. Their road exists today as Springville Road, parts of which are trail only in the depths of Forest Park.

town founder to farmer

Their thought as the head of navigation proved wrong. Ships continued on their way up to Portland, closer to those Tualatin farmers. It was not long before the two men, unable to sell lots for the new city, gave up. They headed off to gain their own farms. Burnett bought 250 acres along with another ten acres of timber in the Tualatin Valley. His plot lies cut today by US 26 abutted to the north by the town of North Plains. His first cabin was borrowed from another man from his train, David Lennox. He lent the cabin with the condition that the newly organized West Union Baptist Church could meet in the cabin. Lennox went on to give two acres of his claim for the building of the oldest Protestant church west of the Rockies erected in 1853.

A couple of lean years in establishing their farm became helped in 1845 by his election by the provisional legislature to the somewhat lucrative post of supreme judge. As judge, Burnett found himself pulled into the ongoing claims against McLoughlin’s Oregon City holdings. McLoughlin asked Burnett to strengthen his case by making him a US citizen. However, Burnett demurred saying because Oregon was not officially American territory, he could not.

One thing Burnett did agree with McLoughlin about was religion. He became introduced to Catholicism at a Christmas Eve mass at Fort Vancouver in 1843. Burnett converted to Catholicism in June 1846 even though most Americans were Protestant.

OREGON POLITICIAN

On 14 May 1844, Burnett gained election as representative for Tuality County to the nine-member Legislative Committee of the newly organized Provisional Government. Another member included Morton McCarver. Since first arriving in Oregon, Burnett wrote many long letters back east talking of “Perhaps there is no country in the world where a man can live so well upon so little labor.” Luring more settlers meant a better local economy while strengthening American political claims at the same time.

With Burnett on board, the Legislative Committee rewrote many of the laws approved only one year earlier. First, they recommended changing from a three-member Executive Committee to the election of a single governor. Next, the Legislative Committee transformed into a thirteen-member Provisional Legislature. Land claims up to a single square mile became validated. The much larger allocations of up to six square miles given to Catholic and Methodist missions saw elimination. Alcohol was banned. This, later vetoed by the first governor, George Abernathy. Plus, a modest property tax replaced the previous voluntary taxes. While he helped to validate the claims of “American half-breed Indians” – families of former HBC worker who retired to the Tualatin Plains and in the French Prairie, he also became responsible for an exclusionary law excluding African Americans from living in the Oregon Country.

The 1843 original law was taken from the 1787 Northwest Ordinance which stated, “There shall be no slavery nor involuntary servitude in said territory, otherwise than for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been convicted.” Blacks were denied the right to vote, but nowhere was it written they were to be outright excluded.

exclusion

 Burnett’s revision allowed slaveholders three years to free their slaves. Those slaves and any other free blacks coming to Oregon were ordered to leave. Free black men had two years to leave while free black women got three years. The penalty written out for failure to vacate, “If any such free negro or mulatto shall fail to quit the country as required by this act, he or she may be arrested upon a warrant issued by some justice of the peace, and, if guilty upon trial before such justice, shall receive upon his or her bare back not less than twenty nor more than thirty-nine stripes, to be inflicted by the constable of the proper county.”

While there is no record of whippings taking place, the revision reflected the attitudes of many of the recent emigrants who had come across to Oregon. The Executive Committee did not question the exclusion portion of the revision. They did urge a substitution of a forced labor penalty for the whipping penalty.

In June 1845, a new Legislative Committee – Burnett was no longer a member at the time – wrote out the exclusion act while prohibiting slavery. Exclusion laws did not die with this re-write, however. Exclusion clauses were included by both the Territorial Legislature in 1849 and in the 1857 State Constitution though by that time, Burnett no longer lived in Oregon.

Supreme Judge and …

In 1845, Burnett did not seek re-election with an eye on bigger plums. In August, the Provisional Legislature elected him to the four-year term of supreme judge. This provided the most pay of any position within the provisional government, $500 per year. That income went a long way towards creating an easier life for the Burnett family.  But as with earlier positions, Burnett did not like to stay in any position too long. He resigned after only a year to join a law practice in Oregon City. He also ran – this time unsuccessfully – for governor in 1847.

Returning to politics in 1848, Burnett was elected to the first session of the new Territorial Legislature, again from Tualatin County. Again, however, he soon resigned – this time after only two months. To the south, gold had been discovered.

