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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Sketch of the Causes, Operations and Results of the San Francisco Vigilance Committee of 1856
+by Stephen Palfrey Webb
+
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+Title: A Sketch of the Causes, Operations and Results of the San Francisco Vigilance Committee of 1856
+
+Author: Stephen Palfrey Webb
+
+Release Date: June, 2004  [EBook #5802]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on September 4, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, A SKETCH OF THE CAUSES, OPERATIONS AND RESULTS OF THE SAN FRANCISCO VIGILANCE COMMITTEE OF 1856 ***
+
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by David Schwan <davidsch@earthlink.net>.
+
+
+
+A Sketch of the Causes, Operations and Results of the San Francisco
+Vigilance Committee in 1856
+
+
+Written by Stephen Palfrey Webb in 1874
+
+
+
+Stephen Palfrey Webb was born in Salem on March 20, 1804, the son of
+Capt. Stephen and Sarah (Putnam) Webb. He was graduated from Harvard in
+1824, and studied law with Hon. John Glen King, after which he was
+admitted to the Essex Bar. He practiced law in Salem, served as
+Representative and Senator in the Massachusetts Legislature, and was
+elected Mayor of Salem in 1842, serving three years. He was Treasurer of
+the Essex Railroad Company in the late forties.
+
+About 1853, he went to San Francisco, where he resided several years,
+serving as Mayor of that city in 1854 and 1855. It was during this time
+that he witnessed the riotous mobs following the Gold Rush of 1849, and
+upon his return Salem made notes for a lecture, which he delivered in
+Salem; and later, with many additions, prepared this sketch, probably
+about 1874. He was again elected Mayor of Salem, 1860-1862, and City
+Clerk, 1863-1870. He died in Salem on September 29, 1879. On May 26,
+1834, he married Hannah H. B. Robinson of Salem.
+
+There have been several accounts of the activities of the Vigilance
+Committee, but this is firsthand information from one who was on the
+ground at the time, and for this reason it is considered a valuable
+contribution to the history of those troublous days. It certainly is a
+record of what a prominent, intelligent and observing eye-witness saw
+regarding this important episode in the history of California. The
+original paper is now in the possession of his granddaughter, Mrs.
+Raymond H. Oveson of Groton, Massachusetts.
+
+-
+
+Many of the evils which afflicted the people of San Francisco may be
+traced to the peculiar circumstances attendant upon the settlement of
+California. The effect all over the world of the discovery of gold at
+Sutter's Mill in 1848 was electric. A movement only paralleled by that
+of the Crusades at once commenced. Adventurers of every character and
+description immediately started for the far away land where gold was to
+be had for the gathering. The passage round Cape Horn, which from the
+earliest times had been invested with a dreamy horror, and had inspired
+a vague fear in every breast, was now dared with an audacity which only
+the all absorbing greed for gold could have produced. Old condemned
+hulks which, at other times, it would not have been deemed safe to
+remove from one part of the harbor to another, were hastily fitted up,
+and with the aid of a little paint and a few as deceptive assurances of
+the owners, were instantly filled with eager passengers and dispatched
+to do battle, as they might, with the storms and perils of the deep
+during the tedious months through which the passage extended. The
+suffering and distress consequent upon the packing so many human beings
+in so confined a space; the miserable quality and insufficient quantity
+of the provisions supplied; the weariness and lassitude engendered by
+the intolerable length of the voyage; the ill-temper and evil passions
+so sure to be roused and inflamed by long and forced companionship
+without sympathy or affection, all tended to make these trips, for the
+most part, all but intolerable, and in many cases left feelings of hate
+and desire for revenge to be afterwards prosecuted to bloody issues.
+
+The miseries generally endured were however sometimes enlivened and
+relieved by the most unexpected calls for exertion. A passenger
+described his voyage from New York to San Francisco in 1849, in company
+with several hundred others in a steamer of small size and the most
+limited capacity in all respects, as an amusing instance of working
+one's passage already paid for in advance. The old craft went groaning,
+creaking, laboring and pounding on for seven months before she arrived
+at her destination. Short of provisions, every sailing vessel that was
+encountered was boarded for supplies, and almost every port on the
+Atlantic and Pacific was entered for the same purpose. Out of fuel,
+every few days, axes were distributed, and crew and passengers landed to
+cut down trees to keep up steam for a few days longer. He expressed his
+conviction that every point, headland, island and wooded tract on the
+coast from the Cape to San Francisco had not only been seen by him, but
+had resounded with the sturdy blows of his axe during the apparently
+interminable voyage. His experience, with the exception of the axe
+exercise, was that of thousands.
+
+The extent to which the gold fever had impelled people on shipboard may
+be judged by the facts that from the first of January, 1849, five
+hundred and nine vessels arrived in the harbor of San Francisco; and the
+number of passengers in the same space of time was eighteen thousand,
+nine hundred and seventy-two. Previous to this time, one or two ships in
+the course of a year found their way through the Golden Gate and into
+the beautiful harbor of San Francisco in quest of hides, horns and
+tallow, and gave languid employment to two or three Americans settled on
+the sand hills, and engaged in collecting these articles of trade and
+commerce. In the closing days of 1849, there were ninety-four thousand,
+three hundred and forty-four tons of shipping in the harbor. The stream
+of immigration moved over the Plains, likewise; and through privation,
+fatigue, sickness, and the strife of the elements, passed slowly and
+painfully on to the goal of their hopes.
+
+Thus pouring into California in every direction and by every route, this
+strange and heterogeneous mass of men, the representatives of every
+occupation, honest and dishonest, creditable and disgraceful; of every
+people under the sun, scattered through the gulches and ravines in the
+mountains, or grouped themselves at certain points in cities, towns and
+villages of canons or adobe. Perhaps never in the world's history did
+cities spring into existence so instantaneously, and certainly never was
+their population so strangely diverse in language, habits and customs.
+Of course gamblers of every kind and color; criminals of every shade and
+degree of atrocity; knaves of every grade of skill in the arts of fraud
+and deceit abounded in every society and place. In these early times
+gold was abundant, and any kind of honest labor was most richly and
+extravagantly rewarded. The honest, industrious and able men of every
+community, therefore, applied themselves strictly to business and would
+not be diverted from it by any considerations of duty or of patriotism.
+Studiously abstaining from politics; positively refusing to accept
+office; shirking constantly and systematically all jury and other public
+duty, which, onerous in every community, was doubly so, as they thought,
+in that new country, they seemed never to reflect that there was a
+portion, and that the worst, of the population, who would take advantage
+of their remissness, and direct every institution of society to the
+promotion of their own nefarious purposes.
+
+Absorbed in their own pursuits, confident that a short time would enable
+them to realize their great object of making a fortune and then leaving
+the country, the better portion of the community abandoned the control
+of public affairs to whoever might be willing or desirous to assume it.
+Of course there was no lack of men who had no earthly objection to
+assume all public duties and fill all public offices. Politicians void
+of honesty and well-skilled in all the arts of intrigue, whose great end
+and aim in life was to live out of the public treasury and grow rich by
+public plunder, and whose most blissful occupation was to talk politics
+in pot houses and groggeries; men of desperate fortunes who sought to
+mend them, not by honest labor, but by opportunities for official
+pickings and stealings; bands of miscreants resembling foul and unclean
+birds which clamor and fight for the chance of settling down upon and
+devouring the body to which their keen scent hag directed them; all were
+astir and with but little effort obtained all that they desired. The
+offices were thus filled by rapacious and unscrupulous men. The agents
+who had helped to elect them, or impose them upon the people by fraud,
+were supported and protected in their villainies; and in the
+consciousness of impunity for crime, walked the streets heavily armed
+and ready on the instant to exact a bloody revenge for an interference
+with their infamous schemes, or an attempt to bring them to merited
+punishment.
