Class. 
 
 &ia 
 
 Rnnk .S^W-7 1 
 
HISTORY OF THE SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 COMMITTEE OF VIGILANCE 
 
 OF 1851 
 
 A THESIS ACCEPTED IN PARTIAL SATISFACTION OF 
 
 THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF 
 
 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 
 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 BY 
 
 MARY FLOYD WILLIAMS 
 
 1939 
 
U8f?ARroFCONGRSi 
 
 
 ION 
 
HISTORY OF THE SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 COMMITTEE OF VIGILANCE 
 
 OF 1851 
 
 BY 
 
 MARY FLOYD WILLIAMS, Ph.D. 
 
 University of California Publications in History 
 Volume XII 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS 
 
 BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA 
 
 1921 
 
UNIVEESITY OF CAUTOENIA PUBLICATIONS IN HISTORY 
 
 Herbert Eugene Bolton, Editor 
 
 Vol. 1. Studies in American History. 
 
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 2. The Eeorganization of Spain by Augustus, by John James Van Nostrand, Jr. 
 
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 PUBLICATIONS IN HISTORY 
 
 HERBERT E. BOLTON 
 
 EDITOR 
 
 VOLUME XII 
 
 y 
 
 ^D^J' 
 
' LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 MAHlimz 
 
 DOOUMBNT« i;,v.,ION 
 
Medal of the 8aii Francisco Committee of Vigilance of 1856. ''Organ- 
 ized 9th June 1851. Eeorganized 14th Mav, 1856." From the collection 
 of Mr. Charles B. Tiirrill. 
 
HISTORY OF THE SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 COMMITTEE OF VIGILANCE 
 
 OF 1851 
 
 A STUDY OF SOCIAL CONTROL ON 
 THE CALIFORNIA FRONTIER IN 
 THE DAYS OF THE GOLD RUSH 
 
 BY 
 
 MARY FLOYD WILLIAMS, Ph.D. 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS 
 
 BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA 
 
 1921 
 
Copyrighted, 1921 
 
 BY 
 
 Mary Floyd Williams 
 All rights reserved 
 
TO THE MEMORY OF MY FATHER 
 
 EDWARDS C. WILLIAMS 
 
 A LIEUTENANT IN STEVENSON'S REGIMENT 
 
 AND 
 
 A LOYAL CITIZEN OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 FROM 1847 TO 1913 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGES 
 
 Acknowledgments ix-x 
 
 Abbreviations Used in Footnotes xii 
 
 Introduction 1-19 
 
 PART 
 
 The California Frontier, 1846-1851 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 The Spanish Inheritance and the American Conquest 23-39 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 Colonel Richard B. Mason, Military Governor 40-52 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 El Dorado 53-65 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Vox PopuLi in the Mines of California 66-87 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 The Struggle for Organization 88-115 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 The Fabrication of the Commonwealth 116-135 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 The Failure to Establish Social Control 136-159 
 
 PART II 
 
 The San Francisco Committee of Vigilance of 1851 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 The Prelude to the Committee of Vigilance 162-185 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 The Organization of the Committee of Vigilance 186-207 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 The Committee at Work 208-226 
 
CHAPTER XI PAGES 
 
 The Records for June 227-251 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 James Stuart, Outlaw 252-274 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 On the Trail of Stuart's Companions 275-304 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Adventures in Crime 305-322 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 Politics and Reorgjanization 323-337 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 The Closing Months 338-355 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 A Summary of Methods 356-387 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 '51 TO 77 388-408 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 Lynch Law as a National Problem 409-427 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 In Retrospect 428-440 
 
 Biographical Notes 441-452 
 
 Documentary Appendix 453-473 
 
 Bibliography 474-518 
 
 Index . 519-543 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Medal of Committee of Vigilance of 1856 Frontispiece 
 
 TO face page 
 
 Portrait of William T. Coleman 190 
 
 Portrait of Samuel Brannan 212 
 
 Facsimile of Proclamation by Governor John McDougal 
 
 Relative to the Committee of Vigilance of 1851 298 
 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
 
 It is pleasant to work in libraries, and in acknowledg'ing a 
 debt of gratitude that I owe to many friends, I would mention, 
 first, the librarians w^ho have made this work of research pos- 
 sible, Professor Herbert I. Priestley and Mr. Joseph J. Hill, of 
 the Bancroft Library, Miss Eudora Garoutte, of the California 
 State Library, and Dr. George Watson Cole, of the Henr\^ E. 
 Huntington Library, at San Gabriel, California. 
 
 I would record, with sincere appreciation, the kindness of 
 President David P. Barrows, of the University of California, 
 and that of Professors William Carey Jones, Walter M. Hart, 
 Thomas H. Reed, Harold L. Bruce, and Charles E. Chapman- 
 busy men who have taken the time to read this volume in advance 
 of publication, and have given me the benefit of their criticisms. 
 Professor Edward Channing, of Harvard University, was also 
 kind enough to read the manuscript in an early form, and to 
 offer me advice that proved exceedingly valuable. Dr. Owen C. 
 Coy, secretary of the California Historical Survey Commission, 
 has directed me to important state records, and Mr. R. S. 
 Kuykendall has placed at my disposal his notes on the history 
 of California newspapers. Mr. Robert E. Cowan, an authority 
 on Califomiana, has examined the proof of the bibliography, and 
 suggested some interesting additions to the entries relating to 
 the Committees of Vigilance. 
 
 Especial thanks are due to Professor Frederick J. Teggart, 
 who directed my graduate work in its early stages, and to 
 Professor Eugene McCormac, wiio has given me counsel and 
 encouragement on many occasions when they were sorely needed. 
 
 I am much indebted to Professor Herbert E. Bolton for 
 assistance in investigating the frontier problems that developed 
 in California. In addition to this service, Professor Bolton has 
 
devoted careful attention to the many details of form and print- 
 ing that have come to his attention as editor of the University 
 series of Publications in History. 
 
 I must name another — Professor Henry Morse Stephens — 
 whose suggestion first led me to undertake this study, and whose 
 unfailing interest in its progress furnished the strongest incen- 
 tive that carried it forward to completion. Professor Stephens 
 died in April, 1919, and it is a cause of infinite regret to me that 
 the book was then only in manuscript, and that my tribute to 
 the inspiration of a remarkable teacher comes too late to fall 
 beneath his eyes. 
 
 Mary Floyd Williams. 
 
ABBREVIATIONS USED IN FOOTNOTES 
 
 The footnotes of this volimie cite Congressional Documents in a somewhat 
 unusual manner. No mention is made of the title of the session of Congress, 
 nor of the legislative body (Senate or House) that may be considered as 
 author. The various papers are cited solely by the ''Serial Number" and 
 the ' ' Document Number ' ' under which they appear in the bound series of 
 documents and the official cheek list. This method affords a concise but 
 definite guide to the original authority, while the expanded entry in the 
 Classified List of Material gives full details of publication. 
 
 Owing to the dearth of official documents relating to the early history 
 of California, the local newspapers are of unusual importance, and references 
 to them give not only the date, but also the exact position of the statement 
 quoted, page and column being indicated by figures separated by an oblique 
 line. Thus, Alia, 1851, April 1 %, refers to page two, column three, of the 
 issue named. 
 
 The other abbreviations employed are quite obvious, and bibliographical 
 information omitted from the footnotes will be found in the Classified List 
 of Material. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 When James Bryce wrote The American Commonwealth he 
 remarked with surprise that little attention had then been paid 
 to the individual histories of the separate states.^ Since that 
 time the neglected subject has received a great deal of careful 
 investigation: there has been much study and writing of local 
 history, and sources of every kind have been carefully collected 
 and published. 
 
 For the American period of California, however, little real 
 progress has been made during the last thirty years, for, with 
 the exception of a few students of special subjects, later writers 
 have been content to reassemble material already in print, and 
 to give it fresh vitality by fluency of style or touches of pictur- 
 esque color. Bancroft's works, in particular, have been quoted 
 most freely, and it cannot be denied that his analysis of the 
 sources of California history was extraordinarily minute, and 
 that the references in his voluminous footnotes are invaluable 
 guides for nearly every line of research. But the synthesis of 
 his text is less reliable, and it is dangerous to accept it as an 
 adequate presentation of any specific period or event. 
 
 Fortunately nearly all of Bancroft's sources are still accessible 
 to the student, for his large collection of books and manuscripts 
 has remained intact, and in 1905 it became the property of the 
 University of California. The purchase of this important library 
 was due, in great measure, to the efforts of the late Henry 
 Morse Stephens, who was then the head of the Department of 
 History in the University. Professor Stephens had an especial 
 enthusiasm for the publication of documentary sources of his- 
 tory, and he was ambitious that many of the unique treasures 
 
 1 James Bryce, American Commonwealth, ed. of 1914, I, 412 (ed. 1, 
 1888). 
 
2 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 of the Bancroft Library should be edited and printed as fast 
 as funds could be procured for the purpose. The Academy of 
 Pacific Coast History, with its interesting series of publications, 
 has been a practical expression of his efforts in this direction. 
 
 One of the items in the Bancroft Librarj^ which strongly 
 appealed to Professor Stephens' sense of historical values was 
 the file of the archives of the San Francisco Committee of 
 Vigilance of 1851. 
 
 The stories of that remarkable association, and of its successor 
 of 1856, have been told more than once. Probably every reader 
 of these pages already knows that the men who organized them 
 were respectable and influential members of the body politic; 
 that for brief periods they assumed unlawful control over 
 criminal matters in their city; that they arrested and confined 
 prisoners at their own discretion, hanged whom they would, and 
 banished from the state citizens and aliens whose presence they 
 deemed a menace to public order, while the community not only 
 tolerated their usurpation of power, but supported them in the 
 infliction of the most condign punishments. But it is not so 
 generally known that these societies which defied the law regu- 
 lated their conduct by the ordinary practices of parliamentary 
 procedure, and kept careful records of their daily actions. 
 
 When Bancroft was preparing his Popular Trihunals he 
 had access to the papers of both Committees, and those of 1851 
 were finally given to him outright by the former secretary, 
 Mr. Isaac Bluxome, Jr.^ They include the roll of the signers of 
 the constitution, lists of names proposed for membership, minutes, 
 reports, and financial accounts and vouchers. Professor Stephens 
 was convinced that these archives had great value as a contribu- 
 tion to local history, and as a documentary record of unusual 
 human interest, and as soon as the Bancroft Library was trans- 
 ferred to the University he planned for the publication in full 
 
 2 H. H. Bancroft, Literary Industries, 1890, pp. 658-660. 
 
Introduction 3 
 
 of the Papers of the Committee of Vigilance. In 1910 the List 
 of 31 embers, edited by Mr. Porter Garnett, appeared as a con- 
 tribution to the first volume of the publications of the Academy 
 of Pacific Coast History. Mr. Garnett also edited Part II of 
 the Papers, the List of Names Approved hy the Committee on 
 Qualification, and the pamphlet was included in the second 
 volume published by the Academy. But the labor involved in 
 arranging and annotating the mass of minutes and miscellaneous 
 papers promised to be very great, and it was not definitely 
 commenced until Professor Stephens asked me to undertake it 
 as graduate work in the Department of History. As the plans 
 for publication were first outlined, it was intended that the 
 documents should be given a preface that would furnish a neces- 
 sary background of local conditions, and that both preface and 
 documents should be printed together in two consecutive volumes 
 of the Academy series. 
 
 The task of editing the documents advanced very slowly, and 
 various puzzling questions arose as to the method of arranging 
 them for the press, and of reproducing their characteristic style 
 and atmosphere. The larger portion consists of loose pages of 
 manuscript, and it was decided to group them in accordance 
 with the chronological system adopted by Secretary Bluxome 
 in filing the records committed to his care.^ This necessitated 
 the wide separation of many pages that were closely connected 
 in subject; consequently the documents, as printed, do not form 
 a coherent history of the events they describe, although they 
 provide a reliable source from which most of that history can 
 be compiled. 
 
 It was an important and fascinating part of the editorial 
 work to unravel the separate threads of this tangled skein, to 
 trace the development of official policies, to gather together 
 
 3 See San Francisco Committee of Vigilance, Papers, III, 1919, pp. 
 viii-ix. (Hereafter cited as Papers.) 
 
4 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 scattered but related references, and to explain obscure allusions 
 by research in old newspapers and in the reminiscences of 
 pioneers. This process finally resulted in a very definite recon- 
 struction of the history of the Committee of Vigilance of 1851, 
 based upon hundreds of original records, and verified by the 
 testimony of actors and spectators. And this account differed 
 materially from other narratives of the work of the Committee ; 
 for the secondary historians had over-emphasized a few melo- 
 dramatic and crucial incidents, and had practically ignored the 
 most distinguishing characteristics of the organization — the 
 sincere conviction on the part of its members that they were 
 justified in usurping temporary jurisdiction over the criminal 
 problems of the city, and their conscientious and laborious efforts 
 to exercise this self-assumed office with justice as well as with 
 courage. The Vigilantes were never oblivious of the fact that 
 their actions were open to the most serious objections, and the 
 care taken to preserve their papers was largely due to their desire 
 that future criticism should be based on exact knowledge of the 
 course they had pursued.* 
 
 As progress w^as made in arranging the archives, it became 
 more and more apparent that a detailed story of the Committee 
 should also be published for the use of those who had neither 
 the inclination nor the time to decipher the confused pages of the 
 volume of documents. It was therefore decided that the archives 
 should be bound by themselves for the special convenience of 
 the research worker, and that, in place of the contemplated 
 preface, the editor should embody the results of her study of the 
 entire subject in a separate volume. 
 
 A most perplexing problem developed in seeking an appro- 
 priate point of departure for the narrative as a whole. It was 
 comparatively simple to name and describe the members of the 
 Committee, since many of them were distinguished by years of 
 
 4 See Papers, 639, 683-684. 
 
Introduction ^ 
 
 civic and commercial usefulness. It was equally simple to recount 
 their actions during 1851 and 1852, for the records spoke for 
 themselves. But when all that was done, there arose an inevi- 
 table and insistent question : ' ' Why did such men do such things ? ' ' 
 The answer could not be elicited solely from the archives of the 
 Committee, nor did the general histories of California afford an 
 adequate and satisfactory explanation. 
 
 As Professor Stephens has said in a brief introduction to 
 the documents of the Committee, the significance of any his- 
 torical event is a matter of interpretation, every generation 
 regards the past from a different angle, and the emphasis in 
 interpretation shifts with the shifting standpoints of historical 
 criticism.^ Seventy years have passed since the organization 
 of the Committee of Vigilance of 1851, and already one can 
 recognize a succession of interpretations of that particular society 
 and of its allied institutions, the miners' courts of California 
 and the other popular tribunals of the entire western area. 
 
 The contemporary observer usually formed his judgment on 
 the basis of efficiency. To him the protection of life and property 
 was a matter of vital importance. When he found that crim- 
 inals were terrified into unwilling docility by lynch law and vigi- 
 lance committees, he commended such social expedients, although 
 he might lament their incidental cruelty and deprecate their 
 defiance of the principles of representative government. 
 
 The writers of the next generation, comfortably remote from 
 the dangers that confronted the pioneer, showed a marked 
 inclination to discuss the history of the earlier decades in uncom- 
 promising terms of right and wrong. Three important studies 
 of the social life of California during the crisis of the gold fever 
 appeared with singular sequence in three successive years: 
 Charles Howard Shinn's Mining Camps in 1885, Josiah Eoyce's 
 California in 1886, and Bancroft's Popular Tribunals in 1887. 
 
 5 Papers, iii. 
 
6 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 In preparing his interesting monograph on the mining camps, 
 Shinn took pains to familiarize himself with books already in 
 print, and with the local records and the newspapers of the 
 period. He also had much conversation and correspondence with 
 surviving Argonauts, who were then, however, removed more 
 than a quarter of a century from the period they were asked to 
 describe. The material thus collected is picturesque, vivid, and 
 of great value, although deficient in exactness of reference. It 
 has been freely quoted by all later writers, but it is evident that 
 the author's wide acquaintance with the makers of California 
 history and his sincere admiration of their sterling qualities 
 led him to adopt their point of view as his own, for his book 
 reflects only the most favorable and optimistic of contemporary 
 impressions.^ 
 
 Professor Royce, on the other hand, while he used some of 
 the same documentary material as did Shinn, based much of his 
 criticism of early social conditions on the diary and recollections 
 of his mother, and on the letters of ' ' Dame Shirley, ' ' a homesick 
 New Englander, who spent some unhappy months in a California 
 mining town. Both these women had keen powers of observa- 
 tion and scrupulous convictions as to righteousness and evil. 
 Their influence no doubt accentuated the philosopher's tendency 
 to judge the California pioneer by absolute standards of ideal 
 citizenship, to attribute his failures to a sinful neglect of all 
 personal and communal responsibilities, and to describe the 
 resultant confusion as a time of retribution when the ''restless 
 and suffering social order" purged itself through struggle and 
 penance.'^ 
 
 When H. H. Bancroft undertook to cover a part of the same 
 field in his Popular Tribunals he obtained direct access to the 
 archives of the Committees of Vigilance of 1851 and 1856. These 
 
 6 See Josiah Royce, California, 1886, pp. 279, 314-316. 
 
 7 Hid., 344-356, 402, 406. ''Shirley" was a pseudonym for Mrs. Louise 
 A. K. Clappe. 
 
Introduction 7 
 
 afforded a new and reliable source of information on two im- 
 portant incidents that were typical of the spirit of the people 
 of the state in the first decade of the commonwealth. The his- 
 torian also supplemented these official records by obtaining inter- 
 views with some of the more prominent members, and securing 
 from them dictated statements of their personal recollections. 
 But Mr. Bancroft was alwaj^s an out and out champion of the 
 Vigilantes, and he was so eager to show their lofty ideals and 
 heroic personalities that although his reconstruction of the his- 
 tory of the Committee of 1851 was drawn from original docu- 
 ments and personal reminiscences it neglected all the prosaic 
 groundwork of painstaking detail, and often sacrificed exactness 
 to melodrama. 
 
 Different as are these three interpretations in their conclu- 
 sions, they have in common a distinctly moral point of view, and 
 the writers commend or condemn, firm in the conviction of the 
 inherent righteousness or wickedness of their segregated groups 
 of good citizens and bad. The historical student of today is less 
 inclined to pose as a dispenser of halos and of gridirons. He 
 plucks the angels and he dehorns the devils whom he costumes 
 for his historical pageant; and seeing in them men and women 
 little better and little worse than those he knows in the intimacy 
 of daily life, he seeks to explain their deeds by an understanding 
 of the social conditions that impelled them to action. 
 
 The ''Days of '49" has become a name to conjure with; in 
 the popular imagination the real significance of the period has 
 largely been obscured by the dominating figure of the bearded 
 miner, with his pickaxe, his pistol, his strange oaths, and his 
 sanguinary device of a rogue pendent. Although that miner was 
 a product of the stout and virile life of the whole American 
 frontier, the historians of 1885 had not awakened to the im- 
 portant influence of the frontier as a constant force in the devel- 
 opment of our nation during the entire period when the tide of 
 
8 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 pioneer life was sweeping forward from the fall line of the 
 Atlantic streams towards the placers of the Bio de los Americanos. 
 They wrote of the Californian as of an American in unique cir- 
 cumstances, who faced his own peculiar problems with certain 
 racial predispositions. But in 1921 the historian no longer 
 depicts the Californian as a foundling of the gold mines, with 
 the shadow of the Sierra Nevadas cast like a bar sinister across 
 the escutcheon of his American paternity. The Argonaut is 
 recognized as the legitimate offspring of an honorable race of 
 pioneers, who were everywhere audacious and conservative, sus- 
 picious and optimistic, ready to grapple immensity with their 
 naked hands, competent to build in the wilderness states based 
 on the traditions of their Puritan forefathers, jealous of every 
 measure put forth to restrain their arrogant individualism, and 
 sublimely confident that the common sense of the majority would 
 save any community, small or large, from the one unpardonable 
 sin of self-destruction. 
 
 The frontier has ever been the laboratorj^ of American 
 democracy, where fearless men lay hold of the elemental forces 
 that construct and destroy human society. After them have 
 come the theorists, lamenting the catastrophes, explaining the 
 triumphs, and formulating from the litter of the workshop gen- 
 eralizations and warnings for artisans of a more cautious regime. 
 The frontiersman in California dealt with conditions and special 
 problems unlike those developed in the Trans- Alleghany valleys 
 and the Mississippi watershed, but his equipment to meet the new 
 environment corresponded very closely with that of American 
 frontiersmen of every generation. As a necessary introduction, 
 therefore, to the study of the California pioneer, we must restate 
 here certain*"essential characteristics and tendencies of the Amer- 
 ican national spirit. 
 
Introduction 9 
 
 The long succession of social experiments which had accom- 
 panied the extension of the frontier diverged widely in individual 
 features ; but they were all founded on a common acceptance of 
 the theory that the state was created by a voluntary compact 
 between contracting parties who possessed various inherent 
 rights. The theory included the conception of a period when 
 society was still unorganized, and when men lived in simple 
 enjoyment of all their natural rights, subject only to certain 
 laws of God and of Nature. It was conceded that under par- 
 ticular circumstances, such as the violation of the contract by 
 one of the subscribers, or the migration of a special group beyond 
 the area in which an existing compact was binding, the organized 
 people might resolve themselves into their original elements, and 
 in their primary capacity resume the exercise of their natural 
 rights, or form a new compact suited to changed conditions.^ 
 
 This theory was preached by theologians and expounded by 
 statesmen until it became an integral part of the national thought ; 
 it was the essence of the doctrine of the consent of the governed, 
 it was the underlying force that impelled the Pilgrims of the 
 Mayflower to pledge to each other mutual support and loyalty 
 when they were obliged to establish their colony outside of the 
 territory in which their patent rights were valid. From that 
 day forward covenants of various kinds became the resource of 
 the American settlers whenever they found themselves without the 
 formal bonds and safeguards of constitutional government or in 
 a situation where normal institutions failed to fulfill their legiti- 
 mate functions. Many a New England town inaugurated its 
 
 8 The folloAving references are useful in tracing the effect of the theory 
 of the social contract on the establishment of institutions in American com- 
 munities: A. C. McLaughlin, ''Social Compact and Constitutional Con- 
 struction," American Historical Review, V (1900), 467-490; A. B. Hart, 
 ''Growth of American Theories of Popular Government," American Political 
 Science Review, I (1907), 531-560; Charles Borgeaud, Rise of Modern 
 Bemocracy in Old and New England, 1894, pp. 77-90, 105-168; H. L. 
 Osgood, '"'Political Ideas of the Puritans," Political Science Quarterhj, VI 
 (1891), 1-28; C. E. Merriam, History of American Political Theories, 1903, 
 chaps. 2, 4; F. A. Cleveland, Organi-zcd Democracy, 1913, pp. 34^45; C. S. 
 Lobingier, The People's Law, 1909, chaps. 5-7. 
 
10 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 civic life with a compact modeled on the Mayflower document;^ 
 the Scotch-Irish of the Alleghanies also understood how to asso- 
 ciate themselves for mutual protection ;^° and as the frontier 
 pushed westward there was constant illustration of the tendency 
 to crystallize the public opinion of the scattered communities 
 into a practical medium of government under the form of 
 compacts, especially as to the preservation of order and the 
 occupation of land. 
 
 Such agreements were written and signed in pre-Revolution- 
 ary times by the people of North and South Carolina, who formed 
 societies of ''Regulators" to punish crime and to check the 
 extortion practiced by dishonest officials. In South Carolina, 
 where the associations appeared as early as 1764, they were 
 suppressed with difficulty. In North Carolina the Regulation 
 was active from 1768 to 1771, and persisted until the tragic 
 battle of the Alamance dispersed the insurgents, and subsequent 
 trials resulted in the execution of some of the leaders.^^ In 1772 
 the settlers at Watauga, beyond the pale of colonial organiza- 
 tion, signed the first written constitution adopted by men of 
 American birth, a compact which made the will of the majority 
 practically supreme, and which remained in force for the six 
 
 9 See Lois K. Mathews, ' ' The Mayflower Compact and Its Descendants, ' ' 
 Mississippi Valley Historical Association, Proceedings, VI (1912-1913), 
 79-106; F. J. Turner, ''Western State-Making in the Eevolutionary Era," 
 American Historical Beview, 1 (1895-1896), especially pp. 70-87; Allen 
 Johnson, ''Genesis of Popular Sovereignty," loiva Journal of History and 
 Politics, III (1905), 3-19. 
 
 10 See Theodore Eoosevelt, Winning of the West, 1889-1896, I, 101-133. 
 
 11 See North Carolina, Colonial Records, 1886-1890, Introductions to VII, 
 VIII. The agreements of the Eegulators, accessible through the Index of 
 this series, are very suggestive of the records of the Committee of Vigilance. 
 The Regulation movement may be further studied in J. E. Cutler, Lyncli- 
 Law, ]905, chaps. 2-3; David Ramsay, History of South-Carolina, 1809, I, 
 211-215; J. H. Wheeler, Historical Sketches of North Carolina, 1851, I, 
 48-60; II, 10-20, 301-331; J. S. Bassett, "Regulators of North Carolina," 
 American Historical Association, Aniiual Report, 1894, pp. 141-212 ; M. DeL. 
 Haywood, Governor William Tryon, 1903, pp. 77-194; S. A'C. Ashe, History 
 of North Carolina, 1908, I, 336-376; Archibald Henderson, "Origin of the 
 Regulation in North Carolina," American Historical Review, XXI (1916), 
 320-332. V y, 
 
Introduction 11 
 
 years that elapsed before the neighborhood was incorporated 
 as Washington County in the state of North Carolina.^^ 
 
 Immediately after the Revolution many western settlements 
 took the initial steps in local organization without waiting for 
 action of the Continental Congress. In one case, indeed, the 
 state of Franklin sustained itself in isolated democracy for sev- 
 eral years." The land clubs and claim associations of the Old 
 Northwest applied the same principle of voluntary alliance to 
 the mutual protection of homesteaders' rights, and were based 
 on written agreements that furnish some of the most character- 
 istic documents of American local history.^^ ''All through these 
 compacts," wrote Professor F. J. Turner, ''runs the doctrine 
 that the people in an unoccupied land have the right to determine 
 their own political institutions," and he cited a declaration made 
 by a committee reporting to the legislature of Wisconsin as late 
 as 1843, in which it was stated that all "political communities 
 have the right of governing themselves in their own way within 
 their lawful boundaries. "^^ 
 
 12 See J. G. M. Eamsey, Annuls of Tennessee, 1853, pp. 106-140; Eoose- 
 velt, Winning of the West, I, chap. 7. 
 
 13 See Eamsey, Annals of Tennessee, 283-444; G. H. Alden, New Gov- 
 ernments West of the Alleghanies hefore 1780, 1897; and his ''State of 
 Franklin," American Historical Bevicw, VIII (1903), 271-289; ''Petition 
 for a Western State," Mississippi Valley Historical Beview, I (1914), 
 265-269; Eoosevelt, Winning of the West, II, 324^369; III, 153-202; 
 A W. Putnam, History of Middle Tennessee, 1859, pp. 89-103; Archibald 
 Henderson, Eichard Henderson: the Authorship of the Cumberland Compact 
 and the Founding of Nashville, 1916; C. S. Lobin^er, The People's Law, 
 chap. 8. Citizen committees did useful work in Mississippi in 1797 and 
 1798, see F. L. Eiley, "Transition from Spanish to American Eule m Mis- 
 sissippi," Mississippi Historical Society, FuUications, III (1900), 275-311. 
 
 14 See B. F. Shambaugh, "Frontier Land Clubs or Claim Associations, ^ 
 American Historical Association, Annual Beport, 1900, I, 67-84; and his 
 Constitution and Becords of the Claim Association of Johnson County, loiva, 
 1894; Jesse Macy, Institutional Beginnings in a Western State [Iowa], 
 1884; Brigham Johnson, "Frontier Life in Iowa in the Forties," Maga- 
 zine of History, XVIII (1914), 23-28; G. E. Howard, Introduction to the 
 Local Constitutional History of the United States, 1889, I, 411-412. 
 
 15 Turner, "Western State-Making," American Historical Bevieiv, I 
 (1895-1896), 265-266. The characteristics of the frontier as a form of 
 society rather than as a geographic area are further discussed by Professor 
 
12 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 The American precedent of voluntary association was fol- 
 lowed by the revolutionists in Texas when they sought indepen- 
 dence from Mexico. In 1835 they formed local "committees of 
 safety," primarilj^ to provide protection against Indians, and 
 these became the nucleus for the general representative Council 
 of Safety which for a time constituted the central government.^^ 
 The provisional government of the people of Oregon, one of the 
 most successful experiments in frontier organization, was another 
 striking example of social agreement. It is said that the very 
 term "compact" was preferred to "constitution" by some of 
 the leaders of the movement,^^ and provision was made for the 
 voluntary withdrawal of anyone who might desire to revert to 
 the unsocial state of nature by discontinuing his financial con- 
 tributions to the common cause. 
 
 Successive experiments and expanding national life have 
 modified the theory of the social compact. Our people have 
 learned that even in a democracy changes in adopted contracts 
 must be made in orderly ways, and that, if we are to have a 
 government of law rather than of caprice, there must be some 
 "machinery short of revolution "^^ to determine whether the 
 compact has been observed. But it has been necessary to recog- 
 nize here the powerful influence exerted upon American thought 
 
 Turner in various articles collected in his The Frontier in American History, 
 1920. See also his List of References on the History of the West, ed. of 
 1913; Justin Winsor, Westward Movement, 1763-1798, 1897; R. T. Hill, 
 The Public Domain and Democracy, 1910; the opening chapters of W. E. 
 Weyl, The New Democracy, 1912. 
 
 16 H. K. Yoakum, History of Texas, 1856, I, 337, 355-379, passim; 
 H. H. Bancroft, History of the North Mexican States and Texas, II (1889), 
 155 et seq.; H. S. Foote, Texas and the Texans, 1841, II, 83-86, 128 et seq.; 
 ''Journal of the Permanent Council (October 11-27, 1835)," Texas State 
 Historical Association, Quarterly, VII (1904), 250-278. 
 
 17 See J. R. Robertson, ''Genesis of Popular Government in Oregon," 
 Oregon Historical Society, Quarterly, I (1900), 1-59; W. H. Gray, His- 
 tory of Oregon, 1870, p. 336 et seq.; H. H. Bancroft, History of Oregon, 
 1886-1888, I, chaps. 12, 16, 18; H. S. Lyman, History of Oregon, 1903, III, 
 274 et seq.; W. C. Woodward, Rise and Early History of Political Parties 
 in Oregon, 1913, pp. 13-34; Oregon Archives, 1853. 
 
 18 A. B. Hart, National Ideals Historically Traced, 1907, p. 100. 
 
Introduction 13 
 
 by this theory of the state, because it found enduring expression 
 in man}^ of the institutions of the frontier, and asserted itself 
 very definitely in California during all the period under our 
 especial consideration. 
 
 Closely linked with the conception of a state based on a 
 voluntary compact was the distrust of a centralized form of 
 government which profoundly influenced the men who inaugu- 
 rated the social life of our nation. The utmost liberty of action 
 in domestic affairs was demanded by all the local groups and 
 they subordinated their individual rights with reluctance to any 
 superior authority. One result of this attitude was the develop- 
 ment of a loose system of state government in which there 
 was a marked sacrifice of efficiency in conducting matters that 
 pertained to the common welfare. But self-government, not 
 efficiency, was the passion of the first American colonists, and 
 that passion they transmitted to the sons and grandsons who 
 continued their work. Fathers and sons, alike, dared to be 
 inefficient and to make mistakes, if in that way they could learn 
 for themselves how the self -governed might perform those social 
 tasks which had previously been centralized under kings and 
 ministers of state. 
 
 One of the most difficult problems that arose under the 
 decentralized system of American local government was the 
 suppression of disorder in the outer line of settlements that 
 constantly advanced beyond the convenient operation of the 
 law, and from a very early period the frontiersmen exercised a 
 self-assumed criminal jurisdiction which was commonly sustained 
 by the mutual consent of the neighborhood immediately con- 
 cerned. Professor Turner said :^^ 
 
 It was the multiplicity of revolutionary associations, and the ease with 
 which they might run into the form taken by the Vigilance Committees of 
 the far West, that led even so ardent a follower of revolutionary principles 
 
 19 Turner, "Western State-Making," American Historical Beview, I 
 (1895-1896), 265-266. 
 
14 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 as Patrick Henry to declare in 1786 regarding the defenseless condition of 
 the western frontier, ''that protection which is the best and general object 
 of social compact is withdrawn, and the people, thus consigned to destruc- 
 tion, will naturally form associations, disgraceful as they are destructive of 
 government. ' ' 
 
 Even before Patrick Henry uttered his warning, the possi- 
 bility of which he spoke had already become a reality. The 
 Regulators of Colonial days had bound themselves to make com- 
 mon cause against horse thieves and other criminals, and they 
 had subsequently arrested such undesirable neighbors, tried them 
 in a summary fashion, and chastised the guilty by stripes deemed 
 appropriate to their misdeeds. The general excitement and dis- 
 order incident to the Revolution stimulated the tendency towards 
 the punishment of criminals or unpopular persons by groups 
 which assumed a quasi-representative function. The famous Bos- 
 ton Tea Party was a manifestation of such an impulse, and the 
 numerous committees of safety throughout the colonies consti- 
 tuted an efficient force for the pursuit and punishment of sus- 
 pected Tories. ^^ An interesting summary of these Colonial and 
 Revolutionary movements is given in the opening chapters of 
 J. E. Cutler's Lynch-Law. In the opinion of that author, the 
 much disputed origin of the term ''lynch law" may be traced 
 to a self-appointed court of Revolutionary days in Virginia, 
 where Charles Lynch, William Preston, Robert Adams, Jr., and 
 James Callaway disciplined the rogues and the Tories of Bed- 
 ford County.^'^ After the war was ended, damages were sought 
 
 20 See E. D. Collins, ' ' Committees of Correspondence of the American 
 Revolution," American Historical Association, Beport, 1901, I, 245-271; 
 Agnes Hunt, Provincial Committees of Safety of the American Bevolution, 
 1904 ; J, M. Leake, The Virginia Committee System and the American Bevo- 
 lution, 1917. Handbills printed in Philadelphia and New York, 1773 and 
 1774, suggest notices issued by the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance 
 of 1851 (see E. M. Avery, History of the United States, 1904-1910, V, 
 168-169). 
 
 21 Cutler, Lynch-Law, 13-40. See also H. H. Bancroft, Popular Trib- 
 unals, 1887, I, 6-7; The Green Bag, IV (1892), 561-562. Before the 
 Revolution Lynch had acted as a justice of the peace {Lynch-Law, 25 note) 
 and Preston and Callaway had also represented the colonial government as 
 lieutenants of the county {Green Bag, V [1893], 116). 
 
Introduction 15 
 
 for some of the penalties inflicted, but the General Assembly 
 of Virginia decided that the proceedings, while not strictly war- 
 ranted by law, were justified by the imminence of the danger. 
 
 A like necessity constantly existed all along the line of the 
 westward advance where there was always a definite element 
 of dangerous criminals. The same impulse towards organization 
 that moved the pioneers to combine in land claim associations 
 led them to seek protection from lawlessness by concerted effort 
 to secure the punishment of crime. It became a general custom 
 to improvise a kind of pseudo court wherever and whenever a 
 flagrant offender incurred public censure.-^ There was also a 
 marked tendency to increase the severity of punishment; while 
 discipline prior to 1830 was seldom more severe than whipping, 
 the frequent executions of a later date made the term ' ' to lynch ' ' 
 almost synonymous with ' ' to hang. ' '-^ 
 
 A popular trial destined to attract wide attention was that 
 of a murderer named Patrick 'Conner, convicted in May, 1834, 
 by the people of Dubuque 's Mines, in unorganized country north 
 of Missouri. The courts of Illinois had no jurisdiction in the 
 region, and during the month that elapsed before the sentence 
 was executed the governor of Missouri refused to interfere, while 
 an appeal to President Jackson elicited the reply that even he 
 had no authority in the case, as the laws of the United States had 
 not been extended over that part of the Louisiana Purchase. 
 'Conner was finally hanged with the solemnity befitting a legal 
 execution. In commenting on the case the Niles Register said r^* 
 
 22 The Green Mountain boys of Vermont protected their land titles by 
 lynch law (the use of the birch) in the days of early settlement (Turner, 
 ''The Old West," in his Frontier in American History, 78). See also 
 Koosevelt, Winning of the West, 1, 132 note 1, 187 note 1; J. L. McConnel, 
 Western Characteristics, 1853, pp. 171-245 passim. 
 
 23 Cutler, Lynch-Law, 116 et seq. 
 
 24 See also Eliphalet Price, "Trial and Execution of Patrick O 'Conner," 
 Annals of loiua, ser. I, III (1865), 566-574; Jesse Macy, Institutionnl 
 Beginnings in a Western State, 7-8; Cutler, Lynch-Law, 86-88; Niles 
 Begister, XLVI (1834), 352; Des Moines i^e^i^^er and Leader, 1910, Sept. 25. 
 
16 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 As laAV, in every country, emanates from the people, and is, in fact, 
 whether written or not, nothing more nor less than certain rules of action 
 by which a people agree to be governed, the unanimous agreement among 
 that people to put a man to death for the crime of murder, rendered the 
 act legal to all intents and purposes. . . . They have taught the world that 
 the people are the basis of law, even where no written law can be applied. 
 
 Turner has said that the Westerner, impatient of restraint, 
 placed himself under influences destructive to many of the gains 
 of civilization, but that he knew how to preserve order even in 
 the absence of legal authority. "If there were cattle thieves, 
 lynch law was sudden and effective : the regulators of the Caro- 
 linas were the predecessors of the claims associations of Iowa and 
 the vigilance committees of California. ... If the thing was one 
 proper to be done, then the most immediate, rough and ready, 
 effective way was the best way."^^ 
 
 Bancroft called these extra-legal courts "popular tribunals." 
 The term describes them well and at the same time it relates 
 the popular trials of the American frontier to the protective 
 measures adopted by European communities in periods or crises 
 when central governments were not strong enough to preserve 
 order. Popular committees and associations for the suppression 
 of crime have been of importance in the social development of 
 many nations. Trial by popular assembly was a recognized 
 practice in the Athenian democracy, as well as in the Teutonic 
 tribes before the development of the jury system. ^^ The Yem- 
 gericht of Germany and the Santa Hermandad of Spain and 
 the Spanish colonies were not only supported by the people at 
 large but were tolerated and sometimes fostered by the authori- 
 ties when justice could not be administered by due process 
 of law. The medieval towns of France had their defensive 
 
 25 Turner, ' ' The Problem of the West, ' ' in his Frontier in American 
 History, 209-212, passim. 
 
 26 See Victor Duruy, History of Greece, tr. by M. M. Eipley, 1890, I, 
 538 et seq.; Sir H. S. Maine, Early Law and Custom, 1886, chap. 6. 
 
Introduction 17 
 
 conf retries. The local history of England and the Scottish border 
 recounts many acts of extra-legal retribution. ^^ 
 
 The inter-relation of these various tribunals and of the many 
 secret societies which are allied to them is a subject far more 
 inclusive than the study of any particular local committee, and 
 generalizations can have little value unless they are based on 
 exact knowledge of the many associations involved. ^^ 
 
 No attempt has been made in this volume to cover so wide 
 a field, or to question how far the popular tribunals of this 
 century were indigenous and spontaneous, and how far they 
 were influenced by European tradition and inheritance.^^ The 
 social emergencies of the American frontier were very different 
 from the social emergencies of medieval Europe, whatever may 
 have been the kinship between the sturdy pioneers of the West 
 and the resolute brotherhoods of earlier centuries. 
 
 For more than two centuries, and under many varying 
 circumstances, the American pioneers experimented in empire 
 building from the Atlantic Ocean to the shores of the Pacific. 
 
 27 See L. J. Paetow, Guide to the Study of Medieval History, 1917, 
 ''Vemgerichte," p. 292, ' ' Hermandadas, " p. 321; Lavisse and Rambaud, 
 Histoire generale, II (1893), 466; Lynn Thorndike, History of Medieval 
 Europe [1917], 534 et seq.; R. B. Merriman, Eise of the Spanish Empire, I 
 (1918), 191-194; II, 99 et seq.; C. E. Chapman, History of Spain, 1918, 
 pp. 155-156. 
 
 28 Allied associations are discussed in Cutler, Lyneh-Law, 5-12 ; Ban- 
 croft, Popular Trihu7ials, I, chaps. 1, 3. 
 
 29 In California there was a definite point of contact betAveen Anglo- 
 Saxon and Spanish precedents as the Santa Hermandad had been highly 
 developed in certain parts of Mexico (see Bancroft, History of Mexico, 
 1883-1888, III, 272-276). J. W. Dwinelle said that twenty years before 
 the American occupation of California parties of reputable colonists were 
 obliged to pursue outlaw soldiers and kill them like wild beasts. ''The 
 Vigilance Committees in California are therefore a tradition of the Mexico- 
 Calif ornian regime" {Colonial History of the City of San Franoiseo, ed. 3, 
 1866, p. 87). In 1836 there was a deliberate execution by a popular tribunal, 
 when the people of Los Angeles tried and executed a man and woman 
 guilty of an atrocious murder. As no constitutional courts had inflicted 
 punishments for homicide this act was approved by the community and 
 condoned by the authorities {Fopular Tribunals, I, '62-66; J. S. Hittell, 
 History of San Francisco, 1878, pp. 79-81; Vigilantes de Los Angeles, 1836, 
 MS in the Bancroft Library; Vigilance Committee [of Los Angeles, 1836], 
 MS in the Bancroft Library; Alta California, 1865, March 30 l^). 
 
18 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 In California they encountered conditions and emergencies that 
 were radically different from those that had appeared elsewhere, 
 and that taxed to the utmost all their capacity for self-control. 
 None the less the development of California was an integral part 
 of pioneer history, and the successes and the failures that 
 attended the settlement and upbuilding of the state have a per- 
 manent value far transcending their sectional interest. 
 
 One of the most notable episodes in the history of California 
 was the organization of the Committee of Vigilance of San Fran- 
 cisco, an organization which is invested with abiding significance 
 when it is regarded as a demonstration of national life and 
 thought, rather than as a singular episode in an isolated com- 
 munity. But to make clear this significance it is not enough 
 to relate the Committee vaguely to general tendencies in Ameri- 
 can society. It is imperative to perceive, as well, the special 
 problems of California, and the exigencies which distinguished 
 the entire interval that had elapsed since the date of the 
 American occupation. To be explicit, we cannot understand the 
 Committee of Vigilance of 1851 until we understand the failure 
 of the courts to punish crime, and the consequent survival of 
 the resort to popular tribunals. Nor can we discern the initial 
 need of such popular tribunals and their recognized place in the 
 life of 1848 and 1849 until we realize the extraordinary problems 
 that developed when a hundred thousand gold seekers swarmed 
 into a mining region that was destitute of any form of civil gov- 
 ernment. For an explanation of this strange lack of the ordinary 
 bulwarks of American society, we must look still deeper into the 
 unusual status of California while it was held as a military 
 possession of the United States during the war with Mexico, and 
 at the changes that followed the conclusion of hostilities. Finally, 
 in order to comprehend all the obvious and the subtle influences 
 that called the committee into being, we must be able to appre- 
 ciate how these years of uncontrolled, tumultuous, and intensely 
 
Introductian 19 
 
 practical life, developed in the men of California an enormous 
 self-reliance, and so accustomed them to improvise political and 
 judicial organization that they tended to idealize the sovereign 
 attributes of the "people assembled in their primary capacity" 
 at the expense of legitimate, representative government. 
 
 Here is a group of problems which must be formulated, first 
 of all, in the exact and simple terms of local history. Some of 
 them receive adequate consideration in the standard works on 
 California, but others of vital importance have been strangely 
 neglected, or have been overlaid and confused with a mass of 
 distracting detail. As a result, the studies already in print do 
 not give a broad and well balanced picture of community life in 
 California during the gold rush. It has, therefore, proved 
 impossible to introduce the history of the Committee of Vigilance 
 by any brief summary of familiar material, and it has been 
 necessary to devote several chapters to a consideration of certain 
 phases of California history that directed public action and 
 molded private thought during the period prior to 1851. 
 
PART I 
 THE CALIFORNIA FRONTIER 
 
 1848 TO 1851 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 THE SPANISH INHERITANCE AND THE 
 AMERICAN CONQUEST 
 
 The Committee of Vigilance of San Francisco was organized 
 on the ninth of June, 1851. California had been a recognized 
 commonwealth of the Federal Union exactly nine months; for 
 nearly five years she had been under the flag of the United States ; 
 and for three-quarters of a century before the American occu- 
 pation she had been a part of the great colonial system which 
 Spain had planted upon the Western Hemisphere. 
 
 There had been only a brief clash of arms when the country 
 passed from the control of one government to that of the other. 
 California was nevertheless a field of conflict between two ideals 
 of social order — the ideal of the Spanish-American colonists 
 based on the civil law of Rome, and the ideal of their American 
 successors based on the common law of England. Further, these 
 distinct ideals, formulated by centuries of national life in the 
 Old "World, had been constantly modified by the problems of 
 life in the New, as men of different races pushed their frontiers 
 northward from Mexico, and westward from the Atlantic sea- 
 board, to meet on the plains of the Southwest, and on the shores 
 of the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 Until the close of Spanish rule in 1822, the military and 
 ecclesiastical authorities had dominated California. Thenceforth 
 the ecclesiastical influence declined, sinking to almost nothing 
 after the secularization decree of 1833. At the same time the 
 civil organization increased in importance until it vied with the 
 military, and the Mexican system cannot be ignored in any 
 study of the early American period, since it was perpetuated 
 
24 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 as the vehicle of local administration from the date of the occu- 
 pation until the full establishment of state government in 1850. 
 It has been summarized as follows by one of the American 
 military-civil governors -} 
 
 It consists, first, of a governor, appointed by the supreme government: 
 in default of such appointment, the office is temporarily vested in the com- 
 manding military officer of the department. . . . Second, a secretary. . . . Third, 
 a territorial or departmental legislature, with limited powers to pass laws 
 of a local character. Fourth, a superior court (tribunal superior) of the 
 Territory, consisting of four judges and a fiscal. Fifth, a prefect and sub- 
 prefects for each district, who are charged with the preservation of public 
 order and the execution of the laws: their duties correspond, in a great 
 measure, with those of district marshals and sheriffs. Sixth, a judge of 
 first instance for each district: this office is, by a custom not inconsistent 
 with the laws, vested in the first alcalde of the district. Seventh, alcaldes, 
 who have concurrent jurisdiction among themselves in the same district, but 
 are subordinate to the higher judicial tribunals. Eighth, local justices of 
 the peace. Ninth, ayuntamientos, or town councils. The powers and func- 
 tions of all these officers are fully defined in the laws of this country, and 
 are almost identical with those of the corresponding officers in the Atlantic 
 and western States. 
 
 California, one would conclude, was provided with an 
 adequate and nicely balanced government; and so she was, by 
 statute. But it is necessary to accept such an obvious con- 
 clusion with extreme caution, as the Mexican officials had 
 a genius for writing out organizations on paper, and for 
 nullifying their statutes in actual practice. For this reason the 
 ''laws" and the ''usages" of a given community often exhibit 
 notable discrepancies, and accounts of conditions based on a 
 study of national regulations may differ greatly from other 
 accounts based on the personal experiences of residents and 
 visitors. In California the variations between law and custom 
 offer an interesting field for careful comparison of documentary 
 sources and of contemporary observations. Pending such a 
 
 1 Cong. Does., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 778. 
 
The Spanish Inheritance and the American Conquest 25 
 
 thorough investigation one must speak with reservation of the 
 exact condition at any particular time. 
 
 The unit of civic life in the Spanish colonial system was the 
 town or pueblo, and this was the form of organization established 
 in California after the secularization of the missions.^ Municipal 
 control was vested in the ayuntanvientos or town councils. The 
 executive officers were the alcaldes, sometimes two in number, 
 who exercised judicial and even legislative powers of great 
 scope. The first alcalde of each district also acted as judge of 
 first instance in considering cases of major importance. The 
 statutes provided for higher tribunals to entertain appeals from 
 these lower courts, but while superior judges may have been 
 appointed in California, they seem never to have performed any 
 important functions.^ In consequence the local officers exercised 
 a greater authority than was actually bestowed upon them by 
 legislative enactment. 
 
 In the course of a general movement towards centralization 
 under President Santa Anna, the Mexican Congress, in 1837, 
 enacted laws which deprived small towns of their elected ayunta- 
 mientos, and substituted for the alcaldes justices of the peace, 
 appointed by the prefect of the district, and subordinate to the 
 sub-prefect.* These justices exercised certain of the ''faculties 
 and obligations" of the alcaldes and ayuntamientos, and their 
 authority varied according to the size of the town. As none of 
 the settlements in California had a population that entitled it 
 
 2 See T. H. Hittell, History of California., 1885-1897, II, 181-214; H. H. 
 Bancroft, History of California, 1884-1890, III, 301-362; F. W. Blackmar, 
 Spanish Institutions of the Southwest, 1891, pp. 153-191. General reference 
 on Mexican organization may also be made to I. B. Richman, California 
 binder Spain and Mexico, 1911. It is unnecessary to consider here the exact 
 number of legally constituted pueblos, although the question was very im- 
 portant in the settlement of land titles after the American occupation. 
 
 3 Bancroft, California, IV, 531; Frederic Hall, History of San Jose, 
 1871, p. 169; W. H. Davis, Sixty Years in California, 1889, "p. 105. 
 
 4 See the Digest of the laws of 1837, by H. W. Halleck, in J. Ross 
 Browne, Report of the Debates in the Convention of California on the 
 Formation of a State Constitution, 1850, Appendix, pp. xxxi-xxxiv. 
 
26 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 to an elective council, Governor Alvarado, in November, 1839, 
 issued an order dissolving the ayuniamientos and displacing the 
 alcaldes, with the probable exception of the officials of the capital 
 town of Monterey.^ 
 
 Radical changes in the Mexican system were again made in 
 1843 when Santa Ana was at the height of his power.^ In 
 California the offices of prefects and sub-prefects were abol- 
 ished, and in Januarj^, 1844, Governor Micheltorena reinstated 
 ayuntamientas and alcaldes in several of the larger towns.'^ 
 Bancroft said that this change left little trace in the archives 
 of the period, for in the summer of 1845, after the overthrow 
 of both Micheltorena and Santa Anna, the legislative assembly 
 of California reorganized the administration on the old basis of 
 the laws of 1837.^ Alta California was divided into the districts 
 of Los Angeles and Monterey, and these were again subdivided 
 into partidos. The partido of Monterey was given a prefect, the 
 others had sub-prefects. The town of Monterey, which had been 
 the former capital, was also allowed an ayuntamiento and alcaldes, 
 and so was Los Angeles, to which the seat of government had 
 been removed early in 1845.^ Elsewhere the justices of the peace 
 were reestablished, as prescribed in the laws of 1837, although 
 there was a general tendency to persist in the use of the term 
 alcalde, instead of juez de paz. Contemporary travelers com- 
 monly followed that custom, and old residents found it difficult 
 
 5 Bancroft, California, III, 586. Alvarado said in 18-40: ''There is no 
 Ayuntamiento whatever in the Department, for there being no competent 
 number of inhabitants in any of the towns as provided by the Constitution, 
 those then existing had to be dissolved; and only in the Capital there ought 
 to be one of such bodies" (Dwinelle, Colonial History of the City of San 
 Francisco, Addenda L., p. 70). The varying local regulations are illustrated 
 in Bernard Moses, Estahlishment of Municipal Government in San Francisco, 
 1889, pp. 12-26. 
 
 6 Bancroft, History of Mexico, V, 226-287. 
 
 7 Bancroft, California, IV, 358-359. 
 
 8 Ibid., 533. 
 ^Ihid., 519. 
 
The Spamsh Inheritaofice and the American Conquest 27 
 
 to distinguish between the two classes of magistrates when called 
 to testify in the American courts. ^^ 
 
 Thus it happened that Spain's judicial legacy to California 
 is for the popular mind embodied in the symbolic figure of the 
 alcalde — the presiding officer of the town council, the dignified, 
 paternal autocrat ; so prominent in local affairs, and so impressed 
 upon history and fiction, that the term, ''alcalde system" has 
 frequently been applied to the whole elaborate and centralized 
 organization in which the alcalde's legitimate position was act- 
 ually that of a minor unit.^^ 
 
 During the last decade of Mexican rule a changing order 
 affected many of the characteristic features of the earlier epoch. 
 The neglected presidios and the rifled missions still formed a 
 chain of little settlements from San Diego to Sonoma, but many 
 of the more important residents lived in patriarchal fashion on 
 great ranchos which had been granted from time to time to 
 private individuals. Despite hampering restrictions, hundreds 
 of foreigners had made themselves at home in California, and 
 some had even acquired positions of distinction through marriage 
 with influential families. Life was pastoral and indolent, little 
 disturbed by commercial aspirations, but enlivened by constant 
 political intrigue. The keener minds, both native and foreign, 
 
 10 See testimony in the case of the United States vs. Jose Y. Limantour, 
 Transcript, 1857-1858, I, Case No. 424, pp. 140, 145, 153, 155, 163; IV, 
 Exhibit O, pp. 9, 13-17. The changes in system are outlined, II, 753-754. 
 Many extracts from this evidence are reprinted in Dwindle, San Francisco, 
 and a list of Mexican officials of San Francisco is given in Addenda 
 LXXVII, p. 111. See also B. S. Brooks, ''Alcalde Grants in the City of 
 San Francisco," The Pioneer, I, II (1854). 
 
 11 See R. A. Wilson, ''The Alcalde System of California," First Califor- 
 nia Reports, 559 et seq. (in ed. 1, 1852, and annotated ed., 1906) ; C. H. 
 Shinn, Mining Camps, 1885, especially chap. 8; Willoughby Rodman, His- 
 tory of the Bench and Bar of Southern California, 1909, pp. 28-36; J. R. 
 Robertson, From Alcalde to Mayor, 1908, a MS doctoral dissertation in the 
 University of California Library. Some court decisions ruled that the 
 status of the alcaldes as defined in the laws of 1843 held over to the Ameri- 
 can regime, see "Mena vs. Le Roy," First California Beports, 220; "Cohas 
 vs. Raisin, ' ' Third California Beparts, 449 ; ' ' Hart vs. Burnett, ' ' Fifteenth 
 California Beports, 530. 
 
28 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 were aware of impending change, for statesmen more energetic 
 than those of Mexico were bestirring themselves to gain control 
 of the Pacific Coast; and while the Calif ornians were absorbed 
 in their local problems and discords the toils of international 
 ambition and diplomacy were drawing closer about them. 
 
 The various episodes that immediately preceded the change 
 in government are some of the best known incidents in local 
 history. A few words will recall the services of Thomas 0. 
 Larkin as United States consul at Monterey; the exploring 
 expeditions of Captain John C. Fremont, of the United States 
 Topographical Engineers; the protests made by the Mexican 
 authorities when his large party lingered in California during 
 the spring of 1846; the arrival, in May, of Lieutenant A. H. 
 Gillespie, with secret orders from Washington for Larkin and 
 Fremont; and the belligerent attitude immediately assumed by 
 the latter. In June the American settlers at Sonoma, abetted 
 by Fremont, attempted the establishment of an independent gov- 
 ernment, and while their Bear Flag was still flying. Commodore 
 John D. Sloat appeared upon the Coast, announced the out- 
 break of hostilities between the United States and Mexico, and, 
 on the seventh of July raised the Stars and Stripes above the 
 little port of Monterey.^^ 
 
 The months that followed were filled with interesting events, 
 and while most of them may pass unnoticed in these pages, a 
 few require mention because they produced conditions that 
 permanently affected the institutions of California. The expan- 
 sion of the United States by the military occupation of Mexican 
 territory created problems for which the officers in command 
 could not be prepared by specific instructions issued long prior 
 to the event. The development of a policy in regard to the 
 
 12 General reference on this period may be made to the histories of Ban- 
 croft, Hittell, and Eoyce; G. L. Rives, The United States and Mexico, 1821- 
 1848, 1913, II; J. H. Smith, The War with Mexico, 1919, especially chaps. 
 14, 16, 17, with their notes. 
 
The Spanish Inherit^ince and the American Conquest 29 
 
 administration of the acquired country was a series of experi- 
 ments, in which the burden of responsibility was laid upon the 
 local executives. The orders under which Sloat took possession 
 of Monterey were dated June 24, August 5, and October 17, 
 1845, and they vaguely directed him to preserve friendly rela- 
 tions with the people of California in case the declaration of 
 war gave him an opportunity to seize the ports of the Pacific 
 Coast. Letters which were dispatched after the outbreak of 
 hostilities ordered him to encourage the people to ''neutrality, 
 self-government and friendship." They anticipated that it 
 might be necessary for him to establish some form of civil 
 government, but details of administration were left to his dis- 
 cretion.^^ 
 
 It is a recognized principle of international law that during 
 the military occupation of conquered territory the native munici- 
 pal laws shall continue in force except as the new commander 
 may make specific changes.^* In accordance with the spirit of 
 this regulation Commodore Sloat issued a proclamation on the 
 day he occupied Monterey in which he promised that peaceable 
 inhabitants should enjoy their native rights and privileges, as 
 well as greater liberties assured to those who lived under the 
 flag of the United States.^^ At the same time he asked the 
 judges, alcaldes, and other civil officers to retain their positions 
 
 13 For orders of this period see Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 499, Doe. 19, pp. 
 75, 79-84; Cong. Globe, 29 Cong., 2 Sess., Appendix, pp. 44-47; J. C. Fre- 
 mont, Memoirs, 1887, I, 537; Richman, Calif ornia under Spain and Mexico, 
 pp. 528-529. 
 
 14 For discussion of the status of California at this time see R. D. Hunt, 
 ''Legal Status of California, 1846-49," American Academy of Political and 
 Social Science, Annals, XII (1898), 387-408; C. E. Magoon, Reports on 
 the Law of Civil Government in Territory Subject to Military Occupation 
 by the Military Forces of the United States, 1902, Index under "Califor- 
 nia"; D. Y. Thomas, History of Military Government in Neivly Acquired 
 Territory of the Vnited States, 1904, pp. 159-275; W. E. Birkhimer, Mili- 
 tary Government and Martial Law, ed. 3, 1914, pp. 53-137. 
 
 15 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 493, Doc. 1, pp. 644-645. Reprinted in Soule, 
 Gihon and Nisbet, A7i)ials of San Francisco, 1855, pp. 98-100. 
 
30 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 until the government should be more definitely organized, but 
 only a few of the native incumbents consented to continue in 
 office. 
 
 Monterey, the first port occupied, was entitled to an ayunta- 
 miento and alcaldes,^*^ and elsewhere common parlance clung to 
 the term ' 'alcalde." Therefore it is not surprising that the 
 Americans, who were unfamiliar with the Mexican laws, imme- 
 diately assumed that alcaldes were the constitutional magistrates 
 in all the settlements that had so suddenly been transferred 
 from the authority of one nation to that of another. Alcaldes, 
 therefore, were appointed to fill the more important vacancies,^^ 
 and the safety of the little army of occupation required that in 
 many places Americans should replace Californians of doubtful 
 adherence to the new regime. Perhaps the most conspicuous 
 of these magistrates was the Reverend Walter Colton, alcalde 
 of Montere}', for his interesting diary is one of the most familiar 
 sources of information on the events of the period.^^ 
 
 Commodore Sloat left California three weeks after his 
 momentous action of July 7. He was succeeded in command 
 by Commodore Robert F. Stockton, who acted as executive for 
 about six months — a brief administration which was disturbed 
 by various uprisings of native malcontents. In the suppression 
 of these outbreaks the Commodore was greatly assisted by 
 Fremont and Gillespie, and the California Battalion of Mounted 
 Riflemen, which they had organized from members of Fremont's 
 
 16 An election for the ayuntamiento had been held in Monterey, Dec. 10, 
 1845 (Bancroft, California, IV, 655 note). 
 
 17 Bancroft, California, V, 637 note, 648 note. Commodore Sloat, how- 
 ever, appointed a justice of the peace at San Jose, and recommended the 
 appointment of two more to try minor cases in San Francisco {Cong. Docs., 
 Ser. No. 493, Doc. 1, pp. 641, 667). Henry D. Fitch was spoken of as 
 justice of the peace in San Diego, April 16, 1847 (Archives of California, 
 ''Unbound Docs., 1846-1850," p. 118), and Robert Cliff as justice in the 
 same place on Oct. 5, 1847 (ibid., 121). 
 
 18 Walter Colton, Three Years in California, 1850. Colton had been 
 chaplain of the frigate Congress. 
 
The Spanish Inheritance and the American Conquest 31 
 
 exploring expedition and from adherents of the Bear Flag 
 forees.^^ 
 
 Stockton undoubtedly considered himself authorized to install 
 an adequate form of civil government. He called for popular 
 elections to fill the positions vacated by the old magistrates, and 
 directed that the new officers should administer the law accord- 
 ing to former usages until the departments of state could be 
 rearranged. -° He publicly announced the probability of speedy 
 territorial organization, and on his own initiative drew up a 
 brief constitution which formally declared California to be a 
 territory of the United States, provided for a governor, a secre- 
 tary, and a legislative council, and continued the existing 
 municipal institutions. This was forwarded to Washington, 
 accompanied by the statement that he expected soon to resume 
 his duty at sea, and would appoint Fremont governor, and 
 Gillespie secretary.^^ 
 
 Long before this communication reached the East, other plans 
 had been matured for California. Soon after the outbreak of 
 the war Brigadier General Stephen W. Kearnj^ had been sent 
 westward upon a dual mission. He was ordered first to occupy 
 New Mexico and to establish civil government there, and then 
 to proceed overland to cooperate with the naval forces on the 
 Pacific Coast, to assume command of all troops mobilized there, 
 and to establish civil government as soon as possible. It was 
 admitted that in both localities the work of administration might 
 be difficult and unpleasant, and he was instructed to rely on his 
 own judgment when necessary.-^ 
 
 151 See Bancroft, California, V, chaps. 12-15. 
 
 20 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 493, Doc. 1, pp. 669-670. Stockton called for 
 the local election at San Jose in a letter dated August 24, 1846, that is still 
 preserved in the office of the clerk of that city. 
 
 21 Eeports of Sept. 18 and 19, 1846, Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 521, Doc. 70, 
 pp. 38-40, 45-46. For Stockton 's plan of organization see Gang. Docs., 
 Ser. No. 493, Doc. 1, pp. 669, 671-672, 675; Bancroft, California, V, 284- 
 285. 
 
 22 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 236-240; Bancroft, California, 
 V, 334-336. 
 
32 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 To reinforce the troops that marched overland, the First 
 Regiment of New York Volunteers was dispatched via Cape 
 Horn, under the command of Colonel Jonathan D. Stevenson. 
 It was composed of young men who enlisted for the duration 
 of the war, with the understanding that they should be mus- 
 tered out in California. The fact that many remained there 
 as permanent settlers made the expedition famous in local annals 
 under the familiar title of Stevenson's Regiment.^^ 
 
 Another body of volunteers was raised in Missouri, where 
 Kearny recruited a battalion from a party of Mormons. These 
 men were already on their way to California, where they expected 
 to join a number of their fellow believers who had sailed from 
 New York with the intention of procuring grants of land from 
 the Mexican authorities. The seafarers arrived in San Fran- 
 cisco only to find that the American flag had preceded them. 
 Although the personal force of their leader, Samuel Brannan, 
 held them together for a while, they soon separated, and the ma- 
 jority gravitated liaturally towards Salt Lake.^* Brannan stayed 
 in San Francisco, became a conspicuous figure in local history, 
 and was the first president of the Committee of Vigilance of 1851. 
 
 General Kearny experienced little difficulty in fulfilling the 
 first portion of his instructions, for the occupation of New 
 Mexico was quickly accomplished. The conqueror immediately 
 announced the annexation of the territory to the United States, 
 promulgated an elaborate organic law, and appointed a full 
 staff of civil executives.^^ When the report of the proclamation 
 
 23 See infra, p. 39. 
 
 24 See Daniel Tyler, Concise History of the Mormon Battalion in the 
 Mexican War, 1881; Bancroft, California, V, pp. 469-498, 544-554; Sacra- 
 mento Union, 1866, Sept. 11 %_4; James O'Meara, *'A Chapter of California 
 History," Overland Monthly, ser. 2, XIV (1889), 625-630; B. H. Eoberts, 
 The Mormon Battalion, 1919. 
 
 25 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 499, Doc. 19, pp. 20, 26-73. See also E. E. 
 Twitchell, History of the Military Occupation of Neiu Mexico, 1909, pp. 
 8-^94, 147-199; J. T. Hughes, Doniphan's Expeditioii, reprint by W. E. 
 Connelley, 1907, pp. 201-202, 238-242; Thomas, Military Government, 101; 
 149; Birkhimer, Military Government and Martial Law, 62-63, 137. 
 
The Spanish Inheritance and the American Conquest 33 
 
 of annexation was received in Washington, Kearny was promptly 
 informed that he should not repeat such a declaration in Califor- 
 nia, since incorporation of the acquired territory would depend 
 upon governmental action. ^^ 
 
 It may be inferred that President Polk was ready to allow 
 much freedom to the commandants of New Mexico and of Cali- 
 fornia, for in his Message of December 8, 1846, he stated with 
 approval that the former civil government had been superseded 
 in the conquered provinces, and that in some of them the military 
 and naval commanders had established temporary governments, 
 which conformed as far as practicable to the free institutions 
 of the United States.-^ But Congress proved jealously alert to 
 any infringement of the legislative prerogative, and requested 
 full information as to the affairs of the occupied territory.^^ 
 The President responded by transmitting the relevant documents, 
 including the text of the laws for New Mexico, which had come 
 to his attention after the delivery of his previous Message. He 
 also stated that while he should approve of necessary regulations 
 for the safety of the army of occupation, he should not approve 
 such portions of the code as purported to establish a permanent 
 territorial government, or confer political rights which could be 
 enjoyed only by citizens.^^ 
 
 To Kearny himself a communication was sent under date 
 of January 11, 1847, designed to guide him and his successor 
 in the administration of California. After reference had been 
 made to the obvious faults of the code for New Mexico, he was 
 informed that the law of nations allowed a conquering power to 
 establish a civil government for the purpose of preserving order, 
 
 26 Orders of Nov. 3, 1846, Cong. Doc^., Ser. No. 499, Doe. 19, p. 15. 
 
 27 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 493, Doc. 1, pp. 22-23. See also commendation 
 of the Secretary of the Navy, ihid., 379.' 
 
 28 Cong. Globe, 29 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 12 ct seq. ; Appendix, p. 43 et seq. 
 
 29 Message, Dec. 22, 1846, J. D. Eichardson, compiler, Messages and 
 Papers of the Presidents, 1899, IV, 506-507. 
 
34 Vigilance Commdttee of 1851 
 
 and that he was expected to exercise such an authority in a 
 firm and judicious manner. But it was distinctly stated that 
 the Federal Constitution had not been extended over the con- 
 quered people, and that the temporary regulations of the military 
 regime could not be continued beyond the duration of a state 
 of war without the authority of a treaty or a definite act of 
 Congress.^" When this letter was written General Kearny was 
 already in California, and was confronted with difficulties which 
 the Department of War had never foreseen. Learning of the 
 rapidity and ease with which the ports had been occupied, he 
 took scarcely more than a hundred men upon the long and 
 difficult march from Santa Fe.^^ Early in December the 
 exhausted and hungry company reached the vicinity of San 
 Diego, to find the Californians in arms against the Americans, 
 and to enga-ge the insurgents in a disastrous encounter at San 
 Pasqual.^^ Reinforcements sent by Stockton relieved a desperate 
 situation, and the overland expedition arrived in time to 
 participate in the final days of the insurrection. Its general, 
 however, waited to assume command of the combined forces until 
 more of his own troops should appear. 
 
 After peace with the belligerents was obtained by the Treaty 
 of Cahuenga, negotiated by Fremont on January 13, 1847, 
 Kearny felt that the time had arrived to take his place as military 
 and civil executive. But Stockton was unwilling to relinquish 
 his position and was determined to carry out his plan of install- 
 ing Fremont as governor. He pursued this course in spite of 
 protests; issued the civil commissions he thought necessary; 
 appointed a legislative council to meet in March, invested the 
 
 30 Cong. Does., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 244-247. 
 
 31 Bancroft, California, V, 336-339. 
 
 32 Bancroft, California, V, 339-356; V. M. Porter, ''General Stephen W. 
 Kearny and the Conquest of California, ' ' Historical Society of Southern 
 California, Annual PuMioations, VIII (1911), 95-127. 
 
The Spanish Inheritance amd the American Conquest 35 
 
 new government with control on January 19, and departed for 
 San Diego. ^^ 
 
 Kearny did not endeavor to enforce his authority by arms, 
 but proceeded quietly to the north. There he found a company 
 of artillery, lately arrived from the East, and also Colonel 
 Kichard B. Mason, who had been sent to the Coast to relieve 
 him.3* Commodore W. B. Shubrick, Stockton's successor, was at 
 Monterey, and was quick to discountenance the claims made 
 by Stockton and Fremont. Between the commanders of the land 
 and naval forces was now established that cordial cooperation 
 desired by the national authorities. On March 1, 1847, they 
 made public a joint circular which announced Kearny's appoint- 
 ment as governor and fixed the capital at Monterey. At the same 
 time Kearny issued a proclamation of a conciliatory character,^^ 
 but in accordance with the instructions of November 3, received 
 by the hands of Mason,^^ he forbore to declare formal annexation, 
 as he had done in New Mexico. During the controversy with 
 Stockton he had ordered the latter to cease all further proceed- 
 ings relating to the formation of a civil government,^^ and he 
 now ignored Stockton's entire scheme. He confined himself to 
 holding out the hope of speedy territorial organization by action 
 of the United States government, and to announcing that until 
 changes could be accomplished by competent authority the exist- 
 ing laws would be continued in so far as they harmonized with 
 the Federal Constitution. The principle thus stated was accepted 
 
 33 See Bancroft, California, V, 411-468; Proceedings of the General 
 Court Martial in the Case of Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont, 1847 (Cong. Docs., 
 Ser. No. 507, Doc. 33); John Bigelow, Memoir of Fremont, 1856, p. 222 
 et seq.; F. S. Dellenbaugh, Fremont and '49, 1914, pp. 355-380. 
 
 34 Bancroft, California, V, 436, 518. 
 
 35 Circular and proclamation in Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, 
 pp. 288-289. The latter was made public March 4 (iUd., 284). 
 
 36 See supra, p. 33. Dates of the reception of Kearny's orders are given 
 in Court Martial of Fremont, 48-55. The orders were reaffirmed June 11, 
 1847 (Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 521, Doc. 70, p. 29). 
 
 37 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 557, Doc. 18, pp. 267, 268. 
 
36 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 as conforming with the orders of January 11, which shortly 
 arrived.^^ It became from that time the basis of administration 
 in California, but the anticipated civil organization proved 
 illusive, and no competent authority effected changes in the 
 organic law of the country until the people themselves adopted 
 the state constitution of 1849. 
 
 While Kearny was thus employed in the north, Fremont was 
 still acting as governor in Los Angeles, but after many stormy 
 days he was obliged to yield to the general's superior authority, 
 and to return to Washington, where he was tried and convicted 
 of insubordination. The court martial recommended his dis- 
 missal from the army, and although the President remitted the 
 sentence, Fremont resigned and continued his career in the West 
 as a private citizen. 
 
 The discord created by the disputes between the American 
 officers reacted most unfortunately on conditions in California. 
 Not only was the work of organization seriously delayed, but 
 the conflict of authority produced a question as to the validity 
 of the obligations assumed by Stockton and Fremont in raising 
 forces and requisitioning supplies. They had promised to pay 
 the California Battalion more than the rates allowed by Con- 
 gress, and the members of that company refused to be mustered 
 into the volunteer service. Their status therefore remained 
 irregular, and their claims, as also those of civilians who had 
 furnished food and horses, were a matter for tedious and unsatis- 
 factory Congressional action.^^ A most natural resentment was 
 thus created against the authorities and serious antagonism 
 engendered among the defrauded Californians, while many 
 Americans felt that Stockton and Fremont had tried to give 
 them a satisfactory government, but that the succeeding military 
 commandants were indifferent to their needs. 
 
 38 See supra, p. 34. The orders were received April 23 {Cong. Does., Ser. 
 No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 286). 
 
 39 Cong. Does., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 287, 315: Bancroft, California, 
 V, 462-468. 
 
The Spanish Inheritance and the American Conquest 37 
 
 Frequent complaints of this sort were registered in the first 
 newspaper that appeared in San Francisco, the California Star, 
 published by Samuel Brannan. The initial issue/^ dated Janu- 
 ary 9, 1847, expressed the hope that an immediate acceptance 
 of Stockton's scheme for a temporary government might end the 
 confusion that existed as to the laws in force in California. On 
 February 6 the Star gave the names of the governor, the secre- 
 tary, and the members of the legislative council, as appointed 
 by Stockton. On the thirteenth it printed a long editorial, 
 rejoicing over the anticipated meeting of the council, and urging 
 it to call a convention which should draw up a territorial consti- 
 tution and so put a stop to the irregularities of the alcaldes, 
 who were ''all over the country, assuming the power of legisla- 
 tures, issuing and promulgating their handos and laws and orders 
 and oppressing the people." Subsequent issues told of the 
 selection of delegates to the proposed legislative council from 
 San Francisco,*^ Sonoma,*- and Santa Clara.*^ Wlien reports 
 of these proceedings were sent to Kearny, he replied that no such 
 council would then be convened.** This fact was published in 
 the Star, with the announcement that a call for a legislative 
 assembly might be made within a short time.*' In the issue of 
 March 13, 1847, there was an article setting forth the imperative 
 need of land laws. On March 27 the editor wrote: "We have 
 not been able to discover any traces of written law particularly 
 
 40 The Monterey Califoniian, started August 15, 1846, by Walter Colton 
 and Doctor Kobert Semple, Avas friendly to the military authorities. The 
 California Star was started as an organ of protest against their arbitrary 
 methods. See E. C. Kemble, ^'History of California Newspapers," Sacra- 
 mento Union, 1858, Dec. 25 2/g. An ''Extra in Advance of the California 
 Star" had been printed about the first of November, 1846 (Hittell, San 
 Francisco, 109). 
 
 41 California Star, 1847, March 6 Yi- 
 
 42 California Star, 1847, March 6 %, %. 
 
 43 California Star, 1847, March 6 %. 
 
 44 Letters, March 3, 4, 1847, Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 290. 
 Kearny's official correspondence is given, ibid., 283-313. 
 
 45 California Star, 1847, March 20 %. 
 
38 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 applicable to this territory except the Bandos of the Alcaldes," 
 and remarked that, in the absence of formal statutes, ''some 
 contend that there are really no laws in force here, but the divine 
 law, and the law of nature." 
 
 There was other evidence of hostility to the administration. 
 Edwin Bryant, the alcalde of San Francisco, resigned in May, 
 and two parties were then formed, which respectively petitioned 
 the governor for the appointment of George Hyde and John 
 Townsend.*^ Hyde was given the position, and a meeting for 
 protest was summoned by the following handbill:*^ 
 
 The People's Voice Stifled by Intrigue 
 
 People of San Francisco, rally for your rights!!! A majority of your 
 number have petitioned the Govr of this Territory to appoint John To^vn- 
 send Esq. to succeed Edwin Bryant Esq., as Alcalde of this district. Intrigue 
 has defeated this voice of the people — George Hyde is appointed ! ! ! Will 
 you submit to this? The unrevoked Proclamation of Govr Stockton gives 
 you the privilege of electing Alcaldes for yourselves. — The laws of Cali- 
 fornia guarantee the same Right. 
 
 Assemble at Brown's Hotel at seven o'clock this evening, and assert your 
 Eights. 
 
 Many of the People. 
 San Franco, May 30th, 1847. 
 
 Major James A. Hardie, who attended the meeting in his 
 official capacity, as commander of the northern military district, 
 put a stop to proceedings by announcing that any attempt to 
 elect an alcalde in the place of the governor's appointee would 
 be repressed by military authority.*^ This incident is scarcely 
 noted, even by Bancroft, but it derives significance from the 
 appeal to Stockton's ''unrevoked proclamation," and from the 
 comment upon it made by William A. Leidesdorff, who wrote 
 
 ^^ Archives, ''Unbound Docs.," 114-115. 
 ^T Archives, ''Unbound Docs.," 110. 
 
 48 Hardie to Mason, May 30, 1847, Archives, "Unbound Docs.," 109- 
 110. Eeply, Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 325. 
 
The Spanish Inheritance and the American Conquest 39 
 
 that the party opposed to Hyde was an "open advocate of Cali- 
 fornia being an independent government and not a territory of 
 the United States."*^ 
 
 Fortunately at this time Kearny's position had been greatly 
 strengthened by the arrival of Stevenson's Regiment, which 
 landed early in March. This put at his command a force 
 sufficient to quell any dangerous tendency towards insubordina- 
 tion. The volunteers were assigned to garrison duty, chiefly in 
 the recently disaffected southern area, where they rendered excel- 
 lent service. The roster of the regiment contains the names of 
 many men who became leading citizens of the state, and of others 
 who achieved unenviable notoriety as New York rowdies, quickly 
 acclimated to the welcome license of conditions in California, and 
 potent for evil in city and mining camp.^° 
 
 49 Leidesdorff to Mason, May 30, 1847, Arohives, ''Unbound Docs.," 68. 
 
 50 See F. D. Clark, The First Eegime7it of New YorTc Volunteers, 1882; 
 Bancroft, California, V, chap. 19 ; Z. S. Eldredge, Beginnings of San Fran- 
 cisco, 1912, II, 552-556. It was sometimes called the Seventh Regiment. 
 
CHAPTEE II 
 COLONEL RICHARD B. MASON, MILITARY GOVERNOR 
 
 Kearny acted as governor for three months only. On May 31, 
 1847, he was succeeded by Colonel Richard B. Mason, who filled 
 the position for nearly two years. 
 
 California was fully pacified when Mason assumed his office, 
 but past conflicts had left a heritage of bitterness between the 
 Americans and the Californians, and the discord in the ranks 
 of the victors had prevented any constructive work for the 
 improvement of local conditions. 
 
 The little towns, both north and south, were still under the 
 rule of their alcaldes, some of whom had been elected according 
 to Stockton's instructions, while some had been appointed by 
 Kearny. One can realize from the hasty sketch of early affairs 
 given in the foregoing chapter that the American alcaldes 
 inherited not only the traditional institutions of the Spanish 
 system but also the confusion resulting from the years of turmoil 
 in Mexico and California, during which acts had been passed 
 and repealed and renewed until their real meaning was lost 
 in a maze of contradictions. 
 
 The laws in force at the time of the seizure were held to be 
 those of 1837, but they were practically inaccessible in printed 
 form. One pioneer explained that under the Mexican system 
 laws were transmitted in writing to the alcaldes, and promul- 
 gated to the people by word of mouth. ^ Such a method would 
 account for the almost total lack of written statutes. Edwin 
 Bryant, alcalde of San Franeisco in February, 1847, could find 
 
 1 R. F. Peckham, San Jose Pioneer, 1877, July 7 (Scrapbook in the Ban- 
 croft Library, Eventful Life, p. 19). 
 
Colonel Richard B. Mason, Military Governor 41 
 
 no law books except a digest of the Laws of the Indies, published 
 in Spain a century earlier, and a small pamphlet that defined 
 the powers of judicial officers of the Mexican republic.^ 
 
 It was a common impression that the former magistrates had 
 administered the laws ''in accordance with the principles of 
 natural right and justice, "^ and in one of his earliest despatches 
 Colonel Mason wrote to the alcalde of Sonoma :* 
 
 Having been only two days in office as governor, I am not at this time 
 prepared to say what are the extent of your powers and jurisdiction as 
 alcalde; you must, for the time being, be governed by the customs and 
 laws of the country as far as you can ascertain them, and by your own 
 good sense and sound discretion. 
 
 Such, indeed, had been the only guides for the conduct of 
 the American alcaldes during the whole of their official existence, 
 and some of them had developed very liberal conceptions of their 
 responsibilities. The best known interpretation of the alcalde's 
 office may be found in the diary of Alcalde Colton, of Monterey. 
 Its pages give a vivid impression of the authority assumed by 
 that paternal magistrate. He wrote on different occasions :' 
 
 My jurisdiction extends over an immense extent of territory, and over 
 a most heterogeneous population. ... All have come here with the expecta- 
 tion of finding but little work and less law. Through this discj)rdant mass 
 I am to maintain order, punish crime, and redress injuries. 
 
 It devolves upon me duties similar to those of mayor of one of our cities, 
 without any of those judicial aids which he enjoys. It involves every breach 
 of the peace, every case of crime, every business obligation, and every dis- 
 puted land-title within a space of three hundred miles. From every other 
 
 2 See Browne, DehaUs, Appendix, p. xxv; Edwin Bryant, Whai I Saw 
 in California, 1848, p. 436; T. B. King, California 1S50, p. 3. By July, 
 1848, Colton was familiar with more satisfactory Mexican codes {Ihiee 
 Years 249). 
 
 sEdwin Brvant, What I Saw in Calif ornia, 436; Charles Wilkes, Narra- 
 tive of the V liked States Exploring Expedition, 1844, V, 222. 
 
 4 Letter, June 2, 1847, Cong. Does., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 317. A 
 letter dated May 27 ha<l asked a definition of the alcalde's duties {Arcliives, 
 ''Unbound Docs.," 110-111). 
 
 5 Colton, Three Years, 19, 55. 
 
42 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 alcalde's court in this jurisdiction there is an appeal to this, and none from 
 this to any higher tribunal. Such an absolute disposal of questions affecting 
 property and personal liberty, never ought to be confided to one man. There 
 is not a judge on any bench in England or the United States, whose power 
 is so absolute as that of the alcalde of Monterey. 
 
 Bancroft declared that these oft quoted paragraphs in reality 
 described the duties of a Mexican prefect, but those officers were 
 not installed during the first years of the American occupation. 
 In the absence of higher authorities, the first alcalde of each 
 district was recognized as ex-officio judge of first instance, with 
 jurisdiction in criminal cases, and other alcaldes of the district 
 were subordinate to him.^ Colton, however, made no distinction 
 between the functions of the first alcalde of a district, and those 
 of an ordinary municipal magistrate, and since he is often cited 
 as an authority on the position of California alcaldes this char- 
 acterization has tended to exaggerate the popular conception of 
 their constitutional status. 
 
 As a matter of fact, Mr. Colton was never very exactly 
 informed as to the Mexican precedents. In such an important 
 matter as land laws he stated that the former authorities had 
 been governed solely by 
 
 ''The simple plan. 
 That they shall take who have the power, 
 And they shall keep who can."^ 
 It is not surprising that his own disposition of public land was 
 irregular, and his records carelessly preserved! 
 
 Colonel Mason proved himself well fitted to cope with the 
 difficult situation in which he was placed. His choice of 
 
 6 See Bancroft, California, VI, 258 note 8; Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, 
 Doc. 17, pp. 675, 762. Colton 's exaggerated conception of an alcalde's 
 position is noted in O. K. McMurray, * ' Beginnings of Community Property 
 System in California," California Law Review, III (1915), 360-361. 
 
 7 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 170. Colton 's methods were 
 criticized (ibid., 761). In spite of this, his work as a whole was so valu- 
 able that he was not recalled to naval duty (Shubrick to Mason, Sept. 15, 
 1847, Archives, ''Unbound Docs.," 127). 
 
Colonel Richard B. Mason, Military Governor 43 
 
 assistants was particularly fortunate. Lieutenant William T. 
 Sherman, the assistant adjutant general, was an efficient aid in 
 military affairs, and Lieutenant Henry W. Halleck, the secretary 
 of state, had an excellent understanding of civil and international 
 law.* The work of administration was greatly hampered by the 
 lack of legal treatises, both Mexican and American. Mason and 
 Halleck had a few American works, but as late as April, 1849, 
 the senior military officer on the Coast was unable to procure 
 in California a copy of the laws of the United States.^ The little 
 staff at headquarters made sincere efforts to become familiar with 
 the Mexican statutes, and it was Mason's purpose to prepare an 
 English digest as a guide for the officials in California. This was 
 completed in the course of a 3^ear, but before it could be printed, 
 the conclusion of the war led the governor to believe that its 
 publication would be unnecessary. 
 
 The best source of information on the events of the period 
 is the collection of official letters accompanying President Tay- 
 lor's Message on Calif ornia and New Mexico, January 21, 1850.^° 
 This is supplemented by a manuscript volume in the Bancroft 
 Library which contains copies or summaries of many letters from 
 citizens and alcaldes, received by the governors from 1846 to 
 1850.^^ This correspondence shows that Colonel Mason was a 
 strict disciplinarian in his interpretation of the subordination 
 of municipal executives to military authority. Instead of allow- 
 ing the freedom of election sanctioned by Stockton, he insisted 
 
 8 A useful study of this period has been made by Flora A. Wright, in 
 a master's thesis, Eiohard Barnes Mason, 1919, MS in the University of 
 California Library. See also S. H. Willey, ' ' Kecollections of General Hal- 
 leck," Overland Monthly, IX (1872), 9-17; W. T. Sherman, Memoirs, 
 1875, I. 
 
 9 See Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 263-264, 453, 722. It was 
 impossible to procure some needed legal books except from visiting ships 
 of war (H. W. Halleck, International Laiv, 1861, Preface.) 
 
 10 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17. A slightly different arrangement 
 is given in Ser. No. 557, Doc. 18. 
 
 11 Cited here as Archives, ''Unbound Docs. '^ 
 
44 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 that it was the governor's prerogative to appoint the alcaldes, 
 or to issue special permission for their election. He also kept 
 a sharp watch over their actions, and demanded reports on mat- 
 ters of importance. They often appealed to him for advice and 
 direction, and in so far as he was able he responded with prece- 
 dents drawn from Mexican usage, and gave instructions to cover 
 individual cases. Other appeals were made by contestants 
 dissatisfied with the decisions of alcaldes. These were some- 
 times entertained, although more often they were dismissed on 
 the ground that there was no higher tribunal to which an appeal 
 might be carried. But when it was necessary, Colonel Mason 
 exercised the governor's power of overruling the alcaldes, 
 reversed decisions as he thought fit, and removed at least one 
 alcalde from office. ^^ 
 
 The civil authority of the alcaldes did not give them juris- 
 diction over offenses committed by or upon soldiers; crimes of 
 that sort were subject to punishment by a court martial or by 
 a military commission. But difficulties attended even the admin- 
 istration of martial law. Lieutenant Sherman was obliged to 
 inform the judge advocate of a military commission in Los 
 Angeles that he could not send proceedings of other commissions 
 to serve as precedents in a trial for burglary; that the best he 
 could do was to forward extracts from the statutes of Missouri, 
 and a digest of the laws of Texas — the only law books to which 
 he had access which treated the crime. He also instructed his 
 correspondent that the commission must revise the sentence that 
 had already been pronounced — a term of imprisonment in a state 
 prison — since there was not such a penitentiary within thousands 
 of miles.^^ 
 
 12 Letters respecting appointments are found in Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, 
 Doc. 17, pp. 433, 443, 451, 473, 511, 564; appeals, 391, 412; sentences, 410, 
 445, 475-476, 487, 488; removal of Alcalde Nash, of Sonoma, 295, 318, 
 320, 344, 375, also Archives, ''Unbound Docs." 112, 118-119, 145. See 
 also Bancroft, Cnlifornia, V, 606-611. 
 
 13 See Cong. Does., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 351-354, 402-403. 
 
Colonel Richard B. Mason, Military Governor 45 
 
 The total lack of prison facilities gave rise to most perplexing 
 problems. Under the Mexican system the punishment of white 
 culprits had usuallj^ taken the form of a fine, while Indians had 
 been whipped. In consequence the jails were not constructed 
 for other than temporary confinement, and when a guard was 
 necessary it was furnished by the citizens.^* The inventory of 
 prison equipment in Yerba Buena, January, 1846, consisted of 
 
 1 serviceable padlock. 
 
 2 chairs. 
 
 1 pair of shackles which are missing and should be searched for 
 in passing. 15 
 
 It is said that a hungry prisoner of that town called on one 
 of the first American alcaldes with the door of the calaboose on 
 his back, and demanded his breakfast. ^^ 
 
 In spite of Mason's efforts to adhere to local usage, radical 
 changes were gradually introduced. The most striking innova- 
 tion was the adoption of the jury sj^stem. Under the Mexican 
 practice, certain classes of disputes might be adjusted by "trials 
 of conciliation," conducted before three arbitrators, w^ho ren- 
 dered a decision by vote of the majority. While these homhres 
 huenos exercised some of the functions of the American jury- 
 man, the impartial jury of common law, rendering a unanimous 
 and binding verdict, was not known in California.^' Neverthe- 
 less Alcalde Colton had not been in office six weeks before he 
 
 1* Stevenson to Mason, from Los Angeles, July 11, 1848, Archives, *' Un- 
 bound Docs.," 164, Mason planned to erect some secure prisons {Cong. 
 Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 558), but apparently the plan Avas not 
 carried out {ibid., 790). 
 
 15 Case of Z7. S. vs. Limantour, Transcript, IV, Exliibit O, p. 35. 
 
 16 J. H. Brown, Beminiscences and Incidents of '^The Early Days" of 
 San Francisco [1886], p. [30]. See also Eldredge, San Francisco, II, 545. 
 
 17 << There was nothing like trial by jury known to the Mexican system; 
 and there was no law authorizing anything of the kind" (Hittell, Calif or- 
 Ilia, II, 663). Bryant spoke of the function of these courts as being similar 
 to that of the American jury {What I Saiv in California, 436). 
 
46 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 introduced it into his court, where, in spite of the novelty of the 
 method and an overwhelming confusion of tongues, the verdict 
 was cheerfully accepted by the plaintiff, the defendant, and the 
 assembled inhabitants of Monterey. The alcalde closed his 
 account of the trial with the words: "If there is anything on 
 earth besides religion for which I would die, it is the right of 
 trial by jury. "^^ 
 
 Our historians have treated as a matter of course this fitting 
 of the Anglo-Saixon jury into the court of the California alcalde. 
 Yet it was a step of profound revolutionary significance in that 
 it waited not at all for treaties or statutes or even for a popular 
 demand, but in order to meet the emergencies of a moment it 
 altered the institutions of centuries by the sole initiative of a 
 petty alcalde. The history of the state provides no example 
 more typical of the serenity and self-confidence with which Amer- 
 icans confronted the exigencies of their daily life. 
 
 The example set in Monterey was soon followed in San 
 Francisco, ^^ and it presently received official sanction when 
 Colonel Mason gave orders that juries of six or more should 
 decide all civil cases involving amounts exceeding one hundred 
 dollars, and all criminal cases of a grave character. It was 
 expressly stipulated, however, that the records of criminal con- 
 victions should be reviewed by the governor before the infliction 
 of any punishment. ^° The method was not entirely successful, 
 
 18 Colton, Three Years, 47-48. 
 
 19 Bryant said that the second jury trial was held in San Francisco 
 before ''judge" [alcalde] Bartlett {What I Saw in California, 328). 
 Samuel Brannan was then tried for mismanaging the Mormon funds. The 
 Annals, p. 186, called this the first jury trial in California, and so did 
 Franklin Tuthill (History of California, 1866, 214-215), but the priority 
 of the jury trial at Monterey is more often acknowledged. By January, 
 1847, Americans expected juries to be called, and the California Star, Jan. 
 9 %, noted with indignation a case in which that privilege had been denied. 
 
 20 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 384, 413-414, 419-422, 439- 
 440, 452, 487, 494, 763. 
 
Colonel Richard B. Mason, Military Governor 47 
 
 as native Californians were reluctant to sentence their fellow 
 countrymen,2i and the alcaldes did not always await official 
 sanction of their sentences. William Blackburn, of Santa Cruz, 
 for instance, executed a murderer convicted by a jury, and after- 
 wards reported the case for Mason's approval, explaining his 
 haste on the ground that it was difficult, with volunteer guards, 
 to confine the prisoner securely." 
 
 Other modifications of Mexican usage soon appeared. The 
 alcaldes often obeyed the direction to administer justice with 
 ''good sense and sound discretion" by turning to American 
 statutes in the absence of books of Mexican law, and they were 
 quite content if any stray volume could give a hint of precedent 
 in the cases that came before them.^^ In the southern region 
 where society was more firmly established there was closer adher- 
 ence to Mexican traditions, but in the new towns of the North, 
 where the Americans soon predominated, there was a greater 
 tendency to ignore old customs.^* 
 
 '2.'i^ Archives, '^ Unbound Docs.," 122. See also the experience in Louis- 
 iana, infra, p. 420. 
 
 ^2 Arcliives, '^ Unbound Docs.," 108; Calif orma Star, 1847, Sept. 11 
 %; W. F. Swasej, Early Bays and Men of California, 1891, p. 180; History 
 of Fresno County, 1882, pp. 50-51. It was also reported that while under 
 the influence of liquor Blackburn ordered a horse thief executed, and when 
 sober wished to go on with the trial. The sheriff, who had concealed his 
 prisoner, pretended for a time that the penalty had been inflicted. ''Never 
 mind," responded Blackburn, ''proceed with the trial. All orders and 
 judgments of this court must be justified by due and legal proceedings had." 
 The culprit was then brought into court, tried and executed (Sacramento 
 Union, 1871, Dec. 2 ^). 
 
 23 The California Star, 1847, Jan. 23 %, reported that the alcalde at 
 Sonoma had adopted the whole volume of the statutes of Missouri, and the 
 issue of July 3 %, printed a notice of the court, couched in the formal terms 
 of American jurisprudence. See also Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, 
 p. 762. 
 
 24 In his thesis From Alcalde to Mayor, p. 198, Eobertson studied the 
 official personnel of the different districts, 1846 to 1850. He concluded that 
 in San Francisco and Sonoma only Americans held office, in Santa Barbara 
 only Californians; in Los Angeles all were natives at first, but they grad- 
 ually gave way to Americans, while in other towns offices were divided 
 between the two nationalities. 
 
48 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 While the theory of beneficent militarj^ government under 
 the ancient statutes was both useful and ornamental in official 
 proclamations, the control of California by the native regulations 
 became increasingly difficult with every month. The correspon- 
 dence of the authorities shows that they discountenanced such 
 an exaggerated ideal of the alcaldes' authority as was expressed 
 by Colton, but we are forced to conclude that in spite of this 
 many of the local magistrates greatly exceeded the limits con- 
 templated by the laws of Mexico or the orders of the American 
 officers.-^ The newcomers from the United States found this 
 arbitrary authority intolerably galling. The California Star 
 kept up a constant fusillade of complaints and demands for civil 
 organization. The editor gradually acquired some knowledge of 
 the Mexican institutions presumably in force, but he continued 
 to deplore that their imperfect establishment virtually left the 
 alcaldes in supreme control, and he expressed the earnest hope 
 that Colonel Mason would quickly promulgate some form of civil 
 government. 
 
 Week by week the hope of assistance from headquarters grew 
 less, and on July 28 the alcalde of San Francisco, George Hyde, 
 took the first step toward improvement by selecting six gentle- 
 men to act as a council until the governor should think fit to 
 sanction an election. Colonel Mason had already realized the 
 need for such a body, and had drawn up a plan for the town 
 government of San Francisco, but its transmission had been 
 delayed, and it was not forwarded to Alcalde Hyde until the 
 
 25 G. E. Pickett wrote to Kearny, March 23, 1847, that the alcaldes 
 throughout California were ''but a mockery to law and justice, assuming 
 and exercising prerogatives and powers far beyond any clothed [sic] them 
 by the Mexican or United States' laws" (Archives, ''Unbound Docs.," 
 149). J. S. Euekel, on Dec. 28, 1847, described a deplorable state in San 
 Jose (ibid., 132). On July 11, 1848, Colonel Stevenson reported that the 
 alcalde of Santa Barbara assumed more authority than belonged to the 
 President of the United States (ibid., 24). See also Bancroft, California, 
 VI, 268 note 31; California Star, 1847, June 19 %. 
 
Colonel Richard B. Mason, Military Governor 49 
 
 latter had announced the appointment of his council. ^^ The 
 initiative, therefore, came from the citizens, not from the central 
 authority, a characteristic California precedent, but in this case 
 the governor did not consider the movement insubordinate, and 
 gave permission for an election, which was held on September 13. 
 A few simple regulations were quickly formulated, a constable 
 was appointed, and the members of the council were also author- 
 ized to act as conservators of the peace. ^^ 
 
 Unfortunately, the creation of the council did not greatly 
 better affairs in San Francisco. Hj^de was under' constant 
 charges of incompetenc}^ and irregularity of conduct, and, 
 although Mason did not think his removal necessary, he finally 
 resigned after a year of wrangling and disorder. ^^ Town coun- 
 cils were elected in some other places, but little information 
 as to their services can be found in the correspondence of the 
 governor.^^ 
 
 More serious even than the despotism of the alcaldes was the 
 confusion and uncertainty that complicated every question rela- 
 tive to the ownership of real estate. The former laws had per- 
 mitted the governors and pueblo authorities to make grants of 
 land to private parties, and nearly all the desirable coast country 
 
 2QConff. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 378-379; Annals, 195-197; 
 Bancroft, California, V, 648-650 ; Moses, EstaMishment of Municipal Gov- 
 ernment, 30-36. Coimcilmen W. D. M. Howard, E. P. Jones, and E. A. 
 Parker became members of the Committee of Vigilance of 1851. 
 
 27 Laws of the Town of San Francisco, 1847, pp. 4, 8. Two constables 
 were appointed at first, then one who was to give his entire time at a salary 
 of fifty dollars a month. 
 
 28 Official correspondence in Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 361- 
 362, 494, 499-500; Archives, '^ Unbound Docs.," 7, 27-42, 106-107. Hyde 
 defended himself in his Statement of Historical Facts, 1878, MS in the 
 Bancroft Library. See also Bancroft, California, V, 649-652; and his 
 Chronicles of the Builders of the Commonwealth, 1891-1892, II, 286-294. 
 
 2a See notes to Bancroft, California, V, chaps. 23, 24; Cong. Docs., Ser. 
 No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 417, 431, 446, 498. Allusions to councils occur in 
 Archives, ''Unbound Docs.," 117, 121, 122, 339-340. A fcAv papers of 
 the "Junta or Council" of San Jose, dated May 24 to Nov. 5, 1847, are 
 preserved in the office of the city clerk. 
 
50 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 south of Sonoma was claimed by virtue of such grants, sometimes 
 by three or four alleged owners. Under the obligations of inter- 
 national law the new regime was bound to recognize titles which 
 were valid under the old; but until documentary records could 
 be investigated, and boundaries corrected by accurate survey, 
 it was impossible to ascertain what land was legally in private 
 hands, and what might be considered public property. In the 
 meantime private conveyances could carry only doubtful rights, 
 and the public tracts were closed to settlers, as the Federal 
 Government had issued no regulations concerning them, and 
 Colonel Mason refused to make grants that might ultimately 
 be declared invalid.^^ At the same time the Americans who 
 had participated in the bitter, if insignificant, struggle of the 
 ''Conquest" felt themselves to be victors on conquered soil,^^ 
 and the immigrants who had arrived later supposed that the 
 country was open for homesteads as had been other parts of the 
 frontier. Many sturdy pioneers reached California at great risk 
 and hardship, only to find that it was impossible to preempt 
 land from the i^ublic domain, or even to purchase it under any 
 satisfactory guaranty.^^ This situation transformed them into 
 an army of squatters, hostile alike to Mexican landholders and 
 to Federal authorities, and inclined, in a later decade, to defend 
 their squatter's holdings with the rifle, as well as with endless 
 litigation. 
 
 In order to clear the way for intelligent action in the matter 
 of titles, Colonel Mason directed Halleck to collect and examine 
 the archives, which were scattered up and down the state. The 
 latter could not make a report on the subject until March, 1849, 
 and he then expressed the opinion that many of the old deeds 
 
 so Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 321. 
 
 31 See Colton, Three Years, p. 228. 
 
 32 The California Star, 1847, Feb. 27 %, noted the desperate plight of 
 American immigi-ants who had exhausted their resources and could not 
 secure the anticipated homes. 
 
Colonel Richard B. Mason, Military Governor 51 
 
 were invalid, either from fraud or from technical imperfec- 
 tions,^^ Meanwhile Colonel Mason acted with extreme caution. 
 He construed the Mexican regulations as permitting the sale of 
 town lots by the alcaldes for municipal expenses, but he held that 
 the governor had no authority either to rent or to sell the public 
 land.^* In the case of disputed titles he advised rival claimants 
 to arbitrate their differences until such time as proper courts 
 could be established.^^ In the interim he prepared for future 
 adjustments by appointing surveyors to begin the work of 
 defining boundaries. 
 
 There were many other perplexities that confronted the gov- 
 ernor of California in 1847 : questions of revenue, of military 
 equipment, of the control of Indians, of the restraint of lawless- 
 ness on the part of insurgent natives and restless immigrants. 
 Yet it seems safe to say that during the period of the war 
 social order was fairly well preserved. The governor com- 
 manded the respect and obedience of the people, and kept a 
 close watch over local affairs ; there was constant communication 
 between headquarters and the scattered posts and settlements, 
 and military aid was ready to sustain the alcaldes in the dis- 
 charge of their duties f^ there were supervision, and account- 
 ability, and discipline, and there was a fundamental element of 
 definite law behind the ''good sense and sound descretion" that 
 guided the untrained officials in their judicial capacity. There 
 was, to be sure, constant complaint in the newspaper, with unceas- 
 ing demand for a more adequate system of government, but 
 
 33 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 118-133. See also W. C. Jones, 
 Report on the Subject of Land Titles in California (Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 
 589, Doc. 18) ; Dwindle, Colonial History of San Franoisco; Bancroft, Cali- 
 fornia, VI, 529-581; Hittell, California, II, 739-755; Rodman, History of 
 the Bench and Bar of Southern California, 52-85 ; William Kelly, Excursion 
 to California, 1851, I, 199-213. 
 
 34: Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 321, 440. 
 
 35 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 380, 389, 435, 440. 
 
 36 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 340, 349-350. 
 
52 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 there was no actual defiance or insurrection, and the Americans 
 awaited improvement with what patience they might command. 
 In retrospect we can see that the governor was helpless to effect 
 any permanent reforms, but the insurmountable difficulties of 
 the situation were not fully appreciated by the men who natur- 
 ally resented a policy that neglected their pressing need for 
 civil organization.^^ 
 
 37 The California Star became constantly more emphatic in its con- 
 demnation of existing conditions. On Dec. 25, 1847, it presented a most 
 gloomy picture of criminal conditions, and on Jan. 22, 1848, it printed a 
 violent protest against a state of affairs that allowed the alcaldes to ' ' exer- 
 cise authority far greater than any officer in our Eepublic — the President 
 not excepted. ' ' Again, on Jan. 29 : ' ' They [the governors] had no power 
 to allow the people to form a government . . . but yet they have the right 
 to appoint and continue Alcaldes in office, for an indefinite period, of 
 notoriously inefficient, unprincipled and dishonest characters, and to permit 
 their assuming unprecedented, unwarrantable and anti-republican powers. ' ' 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 EL DORADO 
 
 It must be remembered in making a study of this situation 
 that the statesmen who had advocated the acquisition of Califor- 
 nia by the United States desired the territory because of its 
 strategic advantage in the development of commercial relations 
 with countries bordering on the Pacific Ocean. Farsighted men 
 anticipated a day when the natural advance of population would 
 build American cities beside the harbors of the Coast to com- 
 mand the great trade routes, and to stand guard over the western 
 portals of the nation. But in their vision that day was suf- 
 ficiently remote to allow a gradual development of the Federal 
 policies, and a deliberate adjustment of the local problems that 
 might arise from the conflict between Spanish and American 
 institutions. 
 
 Since the earliest pioneers had turned their faces toward the 
 western wilderness, the American frontiersman had exhibited 
 an amazing capacity for taking care of himself. Hardly had the 
 explorer and the trapper threaded the most distant forests and 
 traced their hidden waters before a creaking van lumbered behind 
 them, bearing the household gear of some intrepid settler who 
 was ready to transplant into virgin soil the life of an older group 
 from which he had detached himself. His wife sat beside the 
 driver, with a baby in her arms, while older boys and girls 
 trudged along the uncleared track. Wlien the animals were 
 finally unyoked the first task undertaken was the building of 
 a rough log house that was to become a unit in the social organ- 
 ization of a new community. And slowly or rapidly the new 
 communitv formed itself, always out of the elements of the older 
 
54 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 commonwealths, reproducing with more or less modification the 
 institutions of the parent society, until an increased population 
 gave evidence of an accomplished novitiate, and warranted full 
 admission into the sisterhood of states. There had been every 
 reason to expect that the familiar sequences of the western fron- 
 tier would be repeated with slight variation on the Pacific Coast, 
 and in spite of the hardships of the overland journey the usual 
 type of settlers, men, women, and children, quickly appeared 
 beyond the Sierra Nevada Mountains. 
 
 A treaty of peace with Mexico was signed at Guadalupe 
 Hidalgo, February 2, 1848. On that day no human wisdom 
 could foresee that in California all precedents of westward 
 emigration would be shattered by an overwhelming local emer- 
 gency, and the coincident development of a tremendous national 
 crisis. Gold had been discovered in January; by midsummer 
 the state was in a frenzy of excitement, and at the close of 1849 
 the population was increased by approximately eighty thousand 
 new arrivals.^ There was instant need for the establishment of 
 a strong government, and yet Congress could take no action on 
 the subject without precipitating a dangerous quarrel between 
 the advocates and the opponents of the extension of slaveholding 
 territory. As a result the history of California was for a time 
 inextricably bound up with the struggle over an institution that 
 was already forbidden on Mexican soil,^ was repugnant to a 
 majority of the American settlers, and was unsuited to every 
 industry likely to develop on the Pacific Coast. 
 
 1 There are no accurate statistics of the influx. The Memorial presented 
 to Congress at the time of the application for admission, estimated the white 
 population, Jan. 1, 1849, at 26,000 — Native Calif ornians, 13,000; Americans, 
 8000; other nationalities, 5000: Jan. 1, 1850, total 107,000— Calif ornians, 
 13,000; Americans, 76,000; other nationalities, 18,000 (Browne, Debates, 
 Appendix, pp. xxii-xxiii). Some allowance should be made for exaggera- 
 tion (see Bancroft, California, VI, 158-159; Hittell, California, II, 700; 
 J. S. Hittell, San Francisco, 139-140). 
 
 2 Slavery was abolished in Mexico by a decree of Sept. 15, 1829 (Hittell, 
 California, II, 115-116). 
 
El Dorado 55 
 
 The situation in Washington may be summarized very briefly. 
 On August 8, 1846, a month and a daj^ after the occupation of 
 Monterey, a bill was introduced into the House of Representa- 
 tives asking for an appropriation to negotiate the adjustment of 
 boundaries with Mexico. To that bill an amendment was offered 
 by David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, providing: ''That as an 
 express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any 
 territory from the Republic of Mexico by the United States . . . 
 neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any 
 part of said territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall 
 first be duly convicted. ' '^ The resolution was not an expression 
 of extreme abolition sentiment, but rather of the determination 
 of a large number of Northern men to prevent the further exten- 
 sion of slaveholding territory. They controlled a majority in 
 the House, and the bill passed, as amended, but defeat was pre- 
 dicted in the Senate, where the measure was still under discussion 
 when the session adjourned. The essentials of the Wilmot pro- 
 viso subsequently reappeared in various forms and always met 
 with ultimate failure; but the discussions crystallized the sec- 
 tional discord of North and South into two opposing groups, 
 equally determined in purpose, and so equally divided in power 
 that neither could dominate the situation. 
 
 The hostile attitude assumed by some members of Congress 
 when they criticized the steps towards civil organization taken 
 by Stockton and Kearny was a direct outcome of this discord, 
 for neither party was willing to tolerate a delegation of Con- 
 gressional power that might result in establishing a precedent 
 for the future. So long as the war continued it was possible to 
 insist upon the temporary and military nature of the rule 
 extended over the conquered territory, and Congress refrained 
 from action. The President suggested formal organization as 
 
 3 Cong. Globe, 29 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1217. It is unnecessary to discuss 
 here the history of the discord over slavery. Its existence, not its origin, 
 was the fact that affected conditions in California. 
 
56 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 soon as he was convinced that the acquisition of California and 
 New Mexico would be made permanent.* When he announced 
 the ratification of the treaty of peace he again urged that the 
 people of the annexed areas should be given civil institutions,^ 
 but Congress adjourned on August 14, 1848, without adopting 
 any constructive measures for California and New Mexico. 
 
 It is probable that in the spring of 1848 Colonel Mason had 
 determined to initiate some new methods in the civil organization 
 of California. In May he sent to the printer the manuscript of 
 a digest of the Mexican laws, and in anticipating its early pub- 
 lication he announced that it would provide for the organization 
 of a higher court, and also for the appropriation of funds for 
 constructing jails. The press, however, was deserted before the 
 laws were printed, and after the termination of the period 
 of the war Mason felt that the changed status of California 
 rendered his compilation out of date.^ 
 
 The ratification of the treaty with Mexico was proclaimed 
 in California by Governor Mason on August 7, 1848.'^ He then 
 acknowledged with regret that California had not been placed 
 upon a territorial basis before his dispatches left Washington, 
 although he hoped that Congress had subsequently passed the 
 requisite acts, and that the representatives of civil government 
 would presently appear. Meanwhile he was greatly embarrassed 
 b}^ the absence of any orders covering the emergency except a 
 brief note, dated nearly five months earlier, which had directed 
 
 4 Richardson, Messages, IV, 542. 
 
 5 Eichardson, Messages, IV, 589-590. 
 
 6 See Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 489, 555, 558, 559, 586, 677; 
 Browne, Debates, Appendix, p. xv. The Alia California, 1849, June 14 %, 
 said that a book of ''laws for the better government of California" had 
 come from the press a few days before the news of peace was received, and 
 that in consequence of the clianged status of California Governor Mason 
 never published nor attempted to enforce those laws, Bancroft spoke of the 
 code as if it had been promulgated (California, VI, 263), but Hunt cor- 
 rected the statement ("Legal Status of California," as cited, 396). 
 
 7 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doe. 17, pp. 590-591. See also the comment 
 of G. W. Crawford, secretary of war, ibid., 233. 
 
El Dorado 57 
 
 him to take proper measures for the permanent occupation of 
 Upper California as soon as he should receive official news of 
 the ratification of the treaty of peace.^ Thus thrown upon his 
 own judgment, he shaped his conduct by the broad principles 
 of international law. Decisions in other cases had established 
 the point that until changes could be made by competent 
 authority, a ceded territory should retain its prior local laws, 
 or should revert to them if they had been modified by the tempo- 
 rary authority of a military commander.^ It was therefore 
 announced that the existing laws would remain in force although 
 greater freedom would be allowed in the matter of local elections. 
 It seems incomprehensible that definite instructions were not 
 sent to Colonel Mason as soon as peace wa^ declared, but no 
 such official message was written until as late as October, 1848, 
 when the Secretary of State and the Secretary of War, under 
 circumstances that will be narrated hereafter, sent out letters 
 which embodied the theory of the administration as to the status 
 of the country. Secretary Buchanan then wrote :^^ 
 
 By the conclusion of the treaty of peace, the military government which 
 was established over them [the people of California] under the laws of 
 
 war . . . has ceased to derive its authority from this source of power 
 
 The termination of the war left an existing government, a government de 
 facto, in full operation; and this will continue, with the presumed consent 
 of the people, until Congress shall provide for them a territorial govern- 
 ment. The great law of necessity justifies this conclusion. The consent 
 of the people is irresistibly inferred from the fact that no civilized com- 
 munity could possibly desire to abrogate an existing government when the 
 alternative presented would be to place themselves in a state of anarchy, 
 beyond the protection of all law, and reduce them to the unhappy necessity 
 of submitting to the dominion of the strongest. 
 
 8 Orders of March 15, 1848, Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 255. 
 
 9 See Browne, Debates, remarks of C. T. Botts, pp. 274-284, and Halleck's 
 statement of the situation, Appendix, p. xxiv; Julius Klein, The Maying 
 of the Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo, 1905, pp. 36-46; Hunt, ''Legal 
 Status," as cited, 398-408; Birkhimer, Military Government and Martial 
 Law, 361-369; Hittell, California, II, 701. 
 
 10 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 7-8. Eepeated almost exactly 
 by Secretary Marcy to Colonel Mason {ibid., 258-259). See also infra, 
 p. 90. 
 
58 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 It was further stated, by Secretary Marcy, that it was the duty 
 of the commander of the militarj^ force to recognize the govern- 
 ment de facto, and to lend the aid of the military power to 
 protect the persons and the property of the inhabitants of the 
 territory. They, on their part, were urged to live peaceably 
 and quietly under the existing government, but long before these 
 admonitions were received in California all thoughts of peace 
 and quietness had been driven from men's minds. 
 
 The failure to establish a permanent form of civil government 
 immediately upon the final acquisition of the new territory was 
 a greater trial to Colonel Mason than to the most querulous 
 citizen under his charge. He realized more plainly than anyone 
 else that the treaty of peace greatly weakened his authority as 
 governor, required the discharge of the volunteer troops enlisted 
 only for the duration of war, and left him in a position where 
 he was responsible for maintaining order, but was deprived of 
 the means of enforcing a single regulation. 
 
 The mining region was quite without any equipment for civil 
 or military control. It lay along the western slope of the Sierra 
 Nevada Mountains, and was separated from the original line of 
 the missions by the hills of the Coast Range and the sun-scorched 
 plain of the central valley. Some grants of land had been made 
 b}^ the former government to adventurous colonists from abroad, 
 notably to Captain John A. Sutter, who had been a commissioned 
 officer, sometimes called an alcalde, under the old regime,^^ and 
 whose fort at New Helvetia had been an outpost of patriarchal 
 civilization. In February, 1848, John Sinclair was appointed 
 alcalde ''for and in the district of country on the Sacramento 
 river, near New Helvetia. "^^ In March a large district in the 
 
 n Bancroft, California, IV, 137, 226; History of Sacramento County, 
 1880, p. 58. On Dec. 20, 1847, Sutter estimated the white population east of 
 the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers as 218 men and 71 women; Indians, 
 22,362 (Archives, ''Unbound Docs.," 306). 
 
 12 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 486-487. Sinclair was men- 
 tioned as alcalde as early as Feb. 15, 1848, in Archives, ''Unbound Docs.," 
 8, 15, 405. 
 
El Dorado 59 
 
 Contra Costa and San Joaquin regions was cut off from the 
 jurisdiction of San Jose/^ and Elani Brown was appointed its 
 alcalde. These two appointments appear to represent the civil 
 staff of the entire mining area. 
 
 The earliest news of the gold discovery was received doubt- 
 fully, but about the twelfth of May Sam Brannan roused San 
 Francisco to hysterical excitement as he passed through the 
 streets waving aloft a bottle filled with dust, swinging his hat, 
 and shouting : ' ' Gold ! Gold ! Gold from the American River ! ' ' 
 The town was quickly deserted. In June the Californm Star 
 suspended publication, the school closed, workmen abandoned 
 their employment, ofBcials left their posts. Soldiers and sailors 
 joined the general stampede. In Monterey the officers were with- 
 out servants, and even Colonel Mason was forced to take his 
 turn at cooking.^* 
 
 The governor quickly realized that there would be need of 
 new methods of enforcing order. On May 23, 1848, he asked 
 Major J. R. Snyder, who was about to visit the mines, to draw 
 up an outline of desirable regulations, but nothing resulted from 
 the effort.15 In June and July Colonel Mason himself made a 
 tour of the mining district, and reported his observations to 
 Washington.i^ Finding that crime of any kind was very infre- 
 quent, and conscious of his inability to enforce a questionable 
 authority, he did not try to establish there any general control. 
 But he threatened to concentrate his forces in the field and to 
 exclude unlicensed miners unless soldiers ceased to desert from 
 
 13 Shinn, Mining Camps, 96; Archives, ''Unbound Docs.," 8, 42. 
 
 14 See Bancroft, California, VI, 52^81; Fayette Eobinson, California 
 and Its Gold Eegions, 1849, Appendix, p. 135. The disastrous consequences 
 of the desertions of soldiers and civil authorities are noted m Cong Vocs., 
 Ser. No. 573, Doo. 17, pp. 603, 612, 613, 648, 650, 667, 677. Sutter's entire 
 retinue deserted him, and his property was left at the '^^^^J^f^ffJ^^ll 
 miners (J. A. Sutter, Personal Eeminiscences, 1876, pp. 190-196, MS m the 
 Bancroft Librai-y). 
 
 15 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 555-556. 
 
 16 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 528-536. 
 
60 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 the army, and unless civilians made provision for their families 
 before seeking the placers.^^ * 
 
 On August 7, 1848, the same day on which he proclaimed the 
 ratification of the treaty with Mexico, Mason directed John 
 Sinclair, the ''First Alcalde, Sacramento district," to call for 
 an election of four subordinate alcaldes to serve at the four 
 most prominent places in his district, which included the whole 
 country west and northwest of the district of Sonoma.^^ I have 
 found no documentary record that the election was held, nor 
 that Sinclair exercised any jurisdiction over the more remote 
 stretches of his district, although later in the year Mason ex- 
 pected him to take charge of a murderer whose arrest was in 
 prospect/^ That the governor attempted to inaugurate some 
 more effective system of judicial control may be inferred from 
 a letter dated at the "Upper Mines," September 3, 1848,^0 in 
 which L. W. Hastings accepted the ' ' judgeship for the northern 
 district" in order to establish law and government there, and 
 to check the frequent robberies and murders. Later corre- 
 spondence indicated that Mason abandoned such efforts in the 
 expectation that news of territorial organization by Congress 
 would be received before local improvements could be put in 
 operation. 2^ 
 
 But in spite of this anticipation the governor was exceedingly 
 
 anxious over the situation in California. On August 19 he wrote 
 
 to the adjutant general :^^ 
 
 For the past two years no civil government has existed here, save that 
 controlled by the senior military or naval officer; and no civil officers exist 
 in the country, save the alcaldes appointed or confirmed by myself. To 
 
 17 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 580. 
 
 18 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 593. 
 
 19 Letter of Oct 24, 1848, Cong. Bocs^, Ser. No. 573, Doe. 17, p. 677. 
 2^ Archives, ''Unbound Docs.," 157. 
 
 21 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 677. 
 
 22 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 597-598. This ivas in reply 
 to orders of March 15, see supra, p. 57 note 8. 
 
El Dorado 61 
 
 throw off upon them or the people at large the civil management and con- 
 trol of the country, would most probably lead to endless confusions, if not 
 to absolute anarchy; and yet what right or authority have I to exercise 
 civil control in time of peace in a Territory of the United States'? or, if 
 sedition and rebellion should arise, where is my force to meet it? Two 
 companies of regulars, every day diminishing by desertions, that cannot be 
 prevented,23 will soon be the only military force in California. . . . Yet, 
 unsustained by military force, or by any positive instructions, I feel com- 
 pelled to exercise control over the alcaldes appointed, and to maintain 
 order, if possible, in the country, until a civil governor arrive, armed with 
 
 instructions and laws to guide his footsteps In the meantime, however, 
 
 should the people refuse to obey the existing authorities . . . my force is 
 inadequate to compel obedience. 
 
 This was the situation in midsummer, 1848, when the uni- 
 versal rush to the mining regions swept the men of the state 
 away from their ordinary interests to seek their fortunes beneath 
 the soil of the Sierra Nevada foothills. 
 
