Evidently Bolton was reluctant to write Stephens because his first meeting with him at the 1903 AHA meeting in New Orleans had not been encouraging. As they sat side by side on a round settee in a hotel lobby, Bolton said that he was using Stephens's Revolutionary Europe as a text.59 “'Tisn't worth a damn!” Stephens snorted, and that was the end of the conversation. Bolton felt that this was how the “great man” told a young professor that he did not know how to select a proper textbook.60 So Bolton hesitated to contact Stephens even after Turner had smoothed the way.
Then a reconfiguration of the California planets changed the orbits of Bolton and Turner. “You have probably heard that Farrand is going to Yale,” Eugene Barker gossiped from his desk in Cambridge. “Stanford would be right in your field, wouldn't it?”61 Perhaps it would, but Stanford now had another gardener in mind. Everything but the church had been restored to its pre-earthquake appearance, President Jordan told Turner. Could Turner suggest anyone to replace Farrand? The Jewel Fund had been established and was “devoted exclusively to buying books” at the rate of about $25,000 per year. A fine library was within reach. Perhaps Turner was too. “And are there any terms on which we could ‘do business’ with you?” Jordan asked?62
As usual, Turner left the question of his availability open while he considered his options, but he made some recommendations.63 Evidently Bolton was on Turner's list of candidates, because Stanford sent an offer of a temporary appointment that reached him in San Luis Potosi, probably in July. Bolton rejected a temporary job out of hand, but was willing to entertain a permanent position. Even so, Bolton was not certain about leaving Texas, where he expected “to hold the whip” himself soon, he told Fred. In August, Ephraim Adams, the new department chair, informed Bolton that there were two permanent positions to be filled, one in political and constitutional history (Farrand's courses) and the other covering “aspects of western history.” Adams invited Bolton to explain “the type and character of work in which you are interested.”64
In the minds of Jordan and Adams, the alluring Turner was still the leading candidate for the western position. Turner's semester on—semester off for research arrangement did not look good to some Wisconsin regents, and he feared they might raise the issue again.65 This was more than enough to convince Adams and Jordan that Turner could be had and that the time might be right. And if Stanford hired Turner, they surely would not hire Bolton. So, as Bolton composed his letter to Adams, he had no way of knowing that his chief competition was Frederick Jackson Turner.
One week after encouraging Bolton to apply for the western position, Adams made a strong appeal to Turner. After consulting with President Van Hise at Wisconsin, Turner once again turned down Stanford in the middle of October.66 Adams did not waste time mourning. “I want to get your opinion of Professor Bolton of Texas,” he asked Turner. Adams was already favorably impressed with him.67 “He seems to have cut out a rather new and important field in Spanish- Mexican-American history,” Adams thought. Evidently Turner thought so too.68
Adams immediately offered Bolton an associate professorship at $3,000. Perhaps as important as salary to Bolton was Adams's assurance that “each man in the Department above the rank of Instructor, is absolutely equal in all Departmental matters, and is absolutely independent.” The majority ruled in department meetings, but as far as each professor's work was concerned, he was “totally independent.” After years of working under the imperious garrison, Bolton could imagine the shackles falling from his ankles. At Stanford Bolton could teach and publish whatever he wanted. In addition to scholarly freedom, Adams promised financial support for Bolton's Mexican research. The Stanford library was “rather unusually equipped in the general field of Western History in the line originated by Professor Turner,” Adams explained, although not in Spanish-American history.69 Over time the proceeds from the Jewel Fund would ameliorate the deficiency. But Bolton was interested in a nearby library. Would “the Bancroft collection…be opened with good will to a Stanford man specializing in the Southwest and West?” he asked Adams.70 Adams assured him that it would be.71
Bolton was a rising star that Texas did not want to lose. President Sidney E. Mezes offered Bolton a full professorship at $3,000, freedom from teaching medieval and elementary history courses, and funds for his Mexican archives work.72 It was not enough. After further negotiation Bolton accepted a full professorship at Stanford with a salary of $3,500 and the understanding that the university would support his Mexican research. He would teach undergraduate courses on westward expansion and Spain in America. His graduate seminars would cover the Anglo- American West and Southwest.73
In June Bolton bid a fond farewell to President Mezes and the University of Texas. He was grateful for the opportunity to work in Texas, but the Stanford offer and the chance to research in the Bancroft was too good to pass up. “I believe that the University of Texas has a bright future,” he concluded, “which I shall watch with a warm personal interest and sympathy.”74
Turner congratulated Bolton on his Stanford appointment. “I think you are right in going to the coast,” Turner wrote. “You probably have a better opportunity, particularly if the Bancroft Library is accessible, to continue your studies of Spanish American relations, and Stanford is an exceedingly attractive place.”75 Turner's enthusiasm for the Bancroft was genuine. He surveyed the collections when he taught in the 1908 summer school. He promised to return to Cal and write a new book based on what he had learned.76
So, it would seem, the die was cast. Bolton would go to Stanford with the expectation that he could use the Bancroft Library across the bay. His desire to join the Berkeley faculty had to be put away because the two university presidents had an understanding that they would not recruit faculty from each other.77 Such were Bolton's expectations when he and his family arrived in Palo Alto in the fall of 1909, but unexpected shifts in the professional firmament would influence his placement once again.
As Bolton prepared to move to Stanford, Turner once again became the pivot around which Bolton's professional life rotated. “Here I am out in the redwoods,” Morse Stephens wrote Turner from his camp in bohemian grove, “and thinking of you.”78 Stephens had a serious heart problem and was planning a leave in the spring of 1910 in order to relieve the strain of university work while gathering documents for the Bancroft in Spain. Would Turner pinch-hit for Stephens in the spring? Stephens had thoughtfully delegated the administrative work to Frederick J. Teggart, so Turner would be relatively free to research in the Bancroft. The offer of a temporary appointment was only the leading edge of a much broader proposal. President Wheeler wanted to hire Turner permanently at $5,000 per year, $1,000 more than he was getting in Madison. “And the Bancroft Library!” Stephens exclaimed as he warmed to his task. “Here we give you a field to work on and materials to burn.” Stephens painted a dreamy scene for Turner: “Here in my tent among the redwoods, I think of you; I think of California, which needs you; I think of the u. of C. with its certainty of being a great historical school owing to its Dr. Turner and the Bancroft Library.” It was a hard sales pitch and Stephens left nothing out. “You and I could always work together, for we love each other.” Stephens's love was of the courtly variety, and he was ardently courting Turner. “Now I cannot argue well on rotten paper in a tent,” Stephens complained, but urged Turner to come to California in the spring to resolve all doubts.79
California