+
+In San Francisco the effects of all this were visible at an early period
+in the prevalence of crime and outrage; in the laxity with which
+offenders were prosecuted; in the squandering of public property; the
+increasing burden of taxation; and the insecurity of life and property.
+Now and then when the evils of the system weighed with the most
+depressing effect upon the business part of the community, some
+spasmodic effort for a time produced a change. But a temporary check
+only was applied. The snake was scotched, not killed. The ballot box
+upon whose sanctity, in a Republican government must the liberties of
+the people depend, was in the hands of the pliant tools of designing
+politicians, or of desperate knaves ready to bargain and sell the result
+of the election to the party or individuals who would pay the largest
+sum for it. By such infamous arts had many officials of law and justice
+been placed in situations of trust and power. Could it reasonably be
+expected that they would honestly and fairly apply the law to the
+punishment of the friends who had given them their offices, when they
+added to these crimes against society, the scarcely more flagrant ones
+of robbery and murder? If it was possible, the people did not believe it
+would be done. They saw enough to convince them that it was not done.
+They saw an unarmed man shot down and instantly killed in one of the
+most frequented streets of the city while endeavoring to escape from his
+pursuer. They saw the forms of trial applied in this clear case, and
+after every quibble and perversion of law which ingenuity could devise
+had been tried, the lame and impotent conclusion arrived at of a verdict
+of manslaughter, and a sentence for a short period to the State Prison.
+They saw a gambler, while quietly conversing with the United States
+Marshal in the doorway of a store on Clay Street, draw a revolver from
+his pocket and slay him upon the spot. They heard that gamblers and
+other notorious characters, his associates and friends, had raised large
+sums; that able lawyers had been retained for his defense; and then that
+his trial had ended in a disagreement of the Jury, soon to be followed,
+as they believed, by a nolle prosequi, and the discharge of the red
+handed murderer. They saw an Editor, for commenting on a homicide in the
+interior of the State, committed by a man claiming to be respectable,
+and followed by his acquittal in the face of what appeared to be the
+clearest evidence of his guilt; assaulted by the criminal in a public
+street in San Francisco, knocked down from behind by a blow on the head
+from a loaded cane, and beaten into insensibility, and, as seemed, to
+death; while three of the assailant's friends stood by, with cocked
+revolvers, threatening to slay anyone who should interfere. Again they
+saw the farce of trial resulting, as every one knew it would, in
+acquittal. At length, so confirmed and strengthened were villains by the
+certainty of escape from punishment, that they did not even trouble
+themselves to become assured of the identity of their victims. A worthy
+citizen in going home through Merchant Street between eight and nine
+o'clock in the evening was approached from behind by a person who,
+pressing his arm over his shoulder thrust a knife into his breast.
+Luckily the knife encountered in its passage a thick pocket memorandum
+book which it cut through, and but for which, he would have lost his
+life. The intended assassin undoubtedly mistook him for another person
+whom he somewhat resembled. A few days after a gentleman passing by the
+Oriental Hotel heard the report of a pistol, and was sensible of the
+passage of a ball through his hat in most uncomfortable proximity to his
+head. A person immediately stepped up to him saying, "Excuse me, I
+thought it was another man."
+
+The ally of the people in times of difficulty and danger, the Press,
+seemed subservient from choice to this vile domination, or overawed and
+controlled by it. Experience had proved that its conductors could be
+true, bold, effective only at the peril of their lives. More than one
+had suffered in his person the penalty of his allegiance to truth and
+duty; until at length intimidated and desponding, they had ceased to
+struggle with the spirit of evil ....
+
+One man upon whom public attention was now turned, and whom the people
+of the City and State began to regard as their champion and deliverer,
+was James King of William, and he was no common man. He was born in
+Georgetown, D. C., in January, 1822, and was therefore thirty-four years
+old at the time of his death. Having received a common school education,
+he was placed at an early age in the banking house of Corcoran & Riggs
+at Washington City where he remained many years. His health at length
+failing from steady application to business and conscientious devotion
+to his employer's interests, he was induced to seek its restoration in
+the invigorating climate of California. He arrived in the country just
+previous to the discovery of gold. The marvelous growth of City and
+State soon required facilities for the transaction of business, and he
+became a resident of San Francisco, and established the first banking
+house in that City. For several years he was eminently successful in
+business; and his strict honesty and integrity secured for him the
+abiding confidence and respect of the business community. But the sudden
+and extreme depression in business in 1855 closed his doors as well as
+those of many other bankers and merchants. By the surrender to his
+creditors of all he possessed, even his homestead, which, to the value
+of five thousand dollars, the laws of California allowed him to retain,
+and which might well be coveted by him as a home for his wife and six
+children; every claim against him was promptly met and discharged.
+Retaining amidst all his reverses, the respect of all who knew him, he
+engaged as a clerk in the banking house of Adams & Co. where most of his
+old customers followed him, induced to do so by their confidence in him.
+After the failure of that firm, he was for some time out of active
+employment. But compelled by the necessities of a large family to seek
+it, he determined to establish a daily newspaper and take upon himself
+the editorial charge of it. For such an undertaking, his large
+experience in business, his resolute spirit, his sound judgment, his
+keen insight into character, his lofty scorn and detestation of
+meanness, profligacy, peculation and fraud, eminently fitted him. The
+paper, the Evening Bulletin, was first issued on the eighth day of
+October, 1855. From that day to the day of his death, he devoted all his
+faculties most faithfully and conscientiously to the exposure of guilt,
+the laying bare gigantic schemes for defrauding the public, the
+denouncing villains and villainy in high or low station, and the
+reformation of the numerous and aggravated abuses under which the
+community was and had long been groaning. Day after day did he assail
+with dauntless energy the open or secret robbers, oppressors or
+corruptors of the people. Neither wealth nor power could bribe or
+intimidate him. It would be difficult to conceive the enthusiasm with
+which the People hailed the advent of so able a champion, and the
+intense satisfaction with which they witnessed his steadfast
+perseverance in the cause of truth and the right.
+
+At length, on the fourteenth day of May 1856, the anxious fears and
+gloomy forebodings of his family and friends were realized .... His
+assassin, James P. Casey, was well-known and of evil repute in the City.
+Bold, daring, and unscrupulous, his hand was ever ready to execute the
+plans of villainy which his fertile brain had conceived. Sentenced in
+New York to imprisonment for grand larceny in the State Prison at Sing
+Sing for the term of two years, and discharged when that term had nearly
+expired; he soon after sailed for California. Shortly after his arrival,
+he was chosen Inspector of Elections in the Sixth Ward of San Francisco.
+Here he presided over the ballot box, and was generally believed to have
+accomplished more ballot box staffing, ticket shifting and false returns
+than any other individual in the City or State. He made, as was
+generally believed, his office a means of livelihood, and held the City
+and County offices in his hands to be disposed of in such manner as
+might best promote his interest or fill his pockets. Year after year by
+this means he was accumulating money, until he was reputed to have made
+a fortune, although never known by the people to have been engaged in
+any honest industrial occupation in California. For the purpose perhaps
+of adding the levy of blackmail to his other modes of accumulation, he
+established a newspaper, called the Sunday Times, and without principle,
+character or education, assumed to be the enlightener of public opinion
+and the conservator of public morals. During the few months of its
+existence, the paper was conducted without ability; advocated no good
+cause; favored no measures for promoting the public interest or welfare;
+attained no measure of popularity; and its discontinuance inspired no
+regret, but was felt rather to be a relief.
+
+The thought seems now to have suggested itself that having been so long
+the distributor of offices to others he might well assume it himself;
+and thus while obtaining position in society, enlarge his sphere of
+operations in plundering the public. Accordingly a ballot box at the
+Presidio Precinct in the suburbs of the City was so arranged or presided
+over by friends or pliant tools, that four or five days alter the
+election, the law being conveniently silent as to the time which might
+be consumed in counting votes and making the return, it was made to turn
+out James P. Casey a member of the Board of Supervisors of the County,
+although not known to have been a candidate for the office at the Polls
+on the day of election. In this responsible position, he could find his
+way on important Committees, be able to squander the resources of the
+County, and by his vote and influence assist in passing the most
+exorbitant claims, of which, it is to be presumed, he received a
+satisfactory percentage.
