During the administration of president Zachary Taylor, the United States levied a tax on the mines in California. Outraged by this tax, and feeling it amounts to taxation without representation, miners in the small town of Rough and Ready, California, led by a prominent businessman named Bundage, decide to secede from the union and create the Republic of Rough and Ready with Bundage as president. The fact that 'absolute power corrupts absolutely' quickly becomes evident as Bundage becomes a dictator.