the Whig Party's Pierson B. Reading, derided Bigler as an unpolished, gruff Yankee Northerner, while Reading articulated himself as an educated pioneering gentleman of the South. Bigler won the election by little more than a thousand votes, which remains today as the closest gubernatorial election in California history. Governorship Upon assuming the governorship on January 8, 1852, Bigler established his priorities to protect the state's highly profitable mining interests from leasing or outside monopolies, declaring in his first inaugural address that these mining interests should be "left as free as the air we breathe." Bigler also prioritized the industrialization of California, encouraging industrial investment on behalf of the state government. On 3 May 1852, he approved issuance of bonds used to pay expenses for "Expeditions against the Indians" entitled, "Bond of the State of California for War Indebtedness", signed by Governor John Bigler, State Comptroller Samuel Bell and State Treasurer Selden A. McMeans on 31 March 1854.English: Exhibit in the Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California, USA. This work is in the public domain because its maker died more than 70 years ago. Photography was permitted in the museum without restriction. Anti-Chinese laws Bigler also enacted a policy to prevent Chinese "coolie" immigrants from entering California. Bigler claimed that the Chinese refused to and could never assimilate into American society, and he also used the immigrants' willingness to work for little pay as a way to urge Californians to "check this tide of Asiatic immigration." While the previous administration of Governor John McDougall somewhat supported the Chinese presence in the state, Bigler advocated the revival of the 1850 Foreign Miners Tax, originally signed by anti-foreigner Governor Peter Burnett. Whereas the original 1850 law placed a US$20 per month tax on all miners of foreign origin, the Bigler-supported 1852 version of the law placed a US$3 per month tax exclusively for Chinese laborers. Over the course of his two terms in office, taxes for Chinese immigrants steadily increased, with ever harsher bills passing the Legislature and signed into law by Governor Bigler. One law passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor created a US$50 tax per head (to be paid within three days) for Chinese entering Californian ports. The California Supreme Court later ruled the law unconstitutional. As Sierra Nevada gold mine output slowed to a trickle by the early 1850s, followed by local financial panic caused by the