+
+So high-handed an offender against the law and the rights of the people
+could not escape the notice or the withering rebuke of Mr. King. He
+fearlessly proclaimed him a convicted felon, and dealt with him as one
+of the principal of those offenders against all law, human or divine,
+with whom San Francisco had been so long and so terribly cursed.
+
+The Bulletin of May 14th, in which the charges founded upon the most
+incontrovertible evidence, of Casey's conviction, sentence and discharge
+from Sing Sing, was made in the plainest terms accompanied with comments
+upon his ballot-box stuffings and other criminal acts in San Francisco,
+was published at an early hour in the after noon. At four o'clock Casey
+called at the Editor's room and demanded of Mr. King what he meant by
+the article in the Bulletin just issued, and was asked to what article
+he alluded? "To that" was the reply, "in which I am said to have been
+formerly an inmate of Sing Sing State Prison." "Is it not true?" said
+King. Casey replied, "That is not the question. I don't wish my past
+acts raked up; on that point I am sensitive." King then pointed to the
+door which was open, and told him to leave the room and never enter
+there again. Casey moved to the door saying, "I'll say in my paper what
+I please." To which King replied "You have a perfect right to do as you
+please. I shall never notice your paper." Casey said, "If necessary, I
+shall defend myself." King, rising from his seat, said, "Go, and never
+show your face here again." Casey immediately retired.
+
+At five o'clock, his usual dinner hour, Mr. King left his office. With
+his arms crossed under his Taima, as was his wont, and his eyes cast
+down, he passed along Montgomery Street apparently in deep thought, and
+at the corner of Washington Street began to cross the street diagonally.
+When about half across, Casey stepped from behind an Express wagon,
+dropped a short cloak from his shoulders, and uttering a few words, the
+only ones heard by Mr. King, as he said on his death bed, being "Come
+on," immediately discharged one barrel of a large revolver into Mr.
+King's breast. Mr. King drew himself up, and then made a slight motion
+sideways, indicating plainly to the few persons in sight at the time,
+that he was hit. The spectators immediately ran in towards him, and
+assisted him into and seated him in the Express Office. He was badly
+wounded in the left breast, and was apparently in a dying condition.
+
+In the meantime Casey was hurried by his friends and the Police to the
+Station House in the City Hall, and from thence, when the demonstrations
+of the immense multitude of infuriated citizens became awfully
+threatening, in a close carriage, to the Prison on Broadway, where,
+within stone walls, he might, as he did, receive the visits an
+congratulations of his admirers and the haters of the good man, whom he
+had slain; and lay his plans for eluding justice as so many before him
+had done. But he reckoned without his host. His hour had struck. The
+Avenger was on his trick, never more to lose sight of him till he had
+forced him to a speedy, public and ignominious death. The People, whom
+he had so long abused and deprived of their rights, as at last almost to
+have learned to ignore their very existence, had reached that point at
+which forbearance had ceased to be a virtue. Through the City darted
+with the speed of light the intelligence of his crime; and to the scene
+of it rushed from all the streets, lanes and by ways of the City, with
+wild haste and fearful imprecations, the thousands upon thousands whom
+that word of fearful import had filled with sorrow, hate and desperate
+resolve. Filling every street and avenue in the neighborhood with the
+innumerable multitude which swayed to and fro like the tempest tossed
+waves of ocean; the main body continued for hours, loading the air with
+hoarse murmurs or angry shouts; detachments breaking off from time to
+time to rush with frantic speed and hurl themselves successively but
+impotently upon the iron doors and stone walls of the Station House or
+Jail.
+
+During the evening, so threatening became the demonstrations of the
+people that every effort was made by the authorities to reinforce the
+Police. Armed men were dispatched from time to time to be stationed
+around and on the top of the Jail. They were received, as they made
+their way through the dense mass with hootings and execrations. The
+Mayor vainly endeavoured to obtain a hearing, and to calm the fiery
+passion of the multitude. With wild rage, fruitless clamor and
+ineffective effort, that great crowd waited impatiently but vainly for
+some leader to give direction to their energy. At half past eleven a
+mounted battalion consisting of the California Guards, First Light
+Dragoons and National Lancers, were mustered, supplied with ammunition,
+and marched off to the Jail, where they did duty during the night. The
+safety of the Prison being now provided for, the people quietly
+dispersed to their homes, not, however, until a Committee, consisting of
+Messrs. Macondry, Palmer and Sims in whom they had confidence had been
+sent in, and reported to them that the prisoner was securely locked in a
+cell within it.
+
+Meantime, amid this wild tumult of the people, a number of merchants and
+other prominent and influential citizens had assembled in a store in the
+lower part of the City, and there after full consideration of the
+intolerable condition of affairs, it was resolved forthwith to organize
+a Vigilance Committee. At an early hour the next morning another meeting
+was held and a Constitution adopted, the publication of which was
+sometime after sanctioned by the Executive Committee.
+
+This Instrument was deliberately approved, and was subscribed by several
+thousand citizens of San Francisco, who, in action under it, periled
+life and fair fame. The following extracts from it will show the causes
+of the movement; and the ability and determination of those who
+inaugurated and prosecuted it to its final issue:
+
+Whereas it has become apparent to the citizens of San Francisco that
+there is no security for life or property either under the regulations
+of society, as it at present exists, or under the laws as now
+administered, and that by the association of bad characters our ballot
+boxes have been stolen and others substituted, or stuffed with votes
+that were never polled, and thereby our elections nullified; our dearest
+rights violated; and no other method left by which the will of the
+people can be manifested; therefore, the citizens whose names are
+hereunto attached, do unite themselves into an association for
+maintenance of the peace and good order of society; the prevention and
+punishment of crime; the preservation of our lives and property; and to
+insure that our ballot boxes shall hereafter express the actual and
+unforged will of the majority of our citizens; and we do bind ourselves
+each to the other by a solemn oath to do and perform every just and
+lawful act for the maintenance of law and order, and to sustain the laws
+when properly and faithfully administered. But we are determined that no
+thief, burglar, incendiary, assassin, ballot box stuffer, or other
+disturber of the peace shall escape punishment, either by the quibbles
+of the law, the insecurity of prisons, the carelessness or corruption of
+the police, or the laxity of those who pretend to administer justice;
+and, to secure the objects of this association, we do hereby agree, that
+the name and style of the Association shall be "The Committee of
+Vigilance, for the protection of the ballot box, the lives, liberty, and
+property of the citizens and residents of the City, of San Francisco."
+
+That there shall be Rooms for the deliberations of the Committee at
+which there shall be some one or more members of the Committee,
+appointed for that purpose, in constant attendance at all hours of the
+day and night to receive the report of any member of the association or
+of any other person or persons whomsoever of any act of violence done to
+the person or property of any citizen of San Francisco; and if in the
+judgment of the member or members of the Committee present, it be such
+an act as justifies or demands the interference of this Committee,
+either in aiding in the execution of the laws, or the prompt and summary
+punishment of the offender; the Committee shall be at once assembled for
+the purpose of taking such action as a majority of them, when assembled,
+shall determine upon.
+
+That whereas, an Executive Committee has been chosen by the General
+Committee, it shall be the duty of the said Executive Committee to
+deliberate and act upon all important questions and decide upon the
+measures necessary to carryout the objects for which the association was
+formed.
+
+That whereas this Committee has been organized into subdivisions; the
+Executive Committee shall have power to call, when they shall so
+determine, upon a Board of Delegates, to consist of three
+representatives from each division to confer with them upon matters of
+vital importance.