GOLD FEVER

Gold was discovered on the South Fork of the American River 24 January 1848. This, two weeks before California was formally given up by Mexico. The discovery of gold came to Oregon in July by way of the brig Honolulu. It stopped at Fort Vancouver to purchase mining tools before heading south to California. Roughly two-thirds of the male population of Oregon promptly decamped for the gold fields – about 3,000 men – dropped what they were doing and heading south. Burnett was not the only legislator to leave his seat. Twelve of twenty-two elected members left leaving the legislature without a quorum unable to conduct business until the following year.

Oregonians learned about the gold strike before many others. Plus, they were a lot closer to the action. President Polk announced the discovery of gold only in December of that year. By that time most of Oregon’s men already had gone south. Burnett left his wife behind in the hope he could finally sort his way out from his debts. President Polk appointed Burnett to the first Oregon Territorial Supreme Court. He did not learn of the appointment until he was already gone. Declining the appointment, he cited his debts.

southbound

When he decided to head south, he recruited a new wagon train. Forty-six wagons and 150 mostly men to joined him. Many would return – some even with gold – but Burnett would not. As the elected captain of the train, he led the train south roughly 500 miles to the fields above the Sacramento Valley. Heading south on the Applegate Trail, he hired Thomas McKay, stepson of John McLoughlin, to guide them. They turned off that trail at Klamath Lake, creating a new trail 50 miles south to the Pitt River. Here they came upon a course cut out by the party of Peter Lassen. The Lassen party was heading for a land grant of 22,000 acres Lassen received from the Mexican governor in the northern reaches of the Sacramento Valley.

Their party had been hard pressed by the time Burnett, moving much quicker, caught up with them. Joining together, they pushed on into the vast valley where the combined party broke up – some rushing forward to the gold fields, while Burnett and others rested at Lassen’s ranch near Today’s Red Bluff. After a few days, Burnett finished up the last 200 miles to the gold fields north and east of Sacramento. It only took Burnett’s party a month to cover the 500 miles.

DEVELOPMENT OF SACRAMENTO

Burnett with his brother-in-law and nephew bought a claim for $300 at Long Bar some 60 miles north of Sacramento. Using lumber they brought with them from Oregon; they assembled a rocker box and started mining. They soon paid off their claim gaining about $20 in gold each day. But the work was hard, and Burnett looked for easier riches. Leaving the claim with six others, on 19 December, he headed towards San Francisco where he thought to open a law practice.

However, he stopped first at Sutter’s Fort on the 21^st where he met up with an old friend Dr William Carpenter. Carpenter made $600 a week tending to the miners. Turning to the law, Burnett shared a room with the doctor. The doctor’s office was next to John Sutter’s office at Sutter’s Fort giving Burnett the opportunity to become acquainted with both John Sutter and his recently arrived son, John Augustus.

After only a few days, August, as he was known, came to Burnett with a proposal. Burnett could handle the Sutter finances in order to help pay off some of his father’s substantial debts. The father was a blowhard and always managed to get himself into debt. It was debt which made him flee his native Switzerland.

the elder sutter

John Sutter came to California in 1838 hoping to form a colony in California with himself as the ruler. The Mexican governor of Alta California at the time, Juan Bautista Alvarado bought into the Sutter magic giving him a 38 square mile land grant – increased by the next governor a couple years later by another 22 square miles. And for much of the 1840s Sutter did rule over about 225 square miles from his home base at Sutter’s Fort. He impressed local Native Americans into a labor force tending cattle and raising crops. His fort featured thick three-foot walls and covered a five-acre site. Two cannons purchased in Hawaii were placed atop bastions at the fort. The guns occasionally went out with Sutter’s “army” to deal with Natives proving troublesome – “great reputation builders” was the term used by Sutter.

Sutter got himself into bigtime debt with the Russians when he bought their interests at Fort Ross. August learned his father owed $19,000 and the Russians were threatening Sutter’s New Helvetia colony with foreclosure. Sutter’s combined debts have been estimated at $80,000. The fort had in the meantime been deteriorating “a decaying adobe structure surrounded by mounds of whiskey, champagne and beer bottles left by miner”. The elder Sutter lived at the time 20 miles north at Hock Farm tending a large herd of cattle.

sutter’s son tries to remedy the sins of the father

To keep New Helvetia out of the Russians’ hands, John Sutter transferred title to his properties to his son for $50,000. August knew at the time the act was illegal, but it bought the Sutters time and gave Burnett a wonderful opportunity. With his father off to the north, August launched his own plans for a new inland city to supply the needs of the gold fields. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers, the site for the new town was prone to flooding but offered a good point for transshipment of goods to the mine fields.