 First in the gold fields were the natives of the United States 
 who were already in California, for the strenuous labor of the 
 mines did not greatly attract the indolent Californians.-* Soon 
 after came many who had settled in the neighboring territory 
 of Oregon.^^ Thus the nucleus of the mining population was 
 composed of pioneers of the usual American type, and it was 
 the universal verdict that even in the excitement and license of 
 the mines they were not only hard working and self-reliant, 
 but honest and generous in their attitude toward each other. 
 
 News of the richness of the placers spread quickly, among 
 the ports of the Pacific, and the next gold seekers came from 
 Mexico, South America, and the Sandwich Islands. They were 
 quickly followed by parties from Australia, among whom were 
 
 23 <' There mil be fifty able-bodied soldiers fit for duty in California" 
 (Eeport, Aug. 25, 1848, Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 603). 
 
 24 Hittell, California, III, 161-162. 
 
 25' 'I think that at least two-thirds of the male population of Oregon, 
 capable of bearing arms, started for California in the summer and fall of 
 1848" (Peter H. Burnett, Recollections and Opinions of an Old Pioneer, 
 1880, p. 254). 
 
62 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 numbers of discharged convicts and ticket-of-leave men. Such 
 foreigners, unaccustomed to self-government and in some cases 
 outlaws by instinct and experience, were undesirable additions 
 to the ranks of the miners, and were much disliked as alien 
 intruders who had no rights in the mineral wealth of the public 
 lands.^*^ The eastern states received information of the mines 
 so late in the autumn of 1848 that the season was unfavorable 
 for undertaking the overland journey, but twenty thousand men 
 assembled on the banks of the Missouri River, eager to start 
 for the West as soon as the winter was over, aaid a fleet of 
 vessels prepared to carry passengers to California by way of 
 the Isthmus of Panama, and around Cape Horn.^^ The real 
 rush therefore reached the state early in 1849, when thousands 
 of men poured over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and other 
 thousands sailed through the Golden Gate into the harbor of 
 San Francisco. 
 
 The typical pioneer was no longer in the ascendant. Men 
 came from every section of the land, and from every walk of 
 life. Puritans and drunkards, clergymen and convicts, honest 
 and dishonest, rich and poor — they strode side by side across 
 the plains, crowded the decks of steamers, and worked shoulder 
 to shoulder in the diggings. A little later came all the world, 
 and the people of Europe and Asia and Africa brought to Cali- 
 fornia every social inheritance entailed upon humanity since the 
 dawn of history.^^ 
 
 26 The subject of forei^ miners is discussed infra, pp. 121-126. J. S. 
 Hittell spoke of the predominance of aliens during 1848 {San Francisco, 
 140). It is quite certain, however, tliat in 1849 the American arrivals 
 greatly exceeded those of other nationalities. 
 
 27 See Bancroft, California, VI, 110-163. 
 
 28 On Nov. 1, 1849, the Alta reported in the harbor vessels flying the 
 flags of England, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Hamburg, Bremen, Bel- 
 gium, New Granada, Holland, Sweden, Oldenburg, Chili, Peru, Eussia, 
 Mexico, Ecuador, Hanover, Norway, Hawaii, and Tahiti (Steamer Ed., sup- 
 plement •%). The world-wide interest in California mines is attested by 
 the great number of books on the subject, published in various European 
 languages. 
 
El Dorado 63 
 
 They found a land of magnificent distances, sparsely settled 
 toward the south, and virgin wilderness from the mining region 
 to the northern boundary. The genius of the country was an 
 apparition of the Mexican law, invoked by a military-civil 
 governor whose authority was unsupported by even a show of 
 physical force, and rested precariously on the presumed consent 
 of the governed. It is necessary for us to picture as vividly as 
 possible the tremendous excitement of these first months of 
 the gold rush, then to revert to Colonel Mason's report-^ of 
 August 19, and remind ourselves that he had neither the author- 
 ity nor the equipment to impose any regulations upon these men, 
 who were already miles removed from the jurisdiction of the 
 alcaldes he had installed in office. Again we must visualize the 
 thousands of gold seekers, constantly keyed to the highest pitch 
 of excitement, gathered in mountain camps far from the nearest 
 office of government, generally unacquainted with the customs 
 prevailing in the older settlements, and perfectly aware that 
 there was no executive strong enough to enforce order, no police 
 empowered to make arrest, and no jails where the lawless could 
 be confined. 
 
 The miners had, however, at least two pressing social neces- 
 sities : every man wished to be assured that he could dig where 
 he chose without displacement by an interloper, and that his life 
 and his gold should be reasonably safe from the assaults of 
 violence. Here were primitive elements of society: a man's 
 relation to the soil, and his relation to his neighbor, in the 
 restricted sense of the other man who might jump his claim, 
 rob his tent, or shoot him in the back. 
 
 But the people called upon to adjust these primitive relations 
 were not primitive people. They were the heirs of all the ages : 
 their social reactions to their environment were not the reactions 
 of inexperienced, unsophisticated men, groping through experi- 
 
 29 See supra, p. 60. 
 
64 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 ment and failure after methods that should meet their particular 
 needs. Americans were the dominant spirits in '48; they 
 formed a great majority of the miners of '49, and the American 
 tradition and experience hovered as a mighty influence over 
 the inchoate groups that hurled themselves swiftly together, and 
 as swiftly disintegrated, while anticipation and disappointment 
 drove the eager miners restlessly from gulch to gulch. They 
 carried with them no itinerant shrine of civic life, but rather 
 the tools with which that shrine might be erected wherever 
 their wandering feet should linger. For wherever three or four 
 Americans gathered themselves together, they understood how 
 to accomplish rapid but effective social organization by agreeing 
 to ascertain and accept the wishes of the majority. 
 
 The popular imagination has been delighted by many pictures 
 of the California miner of 1848 and 1849, with his uncouth 
 virtues and his picturesque vices, his courage, his rough kindness, 
 his swift and unsparing justice, and his simple standards of 
 manliness and integrity. But the crucial moment of his adven- 
 turous life has been passed over with a light touch, possibly 
 because he met it lightly and without melodrama. It was the 
 moment when the secret strike of a prospector became public 
 property. He had traveled far, perhaps quite alone, perhaps 
 as a member of some little company; he had carried on his own 
 back tools and food and rifle across country still impassable for 
 a pack animal ; he had spent days in barren, heart-breaking toil, 
 and nights at the mercy of murderous Indians, and at last he 
 had ''struck it rich!" But before his dream of fortune might 
 be realized there came others who had spied on his movements, 
 followed his trail, and overtaken him in time to divide the fruits 
 of his suffering, his patience, and his skill.^° This was the danger 
 
 30 Such an incident was described by E. G. Buffum, who found a rich 
 ravine and hoped to make a fortune from the location. Within twenty-four 
 hours he was traced, and the gulch was over-run with other miners. About 
 $10,000 was taken in a few days, of which the discoverer realized only 
 about $1000 {Six Months in the Gold Mines, 1850, p. 91). 
 
I 
 
 El Dorado 65 
 
 point in California life— excited men, in a remote mountain 
 gorge, with gold uncovered at their feet and loaded weapons 
 in their hands. And this was the salvation of that life : they put 
 their guns aside, sat down and talked things over, estimated the 
 richness of the placer, and apportioned it fairly between them. 
 In that action was displayed the fundamental characteristic of 
 California existence in 1848 and 1849 : swift agreement by the 
 will of the majority on matters of common interest, and cheerful 
 loyalty to such decisions until they might be changed by another 
 popular verdict. And by this token the Argonaut of '49 claims 
 his honorable descent as a social being through two centuries of 
 American pioneers, across three thousand miles of American 
 frontier, from the Pilgrims of the Mayflower, the settlers of the 
 Cumberland, and the explorers of the Old Northwest. Too little 
 effort has been made to set him in his place as an American, in 
 a large majority of cases born and bred east of the Mississippi, 
 equipped with the traditions of his people, but thrust into cir- 
 cumstances unprecedented even amid the infinite variations 
 developed during the conquest of the continent. 
 
 \ 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 VOX POPULI IN THE MINES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 The Argonaut of California unquestionably belonged to the 
 great brotherhood of American frontiersmen, but it is equally 
 true that his surroundings created problems which were entirely 
 his own. A few of the fundamental differences that distinguished 
 the American settlement of California from that of other parts 
 of the frontier require particular emphasis here. 
 
 While the majority of the miners came from the United 
 States, the mixture of men from every class and section of the 
 nation and from all the nations of the earth destroyed that unity 
 of descent and of social experience that had elsewhere blended 
 pioneer communities into homogeneous groups. Moreover, in 
 place of the gradual development of complex conditions accom- 
 panied by progressive adjustment of social mechanism, many of 
 the problems of life became suddenly acute as throngs of new 
 arrivals crowded into the congested towns and swarmed over 
 the restricted area of the mining regions. 
 
 The advance into California, unlike the advance of the men 
 of the western waters, was not the migration of a people, pushed 
 westward by hereditary tendencies. It was more like the onrush 
 of viking hordes lured by spoil to a foreign shore. The adven- 
 turers were nearly all men,^ nearly all young; they came with 
 no thought of remaining beyond the time necessarj^ to snatch a 
 fortune from the placers; they had no purpose of reproducing 
 accustomed institutions in a land of transient sojourn ; and they 
 
 1 From April 12 to Dec. 31, 1849, the arrivals by sea were 28,269 men 
 and 800 -women (Browne, Debates, Appendix, p. xxii). See also J. D. 
 Borthwick, Three Years in California, 1857, pp. 381-383; Burnett, Eecol- 
 lections, 301; Alexandre Holinski, La Calif ornie, ed. 2, 1853, pp. 125-126. 
 
Vox Populi in the Mines of California 67 
 
 were utterly divorced from those ties of home and family which 
 have ever been the center of community life. 
 
 Another radical difference arose from the circumstance that 
 the earliest California miners formed no fixed attachment to the 
 soil, and that they were interested in a given locality only so 
 long as it yielded freely of surface gold. The greater part of 
 the mining region was on the public domain of the United States. 
 No statutes provided for its temporary or permanent occupa- 
 tion, as, before the discovery of gold was made public, Mason had 
 abolished the laws relative to the denouncement of mines, he had 
 never substituted regulations of his own, nor had Congress placed 
 California under the laws that in other regions opened public 
 land to private ownership.- The miners, then, were simply 
 trespassers on land belonging to the United States, but they 
 serenely accepted their anomalous position as a sort of modus 
 Vivendi, applied to it the old idea of social control based on 
 a more or less extemporaneous expression of the will of the 
 majority, and by this appeal to mutual agreement rather than 
 to the strong arm established their relation to the soil on an 
 equitable basis. In commending the usual fairness of their regu- 
 lations, however, one must not ignore their disregard of the 
 prior rights of a few men who held private titles to property 
 in the mining regions. Sutter, for instance, was despoiled of 
 his live stock and equipment, and James W. Marshall, who dis- 
 covered gold, had his own prospects ruined by miners who paid 
 no attention to his claims as a legitimate land owner.^ 
 
 2 See Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 476, 532. Mason's succes- 
 sor. General Eiley, continued the policy of non-interference {ibid., 789). 
 
 3 See E. E. Dunbar, Tlie ^Romance of tlic Age, 1867, p. 129; J. B. Landis, 
 ''Life and Work of General John A. Sutter," Lancaster County [Penn- 
 sylvania] Historical Society, Favers XVII (1913), 288; G F. Parsons L^fe 
 and Adventures of James W. MarshaU, 1870; Hittell California, III, 52-54. 
 But compare a statement of H. I. Simpson, who said that a fine deposit on 
 Sutter's property was not disturbed during the summer of 1848 (Emigrant s 
 Guide, 1848, p. 6). 
 
68 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 The growth of every camp was merely an expansion, in vary- 
 ing terms, of the relation of the man first on the ground to the 
 newcomer who was determined to work beside him. At first, 
 while the placers were unexplored and miners were compara- 
 tively few, there was little need for organization. As early as 
 June, 1848, however, one observer wrote : "It is curious how soon 
 a set of rude regulations sprung into existence, which everybody 
 seemed to abide by."* In many cases the initial steps towards 
 association were taken before the miners reached the field. 
 Parties of discharged volunteer soldiers who hastened to the 
 mines as soon as they were mustered out in the early fall of 
 1848, often adopted rules to enforce necessary concert of action. 
 Larger companies from the East were usually bound together 
 not only by commercial agreements, but also by pledges to follow 
 certain lines of conduct and to accept the will of the majority 
 as it might be expressed in future contingencies.^ 
 
 Such companies tended to speedy dissolution, owing to 
 conditions unforeseen at the moment of their formation.^ Never- 
 theless, they supplied elements of unit}^ which asserted themselves 
 in place after place, while the camp communities were so quickly 
 assembled and so hastily dissolved that organization appeared 
 only under the pressure of actual necessity. But whenever that 
 necessity arose there was instant appeal to the American ex- 
 pedient of popular decision, and no question was too important 
 or too trivial for an ultimatum by the vox populi. The little 
 
 4 J. T. Brooks, Four Months among the Gold-Finders, ed. 2, 1849, p. 77. 
 
 5 See Bancroft, California, VI, 144 et seq.; Hittell, California, III, 232- 
 250. Such an association is described in the Diary of Nelson Kingsley, 
 1914, Specimen rules may be found in W. E. Ryan, Fersonal Adventures 
 in... California, 1850, I, 211-214; A. J. McCall, Great California Trail, 
 1882, p. 17. 
 
 6 D. B. Woods, in Sixteen Months at the Gold Diggings, 1851, pp. 171-176, 
 gave the following statistics of fourteen companies for 1849 and 1850: 
 Number of members, 344; total days of labor, 35,876; value of gold 
 extracted, $113,633; average for each day's labor, $3.16. 
 
Vox Populi in the Mines of California 69 
 
 companies voted where the camp should be pitched ; who should 
 be cook; who wash the dishes. In one instance it was decided 
 by ballot how a particularly luxurious packing box should be 
 enjoyed as a couch, in strictly fair rotation." If three prospectors 
 discovered a promising placer they voted to assign a specified 
 area to each one; if three hundred more invaded the gulch, 
 claims were readjusted by another vote.^ If a dispute arose 
 between individuals, their companions dropped their picks, 
 listened to the controvery, rendered a decision, and saw to it 
 that the verdict was enforced. In matters of greater moment 
 the halloo was sounded from ridge to ridge, and a general gather- 
 ing from a larger district was summoned for careful discussion 
 and deliberation. 
 
 In the earlier months and in the smaller camps only the 
 simplest regulations were required, and they were adopted by a 
 verbal agreement, or sometimes even by silent assent to the 
 obvious will of the entire group. As the number of miners 
 increased, and the camps assumed more permanent character, 
 the rules became more elaborate. Shinn said that laws were 
 formulated as early as the summer of 1848. In the Annals of 
 San Francisco it is stated that the first code was framed by 
 Colonel J. D. Stevenson, and was adopted in the fall of that 
 year by miners in the district above Mokelumne Hill.^ One of 
 the best known of the early miners, who had been in the field 
 from the first months of the gold excitement, wrote that he never 
 heard of a specified miner's claim until the spring of 1849, when 
 at Wood's Creek, in the southern mines, he saw the ground 
 
 7 Buff urn, Six Months, 26-27. 
 
 8 One pioneer said that when the mines were opened around Nevada City 
 a determined prospector claimed all the dig^gs as far as his rifle carried. 
 The miners soon saw that more practical agreement_s were necessary (O. D. 
 Ferguson, Experiences of a Forty-niner, 1888, p. 157). 
 
 9C. H. Shinn, Land Laivs of Mining Districts, 1884, p. 236; Annals, 
 788. 
 
70 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 measured off with tapes, under the direction of alcaldes, so as 
 to prevent disputes.^^ It is reported in the history of Colusa 
 Countj^ that formal laws were adopted by a meeting at Rose Bar 
 in April, 1849, and that "so far as then known" they were the 
 earliest of their kind.^^ It is evident, however, that by the 
 spring of 1849 the custom had become so widespread that one 
 writer humorously referred to the ''lex diggerorum" which 
 placed the strong and the weak upon a footing of equality, 
 defined the claims that might be set apart, protected the tools 
 left on the ground as an evidence of proprietorship, and per- 
 mitted the adventurers to hold their rights as securely as if they 
 were guaranteed by a charter from the government.^ ^ 
 
 Shinn stated that the smaller camps carried on most of their 
 proceedings without written records.^^ As the regulations still 
 accessible are not dated earlier than 1850, it is probable that 
 meetings were called to adopt new codes, or amend old ones, 
 when the organization of the state afforded an opportunity for 
 permanent entry on the books of the county recorder. 
 
 The miners ' laws usually dealt with the size of the individual 
 claim, the signs by which ownership should be indicated, the 
 amount of work necessary to establish and retain possession, the 
 
 10 J. H. Carson, Early EecollecUons of the Mines, ed. 2, 1852, p. 10. The 
 two watersheds of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers were generally 
 distinguished as the ''northern" and ''southern" mines. 
 
 11 Colitsa County, 1880, p. 80. 
 
 'y-^ Notes on California and the Placers [by James Delavan], 1850, pp. 
 64, 66. "A tool left in the hole in which a miner is working, is a sign that 
 it is not abandoned yet, and that nobody has a right to intrude there, and 
 this regulation, which is adopted by the silent consent of all, is generally 
 complied with (F. P. Wierzbicki, California as It Is, and as It May Be, 1849, 
 p. 45). A few years later H. E. Helper said: "Every Bar is governed by 
 such laws as the majority of the miners see fit to enact, not by written or 
 published documents, but by verbal understanding. . . . Almost every Bar is 
 governed by a different code of laws. . . . The discoverer of new diggings is 
 awarded a double or triple share, or only an equal part, as a majority of 
 those on the ground shall determine" (Land of Gold, 1855, p. 151). See 
 also Kelly, Excursion to California, II, 24. 
 
 13 Shinn, Mining Camps, 168. 
 
Vox PopuU in the Mines of California 71 
 
 title to water rights, and the adjustment of disputes. Speaking 
 of them, in the broadest sense, H. W. Halleck said :^* 
 
 The miners of California have generally adopted ... the main principles 
 of the mining laws of Spain and Mexico, by which the right of property 
 in mines is made to depend upon discovery and development ; that is, dis- 
 covery is made the source of title, and development, or working, the con- 
 dition of the continuance of that title. 
 
 The strength of these regulations lay in the universal acceptance 
 of the theory that the local group had a right to establish its own 
 rules, and in the democratic practice that gave an equal voice 
 in the open conference to every citizen of the United States, 
 whether he spoke in the quaint phrases of the illiterate frontiers- 
 man, or in the polished tongue of a college graduate. One ma}^ 
 confidently say of the miners of California, as Albert Bushnell 
 Hart has said of the New England colonists, that they practiced 
 "that acceptance of the will of the majority which is the supreme 
 test of popular self government. ' '^^ One may also apply to them 
 the words of James Br^^ce : ' ' In nothing does the executive talent 
 of the people better shine than in the promptitude wherewith the 
 idea of an organization for a common object is taken up, [and] 
 
 14 See Gregory Yale, Legal Titles to Mining Claims and Water Eights, 
 in California, 1867, p. 71. On the subject of miners' laws, see also Shinn, 
 Mining Camps, and his Land Laws of Mining Districts; Bancroft, Califor- 
 nia, III, chaps. 15-17; Hittell, California, III, 251-271; C. H. Lindley, 
 Treatise on the American Law Belating to Mines and Mineral Lands within 
 the Fullic Land, ed. 3, 1914, especially on California, I. sees. 40-49, pp. 
 71-88; J. W. Thompson, United States Mining Statutes, 1915, I, 635-643; 
 Eodman, History of the Bench and Bar of Southern California, 85-92; C. L. 
 Brace, The New West, 1869, pp. 128-129. Collections of miners' codes are 
 given in J. Eoss Browne, Eeports upon the Mineral Eesoiirces of the United 
 States West of the Bocl-y Mountains [for 1866], 1867, especially pp. 226- 
 242; J. F. Davis, Historical Sl-etch of the Mining Laic in California, 1902; 
 
 Heckendorn & WW^on, Miners 4^ Business Men's Directory 1856 
 
 of Tuolumne. A special report prepared by Clarence King for the Tenth 
 Census of the United States (Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 2144, Doc. 42, Pt. 14), 
 collected all the local mining laws and regulations of the nation that could 
 then be obtained. 
 
 15 A. B. Hart, National Ideals Historically Traced, 93. 
 
72 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 in the instructive discipline that makes every one who joins 
 in starting it fall into his place. "^^ 
 
 The most interesting study of this phase of California life 
 may be found in the works of Charles H. Shinn, but his treat- 
 ment differentiated the pioneers of the Pacific Coast too sharply 
 from those of the East and the Middle West. He felt that the 
 latter ' ' melted away before the tides of civilization, without being 
 forced by imperious necessity to the creation of any code of local 
 laws, or to the organization of any form of permanent govern- 
 ment, ' ' and that the mining camp was the ' ' original contribution 
 of the American pioneer to the art of self-government. ' '^^ 
 
 This point of view led Shinn to trace the miners' dexterity 
 in self-government directly to the racial genius of their Teutonic 
 forbears, to connect the miners' meeting immediately with the 
 Germanic folk moot,^^ and to forget the long process of social 
 education that had taken place in the Old World, in the Ameri- 
 can colonies, and on the Western frontier. Professor Royce 
 also ignored the American heritage of the California miners, 
 and spoke of the result attained by their efforts at self-organiza- 
 tion as in its nature unstable, since it had not been won as a 
 prize of social devotion but only attained by a sudden feat of 
 instinctive cleverness. ^^ Just as Shinn 's admiration for the 
 heroic qualities of his actors left them still unrelated to their 
 forefathers of wilderness and inland valley, so did Royce 's 
 censure of their faults fail to relate their sins of citizenship to 
 similar shortcomings elsewhere, and to recognize them as the 
 product of a democracy that made haste to possess the continent 
 before it perfected the vehicle of popular government. 
 
 16 Bryce, American Commonwealth, II, 282. 
 
 17 Shinn, Mining Camps, 4. 
 
 18 Shinn, Mining Camps, 2-3, 22-24, 125, 176. Reference to the New 
 England town meeting and the settlers' associations of the West is made, 
 however, in his Land Laws of Mining Districts, 50. 
 
 19 Royce, California, 281. 
 
Vox FopuU in the Mines of California 73 
 
 The details of the miners' laws, interesting as they might be, 
 need no long- discussion here. It is only necessary to establish 
 the fact that in circumstances where no exterior force could 
 impose regulations, each little concourse of miners voluntarily 
 imposed upon itself laws which determined the adjustment of 
 claims in accordance with the will of the majority.^^ 
 
 It is very easy to concentrate attention upon the picturesque 
 features of the miners' meeting: to visualize a firelit group of 
 stalwart m.en, shut away from the world by a shadowy barrier 
 of encircling forest, or to imagine the wild camp Sunday that 
 was nevertheless a favorite day for the gatherings that decreed 
 the laws for those roaring bravadoes of pick and pan. But 
 neither the picturesque simplicity nor the mad disorder should 
 obscure the significant fact that the camp-made laws were 
 efficient. They met a temporary emergency, but they met it so 
 well, with such stability of fundamental fairness, and such 
 flexibility for local necessity, that for several years after the 
 Federal control was asserted and the state organization was 
 completed, the laws passed at those miners' meetings and at their 
 successors of a gentler decade were accepted as the law of the 
 land, were finally incorporated in the codes of California, and 
 adopted in many other states.^^ Again it must be borne in 
 mind that while California was emerging from the chaos of the 
 transition period, while a constitutional convention was at work 
 and while successive legislatures were in session, the men of the 
 Sierra mining camps still made their own mining laws with a 
 
 20 ''No alcalde, no council, no justice of the peace, was ever forced upon 
 a district by an outside power" (Shinn, Mming Camps, 177). 
 
 21 The miners of other districts followed California precedents, and 
 developed some modifications and improvements which affected national 
 legislation. See Beulah Hershiser, '' Influence of Nevada on the National 
 Mining Legislation of 1866," Nevada Historical Society, Eeports, III 
 (1911-1912) 127-167; T. M. Marshall, ''Miners' Laws of Colorado,' 
 American Historical Beview, XXV (1920), 426-439; and his EarJij Eecords 
 of Gilpin County, 1920. 
 
74 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 direct popular sovereignty that left a profound impression on 
 the spirit and institutions of the commonwealth. -- 
 
 The miner's relation to his claim was thus adjusted with 
 marked success, and with comparatively little disorder, but as 
 much cannot be said of the establishment of the relations between 
 man and man. The newcomers in California, even those who 
 hailed from older states, were doubtless familiar with the usual 
 features of popular tribunals. The precedent that had been 
 tolerated as a matter of necessity in pioneer settlements had been 
 followed in many better organized localities when courts had 
 failed to punish crime, or when the bitterness engendered by the 
 slavery question had given rise to acts of offensive partisanship.^^ 
 Trials by lynch law had occurred in several overland parties 
 during the long course of the westward journey, and it is not at 
 all surprising that, as soon as emergencies arose in the mines, 
 the impromptu organization of the camp meeting transformed 
 itself without hesitation into a criminal court. 
 
 22 The miners' rights were not confirmed by Federal authority until 
 Congress passed the general lode mining law of 1866 (Z7. S. Statutes at 
 Large, XIV, 251). The chairman of the Committee on Mines and Mining, 
 urging the passage of the biU, said: ''It will be readily seen how essential 
 it is that this great system, established by the people in their primary 
 capacities, and evidencing by the highest possible testimony the peculiar 
 genius of the American people for founding empire and order, shall be 
 preserved and affirmed. Popular sovereignty is here displayed in one of its 
 grandest aspects, and simply invites us not to destroy, but to put upon it 
 the stamp of national power and unquestioned authority" (Cong. Docs., 
 Ser. No. 1210, Doc. 105, p. 2). It is significant of the spirit in which Royce 
 reviewed this period that he said of the California miners : ' ' They resist 
 strenuously any legislative interference with their local self-government in 
 these matters. They insist absolutely upon the autonomy of the miners' 
 district, as regards the land; and for years, against all legislative schemes 
 at home, and all congressional propositions at Washington, they actually 
 maintained this autonomy" (California, 316). 
 
 23 Cutler, Lynoh-Law, 91 et seq. Most of Cutler's examjDles for this 
 period Avere from the Liberator, and record outrages upon abolitionists and 
 Negroes rather than cases of frontier justice. See also P. W. Black, "Lynch- 
 ings in Iowa," Iowa Journal of History and Politics, X (1912), 151-254, 
 and his ''Attempted Ljoichings in Iowa," Annals of Iowa, ser. 3, XI (1914), 
 260-285. 
 
Vox Popiili in the Mines of California 75 
 
 During the summer and early autumn of 1848 there was 
 little need for severity of any kind as disorders were rare and 
 •some early observers reported a period of almost Arcadian 
 honesty that lasted well into the more strenuous da^^s of '49.^* 
 Bancroft recorded crimes in the region of San Francisco and 
 San Jose, but found only two instances of outrages in 1848 that 
 incurred the punishment of popular tribunals in the mining 
 regions. Carson wrote that honesty was the ruling passion 
 among the miners of '48 and recalled but one case of "high 
 misdemeanor" in that j^ear. Of later months he said :^^ 
 
 This honesty . . . Avas not to be found in the crowds that daily thickened 
 around us in '49. Hordes of pick-pockets, robbers, thieves and swindlers 
 were mixed with men who had come Avith honest intentions. . . . Murders, 
 thefts, and heavy robberies soon became the order of the day. . . . Whipping 
 on the bare back, cutting off ears, and hanging, soon became matters of as 
 frequent occurrence as those of robbery, theft and murder. 
 
 These statements are in substantial accord with the experi- 
 ences of a majority of the pioneers. The question of mining 
 claims had been adjusted on a peaceful basis, but the camps now 
 faced the more difficult problem of controlling without the cus- 
 tomary aid of law a dangerous class of criminals.-*^ Every fairly 
 
 24 See report of Mason, Aug. 17, 1848 {Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 
 17, p. 532) ; Bancroft, California, A^I, 84; Brooks, Four Months, 67; Alonzo 
 Delano, Life on the Ploins and among the Diggings, ed. of 1857, p. 359; 
 T. T. Johnson, California and Oregon, or Sights in the Gold Begion, ed. 3, 
 1851, p. 146; James Neall, Jr., Statement, 4-5, MS in the Bancroft Libra^s^ 
 
 25 Carson, Early Recollections, 6, 11-12, 26. James Lynch, familiar with 
 events in '48 and '49, thought that the first jury trial in the mines was at 
 Murphy's Diggings in the spring of '49 (With Stevenson to California, 
 1896, p. 48). 
 
 26 ' ' There ^yas another branch of legislation soon called for to suppress 
 a system of thieving that Avas fast spreading; but the code of the famous 
 Judge Lynch Avas unanimously adopted, and under its oral provisions any 
 person caught in 'flagrante delicto' AA'as shot doAvn AA'ithout ceremony, or 
 subjected to any other summary punishment tlie detector might prefer. . . . 
 While disapproving of the modicum of punishment, and the manner of 
 putting it in force, I must admit that some very stringent measures Avere 
 necessary to keep in check the laAA-less and abandoned characters Avho flocked 
 to the mines" (Kelly, Excursion to California, II, 24-25). 
 
76 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 successful miner collected gold dust in larger or smaller quan- 
 tities which he was obliged to carry on his person or to leave 
 about his tent, for there were no safes in the mines, and no bank- 
 ing or express agents ready to receive and forward treasure to 
 the cities. As these accumulations of gold dust were a constant 
 temptation to theft and murder, it became a vital necessity to 
 make robbery unprofitable, even in a country that lacked the 
 restraining influences of courts and jails. In the summer of 
 1848 Brooks said that every man guarded his gold dust with his 
 own rifle,-' and the crimes of that season were doubtless avenged 
 by the aggrieved party when detection was possible. As popula- 
 tion increased united action became necessary. Then the miners 
 almost universally adopted the custom of improvising courts 
 for the immediate trial of suspected offenders, and it is important 
 to realize that these trials were not a social retrogression towards 
 anarchy, but an effort to protect society by elevating the pun- 
 ishment of crime above the primitive and dangerous plane of 
 personal vengeance. ^^ 
 
 The many anecdotes of miners ' trials given by Shinn, Hittell, 
 and Bancroft concur in describing the usual method as being 
 the immediate trial of the suspect before an improvised court, 
 with judge and jury, although sometimes the meeting as a whole 
 voted on the verdict and sentence. Counsel were often assigned 
 for prosecution and defense, evidence was always taken at its 
 face value, and no technical evasions were allowed. The accounts 
 that have been preserved indicate a large percentage of convic- 
 tions. No doubt acquittals made less impression on the observer, 
 and it must be remembered that the presumption of innocence 
 
 27 Brooks, Four Montlis, 177, 183-184, 206. 
 
 28 E. A. Boss, in his Sooial Control, 1901, pp. 41-52, used the develop- 
 ment of the mining camps in California as an illustration of the progress 
 of community action. "There are offences," he wrote, "that exasperate 
 the group as well as offences that arouse the ire of the individual. In this 
 common wrath and common vengeance lies the germ of a social control of 
 the person." 
 
Vox Popidi in the Mines of California 11 
 
 was less than in ordinary courts, as arrest followed swiftly upon 
 the discovery of crime, and many culprits were caught red- 
 handed.'^ Nevertheless conviction was dangerously easy, and 
 some innocent men must have suffered cruel injustice. When 
 guilt was once established it was considered imperative to rid 
 the camp of the criminal, as there was no way of confining him 
 pending a possible reformation. Immediate execution was the 
 most effectual process of elimination and it was often employed. 
 Sometimes a rough dignity solemnized such tragic occasions, but 
 instances occurred of revolting ferocity and violence. If it was 
 considered safe to give the guilty man another chance, he was 
 punished, usually by whipping, and driven from camp with the 
 warning that reappearance • would mean death. Thirty-nine 
 lashes on the bare back was a common sentence, but a hundred 
 or even more, were not unknown. 
 
 Many of the Argonauts who participated in these trials 
 always maintained the stern necessity for such prompt and severe 
 penalties and pointed out the incontestable fact that in a country 
 without penitentiaries whipping and execution were the only 
 alternatives.^^ Corporal punishment was not so repugnant to 
 the standards of 1849 as it is to those of the present day. It had 
 been rigorously employed everywhere upon the frontier, it was 
 still legalized in some of the older states, and in others it had 
 been abandoned but a short time.^^ The pioneer journalist. 
 
 29 For incidents of acquittal, see Albert Lyman, Journal of a Voyage 
 to California, 1852, pp. 121-122; Woods, Sixteen Moiitlis, 98. 
 
 30 General Eiley attributed much of the lynching in 1849 to the lack of 
 secure jails {Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 790). 
 
 31 Sherman cited the laws of Texas as a precedent for flogging a thief, 
 and Mason recommended the penalty for very aggravated cases {Cong. 
 Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 403, 445). The severity of frontier pun- 
 ishments was condemned by Howard, Introduction to Local Constitutional 
 History, 416-423, and it was defended by Judge D. D. Banta, in ''The 
 Criminal Code of the NorthAvest Territory," Indmna Magazine of History, 
 IX (1913), 234-236. The following opinion was given by the Supreme 
 Court of New Mexico: ''In new countries, Avithout jails . . . a pressing 
 necessity for the adoption of the punishment of whipping for the ofeense 
 
78 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Bayard Taylor, heartily approved of the miners ' methods. Shinn 
 defended them stoutly, and went so far as to say that "the 
 miners' court was never wittingh^ cruel in its judgments, 
 although it was liable to be swayed by prejudice or passion. "^- 
 Unfortunatelj^, tales of cruelty cannot be denied. One of the 
 most brutal scenes was the first lynching in the state, that of 
 four Mexicans, at Dry Diggings (Placerville), which long there- 
 after bore the name of Hangtown.^^ Josiah Royce spoke for a 
 large group when he condemned all such punishments as bar- 
 barous, and in the end futile to reform the criminal.^* 
 
 It is difficult to see, even in retrospect, how preventive and 
 reformatory measures could have been adopted. Every camp 
 faced dissolution at a moment's notice, and it could not suspend 
 work to hew lumber, quarry stone, and erect a secure jail. 
 Moreover, it was an isolated unit in its social existence, unable 
 to establish systematic cooperation with any other social unit, 
 or to assist in devising a general policy for the preservation of 
 order. In such an environment it was not to be expected that 
 the young men of the mining region would develop a practical 
 
 of larceny exists. At some stage in the existence of almost every state and 
 territory, they have resorted to this mode of pimisliment, and in no instance 
 has its infliction been held to be unconstitutional (''Garcia vs. the Terri- 
 tory," First New Mexico Beports, 415-419). 
 
 32 Bayard Taylor, Eldorado, 1850, I, 92; Shinn, Mining Camps, 179-180. 
 See also William Taylor, California Life Illustrated, ed. of 1858, pp. 295- 
 296; D. A. Shaw, Eldorado, 1900, pp. 139-144. 
 
 33 The lynching was in January, 1849. The Mexicans were first tried 
 and whipped for robbery, then tried by a crowd of half -intoxicated miners 
 on fresh charges of robbery and attempted murder. They endeavored to 
 defend themselves in Spanish, but no interpreter was found, and they were 
 immediately hanged from the branches of a tree in the center of the camp. 
 See Buffum, Six Months, 83-85 ; Historical Souvenir of El Dorado County, 
 1883, pp. 148, 208; John Carr, Pioneer Days, 1891, p. 65; H. D. Jerrett, 
 California's El Dorado, 1915, pp. 48-49; L. A. Norton, Life and Adventures, 
 1887, p. 293. Other instances of excessive punishment may be found in 
 J. W. Harlan, California '46 to '88, 1888, p. 140. Anecdotes of trials 
 extending over many years, are collected in Popular Tribunals, I, 142-178; 
 Hittell, California, 272-309. 
 
 34 See Royce, California, pp. 335-340. 
 
Vox Populi in the Mines of California 79 
 
 penology that should anticipate the advanced position of the 
 present day, or even coincide with the most progressive standards 
 of their own generation. It must be remembered also that the 
 suppression of crime was their only aim, and their heav;^'-handed 
 chastisement made life and property relatively safe, in spite of 
 the presence in their midst of many men of the most desperate 
 recklessness. 
 
 AVhile the reader must turn to the pages of other authors for 
 detailed pictures of the miners' trials, still a general grasp of 
 local conditions is essential at this point, in order to understand 
 that the widespread appeal to popular tribunals in 1849 was not 
 due to a defiance of authorized government on the part of the 
 populace, but to an utter lack of any system of control in the 
 mining regions. Indeed, Colonel Mason acknowledged with 
 regret that he was unable to initiate any measures for the relief 
 of the emergency. On November 24, 1848, he wrote to Wash- 
 ington :^^ 
 
 I cannot too strongly recommend a territorial government to be organ- 
 ized in California at the earliest moment possible, if it has not already been 
 done. There is no security here for life or property; and, unless a civil 
 government is speedily organized, anarchy and confusion will arise, and 
 murder, robbery, and all sorts of crime will be committed with impunity 
 in the heterogeneous and mixed community that now fills California. 
 
 Under such circumstances he was compelled to countenance the 
 popular efforts to suppress crime, and when in December the 
 
 35 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 648. When the military rule 
 terminated in Santa Barbara it was necessary to release a convict, as there 
 were no civil authorities and no jail (Archives, '^ Unbound Docs.," 10, 22, 
 25). Captain J. L. Folsom, assistant quartermaster at San Francisco, wrote 
 to Major General Jessup, Sept. 18, 1848: ''I know of no section of the 
 United States Territories which more imperatively requires strong garrisons 
 for the preservation of order. Without them I believe the whole country 
 will sink into anarchy and the worst possible confusion" (ISTew York 
 Journal of Commerce, 1848, Dec. 27, clipping in Francis Lieber 's California 
 Scrap-Bool^, p. 7, a collection of clippings in the Bancroft Library). See 
 also another letter from Folsom, in Robinson, California and Its Gold 
 Begions, Appendix, pp. 134-137. ^- 
 
80 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 alcalde of San Jose hanged three convicted highwaymen with- 
 out waiting for official approval of the sentence, the Governor 
 wrote :^^ 
 
 I knoAV, in this case, that necessity and circumstances, and. the violent 
 outrages of late so frequently committed upon society, compelled the good 
 citizens of the pueblo to rise and promptly make a public example of those 
 robbers, for the sake of their own safety and that of society in general. The 
 country affording no means — jails or prisons — by which the persons of these 
 lawless men could have been secured and society protected, it is not much 
 to be wondered that, after the many atrocities so recently committed upon 
 unoffending citizens, the strict bounds of legal proceedings should have been 
 a little overstepped. 
 
 About the same time seven or more members of the Reed 
 family were murdered at San Miguel, and three of the assailants 
 were captured and taken to Santa Barbara for trial. Mason at 
 once instructed the alcalde of that place to proceed to immediate 
 trial and execution, and in reporting the two occurrences to 
 Washington said :^^ 
 
 You are perfectly aware that no competent civil courts exist- in this 
 country, and that strictly speaking there is no legal power to execute the 
 sentence of death; but the necessity of protecting their lives and property 
 against the many lawless men at large in this country, compels the good 
 citizens to take the law into their own hands. I shall not disapprove of 
 the course that has been taken in this instance, and shall only endeavor to 
 restrain the people, so far as to insure to every man charged with a capital 
 crime an open and fair trial by a jury of his countrymen. 
 
 Hittell felt that the resort to popular tribunals received an 
 important impulse from the attitude Colonel Mason felt obliged 
 to assume. "Under ordinary circumstances," he said, "nothing 
 would have been more distasteful to Mason than this species of 
 
 36 Cow^. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 691; alcalde's report of the 
 case. Archives, ''Unbound Docs," 34, 340. See also Popular Tribunals, 
 1, 68. 
 
 37 Cong. Does., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 653. See also Colton, Three 
 Years, 392; Harlan, California '46 to '48, pp. 134-136; H. I. Dally, Nar- 
 rative, 1878, pp. 53-63, MS in the Bancroft Library. This was doubtless 
 the crime mentioned by Senator Douglas as an awful result of refusing 
 California the protection of adequate law {Cong. Globe., 30 Cong., 2 Sess., 
 Appendix, pp. 275-276). 
 
Vox Populi in the Mines of California 81 
 
 lawless justice ; but, in the condition of affairs as they were, he 
 refused to interfere or stay the course of the popular vengeance 
 that alone held lawlessness in some sort of check. ' '^^ 
 
 As the population increased the miners' meetings became 
 more formal in their procedure. The winter of 1848 to 1849 
 drove most men from the mountains, but a few Americans 
 remained at the present site of Sonora, and a large party of 
 Mexicans wintered at the same camp. It became necessary there 
 to adopt some system more effective than impromptu meetings, 
 and before the close of the year R. S. Ham was acting as alcalde.^^ 
 Shinn stated that Ham was elected at a meeting of the American 
 miners of Jamestown, but H. 0. Lang said that he assumed the 
 office at Sonora without even a request from the inhabitants and 
 was summarily deposed for James Frazier (Frasier or Fraser) 
 when a case arose that needed greater ability. My father, 
 Edwards C. Williams, went to Jamestown in the autumn of 1848, 
 soon after he was mustered out of service with Stevenson's 
 Regiment. He had not been there long when some excitement 
 led the miners to desire an alcalde, and he was chosen for the 
 position in compliment to a spectacular feat of horsemanship 
 which he had performed when he arrived in camp. He resigned 
 in two weeks, desiring to devote himself to business, but he always 
 said that in the interval he wielded the power of life and death, 
 although the only sentence he pronounced was a whipping im- 
 posed on a thieving Mexican. He remembered the administration 
 of Alcalde Frazier, but the notes made of his recollections do 
 not record which preceded the other in office. 
 
 When the cessation of the winter storms permitted the gen- 
 eral resumption of mining, other camps followed the example 
 set at Sonora, and elected alcaldes to administer the camp laws. 
 
 ssHittell, California, II, 674. 
 
 39 See Shinn, Mining Camps, 127; HL^ioru of Tuolumne County [by 
 H. O. Lang], 1882, p. 13; Bancroft, California, VI, 4(39; Hittell, California, 
 III, 224. 
 
82 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 From the specimens of later rules that have been preserved it 
 seems probable that the miners' laws adopted after the early 
 months of 1849 made little distinction between the civil and the 
 criminal departments of camp justice, and that the alcaldes not 
 only supervised the allotment of mining claims but preserved 
 order and presided at trials/^ although there were still many 
 occasions when impromptu courts, with hastily chosen judges, 
 conducted trials and imposed sentences. 
 
 These camp alcaldes were entirely independent of the super- 
 vision which the military-civil governor still exercised over the 
 coast towns, and their election may be considered as an effort 
 to provide the miners with a working substitute for the machin- 
 ery of organized government. Their recommendation to office 
 usually consisted in some accent of personality that caught the 
 attention of the men about them ; they derived their title from a 
 Spanish inheritance, and their idea of law from their own 
 inner consciousness; they were responsible to no central power, 
 they were subordinated to no court of appeal, they were bound 
 by no statute of legislation. Often they were well educated, 
 often illiterate ; sometimes they were sturdily honest, sometimes 
 shamelessly venal; many drank and cursed with unchastened 
 exuberance, many were thoroughly decent in speech and habits ; 
 some met untimely ends in drinking brawls and pistol duels, some 
 spent long and honorable lives in the service of their adopted 
 state. They were as far removed from the paternal dignity of 
 the Spanish alcalde as they were from the well defined status 
 of the American sheriff. Yet, because they perpetuated the title 
 of the Mexican magistrate, there is a tendency to attach to the 
 miners' alcalde a sort of retroactive significance, and to define in 
 the terms of his arbitrarj^ despotism the functions of the alcalde 
 of the pre-American regime. The exact position of the latter 
 was confused hj conflicting statutes and shifting administrations, 
 
 40 See the code of Jacksonville, January, 1850, Thomas Donaldson, The 
 Public Domain, 1881, pp. 317-318. 
 
Vox Populi in the Mines of California 83 
 
 but his authority reached back through centuries of Spanish law 
 and custom; his successor of the transition period was very 
 different from the Spanish model, but he still derived authority 
 from well established usage; but the earliest alcaldes of the 
 mines were detached from constitutions and precedents of any 
 compelling force. As Buchanan said of the ultimate foundation 
 of all order in California, the authority of the miners' alcaldes 
 rested solely on the consent of the governed, who recognized the 
 necessity of some form of social control, and gave voluntary 
 obedience to these extraordinary magistrates. 
 
 Legal methods of the time may be illustrated as follows. 
 In December, 1848, C. E. Pickett, a merchant at Sutter's Fort, 
 killed a man in self-defense. Sam Brannan, who had a store 
 at the same place, insisted that Pickett should be tried for mur- 
 der. Wlien the first and second alcaldes and the sheriff resigned 
 to avoid conducting the prosecution, Brannan called a mass meet- 
 ing to elect new officers. Everyone who was suggested for alcalde 
 declined and finally Brannan, himself, was chosen. The nom- 
 ination for a prosecuting attorney likewise went through the 
 circuit of the meeting, and was also finally accepted by Brannan. 
 The prisoner then procured counsel, the sheriff pro tern, was 
 ordered to bring drinks and cigars for all concerned, and argu- 
 ments lasted far into the night, while Captain Sutter, one of 
 the jury, wrapped in a Mexican serape, leaned against the wall 
 fast asleep. Brannan, as prosecuting attorney, sunnned up the 
 evidence against the accused in spite of the fact that Brannan, 
 as alcalde, was judge at the trial. The jury disagreed, and the 
 sheriff was charged to hold the prisoner, but, as he had neither 
 jail nor irons, it was decided to admit Pickett to bail, which was 
 promptly furnished by the jurymen. ''Thus ended the first 
 criminal trial ever had at Sutter's Fort. At a subsequent and 
 soberer trial Pickett was acquitted. "^^ 
 
 ^'^ History of Sacramento County, 124-125; noted in Archives, "Un- 
 bound Docs.," 44. 
 
84 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Another story tells us that in the spring of 1849 two Span- 
 iards on the Mokelumne quarreled over the ownership of a mule 
 worth about $20, and availed themselves of the privileges of a 
 jury trial. This resulted in fees amounting to $368, and a 
 verdict that thej^ should draw lots for the disputed animal. The 
 contestants cheerfully divided the costs and settled their quarrel 
 by drawing straws.*- It is easy to understand why a pioneer 
 should say :*^ 
 
 From the 7th of July, 1846 .... the Government was a perfect non- 
 descript — part military and part civil, and part no government at all. . . . 
 The laws were most variant and variously conceived, the civil law, the Pike 
 County code, the New York code, the common law, maritime law, the law on 
 the plains, military law, and the miners' law, were all jumbled up together, 
 and the Courts were as unique as the government and the laws; they were 
 Americo-Mexican, military-civil, with a good degree of the vigilante. 
 
 In spite of their shortcomings and their eccentricities, how- 
 ever, the miners' laws and the miners' alcaldes prevented abso- 
 lute anarchy in the camps. In the fall of 1848 the military 
 authorities had anticipated a rapid increase in crime, but a 
 year later the reports were much more cheerful. General Riley 
 was then governor, and when he visited the mining region he was 
 agreeably surprised to learn that order was preserved through- 
 out almost the entire district. In each little settlement the miners 
 had elected local alcaldes and constables, and sustained their 
 official acts with loyalty and energy.** A few months later, 
 General Persifor F. Smith, commandant of the Pacific Division 
 of the Army, wrote to the Adjutant General :*^ 
 
 42 Carson, Early Becollections, 27-28. 
 
 43 Lawrence Archer, ' * Oration, ' ' in Society of California Pioneers, 
 Twenty-second Anniversary, 1877, p. 12. 
 
 44 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doe. 17, p. 787. 
 
 45 p^ r^ Tyson, Geology and Industrial Besources of Calif ornm, 1851, 
 p. 79. General Smith was sometimes called the governor of California, 
 but he took pains to state that he was not in charge of civil affairs. See 
 Hittell, California, II, 676, 712; Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 
 727, 767. 
 
Vox Populi in the Mines of California 85 
 
 I doubt whether any part of the United States has presented a com- 
 munity in which there has [sic] been so few crimes and even disorders com- 
 mitted. The public records of any of our largest cities will present more 
 of these in one day, than have taken place in the whole of California since 
 my arrival. . . . Many misrepresentations have been published on this point. 
 
 The best known and most enthusiastic contemporary account 
 of conditions in California was written by Bayard Taylor. His 
 letters to the New York Tribune have been the basis of many 
 secondary accounts of mining life, and were the source of some 
 of Shinn's important generalizations.^^ Taylor spent some six 
 weeks in the mines in the fall of 1849, and reported that all the 
 larger and older camps had elected alcaldes and adopted regu- 
 lations which were faithfully obeyed, while crime was checked 
 by just and deliberate punishments.*^ It is quite possible that 
 the places he visited were conducted as he described, but his 
 inspection was hurried and superficial, and comparison with 
 other observers leads one to think that he attributed to the entire 
 extent of the mining region a good order which he found pre- 
 vailing in the more accessible localities through which he traveled. 
 
 In spite of the optimistic reports of Riley and Smith and 
 Taylor, it is incontestable that violence reached an alarming 
 degree during 1849. Popular tribunals such as the miners' 
 courts had developed as an emergency resource for small pioneer 
 
 46 Eldorado, 1850. Taylor made some very palpable errors, such as 
 speaking of the Mexican ayuntamiento as a person ''who was commis- 
 sioned," etc., etc. (I, 183), estimating the thousands of gold seekers from 
 foreign parts as speedily outnumbering the American population (I, 100), 
 and describing the harbor at Monterey as equal to any in California (I, 
 138). His optimistic statements should therefore be received with caution 
 (see Royce, California, pp. 303-304). 
 
 47 Eldorado, I, 67 et seq. Henry De Groot said the miner of 1849 was 
 far less disorderly than he was currently portrayed ("Six Months in '49," 
 Overland Monthhj, XIV [1872], 316-329). E. G. Waite wrote: ''In all 
 my personal experience in mining camps from 1849 to 1854 there was not 
 a case of bloodshed, robbery, theft, or actual violence" ("Pioneer Mining 
 in California," Century, XLII [1891], 141). "For several years after 
 the settlement of Nevada [City], in a society where little law had influence 
 except that of moral restraint, but two homicides occurred" (H. B. Thomp- 
 son, Directory of the City of Nevada and Grass Valley, 1861, p. 8). 
 
86 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 communities. They inevitably proved their inherent weakness 
 and defects when called upon to control a population that in 
 numbers and disposition required the restraints imposed by a 
 highly developed social organization. It was not alone the avow- 
 edly outlaw element that needed to be curbed ; men whose former 
 habits of life had been orderly and well regulated learned in 
 California to consume liquor in enormous quantities, and to 
 gamble for enormous stakes. Disappointed greed and drunken 
 passion sped many a knife thrust and bullet, and the frenzy of 
 a mad debauch turned many a peaceable miner into an irrespon- 
 sible enemy of mankind. 
 
 To attempt to gather and classify the accounts of California 
 pioneers is like trying to classify the combinations of a kaleido- 
 scope, for the components of the miners' society shifted and 
 rearranged themselves and reflected the sunlight or caught the 
 shadow with every turn of fortune's hand. We read, as it were 
 in parallel columns, of bags of gold dust that lay safe in 
 unguarded tents, and of merchandise piled high in the open 
 streets; then of robbery and murder that went unnoticed in a 
 community where a man might drop from sight without causing 
 a ripple of comment among his self-absorbed neighbors. We 
 read of the ''lex diggerorum" to which men bowed in the swift 
 adjustment of the most valuable claims, and of the groups which 
 elected and obeyed their alcaldes in spite of the temptations of 
 selfish individualism. We find, on the other hand, that there 
 were manj^ who opposed even the simplest forms of social 
 restraint, and seized every opportunity to display their predatory 
 instincts ; again we find that there were many more whose habits 
 of self-control gave way under the excitement and hardships of 
 their life and the wild dissipation that was their only relaxation 
 after days of feverish toil. Men of this sort committed crimes, 
 sometimes in cold-blooded deliberation, more often in momentary 
 passion. But drinking and gambling, even robbery and murder, 
 
Vox Populi in the Mines of California 87 
 
 were the accidents of an unorganized social condition, and 
 beneath the confusion lay the force of a popular consent to the 
 will of the majority, and to the essential spirit of law, as a solid 
 foundation might lie beneath the disordered elements of an 
 unfinished structure.*^ 
 
 48 This spirit Avas apparent to a critic of Bret Harte, who said : ' ' Bret 
 Harte's characters are amenable to no laws except the improvised laws of 
 the camp; and the final arbiter is either the six-shooter or the rope of 
 Judge Lynch. And yet underlying this apparent lawlessness there is that 
 deep ' law-abidingness ' which the late Grant Allen despised as being the 
 'Anglo-Saxon characteristic' To my mind, indeed, there is nothing so 
 new, fresh, and piquant in the fiction of my time as Bret Harte 's pictures 
 of the mixed race we call Anglo-Saxon finding itself right outside all 
 the old sanctions, exercising nevertheless its own peculiar instinct for 
 law-abidingness — of a kind" (Theodore Watts-Dunton, ''Bret Harte," 
 Athenaeum, May 24, 1902, p. 659). 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR ORGANIZATION 
 
 The entire period of California history between 1848 and 
 1856 has sometimes been characterized as the era of the Struggle 
 for Order. Writers have depicted the forces of law and of law- 
 lessness as pitted against each other in open conflict, while a large 
 element in the population was negligent of all social obligations, 
 indifferent to all moral issues, and intent only upon the accumu- 
 lation of wealth. 
 
 The significance of the years 1848 and 1849 may be much 
 better expressed by calling them the era of the Struggle for 
 Organization. In those years law was practically non-existent 
 in much of the country, and the men who have been censured for 
 neglecting the public welfare were actually deprived of the most 
 elementary means through which their desires for order might 
 find effective expression. Their response to the duties of citizen- 
 ship under such unusual conditions should not be judged by 
 their failure to regulate public morals, but rather by their 
 demand for adequate laws, by their repeated efforts to formulate 
 such laws, and by the final triumph of those efforts in the work 
 of the constitutional convention of 1849. When the historian, 
 the reminiscent pioneer, and the writer of western fiction say, 
 as they do in varying phrases, ' ' There was no law in the land, ' ' 
 they suggest a situation in which men took advantage of a tempo- 
 rary disorganization of justice to repudiate the usual bonds of 
 community life. But the impression thus created is superficial 
 and it has been necessary to linger over primary sources of 
 history in order to show that the real menace to order was a law- 
 lacking condition of societj^ rather than a law-defiant attitude 
 on the part of the people. 
 
The Struggle for Orgamzation 89 
 
 The spontaneous mass meeting of the mining camps had 
 saved the country from absolute anarchy, but the mass meeting 
 does not continue to be an efficient organ of government when 
 the social group becomes very large, or loses its homogeneity of 
 composition. Under such circumstances, as Ross pointed out, 
 the ties of fellowship dissolve, and the ''folk mass becomes 
 a dangerous compound, ready to explode at a touch. "^ The 
 need for some sort of representative s^^stem was usually recog- 
 nized very quickly in the organization of the American frontier. 
 It was especially necessary in the communities of California, 
 where the preservation of order required a definite executive 
 force to make effective the resolutions adopted by the popular 
 assemblies. "Without such a force, each individual act of disci- 
 pline depended upon popular initiative, and upon the momen- 
 tary temper of the meeting or mob that was stirred to action. 
 Even in the camps where alcaldes had been elected, the constant 
 shifting of the population deprived them of any permanent* 
 constituency to uphold them in carrying out a rule that had 
 become unpopular. No lasting authority could be delegated to 
 them until the community, as a whole, should be knit together 
 by a bond of representative government. In the absence of such 
 a bond even the political dexterity of the American citizen was 
 powerless to stabilize social conditions. The large majority of 
 the hundred thousand men in California desired that order 
 should be established and that crime should be checked, but 
 the will of this constructive majority could not be expressed 
 in any organic law that would defend society from a minority 
 that desired riot and license. On one day the peaceable miner 
 might be a member of a congenial group, where life and property 
 were protected by common consent. On the next, that group 
 
 1 Eoss, Social Control, 52. See also A. B. Hart, in Cyclopedia of Ameri- 
 can Government, 1914, III, 543; Cleveland, Organized Democracy, 37, 45; 
 Eoosevelt, Winning of the West, I, 231-233; J. E. Young, ''Tlie LaAv as 
 an Expression of Community Ideals,'' Yale Law Journal. XXVII (1917), 
 1-33. 
 
90 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 might be invaded by large numbers of gamblers and rowdies, 
 who would defy every restraint of public opinion, and would 
 yield only to the sheer force of physical constraint. 
 
 The continuance of this condition long after the increase in 
 population demanded full civil equipment was not due to a law- 
 less spirit inlierent in the people, but to the situation at Washing- 
 ton. There sectional issues were asserting themselves with such 
 vehemence that it was impossible to divorce the problem of terri- 
 torial organization from the question of slavery, or to unite the 
 hostile factions in establishing government in California and 
 New Mexico. 
 
 While matters were in this condition Senator Thomas H. 
 Benton, father-in-law of Colonel John C. Fremont, assumed the 
 role of advisor to the Californians, and made public a letter in 
 which he urged them to meet in convention, adopt a cheap and 
 simple government, and take care of themselves until Congress 
 could provide for them.^ His message was not published in 
 California until January, 1849, when it had a certain effect in 
 stimulating the people towards the course he advocated, but in 
 the interim it caused grave uneasiness to President Polk, who 
 feared that it would incite the settlers on the Pacific Coast 
 to form an independent government, under the leadership of 
 Colonel Fremont.^ To counteract the influence of Benton's 
 letter the Secretary of State sent a communication to the people 
 of California by the hands of Mr. William Van Voorhies, newly 
 appointed postal agent, and in it he made the first official 
 announcement of the status of the de facto government as it has 
 been explained in an earlier chapter.* Robert J. Walker, the 
 
 2 Printed in the NeAV York Herald, 1848, Sept. 26, reprinted in Niles 
 Begister, LXXIV, 1848, Oct. 18, p. 244. 
 
 3 Benton had been ''malignantly hostile" to Polk since the outcome 
 '96 'd 'v^/^ii passnosip si i8:^^8{ s^no:^naa; jo 'i'dd^d Gqj, 'ig "d 'ludns oag f 
 
 •088-6S8 'efl-Of-I 'Z8T-9gT 'AI '0I6T 'fi-ima '^\0d '^ T ^ag -uoT^^nSipnt 
 ^s^^c^^T s^ ^^naptsai j oq; pasnojB J^:^^9[ siq; pu-e '{tsi'^itbui ^jnoo s^ ;noui8.ijj[ jo 
 
The Struggle for Organization 91 
 
 secretary of the treasury, issued a circular at the same time, 
 which announced that by the treaty with Mexico the Constitution 
 of the United States was extended over California, and which 
 gave instructions as to the collection of customs duties, but ignored 
 the question of local government.^ Secretary Buchanan urged 
 the residents of California to await Congressional action with 
 patience, but President Polk realized that they could not be 
 expected to wait indefinitely, and at the opening of Congress in 
 December, 1848, he made another appeal for immediate terri- 
 torial organization.^ He pointed out that the entire question 
 of the extension of slavery might be left to local determination, 
 as it was not imperative for Congress to legislate on the subject, 
 and in any case the ultimate decision would rest with the citi- 
 zens of the acquired regions when they finally adopted state 
 constitutions. 
 
 On the same day Senator Stephen A. Douglas announced that 
 he should presently introduce a measure bearing on the subject 
 of organization. On December 11 he presented a bill to author- 
 ize the immediate formation of a single state out of all the 
 territory obtained from Mexico. As the area was far too large 
 to form one commonwealth, Douglas later amended his bill to 
 permit the people west of the Sierra Nevada Mountains to organ- 
 ize a state government at once, and the people of New IMexico 
 to take the same action as soon as it should be justified by the 
 increase of population.^ The amendment empowered the acting 
 governor of California to set the date for a constitutional conven- 
 tion, to call for an election of delegates, and to designate electoral 
 districts ; furthermore, when the state constitution and state gov- 
 ernment should have been established, and the president of the 
 
 5 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 537, Doc. 1, p. 45. See also Magoon, Reports 
 on the Law of Civil Government, 166-169. 
 
 6 Eicliardson, Messages, IV, 639-642. 
 
 ^Cona. Glohe, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., 1, 21, 190-198, 381; Allen Johnson, 
 Stephen A. Douglas, 1908, pp. 133-142; Polk, Diary, IV, 228-237; 254-257. 
 
92 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 United States notified of the fact, the acting governor was 
 directed to issue a proclamation declaring "the said State of 
 California to be one of the States of this Union, upon an equal 
 footing with the original States in all respects whatever. ' ' This 
 bill was designed to hasten the local decision as to the prohi- 
 bition of slavery, and although it was finally lost through post- 
 ponements its tenor should be understood, because it apparently 
 had an influence on subsequent events.^ When Congress 
 adjourned, March 3, 1849, it had done nothing for the relief 
 of California, except to extend over it the revenue laws of the 
 United States.^ 
 
 Throughout the dissensions of this session President Polk 
 often recorded in his diary his apprehension lest California 
 might be lost to the Union by the formation of a separate govern- 
 ment. He felt that such an outcome might not be unwelcome 
 to the coming Whig administration, as a relief from the embar- 
 rassments of the slavery conflict,^^ and on the very day of the 
 inauguration of Zachary Taylor, Polk's apprehensions were 
 further excited when the new President expressed the opinion 
 that both California and Oregon were too distant to become 
 members of the Union, and that it would be better for them 
 to be permanently independent.^^ 
 
 In less than a month President Taylor changed his point of 
 view. Every despatch from the Coast confirmed the reports of 
 the richness of the gold mines, enhanced the value of the new 
 territory in the public estimation, and emphasized the need of 
 
 8 See infra, p. 103. 
 
 9U. S., Statutes at Large, IX, 400. See also Hittell, California, II, 
 705-706; Polk, Diary, IV, 364-370. 
 
 10 Polk, Biary, IV, 231-233, 293-298. Eleven members of the House of 
 Representatives voted to return all the territory obtained by the treaty 
 Avith Mexico except the region about San Francisco Bay {Cong. Globe, 30 
 Cong., 2 Sess., 557-559). 
 
 11 Polk, Diary, IV, 375-376. Taylor had disapproved of the Mexican 
 War, see his Letters from the Battle -Fields, 1908, pp. 28, 37, 39, 75, 117. 
 
The Struggle for Organization 93 
 
 providing an efficient government without waiting for another 
 session of Congress. Early in April Thomas Butler King was 
 appointed a special agent to the naval and military commanders 
 in California, and was given instructions that distinctly- advised 
 the creation of civil organization b}^ popular initiative. ^^ King 
 had participated as a representative from Georgia in the last 
 session of the House, and could inform the local authorities of 
 the drift of opinion in Washington, but he did not reach San 
 Francisco until June, by which time a movement for self -organ- 
 ization had already met with general endorsement. 
 
 The problems of California were not, by any means, limited 
 to the preservation of order. There was constant difficulty in 
 financing the civil department of the government, in enforcing 
 revenue laws, and in regulating commercial affairs, but such 
 questions do not require consideration here.^^ 
 
 It must not be thought that during the discussions that dis- 
 tracted Washington in the winter of 1848 to 1849, the builders 
 of the future commonwealth of California were indifferent or 
 tolerant towards the disorder and confusion which reigned about 
 them. On the contrary, they were fully and unhappih^ conscious 
 of it, and resented their situation with outspoken bitterness. The 
 papers attributed the rapid increase of crime to the fact that 
 societ}^ was ' ' held together without other law than had suggested 
 itself in cases of emergency. "^^ The}' pointed out the grave 
 dangers that would attend the continuance of h^nch law, which 
 
 12 Cong. Doc^., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 9-11. King was later ap- 
 pointed collector of the port of San Francisco. He Avas disliked in Califor- 
 nia, but his Beport on California, 1850, was a valuable document (Cong. 
 Docs., Ser. No. 577, Doc. 59; reprinted under the title, California : the 
 Wonder of the Age, 1850). 
 
 13 These subjects are discussed at length by Bancroft and Hittell, and 
 more briefly by Thomas, Military Government, 218-228; and by W. C. 
 Fankhauser, Financial History of California, 1913, pp. 109-116. An excel- 
 lent summary was made in the Memorial to Congress (Browne, Debates, 
 Appendix, pp. xiv-xix), and in King's report, California, 3-4. 
 
 ^'i Placer Times, 1849, May 5 %. 
 
94 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 was ' ' only worth}^ of barbarians, ' ' and was as likely to turn its 
 destroying hands against the good as against the bad.^^ 
 
 Colonel Mason also viewed the situation with profound 
 anxiety. As early as November 24, 1848, he had written to 
 "Washington :^^ ''The war being over, the soldiers nearly all 
 deserted, and having now been from the States two years, I 
 respectfully request to be ordered home." There was a grim 
 acknowledgment of discouragement in the terse request, but the 
 commandant did not abandon California to unchecked disorder 
 even after he had asked to be relieved from his onerous position. 
 On the evening of the very day on which he applied for a change 
 of service he had an interview with E.' C. Kemble, editor of the 
 California Star and Calif or nian,'^'^ and discussed with him the 
 interests of the community. No record of their conference seems 
 to have been preserved, but its tenor can be inferred from the 
 following memorandum of a letter in the Archives of California, 
 copied for the Bancroft collection '}^ 
 
 1848 Nov. 25 Mont[erey] 
 Govr Mason to E. C. Kemble, on organizing Govt for Cal. 
 (a private letter) 
 It appears I did not convey to you my exact meaning in the con- 
 versation I had the pleasure to have with you last evening; what I 
 wished to convey was this, that if on the receipt of the intelligence 
 that Congress had adjournd last summer without organizing a terri- 
 torial govt for Gala, that then the people should organize a temporary 
 govt for themselves; that this intelligence (the adjournt of Congress) 
 it was expected would be received by the St. Mary's now due and 
 daily expected. 
 
 Although this letter is not ordinarily cited as a document of 
 particular significance, it had a prompt and important influence 
 
 15 Alta, 1849, Jan. 4 ^/y. 
 
 16 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 649. 
 
 17 The Monterey Calif ornian had been transferred to San Francisco in 
 May, 1847. It was merged with the California Star in November, 1848, and 
 Kemble was the editor. At the opening of the new year the old papers 
 were succeeded by the Alta California, owned by Kemble, Edward Gilbert, 
 and G. 0. Hubbard. The paper was independent in politics, and opposed 
 to the '' high-handed measures" of the military authorities (Kemble in 
 Sacramento Union, 1858, Dec. 25 %). 
 
 is Archives, ''Unbound Docs.," 140-141. It Avas rumored that Mason 
 and Commodore Jones had conferred on the subject of civil organization 
 (Calif ornian, 1848, Oct. 21 i/i). 
 
The Struggle for Organization 95 
 
 on public events, since the California Star and Calif or nian at 
 once commenced a vigorous campaign for the formation of a 
 provisional government. In the issue of December 2 the paper 
 reported a particularlj^ shocking murder in the mining regions, 
 and under the caption, "Shall we have a Civil Government T' 
 the editor urged the immediate organization of some form of 
 social order that would restrain crime. He asserted that : 
 
 Our Military and Naval commandants recognize in the people a right — 
 nay, enjoin it as a duty, to provide for themselves a government, recom- 
 mending delay only until it be ascertained whether or not the Congi-ess 
 of the United States, at its last session, produced the long-awaited organ- 
 ization. 
 
 In the light of the letter from the governor, the reference to 
 the militarj^ authorities becomes almost an official endorsement 
 of the plan, but as Mason scrupulously refrained from any public 
 utterance on the subject, his attitude towards organization has 
 generally been interpreted as one of non-interference rather than 
 of initiative.^^ 
 
 In quick response to the call for action a meeting was held 
 in San Jose on December 11, and a convention for organization 
 was suggested for January, 1849. The plan was ratified in San 
 Francisco, December 21 and 22, with the proviso that the date 
 should be advanced to March 5. Other towais followed San 
 Francisco's example, and when the proposed interval proved too 
 brief to permit adequate representation from the South, it was 
 again extended to May 6.-° Thus the movement for organization 
 was well in progress before the letter of Senator Benton that 
 had so agitated President Polk was published in the Alta Cali- 
 fornia of January 11, 1849. The next issue of the paper, that 
 
 19 See Cardinal Goodwin, EstahJisliment of State Government in Califor- 
 nia, 1914, p. 71; Bancroft, California, VI, 266-267. 
 
 20 Delegates were elected at Los Angeles, Monterey, San Jose, San Fran- 
 cisco, Sacramento, Benieia, and Sonoma. See Bancroft, California, VI, 
 266-271; Browne, Debates, Appendix, pp. xvi-xvii; Burnett, BecoUections. 
 294-318. 
 
96 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 of January 18, contained a sarcastic editorial expressing popular 
 gratitude for the senator's parental solicitude, and characteriz- 
 ing the communication as a well-meaning document which quite 
 mistook the caliber of the community. The letter entrusted to 
 Mr. Van Voorhies, which had been designed to forestall Benton 's, 
 was printed without comment on March 15, although a copy of 
 it was in the hands of the governor some time before that date.^^ 
 These two letters are often cited as expressions of opposing 
 views on the status of California. The "administration theory" 
 upheld the survival of the Mexican laws, subject to change only 
 by act of Congress, and administrated by the highest military 
 officer in the district as was provided for in the Mexican system 
 when a civil governor was not in active service. Benton con- 
 curred with the administration in maintaining that the Mexican 
 laws persisted until altered by the proper legislative authority, 
 but he asserted that the American commanders had no power to 
 administer those laws, and that in default of legitimate officials 
 the people were left without government and had the right to 
 provide organization for themselves. A third theory called the 
 ''Settler's theory" was held by some of the most prominent 
 residents, who agreed with Benton that they had the right of self- 
 government, but based that claim on the assumption that the 
 Constitution of the United States had superseded the Mexican 
 laws as soon as the treaty was ratified. They acknowledged that 
 the power to legislate for the acquired territory was primarily 
 vested in Congress, but felt that since the Congressional pre- 
 rogative had not been exercised the people might temporarily 
 assume the right of legislating for themselves. They contended, 
 also, that even in case President Polk and Secretary Buchanan 
 were correct in their theory, the de facto government of which 
 they talked rested entirely upon the presumed consent of the 
 governed, and the inhabitants of California were at liberty to 
 
 21 Browne, Delates, 277. 
 
The Struggle for Organization 97 
 
 withhold their consent, and to adopt what laws they saw fit. 
 Some historians identify the ' ' Settlers ' theory" with the ' ' Benton 
 theory," but as Benton opposed the doctrine of squatter sov- 
 ereignty, and the ' ' transmigratory function of the constitution, ' ' 
 the two points of view were in fundamental disagreement.-^ He 
 was never acknowledged as a popular influence in California, and 
 his "patronizing letter" was again scored in the Alta of July 19. 
 
 The proposed convention was finally postponed until August 
 that full reports of the session of Congress might be received. 
 In view of the long delay the delegates resigned, recommending 
 the election of new representatives who should be vested with 
 full power to frame a state constitution and to submit it to the 
 people for ratification. It is interesting to note that this sug- 
 gestion as to state organization appeared in the same issue of 
 the Alta California (March 22, 1849) that printed the bill which 
 embodied Senator Douglas' first scheme for state government 
 in the territory acquired from Mexico. 
 
 Coincident with the impulse towards general provisional 
 government there was an effort on the part of some of the larger 
 communities to apply the method of self-organization to their own 
 local problems, for the existing Mexican system proved more and 
 more inadequate to the needs of the increasing population. 
 
 This was particularly true of San Francisco, which had about 
 two thousand inhabitants.^^ It will be remembered that a town 
 council had been instituted by the alcalde and confirmed by 
 Colonel Mason in July, 1847.-* That body had been empowered 
 
 23 For the varying opinions on the status of California at this time, see 
 J. F. Rhodes, History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850, 
 I (1893), 93 et seq.; T. H. Benton, Thirty Years' View, 1854r-1856, II, 713; 
 Burnett, Recollections, 311-317, 327-334; Browne, Debates, 274-284; Rojce, 
 California, 247-254; Hittell, California, II, 712; Hunt, ''Legal Status of 
 California" as cited, 80-82. 
 
 2S Annals, 219. 
 
 2* See supra, p. 49. Even the alcaldes went to the mines in the summer 
 of 1848. The council did not meet for five months, and special elections 
 were called to fill the deserted posts (Cong. Does., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, 
 593, 667; Armals, 205-207; Bancroft, California, V, 648-652). 
 
98 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 to serve Tintil the close of the following year. An election for 
 new officers took place in December, 1848, but the results were 
 challenged on the ground that unqualified electors had been 
 allowed to vote, and the old council refused to give place to the 
 council elect. A second election was called in January, and for 
 a time the three separate bodies wrangled over the control o£ 
 town affairs. The alcalde. Doctor T. M. Leavenworth, also became 
 a storm center of approval and dislike, and the arbitrary system 
 in vogue grew so intolerable that a group of leading men resolved 
 to wait no longer for constitutional authority, but to formulate 
 for themselves a more efficient municipal government. Early 
 in February they called a mass meeting to consider the difficulties 
 between the rival councils, and in response about five hundred 
 citizens gathered on the Plaza and adopted a new scheme of 
 organization.^^ They provided for the election of a legislative 
 assembly with power to enact laws that harmonized with the 
 Federal Constitution, and authorized three justices of the peace 
 to try civil and criminal cases according to the common law as 
 recognized in the United States. February 21 was set for the 
 new election, and a committee was appointed to ask for the 
 resignation of the members of the old contesting councils, who 
 obligingly complied with the request. 
 
 Bancroft said that the assembly brought to the front a very 
 respectable body of men, full of reform projects. One of their 
 first acts was to appoint a committee to wait upon the senior 
 military and naval commanders, and to ask their approval of 
 the proceedings. Papers were sent them with particulars of the 
 public meetings and minutes of the first session of the assembly, 
 and in a clear and dignified letter the committee recounted the 
 difficulties and hardships entailed upon San Francisco by a 
 
 25 See Annals, 208, 219-220; Burnett, Be collections, 306-310; Bancroft, 
 California, VI, 209-211, 273; Moses, Establishment of Munioipal Govern- 
 ment, 36-46. A. J. Ellis, A. J. Grayson, and E. A. Parker (Vigilantes of 
 1851) were members of the Assembly. 
 
The Struggle for Organization 99 
 
 continuance of the arbitrary rule of an irresponsible alcalde.^^ 
 This document was one of the most interesting expositions of 
 the popular mind at that period. It pointed out that nothing 
 had been accomplished for civil improvement ; that even the old 
 Mexican institutions had lapsed ; that the American alcaldes had 
 never understood or administered Mexican laws and had simply 
 decided questions according to their personal bias; that the 
 people, hitherto patient in the hope of speedy relief, were no 
 longer willing to give that consent which was the indispensable 
 support of the de facto government, and that, in such a situation, 
 they had the right to gather in their primary capacity and to 
 create a government to serve until it might be superseded by 
 competent authority. It was the old resort to the reassembling 
 of social elements by agreement among a particular group which 
 felt that its previous organization was deficient or inoperative. 
 To the aggrieved citizens their position seemed unquestion- 
 ably logical, but to the military commanders it was a menace 
 to the integrity of the national authority and a possible step 
 towards the establishment of the independent government decried 
 by President Polk. In response to their petition for endorsement 
 the citizens of San Francisco were therefore informed that as 
 Congress alone had power to legislate for territories, the de facto 
 government must persist until laws had been passed to replace 
 it, and they were warned that ''(5onfusion and intricacy would 
 inevitably result from establishing even the best government on 
 a false basis. "-^ Undaunted by this disapproval, the assembly 
 continued its work; held regular meetings, levied taxes, and 
 enacted regulations.^^ The office of alcalde was abolished, and 
 the incumbent was asked to transfer his records to the senior 
 justice of the peace. Leavenworth, however, appealed to the 
 militarv authorities, who advised him to retain possession of his 
 
 26 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 728-735. 
 
 27 Cong- Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 735-737. 
 
 28 See The Minutes of the Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly of 
 the District of San Francisco, 1860. 
 
100 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 office and papers.-^ A little later formal charges of malfeasance 
 were preferred against him, and the governor suspended him 
 from duty pending an investigation.^^ Even this did not satisfy 
 the legislative assembly, which was determined to assert its 
 authority. On May 31 its sheriff forcibly seized the papers in 
 the alcalde 's office. One of the books preserved in the recorder 's 
 office in San Francisco breaks oif abruptly with the pencilled 
 note in Leavenworth's handwriting and over his signature: 
 "Here the Hounds entered the alcalde's office and seized the 
 records. A. Patterson and others entering a [illegible] Tally 
 ho." The interrupted entry was the copy of a deed dated 
 April 6, 1849, but the intrusion referred to was probably the 
 raid of May 31.^^ The next day the governor restored Leaven- 
 worth to the full exercise of his duties.^- His order to that effect 
 did not mention the raid, and the interval was very brief for 
 communication with Monterey. A few days later, however, he 
 called public attention to the assault on the alcalde, asked for 
 assistance in recovering the archives, and designated the "body 
 of men styling themselves the Legislative Assembly of San Fran- 
 cisco" as an illegal organization which should not be supported 
 b}^ law-abiding citizens.^^ 
 
 ^9 Minutes, 16; Coiig. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 727. 
 
 30 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 758-760. Leavenworth ten- 
 dered his resi^ation to take effect on May 15 (Arcliives, ''Unbound Does.," 
 56). He complained that the movement was one against the military gov- 
 ernment, and that the press was all on the side of the insurgents (letter. 
 May 29, ihid., 64-66). Commodore Jones, Captain J. L. Folsom, and Rod- 
 man N. Price stated that Leavenworth Avas so unpopular that he could not 
 give satisfaction in anything (ibid., 55). 
 
 31 See O. C. Coy, Guide to the County Archives of California, 1919, p. 
 413; Ryan, Personal Adventures, II, 251-254; Buffum, Six Months, 114-119; 
 copy of the order issued by Myron Norton, directing Sheriff J. C. Pulis to 
 seize the papers (Archives, ''Unbound Docs.," 320-321); Leavenworth's 
 report of the raid (ibid., 319). A. A. Green mentioned the return of the 
 town records to the alcalde after he was reinstated (Life and Adventures 
 of a '47-er, 1878, p. 24, MS in the Bancroft Library). For the story of the 
 Hounds, see infra, p. 105. 
 
 32 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 771. 
 
 33 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 773-774. 
 
The Struggle for Organization 101 
 
 San Francisco was not the first nor the only community to 
 experiment with local organization. When the residents upon 
 the north side of the Bay of San Francisco met in Sonoma, 
 February 5, 1849, for the purpose of electing delegates to the 
 proposed constitutional convention, they adopted rules and reg- 
 ulations for the control of the district until a permanent gov- 
 ernment might be established. Nothing significant was accom- 
 plished by this association, which dissolved when the members 
 found that their course was disapproved by the authorities.^* 
 Sacramento, as the most convenient point of departure for the 
 northern mines, also felt the need of some government more 
 effective than that of the alcaldes at Sutter's Fort. An initial 
 meeting was held April 30, 1849, and subsequently a legislature 
 of eleven members was elected, but it was afterwards decided 
 that elaborate organization was unnecessary, and an alcalde and 
 sheriff were chosen to preserve order in a district extending from 
 the Coast Kange to the Sierra Nevada Mountains.^^ Had such 
 district associations been countenanced by the governor, it is 
 probable that they would have been formed in other localities, 
 but he felt called upon to suppress them. In consequence each 
 community was obliged to shift for itself. 
 
 All through the early months of 1849, while the Californians 
 were hoping for favorable news from Washington, Colonel Mason 
 maintained his official aloofness from the movement towards 
 organization. By April 13, when Brevet-Brigadier General Ben- 
 net Riley arrived to relieve him, the scheme for provisional 
 government had lapsed through postponement, although it was 
 evident that resentment against existing conditions was fomenting 
 
 s^Alta, 1849, March 1 %; Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doe. 17, p. 749. 
 
 35 The Placer Times, 1849, May 5, reported the organization. Burnett 
 said the meeting was early in January (EecoUections, 294), but in the His- 
 tory of Sacramento C&iinty, 47, it is stated that there was no form of govern- 
 ment until the summer months. See also Sacramento Illustrated, Barber & 
 Baker, publishers, 1855, p. 9; Bancroft, California, VI, 455. 
 
102 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 a spirit of aggressive self-assertion.^^ The two officers reviewed 
 the situation in careful consultation. They were not yet definitely 
 informed of the plans of the Whig cabinet, but they were prob- 
 ably aware of the futile attempts made in the late session of 
 Congress to pave the way towards state organization. They 
 decided that it would be well for the new governor to summon a 
 convention to draw up a state constitution as soon as he might 
 learn that Congress had actually adjourned without passing any 
 bills that would affect the situation.^^ 
 
 The administration of Mason closed without the establish- 
 ment of the government for which he had sincerely hoped, but 
 as his aid, William T. Sherman, pointed out he left matters in 
 California so disposed that a civil system was a matter of easy 
 adjustment. For nearly two years he had held his slender reins 
 of government over the turbulent forces in California, and pre- 
 vented utter catastrophe and ruin. His task had been discour- 
 aging and thankless, for his superiors had tacitly forbidden him 
 to undertake any constructive work, while the people constantly 
 blamed him for his failure to accomplish effective reforms. But 
 he was not afraid of criticism, he was loyal to his idea of duty, 
 and while all the world about him went mad over the pursuit 
 of wealth, he never used his official position as a source of per- 
 
 36 The general discontent occasionally gave rise to rumors of a movement 
 for independence. General Persifor F. Smith said that on his trip to Cali- 
 fornia he encountered ' ' some persons going out armed with Colonel Ben- 
 ton 's letter to set up a government for themselves" {Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 
 573, Doc. 17, p. 710). E. O. Crosby said that an independent republic might 
 have been attempted if California had not organized and been admitted 
 (MS Statement, 1878, pp. 52, 57). The attitude of the newspapers has been 
 analyzed in a MS master's thesis. Sentiment in California for a Pacific 
 Mepuhlic, 1843-1861, 1919, by Joseph Ellison, in the University of Califor- 
 nia Library. See also Burnett, Recollections, 327-328; Bancroft, California, 
 VI, 268 note 31; Hunt, ''Legal Status," as cited, 73; Dorothy Hull, 
 ''Movement in Oregon for the Establishment of a Pacific Coast Eepublic," 
 Oregon Historical Society, Quarterly, XVII (1916), 177-200; H. E. Bolton, 
 "Admission of California," University of California Chronicle, XV (1913), 
 561. 
 
 37 Cong. Does., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 748. 
 
The Struggle for Organization 103 
 
 sonal profit. He left California shortl}' after his relief, and died 
 of cholera, in St. Louis, in the summer of the same year.^^ 
 
 On or about the first of June Governor Riley received positive 
 information that Congress had adjourned without creating a 
 government for California.^^ On June 3 he issued a procla- 
 mation that summoned a constitutional convention to meet at 
 Monterey on the first day of September, designated the electoral 
 districts, the number of delegates from each, and the time and 
 mode of their selection.*^ The measures proposed by Riley were 
 so like those of the amended bill which Senator Douglas had 
 offered in the Senate, that it seems safe to infer that they must 
 have been formulated with exact knowledge and careful repro- 
 duction of the methods which had been considered at Washing- 
 ton.*^ The document antedated by a day the arrival in San 
 Francisco of Thomas Butler King, who for some unexplained 
 reason did not communicate with the governor until about the 
 middle of the month. ^^ It is therefore improbable that the pres- 
 ence of the President's special agent had any appreciable influ- 
 ence on the plans for the convention. 
 
 In this proclamation the governor also made public the first 
 official summary of the Mexican system which had supposedly 
 been in force from the time of the American occupation.*^ He 
 announced that in view of the months that would elapse before 
 
 3s See Bancroft, California, VI, 274; Hittell, CaUfornm, II, 677; Sher- 
 man, Memoirs, I, 65. 
 
 ^^Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 748; S. H. Willey, Transition 
 Period, 1901, p. 85. 
 
 40 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 776-780. 
 
 41 Secretary of War Crawford "wrote General Smith, April 3, 1849, that 
 want of information on California conditions precluded the possibility of 
 special instructions, although no plan for an independent government could 
 be sanctioned (Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 549, Doc. 1, pp. 156-157). He wrote 
 to Eiley in a similar tenor, June 26, saying, at the same time, that it was 
 the right of the people to form a plan of government, Avhich might lead to 
 their admission as a state (ibid., 160-161). 
 
 42 King, California: tJic Wonder of the Age, 7. 
 
 43 See supra, p. 24. 
 
104 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 any new government could be instituted, he would immediately 
 put the native institutions into their ''full vigor." To accom- 
 plish this purpose he ordered that when the people chose dele- 
 gates for the constitutional convention they should also elect 
 alcaldes, justices of the peace, and town councilmen, wherever 
 such officials were not already installed, and should, in addition, 
 elect the judges for the superior court, and the prefects and 
 sub-prefects authorized by the Mexican statutes. 
 
 The call for a convention aroused unexpected opposition. 
 Some of the advocates of immediate organization protested that 
 the governor had no business to infringe upon their right of self- 
 government, even to the extent of setting a date for the convention, 
 or allotting the number of delegates. This feeling was most loudly 
 expressed in San Francisco, where there was much resentment 
 over Riley's arraignment of the legislative assembly and his 
 reinstatement of Alcalde Leavenworth ; but after some discus- 
 sion it was decided to accede to his suggestions, and to join in 
 the general movement towards organization.** 
 
 Early in July the members of the legislative assembh^ 
 conscious of the governor's disapproval of their position, asked 
 for an expression of popular opinion, and called for an election 
 which should confirm or withdraw the authority that had been 
 delegated to them. When this was held one hundred and sixty- 
 seven votes were cast in their favor, and seven against them. 
 The support was considered so inadequate that the assembly 
 dissolved, leaving Leavenworth in possession of the field.*^ The 
 Annals of San Francisco, published in 1855, remarked of this 
 situation :*^ 
 
 44 See Burnett, Becollections, 319-326; Hittell, Calif (niiia, II, 713-718; 
 Bancroft, California, VI, 277-280; Willey, Transition Period, 86-89; F. J. 
 Lippitt, ''The California Boundary Question in 1849," Century, XL 
 (1890), 795. 
 
 45 Annals, 223 ; Bancroft, California, VI, 211 note. Leavenworth again 
 tendered his resignation on June 4 {Archives, ''Unbound Docs.," 228; 
 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 774). 
 
 46 A7inals, p. 223. 
 
The Struggle for Organization 105 
 
 These various meetings and other proceedings narrated may possess little 
 interest for the present inhabitants of San Francisco; but they certainly 
 much excited those who dwelt in the town at the time of their occurrence. 
 
 And, indeed, for every student of California history W\q\ should 
 have a profound interest as showing the strength of the current 
 conviction that temporary organizations, adopted by the consent 
 of the men immediately concerned, were legitimate forms of gov- 
 ernment in crises where other systems were non-existent or 
 inefficient. 
 
 Another illustration of the spirit which appealed to popular 
 initiative in public affairs is furnished by the episode of the 
 suppression of the ''Hounds," a company of San Francisco des- 
 peradoes who terrorized the city in the summer of 1849. More 
 than one writer on the period noted that the adventure of the 
 Mexican War had enlisted among the New York Volunteers num- 
 bers of rowdies, who flocked to the mines as soon as they were 
 discharged, and there behaved so badly that in many places they 
 were driven out of camp. Drifting back to San Francisco, they 
 formed the nucleus of a criminal "gang," which adopted a sem- 
 blance of military discipline, formulated rules, elected officers, 
 and established so-called headquarters in a large tent known as 
 Tammany Hall.*^ They often paraded the streets with music 
 and banners, and their commissary was provisioned by raids 
 upon stores and restaurants, which were forced to supply their 
 demands and ''charge it to the Hounds," as the marauders 
 marched away with insolent laughter. Later they adopted the 
 more respectable name of the San Francisco Society of Regula- 
 tors, and Bancroft stated that Alcalde Leavenworth employed 
 
 4r See Popular TrihunaJs, I, 76-102; Annals, 553-561. Stanislaus 
 Grabowski, a German author with a penchant for historical novels, used the 
 incident for the theme of Die Eegulatoren von San Francisco, a story which 
 showed some familiarity with the circumstances, but no personal acquaint- 
 ance Avith San Francisco. It was also described in ' ' La Calif ornie dans les 
 derniers mois de 1849, ' ' an article by Patrice Dillon, in the Berue des deux 
 mondes, nouvelle periode, V (1850), 205-206. 
 
106 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 some of them in "carrying out the ends of justice."*^ Be that 
 as it may, they went far beyond any official sanction, and took 
 advantage of the anti-alien sentiment of the community to make 
 brutal attacks upon the foreigners of Latin American origin, 
 many of whom lived under wretched and vicious conditions in 
 the quarter known as Little Chili. 
 
 Hall McAllister, a distinguished lawyer of later days, has 
 related the story in a dictation made at Bancroft's request. His 
 account was in substantial agreement with that in the Annals of 
 San Francisco, and with other original sources. He said :*^ 
 
 During the months of June and July '49 there existed in San Francisco 
 a band of men calling themselves ''The Hounds," consisting principally of 
 the refuse of Col. Stevenson's regiment. The leader of this band of men 
 was named Samuel Eoberts. They committed various outrages, particularly 
 during the month of July. On one Sunday they were especially violent, 
 going about and robbing all the Chilenos they could find. . . . They . . . beat 
 them, and shot one of them very badly in the body. . . . Several of them, 
 mounted on horseback, chased these Chilenos through the city and up Tele- 
 graph Hill, shooting at them as they ran. 
 
 On Monday afternoon, the following day, Sam Brannan, Frank Ward, 
 A. J. Ellis, Sam Ward, and various others formed a meeting upon the 
 Plaza, at which Sam Brannan and Frank Ward made speeches, from the 
 top of the small buildings then existing at the S.W. Corner of Kearny and 
 Washington Sts. After the speeches, an organization was immediately 
 had, and Captain [W. E. Spofford] was appointed Chief Marshal; and 
 A. J. Ellis, Hall McAllister, F. J. Lippitt and others Avere appointed Cap- 
 tains, to organize a force to arrest these Hounds. They immediately went 
 to work that afternoon and secured quite a number [nineteen] of them, 
 among whom were Samuel Roberts, the leader of the band, who was arrested 
 on board a schooner in the harbor. ... A number of them were taken at their 
 rendezvous, which was then situated just where Commercial comes into 
 Kearney St. now, in a tent which they had there. . . . After the prisoners 
 
 48 Popular Tribunals, I, 78. J. H. Brown wrote that the Regulators 
 originated with a group of about ten men who banded themselves together 
 for the purpose of returning runaway sailors to their vessels {Eeminiscences, 
 [78]). Sam Roberts, the leader, had been a member of Stevenson's Regi- 
 ment (Clark, First Ecgiment of New Yorlc Volunteers, 37). At one time 
 the alcalde of San Francisco had employed him to administer public corporal 
 punishment to a mutinous sailor {Alta, 1849, Aug. 9 %). 
 
 49 Vigilance Committees — Miscellayiy, 1877, pp. 14-16. 
 
The Struggle for Organization 107 
 
 were secured, there was a meeting of all the citizens, and a Court was organ- 
 ized, the Judges of Avhich were Leavenworth, the Alcalde, Dr. William M. 
 Gwin and James C. Ward. Horace Hawes, Francis J. Lippitt and Hall 
 McAllister were appointed attorneys to prosecute these men before this 
 court. A Grand Jury was called, and they were regularly indicted, and 
 charged with a conspiracy, to commit murder, robbery, etc. They were tried 
 before these three judges and a jury, in a small building called the Court 
 House, which was situated on the Plaza at the S. W. corner of what is now 
 Portsmouth Square. . . . The trials of the several men occupied many days, 
 that of Roberts taking place first, and were conducted according to the 
 ordinary legal form, witnesses being called on each side. The cases were 
 summed up on behalf of the prosecution by Hawes and McAllister, and on 
 the part of the defendants by [P.] Barry and [Myron] Norton. [Eight 
 of] the men were convicted. This organization of the people to put down 
 these '' Hounds" was called the Law and Order party. After the con- 
 viction of these men it became an important question hoAv they should be 
 punished. Some were for having them hung, others for having them 
 whipped upon the public Plaza and banished, and others simply for having 
 them banished and given to understand that if they returned they would 
 be executed. That was the final disposition, and they Avere banished, with 
 this warning. That ended the ''Hounds" riot. 
 
 The outcome of the trials was characteristic of the time and 
 place. Popular sentiment was contented with a reasonable num- 
 ber of convictions, and with the scattering of the gang. Since 
 there was no jail in which sentences of imprisonment could be 
 served, the actual punishment of the offenders seemed to be of 
 little importance in the public mind.^^ There were, however, 
 some permanent effects, for the impromptu military patrol was 
 the initial step in the organization of a regular company of 
 militia.^^ More than this, McAllister's refer enc to a ''law and 
 
 50 The convicted men were confined for a time on board vessels in the 
 naval service. See O. T. Shuck, Bench and Bar in Calif oriiia. ed. of 1889, 
 p. 98; California Illustrated [by J. M. Letts], 1852, p. 53; S. C. Upham, 
 Notes of a Voyage to California, 1878, p. 222 ; MSS in the Bancroft Library 
 of Isaac Bluxome, Jr., Statement [1877?], 5, and of W. M. G^^-in, Memoirs, 
 1878, p. 8. 
 
 51 Isaac Bluxome, Jr., said: ''After the conviction of some of the hounds, 
 the gang was broken up, and the four companies were disbanded, and the 
 California Guard was organized on the 27th of July, 1849 (MS Statement, 
 6). The list of members (Ann-als, 703), included the following men who 
 became Vigilantes of 1851: H. M. Naglee, W. H. Tillinghast, W. D. M. 
 
108 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 order party" was confirmed by another participant, who said 
 that the captains of the patrol acted as a nominating committee 
 in the August election, and virtually secured the return of a 
 reform ticket, and that the whole affair was the beginning of 
 the vigilance committees of California.^^ In view of that state- 
 ment it is interesting to note that at least eleven of those who 
 were prominent in the trial became members of the Committee 
 of Vigilance of ISSl.^^ 
 
 The story of the Hounds is important in this narrative not 
 alone because of the personnel of the actors. It shows conclu- 
 sively that the mass meetings and popular tribunals which were 
 tolerated by necessity in the mining camps, had been widely 
 accepted as legitimate means of social discipline, and that the 
 men of San Francisco naturally resorted to them as an emergency 
 organ of government. So strong was the force of the popular 
 impulse that it obliged the alcalde to accept an invasion of his 
 prerogative, and to conduct the trial in conference with the 
 popularly appointed assistants.^* The people did not organize 
 this extra-legal tribunal in any spirit of defiance of the ordinary 
 safeguards of justice. On the contrary, they introduced for the 
 
 Howard, W. L. Hobson, H. F. Teschemacher, A. J. Ellis, J. C. Ward, A. G. 
 Eandall, Benjamin Eeynolds, E. A. King. The Constitution a7id By-Laws 
 of the First California Guard was printed in 1850. This was not the first 
 militia of San Francisco (see J. H. Brown, Beminiscenoes [36-38] ; Ban- 
 croft, California, VI, 263 note 19). 
 
 52 ' < We detailed companies with captains to patrol and arrest these 
 rioters. . . . The companies were officered by the principal citizens. That 
 was the commencement of the Vigilance Committee of California. After 
 the affair of ' ' the Hounds, ' ' the companies disbanded. Leavenworth was 
 Alcalde, and acted as judge in the trial of the Hounds. He was giving 
 away the town lands, and we had a great deal of trouble on that account. 
 We petitioned the Governor to call an election for our protection. The 
 captains of the companies acted as a nominating committee, and their ticket 
 was elected almost unanimously" (C. V. Gillespie, MS Statement, 1875, 
 pp. 5-6.) 
 
 53 Isaac Bluxome, Jr., Samuel Brannan, J. R. Curtis, A. J. Ellis, V. J. 
 Fourgeaud, C. V. Gillespie, W. D. M. Howard, Benjamin Reynolds, Fred- 
 erick Teschemacher, J. C. Ward, Hiram Webb (Annals, 558-559). 
 
 54 See Annals, 557-558; Shuck, Bench and Bar, 98. 
 
The Struggle for Organization 109 
 
 occasion the elaborate accessories of grand jury, associate judges, 
 and counsel for prosecution and for defense, and they chose for 
 the trial-jur}^ men of established credit and importance. Even the 
 two hundred and thirty' volunteer constables ranged themselves 
 from the start in ordered companies under the authority of 
 officers, and conducted the search for the criminals without riot 
 or undue violence. ^^ 
 
 While the residents of San Francisco were settling their 
 domestic concerns during the exciting summer of 1849, the com- 
 munity at large made ready for the approaching election. ^^ Par- 
 ties of speakers visited the mining regions to arouse interest in the 
 convention, and Thomas Butler King did what he could to for- 
 ward the movement. He stated afterwards that so far as he 
 was informed, party and sectional affiliations did not figure in 
 the selection of delegates, and that the only object seemed to be 
 to find competent men who were willing to make the requisite 
 sacrifice of time. Bayard Taylor confirmed that statement, but 
 noted that in Sacramento and San Francisco political interests 
 might have been influential.^^ 
 
 The elections took place on or near August 1. Any American 
 citizen of twenty-one was allowed to vote, no matter how recent 
 his arrival in California, and travelers paused en route to the 
 mines to deposit their ballots at some chance polling place or in 
 boxes nailed to convenient trees.^^ The returns showed that all 
 
 55 Ernest Frignet called the trial an ' * Example memorable, et que la 
 Calif ornie a donne plus d'une fois, de ce que pent le plus petit effort des 
 honnetes gens eontre le desordre le mieux organise et les malfacteurs les 
 plus audacieux" {La Calif orme, 1866, p. 125). 
 
 56 See Bancroft, California, VI, 279-283. Willey gave an interesting 
 description of a typical meeting for the selection of delegates (Transition 
 Period, 96). 
 
 57 King, California: the Wonder of the Age, 7; Taylor, Eldorado, I, 
 147. 
 
 5s See L. B. Patterson, Twelve Years in the Mines, 1862, p. 35 ; Histori/ 
 of Placer County, 1882, p. 93; MS Statement of E. O. Crosby, prefect of 
 the Sacramento district, pp. 52-56. 
 
110 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 the districts had chosen delegates, who prepared to meet in Mon- 
 terey at the time appointed. 
 
 The attempt to put into full vigor the surviving Mexican law 
 also met with a general response, and local officers were elected 
 for the positions named in the governor's proclamation. This 
 effected certain changes in the organization of California. Dis- 
 trict prefects were chosen as directed by the governor, who 
 officially confirmed their selection.^^ Alcaldes were elected 
 wherever vacancies existed, and Riley commissioned one in each 
 district to act as a judge of first instance. The election of judges 
 of the superior tribunal at last created a court of appeal from 
 the alcaldes ' courts, but fees were so extortionate that contestants 
 were not quick to take advantage of the privilege. ^° 
 
 The men who held office in the autumn of 1849 had the benefit 
 of Halleck's Digest of the laws of 1837, which was put into 
 circulation about this time.^^ Here, at last, was the complete 
 scheme of organization which had, in theory, dominated Califor- 
 nia for three years, but which had been shorn in practice of all 
 functions save those pertaining to the offices of the governor, his 
 secretary, and the alcaldes. If promulgated earlier, it would 
 have given the people a clearer realization of their subordination 
 to a central authority, but that step had not been taken because 
 of the constant anticipation that Congresisonal action would 
 supersede the temporary government. 
 
 As soon as the alcaldes' courts were established on a more 
 efficient basis they were fairly overwhelmed with cases. To 
 relieve their congestion General Riley appointed additional 
 judges of first instance, with civil jurisdiction only, for some 
 
 59 Commissions for the judges, prefects, and first alcaldes in Cong. 
 Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 797, 806-808, 811, 820-830, 865. Later 
 appointments in Ser. No. 561, Doc. 52, pp. 22-39. 
 
 CO Biimett, Becollcctions, 346. 
 
 61 ''The Laws of California" were advertised in the Alta, 1849, Sept. 20 
 •%. Eeprinted in BroAvne, Debates, Appendix, pp. xxiv-xl. 
 
The Struggle for Organization 1.11 
 
 of the larger towns. *^- Among these judges was the eccentric 
 William B. Almond, of San Francisco, who rose from the humble 
 position of peanut vender on the public streets, to the tip-tilted 
 chair of his crowded court room, where suits involving thousands 
 of dollars were decided in half -hour hearings, with swift exchange 
 of the ''ounce of dust" that constituted his invariable fee. With 
 his feet on the mantel, and his eyes and hands occupied with 
 details of his toilet, he listened to counsel only so long as it took 
 him to grasp the sense of the case, then pronounced a judgment 
 from which immediate appeal was seldom taken, although there 
 was a quick resort to the relief afforded by the establishment of 
 the Supreme Court in 1850.^^ 
 
 After this period of reorganization there was somewhat closer 
 touch between the larger mining camps and the central author- 
 ity.'^* More effort was made in the new towns to keep records 
 of proceedings, and men who had, periiaps, served as alcaldes 
 in previous months, left as their earliest documents papers signed 
 subsequent to the first of August, 1849. The dearth of public 
 records from which to reconstruct the early history of California 
 confronts every student of that period with an inexorable barrier. 
 Since the military-civil governors made few, if any, appointments 
 in the mining regions prior to August, 1849, they conducted 
 little correspondence which referred to affairs in the mountains. 
 
 62 Appointments, Cong. Bobs., Ser. No. 573, Doe. 17, pp. 832, 867, 871. 
 
 63 Amusing* tales of Judge Almond are told in Hittell, California, II, 
 778-779, III, 223, 248; Burnett, Becollections, 343; Bancroft, California 
 Inter Pocula, 1888, pp. 591-600; Annals, pp. 238-241. He sometimes said: 
 ''Gentlemen, I don't know just what the law of this case is, bitt I know 
 what it ought to be (Memoirs of Cornelius Cole, 1908, p. 82). He allowed 
 thirty minutes, to each case, and during the winter rains jurors were often 
 "corralled in the back yard" in default of a jury room, a situation which 
 prompted them to make quick decisions (E. W. McKinstry, ''Oration," in 
 Society of California Pioneers, Twenty-first Anniversary, 1871, p. 7). The 
 First California Reports included many cases appealed from his court. 
 
 64 Correspondence with alcaldes of Sonora Camp, Mormon Camp, and Wil- 
 low Bar, September to November, 1849, in Archives, "Unbound Docs.," 13, 
 50, 57; Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 561, Doc. 52, pp. 29-32; see also infra, p. 138 
 note. 5. 
 
112 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Each of the early camps was an independent body, unrelated to 
 other bodies outside its immediate neighborhood, and without 
 occasion for written communication of an official character. The 
 domestic concerns of the camps were not matters of record except 
 in the case of the regulations governing mining rights and the 
 claims made thereunder, and whatever may have been written, 
 much of it has been destroyed in the frequent fires that have 
 swept the little towns.^^ 
 
 The August election gave the citizens of San Francisco an 
 opportunity to make desirable reforms in their town government. 
 John W. Geary, who had arrived in March to serve as the 
 first postmaster of San Francisco, was chosen first alcalde, and 
 several of the men who had taken part in the trial of the Hounds 
 were elected to office.^^ At the initial meeting of the new 
 ayuntanuento^'^ Geary presented an excellent address on the 
 municipal situation, and described as follows the confusion that 
 had arisen from the lack of civic equipment :^^ 
 
 At this time we are without a dollar in the public treasury, and it is 
 to be feared the city is greatly in debt. You have neither an office for 
 your magistrate, nor any other public edifice. You are without a single 
 police officer or watchman, and have not the means of confining a prisoner 
 for an hour; neither have you a place to shelter, while living, sick and 
 unfortunate strangers who may be cast upon our shores, or to bury them 
 when dead. Public improvements are unknown in San Francisco. In short, 
 you are without a single requisite necessary for the promotion of prosperity, 
 for the protection of property, or for the maintenance of order. 
 
 65 Some valuable pre-statehood records are mentioned in Coy, Guide to 
 the County Archives, pp. 50-51. 
 ee Annals, 228-229. 
 
 67 Eiley revived the use of the Spanish term, which had not been em- 
 ployed by Mason when he instituted the San Francisco council in 1847. 
 Eiley also encouraged the election of ayuiitamientos in all toAvns entitled 
 to such bodies (see Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 761-769; Ser. 
 No. 561, Doc. 52, p. 27). 
 
 68 See Annals, 229-234. The proceedings of the ayuntamiento were 
 printed in separate parts, 1849-1850, and reprinted with the Minutes of the 
 . . . Legislative Assembly, 1860, pp. 47-296. 
 
The Struggle for Orgamzation 113 
 
 He recommended that revenue should be raised by taxes and 
 commercial licenses, and expressed his conviction that such a 
 procedure would be approved by the governor, and by the first 
 legislature that should assemble after permanent organization 
 should be effected. On August 27 an ordinance was passed for 
 raising a revenue according to his suggestions. 
 
 The work accomplished by this ayuntamiento was creditable 
 and progressive. An old vessel, the Euphemia, was purchased 
 and equipped to serve as a jail; a police force of thirty was 
 organized, and order was preserved in the city with fair success.^^ 
 Improvements were begun on the wharves and on the muddy 
 thoroughfares ; and in recognition of the services of the members 
 of the council, the city surveyor, W. M. Eddy, assigned their 
 names to the streets which were laid out during their term of 
 office. '° Bancroft commended this administration, and said that 
 at its close a balance of $40,000 was left in the treasury, and that 
 no blots stained the public character of the councilmen.'^ 
 
 On the third of September the constitutional convention at 
 Monterey organized for business. Particulars of its work and 
 of the constitution it framed need only our briefest consideration, 
 since they have already been made the subject of special study.'^^ 
 There were forty-eight delegates :'^ Doctor Robert Semple, of 
 
 69 A list of crimes, Sept. 4, 1849, to March 26, 1850, was given in the 
 Alta, 1850, May 2 %. The total arrests were 741, and included 170 cases 
 of larceny, 70 of assault and battery, 10 attempted murders and 4 actual 
 homicides. The summary indicated that violence in the city was not of 
 the alarming proportions sometimes attributed to the days of '49. 
 
 70 San Francisco Call, 1883, July 30 %. 
 '1 Bancroft, California, VI, 213-215. 
 
 T2 See Bancroft, Calif ornm, VI, 284-303; Hittell, California, II, 756- 
 774; Eoyce, California, 259-270; Goodwin, Establishment of State Gov- 
 ernment; D. R. Hunt, Genesis of California's First Constitution, 1895; F. N. 
 Thorpe, Constitutional History of the American People, 1898, II, 287-394; 
 Browne, Eeport of the Debates in, the Convention, 1850 ; Willey, Transition 
 Period, 93-126; G. H. Fitch, ''How California Came into the Union," 
 Century, XL (1890), pp. 775-792. 
 
 73 See BroAvne, Debates, 478; Goodwin, Establishment of State Govern- 
 ment, 81-85. 
 
114 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Benicia, one of the leaders in the Bear Flag* revolt, acted as 
 president, and he well expressed the task that lay before them 
 when he said they had assembled to ''make something out of 
 nothing', to construct organization and form out of chaos. ' '' * 
 
 The convention was cautious in experimenting- with original 
 measures, and the debates show that the constitutions of several 
 older states were consulted. That of Iowa served, in many 
 respects, for the model finall}^ adopted, although much was bor- 
 rowed from the constitution of New York. Sentiment in Cali- 
 fornia was so strong* against permitting slavery that there was 
 no dissent to the resolution that prohibited it within the limits 
 of the state. '^^ Nevertheless the national conflict on the subject 
 made itself apparent in a debate on a proposition to exclude free 
 Negroes, and in the discussion of the demarkation of the eastern 
 boundary, as the latter question had an important bearing on 
 a future subdivision with the possibility of slave territory in a 
 southern area. In the end, the exclusion of free Negroes was 
 defeated, and the present boundary was adopted as the one least 
 likely to lead to friction and delay when Congress should act on 
 the application for admission to the Union. 
 
 General provisions were made for the legislative, executive, 
 and judicial departments of the state, for the organization of 
 counties, and for the establishment of courts, but wide dis- 
 cretionary powers were allowed to the coming legislature. In 
 order to prevent inconvenience to the public service it was 
 provided that no office should be ''superseded, nor the law 
 relative to the duties of the several officers changed, until the 
 entering into office of the new officers to be appointed under this 
 Constitution.^^ 
 
 74 Browne, Tteltatcs, 23. 
 
 75 In spite of this prohibition some slaves were imported into the state 
 (see C. A. Duniway, ''Slavery in California after 1848,'' American His- 
 torical Association, Report, 1905, I, 243-248). 
 
 76 Schedule, Section 3. Browne, Debates, Appendix, p. xii. 
 
The Struggle for Organization 115 
 
 While the details of the constitution, like the details of the 
 miners' laws, are not of importance here, there is great sig- 
 nificance in the fact that in spite of the rapid creation of this 
 framework of government it was eminently efficient and con- 
 sistently liberal in its provisions. Hermann von Hoist wrote of 
 this accomplishment :'^ 
 
 And the population of California, swept together from all the states 
 of tho Union, gave the most magnificent illustration of the wonderful 
 capacity of this people for self-government, by creating for themselves, of 
 their o^vn motion, and with the utmost coolness and deliberation, a political 
 organization which proved itself viable under conditions to which many an 
 old and firmly established government would have succumbed. 
 
 The convention completed its labors on the afternoon of 
 October 13. In suppressed excitement the delegates proceeded 
 to affix their signatures to the completed instrument, and, as 
 they wrote, the cannon of the fort broke forth in a national 
 salute, announcing by its thirty-one guns that a new state pre- 
 sented her sons for citizenship in the Federal Union. 
 
 77 Hermann von Hoist, Constitutional and Political History of the United 
 States, III (1881), 463. Hittell called the constitution ''one of the best, if 
 not the very best, of all the thirty-one that then existed {Calif oriim, II, 
 783). 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE FABRICATION OF THE COMMONWEALTH 
 
 A month after the constitution was signed at Monterey 
 it was ratified by the people.^ At the same time an election was 
 held for members of the first legislature and for representatives 
 in Congress; Peter H. Burnett^ was chosen as governor, and 
 John McDougal as lieutenant governor. For a second time party 
 politics were disregarded in a state election, as most of the can- 
 didates made independent campaigns, and in many places they 
 were practically unknown to their constituents.^ 
 
 The first legislature assembled in San Jose on December 15, 
 1849. On December 20 Burnett was installed as governor, and 
 General Riley issued his last proclamation, congratulating the 
 people on the organization of their state government, and resign- 
 ing the administration of civil affairs into the hands of the new 
 authorities.* 
 
 1 See Goodwin, Establishment of State Government, 251-254. 
 
 2 Burnett had served on the Oregon legislative committee of 1844. He 
 arrived in California in October, 1848, quickly assumed a leading position 
 in Sacramento, and was later a member of the legislative assembly of San 
 Francisco. He was prominent in the movement for state organization, and 
 was elected judge of the superior court in August, 1849. 
 
 3 Bayard Taylor gave an amusing account of the haphazard manner in 
 which the miners were forced ' ' to go it blind ' ' in the choice of candidates 
 (Eldorado, II, 6-8). See also A. J. McCall, Piclc and Pan, 1883, p. 35; 
 Lyman, Journal of a Voyage to California, 129. It is usually stated that 
 the first party organization in California was a Democratic gathering in 
 San Francisco, Oct. 25 (Bancroft, California, VI, 304-305; Hittell, Califor- 
 nia, IV, 51-53 ; W. J. Davis, History of Political Conventions in California, 
 1849-1892, 1893, p. 1). A. J. Ne^\^nan has called attention to a report in 
 the Pacific News, Oct. 25 %_3, of a meeting in Portsmouth Square, Oct. 23, 
 in the interests of T. Butler King, as a candidate for the United States 
 Senate (Formation of the First Political Parties in California, 1918, MS 
 master's thesis. University of California Library, Department of History). 
 
 4 See Browne, Debates, Appendix, p. xlvi. The constitutional convention 
 had decided that the state government should go into operation, without 
 waiting for Congressional approval (ibid., 274-288). Eiley doubted the 
 
The Fabrioaiion of the Commonwealth 117 
 
 From that day the men of California took charge of their 
 own destinies, and shaped their political institutions according 
 to their own preferences. They clung closely to the precedents 
 with which they were familiar. They transplanted to the vast 
 and sparsely populated area of California the usual decentralized 
 system of local organization. They replaced the civil law of 
 Mexico by the English common law as received and modified in 
 the United States, and they instituted the courts to which they 
 had been accustomed elsewhere.^ 
 
 All this new machinery of government could not be set in 
 motion overnight. It was April or May of 1850 before the larger 
 towns were incorporated and the counties and townships equipped 
 with the necessary officials.^ In the meantime conditions in the 
 state at large were even more confused than before. The alcaldes 
 elected under the pre-statehood regime continued their legal 
 services until their places could be filled by the new magistrates, 
 but their unskilled interpretation of law and their arbitrary 
 methods caused greater and greater complaint as the impatient 
 citizens awaited the establishment of American institutions. 
 
 There was an increasing need for efficient officers in the 
 mining regions where large investments of capital began to 
 supersede the temporary claims of the individual miner. As 
 the surface richness was skimmed from the placers, cradles or 
 rockers took the place of the pan in which at first each miner 
 washed out his own portion of gravel. Since sucli machines 
 
 legality of such a course, but acceded to the wishes of the people. For 
 comment on the situation, see Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 279- 
 282, 819; Richardson, Messages, V, 27; California Senate, Journal, 1850, 
 pp. 32-33; Goodwin, Estahlishment of State Government, 220-223; Eod- 
 man, History of the Bench and Bar of Southern California, 21; von Hoist, 
 Constitutional History, III, 518. 
 
 5 The work of the first legislature was described and commended by 
 Bancroft, California, VI, 308-336; Hittell, California; II, 791-807; Good- 
 win, Estahlishment of State Government, chaps. 12-17. 
 
 6 County officers were elected the first Monday in April (California, 
 Statutes, 1850, chap. 24, p. 81, sec. 3). 
 
118 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 required an adequate and regular supply of water, it became 
 necessary to construct ditches and flumes, which immediately 
 assumed value as a part of a miner's equity.'^ This elaboration 
 of industry naturally involved financial cooperation on a formal 
 and permanent basis, and, as Professor Royce has emphasized, 
 it had an important influence on the progress of social evolution 
 in California.^ In consequence of General Riley's efforts to 
 extend the operation of the Mexican system, the miners' alcaldes 
 were by this time recognized civil authorities,^ and there was a 
 growing tendency to refer mining disputes to them rather than 
 to impromptu meetings, although legal forms were still set lightly 
 aside in criminal matters. 
 
 The characteristics of the time are well illustrated by the 
 experiences of Stephen J. Field, who became in later years chief 
 justice of the state. ^° He reached San Francisco at the close of 
 December, 1849, and within three weeks moved inland to the 
 present site of Marysville. The town, then known as Yubaville, 
 had already attracted nearly a thousand people. A day or two 
 after Field's arrival a civic organization was effected, and the 
 3^oung lawyer was elected first alcalde. He was sworn into 
 office by the judge of the Court of First Instance in Sacramento, 
 and in order to cover all contingencies that might arise under 
 the impending change of laws, the prefect of the district obtained 
 for him the governor's appointment as a justice of the peace. 
 
 'Bean's History and Directorij of Nevada County, 1867, p. 65, stated 
 that the first mining ditch in California was projected at Nevada City, 
 March, 1850. 
 
 sEoyce, California, pp. 287-290, 301. 
 
 9 The old officers were retained until successors could be elected (Califor- 
 nia, Statutes, 1850, chap. 23, p. 77, sec. 2). Miners' alcaldes of this period 
 are mentioned in Taylor, Eldorado, II, 17 ; A. B. Clarke, Travels in Mexico 
 and California, 1852, p. 137. Many of Shinn's examples of camp organiza- 
 tion also belong to these months. 
 
 10 See S. J. Field, Personal Beminiscences of Early Days in California, 
 [1893], pp. 18-37, 243; Bancroft, California, VI, 463-464; Amy and Amy, 
 Marysville Directory for 1856, p. 5. The Register of Suits before the First 
 Alcalde of Marysville, January to May, 1850, preserved in the archives of 
 Yuba County, confirms Field's Beminiscences. 
 
The Fabrication of the Commonwealth 119 
 
 The new magistrate was aware that the functions of the 
 alcaldes were strictly defined by statutes, but he found that in 
 the irregular conditions of the interregnum they exercised almost 
 unlimited power. He therefore took jurisdiction over every 
 case that was brought before him, and did his best to preserve 
 order in spite of his ignorance of Mexican law. The lack of a 
 jail forced him to sentence convicted criminals to corporal pun- 
 ishment, but this stern discipline was approved by the com- 
 munity, which exhibited an excellent understanding of the meas- 
 ures that were required for the administration of justice. The 
 prompt methods of his court are shown by the proceedings in 
 a case of burglary that occurred at four o'clock on an April 
 morning. The alcalde issued warrants for the thieves, and they 
 were pursued, arrested, indicted by a grand jury, convicted by 
 a petit jury, sentenced, whipped, and turned out of town within 
 twelve hours. 
 
 Various experiments in local organization were also products 
 of the winter and spring of 1849 to 1850. The residents of Stock- 
 ton, for instance, tried to effect municipal organization, and 
 elected a council that proved to be an illegal body. It hastily 
 adjourned when the councilmen discovered that they were per- 
 sonally responsible for the obligations they had incurred.^^ 
 
 In November Sonora felt the need of a public hospital, and 
 in order to raise funds for the purpose adopted a town govern- 
 ment with a council of seven, and transferred the acting alcalde, 
 C. F. Dodge, to the position of mayor.^- Sacramento, which had 
 
 11 History of San Joaquin County, 1879, p. 24 On Oct. 25, 1849, Thomas 
 B. Van Buren, ''prosecuting attorney of the District of San Joaquin," 
 wrote to Halleck that as the citizens of Stockton had already contributed 
 $7000 for the prosecution of criminals, purchased a prison ship, and under- 
 taken municipal improvements, they desired help from the government in 
 defraying further expenses {Archives, ''Unbound Docs.," 49). 
 
 12 On April 29, 1850, Major Sullivan Avas elected alcalde, "-without 
 governmental authority and solely to meet an immediate emergency," His- 
 tory of Tuolumne County [by Lang], 18, 25; Bancroft, California, VI, 
 469-470. 
 
120 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 tried •unsuccessfully to install a form of town government in 
 the spring of 1849, elected a council in July. It was, however, 
 helpless to enforce order, as the people had failed to declare the 
 boundaries of the city, and to fix the duties of the councilmen.^^ 
 After a struggle with the disorderly element, which preferred the 
 existing state of license, a charter was adopted in October; but 
 the officials were unchecked by any wise limitations of power, 
 and quickly accumulated a heavy debt. The situation was not 
 relieved until the spring of 1850, when a better charter was 
 acquired from the legislature. The mountain camp known as 
 Rough and Ready, near Nevada City, found itself with a large 
 population early in 1850, and the residents in mass meeting 
 appointed a committee of three to settle disputes and to admin- 
 ister justice. Edward F. Bean, writing in 1867, spoke of this as 
 a ''Committee of Vigilance and Safety." As he did not quote 
 from contemporary documents it is possible that the title was 
 applied in retrospect after the committees of later days had 
 made current the use of the term.^* 
 
 The dangers that attended the unstable conditions of Califor- 
 nia society during the spring of 1850 were aggravated by certain 
 changes for the worse in the population itself. These were due, 
 in part, to the demoralization of large numbers of miners by 
 hardships, excitement, and dissipations. Many were broken in 
 health by the physical strain of their work, and by their con- 
 stant exposure to fever and malaria, scurvy and dysentery, and 
 many more whose physical strength permitted them to drink 
 without drunkenness in '49 plainly showed the effects of such 
 
 13 P/acer Times, 1849, Aug. 11 %; Sept. 15 %. See also Bancroft, Cali- 
 fornia, VI, 455-456; History of Sacramento County, 48-49. 
 