+
+That the action of this body shall be entirely and vigorously free from
+all consideration of, or participation in the merits or demerits,
+opinions or acts, of all sects, political parties, or sectional
+divisions in the community and every class of orderly citizens, of
+whatever sect, party or nativity may become members of this body. No
+discussion of political, sectional or sectarian subjects shall be
+allowed in the Rooms of the Association.
+
+That no person accused before this body shall be punished until after
+fair and impartial trial and conviction.
+
+That whenever the General Committee have assembled for deliberation, the
+decision of the majority upon any question that may be submitted to them
+by the Executive Committee shall be binding upon the whole; provided
+nevertheless, no vote inflicting the death penalty, shall be binding
+unless passed by two thirds of those present and entitled to vote.
+
+That all good citizens shall be eligible for admission to this body
+under such regulations as may be prescribed by a Committee on
+qualifications; and if any unworthy persons gain admission, they shall,
+on due proof, be expelled. And, believing ourselves to be executors of
+the will of a majority of our citizens; we do pledge our sacred honor to
+defend and maintain each other in carrying out the determined action of
+this Committee at the hazard of our lives and our fortunes.
+
+By this Constitution, it will be seen that the responsibility of
+deliberating upon the subjects which demanded the interference of the
+Vigilance Committee was devolved upon the Executive Committee consisting
+of twenty-three persons. Of this Committee, the largest number were
+merchants, but most of the professions and occupations were represented
+on it. Many of its members were men of large fortune and extensive
+business; all of them were men of standing and good character, and
+possessing the confidence and respect of the community. All sects in
+religion, and parties in politics had representatives among them. They
+were shrewd, sagacious, business men; never seeking office; having no
+taste for excitement; desiring only to be protected in their rights, and
+to be able to devote their energies uninterruptedly to their business.
+Only a sense of intolerable wrong and oppression could have induced such
+men to leave their employments and engage in so anxious, laborious and
+perilous an undertaking. Having assumed the task, never did men devote
+themselves more entirely to the discharge of the duties which it
+imposed. Freely at all times did they contribute their money to defray
+expenses incurred. Faithfully did they dedicate all their forecast,
+sagacity and wisdom to insure success; upon which indeed, their
+fortunes, and lives depended, and which a single mistake might involve
+the loss.
+
+The writer of this sketch was never more profoundly impressed than when,
+on two occasions, he was summoned, at half past twelve and two o'clock
+in the morning to the Executive Chamber as a witness. The room was of
+the plainest, even rudest, appearance. A semi-circular table was
+liberally supplied with stationary, and around it sat gravely, with
+faces paled by long continued vigils, anxious thought and awful
+responsibility a few individuals, some of whom he recognized, and knew
+to be quiet, humane, order-loving men. On a raised platform sat the
+President, and in front of him the Secretary. These few grave men, seen
+at so late an hour, by dim candle lights, the leaders of an armed
+insurrection, usurpers of all power, rule and supremacy in a City of at
+least sixty thousand inhabitants; whose commands thousands of their
+armed fellow citizens obeyed implicitly; who, in disregard of all law,
+arrested, imprisoned, tried and executed offenders; but whose power,
+boundless and undisputed as it seemed, rested solely on the conviction
+of their fellow men that they were just, wise, patriotic and true; would
+faithfully administer the despotic power of which they were the
+depositaries; and cheerfully resign it whenever the work of the
+regeneration of society was accomplished. If this conviction should be
+shaken, the association must instantly be dissolved and each of these
+leaders and directors of it be left to die upon the scaffold. Well might
+any person of the slightest sensibility look on such a body of men with
+the utmost interest and curiosity, and in the contemplation be filled
+with deep and solemn thought.
+
+The Constitution likewise provided for a Board of Delegates, with whom
+the Executive Committee might confer whenever matters of vital
+importance should require it. This body was organized by the choice by
+each company of two of its members, who, with the Captain, should be its
+Delegates. When the military organization of the force was completed,
+the field officers were added to the Board of Delegates; and when the
+organization included many regiments, the number of Delegates was of
+course larger. Whenever the death penalty had been decided upon by the
+Executive Committee, the whole evidence upon which it was based was
+submitted to the Board of Delegates, and a two-thirds vote of that Board
+in confirmation of the Executive vote was required before it could be
+inflicted. The element of discussion thus introduced into a body
+essentially revolutionary, and whose success might be supposed to depend
+upon the secrecy, promptness and unfaltering determination of its
+councils and of the blows it struck, was thought at the time to be
+likely to detract from its efficiency, if it did not endanger its
+existence. But the good sense and prudence of the members restrained the
+innate Yankee propensity to speech making, and this danger, with many
+others, which from time to time threatened to make shipwreck of the
+organization, was happily surmounted.
+
+The Constitution having been adopted, the doors of the Committee Rooms
+on Sacramento Street were opened for initiation into the body. The
+greatest caution was exercised to prevent the admission of any
+disreputable or unreliable man. Every person presenting himself was
+carefully scrutinized at the outer door by a trusty guard and at the
+stair head within by another; and if unknown to them, was required to
+be vouched for by two respectable citizens. From Thursday the 15th until
+Saturday the 17th at two o'clock P. M. a crowd of people were constantly
+pressing forward for admission. On Thursday both battalions of the City
+military refused to act further as a guard upon the Jail; and the
+companies for the most part disbanded; several of them reorganizing as
+part of the Vigilance Committee force. The defense of the Jail being
+thrown entirely upon the Sheriff; he placed arms and ammunition in it;
+and made strenuous efforts to provide a force which might suffice with
+his Deputies, the Police & co. to accomplish that object. On Friday his
+Deputies were very busy in serving printed notices upon all citizens
+whom they could induce to receive them, or to listen to their reading.
+The summons was to meet at the Fourth District Court Room in the City
+Hall at half past three o'clock to aid him in keeping the peace. The
+meeting took place at the time and place appointed, but for various
+reasons, did not prove a very decided success. The replies made when the
+question was propounded to each individual whether he was prepared to
+proceed with the Sheriff to the Jail to defend it against all
+assailants, were very various. A merchant said he had been summoned, but
+he refused most positively to move, and wished it to be most distinctly
+understood that he was not a member of the Vigilance Committee, nor did
+he intend to act against it. A lawyer declined serving, and on his
+reason for doing so being required, said he was afraid; as he was
+afterwards in the ranks of the Vigilance Committee, with a musket on his
+shoulder, it may be presumed that his fear was of fighting against the
+people. A medical man professed great doubts about his ability; said he
+was not accustomed to the use of firearms, and thought it not unlikely
+that he might wound himself or kill his neighbor. At length, a party
+started with the Sheriff for the Jail; but whether their sober second
+thought was discouraging; or they had no stomach for the fight; or found
+their courage oozing out of their finger ends; the number began to
+diminish immediately after starting; at every corner some would detach
+themselves from the group; at every saloon or restaurant a distressing
+hunger or thirst would silently but imperiously demand a halt; and as
+the Jail was neared, a light pair of heels was frequently put in
+requisition without the slightest ceremony. As might be supposed, the
+number that finally reached their destination, was distressingly out of
+proportion to the work to be done; and the Sheriff, after detaining them
+for a time, was reported to have dismissed them with but scant
+courtesy.
+
+Bulletins meanwhile were issued daily and almost hourly, by the
+physicians in attendance upon Mr. King, detailing his condition. They
+were posted in conspicuous places, and were read and commented upon by
+eager and excited crowds. The enlistments into the Vigilance Committee
+were constantly going on. The French citizens held a meeting and
+tendered their services to the Committee, and a battalion of three
+hundred men was at once organized and armed. The Germans had no separate
+organization, but were distributed in large numbers through the various
+companies. Arms were collected from all quarters; cannon were obtained
+from ships lying at the wharves or in the harbor; the gunsmiths shops
+were thronged; dray loads of muskets and ammunition were taken to the
+Jail and the Committee Rooms; armed men guarded and observed the Jail
+night and day; and although every thing was done quietly, no person
+could escape the conviction that an awful crisis was impending. In all
+the streets men on foot and horseback were constantly passing and
+repassing, apparently engaged in their ordinary pursuits; but a close
+observer could detect by the interchange of a word, a motion, or a
+significant glance, that they had a mutual understanding and a common
+purpose, and were on the alert and quick and observant of all that was
+passing.