For some reason, inexperience probably, August offered Burnett a quarter of gross proceeds for Burnett to sell lots in the new town site of Sacramento City. Burnett was to sell land “at such prices as he may think right.” The explosive growth of the city over the next few years enabled Burnett to get rid of all of his debts and acquire wealth at last. August would not be so lucky.

debts paid off

In setting up Sacramento City, August had not consulted his father who had plans for a town of his own downriver slightly – Sutterville. Sacramento took off and Sutterville did not cool relations between father and son. Sutter senior also did not have a very good relationship with Peter Burnett. Even though August was selling lots to reduce his father’s debts, His father saw it as a betrayal to his own plans.

It was not long that Burnett and August were able to pay off all of Sutter senior’s debts, Russian and others. The father was debt-free for the first time in his adult life. John Sutter still saw Burnett as “a hypocrite, a Jesuit, a designing swindler” in the words of his son. When the father finally got back to his new city, he fired Burnett who, in his words, “made a fortune much too quickly to suit me.” Burnett did not go quietly, continuing to sell lots taking the position August, not his father, had issued the authority to sell.

Sutter senior got rid of Burnett by giving him 82 city blocks in the center of town along with another 109 lots elsewhere. The lots gave Burnett an income for many years afterwards. One problem Burnett did have was in gaining August’s trust and business in the first place he ended his relationship with Morton McCarver. Burnett’s position was one McCarver had been seeking before Burnett arrived. Feeling he had been taken advantage of, McCarver never forgave his former friend.

GOVERNOR OF THE GOLDEN STATE

Burnett also looked to a political future in his new home. As soon as he arrived in Sacramento in early January 1849, he presided over two meetings aiming at forming a provisional form of local government akin to what he had worked with in Oregon. The federal government worked slowly in California because half of the land lay below the 36°30’ latitude line reached in the 1820 Missouri Compromise indicating the boundary above and below which slavery could occur. In the meantime, California continued to march along according to vaguely understood Mexican laws with military governors.

Meeting with the governor Brevet Brigadier General Persifor Smith, Burnett worried locals would not get the chance from Congress to make decisions for themselves. Smith moved on to command in Texas, replaced by Brevet Brigadier General Bennet Riley. Riley took over at the height of the Gold Rush with only twelve companies of troops to attempt to keep order. Troop strength, let alone order, proved a tough task with daily desertions from his command to the gold fields. With Congress balking on the question of how California – and New Mexico – were to be organized, he called for a constitutional convention for 1 September 1849 to draft a constitution – territorial or state – in Monterey. He also arranged for 1 August elections to choose 37 convention delegates along with various justices, mayors and town councils.

election

Riley’s hand was forced somewhat by the establishment in San Francisco of a Legislative Assembly in March 1849 with one Peter Burnett previously elected to that group. Upon Burnett’s recommendation, that body also called for a convention and accepted the election schedule set forth by Riley.

Burnett won election on 1 August as one of four Superior Tribunal judges. Not long before this, his family rejoined him in San Francisco in mid-May from Oregon. In August, they moved to San Jose.

The delegates declared slavery unlawful in California. Morton McCarver, one of the elected delegates, tried to enact an exclusionary law to prohibit African Americans to live in California like he and Burnett crafted earlier in Oregon, but that proposal was defeated. Much of the debate at the convention focused upon the eastern border of California – the Sierra Nevada or all the territory ceded by Mexico. After some acrimony, the Sierra Nevada boundary was accepted. San Jose was chosen to be the capital. White male Americans and Mexicans of predominately European descent gained the right to vote while African Americans and Native Americans were excluded. The constitution was signed on 13 October 1849.

campaign

Burnett in the meantime ran a campaign to become governor mostly out of sight. He had worked in the mines and known many of them from his time in Oregon. He led several public meetings in the run up to the convention; served as an assemblyman in San Francisco and had carried out a writing campaign espousing the beauties of California as well as its political plight.

Election for officers was scheduled for 13 November and Burnett undertook a tour from Sacramento to the gold fields, back to Sacramento, San Jose and finishing in San Francisco. The vote was more than double for Burnett over his next opponent. At the same time, the constitution was approved by the voters, as well. Burnett now was at the high point of his political life as the first governor of what soon would become the 31^st State.

Governor tumbleS

His inauguration needed rescheduling from 19 November with Burnett not showing up. He stayed at home that day feeling under the weather though not telling anyone. Burnett did show up the next day, a wet dreary day. Former governor General Riley, who had made his appearance the day before, was absent this time. No one told him about the rescheduling.