 '^^ Bean's History and Directory of Nevada County, 359-361; Shinn, 
 Mining Camps, 180, 225; Hittell, California, III, 279-280. The committee 
 was not mentioned in the early sketch by A. A. Sargent in Brown and Dalli- 
 son's Nevada, Grass Valley and Bough and Beady Directory, for ... 1856, 
 pp. 44-45, but it was described in the History of Nevada County, 1880, pp. 
 89-91, and that volume also spoke of an attempt to organize the independent 
 ' ' State of Rough and Ready. ' ' 
 
The Fdbrioaiion of the Commonwealth 121 
 
 a habit after twelve or eighteen months of license.^^ The ranks 
 of desperate and ruined men were constantly recruited from the 
 victims of the universal passion for gambling. Games of chance 
 ran openly in the shabby barrooms that lined the main street 
 of every camp, and in the gaudy saloons of the larger settlements. 
 Hundreds of professional gamblers fleeced the unwary, and in 
 many places formed an allied group that successfully opposed 
 all efforts towards social improvement.^^ The feverish and spec- 
 tacular gambling of the mining days is often cited as an evidence 
 of the toleration of evil permitted by an indifferent society. 
 But in justice to the members of that society, it must be remem- 
 bered that within five years of state organization gambling was 
 forbidden by statute, and that laws of increasing stringency 
 were subsequently enacted in the effort to suppress it effectively.^^ 
 Another and a more dangerous influence came from abroad, 
 for soon after the announcement of the discovery of gold vessels 
 from Australia began to bring large numbers of ex-convicts from 
 the British penal colonies. These immigrants were the products 
 of the wretched system of deportation which had shipped in the 
 same vessels the most abandoned criminals, together with women, 
 
 15 On the hardships of California life, see Brooks, Fmir Months, 102- 
 108; J. L. Tyson, Biary of a Physician, 1850, pp. 62-64; Johnson, Califor- 
 nia and Oregon; or Sights in the Gold Region, 241-242; William Shaw, 
 Golden Dreams and Waking Eealities, 1851; Golden Dreams and Leaden 
 Eealities [by George Payson], 1853; California and Its Gold Mines [by 
 Thomas Allsop], 1853, pp. 73-77; Eliza W. Farnham, California, In-doors 
 and Out, 1856, pp. 366-368; Hittell, California, III, 168-171; '^T. Turn- 
 biiirs Travels... to California," Wisconsin State Historical Society, Pro- 
 ceedings, 1913, pp. 220-225. Taylor noted little drunkenness in 1849 
 (Eldorado, II, 66). An epidemic of cholera added to the troubles of 1850 
 {Annals, p. 305). 
 
 16 The g-amblers in Sacramento defeated early attempts at organization 
 (Bancroft, California, VI, 456), 
 
 17 The first council of San Francisco made an unsuccessful attempt to 
 forbid gambling in January, 1848 {Annals, 199). Games of chance were 
 made illegal by the state legislature in 1855 {Statutes, chap. 103, p. 124). 
 See also Hittell, California, II, 730, 805-806; IV, 69-70; and his General 
 Laws of ... Calif ornia, ed. 2, 1870, II, sees. 3322-3338; Royce, California. 
 425. Bothwick reported gambling on the wane in San Francisco in 1852 
 {Three Years, 379). 
 
122 Vigilance Coymnittee of 1851 
 
 and even boys and girls as young as twelve years of age. The 
 prison ships and settlements were disciplined with the lash, and 
 were hotbeds of atrocious vice. Of the British convict it was 
 truly said: "The heart of a man was taken from him and he 
 was given the heart of a beast. "^^ In Australia the prisoners 
 were assigned to private masters, if such semi-liberty was con- 
 sidered safe. When the period of their sentence had expired, 
 or when good behavior warranted an earlier release, they were 
 granted either full liberty, or tickets of leave that allowed them 
 freedom under official supervision. Conditional pardons were 
 also issued which permitted the holder to go at large in. any 
 country except Great Britain. Thus dangerous men were sent 
 away to be a menace to other lands. 
 
 The port of San Francisco stood open to all the ships of the 
 world, and until 1875 it was unguarded by any national legis- 
 lation that prevented the immigration of undesirable or criminal 
 aliens. As early as 1838 a bill had been presented to Congress 
 providing penalties for the master of a vessel who should trans- 
 port to the United States convicts, lunatics, or passengers suffer- 
 ing from incurable diseases. The bill received no favorable con- 
 sideration whatever, and as it was commonly supposed that 
 individual states had power to regulate immigration into their 
 own territory, some legislatures enacted statutes to prevent the 
 landing of immigrants likely to become public charges. In 1849, 
 however, the Supreme Court declared that such laws of New 
 York and Massachusetts were unconstitutional, as the Federal 
 Government alone had power to regulate matters of commerce 
 and immigration.^^ Following the examples of Eastern states, 
 
 '^^Encyclopedia Britannica, ed. 11, VIII, '^ Deportation," p. 58. See 
 also Archbishop Richard Whately, ''Remarks on Transportation," in his 
 Introductory Lectures on Political Economy, ed. 4, 1855, p. 271; C. A, Brown- 
 ing, England's Exiles, 1842; Charles White, Early Australian History, 
 1889; C. H. Northcott, Australian Socdal Development, 1918, pp. 37-44. 
 
 19 See U. S. Immigration Commission, Immigration Legislation, 1911, 
 pp. 12, 24r-28 (Reports, XXXIX, Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 5879, Doc. 758). 
 
The Fabrioaiion of the Commonwealth 123 
 
 and perhaps unaware of the decision of 1849, the first California 
 legislature adopted a statute that made it a felony to bring into 
 the state convicts from other countries.-^ That law was nom- 
 inally binding in California until as late as 1872, but it does 
 not appear that there was an effective attempt to enforce it, and 
 every vessel from Australia unloaded on the wharves of San 
 Francisco men and women who had served their terms in the 
 penal colonies, and gained freedom by means of conditional par- 
 dons, or escaped while still under sentence. ^^ 
 
 One advantage accrued to the Sydney men from their com- 
 mon experience in dungeon and hold ; they knew each other with 
 the intimacy of the underworld of crime, and maintained in 
 California associations that had begun in English byways, flour- 
 ished in the plague spots of the Southern Seas, and ripened into 
 bonds of mutual offense and defense in the steerage of the trans- 
 Pacific vessels. The gang organization quickly appeared among 
 them, not in a highly developed form, as with the Hounds, but 
 secret and evasive, yet none the less effective. Men and women 
 from Sydney kept lodging houses in San Francisco, watermen 
 from Sydney had boats to lend in time of need, blacksmiths were 
 adept at cutting keys, bricklayers dropped useful hints about 
 vaults and safes, clerks exchanged confidences as to the storage 
 of coin and gold dust, even a warden of the port of San Fran- 
 cisco, sometime inmate of a British prison, outlined a tempting 
 scheme for looting the Custom House.-- Instinctive obedience 
 was given to the men who proved themselves best able to take 
 advantage of local conditions; to those who could decide which 
 offices might be robbed, and which should be avoided ; who could 
 
 20 California, Statutes, 1850, chap. 82, p. 202; Penal Code, 1872, § 173. 
 
 21 Between March 31 and December 30, 1849, 842 passengers from 
 Australia and Tasmania landed in San Francisco, while 505 came from 
 New Zealand. (See the ''List of Passenger Arrivals," furnished by E. A. 
 King, harbor master, in Society of California Pioneers, Twenty -fourth 
 Anniversary, 1874, pp. 38, 47.) 
 
 22 Thomas Belcher Kay, see infra, p. 282. 
 
124 Vigilance Co7nmittee of 1851 
 
 acceptably divide the spoils or provide bail and counsel for a 
 hard-pressed subordinate; establish an alibi, or sit among the 
 good men and true sworn to mete out justice to the prisoner at 
 the bar. 
 
 Such leaders there were, and we shall presently make intimate 
 acquaintance with them. But in the w^inter of 1850 and the 
 early months of 1851 their identity was a mystery to the law- 
 abiding citizens of California, although the community was 
 fully aware of the menace to order that arose from the presence 
 of the ' ' Sydney Ducks, " or ' ' Sydney Coves, ' ' as the Australians 
 were popularly styled.^.^ The existence of organized bands of 
 criminals was suspected, and with each fresh outrage their 
 power and complexity of organization were magnified.-* There 
 was no agency, however, public or private, equipped to follow 
 scattered clues to a common center. 
 
 There were in the state other aliens even more unpopular 
 than the men from Sydney. From the days of the conquest there 
 had survived a mutual dislike between Mexican and American. 
 The American especially resented the presence in the mines of 
 new arrivals from Mexico and from South America who expected 
 to share with enfranchised citizens the benefit of the mineral 
 treasure on the public land. Writing to the Secretary of War 
 from Panama in January, 1849, General Persifor F. Smith had 
 said: "I am informed that ships loaded with all the rabble of 
 the Pacific ports are on their way to California," and alluding 
 to the ''bands of plunderers organizing all along the coast for 
 
 23 Both terms gained early currency. The Alia, 1851, July 10 %, spoke 
 of "Sydney Ducks," and the Annals of San Francisco, published in 1855, 
 used the expression ''Sydney Coves" (p. 257). 
 
 24 On Nov. 20, 1850, the Alta stated that convicts were in California 
 "by thousands" and were making the state a pandemonium (see also il>id, 
 Feb. 20 %; April 11 %; infra, p. 233). The demoralizing effect of their 
 presence was noted by Johnson, California and Oregon; or Sights in the 
 Gold Region, 115; Delano, Life on the Plains and among the Diggings, 
 359; J. W. Revere, Keel and Saddle, 1873, p. 166; Burnett, Recollections, 
 342. 
 
The Fdhrication of the Commonwealth 125 
 
 taking possession of the mines," he stated that he intended to 
 enforce against aliens the laws that forbade trespassing on public 
 lands.^^ 
 
 As we have seen, every miner in California was a trespasser, 
 until the lode law of 1866 formally opened the mineral lands to 
 private ownership. The agreements under the miners ' laws were 
 made possible by the expectation that the government would 
 tolerate, and would eventually approve the exploitation of such 
 lands by citizens of the country if their use of it conformed to 
 existing practices as to the division of the public domain. This 
 expectation was fulfilled. The law of 1866, however, restricted 
 the right to take up mining claims to ''citizens or those who 
 have declared their intention to become such."^*^ Had this limi- 
 tation been formulated in 1848 or 1849 and enforced through 
 legitimate diplomatic and legal methods, California might have 
 escaped the violence that was caused by the determination of 
 the Americans to exclude the foreign miners from privileges in 
 which aliens had no presumptive rights, and to prevent the 
 spoliation of the placers by cheap competition, and by the 
 contract labor of Indians, Negroes, Mexicans, Orientals, and 
 Kanakas. ^^ As it was, the American miners were left to their 
 own initiative in the matter, for General Smith did not order the 
 arrest of foreigners, but contented himself with informing them 
 that he could ''not interfere to secure them in the infraction of 
 
 25 See Hittell, California, III, 705 note 2; Bancroft, California, VI, 
 403; Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 708, 712. As early as December, 
 1847, immigration from Sonora had been prohibited by Colonel Mason, 
 because he considered the people of that province undesirable residents of 
 California {il)id., 450). The order was not enforced after the discovery 
 of gold, and nearly 8000 came overland from Mexico in 1849 (Browne, 
 Debates, Appendix, p. xxiii). 
 
 26 See Lindley, Treatise on the American Law delating to Mines, I, 493, 
 508-526; Thompson, TJ. S. Mining Statutes, I, 29-30; Yale, Legal Titles to 
 Mining Claims, 34r-42; J. S. Hittell, Resources of California, ed. 6, 1874, 
 p. 424 (but compare his earlier statement, ibid., ed. 1, 1863, p. 354). 
 
 27 The natural resentment caused by the efforts to exploit extensive 
 claims by cheap contract labor was noted by Katharine Coman in Economic 
 Beginnings of the Far West, 1912, II, 282. 
 
126 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 the law. "-^ His attitude, however, was generally understood, 
 and the Americans took means of their own to oust unwelcome 
 intruders. 
 
 The inevitable result was the development of constant 
 friction, not only with undesirable immigrants, but also with 
 inoffensive companies from France, Germany, and England. 
 Some camps expelled foreign miners under threat of death, there 
 was occasional retaliation and bloodshed, and much injustice was 
 done by the miners' courts to prisoners of alien birth. The 
 attack made by the Hounds on the Chilenos of San Francisco 
 was an extreme example of anti-foreign sentiment. In that 
 instance the community rose en masse to punish the outrage, but 
 throughout the state, from the earliest days of American occupa- 
 tion, there was steady opposition to the immigration of large 
 bodies of foreign laborers. Professor Royce denounced the atti- 
 tude of the Californians in this respect as an example of narrow 
 and unworthy prejudice.-^ Their conduct, however, should not 
 be dismissed with facile condemnation or palliation for this par- 
 ticular problem has proved most complicated and enduring in 
 its perplexities. Indeed it should be related to the whole question 
 of foreign immigration into the United States, as well as to the 
 mingling of races on the Pacific Coast. For the purposes of this 
 
 28 Tyson, Geology and Industrial Resources, 75. General Riley, after 
 touring the mines in 1849, reported that the current rumors of anti-foreign 
 hostilities had been much exaggerated {Cong. Does., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, 
 p. 788). Holinski was enthusiastic over the "fraternite universelle" that 
 united the many nationalities in the state {La Calif ornie, 165-169), but 
 Gerstacker wrote that foreigners could not get justice in the remote regions 
 (Travels, a translation from the German, 1854, p. 267). See also Edouard 
 Auger, Voyage en Calif ornie, 1854, pp. 112-113; Charles de Lambertie, 
 Voyage pittoresque en Calif ornie et au Chili, 1853, pp. 254-264; Kelly, 
 Excursion to California, II, 23, 33-34; Johnson, California and Oregon; or 
 Sights in the Gold Region, 225; Ryan, Personal Adventures, II, 296-299; 
 Borthwick, Three Years, 74, 306, 363; Daniel Levy, Les Frangais en Cali- 
 fornie, 1884, pp. 88-105. The impressions of a traveler from Chili are 
 given in Vicente Perez Rosales, Becuerdos del pasado, 1910, pp. 259-370. 
 
 29 Royce, California, pp. 236-239, 356-368; Hittell treated the subject 
 more calmly {California, II, 736-737, III, 162-163, 262-264). 
 
The Fabrication of the Commonwealth 127 
 
 study it has been necessary only to outline the situation and to 
 show that it resulted in a marked increase of local disorders. 
 
 Another result was the passage by the first legislature of a 
 bill which imposed a license of twent}^ dollars a month on miners 
 who were not citizens either b}^ birth or by the provisions of the 
 treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.^*^ The attempt to enforce that law 
 provoked resistance on the part of the foreigners and actual 
 riot in the southern mines. ^^ Some of the Latin Americans were 
 driven from the camps to range the mountains as solitary out- 
 laws, or in robber bands, that later gave much trouble to the 
 authorities.^- 
 
 In reviewing the difficulties of the state during this time, we 
 cannot ignore the hostility that const antl}^ existed between the 
 Indians and the white men. Long before Americans came to 
 California the two races had lived in active conflict and the 
 Indians had attacked the Spaniards and suffered punishment for 
 their raids even during the most successful period of the mission 
 era. The coast region was fairly protected under the Mexican 
 rule, but the interior valleys and the mountains had been left to 
 the undisturbed possession of the savage tribes, yet in spite of 
 this compromise Indian horse thieves constantly stampeded large 
 bands of animals and slaughtered them for food. 
 
 With the advent of the Americans, hostilities grew more 
 acute, for overland parties armed for self -protect ion and imbued 
 with the hatred bred from centuries of frontier warfare, traversed 
 
 30 California, Statutes, 1850, chap. 97, p. 221; repealed, Statutes, 1851, 
 chap. 108, p. 424. 
 
 31 See Shinn, Mining Camps, 212-218; History of Tuolumne County 
 [bj Lang], 28-34, 39-47; Hittell, Calif orn-ia. III, 128-131, 706-710. Sir 
 Henry V. Huntley said that there would have been less objection to the tax 
 on foreigners if the government had in return given them any protection 
 {California, 1856, p. 218). 
 
 32 See Bancroft, California, VI, 469. Joaquin Murietta, a noted bandit, 
 who was killed in 1853, began his career in revenge for the mistreatment 
 of his wife, and a whipping given him by miners in 1850. See Bancroft, 
 California, VII, 203 note 13; Hittell, California, III, 712-726; J. M. 
 Scanland, ''Joaquin Murrieta, " Overland Monthly, ser. 2, XXVI (1895), 
 530-539; J. R. Ridge, Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, ed. 3, 1871. 
 
128 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 mountain routes where the Indian considered himself master. 
 During the first years of the gold excitement he was an ever 
 present menace to the isolated miners, and the unprotected state 
 of the countr}^ prompted an alert defense that often degenerated 
 into wanton butchery. 
 
 On which side lay the initial aggression is a question for the 
 expert in the special field of Indian affairs ;^^ but no research 
 can palliate the fact that for every overt act on the part of a 
 thieving or murderous Indian, a deadly vengeance was levied 
 upon the men, women, and children of the offender's race. Even 
 in the neighborhood of the older settlements the most deplorable 
 conditions prevailed, as military forces were insufficient to protect 
 life and property, and Colonel Mason had been obliged to advise 
 the residents to organize armed pursuit of Indian horse thieves 
 and to kill them without compunction.^* On the other hand, 
 when a friendly Indian appealed to the alcalde of San Jose for 
 protection, he too was told that no aid could be given by govern- 
 ment, and that he might defend his own life in case of attack.^"'^ 
 General Riley attributed Indian hostility in 1849 to the execution 
 of certain chiefs in 1848, and to the barbarities of immigrants, 
 especially of those from Oregon, who had brought to California 
 the bitterness which resulted from the Indian massacres in that 
 territory.^^ 
 
 33 See Bancroft, CaJifornia, VII, 474-494, and Index under '^ Indian 
 Hostilities"; Hittell, California, III, 884^981. Early conflicts between 
 Indians and Americans were noted in the California Star, 1847, March 13 
 Yi; April 10 %} Brooks, Four Months, 131-152; Kelly, Excursion to Califor- 
 nia, II, 141-148 ; S. Weston, Life in the Mountains . . . of California, 1854, 
 pp. 7-14; Biographical Sketch of William B. Ide [by Simeon Ide], 1880, 
 pp. 224-230. The subject has been studied by W. H. Ellison, in a doctoral 
 dissertation, The United States Indian Policy in California, 1846-1860, 
 1918, MS in the University of California Library. 
 
 34 See Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doe. 17, pp. 355, 643, 645, 689. 
 
 35 Charles White, alcalde of San Jose, to Mason, April 29, 1848, Archives, 
 ''Unbound Docs.," 43. 
 
 36 See Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 790; Tyson, Diary of a 
 Physician, 62-63; Johnson, California and Oregon; or Sights in the Gold 
 Begion, 170-186. Governor Burnett, who came from Oregon, frankly said 
 that the extermination of the Indians was practically inevitable (Journals 
 of the California Legislature, 1851, p. 15). 
 
The Fahrication of the Commonwealth 129 
 
 Even the elements seemed to conspire against the peace of 
 California in the critical winter of 1849 to 1850, for the rainy 
 season was of unusual length and severity. Many miners 
 were forced to remain idle until want stared them in the face, 
 while loaded wagons, mired along the rough highways, offered 
 irresistible temptation to the needy and the dishonest.^" Cattle 
 thieves also began the most outrageous operations,^^ and theft 
 and violence became matters of daily occurrence. 
 
 The citizens at large were quite aware of the unfortunate 
 tendencies of the period, but with the same optimism that had 
 carried them through the discomforts of the interregnum they 
 accepted their troubles as inevitable accompaniments of a transi- 
 tional era, and hoped for. speedy improvement as soon as the 
 new order could be established. Meanwhile the demands of 
 commercial life were insistent and exacting, and they devoted 
 themselves to their private business, leaving public matters to 
 the men they had placed in office. The frontiersman, as a rule, 
 is an out and out individualist, who awakens slowly to the 
 importance of communal interests.^^ This trait was a marked 
 characteristic of the early Californian, for the state, as a field 
 of social activity, did not quickly arouse the enthusiasm of the 
 self-absorbed pioneer. It did, however, appeal with tremendous 
 allurement to another type of American— the professional office 
 seeker, of petty or magnificent aspirations, and many political 
 pilgrims from the East had followed the star of empire in its 
 westward course.*^ 
 
 sr Popular Tribunals, I, 73; Delano, Life on the Plains and among the 
 Diggings, 268, 359-362. 
 
 38 By January, 1850, Sutter had been robbed of almost all his live stock 
 (see supra, p. 67 note 3). A rancher near Stockton lost nearly $3000 
 worth of cattle in a single night (T. H. Hittell, AdA)eiitures of James Capen 
 Adams, 1860, pp. 11-12). 
 
 39 The persistence of individualism in the West is discussed by Hill in 
 his Public Domain and Democracy, 130-146. 
 
 40 William Carey Jones wrote to the Secretary of the Interior: ''A 
 number of persons seem to have come out during the summer of 1849 with 
 no other view than to go back with four thousand miles of mileage in their 
 pockets" {Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 118). 
 
130 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Chief among them were "William M. Gwin and David C. 
 Broderick, both of whom reached San Francisco in June, 1849. 
 Absolutely unlike in personality and experience, they were 
 equally resolved on securing a political leadership that would 
 win for them seats in the Senate of the United States.*^ Gwin 
 was a Southern man, genial, educated, experienced as a Con- 
 gressman from Mississippi from 1841 to 1843, and with Southern 
 views on the extension of slavery. Broderick was of Irish extrac- 
 tion, rugged and unpolished, without friends or fortune, self- 
 educated in matters intellectual, but thoroughly schooled in the 
 practices of Tammany Hall and of the New York Fire Depart- 
 ment. He was opposed to the involuntary servitude of the 
 colored race, but unscrupulous in fastening upon a negligent 
 public the shackles of political despotism. 
 
 Gwin won immediate popularity, participated in the trial of 
 the Hounds, became a delegate to the constitutional convention, 
 assumed a leading part in the discussion there, and promptly 
 realized his ambitions by securing the election to the United 
 States Senate.*^ He held the office for two terms and secured 
 the passage of important legislation for the benefit of the state, 
 while annual visits to California enabled him to maintain a firm 
 grip upon local politics. 
 
 Broderick 's earliest opportunity for leadership in California 
 developed after the first great fire in San Francisco, December 24, 
 1849,^^ when he was conspicuous in organizing the Empire 
 
 41 The long rivalry between the two Democratic leaders ended only with 
 Broderick 's death after a duel with Gwin 's adherent. Judge David S. Terry, 
 on Sept. 13, 1859. In addition to the references found in Bancroft and 
 Hittell, see James O'Meara, Broderick and Gwin, 1881; Alonzo Phelps, 
 Contemporary Biography of California's Eepresentative Men, 1881-1882, 
 I, Sketch of Gwin, 231-239; Jeremiah Lynch, A Senator of the Fifties 
 [Broderick], 1911; E. B. Kennedy, The Contest for California in 1861, 
 1912, pp. 32-63; K C. O'Connor, ^' David Colbert Broderick,'' American 
 Irish Historical Society, Journal, XIII (1914), 132-162; sketch of Brod- 
 erick, San Francisco Chronicle, 1876, June 16. 
 
 42 See Bancroft, California, VI, 311. 
 43 See infra, p. 1(J4. 
 
The Fabrication of the Commonwealth 131 
 
 Engine Company, of which he became the first foreman. On 
 January 8, 1850/* he was elected to a vacant seat in the state 
 senate, immediately became prominent in the movement for 
 organization of the Democratic party and within a year was 
 recognized as a party leader.*^ He was always fearless and 
 uncompromising in his affiliations and animosities, and believed 
 in using heavy tools for rough work. His influence as foreman 
 of the Empire Engine Company was an asset which stood him 
 in good stead. In addition, he gathered for use in hours of 
 need a band of followers who were ready to do his bidding at 
 mass meeting, election, and secret rendezvous. His effective 
 machine did not become fully apparent in San Francisco until 
 a year or two later ; some of his future henchmen, however, were 
 already well known as manipulators at local elections, and the 
 names of a few of them appear in the papers of the Committee 
 of Vigilance.*^ 
 
 The gentleman from the South and the ward boss from the 
 North, with their allies and rivals, had a curious constituency 
 with which to deal. About sixty per cent of the American popu- 
 lation had been born north of Mason and Dixon's line.*'' The 
 sentiment of the state was overwhelmingly opposed to the local 
 introduction of slavery and therefore to the most cherished 
 policy of many of the national leaders of the Democratic 
 party. Nevertheless California emerged into political life as a 
 
 ^4. Annals, 266. 
 
 45 For the earliest Democratic organization, see supra, p. 116. The Whigs 
 organized Feb. 9, 1850 (Davis, Political Conventions, 6-9; Annals, 267-269). 
 
 46 See C. of v., Papers, Index under ' ' Broderick, ' ' ''Charles Duane, " 
 and ' ' Ira Cole. ' ' Broderiek is said to have defended his use of such men 
 by the argument : ' ' Your respectable people I can 't depend on. You won 't 
 go down and face the revolvers of those fellows; and I have to take such 
 material as I can get hold of. They stuff the ballot boxes and steal the 
 tally-lists; and I have to keep these fellows to aid me" (Bancroft, Califor- 
 nia, VI, 678 note). 
 
 47 See analysis of census of 1850, in H. E. Bolton, ''The Obligation of 
 Nevada Toward the Writing of Her Own History," Nevada Historical 
 Society, Reports, III (1911-1912), 71. 
 
132 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Democratic state, basing party affiliations not on the fundamental 
 question of slavery, but rather on the secondary issue of the 
 Mexican War, which was more generally approved by the Demo- 
 crats than by the Whigs.^^ All intense questions of national 
 politics and of personal convictions were thus eliminated from 
 the local arena for a large number of these anti-slavery Demo- 
 crats. As a result, an ambition for office became the sole incen- 
 tive in the conduct of campaigns, and the astute Democratic 
 politicians, willing to devote their best ability to a promising field, 
 rapidly gained control of the situation. The men to whom they 
 distributed the spoils of victory were not, as a rule, those builders 
 of the commonwealth who had met the problems of the transition 
 period. Useful adherents of the political machine were placed 
 in office, and it became a matter of moment in the later history 
 of the state that Gwin and his followers selected many of their 
 proteges from Southern families who soon became a well defined 
 social and political influence in the population. The ascendancy 
 and arrogance of the ' ' Southern Chivalry " is a theme on which 
 Bancroft waxed bitterly eloquent.^^ The day of their supremacy 
 was somewhat later than the period of the first Committee of 
 Vigilance, yet as early as 1850 the master mechanics of the politi- 
 cal craft were assembling and coordinating the elements of their 
 future structure. 
 
 During the months in which California was pushing forward 
 her self-assumed task of organization, the national capitol was 
 seething with the protracted conflict over the extension of 
 slavery. When Congress reassembled in December, 1849, the 
 question of the western lands might no longer be evaded. Cali- 
 fornia asked for admission as a sovereign state and claimed 
 the privilege of such a state in the adjustment of her domestic 
 institutions. The question of her admission had a significance 
 
 48 Hittell, California, IV, 50. 
 
 49 Bancroft, Calif orma, VI, ''PoUtical History," chaps. 23-24. 
 
The Fahrication of the Commowwealth 133 
 
 far wider than the mere recognition of a new commonwealth. 
 Fifteen of the thirty states of the Union had already prohibited 
 slavery. While these states controlled a majority in the House 
 of Representatives, the Senate was evenly divided on sectional 
 lines and could nullify the action of the House. If California 
 should be admitted there would be a free-state majority in the 
 Senate and an end to the power of the South to control or delay 
 legislation inimical to the slave-holding interests. 
 
 Other aspects of the abolitionist propaganda complicated the 
 situation. The public slave trade had become an offense to many 
 who might have ignored unseen evils, and there was a strong 
 demand that, in the District of Columbia at least, it should 
 be abolished by Congress. Moreover, throughout the Northern 
 states, there was a disposition to obstruct the execution of laws 
 that enforced the return of fugitive slaves, and their owners 
 insisted upon more stringent regulations. There was also a dis- 
 pute over the boundary between Texas and New Mexico. Slavery 
 was permitted in Texas, and the South therefore felt that it was 
 extremely important to extend that area as far as possible. In the 
 face of all these questions the slave states still had the strength 
 to delay any change in the existing balance of power, while the 
 Northern states, not content to exclude slavery from California 
 alone, continued to insist upon its prohibition in all of the terri- 
 tory acquired from Mexico, and to agitate for modifications in 
 the matter of the slave trade. 
 
 The struggle that ensued was long and bitter. Bills and reso- 
 lutions of opposing import indicated the futile effort of both 
 parties to establish control of the situation. More than once in 
 the endless discussions a smouldering spirit of disunion flamed 
 into open threats of secession.^° The political leaders of a passing 
 
 50 See G. P. Garrison, Westward Extension, 1906, pp. 294-333; W. H. 
 Smith, Political History of Slavery, 1903, I, 113-129; Ehodes, History of 
 the United States, 1, 116-198; J. B. McMaster, History of the People of the 
 United States, VIII (1913), 10-43. 
 
134 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 era met for the last time in the memorable debates of that session. 
 Henry Clay strove to avert impending civil war by concessions 
 important to both the contending factions, and Daniel Webster 
 supported him with all the resources of his passionate eloquence, 
 while John C. Calhoun, rising from his deathbed, stirred the 
 Senate with ringing words of opposition, although his mortal 
 weakness imposed the delivery of his message upon the voice of 
 a colleague. 
 
 In the end the statemanship of Clay effected a compromise. 
 He was the author of a series of eight resolutions, which contem- 
 plated the admission of California according to the terms of her 
 constitution ; the organization of territorial governments for New 
 Mexico and Utah without restriction as to slavery, and their sub- 
 sequent admission as states with such regulations as their people 
 should determine; the adjustment of the boundary dispute in 
 favor of New Mexico, with liberal remuneration to Texas; the 
 abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia to placate 
 Northern sentiment, and the imposition of more stringent 
 fugitive slave laws to satisfy the demands of Southern slave 
 o^^Tiers. After seven months of discord and struggle, such pro- 
 visions were finally adopted as separate measures. The act 
 admitting California to statehood^^ was signed by President Fill- 
 more on September 9, 1850, and the Compromise of 1850 relieved 
 for a time the tension in national affairs. 
 
 The Oregon, bearing the news of admission, steamed through 
 the Golden Gate on October 18, 1850, firing preconcerted signals 
 which heralded her long awaited message. At the sound of her 
 first gun the men of San Francisco paused to listen in tense 
 expectation. Then, as the recurrent detonations confirmed their 
 hopes, the voices of exultant thousands broke out in a mighty 
 shout of universal joy. Dressed in all the flags her lockers could 
 boast, the Oregon rounded Clark's Point, and came to anchor 
 
 51 U. S., Statutes at Large, IX, 452. 
 
The Fabrication of the Commonwealth 135 
 
 abreast of the city, while the city rushed shoreward to meet 
 her — laborers from the streets, merchants from the stores, law- 
 yers from the offices, judges from the bench — until a solid mass 
 of humanity surged back and forth between the water front and 
 the Plaza, repeating the news and devouring the editions of the 
 papers that appeared as if by magic within an hour of the 
 steamer's arrival.^^ 
 
 The four year interregnum was over, the military command- 
 ant was no more, the de facto government was buried in the 
 graveyard of political theories, the constitutional convention was 
 approved, the organization of the state, and the acts of the first 
 legislature were validated. The commonwealth of California had 
 come into her own! 
 
 ^2 See Annals, 293-295. 
 
CHAPTEE VII 
 THE FAILURE TO ESTABLISH SOCIAL CONTROL 
 
 By the time the welcome news of admission was received in 
 California the organization of the state had made substantial 
 progress, but, instead of the expected improvement in social 
 order, it became more and more evident that the new govern- 
 ment failed to control crime and to check the evils that had 
 taken root in the country during the long period of the inter- 
 regnum. The system which had been outlined in the state con- 
 stitution and developed in the first session of the legislature, 
 was modeled on the institutions of older states, where Americans 
 were habituated to self-control, where there was ready communi- 
 cation between the centers and the outskirts of social life, where 
 families had long been planted in permanent homes, and where 
 mutual acquaintance had ripened during years or generations 
 of neighborly contact. In California conditions were still far 
 from normal. 
 
 It is quite true that there were more than a hundred thousand 
 men in California in 1850, but the mere fact that they had incor- 
 porated themselves into a state did not instantly weld the hetero- 
 geneous mass into social unity. And one curious thing must be 
 remembered: they were, in each other's eyes, a hundred thousand 
 men without any past that antedated their arrival in California. 
 No questions were asked as to a man's family or associations, his 
 success or failure in any previous environment, or his influence 
 for good or evil on any community east of the Sierra Nevada 
 Mountains. The initiation into California existence was briefly 
 described by the observant Frenchman, Saint- Amant, who wrote 
 
The Failure to Establish Social Control 137 
 
 of the arrival in the port of San Francisco •} ' ' Personne ne vons 
 demande qui vous etes, ni d'on vous venez. Voiis quittez votre 
 numero de bord, et vous prenez le nom qui vous convient. ' ' The 
 virile democracy of California towns and mining camps has often 
 been depicted with enthusiasm as a splendid example of Ameri- 
 can manhood, and such it truly was ; but a man without a past, 
 be he never so fearless and independent, is not always a citizen 
 of the highest constructive ability. 
 
 Another circumstance exerted a profound influence on the 
 men of California : there was a persistent feeling on the part of 
 the large majority that they were on the Pacific Coast only for 
 a short time, and that they would return to their former homes 
 as soon as their fortunes would allow. The state did not at first 
 seem very attractive as a place of continued residence. There 
 was a general anticipation that the placers would quickly be 
 exhausted, and agriculture was a doubtful venture on account 
 of the long season of summer drought.^ Even the men who 
 desired to make permanent homes in California were checked 
 in their ambitions by the confusion over land titles which dis- 
 tracted the state for many years. Holders of Mexican grants 
 still laid claim to most of the desirable agricultural tracts, and 
 cautious settlers feared to invest funds in the purchase of their 
 doubtful titles. The covetous on the other hand wished to set 
 all former ownership aside, and to appropriate whatever they 
 might desire. Squatters went so far as to attempt armed 
 
 1 Pierre Charles de Saint-Amant, Voyages en Calif ornie et dans I'Oregon, 
 1854, p. 73. 
 
 2 ' ' Not one out of ten thousand then in California thought seriously of 
 making the Pacific Coast his continual abiding place. All men were so- 
 journers and everybody habitually talked about going home" {Memoirs 
 of Cornelius Cole, 75). See also Buffum, Six Months, 136; Helper, Land 
 of Gold, 17-18; Ryan, Personal Adventures, II, 184. Compare these con- 
 ditions with the spirit of permanent settlers as portrayed by Esarey Logan, 
 ''The Pioneer Aristocracy," Indiana Magazine of History, XIII (1917), 
 270-287. 
 
138 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 violence, in Sacramento in the summer of 1850.^ Such open 
 efforts to steal private land were largely checked by public sen- 
 timent, although the original owners were in the end despoiled 
 of most of their heritage by the tedious process of predatory 
 laws.* 
 
 Aside from the gross injustice wrought against the Mexican 
 proprietors, this condition greatly retarded the development of 
 any class of small landholders, and seriously delayed the agri- 
 cultural and industrial growth of the state. Mining was, there- 
 fore, the one important industry of California, and by its very 
 nature imposed upon the people an abnormal excitement and 
 restlessness. The mining camps were of necessity ephemeral in 
 their existence, and shifting in their elements. Hundreds or 
 thousands of men would flock to new diggings in a few weeks, 
 only to desert the region as suddenly as they came.^ The towns 
 were no less changeable in their composition. Burnett, a promi- 
 nent member of the San Francisco legislative assembly, who had 
 known nearl}^ every one of his fellow-citizens in September, 
 
 1849, could not recognize one in ten after an absence of six 
 
 3 See Eoyce, California, 467-491, and his '^ Squatter Riot of '50," 
 Overland Monthly, ser. 2, VI (1885), 225-246; Bancroft, California, VI, 
 529-581; Hittell, California, III, 666-704; Upham, Notes of a Voyage to 
 California, 333-351. The spirit of the times was illustrated by a card 
 printed in the Sacramento Union, and copied in the San Francisco Herald, 
 1851, Sept. 17 %, in which T. O. Selby warned whom it might concern that 
 as trespassers had attacked his son, he would kill anyone repeating such 
 an act. 
 
 4 The land bill (U. S. Statutes at Large, IX, 631), required the Mexican 
 owners to prove their titles, with the United States in the position of a 
 rival claimant. Decisions could be appealed to the United States District 
 Court, and then to the Supreme Court, a process which ultimately im- 
 poverished even successful litigants. Their position is told with graphic 
 pathos in a petition for relief, published by C. H. Shinn in the Magazine 
 of American History, XXV (1891), 39^^402. 
 
 5 A condition typical of several years was described by residents of 
 Dry Diggings, when on Sept. 20, 1849, they petitioned for a special local 
 election, as, at the regular date on the first of August, the settlement had 
 been too small to need magistrates, while at the time of writing it was very 
 large, and would swell to thousands by winter (Archives, *' Unbound Docs.," 
 47-48, 325-326). The placers at Kennebec Hill were discovered in March, 
 
 1850, and within thirteen days 8000 miners rushed to the camp (Shinn, 
 Mining Camps, 244-245). 
 
The Failure to EstaMish Social Control 139 
 
 weeks, and found himself such a stranger in November that he 
 had grave doubts of securing his election as governor.^ 
 
 As a result of these frequent and sudden migrations centers 
 of population suddenly sprang up in remote and inaccessible 
 places. There is much truth in Rudyard Kipling's aphorism: 
 ' ' Transportation is Civilization. ' '^ The social order transplanted 
 to California had grown up in regions where highroads were 
 naturally extended as the population increased. But as yet 
 California had no facilities for transportation. The larger towns 
 were linked by rough stage roads, but many mountain settlements 
 communicated with the outside world only by the most primitive 
 trails, which were practically impassable at certain seasons of 
 the year. Numbers of such scattered and isolated communities 
 were associated in the political bonds of county organization, 
 and all the administration of local affairs was in the hands of 
 the officers elected by the voters of the several townships or the 
 county at large. 
 
 Of late years the students of political science have investi- 
 gated with interest the effect on our national life of the self- 
 governing county.^ The political conscience of the state at large 
 makes the laws for the general commonwealth, but the American 
 distrust of centralized authority has developed a system that 
 places the enforcement of those laws chiefly in the hands of 
 officials who are chosen by relatively small groups of electors. 
 In many matters of the utmost importance these officers are 
 practically independent of any higher authority, and are respon- 
 sible only to the vague master called ' ' the public, ' ' which assumes 
 
 6 Burnett, Becollections, 347. 
 
 7 Eudyard Kipling, ''With the Night Mail," in his Actions and Ee- 
 actions (1910), 145. 
 
 8 See HoAvard, Introduction to the Local Constitutional Eistonj of the 
 United States, I, 135-148; ''County Government," American Academy af 
 Political and Social Science, Annals, XLVII (1913), 1-278, especially 271- 
 275; H. S. Gilbertson, The County, the "Baric Continent" of American 
 Politics, 1917. 
 
140 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 tangible substance but once in two or three years, when the 
 neighbors whom they have placated or antagonized slip printed 
 papers into a ballot box.^ In consequence of this independence a 
 local unit often nullifies unpopular statutes by the simple expedi- 
 ent of ignoring their infraction. If on the other hand the local 
 officials are anxious to execute the laws promptly and effectively, 
 they must rely entirely upon their own resources and expect no 
 help from without. When a system such as this was applied to 
 the conditions that prevailed in California it was inevitable that 
 all its latent weakness should develop with startling abruptness. 
 In April or May of 1850 the people of nearly every com- 
 munity were called upon to fill a large number of elective offices. 
 There was no requirement of pre-election registration although 
 the law stipulated that a qualified elector must have resided 
 thirty days in his county or district, and six months in the state.^^ 
 A voter of doubtful status might be challenged at the polls, 
 but if he still affirmed under oath that he was entitled to the 
 franchise he was permitted to cast a ballot, although subject to 
 prosecution for perjury if he had sworn falsely.^^ Such regula- 
 tions fairly invited fraudulent voting, and at a later date the 
 state became notorious for its wholesale corruption. At the 
 earlier elections it is probable that the requirements as to resi- 
 dence were not strictly enforced, and that the wandering miners 
 voted wherever they tarried over election day. Indeed, in 
 November, 1851, William B. Ide, judge of the County Court of 
 Colusa County, wrote •}^ 
 
 9 See Bryce, American Commonwealth, I, 536 et seq.; J. A. Smith, Spirit 
 of American Government, ed. of 1912, pp. 243-248; J. H. Mathews, Prin- 
 ciples of American State Administration, 1917, pp. 401-473. 
 
 10 Calfornia, Statutes, 1850, ehap. 38, p. 102, sec. 10. 
 
 11 See '^The People vs. Gordon et al.," Fifth Calif omia Reports, 235. 
 Large numbers of Sonorans were voted in squads by unscrupulous politicians 
 in San Jose in the spring of 1851, and for years the native Mexican vote 
 was manipulated in the same way (Peckham, in San Jose Pioneer, 1877, 
 July 28, Scrapbook, p. 32). One of the Sydney men hanged by the Com- 
 mittee of Vigilance told of collecting a dozen ex-convicts to vote at a San 
 Francisco primary election for city marshal (see infra, p. 292). 
 
 12 Letter in Biographical Sketch of William B. Ide, 231. 
 
The Failure to EstaMish Social Control 141 
 
 Our population are like birds of passage, except their migrations are not 
 exactly periodical. ... At present ten individuals pay more than three-fourths 
 of the taxes paid within the county, and comprise nearly all its permanent 
 
 residents At the polls the non-residents (when they unite), have the 
 
 elections as they please; and the usual result is, that transient, irresponsible 
 persons are elected, and ionds of the liTce character are filed. 
 
 Even when the provisions of the Act to Regulate Elections were 
 observed, the electors might have lived in a given locality but 
 a month, and formed little acquaintance with their fellow-citi- 
 zens. Often the candidates were almost unknown to their con- 
 stituents. In such cases there was no way of securing reliable 
 information as to their characters or past records, and any man 
 ambitious for office could easily force himself upon the attention 
 of the public.^^ 
 
 One of the best known political incidents of early daj^s was 
 the election of the sheriff of San Francisco, in May, 1850.^* The 
 Democratic candidate was Colonel J. J. Bryant, owner of the best 
 hotel in San Francisco. He spared no expense in winning votes, 
 kept open house with a generosity that nearly proved his ruin, 
 and stationed bands to play in a balcony for days before the 
 election. His chief rival was Colonel John C. Hays, who had 
 won celebrity by service with the Texas Rangers on the Mexican 
 border. Hays had been a resident of San Francisco about two 
 months, and ran as an independent candidate. This contest 
 was the most exciting of the campaign and was conducted, on 
 both sides, with enthusiastic meetings, music, and torchlight 
 possessions. Animated electioneering was kept up as long as 
 the polls were open, and the tide of popular favor was not 
 decisively turned until Hays appeared, mounted on a magnificent 
 
 13 In August, 1849, Burnett accomplished the election of a friend from 
 Missouri within forty-eight hours of the latter 's arrival in Sacramento 
 (Becollections, 335-336). 
 
 14 See Davis, Political Conventions, 10; Annuls, 269-272. Hays an- 
 nounced himself as a candidate in the same issue of the paper that chronicled 
 his arrival in San Francisco (Alta, 1850, Feb. 1). His adventures as a 
 Eanger are told in S. C. Keid, Jr., Scouting Expeditions of McCulloch's 
 Texas Bangers, 1847, pp. 108-116. 
 
142 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 horse which he reined through the noisy streets with a skill that 
 called forth the wildest applause. A throng surged around him, 
 eager for recognition and the clasp of his hand, the music of 
 his opponent was drowned in shouts of greeting, and when his 
 excited steed finally dashed away through the cheering crowd 
 the day was won for the Texas Ranger. The choice was most 
 fortunate for the city. "Jack" Hays, always a popular and pic- 
 turesque figure, proved an upright and efficient sheriff, and we 
 shall hear much of him during the summer of 1851. His election 
 was typical of a condition of society where the choice of officials 
 depended all too largely upon trivial accidents and the momen- 
 tary impulses of the voters. 
 
 The men who were elected by these aggregations of compara- 
 tive strangers were commissioned to control the local affairs of 
 California for many months without fear of effective reproof 
 or restraint. In many places the personnel of the community 
 changed again and again before their terms expired, while 
 standards of citizenship shifted with equal rapidity.^^ In such 
 fluctuating conditions there was special need for sagacity and 
 real executive ability on the part of those in authority, yet the 
 small salaries of public office failed to attract the more able 
 citizens who could win much larger rewards in commercial 
 pursuits. 
 
 In California during the decade of the fifties there were 
 men of every type and character in the major and minor offices 
 of the state. A traveler wrote of one of the remote districts '}^ 
 
 One of the judges of this court is at the same time a justice of the peace, 
 sign painter, postmaster, miner, engineer, carpenter, doctor, boarding-house 
 keeper, and assistant surveyor of the district — having thus ten independent 
 
 15 < ^ It was a common observation, until very large investments of capital 
 necessitated permanency of residence, that there was not a mining town in 
 California that did not have an almost entire change of population every 
 three years" (Hittell, California, III, 108). 
 
 ^^ Calif ornia and Its Gold Mines [by Allsop], 124. Characteristic of 
 1850, although written December, 1852. 
 
The Failure to Establish Social Control 143 
 
 functions, all of which he fills with credit to himself and advantage to the 
 community. You will often find a man on the bench one year, and in the 
 middle of the river the next. 
 
 Another described as follows the magistrates of Murderer's 
 
 Bar: 
 
 There is a justice of the peace (up to his arms in the river just at 
 present), and there is a constable (who has been ''prospecting" a bag of 
 earth from the hill, and been rewarded with a gold flake of the value of 
 three cents) ; these two, one would suppose, could scarcely control two or 
 three hundred men, with rude passions and quick tempers, each of whom, 
 as you observe, carries his revolver even while at work. But these armed, 
 rough-looking fellows themselves elected the judge and constable, and stand 
 ever ready, as ''specials," to support them. 
 
 But the same author also regretted that many judges had been 
 elected who had hardly any knowledge of the law, and were 
 subservient to the dishonest class from which they received their 
 offices.^'' 
 
 Contemporary estimates of the public service were typified 
 by the assertion made in the San Francisco Evening Ficayune, 
 that there was scarcely a legislative, executive, or judicial officer 
 in the state who did not regard his position solely as a means 
 of obtaining money for a speedy return to the East.^^ In spite 
 of such assertions, Bancroft wrote of the period '}^ 
 
 I may safely say that the judges on the whole were honest men. ... On 
 the Supreme bench, and presiding over the district and county courts, par- 
 ticularly in the cities and more thickly populated parts, have been from 
 the first occupation of the territory by citizens of the United States until 
 
 17 See Frank Marryat, Mountains and Molehills, 1855, pp. 236, 389. 
 
 ^8 Picayune, 1850, Sept. 2 %. 
 
 19 Bancroft, California Inter Pocula, 582. But contrast his statement: 
 "In a few instances, before the year 1850 had expired, justices of the 
 peace and judges had been impeached and driven from their seats by the 
 people. But compared "with those who at this time were accustomed, either 
 openly or in secret, to take illegal fees, to extort, accept bribes, or other- 
 wise violate their oath of office, the number punished was insignificant" 
 (iMd., 590). 
 
144 Yigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 the present day, as able and erudite jurists, men of as broad and enlightened 
 intellects, as might be found elsewhere in Europe or America. Some were 
 dissipated, but for the most part they were men of integrity. 
 
 Whatever may have been the personal characters of Califor- 
 nia's judges in 1850, the courts over which they presided quickly 
 became notorious for their failure to convict and punish crim- 
 inals, especially those who could pay for skilful defense. In the 
 opinion of the contemporary public this immunity was almost 
 universally attributed to flagrant corruption within professional 
 circles, and later critics have found it very easy to make similar 
 strictures. Corruption there was, for it was inevitable that 
 many unworthy officials should find their way into positions of 
 responsibility and time showed that not a few of them had past 
 experiences of disreputable quality. Royce severely condemned 
 the ''persistently wicked neglect to choose good public officers" 
 that made the mining society the "friend and upholder of the 
 very roguery that it flogged and hanged. "^° The student who 
 desires to make a fair estimate of the situation, however, must 
 take into account all the conditions that hampered the admin- 
 istration of justice, even when there was a righteous zeal on the 
 part of the public servants. 
 
 Mention has already been made of the general result of the 
 low ratio of salaries of public office to the ordinary profits of 
 business, but particular attention must be called to its effect 
 upon the selection of prosecuting attorneys. There were in 
 California many men who had studied and practiced law before 
 the gold rush attracted them to the Pacific Coast, and who were 
 glad to return to their profession as soon as the courts were 
 
 20Eoyce, California, 337. The difficulty of choosing suitable officials 
 was clearly recognized by Saint- Amant {Voyages, 399). A striking example 
 of California conditions is given by the story of Paul Geddes, of Pennsyl- 
 vania, who under the alias Talbot H. Green, was a leading candidate for 
 mayor of San Francisco in 1851. His real identity and past irregularities 
 of conduct were discovered on the eve of election (Bancroft, California, III, 
 765-766; Davis, Sixty Years, 325; Alta, 1851, April 16 %). 
 
The Failure to Establish Social Control 145 
 
 established. Fees were so large in both civil and criminal cases 
 that the private practice of a competent lawyer insured a large 
 income while the small salaries of the prosecuting attomeys^^ 
 did not attract men who were fitted to cope with the counsel 
 retained to defend the prisoners at the bar. In consequence, the 
 criminal courts were quickly at the mercy of clever and well 
 paid lawyers, who imposed upon them every possible technical 
 evasion until the whole machinery of the law became a shield 
 for the criminal rather than a safeguard to the community.^- 
 
 Not only were the odds during the trial largel}^ in favor of 
 the defendant, but in cases of conviction he had an excellent 
 chance to escape because of the total lack of secure jails. The 
 failure of the various communities in California to provide 
 adequate prisons even after five years of American occupation, 
 has been severely censured-^ as an evidence of a selfish reluctance 
 to spend some of the common wealth in preserving and upbuild- 
 ing the social order. As a matter of fact, public improvements 
 had been out of the question in settlements that had no consti- 
 tutional right to levy taxes, or to make contracts.-* San Fran- 
 cisco purchased a prison brig in 1849 ; Sacramento did the same 
 in 1850, and smaller towns improvised places of confinement as 
 best they might f^ but before permanent structures could be com- 
 menced it was necessary to organize the counties, choose county 
 seats, vote funds, and arrange manj^ details of construction.-^ 
 
 21 The salary of a district attorney was $2000 (California, Statutes, 
 1850, chap. 25, p. 83). 
 
 22 Prisoners were quite ready to pay their la■\^'yers fees of $1000 (P. A. 
 Eoach, Statevient of HiMoncal Facts on California, 1878, p. 8, MS in the 
 Bancroft Library). The anecdotes told by L. A. Norton show how easily 
 guilty men could be freed on technicalities (Life and Adventures, 279-290). 
 
 23 As by H. K. Norton, Storij of California, 1913, p. 246. 
 
 24 See the experiments in Stockton, supra, p. 119. 
 
 25 The bark La Grange was bought for a jail at Sacramento {History 
 of Sacramento County, 87-88). The early jail in Los Angeles was an old 
 adobe residence, and prisoners Avere chained to a pine log for safe keeping 
 (Horace Bell, Reminiscences of a Banger, 1881, p. 51). The first public 
 building of Contra Costa County was a stone jail, built in 1850, a poor affair 
 
146 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 An organic defect of the earliest statutes of California that 
 has usually escaped the attention of historians was the provision 
 that deprived local justices of the peace of any criminal juris- 
 diction beyond the office of examining magistrate, and referred 
 trial for all petty misdemeanors to the Court of Sessions, which 
 met at the county seat once in every two months.-^ The effect 
 of such a system upon criminal conditions in the mining regions 
 was inevitably disastrous. It was the duty of the local justice 
 of the peace to arrest suspected persons; if evidence justified 
 their commitment for trial, he was then bound to deliver them 
 to the sheriff of the county.^^ This necessitated the transpor- 
 tation of the prisoner to the county seat, which was often far 
 away from the scene of the offense, since some of the counties 
 were as large as states on the Atlantic seaboard.-^ In many 
 cases the journey could be made only on horseback, and it af- 
 forded countless opportunities for escape or rescue. 
 
 Moreover, for the prosecution of such trivial misdemeanors 
 as breach of the peace, assault and battery, and petty larceny. 
 
 from Avhich prisoners easily escaped (Illustrations of Contra Costa County, 
 12). In 1851 Auburn had a log jail for a county prison (History of Placer 
 County, 97). W. B. Ide, justice of the peace at Monroeville, Colusa 
 County, in 1852, built an iron cage for the confinement of prisoners, and 
 placed it out of doors in the shade of a tree (J. H. Rogers, Colusa County, 
 1891, pp. 77-78). In 1849 Riley had proposed to devote some funds to 
 improving jails (Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 561, Doc. 52, pp. 19, 20, 37-38). 
 
 26 The Court of Sessions was composed of the county judge and two 
 assistant justices of the peace. It w^as also entrusted with the duties which 
 at present usually devolve upon a board of supervisors (California, Statutes, 
 1850, chap. 86, p. 210; Rodman, History of the Bench and Bar of Southern 
 Calif orni<i, 38). 
 
 27 California, Statutes, 1850, chap. 44, p. 118, sec. 3. Some justices seem 
 to have exercised criminal jurisdiction, as did the illiterate Richard C. 
 Barry, of Sonora, whose docket is a wonderful specimen of the public 
 archives of 1850 (History of Tuolumne County [by Lang], 65-70; Ban- 
 croft, California, VI, 470; and his Calif ornia Inter Pocula, 630-633). ''The 
 jurisdiction of justices of the peace in 1850 to 1851, who were then the 
 only judicial officers known in these diggings, was a little shadowy, or very 
 substantial, as the reader pleases" (History of Nevada County, 99). See 
 also the tales of Justice Bonner, of Butte County (Illustrated History of 
 Plumas, Lassen and Sierra Counties, 1882, pp. 208-209). 
 
 28 Coy's Guide to the County Archives contains maps showing the 
 boundaries of the original twenty-seven counties, and subsequent changes. 
 
The Failure to Establish Social Control 147 
 
 it was necessary that the witnesses also should take the same 
 journey, and remain in attendance upon the trial while counsel 
 gained postponement after postponement. If the crime was 
 of a serious nature it was tried in one of the District Courts, 
 which also met at the county seats, and held from three to five 
 terms a year. In such cases an indictment by the grand jury 
 was a prerequisite to trial.^^ All these vexatious delays not 
 only burdened witnesses with the cost of living at wretched and 
 expensive inns, but they involved the risk of forfeiting mining 
 claims because of protracted absence and cessation of work.^^ 
 Under these circumstances it proved to be impossible to keep 
 witnesses together for the slow progress of law, and any prisoner 
 was almost sure of discharge if his lawyer could sufficiently 
 retard the prosecution of his case. 
 
 In the mining regions, where improvement was most imper- 
 ative, state control failed most signally to accomplish any imme- 
 diate betterment. As soon as counties could be organized and 
 local magistrates elected, all the offices peculiar to the Mexican 
 system were discontinued. Justices of the peace and judges 
 of the lower courts took the places of the alcaldes, who from 
 that time had no legal status in California, although for some 
 years they were occasionally chosen to supply the immediate 
 needs of new and remote settlements.^^ 
 
 In 1850 Yuba County was so large, and the ''trouble, expense and time 
 required to send criminals to Marysville were so great, that many escaped 
 the just punishments for their acts, while others were severely dealt with 
 by Judge Lynch" {Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen and Sierra Coun- 
 ties, 423). 
 
 29 See California, Statutes, 1850, chap. 33, p. 93, chap. 119, p. 288, sec. 
 176. The District Courts took cognizance, also, of civil and chancery cases. 
 They superseded the Mexican Courts of First Instance (ihid., chap. 23, 
 p. 80, sec. 28). 
 
 30 No fees were allowed witnesses in criminal cases (California, Statutes, 
 1850, chap. 138, p. 421, sec. 15). The Alta, 1851, Oct. 15 %, noted the 
 impossibility of securing the attendance of witnesses under these circum- 
 stances. 
 
 31 See Shinn, Mining Camps, 187. The miners of Chinese Camp appointed 
 an alcalde and a sheriff in September, 1850 (Heckendorn & Wilson, Miners 
 4- Business Men's Directory . . . 1856 . ..of Tuolumne, 83). John Carr spoke 
 
148 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 The old alcalde had usually been a fellow-worker among his 
 constituents, with personal interests identical with theirs. The 
 new justice often belonged to the class of political loafers. He 
 had, moreover, an assurance in office that had not existed under 
 a system that swiftly recalled unpopular alcaldes as soon as a 
 majority of the camp might vote to do so. In consequence there 
 was no longer the close accord between executive and community 
 that had characterized the earlier organization. 
 
 Up to this time any given camp had enjoyed such security 
 of life and property as the majority of its residents chose to 
 enforce by the rules of mass meetings and the discipline of 
 miners' courts. Now the exercise of criminal jurisdiction was 
 removed from local control, for the justice of the peace could 
 do no more than examine prisoners and if he saw fit hand them 
 over to the sheriff of the county for arraignment in the proper 
 court. This act of transfer immediately removed the criminal 
 from the persons interested in his punishment, so that unless 
 his offense had been particularly heinous, his fate became a 
 matter of indifference to his former neighbors. In cases where 
 popular indignation had been highly inflamed the notorious mis- 
 carriage of justice in the courts gave rise to a universal distrust 
 of legal procedure, and incited the miners to administer retri- 
 bution for themselves. 
 
 The increasing disorder aroused a spirit of resentment 
 against the authorities that resembled the antagonism expressed 
 during the period of the military control. The majority of the 
 men of the mining camps in the fall of 1850 were of the same 
 fiber as were the men of 1849 ; many of them were the same 
 individuals who had conducted the popular trials which had 
 
 of a trial before a California alcalde, probably in February or March, 1851, 
 and said that no one in "Weaverville paid any attention to politics or law, 
 until about June, 1851, when the camp was stirred to curiosity by the advent 
 of a party of horsemen who looked too well dressed to be miners and too 
 honest to be gamblers, and who proved to be candidates for the of&ces 
 recently created for the new county of Trinity {Pioneer Bays, 116, 128). 
 
The Failure to Establish Social Control 149 
 
 preserved California from overwhelming anarchy and blood- 
 shed. In their sovereign capacity, and out of the elements of 
 chaos, they had formed a state, ordained laws, and appointed 
 servants to execute the will of the people. Yet in spite of their 
 labors they found the servants inefficient or unfaithful, and 
 the laws so poorly adapted to the special needs of the community, 
 and so poorly executed withal, that crime increased, while rob- 
 bers and murderers laughed at statutes and courts, and at jails 
 and jailers. 
 
 The ideals of popular sovereignty had not perished from 
 the land when the cannon of Monterey announced the signing of 
 the state constitution. History has shown that the conception 
 of government as a social compact holds in itself the germ of 
 potential secession. It is equally true that the conception of 
 social order accomplished and preserved solely by the concurrent 
 consent of the individual community contains the- dormant men- 
 ace of disorder. It is not only upon the unorganized frontier 
 of American settlement that this dormant menace has been 
 transformed into an active force. The tendency to deal with 
 criminals through popular tribunals steadily accompanied what 
 may be called the rearguard of the western advance, a zone of 
 unstable conditions where the voluntary and temporary associa- 
 tions of the foremost pioneers were nominally superseded by a 
 laggard civil organization. Here lingered competent and fearless 
 men who had by their own swiftly spoken words evoked laws 
 out of a cosmic void, and their social conscience gave fealty, 
 not to the rules they had thus formulated, but to the purposes 
 which had vitalized their rules — the preservation of life and 
 property. When formal laws, once established, failed to accom- 
 plish these purposes, their impulse was quick to ignore the 
 inefficient laws, and to revert to a direct and popular method 
 of effecting the necessary results. 
 
150 Yigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Such an impulse was very apparent in California in the later 
 months of 1850. The people recognized the failure of the courts 
 to restrain crime, and showed a strong tendency, especially in 
 the mining regions, to adhere to the popular tribunals that had 
 proved effective in the previous year. They came together as 
 of old in the miners' meetings, to regulate their mining claims. 
 They had never drawn any nice distinctions between the civil 
 and the criminal functions of such meetings; so they now de- 
 sired to have suspected offenders still tried on the scene of their 
 alleged guilt, and tried so promptly that honest men might go 
 about their business without unreasonable delay, and they began 
 to resent the interference of a sheriff whose duty it was to re- 
 move the criminals from their control.^- 
 
 Conflicts over the possession of a prisoner became common 
 and when they occurred the sheriff of the county faced a situ- 
 ation that tested him to the utmost, for he was obliged to decide, 
 often at a moment's notice, whether he would attempt a rescue 
 at the risk of several lives. In many instances he was convinced 
 that the accused was a murderer who richly deserved death, and 
 that those who contemplated immediate execution were stirred 
 by the most righteous indignation. It then seemed like a mock- 
 ery of justice to shoot men whom he knew and respected in order 
 to place a cowardly assassin before a court which would prob- 
 ably condone his offense. In any case, whether the prisoner 
 were guilty or innocent, the sheriff was aware that the local 
 community would never complain if he yielded to the mob, and 
 that the state authorities could neither reprove him if he gave 
 
 32 In 1850 or 1851 the miners at Sandy Bar acquitted a suspected mur- 
 derer, and then took advantage of the large gathering to decide on the 
 disposition of mining debris (C. S. Abbott, Becollections of a California 
 Pioneer, 1917, p. 104). For instances of popular trials at this time, see 
 History of Nevada County, 98, 105 ; Carr, Pioneer Days, 60-67 ; Memoirs 
 of Cornelius Cole, 85-91 ; William Downie, Hunting for Gold, 1893, pp. 111- 
 113, 145. 
 
The Failure to Establish Social Control 151 
 
 way nor help him if he chose to resist.^^ Some sheriffs forfeited 
 their lives in their determination to do their duty. Many car- 
 ried off their men even when the odds were all against them. 
 Many others gave way before the angry crowds and left the 
 prisoners to trials by lynch law. 
 
 But a profound difference existed between the popular trib- 
 unals of the days of the commonwealth and those that had been 
 held during the interregnum. The miners' trials of 1849, con- 
 ducted in sincere although uncouth emulation of the courts of 
 justice, represented the popular adherence to the spirit of Law, 
 to the principle of the trial by jury, and loyalty to the will of 
 the majority. When the same men assembled in the autumn 
 of 1850, arraigning, perhaps, the same culprits, for the same 
 sort of crimes, they were no longer the symbol of the Law — 
 that was represented by the sheriff and the dilatory courts. 
 Then the miners ' tribunals, pitted against the constituted author- 
 ities, lost their dignity and their ideals of deliberate justice in 
 conducting a struggle for the possession of a prisoner, and in 
 making a hurried disposition of his fate. Inevitably they de- 
 generated into angry mobs, that hastened to whip or to hang the 
 accused before the sheriff could intervene, or that stormed a jail 
 to recover a prisoner, and to forestall punishment or acquittal 
 by the courts.^* 
 
 33 When a sheriff in an American state was rebuked by the governor for 
 permitting- a lynching, the governor was bluntly told to mind his own 
 business, as the sheriff was responsible only to the voters who had elected 
 him (Woodrow Wilson, '^ Issues of Eeform, " in Imtiative, Referendum and 
 Recall, edited by W. B. Munro, 1912, p. 72). It is of interest to note here 
 the following statement from the Herald, 1851, July 18 %: ''The Sheriffs 
 throughout the country have been more true to the interests of the people, 
 and more honest in the discharge of their duty than any other class of 
 officials. We know of but two instances in the State in which the Sheriff 
 has come under the ban of public censure." 
 
 3* The Alta recorded many murders and lynchings during the autumn of 
 1850. See also Popular Tribunals, I, 142-178; G. H. Tinkham, History of 
 Stockton, 1880, pp. 155-158. The lynch law of this period forms the theme 
 of The Volcano Diggings; a Tale of California Law [by Leonard Kip], 
 1851. 
 
152 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 In the Alt a California, September 16, 1850, a contrast was 
 drawn between the comparative safety of life and property in 
 the mines under the '' prompt and substantial justice of 1849" 
 and the frequent robberies and murders currently reported. The 
 writer asserted that, although the better portion of the popu- 
 lation had hailed with delight the advent of law as safer than 
 the local practices which necessity had compelled, the statutes 
 had proved so inefficient, and so poorly adapted to the migratory 
 character of the community, that the courts failed to punish 
 offenders and prevent crime ; bail was habitually forfeited, re- 
 arrest was almost impossible, and trials could be postponed by 
 technicalities until the absence of witnesses made acquittal in- 
 evitable. Throughout the state clever, premeditated robberies 
 and murders formed a menace to security far more dangerous 
 than the more impulsive crimes of an earlier period. 
 
 Peter H. Burnett made an excellent summary of the problems 
 of the time when he said :^^ 
 
 For some eight or ten years after the organization of our State gov- 
 ernment, the administration of the criminal laws was exceedingly defective 
 and ineflacient. This arose mainly from the following causes: 
 
 1. Defective laws and imperfect organization of the Courts; 2. The 
 incompetency of the district attorneys, who were generally young men 
 without an adequate knowledge of the law; 3. The want of secure county 
 prisons, there being no penitentiary during most of that time; 4. The 
 great expense of keeping prisoners and convicts in the county jails; 5. The 
 diflSculty of enforcing the attendance of witnesses; 6. The difficulty of 
 securing good jurymen, there being so large a proportion of reckless, sour, 
 disappointed, and unprincipled men then in the country; 7. The unsettled 
 state of our land-titles, which first induced so many men to squat upon 
 the lands of the grantees of Spain and Mexico, and then to steal their 
 cattle to live upon. . . . 
 
 It was the extremely defective administration of criminal justice in 
 California for some years that led to the organization of so many vigilance 
 committees, and filled the courts of Judge Lynch with so many cases. 
 
 When the second legislature assembled in San Jose on Jan- 
 uary 6, 1851, Governor Burnett in his annual message alluded 
 35 Burnett, Becollections, 386, 390. 
 
The Failure to Establish Social Control 153 
 
 to many of the serious problems of the state, and proposed some 
 desirable reforms,^*^ but he did not remain in office to assist in 
 the work he had considered so important. He resigned January 
 9, giving as his only excuse vague obligations of personal busi- 
 ness.^^ No satisfactory explanation of the resignation has been 
 made in the meager chronicles of the times. Judge E. 0. Crosby, 
 who was thoroughly familiar with the problems of the day, felt 
 that Burnett lacked the self-confidence and assertiveness neces- 
 sary to hold his own against the more astute demagogues. Al- 
 fred A. Green, another prominent San Franciscan, said plainly 
 that the ' ' Tammany ' ' element was too powerful for the governor 
 and was hostile to him on account of his honest opposition to 
 land frauds in San Francisco.^^ John McDougal, the lieutenant- 
 governor who succeeded Burnett, was somewhat skilful as a 
 politician, but he lacked personal force in times of crisis, his 
 habits were dissipated, and he became a tool in the hands of 
 corrupt men.^^ It was most unfortunate for the development 
 of California that after its citizens had placed in office a man 
 of honorable principles, any influence, either private or public, 
 should have forced him to relinquish his important responsibili- 
 ties into unscrupulous hands, and to abandon the entire machine 
 of government to selfishness and ambition. 
 
 To fill the vacancy created by McDougal's promotion the 
 senate elected as its president David C. Broderick, whose ability 
 had already been recognized. From that time until his death 
 Broderick was a dominant figure in the history of the state. 
 
 The legislature made some alterations in the statutes which 
 may be noted here, although several of them did not become 
 
 36 Journals of the California Legislature, 1851, pp. 22-23. 
 
 37 Burnett, Becollections, 377. 
 
 38 See Crosby, MS Statement, 47-49, and Green, MS Life and Adven- 
 tures, 25; Hittell, California, IV, 60-64, 87. 
 
 39 Bancroft said that in 1856 McDougal was arrested for election frauds 
 {Popular Tribunals, I, 130). 
 
154 Yigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 effective until July, 1851.*° Justices of the peace were given 
 jurisdiction over minor offenses, and it was provided that their 
 courts should be open continuously/^ This change permitted 
 prompt trial of misdemeanors, and corrected one of the most 
 flagrant defects in the earlier laws. Criminal cases might be 
 appealed from the justice of the peace to the Court of Sessions, 
 which also had jurisdiction over all more serious crimes, except 
 murder, manslaughter, and arson. The last named offenses and 
 all criminal cases not otherwise provided for were still under 
 the jurisdiction of the District Court, which had, in addition, 
 appellate jurisdiction over criminal judgments found by the 
 Court of Sessions. These measures, generally designated as the 
 Civil and Criminal Practice acts, proved so efficient that, with 
 necessary modifications, they remained in force for many years, 
 and served as models for other states and territories west of the 
 Rocky Mountains.*^ 
 
 Acting on a recommendation of Governor Burnett, and on a 
 petition from the citizens of El Dorado County, who prayed 
 that horse stealing should be made a capital offense,*^ the legis- 
 lature passed an act that permitted a jury to impose the death 
 penalty for robbery and grand larceny.*"^ The bill originated in 
 the senate, where it was vigorously opposed by Broderick and 
 three others, but passed by a vote of eight to four. It passed 
 the assembly without delay, and a motion to reconsider it there 
 was lost by a vote of seventeen to nine.*^ The same bill per- 
 
 40 Especially an Act concerning the Courts of Justice of this State and 
 Judicial Officers (California, Statutes, 1851, chap. 1, p. 9) ; an Act to 
 regulate Proceedings in Civil Cases {ibid., chap. 5, p. 51) ; an Act to regulate 
 Proceedings in Criminal Cases (ibid., chap. 29, p. 212). 
 
 41 California, Statutes, 1851, chap. 1, p. 23, sec. 90. The civil jurisdiction 
 of justices' courts was also modified. 
 
 42 See Some Account of the Worh of Stephen J. Field [edited by C. T. 
 Black and S. B. Smith], 1881, pp. 19-20; Hittell, California, IV, 67. 
 
 43 Journals of the California Legislature, 1851, pp. 91, 101, 1412. 
 
 44 Calif ornia, Statutes, 1851, chap. 95, p. 406. 
 
 45 See Journals of the Calif ornia Legislature, 1851, pp. 286, 1422, 1426. 
 
The Failure to Establish Social Control 155 
 
 mitted, at the discretion of the jury, a punishment of fifty lashes 
 for petit larceny. The statute remained in force until 1856,*^ 
 and several felons were executed under its provision. Professor 
 Royce used the law as the text for this severe arraignment of 
 the spirit of the lawmakers:*'^ 
 
 So far did this trust in hanging as a cure for theft go, that in the 
 second legislature, that of 1851, an act was passed making hanging for 
 grand larceny a penalty to be thenceforth regularly imposed at the 
 pleasure of the convicting jury. So easy is it for men to sanction their 
 blunders by the help of a little printers' ink, used for the publication of 
 a statute. 
 
 Correcting an error of Shinn in regard to the date and 
 duration of the statute,**^ Royce continued : 
 
 The matter [of the date] ... is of some importance, because it shows 
 that the law did not first encourage the lynchers, but that only after the 
 extravagances of popular justice had for some time flourished, it was found 
 possible to load the statute book with an entirely useless and demoralizing 
 penalty. 
 
 That criticism is hardly justified ; a study of the measure reveals 
 that it was suggested by the governor of the state as a tem- 
 porary and deplorable substitute for the customary terms of 
 imprisonment, that it was passed by large majorities in both 
 houses, after full discussion, that it was seldom invoked by 
 juries, and was repealed as soon as jails could be constructed 
 and the emergency relieved.*^ 
 
 46 See California, Statutes, 1856, chap. 139, p. 220. 
 
 47 Eoyce, California, 337-338. 
 
 48 Shinn, Mining Camps, 228. Perhaps copied from Tinkham, Hisiory 
 of Stockton, 161. 
 
 49 See Hittell, California, IV, 70-71 ; and his General Laws of the State 
 of California, I, sees. 1459-1461. The following executions under this statute 
 have come to my attention. John Thompson and James Gibson, for highway 
 robbery and assault, in Sacramento, Aug. 22, 1851. A companion named 
 William Eobinson or Heppard, sentenced for the same day, and reprieved 
 by the governor, was hanged by a mob (History of Sacramento County, 
 126. See also infra, p. 378). James Wilson and Frederick Salkmyer, horse 
 thieves, in San Joaquin County, November, 1851 (Herald, 1851, November 
 
156 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 One of the trials that took place under this law affords vivid 
 illustration of the makeshifts imposed on the county courts. 
 While William B. Ide was acting as a justice of the peace in 
 Colusa County he examined and committed a man for the crime 
 of horse stealing, and later, as county judge, presided at his 
 trial. The prisoner had no counsel and no licensed attorney 
 was procurable, so Ide volunteered to serve him in that capacity. 
 The offer was accepted and in the absence of any prosecuting 
 attorney Ide acted as counsel for the people, counsel for the 
 defendant, and presiding judge. The verdict was guilty, with 
 the penalty of death, which Ide solemnly pronounced, but the 
 prisoner was subsequently pardoned by the governor. The anec- 
 dote was vouched for by Judge J. C. Huls,^^ one of the associate 
 justices, and it seems to be confirmed by the entries in the 
 Minutes of the Court of Sessions in Criminal Business, October 
 Term, 1851, which are preserved in the archives at Colusa. They 
 contain this item in the record of the trial of one Joseph Wilson 
 for grand larceny :^^ ''The prisoner having been informed of 
 his Wright to counsil there being no counsil the Court surved 
 him as sutch. ' ' The case continues in accordance with the story 
 as told by Huls. 
 
 30 %; Tinkham, History of StocMon, p. 162). Jose Corrales, for horse 
 stealing, Sonora, Jan. 7, 1852 {History of Tuolumne County [by Lang], 
 149). Theodore Basquez, for horse stealing, San Jose, Jan. 30, 1852 (Hall, 
 History of San Jose, 250). John Barrett, or Garrat, for robbery, Nevada 
 County, July 16, 1852 (History of Nevada County, 107-108; Bancroft, 
 California, VII, 195 7iote 3). George Tanner, for grand larceny, Marysville. 
 July 23, 1852 (Herald, 1852, March 23 3/.- May 15 %; July 25 %; San 
 Francisco Chronicle, 1904, May 22, magazine p. 5 ; " The People vs. George 
 Tanner," Second California Eeports, 257-261). A Mexican convicted of 
 grand larceny at Martinez was sentenced to be hanged July 8, 1852 (Herald, 
 May 12 %), but his execution is not recorded in the list given in the Illus- 
 trations of Contra Costa, 21. 
 
 50 History of Colusa County, 1880, pp. 46-47. 
 
 51 From a transcript of the Minutes in the collection of O. C Coy. In 
 November, 1851, Ide acted as judge of the County Court and Court of 
 Sessions, as clerk of both, and of the District Court, as county recorder, 
 and county auditor (Biographical Sicetch, 230). 
 
The Failure to Establish Social Control 157 
 
 The humorous reminiscence of the pioneer judge, and the 
 grotesque souvenir of his court, must not divert our attention 
 from the fact that just such men as Ide and the clerk of his 
 court, by the sheer force of their common sense and their lay- 
 man's acquaintance with American precedent, formed and vital- 
 ized a body politic out of the nebulous swarm of the hundred 
 thousand independent atoms of 1849. The great majority of 
 these hundred thousand men came to California to dig a fortune 
 from the earth, but as incidental accessories of their miners' 
 outfits they carried such a knowledge of political constitutions 
 and of legal codes that they were able, by the close of the first 
 legislature, to equip a state with the full mechanism of govern- 
 ment, and by the close of the second to correct the defects most 
 obvious in the hasty adjustment .^^ 
 
 In those early months of statehood the interests of the com- 
 monwealth were still, in a fashion, incidental accessories of 
 mining and commercial life. The pioneer did not yet regard 
 El Dorado as his permanent home. All local problems were 
 but the responsibilities of a moment, to be met hastily, yet in 
 a spirit that would secure his own rights and give fair play to 
 his neighbor. The exercise of such a spirit was in|itself a dis- 
 cipline in social life. One of the most interesting comments 
 made on Calif ornian influences was recorded by the artist Borth- 
 wick, who subsequent to a long visit in the state resided on the 
 Isthmus of Nicaragua, and there had opportunity to observe 
 that homeward bound miners ''of the lower ranks of life" were 
 far more orderly, more considerate, more alert to social obliga- 
 tions, and more amenable to the regulations of the voyage than 
 
 52 ' < It may be safely asserted that no new country ever received as sud- 
 denly, such a large population, so well fitted in every regard to found a 
 great nation, as have poured into it [California] from the States" (Tyson, 
 Geology and Industrial Besources of California, Introduction, xxxiii). "The 
 conduct of the better portion of the inhabitants illustrates the force of 
 American political ideas when displayed in a new land amid new con- 
 ditions" (Thorpe, Constitutional History of the American People, II, 289). 
 
158 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 were the same class of men from the rougher localities of the 
 eastern interior who crossed the isthmus on their way to the 
 mines.^^ 
 
 But the pioneer was still an individualist of the deepest dye. 
 He did not visualize himself as the keeper of his weaker brother 
 or the guardian and tutor of a future generation. Whatever 
 might be his own habits of self-control, or of license, he tolerated 
 in his associates any manner of life that was not absolutely de- 
 structive to the peace of the community, and the clergymen 
 delivered sermons in the saloon and the barkeeper offered hos- 
 pitality to the preacher with the same mutual allowance for 
 personal liberty that had recognized the right of the whole camp 
 to share in the deliberations of the miners' meeting. ^^ The 
 pioneer left other men to set their own moral standards and to 
 manage their own affairs, and in holding himself aloof from 
 the personal life of his neighbor he detached himself, consciously 
 or unconsciously, from the civic life of his community, except 
 in the crises when public disorder became a menace to his indi- 
 vidual interests. 
 
 The mining camps were always of such an unstable nature 
 that the temporary residents had little incentive to make per- 
 sonal sacrifices for the improvement of general conditions, and 
 the growing towns, wdth a more permanent total of population, 
 were still so shifting in their units that any spirit of common 
 enthusiasm and loyalty was a slow development. The incorpor- 
 ated cities — Sonora, Benicia, Monterey, San Jose, Sacramento, 
 
 53 Borthwick, Three Years, 149-150. H. J. Coke, an Englishman, wrote 
 of one of his experiences in 1851: ''I found myself about to pass a night 
 in a small tent designated the 'miners' home,' in which over forty of these 
 gentlemen were assembled to drink, board and lodge . . . only one unarmed. 
 But strange to say, I never saw a more orderly congregation, or such good 
 behaviour in such bad company" {Bide over the Eochy Mountains, 1852, 
 pp. 359-360). 
 
 54 See Eev. William Taylor, California Life Illustrated, 300 ; Rev. James 
 Woods, Recollections of Pioneer Worlc in California, 1878, p. 140. Borth- 
 wick said that California was a community of isolated individuals, each 
 regardless of the opinion of his neighbor {Three Years, 67). 
 
The Failure to Establish Social Control 159 
 
 and San Francisco — made definite efforts towards municipal im- 
 provement, but everywhere the mad rush of feverish speculation 
 absorbed the men of the state in unremitting attention to busi- 
 ness. 
 
 Even in San Francisco there w^ere no citizens of assured 
 incomes, much less of independent leisure, who could occupy 
 themselves with altruistic social service. Every sunrise might 
 be the herald of fortune or ruin, turning on the hazard of wind 
 and tide, of fire or fiood, and many merchants slept, like cats, 
 in their tiny offices, that they might roll from their blankets 
 with the dawn and profit by the added hours of commercial 
 opportunity.^^ They did not spend their overcrowded days wait- 
 ing in the criminal courts to serve as jurymen in the trials 
 of brawlers of the gambling house and thieves of the water front. 
 They did not devote themselves to the petty politics of their 
 city wards. With the long desired franchise of American citi- 
 zens safely within their grasp, they forgot the dangers and 
 clamors of the interregnum, and neglected to defend the court 
 and ballot box from the manipulation of unworthy hands. 
 
 55 W. T. Saywarcl, of San Francisco, who purchased gold dust from the 
 miners arriving from Sacramento on the night boats, said that he often 
 handled $5000 or $10,000 worth of dust before the banks opened at nine 
 o'clock {Statement, [1877?], 13-14, MS in the Bancroft Library). A 
 mason who built chimneys in San Francisco at $15 a day, wrote home to 
 Nantucket that time was so valuable he could not afford to dot his i's or 
 cross his t's (B. H. Nve, ''Letters," History Teachers' Magazine, VI 
 [1915], 211). 
 
 k 
 
PART II 
 
 THE SAN FRANCISCO COMMITTEE 
 OF VIGILANCE 
 
 I 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE PRELUDE TO THE COMMITTEE OF VIGILANCE 
 
 San Francisco was always the center of life and interests 
 in California. Very early in the months of 1851 it became the 
 scene of exciting and disturbing events. 
 
 For some time after the suppression of the Hounds in July, 
 1849, and the subsequent election of the reform ayuntamiento, 
 the town had been free from political sensations and compara- 
 tively safe from acts of violence.^ Alcalde Geary and his council 
 had given a conservative and honest administration, but their 
 term was too brief to accomplish many improvements, for Riley's 
 proclamation of June 4, 1849, provided that the officers elected 
 in August should serve only until the close of that year. When 
 the next election took place, January 8, 1850, the Mexican system 
 was still in force ; the first and second alcaldes were returned to 
 office, five members of the mjuntamviento were re-elected and 
 seven new members chosen.^ 
 
 On April 15, 1850, San Francisco was incorporated by act 
 of the legislature,^ and on May first the citizens approved the 
 charter and elected the officers for which it called. Alcalde 
 Geary was chosen mayor, and Frank Tilford, a member of the 
 last ayuntamiento, was made recorder.* All other positions were 
 
 1 G. E. Schenck, later a member of the Committee of Vigilance, said that 
 from November, 1849, to February, 1850, everything seemed to be quiet in 
 San Francisco, there was little robbery, and both life and property were safe, 
 although personal quarrels between gamblers and their ilk were not uncom- 
 mon. He recollected that a safe containing some $25,000 or $30,000 stood 
 unmolested outside an office on Clay street, near Montgomery (Statement 
 on the Vigilance Committee, 1877, pp. 22, 48, MS in the Bancroft Library). 
 See also Johnson, California and Oregon; or Sights in the Gold Region, 215. 
 
 2 See Annals, 265-266. Great confusion attended the election. 
 
 3 California, Statutes, 1850, chap. 98, p. 223. 
 
 4 The recorder of a city had jurisdiction over violations of the city 
 ordinances, and exercised other powers similar to those of a justice of the 
 peace (California, Statutes, 1850, chap. 98, p. 225, sees. 11, 12). 
 
164 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 filled by new men.^ Three city elections in the space of ten 
 months had obliterated the reform movement initiated at the 
 time of the Hounds excitement. The rapid development of 
 party and personal issues made the campaigns increasingly 
 strenuous, and it was not possible for merchants whose business 
 demanded the most alert attention to devote themselves so con- 
 tinuously to city politics. 
 
 The men who were elected had unusual difficulties to face. 
 San Francisco not only changed its officers with unprecedented 
 frequency but during the period from December, 1849, to Sep- 
 tember, 1850, the city suffered four devastating fires, each of 
 which swept away block after block from the center of the town 
 and necessitated emergency measures of considerable magnitude.^ 
 Heavy expenses were also incurred in improving streets and 
 wharves, in acquiring public offices, and in commencing the 
 erection of a county jail. Unfortunately, in all these depart- 
 ments city funds were spent lavishly and unwisely, while the 
 official salaries were placed at an exorbitant figure. 
 
 The citizens were not indifferent to this mismanagement. 
 They held large indignation meetings and adopted resolutions 
 instructing the councilmen to revise their financial policy or to 
 retire from office in compliance with the ^'sovereign will" of 
 the people of the city. The fire of June 14, 1850, interrupted 
 the work of a committee that had been charged with the delivery 
 
 5 See Annals, 273. The follo-vving future members of the Committee of 
 Vigilance were elected : Charles Minturn, William Sharon, Robert B. Hamp- 
 ton, Francis C. Bennett, John P. Haff. John Middleton was subsequently 
 elected to fill a vacancy. 
 
 6 The successive fires were described, as follows, in the Annals, 241, 275, 
 277, 290, 598-613. First, Dec, 24, 1849. Destroyed nearly all the buildings 
 on the east side of the Plaza, and the south side of Washington Street, 
 between Montgomery and Kearny. Damage over $1,000,000. Second, 
 May 4, 1850. Destroyed about three blocks, between Montgomery and 
 Dupont, Clay and Jackson streets. Damage nearly $4,000,000. Supposed 
 to be incendiary. Third, June 14, 1850. Burned the whole space between 
 Clay and California streets to the water's edge. Damage, nearly $5,000,000. 
 Fourth, Sept. 17, 1850. Swept the district between Dupont, Montgomery, 
 Washington and Pacific streets. Damage about $300,000. 
 
The Prelude to the Committee of Vigilance 165 
 
 of the resolutions, but the obnoxious salaries were ultimately 
 reduced."^ In spite of this the indebtedness of the city increased 
 rapidly. Payments of accounts were made in scrip, which 
 greatly depreciated in value and became a prolific source of 
 scandal owing to the manipulation of speculators and of un- 
 scrupulous officials.^ 
 
 San Francisco by this time had spread far beyond the limits 
 of the little town over which the Stars and Stripes were raised 
 in 1846. The old Plaza, where that ceremony took place, was 
 thenceforth officially known as Portsmouth Square, though the 
 Spanish name still lingered in common use. All the early build- 
 ings about it had been burned, with the exception of the "Old 
 Adobe" on the northwest corner, which had formerly been used 
 for public purposes and was subsequently rented for private 
 business.^ This landmark of the past was elbowed by the frame 
 structures of the hour: the postoffice, the city hall improvised 
 from the old Graham House, and a host of saloons and gambling 
 resorts, of which the El Dorado, on the corner of Kearny and 
 Washington streets, was the most gaudy and notorious. In front 
 of the Adobe rose a flagstaff, one hundred and eleven feet high, 
 a gift from the people of Portland, Oregon.^^ The unkempt 
 and dusty space about it served as a rallying point for the mass 
 meetings which for many years were a feature of the city. 
 
 North, east, and south of the Plaza ran the narrow streets 
 of the business section, rescued from engulfing mud by wooden 
 
 7 See Annals, 278-281; Moses, Establishment of Munioipal Government, 
 61-71; Bancroft, California, VI, 215-220; Hittell, California, III, 367-369. 
 
 8 By March, 1851, the liabilities of the city were $1,099,577.56, and on 
 May 1, the legislature passed an act to authorize the funding of the floating 
 debt of the city of San Francisco, and to provide for its payment (Califor- 
 nia, Statutes, 1851, chap. 88, p. 387). See also Hittell, California, III, 
 395-399; Annals, 327-328. 
 
 9 The Old Adobe was built in 1835, and was occupied by the Mexican 
 officials. It was one of the three pre- '49 buildings that survived the fire 
 of May 4, 1851, and it met its end in the fire of June 22. See Alta, 1851, 
 June 1 %; 27 %; Eldredge, San Francisco, II, 529. 
 
 ^0 AiinaJs, 281. The city was charged $100 for digging the hole, and 
 $200 for rigging the halyards (Alta, 1851, March 25 %). 
 
166 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 sidewalks from which the unwary might easily plunge waist 
 deep into treacherous pools. On the eastern water front the 
 streets reached out over the bay in wharves which bore lodging 
 houses and offices, while other buildings, supported on piles, 
 hovered above the unfilled water lots. Reclamation work was in 
 vigorous progress. Behind the protection of the line of sand 
 hills south of Market street, in a quarter known as Happy 
 Valley,^^ a dredger christened the Steam Paddy^^ tore down 
 the dunes. Cars impelled by gravity transported the sand 
 through Battery Street and dumped it to fill the shallows of 
 Yerba Buena Cove. Already the vessel Niantic, moored at San- 
 some and Clay streets, and converted into a large hotel, was well 
 removed from high tide, and the hulks of other ships, deserted 
 in the gold rush, lay forgotten beneath the new ground.^^ Still 
 others, moored near shore, served as store ships for the receipt 
 of merchandise, or made more comfortable homes than could be 
 found on land. 
 
 Telegraph Hill flanked the city on the north, and around 
 its slopes clustered the wretched hovels of Little Chile and 
 Sydney Valley, in which foregathered undesirable aliens from 
 South America and Australia.^* On the other side of Telegraph 
 Hill, towards the Presidio, lay North Beach, with a small wharf 
 and planing mill owned by Williams & Meiggs. About this 
 
 11 Poorer immigrants camped in Happy Valley to avoid exorbitant rents 
 nearer the Plaza. Poverty, dirt, and dissipation rendered the place the scene 
 of misery and disease. See Ryan, Personal Adventures, II, 270-275. 
 
 12 See Borthwick, Three Years, 80. The editor of the Alia, 1851, June 
 10 %, suggested that a medal be awarded this incorruptible assistant in 
 civic improvement. In spite of its personal name it was solemnly assured 
 by a jealous Irishman: *'If you can do the work of a hundred men, you 
 can't vote! " (J. E. Garniss, i:arly Days of San Francisco, 1877, p. 30, MS 
 in the Bancroft Library). 
 
 13 See Eldredge, San Francisco, II, 578-580. Relics of such built-in 
 vessels are still unearthed beneath the streets of the city. 
 
 1* The Alta described the foreign quarters, 1851, June 29 %. The article 
 did not tally exactly with the map in Fopular Tribunals, I, which served 
 as a guide for the map in the Committee of Vigilance Papers, III. 
 
The Prelude to the Committee of Vigilance 167 
 
 point was another settlement of rough and dangerous charac- 
 ters.^^ South of Market street rose Rincon Hill, soon to become 
 the first fashionable residence district ; starting from Market and 
 Second streets, the Plank Road wound out to the Mission Dolores, 
 affording the one comfortable driveway in the whole vicinity.^^ 
 The population at this time was about 23,000,^^ gathered 
 from all the ends of the earth.^^ To this number must be added 
 a constant swarm of non-residents, rushing from their ships to 
 the mines, and then back again to take passage to other ports. 
 The streets were filled with hurrying men; with laborers who 
 piled freight upon sidewalks and vacant lots; with auctioneers 
 who sold it on the instant; and with purchasers who removed 
 it before nightfall. Reckless drivers dashed through the streets, 
 pack animals struggled and fell under heavy loads, horsemen 
 with a touch of Mexican color rode splendidly through the busy 
 crowd, Chinamen chattered and shuffled along the wooden walks, 
 while every shade of black and brown humanity known to the 
 tropic sun drifted in and out of the barrooms and worked along 
 the wharves. Far into the night lights from auction houses, 
 saloons, and gambling halls streamed into the murk of drifting 
 
 15 The mill owners were Edwards C. Williams and John G. Meiggs. The 
 small wharf was later replaced by a larger one, projected by Meiggs' brother, 
 Henry, a spectacular financier who became a fugitive from his commercial 
 obligations. 
 
 16 See Ammls, 296-298; J. S. Hittell, San Franoisco, 151-153. 
 
 17 The statistics relative to the growth of San Francisco are approxi- 
 mate, but the following references may be of interest. 
 
 1846, midsummer, over 200, Annals, 173. 
 
 1847, June, 459. Census taken by Lieutenant Edward Gilbert, J. S. 
 Hittell, San Francisco, 117. 
 
 1848, March, 812. School census, California Star, 1848, March 18. 
 See also Annals, 174. 
 
 1849, Feb., about 2000, Ammls, 219. 
 
 July, about 5000, constantly changing. Annals, 226. 
 
 1850, May, about 40,000, Johnson, Sights in the Gold Region, 210. 
 Over 36,000 arrived by sea in 1850, one half from foreign ports, 
 Annals, 300. 
 
 1851, Jan., 23,000, Alta, 1851, Feb. 7 %. 
 
 18 A cemetery on Eussian Hill showed inscriptions in thirteen languages 
 (Herald, 1852, Dec. 12 %). 
 
168 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 fog; otherwise the city lay in darkness/^ and evildoers crept 
 unnoticed in the shadows or slipped noiselessly out over the 
 Bay, where scarcely a beacon gleamed to direct or safeguard the 
 shipping from a hundred ports. 
 
 Among the many descriptions of San Francisco, the picture 
 presented by Edouard Auger, though little known today, de- 
 serves wider recognition. He spoke of it as :^^ 
 
 Cette merveilleuse cite, bazar de toutes les nations du globe, creation 
 spontanee comme une de ces oeuvres fantastiques des Mille et une Nuites 
 * * * * ou les mineurs et les aventuriers de toutes sortes apportent sans cesse 
 leur or, leurs passions, leur activite febrile et desordonnee. San-Francisco 
 est la ville aux transformations brutales, aux changements de decors a 
 vue; hier cite florissante, aujourd'hui monceau de cendres. Eepassez dans 
 un mois, vous retrouverez a la meme place une autre ville avec ses rues 
 bien alignees, ses magasins regorgeant de marchandises, ses temples, ses 
 theatres, ses cafes, et une population affairee qui parle de tout, excepte 
 d'une catastrophe qui a deja un mois de date. 
 
 In 1851 San Francisco had about half a dozen churches,^ ^ 
 and eight daily newspapers ;^^ among the latter, the San Fran- 
 cisco Herald and the Alta California were the most important, 
 with the Evening Picayune and the California Courier in the 
 second rank. 
 
 There was, as yet, no public fire department. Volunteer 
 companies had been formed after the first great fires, and had 
 
 19 The first street lights were installed by J. B. M. Crooks (Vigilante of 
 1851). The fire of May, 1851, destroyed them, and they were not replaced 
 for some time (Herald, 1851, Oct. 16 %; Hittell, Calif ornia, III, 424; 
 Annals, 518). 
 
 20 Auger, Voyage en Calif ornie, 98, 173. For interesting descriptions of 
 San Francisco at this period, see especially Annals, 243-321; T. A. Barry 
 and A. B. Patten, Men and Memories of San Franoisoo in the * ' Spring of 
 '50," 1873; Borthwick, Three Years, 43-93; Bancroft, California, VI, 164- 
 220; Holinski, La Calif ornie, 101-132; C. P. Kimball, Directory, Sept., 
 1850; J. M. Parker, Directory, 1852. Excellent pictures can be found in 
 J. P. Young, San Franoisoo, 1912; C. B. Turrill, ''Life in San Francisco, 
 1856," Overland Monthly, ser. 2, LXVIII (1916), 495-502. 
 
 ^^Eimhairs Directory, 1850, p. 127. 
 
 22 Six dailies Avere mentioned in Kimball's Directory, 1850, pp. 127-128; 
 eight in the Alta, 1851, Jan. 23 %. 
 
The Prelude to the Committee of Vigilance 169 
 
 been organized into serviceable cooperation by a city ordinance 
 of July 1, 1850. The Empire Engine Company, one of the most 
 active, was led by David C. Broderick, who used his experience 
 in similar institutions in New York to mold the San Francisco 
 company into a useful political tool. The California Engine 
 Company, manned by residents of Happy Valley, had a house 
 on the corner of Market and Bush streets ; on the ground beside 
 it stood a bell which was struck by hand in order to sound an 
 alarm of fire. The Monumental Company, most famous of them 
 all, was housed on Brenham place, facing the Plaza. From its 
 belfry sounded a clear-toned bell which roused the citizens in 
 many thrilling hours of conflagration and civic excitement.^^ 
 There were three more engine companies, the Protection, the 
 Howard, and the Eureka, and tw^o hook and ladder companies. 
 All of them were influential in the social and political life of the 
 city. The members drew no salaries, but in recognition of their 
 services were exempt from jury duty. This privilege withdrew 
 several hundred of the best men in San Francisco from that 
 unwelcome but important attendance on the courts.^* 
 
 To cope with all the criminal problems of the city, there was 
 a force of about seventy-five policemen.-" From statements made 
 before the Committee of Vigilance it is evident that some among 
 them were confederates of thieves.^^ The city station house was 
 a disgraceful cellar, insecure and filthy. Although large funds 
 had been expended on the preliminary work of constructing an 
 adequate county jail, they had been so misapplied that the 
 
 23 The bells of the California and Monumental companies were used by 
 the Committee of Vigilance. (See infra, p. 206.) 
 
 24 See California, Statutes, 1851, chap. 90, p. 401 ; Hittell, General Laws, 
 sees. 3102-3124. For an account of the fire companies, see Annals, 614-625; ^ 
 Borthwiek, Three Years, 87-90; Frignet, La Calif ornie, 156-159; H. C. 
 Pendleton, publisher, The Exempt Firemen of San Francisco, 190(X 
 
 25 Bancroft, California, VI, 214 note 68; Kimball's Directory, 1850, pp. 
 123-124. 
 
 26 See Papers, Index under ' ' San Francisco — Police. ' ' 
 
170 Yigilayice Committee of 1851 
 
 building was far from complete.-^ During this period criminal 
 conditions grew steadily worse. The rogues who were driven 
 out of the mining camps by the fear of lynch law showed an 
 increasing tendency to concentrate in San Francisco. Crowded 
 lodging houses and vicious resorts of the city offered shelter, 
 without inconvenient curiosity, and any one might live at will 
 beneath the scrub oaks and underbrush of the outlying sand 
 hills. The ever shifting stream of transient sojourners diverted 
 attention from particular individuals, and the few guardians of 
 public safety had no way of identifying old offenders, whether 
 they came from the other side of the Bay of San Francisco or 
 the other side of the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 San Francisco citizens had asserted themselves once, in the 
 affair of the Hounds. Since that occasion they had left the 
 punishment of criminals in the hands of the authorities,^^ al- 
 though various mass meetings had voiced popular resentment at 
 civic mismanagement, and had occasionally been heeded for the 
 moment by those in authority. The expectation of improvement 
 which had influenced men to adjust themselves to the incon- 
 veniences of the military-civil regime, now led them to hope 
 that the state government would soon accomplish the establish- 
 ment of social order. In fact, the toleration of the criminal 
 situation of 1850 and 1851 was due in part to a patient accept- 
 ance of transitional conditions, and not wholly to a selfish in- 
 difference and a blunted civic conscience. 
 
 Nevertheless there was a limit to toleration, and that limit 
 was reached on the night of February 19, 1851, when Mr. C. J. 
 Jansen, a prominent merchant, was assaulted in his store and 
 left for dead, while two men robbed his safe and escaped with 
 nearly two thousand dollars.-^ The crime, of itself, was no more 
 
 2r See infra, p. 247. 
 
 ^^ Annals, 314. 
 
 29 Full accounts were given in the papers of the day; Annals, 314-320; 
 Popular Tribunals, I, 179-200; Eoyce, California, 407-417. The last is 
 especially good. 
 
The Prelude to the Committee of Vigilance 171 
 
 heinous than many that had passed unnoticed, but the victim 
 was so well known and so popular that his misfortune roused 
 unusual indignation. Within the next twenty-four hours the 
 police arrested an Australian who was supposed to be James 
 Stuart, a Sydney convict responsible for many robberies in Cali- 
 fornia and for the cold-blooded murder of Charles Moore, near 
 Foster's Bar, in Yuba County. ^^'^ Certain clues led to the sus- 
 picion that he was also guilty of the attack on Jansen, and he 
 was immediately charged with that crime, although he protested 
 his innocence most vehemently, and maintained that he was not 
 Stuart at all, but a respectable British subject, honestly bearing 
 the name of Thomas Berdue. Another Australian, Kobert Win- 
 dred, was arrested as an accomplice in the recent raid, and the 
 general excitement rose to fever heat when the rumor became 
 current that the desperado Stuart was actually in custody, while 
 his latest victim hovered between life and death. 
 
 Stuart was, in truth, the murderer of Moore, the thief of 
 common report, and the assailant of Jansen. Berdue 's only 
 fault was a strange resemblance to the notorious criminal, a 
 resemblance which almost caused his death at the hands of a 
 San Francisco mob, and imperiled his life and liberty in three 
 successive trials for the crimes committed by another man. 
 
 Records of the evidence given at the different trials show that 
 Stuart and Berdue were remarkably alike in height, figure, and 
 complexion, in the color of their eyes and hair, in the English 
 intonation of their voices, and in certain tattoo marks. Both of 
 them had a stiff middle finger on the right hand and a scar on 
 the right cheek.^^ At one time or another men who had worked 
 
 30 See Herald, 1851, Feb. 21 %; 22 %; and infra, p. 253. 
 
 31 See Popular Tribunals, I, 194-196; Alta, 1851, Feb. 24; History of 
 Yuba County, 1879, p. 125. Members of the Vigilance Committee had an 
 opportunity to compare the two men, and Schenek said : ' ' Berdue . . . was a 
 man about five feet and 71/2 inches in height, with full oval face, dark 
 brown or auburn hair, a w^ell built and good proportioned man, with rather 
 a fair complexion, and I think grey or blue eyes. Stuart was a man full 
 
172 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 with Stuart, officers who had guarded him while under arrest, 
 and judges who had tried him identified Berdue as the escaped 
 murderer; other witnesses took the opposite position and were 
 equally certain that Berdue was not responsible for the crimes 
 of James Stuart, whatever share he might have taken in the 
 attack on Jansen. It was not strange that the wounded man, 
 himself, thought he recognized Berdue when the latter was taken 
 to his bedside. When that fact was announced on the street 
 an angry crowd tried to wrest the supposed Stuart from the 
 police as the prisoners were being returned to the station house. 
 When they were brought into court both men tried to establish 
 an alibi. This device was the common resort of criminals, and 
 their witnesses made a very unfavorable impression. The public 
 irritation increased during the hearing and when the court ad- 
 journed on Saturday afternoon there was another attempt to 
 seize the suspects and to hang them at once. With the help of 
 the Washington Guards, who had been called out by the authori- 
 ties, the crowd was again beaten off, and the prisoners lodged 
 in a place of safety; but by evening several thousand people 
 surrounded the city hall, some bent on violence, some anxious to 
 prevent ill-advised action of any kind. 
 
 Popular restlessness was further increased by the radical 
 expressions of the leading newspapers, and by the circulation 
 of a handbill couched in the most inflammatory terms.^^ After 
 
 five feet 9 or Q^/^ inches high, with sharp features, narrow chin, darker com- 
 plexion than Berdue, and very dark brown or black hair, much darker than 
 Berdue 's, with longer arms, a slighter built man. There was really no 
 strong resemblance between the two men, and there was no such distinguish- 
 ing feature as the loss of a finger on the hand of each, as was mentioned 
 in the public prints about six years ago" (MS Statement, 30-31). G. W. 
 Eyckman confirmed this view {Statement, 8, MS in the Bancroft Library), 
 but A. M. Comstock found them remarkably alike (MS Vigilance Commit- 
 tees — Miscellany, 39). It was rumored that Berdue was an ex-convict 
 {Papers, 506). 
 
 32 The handbill is printed infra, p. 453. On Feb. 21, the editor of the 
 Alta severely criticized the failure of justice in the courts, and wrote: 
 ''We deprecate Lynch Law, but the outraged public will appeal to that 
 soon unless some far more efficient measures be adopted in other quarters." 
 Similar sentiments were repeated on Feb. 23. 
 
The Prelude to the Committee of Vigilance 173 
 
 listening to a number of speeches the assembly voted to appoint 
 a committee to guard the prisoners during the night, and to 
 consult with the authorities concerning the course to be pursued. 
 Some of the actors in the Hounds ' trial reappeared : W. D. M. 
 Howard was chairman, Samuel Brannan took a leading part, 
 and A. J. Ellis, H. F. Teschemacher, and T. H. Green were 
 again chosen to represent the people.^^ t^^iq committee held a 
 long and stormy meeting, and their debates can still be read in 
 the papers of February 23 and 24. A minority of four, led 
 by Brannan, wished to recommend immediate execution, but the 
 majority desired more deliberate action. In the end it was found 
 impossible to make any unanimous report.^* 
 
 On Sunday a still larger crowd collected in the Plaza, where 
 both parties of the committee presented their views,^^ while the 
 mayor and other officials appeared on the balcony of the city 
 hall and urged the citizens to disperse, promising that the pris- 
 oners should be tried without delay and promptly punished if 
 their guilt were established. 
 
 The report in the Alia California stated that the five or six 
 thousand persons present were as orderly and quiet as so large 
 a body could be, but it is evident from the recollections of 
 
 33 The committeemen were : W. D. M. Howard, Samuel Brannan, A J 
 Elhs, H. F. Teschemacher, W. H. Jones, Ralph Dorr, E. A. King, J B 
 Huie, T. H. Green, Benjamin Ray, A. H. Sibley, J. L. Folsom 'f " W* 
 Macondray, Theodore Payne {Alia, 1851, Feb. 23 %)• The first eight 
 became members of the Committee of Vigilance. 
 
 34'^ We are the mayor, and the recorder, the hang man and the laws'" 
 cried Brannan, ' ' The laAv and the courts never yet hung a man in Califor- 
 nia! " {Alta, 1851, Feb. 23 %). 
 
 35 The following report of the minority was distributed as a handbill 
 
 and printed in the papers of Feb. 24: ' 
 
 To THE People of San Francisco 
 
 The undersigned, the minority of the committee appointed by 
 
 you, report as follows: That the prisoners, Stuart and Wildred [Win- 
 
 dred] are both deserving of immediate punishment, as there is no 
 
 question of their guiltiness of crime. The safety of life and property 
 
 as well as the name and credit of the city, demand prompt action on 
 
 the part of the people. 
 
 [Signed] Samuel Brannan, Wm. H. Jones, E. A Kin? 
 J. B. Huie. ^' 
 
174 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 spectators that the spirit of the crowd was one of intense excite- 
 ment. There was a universal distrust of promises of reform, 
 and a universal determination that this crime, at least, should 
 be avenged ; many were armed, and the issue of the day waited 
 upon the appearance of some one able to dominate and unite 
 the opposing elements. Such a leader was recognized when 
 William T. Coleman, a man still under thirty years of age, 
 pushed his way through the crowded balcony of the city hall, 
 leaned far out over the railing, caught the attention of the 
 impatient thousands with a dramatic arraignment of the intoler- 
 able miscarriage of justice in the city courts, and then proposed 
 the formation of a peoples' court, which should give the pris- 
 oners a fair trial without an instant 's delay, and either discharge 
 or hang them before sunset.^*' A shout of approval greeted his 
 suggestion and a unanimous vote carried the motion that organ- 
 ization should immediately be effected. This was done. Judge, 
 jury, and counsel were selected and they spent the afternoon 
 and evening listening to evidence. The trial was held in the 
 recorder's room in the city hall, but from motives of prudence 
 the prisoners were not allowed to attend. 
 
 G. E. Schenck, who later became a member of the Committee 
 of Vigilance, was one of the jury, and spoke of the trial as 
 follows :^^ 
 
 The result of the trial was, from the testimony, that these men were 
 decided to be guilty^ and the verdict was about to be brought in accord- 
 ingly, when I suggested that they should have a fair trial by the author- 
 ities, as we had not seen the prisoners, they not being before us, and as 
 
 36 For a biographical note on Mr. Coleman see infra, p. 190. The papers 
 stated that he was the head of the committee, but they ignored the exact 
 moment when he suggested organization. The details given in the text are 
 from his MS Statement in the Bancroft Library. His recollections tallied 
 so well with the printed reports that an extract is given, infra, p. 453. See 
 also his "San Francisco Vigilance Committees," Century, XLIII (1891), 
 134-135. 
 
 37 MS Stateme7it 25-26. Hall McAllister was also in substantial agree- 
 ment with Coleman, Schenck, and the narrative presented by Koyce. See MS 
 Vigilance Committees — Miscellany, 16-17. 
 
The Prelude to the Committee of Vigilance 175 
 
 Mr. Jansen had not fully identified them, there was room for doubt. Two 
 others coincided with me in regard to it, and we agreed to bring a verdict 
 that we could not agree; there were nine for conviction, and three had 
 doubts. This was about nine o'clock at night. On our coming into the 
 Court Eoom and announcing this fact, the outside crowd broke in the 
 windows, and rushed in at the doors, and broke up the railing round the 
 bar, and were about to make an attack on the jurors. The jury drew 
 their revolvers, and rushed back into the jury room until the excitement 
 subsided. The jury was then discharged. It was one o'clock before we 
 got away. In the meantime, Mr. Wm. T. Coleman was haranguing the 
 crowd, endeavoring to persuade them to disperse, while Brannan was 
 urging them on, and was for hanging the prisoners anyway. 
 
 The disapproval of the waiting crowd was even more yiolent 
 than Sehenck depicted. During the evening several attempts 
 had been made to seize the prisoners, but the police, assisted 
 by some two hundred and fifty volunteers, had repulsed the 
 attacks. When the disagreement was announced a rush was 
 made for the jurymen, and there were loud cries of "Hang 
 them, too!" An indignation meeting was held in the street and 
 the excitement did not subside until after midnight, when it 
 was voted to adjourn indefinitely, and the watchers quietly 
 dispersed. 
 
 Windred and Berdue were tried about the middle of March 
 and both were convicted.^^ Windred was given a ten-year sen- 
 tence, but he quickly escaped.^^ Berdue, under a sentence of 
 fourteen years, was sent to Marysville to stand trial for the 
 murder of Moore. His case came up in June, and for the third 
 time the prisoner made a fruitless effort to establish his inno- 
 cence in spite of the fatal resemblance to his ill-reputed country- 
 man. Judge B. F. Washington, who had tried Stuart in Sacra- 
 mento, positively identified the accused as the fugitive, and some 
 fifty other witnesses agreed with him. Judge 0. P. Stidger, 
 who had tried Stuart for robbery at Marysville, was equally 
 definite on the other side. Several witnesses supported Judge 
 
 38 See the court reports in the Alia and the Herald, 1851, March 15-21. 
 
 39 See mfra, p. 311. 
 
176 Vigilance Coynmittee of 1851 
 
 Stidger, but in spite of their evidence Berdue was pronounced 
 guilty on July 4. By this time his funds were entirely exhausted, 
 and his hopeless state of mind is clearly shown by a pathetic 
 letter which he wrote to a friend, and which was later copied for 
 the files of the Committee of Vigilance.^^ There was, indeed, 
 little chance of a reprieve, but a later chapter will show how Fate, 
 which had played him such sorry tricks in the past, came to his 
 rescue with incredible and dramatic caprice.^^ 
 
 In an effort to improve civic affairs the residents of San Fran- 
 cisco procured from the second session of the legislature a new 
 charter that corrected some of the defects in the first.*^ This 
 necessitated a new election for local officers, which took place 
 in April. Nearly six thousand votes were cast, and the major- 
 ities given to the Whig candidates made a sweeping change in 
 the city administration.^^ The editor of the Alta California 
 interpreted this as a sign that the people were so tired of the 
 corruption of the previous officials that they sought new men in 
 the hope of securing reform. ''They will be watched," he as- 
 serted, "and they will be held to a strict accountability for the 
 manner in which they shall exercise the powers vested in them. 
 . . . They will be watched by a vigilant party. They must be 
 watched by a vigilant people."** These were the men who 
 served through the months of the activity of the Committee of 
 Vigilance. The names of some of them are frequently men- 
 tioned in the archives of the society. Charles J. Brenham was 
 
 40 See letter to John Gofe, Papers, 222-223. 
 
 41 See infra, pp. 257, 303. 
 
 42 California, Statutes, 1851, chap. 84, p. 357. The first months of 
 municipal experiments in California had resulted in great waste of public 
 funds in other places besides San Francisco, and during the second legis- 
 lature several cities secured new charters. 
 
 43 The Whig vote was about 3162, the Democrat, 2748, Alta, 1851, April 
 30%. 
 
 44 Alta, 1851, April 30 %. 
 
The Prelude to the Committee of Vigilance 177 
 
 chosen mayor, R. H. Waller, recorder, Frank M. Pixley, city 
 attorney, and Robert G. Crozier, marshal.*^ 
 
 The former county judge, R. M. Morrison, having resigned 
 in April, the governor appointed Alexander Campbell to the 
 vacant position.*^ He was assisted in the Court of Sessions by 
 Associate Justices Edward McGowan and H. S. Brown, who 
 held over from the county election of 1850. Campbell's judicial 
 integrity was never questioned. Judge Brown seems to have 
 made no particular impression, either for good or evil,*^ but 
 '^Ned" McGowan, friend of criminals and ward heelers, Avas an 
 example of the worst sort of California magistrate. The Vigi- 
 lance Committee of 1851 refrained from prosecuting him; the 
 Committee of 1856 made strenuous though unsuccessful efforts 
 to take him into custody.^^ 
 
 Another incumbent who remained in office was Judge Levi 
 Parsons, who had been elected to the District Court by the first 
 legislature. Parsons had no sympathy with efforts at reform, 
 and he became so irritated with the constant agitation carried 
 on by the press that he charged the grand jury to take measures 
 against editors whose libelous publications might incite to acts 
 of violence. At the same time he warned the jury not to return 
 indictments against criminals except on evidence strong enough 
 to insure conviction before a trial jury, an admonition which 
 evoked the strongest censure from the San Francisco papers. 
 The Herald was particularly emphatic, and remarked : ' ' Thus 
 the district court instructs the grand jury to aid the escape of 
 criminals." This expression led Judge Parsons to cause the 
 arrest of William Walker, the editor in charge, to try him for 
 contempt, to fine him $500, and to imprison him when payment 
 
 45 See Annals, 326. 
 
 ^G Herald, 1851, May 17 %. 
 
 47 See note on his resignation, infra, p. 303. 
 
 48 See Papers, 332, 336, 349, also infra, p. 402. 
 
178 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 was refused.*^ An indignation meeting was promptly held on 
 the Plaza. Samuel Brannan presided and W. T. Coleman was 
 one of the vice-presidents. Resolutions were passed condemning 
 Judge Parsons' action, and a committee was appointed to pro- 
 cure his impeachment before the state legislature. Walker's case 
 was immediately carried to the Superior Court on a writ of 
 habeas corpus, and the prisoner was discharged. The effort to 
 impeach Parsons was given up on the ground of insufficient 
 evidence. ^^ 
 
 While discussing the personnel of the San Francisco bench 
 in 1851, it is relevant to notice a serious handicap laid upon 
 the lower court. The statutes of 1850 charged the county at- 
 torney with the duty of conducting criminal prosecutions before 
 justices' courts, as well as in the County Court.^^ That office 
 was abolished in 1851, and the duties of the county attorney 
 were transferred to the district attorney, who was charged with 
 conducting prosecutions before lower magistrates when he was 
 "not in attendance upon the District Court or Court of Ses- 
 sions. "°- This change imposed so many duties upon the district 
 attorney of San Francisco that he entirely neglected any at- 
 tendance on the recorder's court, which now exercised the larger 
 powers given to lower magistrates by the revised statutes of 
 1851. The city recorder, obliged to act both as prosecuting at- 
 torney and as judge, petitioned in vain for a special prosecuting 
 officer, since the common council had no power to create such 
 an office.^^ This condition placed criminals who employed able 
 lawyers in a position of great advantage. Although repeated 
 complaint was made against it,^^ an appointment noted in the 
 
 49 See Annals, 322-324; Herald, 1851, March 4; 10; 15. 
 
 50 First California Eeports (annotated eel.), 539-555. 
 
 51 California, Statutes, 1850, chap. 39, p. 112, sec. 5. 
 
 52 California, Statutes, 1851, chap. 21, p. 188, sec. 6. 
 
 53 Alta, 1851, Nov. 27 %. 
 
 54 See Herald, 1852, March 22 %. The district attorney sometimes 
 appeared, but Avas usually too busy. 
 
The Prelude to the Committee of Vigilance 179 
 
 Alta California of April 5, 1856, seems to be the first special 
 assignment of a prosecuting attorney to the lowest court. ^^ 
 
 On May 4, 1851, San Francisco was devastated by a fifth 
 great fire, which consumed more than three-quarters of the city 
 and entailed a loss of several lives and of ten or twelve million 
 dollars.^® This was by far the worst calamity that had yet over- 
 taken the community. It occurred on the anniversary of the 
 fire of May 4, 1850, and in the excited public imagination it 
 was generally believed that both were the work of incendiaries — 
 a belief strengthened by the discovery of about $10,000 worth of 
 booty in houses occupied by the Sydney immigrants.^" 
 
 During the next four weeks San Francisco again justified 
 the symbol of the phoenix upon the city seal. Before the ruins 
 had cooled rebuilding was under way. Within ten days nearly 
 three hundred and fifty new structures were completed and 
 occupied. ^^ Men worked with indomitable energy to restore 
 what had been destroyed, and with growing determination to 
 protect the fruit of their toil from the outlaws whose plots had 
 so often resulted in arson and death. The belief in the existence 
 of a gang determined to burn the city for the purpose of plunder 
 created an atmosphere of extreme nervous tension that especially 
 affected the citizens of large financial interests. The pioneer 
 merchants of San Francisco were cool of head and quick of 
 hand, not afraid to carry their lives in their own keeping, 
 although disinclined to seek trouble in the resorts of crime and 
 violence. But single-handed courage was powerless to save either 
 
 55 A prosecuting attorney for the mayor 's court had then been appointed. 
 
 56 See Annals, 329-333, 604-610; Bancroft, California, VI, 204-206; 
 Popular Tribunals, I, 74. Interesting recollections of the catastrophe ^vere 
 given by Schenk, MS Statement, 44-45 ; and by Alfred Wheeler, ' ' Oration, ' ' 
 in Society of California Pioneers, Thirty-seoond Anniversary (1882), 19-23. 
 
 57 The fire was attributed to accident rather than to arson in Parker's 
 Directory, 1852, p. 19. 
 
 ^^ Herald, 1851, May 15 %. The slogan of the city was said to be: ''Go 
 ahead. Young California! Who, the hell, cares for a fire!" (Gerstacker, 
 Gold ein Calif orniscJies Lehensbild, p. 111). 
 
180 Vigil^anee Committee of 1851 
 
 life or fortune from the destruction of these recurrent fires, and 
 the public officials were either unable or unwilling to ferret out 
 the incendiaries. 
 