+
+On Saturday evening, May 17th, in consequence of a telegraphic dispatch
+from Mayor Van Ness earnestly requesting his presence, Governor Johnson
+arrived in the City from Sacramento. He was met by General Sherman whom
+he had appointed Major General of the Militia, Ex-Mayor Garrison and
+some others. After a long conference with the Executive Committee at two
+o'clock in the morning, he went with a sub-committee of that body to the
+Jail. The Sheriff agreed that a detachment of ten men of the Vigilance
+force should be permitted to enter and remain in the Jail to satisfy the
+people of the safe keeping of the prisoner. It was agreed the Committee
+should not take advantage of the permission to wrest the prisoner from
+the hands of the Sheriff, but that if they should resolve such a course,
+they would withdraw their guard. At two o'clock P. M. on Saturday, the
+process of enrollment was suddenly stopped. Two thousand six hundred men
+had then been enrolled. In the evening the whole force was broken up
+into twenty-six companies or divisions, as they were called first, of
+one hundred men. Each division then made choice of its officers,
+consisting of a Captain, two Lieutenants; and Sergeants and Corporals
+were likewise appointed. The Command-in-Chief was entrusted by the
+Executive Committee to Colonel Charles Doane; who, in all the subsequent
+military operations proved himself to be a most skillful tactician and
+efficient commander. The great body of the force at first under his
+command, was infantry armed with flint-lock muskets, afterwards changed
+for percussion ones. There were, in addition, a company of horse; two
+companies of riflemen, and artillerists for two field pieces. The
+evening closed with a sharp drill of all the divisions.
+
+Sunday the Eighteenth day of May was bright and beautiful. It dawned on
+the pleasant and picturesque City slumbering in its holy light. The roar
+and tumult of the populous City in its hours of business were stilled.
+The sun shone joyously in the deep blue sky, undimmed by cloud or vapor.
+All was hushed in the breathing repose of nature, and the soft and
+fragrant air, the still earth, and the unruffled surface of the
+magnificent bay, graced and dignified by grand old Monte Diavolo looking
+down upon it from its far off border, seemed united together in the same
+sweet spirit of devotion. As the day wore on, the bells of the various
+churches rang out their summons to the house of God. No unusual movement
+or sound in the early morning gave token of that calm solemn, most
+fearful uprising of the people which, at a later hour, was to make that
+day one never to be forgotten by any who took part in or witnessed its
+extraordinary events. The Executive Committee with consummate prudence
+had kept their plan of action profoundly secret.
+
+At an early hour in the morning the Commander of the force issued orders
+to the Captains of Companies to notify their men to appear at Head
+Quarters, No. 41 Sacramento Street, at nine o'clock A. M. ready for
+duty. Time was of course required to circulate the notice through the
+City; but soon the men began to congregate from all quarters and the
+building, extensive as it was, by half past ten o'clock, was filled,
+both above and below stairs. A most extraordinary assemblage was that
+which filled those large halls on that Sabbath morning. Men of every
+rank, occupation and condition in society obeyed that summons, and
+silently took their places side by side, prepared to do their duty and
+abide the issue whatever it might be. Many of these order and
+peace-loving citizens had never before, when in health, been absent from
+church on the Sabbath day or had the slightest skill in the use of arms,
+or knowledge of military movements, yet so really a military people are
+the Americans, and so completely overmastered was every man by the
+sentiment and purpose common to all; that the precision with which the
+whole body handled their arms, and marched without music, was remarked
+with astonishment even by officers of the regular army.
+
+After a short drill in the Rooms, ammunition was distributed, and orders
+issued to load with ball. The companies then moved in succession into
+the street. Not a drum was struck, or other instrument of music sounded,
+but in silence the various detachments moved by different routes upon
+the designated point. Such a body of men have been seldom if ever seen
+united, armed, and resolutely bent upon accomplishing such an object.
+The high and low, rich and poor, men of all classes, ages, and nations;
+the merchant, the dairy man, the professional man, the clerk, the
+porter, the father and son, the philanthropist, the patriot, the
+Christian, all were in the ranks of this great Company; and with
+flashing eyes and compressed lips marched in silence to accomplish what
+they deemed an absolutely necessary measure of Retribution and Reform.
+
+As the various columns moved through the streets, from the lower to the
+upper part of the City, the occasional low but distinct word of command,
+and the steady tramp of armed men, attracted attention, and windows and
+doorways and sidewalks became filled with silent, wondering awestruck
+spectators. From street, lane and alley, they thronged the thoroughfares
+in which the troops were moving, and keeping pace with them, in like
+silence, moved steadily on. By exactly calculated movements, each
+division came upon the ground almost at the precise spot it was to
+occupy, and upon deploying into line formed part of a hollow square
+enclosing the whole space in which the Prison was situated. A field
+piece heavily loaded with grape, was placed in position in front of the
+iron gate of the Prison. A body of riflemen marched down Broadway,
+cleared and took possession of a house next the Prison, and which
+commanded its roof, and filled the roof of the house with sharpshooters.
+Another body of riflemen were posted on a bluff in rear of the Jail, and
+which commanded that side. In the meantime windows, roofs of houses, and
+hill tops at a safe distance were crowded with spectators. Such sounds
+as must necessarily attend the moving and getting into position so large
+a body of men were soon hushed; and in profound silence, all awaited the
+progress of events.
+
+At length a battalion was marched to the front of the Prison within the
+lines, and drawn up on three sides of a square. Detachments from
+companies of picked men took post in rear of the square. Soon an empty
+carriage followed by two others containing members of the Executive
+Committee were driven into the inner square. They alighted and were
+joined by the Commander, proceeded up the steps of the Jail, and were
+admitted into it, and the door closed upon them. All knew that a demand
+was then making for the surrender of one or more prisoners by Sheriff
+Scannell; and that upon his answer it depended whether the Prison should
+be stormed or not. A formal demand was willingly made upon the Sheriff
+by the Executives for the delivery to them of James P. Casey and that he
+be placed in irons before such delivery. The Sheriff informed Casey that
+the Prison was surrounded by two thousand armed men and that he had no
+force adequate to his protection. Casey finally concluded to go with the
+Committee provided two respectable citizens would assure him that he
+should have a fair trial, and not be dragged through the streets. A
+pledge to that effect was given him by the President and other members
+of the Executive Committee. The Committee then withdrew from the Prison,
+and, with their armed escort, awaited the surrender of the prisoner.
+City Marshal North having placed irons upon him, led him to the door of
+the Prison and delivered him into the hands of the Committee. He was
+then placed in a close carriage, Mr. North, at Casey's request, taking a
+seat by his side, and two members of the Executive Committee also
+occupying seats in it. As the guard descended the steps of the Jail with
+the prisoner amid the profound silence of the armed force, a shout was
+raised by a portion of the spectators several blocks off; but a gesture
+of disapprobation from one of the Committee was sufficient instantly to
+restore silence. The Committee arranged themselves in the carriages; the
+picked men filed in on each side; a heavy guard closed in on all sides
+in square; the people rushed in, packing the streets with a dense mass;
+and all moved on in silence to the Committee Rooms.
