Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo
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Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (7 July 1808 - 12 January 1890) was born at Monterey, California, entered the Monterey Presidial Academy in 1823. Appointed Secretary to the Governor of California in 1825, he later served as Commander of the Presidio of San Francisco, and in 1836 was appointed Commandante General and Director of Colonization of the Northern Frontier, the highest military command in northern California.
On June 14, 1846, Vallejo was taken prisoner by a ragtag band of Americans who had decided to emulate the Texans by revolting against California's Mexican government. Surrounding Vallejo's Sonoma adobe at dawn, the Americans proceeded to get roaring drunk and raise an improvised flag featuring a grizzly bear so badly drawn that some viewers mistook it for a pig. Although Vallejo was sympathetic to the advent of American rule, he deemed the perpetrators of the Bear Flag Revolt to be mere lowlife rabble. As he wrote in his five-volume history, "if the men who hoisted the 'Bear Flag' had raised the flag that Washington sanctified by his abnegation and patriotism, there would have been no war on the Sonoma frontier, for all our minds were prepared to give a brotherly embrace to the sons of the Great Republic, whose enterprising spirit had filled us with admiration. Ill-advisedly, however, as some say, or dominated by a desire to rule without let or hindrance, as others say, they placed themselves under the shelter of a flag that pictured a bear, an animal that we took as the emblem of rapine and force. This mistake was the cause of all the trouble, for when the Californians saw parties of men running over their plains and forests under the 'Bear Flag,' they thought that they were dealing with robbers and took the steps they thought most effective for the protection of their lives and property."
Once America defeated Mexican California, Vallejo proved his allegiance by persuading wealthy "Californios" to accept American rule. An influential member of the State's Constitutional Convention, he was elected a member of the first State Senate (1850). In 1844, he had been deeded title to Rancho Soscol, which included what is now the town of Petaluma. In 1850, he offered to donate a large portion of that land to the new state on which to build a capitol city and also offered to pay for a considerable amount of construction. The offer was accepted by the new legislature and they convened there for the first time in 1851. However, construction had lagged, and they were confronted with inadequate, leaky buildings and a soggy location, and within a year had moved the capitol to Sacramento. Vallejo's large adobe home is now part of the Petaluma Adobe State Historic Park and a National Historic Landmark.
He continued to devote his energies to the development of California for the remainder of his life. General Vallejo died at Sonoma, California.
The submarine USS Mariano G. Vallejo was also named in his honor.Template:Mil-bio-stub Template:US-politician-stub