 On May 17 a movement was started to supplement the inade- 
 quate police force by organizing a volunteer night patrol.^^ . Resi- 
 dents of the Fifth and Seventh wards met at the California 
 Engine House and formed an association which was duplicated, 
 later, in the Third ward. The effort received not only the ap- 
 proval of the press but the sanction of the authorities. The 
 patrol was authorized by a city ordinance, the mayor swore the 
 volunteer police into office, and the city marshal assumed the 
 direction of their work.^° Speaking of this organization Schenck 
 said :^^ 
 
 Capt. F. W. Macondray was at the head of it, and there were about 
 a hundred members. The members were assigned to different districts, 
 and were on duty about eight hours. I was out four times per month in 
 this way. This was a regular police organization, with proper officers, 
 established by ourselves for our protection, and the members were ex- 
 pected to and did personally perform the duties required and not delegate 
 them to any one else. This may be said to be the origin of the Vigilance 
 Committee of 1851. The attack on Jansen and other outrages which had 
 become so numerous as to excite the indignation of the people, together 
 with the laxity of the laws and the difficulty of keeping witnesses here 
 to give their evidence in cases brought to trial, led to the organization 
 of this patrol, and ultimately to the formation of the Committee of 
 Vigilance, which took place about the tenth of June, 1851. About a 
 dozen members of the patrol casually met in the neighborhood of Macon- 
 dray 's building, about the middle of the day, and after some discussion, 
 resolved themselves into a Committee of Vigilance, and procured Bran- 
 nan 's building to hold meetings in. 
 
 The last clause in Schenck 's statement is not exactly substan- 
 tiated by other accounts, but it indicates one of the influences 
 which led to the formation of the Committee of Vigilance. Lists 
 
 ^^AUa, 1851, May 19 %; 20 %; 21 %; 28 %. 
 
 60 See ordinance of May 26, 1851 {ManamX of San Francisco, 1852, p. 49). 
 Bancroft placed the organization of the patrol in February (Popular 
 Tribunals, I, 205). 
 
 61 Schenck, MS Statement, 34-35. 
 
The Prelude to the Committee of Vigilance 181 
 
 of the officers of the patrol were printed in the Herald. Of the 
 thirty-four named, fourteen became members of the Committee, 
 although they were not conspicuous in starting the movement.^- 
 Occasional paragraphs in the papers suggested a decrease of 
 violence after the demonstration of popular temper over the 
 Jansen affair, and particularly after the formation of the vol- 
 unteer patrol. Nevertheless, a long list of crimes can be com- 
 piled from the news items, and ^the more terrifying menace of 
 arson oppressed the popular imagination with increasing appre- 
 hension.®^ 
 
 The cry of ' ' Fire ! ' ' startled the town again on the night of 
 the second of June. It proved to be but a small blaze, easily 
 extinguished before it spread beyond a single room in a lodging 
 house on Long Wharf. A smouldering heap of oil-soaked bed- 
 ding seemed to incriminate the occupant, Benjamin Lewis, and 
 he was arrested not far from the building and arraigned before 
 the recorder. While the hearing was in progress hundreds of 
 spectators thronged the court room and the street outside and 
 
 e2 Eerald, 1851, June 10 •%. In view of Schenck's statement it is inter- 
 esting to record the names of future Vigilantes who served as ofiieers of 
 patrols, and to note their membership number in the Committee. 
 
 Third ward Fifth and Seventh wards < 
 
 James Murray, No. 345, G. M. Garwood, No. 46, 
 
 J. C. Hasson, No. 229, W. C. Graham, No. 152, 
 
 J. F. Curtis, No. 31, C. L. Case, No. 161, 
 
 J. E. Dall, No. 80, Capt. E. Gorham, No. 3, 
 
 P. Markey, No. 393, R. S. Lammot, No. 49, 
 
 Thomas McCahill, No. 90, Frank Mahony, No. 6, 
 
 W. F. Martin, No. 417, William Browne, No. 23. 
 
 P. W. Van Winkle, No. 554. 
 
 63 An editorial in the Herald of June 4 reported a decided improvement, 
 but the Courier of the next day lamented that there was no apparent 
 decrease in crime. The Herald, July 4 %, gave a summary, showing that 
 from April 30, 1850, to May 23, 1851, some 184 prisoners had been com- 
 mitted for trial before the District Court. Of these 68 had been dis- 
 charged, 21 had escaped, 6 had died, 2 received pardons, and 9 were still 
 in custody. Of the remaining 78, 40 had probably forfeited bail, and the 
 rest were unaccounted for, although over 20 had been convicted and sen- 
 tenced. For crimes of this period, see Popular TribunaU, I, 139, 162, 
 201-204. 
 
182 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 heard with growing excitement evidence that warranted holding 
 the prisoner for trial before a higher court. 
 
 The rush of an engine responding to an alarm of fire nearly 
 precipitated a riot late in the afternoon of the trial. When 
 some one raised the cry that the prisoner's friends were creating 
 a diversion in order to effect a rescue, the crowd began to clamor 
 for immediate execution. Colonel Stevenson, owner of the house 
 Lewis had fired, made a speech in which he urged all law-loving 
 citizens to take into their own hands the administration of justice, 
 since the authorities afforded no protection either for life or for 
 property. Mayor Brenham and others succeeded in restoring 
 order only when the people were convinced that Lewis had been 
 removed from the building and placed in security beyond their 
 reach. The papers of June 4 recounted the affair in detail. 
 Their spirit is indicated by the following extract from an edi- 
 torial in the Herald: 
 
 Although strongly opposed, as must be every lover of fair play, to 
 the summary execution of even such a character as Lewis, without a 
 patient and impartial trial — we yet must declare that we regard the 
 demonstration of yesterday with the highest gratification; and we trust 
 that, if the man be proved beyond a reasonable doubt to have committed 
 the prime, the citizens will supply any deficiency that may exist in the 
 law. We say this, fully alive to the expectation that we shall therefore 
 be accused of advocating Lynch-law. If this man be guilty of setting 
 fire to the house on Long Wharf, and if the law do not adjudge him the 
 penalty of death therefor, we do most unquestionably advocate Lynch- 
 law. 
 
 Lewis was indicted by the grand jury on June 5, but Judge 
 Parsons had the indictment quashed on the ground that the 
 new judiciary act, effective May 1, eliminated May terms for 
 the grand jury and for the District Court. The grand jury 
 which had acted in the case of Lewis had been called on May 26 
 by a substitute. Judge Robinson, during Parsons' temporary 
 absence from the bench. Parsons discharged it as being without 
 
The Prelude to the Committee of Vigilance 183 
 
 standing in the eyes of the law.^* The prisoner was kept in 
 custody to await the July term, when he was indicted, tried, 
 convicted, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment, the heaviest 
 penalty allowed for arson by the statutes in force at the time he 
 committed the crime. ^^ 
 
 Schenck said of the Lewis affair -.^'^ 
 
 This was one of the transactions which led immediately to the organ- 
 ization of the Vigilance Committee out of the volunteer patrol, their 
 motive being to secure the conviction of Lewis. The first watchword of 
 the Committee was ''Lewis." It was afterwards changed, partly owing 
 to the fact that Eube Maloney got into the Committee, and he was not 
 wanted there. 
 
 Schenck 's statement is particularly valuable because it ex- 
 plains the presence among the papers of the Vigilance Committee 
 of a document entitled "The People vs. Benjamin Lewis; Copy 
 of Testimony before the Recorder. "^^ This is somewhat fuller 
 than the reports which appeared in the newspapers, and it is 
 evident that some one who was afterward connected with the 
 Committee was at pains to secure a complete transcript of the 
 record, perhaps in anticipation of the trial before the higher 
 court. The case of Lewis thus occupies the opening pages of 
 the Papers of the Committee, and it happens that a singularly 
 vivid series of San Francisco pictures are given in the crisp, 
 disjointed sentences which were caught by the recorder's clerk 
 while the mob in the noisy street shouted for summary execution. 
 
 The same conditions that existed in San Francisco prevailed 
 in lesser or greater degree in all the interior towns, and were 
 arousing public efforts to combat organized crime. The residents 
 
 &^ Herald, 1851, June 10 %; 12 %. 
 
 ^^ Herald, 1851, July 4 % ; 23 %; 30 %. 
 
 66 Schenck, MS Statement, 51. He said that Lewis escaped, and was 
 later connected Avith the murder of a Dr. Burdell in New York, and was 
 also convicted of a murder in New Jersey. The incident of the watchword 
 is considered, infra, p. 209. 
 
 67 Papers, 4-14. 
 
184 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 of Coloma gathered in mass meeting in the spring to devise some 
 method to ''ferret out and bring to punishment the villains who 
 lurk about Sacramento city and who it seems have lately as- 
 saulted some citizens of Coloma. "*^^ A little later the men of 
 Sacramento made a vigorous protest against the crime that was 
 rampant in their city.®^ Just at the time of the excitement in 
 San Francisco over the case of Lewis the people about Stockton 
 were roused by the depredations of a band of horse thieves. Five 
 of these were finally captured. One of them turned state's evi- 
 dence, and disclosed concerted operations of very wide extent. 
 His confession attracted' much attention, and the papers began 
 to advocate the formation of popular committees for the defense 
 of society. In the San Francisco Herald of June 5 the editor 
 recommended that a vessel should be chartered to deport all the 
 criminals known to the police.'^^ The Stockton Journal went to 
 greater extremes and demanded that the people should appoint 
 a commission and proclaim martial law."^^ 
 
 The idea of a protective association was taking definite shape 
 in many minds. On June 8 the Alt a published a letter which 
 outlined a general plan of organization. The writer proposed 
 that a ''committee of safety" should be established to prevent 
 the landing of convicts from Sydney, and that each ward in 
 San Francisco should have a "committee of vigilance" to hunt 
 down criminals and warn them to keep out of the city.^- This 
 communication was signed by "Justice," and Professor Royce 
 identified the author as R. S. Watson, one of the first members 
 of the Committee of Vigilance.'^^ The California Co^crier of 
 
 68 Alfa, 1851, April 1 %. 
 
 69 Alta, 1851, April 16 %. 
 
 70 See infra, p. 454. 
 
 71 See infra, p. 455. 
 
 72 See infra, p. 456. 
 
 73 Eoyee, California, 418. 
 
The Prelude to the Committee of Vigilance 185 
 
 June 10 printed another long article urging similar action on 
 the ground that society was in a condition of revolution.'* 
 
 The excitement attending the trial of Lewis, the disclosures 
 at Stockton which confirmed the impressions of a widespread 
 organization of the criminal element, and the publication of 
 such editorials as those just quoted combined during several 
 successive days to emphasize the imperative need of some new 
 movement that should attempt the suppression of crime. 
 
 The effort to meet that need resulted in the formation of the 
 Committee of Vigilance. 
 
 74 See infra, p. 456. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE OEGANIZATION OF THE COMMITTEE OF 
 VIGILANCE 
 
 It has been the purpose of the preceding study of California 
 to show the local problems and the local attitude of mind so 
 clearly that the reader can understand, without further elabor- 
 ation, why the citizens of San Francisco instinctively adopted 
 some form of popular association when they believed that their 
 lives and their property were at the mercy of a criminal organ- 
 ization. Whatever may be his interest in their work, his criticism 
 of the motives that influenced them, or his judgment of the 
 results they accomplished, his personal estimate of the Committee 
 of Vigilance of 1851 must be grounded upon a realization of 
 the historic fact that the men of California had obtained national 
 citizenship through resolute self-determination, through auda- 
 cious self-organization, and through vehement self-assertion 
 within the halls of Congress. Determination, audacity, and self- 
 assertion also obtained for them a representative state govern- 
 ment and statute law, although they did not insure them against 
 the consequences of haste and inexperience, nor protect them 
 from political demoralization. The precedents set in the days 
 of self-protection and self-organization long persisted as vital 
 influences in the local consciousness and irresistibly directed the 
 men of 1851 towards a protective emergency association. 
 
 The call for such an organization was widespread and in- 
 sistent. The formation of a committee of safety or of a citizens' 
 commission had been advocated in Stockton by the Journal and 
 in San Francisco by the Herald and the Alta; it did not origi- 
 nate, as is sometimes presumed, in the imagination of hot-headed 
 
The Organization of the Committee of Vigilance 187 
 
 extremists who cowed the law-abiding community into temporary 
 subjection. Extremists there were among the Vigilantes, but 
 as we study the records of their work we shall see that passion 
 and violence were restrained to a surprising extent. 
 
 The full list of members is printed in Part I of the Papers 
 of the Committee, and is reprinted, with tables of officers, in 
 the Appendix to Part HI. The Index to the latter volume gives 
 a guide to the activities of each one, but as no biographical data 
 are included with the documents it seems necessary that this nar- 
 rative should show the reader what sort of men the Vigilantes 
 were, and what influence they exerted on the community, both 
 before and after their connection with the Committee of Vigil- 
 ance. It would be interesting to trace the previous life and the 
 California experiences of all the 707 members, but such an 
 enormous task has not even been attempted. 
 
 About one in ten of the entire membership have left bio- 
 graphical records that are easily accessible. Even that list is 
 too long to be incorporated in this chapter, and only about a 
 dozen whose names will constantly appear in the narrative of 
 the Committee will be introduced to the reader at this point. 
 Notices of many others will be found in the Biographical Ap- 
 pendix. None of these brief notes is an original contribution 
 to the history of California, for they have been collected from 
 newspapers and books already in print, without further verifica- 
 tion by the present writer. 
 
 The roll of the Society of California Pioneers shows that 
 more than a fourth of the committeemen reached the state prior 
 to 1850. Indeed that society was organized, in 1850, largely 
 by men who joined the Committee of Vigilance in 1851. A 
 dozen future Vigilantes were among its earliest officers, and 
 seven served as presidents in the course of subsequent years. ^ 
 
 1 See Annals, 283-284. The first officers included W. D. M. Howard, 
 president, J. R. Snyder and Samuel Braunan, vice-presidents, J. C. L. 
 Wadsworth and A. J. Grayson, assistant secretaries, and J. C. Ward, Wil- 
 
188 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 It is not unlikely that many other members of the Committee 
 arrived during the early months of the gold excitement, and were 
 thoroughly imbued with the traditions and precedents of mining 
 life. A number had already stamped their personality upon the 
 community. Their names have already been mentioned in dis- 
 cussing the history of the state in 1847, the San Francisco town 
 councils of 1848, 1849, and 1850, the movement for state organ- 
 ization, the suppression of the Hounds, and the trial of Jansen's 
 assailants. They constantly reappeared in connection with com- 
 mercial and political affairs of more or less importance.^ 
 
 The members of the Committee are often characterized as 
 the "leading merchants of San Francisco." In 1851 about a 
 score of them were reckoned among the wealthy men of the city, 
 and others made comfortable or conspicuous fortunes in later 
 years.^ The majority, however, were clerks or small tradesmen, 
 and are unknown to posterity except as sons and grandsons carry 
 
 liam Blackburn, J. D. Stevenson, Robert Wells, J. M. Huxley, Henry Gerke, 
 R. A. Parker, directors. The list of later presidents included Brannan, 
 Snyder, P. A. Roach, Dr. H. M. Gray, O. P. Sutton, and A. M. Ebbets (San 
 Francisco Call, 1890, Sept. 8, p. 3). 
 
 2 In July, 1848, W. D. M. Howard, C. V. Gillespie and J. C. Ward were 
 appointed by a San Francisco mass meeting to petition Governor Mason to 
 adjust important questions connected with the currency (Bancroft, Califor- 
 nia, VI, 268 Twte). 
 
 Future Vigilantes formed more than one-third of the signers of an 
 early call for a Chamber of Commerce (Alta, 1849, Nov. 1 i^). The same 
 merchants signed formal congratulations to the new collector of the port a 
 few days later (Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 28-29). J. L. 
 Van Bokkelen, A. J. Ellis and G. M. Garwood were members of the Whig 
 Convention, May 26, 1851 (Alta, May 27 %). 
 
 3 Contemporary ratings of the following members were given in A Pile, 
 1851, which listed some 600 wealthy Calif ornians : 
 
 Felix Argenti $500,000 James King of Wm $125,000 
 
 Samuel Brannan 275,000 Charles Minturn 100,000 
 
 C. H. Brinley 15,000 John Middleton 50,000 
 
 T. K. Batteile 10,000 A. B. Stout 20,000 
 
 A. J. Ellis 50,000 J. D. Stevenson 350,000 
 
 C. V. Gillespie 225,000 H. F. Teschemacher 50,000 
 
 Samuel Haight 75,000 J. T. [J?] Vioget 50,000 
 
 J. B. Huie 10,000 Ferdinand Vassault 60,000 
 
 W. D. M. Howard 375,000 J. C. L. Wadsworth 20,000 
 
 E. A. King 10,000 
 
The Organization of the Committee of Vigilance 189 
 
 on their names, or as the rolls of pioneer societies and brief 
 obituary notices record their life and death. 
 
 It is probable that today no more than three men are gen- 
 erally remembered as leaders in the Committee of 1851 : Samuel 
 Brannan, the first president, Isaac Bluxome, Jr., the secretary, 
 and William T. Coleman. Of these Bluxome is more widely 
 known as "33, Secretary," his official designation in the Com- 
 mittee of 1856, and Coleman, as president of that larger body. 
 Brannan, therefore, has been accepted as the standard-bearer 
 of the Committee of 1851, and since he was also a most notorious 
 hot-head it is not surprising that his personal qualities have 
 been embodied as the ruling spirit of the association. 
 
 Sam Brannan had been making history ever since July 31, 
 1846, when he landed in Yerba Buena at the head of his colony 
 of Mormons,* He is said to have preached the first English 
 sermon heard in the streets of the town, to have performed the 
 first non- Catholic marriage ceremony, and to have been defend- 
 ant at the first jury trial. He established the first San Francisco 
 newspaper, the California Star, advocated the first public school,^ 
 built the first flour mill, and made the first public announcement 
 of the discovery of gold. He conducted a store at Sutter's Fort 
 in 1847 and 1848, and engaged in land speculation at Sacra- 
 mento, so that his name appears on many occasions in the annals 
 of that neighborhood. He offered the first resolution against 
 slavery at the Sacramento meeting which selected delegates to 
 
 4 Brannan was born in Saco, Maine, in 1819, was a printer by trade, and 
 became a Mormon in 1842. His career is discussed in Bancroft, California, 
 
 II, 728; Popular Tribunals, especially II, 115-117; Annals, 748-753; O. T. 
 Shuck, Bepresentative and Leading Men of the Pacific, 1870, pp. 455-459, 
 portrait; Davis, Sixty Years, 507; Burnett, Eecollections, 298, 410; BroA\Ti, 
 Eeminiscences, [29]; SAvasey, Earlj/ Days, 202-208; Eldredge, California, 
 
 III, 118, portrait; Eldredge, San 'Francisco, II, 709-711; Ryckman, MS 
 Statement, 4; San Francisco Call, 1890, Sept. 8 %. He received* one vote for 
 the Democratic nomination for governor in 1851, and as a presidential 
 elector he cast his ballot for Lincoln and Johnson in 1864 (Davis, Political 
 Conventions, 11, 210, 212). 
 
 5 California Star, 1848, Feb. 5 %. 
 
190 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 the constitutional convention proposed for March, 1849. He 
 was a conspicuous leader in the trial of the San Francisco 
 Hounds, and was elected to the ayuntamiento in the following 
 August. He was also an advocate of the summary execution of 
 Berdue and Windred when they were falsely accused of the 
 attack on Jansen. The Committee of Vigilance was organized 
 in his office, he was its second member and its first president, 
 and appeared as its first spokesman before the San Francisco 
 public. Much of the immediate success of the Committee was 
 due to his fearless initiative and to his command over the temper 
 of the general public, but his tendencies leaned too often to- 
 wards summary punishment and his impetuous nature soon 
 created intense friction that ultimately caused his resignation. 
 Subsequent years found him still a leader in countless directions, 
 always loyal in his support of the Union during the Civil War, 
 and in local affairs active in promoting agriculture, in estab- 
 lishing banks, in organizing railway, telegraph, express, and in- 
 surance companies, in cooperating with literary and artistic 
 movements, and in contributing to philanthropic efforts and the 
 private relief of needy individuals. ]\Iisfortune overtook him in 
 later life; his brilliant personality was clouded by dissipation, 
 his wealth melted away, his position was lost, and he died in 
 poverty and obscurity, in Escondido, San Diego County, May 5, 
 1889. 
 
 Enough has already been said of William T. Coleman to 
 show that he had initiative and courage — ^the courage that could 
 control excited men and check mob violence.^ He was born in 
 Cynthiana, Kentucky, in 1824, lived for a time in St. Louis, 
 and arrived in California in August, 1849. He was greatly 
 surprised by the honesty and serenity of the countr^^, and 
 
 6 See Bancroft, Chronicles of the Builders, I, 300-391, portrait ; Popular 
 Tribunals, especially II, 117-121; Swasey, Early Days, 345-354; Phelps, 
 Contemporary Biography, I, 272-280; A. S. Hallidie, ''William T. Cole- 
 man," Overland Monthly, ser. 2, XXIII (1894), 71-75. 
 
I 
 
 WILLIAM TELL COLEMAN IN 184-1 
 
 From a daguerreotype in the possession of his son, 
 Mr. Kobert Lewis Coleman. 
 
■^■ 
 
 \ 
 
The Organization of the Committee of Vigilance 191 
 
 attributed that condition to the stern lessons of lynch law/ He 
 devoted himself to commercial interests in Placerville, Sacra- 
 mento, and San Francisco, but said that he was practically un- 
 known in the latter town until he suggested the extra-legal trial 
 that saved Berdue and Windred from the violence of the mob. 
 
 Coleman was number 96 on the roll of those who signed the 
 constitution of the Committee of Vigilance, and he acted on the 
 subcommittee that superintended the first execution. On that 
 occasion his reputation for justice and caution must have done 
 much to win the approval of the spectators. His hearty co- 
 operation during the earlier weeks inevitably tended to instill 
 order and method into the work of the Committee. The minutes 
 and reports, however, make little reference to his part in the 
 deliberations, and as early as August 9 he resigned from his 
 position on the Executive Committee, excusing himself on the 
 grounds of the demands of business. His interest in the society 
 remained unabated, he was a member of the Committee of Thir- 
 teen that continued the organization after the cessation of open 
 activities, and he led in the reorganization in 1856. In spite 
 of his Southern birth and of his adherence to the Democratic 
 party, he was always staunchly loyal to the Union. In contrast 
 to Brannan, Coleman stands for the pioneer of sound judgment 
 and firm balance, successful not only in winning friends and 
 fortune but in long maintaining his position of leadership in the 
 financial and social development of his adopted state. His photo- 
 graph taken in 1856 reveals a personality that inspires confidence 
 and admiration.^ 
 
 Isaac Bluxome, Jr.,^ was of Revolutionary stock, was born 
 in New York in 1829, and educated in a private school in 
 
 7 Coleman, MS Statement, 2. 
 
 8 See Eldredge, Calif ornia, Til, 434. 
 
 9 See Popular Tribunals, especially I, 250-252; Phelps, Contemporary 
 Biography, I, 269-271; description of the Bluxome Eanch, ^?trt, 1874, 
 Aug. 24 %; obituary, San Francisco Call, 1890, Nov. 11 %. Bluxome was 
 an influential Odd Fellow and a member of the Episcopal Church. 
 
192 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Flushing, Long Island. He arrived in San Francisco in June, 
 1849, immediately engaged in the commission business, and was 
 burned out in three successive fires. He was prominent in the 
 arrest and trial of the Hounds, and in the military companies 
 subsequently organized. ''Bluxome's Battery" became one of 
 the most dashing units of the California Guards. He joined the 
 Committee as member number 71 [67],^^ and acted as secretary 
 throughout its activities and also during the reorganization in 
 1856. Bancroft, who knew him intimately, described him as a 
 man of strong convictions and fearless spirit, although he was 
 warm-hearted and genial in the ordinary relations of life. He 
 led an honorable and successful business life in San Francisco, 
 and owned for some years a large and beautiful ranch, known 
 as Bluxomeville, near Cloverdale, Sonoma County. He died 
 November 9, 1890. 
 
 Of these three men, only Bluxome kept up a long and active 
 membership in the Committee of 1851, but the narrative of the 
 Vigilantes will make us intimately acquainted with many others. 
 As has been said, a few of the more important members will be 
 introduced at this point. The names that follow are arranged 
 in the order in which they were affixed to the constitution, as 
 priority of membership has a definite significance in considering 
 any man's importance in such a body. 
 
 The first who signed the roll was Selim E. Woodworth," 
 in whom the urge of adventure had been so strong that at twelve 
 years of age he shouldered a rifle and a knapsack and slipped 
 away from his father's fireside in New York to look for big 
 
 10 The roll of members 'was copied by the sergeant-at-arms with a slight 
 difference of arrangement. As his numbers were always used for purposes 
 of identification they are included here in brackets, as they are in the lists 
 printed in the Papers of the Committee. 
 
 11 Born in New York, 1815; died Jan. 29, 1871. See Annals, 794-798, 
 portrait; Popular Tribunols, 1, 247-248; Swasey, Ea7-ly Days, 212-217; 
 Eldredge, California, III, 134, portrait; Eldredge, San Francisco, II, 707- 
 708; Davis, Political Conventions, 8, 26; Alta, 1871, Jan. 30 %. 
 
The Organization of the Committee of Vigilance 193 
 
 game in the Rocky Mountains. He was intercepted and induced 
 to return, and at a more mature age was able to gratify his tastes 
 by exploring voyages in the South Seas, service in the United 
 States Navy, and an adventurous trip across the continent to the 
 Columbia River in 1846. From Oregon he came to California, 
 and promptly distinguished himself by leading a party through 
 the snowdrifts of the mountains to the relief of the ill-starred 
 Donner camp. Resuming his naval duties he served on the Coast 
 during the period of the war, but resigned in 1849 to accept a 
 seat in the state senate, and held the position for two terms. 
 Wliile still a member of the legislature he was commissioned to 
 raise a volunteer company and deal rigorously with horse thieves 
 and Indians that were terrorizing Monterey County.^- He had 
 the business acumen to build the first house above the unfilled 
 water lots of San Francisco, and in consequence he and his part- 
 ner for some time monopolized the lighterage of the port. His 
 political affiliations were with the Whig party. He fought for 
 the Union during the Civil War, resigning from the Navy after 
 its close with the rank of commander. 
 
 A fellow Vigilante said that he was a man of great ability 
 and honorable to a fault.^^ He was made president of the Gen- 
 eral Committee a few weeks after its organization, held that 
 office throughout the period of activity, and served as vice-presi- 
 dent of the Executive Committee after reorganization in Sep- 
 tember. 
 
 Frederick A. Woodworth,^* number 4, a brother of Selim, 
 arrived in May, 1849, and although his experiences have less 
 notice in the records of the day he was widely known as an 
 energetic and upright citizen. He was an Independent member 
 
 12 Noted in Alta, 1851, April 29 %; May 14 %; June 3 %. 
 
 13 J. D. Farwell, Vigilance Comrmttees in San Fraiwisco, 1878, p. 10, 
 MS in the Bancroft Library. 
 
 14 Mentioned in Alta, 1852, March 2 %; obituary, Alta, 1865, Feb. 3; 4; 
 7 ; 11 ; San Francisco Bulletin, Feb. 2 %. 
 
194 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 of the state senate in 1857, and his death in 1865, at the age of 
 forty-seven, was deeply regretted in the San Francisco press. 
 
 Colonel Jonathan D. Stevenson,^^ former commander of the 
 New York Volunteers, was number 18 [101]. He was a man 
 of political experience in New York and Washington, and was 
 the first grand master of the Free Masons in California. He 
 had been somewhat successful in land speculations in San Fran- 
 cisco, but in 1851 his interests had been assigned to his creditors. 
 He emerged from financial embarrassments with a comfortable 
 fortune, and until his death, February 14, 1894, he was a center 
 of interest and affection in the circle of California pioneers. It 
 has been said that he tried to defend the Hounds on the ground 
 of his responsibility to former members of his regiment/^ and 
 if personal motives affected his attitude in 1849 they may have 
 influenced him in 1851 to join the men who were determined to 
 put down crime, for his office had been robbed earlier in the 
 year,^^ and the arson of Lewis had threatened the destruction of 
 his property on Long "Wharf. 
 
 Gerritt (or Garrett) W. Eyckman was number 57 [53], and 
 although he was fifty-three years of age, and therefore much 
 older than most of his colleagues, his magnetic but fearless per- 
 sonality made him one of the most influential members, and 
 Bancroft paid a glowing tribute to his work.^^ He came to 
 California in October, 1849, from Albany, New York, where he 
 had been by turns a printer, a brewer, and a state inspector of 
 hops. He was engaged in business at the time the Committee 
 was formed, but during the summer of '51 devoted himself to 
 its work, to the absolute neglect of personal affairs. His State- 
 ment dictated to Bancroft in 1877 or 1878 adds touches of real 
 melodrama to the somber records of crime, trials, and executions. 
 
 15 See Annals, 784-789; Swasey, Early Days, 218-219. 
 
 16 Daniel Knower, Adventures of a Forty-niner, 1894, p. 
 
 17 See infra, p. 307. 
 
 18 Popular Tribunals, I, 248-250. 
 
The Organization of the Committee of Vigilance 195 
 
 for he told of amateur detective expeditions under effective dis- 
 guise, of dramatic episodes when the Vigilante revealed himself 
 to dismayed antagonists, of threats against his own life, and of 
 the moments when prisoners were moved to self -revelation. He 
 became a member of the Executive Committee early in July, and 
 was made the second vice-president in September. After that 
 time he often acted as chairman, and was elected president in 
 April, 1852. His attitude towards his companions was some- 
 what censorious and in 1856 he refused to join the reorganized 
 Committee, asserting that their course was timid and vacillating. 
 Eyckman became a friend of Broderick, and something of a 
 power in the Democratic party. It was even said that he "car- 
 ried Governor Bigler in his pocket." He was also a prominent 
 Mason and when he died at the age of eighty-four the papers 
 spoke of him with admiration and respect. ^^ 
 
 If Eyckman was the Nestor of the Committee ''little George 
 Ward," number 62 [58], was the enfant terrible. He is affec- 
 tionately described as brave as Caesar, a perfect fire-eater, a bit 
 of a dandy, and a favorite with the ladies. He was so short 
 that when he once lost his temper over a business dispute with 
 Michael Reese he could barely reach to the latter 's chest, but, 
 nothing daunted, he thrust his pistol against his opponent's 
 portly waistcoat and thundered : ' ' Be careful, Sir, or by God, 
 I'll blow your brains outl''^^ At the first Vigilante execution 
 he flourished his firearms so desperately that an older man 
 begged : ' ' Take that pistol away from that boy, or he will hurt 
 somebody! "21 However, no tragedy was reported as a result 
 of his impetuosity. He curbed his rash temper in indefatigable 
 work, and acted as treasurer during the latter months of the 
 Committee's activities. In 1856 he had a much greater scope 
 
 19 See Alia, 1881, Jan. 26 y^; San Francisco Call, 1882, April 3 %. 
 
 20 San Francisco Bulletin, 1896, Nov. 21 i%. 
 
 21 Byckman, MS Statement, 2. 
 
196 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 for his belligerent proclivities, and played a leading part in the 
 more sensational adventures of that day.^^ 
 
 George E. Schenck, number 72 [68], came of a race of pio- 
 neers that had adventured in North America since one Schenck 
 fitted out Hendrick Hudson 's Half Moon, and another sailed 
 upon her quarter-deck.-^ He reached San Francisco in October, 
 1849, and immediately engaged in the exciting financial sport 
 of buying cargos on invoice, sight unseen, and selling them for 
 what the fluctuating market would allow. He had visited the 
 mining regions but briefly, had attempted to stimulate public 
 interest in the agricultural possibilities of the interior valleys, 
 and had nearly lost his life in the fire of May, 1851. His long 
 and interesting Statement is among the Bancroft manuscripts. 
 It shows an accurate observation of the salient features of San 
 Francisco business life, and also gives many important details 
 of the work of the Committee of Vigilance, which he supported 
 in the sincere conviction that the people had a right to displace 
 their public servants when the latter proved unfaithful. 
 
 Captain Edgar Wakeman, number 95 [91], was a Yankee 
 sailor typical of his generation. In 1851 he was tarrying awhile 
 in the hospitable port of San Francisco, where he first cast anchor 
 in July, 1850. Many of his adventures are recounted in a biog- 
 raphy entitled The Log of an Ancient Mariner, but most unfor- 
 tunately he made there but brief allusion to his services as chief 
 of the water police of the Committee of Vigilance, leaving them 
 for a later volume which was never completed. 
 
 The introduction to his reminiscences cites a letter from 
 Mark Twain, who said of Wakeman i^* 
 
 22 See Popular Tribunals, 1, 235; II, 64, 382, 387; obituary, Alta, 1861, 
 Feb. 13 %. 
 
 23 Schenck, MS Statement, 57-59. 
 
 24 Log of an Ancient Mariner, 1878, p. 10. In 1872 Mark Twain made 
 an appeal for a subscription for Captain Wakeman, who was helpless from 
 paralysis (Alta, Dec. 14 %; Bee. 22 %). Obituary, Alta, 1875, May 9; 
 10; 12. 
 
The Organization of the Committee of Vigilance 197 
 
 He is a burly, hairy, sunburned, stormy-voiced old salt, who mixes 
 strange oaths with incomprehensible sailor-phraseology and the gentlest 
 and most touching pathos, and is tattooed from head to foot like a Feejee 
 Islander, . . . He never drinks a drop, never gambles, and never swears where 
 a lady or child may chance to hear him. 
 
 James King of William, number 186, was destined by the 
 tragedy of bis death in 1856 to become one of the most famous 
 men in California history.-^ He arrived in November, 1848, and 
 in 1851 he was already widely known as a man of education 
 and business ability, who had started for California before the 
 news of gold stirred the eastern states. At first he made 
 a brief but successful adventure in the camp known as Dry 
 Diggings (Placerville), but in 1849 he established in San Fran- 
 cisco the banking house of James King of William, thus perpet- 
 uating in California the quaint patronymic he had assumed in 
 Georgetown, District of Columbia, to distinguish himself from 
 others of the same name.^^ Earlier experience in an eastern 
 bank gave him excellent equipment for the work, and his insti- 
 tution withstood a panic in 1850. He was custodian of some 
 of the funds of the Committee of Vigilance, and in the archives 
 of the society is a passbook recording the account with this 
 pioneer bank. Of his active work the minutes give little trace, 
 but his standing is indicated by the fact that on August 26, 
 1851; he was considered as a candidate for the important position 
 of chief of police.^^ An unconfirmed anecdote relates that on 
 one occasion he was so convinced of the innocence of an accused 
 
 25 King was born in Georgetown, District of Columbia, Jan. 28, 1822. 
 Accounts of his life and death appear in all histories of California. See 
 especially Shuck, Representative Men, 563-579; Phelps, Contemporary 
 Biography, I, 202-206, portrait; Eldredge, California, IV, 62, portrait; 
 Bancroft, California, IV, 700-701; Popular Tribun-als, II, 22-68, passim. 
 
 26 As the son of William King, he assumed his father 's given name; in 
 place of the more usual designation of Junior. 
 
 27 Papers, 550. 
 
198 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 prisoner that he not only made strenuous intercession for his 
 vindication but prepared to protect him by force of arms if such 
 a course proved necessary.^^ The story is entirely credible, for 
 King always had the courage of his convictions, even to the 
 supreme point of refusing to '^ defend his honor" when formally 
 challenged according to the Southern code which still prevailed 
 in California in spite of laws against dueling.^^ 
 
 In 1853 he was worth about $250,000, but he became heavily 
 involved in 1854, and his assets were transferred to Adams & 
 Co., with the agreement that they should assume all his liabil- 
 ities. Unfortunately the subsequent failure of that firm in- 
 volved some of King's creditors in a loss for which he felt that 
 he was in no way to blame. In October, 1855, he started the 
 Evening Bulletin, in a crusade of protest against the corruption 
 existing in San Francisco, and his denunciation of crying evils 
 led to his assassination in May, 1856, and to the reorganization 
 of the Committee of Vigilance. 
 
 Jacob L. Van Bokkelen, number 173, a pioneer of 1849, was 
 the first chief of the Vigilante police. In civic activities he was 
 prominent in the volunteer fire department, and w^as an alder- 
 man of San Francisco in 1854.^'^ 
 
 Felix Argenti, number 187, was the senior member of a 
 banking house established in 1850. The curious episode which 
 made him responsible for some of the most vexatious problems 
 that troubled the Committee of Vigilance will be detailed in a 
 later chapter.^^ 
 
 James R. Malony was number 250, and thereby hangs a tale, 
 for Rube Malony had such a reputation for friendship with the 
 undesirable element in San Francisco that his admission to the 
 
 2« Shuck, Eeprese7itative Men, 563. 
 29 Shuck, Bepresentative Men, 574. 
 ^0 Annals, 624; Herald, 1854, Nov. 10 %. 
 
 31 Argenti is mentioned in Eldredge, California, V, 427; obituary, Alta, 
 1861, May 20 i/i. See also infra, p. 243. 
 
The Organization of the Committee of Vigilance 199 
 
 ranks of the Committee of Vigilance was a matter of regret to 
 some of the influential members.^- He was excluded from cer- 
 tain critical meetings by a change in the pass word, but he was 
 never dropped from the rolls. In 1856 he took an open stand 
 against the Vigilantes, was arrested by them, and banished from 
 California. In retaliation Malony and Billy Mulligan, another 
 exile, brought suit against Coleman and other committeemen 
 while the latter were visiting New York. G. E. Schenck was in 
 that city at the same time and appeared at a critical moment 
 to testify that in 1851 Malony had participated in just such 
 actions as he complained of in 1856. Schenck further main- 
 tained that ''once a Committeeman, always a Committeeman." 
 A non-suit w^as granted on the ground that the New York courts 
 had no jurisdiction in the matter and Malony died while the 
 case was under appeal. 
 
 David Earl, number 264, like Malony, was recognized after 
 his admission as an undesirable member, and it was found that 
 he was already under indictment in the courts for bigamy and 
 other offenses.^^ More serious charges were made against him 
 by prisoners of the Committee, and he was finally expelled, ar- 
 rested, and ordered out of the state. 
 
 John Sullivan, number 269, was a boatman along the San 
 Francisco wharves.^* He was instrumental in arresting the first 
 prisoner brought before the Committee and probably joined the 
 organization immediately after that event. His wide acquaint- 
 ance with the "bad characters" of the water front laid him 
 under suspicion in the early days of investigation, but it proved 
 an invaluable asset when it enabled him to recognize and to 
 prevent the discharge of an important convict on presumption 
 
 52 Papers, 23 note 21; Schenck, MS Statement, 51-54; Popular Tribunals, 
 Index under ''Malony"; Alta, 1859, April 28 Vs. 
 
 33 See Papers, Index under ' ' David Earl. ' ' 
 
 34 See infra, pp. 208, 257; Papers, 30; and Vouchers nos. 4 (p. 771), 
 86-88. 
 
200 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 of innocence. One is compelled to note that as official boatman 
 to the Committee he ran up accounts of appalling magnitude. 
 
 Eugene Delessert, number 439, was a prominent member of 
 the French colony of San Francisco, and senior partner of the 
 banking house of Delessert, Legieron & Co. He was for some 
 months the treasurer of the Committee.^^ 
 
 There were other men who did conspicuous service in the 
 Committee but left little record in the works of contemporary 
 biography. At the same time some of the less active members 
 achieved great political or commercial distinction, as will be 
 seen from the notices in the Appendix. Research among family 
 records would doubtless reveal interesting particulars concerning 
 many others, but it is improbable that it would in any degree 
 change the composite type that is presented by the sketches 
 already collected. The names of Vigilantes often appeared on 
 public committees of importance.^^ Some were prominent in 
 the earliest efforts to develop a transcontinental railroad. Some 
 were quick to respond when public calamities called for emerg- 
 ency measures of cooperative relief. One fact to their credit 
 must be remarked. Of all their number only one or two attained 
 unenviable distinction through political or financial misdeeds. 
 Eube Malony was a notorious black sheep, and some half dozen 
 members were dropped for various causes, among them being 
 Captain Leonard Tuffs, who was convicted of forgery in 1852.^^ 
 A close scrutiny of the leading papers from 1851 to 1856 and 
 
 35 Delessert led in the organization of the French benevolent associa- 
 tion, Herald, 1851, Dee. 15 %. 
 
 36 See, for instance, the railroad committees (Herald, 1851, Nov. 28 %; 
 Dec. 5 %; 1852, April 6 %), and measures for the relief of passengers on 
 the wrecked North American (Herald, 1852, March 31 %). 
 
 37 gee the Index to the Papers for the cases of J. B. M. Crooks, W. W. 
 McLean, J. P. Muldoon, Thomas Norris, C. H. Welling. The trial of 
 Tuffs is noted in the Herald, 1852, May 20 %; June 19, i/i; 22 % ; July 25 
 %; Alia, July 18 % ; 25 %. His name is annotated as expelled in the list 
 of members (C. of V., Constitution, 24). W. H. Parker is also marked 
 as expelled, but the entry is probably an error, and should have been referred 
 to the name of Crooks. 
 
The Organization of the Committee of Vigilance 201 
 
 a search through the newspaper index in the State Library have 
 failed to uncover any serious scandals connected with the names 
 that were conspicuous in the work of the Committee of Vigilance 
 of 1851. 
 
 It is a very curious circumstance that while so many of the 
 members, even those of minor importance, have left behind them 
 biographical records of more or less interest, little can now be 
 learned of the man whose personality really dominated the most 
 active months of the association. This was Stephen Payran, 
 number 46 [42], who served as president of the Executive Com- 
 mittee from about July 4 to November 12, 1851, and who wrote 
 a large number of the more important papers filed during the 
 intervening period. 
 
 In August, 1851, Payran stated in the newspapers that he had 
 then been in California nearly three years.^^ Other committee- 
 men have said that he was a professional copyist from Phila- 
 delphia,^^ and the neatness and legibility of his handwriting 
 testify to his skill in such an employment. More than any other 
 member of the Committee he gave voice to the idea that the 
 people had a right to assume direct control of public affairs, 
 when their elected representatives failed to carry out their will. 
 His sincere conviction, his quick imagination, and his ready pen 
 gave him a power of expression that distinguished him as a 
 sincere idealist from among the more practical merchants who 
 did not extend their thoughts beyond the emergencies that con- 
 fronted them. He was not always tactful, and evoked censure 
 as an autocrat in administration.'^*^ Ryckman, who was some- 
 what unsparing in his criticism, hinted that he became addicted 
 to stimulants during the stress of his exacting duties,*^ and 
 
 ^^Alta, 1851, Aug. 31 %; Herald, Sept. 1 %. 
 ^^ Popular Tribunals, I, 246. 
 
 40 See infra, p. 336. 
 
 41 Ryckman, MS Statement, 4. 
 
202 Vigilance Cormnittee of 1851 
 
 Bluxome touched with exasperating vagueness upon an infatu- 
 ation for a Sydney woman which ended his usefulness in the 
 ranks of the Committee.*^ Whatever may have been his romance 
 or his tragedy, he was a respected resident of Petaluma in 
 the decade of the sixties, where he acted as a justice of the peace, 
 and as "Judge Payran" was much in demand as a public 
 speaker. Mr. W. W. Carpenter, writing of him in 1874, de- 
 scribed him as a man of seventy who looked twenty years younger, 
 and who was still keenly interested in the Committee of 1851, 
 of which, according to Carpenter, he was the real leader and 
 hero.*^ He lived on a ranch, then just east of the city limits, 
 and even now the Payran School and Payran Street commem- 
 orate his name. He died in Ukiah, on or about January 18, 
 1877, and the county records show that his estate was settled by 
 the public administrator, that it amounted to less than $600, 
 and that it was inherited by his brother Richard, then a resident 
 of Illinois. A wife, from whom he had been for some time 
 estranged, could not be found.** 
 
 Stephen Payran signed his name to more than a hundred 
 documents in the archives of the Committee of Vigilance. He 
 was also the author of a resolution designed to preserve the 
 archives, so that the actions of the Committee might be shown 
 in good faith to any representative body that at a future date 
 should desire to investigate them.*^ Perhaps it was to his fore- 
 sight that we owe the survival of those records, and their final 
 presentation to the students of the present time. 
 
 42 Bluxome, MS Statement, 16. 
 
 43 In Oakland Transcript, 1874, March 29 14. See also Eoyce, California, 
 419-420. Eecollections of Payrau were furnished to me in January, 1918, 
 by Mr. Henry L. Weston, one of the oldest residents of Petaluma. * ' Stephen 
 Payran, ' ' a lawyer from Pennsylvania, was entered upon the Great Register 
 of Sonoma County as a resident of Vallejo in 1866. 
 
 44 Data obtained from the records of Mendocino County by Mr. F. L. 
 Caughey of Ukiah. 
 
 45 Papers, 639. 
 
The Organization of the Committee of Vigilance 203 
 
 Had Payran lived a little longer it is probable that his per- 
 sonal recollections would have supplemented the official docu- 
 ments which he treasured with such solicitude, for it was in 
 1877 and 1878 that Bancroft secured the dictation of statements 
 from many of the Vigilantes. Payran might have added much 
 valuable material to those reminiscences, but his voice was silent 
 too soon. The Bancroft manuscripts are of great service in re- 
 constructing the w^ork of the Committee, and they are often used 
 in this volume to amplify more condensed and formal records. 
 But they have not been quoted as absolutely authentic unless 
 the archives or the contemporary press have afforded standards 
 for careful verification. They are invaluable, however, for their 
 accounts of the beginning of the Committee of 1851, since there 
 are no official documents and no press reports that tell the steps 
 that were taken to form the protective association that had been 
 so widely advocated during the first week of June. 
 
 The clearest statement of the preliminaries of organization 
 was given by James Neall, Jr.*^ He said that on Sunday, June 8, 
 he discussed the perilous condition of society with his neighbor, 
 George Oakes. The latter suggested that they visit Sam Bran- 
 nan and consult him as to the possibility of effecting improve- 
 ment. Brannan was found in his office in company with his 
 clerk, A. Wardwell, and the four men decided to summon a larger 
 group to consider the situation of the city. A list was compiled 
 without delay and notices were written asking various reliable 
 men to invite other responsible citizens to meet on the following 
 noon at the California Engine House. There was a most satis- 
 factory response to this appeal, and after some debate on the 
 course that should be followed the meeting adjourned, to reas- 
 semble in the evening at Brannan 's building, on Sansome and 
 Bush streets. There the plan of organization took definite shape. 
 
 - 46 James Neall, Jr., MS Statement, 1-3. See extracts in Appendix, 
 pp. 457-458. 
 
204 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 and the name "Committee of Vigilance" was formally adopted. 
 Previous to this the term had not been generally current in 
 California, although it was by no means unknown.*^ Both 
 ' ' Committee of Safety ' ' and ' ' Committee of Vigilance ' ' had been 
 used in the article by "Justice" in the Alta of June 8, and 
 Bancroft said that after a discussion of various titles in the 
 meeting on Monday night "Committee of Vigilance" was unani- 
 mously chosen. ^^ From that time it has acquired a significance 
 based on the precedents set in San Francisco, and as used in this 
 volume it connotes a group of responsible citizens, bound together 
 by a permanent organization, with the declared purpose of pro- 
 tecting lives and property in emergencies where lawful means 
 prove ineffective.*^ 
 
 No minutes have been preserved of this, the third meeting, 
 but it is perfectly evident that the harassed citizens of San 
 Francisco instinctively turned fo the old American expedient of 
 creating a social equipment by entering into a formal compact. 
 They adopted a constitution — a brief and simple statement of 
 
 47 See supra, p. 120. The Alta, 1850, July 19 %, announced that a 
 ■''Vigilance Committee" of fifteen had been appointed in Stockton, to ask 
 the state and military authorities to give aid in preserving order. During 
 trouble between French and American miners at Mokelumne Hill, in April, 
 1851, a ''Vigilance Committee" was appointed as an emergency organiza- 
 tion {Alia, April 30 %). "Cow Vigilantes" who punished cattle thieves, 
 also in the spring of 1851, are mentioned in the History of San Joaquin 
 County, 130. "Councils of Safety," "Committees of Safety," and "Com- 
 mittees of Observation" were familiar associations of other American com- 
 munities. In 1828 the Jackson party in Indiana formed precinct "Com- 
 mittees of Vigilance" (Logan Esarey, History of Indiana, I [1915], 299). 
 The same name was often employed by local organizations in Texas during 
 the movement for independence from Mexico. 
 
 48 Popular Tribunals, I, 208. 
 
 49 J. M. Guinn, who compiled histories of several California counties, 
 said that the name ' ' Vigilance Committee ' ' originated "vvith the uprising 
 in 1851, long after the tribunals of the people were generally established 
 throughout the state (see his History of California, various county editions, 
 p. 183 of general introduction). The Cyclopedia of American Government, 
 III, 616, defines "Vigilance Committee" as "A term applied to committees 
 formed in the North previous to the Civil War to aid in the escape of fugi- 
 tive slaves. Also a name adopted by the voluntary organization for the 
 purpose of keeping peace in California in the days of the gTeat migration. ' ' 
 
The Organization of the Committee of Vigilance 205 
 
 their purposes, a solemn pledge of mutual good faith and loyalty. 
 This document has already been printed in the series of Papers, 
 but it is necessary that it should be repeated here, as a fitting 
 introduction to the record of the subsequent months.^*^ 
 
 CONSTITUTION 
 9th June, 1851 
 
 Whereas it has become apparent to the Citizens of San Francisco that 
 there is no security for life and property either under the regulations 
 of Society as it at present exists or under the laws as now adminis- 
 tered, — therefore, the Citizens whose names are hereunto attached do 
 unite themselves into an association for the maintenance of the peace 
 and good order of Society and the preservation of the lives and property 
 of the Citizens of San Francisco and do bind ourselves each unto the 
 other to do and perform every lawful act for the maintenance of law 
 and order and to sustain the laws when faithfully and properly adminis- 
 tered but we are determined that no thief burglar incendiary or assassin 
 shall escape punishment, either by the quibbles of the law the insecurity 
 of prisons the carelessness or corruption of the Police or a laxity of 
 those who pretend to administer justice. 
 
 And to secure the objects of this association we do hereby agree; 
 
 First, — that the name and style of the association shall be the Com- 
 mittee of Vigilance for the protection of the lives and property of the 
 Citizens and residents of the City of San Francisco. 
 
 Secondly, — that, there shall be a room selected for the meetings and 
 deliberations of the Committee at which there shall be some one or more 
 members of the Committee appointed for that purpose in constant at- 
 tendance 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 whatsoever 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 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 the 
 Committee when assembled shall determine upon. 
 
 50 This text of the constitution is that which is prefixed to the book of 
 signatures, and may therefore be considered as the official copy (see C. of V., 
 Constitution, 7-8). Another copy found among the miscellaneous docu- 
 ments and printed in the Papers, III, 1-3, is dated June 8, and Bancroft 
 accepted that date for the definite institution of the Committee (Popular 
 Trihunals, I, 210), but the official date of organization inscribed on the 
 certificates of membership is plainly June 9. 
 
206 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Thirdly, — that, it shall be the duty of any member or members of the 
 Committee on duty at the Committee room whenever a general assemblage 
 of the Committee is deemed necessary to cause a call to be made by 
 two strokes upon a bell situated^i . . . [blank] which shall be repeated 
 with a pause of one minute before each alarm. — The Alarm to be struck 
 until ordered stopped. 
 
 Fourthly, — that when the Committee have assembled for action the 
 decision of a majority present shall be binding upon the whole Committee 
 and that those members of the Committee whose names are hereunto 
 attached do pledge their honor and hereby bind themselves to defend 
 and sustain each other in carrying out the determined action of this 
 Committee at the hazard of their lives and their fortunes. 
 
 Fifthly, — that there shall be chosen monthly a President Secretary 
 and Treasurer and it shall be the duty of the Secretary to detail the 
 members required to be in daily attendance at the Committee room. A 
 Sergeant at Arms shall be appointed whose duty it shall be to notify 
 such members of their detail for duty. — The Sergeant at Arms shall 
 reside at, and be in constant attendance at the Committee room. 
 
 There shall be a standing Committee of finance and qualification 
 consisting of five each and no person shall be admitted a member of 
 this association unless he be a respectable citizen and approved of by the 
 Committee on qualification before admission. 
 
 The provisions of this agreement give unmistakable proof 
 of the care and the deliberation with which the formation of 
 the Vigilance Committee was undertaken, and disprove the asser- 
 tion sometimes made that the organization was a sequel to the 
 first execution.^- The associates in this cause of self-protection 
 
 51 The Committee had the use of the bells of the California and Monu- 
 mental engine companies. Both were tapped when occasion required, but 
 the Monumental bell, hung on the engine house on Brenham Place, facing 
 the Plaza, was by far the more famous. It was finally presented to the 
 museum of the Society of California Pioneers, and cuts of the relic Avere 
 printed in the San Francisco Call, 1887, March 11 %, and in the Chronicle, 
 1896, Jan. 12 %. The secretary of the Society of Pioneers has informed 
 me that it was totally destroyed in the fire of 1906. The Committee of 
 1856 installed a bell of its own on the roof of Fort Gunnybags, and at 
 the sale of its effects it was purchased for $600 by the citizens of Peta- 
 luma, who hung it in the belfry of the Baptist Church. Although badly 
 cracked, it was rung on many occasions of public importance. See Popul-ar 
 Tribunals, II, 545; Alta, 1866, Jan. 15, %; San Francisco Call, 1893, Dec. 
 18%. 
 
 52 Popular Tribunals, I, 207. T. J. L. Smiley, number 573, said that 
 Jenkins' trial ''was an impromptu meeting" (Statement, 1877, p. 1, MS in 
 the Bancroft Library). 
 
The Organization of the Comnvittee of Vigilance 207 
 
 were not content to pledge themselves by word of mouth. They 
 were ready to set their names to the compact they had adopted. 
 A few may have signed the draft of the constitution on Monday 
 evening, but it was later copied into a suitable book, and the 
 Vigilantes met for a fourth time on Tuesday evening at the 
 same place, to sign the roll and to perfect their plans. 
 
 Lois K. Mathews, in her '^Ma^^flower Compact and Its De- 
 scendants," grouped quotations from the constitution of the 
 Committee of Vigilance with other citations from pioneer associ- 
 ations, and said of it: ''Here again one finds the absence of 
 organized and effective government resulting in the union of a 
 body of citizens along the lines of the compact idea."^^ Its real 
 significance lies in the fact that while the subscribers asserted 
 that they associated ,themselves to maintain peace and good order, 
 to preserve life and property, and to sustain the laws when 
 properly and faithfully administered, they also made plain their 
 determination to handle criminal matters themselves whenever 
 the majority of the Committee should so resolve. The implica- 
 tion was obvious that in so doing they were ready to ignore or 
 override police and courts and legal regulations, and to execute 
 justice according to their own convictions! Neall said of this 
 action : 
 
 They signed a form of agreement to do their duty when called upon, 
 and to appear when needed. At this meeting54 there were of course 
 many young men not largely experienced in the affairs of life, and who 
 perhaps did not realize the responsibilities they were taking upon them- 
 selves, what it might lead to; but some of the older heads saw in it an 
 incipient revolution, and that difficulties might arise, and among them 
 was Col. J. D. Stevenson. Though he sympathized fully in the necessities 
 of the movement, he felt its importance, and he got up and made a speech, 
 in which he dwelt upon the responsibilities of the case, and called upon 
 every man to do his full duty etc.,— putting on his severest military air 
 as he spoke. 
 
 1Q1^^^1'?^^^^^^^ Valley Historical Association, Proceedings, YI (1912- 
 iyioj, lUo— 104. 
 
 54 Neall seems to refer to the meeting of Tuesday evening, but Bancroft 
 placed Stevenson's address on Monday evening (Popular Tribuimls, I, 207). 
 
CHAPTER X 
 THE COMMITTEE AT WORK 
 
 The constitution of the Committee of Vigilance made a declar- 
 ation of purpose. It outlined no programme beyond the provision 
 that a subcommittee should constantly be on duty at a designated 
 place to receive reports of deeds of violence, and to summon the 
 General Committee for the consideration of cases that might need 
 further action. 
 
 So matters stood when the meeting of Tuesday evening ad- 
 journed, after some hundred men had signed the roll.^ While a 
 small group lingered in the room a startling knock beat upon the 
 closed door, and when it was opened two or three members of the 
 Committee entered, dragging between them a powerful and defiant 
 prisoner. This was John Jenkins, who had that very evening 
 entered the empty office of George W. Virgin on Long Wharf, 
 seized a small safe, and dropped with it into a boat lying at the 
 end of the pier. Virgin arrived in time to raise a hue and cry 
 while the thief was still in sight. Seeing that capture was im- 
 minent Jenkins threw his booty overboard and surrendered to a 
 boatman, John Sullivan, who had joined the chase as he was 
 returning from a vessel lying out in the stream. David B. Arrow- 
 smith and James F. Curtis, both members of the Committee, 
 assisted Sullivan in securing his prisoner, and George E. Schenck, 
 who encountered them as they emerged into Commercial Street, 
 urged them to take Jenkins before the Committee, instead of to 
 the police station, as had been their intention.^ The suggestion 
 
 1 Bluxome put the number at 100 (MS Statement, 9) ; Ryckman at 75 or 
 80 (MS Statement, 4). 
 
 2 Details of the capture were given by Schenck (MS Statement, 35-38) ; 
 and by J. D. Farwell (MS Statement, 6). 
 
The Committee at Work 209 
 
 was adopted, and in a few minutes the newly pledged Vigilantes 
 faced the first acute problem to arise under their self-assumed 
 responsibilities. 
 
 In this case there was no doubt as to the overt act of violence 
 nor as to the need for assembling the General Committee. Sud- 
 denly the bell of the California Engine Company struck a signal 
 unfamiliar to the ears of San Francisco i^ two measured taps, a 
 pause, two taps, another interval, and again the two notes, until 
 the attention of every man within its sound had been caught by 
 the summons. Quickly tjie ]Monumental bell echoed the call : two 
 strokes and silence ; two, and two, and two ! Then San Francisco 
 swarmed into the humming streets, and as the initiated passed 
 swiftly to the rendezvous at Brannan's building, a mystified 
 crowd ran behind. Without there was excitement; men knocked 
 at the guarded door, whispered a pass word, and gained admis- 
 sion, or asked in vain because they were ignorant of the counter- 
 sign.* "Within there was hasty consultation, initial confusion, 
 and swiftly emerging order. There was a chairman, Brannan,^ 
 and a secretary, Bluxome. An immediate trial was decreed. A 
 jury was selected ; Schenck was appointed prosecuting attorney ;' 
 the particulars of the theft were rehearsed by witnesses. The 
 evidence was conclusive ; the verdict was ' ' guilty. ' '" 
 
 3 Neall told Bancroft that the California bell was tapped some twenty 
 times bv George J. Oakes (Popular Tribunals, I, 229). The Monumental 
 bell sounded a few minutes before ten o'clock (Herald, 1851, June 11 %). 
 Some reports said the signal was three taps. 
 
 ^Papers, 22-23. It may have been upon this occasion that ''Lewis" 
 was the countersign. See supra, p. 183. 
 
 5 Farwell, MS Stfltement, 6. 
 
 6 Schenck, MS Statement, 36. 
 
 7 The theft of the safe was proved beyond question (Coleman, MS State- 
 ment, 19-21; Farwell, MS Statement, 7). J. C. L. WadsAvorth said: "The 
 doors were closed, and no one allowed in but those we knew, officers were 
 chosen for the meeting, which being organized, we proceeded to the evi- 
 dence. We heard the testimony, and after it was all in, a committee was 
 appointed to step one side and deliberate upon it and bring in a verdict, 
 and say what should be done with the man. This committee went to a corner 
 of the room, and after consultation for a while brought in a verdict of guilty, 
 
210 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 In the course of the trial it was shown that Jenkins hailed 
 from Australia and was reputed to be an ex-convict. In San 
 Francisco he had kept a vicious lodging house known as the 
 Uncle Sam, which he had sold in May to fellow- Australians, jMr. 
 and ]\Irs, Connolly, who had sought to change its reputation by 
 renaming it The Shipman 's Arms. It also appeared that Jenkins 
 was regarded with growing aversion even by his own comrades, 
 since Connolly had died suddenly soon after the transfer, and 
 the widow had consoled herself all too quickly by a questionable 
 intimacy with the former proprietor.^ The theft of the safe was 
 not, in itself, very serious, as it had contained but little money, 
 and had been successfully salvaged by a skilful use of oyster 
 tongs.^ But grand larceny rendered the thief liable to the death 
 penalty of the statutes of 1851, his previous bad record told 
 heavily against him, and he deliberately excited his captors to a 
 dangerous pitch of resentment by cursing them vigorously and 
 by boasting that he would quickly be rescued. In spite of all this, 
 the members of the Committee hesitated to assume the responsi- 
 bility of executioners. While they vacillated AVilliam A. Howard 
 strode forward, threw his cap on the table, faced the meeting and 
 said, briefly: ''Gentlemen, as I understand it, we came here to 
 hang somebody !"^^ The effect was electric, and the meeting 
 voted to hang Jenkins without delay. 
 
 A clergyman was summoned to confer with the condemned 
 man, who gave no sign of penitence or of apprehension. In the 
 interval that ensued William T. Coleman sought to obtain a post- 
 ponement of execution until morning, urging that it was unmanly 
 
 and the sentence of death was pronounced on the man" (MS Vigilance 
 Committees — Miscellany, 23). At the coroner's investigation Brannan swore 
 that the prisoner had a fair hearing before sixty or eighty persons, who gave 
 a unanimous verdict of guilty {Papers, 24). 
 
 8 For the affair with Mrs. Connolly, see Papers, 45, 53-57. 
 
 9Schenck, MS Statement, 37; Herald, 1851, June 11 %. 
 
 10 Farwell, MS Statement, 7. Eyckman said that even Sam Brannan 
 showed something of the white feather on this occasion (MS Statement, 4). 
 
The Committee at Work 211 
 
 to act under cover of darknes and secrecy. But the town was 
 rousing to a high pitch of excitement, and the majority feared 
 delay. Reports of the existence of a secret committee leagued 
 for the protection of society had spread like wildfire, and even 
 while the trial was in progress scores of the most prominent 
 citizens were enrolling as members.^^ It was rumored, at the 
 same time, that the rougher element was no less active, that it 
 was organizing for a rescue, and that David C. Broderick was out 
 with all his strength to oppose any illegal steps that the Com- 
 mittee might contemplate.^^ 
 
 The Reverend Flavel S. Mines, rector of Trinity Church, 
 presently arrived and was closeted long with the vindictive pris- 
 oner—so long that Ryckman finally intervened. ''Mr. Mines," 
 he said, ''You have taken about three quarters of an hour, and I 
 want you to bring this prayer business to a rapid close. I am 
 going to hang this man in half an hour!"^^ The clergyman 
 reluctantly withdrew, admitting that Jenkins was incorrigible,^^ 
 and :SIy, Ryckman encountered no further hindrances in the 
 prosecution of his duties. A fair criticism of this first execution 
 was made by him, much later, when he said:^^ "Every man who 
 was convicted and sentenced to death signed his own confession, 
 except Jenkins, who was somewhat hastily disposed of. ' ' 
 
 It is very evident that there was haste and excitement and 
 violent resentment against the defiant, surly attitude of the 
 prisoner. Even Coleman was at last so antagonized by his insults 
 that he no longer opposed immediate execution, and consented 
 
 11 Coleman, MS Statement, 19-20; and his ''San Francisco Vigilance 
 Committees," Century, XLIII (1891), 136. Schenck said that over eighty 
 joined during the evening (MS Statement, 36). 
 
 12 Kyckman, MS Statement, 2. 
 
 13 Ryckman, MS Statement, 2. 
 
 14 See Papers, 309. When Jenkins was convinced that his fate was 
 sealed, he asked only for a drink of liquor and a cigar, accepted these 
 small favors coolly, and met his death without further protest (Herald, 
 1851, June 11 %). 
 
 15 Ryckman, MS Statement, 9. 
 
212 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 to serve with Wakeman, Schenck and probabl}^ James F. Curtis, 
 as a subcommittee to make ready for the hanging.^® He said of 
 the final decision : 
 
 The very circumstances of this crime having been committed in the 
 teeth and at the moment of our organization, and in defiance of it, the 
 defiant position of the prisoner, and the advices we had of threatened and 
 certain resistance, not by law officers, but the abandoned criminals, — all 
 tended to resolve the Committee to the most prompt action, and to the 
 severest punishment of Jenkins. 
 
 While the majority of the Committee advocated summary 
 action lest delay might defeat their plans, they felt that it wa^ 
 necessary to ascertain whether or not the community at large 
 would support them in their self -assumed office. Sam Brannan, 
 therefore, was appointed to address the men without, and to ask 
 for an expression of their sentiments.^^ The events of the even- 
 ing were thenceforth shifted to the open streets, and we can find 
 full reports in the contemporary newspapers/^ 
 
 At a quarter before one o 'clock Brannan mounted a sand dune 
 near the place of trial, the crowd closed in about him, and he 
 told them of the formation of the Committee, the arrest of 
 Jenkins, and his trial for grand larceny. He recounted the 
 nature of the evidence, the clear proof of guilt, the conviction, 
 and the sentence of death within an hour on the public square. 
 Then he demanded that his auditors declare whether or not this 
 action should be approved. The response was a tumultous cry of 
 * 'Yes ! ' ' mingled with cheers and some dissenting ' ' Noes ! ' ' Next 
 came a voice from below : ' ' Who is the speaker ? ' ' Mr. Brannan 
 was named — and no name was more familiar than his. Another 
 voice: ''Who are the Committee?" But the prudent and 
 
 16 Coleman, MS Statement, 21 ; Schenck, MS Statement, 39 ; Wakeman, 
 Log, 139. 
 
 17 Wadsworth accompanied him (MS Vigilance Committees — Miscellany, 
 24). 
 
 18 Especially in the Herald, 1851, June 11, and in the evidence before the 
 coroner's inquest, printed in the newspapers and in the Papers, 14-27. 
 
A 
 
 '7 
 
 -^Y/"/^'^-^^'-^^ 
 
The Cow/mittee at Work 213 
 
 sympathetic assemblage raised a warning cry : ' ' No names ! no 
 names ! ' ' and then divided, some hurrying to the Plaza to watch 
 developments there, and some remaining behind to await the 
 appearance of Jenkins. 
 
 A little before two o 'clock the Committee came from the- build- 
 ing. The handcuffed prisoner and two guards walked within a 
 circle of rope held by a watchful cordon. The rest of the Vigi- 
 lantes surrounded them in solid ranks. All were armed, and little 
 George Ward marched valiantly behind the towering Australian, 
 flourishing his pistol and announcing that at the first hint of 
 resistance he would shoot to kill.^^ While the bells of the engine 
 companies tolled a heavy dirge, the orderly procession moved 
 through Sansome Street to California, thence to Montgomery 
 and to Clay, and so towards Portsmouth Square. At Clay and 
 Kearny streets a hostile group vainly attempted a rescue. The 
 police also appeared, but faltered before the drawn pistols of the 
 committeemen, and the Vigilantes swept irresistibly forward into 
 the open Plaza. The subcommittee had arranged for the execu- 
 tion on the porch of the Old Adobe. Before that point was 
 reached another hand rigged a block on the liberty pole, and the 
 crowd was diverted in that direction, but a horrified cry of protest 
 warned the hangmen from this unfitting gallows. The moments 
 that followed were vividly described by Shenck r*^ 
 
 While some one was taking down tlie block, a rush was made by some 
 of the friends of Jenkins, who attempted to rescue him. They got hold 
 of his legs under the rope and pulled him down while the rope was being 
 put around the beam of the old adobe building at the corner of the Plaza, 
 the old Custom House. The other party pulled the rope, and he was 
 really strangled before he was raised up. He was dragged from the 
 Liberty Pole to the adobe building with the rope around his neck, a dis- 
 tance of about 125 feet, while his friends were hanging on to his legs, 
 and he was really killed before he reached the latter place. 
 
 19 Bluxome, MS Statement, 10. 
 
 20 Schenck, MS Statement, 39. The attempted rescue was described at 
 the inquest, and by Coleman (MS Statement, 22). 
 
214 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 It is a grewsonie picture, showing a frenzied struggle in which 
 the members of the Committee triumphed only through their 
 physical ability to hold off the opposing forces at the point of the 
 pistol. At the last crucial moment, in strange contradiction to 
 the spirit of the hour, Sam Brannan called out : ' ' Every lover of 
 liberty and good order lay hold of the rope ! ' ' and as many men 
 as could do so put their hands to the tackle that lifted Jenkins to 
 his death. 2^ With grim determination they held him there till life 
 was absolutely extinct, while fitful moonlight pierced the drifting 
 fog, and about the Plaza gleamed the lights of the gambling halls, 
 where the games ran on, unchecked by the tragedy of the sterner 
 game without.^^ 
 
 Bluxome, Ward, and perhaps others, stood guard over the 
 body till morning. Then came Edward Gallagher, coroner, who 
 cut it down and straightway impaneled a jury to make official 
 inquiry into the cause of this violent death. Full reports of the 
 testimony were printed in the San Francisco papers. As in the 
 case of Lewis, transcripts of the evidence are preserved among 
 the documents of the Committee. A few scraps of paper appear 
 to be original records of the actual discussions of the jury in 
 arriving at a verdict, and point to a very close connection between 
 that body and some member of the Committee itself. 
 
 Among the manuscripts in the Bancroft Library is a dictation 
 by A. M. Comstock, one of the jury, who said that at first there 
 was great difficulty in determining anything respecting the cause 
 of death, many witnesses refusing to give answers that might 
 incriminate them, and others finding it impossible to identify 
 
 21 T. J. L. Smiley, MS Statement, 1877, p. 1. 
 
 22 A vivid picture of this scene is given in a MS entitled The Vigilance 
 Committee of San Francisco, 1851, by T. G. Gary, now in the possession of 
 Harvard University Library. Gary was not a member of the Gommittee. 
 He watched the execution from the steps of the the Old Adobe, but remarked 
 no appearance of riot. See also his ''First San Francisco Vigilance Gom- 
 mittee," Internatiojial Eeview, XI (1881), 78-88; Edward Bosqui, Memoirs, 
 1904, pp. 55-56; illustration in Annals, 343. 
 
i 
 
 The Committee at Work 215 
 
 more than one or two of the chief actors-.-^ Members of the police 
 force testified as to the attempted rescue, and the violence with 
 which it was repulsed. All were reluctant to name the citizens 
 implicated, and Officer Noyce swore that he feared for his own 
 life if he should tell what he had seen. The Herald stated that 
 the court was cleared at his request even of reporters. Little of 
 his evidence w^as printed, but the testimony in the Vigilance 
 Committee Papers includes a fuller statement, although it does 
 not mention the clearing of the room. It is thus evident that the 
 Committee learned exactly what happened behind the closed doors 
 of the court, and had immediate knowledge of the very facts the 
 timid witness feared to divulge.-* 
 
 Hall McAllister testified that he had watched people entering 
 Brannan's office after whispering a pass word to a guard at the 
 door. He gave the names of several whom he recognized there 
 and on the Plaza, but he asserted that he neither assisted in the 
 trial, nor sympathized with those who held the rope. Broderick 
 also identified several participants in the night's work, and 
 related his own attempt to frustrate their efforts. Ira Cole, one 
 of Broderick 's follow^ers, stated that a third of the crowd was in 
 favor of releasing the prisoner. That significant sentence was 
 omitted from the Committee's transcript of evidence. Unim- 
 portant testimony was given by five or six other citizens and by 
 some half dozen members of the Committee, although most of the 
 latter exhibited signs of partial or complete amnesia concerning 
 the events in which they had been so actively engaged. 
 
 The inquiry occupied parts of three days. During its progress 
 it became more and more certain that the community was pre- 
 pared to give hearty support to the executioners of Jenkins. 
 Secrecy, therefore, was less vital to the committeemen, and on 
 the second day of the inquest Sam Brannan divulged more 
 
 23 Comstock, in MS Vigilance Committees — Miscellany, 38-39. 
 ^'i Papers, 18-20. 
 
216 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 information than any member had previously been willing to 
 vouchsafe. He acknowledged the existence of the Committee, and 
 its instrumentality in the trial and the lynching, but he still 
 refused to give any names on the ground that threats had been 
 made against the lives of those involved. But names were soon 
 given. The papers of June 13 printed an official announcement 
 of the organization and purposes of the Committee of Vigilance 
 signed by the first hundred and eighty members, who informed 
 the public that they were all equally responsible for the execu- 
 tion of Jenkins. The constitution was printed in full, and the 
 citizens at large were invited to join the association, and to 
 assist in establishing good order in San Francisco. ^^ At the 
 inquest on the same day James C. Ward and F. A. Woodworth 
 frankly avowed their connection with the Committee and swore 
 that Jenkins had a full and fair trial and was justly condemned. 
 Early in'the afternoon of June 13, the jury returned the fol- 
 lowing verdict : 
 
 We, the Jurors of a Jury of Inquest empanelled by the Coroner of 
 the county of San Francisco to inquire into the cause of the death of one 
 John Jenkins, alias Simpton,26 do find upon their oaths that the said 
 Jenkins alias Simpton, came to his death on the morning of the 11th of 
 June, between the hours of two and three o'clock, by violent means, by 
 strangulation, caused by being suspended by the neck with a rope 
 attached to the [south] end of the adobe building on the Plaza, at the 
 hands of, and in pursuance of a preconceived action on the part of an 
 association of citizens, styling themselves a Committee of Vigilance, of 
 whom the following members are implicated by direct testimony, to wit: 
 Capt. Edgar Wakeman, W. M. H. Jones, James C. Ward, Edward A. King, 
 T. K. Battelle, Benj. Eeynolds, J. S. Eagan, J. C. Derby, and Samuel 
 Brannan; and the following members by their voluntary avowal of par- 
 ticipation in the act: (Here follows a list of members of the Vigilance 
 Committee published yesterday morning.) A unanimous verdict. 
 
 T. M. Leavenworth, Foreman. 
 
 25 See infra, p. 459. 
 
 26 See Papers, 72 note 2. 
 
The Comnvittee at Work 217 
 
 The verdict appeared in the papers of the fourteenth, which 
 also informed the public, over the same signatures that had been 
 attached to the Vigilante communications of the previous day, 
 that the Committee had 
 
 Besolved, That we, members of the Vigilance Committee, remark with 
 surprise the invidious verdict rendered by the Coroner 's Jury after their 
 inquest upon the body of Jenkins, alias Simpton, after we have all notified 
 the said jury and the public that we were all participators in the trial and 
 execution of said Jenkins. We desire that the public will understand that 
 Capt. E. Wakeman, W. H. Jones, James C. Ward, Edward A. King, T. K. 
 Battelle, Benj. Reynolds, J. S. Eagan, J. C. Derby and Samuel Brannan, 
 have been unnecessarily picked from our numbers, as the Coroner's jury 
 have had full evidence of the fact, that all the undersigned have been 
 equally implicated, and are equally responsible with their above named 
 associates. 
 
 The members of the Committee thus kept their pledge to 
 'defend and sustain each other in carrying out the determined 
 action of the Committee at the hazard of their lives and for- 
 tunes." In this case the hazard incurred was not great. The 
 ruling of Judge Parsons in the case of Lewis had prevented any 
 session of the grand jury until the month of July, and there was 
 no way in which the lynching could be brought promptly to the 
 attention of the higher courts. Meanwhile the newspapers united 
 in approving the work of the Committee, in condemning the 
 verdict, and in pointing out the absurdity of prosecuting such a 
 large number of the most prominent and respectable citizens. 
 The general sentiment is w^ell exemplified by the following excerpt 
 from the Courier r'^ 
 
 All laws are based upon the law of nature and when they are incapable 
 either from positive imperfection or from an inefficient administration of 
 them to protect our lives and property from the assassin and robber, the 
 people, from whom all power is derived, have the indefeasible right to 
 
 27 California Courier, 1851, June 14 %. Similar expressions were printed 
 in the Herald and the Alta, June 11-14. Two clergymen, Mr. Wheeler and 
 Timothy D. Hunt, preached sermons approving the execution {Courier, June 
 28 %). Hunt's address was printed in pamphlet form. 
 
218 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 fall back upon the first principles of government, and do all that may 
 be necessary and proper to protect their lives and property. This right 
 was asserted by our ancestors, and it is a doctrine peculiar to republicans. 
 The people have done the deed complained of and are ready to shoulder 
 the consequences. 
 
 Just at this time a committee representing the grand jury 
 which Judge Parsons had declared illegal published a statement 
 dealing with the condition of the local courts, the constant post- 
 ponements of trials, the consequent escape of criminals, and the 
 serious danger of a situation which for so long deprived the 
 city of a legal body competent to take cognizance of felonies. 
 This report was cited by the Herald as furnishing ' ' a key to the 
 enigma, why our most respectable citizens should be found at 
 dead of night hanging a man with their own hands for larceny. ' '-^ 
 
 While the press of the city and the public in general accepted 
 the Committee with approval, it was bitterly opposed by Brod- 
 erick. As Ryckman remarked, he ' ' was out with all his strength ' ' 
 on the night of the hanging, and aided Jenkins' friends in their 
 efforts to effect a rescue. Bluxome said r^ 
 
 Although we were all friends to Broderick, he was against us as the 
 Vigilance Committee; he did not think the people should take the law 
 into their own hands. ... I had nothing to say against Broderick in his 
 position, because his theory was good enough, but there is a time when 
 men should take the law into their own hands. 
 
 Broderick 's evidence before the coroner's jury, as printed in 
 the Herald, characterized the Committee as ''very bad men."^^ 
 He reiterated his convictions more forcibly in the course of a 
 mass meeting held on the Plaza on the Thursday following the 
 lynching. This was an adjournment from a meeting of "Wednes- 
 day, when a crowd without any particular object or leader 
 
 28 Report and editorial, Herald, 1851, June 12. 
 
 29 Bluxome, MS Statement, 10. 
 
 30 Broderick stated that W. H. Jones was ' ' in favor of hanging every- 
 body not belonging to the Committee. He was very violent: he said "To 
 h — 1 with all the courts, let's take care of ourselves' " (Herald, 1851, June 
 12 %). 
 
The Committee at Work 219 
 
 boisterously commended the execution and handled with great 
 roughness Mr. H. K. W. Clark, who ventured to express his dis- 
 approval. The meeting on Thursday afternoon was one of the 
 largest that had ever been held in San Francisco. ^^ A Mr. Hoag 
 offered a series of resolutions of the most radical nature. He 
 maintained that the people had a ''right to change their laws 
 whenever they w^ere nugatory and insufficient, ' ' and he proposed 
 that they should then and there "resolve themselves back into 
 their original elements, return to a state of nature, and commence 
 again." He called for an immediate election where the people 
 might adopt new criminal regulations, and elect officials to 
 administer ''The Peoples' Law." In reporting the meeting the 
 Herald used the caption "Revolution Advocated." In a later 
 issue it spoke of Hoag's resolutions as presented in the nature 
 of a jest.^- They were not received as a jest by the attendants at 
 the mass meeting, however. Broderick forced his way to the side 
 of the chairman and made a long speech against the entire 
 proposition. When a vote was taken the division of sentiment 
 was almost equal, and the senator hotly contested a ruling in 
 favor of the adoption of the platform. Great confusion ensued, 
 and a rush was made to drag Broderick from his position. He 
 struggled fiercely to maintain his ground, while his friends were 
 "fairly leaping through the crowd to get to his assistance." In 
 the end, they seem to have held the steps of the Old Adobe against 
 all comers. Broderick put a motion of adjournment and declared 
 that it was carried, while officers of the city police, in the name 
 
 The meetings were also reported in the 
 issues of June 12 and 14. Ryckman said: ''If our small numbers had been 
 known, especially at the first, we should have been crushed by the force of 
 the opposition. A great many men were opposed to us, and Broderick 
 headed them; he was the main spring of the opposition, the head and front 
 of the law and order party, and had hosts of friends. He was active in 
 speaking against us, not only on the Plaza at the time Jenkins was hung, 
 but at the Union Hotel, at the corner of Merchant St. which was a great 
 rallying-place for politicians" (MS Statement, 5-6). 
 32 Herald, 1851, June 13 % %. 
 
220 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 of the law, commanded the crowd to disperse. Later the other 
 faction resumed control, but adjourned without further action. 
 This disorderly gathering deserves attention chiefly because 
 it was one of the few occasions w^hen public condemnation of the 
 Committee was even attempted. Broderick may have felt that 
 the moment was critical, but the crowd gave no indication of a 
 temper ripe for revolution, and it seems more likely that the 
 astute party leader hoped to check a movement that might initiate 
 reforms dangerous to his methods of political control. In that he 
 was entirely unsuccessful and apparently he then realized that 
 San Francisco was resolved to support the new Committee, and 
 that open resistance was practically useless. He was, however, 
 an outspoken antagonist of the society, and some of his adherents, 
 like Charles Duane and Ira Cole, did what they could to annoy 
 and injure the individual members. 
 
 The Committee of Vigilance was thus fully launched upon its 
 public career within a week of its initial gathering, and so strong 
 was popular sentiment in its favor that the authorities took no 
 steps to dissolve it. The verdict of the coroner's jury never 
 resulted in any indictments, and the "association of citizens 
 styling themselves the Committee of Vigilance ' ' was unhampered 
 in the prosecution of its work. Organization had progressed 
 swiftly during the hours of the first arrest and trial. The need 
 of responsible leadership was quickly realized, and sometime 
 during the evening J. C. L. "Wadsworth moved the appointment 
 of an Executive Committee,^^ which was immediately chosen. 
 While Jenkins was still in custody, Isaac Bluxome, Jr., was 
 elected to the post of secretary,^* an office which he retained 
 throughout all the activities of the Committees of 1851 and of 
 1856. 
 
 It has already been stated that the Vigilantes preserved written 
 records of their work, signed by their names or identification 
 
 33 Wadsworth, in MS Vigilance Committees — Miscellany, 23. 
 
 34 Bluxome, MS Statement, 10. 
 
The Committee at Work 221 
 
 numbers. The Minutes and Miscellaneous Papers of the San 
 Francisco Committee of Viligance fill eight hundred octavo pages, 
 and represent hours of laborious and conscientious writing on the 
 part of the officers and members. Even there the archives are not 
 completely presented, for several items are most unfortunately 
 lacking in the collection preserved in the Bancroft Library. The 
 most notable of the missing records is a book of minutes of the 
 Executive Committee from June 16 to July 4, 1851. Bancroft 
 was familiar with this volume when he wrote Popular Trihimals,^^ 
 although he incorporated in that work no significant official infor- 
 mation which is supplementary to the data on the loose sheets and 
 in the statements dictated by the members. The book of minutes 
 was never entered in the manuscript catalogue of his collection, no 
 mention of it can be found among the documents transferred to 
 the University of California, and the historian himself was unable 
 to recollect its fate when questioned about it in 1914. The other 
 missing items are not important, as they represent transcriptions 
 of original drafts which are still preserved. One is a large 
 volume in which was copied evidence concerning criminals ;^^ 
 the other is a minute book for the meetings of the General 
 Committee, which was ordered by resolution but which may never 
 have been prepared.^^ 
 
 No one can glance even casually through these unique docu- 
 ments without receiving a profound impression of the order and 
 system prevailing in the work of the Committee. They have also 
 an air of intense sincerity ; the very haste and roughness of com- 
 position preclude the idea of evidence deliberately fabricated to 
 conceal brutality or injustice, and careful comparison with the 
 contemporary press and with the law reports there published 
 
 35 Popular Tribunals, I, 242. 
 
 36 ' ' The testimony already collected fills a large volume, and has occupied 
 the exclusive attention of one man in transcribing-" {Herald, 1851, June 
 
 37 Papers, 247. 
 
 I 
 
222 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 establishes their accuracy so far as verification is now possible. 
 
 As retold from the records of its daily work, the proceedings 
 of the Committee were not impetuous or reckless, but rather 
 painstaking and cautious, both in seeking criminals and in con- 
 trolling the activities of the more impulsive members. The 
 methods adopted to accomplish these purposes are perhaps the 
 clearest indication of the spirit which animated the organization. 
 Let us therefore examine them in detail before a chronological 
 narrative is presented. 
 
 The Executive Committee created on the night of Jenkins' 
 arrest was composed of twenty members and became at once 
 the center of administration. In that smaller circle matters of 
 importance received their first consideration,^^ work was outlined, 
 prisoners were examined, and recommendations and reports were 
 prepared for submission to the General Committee. The larger 
 body ultimately enrolled 707 members.^^ It met once or twice 
 a week^^ to review the work of the Executive Committee and to 
 take action upon the final disposition of prisoners and such other 
 questions as required decision by the society as a whole. During 
 the period of greatest activity, that is, from June 26 to August 
 20, 1851, the Executive Committee met almost every day;''^ 
 sixty-two meetings are recorded b}^ minutes or roll call, with an 
 average attendance of nine, and it is probable that some meetings 
 are not registered. After the reorganization, September 17, 
 1851, there is an unbroken series of reports up to May 12, 1852, 
 showing thirty-four meetings, with an average attendance of 
 eleven out of a membership increased to forty-five. A summary 
 of the roll call is printed in the Papers. From it one can tell 
 at a glance the members who gave most unremitting attention 
 
 38 See MS Statement of Eyckman, infra, p. 460. 
 
 39 C. of v., Constitution, 3. 
 ^^ Papers, 300. 
 
 41 Papers, 62. 
 
The Committee at Work 223 
 
 to the business of the Executive Committee, and can gain an idea 
 of the magnitude of the task which they assumed. •*- 
 
 For about a month Samuel Brannan acted as president both 
 of the General and of the Executive bodies. When he resigned 
 early in July, Selim E. Woodworth was elected general presi- 
 dent, while Stephen Payran was chosen president of the Execu- 
 tive Committee,"^^ a modification of method which indicated an 
 increasing differentiation between the functions of the two 
 groups. There were also two secretaries, but only one general 
 treasurer. 
 
 The disbursement of money for incidental expenses was at 
 first in the hands of the sergeant-at-arms, who also collected 
 initiation fees, and fines; but very soon all expenditures were 
 made subject to approval by a standing Committee on Finance, 
 which authorized payments by the general treasurer only.^* 
 Another standing committee, the Committee on Qualification, was 
 created by the constitution for the supervision of the admission 
 of new members.*" 
 
 A chief of police was appointed to investigate criminal con- 
 ditions in the city and to make arrests when occasion required. 
 He was sometimes called the chief of patrol, or the chief marshal, 
 and five deputy marshals, with subordinate assistants, acted 
 under his orders.*^ AVhenever necessary a much larger number 
 were called to act on the police force.*" A separate group, 
 assigned for duty as a water police, patrolled the Bay and 
 visited vessels suspected of harboring Sydney convicts. Both 
 branches of the police reported to the Executive meetings, and 
 
 I 
 
 43 Papers, Appendix C. Bluxome attended 74 meetings, Eyckman 65, 
 
 and Payran 57. 
 
 43 See infra, p. 260. Appendix B of the Papers gives a list of officers. 
 
 ^^ Papers, 60, 91, and Index under ^'C. of V. — Finances." 
 
 45 C. of v., List of Names Approved by the Committee on Qualification, 
 
 1911. 
 
 ^(i Papers, 340, 356, and Index under ^'C. of V. — Police." 
 
 47 On June 19, the patrol Avas increased to one hundred (Papers, 58). 
 
224 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 often received instructions from that body, but on the whole they 
 were left largely to their own initiative in making their investi- 
 gations.*® 
 
 The second article in the constitution provided for a room in 
 which responsible members of the association should be in attend- 
 ance day and night under direction of the sergeant-at-arms. 
 From occasional reports it is apparent that five members were 
 constantly on guard duty, in three hour shifts, and that every 
 member was required to report daily so as to keep in touch with 
 orders that might need his attention.*^ The first headquarters 
 were in the Brannan building, on the northwest comer of San- 
 some and Bush streets. On June 17 an agreement was made by 
 which the firm of Bullitt, Patrick & Dow, and H. A. Cheever, 
 leased to five gentlemen (members of the Committee, but not so 
 nominated in the bond) the second story of a frame building on 
 the west side of Battery Street, betwen Clay and Pine.^^ 
 
 We have no accurate description of the permanent Vigilance 
 headquarters. Contemporary illustrations^^ showed that four 
 windows and two upper doorways faced the Battery Street 
 front, and the arrangement and furnishing of the interior may 
 be partially reconstructed by reference to allusions scattered 
 through the Papet^s.^^ At the head of the stairway a door opened 
 directly into a room large enough to accommodate a guard of 
 forty or more men. It is possible that this apartment was 
 sufficiently spacious to serve for the gatherings of the General 
 
 48 ' ' "VVe systematized the thing, and formed our committees for different 
 purposes. There was a water police, and other police. Captain Wakeman 
 
 was Chief of the Water Police The city was districted, and there were 
 
 committees for each district, and they patrolled the city day and night" 
 (Eyckman, MS Statement, 3-4). 
 
 49 Papers, 97, and Index under ' ' C. of V. — Headquarters — Police. ' ' 
 Form of guard duty order, 136; lists of guards, 179, 531. 
 
 50 Papers, 36, 42. 
 
 51 Annals, 562. 
 
 52 See reports on the escape of Whittaker and McKenzie, Papers, 528- 
 541; inventories, 654-656; disbursements for headquarters, 823. Kemodel- 
 ing the rooms cost about $650, furnishing them about $700. 
 
The Committee at Work 225 
 
 Committee. A sentinel stood watch over the door and members 
 were expected to identify themselves by number as they entered, 
 althoug the rule was sometimes relaxed, as for example at the 
 time of the rescue of Whittaker and :\IcKenzie.'3 Another door, 
 also guarded, led from the first room into another, where the 
 prisoners were confined. The Executive Committee met in a 
 separate chamber. This room, it is permissible to suppose, 
 boasted of the more luxurious items of furniture— the armchair 
 that cost sixty dollars, the two cushioned office chairs, the desk 
 and writing accessories. Among the other fittings were a supply 
 of smaller chairs, tables, two dozen straw mattresses, fifty-eight 
 pairs of blankets, nineteen window curtains, a copper urn, cook- 
 ing utensils, and tableware. 
 
 The earlier minutes do not indicate that there was much con- 
 flict of opinion over questions of policy. In view of the voluntary 
 service given by the members, and of their emancipation from all 
 the restraints that are imposed upon the lawful guardians of 
 society, the harmony and cooperation that made the body 
 efficient were remarkable. It is evident, however, that rival claims 
 to authority produced moments of intense friction. After one 
 such incident the Executive Committee was instructed to make a 
 clear definition of the duties of the various officers. In response 
 by-laws were framed, which dealt particularly with the responsi- 
 bilities of the chief of police and of the sergeant-at-arms. and 
 
 53 '< After the hanging of Jenkins, we had the room open day and night 
 for the admission of members. Every man was called by his number, and 
 admitted to the meetings by his number, the Sergeant at arms identifying 
 him at the door. It was a good deal like a Free Mason 's Lodge. At special 
 times, when occasion required, a password was used. If the sergeant at 
 arms was off duty at any time, the door keeper, if he did not recognize a 
 man by his number when he came to the door, would ask his name also, and 
 refer to his book" (Eyckman, MS Statement, 3). Mr. William M. Johnson, 
 a member of the Committee of 1856, informed me that in that body the 
 members were pledged never to call each other by name while inside head- 
 quarters. No such rule was enforced in 1851, for many names are attached 
 to reports and orders and embodied in the minutes. Bluxome sometimes 
 signed published notices as * ' 67, Secretary, ' ' but the full names of president 
 and secretary were occasionally appended to such papers. 
 
226 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 with their subordination to the orders of the Executive and the 
 General committees, and which provided that such orders were 
 to be issued in writing, and returned, after fulfiUment, endorsed 
 with the report of the official who had executed them.^* On 
 July 23 the by-laws were adopted by the General Committee and 
 several other important resolutions were also passed. One of 
 these imposed obedience, as in a military company, to the orders 
 of the chief of police; another required that all motions should 
 be presented in writing, and should be signed by the number of 
 the member who proposed them; wrangling and boisterous dis- 
 putes were forbidden ''after the hour of eleven P.M.," under the 
 pain of fine, and the use of liquor in the Committee rooms was 
 absolutely prohibited. ^^ 
 
 54 See Papers, 340-343, and infra, p. 278. 
 
 55 See Papers, 339-343, 397. Some resolutions were disregarded; com- 
 paratively few motions were presented in writing, if one can judge from 
 the archives, and military discipline was not enforced (Smiley, MS State- 
 ment, 5). The use of intoxicants will be considered infra, p. 367. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE RECORDS FOR JUNE 
 
 The activities of the Committee of Vigilance may conveniently 
 be grouped in three periods. 
 
 First: From the hanging of Jenkins on June 11 to the arrest 
 of James Stuart on July 1, an interval devoted to the investiga- 
 tion and apprehension of various suspicious characters who were 
 unrelated to each other except as they were common members of 
 the criminal community. 
 
 Second: From July 1 to September 16, a term which was 
 occupied with events that developed as a result of Stuart 's arrest. 
 These included the identification of the prisoner as the assailant 
 of Jansen, the murderer of Charles IMoore, and the leader of a 
 closely associated group of dangerous criminals ; Stuart 's betrayal 
 of his confederates in the course of a long and important con- 
 fession, his execution, the capture of many of his companions, 
 their trials, the execution of Whittaker and McKenzie by the 
 Committee, the deportation of others, and the trial and imprison- 
 ment of several more by due process of law. During this time 
 several of the Committee interested themselves in campaigning 
 for the election of September 3, and secured results that promised 
 improvement in the administration of local affairs. 
 
 Third: From the reorganization of the Committee on a less 
 strenuous basis, September 17, 1851, to the final cessation of its 
 activities, sometime subsequent to January, 1853. 
 
 Such a grouping affords a chronological framework into which 
 may be fitted the hundreds of separate documents in the archives 
 of the Committee. The succeeding chapters have been based 
 upon it, and their construction has further been dictated by an 
 
228 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 effort to present the more important episodes of the Committee 's 
 existence in appropriate perspective, then to collect minor and 
 picturesque incidents and to discuss certain special problems in 
 such a way that they may supplement but not confuse the main 
 course of the story. 
 
 The constitution of the Committee of Vigilance was adopted 
 on the ninth of June ; Jenkins was hanged on the eleventh, and 
 by the fourteenth the Committee was deep in systematic and 
 efficient work. 
 
 It must be remembered that its members felt that the safety 
 of the community was threatened by an organized band of 
 criminals, while the presence in the state of large numbers of 
 ex-convicts from the British penal colonies provided a fertile 
 field for the recruiting of just such a company of outlaws as was 
 pictured by the popular imagination. It was against the Aus- 
 tralian suspects, therefore, that the Committee exerted its earliest 
 and most strenuous efforts, and it is apparent that the survey 
 of criminal resorts proposed in the Alta of June 8 was adopted 
 from the start as the step of primary necessity. This is indi- 
 cated by a paper dated June 14, the first report preserved in 
 the files. These rough notes of J. L. Van Bokkelen, the chief of 
 patrol, give a kej^ to the methods that accomplished rapid and 
 effective results. The committeemen did not wait for other 
 thieves to be apprehended with their spoils, nor for complaints 
 to be lodged against suspected offenders: with methodical dili- 
 gence they divided the city into districts, and inspected one by 
 one the houses of questionable reputation. The report of the 
 fourteenth recommended that eleven such houses should be 
 watched for further information, and subsequent papers show 
 that the suggestion was followed with such thoroughness that a 
 mass of incriminating evidence was accumulated against five of 
 the proprietors mentioned.^ 
 
 1 See Tapers, 27-28, and Index under cases of Henry Beck, Thomas 
 Burns, James Hetherington, Crockstein and Ward, Jolin Morris Morgan. 
 
The Records for June 229 
 
 One suspect was Thomas Burns, from Van Diemen's Land. 
 He had been for a time host of the lodging house which, under the 
 successive titles of the Uncle Sam and the Shipman's Arms, had 
 been kept by Jenkins and sold to Mr. and i\Irs. Connolly shortly 
 before Mr. Connolly's mysterious death. A shadow still hung 
 over the place and over the widow, who had comforted herself 
 too promptly with the attentions of the unfortunate Jenkins, 
 and again, after a second bereavement, had found another pro- 
 tector — a man known as "Jim" Burns, although in some places 
 he seems to be identified with Thomas, who for a time took charge 
 of her bar, but later moved to McManus' Welcome, on North 
 Beach. His house was known to the authorities as one of the 
 worst resorts of the Sydney thieves, and he had been heavily 
 fined for keeping it open after midnight. ^ 
 
 Burns and another innkeeper, named James Hetherington, 
 were considered especially dangerous residents and the secretary 
 of the Committee was instructed to send them notices to leave 
 town within five days. There is no copy of the communication, 
 but the Herald of June 18 stated that Hetherington had appealed 
 to the authorities for protection, exhibiting a letter which read 
 somewhat as follows: 
 
 You are hereby warned to leave this city within five days. 
 
 By order of the Committee of Vigilance. 
 
 Here was a second warning issued to criminals b}^ the Vigilance 
 Committee; thieves should beware of the rope {vide Jenkins, 
 deceased!) and the furtive abettors of crime should also expect 
 punishment if they lingered within the city. Although the 
 Herald had alreadj^ urged the "Committee of Public Safety" to 
 command the criminal element to leave the state under penalty 
 of severe punishment,^ no one could anticipate how such orders 
 would be received. Some of the Committee had grave scruples 
 
 ^ Alta, 1851, June 10 %. 
 3 Herald, 1851, June 12 %. 
 
230 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 as to the wisdom of enforcing them at the risk of doing per- 
 sonal injury to men against whom there were no charges for 
 overt acts of violence. It was therefore decided that Burns, who 
 had requested an opportunity to prove his innocence, should be 
 allowed to appear in his own behalf, and that the same privilege 
 should be offered to Hetherington, who had made no response 
 to the notice.'* 
 
 Burns came to headquarters, made a long, defensive state- 
 ment, and called several witnesses to support him. The Com- 
 mittee, however, was dissatisfied with the testimony presented 
 and continued his case, but further investigation failed to clear 
 his reputation.^ 
 
 Hetherington responded to the notice by seeking protection 
 from the city recorder, and the Committee voted to place him 
 under guard until he could be shipped back to the British 
 colonies.^ It Avas stated in the papers that two or three hundred 
 Vigilantes marched in a body to North Beach, surrounded the 
 house of the offender and carried him off to their headquarters, 
 ' ' despite his remonstrances and bluster. ' ' The report added that 
 it seemed probable that such prompt and efficient action would 
 have its effect upon others who had received orders to depart, and 
 would induce them to give ready obedience to their instructions.'^ 
 
 Once in the hands of the Committee, Hetherington made a 
 .statement in which he asserted that he was an American by birth, 
 but had moved to Liverpool in childhood; that he had gone to 
 Australia when he was thirty years of age, and had returned to 
 the United States from Sydney with fellow-passengers Avho would 
 vouch for his honesty. Several of these were called in his 
 defense,^ but in the end the Committee decided that both Hether- 
 ington and Burns sheltered thieves and incendiaries, and that 
 the safety of the city demanded their deportation. 
 
 4 Papers, 41, 43-44. 7 Herald, 1851, June 21 %. 
 
 5 Papers, 45-59, 66-68. « Papers, 66-73. 
 
 6 Papers, 59. 
 
The Records for June 231 
 
 While the two landlords were under investigation, other 
 questionable characters were called npon to account for their past 
 lives and associates. George Hopkins, from Hobart Town, may 
 or may not have been an ex-convict, but his mode of life was 
 undoubtedly suspicious. After various examinations a com- 
 mittee of eleven recommended his banishment on the ground that 
 he was a ''dangerous man." Their report is printed in facsimile 
 in the documents. It is an interesting example of a case in which 
 all the members of the subcommittee assumed responsibility for 
 their action by attaching their signatures to the recommendations 
 they submitted.^ 
 
 Thomas Scott, a tailor, had crossed the Pacific in the same 
 vessel with Hetherington, and had been in irons en route for 
 theft, and assault upon the captain. There was also a rumor that 
 in San Francisco he had poisoned a man named Russel.^*^ When 
 examined by the Committee he assumed an air of great innocence, 
 protested that he did not even know the location of North Beach, 
 and was not acquainted with the ill-reputed Hetherington. The 
 evidence is briefly annotated : ' ' Here the two men were intro- 
 duced to each other, and Mr. Scott finds he knows Mr. Hether- 
 ington. ' ' That acquaintance was destined to ripen upon another 
 sea trip, undertaken at the command of the Committee of 
 Vigilance, which finally decided to send all four of these objec- 
 tionable aliens back to Australia. There may have been un- 
 recorded information that established their guilt beyond ques- 
 tion. The testimony in the documents proved little more than 
 a close alliance between the prisoners and well-known members 
 of the convict fraternity, and would not have carried conviction 
 in any court of law. 
 
 The business interests of Hetherington and Scott were liqui- 
 dated while they were in confinement, some of their personal 
 effects Avere sold, and before thev left the countrv thev sisiied 
 
 ^Papers, 130. 
 -^^ Papers, 73. 
 
232 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 receipts for the proceeds, which in each case exceeded two 
 hundred dollars. ^^ The undesirable quartette were probably 
 deported on the Crescent City which sailed for Launceston on 
 July 2. 
 
 Several other suspicious characters from Australia received 
 the attention of the Committee during June. In this connection 
 it is interesting to see how many permanent relationships had 
 originated during the trans-Pacific voyage. For example, after 
 a single trip of the Orator some thirty or more of her one hun- 
 dred and fifty passengers maintained a loose association of un- 
 savory fellowship. ^^ 
 
 When commenting upon the notices of banishment sent to 
 Burns and Hetherington, the San Francisco Herald, June 18, 
 acknoAvledged the danger of such a weapon in unscrupulous 
 hands, but expresed the belief that the Committee might be 
 trusted to exercise caution and honesty in issuing its decrees. 
 On July 1 the paper said that some one was trying to create 
 prejudice against the Committee by mailing, in its name, to men 
 of unblemished reputation forged letters reciuiring them to leave 
 town. The paper also made the positive statement that the Com- 
 mittee never dispatched notices of this kind by post, but always 
 served them by the hands of a subcommittee of three. The 
 Pacific Star of the same date aserted that only two such notices 
 had ever been issued.^^ 
 
 Only the orders to Burns and Hetherington, and another 
 order sent to one Ryan,^^ who evaded arrest, are mentioned in the 
 
 11 Papers, 151-153. 
 
 12 Papers, 63-73. Note the Eeports 62-64 as examples of the methods 
 of investigation. 
 
 13 But the Herald, 1851, June 21, %, had stated that many had ''received 
 notices to quit, and their good sense had induced them in almost every 
 instance to obey. ' ' Bancroft printed an example of such a notice, but no 
 copy is preserved in the archives, and he may have paraphrased the notice 
 given in the Herald in the case of Hetherington. See Popular Tribunals, 
 I, 260. 
 
 -^"i^ Papers, 502. 
 
The Records for June 233 
 
 minutes or the reports. It is very possible, however, that the 
 spurious letters to which the papers alluded are illustrated by a 
 document in. the files which warns Colonel James, a well-known 
 criminal lawyer, to leave the city without delay.^^ The fact that 
 the minutes made no allusion to Colonel James and that he 
 remained in town without incurring any censure from the Com- 
 mittee lends color to this supposition. 
 
 From the very first day of its existence the Committee recog- 
 nized the importance of prevention as well as of cure in handling 
 the criminal conditions that confronted the city. An attempt was 
 therefore made to check the increase of the convict colony in 
 Sydney Valley. The statute of 1850 which prohibited the im- 
 migration of criminals/^ although nominally in force, appears to 
 have been ignored, perhaps because California officials realized 
 that it was futile to attempt the exclusion of immigrants by local 
 enactments after the Supreme Court had declared that similar 
 legislation in New York and IMassachusetts was unconstitutional. 
 The Committee of Vigilance was undeterred by nice distinctions 
 between state and Federal prerogatives. Therefore when it 
 received a report that five hundred convicts were on their way to 
 San Francisco, completely organized for crime, ^' it undertook to 
 send back, on its own responsibility, those who seemed to belong 
 to a criminal class.^^ It was announced in the California Courier 
 
 ^5 Papers, 69. 
 
 16 See supra, p. 123. 
 
 17 Papers, 30. Reference to the immigration from Sydney was con- 
 stantly made in the papers, and the following quotation from the Alta, 
 1851, May 10 %, is an example: ''A vessel has arrived within a few days 
 from Sydney, without her Port clearance. This is proof she was not searched 
 
 by the Water Police before leaving Some of the passengers on this vessel 
 
 have their heads shaved, proving their infamous characters. They have 
 evidently been smuggled away from Australia and smuggled into our com- 
 munity. The authors and abettors of this outrage deserve to be lynched 
 without mercy for the villainy. Is there no authority which can look into 
 and prevent such abuse of our generosity towards other nations? .... Our 
 people must take this matter in hand." 
 
 18 The Committee also considered taking legal steps against shipmasters 
 who brought convict passengers to the state {Papers, 178, 291, 434, 440, 
 547). 
 
234 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 of June 16 that arrangements had been made with the officers of 
 the United States Revenue Department, by which the Committee 
 would have access to incoming vessels, and would be given an 
 opportunity to investigate the character of the passengers before 
 the latter were allowed to land in San Francisco. Such an 
 inspection had been made of the American bark Chief, which 
 had arrived on the fourteenth, and ''reliable persons, well 
 acquainted with residents in the colonies" were employed to 
 assist in the work of identification. The Cliicf carried no un- 
 desirable immigrants, and the only record of her inspection is 
 contained in the bill for the hire of boats which carried the 
 Vigilantes aboard.^^ 
 
 The statement that the revenue officers agreed to assist the 
 Committee in this matter is confirmed b}^ a note from Captain 
 McGowan, of the revenue cutter Polk, conveying the information 
 that the bark John Potter arrived from Sj^dney on July 2. This 
 note was directed to ''Mr. S. E. Woodworth, For 'Vigilance 
 Committee,' " an address which proves that Captain McGowan 
 desired to cooperate with the work of the Committee.-*^ 
 
 Isaac Bluxome, Jr., thus described the methods employed in 
 the examination of immigrants :^^ 
 
 The Committee sent a boat aboard every vessel that came in from 
 Australia to look for convicts. We had a list, which we got from some 
 Englishman here, of all the convict ships that went from England to 
 Australia, alphabetically arranged, extending over several years. We 
 examined all the passengers when the ship came in. They were all placed 
 forward, and called into the Cabin one by one, and questions asked as to 
 what year they arrived in Australia, and by what vessel, and so we 
 identified them, and as fast as they were examined, they were sent aft. 
 Those that were convicts we put into a boat alongside, and sent them 
 ashore to the Committee rooms until there was a vessel going to Australia, 
 when we paid their passage and sent them back. I recollect distinctly 
 one old man that I put into the boat, who was probably eighty years old. 
 
 19 Papers, 770, Voucher no. 6. 
 
 20 Papers, 136. 
 
 21 Bluxome, MS Statement, 15. The ''old man" may have been LaAv- 
 rence Higgins, sixty-nine years of age {Papers, 517). 
 
The Records for June 235 
 
 Reports are preserved which cover the examination of pas- 
 sengers on eight vessels. They have not been printed with the 
 other papers as the spelling of the names is very doubtful, and 
 the facts recorded are of a strictly personal nature.-- The fol- 
 lowing extracts, however, illustrate the nature of the question- 
 naires : 
 
 George Starbuck, Mate of Bark John Fotter. Joined ship at Sydney, 
 23 of December, 1850. Am an American, a native of Nantucket; have 
 lived in Sydney for the last 20 years — have been an overseer in an oil 
 establishment. My last emploj^er was Chas. Chapman — I have an idea 
 of the character of the passengers — and cannot say anything bad of any 
 one — have been acquainted with many of them for years. 
 
 John Carney [on board John Fotter'], born in Ireland in 1840. Ship 
 Elizabeth from Liverpool to Sydney — remained in Sydney 11 years — no 
 certificate from Consul — Mr. Carney presents certificate from the parish 
 in which he lived — countersigned at Emigrant office. 
 
 William Butt [on board Adirondaclc] — have lived in Sydney 34 years — 
 left England in Lord Elden, a convict ship — was a laborer in Sydney — was 
 a servant on Lord Elden — I know Capt. Patterson — on shore — 
 
 William Higgs [on board AdirondacTc] — An American — left London in 
 the Somersetshire for Hobart Town about 9 years ago — She was a convict 
 ship — was not a convict — has not followed the sea for eight years — has 
 been in the tanning business since that time — knows of no convicts on 
 board this ship — does not suspect any one as being a convict. Has a wife 
 and three children on board — first came to Sydney in the Planter a 
 convict ship (Doubtful). 
 
 Thomas Jones [on board Mary Catherine] — An Englishman — left 
 England in 1838 — in ship Parle field for Sydney — a convict ship — was a 
 servant on board — was a prisoner on board. 
 
 Emma Jones [on board Mary Catherine] — An Englishwoman — left Eng. 
 in 1837 — in ship John BenwicTc for Sydney — a convict ship for females — 
 was a prisoner. 
 
 General Andrew Jackson [on board Mary Catherine], an American, 
 from Honolulu. 
 
 22 The lists are summarized in the Papers, Appendix H. See also the 
 Index under ' ' Passengers examined by the C. of V. ' ' Four other vessels 
 arrived from the British colonies betAveen June 8 and Sept. 17, 1851 ; the 
 Sacramento on July 2, with 3 passengers; the Marmion, July 20, Avith 13; 
 the Bosalind, July 23, AAdth 8; the Titan, August 15, with 3; the Barette, 
 August 22, with 5. They are not mentioned in the records of the Committee. 
 
236 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 All the vessels inspected by the Committee were reported in the 
 marine news under the date of their arrival at San Francisco, 
 with mention in nearly every case of the number of passengers. 
 Since it is possible thus to check the reports of the Conunittee 
 by the records in the daily papers, it seems safe to conclude that 
 the former are fairly accurate when they give the total number 
 of passengers examined as 495 out of about 865 arrivals.^^ Of 
 those examined some 25 were under suspicion as ex-convicts, but 
 only 7 are on record as having been sent back to Sydney.^* 
 
 The varied activities of the water police can best be estimated 
 from a study of the bills presented on their account, as their 
 chief, Captain Edgar Wakeman, submitted few reports of his 
 proceedings. Writing of his connection with the Committee he 
 said :^^ 
 
 Of course, I joined the Vigilance Committee, and acted as sheriff at 
 the hanging of Jenkins and Stewart. I have stood many and many a 
 night's watch in the streets of San Francisco, and at one time had a 
 large fleet of boats afloat on the Bay. At this time, I was sometimes 
 called the Emperor of the Port, as all vessels coming in or going out 
 were under my orders and subject to my inspection, the revenue cutter 
 Folic being especially at my orders. 
 
 His accounts for June show an almost continuous service. 
 There was a trip to Angel Island-^ prior to June 19, conducted 
 by ten committeemen, in search of deposits of stolen merchandise. 
 Another trip was made to the Farallones, outside the Golden 
 Gate, apparently on the order of the Committee, but for pur- 
 poses unnamed in any report. ^^ AVakeman's Log tells of a launch 
 party to those islands at about that time, but it gives no hint of 
 his particular errand. ^^ 
 
 23 These figures include the 15 passengers on the Chief reported in the 
 California Courier, but not noted in the files of the Committee. 
 
 24 Alderson, William Barclay, Richard Garland, Thomas and Mary 
 
 Jones, Roach, Alexander Wright. 
 
 25 Wakeman, Log, 139. 27 Papers, 209, 771 Voucher no. 4. 
 
 2G Tapers, 769 Voucher no. 4. 28 Wakeman, Log, 168-169. 
 
The Records for June 237 
 
 On July 31, 1851, Captain Wakeman assumed command of 
 the passenger steamer Independence. His departure from San 
 Francisco on his initial voyage to Panama was marked by the 
 presentation of a large banner of crimson satin, made by the 
 ladies of the city and emblazoned with the words "Vigilance" 
 and ''Eureka." The flag was given into his hands by F. A. 
 Woodworth, and the occasion was considered a public acknowl- 
 edgment of Wakeman 's services to the community in connection 
 wdth the Committee of Vigilance. The thanks of the association 
 were conveyed to him in a letter very characteristic of Stephen 
 Payran, who reviewed Wakeman 's efforts to rescue the city from 
 arson, murder, and burglary, and w^ished the bluff old salt a 
 ''long and prosperous life and in the end a safe anchorage in 
 the Haven of Eternal rest. "^^ W. H. Clark, who succeeded to 
 the post of chief of the w^ater police, did his work so zealously 
 that he brought upon himself censure for extravagance and an 
 admonition to exercise greater caution in future. ^^ 
 
 The constitution of the Committee of Vigilance declared that 
 the members were determined to see to it that criminals no longer 
 escaped punishment by the "quibbles of the law." In order to 
 accomplish this purpose intelligently they kept themselves con- 
 stantly informed of the proceedings in the local courts. In one 
 of the first days of his presidential term Sam Brannan wrote 
 directly to Alexander Campbell, presiding justice of the Court 
 of Sessions, and asked information relative to the effect of the 
 recent revision of the criminal statutes. Judge Campbell replied 
 in a courteous letter, dated June 17. He made no reference to 
 Brannan 's connection with the Committee of Vigilance, but 
 assured him that the Court of Sessions would make every effort 
 possible to expedite trials and to administer justice. ^^ 
 
 ^^ Papers, 395-396; Wakeman, Log, 170; Herald, 1851, August 1 %. 
 
 30 Papers, 363 377, 824. 
 
 31 Papers, 38-39. 
 
238 Vigilance Comynittee of 1851 
 
 The Committee watched with interest several cases which 
 occupied the attention of the courts during the last fortnight of 
 June. When Thomas Yates, or Wood, was arrested by the city 
 police on suspicion of robbery . and murder, Van Bokkelen im- 
 mediately reported the case to the Committee. It was followed 
 with attention in the hope that the evidence might assist in the 
 discovery of the men who had stolen a large quantity of jewelry 
 from a merchant named Robert. The Committee ultimately 
 obtained information as to the identity of those thieves, but it 
 was unable to recover the plunder.^^ 
 
 The Committee also took cognizance of charges of murder 
 lodged against George Spires and Richard Hall, who were accused 
 of poisoning Frank Brewer, and who, like Lewis, were awaiting 
 investigation by the grand jury to be impaneled in July. Dr. 
 M. P. Burns, a physician entrusted with the post-mortem analysis, 
 was a member of the Committee. A copy of his report was sub- 
 mitted to that body two days before it was made public in the 
 Alta California of June 18."^ The archives frequently refer to 
 **The Brewer Case," although its conduct was left entirely to 
 the courts. Both men were finally discharged. 
 
 The chief of the Vigilante police had a watchful eye for 
 suspicious actions, wherever they might be observed. During 
 the evening of June 15 Mr. Thomas Belcher Kay, late of Sydney 
 and recently warden of the port of San Francisco,^"* was seen on 
 Powell Street in conference with a man who seemed to be under 
 the influence of liquor. Kay became so uneavSy when aware of 
 surveillance that Van Bokkelen made a special report on the 
 matter.^^ His intuitions were fully justified by later revelations, 
 which showed that the ex-warden was one of the most un- 
 scrupulous members of the Sydney gang. His successful attempts 
 
 32 Papers, 31 note 4. 
 
 33 Papers, 33-34. 
 
 34 Kay's resignation was noted in the Herald, 1851, May 15 %. 
 ^^ Papers, 32, 232 note 26. See also infra, p. 282. 
 
The Records for June 239 
 
 to evade arrest by the Committee furnished an interesting episode 
 in the records for July. 
 
 It has been said that few attempts were made to express public 
 condemnation of the Committee of Vigilance. It is certain, how- 
 ever, that an element in the city was anxious to find an oppor- 
 tunity to register its disapproval. On June 17 a handbill was 
 distributed which called upon the lovers of law and order to meet 
 on the Plaza on June 22 and take steps to suppress the ^'secret 
 inquisition ' ' and the ' ' midnight murderers ' ' that were disgracing 
 the city.^^ The Committee investigated the origin of this broad- 
 side, found that it had been printed at the office of the Sunday 
 Dispatch, that the original manuscript was signed by William 
 French and George Stephens, and that the mayor in person had 
 prohibited its further distribution,^^ 
 
 The meeting sumoned so passionately was never held. On 
 Sunday, June 22, the citizens of San Francisco were struggling 
 to check the ravages of another disastrous fire. The blaze started 
 in the morning, at the corner of Pacific and Powell streets, and 
 spread fiercely to the east and south, laying waste the whole, or 
 parts, of sixteen blocks of buildings, and destroying property 
 valued at three million dollars. 
 
 The Annals called the fire ''unquestionably incendiary "^^ and 
 it was so regarded at the moment. The crowds that swept 
 through the scorching streets were ready for furious vengeance 
 upon any one even suspected of the crime, and two men were 
 beaten to death by mobs on suspicion of robbery and incendiar- 
 ism.^'' A like fate threatened Captain Harris, master of the bark 
 
 36 See infra, p. 460. 
 
 37 Papers, 37-38, 58. It was intimated in the California Courier, June 
 19, that Broderick was instrumental in this publication, but the statement 
 was retracted in the next issue. 
 
 38 Annals, 345, 611. 
 
 3^ Herald, 1851, June 24 %. Two men were also shot by the police for 
 looting. Saint-Amant, who arrived shortly after this, found the city greatly 
 in dread of another fire (Voyages, 12-^125). 
 
240 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Timandra, from Sydney, who indulged in such a violent dispute 
 over the method that should be adopted to extinguish a blazing 
 tar barrel that he was charged with an attempt to spread the fire. 
 It was in vain that he protested his innocence — his Sydney coi}- 
 nection was all to his discredit — and an angry mob began to 
 raise cries of ''Hang him!" and to look about for a convenient 
 scaffold. Realizing his peril, Harris shouted aloud the names of 
 the agents of his vessel, Messrs. Davidson and Argenti, the latter 
 a member of the Committee of Vigilance. Other Vigilantes, 
 heeding this call, rushed to the captain's aid, and claimed the 
 right to remove him under arrest to headquarters. A hand-to- 
 hand tussle ensued ; the prisoner was badly bruised, his clothing 
 was torn and his valuables were lost, but in the end a rescue 
 was effected. Harris was glad enough to spend the night under 
 safe shelter, and grew so friendly with his pseudo jailers that he 
 signed the roll of members as number 468. The irregularity of 
 that proceeding is indicated by the annotations ''Discharged" 
 and "Not a member."*^ 
 
 This episode of Captain Harris has scant mention in the 
 papers of the Committee. Theodore Dahlgren, later under arrest, 
 spoke of his efforts to assist at the rescue, and of the subsequent 
 charge that he took advantage of the opportunity to pilfer a watch 
 from the gentleman's pocket; and on July 14 there was filed a 
 letter in which Harris claimed indemnity for the lost article."*^ 
 These allusions, however, are fully explained by reference to the 
 Sydney (N.S.W.) Morning Herald, for the shipmaster returned 
 to his home port seething with indignation at his treatment in 
 San Francisco, and published a long letter on September 1 in 
 which he accused the Committee of inciting the mob and of 
 making the arrest in the hope of effecting a popular execution — 
 a crime which motives of prudence alone prevented. He branded 
 
 40 Papers, 41. 
 
 41 Papers, 147, 279, 280. 
 
i 
 
 The Records for June 241 
 
 the members of the Committee as ''bloodhounds" who ''under 
 the spurious name of Liberty and Order, roam continually in the 
 good work of exterminating the Australian ' ' ; accused them of 
 the loss of his valuable watch; and warned his countrymen to 
 avoid the dangers of a sojourn on the California Coast. He 
 further protested that the press of the state was so in fear of the 
 influence of the Committee that no paper would publish the facts 
 in his case. He especially blamed the editor of the Alta Cali- 
 fornia for refusing to print a letter on the subject sent to him 
 immediately after the fire. 
 