+
+Profound stillness again reigned around the Prison among the troops and
+the great body of spectators who kept their ground in expectation of
+what might follow. A part of the troops who had attended the prisoner to
+the Rooms, at length returned, and soon after, the carriages again
+arrived at the Prison, and the Executive Committee demanded of the
+Sheriff the body of Charles Cora, the murderer of Gen. Richardson, the
+U. S. Marshal. Only after twice requesting and being granted further
+time for consideration and being then peremptorily informed that if he
+was not delivered up in ten minutes, the Jail would be stormed, did the
+Sheriff produce him. He was brought out in irons, placed with officers
+in a carriage, the Executive occupying the others, the whole armed force
+fell in front, on the sides and in the rear in a long column; and the
+whole, accompanied by a crowd of people, swept on to the Rooms of the
+Committee. Most deeply was every one impressed with the fearful
+responsibility assumed by the actors in this extraordinary scene, and
+with the resolute spirit with which they had thus far prosecuted it. As
+the procession passed through Montgomery Street, very many of the
+spectators were observed to uncover their heads, apparently impressed by
+the solemnity of the scene; or perhaps by their respect for the men who
+filled the ranks. Arrived at the Rooms, and the prisoner secured, a
+large force was detailed for guard and patrol duty, and the remainder of
+the troops were dismissed. Thus ended this eventful day.
+
+From Sunday the 18th until Tuesday following, all was quiet upon the
+streets. Crowds thronged in silence and deep concern around the Bulletin
+Boards whenever a new announcement was made of the condition of the
+sufferer. From five o'clock on Tuesday morning it became apparent that
+he was sinking; and the public anxiety became momentarily more intense.
+At half past one P. M. the dreaded intelligence was communicated that
+Mr. King was dead. Immediately every demonstration was made of the
+deepest feeling and most profound grief by all classes of the community.
+Stores, offices and other places of business were immediately closed.
+Hotels, public buildings and many private dwellings were, in an
+incredibly short time draped in mourning; and mourning badges were
+assumed by a large portion of the population. The bells of the churches
+and engine houses were tolled until a late hour. The different
+flagstaffs, and the shipping at the wharves and in the harbor displayed
+their colors at half-mast. Never did a more general, spontaneous,
+heartfelt sadness oppress a whole people, or manifest itself in a more
+touching manner. The news was telegraphed in all directions, and from
+every part of the State came back responses showing that the whole
+people felt as deeply as the citizens of San Francisco, the loss they
+had sustained: But sorrow was not suffered to expend itself in
+respectful but unsubstantial mourning emblems; and while a great
+multiture, from five o'clock in the afternoon to a late hour in the
+night, were slowly and sadly passing through the room in Montgomery
+Block in which their friend lay cold in death, taking a last look at
+that face long so familiar upon the streets, but soon to be seen no more
+on earth; a Committee was appointed by the citizens, consisting of
+Messrs Macondry, Park and Patterson, to receive subscriptions for the
+benefit of the widow and six young children of Mr. King, left but
+slenderly provided for. The object was nobly accomplished, and the sum
+of thirty thousand dollars placed in trust for them. The claim for the
+widow and the fatherless having been thus met; a sterner duty was
+believed to rest upon the citizens of San Francisco. Formal and
+deliberate trials of the two prisoners in the hands of the Vigilance
+Committee were held by the Executive Committee as provided by the
+Constitution; and the evidence introduced and the result arrived at were
+laid before the Board of Delegates for its concurrence or disapproval.
+Extraordinary precautions were adopted in and about Head Quarters. The
+number of men on duty within and outside of the building was largely
+increased. A full company of horse patrolled Sacramento Street day and
+night. At a block or two above the Rooms, a company of infantry was drawn
+up in double rank across the street. Any one wishing to visit the Rooms
+for any purpose, was required to pass to the centre of the company where
+two soldiers with crossed muskets barred the way until he had given the
+password. Everywhere evidence was presented that the measures to be
+adopted had been thoroughly matured; the means abundantly provided, and
+that the results would be wrought out with quiet but inflexible
+determination.
+
+On Thursday, the 22d of May, the day broke in clouds over the City; but
+by ten o'clock, the clouds had dispersed, and amid sunshine and soft
+airs the hours stole on. The funeral of Mr. King was appointed to take
+place at twelve o'clock. Great crowds had poured into the City from all
+parts of the State, and the streets were black with the masses.
+Preparations were making by almost every society in the City for
+attending the funeral; and but for another call upon the citizens, it is
+probable that full two thirds of the men of San Francisco would have
+taken part in the procession, or looked on from the sidewalks. No such
+demonstration of profound mourning was ever before witnessed in
+California. The services in the church were most solemn and affecting.
+The funeral procession was more than a mile in length, and the number of
+persons in it was estimated at more than six thousand. Slowly it passed
+through the City and made its way to Lone Mountain Cemetery where with
+Masonic services, and in presence of the great multitude, standing
+uncovered and affected to tears, the remains of the just and good man,
+the martyr to truth and duty were deposited.
+
+But large as was the assembly thus occupied in the upper part of the
+City in rendering the last tribute of respect to the loved and lost; a
+still larger number had collected in the neighborhood of the Committee
+Rooms in the lower part to witness a solemn act of retribution. They
+swarmed upon the housetops, filled windows, and such, portion of the
+streets as was open to them, and from which they could obtain a view of
+the proceedings, and waited in anxious expectation the infliction of the
+penalty of their crimes upon the two assassins in the hands of the
+Committee. From an early hour in the morning, movements in and around
+the Rooms had plainly indicated the purpose for which they were made.
+Riflemen were stationed on the roofs of the Committee building and those
+adjoining. A detachment was sent out, which cleared and thoroughly
+searched a building opposite. Cannon were placed at points to command
+and sweep the streets in the vicinity. Cavalry patrolled in all
+directions, and large bodies of infantry were gradually placed in
+position, and formed an immense square enclosing the entire block, and
+allowing no new approach to the Rooms. Ominous preparations were also
+making in the building by projecting from two of the second story
+windows in front, platforms with, hinges just beyond the window sills,
+supported by ropes running to the roof of the building.
+
+At a quarter past one, as the funeral procession was leaving the church
+on Stockton Street the two offenders against the law of God and man were
+placed upon the scaffolds, and, after a few words from Casey, denying
+repeatedly that he was a murderer, as charged by the Alta California and
+other papers, on the ground that he had been taught always to revenge an
+insult or injury, a signal was given and the unhappy men instantly
+passed to their account. The whole body of the military, and many of the
+other spectators stood uncovered and in profound silence and awe, while
+this stern and solemn People's tragedy was enacting. Late in the
+afternoon the entire force of armed citizens was drawn up in line on
+Sacramento Street presenting a most imposing array; were reviewed by the
+Commander, and then marched by companies to the Rooms, deposited their
+arms, and, with the exception of guards detailed for further duty,
+amounting to some three hundred men, were dismissed.
+
+During this period and for some time after strenuous efforts were making
+for the discovery and arrest of two men, McGowen and Wightman, who had
+been indicted as accomplices of Casey in the murder of Mr. King. Great
+anxiety was felt for the arrest of McGowen not alone on account of his
+complicity in the murder, but because it was believed that he knew more
+of the operations of the ballot box stuffers and other political
+managers than any other person, and that if taken, he would be likely to
+expose many who had stooped to obtain office or position by his
+unscrupulous arts. Long and earnest search was made, but for some time,
+no trace of him could be discovered. At length in the latter part of
+June, it was learned that he left the City on horseback, disguised as a
+cattle drover, in company with an American and a Mexican, and had been
+seen in Santa Barbara, a small town on the coast about four hundred
+miles below San Francisco. Being recognized, he fled, and was pursued by
+a party from Santa Barbara. On receiving the intelligence, the Executive
+Committee immediately dispatched twenty resolute men in a fast sailing
+vessel to join in the pursuit. On the 16th of July an arrival from down
+the coast brought information of his probable escape. His condition was
+represented to have been such as to have excited pity for even such a
+criminal. When last seen he was dreadfully wearied and chafed by his
+long ride, was without a hat to protect him from the fierce rays of the
+sun, his face dreadfully burned and blistered, and oppressed with hunger
+and thirst; and thus the poor wretch, loaded with guilt, flying from the
+gallows, with hate and despair stamped on his face, spurred on in his
+mad flight.
