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Peter Hardeman Burnett (November 15, 1807 – May 17, 1895) was an American politician and the first state governor of California, serving from December 20, 1849, to January 9, 1851. He was also the first California governor to resign from office. Burnett previously served briefly during December 1849 as the territorial civilian governor of California. ==Personal background== Born in Nashville, Tennessee, but raised in rural Missouri, Burnett received no formal education, but educated himself in law and government. After owning a general store, he turned to his law career; in defending a group of Mormons — including Joseph Smith — who were accused of treason, arson and robbery. Burnett requested a change of venue for the court proceedings, and during transportation to the next venue, the defendants escaped In 1843, Burnett became part of the exodus of Easterners moving Westward, moving his family to the Oregon Country (now modern-day Oregon) to take up farming in order to solve growing debts in Missouri, an agricultural endeavour that failed. While in the Oregon Country, Burnett began his forays into politics, getting elected to the provisional legislature between 1844 to 1848. In 1844, he completed construction of Germantown Road between the Tualatin Valley and what became Portland.〔Baron, Connie and Michelle Trappen. Paths linking past and present. ''The Oregonian'', March 6, 2008.〕 It was during his time in Oregon that Burnett, a traditional Southern Protestant, began to question the practices of his faith, drifting his religious views more to Roman Catholicism. By 1846, Burnett and his family made the complete transition from Protestant to become Catholic. While in the Legislature, and later in the Provisional Supreme Court, Burnett simply signed Oregon's first exclusion laws, the importation of African-Americans slaves, who needed to be set free after three year, or be returned to the turmoil of a Missouri free state/ slave state problems. The fact that he was not into flogging was proven when as a wagon master that had been fired by his wagon train for saving everyone at Fort Laramie, and by saving a native from being whipped at the Whitman mission.〔Wilderness Calling, The University of Tennessee Press〕 Upon news of the discovery of gold in Coloma, California 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 thanks largely to the Gold Rush. On the way to the Bay Area, Burnett met John Augustus Sutter, Jr., son of German-born Swiss pioneer John Sutter. Selling his father's deeded lands in the near vicinity of Sutter's Fort, 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 and the neighboring Sacramento River's navigability for large ships.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Gold Rush Profile: Peter Burnett )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Peter Hardeman Burnett」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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