 Many of the papers published in Australia at this time 
 reflected great indignation at the acts of the Vigilance Com- 
 mittee, hurled against them "tirades of abuse and slander,"^- 
 and denounced them as exhibitions of race hatred and jealousy 
 against foreigners. That severe judgment was somewhat softened 
 upon further information and several friendly articles were 
 printed. On November 8 the Sydney Herald gave space to a 
 long communication from Thomas Hinigan, a Sj^dney resident 
 who had been in San Francisco for some eighteen months, during 
 which time he had acted as marine reporter for one of the daily 
 papers. Hinigan substantiated the main facts of the captain's 
 story, but pointed out that the Committee actually rescued the 
 prisoner from a mob that was on the point of Ij^nching him. He 
 especially refuted the statement that the press feared to offend 
 the Committee of Vigilance, and said that the Alia was so 
 reduced in size after the fire that it had space for only a brief 
 paragraph regretting the unfortunate episode. ^^ Hinigan 
 returned to San Francisco not long afterwards and offered his 
 aid to the Committee in a letter that gave interesting comments 
 on the public sentiments current in Sydney.^* 
 
 ^2 Papers, 746. 
 
 43 This notice appeared in the Alta, 1851, June 26 % (Steamer Edition). 
 
 4=^ Papers, 746-747. The Alta, 1851, Oct. 5 %, quoted from the People's 
 Advocate, of Sydney, a letter in which W. M. Curtayne strongly commended 
 the work of the Committee. 
 
242 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 The Sunday of the fire was a busy day for the Committee. 
 Such squads as the one that rescued Captain Harris patrolled the 
 streets constantly, on the watch for incendiaries and for thieves. 
 "While none of the former was detected, at least nine men were 
 brought to headquarters charged with the possession of stolen 
 goods.^^ All of these except one Mexican succeeded in establish- 
 ing their innocence and were discharged. The single conviction*^ 
 was followed by a public flogging of twenty-five lashes, mentioned 
 with approval in the papers of June 25. The chastisement was 
 not severe, as the knots on the cat had been removed. So far as 
 the official records or the newspapers report, this was the only 
 corporal punishment inflicted by the Committee of Vigilance of 
 San Francisco.*^ Emphasis should be laid on the difference 
 between this fact and the popular imagination, which sometimes 
 presents the Vigilantes of San Francisco as the administrators of 
 merciless flagellations. Even Bancroft asserted that ''many 
 were publicly whipped,"*^ but his statement is not corroborated 
 by the records or by the daily papers. 
 
 While some of the Committee guarded the burning city on 
 that Sunday in June, the water police watched the Bay for boats 
 loaded with stolen plunder. One of the patrols tried to over- 
 haul Captain Hammer, of the Medora, who was returning to his 
 vessel after the excitements of the day. He indignantly refused 
 to lie to, and the occupants of the two boats indulged in a 
 struggle which threatened serious consequences before the cooler 
 heads among them could restore peace. *^ 
 
 Two other incidents of June 22 must be noted. On that night 
 a man named Samuel Gallagher stabbed to death one Lewis 
 Pollock in a quarrel over an inmate of a vicious resort. Gallagher 
 
 45 See Papers, 74-83. 
 
 46 Papers, 75-76. 
 
 47 A report on the case of Antonio Barsallio, arrested at this time, recom- 
 mended a whipping, but it was annotated ''Discharged" {Papers, 82). 
 
 '^^ Popular Tribunals, I, 260. 
 ^^ Papers, 79-81. 
 
The Records for June 243 
 
 was immediately taken to Vigilance headquarters, but the Com- 
 mittee refused to assume jurisdiction over crimes of sudden 
 passion, and the man was transferred to the city police before 
 morning. The only allusion to the incident in the records is in 
 an unimportant letter, but it was reported in the newspapers. It 
 is of interest as an example of the Committee's policy of leaving 
 the punishment of such offenses to the regular authorities.^'^ 
 
 So far, the test of an exciting catastrophe had proved the 
 Vigilantes to be men of calm judgment and self-control. They 
 had inflicted no hasty discipline, shot no looters, and lynched no 
 murderer, although the infectious spirit of violence was rife in 
 the city. Yet that night, in an action comparatively trivial, they 
 involved themselves in difficulties which permanently hampered 
 their work and did much towards disrupting the ties that bound 
 them together in a harmonious organization. 
 
 In a brief note, dated June 22, Felix Argenti, an Italian 
 banker, complained that a man named IMetcalf had purloined 
 and secreted valuables which he had been hired to remove from 
 the house of an unnamed "lady."^^ The plaintiff, known as 
 Angelina Duclos, was the close friend and the reputed mistress of 
 Argenti, whose name had been so potent to rescue Captain Harris 
 early in the day.^^ Argenti 's friends rallied with equal staunch- 
 ness to the aid of this second protege. On the same night a party 
 of ten or twelve accompanied her to the home of Metcalf , forcibly 
 entered his house, threatened violence if resisted, and searched 
 for the missing property even among the personal effects of his 
 wife and daughter, who were roused from sleep to submit to the 
 investigation. Several articles were claimed and appropriated 
 
 50 Four Vi^lantes served on the jury that later convicted Gallagher of 
 manslaughter. He was quickly pardoned by the governor. See Papers, 219 ; 
 Alta, 1851, June 23 %; Herald, June 24 2/^; Aug. 13 %; 14 %; Nov. 18 %; 
 Dec. 6 %. 
 
 51 Papers, 78. 
 
 53 The relationship was scored in the arguments in court (R. A. Lock- 
 wood, Vigilance Committee of San Francisco, 1852, p. 20). 
 
244 Yigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 by Mme. Diiclos. Metcalf retaliated by bringing action for 
 $25,000 damages against Argenti and others who participated 
 in the search, and the suit of Metcalf vs. Argenti et al. became 
 one of the standing vexations during the entire period covered 
 by the activities of the Committee.^^ At the beginning, however, 
 the threat of actions at law in no way daunted the courage of 
 the committeemen. At a general meeting held July 5 they 
 passed a resolution authorizing the publication of a notice in 
 which they claimed the right to enter any premises where they 
 had good reason to believe that they should find incriminating 
 evidence '^ — and further, deeming ourselves engaged in a good 
 and just cause — we intend to maintain it."^* 
 
 Statements made at a later time indicated that the resolution 
 did not reflect the sentiments of a majority of the Committee,^^ 
 but the course it advocated was a logical outcome of the whole 
 spirit . of the Vigilance organization. The frankness of the 
 avowal only emphasized anew the conflict between the claims of 
 that self-appointed body and the ideals of American liberty. The 
 announcement did not pass without challenge. Mayor Brenham, 
 in an open letter to the citizens of San Francisco, ^*^ specified 
 among other wrongs laid at the door of the Committee that: 
 ' ' They claim and exercise the right of domiciliary visits, without 
 any accountability, of a character not known under any other 
 than inquisitorial governments." Judge Campbell, on another 
 occasion,^" in a charge to the grand jury spoke of '^unreasonable 
 searches, without color of authority." The friends of the Com- 
 mittee, however, seem to have accepted its position without fear 
 of any abuse of the license claimed, and their confidence was 
 
 53 See Papers, 156 note, and Index under ''Metcalf"; also infra, pp. 
 329, 347. 
 
 ^'^ Tapers, 178. 
 
 55 See infra, p. 330. 
 
 56 See infra, p. 271, and Brenham 's proclamation, Appendix, p. 463. 
 
 57 See infra, p. 272, and Campbell's charge. Appendix, p. 464. 
 
The Records for June 245 
 
 clearly expressed in a leading editorial of the San Francisco 
 Herald on July 17. 
 
 The Committee continued to exercise the "right of search" 
 as necessity arose, but after the Metcalf incident more prudent 
 methods were employed. Explicit instructions were issued in 
 writing, and the men detailed for such service were required 
 to return the orders with annotations showing the succCvSs or 
 failure of each mission. Most of the premises entered were lodg- 
 ing houses, where the legal rights of tenants were of small im- 
 portance to the proprietors. At least one landlord signed a 
 formal permit for the investigation.^^ No one except ]\Ietcalf 
 sued the Committee for trespass and there is no record to indicate 
 that in other instances threats of violence were employed by the 
 committeemen. 
 
 The fire of June 22 reawakened the old fears of deliberate 
 arson. Beginning June 26 and for some time thereafter the 
 Committee advertised a reward of $5000 for the capture and 
 conviction of any one guilty of such a crime. ^^ A charge for 
 posters and another for bill posting, paid at this date,*^*' lead to 
 the inference that the reward was conspicuously advertised 
 throughout the city, but it did not result in the apprehension 
 and conviction of any incendiaries. 
 
 At one time a strong suspicion of arson rested upon a Negro 
 known as Ben Robinson, who came into the hands of the Com- 
 mittee on June 30. In spite of the anti-slavery clause of the 
 state constitution, Ben lived in abject subjection to a depraved 
 white woman, IMargaret Robinson, who was in the habit of beat- 
 ing him if he disregarded her wishes. He was arrested by the 
 city police on suspicion of starting the fire of the twenty-second, 
 and confessed that he did so in obedience to IMrs. Robinson, who 
 
 58 Papers, Index under ' ' Search without warrant. ■ 
 
 59 See infra, p. 461. 
 
 60 Papers, Vouchers nos. 29, 34. 
 
246 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 had a grudge against the man in whose house the fire originated. 
 With strange negligence, he was allowed to escape from the 
 officers, but members of the Committee of Vigilance immediately 
 seized him, and took him to headquarters, where he repeated 
 his story. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson were arrested the same night. 
 When brought to the Committee rooms they made vigorous 
 denials of the charge; thereupon Ben withdrew his whole con- 
 fession and accused one of the police officers of bribing him to 
 tell the story. The Vigilantes resolved to take no action in the 
 case until they had investigated the cause of Ben's arrest and 
 discharge. The subcommittee appointed to this duty reported a 
 fortnight later that they were convinced that the whole thing 
 was a plot to incite the Committee to take hasty action against 
 Mrs. Robinson, whose evil life made credible any tale that might 
 be told about her. The report was accepted, and the Negro 
 and his mistress were discharged on or before July 12. ^^ 
 
 It was during this period of activity that the Committee 
 undertook a work of unquestioned value to the communitj^ at 
 large — the completion of the county jail already in course of con- 
 struction on Broadway between Kearny and Dupont streets. 
 The building was under the supervision of the Court of Sessions, 
 which controlled the administration of funds for county improve- 
 ment. Large sums had been expended with small results, and the 
 report of the grand jury for April contained charges of gross 
 mismanagement against the officials responsible for the conduct 
 of the work.^^ The accusations in no way implicated the sheriff, 
 Colonel Jack Hays, who had made vigorous efforts to hasten 
 completion. He had tried without much success to raise a public 
 subscription for that purpose,®^ and had finally succeeded, by 
 
 61 See Payers, Index under ' * Ben Robinson. ' ' The possibility that Mrs. 
 Eobinson might be lynched was noted with horror in the Albany Knicker- 
 locTcer (Alta, 1851, Oct. 16 %). 
 
 G2Alta, 1851, April 29 %. 
 
 QsAlta, 1851, May 20 %. 
 
The Records for June 247 
 
 the expenditure of personal funds, in preparing a part of the 
 building for occupation. 
 
 Even with this addition the prison facilities of the city were 
 still absolutely inadequate, and prisoners constantly escaped 
 from the insecure buildings in which they were confined. For 
 example, late in April eight men had broken out of the city 
 prison, among them being Windred, of the Jansen affair, and 
 George Adams and William Watkins, two notorious thieves.^* 
 Watkins and Adams were quickly rearrested, and on ^lay 6 
 Watkins made good a boast that he could escape from any jaiP^ 
 by cutting a hole in the floor and departing in company with 
 Adams and other friends known as Switzer, Welsh, and Gardner. ^^ 
 The Alia of May 9 stated that twelve or fourteen more prisoners 
 had broken from the station house, which was a wretched cellar 
 under the city hall where as many as three dozen persons were 
 tumbled together, without sanitary necessities, and fed on a 
 scanty diet of bread and water.^^ Adams, Welsh and Switzer 
 were reincarcerated and on June 2 they escaped again with six 
 others, this being the third escape made by Adams during a 
 period of six weeks.^^ Watkins was presently recaptured,^^ but 
 the others remained at large. 
 
 Such events constantly emphasized the need for a well con- 
 structed prison. The Herald of June 16 spoke of the unsatis- 
 factory progress of the work on the county jail, stated that 
 fourteen or fifteen hundred dollars were then owing to the sheriff, 
 and suggested that the Committee of Vigilance should take the 
 matter in hand. Four days later John Caperton, the under 
 sheriff of the county, invited the Committee to send a delegation 
 to examine the new building."^^ A tour of inspection followed 
 without delay. The visitors found seven cells occupied; the 
 
 e^Alta, 1851, April 24 %. es Alta, 1851, June 3 %. 
 
 65 Alta, 1851, April 29 %. 69 Alta, 1851, June 7 %. 
 
 66 Alta, 1851, May 7 %. 70 Papers, 93. 
 
248 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 largest, twelve by fourteen feet, held fourteen prisoners, and 
 the others, six by nine feet, held six each/^ The keeper's room 
 was also finished; another tier of cells needed only doors to be 
 habitable, although a part of the building was without a roof/^ 
 The subcommittee recommended the raising of funds for the com- 
 pletion of the prison and at a General Meeting on July 5 it was 
 resolved that each member should secure ten subscriptions of 
 three dollars each.'^^ 
 
 Suitable blanks were distributed within a few days,'^* and the 
 work of collection extended over a period of several weeks. In 
 the meantime a further report was made on the condition of the 
 jailJ^ This was transmitted to Sheriff Hays, as is evident from 
 the following note, which is missing from the files of the archives, 
 but may be found in Popular Trihunals :'^^ 
 
 Executive Chamber of the Committee of Vigilance, 
 San Francisco, August 11, 1851. 
 To John C. Hays, Esq., High Sheriff for the City and 
 
 County of San Francisco: 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 Permit me, on behalf of the Committee of Vigilance, to offer you the 
 annexed report, with the action thereon; and in their name I offer, with 
 the concurrence of my colleagues, the thanks of the Committee for your 
 perseverance, skill, and assiduity in bringing the affairs of our county 
 prison to so happy an issue. We regret much that you personally should 
 have suffered any pecuniary inconvenience in the prosecution of its 
 financial affairs, and earnestly hope that the pittance raised by us may 
 
 ^T^ Papers, 157-162. 
 
 72 The unroofed condition was described in the Herald, 1851, Sept. 11 
 %; 19 %. 
 
 73 Papers, 177. 
 
 74 Papers, 247 note 3. Thirty-seven sheets, containing over 300 signa- 
 tures, are preserved in the archives, but have not been printed, as the signa- 
 tures are often illegible, and the list is incomplete. 
 
 75 Papers, 347-349. 
 
 76 Popular Tribunals, 1, 401-402. The absence from the archives of 
 several documents which were printed in that volume, and pencilled annota- 
 tions upon others, indicate that Bancroft sent original papers to the printer, 
 and that some were not returned to the files. 
 
The Records for June 249 
 
 serve to carry out your sanguine expectations and subserve the public 
 safety. As a public servant we have much in you to commend, and at all 
 times as citizens will lend our aid to assist you in your legitimate course 
 of office. 
 
 May you long survive to serve the state of your adoption and receive 
 the good wishes of your fellow-citizens. 
 
 Very truly, your obedient servant, 
 
 Stephen Payran, 
 President of the Executive Committee. 
 
 The raising of the fund was not completed until September. 
 It finally amounted to about $4700, and was placed at the dis- 
 posal of Sheriff Hays, to be disbursed under his instructions by 
 the treasurer of the society. ^^ The recorder's office of San 
 Francisco still bears indirect testimony to this act of the Com- 
 mittee in two records showing that on February 6, and on March 
 30, 1852, B. D. Baxter and Sheriff J. C. Hays respectively 
 acknowledged the satisfaction of liens on the county jail."^ It 
 was proposed in the Committee that after these incumbrances 
 upon the building were released, another lien should be executed 
 in the name of the Vigilantes. In this way it was thought that 
 the Committee might be reimbursed when the jail fund should be 
 replenished from the county taxes. No record of such a lien has 
 been found."^^ 
 
 The example set by the citizens of San Francisco when they 
 banded together for mutual protection received the hearty 
 approval of many of the smaller to\^^ls. As soon as the Com- 
 mittee felt assured of the support of its local community, it made 
 a bold appeal for more extended cooperation by publishing the 
 following open letter in the papers of San Francisco r^^ 
 
 77 Papers, 622, 729, and Index under '^ County Jail of San Francisco." 
 Facsimiles of interesting documents appear in Papers, 729; Popular Trib= 
 unals, I, 307. 
 
 78 San Francisco — Recorder, General Index. 
 
 79 The lien is mentioned in the Papers, 157, 161, 602, 723, 729, 740. 
 »o Herald, and Alia, 1851, June 14. 
 
250 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 The Committee of Vigilance of San Francisco to the Citizens of Califor- 
 nia: 
 
 Should the order-loving portion of the citizens of Sacramento City, 
 Stockton, the Pueblo de San Jose, Monterey, Marysville, and all other 
 towns and cities of the State find it necessary, they are invited to form 
 themselves into Committees of Vigilance, for the purposes set forth in 
 the Constitution of the Committee of Vigilance of San Francisco. 
 
 The object of the formation of these committees is moreover for the' 
 purpose of corresponding with each other, so as to be able to mark and 
 notice the movements of all disorderly or suspicious characters. By 
 vigilance we may succeed in driving from our midst those who have 
 become so baneful and obnoxious to our communities. 
 
 By Order of the Committee. 
 
 Friday, June 13, 1851. 
 
 The suggestion met with a cordial response. Before the end 
 of June Committees were formed at Marysville, Santa Clara, and 
 Sacramento, and in other neighborhoods as the summer went on. 
 There was a constant interchange of correspondence between 
 these independent associations, and mutual help was given in the 
 detection of criminals. But the history of the out-of-town Com- 
 mittees is not an integral part of the narrative of the parent 
 society, and it is considered by itself in a subsequent chapter.^^ 
 
 In San Francisco a gratifying decrease in crime marked the 
 weeks that immediately succeeded the execution of Jenkins. No 
 doubt this was partially due to the summer movement toward 
 the mining regions. Both the Herald and the Alta credited it, 
 however, to the influence exerted by the Committee of Vigilance, 
 which by the end of June numbered between five and six hun- 
 dred members.^2 This created a large and effective force of 
 private detectives, and since the uninitiated were ignorant of 
 the extensive ramifications of the society, the rogues could never 
 tell when one of the Committee might be at their elbows.^^ With 
 
 81 See infra, p. 347 et seq. 
 
 82 Initiation fees for June were received from 477 members, and 71 
 remained delinquent (Papers, 764). 
 
 83 This fact was noted in the Herald, 1851, June 21 %. Eyckman related 
 an amusing story of the horror with which a detractor of the Committee 
 
The Records for June 251 
 
 the exception of the names that had been printed after Jenkins' 
 execution, the personnel of the association was shrouded in 
 mvsterj^ No secret, however, was made of the aims and the 
 methods adopted by the Vigilantes; the location of their head- 
 quarters was known to every one in the city, frequent notices 
 were printed of their meetings, and many proceedings were 
 reported so accurately in the leading papers that it is evident 
 the Committee desired to keep the public informed of its policies 
 and actions. ^^ 
 
 The members of the Committee were still convinced of the 
 existence in the community of some sort of organized band of 
 criminals, recruited chiefly from the Sj^dney immigrants. From 
 the investigations of the Vigilante police, and the testimony given 
 by the witnesses in the cases of Burns, Hetherington, and other 
 prisoners, they began to see definite traces of such a criminal 
 brotherhood. Names appeared which were familiar on the dockets 
 of the city courts — Adams, Beck, Edwards, Ainsworth, Ogden — 
 and all seemed to be mutual friends and common habitues of the 
 lodging houses kept by Sydney landlords. But the evidence was 
 still so detached and indefinite that no one could unravel from it 
 an}^ clue to the band of outlaws who were supposed to haunt the 
 nooks and corners of Sydne}^ Valley. 
 
 learned that the friend to whom he complained was himself a member of 
 the secret tribunal (MS Statement, 8). 
 
 84 See an excellent account of the work for June, from the Herald, infra, 
 p. 462. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 JAMES STUART, OUTLAW 
 
 With the opening of July the work of the Committee of Vigi- 
 lance suddenly assumed a new and much more definite phase 
 as a result of the capture of James Stuart, already mentioned in 
 connection with the attack on C. J. Jansen and the arrest of 
 Thomas Berdue. 
 
 This strange episode of mistaken identity seems almost 
 incredible when one reads it among the tales of the California 
 pioneers, but it loses none of its vividness when verified from 
 the documents of the Committee of Vigilance and the court 
 reports in the newspapers of the day. 
 
 Stuart, an ex-convict from Sydney who had been in Cali- 
 fornia since November, 1849,^ Avas widely and unfavorably known 
 in the criminal records of the state under the aliases of Mason, 
 Carlisle, Campbell, Long Jim, and English Jim. Early in 
 October, 1850, he was tried by Judge 0. P. Stidger, of Marys- 
 ville, for the theft of four or five thousand dollars from Dodge 
 and Company, of Poster's Bar. One attempt to lynch him was 
 frustrated by the authorities, and he succeeded in breaking jail 
 before the case was concluded.- Two months later he was in the 
 same region with two companions. As all three were out of 
 funds, they ' ' concluded that they might as well be dead as without 
 money and agreed to go up to the mountains and rob every man 
 they met, till each had $20,000. "^ The first victim was Charles 
 
 1 See his statement, Papers, 139. A story was repeated by James 
 O'Meara, who did not vouch for its truth, to the effect that Stuart, under 
 the alias of Shaw, worked in the mines in Nevada County early in 1850, 
 and honestly dispatched to England a very large sum of gold dust entrusted 
 to his care by an unsuspecting comrade (Sacramento Bee, 1881, Dec. 31, 
 p. 1). 
 
 2 Tapers, 169, 227. 3 Papers, 256. 
 
James Stuart, Outlaw 253 
 
 Moore, who was on his way to Marysville to make purchases for 
 his store in the little camp of Winslow Bar, near the larger settle- 
 ment of Foster's Bar.* The. bandits shot Moore in cold blood, 
 secured a quantity of gold, and made their escape. Although 
 Stuart's participation in the crime was generally suspected, he 
 concealed himself for a time in Sacramento, where he drove a 
 brisk trade in stolen horses and engaged in a profitable series of 
 burglaries. He was several times under arrest for larceny, but 
 was skilfully defended by Frank M. Pixley. 
 
 At one time while Stuart was confined on the prison brig La 
 Grange, residents of Marysville recognized him and charged him 
 with the murder of IMoore. About the same time other men 
 arrived from Auburn to see if the prisoner might be either of 
 two brothers named Stewart, who had killed Sheriff Echols in 
 Auburn, in June, 1850.^ With that murder Stuart had no con- 
 nection whatever, but it was sometimes charged against him, and 
 was often confused with the death of Moore, who was sometimes 
 called ' ' Sheriff Moore, " or ' ' Sheriff of Yuba. ' ' The people from 
 Marysville were so sure of their man that they set about procur- 
 ing the papers necessary for his removal. Before this could be 
 accomplished the prisoner made his escape and went by a cir- 
 cuitous route to San Francisco, where he hid in various lodging 
 houses of Sydney Valley. There he gathered to himself a band 
 of kindred spirits and directed them in a series of daring rob- 
 beries, including the assault on Jansen.*' In April he rode boldly 
 down to Monterey, where four or five of his friends were on trial 
 
 4: History of Yuba County, 94, 124; Herald, 1851, March 28 %. The 
 murder was probably in December, and a footnote on p. 137 of the Papers 
 should be corrected to that effect. 
 
 5 William and Samuel Stewart killed Echols on June 2, 1850. As the 
 sheriff had been unpopular, the justice of the peace merely admitted the 
 murderers to bail, to answer to the charge of assault with intent to kill. The 
 county judge caused the rearrest of Samuel, but as he was allowed to exer- 
 cise outside his place of confinement, he easily escaped, and neither culprit 
 was brought to justice (Sacramento Daily Transcript, 1850, Aug. 13 ^). 
 
 6 See Stuart's confession, Papers, 231-234. 
 
254 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 for robbing the Custom House of $14,000 in the previous Decem- 
 ber. Assuming the alias of James Carlisle, he appeared as a 
 witness in their behalf, and exerted himself in effective perjury. 
 When the jury disagreed and the prisoners were remanded for 
 another trial, Stuart again went to their rescue, broke open the 
 jail, and then betook himself to the southern mines. '^ 
 
 Among the documents of the Committee of Vigilance is a 
 stained and ragged sheet of letter paper, folded for mailing 
 without an envelope, and once sealed with the convenient red 
 wafer of business correspondence. Inscribed on the inner page 
 is the following message •} 
 
 San Francisco June 19th 1851 
 Old Fellow 
 
 Look out the HaivTcs are abroad and after you both here and down below, 
 you had better keep in the upper Country at present, I can say no more 
 at present 
 
 Yours S. W. 
 
 This was originally addressed to J. Taylor, Marysville, Yuba 
 County, California, and consigned for delivery to Freeman's 
 Express. The text and the address of this missive are neat and 
 legible, but the cramped initials of the signature are the work 
 of an awkward penman, and the same untrained hand has 
 scrawled above the name of Taylor the further direction, ''In 
 care of S. Stewart. ' ' The tattered sheet guards its secret to this 
 day, but stimulates the imagination by suggesting that it was 
 sent to Stuart by his companion, Sam Whittaker, as a warning 
 to beware of trouble. In any case, we know from Stuart's own 
 lips that he lingered in the mining region until near the end of 
 June, then grew fearful of recognition there and returned to 
 San Francisco to hide with an old friend and compatriot. Kitchen, 
 the boatman.® 
 
 T Papers, 237; infra, p. 309. ^Papers, 237. 
 
 ^Papers, 62. 
 
James Stuart, Outlaw 255 
 
 Hearing before long; of a Spaniard in the Mission whose 
 house promised excellent plunder, he walked out there to meet 
 an alleged cousin, called Stephens, and arranged with him the 
 details of a raid. Assistants were necessary, and Stuart returned 
 to town to obtain them. It is evident that the fear of detection 
 was upon him, for on the morning of July 1 he was skulking in 
 the underbrush of the sand hills, near the present corner of 
 Powell and California streets, waiting for a safe moment to go 
 upon his way, but retiring steathily as he spied approaching 
 strangers. It was the old story of the fugitive betrayed by 
 his own caution. It so happened that a house or tent in the 
 neighborhood had just been robbed of a trunk containing 
 clothing and valuables, and a party of men were beating the 
 brush in search of the thief. They spied Stuart as he slipped 
 furtively behind a bit of scrub oak and seized him before he 
 could escape.^*^ His clean, light clothes, still creased from 
 recent packing, led his captors to fancy that he might have 
 discarded his own suit for garments appropriated from the 
 missing chest. This he denied, insisting that he had not changed 
 his clothes for some days, and that he was innocently walking 
 back to San Francisco from the IMission. "Wlien they retorted 
 that he had chosen a ' ' damned pretty way to come from the Mis- 
 sion," he became confused, and it was determined to place him 
 somewhere in safe keeping. The rooms of the Committee of 
 Vigilance were suggested, as affording more security than the 
 city lock-up. Stuart calmly acquiesced, remarking that he would 
 go there with pleasure, since he was anxious to see the far-famed 
 institution.^^ 
 
 At headquarters he made a favorable impression by reason 
 of his apparent frankness and his attractive personality. He was 
 
 10 Papers, 140-143. 
 
 11 Ryckman, MS Statement, 9. 
 
256 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 a well proportioned man of medium height. One member of the 
 Committee has described him as exceedingly handsome, and it 
 was said that his features suggested the traditional pictures of 
 Christ. ^^ His maner was always cool and confident, his courage 
 equal to any emergency. When interrogated he gave his name 
 as "William Stevens (or Stephens), denied his connection with 
 the theft for which he was arrested, and again tried to establish 
 an alibi by stating that he had that morning walked from San 
 Francisco to the Mission Dolores and back again, a story w^hich 
 may have been quite true. G. E. Schenck said that Stuart's 
 answers w^ere so prompt and his manner so open, that it was 
 proposed to release him at once, in spite of the fact that he 
 carried a pistol and a bowie knife fourteen inches long. His 
 clean clothes, however, belied the assertion that he had worn 
 them during the long and dusty walk from Sonora. This dis- 
 crepancy aroused fresh suspicion, and it was decided to detain 
 him over night. ^^ 
 
 In his effort to account for his past life, Stuart went so far 
 as to begin a written statement, which is still preserved among 
 the archives,^* and is still potent to conjure up a vision of the 
 clean-limbed Australian hiding his murderous past behind a 
 mask of assumed frankness while inwardly alive to the deadly 
 peril of his situation. He w^rote but a few lines with his own 
 hand, and the pencilled addenda indicate that Sam Brannan 
 continued the statement from dictation, so that the pages be- 
 come doubly interesting as relics of two vivid and historic per- 
 sonalities. 
 
 12 From a reporter 's interview with an unnamed physician in Oakland, 
 easily identified as Dr. Samuel Merritt (Oakland Tribune, 1884, April 5 
 %). Stuart's attractive personality much impressed James Dows (MS 
 Statement, 4). 
 
 13 Schenck, MS Statement, 28. Other committeemen related the capture 
 to Bancroft. They varied in slight details, but agreed as to the main facts. 
 
 ■i-^ Papers, 137-140. 
 
James Stuart, Outlaw 257 
 
 In the morning John Sullivan (he who assisted at the capture 
 of Jenkins) went on guard duty. The events that followed are 
 related by Schenck:^^ 
 
 On taking his position, he naturally opened the door and looked in to 
 see who was in his keeping, when he espied in a corner of the room, one 
 whom he had formerly known, and he sung out to him '' Halloo, Jim! 
 How did you come here?" The person accosted pretended not to know 
 him, and Sullivan said, ''You needn't pretend not to know me; I know 
 who you are, I worked for you six months at Foster's Bar." He then 
 closed the door, and called to me, as I happened to be near, and said 
 '^Mr. Schenck, do you know who you have got here? . . . Why, you have 
 got English Jim, or Jim Stuart, the man who murdered the Sheriff of 
 Auburn [Charles Moore of Winslow Bar], and I was present when he was 
 about to be lynched at Marysville, when the rope broke and he escaped. 
 
 In the first flush of exultation over the unexpected capture 
 the thoughts of the Committee turned to the unhappy Berdue, 
 whose trial at Marysville had been most fortunately delayed until 
 the end of June. There was still a possibility of rescue, although 
 not a moment could be lost. Schenck, assisted by R. S. Watson, ^"^ 
 raised funds the same afternoon to send a messenger to arrest 
 proceedings. Captain Hartford Joy was entrusted with a letter 
 from President Brannan to the Vigilance Committee of Marys- 
 ville, asking assistance in gaining possession of "the person of 
 Stewart, the assasin of Jansen."^^ Two days later the Executive 
 Committee instructed the secretary to ask the Marysville Com- 
 mittee to send to San Francisco several important witnesses to 
 testify in the examination of the "Prisoner Stephens. "^^ Both 
 of these letters were acknowledged on June 6 by John H. Jewett, 
 president of the Marysville Committee,^^ who stated that ' ' James 
 Stuart, alias Thomas Berdue, ' ' had been found guilty on Friday, 
 the fourth, and awaited sentence on Monday; that the local 
 
 15 Schenck, MS Statement, 29-30. 
 
 16 Schenck, MS Statement, 30. Watson had been foreman of the jury 
 in the trial of Berdue in February and had used his influence to prevent 
 Berdue 's condemnation (Royce, California, 412). 
 
 n Papers, 143. ^8 Papers, 164. i9 Papers, 220-221. 
 
258 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Committee was firmly convinced of his guilt, was determined to 
 see due punishment inflicted, and was not at all inclined to allow 
 a postponement on account of the capture just made in San 
 Francisco.-^ 
 
 The witnesses, however, were sent as requested. In the mean- 
 time others had been found nearer at hand.^^ On July 4 the 
 prisoner was confronted by four men besides Sullivan, who posi- 
 tively identified him as the James Stuart of criminal notoriety. 
 The accused was permitted to cross-question the witnesses, and 
 Selim E. Woodworth acted as his advocate. During a part of 
 the examination the British consul was present.^^ Stuart still 
 insisted that his name was Stevens, and repeated the story of the 
 cousin in the suburbs of the city. In order to give him an 
 opportunity to prove his tale he was driven out to the Mission 
 with an armed guard and an escort of horsemen, but the elusive 
 kinsman could not be discovered.^^ An eifort was also made to 
 identify the prisoner through the police of the city, and Officers 
 W. A. Thorp, R. C. Mclntire, and A. J. McCarty were called to 
 headquarters. Thorp branded Stuart as a thief, but although 
 Mclntire and McCarty were well acquainted with the criminal, 
 they stoutly maintained that he was unknown to them. Their 
 staunchness was poorly repaid. When the rogue turned informer 
 he included the two policemen in the long list of his confederates, 
 and their names were often repeated by others of the gang.-* 
 
 In their search for competent witnesses the Committee turned 
 to Frank Pixley, who had formerly acted as Stuart's attorney. 
 
 20 Details of the trial and testimony were given in the History of Yuba 
 County, 124^125. See also Popular Tribunals, I, 194-196. 
 2-i. Papers, 165-170. 
 
 22 Papers, 176. 
 
 23 Papers, 165, 174. Curtis and Spence visited the Mission early in the 
 course of the trial, and reported that they had been forestalled by someone 
 who claimed to represent the Committee, and told "everything we %new! ! !" 
 {Papers, 169). 
 
 24 Papers, 176, 188, 234 note 31. 
 
James Stuart, Outlaw 259 
 
 Pixley was now city attorney of San Francisco, and he had pre- 
 viously sworn that Berdue was not the man he had defended at 
 Sacramento. Blnxome related the interview with great zest :-^ 
 
 Stephen Payran, Jacob Van Bokkelen and myself were appointed a 
 committee of three to examine those who came to the door. We went out 
 and found Frank Pixley. Van Bokkelen was the spokesman. Said he, 
 ''Pixley, will you say on your word of honor, if this man is the man 
 whom you have defended time and again in the lower courts?" ''I will, 
 gentlemen," said he. Van Bokkelen administered the oath, if it could 
 be called an oath. We all went into the prisoner's room with Frank 
 Pixley. The man was chained by his wrists and legs. He was sitting 
 on a long bench, and the moment he saw Pixley, he thought his deliverer 
 had come. He stood up, and we saw that they recognized each other, 
 and Jake said to Pixley, ''Is that Stuart or not?" Said he, "You have 
 no authority to ask me any questions, you are an illegal body." The 
 others heard what was going on through the thin partition, and when 
 Pixley answered in this way called out, "Hang him! Hang him!" We 
 had ropes and tackle all ready, and Jake just pushed him down the stairs, 
 or he would have been hung. The people were angry with him because 
 he defended all the thieves. Then we knew that the prisoner was the 
 genuine Stuart. 
 
 The capture of James Stuart gave rise to a very serious sit- 
 uation in the affairs of the Committee of Vigilance. News of the 
 arrest soon spread through the community, and the probable fate 
 of the prisoner was discussed with the greatest interest. The 
 Vigilantes knew that their action in this case would be taken as 
 a test of their courage, sincerity, and self-control, and the early 
 days of July were filled with hard work and strenuous meetings. 
 The records for this period are evidently incomplete, as they 
 fail to include some of the evidence in Stuart 's case.^^ They also 
 omit all explanation of a very- important change that occurred 
 among the officers of the Committee, and which must be men- 
 tioned at this point although it may not have been connected 
 with the excitement attending the trial. 
 
 25Bluxome, MS Statement, 8-9. Pixlev's connection with Stuart is 
 further discussed, i7ifra, p. 265. 
 
 26 Some of the missing evidence was published in the newspapers, and 
 has been reprinted with the official documents. 
 
260 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 A day or two after the arrest of Stuart, Sam Brannan, 
 hitherto the leading spirit of the association, relinquished all 
 positions of importance. On July 2 he presided at a morning 
 session of the Executive Committee, and wrote an official letter 
 to Marysville. Another document that is mentioned in the 
 minutes of that day he did not sign. It was signed instead by 
 ''Stephen Payran, President of Executive Committee," and 
 Payran was definitely acting as chairman by July 4.-^ 
 
 A few days later Brannan considered himself so insulted 
 by the sergeant-at-arms, A. J. McDuffee, that he wished to with- 
 draw entirely from membership in the Executive Committee, 
 and to give up the office he still held as general president. 
 Explanations and apologies mollified him for a short time, but 
 on July 8 he finally left the Executive Committee. On the next 
 day the General Committee also accepted his resignation as 
 president, tendered him a vote of thanks, and appointed Selim 
 E. Woodworth in his place. ^^ In making these changes in the 
 personnel of the leaders, the Committee of Vigilance gave an 
 early illustration of its constant tendency to strengthen the power 
 of the more conservative members. The trait is particularly 
 worthy of attention because it diverges most radically from 
 the inclination towards severity and violence that has marked 
 the progress of many other extra-legal protective associations. 
 
 There are few records to show Woodworth 's direct influence. 
 He acted chiefly as a presiding officer, but his attendance at all 
 meetings was regular and punctual, and under his guidance 
 the General Committee was safeguarded from impetuous and 
 ill-considered courses of action. 
 
 Stephen Payran on the othe'r hand immediately and perma- 
 nently imposed upon the proceedings of the Executive Committee 
 the stamp of his own personality. He believed almost passion- 
 ately in the legitimate function of the Committee as an expression 
 
 27 See Fapers, 133, 143, 154, 164. 
 
 28 See Fayers, 175, 179-182, 198, 202, 215, 246. 
 
James SUmrt, OutloAi) 261 
 
 of the will of the people at large, and as an agent to protect them 
 from corrupt public servants ; and he felt a solemn obligation to 
 meet these responsibilities with integrity and justice, and to leave 
 on record a careful history of the manner in which these duties 
 were accomplished. Brannan was a wretched penman and an 
 execrable speller, and few papers perpetuate his activities as 
 president. Payran was indefatigable in preparing reports and 
 wrote with his own hand many of the minutes of the Executive 
 Committee. One may say that he never neglected any oppor- 
 tunity to attach his name to an official paper, and he signed 
 and countersigned and attested and endorsed with supreme 
 indifference to any personal punishment that the outraged law 
 might ultimately inflict. He was painstaking, cautious, yet 
 courageous — the antithesis of Brannan, who was all too ready to 
 hang first and try afterwards. He assumed leadership in the 
 Committee at a most critical time, when the archcriminal Stuart 
 was handcuffed in the prisoner's room, and witnesses from all 
 over the state were piling up against him a mass of damning 
 evidence. 
 
 Stuart finally realized that further denials and evasions were 
 useless, and all the members of the Committee seem to agree 
 with a statement made by W. T. Coleman, that the culprit ''con- 
 ceived the idea of making a full confession, and asked the privi- 
 lege of doing it."^^ Bancroft portrayed the amount of self- 
 revelation as a dramatic climax to the breakdown of Stuart's 
 incognito, ^° but there is evidence to show that it was an audacious 
 effort to evade a swift and righteous retribution. Before the 
 Vigilante court technicalities and bravado availed him nothing, 
 but he realized that his judges were eager to purge the state of 
 the Sydney convicts. He therefore resolved to bargain to his 
 own advantage, and at the sacrifice of his accomplices. 
 
 29 Coleman, MS Statement, 25. 
 
 30 Popular Tribunals, I, 281. It is possible that Bancroft often used 
 verbal recollections of the Vigilantes as well as their dictated statements. 
 
262 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 We do not know to whom he made his first proposition, but 
 in due time it was submitted to the Executive Committee. This 
 we learn from a report^^ which states that the prisoner was will- 
 ing to make a full confession and to incriminate his various 
 confederates, provided he should then be handed over to the 
 courts for trial on the charge of the murder in Yuba County ; if 
 he failed to fulfill the stipulated terms, or to convict at least 
 ten criminals, he was to remain in the hands of the Committee 
 of Vigilance. Delivery to the constituted authorities would hold 
 out an excellent chance of escape, and the prisoner was quite 
 aware that an uncorroborated confession could easily be set aside 
 in a legal trial. ^^ Stuart himself, using the alias of "William 
 Stephens, signed the report referred to, but although the docu- 
 ment was endorsed as correct by President Payran, it was not 
 countersigned by any other official and it is mentioned but once 
 in the subsequent discussions of the prisoner's fate. It bears 
 no date save the endorsed date of filing, July 9, but it affords 
 a valuable clue to the impulse that prompted Stuart to unbosom 
 himself to his jailers, and to lay bare not only his own crimes, 
 but the guilty participation of many friends whose safety he 
 had formerly guarded even at the risk of his own freedom. 
 
 On July 8 the General Committee met twice and the Execu- 
 tive Committee met three times. At the last gathering, held at 
 half past ten in the evening, Mr. Spence was appointed to ' ' con- 
 duct the examination of Prisoner Stephens, ' ' and it was ordered 
 that questions should be put on paper and asked by Spence 
 alone.^^ Coleman said of the events of that night :^* 
 
 I myself assisted, as one of the Executive Committee, in hearing and 
 recording this confession, and sat up through the whole night, and until 
 the morning sun shone in at the window, before it was completed. He 
 
 31 Papers, 223-224. 
 
 32 The Vigilante (Dr. Merritt), who told of Stuart in the Oakland 
 Tribune, 188-4, April 5 %, said that the prisoner seemed to rely on this 
 point of law. 
 
 33 Tapers, 216. 34 Coleman, MS Statement, 25. 
 
James Stuart, Outlaw 263 
 
 [Stuart] -went through the whole range of his many rascalities, gave vivid 
 descriptions of his adventures, entering with great zest into the details, 
 and it was curious to see his eye brighten and twinkle, and a smile play 
 round his facile countenance, when describing his best successes, and recount- 
 ing his best jobs. He threw off all restraint or reservation, and felt that 
 he was bringing to light a brilliant record that had heretofore been neces- 
 sarily kept in the dark. 
 
 The confession is dated, "Vigilance Committee Room, July 
 8th, 1850, 101/2 p.m.," and its length confirms Coleman's state- 
 ment that it was not completed before daylight of the next 
 morning. It did not reveal the prisoner's real name, and it 
 touched but lightly on his early experiences, when as an English 
 lad of sixteen he was transported for life to the penal colonies 
 on a charge of forgery. Released after six years, he was free to 
 drift first to South America, and later to San Francisco. Of his 
 career in California he drew a startling picture.^^ 
 
 He gave details of more than a dozen robberies, and accounted 
 for nearly $9000 in money, beside much valuable plunder in 
 tools, household furniture and horses. Many of the raids were 
 accompanied by brutal violence. The speaker calmly acknowl- 
 edged having dealt the blow that knocked Jansen senseless, and 
 seemed to feel it was greatly to the credit of the real culprits 
 that they resolved to burn the city again if the innocent Windred 
 and Berdue suffered unmerited execution in consequence of that 
 assault. Several abortive plot-s were also described, one of which 
 entailed Stuart's devout attendance at mass at San Jose, while 
 he kept his eyes alert for certain golden images reported as 
 enshrined in the sanctuary. The bandit named about twenty- 
 five accomplices,^^ but with all his apparent frankness he evaded 
 betraying certain matters which he desired to conceal. So far 
 
 35 See Papers, 225-242. Schenck said of Stuart's trial: '^ Witnesses 
 were sent for from all parts of the state, and whenever he suggested any 
 witnesses, to prove an alibi, or for any other purpose, they were sent for, 
 at a considerable expense to the Committee" (MS Statement, 31). 
 
 36 Papers, 225 iwte 12. 
 
264 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 as we can learn, he never acknowledged his share in the murder 
 of Charles Moore,^'' although the trial of Berdue at Marysville 
 seems clearly to have established his guilt on that charge. In the 
 long list of companions whom he implicated in his misdeeds he 
 made very inadequate allusion to Samuel Whittaker, who was 
 second in leadership to himself, and shared in many of the 
 most high-handed outrages. 
 
 Other sources of information, however, were available to the 
 Committee. On July 8, the same day that Stuart made his con- 
 fession, there was filed in the archives a written statement made 
 by Joseph Hetherington,^^ who was intimately acquainted with 
 the Sydney men, especially with those who congregated at a 
 boarding house kept by a Mrs. Hogan, where Stuart himself 
 had sometimes lodged. This paper was dated July 7, and if it 
 was received prior to Stuart's examination it must have been of 
 great assistance in drawing from him details as to his associates. 
 Hetherington showed the importance of Whittaker's position 
 among the desperadoes, and in a later statement asserted that 
 Whittaker had plainly told him that Stuart had shot Moore 
 and had afterwards exhibited a large gold nugget which had 
 been taken from the body.^^ 
 
 In spite of the general knowledge of Stuart's arrest,*^ no 
 official protest was made except by the city attorney, Frank M. 
 Pixley, whose personal convictions and whose public position 
 placed him in open opposition to the course pursued by the 
 
 37 Schenck said the murder ' ' was clearly proved against him at the 
 trial" (MS Statement, 43). Stuart alluded to the charge in exactly the 
 same way that he mentioned the false accusation as to the murder at Auburn 
 {Papers, 231), and the Eeverend F. S. Mines, to whom he made a penitential 
 confession, was ignorant that the charge of murder had even been laid 
 against him {Papers, 311). It was said that at the time of execution he 
 publicly acknowledged that his confession was true, but denied that he was 
 guilty of murder {Sunday Dispatch, 1851, July 13 %). 
 
 38 Papers, 242-245. See also note on Hetherington, infra, p. 402. 
 
 39 See Papers, 256, 477, 480. 
 
 *o The capture of Stuart was announced in the daily papers, July 7. 
 
James Stuart, Outlaw 265 
 
 Committee of Vigilance. The reports of proceedings in the 
 Supreme Court on July 8 and 9 show his efforts to secure the 
 person of Stuart hy a writ which summoned W. H. Jones, A. J. 
 McDuffee, J. L. Van Bokkelen, and Stephen Payran, to produce 
 their captive in court.*^ Issuance of the writ was promptly 
 reported to the Committee, and the gentlemen named therein 
 were given leave to retire from the rooms.^^ Service was effected 
 in the case of the three first mentioned, but President Payran 
 "was not found, after diligent search." Wlien the members of 
 the Committee appeared in the Supreme Court on the ninth, they 
 made affidavit that they did not have said Stuart in their pos- 
 session, and had never had such custody as would have enabled 
 them to comply with the order. 
 
 On the petition of Pixley another warrant was then issued, 
 directing Sheriff Hays to obtain the body of James Stuart and 
 bring him into court on the following day. Isaac Bluxome, Jr., 
 thus described what followed :*^ 
 
 Frank Pixley "svent to work and got out a writ of habeas corpus on us 
 for the surrender of Stuart. We knew the writ was coming, and we did not 
 want to refuse it, and so I borrowed a long cloak and slouched hat, and 
 Oaks [Oakes] and I dressed Stuart up in them and took him to Endicott 
 & Oaks building on First St. between Market & Mission. We showed him 
 two pistols, and said to him, ''If you attempt to run, we will shoot you." 
 We put him down cellar there. When Endicott went home, we placed a 
 guard over him. Endicott came back and said, ''This won't do, I am a 
 city official,** and have taken the oath to support the government." This 
 was in his own building. Eube Maloney, who was also a member of the 
 Committee said... "I will put him in my house." So we walked him up 
 there to his house, to keep him clear of the habeas corpus. About 12 o'clock 
 down, came Maloney, and said he could not keep him any longer. . . . We sent 
 a guard and took him to some other place, and he was shifted round to keep 
 him away from the Sheriff. 
 
 ^-^^ Herald, 1851, July 9 %; 10 %; Alta, July 9 %; 10 %. 
 ^^ Papers, 214. 
 
 43 Bluxome, MS Statement, 11-12. The committee in charge of Stuart 
 was given a formal vote of thanks, July 10 (Papers, 254). 
 
 44 Endicott was an alderman (Annals, 326). He was not a Vigilante. 
 
266 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 The method was entirely successful. Hays was allowed to 
 inspect headquarters, but he found no Stuart in the guardroom. 
 He went into court empty-handed to report that he had searched 
 the city in vain, and had even followed a carriage out as far as 
 the Mission in the hope of securing the missing man. This ended 
 all active attempts to effect a rescue. Broderick and others held 
 a meeting on July 9 or 10 for the purpose of organizing a com- 
 pany to sustain the civil authorities and to prevent the infliction 
 of punishment upon any citizen without due process of law, but 
 it did not result in any noticeable public movement.*^ 
 
 Within a few days the city attorney had cause to feel that 
 he was treacherously requited for the efforts he had made. The 
 publication of Stuart's confession created the impression that 
 Pixle}^ undertook his defense in Sacramento in the face of posi- 
 tive evidence of guilt, and permitted perjured testimony to be 
 presented. Stuart also claimed that the lawyer had appropriated 
 the whole of a sum of $730, confided to him for safe-keeping, of 
 which only $230 was due for professional services. He put in 
 the hands of the Committee a statement of this alleged account, 
 and an order for the balance of $500. Pixley printed in the 
 San Francisco papers a communication in which he most indig- 
 nantly denied the charge that he was aware of his client's guilt, 
 or had connived at perjury; and as for the $500, he explained 
 that he had kept it as a retaining fee in expectation of continuing 
 the defense at Marysville. The letter is printed in full in the 
 Papers as a footnote to Stuart's confession. "^'^ 
 
 Some of the members of the Committee entertained serious 
 misgivings over their evasion of the time-honored provisions of 
 the writ of habeas corpus,^' and the fact that the Alta California 
 
 45 Eeported in California Courier, 1851, July 11 ^. See also. Popular 
 Tribunals, I, 320. 
 
 46 Papers, 230-231, 242, 293. 
 
 47 ' ' We thought it a terrible thing to deny the Avrit of habeas corpus ' ' 
 (Farwell, MS Statement, 9). 
 
Jarnes Stuart, Outlaw 267 
 
 had advised them to obey it*^ may have increased their uneasiness. 
 Nevertheless, the precedent established in Stuart's case was 
 followed a few days later when another prisoner was retained 
 in defiance of a writ.*^ The question was considered so impor- 
 tant, however, that a subcommittee was appointed to "examine 
 the question of the use and abuse of the writ of habeas corpus 
 and report the same to this Committee with its opinion of the 
 degree of respect which shall be accorded hy the Vigilance Com- 
 mittee to that writ."'^ 'Dr. A. B. Stout, W. L. Bromley, and 
 C. H. Brinlej^ were charged with this dut}^, and they soon sub- 
 mitted a paper that was an interesting exposition of the Vigi- 
 lante point of view.^^ They traced the origin of the writ of 
 habeas corpus and acknowledged its great value when legiti- 
 mately employed ; but they asserted it became a menace to society 
 when it was used to promote the escape of the guilty, and they 
 concluded that the Committee of Vigilance was justified in refus- 
 ing obedience to writs which sought to remove prisoners before 
 their cases had been investigated. They said : 
 
 It is against the abuse of the Habeas Corpus that this people are called 
 to raise their voice. And if the Vigilance Committee be the people, it is 
 through the former that the latter may obtain justice and freedom from 
 the ills which oppress and ruin our community. 
 
 As this report was not presented until August 2, the chrono- 
 logical narrative is somewhat dislocated by its introduction here. 
 Yet it was so directly an outgrowth of the evasion in the case 
 of Stuart that it should be closely related to that circumstance. 
 The members of the Committee knew beyond peradventure that 
 
 48Alta, 1851, July 9 %. 
 
 49 See case of LeBras {Papers, 281). Writs were also evaded in the 
 cases of Arentrue, and of W. H. Hays (ibid., 414, 441), and subterfuge was 
 employed when Bluxome was summoned to produce his records in court 
 (ibid., 731). 
 
 50 Papers, 357. At the same time the General Committee laid on the 
 table a motion giving the sergeant-at-arms and the chief of police dis- 
 cretionary powers to admit civil officers to headquarters. 
 
 51 Papers, 404-407. 
 
268 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 delivery of their prisoner to the courts would result in his escape 
 from punishment, and that defiance of the writ was the only way 
 in which they could retain him, but with unconscious incon- 
 sistency they found it necessary to appoint a formal committee 
 to consider the infraction of a minor constitutional privilege, 
 while they contemplated without trepidation the far graver 
 responsibility of inflicting the penalty of death ! 
 
 That penalty for Stuart became more and more certain. 
 Meetings of the General Committee were held on July 9 and 10, 
 when reports were submitted touching the case, but no definite 
 action was taken. About half past nine o'clock on the morning 
 of Friday, July 11, San Francisco heard again the measured 
 tapping on the bell of the Monumental Engine Company, and 
 watched groups of well-known citizens hurrying, in open day, 
 towards the headquarters of the Committee of Vigilance.^^ A 
 large majority of the entire membership assembled at that sum- 
 mons-, and listened for three hours to the reading of Stuart's 
 confession and the evidence of witnesses. Then for some time 
 they debated the punishment, while the prisoner in an adjoining 
 room complained that the slow trial was ''damned tiresome," 
 yawned indolently, and solaced himself with a quid of tobacco. 
 The record of this long session is brevity itself. It reads :^^ 
 
 Minutes of General Meeting July 11, 1851 
 
 Mr. Selim Woodworth in Chair 
 On Motion 
 
 Besolved — That Evidence in case Stuart be read. 
 Questions by Dr. Stout and Mr. Dows^* 
 
 Has the prisoner performed his contract or not? No Unanimously — 
 Has the prisoner been guilty of crimes rendering him liable to the pun- 
 ishment of death — Yes — unanimously — 
 
 52 Full accounts of the trial and execution were given in the Alta and 
 the Herald, July 12 to 14. 
 
 53 Papers, 263-2G4. 
 
 54 Probably James Dows. John Dows was also a member, but his name 
 appears nowhere in the minutes of the Committee. 
 
James Stuart, Outlaw . 269 
 
 On Motion 
 
 Eesolved That Prisoner Stuart be hung — unanimously carried — 
 Resolved that a Clergyman be sent for to remain with Prisoner until 
 
 he is hung — 
 
 Eesolved That Prisoner be hung at 2 o'clock 
 
 Eesolved That Ex Com make necessary arrangements 
 
 Eesolved That no person be allowed to leave the room 
 
 Eesolved That Prisoner receive his sentence 
 
 Eesolved That Col Stevenson inform the populace that at 2 o'clock the 
 
 prisoner Stuart will be hung — 
 
 The Chair announced that the Clergyman was now in the room with prisoner 
 
 On Motion 
 
 Eesolved That a Committee be appointed to draft a form of the testi- 
 mony to be published in the papers of tomorrow morning 
 
 On Motion 
 
 Eesolved That the Com take a recess of half an hour 
 
 These minutes are in the handwriting of Secretary Bluxome, 
 although he did not sign the page as usual. The allusion to the 
 contract is the only direct reference ever made to the document 
 which proposed to deliver Stuart to the authorities of Yuba 
 County if he made a full confession, although at one time Stephen 
 Payran favored sending him to Marysville in order to secure 
 Berdue's release.^^ Nowhere is there a discussion of the force 
 of the agreement, nor any explanation of the decision that its 
 provisions had not been met satisfactorily. The promise of im- 
 munity is not mentioned in the recollections of any of the Vigi- 
 lantes ; Bancroft did not speak of it ; and no charge of treachery 
 has been laid upon the Committee, even by the men who most 
 opposed it. The minutes show that the matter of the contract 
 was considered and decided by a unanimous vote. With the 
 meager facts at our command it is futile to attempt to pass judg- 
 ment on the point of honor, or to decide whether the failure to 
 acknowledge the murder of Moore placed the murderer beyond 
 the pale of clemency. 
 
 The convict received his sentence composedly. He was then 
 allowed an interval for the ministrations of the Reverend Mr. 
 
 55 Papers, 224-225. 
 
270 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Mines, who found him a more hopeful penitent than was his 
 predecessor, Jenkins. In his youth Stuart had been a communi- 
 cant of the Church of England, and in the last moments of his 
 life he responded to the appeals made to his better instincts, 
 acknowledged the justice of his sentence, and received the abso- 
 lution of the Church. ^^ 
 
 During the two hours consumed in these preparations ''the 
 four hundred members in the Committee Room sat like statues 
 on their seats — not a word was uttered, not a sound was heard 
 to break the solemn stillness. ' '^'^ It was an awesome death watch, 
 and as the silent moments slipped away each man who had 
 affirmed the verdict must have felt a growing sense of personal 
 responsibility for the approaching execution. In accordance with 
 the precedent set on a previous occasion. Colonel Stevenson 
 was appointed to refer the sentence to the approval of the 
 populace. The crowd outside was large, but patient, and heard 
 with attention an account of the trial, a resume of the confession, 
 and a report of the sentence. Then the question was put to the 
 citizens : Would they sustain the action of the Committee ? And 
 the vote of endorsement was ''almost unanimous. "^^ 
 
 About three o'clock a stream of silent men began to emerge 
 from the headquarters of the Committee. In the street they 
 formed into platoons, ten abreast, and with Stuart in the center 
 swung eastward toward the water front. The condemned man 
 "marched as erect and with as firm a tread as any innocent man 
 and no one could see in his actions any indications of agita- 
 tion."^^ When the ranks reached Market Street wharf they 
 parted to the right and left, and gave passage to the bodyguard, 
 then closed again, locked arms, and ranged themselves into a 
 
 56 See Mr. Mines' letter on the subject, Payers, 308-312. 
 
 57 Herald, 1851, July 14 %. 
 ^^ Herald, 1851, July 14 %. 
 
 59 James Dows (MS Statement, 4). Stuart's composure was especially 
 noted in the Sunday Dispatch, 1851, July 13. 
 
James Stuart, Otitlaiv 271 
 
 solid barrier.^*^ A derrick upon the pier had been selected for 
 the place of execution, and there James Stuart, with unshrouded 
 face and clasped hands, received the bitter punishment of his 
 years of crime, while the multitude stood uncovered below him, 
 hushed and motionless, and irresistibly moved by the fearless 
 composure with which the outlaw met his doom. 
 
 When the coroner was allowed to take possession of the body*^^ 
 he observed the formalities of his office, and impaneled a jury 
 which promptly found :*^^ "That the deceased came to his death 
 by strangulation by hanging at the hands of a body of men 
 styling themselves the Vigilance Committee of San Francisco." 
 
 In its deliberate and open defiance of the law the execution 
 of Stuart far exceeded the hasty action in the case of Jenkins. 
 The constituted authorities were in duty bound to take public 
 cognizance of such an occurrence, and the mayor, Charles J. 
 Brenham, immediately published an open letter addressed to 
 the citizens of San Francisco, in which he pointed out the insur- 
 rectionary tendencies of the Committee of Vigilance and called 
 upon the people to withdraw from its ranks and assist the 
 authorities in supporting the laws.^^ 
 
 60 Smiley said that while there was no regular military organization 
 in the Committee of '51 as there was in the Committee of '56, military 
 formation was adopted at the execution of Stuart. He remembered the 
 company as about 380 men, and said he commanded the escorting squad, 
 and stood within twenty feet of the scaffold (MS Statement, 5). A poor 
 cut of the scene is reproduced in the Annals, 580. 
 
 61 Herald, 1851, July 14 %. Smiley said that while Stuart was dying 
 "Ned Gallagher came along, stopped at my platoon with arms locked and 
 said, 'I demand permission to pass.' Middleton said, 'Who are you?' He 
 said, 'By God, Middleton, you know I am a coroner!' 'By God,' was the 
 ansAver, 'you don't get through till that fellow's a fit subject for your 
 administration' (MS Statement, 4-5). There was a report that life was 
 not absolutely extinct Avhen Stuart Avas cut doMii, although all efforts failed 
 to revive him {Alta, 1851, July 13 %; Herald, 1851, July 14 %; Eyckman, 
 MS Statement, 16). J. W. Palmer wrote: "The first man hung by the San 
 Francisco Vigilance Committee was dead before he was swung up, and the 
 second ... Avas alive after he was cut down" {The New and the Old, 1859, 
 p. 73). 
 
 62 Herald, 1851, July 14 %. 
 
 63 See infra, p. 463. Sections of the act covering the suppression of 
 riots followed the mayor's letter, in the Alta, July 13-15. 
 
272 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Thus Mayor Brenham discharged his duty, but Alexander 
 Campbell, judge of the Court of Sessions, was made of sterner 
 stuff. The assurances made in his letter to Sam Brannan had 
 been no idle boast. In accordance with his determination to 
 expedite justice he had impaneled a grand jury early in July, 
 and that body immediately showed itself zealous in the perform- 
 ance of its duties. Calling this jury into court on the morning 
 of the twelfth. Judge Campbell brought to its attention the event 
 of the previous day. He declared that the people must decide 
 without delay whether or not they were willing to throw away 
 all safeguards of society, to declare that law was inconsistent 
 with liberty, and to place life and property at the mercy of a 
 secret organization. He denounced the execution as an inexcus- 
 able outrage, accused all who had abetted it of the crime of 
 murder, and charged the jurymen that it was their sworn and 
 solemn duty to bring the guilty to punishment.®* 
 
 The Alt a of July 13 stated that after the charge had been 
 delivered Mr. C. L. Ross asked to be excused from further ser- 
 vice, as he had friends belonging to the Vigilance Committee, 
 and his feelings would not allow him to bring in a bill against 
 any of them. The application was refused. Judge Campbell 
 stating that his own position was similar, but that they were 
 all sworn to perform their duty and no private feelings could 
 be allowed to interfere with their oaths. Eight other members 
 of the jury were in a position infinitely more difficult than that 
 of Mr. Ross, being themselves members of the Committee, and 
 thus under the ''sworn and solemn duty" of bringing against 
 themselves and their closest associates indictments for the crime 
 of murder.®^ It is probable that Judge Campbell was unaware 
 of the subtle humor of the situation, although two of the jury, 
 J. D. Farwell and W. B. Peake, had signed the list of members 
 published immediately after the execution of Jenkins. 
 
 64 See infra, p. 464. 
 
 65 See names of the jurymen, infra, p. 467. 
 
James Stuart, Outlaw 273 
 
 In an editorial condemning Judge Campbell's attitude, the 
 Herald pointed out the futility of any such attempt. It approved 
 the hanging on the ground that the law, if properly executed, 
 would have inflicted the same penalty long before, and con- 
 cluded as follows :^^ 
 
 What moral wrong, then, has been committed? The law has been vio- 
 lated, it is answered. Ay, the law; but the Sabbath was made for man, 
 and not man for the Sabbath, and the citizen is not made for the law, but 
 the law for the citizen; and whenever the law becomes an empty name, 
 has not the citizen the right to supply its deficiency? 
 
 The California Courier of the same date expressed similar 
 sentiments, blamed the inefficiency of the public officials for the 
 prevalence of crime, and asserted that it would do little good 
 for the coroner to investigate the deaths of criminals executed 
 by the people while he neglected to take note of the victims of 
 cold-blooded murder.^^ 
 
 The grand jury took no steps to indict the five or six hundred 
 members of the Committee, but it alluded to Stuart's execution 
 in its final report, and regretfully acknowledged that the deed 
 was "unlawful." At the same time it deplored the situation 
 in the District Court that had moved the Vigilantes to action, and 
 urged the officials of the city to remedy the causes of complaint.^^ 
 Judge Parsons was so offended by the criticism of the District 
 Court that he asked to have that portion of the report stricken 
 from the records, but Judged Campbell overruled the motion.^^ 
 
 Following the precedent set by Mayor Brenham the governor 
 of the state issued a proclamation that dealt with the dangers 
 that attended the organization of Committees of Vigilance in 
 various places. His arguments were much the same as those 
 used by Brenham and Campbell, but he suggested that it would 
 
 60 Herald, 1851, July 14 %. 
 
 67 See i7ifra, p. 465. 
 
 68 See infra, p. 466. 
 
 ^^ Herald, 1851, August 9 %; H %• 
 
274 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 be quite legitimate to form protective associations if they would 
 assist the officers of the law and the civil authorities in detecting 
 and punishing crime. '^° This message was not written until ten 
 days after the execution of Stuart, and in the meantime the 
 Committee of Vigilance of San Francisco greatly enlarged its 
 sphere of activity. Stuart's confession provided the long-sought 
 clue to the gang of criminals that had infested central California. 
 The community at large gave unmistakable evidence that the 
 Committee could depend upon the support of popular approval. 
 The Vigilantes, therefore, resolved to search for the outlaws, one 
 by one, and deal with them according to their deserts. 
 
 70 See infra, pp. 467-469. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 ON THE TRAIL OF STUART'S COMPANIONS 
 
 Stuart had named about twenty-five participants in the 
 robberies he described. By order of the General Committee his 
 confession, accompanied by the evidence in his case, was sent 
 to the papers on the day of the execution.^ It was published 
 immediately, with the omission of some names which at the 
 time the Committee wished to conceal. It was republished a 
 week later, and the suppressed portions inserted in full, that the 
 community at large might assist in the apprehension of the 
 criminals. 
 
 The most important members of the gang were known to 
 be Sam Whittaker, George Adams, Robert McKenzie, James 
 Burns (usually called Jimmy from Town), Joseph Turner, 
 Richard Osman, Jim Briggs, John Edwards, and John Morris 
 Morgan. T. Belcher Kay, late port warden, was a valuable 
 confederate on account of his official knowledge ; Kitchen, a boat- 
 man, constantly served them when they were in need of trans- 
 portation; and Big Brummy, Dab the horse thief , Billy Hughes, 
 Long Charley, Ryan, and others were useful members of the 
 company. The two policemen, Mclntire and McCarty, were 
 depended on to protect them from arrest, and to help in making 
 
 1 See Papers, 263 note 1. The following note prefaced the testimony 
 in an extra edition of the Herald, July 11 : 
 
 ''Editor San Francisco Herald: 
 
 The accompanying documents in the case of Stephens, alias Stuart, 
 alias Campbell, alias English Jim, alias Carlisle, alias Mason, are 
 handed you by order of the Committee of Vigilance for publication, 
 your doing so will much oblige them and disabuse the public mind 
 touching the affair. 
 
 Eespectfully, 
 
 The Executive Committee, 
 Per Order of Committee of Vigilance.'^ 
 
276 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 escapes, and a boarding house kept by Michael Hogan and his 
 wife, Mary Ann, was a safe and favorite place of meeting. The 
 popular term ''criminal organization" was scarcely applicable 
 to the loosely knit band, but the Vigilantes realized that they 
 had uncovered the trail of desperadoes who very seriously threat- 
 ened the good order of society. 
 
 The most effective work of the Committee began at this point. 
 Orders were immediately issued for the arrest of many of those 
 implicated; searching parties were sent into the interior, and 
 several important captures were made with little difficulty. The 
 first member of the gang to be taken was Jimmy from Town, a 
 small, clean-shaven, Irish sailorman, an adept in the peculiar 
 patter of the thieves' jargon, and a burglar of celebrity.^ Jimmy 
 would steal anything on which he could lay his hands — a trunk 
 of clothes, an office safe, the wallet of his own pal, the earnings 
 of a disreputable woman. Wlieh his Irish temper was aroused 
 he would quarrel with his confederates and spoil their plans, 
 so that the more cautious sometimes refused to work with him. 
 But he was useful in many raids, was especially expert in execut- 
 ing daring jail deliveries, and had led in several of the breaks 
 from the San Francisco station house. This light-fingered gen- 
 tleman was caught in Marysville on July 16. Two days later 
 representatives of the Committee secured George Adams, for 
 whom they had been searching since the first days of their 
 investigations. 
 
 Adams, who rejoiced in the flattering alias of Jack Dandy, 
 was of English birth and recently from Sydney. While the 
 stigma of penal servitude was not proved against him, he was 
 known in California as a seasoned criminal and a chronic truant 
 from disciplinary lodgings. He was also a useful member of 
 Stuart's organization, since his trade of engineer or millwright 
 
 2 For a description of this notorious thief, see Papers, Index under 
 ** James Burns." His arrest was announced in the Herald, 1851, July 18 %. 
 
On the Trail of Stuart's Companions 277 
 
 enabled him to design tools and keys for expert operations.^ 
 Being at this time a refugee from justice, he had hidden himself 
 in a lonely spot on the banks of the American River, where he 
 was arrested by civil officers on July 17, but discharged for 
 lack of positive identification. Members of the Vigilance Com- 
 mittee, more alert in their investigations, seized him before he 
 could again conceal himself, and speedily transported him to 
 the prisoners' room at San Francisco. 
 
 Dab, the horse thief mentioned by Stuart, was delivered to 
 the Committee by gentlemen from Marysville on July 17, but 
 Sam Brannan, who had some hand in his capture, effected his 
 release a few hours later for unexplained reasons, and to the 
 great indignation of the entire association. The incident occurred 
 on a night when there was evidence of unusual excitement and 
 tension in the rooms of the Committee. Dab seems to have been 
 at large in the outer apartment, but Van Bokkelen, the chief of 
 police, had taken the precaution to forbid egress from head- 
 quarters to all except those who were provided with special per- 
 mits. Brannan, then merely a private member of the General 
 Committee, attempted to remove Dab from the room in defiance 
 of Van Bokkelen 's regulations, and finally succeeded in forcing 
 him through the door when it was opened for some one who had 
 the required pass. Before Brannan could follow the chief pulled 
 him back, whereupon there ensued a general rush for the exit 
 by others who had resented detention. Brannan struggled to 
 release himself, threatening ''in not very polite language" to 
 use his pistol unless liberated. He was finally allowed to go, 
 the room was cleared, and order restored. 
 
 Van Bokkelen reported the occurrence in an indignant note 
 to the Executive Committee, and asked that it be decided whether 
 or not his power was superior to that of a private member, and 
 
 3 See Papers, Index under ' ' George Adams. ' ' His arrest was not«d in 
 the Herald, 1851, July 21 %. 
 
278 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 whether or not frivolous pleas should be allowed to frustrate the 
 ends of the Committee. Many voluntary associations would have 
 been disrupted by such a quarrel. In this instance the whole 
 question of authority was referred to the Executive Committee, 
 and was quickly settled by the formulation of adequate by-laws, 
 which were passed a few days later. At the same time the 
 General Committee adopted resolutions which pledged all mem- 
 bers to implicit obedience to the orders of the chief of police. 
 The incident left the Committee of Vigilance more efficiently 
 organized than ever before.^ It also gives a valuable hint of 
 the crises that must have developed in a body of determined and 
 self-confident men when disputes arose that involved freedom 
 of personal action. Only the bond of a sincere and common 
 purpose could have held them together in irksome subjection to 
 such control. 
 
 Brannan ceased to play a leading part in the Committee from 
 this time. A week later he stated that he no longer had free 
 access to headquarters, and was helpless to assist an acquaint- 
 ance who was under suspicion.^ 
 
 Determined to rid the country of the worst elements of 
 Stuart's gang, the Committee continued the search for other 
 fugitives, especially for Sam Whittaker and for Robert Mc- 
 Kenzie. Both of these men were supposed to be in the vicinity 
 of Sacramento or of Stockton. As early as July 10 a party 
 was sent out to secure them, but the search was unavailing.® The 
 sergeant-at-arms headed another posse, summoned assistants 
 from the Committees of Stockton and Sonora, and scoured the 
 country about Stockton, Chinese Diggings, Georgetown, James- 
 town, Shaw's Flat, and Sonora.^ That expedition cost the Com- 
 mittee nearly two hundred dollars. At its close the quest was 
 
 4 See Papers, 227 note 14, 294-296, 340-343 ; also supra, p. 226. 
 
 5 Alta, 1851, July 24 %. 
 ^Papers, 253, 265, Voucher no. 12. 
 T Papers, 282, 303, Voucher no. 10. 
 
On the Trail of Stuart ^s Companions 279 
 
 given over to the Committee of Sonora, since it was thought 
 that the fugitives were hiding somewhere in the neighborhood 
 of the southern mines. 
 
 McKenzie was finally discovered in Sacramento, was arrested 
 on July 29 at the instigation of J. G. Schultz, a member of the 
 San Francisco Committee, and was safely incarcerated at head- 
 quarters by the first of August;^ Whittaker, however, still 
 baffled the Vigilante detectives. 
 
 This man for whom they were searching through the high- 
 ways and byways of California seems to have been the typical 
 villain of melodrama. He was about thirty years of age, of 
 medium height, courageous and manly in his bearing, exception- 
 ally neat and particular in his habits of dress, and, according 
 to Joseph Hetherington, the smartest thief in the whole group.^ 
 Like Stuart, he had been transported from England in his early 
 youth under a life sentence. He had been freed by a conditional 
 pardon, and had come to California in 1849.^*^ 
 
 After some vicissitudes he formed a partnership with an 
 Australian named Teddy McCormac, and together they opened 
 the Port Phillip House, which quickly became a rendezvous for 
 thieves and ruffians. There the two men led a career of successful 
 crime until they treacherously despoiled too intimate an acquaint- 
 ance, one James Kelly, ''the fighting man," who reimbursed 
 himself by selling out the Port Phillip House while the senior 
 partner was in Monterey committing perjury in the interests of 
 the robbers of the Custom House.^^ Wliittaker, thus dispossessed, 
 removed to the Hogans' establishment during Mr. Hogan's 
 absence in the mines. 
 
 » Papers, 402 note 3. 
 
 9 Papers, 243. Eyckman was much attracted by Whittaker 's manly per- 
 sonality (MS Statement, 10). 
 ^0 Papers, 468-469. 
 11 Papers, 236, 468, 470. 
 
280 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 The new lodger was attractive and unfettered by scruples, 
 his hostess was equally attractive, equally unscrupulous, and they 
 quickly resigned themselves to an intimacy that became notorious. 
 On Hogan's return from the country he forced the unwelcome 
 guest to leave, but the sordid story had become a matter of 
 common report, and Hetherington repeated it to the Executive 
 Committee with a frankness that could not be misunderstood. It 
 is not beyond the bounds of probability that the two leaders of 
 the Sydney circle were rivals for the favor of the same mistress. 
 Stuart had made no mention of Mrs. Hogan's fondness for 
 Whittaker, but boasted that she wore a daguerreotype of himself ; 
 while Whittaker accused Stuart of plotting to shoot him, either 
 for money or because of jealousy.^^ 
 
 The importance of Mrs. Hogan 's position was quickly realized 
 by the Committee, and she and her husband were taken to head- 
 quarters immediately after Stuart and Hetherington had first 
 mentioned their names, but the woman cleverly evaded com- 
 promising questions and betrayed none of the secrets of her 
 lodging house. She denied any relationship with Whittaker 
 beyond that of innkeeper and guest, and when her place was 
 searched she foiled the Committee by secreting his likeness.^^ Mr. 
 Hogan aired his grievances without reservation. While he con- 
 tributed nothing of value to the records of the Committee, he 
 must have derived much personal comfort from this opportunity 
 to brand his supplanter as a roundshouldered person with a 
 turned-up nose.^* 
 
 After Stuart's confession was published Mrs. Hogan tried to 
 avoid further embarrassment by leaving the country, and took 
 passage on the Cameo for Sydney. The Committee sent on board 
 the vessel and removed her to headquarters, then made further 
 search to see if Whittaker had concealed himself on the same 
 
 12 Papers, 242, 474, 475. i* Papers, 260. 
 
 13 Papers, 257-259, 458. 
 
On the Trail of Stuart's Companions 281 
 
 boat.^^ Though the inspection was fruitless and the woman was 
 quickly released, a watch was kept over her movements. When 
 she presently went to Stockton, orders were sent there to have 
 her followed in the hope of discovering Whittaker's hiding 
 place/*^ The surveillance proved futile, however, and another 
 searching party was sent to Sacramento to examine thoroughly 
 the sloughs and creeks of the marshy river.^^ Quietly and un- 
 observed Mrs. Hogan slipped southward from Stockton and 
 made her way to San Diego, where, in fact, Whittaker expected 
 to join her. He evidently took the coast route, for he was recog- 
 nized on August 8 in Santa Barbara, where he was taken into 
 custody by Sheriff V. W. Hearne, who at once embarked for San 
 Francisco, intending to deliver him to the police of that city.^^ 
 Once again a strange chance placed the Vigilance Committee 
 in possession of an important captive. "While Hearne was look- 
 ing for Sheriff Hays he entered the office of J. C. Palmer, to 
 whom he mentioned his errand. J. C. L. Wadsworth, a member 
 of the Committee, had a room in the same building. Palmer 
 immediately told him that Whittaker was even then on board 
 the steamer Ohio lying at Long Wharf. Wadsworth hurried to 
 the water front, meeting J. F. Curtis on the way, and together 
 they induced the captain to deliver the prisoner to them, and so 
 transferred him without violence to the guard room of the Com- 
 mittee of Vigilance. Hearne was reimbursed for the expense of 
 
 15 Papers, 293, 298, 335. '^The famous Mre. Hogan ... was seized on 
 Saturday on board a ship in the harbor . . . and removed to the Committee 
 Eooms She is about thirty-five years of age, quite genteel in appear- 
 ance, and one who might safely keep a crib without ever being suspected. 
 Her carriage, the most elegant in the city, was waiting on Saturday morn- 
 ing at the door of the Committee Eooms. For what cannot be said — cer- 
 tainly not for the interesting female \\athin" {JELerald, 1851, July 21 %). 
 Voucher no. 15 in the Papers, shows that the carriage was hired by the 
 Committee at an expense of $16. 
 
 ^<i Papers, 363. 
 
 ■i-T Papers, 414-416. 
 
 ^8 Papers, 435-436; Herald, 1851, Aug. 12 %. 
 
282 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 the trip from Santa Barbara, and he expressed no dissatisfaction 
 with the final disposition of his captive.^^ 
 
 Both Whittaker and McKenzie proved difficult to handle, 
 maintaining for some time such a stubborn silence that we may 
 leave them, as it were, handcuffed in their prison, while we follow 
 other events of July and August. 
 
 Much energy was consumed in pursuing other companions of 
 Stuart. Thomas Quick and some of the lesser thieves were caught 
 later, but the Committee was not always successful in securing 
 the prisoners it desired. Thomas Belcher Kay, for instance, was 
 followed in vain although he was in Sacramento when the early 
 suspicions of his criminal activities-^ were confirmed by Stuart's 
 confession. Officers were immediately dispatched to arrest him 
 there. They actually had him in their hands on July 11, the day 
 Stuart was hanged, but in view of the intense excitement pre- 
 vailing at the time Kay persuaded them to allow him to remain 
 at large, and although he then gave his word that he would 
 accompany them voluntarily on the following day he promptly 
 broke this parole and took advantage of his liberty to escape to 
 San Francisco disguised as an old woman. ^^ With assumed 
 frankness he wrote to the Committee, promised to surrender 
 himself when desired, and requested that E. G. Austin should be 
 retained as his counsel, but the office was indignantly refused 
 by Mr. Austin, who more than once acted as legal adviser to the 
 Vigilantes. 
 
 Mr. Kay, however, had some friends who were willing to 
 appear in his behalf. One of them was William Thompson, Jr., 
 who with commendable forethought sought to provide sanctuary 
 for the fugitive in one of the crowded apartments of the county 
 jail. On July 11, while Kay was still in Sacramento, Thompson 
 
 19 Wadsworth, in MS Vigilance Committees — Miscellany, 25-26; Tapers, 
 454, Voucher no. 40. 
 
 20 See suyra, p. 238. 
 
 ^-^ Papers, 276-277; Berald, 1851, July 16 %; 17 %; Aug. 11 %. 
 
On the Trail of Stuart's Companions 283 
 
 made affidavit in San Francisco that the former port Avarden was 
 even then unlawfully restrained of his liberty on a steamer in the 
 Bay, by "a great number of persons who styled themselves the 
 Vigilance Committee." In that way he procured a writ that 
 required the sheriff of San Francisco to produce the said Belcher 
 Kay in court, in order to prevent his execution at the hands of 
 his captors. Kay 's counsel, Mr. McHenry , then placed his client 
 in the sheriff's care, merely for the purpose of protecting him 
 from the threatened violence of the Vigilance Committee. While 
 he was in confinement the grand jury investigated his affairs, and 
 in order to obtain all the information possible asked the Com- 
 mittee of Vigilance for whatever evidence it had, and even visited 
 headquarters in a body to discuss the matter with the Executive 
 Committee.-- Kay's case was called in court on the same day, 
 but as no complaint had been lodged against the prisoner he was 
 discharged on the ground that the county could not afford the 
 expense of his maintenance or the risk of damages for unlawful 
 detention.-^ The grand jury immediately caused his rearrest,-^ 
 but after ten days of imprisonment he was again released, ''the 
 Grand Jury having represented to the court that they had no 
 presentation to make against defendant." The Committee of 
 Vigilance, learning of the order for his discharge, watched the 
 jail and the outgoing Panama steamer in the hope of making an 
 arrest, but Kay slipped through the guard and made good his 
 escape.^^ 
 
 He was fortunate in departing just when he did, for in a few 
 days Whittaker and McKenzie gave further details of his crimes. 
 
 22 Papers, 290, 298. ''The Grand Jury and the Vigilance Committee— - 
 These two important bodies, the former of which is charged to bring in 
 indictments for murder against the latter, had a free conference on Satur- 
 day at the Committee Rooms. The purpose and proceedings have not 
 transpired" (Herald, 1851, July 21 %). 
 
 2s Herald, 1851, July 21, %; 22 %. 
 
 2^ Herald, 1851, July 21 %. 
 
 25 Herald, 1851, Aug. 2 %; Papers, 400. 
 
284 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 His real name, said Whittaker, was Gibson, and he was also 
 known in England and Paris as Singing Billy and Count Peri. 
 A checkered career had carried him from Europe to the penal 
 colonies of Van Diemen's Land; thence he had escaped and 
 made his way to California, and although he was so illiterate 
 that he could scarcely read and write he became a leader in 
 planning and executing many robberies, and was one of the prin- 
 cipals in the attack on Jansen. His appointment to office illus- 
 trated the ease with which past records could be ignored in 
 the new community. We have evidence, also, that he continued 
 his interesting occupations in other climes. After a sojourn in 
 the southern seas he reappeared to history in South America, 
 and the papers of 1855 reported that he was prominent in a band 
 of ruffians who were committing outrages in Valparaiso.-^ 
 
 While Kay was still in confinement the Committee instigated 
 the grand jury to indict William Thompson, Jr., on the charge 
 that he had perjured himself when he swore that his friend was 
 under illegal restraint by the Vigilantes. The case was tried in 
 August. Several witnesses described Kay 's arrest in Sacramento 
 and the crowd on the San Francisco wharf that awaited the 
 arrival of his steamer. That ' ' crowd ' ' may have been the guard 
 of twenty appointed to act as a ''well armed" escort"^ and to 
 protect the expected prisoner from possible violence. The evi- 
 dence for the defense, however, characterized it as a large and 
 threatening ' ' mob ' ' that gave vociferous applause to inflammatory 
 speeches in which Sam Brannan promised that the former port 
 warden should hang as ''high as Haman within twenty-four 
 
 26 Papers, 472, 680 note 1; Alta, 1855, Aug. 7 %. Kay's career was 
 mentioned in the San Francisco Call, 1893, Feb. 5, p. 16 ; H. C. Merwin, 
 Life of Bret Harte, 1911, p. III. He had been appointed port warden by 
 Governor McDougal, and became popular in spite of his close association 
 with the Sydney men. He was acquainted with Dr. Eandall, of Monterey, 
 and was suspected of complicity in the robbery of the Custom House. His 
 name also appears in a lurid tale. Mysteries and Miseries of San Francisco 
 [1853]. 
 
 27 Papers, 265. 
 
On the Trail of Stuart's Companions 285 
 
 hours." If we can accept these sworn statements at their face 
 value, we must add another turbulent scene to the instances of 
 disorder that accompanied some of the activities of the Committee 
 of Vigilance. The trial resulted in Thompson's discharge; the 
 jury "under the instruction of the court . . . that the indictment 
 was faulty . . . returned a verdict of not guilty."-^ 
 
 Messrs. Edwards, Osman, Briggs, ]\Iorgan, and Hughes, also 
 evaded arrest by the Committee. Hughes had been tried and 
 acquitted of the burglary of Robert's jewelry store early in 
 June, 2^ but Whittaker finally said the charge was true and that 
 the plunder had been entrusted to Morgan, w^ho with Edwards, 
 Osman, and Briggs was traced to San Diego, where the party 
 boarded a steamer for Panama. Unsuccessful efforts were made 
 to arrest them at Mazatlan, and again, in October, when it 
 was reported that they had returned to the vicinity of San 
 Francisco. ^° 
 
 The archives contain the names of eighty-six persons who 
 were implicated by the statements of James Stuart and his con- 
 federates. Only twenty-one of these were positively designated as 
 ex-convicts, although a much larger number undoubtedly hailed 
 from the penal colonies. About forty-five of the entire group 
 can be classed as minor rascals, but the remaining forty-one seem 
 to have achieved unenviable prominence in the circle of outlaws. 
 Fifteen members of this dangerous gang were incarcerated, first 
 and last, within the prisoners' room of the Committee of Vigi- 
 lance, and their trials were prosecuted with vigor,^^ 
 
 ^^ Tapers, 300 note 3; Herald, 1851, July 24 %; Aug. 11 %. 
 
 29 See supra, p. 238. 
 _ 30 Papers, 228 note 16, 444-445, 500, 506, 679 note 1. In June the Com- 
 mittee received a letter which described the escape of a supposed thief, and 
 the recovery of a watch that he had dropped in his flight. Two months later 
 Whittaker identified the fugitive as Old Jack Morgan, a typical example of 
 the interweaving of independent clues (ibid., 47, 476). 
 
 31 Compare Papers, Appendix E (list of prisoners). Appendix F (list of 
 Stuart's confederates), and Index under ''Convicts." 
 
286 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 So far as Stuart's friends were concerned, his statement and 
 that of Joseph Hetherington furnished a basis for examinations, 
 and the accused, sometimes interrogated in private, sometimes 
 confronted with old confederates, one by one admitted their guilt 
 and told more or less of their past life and associations. T. J. L. 
 Smiley said :^^ 
 
 The usual course was first to examine these men in relation to their 
 antecedents, to make particular inquiries in relation to their present life, 
 and to investigate any complaints or charges made against them. These 
 examinations were conducted by Gerrit L. Eyckman and Stephen Payran, 
 who reported the result to the Executive Committee. If the Executive 
 Committee desired any further evidence in relation to the matter, they 
 would either investigate themselves, or refer the matter to a sub-com- 
 mittee. As a general thing, before any definite action was taken, the 
 prisoner was allowed the privilege of appearing before the Committee, 
 and making whatever defence he might be able to in regard to any mis- 
 deeds charged against him. On the report of the Executive Committee, it 
 was referred to the Committee at large, and, on being endorsed by them, 
 was carried into effect. The sentence of the Committee, as a general 
 thing, was banishment, or voluntary transportation, amounting to the 
 same thing. In some few instances, opportunities were given for them 
 to wind up their business and close their affairs, before taking their de- 
 parture. 
 
 The great strength of the Committee of '51 lay in the wonderful 
 faculties possessed by two members of the Executive Committee, Gerrit 
 Eyckman and Stephen Payran. The part allotted to them was obtaining 
 information in regard to the antecedents and present life and surround- 
 ings of the parties brought before them. They had a most wonderful 
 faculty of impressing these parties with the fact that their only hope of 
 safety lay in confession of crime. Gerrit Eyckman would talk to them 
 like a father, and they would unbosom themselves fully, uncovering 
 everything without any promise of reward, or special fear of punishment, 
 except on the general principle that they had better make a clean breast 
 of it. Nine times out of ten they confessed, and consented to transporta- 
 tion, glad to get away, particularly when their requests to wind up their 
 affairs were acceded to. With the wonderful power of these men to get 
 so many to confess there was very little for the mass of the Committee 
 to do. 
 
 32 Smiley, MS Statement, 2-4. 
 
On the Trail of Stuart's Companions 287 
 
 It was not always so eas}^ as Smiley intimated to extort truth- 
 ful confessions from those experts in perjury and evasion. A 
 series of statements made by Adams, Jimmy from Town, Ains- 
 worth, and others, shows how carefully the inquisitors conducted 
 their investigations.^^ Adams, for instance, began a plausible 
 tale of honest industry. In the midst of his story he was con- 
 fronted with William Hays, who was under suspicion as a rascal 
 on his own account, and who hoped to win immunity by in- 
 forming on his old friends. Adams denied any acquaintance 
 with him, but Hays recounted various experiences which he 
 claimed they had shared in common, especially one incident of 
 an Indian celebration. ' ' It was about the third of July. Wasn 't 
 it?" he queried, and Adams incautiously corrected ''The 
 Fourth ! ' ' The lying defense was broken down ; a whining con- 
 fession followed, and George Adams may well have trembled for 
 his life as he realized how many scores were accumulating against 
 him upon the records of the Vigilantes. 
 
 After the committeemen had played the roles of detectives, 
 police, prosecutors, and juries, they were called upon to act as 
 judges and pronounce sentences upon these convicted or self- 
 confessed thieves. Here we mark another striking divergence 
 of method between their course and that of other popular trib- 
 unals which have been noticed in the earlier pages of this volume. 
 The people's courts of the unorganized frontier and of the 
 mining camps of 1848 and 1849 considered themselves the legiti- 
 mate representatives of law in regions physically beyond the 
 reach of legal institutions; those that persisted in California 
 in 1850 and 1851 frankl}^ ignored or defied the constitutional 
 authorities which they found powerless or unwilling to safe- 
 guard society. The Committee of Vigilance, however, acknowl- 
 edged the supremacy of the existing government, and was 
 
 Papers, 314-327. 
 
288 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 pledged by its constitution to sustain the law when it was faith- 
 fully and properly administered. By the middle of July crim- 
 inal conditions in San Francisco had changed decidedly for the 
 better since the early days of June when Jenkins was given his 
 short shrift: the revised statutes were in effect, one or two of 
 the local judges showed themselves incorruptible in executing 
 justice, the grand jury was zealous in returning indictments, the 
 popular interest was aroused, the courtrooms were thronged with 
 critical spectators, and verdicts inclined towards a salutary se- 
 verity. The primary object of the Committee was not the pun- 
 ishment of criminals, but the protection of society. As soon as 
 the courts gave promise of better efficiency the Committee turned 
 to them as the most desirable source of discipline, and adopted 
 the policy of delivering to the officers of the law those prisoners 
 whose guilt was so clearly established that conviction might be 
 expected, and whose crimes were not so heinous that the safety 
 of the community demanded their execution. 
 
 The most significant illustration of this policy was the action 
 in the cases of Stuart 's confederates, Adams, Jimmy from Town, 
 and Ainsworth, and in the case of George Arthur, a burglar 
 who was under arrest at the same time. It had cost the Com- 
 mittee heavily both in time and money to capture these men 
 and to bring them to the point where they acknowledged their 
 crimes. All were confessed thieves, but no proof of murder had 
 been obtained, although murder was strongly suspected. On 
 July 23 the Executive Committee advised that they should be 
 tried in the courts, where the documents obtained by the Com- 
 mittee might serve to convict at least one other prisoner then 
 in the hands of the authorities.^'^ This recommendation was 
 inunediately adopted in regard to Jimmy, Ainsworth, and Arthur, 
 but Adams was remanded for further examination. At the 
 
 ^^ Papers, 338, 345. 
 
071 the Trail of Stuart's Companions 289 
 
 next general meeting, July 28, action was again deferred. On 
 August 3 he made a more satisfactory statement, which was sub- 
 mitted to the General Committee without recommendation.^^ 
 No minutes intimate that Adams' fate hung in the balance for 
 several hours, but the San Francisco Herald stated that about 
 ten o'clock on the morning of August 6 the ]\Ionumental bell 
 tapped out the well-known call for a gathering of the General 
 Committee, and that crowds collected about headquarters, greatly 
 excited by a rumor that a sentence of death was under serious 
 consideration. At last the prisoner was brought out, not on his 
 way to the scaffold, but to the county jail, where he was handed 
 over to the under sheriff, John Caperton, who acknowledged the 
 delivery by a formal receipt. It is probable that Adams had a 
 very narrow escape. The minutes show that the motion for his 
 transfer to the authorities was made by "Mr. Malone," none 
 other, we must think, than number 250, James R. Malony, com- 
 monly called Rube, who was himself in bad repute as too close 
 a friend of rowdies and ballot-box stuffers. John Arentrue, an- 
 other colleague of Stuart, was also delivered to Sheriff Hays on 
 the same day. 
 
 The Committee pursued its policy of "vigilance" even after 
 placing its prisoners under legal control. In the case of Jimmy 
 from Town it was voted to detain Hays and other important 
 witnesses, and to produce them in court at the proper time. A 
 committee of six was appointed to attend to this duty, and 
 various allusions point to the existence of similar committees 
 charged with the supervision of other trials.^'' The presence in 
 court of members of the society has been severely scored by some 
 writers as an effort to overawe judge and juries. If such at- 
 tempts were made, they are not reflected in the newspaper re- 
 ports, or in the sentences pronounced, which in no case took 
 
 35 Papers, 375, 410-413, 418, 419, 424, 426. 
 S6 Papers, 339. 
 
290 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 advantage of the statute allowing the penalty of death to be 
 imposed for grand larceny. It is, however, apparent that the 
 trials of these men were conducted with unusual promptness. 
 Within a week Jimmy from Town was sentenced to ten years' 
 imprisonment, and some time later Adams received a twenty- 
 year sentence. The charges against Arentrue were dismissed, 
 owing to technical defects in the indictment, and the old trouble 
 of the departure of necessary witnesses.^^ 
 
 These notable rogues disappear at this point from the annals 
 of the Committee of Vigilance, but the members of that body 
 may have learned with interest that during the improvements 
 on the county jail Sheriff Hays employed the facile Jimmy from 
 Town in the mixing of mortar, while Adams delved some twenty- 
 seven feet under ground, and their old friend, Watkins, handled 
 a plane. ^^ Unfortunately, honest toil did not reform their wan- 
 dering impulses. In January of the next year Jimmy escaped 
 again, and was again captured. In May he and Adams and 
 Watkins attempted another sortie, but were detected, and were 
 most unkindly flogged, Adams suffering an extra ten lashes in 
 compliment to his leadership.^^ Jimmy was later transferred 
 to San Quentin, where the new state prison proved as frail a 
 barrier as had his other jails. In October, 1854, he led five 
 friends in a successful dash for liberty,*^ and thereafter vanished 
 from the attention of the public. 
 
 Schenck said that the Committee had been informed that the 
 authorities had evidence to convict some, of the prisoners of 
 murder,^^ and it may be inferred that their surrender was 
 prompted by the hope of severe and legal punishment. It is 
 
 37 See the Court reports in Herald, 1851, July 29; Aug. 7; 8; 14; 26-30; 
 Sept. 3; 23. ' 
 
 ^s Herald, 1851, Sept. 19 %. 
 
 ^^ Herald, 1852, Jan. 21 %; May 21 %. 
 
 40 Herald, 1854, Oct. 26 %. 
 
 41 Schenck, MS Statement, 43. 
 
On the Trail of Stimrt's Companions 291 
 
 noteworthy that the Vigilantes did not attempt to recover the 
 criminals when milder sentences were imposed. Nevertheless, 
 it is not unlikely that the good fortune of Adams and Jimmy 
 from Town sealed the fate of two more dangerous felons. 
 
 The records of Whittaker and McKenzie had been bared with 
 pitiless detail by Stuart, Joseph Hetherington, and other in- 
 formers. McKenzie, a brutal, coarse-fibered man, tried to save 
 himself by sullen silence, or by prevarication, but finally made 
 a confession that fully established his guilt as a member of 
 Stuart's gang.*^ 
 
 Whittaker also attempted to conceal the truth, but the accu- 
 sations against him were too explicit. In the end he spoke freely 
 of his past offenses. The circumstances attending his confession 
 make it in some respects the most remarkable of all the docu- 
 ments preserved in the files of the Committee. Stuart may have 
 dictated his statement in the hope of securing immunity by 
 frankness, but Whittaker, with Stuart 's fate in mind, could have 
 cherished no vision of reprieve at the expense of others. 
 Ryckman related a touching interview when kind words broke 
 down the prisoner's reticence, and he offered to unburden his 
 heavy conscience in the face of the warning that even honesty 
 would not save him from the penalty of his sins.*^ Once started, 
 he confessed crime after crime with astonishing fluency. While 
 Stuart's narrative was a plain recital of events, Whittaker 's was 
 interspersed with reflections on the men and the occurrences 
 that he described.** Like many other criminals he blamed 
 society for his downfall : he gave instances of injustice to show 
 that a thief had a better chance than an honest man ; he sneered 
 
 42 Tapers, 463-467, 506. A brief and unimportant addendum, missing 
 from the files, was printed in the Alta, 1851, August 27 %. 
 
 43 Eyckman, MS Statement, 10-12. He stated that Payran had been 
 drinking, and could not conduct the examination with his usual skill. Ban- 
 croft gave a somewhat garbled version of the episode in Popular Tribunals, 
 I, 342-343. 
 
 44 Papers, 468-488. 
 
292 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 at his own service on a jury whicli sentenced a prisoner to a 
 term of imprisonment for the theft of a pistol, while greater 
 offenders, skilfully defended, went scot-free f^ he showed how his 
 successful efforts to corrupt officials caused him to despise the 
 authorities he defied ; and he boasted of his influence as a poli- 
 tician, and of the dozen ex-convicts whom he led to the polls 
 when called upon to assist in the election of Malachi Fallon, 
 marshal of the city.*^ 
 
 He characterized his companions with critical appraisement : 
 Kay was ignorant, and a dand}^; others were bungling; the con- 
 victs from Van Diemen's Land were far worse than those from 
 Sydney ;*^ such a one was a convict without doubt, another might 
 be an incendiary but the ' ' report was rumor ' ' f^ John Darke 
 was a thief ' ' on his own hook ' ' ; Dick Smith, friend of convicts 
 and of police, could be depended upon to provide straw bail.*^ 
 He described moral and physical qualities with equal facility, 
 and little touches of personality bring these unknown rogues 
 before our eyes with startling realism. The acme of his con- 
 tempt he reserved for the unkempt, unclean, and physically re- 
 pulsive. "Kitchen is a rough boatman-looking fellow; dirty, 
 very dirty." ''George" was roundshouldered, a dirty-looking 
 fellow, a thief; one receiver of stolen goods at Sacramento was 
 stigmatized as a "dirty looking little pock-marked Jew."®*^ 
 
 He did not hesitate to acknowledge his relations with Mrs. 
 Hogan, told of lavish presents he had made her, and of her de- 
 termination never to go back to her husband. He even repeated 
 a rumor that she had been transported for crime, but admitted 
 at last:^^ "To do her justice, I must say that she done all in 
 her power to break up my associations, and to lead a different 
 life." 
 
 ^5 Papers, 469. ^^ Papers, 482, 483. 
 
 ^Q Papers, 481. 50 Papers, 480-482. 
 
 *7 Papers, 478. 5i Papers, 473-476, 484. 
 
 ^8 Papers, 477, 480. 
 
On the Trail of Stuart's Companions 293 
 
 Mary Hogan was then recalled to headquarters, and the 
 confession was read to her. Compelled by the man's frank 
 avowals, she admitted the intimacy that had bound them to- 
 gether, but indignantly repudiated the insinuation that her af- 
 fections had been won by the value of his gifts. She insisted 
 that she had handled his money as might a wife, returning to 
 him on various occasions such sums as he needed.^^ We read 
 that during her ordeal the "prisoner Whittaker was brought in 
 and confronted with Mrs. Hogan." So far as we may know, 
 they never met again. Sam Whittaker was held to meet the 
 punishment of his misdeeds, and Mrs. Hogan was allowed to go 
 at large subject to the order of the Committee.^^ In closing her 
 stor}^ it is perhaps fair to repeat the judgment of one of her 
 own sisterhood who characterized Mrs. Hogan as "only guilty 
 of loving a bad man."^* 
 
 The examinations did not prove actual murder against either 
 Whittaker or McKenzie, but the Executive Committee reported 
 that both men were self-confessed robbers who did not hesitate 
 at any violence, that they were a menace to the community, 
 and that it would be unsafe to hand them over to the authori- 
 ties.^^ It therefore recommended that they should suffer death 
 at the hands of the Committee of Vigilance. These reports 
 are in Stephen Payran's handwriting, and both contain a can- 
 celed paragraph which provided that execution should take place 
 at one o'clock on the afternoon of August 18. In spite of the 
 fact that there are no minutes and no annotations to prove that 
 these recommendations were accepted, there is little doubt that 
 
 52 Papers, 488-490; Herald, 1851, Aug. 18 %. 
 5^ Papers, 501. 
 
 54 Eeport of a conversation with ' ' Harriet, ' ' probably Harriet Lang- 
 meade, in a brief paragraph in the Herald, 1851, August 4 %. 
 
 55 Papers, 462, 467. Smiley said : ' ' The sentences of death in the cases 
 of Whitaker and McKenzie were passed by the Committee at large, upon 
 the cases coming before them" (MS Statement, 4). 
 
294 Yigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 they were, although with a postponement of the execution for 
 fortj^-eight hours. On the nineteenth there are two unsigned 
 orders, one in Payran's handwriting instructing the chief of 
 police to remove the prisoners to a place of greater security, and 
 another written by Bluxome, directing that the execution should 
 take place on a vessel in the harbor in view of the crowds on 
 shore.^^ 
 
 The plans of the Committee were not destined to be carried 
 out, as the removal of the prisoners was not accomplished in 
 time to frustrate a delivery executed under the personal super- 
 vision of the governor of the state. His proclamation of July 21 
 had concluded with the words: ''It is my sworn duty to see 
 that the laws are executed, and I feel assured that all good 
 citizens will cordially cooperate with me in its discharge. ' ' For 
 nearly a month Governor McDougal had rested content with 
 this inner assurance of restored tranquility, and then his con- 
 fidence in the good citizens of San Francisco was rudely shat- 
 tered. On August 18 the papers published the full text of 
 the examinations in the case of Whittaker and McKenzie. On 
 August 19 the governor learned that the Committee of Vigilance 
 intended to hang both prisoners on the following day. He at 
 once hastened to San Francisco and about midnight he ob- 
 tained confirmation of the rumor from two members (or former 
 members) of the Committee whose names he never divulged. 
 Summoning Mayor Brenham to his assistance, he searched the 
 
 56 Papers, 522, 523, 536. The following undated fragment may refer 
 to some plan connected with the execution. The writing does not identify 
 the author, and it was reserved for publication in this volume as an illus- 
 tration of the problems that arose in arranging a portion of the archives: 
 ' ' The prisoners will be moved this night with guard of ten — 
 At 8 o 'clock a person will be sent to room for special detail of 
 25 who will come to such spot as may be designated — 
 
 When Comt. meets — report & let the bells toll — then form & pro- 
 ceed under direction of me without previous statement & he who leads 
 will wave his handkf — when the prisoners will run — ' ' Bancroft 
 interpreted the concluding phrase as referring to the moment when the 
 prisoners should be run up to the yard arm (Popular Tribunals, I, 359). 
 
On the Tradl of Stuart's Companions 295 
 
 city for a judge who could issue a warrant for immediate seizure. 
 Having produced this from Judge Myron Norton, he aroused 
 the sheriff and directed him to serve it without delay.^^ 
 
 Colonel Hays had no relish for the commission. As has been 
 said, he sustained the most cordial relations with the volunteer 
 police headquarters on Battery Street; he had invited members 
 of the Committee to visit his own jail ; they had commended his 
 efforts to complete the building, and had promised substantial 
 financial assistance towards defraying the expenses he had as- 
 sumed. More than once they had delivered important prisoners 
 into his keeping, and more than once they had frustrated his 
 efforts to take from them men whom they were unwilling to 
 relinquish. At first he thought it was not his duty, "and rather 
 roughly declined,"^' but the obligation could not well be evaded, 
 and he reluctantly called his deputy, John Caperton, and accom- 
 panied the governor and the mayor to the rooms of the Com- 
 mittee. 
 
 Here there had been all through the night an atmosphere of 
 suppressed excitement ; members came and went, intent upon the 
 stern work of the morrow, sometimes so absorbed and hurried 
 that they passed the guard without the customary countersign. 
 Payran, who had been indisposed during the day,^^ had retired 
 for sleep after a final consultation with Van Bokkelen. The 
 latter had nearly completed arrangements for transferring the 
 condemned to the vessel selected as the place of execution and 
 had stepped outside for a moment, when Hays and Caperton, 
 taking advantage of their knowledge of the rooms and of the 
 customs of admission, mounted the stairs and pushed past the 
 guard at the door. Caperton rushed directly to the prisoner's 
 room, crying: "Whittaker and McKenzie, I am an officer; I 
 
 57 The affidavit and the warrant are printed infra, pp. 469-470. 
 '^& Papers, 530. 
 50 Papers, 520. 
 
296 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 come to save you ! ' ' The three locked arms and dashed back to 
 the exit, where Hays held open the door in spite of all that the 
 surprised guard could do to dislodge him. During this dramatic 
 rescue there was great confusion, but no concerted resistance, 
 and no resort to violence or firearms on either side. The whole 
 thing occurred so quickly that Payran was not awakened until 
 the scuffle was over. When Van Bokkelen returned he found 
 his charges in the hands of the officers. He made such a feeble 
 effort to regain them that he was severely censured by the 
 Committee for neglect of duty, and temporarily relieved of his 
 office as chief of the Vigilance police. 
 
 The General Committee met at eight o'clock the next morning 
 to discuss the circumstances of the rescue. ^° Some of the mem- 
 bers favored immediate retaliation. Payran 's habitual deliber- 
 ation gave way before his indignation, and in a fiery resolution 
 he called upon the Committee to decide whether it should rouse 
 the city to action and show who had the supremacy, or should 
 acknowledge defeat by releasing all prisoners still in custody. 
 "Why detain them here?" he asked. "Why expend our time 
 and money on them, when we, the People, are afraid of the puny 
 and insignificant powers whom we have placed in office ? ' ' His 
 resolution was laid on the table, as was another that proposed 
 an attempt at immediate recapture. Five men were appointed 
 to investigate the events of the night; the chief of police was 
 suspended from duty pending their report, and the meeting ad- 
 journed until the afternoon. At four o'clock the subcommittee 
 was ready with its report, which was introduced by the following 
 preamble : 
 
 The Committee having invited his Excellency the Governor of the 
 State, his Honor the Mayor, Sheriff Hays, and Deputy Sheriff Caperton 
 to meet them in the Executive Chambers, those gentlemen cordially as- 
 sented, and being informed that the object of the Committee was to 
 
 Papers, 523-526. 
 
On the Trail of Stuart ^s Compamons 297 
 
 ascertain if their action in seizing and rescuing the prisoners was aided 
 and abetted by any members of the Vigilance Committee they have pro- 
 vided the Committee with the statements as follows severally. ' '^i 
 
 This investigation illustrated more vividly than any other 
 incident in the history of the Vigilance Committee the strange 
 position in which it stood with the general public and with the 
 constitutional representatives of the people. At midnight the 
 Committee held two men as prisoners under sentence of death ; 
 before morning these men were seized in a raid conducted by 
 the three highest officers of the state, city, and county ; and a few 
 hours later all concerned (except the prisoners) sat around a 
 council table in the very headquarters of the Vigilantes and 
 discussed the event with the decorum befitting a court of law ! 
 
 The committee of investigation found no evidence of cor- 
 ruption or of internal connivance in the escape,^- but it blamed 
 the chief of police for want of necessary caution and energy, 
 and censured those members ''who were so derelict in duty as 
 to inform the Governor of the intended action of the Committee, 
 which rendered it imperative upon him to adopt the course he 
 did. ' ' The report was accepted and Van Bokkelen was restored 
 to his former position. It was resolved that the sentences of exe- 
 cution should be carried out as soon as Whittaker and McKenzie 
 could be recaptured, and that in future any member guilty of 
 divulging transactions of the Committee should be ignominiously 
 expelled.^^ 
 
 On the very day after the rescue Hays allowed Ryckman to 
 interview the prisoners. ''Mr. Ryckman," said Whittaker, "I 
 
 31 Papers, 528. The evidence follows. It contains many allusions show- 
 ing the arrangements of headquarters, and the customs of the Committee. 
 The account in Popular Tribunals, I, 353-356, included other details sup- 
 plied by the members. 
 
 62 Payran always attributed the rescue to treachery on the part of the 
 guards (Carpenter's letter in Oakland Transcript, 1874, March 29, p. 1). 
 
 &5 Papers, 524-525. 
 
298 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 hope you are not sorry that we made our escape. '^ '^You have 
 not made your escape/' was the inexorable reply. ''You have 
 been convicted, and you will be executed beyond a shadow of 
 doubt. There is no power on earth that can save you."^* Gov- 
 ernor McDougal, however, was somewhat complacent over his 
 easy victory, and he took occasion to issue another proclamation, 
 which is reproduced upon the opposite page. This communi- 
 cation appeared in the city papers, even in those most friendly 
 to the Committee, although its force was somewhat impaired by 
 the close juxtaposition of the following: 
 
 A Card 
 
 San Francisco, August 20, 1851. 
 We, the undersigned, do hereby aver, that the present Governor, Mc- 
 Dougal, asked to be introduced to the Executive Committee of the Com- 
 mittee of Vigilance which was allowed, and an hour fixed. The Governor, 
 upon being introduced, stated that he approved the acts of the Committee, 
 and that much good had taken place. 65 He hoped that they would go on, 
 and endeavor to act in concert with the authorities, and in case any 
 Judge should be guilty of mal-administration, to hang him, and he would 
 appoint others, &c. 
 
 G. E. SCHENCK, 
 
 George J. Oakes, 
 Isaac Bluxome, Jr., 
 S. Payran. 
 
 64 Eyckman, MS Statement, 13. 
 
 65 ''The Governor of the State, hearing of the condition of affairs [after 
 the execution of Jenkins], issued, as was proper for him to do, a proclama- 
 tion, warning all good citizens to desist from unlawful acts and from unlaw- 
 ful combinations. But upon examination of affairs, he was satisfied the 
 work proposed by the Committee would really be beneficial to the public 
 interests, and that an active opposition would be harmful instead of useful, 
 and decidedly agreed with the Executive that their work should go on, and 
 that he would interpose no active opposition on the part of the state, so long 
 as the operations of the Committee were confined to the sphere indicated, 
 unless something then not foreseen should compel him to take a different 
 position, of which he would give them due notice. Accordingly, throughout 
 the existence or active operations of that Committee, the Governor properly 
 maintained his attitude of nominal opposition, and the dignity of the state, 
 but found no occasion to take any active measures against us" (Coleman, 
 MS Statement, 23-24). 
 
PROCLAIiTIOH! 
 
 mr 
 
 THE COf ERiOR. 
 
 WIIEREA($. aa armed aad organized iiody of the eitizeaB 9f Sao Fraaoiseo Cpaat^-. 
 
 ha», IB defiance ef the Constitution and lAwg of tJbi^ Stste, aasam^d l» exercise tlie p«wen of tlie Courts of Criiaioal 
 Jurisdiction, and to p:i8» and carrj' into effect extra-juiUcial xentenees of death— «sd wnereas a gpirit of opposition to the 
 
 Officers of the Lan, while engaged Ip thb eneculiun of their duty, has been openlj- and-pubHely raatufested ; «a|filiere if 
 reason to lirliete (hat further attem^ may be made to interfere with the regolar admlaistratioB of jostiee in B«ia Cc 
 and e«peeinliy to talse from the ci^ody ol'^be Sheriff certain Prisoners now cooSned in the Gaol of asid Coagjjj^. 
 
 a, do he 
 
 Notv therefore. I, JOHN McD0U04L, Governor of (he State of California, do herebr 
 
 call upon till good citizcn^i of said County to unite for the purpose of Musjiainiog public Ian and tranquiUity, to aid the pabBc 
 Bcrs in the diBch;iri;r of their duty, and by ail lawful m<tMs to diseouijtenance aay and every attempt which may be made 
 
 officers i 
 
 t« suhHtKdte the despotic lontrol of a self-runstituted a.s.soeiation onknown and acting in defiance of the laws, in the place 
 of the rej;nlarly or^aniAed sinvemnient of the County. And I herebj- eall upon all public officers to be active, vigilant, and 
 faithful ill the performance of their trusts, and to resist to th^ atmost of their power, all efforts which may be made to 
 subvert the laws and trample on the Constitution. 
 
 And I hereby nnrn (hose who are disposed to resist the legal authorities, (hat (hey can- 
 
 Bot do so, without involvlns the community of which they are aiembers i a all the horrors of Civil War, subjecting life, 
 liberty and property to the most fearful sacrifices. 
 
 The Government is determined, at all hazard^., to sHstaiB the Coastitation and Laws. 
 
 public peace can only he secured, and public liberty can only be maistaioed,. h^ a strict adherence to that feeling of sobor- 
 d^ation to tlie law, and respect for its ministers, which have heretofore ebaracterized the American People. 
 
 The attention of all citizens is requested |o Sections 99 to 50, of "An Act to regu- 
 late proceedings in Criminal cases." 
 
 It is earnestly hoped,that no necessity will arise eailing for the execntion of those 
 
 provisiOB.s, and that the g<K>d sen.* and calm reflection of all good citizens will induee them to refrain from committing ai^ 
 aots calcnkted to destroy the peace and order of the eommusitv', and to, bring the authorities into coodiet with any portio* 
 of the People. 
 
 M McDOUGAL, 
 
 Gitvemor of Califoruui. 
 Sau Fraueisco, August IstO/A. 1851. 
 
 Proclamation by Governor John McDougal relative to the Committee of Vigilance, 
 August 20, 1851. From the Bancroft Library. 
 
On the Trcdl of Stuart's Companions 299 
 
 The records of the Committee contain but one more paper 
 bearing on this case — the following curt order, to which is ap- 
 pended an equally curt report :^^ 
 
 Capt. Cartwright: 
 
 You are hereby authorized to detail a guard such as you think proper, 
 and arrest two Prisoners to-wit — Sam Whittaker & E. Mackensie and 
 bring them, into custody of the Committee of Vigilence. 
 Done by order of Executive Committee 
 August 22, A D 1851. 
 
 [Signed] James B Huie 
 Attest S. Patran Chairman. 
 
 Sect^. 
 
 Executive Com® of Vigilance Com® 
 
 S. Francisco Aug. 24./51 
 Agreeably to your orders above I detailed (30) Thirty men who pro- 
 ceeded in Three Divisons under the respective orders of Col G. W. White, 
 Capt Calhoun & Mr Oscar Smith & in the short spaces of 5 minutes from 
 the first charge the Prisoners above named were on their way to your 
 
 Head Quarters — 
 
 Eespy 
 
 [Signed] J W Cartwright 
 
 The story of that Sunday is worth telling in greater fullness. 
 The reminiscences of the actors show that they plotted cunningly 
 to outwit the triumphant authorities.^^ In order to avoid any 
 personal conflict with Jack Hays, George Schenck saw to it that 
 the sheriff was invited to attend a bullfight at the Mission Do- 
 lores. Then, in advance of the proposed raid, Isaac Bluxome 
 inspected the jail, ostensibly to see Berdue, who was lodged there 
 awaiting a formal release from the sentence imposed after his 
 conviction as the assailant of Jansen. The secretarj^'s real 
 errand was to discover whether a stand of muskets kept in the 
 
 66 Papers, 549. By an error in proof-reading, Huie 's title as Chairman 
 was omitted from the printed document. There are no minutes to explain 
 why Payran was serving as secretary, but another order of the same date 
 was signed by E. Gorham, as president pro tem (ibid., 541). 
 
 67 Details of the raid in the MS Statement of Ryckman, 13 ; Bluxome, 
 13-15; Schenck, 40-42; Farwell, 10; confirmed by the dailv papers of 
 August 25, and by E«v. Albert Williams, PioneeY Pastorate, 1879, pp. 117- 
 118. See also Popular Tribunals, I, 359-365. 
 
300 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 building was ready for emergency use. He accomplished this 
 purpose by exhibiting his skill in the manual of arms to the old 
 soldier, William Lambert, who acted as keeper, for he made 
 excuses to pick up one gun after another during the drill, and 
 thus ascertained that none was loaded. 
 
 When Sunday came. Captain Cartwright stationed parties 
 of his guard of thirty near the front and rear entrances of the 
 jail. The unsuspecting jailers even allowed a few of them to 
 enter the building and attend a religious service which was being 
 held in the unroofed court. A conspirator perched on Telegraph 
 Hill commanded a view of the courtyard and watched for the 
 signal that would indicate the best moment for attack. The 
 Reverend Albert Williams exhorted his unpromising flock, while 
 Captain Lambert lounged on guard, Caperton discussed his Sun- 
 day dinner, and Sheriff Hays enjoyed his holiday sports. Sud- 
 denly at half past two as the meeting drew to its close a signal 
 was waved from within, transmitted by the observer on the hill, 
 and answered from without. In a twinkling the Vigilantes inside 
 pinioned Lambert and the guards, those without forced in the 
 doors, seized Whittaker and McKenzie, carried them bodily to 
 a waiting carriage, thrust them on to the seat, and held them 
 down with cocked pistols at their heads. The driver lashed his 
 horses to a gallop and dashed up Broadway to Stockton, along 
 Stockton to Washington, thence through Dupont, Sacramento, 
 Montgomery, and California streets, to the rooms of the Com- 
 mittee on Battery street. The Monumental bell began to tap 
 out the alarm, and the streets filled with crowds that raced after 
 the flying carriage and quickly packed the neighborhood around 
 headquarters. On the box of that careening coach sat James 
 R. Duff, who lived to become one of the last survivors of the 
 Committee of 1851.^^ Sixty-four years later he seemed to recall 
 
 68 Mr. Duff 's recollections of the day were printed in the San Francisco 
 Chronicle, 1915, Oct. 3, Magazine p. 6. I had the pleasure of talking with 
 him a few weeks later. 
 
On the Trail of Stuart's Companions 301 
 
 every event of the day with photographic distinctness. It was 
 not only its reckless daring that stamped the mad hour indelibly 
 upon his memory. The shouting mob had caught in its swirl a 
 frightened girl, just from the East, who recognized on the car- 
 riage her own brother-in-law, James T. Ryan, and marked the 
 man beside him, and years later the gray-haired Vigilante de- 
 picted for me the fiercest episode of '51 as a somber background 
 for the moment when he first attracted the attention of the 
 woman who soon after became his wife. 
 
 But vengeance, not romance, possessed the minds of the com- 
 mitteemen on that Sunday afternoon when they rushed their 
 captives back to their headquarters. The chambers had two 
 second-story doorways on Battery Street, with projecting beams 
 for the hoisting of freight. Seventeen minutes after the storming 
 of the jail those doors were thrown open, ropes were reeved 
 through the overhead blocks, and the two ends taken inside the 
 room. In another instant the prisoners were pushed forward, 
 with nooses around their necks, and almost at the same moment 
 the ropes were tightened and the struggling wretches were 
 launched into eternity.^^ While the bodies were still hanging 
 Sam Brannan addressed the crowd from the open doorway, in- 
 forming them that the prisoners had confessed their guilt, had 
 
 69 Illustration, Annals, 562. An English traveler described the appalling 
 silence and resolute mien with which the waiting thousands watched the 
 sinister preparations. ''They did not seem like men," he said, ''but like 
 judges sent by Osiris from the nether world, so stern, and implacable was 
 their expression" (Jeremiah Lynch, A Senator of the Fifties, 101). An- 
 other writer said that brutal levity characterized the execution, and so 
 shocked public sentiment that the popular approval of the Committee was 
 greatly weakened, and contributions were withdrawn {Pictures of Pioneer 
 Times, by William Grey [a pseudonym of W. F. White], 1881, p. 108). 
 Contemporary accounts showed that McKenzie was in a pitiable state of 
 panic, while Whittaker was calm and manly (see also R. M. Devens, Our 
 First Century, 1880, p. 555). Ryckman said that Whittaker was "brave as 
 Caesar, ' ' and won his admiration so that he regretted the necessity for the 
 execution. In the brief interval within headquarters the doomed man told 
 Eyckman of a plot against his life, and the warning enabled the Vigilante 
 to foil the would-be assassins (Ryckman, MS Statement, 14-15; Popular 
 Tribunals, I, 364^365). 
 