+
+In the first week of June, measures were taken by the State Authorities
+to frighten into submission, or to dissolve by force the Vigilance
+Committee. The Governor issued a Proclamation declaring the County of
+San Francisco in a state of insurrection, and gave orders to the Major
+General of the District to make all necessary preparations to suppress
+the insurrection. General orders were issued for all lovers of law and
+order to enlist, choose officers, and commence drilling. Recruiting
+stations were appointed in different parts of the City, and a
+considerable number of respectable citizens, and most of the gamblers,
+bullies and other notorious characters who had not yet fallen into the
+hands of the Vigilance Committee, but must have had very reasonable
+fears that they soon might, answered to the call. They mustered no such
+force however as led to a public exhibition of their number or
+condition. General Sherman, being unable to obtain from General Wood
+such arms as he deemed necessary for his purpose, soon resigned, and
+Volney C. Howard was appointed in his place. In the meantime the
+Committee proceeded quietly in perfecting their arrangements. The
+people, to the number of several thousand, offered themselves and were
+added to the already formidable force. The demonstrations of citizens
+not professedly belonging to, however in favor of the organization,
+were, at this and subsequent periods, very impressive. An evening
+meeting was held in front of the Oriental Hotel, the number present at
+which was variously estimated at from five to eight thousand. This great
+meeting was presided over by Hon. Baillie Peyton, formerly a
+distinguished member of Congress, and then City Attorney. He addressed
+the meeting, as did Judge Duer and other leading men. At the close of
+the meeting, the immense assembly was called upon to say whether they
+approved and would support the Vigilance Committee, and instantly such a
+thundering "Aye" went up as seemed sufficient to rend the sky. When the
+otherwise minded were called, two "No's" were heard, faintly breaking
+the profound silence. Several other meetings came to a like conclusion.
+Such occurrences, and they were frequent, greatly strengthened the
+hands, and encouraged the hearts of the Executive Committee. Their
+labors were various and unremitting. They issued notice to quit to
+numbers of persons whom it was neither for the interest nor credit of
+the community longer to retain. By their Police they were daily and
+nightly arresting disturbers of the public peace, thieves and desperate
+criminals, whom they quietly deposited in their strong rooms to be dealt
+with according to their deserts. To be prepared for any emergency their
+Head Quarters were made an armed camp. Barriers six feet in height, made
+of sand bags, with cannon planted in the embrasures, extended along the
+whole front of the building. Sentinels paced the roof day and night.
+Companies were drilling at all hours at Head Quarters or in their
+Armories. These defenses were strengthened from time to time; and others
+ingeniously contrived were placed in the interior; so that, at length,
+in the opinion of an officer of large experience, a very large force of
+regular troops would have been required to carry it by storm.
+
+In the afternoon of Saturday, June 21st, the perfect quiet of the early
+part of the day was broken up by a tempest of excitement of rare
+occurrence anywhere. Between three and four o'clock, a Police Officer of
+the Vigilance Committee named Hopkins, being ordered with a party of
+men, to arrest a man named Maloney, having ascertained that he was then
+in the office of Dr. Ashe, Navy Agent, on Washington Street, entered the
+office alone, leaving the other officers in the street. A number of
+persons were in the room beside Maloney, amongst them Judge Terry, one
+of the three Judges of the Supreme Court of California. Hopkins was
+unable to make the arrest; and retiring from the room, collected his
+men, and kept watch in the street. The party in the room armed
+themselves and scattered into the street to make their way to the Armory
+of the San Francisco Blues. While passing up Jackson Street, Hopkins
+attempted to arrest Maloney. Terry opposed him with a double-barreled
+gun, which Hopkins attempted to or did, wrest from him, when Terry
+immediately struck him on the neck with a bowie knife, inflicting a
+terrible wound. Terry and his whole party then ran and placed themselves
+for safety in the Blues Armory. Hopkins was immediately taken into the
+Pennsylvania Engine House. The news flew with lightning speed over the
+City. The bell of the Vigilance Committee Rooms sounded; and instantly
+the streets were swarming with members obedient at all times to its
+summons. As the sound struck his ear, every man discontinued the work
+upon which he was employed. Draymen passing with loads, unharnessed
+their horses, mounted and rode off; engines in the great foundries were
+stopped, and employers and men started off on the run; builders,
+pressmen, shopmen, merchants, professional men, were alike hurrying to
+the Committee Rooms. As they arrived, they took arms, were formed in
+companies, and reported ready for duty. In a few minutes, a body of
+cavalry were thundering through the streets and surrounding the block in
+which was the Blues Armory. Then up every street poured companies of
+infantry at double-quick time, and took possession of every important
+point. So quickly was this done that only some thirty men of the so
+called "law and order" party had been able to assemble in the Armory.
+They were summoned to surrender, and alter some little parley, concluded
+to do so. Terry, Ashe and Maloney were placed in carriages and conveyed
+to the Committee Rooms. The other prisoners were then disarmed and they
+were kept in the Armory until evening, when they likewise were marched
+to the Committee Rooms.
+
+While this was enacting, a strong force had surrounded the California
+Exchange on the corner of Clay and Kearney Streets, where some seventy
+or eighty of the, "law and order" men had assembled, and where was a
+depot of arms. In front of this building, a battery of artillery was in
+position flanked by a detachment of infantry. The commander of the party
+in the building was summoned to surrender in five minutes. When four
+minutes and a half had expired, the cautionary order of "Artillery,
+attention" was heard, and at the same instant the doors were thrown
+open, and a surrender made. Every, man was made to present himself at
+the door, deposit his musket, strip off his accoutrements, and go back
+into the room. The arms were taken to the Committee Rooms, and the
+building left under a strong guard. All the other Armories of the "law
+and order" party were taken about the same time by other detachments. In
+less than two hours after the sounding of the alarm bell, the "law and
+order" party had surrendered; all their arms were secured; the leaders
+of their troops dismissed on parole; and the rank and file placed in
+safe keeping; without the shedding of a drop of blood. The people looked
+on with astonishment to see with what precision and dispatch the whole
+work had been accomplished. At eleven o'clock the next day, the
+prisoners, with the exception of a few, who, had hitherto escaped
+capture, were dismissed from the Rooms after having been cautioned
+against being taken' again. Their appearance as they marched out of the
+building and up the street, each man with his blanket strapped across
+his shoulders, some with looks of dignified disgust, and others with a
+most crestfallen or woebegone expression. was ludicrous in the extreme,
+and caused hearty laughter and many jokes at their expense. In addition
+to the offenders those secured in the Rooms of the Committee, there were
+many others at liberty for whom a quiet but unremitting search was kept
+up. When any one was found, on the street or in any of his usual haunts,
+he was very sure to surrender at the first summons of the officer,
+probably for the reason humorously assigned by one of the most bitter
+opponents of the Committee, who, after an envenomed tirade against it,
+was asked, "Suppose, while talking on Montgomery Street, some one should
+tap you on the shoulder, and say, you are wanted at the Vigilance
+Committee Rooms, should you go?" "Of course I should," said he,
+"Indeed," said the other, "I should not, from your talk, have expected
+it." "Why," said he, "you don't think me such a consummate fool as to
+attempt to buck up against two thousand men." Sometimes, however numbers
+gave confidence to the rowdies, and they ventured, regardless of the
+lessons of experience, to indulge in their old practices in public. A
+public evening meeting was held in front of Montgomery Block to consider
+what action should be taken in reference to certain Officials believed
+to have been unfairly elected, and a part of whom at least were charged
+with maladministration of the affairs of the City. A Committee had been
+chosen to request these City officers to resign, and this Committee were
+directed to report at an adjourned meeting in the same place. Before the
+second meeting was held, it was understood that an attempt would be made
+to break up the meeting. The intended disturbers stationed themselves
+opposite the Montgomery Block, and by shouts, groans and noises of all
+kinds, endeavoured to interrupt the proceedings. This was borne as long
+as possible. At last a party of Vigilantes broke in from the extremity
+of the crowd, and bore straight down through it, leaving a clear space
+behind them, until they reached the point of disturbance, when they made
+a charge upon the rowdies, some of whom drew pistols but were afraid to
+use them; secured the leaders and principal bullies, and hurried them
+off to secure lodgings in the Committee Rooms. The work was done in a
+wonderfully short time and in the most skillful manner; and no further
+disturbance occurred.