Burnett gave an inaugural address following his swearing in. He talked of the “high and distinguished honor” bestowed upon him as the new governor pledging to do all he could to handle the responsibilities of his office. Soon after, Burnett sent his “First Annual Message” to the assembly and senate. In this address, Burnett brought back his idea of an exclusion law to ban African Americans from the new State like what he wrote in Oregon. He called the issue “the first importance”. He used the same arguments he used in Oregon and used in earlier arguments in California by McCarver. Those arguments had earlier seen rejection. But Burnett persisted, “They (blacks) are not now here and the object is to keep them out.” In addition, he proposed to deny access to courts for people failing to pay their taxes like a measure he passed in Oregon.

Both of those measures met ridicule from the main newspapers of the time. They noted that Burnett was preoccupied with keeping out blacks who presently were not in the State but failed to take on more important matters such as mining regulations and education. The exclusion act did pass the assembly but was defeated by the senate.

timidity

Burnett was seen as too timid in his role by many of his fellow legislators. He vetoed bills to incorporate Los Angeles and Sacramento as cities, vetoes poorly received. His veto of Los Angeles was barely upheld by the assembly, but his veto for Sacramento was overridden. He did pass a comprehensive bill setting standards for proposed cities, passed 18 March 1850 with Sacramento and San Jose gaining approval for incorporation the same day. Los Angeles waited for another couple weeks before it too incorporated on 4 April.

One big problem Burnett faced was a refusal on his part to take stands on major issues – tax measures, squatter problems and Native American attacks on emigrants and miners. The major event during Burnett’s administration was California’s admission as the thirty-first state on 9 September. The push for statehood had held up in Congress due to the delicate balance of fifteen free states versus fifteen slave states. Senator Henry Clay finally managed to get a package of bills known collectively as the Compromise of 1850 in which California gained statehood 13 August – only Sam Houston of the Deep South voted for California’s admission. California learned of its passage 18 October unleashing celebrations which included an enthused Governor Burnett.

RESIGNATION

A little over two months later, Burnett resigned. He claimed “Circumstances entirely unexpected and unforeseen by me and over which I have no control, render it indispensable that I should devote all my time and attention to my private affairs. I therefore tender to both Houses of the Legislature my resignation as Governor of the State.”

His resignation, however, was the not the result of financial problems but from a declining popularity and a derogatory reception by legislators to his second annual message, an address filling twenty-seven pages in the legislative journal – nearly twelve thousand words. Assembly members dispensing with the reading of the address after a few paragraphs. The senate had the address read, but members were allowed to not pay attention during the reading. In his address, he predicted a war of extermination against Native Americans – “While we cannot anticipate this result with painful regret, the inevitable destiny of the race is beyond the power or wisdom of man to avert.”

He doubled down on the need to exclude African Americans from the State predicting to do otherwise would lead to “a war in California between the two races”. He also called for the death penalty for robbery and major property crimes. Newspapers and legislators alike received his address disparagingly. They did accept his resignation, however.

JUDICIAL REPRISE

After his resignation, Burnett returned to practice law with firms in San Jose and Sacramento. Focusing his attention on his Sacramento properties, he moved to Sacramento to help in the rebuilding of the city after a devastating flood and fire in 1852. Staying there for eighteen months, he also gained election to the city council.

Returning to the San Jose area in March 1854, he told his brother he had closed his Sacramento office and was retiring from law, “hopefully forever”.  But his hopes were set aside on 13 January 1857 when he was appointed to a vacancy as an associate justice on the California Supreme court. In October, he easily won election to the unexpired term.

His best-known actions came from upholding Fugitive Slave Acts upholding expired State acts which expanded upon the federal act. He would retire from the Court in 1858.

THE LONG FADE

With the onset of the Civil War, Burnett took a back seat. He supported the ticket of Breckinridge-Lane in 1860 but came over to support Lincoln in 1864. In early 1863, Burnett became president of Pacific Bank in San Francisco transforming it into one of the most solid banks of its time. He retired from the bank in 1880 enjoying a comfortable lifestyle. The bank did not outlast Burnett long, however, failing during the Panic of 1893.

His wife, Harriet, died in 1879 one year after their fiftieth wedding anniversary. He moved in for the rest of his life with his son in San Francisco. In retirement, he focused upon his adopted religion and an autobiography he wrote in 1885. Age finally caught up with Peter as he died 17 May 1895.

In the State Capitol in Sacramento, Burnett’s portrait hangs on the south end of the main floor near the former governor’s offices.  In San Jose at the Roberto & Suñol House, one room holds Burnett’s desk and a portrait remembering California’s first governor.