302 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 acknowledged that they deserved death, and had affirmed that 
 they would not have pursued the course which ended at the 
 gallows had it not been for the weakness and corruption of some 
 of the authorities. He stated that the members of the Committee 
 were fully sensible of the solemnity of the occasion and of the 
 fearful responsibility which the first law of nature, self-preser- 
 vation, imposed upon them, but that they could not have acted 
 other than they had without holding out a direct premium to 
 crime. He trusted that the Committee would be supported by 
 the citizens when it did right, and would receive their frowns 
 when it did wrong. No innocent man need fear — it was no 
 gratification to the Committee to be compelled to take the life 
 of a fellow-being, and in no case would that be done unless the 
 proof of guilt was beyond cavil. 
 
 The coroner held an inquest on the same day and summoned 
 as witnesses George Melius, W. H. Jones, Benjamin Reynolds, 
 L. J. Bayles, J. B. Huie, and S. E. Woodworth, all members of 
 the Committee. Their answers were guarded but not evasive, 
 and the jury returned the following verdict -P 
 
 In accordance with the foregoing testimony, the jury, after deliberate 
 consideration, have come to the conclusion and accordingly render their 
 verdict that Samuel Whittaker and Robert McKenzie came to their death 
 by being hanged by the neck, thereby producing strangulation, by the act 
 of a body of citizens styling themselves the "Vigilance Committee of San 
 Francisco," on the afternoon of Sunday, August 24th, instant, at about 
 three o 'clock, in front of the Vigilance Committee Rooms, on Battery Street, 
 near California Street, from the second story thereof. 
 
 Although there was some severe censure of the execution^^ 
 most of the newspapers approved it, and blamed the courts 
 for permitting the miscarriage of justice that evoked such inter- 
 ference on the part of private citizens. These strictures were 
 
 70 Herald, 1851, Aug. 25 %. 
 
 71 The Pacific, a religious paper friendly to the Committee, said that the 
 act had forfeited the confidence of the community (Pacific, 1851, Sept. 5, %). 
 
071 the Trail of Stuart's Companions 303 
 
 so severe that they moved Judge H. S. Brown, of the Court of 
 Sessions, to resign his position on the ground that the attitude 
 of the press was equivalent to an unjust impeachment of every 
 judge in the San Francisco courts/^ In noting his resignation 
 the Herald remarked that no one had particularly considered 
 Judge Brown either for praise or censure, but it commended 
 his example to Judges Bennett and Parsons ; as for Judge Camp- 
 bell, he had so won the confidence of the community that such 
 a step on his part would only result in prompt re-election. 
 
 Judge Campbell allowed the matter to pass with a brief 
 comment made to the grand jury on the day after the lynching. 
 He said that it was not necessary for him to remark at length 
 upon it ; his views were still the same as they were when he had 
 addressed the previous grand jury on the occasion of Stuart's 
 execution/^ By a curious coincidence, the same Monday found 
 Campbell engaged in hearing evidence presented by members 
 of the Committee to the effect that Stuart had assumed the guilt 
 of the attack, on Jansen, and had completely exonerated Windred 
 and Berdue/* The latter was in court, eager to express his 
 gratitude to the association that had already saved him from 
 death and was then engaged in clearing him of the charge of 
 robbery. When his discharge was ordered, Judge Campbell 
 must have acknowledged, at least in secret, that the ends of 
 justice had been served by the very men whom he had officially 
 branded as murderers deserving of the severest punishment. 
 
 Learning that Berdue was penniless, the court suggested that 
 a subscription should be raised for his benefit. Mr. Jansen offered 
 to return the money taken from the prisoner at the time of his 
 capture in February, and the members of the Committee ar- 
 ranged to collect additional funds. On September 16 Berdue 
 
 "^^ Herald, 1851, Aug. 26 %. The resignation is reprinted in Popular 
 TribunaU, 1, 330. 
 
 "^^ Herald, 1851, Aug. 26 %. 
 74 Herald, 1851, Aug. 26 %. 
 
304 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 signed an acknowledgment of $302, given him by Isaac Bluxome, 
 Jr., in the name of the CommitteeJ^ A few days later he pub- 
 lished in the papers the following card -J^ 
 
 I have kindly to thank those gentlemen for what they have done for 
 me; for certainly, through their vigilance and the Icind providence of 
 Almighty God, they succeeded in capturing the criminal for whom I have 
 suffered so much. 
 
 1^ Papers, 640. 
 
 76 California Courier, 1851, Sept. 24 %. The Alta, Oct. 11 ^2> stated 
 that Berdue had lost his donation in an unfortunate mining venture, and his 
 friends were trying to raise more. Two years later he unsuccessfully peti- 
 tioned the legislature for an indemnity to the amount of $4000 for injuries 
 suffered during his imprisonment and trial (California Senate, Journal, 
 1853, Appendix, Doe. 37). 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 ADVENTURES IN CRIME 
 
 The dealings of the Committee of Vigilance with Stuart's 
 confederates have been related in a consecutive story in order 
 to present a definite sequence of cause and effect which is lack- 
 ing in the chronological arrangement of the printed documents. 
 
 While that story is still clearly in mind it may be interesting 
 to linger over the records of this curious court, especially over 
 the evidence that came from the lips of the prisoners themselves. 
 A superficial perusal of the separate documents discloses little 
 of the real human interest concealed within the terse and dis- 
 connected paragraphs. The members of the Executive Com- 
 mittee were not concerned with problems of criminal psychology ; 
 their literal transcriptions of sordid testimony and of brutal 
 confessions were written down with the sole object of obtaining 
 a knowledge of the criminal situation existing in their com- 
 munity. 
 
 In this purpose they were very successful, and the documents 
 offer many striking illustrations of the local conditions we have 
 discussed.^ We see in them how easy it was for criminals to 
 escape punishment in California. A day's horseback ride could 
 easily put them beyond the track of pursuit ; if arrested, clever 
 lawyers were ready to sustain them in perjury, to arrange de- 
 fense from the testimony of their very confederates, and to 
 distribute bribes to officials and jurymen. Even when the law 
 had done its utmost, insecure prisons offered many opportunities 
 of escape. 
 
 1 See Papers, Index, under the headings, Bail, Bribery, Courts of Califor- 
 nia, Jails, Murders, Perjury, Robberies. 
 
306 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 These documents give us also a hundred minute, instantaneous 
 pictures of the underworld of San Francisco, and of the life 
 that moved with stealthy footsteps through the chain of vicious 
 lodging houses kept hj convict landlords for the accommodation 
 of convict guests.^ Such a place was the Uncle Sam when owned 
 by the thief Jenkins and by his successors, Connolly and Thomas 
 Burns. Such was McManus' Welcome, on North Beach, to which 
 Burns removed when even the change of name to Shipman's 
 Arms failed to make Jenkins' old stand a profitable investment. 
 
 The ex-convicts developed a happy faculty of christening 
 their places with alluring names, and innocent, indeed, were the 
 signs that ornamented the doorways of these wretched dens. 
 Barnes, the tinman, kept the Cottage of Content; King, the 
 barber, owned the Bird in Hand ; Robert Ogden welcomed guests 
 to the Live and Let Live ; Goff , an ex-convict, owned the Panama 
 House ; Whittaker and McCormac, the Port Phillip ; Mrs. Ryan 
 and Mrs. Wilson, matrons from Sydney, presided respectively 
 over the Rose Cottage and the Heart in Hand, but it does not 
 appear that any poetic designation was attached to Mrs. Hogan's 
 house, which was perhaps the most dangerous trysting place 
 of all. From morning till night and from night till morning 
 the bars and card rooms of these inns were open to their habitues. 
 Even today the reader of the strange confessions may enter un- 
 challenged and watch forgotten dramas of San Francisco life — 
 as much a part of history as are the stories of the mining camps 
 and worth, as history, a moment of attention here. 
 
 Here is a simple tale entitled, ''Dishonor Among Thieves." 
 Characters : James Kelly, the fighting man ; his friend Vyse, the 
 bear hunter; other friends, among whom are Sam Whittaker, 
 then the proprietor of the Port Phillip House, the latter 's part- 
 ner, Teddy McCormac, and Robert McKenzie; supernumeraries, 
 
 2 See Papers, Index, under ' * Lodging houses reported by the Committee 
 as suspicious." 
 
Adventures in Crime 307 
 
 Osman, Old Jack, and King, the barber, owner of the Bird in 
 Hand. Scene: a public house near the Mission Dolores, where 
 Kelly has just been worsted in a prizefight with a man named 
 McGee, and has been consoled with $900 gate money, which now 
 is in the keeping of his colleague, the bear hunter. While the de- 
 feated pugilist is in retirement Whittaker and McKenzie accost 
 Vyse and ask for an opportunity to condole with his principal. 
 There is some talking, some drinking. Vyse takes McKenzie 
 into another room, and for a few minutes the money is left 
 unguarded! The sympathetic friends appropriate it without 
 delay and make a hasty exit, leaving McKenzie to comfort the 
 "fighting man." A few hours later McKenzie finds his asso- 
 ciates at the Bird in Hand, on Montgomery Street, and demands 
 his share of the plunder. He is told, however, that ''some one" 
 has stolen $600 on the way home, and $35 apiece is the meager 
 reward of the afternoon's adventure. Disappointment rankles 
 in the breast of the defrauded McKenzie. When opportunity 
 arises he discloses the whole affair to James Kelly himself. 
 Swiftly the latter devises vengeance, pounces upon McCormac, 
 who has attachable property in the Port Phillip House, and 
 during an absence of the more astute Whittaker forces him by 
 threats of imprisonment and lynching to give up possession of 
 the place. The play ends with Kelly reimbursed, McCormac 
 outwitted, and Whittaker, ousted from his own bar, betaking 
 himself to the solace of Mrs. Hogan's lodging house.^ 
 
 Another drama, "The Disappointed Locksmith," introduces 
 Joseph Marks, sometime a member of the city police force, later 
 a clerk of Colonel Stevenson, and finally discharged from that 
 office. Angered by the loss of his position, he tempts the expert 
 burglars George Adams and William Watkins to help him 
 satisfy his grudge by robbing his former employer. Adams is 
 cautious, suspicious ; advises delay . IMarks pleads for haste, since 
 
 ^Papers, 464-465, 469. 
 
308 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 his pockets are empty and he has neither food nor shelter. 
 Adams, comfortably enjoying his British ' ' tea, ' ' bestows largess 
 upon him and instructs him how to take a soap impression of 
 the key to Stevenson's place of business. Marks visits the office, 
 accomplishes the errand, and slips the mold into his pocket, 
 where it is ruined by the time he returns to his friends. Another 
 trip to the office, another soap impression, another five dollars 
 gratuity. The key is made, Mark 's status as a trustworthy rascal 
 is verified, and when the chosen night arrives a little group of 
 four gathers in the shadows about the empty office building. 
 Marks is posted as sentinel ; the others disappear within. Lights 
 flare up; there is a quick rush of armed men; Marks plays the 
 role of informer; his companions, sullen and pinioned, are 
 escorted to the city lockup. Marks, restored to the good graces 
 of Colonel Stevenson as a detector of thieves, is made an assistant 
 to the Committee of Vigilance in the effort to recapture Adams, 
 who has speedily regained his freedom.* 
 
 Again, we have "A Matter of Compromise." The scene is 
 laid in Monterey, the old capital of California, about the historic 
 Custom House, which in December, 1850, was in charge of Dr. 
 Andrew Randall. During his absence the building was entered 
 and fourteen thousand dollars of his personal funds were stolen. 
 Osman, Ryan, Briggs, and ''Old Jack" Morgan were arrested, 
 and a sum approximating Dr. Randall's loss was recovered from 
 them. They gave bail and were set at large pending trial, to 
 improve the interval by continuing their professional operations 
 under the able direction of James Stuart. The theft of a safe 
 in San Francisco resulted in the rearrest of Briggs and Morgan. 
 The former, at least, did not wish to forfeit his heavy bail, so 
 he escaped from prison in time to return to Monterey for trial. 
 The case came up in April, and as the men were "too good and 
 valuable to be locked up," Belcher Kay and Stuart, himself, 
 superintended the defense. 
 
 4^ Papers, 306, 318, 319, 344, 410-412. 
 
Adventures in Crime 309 
 
 We have a glimpse of the court room, with the counsel on 
 both sides, men whose names and faces were long familiar at 
 the California bar; we see the jury, on whom bribe money has 
 been lavished ; we see Stuart, alias Carlisle, and Whittaker, also 
 incognito, taking oath in the defense of their fellows; and we 
 hear the foreman of the jury announce the expected disagree- 
 ment. The case is too vexatious to risk another trial, so, on 
 advice of the defendants' counsel, the efficient Stuart breaks 
 open the jail. Exit prisoners, but a trifling matter of business 
 remains. The money in dispute, over thirteen thousand dollars, 
 has been placed in custody of the courts until its rightful owner- 
 ship shall be established. Dr. Eandall has demanded its restor- 
 ation ; Messrs. Osman, Ryan, Briggs, and Morgan, while still in 
 confinement, have claimed it as theirs. Both parties have insti- 
 tuted civil suits for its recovery. But now, deciding to forego 
 annoying litigation, they effect a friendly compromise, deduct 
 the costs of the trial from the amount in question, and divide the 
 balance. A delightful example of evenhanded justice !^ 
 
 "The Sailor's Heirloom" shifts our attention to the little 
 vessel James Caskie which lies offshore near Clark's Point, San 
 Francisco, in October, 1850. James Stuart and three compan- 
 ions, hearing that money is in the captain's possession, swarm 
 aboard in the dead of night, masked, armed, and ruthless. They 
 encounter the skipper, who puts up a desperate fight, for he 
 has not only gold but a wife to protect, and his only helper is a 
 boy whom the desperadoes quickly overpower. The woman, with 
 a strength born of terror, rushes to her husband's side with a 
 cutlass, but is disarmed and reduced to such a state of abject 
 fear that she brings out all the weapons and money on board 
 
 ^ AUa, 1850, Dec. 19 %; 1851, April 21 %; Papers, 236 note 36, 371, 
 570. The charges of wholesale corruption in this case made by Stuart were 
 indignantly denied. Whittaker appeared as a well dressed gentlemanly 
 visitor from San Francisco (Peckham, in San Jose Pianeer, 1877, Aug. 4, 
 Scrapbook, pp. 33-34). See also the San Francisco Call, Feb. 5, 1893, p. 16. 
 
310 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 and thrusts them at the outlaws with pitiful appeals to spare her 
 man, already half dead from a terrible beating. The chival- 
 rous Stuart assures her that he wall be glad to do as she asks if 
 the captain will remain quiet. While ransacking the cabin the 
 leader adds to his favors by again yielding to her pleas and 
 leaving in its place a fine gold watch, the gift of a beloved mother ; 
 and he sternly quells the insubordination of his covetous crew 
 by reminding them that they have made him master, and his 
 orders must be obeyed. The captain and the boy are tied fast, 
 and the pirates slip away into the darkness with a threat of 
 worse to come if the woman utters a word within two hours. 
 Her side of the story we do not know. Long before the two 
 hours have elapsed Stuart and his pals have gained the shore 
 and divided the plunder, which is less than $200, as the captain 
 had that day sent his funds away by an outgoing steamer.^ 
 
 A longer drama might be built up about the Jansen affair. 
 "We are shown the plotters devising an attack and eager to rob 
 a man who always kept English sovereigns in his safe for the 
 special convenience of homeward-bound Australians. They con- 
 coct, at first, a clever scheme.'^ Jansen is about to remove to a 
 new store. His neighbor Whittaker learns that his funds are 
 to be transported in a trunk placed on a cart and escorted by 
 his clerk. When the guard seats himself upon the treasure chest 
 he fails to notice that a lounger slips out the linchpin from the 
 axle of the cart, nor does he suspect that footpads await the 
 opportunity expected by the breakdown of the vehicle. But the 
 joints of the wagon are stiff, the wheel remains in place, and the 
 
 e Papers, 228-229. Alta, 1850, Oct. 27 % ; 29 %; Nov. 22 %. By a 
 curious coincidence a physician (Samuel Merritt), who later became a 
 member of the Committee of Vigilance, was near the scene of the Caskie 
 robbery, and encountered a suspicious fugitive, whom he later recognized 
 at headquarters as the prisoner Stuart (Oakland Tribune, 1884, Apr. 5 %). 
 
 7 The details of this plan were told by Whittaker (Papers, 470). He 
 also described a plot that involved robbing the San Francisco Custom House 
 (ibid., 244 note 43). 
 
Adventures in Crime 311 
 
 gold is safely deposited in the new office. The conspirators refuse 
 to accept defeat. So we see them again loitering outside Jansen's 
 door on a chilly February night; Old Jack enters to ask for 
 blankets, and lingers so long that Stuart follows impatiently, 
 concealing a bludgeon beneath his long camlet cloak. We see 
 the cruel blow, so heavy that the victim screams but an instant ; 
 the retreat with the treasure from the safe; the division of the 
 spoils, $196 to each man ; and the placid reunion in Mrs. Hogan's 
 barroom, after an incriminating watch had been tossed into the 
 bay. 
 
 We see the same group gathered in the same place during 
 the succeeding days, while the fate of Windred and Berdue 
 hangs in the balance, and we know that their angry looks and 
 gestures indicate their determination to burn the city if capital 
 punishment overtakes those guiltless prisoners. That revenge is 
 abandoned, but when the legal trials result in conviction Whit- 
 taker resolves to right the injustice. He procures a key that 
 will unlock the jail, and sends it to Windred by the latter 's wife, 
 or by Mrs. Hogan. Windred escapes and hides at the Mission 
 until a safe passage can be engaged for Australia. On a certain 
 night the runaway crouches in an alley near Clark's Point; 
 Kitchen lies ready with his boat ; Whittaker is directing affairs ; 
 Mrs. Windred and Mrs. Hogan are concealed close at hand, 
 waiting to say good-bye. The policemen who are patroling the 
 street seem equally oblivious of Windred and of two other fugi- 
 tives, Adams and Jim Briggs, who are enjoying themselves in 
 the neighborhood. When the coast is clear a pass word calls 
 Windred from concealment ; he snatches a moment with his wife, 
 slips down into the boat, and is rowed away to the ship. Anxious 
 days follow; Mrs. Windred, disguised as a man, calls regularly 
 on Whittaker to learn if the vessel has sailed, and at last she 
 too is smuggled on board. Still the departure is delaj^ed, with 
 
312 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 constant danger of detection. Then comes the great fire of 
 May 4, and on the fifth the ship clears away from the smoulder- 
 ing city, bearing two happy passengers who invoke blessings 
 upon the head of Samuel Whittaker.^ 
 
 Several pictures might be shown under the common title, 
 ''Baffled Villainy." One will suffice. It is night. Here is the 
 office of Charles Minturn, on a wharf which stretches its slender 
 length into the shadowy waters of the bay. A few oil lamps 
 gleam in dancing spirals across the waves and make it possible 
 to note a boat edging noiselessly along the piling until it comes 
 to a mooring directly beneath the deserted building. Figures 
 creep up a landing stage and enter the office, prepared to cut 
 away the floor and lower the safe into the boat; McKenzie and 
 Belcher Kay wait outside as lookouts. All goes well until an 
 unwary interloper appears, a clerk or wharfinger returning for 
 a forgotten paper. The lookouts signal the danger and dash off 
 up the pier; the windows are thrown open; half a dozen forms 
 hurtle through space into dark and friendly waters. In the 
 bar of the Port Phillip House the swimmers meet again, furious 
 with their lookouts because they have allowed them to run from 
 one man, a weakness of which the leader, Stuart, seems heartily 
 ashamed. The whole party is most soundly berated by George 
 Adams, who, though excluded from the adventure, had loaned 
 a kit of expensive tools on the promise of a generous share in 
 the plunder. There is no plunder, and the tools are lost.^ 
 
 Such were the everyday experiences related by the more 
 adventurous men who fell into the hands of the Committee of 
 Vigilance. Many of their obscure friends also gained distinction 
 in the course of the protracted examinations, if not by sharing 
 in deeds of daring, perhaps by the sheer force of some telling 
 alias. Besides Dab and Jack Dandy and Jimmy from Town, 
 
 8 Papers, 233-234, 470-471, 478-479, and Index under '^Jansen." 
 
 9 Papers, Index under ' * Minturn. ' ' Eyckman gave some details of the 
 attempt (MS Statement, 6-7). 
 
Adventures in Crime 313 
 
 whom we have met already, the archives of the Committee res- 
 cued from oblivion the names of Billy Sweet Cheese, Bungaraby 
 Jack, and Moe the Jew ; of Big Brummy, a man of mystery ; of 
 Tommy Round Head ; of Slasher, the cutthroat, and of Peruvian 
 Angel, whose tint may be inferred from Havana, the city of his 
 nativity. By these names they exchanged greetings in the reek- 
 ing saloons of Sydney Valley ; by the same tokens they betrayed 
 one another, as they strove to placate the Vigilantes with glib 
 or halting confessions of crime. 
 
 It should not be overlooked that these intimate pictures of 
 San Francisco life have a value quite apart from their criminal 
 connection in their many references to local happenings and 
 points of interest. North Beach and Clark's Point, Long Wharf 
 and Cat Alley, the El Dorado gambling house, and the Old 
 Adobe are mentioned as familiar scenes of everyday existence. 
 Many officials are named, for praise or for blame; members of 
 the police force are critically appraised; and even the eight 
 variations used in writing the city's name are not without in- 
 terest to the collector of bygone traditions.^^ 
 
 It is natural that queries should arise as to the reliability 
 of this mass of confession and evidence. Can it be accepted 
 at its face value, or must it be more or less discounted as a 
 record of crime? Was there an opportunity for prisoners to 
 consult one another, to prepare supporting falsehoods, and to 
 protect themselves at the expense of others? And did they 
 minimize or exaggerate their own misdeeds? There is no ques- 
 tion that there was great opportunity for the prisoners of the 
 Committee to prevaricate. There were minor discrepancies in 
 the evidence presented by the various speakers, although there 
 was little divergence that cannot be traced to the normal desire 
 of each culprit to shift the heaviest blame to the shoulders of 
 another. Stuart's confession was published in part on July 11, 
 
 10 Papers, Index under ^'San Francisco. 
 
314 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 and republished in full a week later. Since doubtless it was 
 read by every one of his confederates, it was natural that all 
 of them who fell into the hands of the Committee should unite 
 in emphasizing his guilt and in palliating their own. But even 
 in following that course subsequent confessions contradicted 
 Stuart in few points, and Whittaker's almost equally important 
 story confirmed and amplified it in several particulars. 
 
 Experience has shown that it is well to accept self-accusations 
 with caution, especially those induced by threats or promises. 
 In these accounts, however, when we turn to the accessible sources 
 of verification, we find that the news items and the court reports 
 of the San Francisco Herald and of the Alta California confirm 
 the details of all the more important episodes related by the 
 prisoners and the witnesses of the Committee. That is to say, 
 the published facts as to time, place, method, and result, do not 
 in any case conflict with the fuller statements submitted to the 
 Committee of Vigilance. Those statements, therefore, must have 
 been true at least in outline. 
 
 Although the work involved in ferreting out and dispersing 
 the members of this particular gang constituted the major por- 
 tion of the activities of the Committee, the accomplices of James 
 Stuart were not the only objects of investigation. Other arrests 
 were deemed expedient. It also became a common practice for 
 citizens to take to headquarters any man accused of any kind 
 of crime. During the weeks of July and August and early 
 September there were many such individual cases considered in 
 the reports of the Executive Committee, and some of them should 
 be mentioned here. 
 
 While inspecting the haunts of the Sydney men the Com- 
 mittee came upon John Goff, a lodging house keeper, and such 
 a close friend of undesirable citizens that his record was ex- 
 amined with attention. It was discovered that Goff had been 
 
Adventures in Crime 315 
 
 transported for life on a charge of burglary, and had been per- 
 mitted to leave the penal colonies only because of a conditional 
 pardon, ''effective in all parts of the world except the United 
 Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. ' '^^ While he was never 
 convicted of overt crimes against the peace of the Commonwealth 
 of California, his house was such a rendezvous for those who 
 did violate the laws, and for policemen suspected of abetting 
 them, that a sentence of banishment was pronounced against 
 him. The Committee was aware of much public sympathy with 
 the accused, and therefore published the entire evidence in the 
 case in the daily papers. Nevertheless it still insisted upon the 
 execution of the sentence, although Goff's time was extended 
 more than once on account of the illness of his wife. It is prob- 
 able that he left the city on his own vessel, the Veto, some time 
 about the middle of August. ^- 
 
 One of the earliest appeals made to the Committee from 
 without was a request from Lieutenant George H. Derby, of the 
 Topographical Engineers, that the Vigilante police would ap- 
 prehend one Samuel Church, who was a deserter from the army, 
 a worthless scoundrel in general, and a blackguard in particular 
 because of his theft of the aggrieved officer's favorite saddle 
 horse. Lieutenant Derby, although a lover of stern discipline, 
 possessed literary ability that made him famous, under the 
 pseudonym of John Phoenix, as the author of popular humorous 
 sketches; he was, moreover, a gifted letter writer, and he de- 
 luged the Committee with reports covering the case, urging it 
 to hang the man at once as the only way to rid the state of a 
 dangerous criminal. The evidence of witnesses summoned from 
 a distance at considerable expense clearly established Church's 
 guilt. The Committee, however, voted to hand him over to the 
 military authorities in spite of the fact that a flogging would 
 
 11 See Herald, 1851, July 18 %. 
 
 12 See Papers, Index, under ''John Goff. " 
 
316 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 be the heaviest punishment likely to befall him. Lieutenant 
 Derby protested not a little at such leniency, but he did not 
 forget to express his thanks "as a citizen and as an officer of 
 the army ' ' for the work the society had done for the preservation 
 of order in California. ^^ 
 
 The action in the case of Church conformed with the prin- 
 ciple of delivering prisoners to the constituted authorities when- 
 ever it seemed probable that the laws would accomplish the ends 
 desired for the good of the community. The same course was 
 pursued with Hamilton Taft, a confessed thief from Placer 
 County, who was sent back to the scene of his crime together 
 with his plunder of fifteen hundred dollars. A guard was ap- 
 pointed from the Committee, and two of his accusers assisted 
 them, giving bonds of a thousand dollars that they would de- 
 liver the prisoner and his booty to the officials of the county. 
 The papers drawn up and signed in this connection illustrate 
 a constant tendency to clothe the irregular acts of this voluntary 
 association with the dignity and formality of legitimate legal 
 transactions.^* It is curious to see that the men who hanged 
 Stuart without the shadow of authority, four days later demanded 
 a precise and formal bond to insure from other private citizens 
 the performance of a duty which, by rights, appertained solely 
 to officers of the law. Certainly the chairman of the Committee 
 of Vigilance of San Francisco was scarcely in a position to 
 undertake a suit in the courts of his city, and the carefully 
 indited instrument could have exercised no very great compul- 
 sion upon Benjamin Jenkins and David Howe, who put their 
 names to the agreement. 
 
 Samuel Church was not the only deserter of whom the Com- 
 mittee took cognizance. Howard, another truant from the army, 
 was returned to his commanding officer, and at least one run- 
 
 is See Tavers, 85, 107-109, 199-200. 
 1* Papers, 287-289. 
 
Adventures in Crime 317 
 
 away sailor was restored to his ship.^^ W. G. Hance had escaped 
 from a prison in Panama, where he was under sentence of death 
 for murder. Warned of his presence in San Francisco, the 
 Committee arrested him and sent him back to his own country 
 "on the ground that it would be contrary to equity that he 
 should be punished by us in the absence of all proof, and for 
 crimes committed beyond our jurisdiction."^^ 
 
 Among the vessels inspected by the Committee was the 
 Johnson or Johnston from Sydney. Her surgeon. Dr. Kennedy, 
 was arrested by the chief of the water police on the charge of 
 stabbing the captain, and was immediately turned over to the 
 city authorities.^^ 
 
 More thorough investigations were made when there was 
 evidence that crimes of violence arose from design and treachery 
 rather than from bursts of sudden passion. For example : When 
 Don Francisco Guerrero, a former Mexican magistrate, was 
 thrown from his horse on the Mission Road and sustained fatal 
 injuries that led to a rumor of foul play, the Committee lost 
 not a moment in placing scouts all about the city in search of 
 the suspected murderer, Francois Le Bras. He was soon ar- 
 rested and was detained as a prisoner of the Committee, although 
 he was produced at the inquest and was identified by the wit- 
 nesses there present. The coroner's jury charged him with strik- 
 ing Guerrero on the head and thus causing his death. But the 
 Committee refused to give him up, even in response to a writ 
 of habeas corpus, until an exhaustive investigation, attended by 
 
 15 Papers, 596, 637, 638. The only record of the deserting sailor is 
 found in the following notice from the Herald, 1851, June 26 % : 
 
 ''The Undersigned begs to return his sincere thanks to the 
 Committee of Vigilance for the services rendered him last night in 
 arresting a deserter from his vessel, and returning him on board. 
 
 Bauginet, 
 Capt. of Belg. ship Louis, consigned to 
 E. Delessert, Ligeron & Co. ' ' 
 
 16 Papers, 425, 608. The Herald, 1851, Nov. 18 %, reported that Hance 
 Avas serving out his sentence in the chain gang in Carthagena. 
 
 ^T Papers, 430. 
 
318 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 the French consul, had convinced the Executive Committee that 
 the man was not guilty. After five days he was delivered to 
 Sheriff Hays. In due time he was tried and acquitted.^^ 
 
 Another murder on the Mission Road engaged the attention 
 of the Committee. Thomas Wheeler, a former servant of Colonel 
 Fremont, suddenly disappeared and his body was found bearing 
 marks of violence. Thereupon Mrs. Fremont's brother, Mr. 
 William Carey Jones, turned to the Committee of Vigilance as 
 the most effective detective agency in the city. This appeal is 
 another indication of the general approval of Vigilante methods, 
 for Mr. Jones was a law-abiding citizen of unquestioned standing 
 who had come to California in 1849 as a special government 
 agent for the investigation of land titles. Before his letter was 
 received the Committee was seeking the murderers. A few hours 
 after Wheeler's body was found Sam Brannan noticed two un- 
 prepossessing horsemen near the scene of the crime, and when 
 they dashed off into the brush to avoid questions he summoned 
 help and arrested them at the point of the pistol. Mr. Jones 
 appeared at their trial, but their guilt was not established, and 
 they were discharged after ten days.^® 
 
 A curious instance, imperfectly explained by the records, 
 was the case of four Chinese prisoners examined on July 4.^*^ 
 John Lipscom and Norman Assing, the latter an interpreter 
 and a man of some importance in the small Oriental colony, 
 influenced the Committee to arrest four other Chinese, two men 
 and two women, on the charge of maintaining a disreputable 
 resort. It had been decided to deport the prisoners when Selim 
 E. Woodworth, president of the General Committee, appeared 
 
 ^& Papers., 272, 275, 281, 291; Alta, 1851, July 14 %; 18 ^2; Nov. 16 %. 
 A. A. Green said that Le Bras, who was supposed to be simple-minded, had 
 been used as a tool by land schemers who wished to get Guerrero out of the 
 way (MS Statement, 80). See also Eldredge, San Francisco, II, 534. 
 
 19 See cases of W. L. Harding and John Olligin, Papers, 522, 542, 546, 
 578-581. 
 
 20 Papers, 165, 170-172. 
 
Adventures in Crime 319 
 
 in their behalf on the ground that he was a ''Mandarin of the 
 Celestial Empire, and Chinese Counsel," an expression which 
 probably denoted some commercial relation with the Chinese 
 companies engaged in the transportation of coolie immigrants.-^ 
 Woodworth characterized the action as a conspiracy to deprive 
 the accused of their liberty, and upon his request they were set 
 at liberty. The fact that Assing had made vain efforts in the 
 city courts to obtain possession of a certain emancipated and 
 imprudent young matron called Atoy, with the ostensible pur- 
 pose of returning her to a deserted husband in China, suggested 
 that he might have hoped for better success through an appeal 
 to the Vigilance Committee, but as the names of the women are 
 not given in the documents their identity was a matter of con- 
 jecture until it was confirmed by a paragraph in Holinski's 
 La Calif ornie, which narrated the incident, and attributed Atoy's 
 arrest to the efforts of the Chinese colony to suppress their 
 notorious country- women. ^^ Holinski wrote : 
 
 On fit entendre aux scrupuleux Chinois qu'il etait impossible d'excepter 
 miss Atoy de la tolerance accordee par la police de San-Francisco a mille 
 femmes au moins, americaines, frangaises, allemandes et espagnoles, dont 
 la conduite n'est gnere plus edifiants. La deputation, quoique desappointee 
 dans son but, se retira hautement edifiee de I'equite du tribunal des harhares, 
 qui pese dans la meme balance et avee les memes poids les femmes de la 
 ville, de quelque contree qu'elles arrivent. 
 
 21 Frederick A. Woodworth, a brother of Selim, was mentioned as Chinese 
 vice-consul, and agent for the ''China Boys" who participated in the 
 memorial procession at the time of the death of President Polk (Alta, 1850, 
 Aug. 28 Yij 29 %). ''The Honorable Mr. Woodworth, Chinese Mandarin 
 in California," was mentioned in the Alta, 1851, March 6 %, and "Mr. 
 Woodworth" was again named as the agent for the Chinese immigrants in 
 the Alta, May 12 %. Mr. F. A. Woodworth, of San Francisco, a son of the 
 Vigilante, Selim E. Woodworth, told me theft his father had no official rela- 
 tion with the Chinese government. 
 
 22 Holinski, La Calif ornie, 119. Atoy was considered very pretty. She 
 spoke English and often wore Occidental dress. She was before the courts 
 more than once for keeping a disorderly house (Alta, 1851, March 6 %; 
 8 % ; Nov. 9 % • Dec. 14 % ; Reminiscences of C. P. Duane, in San Francisco 
 Examiner, 1881, Jan. 23 i/j). Norman As Sing was mentioned by James 
 O'Mera in "The Chinese in Early Days," Overland Monthly, ser. 2, III 
 (1884), 478. 
 
320 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 For some reason that is not stated, the Vigilance Committee 
 of Stockton sent to San Francisco a young man named Daniel 
 Jenks, who had stolen a thousand dollars from a resident of Jack- 
 sonville. Papers forwarded with the prisoner showed that he had 
 borne a good character up to the time of the robbery. In spite 
 of the fact that a mass meeting in Jacksonville recommended a 
 whipping, the committee which transmitted the evidence advised 
 that mercy should be shown "in consideration of the youth and 
 previous good character of the accused, his bodily weakness, and 
 the fact that this crime was in all probability his first offense. ' ' 
 Jenks was quickly discharged without receiving any punishment 
 at the hands of the Committee of San Francisco.^^ 
 
 False clues were sometimes followed with amusing conse- 
 quences. One paper is solemnly endorsed as the record of the 
 case of ''Mary St. Clair against Hat & Boots found at foot 
 of Mission St. ' ' The ' ' Hat & Boots ' ' were discovered weighted 
 with bricks in the mud at low tide, and were so suggestive 
 of murder that the Committee interrogated every livery man in 
 town in quest of a carriage which had been seen to linger near 
 the spot. The investigation showed that the water-soaked articles 
 were indeed tokens of a crime, but of one that was already an 
 old story. The carriage had been hired by two women who were 
 inmates of the resort where Pollock had been killed on June 22. 
 His clothing poignantly reminded them of the tragedy of his 
 death, and they had therefore attempted to afford it a decent 
 sepulcher beneath the waters of the bay.^* 
 
 Other minor cases were investigated by the Committee, but it 
 is unnecessary to mention here all the people who were arrested, 
 as a sumimary of Vigilance activity will appear in a later chapter. 
 
 The courts were still carefully watched during July and 
 August. In one case the Committee was particularly interested 
 — the trial of Charles Duane, a notorious bully and an unseru- 
 
 23 Papers, 510-517. 
 
 24 See mpra, p. 242; Papers, 382-384; Alta, 1851, June 23 %. 
 
Adventures in Crime 321 
 
 pulous ward politician, who has already been introduced in these 
 pages as an ally of Broderick at the time of Jenkins' execution. 
 In March, 1851, Duane had been tried for shooting a man named- 
 FayoUe. The jury had disagreed and the case had not come up 
 again until the last of June, when it was dismissed because the 
 necessary witnesses had left town. About a month later Duane, 
 abetted by Ira Cole, made an unprovoked attack on Frank Ball, 
 a member of the Committee, alleging that the latter had acted 
 offensively while serving on the jury which had tried him. For 
 this assault he was arrested. Much feeling attended the subse- 
 quent trial, at which members of the Committee were excluded 
 from jury service. Duane was convicted and sentenced to a 
 year's imprisonment. While his lawyers were seeking to appeal 
 the case Governor McDougal issued a pardon, and refused to 
 make public his reasons for taking such a step in the face of 
 positive proof of guilt.-^ The papers announced the pardon 
 with great indignation, and the grand jury, which was then in 
 session, went into court with the request that it be discharged, 
 declaring that it was useless for jurymen to spend time and to 
 risk the vengeance of criminals in seeking to convict felons who 
 were so promptly set at liberty.^*^ Judge Campbell refused the 
 request, but the incident clearly indicates the helplessness of 
 the law-abiding citizens in the face of existing conditions. The 
 Committee issued an order for Duane 's arrest, but it was re- 
 turned with the report that he was supposed to have left the 
 state on the steamer for Panama.-' He thus escaped punishment 
 at the hands of the Committee of 1851, although he was less 
 fortunate in 1856, when he was banished from California in 
 spite of his powerful political friends.-^ 
 
 25Alta, 1851, March 23 % ; court reports March 25-27; June 27 %; 
 Papers, 96. 
 
 26 Alta, 1851, Sept. 10 %. 
 
 27 Papers, 590. 
 
 28 See Papers, Index under ''Duane"; also Index of Popular Trihui^^ls. 
 The case was frequently mentioned in the Herald and the Alta, July ^^ to 
 
322 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 The Committee watched the progress of legal affairs not only 
 to insist upon punishment of the guilty but also to defend the 
 innocent. At the instance of Sheriff Hays an investigation was 
 instituted into the case of John "Williams, who was serving a 
 sentence in the county jail under conviction of an assault with 
 intent to kill. When the Committee decided that the act was 
 one of justifiable self-defense it successfully petitioned the gov- 
 ernor for the prisoner's release.^^ 
 
 This chapter was introduced by the statement that the mem- 
 bers of the Committee of Vigilance had little interest in criminal 
 psychology, but it should not close without remarking that the 
 subject appealed to at least one observer of their activities. This 
 was "Doctor" Collyer, known as the "Moddle artist man,"^^ 
 who exercised his talents in a museum of anatomy of question- 
 able reputation. This enterprising phrenologist desired to earn 
 an honest penny as a by-product of Vigilante justice, and ad- 
 vertised a lecture on the ''Anatomy of Crime," which is further 
 explained in the following communication:^^ 
 
 To the President and Members of the Executive Committee of the 
 Vigilance Committee of San Francisco: 
 
 Gentlemen: Tomorrow evening (Wednesday) I propose delivering a 
 lecture on the ''Anatomy of Crime," illustrated by the skulls of Jenkins, 
 Stuart, McKenzie, and Whittaker. 
 
 Should you feel interested in the physiology and philosophy of the 
 causes of mental action vrhich prompted these men to pursue an evil 
 course in life, I will be most happy for you to accept an invitation, which 
 I now tender you, to form a part of my audience. 
 
 Yours, etc., Eob. H. Collyer. 
 
 September 9, 1851. 
 
 It is a matter of regret that the press failed to report the 
 success of this edifying entertainment. 
 
 Aug. 1, and again Sept. 5. Duane wrote some ''Recollections" which ran 
 in the Sunday edition of the San Francisco Examiner, 1881, Jan. 9; 16; 23; 
 Feb. 6; 20; 27; March 13; 20; 27; April 3 ; 17 ; May 8. They were abso- 
 lutely unreliable, in so far as they dealt with the Vigilance Committee of 1851. 
 
 29 Payers, 216-2r8. so Payers, 49. 
 
 31 This letter is missing from the files, and is reprinted from Poyular 
 Tribunals, I, 392. The lecture was advertised in the Alta, 1851, Sept. 8 %. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 POLITICS AND REORGANIZATION 
 
 The deaths of Stuart, Whittaker, and McKenzie, the incar- 
 ceration of Adams and Jimmy from Town, and the banishment 
 or voluntary departure from the country of Kay, Duane, and 
 half a dozen others, effectually disintegrated the Sydney gang 
 that had so long terrorized the community, and resulted in a 
 marked diminution of crimes of violence throughout the state.^ 
 The attention of the Committee continued to be occupied with 
 the men still in custody, who were chiefly minor offenders or 
 immigrants under investigation. Twenty or thirty of these cases 
 were noted in the records during the four weeks following the 
 last execution, and decisions show that a little over half of the 
 suspects were discharged and that the remainder were sent out 
 of California. 
 
 As the consciousness of social security increased the question 
 arose whether or not the Committee of Vigilance should continue 
 to exercise an active supervision over public affairs. Some mem- 
 bers felt that the excuse for their organization terminated with 
 the relief of the emergency that had called them together f some, 
 notably Stephen Payran, thought that the association should con- 
 tinue unchanged for ' ' all time, ' '^ while a small group wished to 
 prolong the influence of the leaders of the body by placing them 
 in office at the approaching September election. 
 
 On Saturday, August 23, a ''Meeting of Citizens" was held 
 in the rooms of the Committee of Vigilance, and a committee 
 was appointed to nominate candidates for the local offices.* 
 
 1 See the discussion of criminal conditions, infra, p. 388. 
 
 2 See resignation of E. M. Earl, Papers, 630. 
 ^Papers, 632. 4: Papers, 548. 
 
324 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 A second meeting took place on Monday evening, but there is 
 no statement to show where the adjourned gathering was held. 
 At that time a ticket was decided upon, and an address to the 
 voters of the city w^as adopted. The latter was in the form of 
 resolutions which declared that the one hope of civic regener- 
 ation lay in more general devotion to the ordinary duties of 
 citizenship, and in the election of fit officials, irrespective of 
 party affiliations.^ The communication was dignified and force- 
 ful, frank in its acknowledgment of social shortcomings in the 
 past, but hopeful for better standards in the future. Although 
 it was signed by fourteen members of the Committee, the society 
 officially and publicly disavowed the action on the ground that 
 political activity would be ruinous to the work for which it had 
 been organized,^ and the further use of headquarters for any 
 outside purpose was forbidden. In spite of this corporate atti- 
 tude, members of the Committee, as individuals, pushed the 
 campaign. The papers of the twenty-eighth published an in- 
 dorsement of the ticket, and a call for a ratification meeting, 
 signed by two hundred and three citizens, among whom were at 
 least seventy-nine members of the Committee of Vigilance. On 
 August 29 over fifteen hundred voters met and pledged them- 
 selves to support the non-partisan ticket, which presented nine 
 candidates for the legislature, eleven for county offices, and 
 twelve for township positions. An exact analysis of the person- 
 nel is difficult, as the official returns did not indicate the affili- 
 ations of the township nominees, but the Alta said that the ticket 
 as a whole included eight Whigs, twelve Democrats, and twelve 
 Independents.'^ For the legislature and the county positions, 
 the non-partisans made seven entirely independent nominations 
 and indorsed three Whigs and ten Democrats. The Evening 
 Picayune, a Whig paper, immediately charged that the whole 
 
 5 Alia, 1851, Aug. 26 %. An extract from the address is printed in the 
 Appendix, infra, p. 470. 
 
 6 Papers, 550-552. ^ Alta, 1851, Aug. 31 %. 
 
Politics and Reorganization ^ 325 
 
 movement was a clever ruse on the part of the Democrats to 
 use the Committee as a tool to regain the control they had lost 
 in April.« In spite of the fact that an effort had been made to 
 put the Democratic party on record as opposed to the Commit- 
 tee,^ this charge was repeated as long as the campaign was 
 under way, while it was as constantly contradicted by the Alta 
 and the Herald. 
 
 One of the most important indorsements was that of the 
 Democrat, Alexander Campbell, to succeed himself as judge of 
 the County Court. The Vigilantes, whose indictment for murder 
 he had urged upon the grand jury, staunchly supported him in 
 the office where they had found him fearless and incorruptible.^*^ 
 
 G. W. Ryckman made an interesting contribution to the 
 history of this political effort. He said that on the day after 
 the execution of Whittaker and McKenzie he had the f oUowing 
 conversation with Jack Hays, who had anticipated renomination 
 for the office of sheriff :^^ 
 
 He said to me: ''Kyckman, I am mortified to death. ... It destroys 
 any hope I may have for a renomination, for I could not be elected; the 
 people would frown upon what they would consider a neglect of duty.'' 
 I said, ' ' Colonel, don 't be foolish. Seek the nomination. We will organize 
 a Vigilance Committee ticket, put you on, and elect you by 1500 to 2000 
 majority. ' ' He took the hint, and accepted the nomination. We got up 
 a Vigilance Committee ticket, put him on for Sheriff, and he was elected 
 by 2000 [1826] majority. 
 
 The campaign for this non-partisan ticket was brief but 
 spirited. When the official returns were announced it was shown 
 that the Independents had controlled 1000 to 1300 votes out of 
 
 8 Picayune, 1851, Aug. 26-Sept. 4. 
 
 9Eesolutions to this effect had been published in the Herald, 1851, 
 Aug. 5 %. See also Popular Tribunals, I, 322-323. 
 
 10 Judge Campbell, then in private practice, also opposed the Committee 
 of '56, and even left San Francisco at the time for temporary residence m 
 the Hawaiian Islands (Shuck, Bench and Bar in California, 125). 
 
 11 Ryckman, MS Statement, 16-17. 
 
326 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 a total of about 5700.^- Though none of the out-and-out Inde- 
 pendent candidates was elected, the vote in the case of coalition 
 candidates was sufficient to upset the previous Whig majority, 
 and to elect all the Independent-Democrats, who ran about 
 one thousand votes ahead of the regular Democratic ticket. The 
 Independent-Whigs were also elected, and the figures proved that 
 the party inaugurated at the headquarters of the Committee of 
 Vigilance was able to exercise a decisive influence in city affairs. 
 Jacob R. Snyder, a Democrat elected to the state senate, was an 
 active member of the Committee, as was A, J. Ellis, a Whig who 
 was sent to the assembly, and the two legislators resigned in No- 
 vember to take up their duties at the capital.^ ^ Herman Wohler, 
 a Democrat elected to the assembly, was a less prominent com- 
 mitteeman. P. A. Roach, of Monterey, also a member of the 
 San Francisco Committee of Vigilance, was chosen for the senate 
 at this same September election. Whatever may have been the 
 subtle influences of the Democratic politicians, even the Picayune 
 admitted that the Independents had selected the best candidates 
 for indorsement.^* 
 
 The gratifying result of the attempt to purify local politics 
 raised sanguine expectations of improvement in local conditions. 
 But a curious situation which arose in the municipal offices 
 of San Francisco went far towards checking the efforts at reform. 
 It will be remembered that under the terms of the new charter 
 a Whig council had been elected in April, 1851. This body 
 quickly won the confidence of the community by the commend- 
 able economy of its administration.^^ There was a question. 
 
 12 Herald, 1851, Sept. 14. For the state offices, to which the Independents 
 made no nomination, the Whigs polled a majority of 469 to 912, and they 
 had a majority of 400 to 600 for local offices except where the rival Demo- 
 crats were endorsed by the Independents. 
 
 i^ Papers, 706. 
 
 i^ Picayune, 1851, Aug. 30 %• 
 
 15 See Annals, 348-350, Hittell, California, III, 408-409 ; contemporary 
 papers, especially Alta, Aug. 27 % ; 29 %; Sept. 5 %; Dec. 25 %; 26 %; 
 Herald, Aug. 29 %; 30 %; Sept. 1 %; Dec. 25 %. The papers commended 
 the old council, but Hittell said it nearly bankrupted the city. 
 
Politics mid Reorganization 327 
 
 however, as to its legal term of office ; the wording of the charter 
 was ambiguous, and while some politicians claimed that a new 
 council should be chosen in September others maintained that 
 the existing body should hold over until September, 1852. The 
 latter interpretation was adopted by the Whigs in office, and 
 when September came they issued no call for elections for the 
 city positions. 
 
 The Democrats, with nothing to lose, decided to put the 
 matter to a test, and nominated a full ticket. The Independents, 
 who desired no change in the city government, refrained from 
 wasting any energy on a contest they deemed futile, although 
 some party of obscure origin attempted to present a city ticket 
 which included several members of the Committee of Vigilance. 
 This was published in a single issue of the Herald, but seems to 
 have been withdrawn after some of the nominees repudiated the 
 movement. The only candidates considered at the polls were 
 those on the Democratic ticket, who were elected by a light and 
 uncontested vote. When they attempted to claim their positions 
 the old officials refused to withdraw and the matter was taken 
 to the courts. Late in December the case was decided against 
 the incumbents, and they reluctantly retired in favor of the 
 triumphant Democrats. 
 
 By this unexpected shifting of the local administration the 
 Democratic machine acquired control of the city at the very 
 moment when the public conscience was aroused to the need of 
 reform, and when the better element was effectively organized 
 in a non-partisan campaign ; for the independent vote had elected 
 Democrats to some of the most important positions in the county, 
 and the excitement of that open contest had entirely diverted 
 public attention from the quiet movement for city positions by 
 which skilful leaders sought to regain their former prestige. 
 The new comptroller, James W. Stillman, was a member of the 
 Committee of Vigilance, as were Caleb Hyatt and J. H. Blood, 
 
328 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 aldermen, and D. W. Lockwood and W. H. Crowell, assistant 
 aldermen. None of them played any important part in the work 
 of the association, and their connection with it is not noted in 
 the newspapers that have been consulted in preparing this ac- 
 count of the election. It is unlikely that they were elected by 
 the votes of their fellow Vigilantes, or that they served as any 
 effective check on an administration that soon became a target 
 for charges of extravagance and corruption. 
 
 As the third month of the Conunittee's activities drew to a 
 close it became apparent that its continued existence did not 
 depend so much upon the personal convictions of individual 
 members as upon their ability to defray the heavy expenses 
 entailed by the work. 
 
 The constitution made no provision for financial needs, but 
 we learn from the documents that each member was assessed 
 five dollars a month for current expenses, and that fines were 
 imposed for absence from duty. The reports of the sergeant- 
 at-arms show that 306 members paid initiation fees of five dollars 
 before June 26. A month later a total of 550 initiation fees had 
 been paid, while 80 were still due. In July 216 paid the monthly 
 assessment and 336 were delinquent; $100 was paid in fines. ^^ 
 
 On July 5 a committee of five was appointed to hear the 
 excuse of delinquent members, as about one hundred had never 
 paid the initiation fee of five dollars, and $1025 was due for 
 fines.^^ At this time J. W. Salmon, the first treasurer, was 
 obliged to resign because of ill health, and the position was filled 
 by Eugene Delessert, who remained in office until April, 1852. 
 When the funds were transferred the amount on hand was $800, 
 the debts of the association were $920, and the estimated monthly 
 expenses were $1500. At the end of the month the finance com- 
 mittee reported that $400 was due on initiation fees and $1680 
 
 '^^ Papers, 764, and Index under ''C. of V. — Finances." 
 ■i-T Papers, 177, 205-206. 
 
Politics and Beorgamzation 329 
 
 on the monthly assessment of five dollars, and that in default 
 of these payments the treasurer, Mr. Delessert, had advanced 
 $500 out of his own pocket. ^^ On this showing it was recom- 
 mended that subcommittees, especially the water police, should 
 exercise greater economy in their expenditures. A few days later 
 plans were made to find less expensive rooms for headquarters, 
 and the salary of the sergeant-at-arms was reduced from $200 
 to $150 a month.^^ 
 
 Frequent resolutions on the subject of delinquent members 
 show the difficulty of collecting funds. At various times it was 
 voted that the guard should question every one at the door and 
 admit no one who had not paid up to date ; that names of those 
 in arrears should be read aloud in the meetings, and that de- 
 linquents should be assigned to guard duty at night. -*^ A col- 
 lector was appointed on July 19, and an additional collector on 
 August 8. The latter reported three days later that he had with 
 great difficulty secured $200 and could no longer continue in the 
 position.^^ 
 
 But the ordinary expenses of the Committee did not seriously 
 threaten to bankrupt the organization ; dues and fines were paid, 
 even if with reluctance, and the support of the public was proved 
 by frequent contributions.-- A far more serious embarrassment 
 was imminent in the possibility of an adverse decision in the 
 suit of Metcalf vs. Argenti et al., which came up for trial in the 
 Supreme Court on August 16. Contrary to the advice of some, 
 of the members, especially of Stephen Payran, the Committee 
 had assumed the expense of the defense, evidently with the ex- 
 pectation that the attorneys would volunteer their services. This 
 
 ^8 Papers, 377. 
 
 19 Papers, 443, 447. 
 
 20 Papers, 403, 440, 510. 
 
 21 Papers, 544. 
 
 22 Treasurer Salmon raised nearly $1000 by outside subscriptions 
 (Papers, 205, 752). 
 
330 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 hope was disappointed. The defendants' lawyers demanded 
 compensation for their services, and thus created a serious situ- 
 ation in the face of the depleted treasury.^^ 
 
 The case aroused much interest and served as a test of public 
 sentiment for and against the Committee. The prospective jurors 
 were sharply questioned as to their sentiments towards the 
 organization, and several plainly avowed their approval, while 
 a few were as frankly antagonistic.^* Members of the searching 
 party testified freely concerning their participation in the raid. 
 Yet, in spite of the incontestable proof of violent trespass upon 
 Metcalf 's premises, and of the impassioned appeals of his coun- 
 sel, the hearing resulted in a disagreement.^^ The plaintiff 
 immediately moved for a new trial and raised his claim for 
 damages to $50,000, thus forcing the Committee to expect in- 
 creased expenses as the case progressed. 
 
 Certain passages in the press reports of the Argenti trial 
 hint of occurrences within Vigilante headquarters that left no 
 record in the archives. Metcalf 's suit was first noticed in the 
 documents on July 3, and the minutes of the General Meeting on 
 the fifth record the passage of a resolution directing a subcom- 
 mittee to call upon his lawyers, Lockwood, Tilford & Randolph, 
 and ask them to withdraw the complaint. This appeal proved 
 
 24 The Herald of Aug. 18 reported, among others, the following answers: 
 Question to F. Adams, not a member of the Committee: ^'Do you believe 
 
 that the defendants as members of the Vigilance Committee have a right to 
 enter and search a house without cause?" Answer: '^I believe that they 
 had a cause ; I think the Vigilance Committee is right. ' ' Set aside for cause. 
 
 J. Wilbur [Wilber] : ''Am proud to say that I am able to present a 
 character that entitles me to a membership of the Vigilance Committee." 
 Challenged peremptorily by plaintiff. 
 
 J. W. Young: ''If I thought the law was wrong and the rules of the 
 Committee right, I would rather lean to the latter. ' ' Excused. Young was 
 mentioned as a member of the Committee, but his name is not on the roll. 
 
 Marion McNulty, not a member : ' ' No self -constituted body has the right 
 to act in opposition to the law. ' ' 
 
 ^^ Payers, 216, 290, 591, 598, 615. 
 
 25 The case was reported in the Herald, and the Alta, 1851, Aug. 17-25. 
 The pleadings of Lockwood Avere published in pamphlet form and used as 
 a campaign document in the September election {Herald, 1851, Sept. 1 %). 
 
Politics and Reorganization 331 
 
 a grave error in judgment, as it gave those gentlemen an oppor- 
 tunity to make an exceedingly sarcastic rejoinder, which was 
 published with varying comment in several of the papers.^*^ A 
 few days later it came to the knowledge of the Executive Com- 
 mittee that one of their number, John F. Spence, had spread a 
 report that Stuart had implicated Mr. Tilford in his confession, 
 and the president was immediately instructed to make official 
 denial of the charge, an errand which Payran discharged in most 
 courteous fashion. The retraction was a direct reflection on the 
 gossip of Spence, whose attendance at the Executive meetings 
 was thenceforth very irregular.^^ It is quite possible that the 
 rebuke rankled in his mind, for when he was on the witness stand 
 at the trial he revealed a bit of inner history of the Committee 
 by testifying that the motion to communicate with Metcalf's 
 lawyers had never received the approval of a majority of the 
 Committee, had been rejected at the General Meeting, and had 
 only been passed later in the evening by a small number who 
 reconvened after the dispersal of the others.^^ Mr. Spence was 
 immediately asked to tender his resignation, but he did not 
 
 26 Papers, 155-156, 177, 210. The following preamble appeared in some 
 of the papers: 
 
 ''To the 'Vigilance Committee' 
 
 San Francisco, July 7th, 1851. 
 Sundry fools or knaves, (perhaps both,) styling themselves 'The 
 Vigilance Committee,' having caused to be transmitted to the firm of 
 Lockwood, Tilford & Randolph, a silly but impudent resolution, ' That 
 a committee be appointed to wait on Messrs. Lockwood, Tilford & 
 Randolph, acting as counsel in the case of Metcalf v. Argenti, Atkins, 
 and others, and they are hereby directed to request those gentlemen 
 to withdraw the suit, and decline further proceedings in the matter 
 touching the case.' As a member of that firm, my only answer to 
 the aforesaid fools or knaves, (in addition to my 'verbal' response 
 to the bearers of the resolution,) is, 'I do defy, deny, spurn, and 
 scorn you. ' ' 
 
 R. A. Lockwood." 
 
 (Reprinted in the California Ccmrier, 1851, July 9 %)• The Picayune 
 supported the laAvyer's position (July 8 %), but the Herald strongly upheld 
 the Committee (editorial of July 9). 
 
 27 Pavers, 265-267, 434. 
 
 28 Herald, 1851, Aug. 19 %. 
 
332 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 comply with the request until the announcement of the inde- 
 pendent political ticket gave him a pretext for a dignified with- 
 drawal.^^ 
 
 The resolution of which Spence spoke is incorporated about 
 midway in the proceedings of the evening of July 5, as if it 
 had been adopted while the meeting was in full session, and a 
 little later is recorded the more important resolution which 
 claimed the right to search suspected premises. Eelative to the 
 latter, Stephen Payran testified that he had no knowledge at 
 all of the action, and William Sharon deposed that there was 
 decided opposition to its adoption. The resolution appeared in 
 the daily papers subscribed ''By order of the Committee of 
 Vigilance, No. 67, Secretary." It is interesting to observe that 
 in reply to questions on the witness stand Sharon disclaimed 
 knowledge of the identity of ''No. 67," and Payran calmly 
 affirmed : ' ' We have no secretary. ' '^^ If the Herald quoted that 
 statement correctly, Mr. Payran must have juggled with his 
 conscience. Certainly his utterances cannot be defended on any 
 ground known to the writer. 
 
 While considering this episode it may be remarked that two 
 days after the passage of the contested resolutions the General 
 Committee decided that a two-thirds vote should be required for 
 the reconsideration of a measure once adopted. ^^ This ruling 
 may have been prompted by the action of the small group which 
 reversed the full vote in the matter of Metcalf 's lawyers. The 
 incident in itself and the sworn testimony at the trial lead one 
 to speculate whether the secretary did not sometimes fail to 
 record occasions that gave rise to significant differences of opinion. 
 
 There were other occurrences, very lightly emphasized in 
 the minutes, which indicated that a certain amount of friction 
 constantly accompanied the work of the Committee, and that it 
 
 29 Papers, 509, 552. ^-^ Papers, 204. 
 
 30 Berald, 1851, Aug. 19 %. 
 
Politics and Reorganization 333 
 
 was not only the hot temper of the first president that precipi- 
 tated hard feeling. McDuffee, the sergeant-at-arms who had 
 quarreled with Brannan in June, incurred the displeasure of the 
 Executive Committee early in August, so that he was censured 
 for some unrecorded official action. After a short period of pro- 
 bation, he finally resigned.^^ Occasional complaints were regis- 
 tered against the character of members or against their insub- 
 ordinate or overbearing behavior.^^ One of the expeditions sent 
 out after Whittaker was nearly wrecked because of internal dis- 
 sension; convicts escaped from the inspected vessels on account 
 of conflict between the guards.^* When the fate of George Adams 
 was under discussion the divergent views were sharp and deter- 
 mined; and as soon as that matter was decided Colonel "William 
 C. Graham, a faithful attendant at the meetings of the Executive 
 Committee, and its secretary for some months, tendered his resig- 
 nation on the ground that he could no longer act in a body where 
 a small minority had the rule. For some reason he reconsidered 
 his action, then resigned again, but again continued his services 
 until August 17, when he resigned once more, together with eight 
 others, who complained that jealousy and petty interference with 
 delegated powers were hampering their performance of impor- 
 tant duties.^^ That seems to have been the final exit of Mr. 
 Graham, but the other eight immediately resumed their seats 
 in the circle about the table in the Executive chamber. It was 
 a few days after this that Sheriff Hays seized Whittaker and 
 
 32 Papers, 418, 571. See also infra, p. 367. 
 
 33 See Papers, Index under *'C. of V.— Relations which indicated fric- 
 tion. ' ' 
 
 s^ Papers, 414^417. 
 
 35 Papers, 427, 462, 498-500. The resignation was signed by Payran, 
 Ryckman, Graham, J. B. Huie, Garwood, Schenck, Bluxome, Wadsworth, 
 A. J. Ellis. There were earlier resignations that may or may not have been 
 significant. John Buckler and Alexander Murray found that health forbade 
 them to carry out the duties of the Committee (ihid., 153, 177); R. S. 
 Watson and William T. Coleman had no time to continue in the Executive 
 Committee (ihid., 217, 440). 
 
334 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 McKenzie from their passive guards, and it is doubtful if the 
 suspicions of treachery that arose from the surrender were ever 
 fully dispelled. 
 
 Whatever might have been the issues of this period, they 
 received scant consideration in the records. Various reports 
 indicate that routine business progressed as usual, but there are 
 no minutes of Executive meetings from the date of the seizure 
 of Whittaker and McKenzie until the middle of September, when 
 the Committee of Vigilance was thoroughly reorganized. The 
 recollections of the members ignored the lapse, and Bancroft did 
 not explain it in Popular Tribunals. 
 
 It is probable that an unwritten law of the Committee pro- 
 hibited resignations except for the most urgent cause,^^ never- 
 theless several were tendered just at this time. Some who asked 
 to withdraw gave no reason at all, or alleged business or domestic 
 preoccupations, others expressed frank disapproval of the policies 
 of the Committee. J. W. Salmon and H. D. Evans resigned 
 without explanation on August 20 ; George Melius resigned Aug- 
 ust 30, and on the same day Lloyd Minturn and C. S. "Woods 
 asked for long leaves of absence.^^ It is evident that under- 
 lying these evidences of disaffection was an increasing difference 
 of opinion over the future of the Committee of Vigilance, with 
 a conviction on the part of a growing majority that some form 
 of reorganization was imperative, since by this time conditions 
 in the city showed signs of decided improvement. Stuart's gang 
 was broken up, and by September 6 the Executive Committee 
 was able to make reports and recommendations covering the dis- 
 position of every prisoner then in custody.^^ It announced that 
 many of the suspects ordered to leave California had consented 
 to defray their own expenses back to Australia and showed them- 
 selves quite willing to depart in perfect satisfaction with the acts 
 
 36 See infra, p. 355. 
 
 5-! Papers, 527, 577, and Index under '^C. of V. — Eesignations. 
 
 38 Papers, 591-598. 
 
Politics aoid Beorgcmization 335 
 
 of the Committee. The concluding sentences of the general report 
 then transmitted read: 
 
 Our labours are now completed and so far peace, and security, have 
 attended our efforts for the public good, we earnestly hope that the 
 Blessing of Almighty God may rest upon us, may the cessation of our 
 labours, be no cause on the part of the vicious, to renew their course of 
 life to the injury of the people. 
 
 We trust that those in power at this time, and those who shall succeed 
 them, by reason of the late election may so learn wisdom, that in the 
 exercise of their representative duties, they may ease the weight from 
 the shoulders of their constituents, and thereby honour their common 
 Country and preserve their institutions unsullied. 
 
 It will now become you, to adopt some action for the future, to so 
 base the present institution, that it may silently be a terror to all evil 
 doers, and a rewarder of all that do well, that it may be a guardian spirit 
 of the land. 
 
 Events proved that this recommendation embodied the con- 
 viction of a majority of the members. On September 9 the 
 General Committee appointed a subcommittee to ''make such 
 suggestions or propositions as may be of interest to the associ- 
 ation," and to nominate a new Executive Committee of twenty- 
 five. On the same day E. M. Earl asked to have his name 
 stricken from the lists, as he believed the time had come to sur- 
 render power into the hands of the representatives recently 
 elected by the people. ^^ On the eleventh James F. Curtis dis- 
 covered that his business engagements would not allow the un- 
 remitting attention demanded by the duties devolving upon mem- 
 bers of the Executive Committee.*^ On the thirteenth Thomas 
 McCahill, who had caused offense by remarks derogatory to the 
 chief of police, acceded with ''grate pleasure" to a request that 
 he should withdraw from the Executive Committee. On the 
 same day J. B. M. Crooks was incontinently expelled from the 
 society when his bill for delinquent fees was returned with the 
 crisp annotation "Says he will be dam^ before he pays."*^ 
 
 39 Papers, 601, 630. 4i Papers, 621, 627, 631. 
 
 ^0 Papers, 630. 
 
336 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Such occurrences were straws showing cross currents of 
 opinions. Stephhen Payran was far more definite in the ex- 
 pression of his attitude, and he tendered his resignation from 
 the Executive Committee as a protest against the proposed 
 changes. He interpreted them as censure upon his personal con- 
 duct of affairs, and he stated at a later time that he had been 
 informed that the dissolution of the association had been threat- 
 ened because he was accused of exercising too absolute a power.'*^ 
 In his note of resignation he took the opportunity to say : 
 
 I would love to see it [the .Committee], continue for all time, and 
 firmly believe that if the Association could exist under its present order, 
 it would tend to preserve the happy state of our City and State, and make 
 it the abode of Safety, happiness and prosperity — 
 
 Dissolve it, or do anything that would serve to disorganize it, in its 
 essentials, you will throw it open to abuses, never to be recovered from — 
 Anarchy and confusion would soon reign in our midst. 
 
 In spite of his wounded feelings Payran did not insist upon 
 the acceptance of his resignation ; he continued to serve as presi- 
 dent, and even formulated a plan for a modification of the work 
 of the Committee, although there is no annotation to show that 
 his scheme was ever submitted for discussion.*^ 
 
 By the fifteenth of September disposition had been made of 
 every case before the Committee, and the prisoners' room at 
 Vigilance headquarters was empty.** On the evening of the 
 sixteenth a General Meeting was held, the minutes for which are 
 unfortunately lacking. At that meeting, however, was presented 
 the report of the Committee on reorganization, which is incor- 
 porated in the minutes of September 17. It recommended the 
 adjournment of the General Committee sine die, and the election 
 of an Executive Committee of forty which should hold office 
 for six months, should "watch with vigilance" the actions of 
 
 42 Papers, 631-632, 701. 
 
 43 Papers, 632-634. 
 
 44 Papers, 639; Herald, 1851, Sept. 18 %. 
 
Politics mid Reorganization 337 
 
 public courts and officers, and should suggest desirable statutes 
 for the improvement of criminal legislation. It was expressly 
 stipulated that the Executive Committee should have no authority 
 to make arrests, but that it should summon the General Com- 
 mittee in ca^e of any emergency, and act only under instruction 
 therefrom; and the members were solemnly warned that the 
 entire body of the associates and the community at large would 
 hold them strictly accountable for the faithfulness with which 
 they fulfilled this delegated task. 
 
 This report w^as adopted ; the Executive Committee was elected 
 as nominated, and the five members of the committee on re- 
 organization w^ere added to their number. Almost all the old 
 and active members were retained, Brannan and Coleman were 
 again included, and additions w^ere made from the ranks of those 
 who had taken an active part in the work of the General Com- 
 mittee.^^ 
 
 45 Papers, 642-644. The meeting was reported in the Herald, Sept. 
 
 18 2/2. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE CLOSING MONTHS 
 
 The new Executive Committee convened on September 17, and 
 organized by electing Payran as president and Bluxome as secre- 
 tary/ The latter offered his resignation before long, as he could 
 not afford the time necessary for the position, but he consented 
 to remain in office when allowed a salary of $100 a month.- D. 
 L. Oakley, the sergeant-at-arms, was also given an equal salary 
 to take care of the rooms, to keep them open day and night, and 
 to admit members ''agreeably to the rules of the Association."^ 
 
 On September 27 by-laws were adopted which defined the 
 duties of the officers and provided for weekly meetings of the 
 Executive Committee with a necessary quorum of nine attend- 
 ants, and for special meetings of the General Committee upon 
 the written request of any five members.^ The Alta spoke of the 
 reorganization as an ''adjournment" of the General Committee 
 and congratulated the association on the accomplishments that 
 permitted a cessation of activities.^ But the Evening Picayune 
 did not attribute the step to improved conditions, but to the 
 great expense attending the work and to the very general con- 
 demnation of the Committee expressed by the commercial papers 
 of the eastern states.*^ The editor thought that in spite of the 
 appointment of the committee of forty-five it was unlikely that 
 the association would be continued, owing to the danger in its 
 methods. The Committee repudiated with vigor the insinuations 
 
 1 Papers, 645-646 ; revised Hst of members, 652. 
 
 2 Papers, 678. 
 
 5 Papers, 650. 5 Alta, 1851, Sept. 17 %. 
 
 ^Papers, 659-661. ^ Picayune, 1851, Oct. 1 %. 
 
The Closing Months 339 
 
 of the Picayune, and took occasion to print full and frequent 
 notices of its meetings in the advertising columns of the daily 
 press/ 
 
 A week after the reorganization the Committee removed to 
 smaller and less expensive quarters,^ which were described as 
 follows in the Alta of November 3 : 
 
 The V. C. Rooms. — The rooms of the Vigilance Committee, situated 
 on the corner of Sacramento and Battery streets, over Middleton & 
 Smiley 's store, are handsomely furnished. The floor is carpeted. At one 
 end is a handsome rostrum, containing an elegant chair for the President. 
 In front of the desk hangs a small banner belonging to the Committee. 
 Behind the President's chair is an elegant mirror. 9 Down the centre of 
 the room is a table containing books, an ornamental inkstand, &c., &c. 
 At the eastern end, opposite the rostrum, the daily papers are to be found 
 on file. The windows are neatly curtained; while hanging against the 
 wall are pictures and maps. The large banner which was presented to 
 the Committee by the ladies of Trinity Church, is rolled up and deposited 
 in a small room adjoining the room for meetings; where are also the 
 hand cuffs, chains and other paraphernalia of the Committee. 
 
 Before the month was over members of the Executive Com- 
 mittee began to chafe at the order which forbade them to make 
 arrests. They therefore called a General Meeting for October 1, 
 at which they recommended the restoration of the power of 
 initiative in this respect. ^^ Apparently it was granted and was 
 exercised on November 11 when Antonio Gonzales, who had 
 engaged in a stabbing affray, was taken to headquarters. The 
 committeeman who made the arrest stated that no police officer 
 was present and that the bystanders requested him to take charge 
 of the offender.^^ Gonzales was immediately handed over to the 
 authorities, and except for an obscure allusion to the ^^ arrest of 
 
 7 See Papers, 673. 
 
 8 Papers, 651. 
 
 9 The mirror, found during the June fire, had been advertised without 
 success (Papers, Voucher no. 70). The banners are mentioned infra, pp. 
 371, 372. 
 
 ^0 Papers, 671-673; Alta, 1851, Oct. 2 %. 
 
 11 Papers, 689-692. Noted in Alta, 1851, Nov. 12 %; Herald, Nov. 13 %. 
 
340 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Handy, "^2 November 16, no other prisoner seems to have been 
 in the hands of the Committee until Charles Talbot was arrested 
 on the charge of arson, November 25, 1852/^ 
 
 The records for these fourteen months are far less interesting 
 and picturesque than those for the earlier periods. From Sep- 
 tember 17, 1851, to March 17, 1852, twenty-five regular weekly 
 meetings were held, with an average attendance of sixteen.^* 
 The meetings, therefore, were not neglected by the members, but 
 the minutes indicate that they were devoted to routine business 
 and to the effort to raise money, especially the sums needed to 
 meet the expenses of the suits instituted by Peter Metcalf. 
 
 One of the first matters that engaged attention was a com- 
 munication from the collector of the port, Thomas Butler King, 
 to the effect that he had been informed by an American consul 
 in France that the French government was preparing to send to 
 California a shipload of emigrants, among whom might be a large 
 number of desperadoes. The Committee at once appointed a 
 delegation to wait upon the resident French consul, M. Dillon, 
 and upon the representatives of Marizou & Company, agents for 
 the emigrant vessels, to make inquiries relative to the proposed 
 expedition. These gentlemen assured the Committee that the 
 colonists would include only persons of approved respectability. 
 They promised to write to France to warn those interested in the 
 venture to take every reasonable precaution and to advise them of 
 the "existence of a powerful association styled the Committee of 
 Vigilance, who have combined together for the purpose of ridding 
 the community of all disreputable characters, and who have the 
 determination and the power to carry out their views. "^^ This 
 
 ^•i Papers, 704. The Alta, 1851, Nov. 21 %, noted the arrest by the 
 Committee of a suspected incendiary, who had been handed over to the 
 recorder. 
 
 13 See infra, p. 354. 
 
 14 See Papers, Eoll Call, Appendix C. 
 -^z Papers, 651, 662-664. 
 
The Closing Months 341 
 
 promise was faithfully performed and the responses they received 
 appeared as follows in the papers of a later date •}^ 
 
 Paris, Nov. 20th, 1851. 
 Messrs. Marziou & Co., 
 
 San Francisco, 
 
 Gentlemen: 
 
 We have today seen Mr. Eeyre, Government Commis- 
 sioner, to whom we communicated the information received from you, 
 relative to the action of the very honorable, the Committee of A'igilance, 
 of your city. He has assured us that the solicitude of the American 
 authorities would be completely satisfied through the proper diplomatic 
 sources. 
 
 Among the emigrants there are no criminals . . . and we concur with 
 you, in deeming the accession to your new State, of four or five thousand 
 industrious operatives ... a subject of congratulation. 
 
 Havre, Nov. 26, 1851. 
 You may re-assure the members of the Committee of Vigilance, our 
 emigrants are all honest people, emigrating voluntarily, and from whom 
 testimonials of character are required before admission to the association. 
 An ofiicial communication in regard to this subject will be made to the 
 American Minister at Paris, for transmission to his government. 
 
 A thrill of the old-time excitement was experienced on 
 October 15, when the Committee heard that Briggs and Osman, 
 confederates of Stuart who had eluded arrest, had been seen in 
 the city, and were supposed to be on board a vessel clearing for 
 Australia. Since rich plunder was loiown to be in their posses- 
 sion, a pursuit was hastily organized, the tug Fire Fly pressed 
 into service, and a dash made outside the Golden Gate. One or 
 two vessels were overhauled, but the fugitives were not found, 
 and when her bunkers were empty the Fire Fly returned to port. 
 So concluded the last recorded expedition of the water police of 
 the Committee of Vigilance.^'" 
 
 16 Alta, 1852, Feb. 10 %i. The expedition was financed by the Societe 
 du Lingot d'Or, which held a lottery on Nov. 16, 1851, and distributed as 
 prizes the passage money for 5000 emigrants. See also Levy, Les Frangais 
 en Calif ornie, 72-74. 
 
 17 Papers, 679, 710, 720, and Voucher no. 95. Among Bancroft 's clip- 
 pings is an undated scrap (printed between Aug. 18 and Sept. 8, 1851), 
 
342 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 About the same time Andrew Goodwin appealed for help in 
 recovering his niece, Mary Lye, who had been taken from him 
 by people named Kohle, and placed in a house of ill fame at 
 ]\Iarysville/^ The case was mentioned but briefly in the records 
 of the Committee, but it was more fully reported in the news- 
 papers. The Herald said : 
 
 Her aged uncle went several times to Marysville, and though very 
 poor, expended upwards of $400 in fruitless efforts, through the authori- 
 ties and otherwise, to rescue the child. . . . Almost heart-broken by his 
 want of success, he . . . applied to the Vigilance Committee for relief. 
 A member of that body [Stephen Payran] was alone deputed to proceed 
 to Marysville and take the child from those who detained her. Having 
 conferred . . . with the Marysville Vigilance Committee — a body that has 
 been as efficient as any similar one in the State — accompanied by several 
 of its members, he proceeded to the house and demanded the girl. Those 
 who detained her were at first very boisterous and very menacing, but 
 the threats were disregarded and the child was brought off and restored 
 to her delighted relatives. 
 
 Many years later Mr. Payran recalled the incident with satis- 
 faction.^^ He said that he had been warned that the roughs of 
 Marysville would try to prevent the rescue. Accordingly, after 
 he had carried the child in safety to the hotel where he lodged, 
 he took the other guests into his confidence, and fifteen or twenty 
 miners instantly drew their revolvers and escorted her to the 
 boat, where she was guarded until she arrived in San Francisco. 
 The little story furnishes one note of tender pathos in all the 
 dreary record of crime and punishment. Sketches by unskilled 
 hands have delineated the executions of Stuart, Whittaker, and 
 McKenzie, but no one has thought of picturing Stephen Payran, 
 the enthusiast and idealist, as he braved the guns of the gamblers 
 
 reporting that at some time a hoax was perpetrated on the Committee by 
 inducing it to pursue a vessel under the mistaken idea that Briggs was on 
 board. 
 
 ^^ Papers, 676-768; Eerald, 1851, Oct. 16 %, 17 %. 
 
 19 Carpenter 's letter in Oakland Transcript, 1874, March 29 l/i. Ernest 
 Kohle wrote a letter of protest, and asked compensation for his care of the 
 child. His communication was ''laid on the table" {Papers, 696). 
 
The Closing Months 343 
 
 to restore a little girl to guardians who were too feeble and too 
 poor to accomplish her rescue by their own efforts. 
 
 The incident was Payran's last participation in the work of 
 the Committee. On October 27 he resigned again, "owing to the 
 cares incident to my business, and the larger active service of our 
 Committee being at an end, combined with other causes. "-° 
 When requested to state his reasons more fully, he replied in a 
 long letter that affords us valuable information on the con- 
 dition of the Committee at the time.^^ He pointed out that 
 the large salaries of the sergeant-at-arms and the secretary in- 
 creased the expenses of rent and incidentals to a minimum of 
 $350 a month "without a dollar in the treasury to meet them." 
 He condemned the policy that made the Committee, rather than 
 individuals, responsible for the costs of the suits instituted by 
 Metcalf . That liability then exceeded $2500, with the possibility 
 of heavy damages if decision should be made for the plaintiff. 
 He also alleged that the constitution and by-laws were so mis- 
 interpreted or misunderstood by the officers that the Committee 
 was kept in ignorance of the truth and criminals were allowed 
 to escape. Conscious of the criticism of his own use of authority, 
 he said that he had usually refrained from taking the chair since 
 his re-election in September, and now felt that the time had 
 arrived for his final resignation. It was accepted, with suitable 
 expressions of esteem and regret, and his name appears no more 
 upon the records of the Committee, the office of the chairman 
 being filled thereafter by the vice-presidents, G. W. Ryckman 
 and S. E. Wood worth. 
 
 A curious reversal of the usual relations between the Com- 
 mittee of Vigilance and the authorities of San Francisco occurred 
 late in October, in connection with an outbreak of public indig- 
 nation against the captain and officers of the sloop Challenge as 
 
 20 Papers, 687-688. 
 
 21 Papers, 699-704. 
 
344 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 a result of charges of brutality during the voyage from New York. 
 
 Crowds of angry sailors and longshoremen collected along the 
 
 water front, demanding Captain Waterman and his mates, and 
 
 threatening to lynch them as soon as they could be found. The 
 
 excitement reached such a dangerous point on October 31 that 
 
 the mayor ordered the bell of the Monumental Engine Company 
 
 to be tapped as a signal to law-abiding citizens to assemble and 
 
 disperse the mob. In obedience to the familiar summons the 
 
 Vigilance Committee gathered at headquarters and sent to the 
 
 chief executive an offer of any assistance he might require. The 
 
 account of the affair in the Alt a of November 1 said that the 
 
 mayor "accepted the services of the Vigilantes, as a body of 
 
 citizens, merely. ' ' The Herald reported that a strong detachment 
 
 of the Committee appeared among the hundreds who responded 
 
 to the call for help. Overawed by the reinforcements rallied 
 
 about the authorities, and placated by promises of thorough 
 
 investigation, the mob finally dispersed.^^ The Alta took occasion 
 
 to say: 
 
 Where now are those who called the Committee a mob — who predicted 
 that they would establish riot and ruin in our midst? Where are they 
 who mourned over the ruins of the Constitution of the United States, the 
 ruins of the laws, of the courts and of all legal forms? . . . Let the events 
 answer. The Committee found society in a chaotic state. . . . They formed 
 themselves together, conscious of the solemn responsibility which they 
 were self-imposing. They seized upon culprits and promptly punished 
 them . . . crime shrank before them, and Order sprang from the chaos. 
 Having restored security to the (tiij, they yielded their power to the 
 regularly constituted authorities, trusting that they would be enabled, 
 unassisted, to keep off the floodings of crime. And now the Committee 
 are found on the part of the authorities, upholding the law. And they 
 will be found there until the courts can no longer afford us protection. 
 
 If the Vigilantes surprised their detractors by assisting the 
 constituted authorities in the Waterman affair, the critic of 
 
 22 Farwell described the episode, and felt that it proved that the Com- 
 mittee opposed mob violence (MS Statement, 1.1-12). Captain Waterman 
 surrendered himself as soon as it was safe. He was tried and fined, in Feb- 
 ruary, 1852. 
 
The Closing Months 345 
 
 today will be scarcely less surprised when he reads of a move- 
 ment they were inaugurating at the very date of the riots on the 
 water front. G. E. Schenck, who had left San Francisco a few 
 weeks earlier, in his note of resignation urged his former asso- 
 ciates to use their influence ''for the establishment of schools, 
 academies and seminarys of learning and virtue.'"^ Seminaries 
 of learning and virtue would appear to be institutions incon- 
 gruous with the administration of lynch law, and history does not 
 record that the members of the Committee of Vigilance ever 
 attempted to found them. They did, however, make a definite 
 effort to carry out the spirit of Schenck's suggestion when they 
 decided to establish a library as a contribution to the intellectual 
 life of San Francisco. Mention of their action in this matter 
 does not appear in the minutes or reports. It can be found, 
 however, in the papers of the day and in the recollections of 
 Isaac Bluxome, Jr., who said:^* 
 
 When the first committee was about to disband, we concluded that we 
 would do something for the public at large. A man named Livingston 
 suggested that we start a library for the public good, and Charles S. 
 Eijenbraugh [Eigenbrodt] seconded the motion. I had a pretty good 
 library for a private citizen of some five hundred volumes, which I con- 
 tributed. Others did the same, and that is the foundation of the Mercan- 
 tile Library of this city. You will find my name in these books there, 
 if not pasted over. 
 
 The Herald and the Alta of October 4, 1851, spoke of an 
 effort to establish the San Francisco Library and Museum Com- 
 pany, and commended the plan proposed as the city had lost its 
 only library in the May fire. It was stated that the proposition 
 had come from a group of members of the Committee of 
 Vigilance who desired to keep up the ties of companionship 
 and who proposed to limit the membership of the library asso- 
 ciation to those who belonged to the Committee. This limitation 
 was regretted by writers in both papers, and it was hinted that 
 
 23 Papers, 635. 
 
 24 Bluxome, MS Statement, 16. 
 
346 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 it would probably be removed before very long. Some donations 
 were recorded from S. E. Woodward [Woodworth], Major Boyd, 
 Captain W. A. Howard, and Mr. Shelton, the botanist. It was 
 announced that the collection could be inspected in the room 
 next to the Committee 's headquarters, under the care of the Com- 
 mittee 's librarian. Other donors, it seemed, were reluctant to 
 place books in the inflammable structure, and waited until a fire- 
 proof building might be secured.-^ The minutes of December 17 
 stated that fireproof accommodations were too expensive for 
 the use of the Committee at that time.-® Late in November the 
 California Institute was organized, with membership open to the 
 public on the payment of moderate fees; rooms were secured on 
 the south side of Pine Street, betwen Montgomery and Sansome ; 
 D. L. Oakley, of the Committee, acted as librarian; S. E. Wood- 
 worth was president; and the list of officers and directors was 
 made up almost entirely from the roll of the Committee. ^^ 
 
 There is no evidence that this library became an important 
 factor in the life of San Francisco. If Bluxome 's statement was 
 correct, however, a substantial nucleus of books was transferred 
 to the Mercantile Library, founded a year later.^^ Had not the 
 fire of 1906 swept away the collection of that association, search 
 might now reveal that the earliest volumes in that historic library 
 were donated by the men who armed themselves in 1851 to 
 execute summary justice upon the murderers and incendiaries 
 that threatened the peace of the community. 
 
 25 Alta, 1851, Nov. 22 %. 
 ^Q Papers, 713. 
 
 27 President, S. E. Woodworth; Vice-Presidents, G. W. Eyckman, A. C. 
 Wakeman; Treasurer, Eugene Delessert; Eecording Secretary, J. E. Dungli- 
 son; Corresponding Secretary, L. F. Zantzinger; Librarian, D. L. Oakley; 
 Directors: G. M. Garwood, H. S. Gates, F. Argenti, F. C. Ewer, J. M. Swift, 
 C. B. Lafitte, P. P. Hull, A. B. Stout, Henry Dreshfeldt, J. C. L. Wadsworth, 
 Sam'l Taylor, J. S. Ellis, S. E. Gerry, D. J. Thomas, A. M. Macy, D. S. 
 Turner, T. J. L. Smiley, L. W. Sloat, E. S. Lammot, A. J. Moulder (Herald, 
 
 1851, Nov. 30 %; Dec. 2 %; 8 %; Alta, Nov. 30 %; Dec. 8 %). All were 
 Vigilantes except Dunglison, Zantzinger, and Moulder. 
 
 28 The organization of the Mercantile Library Avas noted in the Herald, 
 
 1852, Dec. 17 %; 23 %; 24 %. 
 
The Closing Months 347 
 
 Metcalf 's suit was called again in December, and the plaintiff 
 then moved for a change of venue upon the following grounds :^^ 
 
 1st, — That an impartial jury cannot be had here, because the defend- 
 ants are, or lately were, members of a numerous and powerful body, 
 known as the Vigilance Committee, who have recognized the act charged 
 upon the defendants as their own, and that the said Committee still 
 exercises a controlling influence over the minds and actions of the people 
 of this city, adverse to the cause of the affiant. 
 
 Sd, — Because the said defendants and their associates through motives 
 of fear or favor, and by means of their power and wealth, control the 
 public press of this city and county, and have instigated and prompted 
 the same to attack this affiant without provocation and unjustly, but with 
 the utmost bitterness and malice, so that the people of this city and 
 county are filled with prejudice toward this affiant. 
 
 3d, — That the affiant is a poor laborer, and that defendants are rich 
 property holders; and that affiant is an English immigrant, who reached 
 here by way of Australia, and is therefore known as a '' Sydney man," 
 a class of the population of this city who have been proscribed and 
 persecuted by these defendants. 
 
 The case was transferred to the jurisdiction of the District Court 
 of Santa Clara and was tried immediately. The result was a 
 verdict for the plaintiff, with damages of $201, the lowest sum 
 that would permit the jury to allow costs in his favor.^° Met- 
 calf at once named Bluxome and others as defendants in another 
 suit, which was tried in San Francisco and resulted in the 
 nominal verdict of six cents for the plaintiff. The empty victory 
 led to the dismissal of still other suits by which he sought to 
 continue his action against the Vigilantes.^^ Although many 
 references show that these suits laid a heavy tax upon the 
 
 29 Alta, 1851, Dec. 13 %. In the issue of Dec. 22 %, the editor denied 
 that the Committee exerted undue influence on the press, asserting that ' ' the 
 people who had the courage to sustain the Vigilance Committee, have the 
 penetration to see through the film of shallow pretension which envelopes the 
 cause." Angelina Duclos sued Metcalf for the recovery of the value of 
 her alleged loss, and in the course of that suit Mr. Argenti was arrested on 
 a charge of perjurv, but was soon dismissed. Mme. Duelos ultimately 
 abandoned her t^se {Eerald, 1851, Dec. 31 %; 1852, Jan. 1 %; 12 %; 
 13 %; LockAvood, The Vigilance Committee, 47 note). 
 
 so Herald, and Alta, 1851, Dec. 8. 
 
 31 Papers, 731; Herald, 1852, Feb. 20 %; Alta, May 8 %. 
 
348 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Committee only one actual payment is recorded — a bill of costs 
 amounting to fifty dollars. In June, 1852, a special subscription 
 was collected for the fees of counsel employed for the defense.^^ 
 
 Throughout the winter of 1851 to 1852 the Committee con- 
 tinued to receive complaints concerning crimes committed in 
 San Francisco and elsewhere. Most of them were filed without 
 annotation, or were laid on the table. ^^ One was referred to the 
 mayor of the city.^* In a few instances investigation was made, 
 as in the case of an attack on Captain Ellis, of the Callao, who 
 was taken from his vessel by men impersonating Vigilantes, and 
 compelled to promise them money in order to save himself from 
 instant death. ^^ 
 
 On October 22 a committee of five was appointed ''to inquire 
 into the acts of the various judges on the bench," but its mem- 
 bers made no reports of any ir^portance.^^ In fact, the larger 
 part of the attention of the Committee was occupied with the 
 ever pressing question of financial ways and means. 
 
 A short time prior to the reorganization there had been a 
 deficit of $1296.56.^'^ By strenuous efforts this condition was 
 improved, and on October 2 the Finance Committee reported 
 that with a few exceptions all claims had been settled up to 
 September 16, and that a small balance remained on hand.^® 
 This happy state of things did not long continue ; the liabilities 
 of the association soon again exceeded its assets. 
 
 On December 10 the city was divided into collection districts 
 and canvassed for subscriptions by members of the Committee. 
 
 32 See Papers, 748, Voucher no. 63, and Index under ^'Metcalf. " 
 
 33 Papers, 696-699, 705, 706, 708-710, 719. 
 3^ Papers, 708. 
 
 35 Papers, 713-716; Alta, 1851, Dec. 18 %; 19 %; 22 %; Picayune, 
 Dec. 20 % ; Holinski, La Calif ornie, 129. 
 
 36 Papers, 680. 
 ST Papers, 767. 
 
 38 Papers, 675. This probably did not include expenses in the Metcalf 
 suit. Treasurer Delessert offered to advance $1000 for two months, without 
 interest, but it does not appear that the loan was accepted (ibid., 651-652, 
 702). 
 
The Closing Months 349 
 
 Two of these collectors, George R. Ward and T. J. L. Smiley, 
 received the thanks of the society, January 28, for the three 
 hundred dollars they had secured and for '^ their untiring efforts 
 to rid the Committee of Vigilance from debt. ' '^^ An attempt was 
 also made to raise money by the sale of engraved certificates of 
 membership at five dollars each. The simple design showed some 
 artistic skill. It bore several mottoes that expressed the senti- 
 ments of the members: *'Fiat justitia ruat Coelum." "Be just 
 and fear not." " Self -Preservation the first law of nature." It 
 showed, also, the scales of justice and the Lictor's rods, sur- 
 mounted by the open eye that was always the favorite insignia 
 of the Vigilantes. 
 
 The books of the treasurer report ninety dollars raised from 
 the sale of these certificates before March, 1852. In that month 
 it w^as voted to make the purchase of certificates compulsory, an 
 action which resulted in the sale of seventeen more during the 
 ensuing weeks.*° 
 
 The news items of the daily papers and their reports of 
 court proceedings showed a constant fluctuation in the amount 
 of crime. The worst of the Sydney men had undoubtedly been 
 driven aw^ay through the action of the Committee, and their 
 disappearance was a blessing. Other undesirables soon departed 
 for the gold fields of Australia. The Herald of September 21 
 remarked that the city was far less dangerous at night, and 
 that there was no quarter where it was unsafe for a peaceable 
 
 39 Papers, 712, 722. 
 
 40 See Papers, Frontispiece, and pp. 711, 734, 762. The AUa, 1852, 
 Jan. 23 %, described the certificate and said that its use indicated that the 
 Committee would continue its vigilance as long as society was left at the 
 mercj of criminals. The following notice appeared in the Herald, Jan. 
 21-28: 
 
 '^ Committee of Vigilance. The Members of the Committee of 
 Vigilance of San Francisco, are hereby notified that their certificates 
 of membership are now ready, and the Secretary will be in attendance, 
 at the Chambers of the Committee, corner of Sacramento and Saji- 
 some, to deliver the same, every day, between the hours of 12 and 
 2 'clock. p^^ ^^.^-jg^ ^^ ^^^ Executive Committee, 
 
 Isaac Bluxome, Jr., Secy." 
 
350 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 citizen to go about his business.^^ On the next day the editor 
 spoke with complacency of the increasing stability of society 
 and of the influx from the East of families that intended to 
 make their permanent home in California. In the issue of 
 September 28 a long article signed by ''Justice" defended the 
 acts of the Committee against current attack in the Morning 
 Post, likened its protest against inefficient laws to the historic 
 protests of Revolutionary patriots, and asserted that crime and 
 violence had almost disappeared as a result of its labors. The 
 grand jury, reporting for the September term, corroborated this 
 optimistic view and mentioned the marked diminution of crime.*- 
 A few days later the Herald told of a daring burglary and a 
 shocking murder, ''perhaps due to temporary suspension of the 
 police regulations of the Vigilance Committee."*^ Not long after 
 it admitted that there was a slight increase of crime in the city 
 and state. ^^ By this time popular interest in humdrum trials had 
 noticeably abated. Jury service was evaded so persistently that 
 a sharp editorial in the Alta pointed out that such a shirking 
 of the duties of citizenship would inevitably result in a revival 
 of the activities of the Committee of Vigilance.*^ 
 
 Since the rainy winter months, as usual, drove to San Fran- 
 cisco many rough characters from the mining regions it was not 
 strange that crimes increased during that season. The papers 
 again had cause to complain of robberies, fires, and murders. It 
 was feared that another criminal gang had been organized, and 
 to add to the confusion seventeen desperate men escaped from 
 the prison brig, where they were confined while working for a 
 private contractor.^*^ A correspondent in the Alta prophesied 
 
 ^i Herald, 1851, Sept. 21 %. 
 
 ^^ Herald, 1851, Sept. 30 %; Oct. 1 %- 
 
 ^3 Herald, 1851, Oct. 11 %. See also Oct. 14 %', ^^^a, Oct. 19 %. 
 
 ^i Herald, 1851, Nov. 15 %; 18 %; 20 2/,- 21 %; 27 ^o; 28%; Dec. 1 1^. 
 
 45 Alta, 1851, Nov. 10 %. 
 
 46 See supra, p. 290; and Alta, 1852, Jan. 21 %; 25 %; Herald, Jan. 29 %; 
 Feb. 18 %; 28 %; 29 %. The existing clangers led to the formation of a 
 special police force, paid by individuals, but under the control of the city 
 authorities {Herald, March 2 %, April 19 %). 
 
The Closing Months 351 
 
 that a continuation of existing conditions would necessitate ''the 
 same steps as were formerly taken by that much abused, but 
 noble band of men, the Vigilance Committee, who devoted their 
 time, money, and if need be their lives for the protection of 
 society. ' '"^^ 
 
 In the meantime the Committee attempted little interference 
 in public affairs. Its quiescence may have arisen from the fact 
 that most of the tragedies in the cit}^ and in the state at large 
 were attributed to sudden passion rather than to such deliberate 
 intention as had signalized the operations of James Stuart and 
 his confederates.*^ But the members felt the necessity of con- 
 tinuing their association for the time being, and when on Janu- 
 ary 14, 1852, T. J. L. Smiley, one of the most faithful attendants, 
 proposed an adjournment si7ie die, the motion w^as laid on the 
 table.*'' On February 4 the office of sergeant-at-arms was abol- 
 ished f^ on March 13 it was voted to discontinue the salary of the 
 secretary. ^^ 
 
 March 17 was the end of the six-month term of the reorgan- 
 ized Executive Committee. Pursuant to a notice in the press 
 over three hundred Vigilantes assembled at the old headquarters 
 on Battery Street to elect new representatives.^^ It was reported 
 in the papers that the increase of crime in the city had roused 
 the Committee to renewed activities; and the minutes and the 
 new roll call showed that fresh interest was awakened. "Wlien 
 the new Executive Committee met for organization^^ G. W. 
 Ryckman was elected president, S. E. Woodworth and Eugene 
 
 47 AUa, 1852, Jan. 25 %. 
 
 ^8 Herald, 1852, Jan. 16 %; March 30 %. ''Even when homicides were 
 most frequent, the great majority of the people were secure in their lives 
 and property; but the percentage of deaths was large among the gamblers, 
 drunkards, holders of disputed land claims, thieves and borderers" (J. S. 
 Hittell, Resources of California, 32). 
 
 49 Papers, 720. 
 
 50 Papers, 724. 
 5^ Papers, 733. 
 
 52 Papers, 732-735 ; Herald, 1852, March 17 % ; 18 %. 
 
 53 Papers, 738-740. 
 
352 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Delessert vice-presidents, and G. R. "Ward treasurer, Delessert 
 having resigned that office in anticipation of a trip to Europe. ^"^ 
 Isaac Bluxome, Jr. continued to act as secretary, in spite of a 
 resignation dated April 7.^^ The Executive Committee attempted 
 to maintain the habit of weekly meetings, but the minutes give 
 evidence of no action of any importance although conditions in 
 San Francisco grew steadily worse. 
 
 Early in IMay it was voted to renew the volunteer patrol of the 
 city,^*^ and the following notice appeared in the Herald on several 
 days from ]\Iay 5 to 21 : 
 
 Vigilance Committee attention! At a special meeting of the Executive 
 Committee, held at their Chambers last evening, the following recom- 
 mendations were directed to be promulgated through the public prints: 
 
 All members of the "General Committee of Vigilance" are requested 
 to assemble in the respective wards in which they reside, and form them- 
 selves into a "Night Patrol." From information received by the Execu- 
 tive Committee, they have every reason to believe that there yet exists 
 within the limits of our city an organized band of thieves and incendi- 
 aries, who have within a few days past made several ineffectual attempts 
 to fire the city, and the Executive Committee believe our strict observ- 
 ance of vigilance may prevent the evil by an early detection of the fire, 
 should it be the result of accident or design. 
 
 Information of an important nature will be communicated to the 
 members of the different Ward Committees, authorized to receive the same 
 by the Executive Committee, which will continue always in session. 
 
 Selim E. Woodworth, Pres. 
 
 The Herald stated that the public was convinced of the 
 existence of a band of miscreants, and that in consequence of 
 information to that effect the General Committee of Vigilance 
 would resume weekly meetings during May and June."" Notices 
 appeared in the papers, but minutes are preserved for onlj^ one 
 meeting of the General Committee, on May 12, and for meetings 
 of the Executive Committee on ]\Iay 5, May 26, and June 30.^^ 
 The room for permanent headquarters was given up in May. 
 
 54 Papers, 734-735. 
 
 55 Papers, 742. 
 
 56 Papers, 746. 
 
 ^T Herald, 1852, May 7 %; 12 %; Papers, 744 note. 
 58 Papers, 743-748. 
 
The Closing Months 353 
 
 AYhen the anniversary of the organization of the Committee 
 drew near, it was suggested that the day, June 9, should be cele- 
 brated by a dinner,^^ but no other mention of such a banquet 
 was made in the records or in the reminiscences of the members. 
 
 As one reviews the year of strenuous work, of defiance of 
 law, of popular approval, and of ever increasing financial bur- 
 dens, one is inclined to invert a phrase dear to American orators, 
 and to assert that if taxation without representation is tyranny, 
 the experience of the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance goes 
 far towards proving that representation without taxation is 
 
 insolvency. 
 
 The last financial experiment of the Vigilantes accented with 
 grotesque humor the straits to which they were reduced. On 
 April 2 it was voted to arrange a dramatic benefit for the pur- 
 pose of raising funds, three leading members, Selim E. Wood- 
 worth, Eugene Delessert, and W. A. Howard, being appointed a 
 committee of arrangement.^^ Several members of the theatrical 
 profession immediately volunteered their services, among them 
 Madame Eleanore, who was playing at the French Theatre, and 
 the Committee returned its thanks in polite French for her 
 kind offer.^^ For unrecorded reasons the project was pushed no 
 further, and we are fortunately spared the vision of the curtain 
 of history descending upon the Committee of Vigilance amid the 
 glitter of footlights and the clatter of perfunctory applause. 
 
 For the curtain is about to descend! The entries in the 
 Minute Book of the Executive Committee close June 30. For 
 several months there are no recorded activities, and it may 
 be that the summer movement to the mines brought about a 
 slight improvement in local affairs. Early in the fall the old 
 apprehension of incendiaries recurred, and the editor of the 
 Herald wrote for the warning of such outlaws: ''The Vigilance 
 
 5Q Papers, 746. 
 60 Papers, 739. 
 Qi Papers, 743. 
 
354 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Committee is not dead — it only sleeps, and woe to those whose 
 rascality calls it into action again ! "^^ 
 
 The sleeping guardian roused itself to momentary vigor in 
 November, when a meeting of the General Committee was called 
 for the nineteenth, although no minutes have been preserved.^^ 
 On the twenty-sixth the Executive Committee met and elected 
 officers, and even discussed hiring new headquarters, since the 
 building occupied in the spring had been demolished. It was 
 decided, however, to ask hospitality from the fire engine com- 
 panies and to avoid the expense of permanent chambers. 
 Minutes of that meeting are preserved in a rough draft,*'* and 
 with them is filed a brief memorandum of the examination of 
 Charles Talbot, who had been arrested the day before by S. E. 
 Woodworth on suspicion of arson, and who was probably released 
 without delay. No later archives reveal the secret bonds that 
 continued to unite the brotherhood of the Vigilantes, although 
 every man in California knew that those bonds had not been 
 severed. For a time the continued existence of the Committee 
 was indicated by the publication of two brief notices which 
 appeared at frequent intervals in the Herald and the Alta, from 
 November 24, 1852, to January 20, 1853 : 
 
 Committee of Vigilance. — The citizens of the city of San Francisco 
 
 are requested to furnish to the Committee of Vigilance such information 
 
 as they may have that will lead to the detection or arrest of any person 
 
 that has committed, or attempted to commit the crimes of Arson, Burglary 
 
 or Highway Bohbery. 
 
 Isaac Bluxome Jr., Secretary. 
 
 Committee of Vigilance. — $2,000 Reward 
 
 will be given by the Committee of Vigilance of the city of San Francisco 
 
 for the arrest, with sufficient testimony for conviction, of any person 
 
 setting fire to any building in San Francisco. By order of the Committee, 
 
 Selim E. Woodworth, President, 
 Isaac Bluxome Jr., Secretary. 
 
 62 Herald, 1852, Oct. 28 %- 
 
 e^ Herald, 1852, Nov. 17 ^; Papers, 748-749 note. The meeting was 
 called to adopt measures for the suppression of crime {Herald, Nov. 19 %). 
 &* Papers, 748-749. 
 
The Closing Months 355 
 
 At some time after that date a further reorganization was 
 effected, relieving from duty all of the members except a Com- 
 mittee of Thirteen, which was entrusted with the obligation of 
 keeping alive the spirit of vigilance and of summoning the 
 general body should the need arise. No press notices of this 
 change and no further calls for meetings have come to the 
 attention of the writer in searching through the files of the 
 Herald and the Alta for the succeeding three years.^^ The 
 association of the Vigilantes never formally dissolved. Ger- 
 stacker reported that the members had pledged themselves to a 
 service of fifty years, and George E. Schenck wrote: ''Once a 
 Committeeman, always a Committeeman, according to the by- 
 laws. "^^ In 1853 the organization silently disappeared from 
 local attention, but it was the current conviction of the com- 
 munity that although the Committee of Vigilance was shrouded 
 in silence and secrecy, it was prepared to re-establish its dreaded 
 tribunal whenever a public emergency should move the people 
 to summon it from obscurity.®' 
 
 65 Tuthill said that sometime in 1853 there was published a call for a 
 meeting of the Executive Committee {California, 461). Mention of a 
 recent meeting was made in the Democratic State Journal, 1853, March 7 
 %; Alta, March 13 %. 
 
 66 F. W. C. Gerstacker, Narrative of a Journey round the World, 1853, 
 p. 253; Schenck, MS Statement, 52. ''At the end it [the Committee] 
 adjourned, to be called together on any occasion when it might be required" 
 Eyckman, MS Statement, 20). 
 
 67 ' ' The Vigilance Committee has long ceased to act, but the association 
 has never formally dissolved. The original members are doubtless ready, 
 if ever an occasion should require, again to assert the right of self-preserva- 
 tion, and the supremacy of natural law over defective civil rule" (Annals, 
 1855, p. 587). ''Crime, since the organization of the Committee, has de- 
 creased one half, and they have now ceased to make arrests, leaving all to 
 the jurisdiction of the proper authorities. They, however, maintain their 
 organization, and would, no doubt, act in case of emergency" Calif orrda 
 Illustrated [by Letts], 55). 
 
CHAPTEE XVII 
 PROBLEMS AND METHODS OF ADMINISTRATION 
 
 The previous chapters have recounted the history of the 
 Committee of Vigilance in its chronological development, reserv- 
 ing for special discussion various aspects of its work which 
 require a grouping of episodes that were separated by intervals 
 of time but related by logical connection. Certain useful sum- 
 maries may be made from the records of the cases considered by 
 the Committee, and from the. receipt and expenditure of funds. 
 Interesting deductions as to the spirit of the members may be 
 formed by reviewing as a whole their relations to their prisoners, 
 to each other, and to the general public. And finally, before 
 the study is brought to a conclusion, it will be pertinent to ask 
 what influences the work of the Committee may have exerted in 
 San Francisco, in California, and in the country at large. 
 
 The relations that existed between the Committee and its 
 prisoners are indicated not only by the general reports on the 
 conduct of cases, but by brief allusions scattered through the 
 minutes and miscellaneous papers.^ 
 
 In the matter of providing for the physical necessities of those 
 in confinement, the arrangements were very primitive. The 
 inventories suggest that the prisoners' room was furnished with 
 benches, straw mattresses, and blankets.- No information is 
 given of the accommodations provided for women prisoners, in 
 spite of the fact that several women were detained for brief 
 periods.^ Mrs. Hogan was probably in custody for a few days, 
 
 1 See Papers. Index under ' ' C. of V. — Eelations with prisoners. ' ' 
 
 2 Papers, 654. 
 
 3 See Papers, 420, 502, 574-575. 
 
Problems and Methods of Admimstration 357 
 
 and so was Mrs. Robinson, charged with arson. On August 30 
 the wives of Eobert Ogden and Joseph Turner were named among 
 the prisoners. So was Jane Connolly, widow of the innkeeper, 
 former friend of Jenkins and Burns, and later wife of one 
 Martin Sanphy, who unkindly accused her of robbing him of 
 twelve hundred dollars. Emma Jones, a Sydney immigrant, was 
 held for deportation. But the personal experiences of the arrested 
 women are unnoted alike in any of the records, in the papers of 
 the day, or in the reminiscences of members. 
 
 The cost of maintaining the prisoners was a great burden on 
 the overtaxed exchequer. One or two who had the means paid 
 board while in confinement, but the others were fed at the expense 
 of their jailers. Members of the Committees of 1851 and 1856 
 have told me that both Committees ordered the food of the 
 prisoners from neighboring restaurants. The cavsh accounts for 
 1851 do not determine this point exactly, but they show that sums 
 were expended for foodstuffs, such as cheese, crackers, and coffee, 
 and also for refreshments purchased from hotels and eating- 
 houses.* When all is said that can be gathered from the records, 
 we simply know that the men under arrest were lodged and fed 
 — their treatment was surely no worse, perhaps it was better than 
 that accorded to prisoners in the city lockup.^ 
 
 More definite information can be gained of the methods 
 employed in the course of the criminal investigations and 
 prosecutions. *'It is the . . . intention of this Committee of 
 Vigilance to act in such a way as to obtain the sanction of this 
 community for each and every one of the steps it takes.'' So 
 wrote Mr. James C. Ward on June 15, 1851, in a resolution 
 which urged the Committee to act with circumspection in 
 
 4 See Papers, 442, 502, 625, 764, Appendix D, p. 824. I discussed the 
 subject of provisions with Mr. Duff, of the Committee of 1851, and Mr. E. P. 
 Flint, of 1856. 
 
 5 It was ordered that the prisoners and their room should be scrubbed 
 every week. A doctor attended cases of illness {Papers, 408, 409). 
 
358 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 proceeding against Burns and Hetherington.^ George Gibson, 
 advising caution in a different matter, declared that he felt 
 ''the awful character of our responsibilities."^ The sentiments 
 expressed thus early in the life of the Committee were never 
 forgotten in the excitement of the days that followed. The 
 execution of John Jenkins had been summary in the extreme, but 
 after that night no action of any apparent importance was under- 
 taken without painstaking investigation and deliberation. As in 
 the cases of Burns and Hetherington, witnesses were summoned 
 not only for the prosecution, but also at the request of the 
 defense, and the thoroughness with which the Committee sought 
 to sift evidence is proved by the preservation of verbatim state- 
 ments made by nearly one hundred and fifty witnesses, and of 
 written communications sent by many others. It is true that 
 the technical evasions permitted by legal procedure were denied 
 the prisoners of the Committee; no doubtful alibi was con- 
 sidered in their favor. But from the first it was the custom to 
 confront the accused with the witnesses in his case, and it was 
 one of the rules of the association that no sentence should be 
 pronounced until he had appeared in person to plead in his own 
 behalf.« 
 
 The results of the policy of cautious investigation have been 
 shown in the case of the Negro, Ben, whose false arraignment of 
 Mrs. Robinson was so carefully sifted that it disclosed the plot 
 designed to lead the Committee into extreme measures against a 
 woman of open and well-known depravity. Again in the case of 
 Church, the horse thief and deserter whose superior officer urged 
 death as a just penalty for crimes against the public welfare, 
 the Committee preferred to return their prisoner to the military 
 authorities. The deliver}^ to the authorities of Adams, Jimmy 
 
 ^Papers, 43. The unsigned report is in Ward's handwriting. 
 7 Papers, 61. 
 & Papers, 197. 
 
Frdhlems and MetJiods of Administration 359 
 
 from Town, and Hamilton Taft, and the discharge of Jenks, are 
 further instances of the self-control that dominated the leaders 
 of the Committee. The same qualit}^ is further illustrated by the 
 vote to lay on the table a motion to seize and hang the incendiary 
 Lewis if he should be convicted of arson in his legal trial. ^ 
 
 Justice to the Committee forces the acknowledgment of its 
 habitual self-control, and of its inclination towards mercy in 
 doubtful cases. It was inevitable, however, that the methods 
 necessary in the prosecution of its work entailed hardship, and 
 in some cases real suffering upon the men w^ho came under its 
 suspicion. Read, for example, the complaint of the excitable 
 Frenchman, Victor de Gray, an acquaintance of the Robinsons, 
 who was ''taken with violence and rudeness" and compelled to 
 accompany the Committee as if a prisoner, w^as detained as a 
 witness, and discharged only after his feelings and reputation 
 w^ere so damaged that he petitioned for a certificate that should 
 exonerate him of suspicion, and for funds to enable him to 
 depart from the scene of his humiliation. ^° 
 
 The case of Theodore Dahlgren is another illustration of the 
 misfortunes of an innocent man. On the accusation of ]\Ir. 
 Tennant, a dealer in nautical instruments, he was summoned to 
 headquarters to clear himself of the charge of stealing a sextant. 
 When he refused to obey, his personal property was seized and 
 held as a sort of bail, and as soon as possible he himself was 
 taken into custody. After a period of confinement he was 
 honorably discharged and his property restored, although his 
 acknowledgement of its return indicated that some articles were 
 still missing. Dahlgren 's sensitive soul w^as torn with grief 
 at these discreditable suspicions, and his letters were almost 
 ludicrous in their hysterical protests. Yet the intentions of his 
 jailers w^ere so evidently fair, and their consideration of his case 
 
 ^Papers, 328. 
 
 10 Papers, 117, 177, 204, 210-212. 
 
360 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 was so impartial that after his release he sent them a friendly 
 letter and printed in the papers the following tribute to their 
 integrity :^^ 
 
 To the Public — I was recently ordered to appear before the Committee 
 of Vigilance on the charge of being a ' ' notorious thief and swindler. ' ' 
 Said charge has been inquired into and I have been honorably released. 
 I merely wish thus voluntarily to say that I admit to the fullest extent 
 the propriety of their action in my case, and that their course towards 
 me has been marked by perfect courtesy, impartiality, and kind feeling, 
 and that although the fact of my having come within the cognizance of 
 the ''Committee of Vigilance" might probably injure me, yet I fully 
 admit their right to act as they have done, and consider that all good 
 citizens should aid them in their endeavors to ensure security of life and 
 property. This is especially intended to reply to an inquiry made to me 
 to know if I was desirous of prosecuting them for their course towards me. 
 I thus reply. 
 
 Th. Dahlgren. 
 
 Another prisoner, William Wilson, was confined for a time 
 under suspicions that are not definitely formulated in the records, 
 and his friends feared for his health and for his reason under 
 the strain and humiliation of his incarceration.^- And for many 
 others who like Dahlgren and Wilson were finally discharged, 
 the days or weeks of detention in the poorly equipped prisoners' 
 room must have engendered a mood of desperation. A glimpse 
 of such a mood was given in letters which John Arentrue wrote 
 in the hope of invoking help from friends whom he desired to 
 call as witnesses. Arentrue, formerly a street commissioner in 
 San Francisco, had been named by Joseph Hetherington as an 
 accomplice of Stuart. After that statement had appeared in the 
 papers, he published an indignant denial of the charge and com- 
 plained that he had been refused all opportunity to refute it 
 before the Committee. ^^ He was later arrested by the Vigilantes 
 
 ^'^ Herald, 1851, July 11 %. See also Papers, Index under ''Dahlgren. 
 
 ^2 Papers, 587-588. 
 
 '^^ Alta, 1851, July 24 %. See also Papers, Index under "Arentrue." 
 
Problems and Methods of Admimstration 361 
 
 on suspicion of murder, and while he acknowledged that he was 
 ''treated very handsomely by the gentlemen in whose hands" he 
 had fallen, he complained that he had great difficulty in com- 
 municating with outside acquaintances, and was fearful of a 
 conviction that might forfeit his life. It was always claimed by 
 members of the Committee that prisoners were aided in securing 
 whatever evidence they desired to present, and the large number 
 of discharges justifies the inference that ample means were pro- 
 vided for defense. But the letters of Arentrue, at least, were not 
 dispatched to their destination— perhaps because it was decided 
 to relinquish him to the authorities for a trial where he would 
 have the benefit of counsel. 
 
 The records show that ninety-one prisoners were under arrest 
 by the Committee of Vigilance. It is probable that this number 
 does not include all the immigrants forbidden to land in San 
 Francisco, or all the petty offenders who were turned over to 
 the authorities,^^ although it is unlikely that any large number 
 entirely escaped mention, either in the minutes or in the reports 
 of subcommittees. It is possible to discover very exactly the 
 indictments made against most of these ninety-one prisoners, to 
 trace the course of their trials, and to determine their ultimate 
 fate. Twenty-five were accused of being ex-convicts from 
 Australia, thirty-one were charged with larceny of a more or 
 less serious nature, nine with murder, five with keeping dis- 
 reputable lodging houses, five with arson, three with horse steal- 
 ing, and thirteen with a variety of crimes, from murderous 
 assault to being, in general, a ''bad man.''^^ Against some there 
 was an array of charges, as in the case of Stuart, who was ex- 
 convict, thief, and murderer, and who, for the purposes of this 
 classification is listed only as murderer. 
 
 14 For example, a suspected murderer was arrested by the Committee and 
 sent to Stockton, and a fugitive from the San Francisco jail was captured 
 and returned (California Courier, 1851, July 19 %). 
 
 15 See Papers, ' ' List of Prisoners, ' ' Appendix E. 
 
362 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Of these ninety-one prisoners, the Committee hanged four; 
 whipped one; deported fourteen under direct supervision; 
 ordered fourteen more to leave California at their own expense 
 and on their own parole, with a threat of execution if they dis- 
 obeyed;^^ delivered fifteen to the authorities for legal trial; and 
 discharged forty-one. The disposition made of two others is 
 not noted, but they were probably discharged. As a matter of 
 fact, punishment was enforced only upon those hanged, those 
 deported under supervision, and upon the one thief who was 
 whipped, a total of nineteen. It is not certain that all, or most, of 
 the Australians ordered to leave California did so ; on the other 
 hand, there were others who departed hurriedly without risking 
 discipline at the hands of the Vigilantes.^^ 
 
 In carrying out the sentences imposed by the Committee, it 
 seems that due attention was paid to the ordinary dictates of 
 humanity. The illness of Mrs. Goff, for instance, whose husband 
 was under orders to leave California by a specified date, secured 
 for her family an extension of time.^^ Valuables found upon the 
 persons of prisoners were guarded and restored at the time of 
 departure, and business affairs were adjusted for several who 
 were deported under supervision of the Committee. ^^ Food and 
 blankets were provided for those whe were unable to purchase 
 supplies for the voyage to Sydney.^^ 
 
 However one may be inclined to judge the actions of the 
 Committee, the record of its dealings with prisoners is a most 
 significant indication of the aims, methods, and temper of its 
 
 16 Coleman said that about thirty people were banished (MS Statement, 
 24), but Bluxome, speaking with apparent exaggeration, said: ''I suppose 
 we sent back . . . some three to five hundred at different times" (MS State- 
 ment, 15). The Herald, 1851, Oct. 17 %, stated that fifty-three had been 
 sent away. There are bills for the passage of several {Papers, Voucher no. 5, 
 p. 772, and nos. 35, 43). 
 
 17 Papers, 84, 124, 132, 279. 
 ^» Papers, 195. 
 
 19 See Papers, Index under ' ' Receipts for effects, ' ' and supra, p. 232. 
 
 20 Papers, 338, 625. 
 
Problems and Methods of Admdnistration 363 
 
 members. Arrogating to themselves, as they did, the power of 
 life and death and the right to lay hands on any man or woman, 
 they were far more merciful to the majority of their prisoners 
 than the courts might have been if juries had strictly interpreted 
 the existing statutes. Whipping could be inflicted for petty 
 larceny, but of all the petty thieves that came before them the 
 Vigilantes whipped but one. Grand larceny, highway robbery, 
 and horse stealing were liable to capital punishment in the state 
 of California. There was clear proof that certain prisoners of the 
 Committee were guilt}^ of such crimes, but wdth four exceptions 
 they were turned over to the authorities and given a chance to 
 fight for their lives in legal trials.^^ Cutler said that vigilance 
 committees almost invariably incline to ready conviction and 
 severe punishments.-- As the Committee of 1851 discharged out- 
 right over forty-four per cent of its prisoners, its record deserves 
 a place by itself in the annals of popular tribunals. 
 
 The records reporting the dealings of the Committee of Vigi- 
 lance with its prisoners constitute the larger part of the seven 
 hundred and fifty pages of the Blinutes and Miscellaneous Papers. 
 Another important source of information is to be found in the 
 papers of the treasurers, which fill fifty more pages in the volume 
 of documents."^ Some reference has been made to them in speak- 
 ing of the financial difficulties of the organization. They will 
 repay more extended study not only for their statistical value, 
 but also for the light they throw on the methods of the Com- 
 mittee and on local conditions in San Francisco. 
 