+
+The punishments prescribed for offenders by the Committee being only
+two, viz, death and banishment, and neither being applicable to the
+cases of some of the numerous prisoners now in their hands, these were
+discharged after being cautioned not again to offend. The rest, after
+trial of each one in the mode prescribed, were sentenced to banishment;
+were quietly embarked at night, and so "left their country for their
+country's good."
+
+Perfect quiet now seemed restored to the City. But soon the people were
+again roused and horrorstricken by the deliberate murder of Dr. Randal,
+a large land owner in various parts of the State, while quietly
+conversing with the bar-keeper in the St. Nicholas Hotel, by one
+Hetherington who, four years before had been tried for murder, but by
+some means had escaped conviction. Several gentlemen were in the room at
+the time, and were in considerable danger from the shots fired by him.
+The alarm being given City Policemen who first arrived, arrested him;
+but he was immediately taken from them by Vigilance Policemen, and at
+once conveyed to the Committee Rooms. Two murderers, Hetherington and
+Brace, were in due time tried the counsel whom they selected, were
+procured; and the witnesses they named, obtained for them. They were
+condemned, and some time after publicly executed in open day and in
+presence of a great multitude in a public street in the lower part of
+the City.
+
+The case of Hopkins so dreadfully wounded by Judge Terry, was, for a
+long time, considered desperate by the eminent surgeons and physicians
+in constant attendance upon him. But after long hovering between life
+and death; to the astonishment of all, he began slowly to recover,
+until, at length, after many weeks of seclusion and intense suffering,
+in the early part of August, he was able again to make his appearance
+upon the streets. And now that his recovery was assured, the question as
+to the disposition to be made of the author of his dreadful sufferings
+was one of the most difficult imaginable. It seemed at first impossible
+that the Executive Committee should reach a conclusion acceptable to the
+Board of Delegates, and in which the whole organization would concur.
+The meetings of both branches were frequent, long protracted and stormy.
+At length a majority of both Boards determined that though his guilt was
+unquestionable, under the circumstances the first penalty prescribed by
+the Code did not apply. The second, that of banishment, at first
+approved itself to a majority of both Boards, but, after anxious
+consideration, it was deemed to be impracticable to carry it out, and
+make it permanent. It was therefore decided to dismiss him with a public
+notice of their belief in his guilt, and that the people of the largest
+County in the State were of opinion that he should resign the Judicial
+Office he held, and for which they deemed him unfit. Accordingly at an
+early hour in the morning his prison doors were opened, and he was
+permitted to go at large. In the afternoon of the same day he took the
+steamer and returned to his home in Stockton. No sooner was the
+decision, and the action of the Executive consequent upon it,
+promulgated, than a wild storm of passionate excitement broke forth,
+which threatened for several days the very existence of the
+organization. But the Delegates met their respective Companies;
+explained the action of the two Boards; gave the reasons for it in full;
+answered all questions; urged every consideration likely to remove
+suspicion, allay passion, and inspire confidence; and finally, with
+infinite difficulty, the perilous crisis was passed, and acquiescence,
+if not entire satisfaction was secured.
+
+A week afterwards, on the 18th of August a public Parade and Review of
+the entire force of the Vigilance Committee took place. The several
+Companies assembled at their Armories and marched from thence to the
+Head Quarters of their Regiments, and thence to Third Street, where the
+whole force of Cavalry, Artillery, Riflemen and Infantry, consisting of
+at least four thousand men, in black frock coats and pants and caps and
+white gloves, were formed in line in double rank, extending a full mile
+from Market Street some distance beyond South Park. The line was
+reviewed by the Commander and his staff and the Executive Committee,
+about forty persons in all, who thundered along it with heads uncovered,
+at full speed. The line then broke into columns of companies, and with
+inspiriting music from numerous bands, began their march through the
+City. The sidewalks, windows and roofs of buildings on the line of march
+were crowded with spectators. The scene from the upper part of Clay
+Street, when the Cavalry and Artillery, having wheeled into Stockton
+Street, the whole steep ascent of Clay Street, between Montgomery and
+Stockton Streets, was filled from sidewalk to sidewalk, with the dark
+moving mass of infantry, was most imposing; and to very many, of the
+spectators so touching from memories of fears, anxieties and terrors for
+their relatives and friends throughout, the eventful movement now so
+happily drawing to a conclusion; as to dim their eyes with tears of joy,
+and thankfulness. The march extended through the principal streets of
+the City, and was terminated and the line dismissed at six o'clock in
+the afternoon. This was the last public appearance of the Vigilance
+Committee.
+
+In the last week of August, the Executive Committee caused the
+fortifications in front of the Head Quarters to be razed to the ground,
+threw open the doors and invited public inspection of their rooms, and
+disbanded the whole force; retaining however, as they stated in their
+Address, the power to defend themselves if attacked; to enforce the
+penalty against any banished criminal who should return; and to preserve
+the public peace, if it should become necessary. A tap of the bell would
+in future, summon the members, if any emergency should require it.
+
+On the following third of November, the State arms which had been sent
+by the Governor from Benicia to be used by the "law and order" party in
+suppressing the Vigilance Committee, but which had been intercepted in
+the passage down the river, were restored; and the Governor then
+withdrew his Proclamation declaring the County of San Francisco in a
+state of insurrection.
+
+This great and hazardous experiment of Reforms thus brought to a
+conclusion nearly six months after its inception, was planned by some of
+the best men in the community....
+
+Happily the right prevailed without civil war. The imminent danger of a
+collision between the Committee and the United States authorities which
+might have arrayed against them the whole military and naval force at
+that station was surmounted by the exercise of consummate prudence. The
+most deadly peril of all, the internal dissensions and excessive
+exasperation in the ranks of the Committee consequent on the dismissal
+of Judge Terry without punishment was, with prodigious effort, finally
+averted. And then the determined front of the People thoroughly roused
+in City and State to their support, awed and finally crushed the force
+of organized ruffianism which had so long held sway, and run riot with
+impunity ....
+
+The approval or condemnation of the extraordinary movement described in
+these pages will depend upon the answer given by every person
+thoughtfully considering the subject, to the question whether, under our
+peculiar institutions, when a community has lapsed into a condition in
+which the bad element has become dominant and has succeeded in
+paralyzing or perfecting law and justice so that brute force and
+violence have full sway, and life and property are entirely insecure,
+there is any other conceivable mode in which the well disposed,
+industrious and orderly classes can assert their rights and secure their
+liberties, than the one adopted by the San Francisco Vigilance Committee
+in 1856? No other was suggested at the time, nor, so far as the writer
+knows, has been since. It obtained and preserved throughout, the
+approval, countenance and support of a large majority of the citizens of
+San Francisco, and also of the people of the State of California, as was
+abundantly shown by the numerous and continual expressions of sympathy,
+and proffers of assistance when needed and at the shortest notice, which
+were received by the Executive Committee.
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, A SKETCH OF THE CAUSES, OPERATIONS AND RESULTS OF THE SAN FRANCISCO VIGILANCE COMMITTEE OF 1856 ***
+
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