 During the early days of the Committee the sergeant-at-arms 
 collected and distributed funds without strict supervision from 
 any ranking officer or committee. He kept a cashbook, of which 
 only a fragment has been preserved. His vouchers, also, are far 
 from complete, so that his accounts show^ an expenditure of 
 
 21 The outcome of some of the legal trials is noted in the Papers, 825- 
 826. 
 
 22 Cutler, Lynch-Law, 135. 23 See Papers, 752-805. 
 
364 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 $575.58 for which items cannot be assigned.^* On and after 
 June 19, 1851, he was directed to pay funds into the hands of 
 the treasurer, and to contract no expenses without the sanction 
 of the Finance Committee.-^ 
 
 The papers of the treasurers are in more satisfactory con- 
 dition. J. W. Salmon presented a single report on July 7, 1851, 
 when he turned his work over to Eugene Delessert, who acted as 
 treasurer until April 1, 1852. Delessert kept all his papers in a 
 file separate from that of the secretary. His accounts were based 
 upon the items of one hundred and three receipted bills, which are 
 now carefully arranged in bundles and numbered consecutively. 
 As the numbering of these vouchers often ignored sequence of 
 date for a classification by subject, it is the opinion of the writer 
 that Delessert arranged them just prior to his resignation and 
 then copied them in serial order into his cashbook. This theory 
 is sustained by the uniformity of the handwriting in the book 
 and by the fact that the footings of the pages were merely carried 
 forward, without balances, until near the end of his term, when 
 his successor, George R. Ward, audited the accounts. If such 
 were his methods he risked inaccuracies that might have been 
 avoided by more frequent balances, in fact a checking of his 
 figures discloses an error of $100 in the addition of one column 
 of receipts, a possible duplication of entries for liquors, amount- 
 ing to $58, and another for the salary of the sergeant-at-arms, 
 amoimting to $280. 2*^ George R. "Ward approved the final 
 accounts so that it is probable that they were understood at the 
 time. It is only necessary to call attention to these features of 
 the financial documents in order to caution the reader that their 
 accuracy cannot be regarded as absolutely above question. 
 
 24 See Papers, 764, 765, 800-805. The fragment of McDuffee's cash 
 book has not been printed. 
 
 25 Papers, 60, 91. 
 
 26 See Papers, 822 note. Delessert also made an error of one dollar in 
 adding expenses, p. 757. 
 
ProUems and Methods of Administratimi 365 
 
 From April 5 to November 24, 1852, the book was continued in 
 Mr. Ward's handwriting. The receipts there recorded amounted 
 to only $310 and the account was closed by some confused figures 
 which apparently reported total receipts of $340. 
 
 Taken as a whole, the pages of ''Financial Accounts and 
 Vouchers" show the care exercised to provide safeguards against 
 irregularities and carelessness, for except in the earlier vouchers 
 of McDuffee the approval of two or three members of the Finance 
 Committee was signed across nearly every bill that might involve 
 questions of accuracy or of expediency. In preparing the docu- 
 ments for publication it seemed advisable to make a classified 
 analysis of expenses as a guide to any student who might care 
 to note the prices current in California in 1851. That table 
 appears in Appendix D of the Papers, but a summary will be 
 interesting here since it gives a valuable clue to many of the 
 activities of the Committee. 
 
 Classification of Expenses of the Committee of Vigilance 
 
 Sept. 17, 1851, 
 June 9 to to June 17, 
 
 Sept. 17, 1851 1852 Total 
 
 Eent $1,100.00 $425.00 $1,525.00 
 
 Salary: Sergeant-at-arms 484.00 1,097.11 
 
 Secretary 300.00 
 
 Porter 257.00 2,138.11 
 
 Headquarters: Labor, equipment, ^. . o. 
 
 stationery, lights 1,500.00 414.84 1,914.84 
 
 Advertising 280.00 62.75 342.7o 
 
 Water police 1,317.24 125.00 1'442.24 
 
 Travel and pursuit of criminals 848.25 ^t?*^5 
 
 Livery 231.00 231.00 
 
 Passage of convicts 425.00 425.00 
 
 Liquor: at headquarters .- 152.50 
 
 on Adirondack 40.00 192.50 
 
 Liquor or refreshments 298.00 298.00 
 
 Refreshments 132.71 132.^ 
 
 Cigars 19.50 19.o0 
 
 Sundry 201.75 443.70 645.45 
 
 Unitemized balance 520.5"8 ^20.58 
 
 $7,807.53 $2,868.40 $10,675.93 
 
366 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 This segregation of expenses shows at a glance the cost of 
 headquarters and of salaries. The vouchers for these groups 
 of expenditures are indicated by number in the Appendix to 
 the Papers. They show, for instance, that lumber sold at the 
 rate of five and a half cents a foot, while carpenters ' wages were 
 $10 a day.-' George, the porter or servant at headquarters, 
 received only $100 a month, with $3.50 for extra days. At the 
 termination of his engagement, when his pay was $137.50 in 
 arrears, he annotated his final receipt with the querulous com- 
 plaint, ''Paid me only 137 Dollars. "^^ 
 
 The amount spent for advertising is a proof of the many 
 notices issued through the Herald, the Alta, the Courier, the 
 Picayune, and the Pacific Star; even the Morning Post, in spite 
 of an unfriendly attitude, served as a medium of communication 
 between the Committee and the public at large. The time and 
 place of meetings were often matters of general knowledge, and 
 the names of president and secretary were frequently subscribed 
 to official notices. 
 
 Traveling expenses and the pursuit of criminals cost the Com- 
 mittee $848. The itemized account of the expenses of one expedi- 
 tion included steamer fees and hotel bills for a party of three 
 for several days, and showed charges surprisingly moderate 
 for those early times.-^ 
 
 It is little wonder that the bills of the water police were paid 
 under protest ! A single statement presented by Captain Water- 
 man, possibly for service following the fire of June 22, called for 
 $479. Another, in July, was for $192.^0 The total cost of boats 
 and boatmen amounted to $1317. 
 
 27 Papers, Voucher no. 27. 
 
 28 Papers, Voucher no. 54. 
 
 29 Papers, Voucher no. 10, p. 773. 
 
 39 Papers, Vouchers no. 6, p. 770, no. 4, p. 771. See also Vouchers nos. 
 86-88. 
 
Problems and Methods of Administration 367 
 
 One group of bills furnishes an interesting light on the morale 
 of the Committee. During the early days of the association, 
 while the sergeant-at-arms had a free hand, liquor to the amount 
 of $150 was purchased for headquarters. The committee that 
 examined the passengers on board the Adirondack was furnished 
 with gin and brandy that cost $40 and cigars that cost $18.=^^ On 
 July 2 a resolution of the General Committee ruled that in 
 future no spiritous liquor should be introduced into headquarters. 
 Stimulants, if needed, were to be served only in the form of hot 
 coffee. ^^ After the adoption of this motion there was a bill for 
 a case of claret and for three gallons of "alcohol." These 
 contraband articles were bought by ]\IcDuffee on July 31. For 
 some reason ignored in the records, the sergeant-at-arms was 
 officially censured by vote of the Executive Committee a few 
 days later, and was asked to tender his resignation. He was 
 allowed to continue in office only after promising to "abstain in 
 future from the faults complained of." He finally gave up his 
 position on August 29. No further purchase of liquor appeared 
 among the vouchers. ^^ Refreshments amounting to nearly $300 
 were furnished from time to time by the Pioneer Club and the 
 Oriental Hotel. A part of these charges may have been for 
 drink, although the legitimate expense of feeding prisoners was 
 undoubtedly large. We find, therefore, that in the first six weeks 
 of its work the Committee expended over $200 on liquor but 
 made almost no official purchases of that kind after July 25. It 
 was a time when intoxicants were consumed in enormous quanti- 
 ties in California, but whatever may have been the personal habits 
 of individual committeemen, the records show that dissipation 
 was frowned upon by the Committee as a whole and that the 
 convivial tendencies displayed by Mr. Andrew Jackson McDuffee 
 were sternly checked by his fellow Vigilantes. 
 
 31 Papers, Vouchers nos. 14, 21, 57, 58, 111. 
 
 52 Papers, 339. 
 
 33 See Papers, Voucher no. 101, and pp. 418, 571. 
 
368 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Of one thing we may be very sure : The hundreds of pages 
 preserved in the archives of the Committee were not written by 
 men habitually under the influence of liquor. Their very faults 
 of composition, spelling, and punctuation show that they are not 
 revised copies prepared for public inspection, and every hasty line 
 gives evidence of the alert brain and the steady hand that directed 
 the pen of the scribe. And this may be the place to emphasize the 
 fact that these papers are clean — not only from the standpoint of 
 a student of documents, but also from the standpoint of one who 
 would judge the authors themselves by their reactions under such 
 unusual circumstances. They dealt with the daily life of men 
 and women who defied all restraints of decency, but the papers 
 are never indecent. The few sentences expurgated before publi- 
 cation were consigned to oblivion only because their expressions 
 were unnecessarily crude and startling in presenting certain facts 
 that were fully established elsewhere. While it may have been 
 necessary to check, by resolution, indecency of speech within the 
 rooms,^* the most trivial scrap of official record shows that the 
 writers were inspired with a sense of the dignity and importance 
 of the work they had undertaken and had no desire to sully it 
 with vulgarity of thought or word. 
 
 But little more need be said upon the subject of finances, for 
 while the items of expenditure can be segregated with profit, the 
 sources of the revenue can not be analyzed with exactness. 
 Initiation fees, monthly dues, fines, and outside subscriptions 
 are confused in their entry. An approximate classification, 
 dependent upon the judgment of the compiler in interpreting the 
 items, may be given as follows : 
 
 Receipts of the Committee 
 
 Initiation fees, dues and fines $6,296.38 
 
 Subscriptions 3,933.77 
 
 Sale of certificates of membership 175.00 
 
 Sundry sources 269.78 
 
 $10,674.93 
 
 34 Papers, 397. 
 
Problems and Methods of Admimstration 369 
 
 In addition to this was the $4700 raised for the county jail. 
 Therefore, if the analysis of receipts is approximately correct, 
 total subscriptions donated in excess of standing assessments 
 amounted to over $8000. The fact that a great part of this sum 
 came from the merchants of the city, many of whom were not 
 members of the Committee, is an indication of the public support 
 that was extended to the association.^^ 
 
 It was only the existence of such general approval that made 
 it possible for the Committee to carry out its program of un- 
 authorized interference with the established institutions of the 
 state. It is very clear that from the moment when Jenkins' sen- 
 tence was approved by the crowd assembled beneath the sand 
 dune rostrum on IMarket and Bush streets, the Committee was 
 convinced that its organization had achieved a position fairly 
 representative of the mind of the community. That conviction 
 was constantly fostered by the open commendation of the press.^^ 
 Many exact citations from the daily papers have been incor- 
 porated in this volume in order to associate with the initiative 
 of the Committee the constant support received from the men 
 outside its ranks. "We did not put them [the authorities] at 
 defiance," said Ryckman. ''It was the sound, sober sense of the 
 people that recognized the Committee as just."^^ 
 
 35 See donation of Flint, Peabody and Company, and the facsimile of a 
 list of subscribers, Papers, 527, 712. 
 
 ^6 ' ' With oije single exception the entire press of this city, Sacraraento, 
 Stockton, Marysville and Sonora have justified and sustained the citizens, 
 regarding their action as the result of painful, deplorable necessity" (AUa, 
 1851, June 16 24). The exception was the Mormng Post, an unimportant 
 sheet, which ceas"ed publication in November. The California correspondent 
 of the New York Tribune thought the press of the state was so controlled 
 by the advertising patronage of the merchants who led in the Committee, 
 that disapproval would have been disastrous. The AUa indignantly denied 
 the impeachment (Dec. 19 %), but it may have had some foundation, 
 especially as the Herald was almost wrecked in 1856 by the withdrawal of 
 advertising patronage in consequence of its disapproval of the reorganized 
 committee (see infra, p. 410). 
 
 37 Eyckman, MS Statement, 9. 
 
370 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 This outspoken and widespread approval, coupled with the 
 franlmess with which the Committee announced its purposes and 
 its personnel, formed a combination that actually gave the 
 anomalous body a definite standing even in the eyes of the con- 
 stituted authorities, and made possible those curious instances 
 we have noted of cooperation between the lawful representatives 
 of the people and the unlawful association that assumed power 
 to supervise and override their proceedings. The governor of the 
 state interfered only once in all the exciting events of 1851. 
 The mayor of the city interfered not at all, except at the sum- 
 mons of the governor, and both of these magistrates met the 
 Vigilantes, in amicable conference, within the sacred precincts 
 of the Executive Chamber. Sheriff Hays, as we have seen, was 
 aided in his official exertions by the generous sum raised for the 
 completion of the jail, and it does not appear that these cordial 
 relations were affected by his varying success in the service of 
 w^its of habeas corpus, or by the seizure and the subsequent 
 recapture of Whittaker and McKenzie. With punctilious for- 
 mality President Payran would order his chief of police to hand 
 over the body of a certain prisoner to the sheriff of the county, 
 to take an acknowledgment of the transaction, and ''herein fail 
 not." With equal formality the sheriff or his deputy would 
 accept the captive, and endorse on the order a receipt for the 
 person named, from the hands of the "Chief of Police of the 
 Vigilance Committee. "^^ 
 
 Other sheriffs seem to have approved of the methods of the 
 Committee, and two such officials sent to headquarters descrip- 
 tions of escaped prisoners with the request that they should be 
 captured if possible. The sheriff of Butte County characterized 
 one man as such a pest to society that any assistance ''your 
 honourable and gentlemanly Committee can render, in retaking 
 him will be highly appreciated by . . . this whole community. 
 
 "39 
 
 38 Fapers, 346, 347, 426, 427. 39 Tapers, 278. 
 
Problems and Methods of Administration 371 
 
 N. M. McKimmey, of Napa, was quite willing that the Commit- 
 tee should hang without ado a certain blond Dutch horse thief, 
 a linguist of sorts, who wore a white fur hat and a large blue coat 
 closely buttoned to the chin.''*^ Both of these fortunate rascals 
 seem to have escaped detection in San Francisco for their names 
 do not reappear in the annals of the Committee. 
 
 Officers of the army and the navy also cooperated with the 
 officers of the Committee of Yigilance.^^ The representatives of 
 foreign nations gave the countenance of their presence on several 
 occasions.^^ More interesting still was the relation which existed 
 between the Committee and the grand jury for the July term, 
 on which served the eight Vigilantes who were charged by Judge 
 Campbell with the Spartan duty of bringing against themselves 
 indictments for the murder of Stuart. This was the jury that 
 requested from the Committee information in the case of T. 
 Belcher Kay, and visited headquarters to obtain it.*^ 
 
 But in all the history of the Committee there was no incident 
 more significant of its place in the estimation of the people than 
 was the gift of a large and handsome banner by the women 
 belonging to Trinity Church. This flag was always considered 
 one of the treasures of the Committee of 1851, and it was carried 
 by the group of original members who participated in the great 
 parade that marked the close of the activities of the Committee 
 of 1856.** It was finally given to Mr. John S. Ellis, as a souvenir 
 of his services in both Committees. It is now in the possession 
 
 4^0 Papers, 621-622. 
 
 41 The attitude of Lieutenant Derby has already been noted (supra, 
 p. 316) ; the captain and officers of the revenue cutter Folic gave useful 
 information more than once (Papers, 134, 136, 203, 207, 209), and there 
 were friendly relations with the officers of the sloop of war Vincennes (ibid., 
 438, 440). S. F. Blunt and Lafayette Maynard, listed as officers in the 
 Navy, were members of the Committee (C. of V., Constitution, 56). 
 
 42 The British consul, George Aiken, attended Stuart 's examination, 
 and the French consul that of Le Bras (Papers, 176, 275. See also supra 
 p. 340). 
 
 43 See supra, p. 283. 44 See infra, p. 403. 
 
372 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 of members of his family, having by great good fortune escaped 
 the fate that destroyed so many relics of pioneer days, and its 
 beauty, softened but unimpaired by the lapse of years, still offers 
 tribute to the Vigilantes of 1851.*^ 
 
 The banner was presented and accepted with appropriate 
 remarks. The spokesman "for the ladies stated that the gift was 
 inspired by gratitude for the improved conditions brought about 
 by the work of the Committee, and for the protection it afforded 
 to the women who had formerly been distracted by constant fears 
 of violence. He explained that the wreath of oak and fig and 
 olive leaves that decorated one side of the banner was symbolic 
 of the strength of the Committee of Vigilance and of the peace 
 it had given to the homes of the city. The wreath of flowers on 
 the reverse, enclosing the inscription of the donors, was emblem- 
 atic of the gentler nature of the women who thus offered their 
 thanks. 
 
 The response of the representatives of the Committee re- 
 iterated the principle that the radical action of the Vigilantes 
 was justified by the necessity for self-preservation when the 
 safety of their families demand some prompt and energetic 
 action. It may be inferred that Payran wrote the sentences which 
 read :*^ 
 
 We are naturally and instinctively a law loving and law abiding 
 people, and have those principles, inherited from our fathers, too deeply 
 rooted ever to be eradicated. But we have also inherited another great 
 principle, or rather we have it inherent, one of the fundamental principles 
 of nature, and that is the principle of self preservation, '^ which springs 
 eternal in the human heart." * * * 
 
 Our people submitted to repeated injuries and unheard of outrages, 
 in the vain hope that the great majesty of the law would lend an ear to 
 
 45 The banner is now in the possession of Mr. Ashfield Ellis Stow, of 
 San Francisco. Photographs are reproduced in the Papers, to face pp. 438, 
 439. A smaller banner Avas presented to the Committee by Messrs. Plum 
 and Warner {Papers, 339). 
 
 46 From the Herald, 1851, August 12 ^. Signed by Stephen Payran, 
 Eugene Delessert, F. A. Woodworth, D. S. Turner, C. E. Bond and G. M. 
 Garwood. Extracts from the presentation speech are printed in the Appen- 
 dix, p. 471. 
 
Problems and Methods of Administration 373 
 
 their complaints and mete out impartial and even-handed justice. They 
 submitted with patience until patience ceased to be a virtue, and their 
 own safety and the safety of their families demanded some prompt and 
 energetic action. 
 
 It was at this critical moment the Committee of Vigilance sprung, 
 spontaneously as it were, into existence. The people from whom emanate 
 all human laws, rose in their might, by common impulse, and resolved to 
 carry out, themselves, the true spirit of the laws by which we are 
 governed. In pursuance of their duties, the Committee have been ever 
 sensible of the weight of responsibility they have assumed, the delicacy 
 of their position before the world, and have endeavored always to be 
 guided in their deliberations by a proper sense of reason and justice. 
 
 The addresses embody anew that spirit which we have already 
 recognized as shaping American thoughts towards the conviction 
 that "The People" might assume direct control of the govern- 
 ment when the established order failed to function for the good 
 of the community. It was the same spirit that inspired the an- 
 nouncement of the policy of search without warrant ; that refused 
 obedience to the writ of habeas corpus; that animated Stephen 
 Payran when he wrote: "The people only can redress griev- 
 ances," and again: "It is an old and popular doctrine, that it 
 may be necessary to sacrifice the government to the people, but 
 never the people to the government"; that prompted the Com- 
 mittee of Sonora to say that in the existing dangers of society 
 the people should resume the power they had delegated to in- 
 capable or unfaithful servants ; that impelled Schenck to write : 
 "Let them [officials] know that they are the servants of the 
 people, and to them they must surrender their trust when not 
 faithfully executed. ' '*^ The logical process of this idea inevitably 
 tended either towards anarchy or towards some modification of 
 the social mechanism that would provide a lawful readjustment 
 of the relations between "people" and "servants" in cases 
 where friction was developed to an intolerable degree. But the 
 Vigilantes of 1851 honestly thought they were defending their 
 
 47 For the citations, see Papers, 700, 373, 617, 635. 
 
374 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 sacred constitution from the machinations of a '^corrupt minor- 
 ity."*^ 
 
 Approval of the Committee of Vigilance was not limited 
 to San Francisco. Everywhere in California the courts were 
 proving inefficient. ' Everywhere the miners still made their 
 own laws for the regulation of claims,*^ and settled many vexed 
 questions in open meetings. Members of such communities con- 
 stantly reverted to popular trials and punishments as they found 
 themselves overrun with vicious and dangerous neighbors. Hang- 
 ings and Avhippings and brandings, conflicts with sheriffs, and 
 cruelty alike to innocent and guilty, had become all too common 
 in the state. ^^ The precedent set in San Francisco was welcomed 
 as a means of securing prompt punishment without the demoral- 
 izing accompaniments of irresponsible mobs and brutal vengeance. 
 
 A plan for a state-wide movement had been one of the 
 early ideals of the San Francisco association, and the suggestion 
 that other communities should organize for protection met with 
 immediate response. On July 1 the editor of the Herald spoke 
 with approval of the organization of committees in the interior 
 
 48 See Papers, 373, and Index under " C. of V. — Theory of Organiza- 
 tion. ' ' Bluxome said : ' ' There is a time when men should take the law 
 into their own hands" (MS Statement, 10). A. M, Comstoek, of the Com- 
 mittee of '56, said: ''The community resolved itself back into its original 
 rights, and took the law into its own hands" (MS Vigilance Committees — 
 Miscellany, 37). The ''right of insurrection" was defended in the Herald, 
 1851, August 11 %; Alta, June 14 %; Nov. 8 %; Nov. 15 % ; Sacramento 
 Union, Nov. 10 %. The grand jury of Marysville deprecated the evil^ that 
 gave rise to the Committees of Vigilance, but felt that they could not be 
 dispensed with (Alta, August 20 %). 
 
 49 See supra, p. 74. Eef erring to the miners ' action in criminal affairs, 
 Bancroft said that their courts were not wholly abrogated until after 1854 
 {Popular Trihunals, I, 436). See also his California Inter Pocula, 240; 
 Borthwick, Three Years, 125, 154-156; Helper, Land of Gold, 151-153. 
 
 50 Ide wrote in December, 1851: "Last year the whole interior of Colusi 
 [sic] County fell a prey to lawless maurauders and thieves, to suppress which 
 'lynch-law' was resorted to, to supply the defects of such systems of law 
 as were, in the exigencies of the case, imported from, and alone applicable 
 to, other communities — differing as widely from ours as light from dark- 
 ness" (Biographical Sketch, 235). See also Carr, Pioneer Days, 134-135; 
 Memoirs of Cornelius Cole, 86-91; Mrs. D. »B. Bates, Incidents on Land 
 and Water, 1858, p. 121. 
 
Problems and Methods of Administratio^i 375 
 
 towns ;^^ by the end of the month Governor McDougal felt it 
 necessary to issue his proclamation against a widespread Vigi- 
 lante movement; and when in December Metcalf asked for a 
 change of venue in his suit against committeemen and alleged 
 that justice could not be expected in San Francisco, it was stated 
 in reply that a change would be fruitless, as Vigilance Com- 
 mittees existed in nearly every county of California.^- There is 
 no evidence that the relation between these scattered bodies was 
 based on anj^ closer bond than friendship and cooperation. At 
 one time a suggestion was made that the San Francisco Com- 
 mittee should send delegates to organize Vigilantes throughout 
 the state, but no resultant action was recorded, although a 
 recommendation that subcommittees of correspondence should 
 be established was adopted, at least by the Committee of Santa 
 Clara.^^ 
 
 It was not surprising that the scheme of protective com- 
 mittees was approved in the old mining centers, where men were 
 already accustomed to volunteer associations. Stockton, for 
 instance, had attempted popular organization very early in its 
 history. In the sumer of 1850 a ''Vigilance Committee" of 
 fifteen citizens had been appointed to solicit from the state and 
 military authorities assistance in preserving order. °^ This was, 
 perhaps, the first use of the specific name that became so familiar 
 in 1851, but it is not apparent that any success attended the 
 effort. Allusion has already been made to the public demand for 
 summary action when the band of horse thieves was discovered 
 
 51 ' ' Other cities in the interior have imitated the example of San Fran- 
 cisco, and have instituted Branch Vigilance Committees, who act in concert 
 with the parent body. They have recently displayed the same energy and 
 vigor that have characterized our own Association. It is probable that 
 such branches will be established throughout all the settlements in the 
 country, when by concert and correspondence, speedy justice will be sure to 
 overtake the criminal, however rapid or remote his flight ' ' {Herald, 1851, 
 Julyl%). 
 
 52 Herald, 1851, Dec. 20 %. 
 
 53 See Papers, 281, 283, 391, 527. 5^ Alta, 1850, July 19 %. 
 
376 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 in June, 1851, and of its contributing influence upon San Fran- 
 cisco affairs. Almost coincident with the formation of the San 
 Francisco association, that is, on June 13, one hundred and 
 seventy citizens of Stockton formed a volunteer patrol, which 
 later developed into a Committee of Vigilance with regular 
 officers, who corresponded with the Committee of San Fran- 
 cisco and joined with Sonora in the search for Whittaker and 
 McKenzie. It was this body which transferred the thief, Jenks, 
 to the Committee of San Francisco and recommended mercy, in 
 spite of his evident guilt. ^^ 
 
 One of the first communities to fall into line was the town of 
 Marysville. A volume of minutes of a formal Committee of 
 Vigilance is still preserved in the public library of that city.^^ 
 The initial entry gave minutes for a meeting on June 24, which 
 was an adjournment from an earlier gathering. Eleven more 
 meetings were reported at intervals until August 26. The con- 
 stitution as published in the Marysville Herald was signed by 
 one hundred and twenty-seven persons and was almost identical 
 wdth that of the San Francisco Committee. The minutes do not 
 indicate, however, that an Executive Committee took the initia- 
 tive, and all the gatherings were open to the entire membership.^^ 
 Permanent headquarters were leased and guards appointed, but 
 no action of any particular interest was reported. The Com- 
 mittee of Marysville corresponded with that of San Francisco 
 in regard to the Stuart-Berdue trials, transmitted information 
 relative to various criminals, and assisted at the rescue of Mary 
 Lye. In October a standing committee of ten was charged with 
 the further conduct of affairs, and the general committee ceased 
 
 55 See supra, p. 320; Papers, Index under ''C. of V. of Stockton"; 
 Popular Tribunals, I, 449-451. 
 
 56 Minutes of the Vigilance Committee of Marysville, 1851. Transcript 
 obtained through the kindness of Dr. O. C. Coy. 
 
 57 An Executive Committee of five was appointed, July 19, to assist the 
 president, and another on July 29, but their proceedings are not noted. 
 
Problems and Methods of Admimstration 377 
 
 operations. The daily papers spoke of temporary revivals of a 
 Vigilance Committee in November, 1851, and in the spring of 
 1852. Bancroft said that the original organization, or its suc- 
 cessors, continued activities for many years and participated in 
 public affairs as late as January, 1858.^^ 
 
 The citizens of Santa Clara, called together by a public notice, 
 met on or about June 25, 1851, adopted resolutions endorsing the 
 action of the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance and organ- 
 ized a local association. The San Francisco Herald, noting with 
 great approval ''that not a single citizen has yet refused to join," 
 hoped for efficient cooperation between the societies of the interior 
 towns. Several letters showed the warm support the smaller body 
 offered to the San Francisco Committee, and one of them, dated 
 ' ' Vigilance Association Rooms, ' ' indicated that permanent head- 
 quarters were occupied in Santa Clara. One of the first acts was 
 to furnish bail for a well-known thief, to make his temporary 
 freedom the occasion of a whipping, and then to return him to 
 the more lenient courts. At another time this Committee con- 
 victed an old man and his son of cattle stealing and sentenced 
 both to corporal punishment. The father pleaded for mercy on 
 account of his age and the son sturdily offered to bear a double 
 share, an act of filial piety that moved the judges to remit the 
 chastisement of the elder, although the dutiful son received his 
 own allotted stripes. ^^ 
 
 The Alt a California of June 28 stated that a Committee of 
 Vigilance had been formed in Sacramento, where two hundred 
 and thirteen citizens had signed the roll of members. This organ- 
 ization cooperated with the San Francisco Committee in the 
 search for Kay, and for Whittaker and McKenzie, but no other 
 
 58 See Popular Tribunals, 1, 300, 454-i56 ; Eisiory of Yuba County, 
 124; Alta, 1851, Nov. 14 %; 15 %; Herald, 1852, March 23 ^. 
 
 59 See Papers, Index under ''C. of V. of Santa Clara"; Popular Trib- 
 unals, I, 474-475; Herald, 1851, July 3 % ; Alta, August 30 %. 
 
378 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 record of its activities appears in the Papers.^^ Early in July 
 there was great excitement in Sacramento over a murderous 
 assault made upon James Wilson, and a Vigilance Committee 
 was organized to demand the punishment of the four men who 
 attacked him. The reports of the affair make it appear that this 
 body had impromptu officers chosen by the crowd, and it may 
 have lacked organic connection with the permanent society 
 started in June. However that may be, we learn that when the 
 governor reprieved one of the highwaymen who had been legally 
 convicted and sentenced to death, the bandit was hanged by 
 popular action immediately after the lawful execution of two 
 of his companions. On that occasion Joseph R. Beard, president 
 of the permanent Vigilance Committee, was chairman of the 
 citizens' committee in charge of the hanging.^^ 
 
 On June 28 the people of Sonora lynched a confessed thief, 
 named Hill, and a day or two later a Vigilance Committee was 
 privately organized. It immediately sent the San Francisco 
 Committee a report of nine rogues implicated in Hill's confes- 
 sion, and at other times it transmitted useful information. Its 
 members also gave cordial a-ssistance to the San Francisco dele- 
 gates who searched for Whittaker, and they passed resolutions 
 condemning Governor McDougal's seizure of him and of his 
 companion, McKenzie. The correspondence showed that regular 
 officers directed the affairs of the organization and that letters 
 were dated from the "Chamber" of the society. Lang's History 
 of Tuolumne County gave some account of severe floggings ad- 
 ministered by the Sonora Committee, and Bancroft mentioned 
 other excessive punishments. But the local Directory boasted 
 that the Committee refrained from all excesses and turned over 
 
 60 Papers, 392, 415. 
 
 61 See Papers, 366 note 2; History of Sacramento County, 125-126; 
 Popular Tribunals, I, 441-448. The Sacramento Union, 1851, July 10, gave 
 the officers chosen at the impromptu meeting on July 9. Bancroft gave the 
 same names as if elected on June 25, and made no distinction between a 
 permanent and temporary organization. 
 
Problems and Methods of Admimstration 379 
 
 to the officers of the law the only man that came before them 
 charged with a capital offense.^^ 
 
 Sometime in July a Committee was organized in Nevada 
 City. In response to a request for a copy of the constitution of 
 the San Francisco Committee Stephen Payran addressed to the 
 new society a characteristic letter which set forth the aims and 
 ideals of the Vigilance movement in the following grandiloquent 
 terms :^^ 
 
 Our great aim, gentlemen, is to remove corruption from high places, 
 to advance the safety and interest of our adopted state, to establish 
 justice and virtue, without which our fall and ruin would be certain. . . . 
 It is an old and popular doctrine, that it may be necessary to sacrifice 
 the government to the people, but never the people to the government. 
 That your course may be marked with prudence and justice, may God 
 grant. Do not permit vindictiveness to enter into your deliberations. 
 Be calm and determined; swerve not to the right nor to the left, but go 
 onward in your pursuit of right. Be of one mind, and carry your point. 
 The might, majesty, and power of the people can overcome all impending 
 evils; like the thunders of heaven it will shake to naught all corruptive 
 influences, and drive its authors into oblivion. Let the motto of our 
 fathers be ours to sustain and perpetuate— Virtue, Liberty. Let us show 
 ourselves worthy of our origin, determined to sustain and support the 
 blessed privileges bequeathed by them to us. The moment we render up 
 one tittle of the sacred constitution under which we were born, and which 
 cost so much to obtain, and permit a small and corrupt minority to 
 prescribe, we lose our caste, and our boasted institution will become the 
 laughing stock of the world. 
 
 Late in the fall the organization appointed an Executive Com- 
 mittee, modeled, we may presume, on the system adopted in San 
 Francisco. 
 
 The genesis of the Committee of jMokelumne Hill was typical 
 of the temper of the time. The settlement was a mining camp, 
 
 62 See Papers, Index under '*C. of V. of Sonora"; History of Tuolumne 
 County [by Lang], 79-81; Heckendorn & Wilson, Miners # Business Men's 
 Directory, 4:4:-, Popular Tribunals, I, 467-469; Sacramento Union, 1851 July 
 11; Herald, July 14 24 ; Sept. 19 24; Alta, July 2 % ; Aug. 29 %; Sept. 19 %. 
 
 63 Papers, 373-374. See also Herald, 1851, July 29 %; Alta, Nov. 21 %. 
 
380 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 still primitive and crude, and dependent upon the county magis- 
 trates at Jackson for the restraint and punishment of criminals. 
 But the county jail was so insecure and the county courts were so 
 inefficient that the thugs of Mokelumne Hill had little cause to 
 fear the law. Therefore the miners of that town approved the 
 customs of '49 that lynched murderers red-handed. In July, 
 1851, one John Nelson was so sentenced to death.^* In November 
 another murder was committed but the people were persuaded 
 to leave the criminal in the hands of the sheriff at Jackson.*'^ A 
 general jail delivery at Jackson on Christmas night did not 
 increase confidence in the constituted authorities. A popular 
 jury immediately assembled at Mokelumne to try a man named 
 Campbell who had wantonly killed a Chileno on Christmas Day. 
 The verdict was "guilty," but the crowd was influenced to vote 
 for the transfer of Campbell to the authorities. His friends took 
 advantage of the reprieve to appeal his case to a smaller meeting, 
 which voted to discharge him unpunished. ^^ 
 
 On December 28 the better element of the camp organized a 
 Vigilance Committee, elected responsible officers, and requested 
 a model constitution from San Francisco. The ensuing weeks 
 were nearly free from crimes of violence. Late in ]\Iarch a 
 murder was committed and the Committees of Mokelumne Hill 
 and Stockton united in an unsuccessful pursuit. A series of 
 daring robberies occurred about the same time. The offender was 
 detected and forced to confess and the Committee decided to deal 
 with him on the spot, as delivery to Jackson would inevitably end 
 in his release or escape. He was accordingh^ sentenced to death, 
 allowed the ministrations of a priest, and hanged the next day, 
 with the full approval of the town. The Committee deplored the 
 fact that the necessity existed for such extreme measures, but 
 
 64 JWa, 1851, July 7 %. I have found no record of the execution. 
 
 65 Alia, 1851, Nov. 3 %. 
 
 ^& Alta, 1851, Dec. 30 %; Herald, 1852, Jan. 2 %. 
 
Problems and Methods of Administration 381 
 
 announced that it would not disband until affairs promised 
 better for the protection of society. Bancroft stated that the 
 Committee of ]Mokelumne Hill subsequently reorganized to assist 
 the regular courts and to oppose irresponsible mobs.^" 
 
 Committees of Vigilance with formal organization and per- 
 manent officers existed in other communities. The San Francisco 
 society sent its constitution to a Committee at San Jose and cor- 
 responded with a Committee at Wymans Ravine.^^ In the 
 autumn of 1851 ''respectable citizens" of Scott's Valley, then 
 in Klamath County, assured the Indian agent that if he would 
 negotiate treaties with the natives they would punish all bad 
 white men who might violate the provisions therein. In report- 
 ing this action the agent wrote :^^ 
 
 I am utterly opposed to the jurisdiction of ''Judge Lynch" in all 
 ordinary cases; but until a military post is established on this exposed 
 frontier, and society assumes a more settled, regular form, there seems 
 to be no other course left for the protection of either person or property. 
 
 In 1853, when residents of Humboldt County protested 
 against the issuance of school Avarrants that would depreciate 
 the value of desirable farming land, they resolved :'° ''That the 
 Vigilance Committee be instructed to stop all further location of 
 school warrants in Humboldt township." 
 
 The ways of the miners of 1852, at Scott's Bar, Shasta 
 County, were told in a picturesque story "founded on fact" 
 published in the Overland Monthly:^ The theft of a large 
 amount of gold dust led to the hasty formation of a Vigilance 
 
 67 Papers, 718, 730-732, 744^745 ; Popular Tribunals, I, 465-467 ; Borth- 
 wick, Three Years, 317-318; Alta, 1852, Jan. 5 %; Herald, March 24 %; 
 26%; April 4%. 
 
 es Papers, 676, 708-709. 
 
 69 Eedick McKee to C. E. Mix, Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 
 Oct. 28, 1851, Conff. Docs., Ser. No. 688, Doc. 4, p. 212. 
 
 ^0 Herald, 1853, Oct. 23 %; Placerville Herald, Oct. 29 1/5. 
 
 71 W. M, Turner, ' ^ How We Did It on Scott 's Bar, ' ' Overland Monthly, 
 XIV (1875), 377-381. 
 
382 . Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Committee, the pursuit of the thief, his arrest, trial, confession, 
 and corporal punishment. ' ' It gave the Bar a rough name, ' ' said 
 the pioneer raconteur, ' ' an ' there wasn 't another robbery there as 
 long as I can remember." He vouched for the authenticity of 
 the copy of the warrant issued for the fugitive by the ' ' old chief 
 of the Vigilantes ' ' at Humbug. It read as follows : 
 
 State of California, County of Shaste 
 Shaste Plains Township 
 Vigelant Com Vs Dr Baid 
 
 To any constable of Shaste Plains Township this day complaint 
 having Laid before me Vigelant Committee that the crime of felony has 
 Ben commited and acusing the above named Dr Baid of the same there- 
 fore you are to arest the said Dr Baid and bring him before the people 
 and to be delt with aeording to their Judgment. 
 
 A. Boles 
 Yreka 1852 chairman of Commitee 
 
 There were popular tribunals in Southern California also 
 during this period,'^- but there was not a well defined movement 
 towards the organization of permanent Committees of Vigilance. 
 Conditions of life there were so distinctly different from those that 
 developed about the mining centers of the North, that although 
 they are an integral and important part of the progress of the 
 state as a whole, it has not seemed necessary to enlarge upon them 
 in studying the historical background of the Committee of San 
 Francisco. Still, the courts in Southern California, like those in 
 the North, failed to check crime. There were manj^ robberies and 
 murders and much trouble with lawless bands of Mexican 
 bandits."^^ In July, 1851, the citizens of Los Angeles organized a 
 volunteer police force that served under the orders of the authori- 
 ties, and Bancroft spoke of a Vigilance Committee that was 
 
 72 Rodman said there were few instances of lynch law in Southern Cali- 
 fornia, Bench and Bar of Southern California, 45. Bancroft noted several 
 instances, Popular Tribunals, I, 486-514. 
 
 73 The San Francisco Herald, 1851, Oct. 29 %, quoted the Los Angeles 
 Star as saying that in the past fifteen months there had been forty-four 
 homicides, and only one trial for murder in Los Angeles County. 
 
Problems and MetJwds of Administration 383 
 
 acting in the autumn of 1852.'^ Two years later conditions in 
 Los Angeles were so bad that the San Francisco Herald advised 
 the citizens of that town to organize an effective Committee, to 
 which the Los Angeles Star of November 30, 1854, made reply 
 that such an association was unnecessary.'^^ Just at that time 
 one David Brown was on trial for a murder that had nearly led 
 to his lynching in October. He had then been saved by the efforts 
 of the mayor, Stephen C. Foster, who quieted a mob by promising 
 immediate justice in the courts. Brown was convicted and 
 sentenced, but reprieved at the last minute. ]\Iayor Foster 
 promptly resigned his position, and on January 12 led an 
 indignant crowd that stormed the jail and hanged the murderer. 
 A few days later Foster was re-elected to his former office."^ 
 
 Other Committees of Vigilance besides those already men- 
 tioned were noted in the California papers between the years 
 1851 and 1856.^^ Bancroft repeated and supplemented these 
 allusions, but the references were so brief and so disconnected 
 that it is impossible to say whether the societies were permanent 
 in character or were temporary associations formed to meet 
 particular emergencies. It is possible that more extended re- 
 search might uncover traces of others, but the facts already col- 
 lected are sufficient to show that the Committees of Vigilance, as 
 organized by responsible citizens, made a sincere effort to secure 
 
 T^PoimUr Tribunals, I, 489, 492. 
 
 75 Popular Tribunals, I, 493-494. 
 
 76 Popular Tribunals, I, 494-496 ; Newmark, Sixty Years, 139-141 ; His- 
 tory of Los Angeles County (1880), 78-79. Another convicted murderer, 
 named Alvitre, was hanged at the same time. 
 
 77 Notices may be found of Committees at Barton's Bar, 1851 (Alta, 
 Aug. 22 %) ; Natchez, 1851 (Alta, Nov. 15 % ; Popular Tribuimls, I, 456) ; 
 Grass Vallev, 1851 {Popular Tribunals, I, 456) ; Shasta, 1851 (Popular 
 Tribunals, I, 457; Alta, Aug. 20 %) ; Columbia, 1851 (Popular Tribunals, 
 I, 469-470); Santa Cruz, 1852, 1853 (Popular Tribunals, I, 477); Campo 
 Seco, 1852 (Herald. Feb. 24 %) ; Jackson, 1852 (Alta, May 31 %) ; Oak- 
 land, 1852, 1854 (Herald, 1852, Dec. 14 %; 1854, Aug. 24 %) ; Nelson 
 Creek, 1853-1854 (Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen and Sierra Coun- 
 ties, 214-215); Mariposa, 1854 (Popular Tribunals, I, 467; Alta, March 
 18 %; Herald, April 10 %); Coulterville, 1856 (Alta, April 29 %). 
 
384 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 the punishment of crime without the evils attendant upon lynch- 
 ings by an irresponsible crowd. The danger and the horrors that 
 were inevitable under mob rule were demonstrated by the tragedy 
 that has passed into history as the ' ' Downieville lynching," a 
 tragedy which must form a part of any chronicle of the popular 
 tribunals of California. 
 
 Downieville was a bustling, populous mining camp, where 
 heavj^-handed punishment was dreaded by the disorderly."^^ In 
 this town, on the evening of July 4, 1851, an intoxicated man 
 named Cannon greatly affronted a Mexican woman known as 
 Juanita, by bursting open the door of her house or tent and 
 stumbling within. Cannon's friends declared the entrance was 
 an accident. A resident acquainted with the facts said that it 
 was the climax of unwelcome advances made to the woman, who 
 was young, beautiful, passionate, and the faithful consort of a 
 Mexican who may or may not have been her lawful husband. 
 The aggressor returned the next day, ostensibly to apologize, but 
 his excuses were received with indignation. A heated dispute 
 followed and Juanita suddenly terminated the quarrel by stab- 
 bing the man with her dagger, while she furiously asserted that 
 he had added the insult of spoken words to the insulting deed 
 of the previous evening. 
 
 The wound was mortal, the dead man had many friends, and 
 the sheriff of Yuba County was out of reach. A mob seized the 
 murderer and her companion and improvised a court. There 
 was no doubt whatever of the homicide — the girl acknowledged 
 it with blazing eyes and protested that her traditions taught 
 the protection of her honor, but as her defense was in Spanish it 
 made little impression on her angry auditors. She was, however, 
 not entirely lacking in champions. A physician appeared and 
 begged for her life on the plea of approaching maternity, but a 
 sceptical colleague brutally contradicted his statements. Cannon 's 
 
 78 See Downie, Hunting for Gold, 145. 
 
Problems and Methods of Admimstratio7i 385 
 
 friends were determined to secure her instant execution, and 
 under their influence it was decided to hang her from the truss of 
 a bridge that crossed the river close to the town. 
 
 Dressed in her gayest clothes Juanita walked towards her 
 doom with the dignity of a princess. On the way another effort 
 was made in her behalf."^ It is said that Stephen J. Field, former 
 alcalde of Marysville, collected a little party of friends, halted 
 the rabble, and made an almost irresistible appeal to the better 
 nature of the men about him. While they hesitated between 
 vengeance and chivalry, another IMarysville lawyer, Samuel 
 Spear, followed Field with a flood of invective. The cry for 
 execution was revived. Field and his friends were overpowered, 
 and the torrent swept on. Standing on an elevation beneath the 
 gallows the girl waved back those who offered to lay hands upon 
 her, spoke steadily and calmly for a few minutes, and declared 
 that if by the American code she deserved to die she would pay 
 that penalty without regret or apology. AVith her own hands she 
 adjusted the rope, cried a brave "Adios, Senors!" and swung 
 lightly from the scaffold. An hour too late the sheriff arrived; 
 within a week Downieville acknowledged the shame of the deed 
 and the impromptu judge and jury were denounced for their 
 responsibility. A Vigilance Committee was organized after this 
 execution, ^° but we have no records of its activities. 
 
 79 The effort at rescue was told by Senator Charles N. Felton, who had 
 inmiediate information on the subject, although he was not an actual spec- 
 tator (Grass Valley Union, 1917, Jan. 28, copied from an article by J. H. 
 Wilkins, in the San Francisco Bulletin). See also DoAvnie, Hunting for 
 Gold, 145-153; Royce, California, 368-374; Popular Tribunals, I, 587; 
 Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen and Sierra Counties, 445-447. The 
 affair was condemned as disgraceful (Alta, 1851, July 14 %). The news- 
 paper index in the California State Library has the f ollo-sving entries under 
 the ''Downieville Hanging": Alta, 1851, July 9 %; San Francisco Argo- 
 naut, 1877, July 14 i/^; Aug. 11 1/3; 1878, Sept. 28 %; Sonora Democrat, 
 1877, July 28 Vs ; San Francisco Post, 1878, Aug. 10 %; 1895, Sept. 21 %; 
 Shuck, Bench and Bar of CalifornAa, ed. of 1901, p. 273. 
 
 80 Papers, 360, 829. A later Committee was mentioned in Alta, 1854, 
 May 24 %. 
 
386 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 The press of the state wrote of the Downieville tragedy as 
 briefly as possible, but it stands to this day as the most terrible 
 example in California of the deeds that are possible in a state of 
 society in which the habitual failure of their legal safeguards 
 has accustomed even decent men to regard lynch law as a legiti- 
 mate expression of the law of self-preservation.^^ The majority 
 of the men in California did so regard lynch law in the decade 
 of which we write. The emergencies of the transition period 
 had forced it upon them as the sole restraint of criminals. A 
 little later the impotence of their local courts had influenced 
 them to continue the precedent and had finally resulted in the 
 open demand for popular action that had been voiced by the 
 press of the state. ^^ 
 
 The Vigilance Committee of San Francisco and the allied 
 organizations in the interior were not primarily responsible for 
 the creation of this spirit. It had found previous expression in 
 many crises of American life, and in every social group that 
 braved anarchy and terrorism within that El Dorado whither the 
 flag of the Union had failed to carry Federal, state, or local 
 authority. It continued to express itself within those same 
 groups when established authority still failed to give protection 
 to life and property; it was abroad in San Francisco months 
 before the Committee was organized; it asserted itself in un- 
 mistakable terms during the early days of June; and it threat- 
 ened to break forth in riot and bloodshed at any moment of 
 supreme tension. 
 
 What the Committee did create was an organization to combat 
 the dual dangers that arose from inefficient administration on the 
 one hand, and from mob vengeance on the other, by interposing 
 
 81 Juanita was not the only woman killed by a California mob. A Negress 
 who set fire to a hospital near Stockton was whipped so severely that the 
 punishment proved fatal, perhaps because she was soon to become a mother 
 (Saint-Amant, Voyages 421; Popular Tribunals, 1, 522-523). 
 
 82 This point of view was frankly expressed in a letter from C. Hix, a 
 justice of the peace, in Placer TiTnes and Transcript, 1852, May 9. 
 
Problems' and Methods of Administration 387 
 
 between those forces a small group of representative men who 
 were willing to assume public responsibility for deliberate vio- 
 lation of the letter of the law, but who remained faithful to 
 their personal interpretation of the spirit of the law and adopted 
 methods so acceptable to their local communities that their ver- 
 dicts superseded the vindictive clamor for stripes and death, ^^ 
 Stripes and death they sometimes inflicted, but the records of the 
 Committee of San Francisco, and the far less complete notices "of 
 the deeds of the out-of-town associations show that, with few 
 exceptions, the men who formed these permanent and recognized 
 associations accorded fair trials, imposed just punishments, and 
 held themselves aloof from wanton cruelty. 
 
 83 In describing' the development of popular juries in California, Hittell 
 said: ''It was what was knoAvn at first as lynch-law and afterwards as 
 vigilance committee law" (California, II, 674). Coleman said that the 
 Committee seized upon the forces of a mob, arrested them, and utilized their 
 powers in regular form, systematically and coolly (''San Francisco Vigi- 
 lance Committees," Century, XLIII [1891], 148). "La Comite de Vigi- 
 lance est le Lynch Law regularise, modifie, ameliore" (Holinski, La Calif or- 
 nie, 128). "Vigilance Committee, Gesellschaft welche sich zur Aufrechter- 
 haltung der biirgerlichen Ordnung gebildet und zu dem Zwecke haufig die 
 Handhabung der Justiz, unter Anwendung des kiirzesten Proc^ss-Verfahrens, 
 selbst iibernimmt" (Karl Eiihl, Calif ornien, 1867, p, 283). 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 '51 TO '77 
 
 Whatever may have been the ideals of the members of the 
 Committee of Vigilance or the self-restraint imposed by their 
 methods, we cannot intelligently appraise their work until we 
 inquire whether or not the Committee exerted any abiding 
 influence towards the restraint of crime and the improvement 
 of society. In doing so we encounter an exceedingly difficult 
 problem. 
 
 Owing to the lack of official criminal statistics, the contem- 
 porary newspapers furnish the only available source of infor- 
 mation, and their accounts, at best, are incomplete and inadequate. 
 Occasional statistics for San Francisco can be gathered from 
 periodical reports of the recorder 's court published in the Herald 
 and in the Alt a California} From the first of May, 1850, to the 
 middle of July, 1851, a total of 3507 eases, an average of about 
 240 a month, were tried before the recorder. Statistics were also 
 published from time to time covering the period from June 15 
 to December 31, 1851, with the exception of the month of October. 
 
 These give approximately 375 cases per month, showing that 
 there was no improvement in the total number of arrests, though 
 by far the larger number were for petty offenses and violation 
 of license ordinances. During July, August, and September few 
 cases were sufficiently serious to be referred to a higher court. 
 The Herald of September 15 stated: ''Crime has most sensibly 
 diminished throughout the State, and no execution has taken 
 place, either here or in the interior, since the sailing of the last 
 steamer. . . . For two months there has not been a murder, a 
 burglary or a robbery with force committed in the city. ' ' Later 
 
 ^Herald, 1851, July 17 % ; Aug. 15 %; Sept. 15 %; Alta, Oct. 8 %; 
 Dec. 9 % ; 1852, Jan. 3 %. 
 
'51 to '77 389 
 
 reports indicated that conditions were constantly changing.^ In 
 April, 1852, the grand jury took a week's recess for lack of cases 
 on the calendar, although the average of arrests, from January 1 
 to May 31, was 353. In July, 1853, the grand jury found thirty- 
 three indictments, a number considered low for a city of 50,000 
 inhabitants. In 1854 the arrests for April, May, and June aver- 
 aged 400. In 1855 they were 509 for February and March. 
 
 Many generalizations have been made of the disorders occur- 
 ring in California during this period, but accurate statistics have 
 never been collected. It is said that at some time before 1855 the 
 district attorney of San Francisco told a jury that during the 
 previous four years there had been 1200 murders and only one 
 legal execution in the city.^ I have been unable to find the orig- 
 inal report of this speech, but the figures are often quoted as 
 reliable. J. S. Hittell wrote that over a thousand homicides had 
 been committed in San Francisco between 1849 and 1856, but 
 he failed to give the sources of his information.* T. H. Hittell 
 cited the California Chronicle of December, 1855, as stating that 
 in the state at large, during the preceding eleven months, five 
 hundred and thirty-five homicides had occurred, and forty-nine 
 hangings by mobs, but only seven legal executions.^ 
 
 2 See Herald, 1852, April 26 %; June 6 %; Alta, 1853, July 31 ^7; 
 Kerald, 1854, May 4 %; June 3 %; July 7 %; 1855, April 2 %. The 
 report of the grand jury for November, 1853, lamented an increase of crime, 
 and noted that while the county jail held forty prisoners in March, 1851, 
 the number had been trebled in March, 1853 {Alia, Nov. 29 %). 
 
 3 See Helper, Land of Gold, 29, 253, 298; B. Brierly, Thoughts for the 
 Crisis, 1856, p. 9; Popular Tribunals, I, 131. It was explained in the 
 Phoenix, 1858, Feb, 14 %, that about three years earlier, H. H. Byrne had 
 spoken of 200 and the papers had misprinted the number as 1200, The 
 Phoenix was too scurrilous to deserve credence on any subject (see infra 
 p. 402), and this paragraph may or may not contain a iiint of truth. The 
 single execution is described in Popular Trihimals, I, 135, 746-747. 
 
 4 J. S. Hittel, San Francisco, 243. The Herald, 1854, Sept. 9 %, spoke 
 of 2000 murders which had taken place in the state since January, 1849. 
 
 5 Hittell, California, III, 462. The Alia, 1856, Jan. 18 %, quoted, with- 
 out contradiction, a statement in the New York Express, 1855, Dec. 12, 
 to the effect that in the preceding ten months there had been 489 murders 
 in California, 6 executions by sheriffs and 46 lynchings by mobs. See also 
 infra, p. 397 note 30. 
 
390 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 In the dearth of official summaries the following paragraph 
 published in the Herald, April 14, 1852, becomes a matter of 
 interest : 
 
 The idea is very generally entertained that the number of sudden 
 deaths by accidents or violence is very great in this city. This, however, 
 is incorrect, as the records show that but twenty-eight inquests have been 
 held during the past eight months. For a city so large this is quite a 
 small number. 
 
 This brief report of the coroner covered the period from August, 
 1851, to March, 1852, during which the influence exerted by the 
 Committee of Vigilance was a most stem reality. It showed an 
 average of less than four deaths a month from accident and 
 violence combined. If any reliance whatever can be placed on 
 the figures quoted from other sources, it also indicated that the 
 immediate result of the rule of the Vigilantes was a diminution 
 of crime that deserves respectful attention. 
 
 The acceptance and repetition by contemporary writers of 
 the current summaries of crime is conclusive evidence that the 
 estimates were not at variance with the facts as to the existing 
 conditions. Sinister as they are, they do not betray the darkest 
 menace that overhung the state, for the youthful commonwealth 
 had become a prey to despoilers far more dangerous than James 
 Stuart and his accomplices or successors in crime. The latest 
 plots were not hatched in the dens of Sydney Valley, but in the 
 primaries, in the lobbies of the capitol, and in the halls of the 
 national Congress. While business men were struggling with 
 fires and floods, with unsettled land titles, with an unsound bank- 
 ing system, with feverish speculation and delirious panics, the 
 political schemers from the Southern plantations and from Tam- 
 many Hall had not wasted a moment since the summer of '49. 
 It is no exaggeration to say that every interest* in California 
 except theirs trembled from hour to hour above quicksands of 
 shifting fortune. Placer mining showed signs of speedy exhaus- 
 tion, and quartz mining was still in the experimental stage ; the 
 
'51 to '77 391 
 
 agricultural methods familiar to farmers from the East were 
 unsuited to the seasons of the Pacific Coast ; and no great irri- 
 gation undertakings were possible while land titles were little 
 more secure than a gambler's stake. The commercial markets, 
 depleted on one day by a fire or by an unexpected demand, were 
 glutted on the next by the arrival of laden clippers from New 
 York, and the caprice of public auction was the only standard 
 of prices. The value of real estate in the cities rose and fell 
 beyond all power of anticipation. Manufacture was almost pro- 
 hibited in a district that had developed no cheap or dependable 
 supply of building material, fuel, or labor.^ 
 
 The only stabilized asset in the state was official patronage, 
 and the exploitation of a people absorbed in financial adventures 
 and unambitious for political preferment. This exploitation Avas 
 conducted with a persistency of purpose, a skill in organization, 
 and an utter abandonment to corruption that turned party con- 
 ventions into a farce, dominated elections by bands of shoulder 
 strikers and repeaters, and invented ballot boxes that served the 
 bosses exactly as his magic hat serves the stage magician."^ Ama- 
 teur politicians were helpless in such hands. They passed ordi- 
 nances to regulate gambling, drinking, and social disorder,^ built 
 their jails, and even elected many incorruptible magistrates, but 
 every sporadic effort at reform was frustrated by the intrigue 
 that kept the tools of the bosses in the strategic positions of 
 administration and finance. 
 
 The Vigilance Committees, though they had certainly con- 
 tributed to the safety of particular communities, had nowhere 
 
 6 1854 and 1855 were years of disastrous failures. For financial and 
 political conditions, see J. S. Hittell, Scm Francisco, 208-330 ; T. H. Hittell, 
 California, III, 423-459; Bancroft, California, VI, chaps. 23-26; VII, chap. 
 8; Royce, California, 377-501. 
 
 7 The ' ' patent, double back action ballot box ' ' is described and illus- 
 trated in Popular Tribunals^ II, 1-21. 
 
 8 San Francisco passed various ordinances framed to close saloons at 
 midnight, to suppress houses of ill fame and to control gambling, but it was 
 almost impossible to avoid unconstitutional provisions, or to secure convic- 
 tions. See, for instance, the Alta, 1854, March 10 %; April 6 %; May 3 %. 
 
392 Yigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 succeeded in effecting any lasting reforms in local politics or in 
 local courts. In most places their careers were brief, although 
 the title, at first generally respected because of the character 
 of the original Vigilantes, was often adopted by impromptu 
 assemblies which formed hasty organizations to inflict impetuous 
 punishments. But the men who led in the Committees of Vigil- 
 ance constantly reappeared as leaders in other forms of civic 
 activity. In San Francisco, for instance, they showed their 
 continued interest in public affairs by constant service on the 
 grand jury. As late as 1855 six former Vigilantes were on the 
 grand jury in July, eight in the following November, three or 
 more in January, 1856, and five in March.^ Often they acted 
 as foremen, signing to the reports of these authorized bodies the 
 same names they had fearlessly attached to the incriminating 
 documents filed by "No. 67, Secretary." Thus they continued 
 their protest against political graft and political lassitude, against 
 supervisors who robbed the city, merchants who shirked service 
 on trial juries, and jurors who acquitted prisoners in the face 
 of direct evidence of guilt. One censorious foreigner who re- 
 sided in the city in 1852 wrote that the grand jury was the only 
 body in California which spoke its feelings and opinions fear- 
 lessly.^^ 
 
 By the spring of 1854 crime was again rife in San Francisco, 
 burglaries had increased beyond all precedent, and in addition 
 to the petty thieves, groups of determined squatters attempted 
 to hold illegal possession of disputed tracts of land. To meet 
 
 9 Reports of grand juries, and lists of jurors may be found as follows: 
 
 1851, Herald, August 1 %; 4 %; 5 %; Sept. 10 %; 30 %; Oet. 2 %; 
 Nov. 29 % ; Dec. 3 %. 
 
 1852, Alta, March 28 %; April 7 %; Herald, April 26 %; May 29 %; 
 30 %; Alta, Dec. 1 2/,; lO %; 11 (from clipping). 
 
 1853, Alta, July 31 %; Oct. 1 i/^; Nov. 29 8/.. 
 
 1854, Alta, Feb. 5 %, 17 %; April 2 %; June 4 %; 14 %; Aug. 6 
 %; 112/2; 19 %; Oct. 124. 
 
 1855, Herald, April 1 %; Alta, Aug. 1 %; Dec. 2 1/2. 
 
 1856, Alta, Feb. 2 %; April 6 %. 
 ^0 California [by Huntley], II, 60. 
 
'51 to '77 393 
 
 the menace of these lawless "settlers" and to check the armed 
 conflicts that sometimes ensued, the landholders formed an 
 ''Association for the Protection of the Rights of Property, and 
 the Maintenance of Order, ' ' adopted a formal organization, and 
 appointed an executive committee of thirteen. About a thousand 
 members enrolled and announced that their object was to sustain 
 the law. They denied having any connection with the Committee 
 of Vigilance, but many former Vigilantes were conspicuous in 
 the meetings." The proceedings were generally confused and 
 inharmonious, and the association disbanded without any notable 
 achievement. The San Francisco Herald appeared to favor the 
 movement, but the county judge, T. W. Freelon, took pains to 
 warn the grand jury that rumors were abroad of a protective 
 association of landowners which required prompt suppression. 
 ''San" Francisco has had one Vigilance Committee," he said. 
 "It is past! and let the dead past bury its dead. It must have 
 no other. Let there be Revolution or Law. ' '^^ 
 
 The sentiments expressed by Judge Freelon were by this 
 time gaining adherents throughout the state. The papers as a 
 rule discouraged the continuance of Committees of Vigilance, 
 and emphasized every hopeful symptom of increasing order. One 
 pioneer of Placerville said that by the spring of 1853 "society 
 commenced forming, ' ' and that the better element there con- 
 cluded that promiscuous hanging should stop, organized a party 
 to support the law, and in one instance held off an angry mob, 
 
 11 Current disorders and the, need of better protection were noted in the 
 Herald, 1854, May 4, %; May 23 %. On June 2 the editor said: ''The 
 Vigilance Committee was scarcely ever more necessary than at present." 
 The meetings of the Association were held June 5, 6, 7, 9, and perhaps later 
 {Herald, June 6 %; 8 %; 10 %; Annals 541). The following former Vigi- 
 lantes were prominent in the movement: C. E. Bond, 0. L. Case, J. F. Curtis, 
 J. P. Manrow, Dr. Samuel Merritt, H. M. Naglee, John Parrot, John Perry, 
 Jr., A. G. Eandall, Michael Eeese, William Sharon, S. Teschemacher, S. E. 
 Throckmorton, D. S. Turner, J. P. Van Winkle, Ferdinand Vassault, J. G. 
 Ward, Eobert Wells, F. A. Woodworth, S. E. Woodworth, and possibly 
 Louis Cohn [L. Cohen?] and J. C. George. A counter organization of 
 '' Settlers" was reported in the Herald, June 16 %. 
 
 ^^ Herald, 1854, June 14 %. 
 
394 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 rescued the suspected murderer, and escorted him to Coloma, 
 where he was lawfully tried and executed. Thereafter there 
 ^Svas no more lynching in El Dorado County. "^^ It is to be 
 hoped that one county, at least, was so soon purged of disorder. 
 In other parts of California lynchings still occurred.^* The 
 papers, however, reported them with increasing condemnation, 
 and public disapproval was expressed with increasing vehemence. 
 In the spring of 1854 the grand jury of Calaveras County in- 
 dicted the men who had participated in the lynching of a horse 
 thief, but the writer has been unable to discover that they were 
 ever brought to trial. ^^ In January, 1855, there were several 
 illegal executions in the mines, which prompted the editor of the 
 Alta to write :^*^ 
 
 The Vigilance Committee had an influence from which California has 
 not recovered to this day. Its influence for good was speedy; but because 
 its immediate influence was good, its remote influence has been so many 
 times the worse. Life and property were more safe during the days of 
 the Vigilance Committee, and we do not design to find any fault with the 
 members of it now. Those were trying times; and as the law failed to 
 punish, many good men engaged in that which they could not be brought 
 to look upon in ordinary times without abhorrence. 
 
 A few months later, after mobs in Amador County had made 
 savage reprisals upon Mexicans because of the murder of an 
 American, the residents of Butte City met in mass meeting to 
 protest against such action on the part of a " purported Vigilance 
 Committee." In reporting the episode the editor of the Alta 
 California said :^^ ' ' The name of a Vigilance Committee should 
 
 13 Norton, Life and Adventures, 293. 
 
 14 For references on criminal conditions, see supra, p. 127 note 32 ; Ban- 
 croft, California, VII, 191-219; Popular Tribunals, 1, 515-576; History of 
 Nevada County, 115-117; Michael Kraszewski, Acts of the "Manilas" .. . 
 at San Juan in 1866. 1878 (MS in the Bancroft Library). 
 
 ■^^ Herald, 1854, April 22 %. 
 
 '^^ Alta, 1855, Jan. 27 %. Defense of that action, or a similar incident 
 at Michigan City, was made in the Herald, Feb. 11 %. 
 
 17 Alta, 1855, Aug. 31 -/o. Earlier reference to this lynching was made 
 in the Alta, Aug. 13 %. 
 
'51 to '77 395 
 
 never be mentioned except as a terrible remedy employed in the 
 past, when the impunity with which crime was committed led 
 well meaning men to do what, on sound reasoning, cannot be 
 justified." According to a later issue, society was ''settling 
 down, in spite of occasional lynchings ; public gambling was dis- 
 appearing; vice was restrained by law, and the Sabbath was 
 more generally observed/^ 
 
 The dangers that inevitably attended the prolonged activities 
 of Vigilance Committees received attention from the grand jury 
 of Tuolumne County in October, 1855. An interesting extract 
 from its report is to be found among the documents printed in 
 the Appendix.i^ Not long thereafter a murderer was lynched at 
 Columbia, Tuolumne County, and in editorial comment the Alta 
 said :-^ ' ' There was a time when Lynch-law in California seemed 
 to some extent justifiable, when San Francisco and the state were 
 full of cut throats, who could not readily be punished in any 
 other than a summary manner— but that time, if it ever existed, 
 has long since passed away. ' ' Strong resolutions condemning the 
 lynching were passed by residents of the vicinity, and the grand 
 jury indicted eight of the men responsible, but no effective prose- 
 cution followed. 
 
 Study of the newspapers thus shows that public opinion 
 more and more condemned the appeal to lynch law, although 
 there were times of decided reaction. For example, when the 
 San Francisco grand jury for March, 1855, severely arraigned 
 the powerful but secret forces that were corrupting the admin- 
 istration of the city, the editor of the Herald hailed the report 
 as a reminder of the ' ' good and vigorous days of the Vigilance 
 Committee," and fervently ejaculated, "May such times come 
 again, for we want them sadly. "-^ The press, to be sure, took 
 
 18 See Alta, 1855, Oct. 21 %. Sunday closing, Aug. 9 %; Nov. 1 %. 
 
 19 See infra, p. 472. 
 
 ^0 Alia, 1855, Oct. 24 %; Dec. 17 %; Popular TribunaU, I, 548-553. 
 21 Herald, 1855, April 22 %. 
 
396 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 pains to mention every indication of increasing tranquility, 
 but in spite of optimistic editorials there was constant disorder.^- 
 
 The most wanton offenders were the underlings of the political 
 bosses, for money and influence could protect any man, no matter 
 how heinous his offense. In November. 1855, Charles Cora, a 
 gambler, quarreled with William H. Kichardson and shot him 
 on the streets of San Francisco. It was a cold-blooded murder, 
 the dead man was the United States Marshal, but Cora was a 
 protege of the political machine, and every one knew that money 
 and influence would be lavished to secure his acquittal. ^^ 
 
 For three years the members of the Committee of Vigilance 
 had hoped for protection and justice from their magistrates, and 
 had refrained from open interference with the administration of 
 the law, while the mysterious Committee of Thirteen guarded 
 their secrets and kept alive the spirit of vigilance. One of the 
 old Committee, however, was not silent ; James King of William 
 had started his Eveni^ig Bulletin before Richardson was shot, and 
 had inaugurated in it a fearless and vehement crusade against 
 the corruption that ruled the state. He struck from the shoulder, 
 heavy blows that spared neither high nor low. After the murder 
 of Richardson he spoke editorially of a rumor that the Committee 
 of Vigilance might be reorganized. He deprecated taking that 
 step, if it might in any way be avoided, but he most violently 
 advocated hanging any sheriff or deputy who might treacherously 
 allow the murderer to escape.-* 
 
 It is very probable that a revival of the Committee was dis- 
 cussed at this time. Cora made affidavit that on the night of the 
 shooting an association of citizens secretly met to consider his 
 case and decided to hang him if he should be acquitted by a 
 
 22 ' ' To walk the unfrequented streets in this city, at a late hour of the 
 night unarmed, is as dangerous as threading a forest infested bv a war 
 party of hostile Indians" {Alia, 1855, Oct. 4 %). 
 
 23 Alta, 1855, Nov. 19 %. 
 
 24 San Francisco Bulletin, 1855, Nov. 20 %; 22 %. 
 
'51 to '77 397 
 
 jur}^;^^ and one talesman, James Davis, was excused from jury 
 service when he testified that he had met with about a dozen 
 others to consider whether the rules of the old Committee called 
 for action in the existing emergency.^^ The decision had been 
 in the negative, but the Alia significantly asserted that San 
 Francisco would watch the trial, and that if conviction proved 
 possible lynch law would be ' ' done away with. ' '" 
 
 The trial was a farce that exhibited every mockery of justice 
 possible in an American criminal court. Cora was jauntily de- 
 fiant; his counsel were the most eloquent in the city; one jury- 
 man made public the fact that he had been offered a bribe by 
 the defense; and every canon of decency was outraged by the 
 attempt to influence the jury by a sentimental plea based on the 
 devotion to the prisoner of the wealthiest and most notorious 
 member of the San Francisco demimonde. When the result, as 
 anticipated, was a disagreement, the Alia forgot its late abhor- 
 rence of popular tribunals and prophesied that lynch law would 
 quickly be the desperate resort of a city where life could be 
 protected only at the point of a pistol.^^ 
 
 While Cora complacently awaited retrial thirteen other men 
 in San Francisco were under indictment for homicide with small 
 prospect for their conviction,-'' and murders were so common in 
 the state that the attempt to record them was abandoned.^° James 
 King of William, one time Vigilante, editor of the Bulletin and 
 scourge of corruptionists, was himself fatally wounded on the 
 afternoon of the fourteenth of May, 1856, by James P. Casey, 
 
 25 Alt a, 1856, Jan. 4 %. Sam Brannan was taken into custody as a 
 general precaution against a public outbreak (Alta, Nov. 18 %; 19 %). 
 For details see Popular Tribunals, II, 29-34; Hittell, California, III, 472. 
 Long extracts from the papers of the day are given in F. M. Smith, editor, 
 San Francisco Vigilance Committee of '56, 1883. 
 
 2<i Alia, 1856, Jan. 5 %. J. Hawes Davis was member No. 216. 
 
 27 Alta, 1855, Dec. 8 %. 
 
 28 Alta, 1856, Jan. 17 %. 
 
 29 Alta, 1856, Jan. 21 %. 
 
 30 Alta, 1856, March 30 %. The violent deaths, including accident and 
 murder, were estimated at 1400 yearly. 
 
398 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 a supervisor of the city, whose past record as a Sing Sing convict 
 had been held up to public opprobrium by the militant reformer. 
 
 King's personal qualities had won him many admiring friends, 
 while his outspoken arraignment of political iniquity had made 
 him a popular leader and hero. The cowardly attack that laid 
 him at death's door immediately invested him with the crown 
 of a martyr. As if in answer to the shot the bell of the Monu- 
 mental Engine Company sounded once more the well remem- 
 bered call to action, and in less than an hour an infuriated multi- 
 tude surged about the county jail, clamoring for the instant 
 execution of the assassin. Our old acquaintances Charley Duane 
 and Edward McGowan were already reinforcing the guard at 
 the door. Detachments of the local military companies were 
 rushed to the scene to hold the mob in check, but the men who 
 hesitated before the rifles of the militia soon began to finger their 
 own revolvers, and hysterical orators urged them to storm the 
 building regardless of consequences. Shouts of approval inter- 
 rupted the speakers, cries of anger and oaths of rage arose in a 
 hideous pandemonium above the surging mass, while in all the 
 city there was not a single representative of the law whose prom- 
 ise of justice could ring true, or carry an assurance of righteous 
 retribution that might invoke patience. 
 
 Suddenly this tossing sea of heads reflected the ripples of a 
 hidden current from its outer margin. Men swayed and turned 
 and bent their faces to whisper, and lifted them again, sane and 
 human, and cleansed from the blood lust of the brute. A brief 
 message had passed from mouth to mouth,, traversing the ranked 
 thousands with incredible swiftness : 
 
 '^The Vigilance Committee has organized!'' 
 In less than five minutes the fearful tension was relaxed,^^ 
 
 31 The thrilling moment of announcement was described by W. O. Ayers 
 in * ' Personal Eecollections of the Vigilance Committee, ' ' Overland Monthly, 
 ser. 2, VIII (1886), 166, and by J. D. B. Stillman in MS Vigilance Co^i.- 
 mittees — Miscellany, 7-8. Hittell cited Ayer's reminiscences as an authori- 
 tative source (California, III, 482-488). 
 
399 
 
 for in the Vigilance Committee rested assurance of justice and 
 righteous retribution, and the men of San Francisco, still gath- 
 ering by thousands during all that tragic evening, waited and 
 trusted in the promise of its speedy resurrection. The papers 
 of the next day printed this notice : 
 
 The members of the Vigilance Committee, in good standing, will please 
 meet at No. 105% Sacramento Street, To-day, Thursday, 15 inst., at 9 A.M. 
 
 By order of the Committee of Thirteen. 
 San Francisco, May 14 [sic], 1856. 
 
 The archives of the Committee of 1851 make no mention of 
 the Committee of Thirteen, which appears in history solely on 
 this occasion. From the statements of various Vigilantes, espec- 
 ially those of William T. Coleman and George W. Frink,^^ we 
 learn that after various sporadic gatherings and much fruitless 
 discussion Coleman was induced to take the initiative in reor- 
 ganization, largely on account of his standing in the old Com- 
 mittee, and of his membership in the last representative group, 
 the Committee of Thirteen. No other allusion to it occurs in 
 the manuscript recollections. Bancroft did not explain it, and 
 inquiries now fail to discover its personnel or its proceedings. 
 
 The Committee of Thirteen remains to this day a shadowy 
 and unnamed power, but that very secrecy was symbolic of the 
 mysterious bonds that survived the lapse of years, for on the 
 afternoon of May 14, 1856, the Committee of Vigilance of 1851 
 was no longer a corporeal organization. It was a name, and a 
 
 32 Frink arrived in San Francisco in June, 1852, and it is probable that 
 he knew the old Committee only by reputation. He said that during the 
 evening there was much confusion, and no definite action, but that Cole- 
 man and he finally went to the office of the Alto., where Coleman wrote out 
 the notice. "He said, 'How shall we sign it?' I said: 'Put your name 
 to it, as you are one of the thirteen of the old committee. ' He said, ' No, 
 put it one of the thirteen, as we disbanded under the name of the thirteen" 
 (MS Statement, 4-5). Coleman's recollection coincided with this (MS 
 Statement, 34), except for the modification of the signature to the form 
 that appeared in the papers. As Coleman had lived in the East for two 
 years prior to January, 1856 (MS Statement, 30; Phelps, Contemporary 
 Biography, I, 272-280), it is permissible to infer that the Committee had 
 disbanded before his departure. 
 
400 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 memory ; it was a spiritual force that restrained the men of San 
 Francisco from mob murder in the twilight of that evening ^nd 
 enlisted them by thousands under the oath of the Vigilantes 
 during the days to come.^^ 
 
 The response to the printed call was instant and overwhelm- 
 ing. Old members hastened to the appointed place, and after a 
 brief preliminary meeting threw open the doors for the reception 
 of new registrants. Before midnight two thousand names were 
 enrolled, headquarters were secured, an Executive Committee 
 was selected, and the rank and file were grouped into military 
 companies of one hundred men each. Coleman, who was by this 
 time a merchant of wealth and prominence, reluctantly accepted 
 the office of president, Bluxome was "Number 33, Secretary," 
 and many other former workers were placed in offices of responsi- 
 bility. 
 
 It has been necessary to touch lightly on five years of Cali- 
 fornia 's development in order to place the Committee of Vigilance 
 of 1851 in its historical relation to the Committee of 1856. The 
 latter is usually designated the "Great Committee," and the 
 work of the former is obscured by the more spectacular features 
 of the larger association. Yet in spite of the silence that lay 
 between the last notice of the Committee of '51 and the call that 
 rallied the Committee of '56, the organic unity of the two bodies 
 is proved by many tokens : by the personnel of the leaders, ^^ by 
 the adoption of the old constitution,^^ by the membership cer- 
 tificate with its significant "Reorganized," and by the silver 
 medal struck for the committeemen, which bears the old symbol. 
 
 33 Mr. Charles B. Turrill, of San Francisco, has a photographic copy of 
 the Oath of 1856. It reads: ''I do solemnly swear to act with the Vigilance 
 Committee and second and sustain [?] in full all their actions as expressed 
 through their executive committee." 
 
 34 Names of officers of 1856 are printed infra, p. 473. 
 
 35 Coleman said that the old constitution was adopted unanimously on 
 the day of the called meeting, subject to revision at the leisure of the 
 Executive (MS Statement, 41). See also Popular Tribunals, II, 111-113. 
 
'51 to '77 401 
 
 the Watchful Eye of Vigilance, encircled by the legend ' ' Organ- 
 ized 9th June, 1851. Reorganized 14th May, 1856. "^e 
 
 The work of the Committe of 1856 is another story. Bancroft 
 has told it in his own way in the second volume of Popular 
 Trihiinals; Royce has sketched it briefly, but well ; and T. H. 
 Hittell has given it at length with exact reference to contem- 
 porary newspapers and to the manuscript records, which were 
 familiar to him as well as to Bancroft.^^ The Committee was 
 supported by the active membership of eight or nine thousand 
 men, about three quarters of all the white citizens of San 
 Francisco. "^^ Barricades of sand bags were erected around its 
 headquarters on Sansome Street below Front, and armed men 
 stood there on guard, so that Fort Gunnybags became a citadel 
 that defied both civil and military authorities. On the day that 
 James King of William was borne to the grave the Committee 
 hanged Casey, his assassin, and also Cora, who had killed William 
 Richardson. A few weeks later it inflicted the same punishment 
 on two other murderers. Philander Bruce and Joseph Hethering- 
 ton. The latter had killed Dr. John Baldwin in a dispute over 
 land titles, in August, 1853. On July 24, 1856, he also killed 
 Dr. Andrew Randall, who had been robbed at Monterey by the 
 Stuart gang in 1850. The papers spoke of Hetherington as a 
 ''recipient of the old Vigilance Committee's attention," and 
 Bancroft identified him with the witness of 1851. If that identi- 
 fication is correct, a strange fatality made the former collector 
 of ]\Ionterey the victim of the very man who had been chief 
 
 36 See frontispiece. 
 
 37 Bancroft, Popular Tribunals, II; California, VI, 746-754; Tuthill, 
 Calif ornm, 432-524; Royce, California, 437-465: Hittell, California, III. 
 460-649; J. S. Hittell, San Francisco, 245-262; F'. M. Smith, San Francisco 
 Vigilance Committee of '56 ; The Vigilance Committee of 1856 [by James 
 O'Meara], 1887. 
 
 38 J. S. Hittell placed the membership at 9000 out of a white male 
 population of 12,000 {Eesources of California, ed. 1, p. 371). Bancroft 
 said 8000 {California, VI, 747). 
 
402 Vigila7ice Committee of 1851 
 
 informer against the gang that had despoiled him six years 
 earlier.^^ 
 
 These executions announced to the violent that money and 
 influence and eloquent counsel might no longer be trusted to 
 provide immunity from punishment. But the Committee did 
 not stop there. Very early in its work it broke through the 
 defense of secrecy that had baffled the investigations of grand 
 juries. It laid its hands upon an incriminating ballot box that 
 was still stuffed with forged ballots ; it obtained confessions from 
 the ward heelers who had done the bidding of the powerful and 
 efficient bosses; then it announced its intention of cleansing the 
 city from the plague of political corruption. It sent into exile 
 over a score of the most valued tools of the machine. ^° Among 
 them were Charles Duane, who had evaded a like fate in 1851, 
 and Rube Malony, who had been a committeeman in that year.^^ 
 Ned McGowan, also conspicuous upon the early black list, was 
 forced to take refuge in flight.*^ "When David S. Terry, justice 
 of the state supreme court, stabbed S. A. Hopkins as the latter 
 
 39 See Alta, 1856, July 25 %; Papers, 27 note 2; Hittell, California, III, 
 609-615 ; Popular Tribunals, Index under ' ' Hetheringlon ' ' ; Vigilance Com- 
 mittee of 1856 [by O'Meara], 31; Smith, San Franoisoo Vigilance Com- 
 mittee of '56, p. 75; San Francisco Call, 1893, Feb. 5 i%. Various notices 
 reported that Hetherington was an Englishman of wealth, had formerly 
 lived in St. Louis, and had resided in California since 1849 or 1850. Another 
 rumor stated that in 1853 he had deserted a wife in Vermont, who intended 
 to sue for his property (San Francisco Bulletin, 1860, July 19 %). 
 
 40 A list of sentences was given in Smith, San Francisco Vigilance Com- 
 mittee of '56, pp. 82-83 ; reprinted in L. H. Woolley, California, 1849-1913, 
 1913, pp. 21-22. 
 
 41 Frink said that before the close of work some of the men who were 
 fearful of arrest tried to join the Committee ''to get under cover," and 
 that Duane made such an application, but was refused (MS Statement, 21). 
 For a note on Malony see supra, p. 198). 
 
 42 See his Narrative, 1857. In August, 1857, McGowan started the pub- 
 lication of the Phoenix, a Sacramento newspaper that attacked the members 
 and friends of the Committee without regard for truth or decency. After 
 it was once prohibited in San Francisco, it was continued for a time under 
 the title Vlylquitou-s. McGowan was a familiar figure in San Francisco until 
 his death, Dec. 8, 1893. In his last illness William T. Coleman contributed 
 towards his hospital expenses (San Francisco Examiner, 1893, June 4 %; 
 5 1%; Chronicle, 1893, Dec. 9 5/^). 
 
'51 to '77 403 
 
 was arresting Malony, the Committee seized Terry, kept him in 
 custody until Hopkins was out of danger, and liberated him only 
 after the most bitter dissensions over his f ate.*=^ G. W. Ryckman, 
 who refused to join the reorganized Committee, said that it even 
 contemplated the arrest of Broderick,^* but such a radical step 
 was never taken. 
 
 The General Committee adjourned sine die, August 18, 1856. 
 Over six thousand men marched in the final parade, and the 
 banner of 1851 led a company of one hundred and fifty members 
 who represented the original organization.^^ As a factor in Cali- 
 fornia life the Committee long survived the formal adjournment, 
 and Executive meetings continued as late as November, 1859. *« 
 
 Nor was that all ! The men of San Francisco had learned 
 many lessons in civics since September, 1851, when they tried to 
 purify their government by selecting for endorsement the better 
 nominees of the regular political parties. Before they disbanded 
 the Committee of '56, they took the first steps towards the for- 
 mation of an independent People's Party, which was recognized 
 as the organ of the Vigilantes. In the fall election their ticket 
 was first in the field ; it was later endorsed by the new Republican 
 party, and was overwhelmingly successful in November, when 
 there was held perhaps the ''first honest election that had taken 
 place in the city."^^ A permanent and efficient political organ- 
 ization was created that practically controlled the government of 
 
 43 See Trial of David S. Terry 'by the Ccnnmittee of Vigilance, 1856; 
 A. E. Wagstafe, Life of David S. Terry, 1892, pp. 97-136; also general ref- 
 erences on the Committee. 
 
 44Ejckman, MS Statement, 19-20; The Vigilance Committee of 1856 
 [by O'Meara], 55-56. 
 
 45 J. S. Hittell, San Francisco, 259; Popular Tribunals, II, 531-533. 
 The Wide West, October, 1856, printed illustrations of the procession, but 
 placed the number of old members at a someAvhat lower figure. The banner 
 was certainly carried although Eyckman said that it was never given to 
 the Committee of '56 (MS Statement, 18). 
 
 46 Popular Tribunals, II, 541. 
 
 4TSee Hittell, California, III, 636-665; J. S. Hittell, San Francisco, 
 262-266; Bancroft, California, VI, 770-772; Popular Tribunals, II, 639- 
 
404 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 San Francisco for more than ten years. Although many former 
 committeemen served in various positions there was never any 
 attempt to establish a distinctive Vigilante ring, and the People 's 
 Party was loyally supported by the better men among both 
 Democrats and Republicans. Royce said that for years after 
 the Committee of Vigilance of 1856 the people of San Francisco 
 ' ' boasted not without warrant, that they possessed, and for nearly 
 a generation retained, the purest and soundest municipal govern- 
 ment then known in any city of the size in the whole country. ""^^ 
 Charges have been made that the Committee of 1856 gave 
 evidence of a sentiment that favored the political independence 
 of the Pacific Coast. ^^ If that were so the spirit of secession was 
 effectiveh^ checked and was never diverted toward affiliation with 
 the cause of the Confederacy. Indeed, there has been some 
 speculation of late as to whether the organization of the Com- 
 mittee of Vigilance was a conscious effort to oppose the influence 
 of pro-slavery and secessionist Southerners. In studying the 
 work of 1851 an effort has been made to collect any data that 
 might indicate a latent partisanship in the sectional interests of 
 the slavery discussions, but nothing of importance has come to 
 light beyond the fact that in later years most of the leading 
 committeemen, irrespective of parties, were loyal supporters of 
 
 663; Tuthill, California, 518-524; Davis, PoUtioal Conventions, 68-69, 73, 
 74, 79 ; Joseph Weed, ' ' Vigilance Committees of San Francisco, ' ' Overland 
 Monthly, XII (1874), 357; Woods, Lights and Shadows of Life on the 
 Pacific Coast, 7, 45-48 ; MS Statements of Frink, 23 ; J. P. Manrow, 11-12 ; 
 H. P. Coon, 6 et seq.; C. J. Dempster, 20. 
 
 *8Eoyce, ''Provincialism," Putnam's Magazine, VII (1909), 236. 
 ''This change [the purification of elections] was brought about by the 
 organization of a Vigilance Committee, and they completely revolutionized 
 the politics of the state" (Tinkham, History of StocMon, 245). The 
 People's Party has even been charged with economy to the point of parsi- 
 mony (J. P. Young, Journalism in California [1915], 33-35). The Con- 
 solidation Act of April 19, 1856, had prepared the way for more efficient 
 local administration (California, Statutes, 1856, chap. 125). 
 
 49 See references supra, p. 102 note 36; Popular Tribunals, II, 371; 
 Royee, California, 456; Life, Diary, and Letters of Oscar Lovell Shafter, 
 1915, p. 182; MS Statements of Coleman, 79-81; Dempster, 53-55; Green, 60. 
 
'51 to '77 405 
 
 the Federal Union. The subject may assume greater significance 
 if the archives of the Committee of 1856 become available for 
 more thorough research. ^° Generalizations relative to the in- 
 fluence of that body should be based on the original records 
 rather than upon the accounts of secondary historians. 
 
 At the outbreak of the Civil War California was still a 
 Democratic state with pro-slavery Southerners strongly in- 
 trenched in office. The contest for governor in 1861 was con- 
 sidered a matter of the most vital importance, for the advocates 
 of secession hoped to strengthen their hold on local affairs, while 
 the Republican party was determined to assume control. We 
 must not linger over those exciting times, except to record that 
 San Francisco, already purged of the Southern machine and con- 
 trolled b}^ the People's Part}^, was the strategic center of the 
 whole campaign and polled nearly one fifth of the total vote cast 
 for Leland Stanford. ^^ It was the fulcrum for the lever that 
 wrenched the secessionists from their places of power, and the 
 steel of that fulcrum had been forged by the hands of the 
 Committee of Vigilance. 
 
 A valuable contribution to the history of this period is con- 
 tained in a paper read before the Panama-Pacific Historical 
 Congress of 1915, by the late Horace Davis, who emphasized the 
 value of loyal San Francisco in the state campaign of 1861, and 
 told of the secret formation of a Home Guard to protect the polls 
 
 50 See infra, note in Bibliography on Archives of the Committee of 
 Vigilance. 
 
 51 The vote is reported as follows, in the Annual Statistician, compiled 
 by J. P. Mains, 1879, pp. 427-428: 
 
 Leland Stanford, J. R. McConnell, John Conness, 
 Republican Democrat Union Dem. 
 
 State 56,036 32,750 30,944 
 
 San Francisco 10,728 1,243 3,178 
 
 See also Hittell, California, IV, 290; Kennedy, Contest for California 
 in 1861; Carr, Pioneer Days, 392-408; J. J. Earle, ''Sentiment of the 
 People of California -with Respect to the Civil War, ' ' American Historical 
 Association, Beport, 1907, I, 123-135. It is said that about this time ''an 
 old hero of the Vigilante days ' ' frustrated a plot to attack the arsenal 
 at Benicia (R. T. Piatt, "Oregon... in the Civil War," Oregon Historical 
 Society, Quarterly, IV (1903), 106-107). 
 
406 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 from corruption.^- Their muster book contains a list of about 
 1650 San Franciscans whose Union sentiments were so unqualified 
 that they were ready to respond to a call for service under any 
 sudden emergency. In the list are a few familiar Vigilante 
 names. Selim E. Woodworth, George M. Garwood, James C. 
 "Ward, A. L. Tubbs, and Henry Wetherbee, all committeemen of 
 1851, took charge of five enlistment sheets. Oliver B. Crary, of 
 1856, headed another, and other members of the later body may 
 have been prominent in the Guard. None of the rolls shows any 
 concerted action by members of '51, except the one in charge of 
 Woodworth. That was signed by several of his former associates, 
 who formed the nucleus for a company of seventy-one in which 
 ten of the first Committee were enrolled. ^^ 
 
 In this connection it is interesting to read in the manuscript 
 statement of Dr. H. P. Coon, a member of the Committee of 1856, 
 that previous to 1864 no line was drawn by the People's Party 
 between Republican and Democratic nominees. In 1865, how- 
 ever, the nominating committee resolved to endorse only candi- 
 dates who had voted for Lincoln and Johnson in the last presi- 
 dential election. Dr. Coon felt that this action ''was the end of 
 the successful career of the Old People's Party at the ballot- 
 box."^* 
 
 The San Francisco Committee of 1856 did not attempt to 
 establish any coordinated branches in the interior towns.^^ For 
 
 52 Horace Davis, **The Home Guard of 1861," in Panama Pacific His- 
 torical Congress, The Pacific Ocean in History, 1917, pp. 363-372. Mr. 
 Davis was a member of the Guard, and presented the muster book and sixty- 
 two enlistment sheets to the Bancroft Library. 
 
 53 S. E. Woodworth, F. E. [A.?] Woodworth, J. C. Ward, T. A. Barry, 
 C. E. Bond, G. W. Ryckman, W. A. Darling, G. M. Garwood, J. D. Farwell, 
 E[dgar?] Wakeman. No attempt has been made to check the whole list 
 for members of the Committee. 
 
 54 Coon, MS Statement, 27. Dempster said the Committee of '56 would 
 have disbanded earlier if it had not been for the ''pro-slavery chivalry" 
 (MS Statement, 22). 
 
 55 Manrow, MS Statement, 10-11. Frink said that some men from out 
 of town signed the rolls just to add their influence to the effort (MS State- 
 ment, 23). 
 
'51 to '77 407 
 
 many years, however, sporadic Committees of Vigilance appeared 
 in places where roughs and criminals congregated, and ejectment 
 proceedings, more or less violent, often took place. Occasionally 
 there was a lynching by a so-called Vigilance Committee, but in 
 the absence of such records as exist for 1851 it is impossible to 
 tell whether or not the organizations were any more responsible 
 than angry mobs.^« They do not seem to have prolonged their 
 existence beyond some passing emergency except in Truckee, 
 where a committee known as the ''601" effected desirable reforms 
 in 1874, and for more than a decade remained a name of menace 
 to the desperadoes of the vicinity.^' Gradually the disorderly 
 element in the state shrank to a more normal ratio, violence was 
 more controlled, jails were made secure, popular tribunals ceased 
 to usurp the functions of the criminal courts, and the number of 
 lynchings dropped to two or three a year.^^ 
 
 There was a notable reunion of the San Francisco Vigilante 
 personnel in 1877, when the city was in the throes of labor 
 agitation and of anti-Chinese demonstrations which the authori- 
 ties were impotent to control. There was such danger of incen- 
 
 56 I have not attempted extended research regarding later Committees 
 of Vigilance, but have verified the following references m the Sacramento 
 Union (Beoord Union after Sept. 1, 1875). , 
 
 1860 Sept 20 U, Protective League of Altaville, Angel's Camp, and 
 vicinity; 1863; No. 26 3/„ and 1870, Dec. 21 %, V C in Los Angeles (see 
 Ilso Popular Tribunals 1, 507, 511-512; Newmark^i^i/ Years m Sauth- 
 em California, 204-210, 324, 420); 1873, Nov. 10 % and Nov 13 %, 
 
 V C. in Gilroy; 1873, Dec. 12 8/3 and Dec. 19 %,Y. C. m Visalia (see also 
 Popular Tribunals, 1, 470-474); 1880, July f/Ze ^^ ^.^^4 ^^.^.^g^.^ l'J% 
 V. C. at Merced; 1882, Jan. 9 i/g, rumor of a V. C. m Sonora; 1882 Oct 2 
 24, V. C. in Yreka; 1884, Oct. 25 %, V. C. i^ Lundy; 1887, Sept. 5 14, 
 
 V C. in Jackson; 1888, Aug. 16 4/o, and 1889, July 13 1/1, rumors of a V. C. 
 in Fresno. , . ^ ,, 
 
 57 Popular Tribunals, I, 463-465. So far as I have ascertained, there 
 was no execution by -601," but one of their own members was ac<^ldentelY 
 shot in a raid on armed rowdies. The Committee was :[^^^^^f ^^f/^1 ^y^^"" 
 ing disturbances, according to the Sacramento Union 1874 Dec 16 ^5 19 
 l/T It was condemned by the grand .lury of Nevada County (^^^^v If f ' 
 Feb 11 %). The same paper alluded to renewed activities at Truckee m 
 the issue of 1876, Jan. 7 %; at Grass Valley (1885, March 30 1^), and 
 again at Truckee (1889, Aug. 17 %). 
 
 58 Statistics in Cutler, Lynch-Law, 184. 
 
408 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 diary attacks against the coolie laundiymen and the docks of 
 the Oriental steamers that the citizens assembled as in pioneer 
 days and called upon the former president of the Vigilance Com- 
 mittee, William T. Coleman, to organize a Committee of Safety 
 for the aid of the city forces. Within twenty-four hours over five 
 thousand men had volunteered their services, funds were col- 
 lected, headquarters were established, and by the orders of the 
 President of the United States, the Secretary of War, and the 
 Governor of California, ammunition and Federal forces were 
 placed at Coleman's disposal. The ranks of the Committee were 
 furnished with stout hickory pick handles, as emergency weapons, 
 and firearms were held in reserve for extreme necessity. This 
 ''pick handle brigade" patrolled the city by day and night, 
 suppressed incipient riots, prevented any disastrous conflagra- 
 tion, and demonstrated to the lawless that the slender equipment 
 of the municipal police had behind it an effective army of well 
 disciplined civilians. The pass word of the Committee was ' ' '56 
 to '77," and the spirit that had intimidated the criminals and 
 the corrupt politicians of an earlier generation now overawed the 
 hoodlums of the sand lots and re-established order within a few 
 days. Then, as before, the swift mobilization of the man power 
 of the city had prevented the horrors of mob conflicts, and 
 again as before, when its work was accomplished the association 
 quietly disappeared from public activity, though no one knew 
 how long its leaders remained on guard against further disturb- 
 ance.^^ 
 
 59 See San Francisco papers, 1877, July 24 et seq.; Popular Tribunals, 
 II, 696 et seq.; Bancroft, Chromcies of the Builders, 1, 349-379; Hittell, 
 California, IV, 594-599; Coleman, "San Francisco Vigilance Committees," 
 Century, XLIII (1891), 145-148; Bryce, Amerioan Commojiwealth, II, 432; 
 San Francisco Chronicle, 1896, Jan. 12 %. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 LYNCH LAW AS A NATIONAL PROBLEM 
 
 Such is the story of the San Francisco Committee of Vigi- 
 lance : a brief, vivid, and significant episode in the history of the 
 American people. Its significance, as Henry Morse Stephens 
 said, will alwaj^s be interpreted in accordance with the shifting 
 interests of successive generations and the personal vision of 
 successive historians. 
 
 The contemporary discussions that arose in 1851 have already 
 been indicated in the references to press reports cited in pre- 
 vious chapters. Extracts from other comments in local and 
 Eastern papers may be found in Popular Trihunals} AVhere 
 objection to the work of the Committee was made, its basis was 
 almost invariably impersonal argument relative to the danger 
 of undermining the foundations of law and order, since there 
 were few advocates particularly interested in the fate of the 
 thieves and murderers summoned to the bar of the Committee. 
 
 "When one tries to estimate the weight of commendation or 
 condemnation made in a later period it is necessaj^y to consider 
 as one the two associations of '51 and '56, which were usually 
 grouped together by friends and foes. An immediate difference 
 in the attitude of the public is discernible after '56. Then the 
 Committee pitted itself against men of influence. It struck at 
 the very existence of the powerful clique that controlled political 
 patronage, and its menace to organized society was greatly 
 enhanced in the eyes of some of its critics by its menace to their 
 
 1 Popular Trihunals, 1, 402-426. Bancroft quoted less freely from the 
 objectors, Avho were represented in San Francisco chiefly by the Morning 
 Post, although many Eastern papers severely condemned the Committees. 
 
410 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 individual importance and prosperity.- Current discussion in 
 the papers was bitter and prejudiced on both sides: the Alta 
 stoutly defended the course adopted by the Committee, the 
 Herald nearly ruined itself by outspoken and violent objection.^ 
 The views of the personal antagonists of the Vigilantes were 
 vividly set forth in two anonymous pamphlets which described 
 their work as illegal, brutal, vindictive, and under the control 
 of many members who were as guilty of political corruption as 
 were the men they prosecuted.* 
 
 More permanent value may be attached to the criticisms of 
 contemporaries who were neither active members nor active 
 traducers of the Committees. Bancroft in a sweeping general- 
 ization grouped their enemies as including ''besides the lower 
 class of evil-minded persons, ... all licentious judges, stabbing 
 jurists, duelling editors and fighting lawyers. ' '^ But opponents 
 with higher standards should not be vilified or ignored. Peter 
 Burnett viewed the movement as ' ' incipient rebellion and a fatal 
 precedent."^ Frank Marryat, whose observations deserve con- 
 sideration, wrote that no one would defend the acts of the Com- 
 mittee and that they met with much opposition from the better 
 
 2 This difference between the opponents of the first and second Com- 
 mittees was emphasized by Dempster in his MS Statement, 27-28. 
 
 3 John Nugent was editor in 1851 and 1856. He was so violently opposed 
 to the reorganization of the Committee in 1856 that hundreds of patrons 
 terminated their subscriptions, the auctioneers withdrew their advertise- 
 ments, and the Herald was greatly reduced in size. It never recovered its 
 lost prestige (see Popular Tribunals, II, 78-83, 217-223; Hittell, Califor- 
 nia, III, 489-492). It is said that the policy of approval adopted by the 
 Alta was due in part to the desire to retain advertising patronage (San 
 Francisco Call, 1868, Jan. 1 i/i). 
 
 4 Judges and Criminals . . . History of the Vigilance Committee of San 
 Francisco, 1858, ascribed to Dr. Henry M. Gray; The Vigilance Committee 
 of 1856 [by O'Meara]. The Narrative of Edward McGowan should be 
 mentioned with anti-Vigilante literature, as may be ' ' The Lost Journals of 
 a Pioneer" attributed to C- E. Montgomery a Southern lawyer of some 
 prominence {Overland Monthly, ser. 2, VII (1886), 75-90, 173-181, 276-287). 
 
 5 Bancroft, California Inter Pocula, 589. 
 
 6 Burnett, Recollections, 398. 
 
Lynch Law as a National ProMem 411 
 
 class of citizens, but he admitted, nevertheless, that San Fran- 
 cisco conditions were improved by their efforts/ Judge John 
 Currey said plainly that popular accusations exaggerated the 
 corruption of the courts and that in spite of ballot box stuffing 
 and organized crime, existing evils could have been corrected 
 without resort to violence if the time and money devoted to the 
 work of the Committee had been expended in a faithful per- 
 formance of the legitimate duties of citizenship.^ 
 
 The early historian, E. S. Capron, closed a brief and in- 
 accurate report of the work of the Committee of 1851 by ex- 
 pressing sentiments akin to those of Judge Currey, asserting that 
 its organization and actions were unjustifiable.^ William F. 
 White, who concealed his identity under the pseudonym of 
 William Grey, made a violent attack upon the Vigilantes in his 
 Picture of Pioneer Times m California}^ A more modern writer 
 who strongly condemned the Committee of '56 was Isaac J. 
 Wistar. He was an associate of Edward D. Baker, Casey's 
 attorney during the trial for the murder of Richardson.^^ 
 
 On the other hand, a large number of the early Californians 
 who had known the dangers of inefficient law and the protection 
 of prompt, severe, but extra-legal punishment, maintained that 
 the Committees of Vigilance accomplished an ultimate good and 
 that some radical action was necessary to break the hold upon 
 office which had been obtained by unscrupulous politicians and 
 their criminal adherents. The Rev. S. H. Willey said : ''It looked 
 then as if the immense preponderance of opinion in favor of the 
 Committee was an effort to regain the reality of ' law and order, ' 
 
 7 See Marryat, Mountains and Molehills, 227, 238, 390. 
 
 8 John Currey, Incidents in California, 1878, p. 16, MS in the Bancroft 
 Library. 
 
 9E. S. Capron, History of California, 1854, pp. 131, 161. 
 -^0 Picture of Pioneer Times, by William Grey [W. F. White], 108-114. 
 The facts presented by this author are far from accurate. 
 
 11 1. J. Wistar, AutoMography, 1914, I, 313-316, 325-332. 
 
412 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 while those who stood by its forms were mainly those who had got 
 those forms into their hands and used them to defeat justice. ' '^^ 
 
 Some of the keenest criticisms on Californian conditions dur- 
 ing the exciting period from 1851 to 1856 were w^ritten by Mrs. 
 Eliza W. Farnham. She acknowledged the promptness and the 
 usual justice of the popular tribunals as contrasted with the 
 authorized courts, and the check they put upon criminals who 
 had little cause to fear the law; she admitted that an era of 
 apparent tranquility resulted from the rule of the Committee 
 of Vigilance of 1851 ; but she felt that the improvement was 
 superficial and was based upon a public opinion that desired 
 order merely for temporary self-protection. '^ There is no deep 
 stake in social welfare, ' ' she wrote, ' ' and consequently no action 
 that reaches its spring." She sustained her contention by citing 
 the constant tendency to elevate the worst men to office where 
 dishonesty could do even more damage than it could in better 
 organized and more watchful communities. When the events of 
 1856 justified her anticipations of recurring violence, she fol- 
 lowed them with eager interest, and although her concluding 
 chapter was written before the adjournment of the Committee, 
 she expressed her belief that the people of San Francisco and 
 California were about to free themselves effectually from the open 
 and dreadful corruption which had fastened upon their public 
 affairs. ^^ 
 
 H. H. Helper saw very little to admire in California, but he 
 gave unhesitating praise to the Committees of Vigilance as the 
 one means of enforcing order in communities which overwhelm- 
 ingly reversed the normal American proportion of lawless and 
 
 12 S. H. Willey, ThiHy Years in California, 1879, p. 49 et seq. He 
 reported that the churches were fuller for four or five years after the 
 uprising- of '56. The editor of The Pacific, a pioneer religious weekly, 
 asserted that with few exceptions the clergymen and church members 
 approved the second Committee (The Pacific, 1856, Oct. 9 %). 
 
 13 See Farnham, California In-doors and Out, 96, 318, 458-508. 
 
Lynch Law as a National Problem 413 
 
 law-abiding citizens.^-* Another statement of the views of those 
 who sympathized with the Committee may be found in Alonzo 
 Delano's Life on the Plains and among the Diggings. A brief 
 excerpt may well be quoted here •}^ 
 
 When the history of California shall be written, after time has 
 mellowed the asperity of passing events, the occurrences of these days 
 will form a singular . . . chapter. ... In a country whose people are 
 proverbial for their love of justice and order ... a condition of things 
 existed, which threatened at one time to dissolve the social compact of 
 the community . . . organized bands of desperadoes and assassins . . . 
 made the existing laws only an instrument to protect them in crime and 
 high-handed villainy . . . the whole length and breadth of California 
 was so beset with unprincipled men . . . that, for the peace of society, 
 a general revolution became necessary. . . . [When] it was found that 
 under the administration of the law, the insecurity of life and property 
 increased instead of diminished, the people became aroused to a sense of 
 their own wrongs, and, convinced that there was no other mode of redress, 
 they resolved to take the punishment of offenders into their own hands, 
 and to do what the administrators of the law could not, or would not do — 
 protect the honest part of the community from the depredations which 
 were daily and hourly committed upon them. . . . This state of things 
 could no longer be endured. Patience was no longer a virtue. Self- 
 preservation rendered it imperative that the first law of nature should 
 be observed, and that unless some united effort was made, society must 
 resolve itself into its primitive elements, and brute force become the only 
 defence against aggression and violence. 
 
 It is interesting to notice that travelers from Europe, in spite 
 of their more conventional traditions, expressed approval of the 
 Committees of Vigilance. Writing of affairs in 1852, Borthwick 
 said:^^ ''Any one who lived in the mines of California at that 
 time is bound gratefully to acknowledge that the feeling of 
 security of life and person which he there enjoyed was due in a 
 great measure to his knowledge of the fact that this admirable 
 institution of Lynch-law was in full and active operation." 
 
 14 Helper, Land of Gold, 237-253. See also Harlan, California, 211. 
 
 15 Delano, Life an the Plains and atruyng the Diggings, 363-365. 
 
 16 BorthA\dck, Three Years, 224^234. 
 
414 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Ernest Seyd, another Englishman, said that the Committees were 
 supported by the majority of the educated English, German and 
 French immigrants.^^ 
 
 Saint-Amant, who made a most sympathetic analysis of the 
 difficulties that accompanied the establishment of government 
 in such unusual surroundings, paid tribute to the immense good 
 accomplished by Vigilante methods.^^ Auger also approved 
 heartily, and wrote a spirited account of the executions in San 
 Francisco in 1851, which, however, was not based on the experi- 
 ences of an eyewitness. ^^ Ernest Frignet, giving another second- 
 ary report, eulogized both Committees as instruments that served 
 the ultimate establishment of public order. ^° 
 
 ''A Prussian Gentlemen," writing to the Alta, lauded the 
 Committee of 1851 as an object lesson which compelled crim- 
 inals to visualize the indignation of the law-abiding element. 
 He held that it is 'Wery necessary that society show itself in 
 immediate concrete form, otherwise it is regarded as a mere 
 abstract idea, which exerts too little influence on the stolid minds 
 of brutish individuals. ' '^^ The German traveler, Friedrich Ger- 
 stacker, familiar with events in California through prior obser- 
 vation and contemporary correspondence, also praised the Com- 
 mittee of 1851, and wrote that it ''honors the citizen to risk his 
 own life and property that he may free town and state from 
 such a curse, or, at least, check the continuance of such crimes. ' '^^ 
 
 The later historians, Bancroft and Hittell, were staunch 
 advocates of both Committees. Even Josiah Royce, who found 
 
 17 Ernest Seyd, California and Its Resources, 1858, pp. 23-24. 
 
 18 Saint-Amant, Vmjages, 138, 408-411. 
 
 19 Auger, Voyage en California, 209-219. 
 
 20 Frignet, La Calif ornie, 177-179, 196-202. 
 
 21 Alta, 1852, April 7 %. 
 
 22 Gerstacker, Narrative of a Journey round the World, 253-255. See 
 also commendation of Frank Leeouvreur, From East Prussia to the Golden 
 Gate, 1906, pp. 183-193; Carl Meyer, Nach dem Sacramento, 1855, pp. 
 188-192. 
 
Lynch Law as a National Problem 415 
 
 so much to condemn in the progress of society in California, 
 called them the ' ' expression of a pressing desire so to reform the 
 social order that lynch law should no longer be necessary," and 
 he said that what they accomplished was "not the direct destruc- 
 tion of a criminal class, but the conversion of honest men to a 
 sensible and devout local patriotism. "^^ 
 
 But it is fruitless to multiply the repetition of opinions either 
 for or against the Committee of Vigilance of San Francisco,^* 
 since every estimate is so deeply colored by the personal tempera- 
 ment or the experiences of the writer. Yet it is interesting to 
 observe that whether the various critics justify or condemn, 
 whether they depict the Committee as productive of immediate 
 good or immediate evil, they all agree that it was a product of 
 basic defects in the local organization of society from which had 
 arisen a pressing need for fundamental readjustment. In this 
 judgment they were unquestionably correct, and here the com- 
 mentators on California conditions have usually been content to 
 pause. They have studied the Committee of Vigilance solely as 
 a product of its local environment and described the situation 
 from which it sprang as a ferment of political and social corrup- 
 tion peculiar to the time and place. Such a treatment is in- 
 adequate and misleading; just as the Committee must be related 
 to the earlier episodes of frontier expansion, so also must it be 
 related to later developments of American life. 
 
 For California did not present a unique and isolated example 
 of defective social adjustment ; while the state was emerging from 
 
 23 Royce, California, 407, 465. 
 
 24 A few further references may be ^ven. Cornelius Cole, who had little 
 sympathy with lynch law, acknowledged that the San Francisco Committee 
 of '56 contributed largely toAvards bringing about a condition where lynch 
 law was no longer employed, and afforded '*an example of good flowing 
 from evil" {Memoirs, 119). Much the same opinion was expressed by New- 
 mark {Si3:ty Years in Southern California, 141). H. K. Norton approved 
 its results {Story of California, 254-257), as did Henry Robinson, (''Pio- 
 neer Days of California," Overland Monthly, VIII [1872], 457-462). 
 
416 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 her period of storm and stress, and deferring more and more to 
 the mandates of her constituted authorities, many of the con- 
 ditions characteristic of her earlier youth were reappearing 
 elsewhere. The individual histories of several states and the 
 publications of their local historical associations are full of 
 material that is closely akin to the reminiscences of the California 
 Argonauts. In Indiana the lawful authorities were so incapable 
 of restraining crime that the legislature of 1852 legalized the 
 formation of private associations for the pursuit and arrest of 
 horse thieves and gave the members the rights and privileges of 
 constables. The experiment proved dangerous, for the volunteer 
 posses were inclined to exceed their authority and inflict sum- 
 mary punishment on their captives. In spite of this tendency the 
 statute remained in force, with modifications dating from 1865. ^^ 
 Vigilance Committees to suppress crime were formed as well in 
 Iowa in the decade of the fifties. They kept few records and 
 their actions were often governed by sectional animosities, while 
 their punishments were sometimes flagrantly cruel and unjust.^*' 
 During the years 1855 to 1870 gold rushes like that of 1849 
 sent prospectors by the thousands into Idaho, Montana, Eastern 
 Washington, and Oregon. There, as in California, social neces- 
 sities everywhere outran the tardy establishment of institutional 
 administration. There, again, was the same intermingling of 
 diverse races and of honesty and crime ; the same atmosphere of 
 seething excitement ; the same need for local self-assertion in the 
 absence of social control imposed from without. An excellent 
 review of this general situation has been made by William J. 
 Trimble in his Mining Ack)^cmoe into the Inland Empire. To one 
 
 25 See W. A. Rawles, Centralising Ten-denoies in the Administration of 
 Indiana, 1903, pp. 308-309. 
 
 26 The Annals of the Jackson County Historical Society of Iowa contain 
 many reminiscences of the period of lynch law, especially I (1905), 30-34, 
 51-52; II (1906), 51-91 passim; III (1906), 28, 34-41, 68-75; IV (1907), 
 93-97. See also B. F. Gue, History of Iowa, 1903, I, 337-350 ; and mpra, 
 p. 74 note 23. 
 
I 
 
 Lynch Law as a Nati(m<il Froblem 417 
 
 who approaches that volume after a detailed study of California 
 problems, it is very interesting to read r" 
 
 But whatever elements of population prevailed in one or the other 
 place, there was one everywhere present, everywhere respected, every- 
 where vital— the Calif ornian. To Fraser Eiver, Cariboo, Kootenay; John 
 Day, Boise, Alder Gulch, Helena, went the adopted sons of California- 
 youngest begetter of colonies— carrying with them the methods, the cus- 
 toms, and the ideas of the mother region, and retaining for it not a little 
 of love and veneration. 
 
 In the first critical months of the gold rush the territorial 
 government of Washington exerted a nominal and attenuated 
 authority from the seacoast to the Rocky :Mountains. It entirely 
 lacked the force needed to control the scattered and shifting 
 camps, and the miners turned instinctively to the precedents set 
 in California. Miners' meetings were summoned, miners' courts 
 were formed, and civil and criminal matters were adjusted by 
 popular decision.-^ As had been the case in California, this 
 simple and voluntary association was effective in safeguarding 
 life and property in camps dominated by industrious and honest 
 workmen, but it could not cope with organized and expert 
 criminals. 
 
 A notorious gang of such criminals operated in 1862 and 1863 
 in the neighborhood of East Bannock, within the present limits 
 of the state of Montana. Their secret leader was Henry Plummer, 
 a shrewd, courageous man, who was popular in the camp as the 
 trusted miners' sheriff, while at the same time he was using his 
 position to direct and protect the movements of his confederates. 
 The entire district was terrorized, over a hundred murders were 
 committed, and the friends of the outlaws often controlled the 
 miners' meetings that tried suspected prisoners. Finally, in 
 December of 1863, a Vigilance Committee was formed by the 
 citizens of Virginia City and its vicinity. The association 
 
 27 w. J. Trimble, Mining Advance into the Inland Empire, 1914, p. 141. 
 28lMd., 227-242. 
 
418 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 extended over a wide area, and in conformity with the San Fran- 
 cisco example, the various branches of the Committee had written 
 pledges and by-laws, executive committees, and permanent, 
 responsible officers, many of whom became respected leaders of 
 civic affairs in the later era of order and tranquility. At the 
 same time the organization differed in several important points 
 from that of San Francisco. Its membership was absolutely 
 secret. Its deliberations were also secret, and sentences were 
 passed, in advance of arrest, upon men known to be affiliated 
 with the desperadoes. Pursuit was then instituted and the death 
 penalty was often inflicted as soon as the culprits were appre- 
 hended. Relentlessly the Vigilantes scoured their snow-swept 
 wilderness and within a month Plummer and more than a score 
 of his confederates were executed, other criminals took refuge in 
 flight, and violence was checked. A pioneer who knew of this 
 work from personal observation said of it r^ 
 
 Of all the organizations for the irregular administration of justice 
 that have marked the westward advance of American civilization, 
 whether known as Moderators, Eegulators, Vigilantes, or what not, the 
 Vigilance Committee of Montana will be found to have been the most 
 complete, most ef&cient, and most necessary of them all, and to have 
 partaken of the character of a mob the least of any. 
 
 The territory of Montana was given separate organization 
 in the spring of the next year, but the courts established their 
 supremacy slowly, and the very judges themselves were some- 
 times content to let the Vigilantes go on for a time, as they 
 could attend to criminal matters more cheaply, more quickly, 
 and better than it could be done by the courts. The perplex- 
 ing problems of frontier justice were discussed with unusual 
 judgment and lucidity in two charges to the grand jury of 
 
 29 C. Barbour, ''Two Vigilance Committees," Overland Monthly, ser. 2, 
 X (1887), 285-291. For detailed accounts of these Committees the reader 
 is referred to T. J. Dimsdale, The Vigilantes of Montana, various editions, 
 1866-1915; N. P. Langford, Vigilante Days and Ways, 1890 (2 vols.), or 
 1912 (1 vol.); O. D. Wheeler, ''Nathaniel Pitt Langford," Minnesota 
 State Historical Society, Collections, XV (1904-1914), 634^-639. 
 
Lynch Law as a National Problem 419 
 
 Madison County, Montana, delivered by Chief Justice H. L. 
 Hosmer in 1864 and 1866. Thoroughly conversant with con- 
 ditions that existed prior to the organization of competent courts, 
 Judge Hosmer gave unqualified approval to the severe measures 
 adopted by the Vigilantes for the suppression of crime, and 
 lamented the disorders that had resulted elsewhere from ''the 
 tardiness and moral obliquity of those Territories which have 
 adopted a more lenient course." None the less, he pointed out 
 with solemn warning the evils that would inevitably ensue if 
 popular tribunals persisted in a country equipped for legal 
 justice ; but instead of berating the Committees of Montana for 
 continuing their work, even after the courts had been established 
 in the territory, he expressed the conviction that their members 
 would gladly disband as soon as they saw that courts and juries 
 met the demands of their frontier society, and he gravely queried 
 whether the blame for each fresh outbreak of popular vengeance 
 might not lie at the door of his own court, or rest upon the juries 
 he impaneled. ^'^ 
 
 A later chief justice, Theodore Brantley, in reviewing the 
 judicial history of Montana, wrote of the Committee of Vigi- 
 lance :^^ 
 
 Much casuistry may be indulged in as to the right and necessity of 
 its doings. We must remember, however, that the arm of the law was 
 not strong enough to extend to the people needed protection, and that, 
 wherever it is a question, as it was then, whether peace and order shall 
 prevail over crime and lawless spoliation, society may act in its ovna. 
 defense, by the use of whatever means may be necessary to preserve its 
 life by protecting or insuring personal safety and individual rights. 
 Necessity knows no law. Whatever wrongs or mistakes may have been 
 committed by the men constituting this organization, its existence was 
 justified by the necessities of the times, and the salutary results accom- 
 plished by it, must stand as its vindication. 
 
 30 See Montana Historical Society, Contributions, V (1904), 235-252; 
 also L. E. Munson, '' Pioneer Life in Montana," ihid., 200-234. 
 
 31 See Montana Historical Society, Contributions, IV (1903), 109-121, 
 especially p. 112. Much valuable Vigilante material is preserved in that 
 historical series, and particular reference may be made to II (1896), 254; 
 III (1900), 290-295; VIII (1917), 99-104. 
 
420 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Wherever the blame rested, it was corrected but slowly. Judge 
 Brantley said that for many years public sentiment favored 
 Vigilance Committees and seemed to oppose the infliction of the 
 death penalty in all legal trials. 
 
 Trimble collected many references to Committees of Vigilance 
 in Montana, Oregon, and Idaho.^- The majority began their 
 work with a system approximating that of the Committee of San 
 Francisco. Throughout this region, however, there was a greater 
 tendency for the associations to degenerate into instruments of 
 political ambition or of private animosity, and some of them fell 
 under the well merited condemnation of the public that at first 
 supported them. 
 
 An interesting development of the American trend towards 
 extra-legal institutions took place in Louisiana in 1858 and 1859, 
 but has received little attention from other than local historians. 
 The events then enacted have been commemorated in an obscure 
 volume by Alexandre Barde,^^ a French journalist of the parish 
 of Saint-Jean-Baptiste in the district of Attakapas. As settle- 
 ments expanded after the American occupation, disorders inci- 
 dent to other frontiers appeared among the scattered villages: 
 cattle thieves ravaged the unprotected grazing land ; robbers and 
 incendiaries terrorized the growing towns ; and peaceful citizens 
 met untimely deaths at the hands of desperate marauders. 
 
 32 Trimble, Mining Advance, 242-245. Bancroft made a very inadequate 
 survey of these regions in Popular Tribunals, I, chap. Ill (see also his 
 History of Nevada, Colorado and Wyoming, 1890, 738). Cutler made scant 
 allusion to them in Lynch-Law. Material may be found in F. Fry, Fi^y's 
 Traveler's Guide, 1865, pp. 241-245; W. M. Turner, '^ Pioneer Justice in 
 Oregon," Overland Monthly, XII (1874), 224-230; T. M. Marquett, 
 ' ' Effect of Early Legislation upon the Courts of Nebraska, ' ' Nebraska 
 State Historical Society, Proceedings and Collections, ser. 2, I (1894-1895), 
 104^105; Kansas State Historical Society, Transactions X (1907-1908), 
 125, 131, 146; XI (1909-1910), 273; XIII (1913-1914), 261-262; J. E. 
 Parker, ''Pioneer Protection from Horse Thieves," AnJials of Iowa, ser. 3, 
 VI (1903), 59-62; G. F. Shafer, ''Early History of McKenzie County," 
 North Dakota State Historical Society, Collections, IV (1913), 58-61. 
 
 33 Alexandre Barde, Histoire des Comites de Vigilance aux AttaJcapas, 
 1861. See also H. L. Griffin, "Vigilance Committees of the Attakapas 
 Country," Mississippi Valley Historical Association, Proceedings, VIII 
 (1914-1915), 146-159. 
 
Lynch Law as a N\ati(mal Frohlem 421 
 
 One receives from the pages of Barde's Histoire des Comites 
 de Yigilance the impression of a people and a society very dis- 
 similar to the sturdy adventurers and the rugged communities 
 of the Western pioneers. The land itself was a gentle and 
 gracious domain, fringed with quiet bayous, shaded with noble 
 forests, and responsive to cultivation. The colonists were typi- 
 cally French in life and thought. The little hamlets clustered 
 about their simple churches, paid deference to their local cures, 
 and enjoyed more worldly pleasures with Gallic gaiety and 
 optimism. Their laws were excellent, their magistrates were 
 honorable. But the people were without traditional attachment 
 to the jury system of the American regime ; the criminals among 
 them were also of French descent, and the ties of blood were 
 powerful! When clever advocates appealed to their volatile 
 emotions they refused to convict men of their own race, and the 
 guilty went unpunished. 
 
 As a result, the district of Attakapas became a haven for 
 desperadoes and by 1859 their defiance of restraint became open 
 and intolerable. Then, by a curious affiliation with the social 
 precedents of their northern neighbors, the French population 
 which had proved itself so inept in the duties and privileges of 
 American citizenship adopted with vigor the American institu- 
 tion of organized and permanent Committees of Vigilance. One 
 after another, a circle of neighboring parishes formed these 
 Comites de Vigilance. They were instituted by men of position 
 and respectability and were based, as were the associations in 
 California, on written constitutions and regulations. Their 
 historian, however, made little or no allusion to any imitation 
 of California traditions. Suspects were ordered to leave the 
 country; the defiant were whipped, and two or three murderers 
 were executed. 
 
 Barde and his collaborators were personal friends of the 
 Vigilantes and were in thorough sympathy with their work. The 
 
422 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 episodes, however, are substantiated by many citations from the 
 contemporary press. As a source of history on the subject of 
 popular tribimals the volume deserves a place with more familiar 
 narratives ; but in using it one must be alert to detect indications 
 of an underlying antipathy to the national movement for 
 abolition as well as a determination to suppress crime. The 
 constitution of the earliest Comite, that of Cote Gelee, gave as 
 one of the objects of organization, "Surveillance rigoureuse des 
 blancs suspects dans leurs rapports avec les hommes de couleur 
 ou les esclaves d'une moralite douteuse."^* After inflicting 
 several well deserved punishments on French outlaws of par- 
 ticular depravity, the Vigilantes shifted their attention to crim- 
 inals who were emancipated Negroes, and to propagandists of 
 liberation suspected of inciting the blacks to discontent and 
 rebellion. 
 
 It is a curious circumstance in the development of our cosmo- 
 politan people that the pages of this forgotten volume, written in 
 an alien tongue by a foreign-born journalist, and descriptive of 
 a society which lacked all Anglo-Saxon inheritances, should 
 present with unexampled vividness the swift, subtle, and danger- 
 ous transformation of the popular tribunals such as had pre- 
 served order on the frontier, into intolerant associations deter- 
 mined to control public opinion and personal liberty of action 
 by the threat of punishment and death. A similar transforma- 
 tion took place elsewhere in the South and Southwest during the 
 years immediately before the Civil War. In Texas, for instance, 
 so-called Vigilance Committees were in active operation against 
 both criminals and abolitionists, while mob lynchings, without 
 any semblance of unprejudiced trial, were constantly inflicted 
 upon unpopular persons, both white and black. ^^ 
 
 34 Barde, Histoire des Comites de Vigilance, 56. 
 
 35 See Cutler, Lynch-Law, 119-124; G. P. Garrison, Texas, 1903, 214r-2,15', 
 D. H. Hardy and I. S. Koberts, Historical Eeview of South-East Texas, 1910, 
 I, 172-176, 385; J. F. Eippy, ''Border Troubles along the Eio Grande,'' 
 Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XXIII (1919), 103-104. 
 
Lynch Law as u National Problem 423 
 
 Still further removed from the tribunals of the frontier, with 
 their open trials and their public punishments, were the secret 
 protective societies of the Southern whites during the unhappy 
 days of Reconstruction, when the Knights of the White Camelia, 
 the Ghouls of the Ku Klux Klan, and their confreres of similar 
 societies, rode masked through the night and terrorized carpet- 
 bag official and incautious freedman with outrages that shocked 
 the entire land.^*^ In that tumultuous period, amid the conflicts 
 and the travail of a younger generation, there emerged such 
 varied problems and relations that the exigencies and the tradi- 
 tions of the frontier were overshadowed by new phases of national 
 development. Thereafter the West became year by year more 
 populous, better policed, less afraid of high-handed violence, and 
 less inclined to clamor for rigorous punishment of crime ; while 
 the South, demoralized and embittered by the devastation of the 
 war and confronted by the new terror of emancipated and dan- 
 gerous Negroes, demanded swift and summary retribution upon 
 every colored delinquent, and its mobs inflicted both whipping 
 and death with a recklessness and ferocity that knew no parallel 
 in the annals of the Western pioneers. ^^ 
 
 The end is not yet, for the records of every j^ear of the 
 twentieth century are stained with mob lynchings which for a 
 moment horrify the entire country and are then quickly for- 
 ofotten.-^^ 
 
 SG See J. C. Lester, and D. L. Wilson, Ku Klux Klan, ed. of 1905. A 
 report on the Ku Klux Conspiracy in 13 volumes was made by a Congres- 
 sional Committee, 1871-1872 (Cong. Docs., Ser. Nos. 1484-1496 or 1529- 
 1541). 
 
 37 One of Cutler's charts shows that from 1882 to 1903, 1997 lynch 
 executions occurred in the Southern states, and 363 in the Western, to which 
 California contributed a quota of 31 {Lyncli-Law, 184-185). 
 
 38 The study of lynching as an evidence of race hatred is particularly 
 developed in Cutler's Lynch-Law, and in reports issued periodically by the 
 Tuskegee Institute. The National Association for the Advancement of 
 Colored People is also conducting a campaign to arouse public opinion. 
 
424 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 But why must these things be ? The necessity for them is not 
 inherent in the temper of the races from which our people have 
 been amalgamated, nor in the forms of civilization which they 
 have. evolved elsewhere. Those who have studied the subject seem 
 to agree that Ijruching, as it is carried on in this country, is a 
 demonstration of group anger that is not characteristic of other 
 nations which have achieved a corresponding plane of social 
 advancement. Other communities with comparable standards 
 may be subject to riots, mob violence, and sanguinary revolutions, 
 but in the ordinary course of non-revolutionary existence they do 
 not decide the fate of suspected criminals by the verdicts of 
 popular tribunals, nor execute men, with deliberate premedita- 
 tion, in open defiance of all restraints of law and order. 
 
 Cutler stated categorically that at the time he wrote Europe 
 as a whole was free from the practice of lynching except for 
 certain customs prevalent among the peasants of Russia. ^^ Judge 
 John D. Lawson said of the administration of English law : ' ' For 
 seventy-five years, in England, Ireland, and Scotland, and in the 
 colonies of the British Empire scattered all over the world, among 
 peoples of all races and of all colors, no man 's life has been taken 
 by what we call Lynch Law. "*^ Similar assertions are often 
 repeated by both English and American writers."*^ so that, even 
 if sporadic cases of lynching might be adduced in contradiction, 
 it seems safe to assume that the accepted generalizations are 
 indicative of a fundamental difference between a social organ- 
 ization where mob executions are practically unknown and 
 
 39 Cutler, Lynch-Law, 3. 
 
 40 J. D. Lawson, ' ' Technicalities in Procedure, ' ' Journal of Criminal 
 Law, I (1910), 83-84. 
 
 41 As by William Eoberts. "Administration of Justice in America," 
 Fortnightly Review, new ser. LI (1892), 91-108; H. A. Forster, ''Do Our 
 Laws Protect Criminals? "Why the United States Leads the World in the 
 Eelative Proportion of Murders, Lynchings and Other Felonies, and Why 
 the Anglo-Saxon Countries Not under the American Flag Have the Least 
 Proportion of Murders and Felonies, and KnoAv No Lvnchings, " American 
 Law Beview, LI (1917), 239-248, especially p. 243. 
 
Lynch Law as a N\ation<il Problem 425 
 
 another social organization where mob executions are of frequent 
 occurrence. 
 
 Even upon the respective frontiers there is a contrast of 
 methods and result. In spite of the circumstance that a pioneer 
 chief justice of Montana acknowledged the necessity for popular 
 tribunals on the American frontier, a student of comparative 
 institutions must not ignore the fact that differing methods of 
 social control have protected other frontiers from such dis- 
 turbances as led in this country to the toleration of extra-legal 
 punishment of crime. 
 
 In New South Wales, for example, the authorities in 1851 
 were confronted with the problem of preserving order among the 
 thousands of miners who flocked to the newly discovered gold 
 fields. They accomplished that tremendous task by a force of 
 ten mounted troopers, under the command of a gold commis- 
 sioner who had graduated from Oxford, was a colonist of experi- 
 ence, and had been a police magistrate of Parramatta. This 
 corporal's guard of Englishmen actually 'kept the peace over 
 their whole territor}^, devised equitable and acceptable regula- 
 tions, received and transported incalculable treasure, settled 
 disputes, and gave criminals prompt trials by jury, usually on 
 the scene of their offenses. In one instance of organized 
 resistance, reinforcements were sent to their assistance and the 
 rioters dispersed, but mob law and lynching were unknown. *- 
 There were occasions of serious disorder in Victoria and resist- 
 ance to the collection of licenses. In Sydney, also, many crimes 
 of violence occurred. The San Francisco papers of 1852 spoke 
 of lynch law as "rampant" in the Victoria gold fields, ^^ and 
 Bancroft said that a Vigilance Committee was contemplated in 
 
 42 See Rolf Bolderwood, '^ Genesis of Gold-Fields Law in Australia," 
 Cornliill Magazine, new ser., Ill (1897), 612-623; A. L. Haydon, Trooper 
 Police of Australia, 1911, especially chaps. 5, 6; Henrietta Huxley, ''Gold 
 Diggings at Bathurst,'' Nineteenth Century, XLV (1899), 962-972. 
 
 43 San Francisco Herald, 1852, May 29, %, citations from the Sydney 
 Herald of Feb. 23, and the Geelong Advertiser, without exact date. 
 
426 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Sydney in 1853.** But the English colonists adopted no prac- 
 tices that were really akin to the popular tribunals of the 
 United States, and various writers plainly assert that such cus- 
 toms have never been tolerated in Australia/^ 
 
 In the gold fields of British Columbia the authorities checked 
 crime and prevented lynching, although the population was very 
 much like that of contiguous territories of the United States in 
 which was waged a long conflict with criminals before order 
 could be established. Trimble's study of coexistent conditions 
 north and south of the national boundary showed that during 
 the very days of the Vigilance Committees of Idaho and Montana, 
 the courts of British Columbia were able to achieve prompt and 
 exemplary punishment of crime and to afford adequate protec- 
 tion to life and property. "Wherever the American miners found 
 themselves on British soil they gladly acknowledged the efficiency 
 of the constituted authorities and abandoned their wonted appeal 
 to popular tribunals. The presiding judge of the British district 
 bore witness that although the miners were dominated by Cali- 
 fornia traditions, they ''manifested a great desire to see justice 
 fairly done, and great patience with the difficulties which the 
 magistrates and the judiciary have had to contend with." And 
 again: ''There was on all sides a submission to authority, a 
 recognition of the right, which, looking to the mixed nature of 
 the population, and the very large predominance of the Cali- 
 fornia element, I confess I had not expected to meet. "^"^ 
 
 Trimble's final contrast of the two systems was exceedingly 
 interesting. He said :*^ 
 
 44 Popular Tribunals, 1, 19. 
 
 45 As Edward Dowling, Australia and America in 1892, 1893, p. 58. 
 4G l^YimhlQ, Mining Advance, 154. 
 
 47 Ihid., 246-247. Directly in line with this summary of contrasting 
 systems of frontier control is an address on the general subject of lynching 
 by 0. C. Butler, who holds that the conditions which provoke such acts of 
 vengeance rarely exist under strong, centralized governments. He character- 
 izes the situations Avhich have incited the people of the United States to 
 
Lynch Law as a National Problem 427 
 
 Eeviewing in conclusion, the prominent features of the different 
 governmental forms applied under the British and under the American 
 auspices in the mining advance, we see, on the one hand, government 
 concentrated largely in the hands of an efficient executive, who made 
 laws and organized administration on summary methods; on the other, 
 representative government, under hampering conditions, working tardily 
 and painfully towards order, and meeting local or occasional reinforcement. 
 Under the former society was from the first under control, and there was 
 a tendency to restrain individuals for the benefit of society — a restraint 
 at times verging to over repression; under the latter individualism was 
 feebly controlled from above, but had to generate within itself forces of 
 order, and it tended to undue license hurtful to society. The American 
 system developed a country the more swiftly, the British the more safely. 
 Under both systems strong men labored courageously and well to adjust 
 forms of order to unorganized society. 
 
 adopt and continue popular tribunals, as ''a part of the price we pay for 
 the full measure of the liberty we enjoy," but he insists that courage and 
 intelligence may devise a cost less deadly, without forfeiting the prize of 
 freedom, or adopting the methods of despotism (''Lynching," American 
 Law Eeview, XLIV [1910], 200-220). 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 IN RETROSPECT 
 
 Lynch law in some of its later developments has been hastily 
 reviewed in the preceding chapter, for the purpose of setting 
 the local episode of the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance 
 of 1851 in its proper place as an episode of the wider national life. 
 
 The Committee of Vigilance was a confession of failure ! To 
 that extent all who have considered it hold the same opinion. 
 But the men who experienced for themselves the disordered days 
 of its existence laid the failure upon unfaithful public servants 
 who betrayed their trusts; students of a later period blamed the 
 entire body politic which permitted power to pass into incom- 
 petent or unworthy hands ; and the modern critics, grouping the 
 episode with other manifestations of nation-wide recurrence, 
 detect in it a failure of adjustment between the mechanism of 
 social organization and the stress of complex and unusual con- 
 ditions. 
 
 When we turn from the special field of California history in 
 the days of the Vigilantes to the recent studies of our national 
 institutions, we find that faults hitherto attributed to local 
 incompetency and corruption are recognized as everywhere latent 
 in our whole scheme of social control.^ Everywhere the dread 
 of autocracy has resulted in the distribution of power among 
 so many state officials that it is well-nigh impossible to hold 
 particular individuals responsible for undesirable conditions. 
 Everywhere the same distrust of centralized authority has been 
 expressed in the loose construction of local organization. Every- 
 where the people must vote for many candidates whose qualifi- 
 
 1 See references supra, % ; and Herbert Croly, Promise of American Life, 
 1909, pp. 317-324. 
 
In Retrospect 429 
 
 cations are practically unknown.^ Everywhere the political 
 machines are frequently able to place unworthy men in office. 
 Everywhere the laws most obviously fail to restrain crime by 
 prompt and effective punishment.^ Everywhere, also, there is the 
 danger that the flagrant miscarriage of justice in the courts may 
 be turned into an excuse for riot and lynching whenever the 
 American good humor and optimism give w^ay under the strain 
 of conditions that suddenly become intolerable.* 
 
 Wherever may rest the heaviest responsibility for these 
 acknowledged faults — whether in imperfect organization, or in 
 defective standards of citizenship — we are forced to admit that 
 the practices of our democracy fall far short of the ideals of 
 our people. 
 
 It must not be thought, for an instant, that the nation is 
 oblivious or indifferent to the dangers and defects which are 
 
 2 See A. M. Kales, Unpopular Government in the United States, 1914 
 pp. 25-44. ' 
 
 3 The student of early conditions in California should acquaint himself 
 with these current discussions. Valuable keys are furnished by the Index 
 to Legal Periodicals, published by the American Bar Association; Eoscoe 
 Pound, Bibliography of Procedural Eeform, 1917. See especially W. H. 
 Taft, ''Administration of Criminal Law,'' Yale Law Review, XV (1905), 
 1-17; Moorfield Story, Eeform of Legal Procedure, 1911; W. L. Eansom, 
 ''The Organization of the Courts for the Better Administration of Jus- 
 tice," Cor?! e?Z Law Quarterly, II (1917), 186-201, 261-282; "Eeport of 
 Committee on Criminal Procedure," Journal of Crimin-al Law, III (1912), 
 566-591; Julius Goebel, Jr., "Prevalence of Crime in the United States^ 
 and Its Extent Compared with That in the Leading European States," ibid 
 III (1913), 75^769; H. E. Willis, "How Shall the People of the United 
 States Reform Their Legal Procedure so as to Make It an Instrument of 
 Justice?" t&id, VI (1915), 533-543; Eoscoe Pound, "Causes of Dissatis- 
 faction with the Administration of Justice," American Bar Association, 
 Eeport, 1906, 1, pp. 395-417. 
 
 4 In a vigorous address before the District and County Attorneys Asso- 
 ciation of Texas, H. W. Sumners held the faults of legal procedure' directly 
 responsible for lynching. "The instinct of protection," he said, "is 
 deeply implanted. Men surrender the right to protect themselves and avenge 
 their wrongs to the state upon conditions, implied if not expressed, that the 
 state will protect them and punish those Avho do them injury. What if the 
 state doesn't do it?" (American Law Eeview, XLIII [1909], 455-466) 
 See also Butler, as cited, ibid., XLIV (1910), 200-220; Walter Clark "True 
 Eemedy for Lynch Law," ibid., XXVIII (1894), 801-807; Lawson, as 
 cited, Journal of Criminal Law, I (1910), 63-85. 
 
430 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 asserting themselves with such frequency and boldness. Far 
 from it! The daily papers, the popular periodicals, the profes- 
 sional journals consider them with the most serious attention, 
 learned societies investigate them, national congresses meet to 
 discuss them, schools of social scientists conduct experiments in 
 reform. Some strive to elevate the moral standards of the 
 average man to the point where he will be stimulated to a faith- 
 ful discharge of all his civic duties. Some seek to reduce the 
 duties of citizenship to the point where the average man can 
 faithfully discharge them without a ruinous sacrifice of his 
 personal interests. Some would increase the power and the 
 responsibility of the specialist and the expert, and some would 
 fetter the hands of efficiency lest they serve the greed of private 
 selfishness. Some are demanding that all questions of import- 
 ance should be decided by the direct verdict of a majority of the 
 sovereign people, and some are discussing the legitimate rights 
 of the minority and asking what might be a workable definition 
 of majority rule when for a moment the social group should 
 consist of one honest traveler and two footpads.^ 
 
 In California in 1849 and 1850 the strain to which the fabric 
 of American life is always liable was raised to the iV*'' power. 
 There was no local background of American tradition, and there 
 was an unusual admixture of aliens who were entirely unpre- 
 pared for the privileges and the duties of self-government. 
 Many of these were actively vicious or constitutionally lazy, 
 and differed radically from the tj^pe of ambitious peasant who 
 came from Europe to America with the expectation of returning 
 honest labor for the rewards of prosperity. Even with the 
 American majority wonted standards of citizenship were greatly 
 
 5 See L. A. Lawrence, Public Opinion and Popular Government, 1913, 
 pp. 9-13. It is interesting to recall that Francis Lieber queried whether in 
 defining liberty the emphasis should be laid on effectuating the will of the 
 majority or on protecting the rights of the minority (On Civil Liberty and 
 Self -Government, ed. of 1891, p. 31). 
 
In Retrospect 431 
 
 affected by the absence of the normal restraints of domestic life, 
 by the general anticipation of return to an Eastern home, and 
 by the intense preoccupation in business of a highly speculative 
 nature. 
 
 Owing to the confusion existing over land titles and the 
 peculiar climatic conditions of the country, the people did not 
 attach themselves to the soil, but fluctuated between the placers 
 and the towns, with constant and rapid changes of residence, 
 while the individual settlements had little chance to develop that 
 stabilized public opinion which is the foundation of order under 
 a democratic government. Nevertheless, in spite of the absence 
 of such a constructive spirit within the social groups, and 
 regardless of the fact that they were quite inexperienced in 
 corporate life, the county communities were still entrusted with 
 the heavy responsibilities involved in local autonomy, and the 
 state was not equipped with any machinery whatever that could 
 restrain their eccentricities oi- correct their mistakes.^ The courts 
 themselves were more or less subject to control by the local 
 electorate, and they were at the same time bound and hampered 
 by those rigid rules of technical procedure that had become 
 an acknowledged evil in the administration of justice throughout 
 the nation. 
 
 Many older communities entrenched within bulwarks of 
 American tradition and enlightened in the duties of citizenship 
 have capitulated to the demagogue and the perjurer. Who, then, 
 can be surprised that the reckless stripling of the West, tolerant, 
 sanguine, and self-absorbed, should have been worsted by the same 
 insidious foes. And in truth the selfish and the lawless were not 
 slow to avail themselves of every opportunity they detected in the 
 situation. Adroit and ambitious politicians swiftly accomplished 
 the organization of efficient machines which became permanent 
 
 e'^Republieanism, here, may be literally said to have run mad, so 
 ridiculously incapable is it of exercising control over the masses" (Prino-le 
 Sham, Eamhlings in California [ca. 1860], 69). ^ * 
 
432 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 factors beneath the more shifting currents of commercial life. 
 Expert criminals weighed the spoils of pillage against the costs 
 of trials, robbed and murdered as they pleased, and paid expert 
 counsel to entangle the courts in such a maze of technicalities 
 that conviction was impossible and the fear of punishment 
 deterred no man from the indulgence of his predatory impulses. 
 
 Such influences, and many others, combined to emphasize 
 every weakness inherent in the political system, to accentuate 
 every disruptive force in the community, and to create a situation 
 where the latent menace to the welfare of a group was quickly 
 translated into an obvious menace to a large number of particular 
 individuals. 
 
 These endangered individuals had been trained by all the 
 emergencies of the tumultuous life about them to act quickly 
 rather than cautiously, and to decide the most momentous issues 
 of life and death by the light of their own judgment or the hasty . 
 vote of a small circle of associates. Unhesitating and intrepid 
 action, prompted by absolute self-confidence, was the only key 
 to success in California and from the moment the immigrant set 
 foot within the state he seemed vitalized with a spirit that 
 removed mountains in hand barrows, raised cities with the swift- 
 ness of magic, and conceived railroad projects that staggered the 
 imagination of the nation. "To say that it was a period of 
 intense excitement does not describe it," remarked one of the 
 pioneers concerning the spirit of '49. ''It was a raging, seething, 
 red hot pandemonia, [sic] in which men struggled to accomplish 
 their purpose in the shortest possible time. "^ 
 
 Faced with the defiant triumph of lawlessness and crime, 
 these men who had been schooled in audacity did not establish 
 learned societies to analyze their social situation, nor summon a 
 national congress to suggest remedies for their peril. 
 
 Thej^ experimented ! 
 
 7 C. R. Street, ^ ' Crossing the Plains in '49, ' ' in Associated Pioneers of 
 the Territorial Days, Sixteenth Annual Meeting, 1891, p. 24. 
 
In Retrospect 433 
 
 Their experiments, embodied in the Committee of Vigilance 
 of 1851, were based on a modification of the precedents of the 
 unorganized frontier, and an application of the resultant methods 
 to a society already organized and equipped with the machinery 
 of representative government. They were, to say the least, crude 
 and radical. They were destructive of personal liberty, they 
 inflicted punishment without due process of law, yet they were 
 tolerated by the community because of the general desire for 
 effective protection, and the general recognition of the good 
 sense and sinceritj^ of the Vigilantes.^ 
 
 In a curious fashion they suggest some of the modern attempts 
 at political reform. Popular participation in the affairs of 
 government, now legalized in certain matters by methods of 
 initiative and referendum, was then illegally forced upon the 
 judicial department of San Francisco by the action of the Com- 
 mittee and the assent of the community. The object now attained 
 by the process of recall was then effected by the expedient of 
 taking over the work of the police officers and magistrates who 
 had failed to preserve order. An approximation to the funda- 
 mental idea of a commission form of government was developed 
 in the various departments of the Executive Committee, with 
 their subordination of responsibility to a few influential officers. 
 A state-wide detective and police agency was instituted by the sub- 
 committees for the pursuit and arrest of criminals. The Gordian 
 knot of technicalities was severed by the admission of all evidence 
 at its face value and the elimination of the privilege of appeal. 
 Finally, the emancipation of municipal politics from party 
 control was attempted when members of the Committee con- 
 ducted an independent and effective campaign at the local 
 election. 
 
 8 ' < Lynch law in some of its manifestations is a form of private initia- 
 tive in the enforcement of law, where the ordinary official machinery for its 
 enforcement has broken down or is manifestly inefficient, though this 
 method of law enforcement is, of course, at the same time a violation of 
 law" (Mathews, State Administration, 414). 
 
434 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 If we compare the work accomplished by the Committee of 
 Vigilance of 1851 with the purpose that incited its formation, 
 we are compelled to characterize it as successful. Under its stern 
 rule the city was for a time delivered from the reign of violence 
 and from the terror of incendiary fires, and the state was so 
 swifty rid of the cutthroats and robbers of the Stuart gang that 
 many other brigands took warning from the experiences of that 
 outlaw brotherhood. All this was accomplished with few exhibi- 
 tions of disorder or riot, and no man suffered at the hands of the 
 Committee a punishment heavier than the law imposed for the 
 crimes of which he had been proved guilty. The members of the 
 Committee felt no shame in acknowledging their work while they 
 still ranged themselves under the symbol of the Watchful Eye, 
 nor in later years when they reviewed their services as Vigilantes, 
 and the community which had welcomed their protection in time 
 of need never repudiated their efforts after the emergency had 
 passed. 
 
 Yet the Committee of Vigilance was a confession of failure, 
 as is every political scandal, every parody of justice, every 
 lynching throughout the country. It was not, necessarily, the 
 failure of the people to use with honest endeavor the social tools 
 ■within their grasp, but their failure to perfect the full equipment 
 of tools required in their task of self-government. The realiza- 
 tion of a similar failure is today stirring the whole nation to 
 constructive criticism and to strenuous experimentation. 
 
 One of the vital and perplexing problems of the hour is the 
 control of the constantly recurring mob clamor for illegal exe- 
 cutions. Each act of lawless lynching is sternly condemned by 
 the country at large, and is usually defended by local champions 
 on the ground of special and urgent necessity. In discussing the 
 subject it has been said :^ 
 
 Forster, as cited, American Law Beview, LI (1917), 239-248. 
 
In Retrospect 435 
 
 To understand popular tribunals and lynchings, the attitude of the 
 vigilantes and their responsible supporters and neighbors is of more 
 weight than that of the outlaws or the formal legalistic critics of the 
 vigilantes who confine their activity to destructive criticism and make 
 no attempt to remedy the underlying causes that have led to popular 
 tribunals, popular justice or extra legal criminal justice in forty-four 
 of our forty-nine continental states and territories. 
 
 It is doubtful if there exist any records in which the ' ' attitude 
 of the Vigilantes and their responsible supporters" can be more 
 thoroughly studied than in the archives of the Committee of 
 Vigilance, which in this volume have been given a concrete sum- 
 mary and a background of local history. The acts of that illegal 
 tribunal were deliberate and cautious, they were quite removed 
 from the influence of racial antagonism between black and white, 
 and they made no sentimental appeal on the ground of punishing 
 revolting crimes against women. Taken as a whole they present 
 a series of episodes in which a well defined national tendency 
 can be reviewed with extraordinary fullness and unbiased judg- 
 ment. 
 
 It seems almost an injustice to associate even remotely the 
 self-restrained members of the Committee of Vigilance with a 
 blood-crazed mob that reverts to the vengeance of savages, and 
 some of the differences between them are absolutely fundamental.. 
 It is unquestionably true that the precedents established by the 
 San Francisco Committee of Vigilance have led other unorganized 
 communities to interpose a quasi-representative and permanent 
 body of responsible men between defiant outlaws and an out- 
 raged public, and to effect salutary punishment of crime with a 
 minimum of disorder and cruelty.^^ But it is equally true that 
 
 10 An interesting article by George Kennan entitled ''A Eussian Experi- 
 ment in Self -Government, " seems to invoke the very specters of the Vigi- 
 lantes in an account of the '^Amur California," in a No Man's Land of 
 Manchurian gold fields. The placers were discovered in 1883 and were 
 quickly thronged with cosmopolitan miners and escaped Siberian convicts. 
 Pandemonium resulted, and after tentative experiments a popular organiza- 
 tion was effected in February, 1885: organic laws were adopted, ofl&cials 
 
436 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 the very restraint of the members of the Committee of San Fran- 
 cisco, the wide scope of their work, and the tolerance accorded 
 to them by a large and intelligent center of population have 
 tended to endow with the dignity of an accepted national insti- 
 tution those emergency methods which the Vigilantes borrowed 
 from revolutionary or pioneer communities. Even now their 
 example is often cited by restive and irresponsible members of 
 well established societies who in times of supposed crisis are 
 moved to express hysterical racial antagonism or sporadic protest 
 against the chronic shortcomings of their judicial system. 
 
 From whatever angle it may be viewed, the fact must be 
 recognized that the work of the Committee of Vigilance was too 
 spectacular to sink into oblivion, and that it still exercises a 
 distinct influence upon the popular mind. It has therefore 
 seemed important that its history should be presented in detail, 
 based on the authentic records of its daily doings, stripped as 
 far as might be possible of false glamour and false condemnation, 
 and fairly related to the causes which engendered it. 
 
 The body of men who styled themselves the Committee of 
 Vigilance of San Francisco were men who believed in the su- 
 premacy of law. Many of them had extemporized law when 
 denied the ordinary protection of established society and had 
 formulated law when the opportunity for self-organization ar- 
 rived. They had appointed representatives to execute the law, 
 after the manner of American citizens, and no survey of their 
 work has yet proved that as citizens they consciously betrayed 
 their city and state to violence and corruption. But when the 
 laws they had created failed to protect them from the onslaughts 
 
 chosen, and the penalties of death and flogging were administered with rigor. 
 Order was quickly enforced, and for nearly a year the isolated republic 
 conducted its own affairs with marked success, but perished in a week before 
 a hostile movement of the Chinese government, which saw with apprehension 
 the introduction of unwelcome neighbors and customs upon its borderland 
 {Atlantic Monthly, LXXX [1897], 494^507). 
 
In Retrospect 437 
 
 of criminals, they put the immediate welfare of the community 
 above their allegiance to the formulated laws, and did to the 
 outlaws among them the things that seemed right in their own 
 eyes. 
 
 That, as I understand it, was the spirit of the men who 
 constituted the Committee of Vigilance. It is not a spirit which 
 has been confined to a single decade of United States history, 
 to a single section of the frontier, or even to the whole frontier 
 region as distinguished from the areas of denser population. Of 
 whatever vice or virtue it may be the outward and visible sign, 
 it is a spirit which is still alive in the land, and with which 
 reckoning must be made by those entrusted with the responsi- 
 bilities of social leadership. It is capable of developing tremen- 
 dous dynamic energy, and under provocation will assert itself 
 with destructive ferocity unless restrained by physical force. 
 
 But the curbing of this spirit, which has manifested itself 
 from the time of the Regulators to the yesterdays of 1920, is not 
 so much a matter of heavy-handed restraint as of the elimination 
 of provocation. The realization of the fact that such men as 
 Stuart, Adams, and Jimmy from Town, time and again defied 
 the people in their very courts created the impulse that moved 
 Brannan and Bluxome and Coleman and Payran to teach those 
 rascals a wholesome fear of the wrath of the community, and 
 made the men of San Francisco listen with stern approval to 
 the tapping of the Monumental bell. The realization of the fact 
 that the most vicious criminal can today evade swift and certain 
 punishment creates the impulse that now draws within the circle 
 of lynchers men, and even women, whose lives are normally 
 gentle and humane. If that conviction were destroyed, the will 
 to lynch might remain as a social danger, but it would be so 
 universally condemned by the better element of the people that 
 both preventive and punitive measures might be adopted for its 
 suppression. 
 
438 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 It is not the province of the historian of the Committee of 
 Vigilance to prophesy what steps must be taken before the people 
 may regard their political institutions as safeguards against cor- 
 ruption, and their courts as temples of justice rather than as 
 sanctuaries for the fugitive from righteous punishment. In this 
 Year of the Independence of the United States one hundred and 
 fortj^-five the precedents of the past are not to be accepted as 
 unerring guide posts towards the future development of Amer- 
 ican democracy. Old issues are swiftly sinking into oblivion, 
 and new problems are arising that will test afresh the elasticity 
 of our institutions and the temper of our people. But in spite 
 of every failure of our political system, in spite of civic lassitude, 
 in spite of standards of thought and action divergent from the 
 past, in spite of commercial greed, of evasion of laws, of mob 
 frenzy and brutal lynchings, one may say with confidence that 
 our people still strive to carry on within the borders of their 
 land the unending struggle between the constructive and de- 
 structure forces of society. For this reason no effort is wasted 
 or ill-advised that seeks to set clearly before their minds the 
 actions and reactions which transmute subtle and primary 
 elements into the visible phenomena of their daily lives. 
 
 The Committee of Vigilance of 1851 was a phenomenon that 
 has been visible and familiar to every reader of California his- 
 tory, but its vital significance has largely been obscured by its 
 atmosphere of picturesque melodrama and its detachment from 
 historical criticism. It was the confession of the failure of aver- 
 age men to control the unusually disruptive forces in their special 
 community by the restraining influences of the form of govern- 
 ment commonly practiced in the United States. It was also an 
 experiment in correction, reflecting existing theories of popular 
 sovereignty, and forecasting less explosive experiments of a later 
 day. For a short time its influence in San Francisco and in 
 California was undoubtedly productive of public quiet and 
 
In Retrospect 439 
 
 safety. When another and more acute crisis arose in San Fran- 
 cisco in 1856, the framework of the Committee of 1851 formed 
 the nucleus of a much larger body which brought under the 
 discipline of its secret tribunal men of power and influence, and 
 established practical and permanent political reforms. In other 
 pioneer communities, as Colorado, Montana, and Nevada, the 
 exercise of lynch law common to all the American frontier bor- 
 rowed from the precedents set by the San Francisco Committee 
 of Vigilance a decorum of procedure, and an element of restraint 
 that prevented some of the worst evils incident to such an irre- 
 sponsible code. 
 
 But with all this to its credit, the Committee of Vigilance 
 was not a beacon light on the pathway of constructive reform; 
 and as an experiment the real force of its lesson has been ob- 
 scured, because the lawlessness and danger of its methods have 
 diverted its critics from attention to the inherent weakness of 
 organization that originally caused the breakdown of govern- 
 ment in California. More than this — it must also be acknowl- 
 edged that as an influence in American life surviving the emerg- 
 encies of unprotected frontiers, the Committee, itself, became a 
 menace to organized society, for the sincerity of the men who 
 formed it, and the partial if temporary success of their efforts 
 have diverted many of their admirers from a true valuation of 
 the destructive measures which they employed. Yet in view of 
 our own experiences in inefficiency, and our laborious and pro- 
 crastinating efforts at improvement, it seems fair to place the 
 emphasis of sig-nificance on the structural weakness and conse- 
 quent breakdown of a social system rather than on the errors 
 of those who experimented with readjustment. 
 
 Whatever might be the meed of praise or censure that the 
 world should pass upon their deeds, the Vigilantes awaited the 
 verdict unflinchingly, meeting with open faces the friends and 
 foes upon their city streets, and setting their names to the records 
 
440 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 of their work, that men in other places and in other days might 
 read and understand. They usurped power, but they exercised 
 it without tyranny. They avenged crime, but they did so with- 
 out cruelty. They disregarded the laws which had been formu- 
 lated for the public good, but they felt themselves bound in 
 solemn responsibility to the people who, behind those laws, repre- 
 sented to their minds the symbol of ultimate sovereignty. 
 
 To that self-imposed responsibility they were consistently 
 faithful. They appealed unto the People. Let the People take 
 warning from their errors, but give tribute to their sincerity 
 and daring. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 
 
 The following notes have been compiled from accessible sources,i with 
 the purpose of showing the type of men who made up the rank and file 
 of the Committee of Vigilance of 1851. Members of particular prominence 
 are mentioned in the chapter on organization, and many more might be 
 noted with interest and profit if the limits of this volume permitted. It 
 would be a valuable addition to the archives of the Committee if relatives 
 of Vigilantes would contribute biographical data to be filed with the 
 original documents in the Bancroft Library. 
 
 The names are arranged in the order of signature to the constitution. 
 A second number printed in brackets indicates a variation in the identi- 
 fication number used by the sergeant-at-arms (see supra, p. 192 note 10). 
 
 5. Of George J. Oakes we know little, except that he was a member of 
 the firm of Endicott, Green and Oakes, was a foreman of the Empire 
 Engine Company Number 1 (Broderick's), that he served on the Executive 
 Committee until the date of his death, October 26 or 27, 1851, and that 
 the Committee sent to his mother an eloquent letter of condolence which was 
 probably the most gentle document indited ''In behalf of the Committee 
 of Vigilance of San Francisco." The fire companies and the Vigilantes 
 paraded at his funeral, and the rooms of the Committee were draped in 
 mourning in deference to his memory (Papers, 681-686; Herald, 1851, 
 Oct. 28-30). 
 
 9. James C. Ward, a former member of Stevenson's Eegiment, served 
 on the Executive Committee and sometimes filled the place of secretary or 
 chairman. In 1854 he acted as president of the San Francisco and Mission 
 Plank Road (Herald, April 27). At a later period he was a notary public, 
 and became quite wealthy. Swasey said he was a man of education, and 
 possessed some literary ability (Early Days, 272). In 1878 he published 
 his ''Recollections" in the San Francisco Argonaut. He died in Massa- 
 chusetts in 1883. 
 
 1 The Constitution and By-Laws of the Society of California Pioneers, 
 as revised in 1912, has been followed for dates of arrival in California, 
 and the California Blue Bool: for 1907 has furnished records of members 
 of the state legislature. Other sources of information are mentioned in 
 the text. 
 
442 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 12. The name of E. S. Watson, of Macondray and Company, made 
 little impression on the archives of the Committee. Josiah Royce knew him 
 in later years, and learned interesting details of the Jansen affair, of Feb- 
 ruary, 1851, and of the inception of the Committee of Vigilance. Watson, 
 under the pseudonym of * 'Justice," made the stirring suggestions in the 
 Alia of June 8, that greatly promoted the organization of the Committee 
 (see infra, p. 456, and Royce, California, 412-421). His ideals of duty may 
 be inferred from the fact that he risked his life, on a stormy day, to deliver 
 the anchor he had promised to a departing vessel (Knower, Adventures, 
 131). 
 
 14. Edward A. King, a sea captain, arrived in California in November, 
 1846. He was successively an agent for underwriters, a lumber dealer in 
 Monterey in 1848, and harbor master of San Francisco in 1849. A copy 
 of a table of arrivals made from his records for the Society of Pioneers 
 furnishes valuable and unique statistics for the period of his administration 
 (see supra, p. 123; Bancroft, California, IV, 700. The register of the 
 Society of California Pioneers corrects Bancroft's date of arrival). 
 
 24 [20]. James T. Ryan was prominently identified with lumber inter- 
 ests in Humboldt County, where he was a partner of James R. Duff, Vigi- 
 lante number 169. He served as a Democratic state senator, 1860 and 
 1861, and died at Vallejo, February 6, 1875 (Carr, Pioneer Days, 442; San 
 Francisco Chronicle, 1915, Oct. 3, Magazine p. 6). 
 
 26 [22]. George H. Howard was a Democratic assemblyman, 1865-1866. 
 
 35 [31]. James F. Curtis, a native of Boston, and a '^ Territorial 
 Pioneer" of 1850, was a partner of J. D. Farwell (see note on Farwell, 
 number 89). He assisted in arresting the first prisoner of the Committee 
 of Vigilance, served on the Executive Committee, and was active in the 
 reorganization of 1856. Subsequently he was for two years chief of police 
 in San Francisco. He became a brigadier general in the Federal army in 
 the Civil War, and commanded the national guard of Idaho during the riots 
 at the Coeur d'Alene mines in 1892 (Alia California, 1858, November 7 %; 
 8%; 11 %] 1877, Aug. 27 Vq', Popular Tribunals, II, Index; G. E. French, 
 ''Coeur d^Alene Riots," Overland Monthly, ser. 2, XXVI (1895), 32-40; 
 biographical note, ibid, 109). 
 
 44 [40]. James C. L. Wadsworth was bom in Litchfield, Connecticut, 
 and came to California in 1847, as a sutler in Stevenson's Regiment. In 
 1848 and 1849 he worked in the southern mines, then established himself 
 in business in Stockton and was elected second alcalde in the spring of 
 1849. Later he engaged in banking in San Francisco. He was a member 
 of Broderick's fire company and was one of the first to suggest the forma- 
 tion of the Society of California Pioneers. Later he held important posi- 
 tions in Nevada mining companies, was appointed secretary to the State 
 Board of Harbor Commissioners in California in 1883, and subsequently 
 
Biographical Notes 443 
 
 served as a commissioner of insurance. He was a staunch Democrat, a loyal 
 Union man, and a prominent Mason. He dictated a brief statement Avhicli 
 has a place in the Bancroft collections (Swasey, Early Days, 242-245; Alta, 
 1864, April 13 i/i; San Francisco Call, 1883, March 22 % ; 23 %). 
 
 55 [51]. Dr. Victor J. Fourgeaud was born in Charleston, South Caro- 
 lina, February 1, 1816. He was educated in France and in South Carolina 
 (Swasey, Early Days, 274). He undertook the overland trip in 1847, and 
 had the courage to take with him his wife and child. He published several 
 descriptions of California which may be called the first steps in the 
 advertisement of the state (Eldredge, California, III, 181-182. Extracts 
 reprinted in l7i Memoriam [of] Dr. Victor J. Fourgeaud, by the Society 
 of California Pioneers). One of the earliest authoritative announcements 
 of the discovery of gold was made in a long article on the advantages of 
 California which he published in the California Star, April 1, 1848, but 
 the author's career as a miner was quickly terminated by illness. He Avas 
 conspicuous in the rising against the Hounds, but took no important part 
 in the activities of the Committee of Vigilance, although his early member- 
 ship gives interesting proof of the attitude towards the society of a quiet, 
 scholarly man whose family was already in the city. He was a Republican 
 member of the state assembly in 1857. Obituary, Alia, 1875, Jan. 3 %. 
 
 83 [79]. Jesse Seligman, was senior member of a firm of importers, 
 and subsequently established a banking house (Colville's Directory, 1856; 
 Eldredge, California, V, 446). 
 
 89 [85]. James D. Farwell and his partner, James F. Curtis (number 
 35) were merchants. They suffered in the fire of May, 1851, but were 
 not ruined, because their store was built over the water, and in anticipation 
 of such a catastrophe, they always kept lighters alongside, and so salvaged 
 most of their stock before the building was destroyed. Farwell was not 
 an important member of the Committee of '51, but played a larger role in 
 that of '56, which he entered as a ''sacred duty" although conscious of 
 the heavy responsibility assumed by such a defiance of established law (see 
 his MS Statement; Popular Tribunals, Index). 
 
 92 [88]. Jacob Primer Leese was a representative of the old regime, 
 as he arrived in California in 1833, was naturalized as a Mexican citizen, 
 married a daughter of the Vallejo family, and was the father of Rosalia, 
 the first white child born in Yerba Buena» He was alcalde of Sonoma in 
 1844-1845, acted as a sub-agent for Larkin in 1846, and was elected in 1847 
 as a member of the Sonoma town council. He was a bold man, but had 
 little education and ultimately lost the fortune he had made in trade and 
 mining, as well as that inherited by his wife (Bancroft, California, IV, 
 710-711; Annals, 171; Leese, ''Reminiscences," Alia, 1865, March 30, p. 1). 
 
 107 [105]. Henry F. Teschemacher came to California from Boston in 
 1842. His work as a member of the Executive Committee was inconspicuous. 
 
444 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 but he became a man of wealth and sufficiently important in the city to 
 serve as president of the board of supervisors from 1859 to 1861, and as 
 mayor, 1862 to 1863. Much of his later life was spent in foreign travel. 
 Bancroft found surprisingly little record of so prominent a pioneer {Califor- 
 nia, V, 745. See also, Swasey, Early Bays, 270; Alta, 1863, July 2 %', 
 obituary, San Francisco Chronicle, 1904, Nov. 29 i%). 
 
 116 [115]. William H. Graham was a man of notable pugnacity. In 
 January, 1851, he had fought a duel with William Walker, one of the 
 editors of the Herald (Alta, Jan. 14 %). For this he was tried and 
 acquitted (Herald, Aug. 11 %). On July first the Herald printed in its 
 advertising columns the following: 
 
 Card. — Old Alcalde's Building, west side of Portsmouth Square, 
 July 1, 1851. 
 
 I hereby post and publish George Frank Lemon as a scoundrel, 
 villain, liar and poltroon, and declare him to be out of the pale of 
 gentlemen's society. 
 
 William H. Graham. 
 
 The issue of July 3 noted that the editor understood that Mr. Graham was 
 doing very well, and though suffering much from his wounds was entirely 
 out of danger. Later allusions showed that this encounter was a rather 
 plebeian street fight that resulted in arrest for assault with intent to kill 
 (Herald, July 26 %-, Sept. 14 %). The ethics of the code were finally 
 observed in a pistol duel at Benicia, where at the seventh round Graham 
 satisfied his honor by slightly wounding his antagonist (Herald, Sept. 15 %). 
 Fortunately the truculent gentleman developed no quarrel within the ranks 
 of the Committee. 
 
 126 [125]. Owen P. Sutton was born in 1821 in the state of New York. 
 He arrived in California in April, 1849, mined for a time, and then estab- 
 lished himself in business in San Francisco. He was vice-president of the 
 Democratic mass meeting held October 25, 1849. When his firm was burned 
 out in the fire of May, 1851, their loss was estimated at $125,000. From 
 1853 to 1858 he was an appraiser of the port, and in 1863 he was a member 
 of the state assembly. He died September 1, 1881 (Annals, 236; San Fran- 
 cisco Call, 1890, Sept. 8 %. 
 
 129 [128]. Alfred J. Ellis was born in New York in 1816. He came 
 to San Francisco in April, 1847, after some years in New Zealand and the 
 Pacific islands. He was a member of the popular legislative assembly in 
 San Francisco in the spring of 1849, took part in the trial of the Hounds, 
 joined the California Guard, was elected to the ayuntamiento in August, 
 and was a delegate to the constitutional convention. He was an active 
 member of the Executive Committee of the Committee of Vigilance but 
 resigned in November, 1851, as a sequel to his election to the legislature. 
 In 1852 he received seventeen votes as a delegate to the presidential con- 
 
Biographical Notes 445 
 
 vention of the Whig party (Swasey, Early Days, 272; Davis, Political Con- 
 ventions, 16; obituary, San Francisco Call, 1883, July 30 %). 
 
 132 [131]. Captain Henry M. Naglee, a native of Philadelphia, was a 
 graduate of the Military Academy at West Point. Although he was engaged 
 in civil pursuits at the outbreak of the Mexican War, he came to California 
 as a captain in Stevenson's Regiment, and distinguished himself in active 
 service in Lower California. In January, 1849, he opened the first banking 
 house in San Francisco, but was obliged to suspend payment in a financial 
 panic, September, 1850. He took no active part in the business of the Com- 
 mittee until near the close of its existence. He received a commission as 
 brigadier general of volunteers in the Civil War, and after his return to 
 California at its close, made a great success in the culture of wine grapes, 
 the manufacture of brandy, and the development of the agriculture of the 
 Santa Clara Valley. In politics he was a Democrat (Swasey, Early Days, 
 219-229; Annals, 289; Love Life of Brig. Gen. Henry M. Naglee, 1867). 
 
 136 [135]. Alfred L. Tubbs was a member of the state senate, 1865- 
 1868. 
 
 144 [142]. Thomas K. Battelle was of a different type. At the time 
 of the first fire, December 24, 1849, his gambling saloon was destroyed, and 
 while the city was still blazing he rented another building, extinguished the 
 flames that already threatened it, and opened for business without delay. 
 In 1850 he was an assistant fire engineer in the volunteer department. Dur- 
 ing the term of the Committee of Vigilance he was proprietor of the Pioneer 
 Club House and furnished refreshments, more or less spirituous in their 
 composition, to his fellow Vigilantes (Annals, 617; Schenck, MS Statement, 
 49-50; notice of his departure from San Francisco, Alta, 1855, June 16 %). 
 
 155 [153]. J. Mead Huxley came to California in Stevenson's Regiment 
 and again volunteered for military duty during the Civil War, when he 
 served as a commissioned ofiicer (Bancroft, California, III, 792). 
 
 157 [155]. Charles Minturn arrived in San Francisco in October, 1849. 
 He engaged in the commission business, was an alderman in 1850, and acted 
 as agent for Sacramento steamers. An attempt to rob his office has been 
 described on page 312 {Annals, 273; Kimball's Directory, 1850). 
 
 169 [167]. James R. Duff came from Boston around Cape Horn and 
 arrived in San Francisco in July, 1849. Three days of hard work in the 
 mines prostrated him with sunstroke, and he returned to San Francisco 
 and started business as a contractor and builder, forming a partnership 
 with James T. Ryan (number 24). His interesting account of one of the 
 most exciting episodes of '51 is incorporated in an earlier chapter (see 
 supra, p. 300). So far as he could ascertain he was the last survivor of 
 the Committee of 1851. He died at the age of ninety-two, on August 9, 
 1917 (Carr, Pioneer Days, 442; San Francisco Chronicle, 1915, Oct. 3, Maga- 
 zine p. 6). 
 
446 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 170 [176]. James Dows arrived from New York in December, 1849, 
 and established himself in a wholesale liquor business. It is said that his 
 safe was robbed by the Sydney thieves of about $10,000 before the organ- 
 ization of the Committee of Vigilance. He was a straightforward, sincere 
 and capable man, and was blessed with a saving gift of humor. Coleman 
 said that at one time the Committee was discussing the fate of a Mexican 
 boy charged with theft, and each speaker was limited to a single period of 
 five minutes. While the prisoner 's life hung in the balance, Dows, who had 
 already addressed the chair, gained the floor by a subterfuge and drawled 
 out: ** Gentlemen, I do not wish to fatigue you; I beg merely to say that 
 it takes no longer to hang a man than to whip one. ' ' The resulting laugh 
 cleared the atmosphere, and the culprit was released with a reprimand (MS 
 Statement, 26-27). Dows did good service in both Committees, and suits 
 were brought against him as a sequel to his actions in '56 {Popular 
 Tribunals, I, 377-378; II, 127, 613-617). 
 
 172 [169]. John O. Earl, and his brother, 
 
 173 [170]. E. M. Earl, from New Jersey, were pioneers of 1849. Their 
 business was burned out in the two fires that occurred in May, 1850 and 
 1851. Neither were conspicuous in '51, but John was active in the reorgan- 
 ization of '56. He was interested in the establishment of San Francisco 
 schools, was a well-known Mason, and so loyal to the Union that he left 
 the Democratic party and joined the Eepublican after the outbreak of the 
 Civil War (Phelps, Contemporary Biography, II, 311-314). 
 
 176 [177]. George H. Blake was a Democratic assemblyman in 1853. 
 
 178 [176]. James Neall, Jr. arrived in May, 1849, and remained in 
 San Francisco as a merchant. He dictated for Bancroft many interesting 
 reminiscences of the early days and a most valuable account of the first 
 steps in the formation of the Committee of Vigilance, although, strange to 
 say, his name does not appear in the documents, except upon the roll of 
 members (see infra, pp. 457-458). 
 
 188. Charles V. Gillespie, a native of New York, came with his wife 
 to San Francisco in February, 1848, after seventeen years of voyaging 
 between New YcPrk and China, and in Oriental waters. He took charge 
 of the Leidesdorff estate shortly after his arrival, and in September, 1848, 
 he served on a conmiittee to petition Congress for a mint. Bancroft 
 described him as a quiet, intellectual man, who did more important work 
 in '56 than in the earlier organization. He dictated a Statement for the 
 Bancroft collection, but it touches very briefly on the work of '51 {Popular 
 Tribunals, II, 130; Robinson, Calif ornia and Its Gold EegioTis, Appendix, 
 p. 126). 
 
 194. Andrew J. Grayson, from Louisiana, brought his wife and child 
 to California in an overland wagon train of 1846. He served as a lieutenant 
 in Fremont's Mounted Eiflemen, but was stationed in San Francisco during 
 
BiogTaphioal Notes 4:^1 
 
 hostilities, and at their close he opened a stationery store in the town. He 
 was one of the many unnamed participants in the work of the Committee. 
 In later life he gained scientific renown as an ornithologist. Swasey spoke 
 with admiration of his fine physique, abstemious habits and scholarly 
 education. He died in Mazatlan in 1869 (Swasey, Early Days, 209-210; 
 Bancroft, California, III, 764). 
 
 193. F. C. Bennett may have been the Francis C. Bennett elected one 
 of the city assessors in May, 1850, and a Whig assemblyman, in the second 
 legislature, 1851 {Annals, 273). 
 
 196. Jean Jacques Vioget, a Swiss, had been in California since 1837. 
 He made the first survey of San Francisco. He was also a sailor and a 
 hotel keeper of some skill, spoke several languages and loved music. He 
 removed from San Francisco and was granted leave from the Committee in 
 February, 1852 (Bancroft, California, V, 764). 
 
 199. George H. Hossefross w^as a pioneer of 1849. He was elected 
 to the Executive Committee towards the close of activities in 1852, and 
 renewed his connection wdth the association in 1856. He served as chief 
 of the united San Francisco engine companies in 1852 and 1853 {Popular 
 Tribunals, II, 474; Annals, 618; Alta, 18o3, Sept. 14 %; Oct. 16 %; obit- 
 uary, Alta, 1864, March 19-21; sketches. Argonaut, 1877, June 23 %; San 
 Francisco Call, 1890, Dec. 22 %; Pendleton, Exempt Firemen, 10, portrait). 
 
 228. Cyrus Palmer was born in Maine in 1828. He arrived in San 
 Francisco in August, 1849, and for three years was connected with the 
 business of Macondray and Company, but later established wdth his brother 
 an important foundry of their own. He aided in organizing the first fire 
 company, was a Eepublican member of the assembly in 1857, 1858, and 
 1863, and was an officer of the Howard Street Presbyterian Church (Phelps, 
 Contemporary Biography, II, 274r-275). 
 
 243. E. V. Joice arrived in January, 1849 and w^as sufficiently prominent 
 in the fall to serve as a vice-president of the Democratic mass meeting, 
 October 25 {Annals, 236). 
 
 259. Dr. Galen Burdell arrived from New York in August, 1849, and 
 attained a successful practice as the first scientific dentist in San Francisco 
 (Eldredge, California, IV, 476, portrait). 
 
 268. Henry M. Gray, born in New York in 1821, was the son of a 
 clergyman. He arrived in November, 1849, indulged in a brief experiment 
 in mining, and then devoted himself to medicine in San Francisco, where 
 he is said to have built up the largest practice in the city. He was quickly 
 identified with the Whig party, served on the general and state central 
 committees, was considered as a candidate for mayor in 1852, and was 
 nominated but defeated for that office in the following year. He was a man 
 of marked generosity and of cultured tastes, a connoisseur in music, litera- 
 ture and works of art, an eloquent speaker, a prominent Mason, and the 
 
448 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 eighth president of the Society of California Pioneers. He died September 
 24, 1863 (Shuck, Eepresentative Men, 479-493, portrait; San Francisco Call, 
 1890, Sept. 8 34). 
 
 273. Timothy Guy Phelps, born in the state of New York in 1824, 
 arrived in California in December, 1849. He mined for a time, and then 
 entered the commission business in San Francisco. He became an important 
 Eepublican politician, served several terms in the state senate and assembly, 
 was a candidate for the nomination for governor in 1861, ran for that 
 oflice, unsuccessfully, in 1875; was a member of Congress in 1861-1863, and 
 collector of the port of San Francisco in 1869. He was a man of great 
 Avealth, and a regent of the State University at the time of his death, 
 June 11, 1899 (Eldredge, California, IV, 156, portrait; Phelps, Contempo- 
 rary Biography, II, 15-16). 
 
 283. Arthur M. Ebbets was born in New York in 1830, arrived in San 
 Francisco in August, 1849, and made such an immediate success as a com- 
 mission merchant, that in 1851 he established a branch house in New York. 
 He served as county recorder in 1861, was supervisor in 1874, a director 
 and president of the Mercantile Library, and a president of the Society of 
 California Pioneers. He was active in supporting the Union during the 
 Civil War (Swasey, Early Bays, 297-301; San Francisco Call, 1890, Sept. 
 8 %). 
 
 287. At the age of thirty-two, William D. M. Howard was one of the 
 most prominent, and one of the best loved men in California. He was a 
 native of Boston, and had been identified with the commercial interests of 
 the Pacific Coast since January, 1839. After the gold discovery, the firm 
 of Howard and Melius, which had purchased the old property of the Hudson 
 Bay Company, had the most extensive merchandise business in the state, 
 but Howard retired from business in 1850. Although unambitious for 
 political power, he was always interested in public affairs, and his name 
 often appeared in connection with the earlier history of San Francisco. He 
 promoted the establishment of schools, of the first orphan asylum, and of 
 the fire department, donated the lot for a Presbyterian church, and urged 
 and contributed to the improvement of city streets. He was infl.ucntial 
 in founding the California Guard, and was the first president of the Society 
 of California Pioneers. On the Committee of Vigilance he did no recorded 
 work but was appointed to one important subcommittee, and was placed 
 on the Executive Committee in September, 1851. He never attended any 
 Executive meetings, and his inability to do so served as an excuse for an 
 early resignation. He died January 19, 1856 (Annals, 779-780, portrait; 
 Swasey, Early Days, 151-155; Bancroft, California, III, 788-789; Davis, 
 Sixty Years, 314-327; Eldredge, California, II, 470, portrait; sketches, San 
 Francisco Bulletin, 1897, April 3 i%; San Francisco Call, 1890, Sept. 8 %; 
 Pendleton, Exempt Firemen, 74-77, portrait). 
 
Biographical Notes 449 
 
 299. James S. Wethered, a pioneer of August, 1849, was a Whig 
 assemblyman in the second legislature. He did inconspicuous, but faithful 
 work in the ranks of the General Committee, and incidentally indulged in 
 a harmless duel with Captain Schaeffer in September, 1851. He was an 
 inspector of customs in 1852, and became a brother-in-law of the Wood- 
 worths. He died January 14, 1900 (Swasey, Early Days, 217; Parker's 
 Directory, 1852; Herald, 1851, Sept. 14 %). 
 
 303. Henry Gerke was a German immigrant, who arrived in California 
 August, 1847. He later became a vineyardist in Tehama County (Ban- 
 croft, California, III, 755). 
 
 304. Francis Hoen was a member of the famous Swasey-Todd party 
 which reached California in September, 1845. For a time he was employed 
 by Sutter, then became a resident of Monterey and was there a candidate 
 for treasurer in October, 1846. Later he kept a cigar store in San Francisco 
 (Bancroft, California, III, 786; V, 295 note 5). 
 
 324. Mathew P. Burns was a well-known physician. He dictated a 
 Statement for Bancroft. 
 
 331. Edward A. Suwerkrop was the Danish consul (ParTcer's Directory, 
 1852). 
 
 349. Samuel Fleishhacker had already placed his family name on the 
 list of prominent merchants of San Francisco. He was an uncle of Hubert 
 and Mortimer Fleishhacker. 
 
 361. Charles L. Wiggin reached California in August, 1849. He served 
 as an assemblyman in the legislature, 1865 to ]866. 
 
 403. William M. Lent arrived in April, 1849. He was a Democratic 
 state senator in 1854. 
 
 414. John P. Manrow arrived in April, 1849, and participated in the 
 trial of the Hounds. He dictated reminiscences of the Committees of Vigi- 
 lance for Bancroft, but they are not very valuable for the work of '51. 
 
 437. Eichard M. Jessup arrived in July, 1849. He was a Republican 
 assemblyman in 1857. 
 
 440. John Middleton reached San Francisco in September, 1849, and 
 in 1851 he was a member of a prosperous firm of auctioneers. He was a 
 Democratic assemblyman in the legislature, 1867 to 1868 (ColvilWs Direc- 
 tory, 1856). 
 
 449. James M. Taylor arrived in July, 1849. He was an assemblyman in 
 1853 and 1859, representing in turn the Whig and Republican parties. 
 
 466. William Sharon was bom in Ohio in 1821, and practiced law in 
 that state before he left for the gold fields in the summer of 1849, Quickly 
 realizing the wonderful future that was before California, and anticipating 
 speedy rail communication with the East, he devoted himself to real estate 
 speculations in San Francisco, and by 1862 his fortune was rated at $150,000. 
 He was an able member of the first council under the charter of 1850, and 
 
450 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 inaugurated the first systematic and official survey of the city archives. His 
 later mining and banking undertakings form a well-known chapter in the 
 financial history of California and Nevada, and have enrolled him among 
 the millionaires of the Pacific Coast (Bancroft, Chronicles of the Builders, 
 IV, 23-78, portrait). 
 
 501. John A. Sutter Jr. was the son of the famous pioneer of New 
 Helvetia. 
 
 507. Dr. Samuel Merritt was born in Maine in 1822, and on the day 
 after the fire of May, 1850, he sailed into San Francisco Bay, the owner of 
 a smart little brig, and of a cargo of merchandise which the devastated 
 market quickly absorbed at a brilliant profit. He chartered his small vessel 
 at $800 a month, and began the practice of his profession equipped with an 
 excellent education, a happy ability to make friends, and a letter of intro- 
 duction and recommendation from his friend, Daniel Webster. He did 
 little in the Committee of '51, but was more active in that of '56. He 
 was elected as a supervisor in the reform of politics that ensued, and there 
 served as chairman of the committee of finance which accomplished marvels 
 of economy for the depleted city treasury. He declined the nomination for 
 mayor in 1858, but accepted a similar position in Oakland in 1867, and long 
 maintained a leading position in that city. He was appointed a regent of 
 the University of California in 1868. He died in 1891, and left a fortune 
 that has endowed the great hospital in Oakland that bears his name (Phelps, 
 Contemporary Biography, II, 92-100, portrait; obituary, San Francisco 
 Examiner, 1890, Aug. 18 y{). 
 
 509. Henry Wetherbee arrived in November, 1849, and in later years 
 became one of the best known lumber manufacturers on the Coast. 
 
 530. Eobert A. Parker was a native of Boston. He reached San 
 Francisco in March, 1847, and became a member of the council elected in 
 September of that year, and of the district legislature of 1849. He was 
 for a time one of the town's most ambitious merchants, and is said to have 
 indulged in the spectacular amusement of ''salting" Clay Street with two 
 or three thousand dollars worth of coarse gold, just as the eastern passen- 
 gers landed from the first steamer. The prospective Argonauts panned it 
 out with delight and sent home jtibilant reports of the abundance of the 
 precious metal. It is not surprising to find that the generous and imagin- 
 ative pioneer failed in his commercial undertakings, and fortunately his 
 impulsive nature seems to have exerted no influence on the affairs of the 
 Committee of Vigilance (Swasey, Early Days, 210-211). 
 
 573. Thomas J. L. Smiley was a native of Philadelphia and arrived 
 in October, 1849. He was a partner of John Middleton (Number 440), and 
 took an active interest in the affairs of the Committee after he was placed 
 on the Executive Committee, in August. He was even more conspicuous 
 in the reorganization in '56. Bancroft quoted a fellow Vigilante who called 
 
Biographioal Notes 451 
 
 Smiley prompt in action, but talkative and excitable. His dictation is an 
 interesting item of the Bancroft collection. He became a prominent broker, 
 was first president of the California Stock and Exchange Board, and was 
 also well known as a Eepublican politician (Popular Tribunals, II, 129-130; 
 obituary, Alta, 1873, May 4 i/i; records of the Society of California Pio- 
 neers). 
 
 580. Philip A. Roach reached California in August, 1849, and served 
 as last alcalde and first mayor of Monterey. He was registered on the 
 rolls of the Committee as a resident of the southern port, and tendered 
 his resignation in August because of necessary absence from San Francisco. 
 He served as a state senator in 1852, and distinguished himself by introducing 
 a bill authorizing married women to conduct business as sole traders. He 
 served again in 1853 and from 1873 to 1876, filled other important ofdces 
 in subsequent years, and was long a successful leader of the Democratic 
 party. He died April 27, 1889 (Bancroft, California, VI, 657 7iote; Upham, 
 Notes, 497-500). 
 
 588. Beverley C. Sanders was a ''Territorial Pioneer" of 1850 and 
 became collector of the port of San Francisco in 1852. In the Committee 
 he appears to have done little active work, but space must be allowed to 
 repeat a Vigilante's anecdote of a later year when Sanders was sent to 
 St. Petersburg by the Eussian-American Commercial Company to secure 
 the privilege of transporting ice from Sitka to San Francisco. With 
 audacity characteristic of a handsome and dashing pioneer, Mr. Sanders 
 introduced himself as a colonel, and wore an impressive and becoming 
 uniform. He was once inconveniently asked to which department of the 
 army he belonged, but he preserved his dignity by promptly responding: 
 ''To the Pacific, Madam!" (Hittell, California, III, 433). 
 
 598. Isaac M. Merrill was a Eepublican assemblyman in 1895. 
 
 610. Henry Hiram Ellis was born in Maine in 1830, took to the sea, 
 as had his family before him, and reached San Francisco in June, 1849. 
 In California he experienced vicissitudes of mining life and was interested 
 in shipping ventures. From 1855 to 1877 he Avas connected with the San 
 Francisco police, became chief of the force, and left a fine record for 
 eflaciency. During the Civil War he held the position of deputy United 
 States assistant provost-marshal (Phelps, Contemporary Biography, I, 379- 
 384, portrait; Alta, 1866, Feb. 4 i/i; 1871, Jan. 13 %; 1875, Dec. 7 Vs). 
 
 616. Herman Wohler was a German immigrant who reached California 
 in February, 1848. He was elected a Democratic assemblyman in Septem- 
 ber, 1851, and served again in 1856. Bancroft said that he was famous 
 as a musician {California, V, 779). 
 
 654. John Stoneacre Ellis, and his brother, 
 
 682. Augustus Van Home Ellis, came from New York city in 1849. 
 They did no conspicuous work in 1851, although John was elected to the 
 
452 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Executive Committee in March, 1852. He was more prominent in 1856, 
 and was presented with the banners of the Committee as a token of esteem 
 and affection. The name of Augustus appears once in a report of August 31, 
 1851, although it is so illegible that it was printed as ''Hawthorne" Ellis 
 on page 582 of the Papers. Both of the brothers served with distinction 
 in the Civil War, and Augustus, a colonel, was killed at Gettysburg (data 
 furnished by a niece, Mrs. Vanderlynn Stow, of San Francisco). 
 
 662. Daniel Cronin served as one of the secretaries of the Democratic 
 mass meeting of October 25, 1849 {Annals, 236). 
 
 665. Jacob E. Snyder was born in Philadelphia, August 23, 1812. He 
 was one of the Swasey-Todd party that crossed the plains and arrived in 
 California in September, 1845. For a while he made shingles near Santa 
 Cruz, then served as a major in the California Battalion, and was appointed 
 surveyor general of the middle department of California during the admin- 
 istration of Colonel Mason. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Con- 
 vention of 1849, and in 1850 became a banking associate of James King 
 of William. His membership in the Committee was brief, as he resigned 
 to take his seat as a Democratic senator, being one of four Vigilantes 
 elected to the legislature in September, 1851. He remained in office for 
 two terms, and also served as sub-treasurer of the United States mint, 
 1854 to 1860. He was a fearless man, sturdy and independent, made a 
 success of commercial life and retired in 1869 to a beautiful home in the 
 Sonoma Valley. He died April 29, 1878 (Swasey, Early Days, 172-177; 
 Eldredge, California, III, 310, portrait; Bancroft, Calif ornisi, V, 726; 
 Willey, Transition Period, 117; San Francisco Call, 1890, Sept. 8 %). 
 
DOCUMENTARY APPENDIX 
 
 Handbill Issued in San Francisco, February 22, 1851 
 
 Following the Attack on C. J, Jansen 
 
 Citizens of San Francisco 
 
 The series of murders and robberies that have been committed in this 
 city, without the least redress from the laws, seems to leave us entirely in 
 a state of anarchy. ' ' When thieves are left without control to rob and kill, 
 then doth the honest traveller fear each bush a thief!" Law, it appears, 
 is but a nonenity to be scoffed at; redress can be had for aggression but 
 through the never failing remedy so admirably laid down in the code of 
 Judge Lynch. Not that we should admire this process for redress, but that 
 it seems to be inevitably necessary. 
 
 Are we to be robbed and assassinated in our domiciles, and the law to 
 let our aggressors perambulate the streets merely because they have fur- 
 nished straw bail? If so, let ''each man be his own executioner." ''Fie 
 upon your laws! " They have no force. 
 
 All those who would rid our city of its robbers and murderers, will 
 assemble on Sunday, at two o'clock, on the Plaza. (Alta Calif ornixi, 1851, 
 Feb. 23, %. See supra, p. 172.) 
 
 The Popular Trial of Windred and Berdue, San Francisco, 
 
 February 22, 1851 
 
 Described by William T. Coleman 
 
 I said, ''We don't want a mob; we ^vill not have a mob! But let us 
 
 organize as becomes men. Let it be done immediately, here, as a committee 
 
 of citizens, and as a court, and coolly maintain the right, and insist upon it. 
 
 These men can be tried in three hours time, and the truth known as clearly 
 
 then as it ever can be The witnesses are all here. If any delays 
 
 are allowed, they will probably be spirited away, as others have been here- 
 tofore, and justice cheated, and the high-handed outrages, lately so com- 
 mon, will be encouraged, continued and increased." A loud response went 
 up on every side. I then said, "All who are in favor of this motion, that 
 we organize and take this business in our own hands immediately, will 
 
 signify it by saying, Aye. ' ' There was one unanimous shout and yell 
 
 I moved into the inner hall, which had been used I believe as a court room, 
 and the mob moved with me. I mounted a chair, and asked that the assem- 
 blage should select a good citizen, one of the best men in the city, to act 
 
454 Vigilcmce ComrmUee of 1851 
 
 as Judge. Mr. Spence, an English merchant I think, was soon selected, 
 and upon invitation, took the seat of the Judge. I then proposed that a 
 jury be impaneled, to consist of a dozen of the best citizens. I then pro- 
 posed that counsel be selected, or that they might volunteer. For the 
 prisoners. Hall McAllister, Calhoun Benham, and Judge Shattuck volun- 
 teered and were soon at the post. I asked for volunteers for the prosecution, 
 and on all sides they cried out that I must conduct the prosecution. I asked 
 if I must be alone, and they insisted, "Yes," that they were all with me. 
 .... I then required that the prisoners be in the immediate charge of our 
 friends, and it was responded to. As it had by this time grown to be about 
 noon, I proposed that the mass of people should adjourn to their homes, get 
 their mid-day meal, and come back to prepare for the work of the after- 
 noon 
 
 One purpose I had in the adjournment was to call upon some of the 
 
 leading citizens — Howard, Green, Brannan and others I wanted 
 
 the co-operation of the oldest, best known and most valued citizens. I 
 was very young, partly unknown, and did not want to make a misstep nor 
 a mistake, and felt that the course, under the circumstances, was the better 
 one. I believed that I could soon convince them of it, and I wanted to 
 prevent any needless opposition, should such a thing be contemplated, and 
 catch any valuable suggestions that might be dropped. I drove to the resi- 
 dence of some, asked friends who flocked around me to see others, and had 
 soon canvassed the subject with all I could reach. The result was that a 
 number of those who had acted with the mayor heartily joined us and pro- 
 ceeded to the Court House. Others simply refrained, saying they were 
 willing for the people, if they wished, to follow the course adopted in the 
 morning. They pretty much all admitted the almost positive certainty of 
 a mob and a mob execution, unless a better direction were given to our 
 highly excited people, and that a fair trial in the way I proposed, though 
 a hasty one, would be far preferable. (MS Statement, 7-10, passim. See 
 supra, p. 174.) 
 
 Organization of Crime in this State 
 
 Extract from the San Francisco Herald, June 5, 1851 
 
 The recent detection of a band of marauders at Stockton, developing a 
 
 brotherhood in crime extending throughout the' entire country, and the 
 
 watchfulness of the people, both there and in this city, gives promise that, 
 
 with a united effort in every portion of the country infested by these 
 
 scoundrels, we shall soon be rid of their depredations It is full time 
 
 some means were adopted to rid the country of this organization. The 
 commencement should be made in this city, and the means are very simple. 
 .... A committee of citizens should be appointed — those acquainted with 
 them should be employed to point out these notorious characters — a vessel 
 
Documentary AppeTidix 455 
 
 should be chartered and victualled, and every man known to the police to be 
 implicated in crime, should be placed on board and sent out of the country. 
 Hanging would have an excellent example unquestionably, but hanging one 
 or two will not rid the community of the remainder. Let a general war 
 be made on those scoundrels — quietly and without bloodshed let it be — but 
 wdth the distinct intimation that should they ever return they will be sum- 
 marily dealt with. We believe that to send them out of the country is the 
 only effectual method of getting rid of those pests, and we trust the method 
 will be adopted. (See supra, p. 184.) 
 
 Extract trom the Stockton Journal 
 
 Printed in the San Francisco Herald, June 10, 1851 
 
 To THE Public 
 
 Citizens of Stockton: Without any war cry we already have an enemy 
 in our country and in the midst of our town. The signal is Theft! Murder! ! 
 Fire!!! .... 
 
 Our laws are treated ivith contumely; our respectable citizens are sup- 
 planted by w^holesale hordes of refuse from Sydney and other countries, 
 Avho find how easily in California they can resume their old trades of rob- 
 bery, plunder and incendiarism, and soon this golden country mil be knoA\'n 
 only as the rendezvous for pirates by land and Avater. 
 
 Citizens! We are as yet strong enough to meet the enemy, and the 
 remedy is with ourselves. 
 
 The laws are good for peaceful times, but not for such a state of turmoil 
 as the present. For such uncommon times, we should have equally stringent 
 measures to meet them. 
 
 Citizens! in such an emergency you have to frame your own laws. The 
 country is in danger and there is no time to wait. 
 
 The government and the people are one! Show that, if necessary, you 
 can rule yourselves! All hope of justice is fallacious. Citizens of Stockton, 
 our toAvn is also included in the warfare. Fire, robbery, and murder are the 
 order of the day. Wait not until it is too late, but call a meeting, appoint 
 a commission and proclaim at once martial law, and lead the way. 
 
 All industrious men earn a living : the sick and infirm w^e are glad to help, 
 but the thief, incendiary and murderer can expect no mercy at our hands. 
 
 In martial law there are some few inconveniences, but the good citizen 
 will not object to that which wiU assure his life and property, and the 
 guilty being executed on the spot will prevent our prisons from filling, con- 
 sequently the prisoners from escaping. ^ Waldo 
 
 (See supra, p. 184.) 
 
456 Vigilance Comm/ittee of 1851 
 
 Propositions for Public Safety 
 Extract from Alia Calif ornm, June 8, 1851 
 
 Messrs. Editors — You are very well aware that the engrossing and 
 absorbing topic at present, in this community .... is the insecurity of 
 our lives and property, owing to our city's being infested with the most 
 desperate and determined and Avell organized band of villains with which 
 
 any population was ever cursed Desperate diseases require desperate 
 
 remedies, and though the remedies I am about to suggest may not be 
 strictly in accordance with the law, I believe the time has come when it is 
 demonstrated that we must be a law unto ourselves, and there are enough 
 good men and true who are ready to take hold and make root and branch 
 work of this infernal system of crime which now stalks forth boldly in our 
 midst 
 
 I propose then, to establish a committee of safety, whose business it 
 shall be to board, or cause to be boarded, every vessel coming in from 
 Sydney, and inform the passengers that they will not be allowed to land, 
 unless they can satisfy this committee that they are respectable and honest 
 men .... and let any one transgressing this order be shot down without 
 mercy 
 
 The next remedy I would propose would be to appoint a committee of 
 vigilance, say of twenty men, in each ward, whose duty it shall be to hunt 
 out these hardened villains .... and give them five days to leave the city, 
 warning them at the same time that after that a war of extermination will 
 be commenced against them. ... It may be well to call a public meeting 
 
 in the square, to organize and carry out these views Without this, 
 
 or some similar plan, the evil cannot be remedied, and if there is not spirit 
 enough amongst us to do it, why then in God 's name let the city be burned, 
 and our streets flow with the blood of murdered men. I will do what I 
 can to defend myself and take my chance with others, but I will not believe 
 this is so, and trust that immediate public action will take place. 
 
 TTTOrpTp-pi 
 
 (Written by E, S. Watson. See supra, p. 184.) 
 
 Crime in San Francisco 
 
 Extract from the California Courier, June 10, 1851 
 
 It is clear to every man that San Francisco is partially in the hands of 
 Criminals, and that crime has reached a crisis where the fate of life and 
 property are in imminent jeopardy. There is no alternative now left us 
 but to lay aside business and direct our whole energies as a people to seek 
 out the abodes of these villains and execute summary vengeance upon them. 
 . . . . What now shall be done? Are we to continue to threaten, and nothing 
 
Documentary Appendix 457 
 
 more? .... Why stop, under the present unsafe and uncertain state of 
 affairs, to have a thief, or one who attempts to fire the city, placed in the 
 hands of law officers, from whose clutches they can, with ease, be relieved 
 by false swearing, and the ingenuity of laA\'yers? or what is equally as 
 certain, their escape from prison? Where the guilt of the criminal is clear 
 and unquestionable, the first law of nature demands that they be instantly 
 shot, hung, or burned alive We must strike terror into their hearts. 
 
 Those who object to this summary and terrible mode of punishment, 
 ought to recollect the men who were burned to death in the last fire. In 
 thus punishing these criminals we may save the lives of hundreds of innocent 
 
 beings We can bear these things no longer. No man, since we 
 
 became a city, has been hung in San Francisco. Some fifty murders have 
 been committed, but no murderer has suffered death for his crimes. 
 
 We ask again, what shall be done? We are in the midst of a revolution, 
 and we should meet the emergencies of our condition with firm hearts and 
 well-braced nerves. We have no time to talk about the defects of the laws — 
 of the dangers which beset us; but we must act, and act at once — act as 
 
 men do in revolutionary times We hope a meeting of the people will 
 
 be called to-morrow afternoon, at 4 o'clock, in the Plaza, to organize a 
 powerful force, and to establish some system of measures to rid this com- 
 munity of the criminals who infest it Men of San Francisco, act, 
 
 and act at once. (See supra, p. 185.) 
 
 The Ogranization of the Committee of Vigilance Described by the 
 
 Members 
 
 Statement of James Neall, Jr. 
 On Sunday fJune 8] .... George Oaks, [Oakes] .... in conver- 
 sation with me, upon the perilous condition of society at that time, said 
 we ought to take some steps to see if we could not change these things, and 
 suggested that we should go up and have a talk with Sam Brannan, and 
 we went up to Brannan 's office, on the N. E. corner of Sansome & Bush 
 Sts. We there found Mr. Brannan and his clerk, and sat doAvn and talked 
 
 the matter [over] We discussed the subject, and .... concluded 
 
 that something must be done, and it was suggested that each one of us 
 should give Mr. Brannan 's clerk, Mr. Wardwell, the names of such men 
 as we could mention, whom we knew to be reliable, to invite them to meet us 
 at 12 o'clock noon the next day, at the California Engine House .... to 
 devise some means of protecting ourselves from the depredations of this 
 hoard of ruffians, who seemed to have possession of the city. There was 
 no such thing as doing anything with them before the Courts; that had 
 been tried in vain. Notices were sent out to parties to the effect that they 
 
458 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 were nominated, each as chairman of. a committee for his neighborhood, to 
 invite their fellow citizens, good reliable men, to meet .... as above 
 indicated. 
 
 In pursuance of that call, at 12 o'clock on Monday, there was a large 
 gathering, so that the room was crowded. There they entered into a dis- 
 cussion upon the evils by which we were surrounded, and .... what the 
 remedy should be ... . and the meeting then adjourned, to assemble again 
 that evening at the old Brannan building, on the jST. W. corner of Sansome 
 and Bush Sts. for the purpose of organization and settlement of a course 
 of action. The adjourned meeting was held that evening, and a partial 
 organization was effected, and they adjourned to meet on Tuesday evening 
 at the same place. There they perfected the organization, and determined 
 upon a method by which the society should be called together, in case of 
 any disturbance, which was three taps of the bell on the California Engine 
 House at the junction of Bush and Market Sts. The bell was not on the 
 engine house but was on the ground. (MS Statement, 1-3.) 
 
 Statement of William T. Coleman 
 
 I had nothing more to do with public matters until I received one day 
 a circular, signed, I think, by Col. J. D. Stevenson, asking me to meet a 
 number of good citizens of the place, the next evening, at the building of 
 Mr. Samuel Brannan .... to consult on measures needed for the safety 
 of life and property in the city. This was on [Tuesday] the 10th of June, 
 1851. I was early at the building, and found a number of gentlemen there, 
 probably thirty or forty already. An organization was formed, and the 
 objects of the meeting stated, ^vith a brief discussion. Articles had been 
 already prepared for the mode of organization, and some thirty or forty 
 names were enrolled, and it was styled the Committee of Vigilance of San 
 Francisco, the avowed objects of the Committee being to vigilantly watch 
 and pursue the outlaws and criminals who were infesting the city, and bring 
 them to justice, through the regularly constituted courts, if that could be, 
 through more summary and direct process, if must be. Each member 
 pledged his word of honor, his life and fortune if need be, for the protection 
 of his fellow members, for the protection of life and property of the citizens 
 and of the community, and for purging the city of the bad characters who 
 were making themselves odious in it. After arranging for concert of 
 action, watchwords, and a signal to be used to call the members to the 
 rendezvous .... and detailing officers for immediate duty, enrolling a 
 number of members, all among the most respectable, substantial and well- 
 known citizens of the place, and the disposition of some needed business, — 
 the committee adjourned for the evening. (MS Statement, 17-18.) 
 
Documentary Appendix 459 
 
 Official Announcement of the Committee of Vigilance 
 
 On June 13, 1851, the San Francisco Herald and the Alta Cali- 
 fornia printed the constitution of the Committee of Vigilance, and 
 also the following official announcement: 
 
 WHEREAS, the citizens of San Francisco convinced that there exists 
 within its limits a band of robbers and incendiaries, who have several times 
 burned and attempted to burn their city, who nightly attack their persons 
 and break into their buildings, destroy their quiet, jeopardize their lives 
 and property, and generally disturb the natural order of society; And 
 WHEEEAS many of those taken by the police have succeeded in escaping 
 from their prisons by carelessness, by connivance, or from want of proper 
 means or force to secure their safe confinement, therefore be it 
 
 RESOLVED, That the citizens of this place be made aivare that the 
 Committee of Vigilance will be ever ready to receive information as to the 
 whereabouts of any disorderly or suspicious person or persons, as well as 
 the persons themselves when suspected of crime. 
 
 RESOLVED, That as it is the conviction of a large portion of our 
 citizens, that there exists in this city a nucleus of convicts and disorderly 
 persons, around which cluster those who have so seriously disturbed the peace 
 and affected the best interests of our city, such as are known to the police 
 of the city or to the members of the Committee of Vigilance as felons by 
 conduct or association, be notified to leave this port within five days from 
 this date, and at the expiration of which they shall be compelled to depart, 
 if they have not done so voluntarily within the time specified. 
 
 RESOLVED, That a Safety Committee of thirty persons be appointed, 
 whose sacred duty it shall be to visit every vessel arriving with notorious 
 or suspicious characters on board, and unless they can present to said com- 
 mittee evidences of good character and honesty, they shall be reshipped to 
 the places from whence they came, and not be permitted to pollute our soil. 
 
 RESOLVED, That all good citizens be invited to join and assist the 
 Committee of Vigilance in carrying out the above measures, so necessary for 
 the perfect restoration of the peace, safety and good order of our com- 
 munity. 
 
 The names of the first hundred and eighty members were printed 
 as signers of the constitution and announcement, and the communi- 
 cation continued: 
 
 The above, a portion of the Committee of Vigilance lately established 
 in this city for the preservation of order, punishment of vice, and for the 
 purpose of meteing [sic] out that justice so long withheld from criminals, 
 unwilling that the names of a few of their associates should be selected by 
 the Coroner's jury as the principal actors in the trial and execution of 
 
460 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Jenkins, inform the public that they, with all the members of the Com- 
 mittee are equally responsible for the first act of justice that has been 
 dealt to a criminal in San Francisco since California became a State of 
 our Union. 
 
 Our fellow citizens, remembering the escape of Withers, Daniels and 
 Adams; of Stuart, Windred and Watkins, and the tardy manner in which 
 the incendiary Lewis is being brought to justice, will see the necessity of 
 the stringent measures we have adopted. 
 
 This publication also informs those friendly to the cause that the Com- 
 mittee of Vigilance have nothing secret in their proceedings, but such 
 matters as would tend to defeat the object for which we are associated, 
 were they made public. (See supra, p. 216.) 
 
 The Methods of the Committee of Vigilance 
 
 The Executive Committee had all cases brought before them to dispose 
 of. They had nothing to do with arrests, unless they were very efficient 
 men, and could not be kept still. When any men were arrested and turned 
 over to the Committee, they were tried by the Executive and such trials 
 were as honest and impartial as ever a man had, and no man was convicted 
 without an abundance of testimony, such as would convict any human being 
 in any court of justice; only we could not allow any alibis to come in to 
 screen these fellows. After the trial and conviction of the prisoner, the case 
 was referred to the General Committee for its action, and the testimony 
 was sent to them. They invariably confirmed the decisions of the Executive 
 Committee, and it was impossible for them to do otherwise, in the face of 
 such proofs as were offered. 
 
 The Committee was composed mostly of our best men; the salt of San 
 Francisco joined us. Every thing was organized in a proper and unmis- 
 takable shape, so that every man had his duty to perform, and he had to 
 report daily to the Committee, and if anything had transpired it was prop- 
 erly noted. Every man had his place, and there was a place for every man ; 
 there were no drones there. (G. W. Eyckman, MS Statement, 5. See supra, 
 p. 222.) 
 
 Handbill Calling for a Mass Meeting to Sustain Law and Order 
 
 The people of the city and county of San Francisco, republicans one 
 and all, are called upon to choose now, ere it is too late, which they will 
 serve — the law and order power of our city, or the dictators and anarchists 
 who have lately disgraced our city by their lawless and criminal proceedings, 
 and are yet endeavoring to assume unlimited and unlawful power in the 
 punishment of criminals. Even now they are going from door to door, 
 from city to city, soliciting desperate men to join their secret Committee, 
 
Documentary Appendix 461 
 
 with a view to transfer the criminal jurisdiction from our legally con- 
 stituted tribunals into their own irresponsible hands, thus subverting all 
 government, all law, all justice, as made and provided by the United States 
 and our own state constitution. Will ye, lovers of law, and order, and social 
 compact, longer tolerate such men in their career of murder and subversion 
 of the laws, among whom are those guilty ot the very crimes they profess 
 to punish? Shall it be said that our police is not of sufficient force to arrest 
 these murderers, and our city officials shall wink at their outrages, thus 
 perjuring themselves? Shall we tolerate, in this enlightened age, a Danton, 
 a Kobespierre, or a Fouche, and all the paraphernalia of a secret inquisition 
 for the suppression of our laws and criminal courts? Then to the rescue 
 of law and order from the hands of a secret inquisition, every good citizen, 
 and without further invitation turn out en masse to a public meeting to 
 be holden on the plaza, Sunday next, June 22d, at three and a half o 'clock, 
 P. M., and there join in the general opposition to the acts and further 
 operations of midnight murderers; and let the civilized world know that 
 we can and will support law and order, and that our social compact shall 
 be as much observed by the wealthy criminal, public robber, and law 
 subverters, as by the lowly thief. Many Citizens. 
 
 (Popular Tribunals, I, 321-322. See supra, p. 239.) 
 
 Eewakd for Incendiaries 
 
 (J^r AAAREWAED WILL BE PAID BY THE 
 M^*-'^^^^ Committee of Vigilance to any person 
 or persons who will place in its power any man against 
 whom sufficient evidence can be brought to convict him 
 of the crime of arson. 
 
 rpL COMITADO DE VIGILANCIA ha decidido, en 
 -'-^ su sesion de anoche, que la soma de cinco mil pesos 
 seran pagados a la persona o personas por la aprension 
 y conviccion de un incendiario ante dieho Comitado. 
 
 T E COMITE DE SURVEILLANCE a decide, dans 
 ■■-^'sa seance d'hier soir, que cinq mille piastres seraient 
 donnees a quiconque mettrait dans son pouvoir avec 
 temoinage suffisant pour la conviction de toute personne 
 coupable du crime d'incendie. 
 
 T^ER SICHERHEITS COMITE in seiner sitzung von 
 -■-^ gestern abend beschlossen fuer die auslieferung 
 eines Brandstifters die summe von f uenf tausend dollars 
 zu bezahlen. 
 
 (Reproduced exactly as printed in the California Courier, June 26, 1851. 
 See supra, p. 245.) 
 
462 Vigilance Ccmimitiee of 1851 
 
 Notice of the Committee of Vigilance, San Francisco Herald, 
 July 2, 1851' 
 
 Since the execution of Jenkins .... [the Committee] have increased 
 their numbers, by voluntary enrollments, from one hundred to nearly five 
 
 hundred One hundred of these are always on duty, night and day, 
 
 and all may be summoned at a moment's notice in case of need 
 
 They have instituted a most elaborate and thorough investigation into 
 the haunts and character of all suspicious persons .... and where the 
 evidence is satisfactory that individuals live by plunder and rapine .... 
 they have given them a warning to leave the city within five days. By 
 this peaceful means the community has been rid of a great number of the 
 vilest criminals that have infested it. Where obedience is refused to their 
 mandate — as in the case of Hetherington — the Committee proceed in a 
 body to enforce their sentence. They are not children to be trifled with, 
 and the outlaws are now convinced of it. 
 
 They have made a number of arrests on suspicion of various crimes. 
 Several have been discharged, no proof being found against them, and others 
 have been found guilty as well of positive crimes brought home to them, 
 as of general bad character, making them dangerous to the peace of the 
 community. Several of those found guilty are now confined securely in the 
 harbor, and arrangements have been made to ship them back to Sydaey in 
 a few days. One, a Mexican, was publicly lashed, and then expelled from 
 the city. There are men still under examination for the commission of 
 crime. The Committee are waiting for important witnesses that have been 
 sent for in the interior. To expedite the ends of justice they spare no 
 expense and are deterred by no difficulties. Witnesses will be sent for, when 
 necessary to the fartherest corners of the State, and the committee will 
 bear their expenses. Their arm is long as well as strong. In addition to 
 all this they have offered a reward of $5000 for the apprehension and con- 
 viction of any one guilty of the crime of arson. These admirable and 
 sagacious means for the prevention of crime, and for the sure and speedy 
 punishment of those caught in its commission, have instilled the hope in 
 the breasts of oui' citizens that a brighter and better day is before them. 
 The Courts, too, have been incited to unwonted exertions by the presence 
 of this body in our midst, and have lately disposed of criminal cases with 
 great promptness and energy. 
 
 Taking all these marked and tangible benefits into consideration, few 
 mil regret the past, and all must award the meed of praise to those who 
 thus devote their time, labor and means for the good of the whole com- 
 munity. (See supra, p. 251.) 
 
Documentary Appendix 463 
 
 Proclamation of Mayor Brenham 
 
 To THE Citizens of San Francisco 
 
 We have arrived at an important crisis in the civil and social condition 
 and prospects of our city. A voluntary association of men has been 
 formed, under peculiar bonds to each other, and assuming most extra- 
 ordinary and irresponsible powers, and have undertaken to institute extra 
 judicial proceedings in forms not known to the laws. This association claims 
 and exercises the right to inflict penalties upon those adjudged by them 
 guilty of crime, even to the penalty of death, and has publicly and boldly 
 inflicted that penalty in two instances. 
 
 They claim and exercise the right of domiciliary visits, without any 
 accountability, of a character not known under any other than Inquisitorial 
 Governments. The great and sacred writ of habeas corpus has been ren- 
 dered by them ineffectual, and the authority of the highest tribunal of the 
 State disregarded. The circumstances in which the Authorities are placed, 
 in consequence seem to demand of me .... some action by which the 
 views and purposes of the city Government .... may be indicated 
 
 In a community like ours, where the institutions of government have but 
 just been established, any combinations of citizens .... whose proceedings 
 are not controlled by law or subservient to the support of constituted author- 
 ity, can have no other than an insurrectionary tendency .... and must, to 
 an absolute certainty, inflict disgrace upon us ... . and ruin the conficlence 
 which it is of first necessity to our prosperity to secure throughout the com- 
 mercial world. With these views I feel impelled, by the strongest sense of 
 official duty .... to call upon all citizens to withdraw from such associa- 
 tions, and to unite in a common effort to support the laws, and to sustain 
 a prompt and energetic administration of them in their proper application 
 and action. In addition, I deem the present a proper occasion to announce 
 .... that I shall not shrink from a prompt discharge of the duties .... 
 
 made imperative upon me I have to call the attention of all citizens 
 
 to the provisions of the ''Act to regulate Proceedings in Criminal Cases," 
 Chap. IV. I, however, appeal to the good sense and deliberate judgment 
 of my fellow citizens, to relieve me, and the other public functionaries of 
 the city, by their common submission to public order, from the necessity 
 of any application of the requirements of that act. 
 
 C. J. Brenham, Mayor. 
 Mayor's Office, July 11. 
 
 (Alta California, July 14, 1851. See supra, p. 271.) 
 
464 VigiUmce Canvmittee of 1851 
 
 Extract from the Charge of Judge Alexander Campbell to the 
 Grand Jury 
 
 After the Execution of James Stuart 
 
 The question has now arisen, whether the laws made by the constitu- 
 tional authorities of the State are to be obeyed and executed, or whether 
 secret societies are to frame and execute laws for the government of 
 this county, and to exercise supreme power over the lives, liberty and 
 
 property of our citizens Are the people willing to throw away the 
 
 safeguards which the experience of ages has proved necessary — to trample 
 the laws and constitution under foot — to declare that law is inconsistent 
 with liberty — and to place life, liberty, property and reputation at the 
 mercy of a secret society? If such be the disposition of the people .... 
 it is time for every man who values his life, safety and honor, to shake the 
 dust from his feet and seek out some new home, where he may hope to 
 enjoy the blessings of liberty under the law. But if, on the other hand, 
 we have not quite forgotten the principles upon which our government is 
 formed — if we believe that the constitution and laws of our country should 
 be reverenced and obeyed, and that public order and tranquility should be 
 preserved; — if we believe that persons accused of crime should have an 
 open, public and impartial trial by a fair jury of unprejudiced citizens, and 
 should have a reasonable opportunity of making their defence, of employing 
 counsel and summoning witnesses; if we believe that the good name and 
 reputation of our citizens is to be protected from a secret scrutiny, where 
 accusations are made under the influence of fear, by persons of questionable 
 character; — if we believe that our houses are to be protected from unreason- 
 able searches without color of authority, it is our solemn and bounden 
 duty to take immediate and energetic measures for the suppression of the 
 spirit of reckless violence which overrules the laws and sets the constitution 
 at defiance. 
 
 When you first assembled, the Court called your attention to the unlawful 
 execution of a man named Jenkins by an association of citizens. We con- 
 sidered that act was greatly palliated by the circumstances .... that the 
 laws had been defective, and that perhaps there had been some laxity in 
 their administration; that the county had no sufficient jail for the detention 
 of prisoners; that crime had increased to a fearful extent, and that a por- 
 tion of our citizens, deeming that tlie law afforded them no protection, had 
 in that instance undertaken to execute what they conceived to be summary 
 justice, in violation of the law, but with a sincere desire to advance the 
 public interest. We further stated that the law had been amended in many 
 respects, so as to secure the speedy trial and conviction of offenders .... 
 that the county jail had been put in a proper condition for the safe keeping 
 of prisoners, and we expressed the hope that no further attempt would be 
 
Documentari) Appendix 465 
 
 made to interfere Avith the legally organized tribunals of justice 
 
 From the time of your assembling, the Court, the Grand Jury, and all the 
 officers have been actively and constantly engaged in the performance of 
 their duties. At the time when they were making every possible effort to 
 dispose of the criminal business of the county, and when the Court was in 
 actual session and in the performance of its duties; an association of per- 
 sons, of armed and organized men, have undertaken to trample on the consti- 
 tution, defy the laws, and assume unlimited power over the lives of the 
 
 community. There is no excuse or palliation for the deed Every 
 
 person who in any manner acted, aided, abetted or assisted in taking 
 Stuart's life, or counselled or encouraged his death, is undoubtedly guilty 
 OF MURDER. It is your sworn and solemn duty, which you cannot evade with- 
 out perjuring yourselves, carefully and fully to investigate this matter, and 
 to do your share towards bringing the guilty to punishment. Upon your 
 fearless and faithful discharge of the trust confided to you, depends, in a 
 great measure, the future peace, order and tranquility of the community. 
 {Alia California, July 13, 1851. See supra, p. 272.) 
 
 Extract from Editorial Comment on Judge Campbell's Charge 
 
 Calif oriiia Courier, July 14, 1851 
 
 No such committee could exist in any form in this city, if the Avhole 
 body of the community did not consider that necessity and policy demanded 
 it. The committee is composed of peace loving and orderly citizens — many 
 of them are elders, deacons and conspicuous members of the Church. They 
 
 are not composed of rowdies or blood thirsty men We are not going 
 
 to complain of Judge Campbell 's charge — but we can tell him that the men 
 who hung Stuart cannot be indicted, convicted and executed in California, 
 while the records of the Courts shoAv that some of our best citizens have been 
 shot down in cold blood, and that the murderers have been permitted 
 entirely to run at large or to slip through their hands, unwhipped and 
 unavenged of justice. These courts heretofore have manifested no holy 
 horror at such deeds. We can say to the Coroner that although he may 
 watch like a hawk the dead body of every villainous culprit executed by 
 the people — so that he may summon a jury to take testimony to criminate 
 the parties — his vigilance will amount to nothing — so long as he can take 
 his time with the corpses of unoffending men who are murdered in cold 
 blood by notorious criminals. 
 
466 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Extract from the Report of the Grand Jury, San Francisco, 
 August 2, 1851 
 
 From the Herald, August 4, 1851 
 
 There is another subject to which our attention has been directed by 
 the presiding Judge, in his able charge, which has occupied much of our 
 time and serious consideration. It is well known that a large portion of 
 our best and most worthy citizens have associated themselves together, and 
 without the intervention of our legal and constituted tribunals, entered 
 upon the investigation of criminal charges against several persons, and 
 executed sentence of condemnation and death. 
 
 When we recall the provisions of the constitution of our government, 
 which it is the bounden duty of every citizen to support and maintain — 
 ' ' that no person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous 
 crime unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury .... nor be 
 deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law ' ' — and 
 find, also, the same provision and language in our State constitution, we 
 feel convinced, doubly convinced while we believe the members of that 
 association have been governed by no ifliproper motives, that their proceed- 
 ings are unlawful, and in violation of the fundamental law of the land. 
 "We fear, too, the powerful example of those proceedings may engender a 
 spirit of insubordination, or afford a pretext to other individuals or asso- 
 ciations, here or elsewhere in our State, who may not be governed by the 
 same honest motive, or restrained by the same careful investigation of facts, 
 for the perpetration of deeds of violence, which may lead to anarchy and 
 abuses, dangerous to the lives and property of citizens. 
 
 When we recall the delays and the inefficient, and we believe that with 
 much truth it may be said, the corrupt administration of the law, the 
 incapacity and indifference of those who are its sworn guardians and min- 
 isters ; the frequent and unnecessary postponement of important trials in the 
 District Court, the disregard of duty and impatience while attending to 
 perform it manifested by some of our Judges having criminal jurisdiction, 
 the many notorious villains who have gone unwhipped of justice, lead us to 
 believe that the members of that association have been governed by a feeling 
 of opposition to the manner in which the law has been administered and 
 those who have administered it, rather than a determination to disregard 
 the law itself. 
 
 Under institutions so eminently popular as those under which we live, 
 the power of correcting all these abuses is with the people themselves. If 
 our officers are unfit for the stations they occupy, if the laws are not faith- 
 fully executed, if an arraigned criminal procures his own friends to be 
 placed on the jury that tries him, where is the fault and where the remedy? 
 If those of our citizens who are most interested in having good and whole- 
 
Documentary Appendix 467 
 
 some laws, and in seeing them purely administered, will not give sufficient 
 attention to our elections to procure proper and sober legislators, judicial 
 and other officers, and neglect to obey the mandates of our courts when 
 summoned as jurors and witnesses, as has been too often the case, can they 
 expect to see justice prevail? and is it not in the neglect of their duties in 
 these important particulars they may find the true fountains from whence 
 have sprung many of the evils we have suffered? The Grand Jurors, believ- 
 ing whilst they deplore their acts, that the association styling themselves 
 the ''Vigilant Committee" at a great sacrifiise to themselves, have been 
 influenced in their actions by no personal or private malice, but for the 
 best interests of the whole, and at a time too when all other means of 
 preventing crime and bringing criminals to deserved punishment had 
 failed, here dismiss the matter as among those peculiar results of circum- 
 stances that sometimes startle communities, which they can neither justify 
 or by a presentment effect any benefit to individuals or the county ; and with 
 the assurance that there is a determination on the part of all well disposed 
 citizens to correct the abuses referred to by selecting proper officers to take 
 the places of those who have violated their trusts, and by performing each 
 his part in the administration of the laws. When this is done the axe will 
 have been laid at the root of the tree— the proper remedy applied for the 
 correction of the grievous evils our city and county have so long suffered, 
 and there will be no necessity for the further action of that Committee. 
 To them we are indebted for much valuable information and many important 
 wi nesses. George Endicott, Foreman. 
 
 Kingsbury Eoot* J. D. Fahwell* C. L. Tuffs* 
 
 F. A. Ball* . William M. Hogg* E; Tichenor 
 
 Jno. McCurdy C. L. Ross Harvey Dickinson 
 
 Francis Panton W. B. Peake* B. C. Horn 
 
 D. A. Shepard Beverly C. Saunders [Sanders*] W. E. Lyndall 
 
 (The jurymen designated by a * were members of the Committee of 
 Vigilance. See supra, p. 273.) 
 
 Proclamation of Governor McDougal 
 
 Executive Department, 
 
 Vallejo, July 21st, 1851 
 To the People of the State of California. 
 
 It has been represented to me that organizations of citizens, styling them- 
 selves ''Vigilance Committees," have been formed in various portions of 
 the State, and assume powers inconsistent with the existing laws, and 
 serious apprehensions are entertained of collision between the constituted 
 
468 Vigilance Comndttee of 1851 
 
 authorities and the citizens thus organized; and it becomes my duty to take 
 some step by which so great a calamity may be averted. It is earnestly 
 hoped that a few simple and practical suggestions may serve to secure this 
 desirable end. 
 
 No security of life or property can be guaranteed except the constitution 
 and laws are observed. Let these be forcibly dispensed with, their sacred- 
 ness violated, and submission to their authority refused, and we are reduced 
 to a state of anarchy more dangerous in its tendencies and probable results 
 than the Avorst laws, under our system can possibly be, no matter how cor- 
 ruptly administered. We are just entering upon our career, our character 
 is not yet formed, people from all climes and all countries are flocking to 
 our shores, it then becomes us to take no unadvised step which shall retard 
 our progress now or prejudice our claims to a high and commanding stand 
 hereafter. But more than this, Ave owe it to ourselves to impress upon the 
 strangers who have settled amongst us, unacquainted with, and perhaps 
 entertaining prejudices unfavorable to the practical operation of our 
 peculiar institutions, that our government is a government of laws, and 
 that though they may sometimes prove inadequate, sometimes operate 
 oppressively, or be administered corruptly, the remedy is not in a destruction 
 of the entire system, but is to be secured by a peaceful resort to those 
 constitutional means which are wisely afforded to reform whatever abuses 
 may exist, and correct whatever errors may have been committed. 
 
 The occurrences of the past three or four weeks, the apprehension of 
 individuals within the jurisdiction of legally constituted tribunals, their 
 trial, sentence, and execution without authority of law, by a voluntary 
 association of citizens, who thus virtually place themselves above and beyond 
 all law except that prescribed by and for themselves, will prove sufficiently 
 prejudicial to our interests abroad, commercial and otherwise, if such organ- 
 izations, assuming such unquestionably dangerous powers, were now dis- 
 solved, but if continued there is no calculating the extent of the injury 
 which may result to us as a State. The dangerous tendencies, in other 
 respects, of organizations of the character under consideration, the excite- 
 ment produced in the public mind, consequent upon their action, resistance 
 to the constituted authorities, which must almost inevitably result, and 
 threatened collisions between themselves and officers of the law in the 
 execution of their duties, cannot but be appreciated and deprecated by every 
 right thinking and patriotic citizen of the State, and need not therefore 
 be dwelt upon here. Whatever may have been the exigency heretofore 
 existing, requiring, or supposed to require the adoption of extraordinary 
 measures on the part of the citizen, it has now happily, in a great degree, 
 passed, and such measures should, on this account, if on no other, be at 
 once abandoned. Another criminal code, vnth more efficient provisions, 
 attaching adequate penalties to the commission of oifenses, and directing 
 
Documentary Appendix 469 
 
 a more prompt and effective administration of justice, has gone into oper- 
 ation. Courts are now enabled to try, sentence and execute as the offence 
 deserves; safe and secure prison-houses are being provided, and the officers, 
 there is reason to believe, are ready and anxious to discharge the high duty 
 imposed upon them by the people. 
 
 I cannot do less therefore, than earnestly recommend to my fellow citi- 
 zens everywhere throughout the State to aid in sustaining the law, for in 
 this is our only real and permanent security. Associations may be organized, 
 but they should be formed with the view to aid and assist the officers of 
 the law in the execution of their duties, and act in concert with the civil 
 authorities to detect, arrest, and punish criminals. By pursuing this course, 
 much good may, and undoubtedly will, be accomplished, and all the dangers 
 which threaten unlawful assumptions of power, thus averted. Inefficiency 
 will not then secure impunity to crimes, nor dangerous criminals be per- 
 mitted to go unwhipt of justice. It is my sworn duty to see that the laws 
 are executed, and I feel assured that all good citizens will cordially co- 
 operate with me in its discharge. 
 
 John McDougal, Governor. 
 
 {Alta California, July 23, 1851. See supra, p. 274.) 
 
 Affidavit and Warrant for the Seizure of Whittaker and McKenzie 
 
 State of California, 
 
 County of San Francisco. 
 I, John McDougal, of the city of Vallejo, county of Solano, and State 
 aforesaid, being duly sworn, depose and say, that I have good reason to 
 believe and do believe that Samuel Whittaker and Robert McKenzie are 
 illegally held in custody, confinement or restraint by a body of men styling 
 themselves ''The Vigilance Committee of the city of San Francisco" and 
 that there is good reason to believe that they will be carried out of the 
 jurisdiction of this Court, or will suffer some irreparable injury before 
 a compliance with a writ of habeas corpiis can be enforced. And further, 
 says not. 
 
 John McDougal. 
 Sworn to and subscribed before me, this 20th day of August, 1851. 
 
 Myron Norton 
 Ass't Justice of the Superior Court 
 
 City of San Francisco. 
 
470 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 State of California, 
 
 County of San Francisco. 
 
 The People of the State of California to the Sheriff of said County, 
 greeting : 
 
 Whereas it has been represented to me, an Associate Justice of the 
 Superior Court of the city of San Francisco, upon oath, that Samuel Whit- 
 taker and Eobert McKenzie are restrained of their liberty by a body of 
 men styling themselves the Vigilance Committee of the City of San Fran- 
 cisco, and that there is good reason to believe that said Whittaker and 
 McKenzie will suffer irreparable injury before compliance with the writ 
 of habeas corpus can be enforced — you are therefore commanded to take 
 said Whittaker and McKenzie and forthwith bring them or either of them 
 before me, at the Court House in San Francisco aforesaid, to be dealt with 
 according to law. 
 
 Witness my hand and the seal of the said Court, this 20th day of August, 
 
 Myron Norton, 
 Associate Justice of the Superior Court, 
 
 City of San Francisco. 
 On this was indorsed the Sheriff's return as follows: 
 I hereby certify that I received the within writ, at 3 o'clock A. M., 
 and executed the same by taking the bodies of Samuel Whittaker and Eobert 
 McKenzie, and have them now in my custody. 
 
 John C. Hays, Sheriff. 
 August 20th, 1851. 
 (San Francisco Herald, August 21, 1851. See supra, p. 295.) 
 
 Non-P ARTISAN Address to the Voters of San Francisco 
 
 TO THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 In view of the General Election, on the eve of which you now stand .... 
 we, the undersigned, citizens of San Francisco, appeal to you, in the name 
 of the common good of California, and would earnestly urge, that in casting 
 your votes for suitable men to enact and administer laws, you will be 
 careful to disregard all questions but such as relate to the general welfare. 
 
 In whatever light we may examine the present evils of society, every 
 man must come to the conclusion that the primary error is in the people 
 themselves. Trace the troubled waters of the community back to their 
 source, and the explorer will find his journey terminate at the ballot box. 
 There is where the fountain of evil found vent — not in the votes there given, 
 so much as in the neglect of those who should have been there to select and 
 elect proper men 
 
 Herewith we present to your consideration and suffrages the names of 
 certain gentlemen for the respective offices so soon to be filled as you may 
 
Documentary Appendix 471 
 
 decide. In making the selection, we have cast aside every question but 
 that of their fitness on the score of honesty and integrity of character, 
 faithfulness to the interests of our city and State, and mental qualifications 
 
 for the position. We ask you to receive them as such 
 
 Sweep clean the Augean stables of legislation; purify the ermine; show 
 by your votes that honesty and virtue are at a premium in public estimation ; 
 and that hereafter no qualifications but those of integrity and capacity 
 
 can pass current with the voters of this city and State You have 
 
 now the corrective in your own hands. The fate of California hangs 
 trembling within your reach. You cannot neglect to act without criminal 
 indifference; you' cannot vote for any but honest and respectable men, 
 without danger and disgrace. 
 
 James King of Wm., G. W. Ryckman, Geo. M. Garwood, 
 
 J. L. Blood, S. L. Dewey, Jas. Wadsworth, 
 
 W. L. Bromley, S. E. Woodworth, Jas. F. Curtis, 
 
 W. H. Jones, W. D. M. Howard, W. A. Darling, 
 
 H. M. Naglee, Jas. B. Huie, 
 
 Nominating Committee. 
 
 {Alta California, August 27, 1851. All the signers were members of the 
 Committee of Vigilance. See supra, p. 324.) 
 
 Extract from a Speech Made at the Presentation of a Banner to 
 the Committee of Vigilance 
 
 Mr. Brooks, spokesman for the donors, said, in part: 
 
 This presentation is not a hasty movement In the month of June 
 
 .... the ladies of Trinity Parish .... resolved to express their full appro- 
 bation of the acts of this Committee by the presentation of a banner 
 
 The ornaments of the banner are intended to assist in expressing the 
 confidence of the donors in this association, their reliance upon its strength 
 and protection, and their confidence in the blessings which will flow from 
 its existence and its action. On that side of the banner which bears the 
 name of this association, the date of its organization and the purposes of 
 its creation, the inscription is enclosed in a wreath of live oak, an emblem 
 of their strength that defies the storms and tempests that hoAvl and threaten 
 
 around it Entwined with this emblem on the one side is the fig. 
 
 The emblem of home with all its pictures of quiet delight, of prosperity, 
 .... of happy faces and loving hearts 
 
 On the other side the oak entwines with the olive. — Because from your 
 
 strength comes peace Under the protection of your vigilance and 
 
 strength, our rights, our lives, our persons and our property is safe from 
 rapine and violence; but what is of far more importance, and what I feel 
 from the bottom of my heart is, that in your banded strength, our dearest 
 treasures, our wives and children find a safe and sure protection 
 
472 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Ou the reverse of the banner which bears upon its more delicately tinted 
 front the names of those who gave the banner, and the reason why it was 
 given, a simple wreath of varied flowers encircles the inscription 
 
 This gift comes with peculiar appropriateness from the ladies. At the 
 time that this society was organized our situation was very different from 
 Avhat it is at present. — It is true that the strong man with loaded revolvers 
 in his pocket, and bowie knife concealed in his breast, might defy the attacks 
 of the Sydney convict and the refuse of all the world which infested our 
 city; but it was different with the weak and defenseless woman. She who 
 sits patiently at home waiting for her husband 's return from his business — 
 
 in every noise about the house she fears the burglar and the robber 
 
 If the husband is delayed beyond his usual time, a thousand fears, a thou- 
 sand horrid visions of murder and outrage and violence come upon her heart, 
 and fill her with anguish and dismay. Such was San Francisco — but now 
 we live in peace; we sit beneath our vine and fig tree happy and secure, 
 and woman 's heart feels and this her gift expresses, her gi-atitude. 
 
 Gentlemen, accept this gift, and in all your actions, in all the assaults 
 which may be made upon you by those who hate or those who fear or those 
 who doubt, remember the motto which it bears, ''do right and fear not," 
 for in the end blessings will ever reward you for your laborious vigilance 
 for the protection of our lives and property. (San Francisco Herald, 
 August 12, 1851. See supra, p. 372.) 
 
 Extract from a Eeport of the Grand Jury of Tuolumne County, 
 California, October 9, 1855 
 The Grand Jury would further report that there exists in their belief 
 at the present time, or have recently existed in several of the camps of this 
 county organized bodies of men who style themselves Vigilance Committees, 
 or Committees of Public Safety. These committees were organized at first 
 no doubt from a laudable desire to assist in the suppression of crime, which 
 at a time not long since seemed to be committed almost with impunity in 
 our midst. They were in the first instance, we believe, organized by many 
 of the best citizens of the county — men who were actuated by no other 
 motive than the detection of villainy and the punishment of crime. Many, 
 if not all, of these citizens only designed to co-operate with the officers 
 of the law, that the law might be more effectually executed and made more 
 efficient in the preservation of life and the protection of property. But 
 we regret the necessity we are under to stat-e that irresponsible parties, men 
 who under ordinary circumstances would not be considered safe repositories 
 of power have crept in and under cover of these committees assumed the 
 power of making arrests, and from what light we have before us have com- 
 mitted acts which should not be longer tolerated in our midst. 
 
Documentary Appendix 473 
 
 In view of these facts the Grand Jury most earnestly recommend and 
 urge that all good citizens throughout the county Avho were members of 
 these committees or who countenanced their existence, Avill use all their 
 influence in disbanding these organizations and thereby put a stop to all 
 extra-judicial proceedings as have recently taken place. Justice and 
 humanity demand that this course should be immediately adopted. (Archives 
 of the County Qerk, Grand Jury Reports. See supra, p. 395.) 
 
 Executive Committee of the Committee of Vigilance of 1856 
 (Members of the Committee of 1851 are marked with a *) 
 President, W. T. Coleman*. 
 
 Vice-Presidents, C. J. Dempster, S. T. Thompson*, J. D. Fanvell*, W. H. 
 Tillinghast*, Lorenzo Hubbard, J. M. Taylor*, T. J. L Smilev* ' A ' W* 
 Bell, D. S. Turner*. . ; • • 
 
 Secretary, Isaac Bluxome, Jr.*; Assistant Secretary, Charles Ludlow. 
 
 Treasurer, James Dows* ; Assistant Treasurer, William Meyer*. 
 
 Grand Marshal, Charles Doane. 
 
 Sergeant-at-arms, Jerome Eice. 
 
 Chief of Police, Oscar Smith*; afterward, J. F. Curtis*. 
 
 Director of Police, A. M. Burns; afterward, W. C. B. Andrews. 
 
 Surgeon in Chief, Dr. R. B. Cole. 
 
 Executive Committee: W. T. Coleman*, T. J. L. Smiley*, James Dows* 
 J. P. Manrow*, S. T. Thompson*, W. T. Thompson*, E. B. Cole, J. s' 
 Emery, N. O. Arrington, L. Bossange, Charles Doane, J. K. Osgood' E* m' 
 Jessup*, J. H. Fish, M. J. Burke, C. L. Case*, F. W. Page, [C] E. Grisar* 
 C. J. Dempster, J. D. Farwell*, O. B. Crary, W. H. Tillinghast*, William 
 Arrington, E. P. Flint, W. T. Eeynolds*, Eugene Delessert*, N. P. Hut<!h- 
 ings, J. W. Brittan, W. H. Eogers, M. F. Truett, C. V. Gillespie*, Isaac 
 Bluxome, Jr.*, H. S. Brown*, E. B. Goddard, E. Gorham*, G. E. Ward* 
 A. M. Burns. {Popular Tribunals, II, 113. Colville's San Francisco Direc- 
 tory for 1856 printed a list of officers, but the publisher tried to obliterate 
 it by pasting a printed slip above the paragraphs.) 
 
474 Vigilance Comrmttee of 1851 
 
 CLASSIFIED LIST OF MATERIAL 
 
 This list includes the works which have been cited in the footnotes of 
 this volume, with the addition of a few supplementary authorities of 
 recognized importance. It contains, however, but a portion of the ex- 
 tensive literature relating to California, 1846 to 1860, and every student 
 of the period must constantly refer to the excellent Bibliography compiled 
 by Mr. Eobert E. Cowan. The fullness of entry presented there is im- 
 possible here, but important bibliographical details have been noted as 
 the author has thought necessary. Titles omitted by Cowan are given hero 
 with particular fullness, rare books are described more carefully than 
 familiar authorities, and abbreviated titles are indicated by the conven- 
 tional symbols. The number of pages is noted when a publication con- 
 tains less than one hundred; also in the description of manuscripts and 
 of some rare books. 
 
 For Californiana not included in the Bancroft Library reference is made 
 to the following collections: 
 
 California State Library, -Sacramento. 
 
 Henry E. Huntington Library, San Gabriel, California. 
 
 M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. 
 
 Collection of Mr. Eobert E. Cowan, San Francisco. 
 
 Collection of Mr. Charles B. Turrill, San Francisco. 
 
 Collection of Mr. Henry R. Wagner, Berkeley, California. 
 
Bihliography 475 
 
 SCHEME OF CLASSIFICATION 
 
 Public Documents 
 Congressional Documents 
 Miscellaneous Federal Documents 
 
 Californiana 
 Bibliographies 
 
 Newspapers 
 
 Series and Periodicals 
 
 State Documents 
 
 Local Official Documents 
 
 Local Histories and Directories 
 
 Contemporary Works, Published or Written 1844-1860 
 
 General Histories, Biographies, and Eeminiscences, 1861 to date 
 Manuscript Reminiscences in the Bancroft Library 
 Printed Works 
 
 The San Francisco Committees of Vigilance, 1851 and 1856 
 Archives of the Committee of 1851 
 Archives of the Committee of 1856 
 
 Manuscript Statements of Members in the Bancroft Library 
 Printed Accounts of the Committees 
 
 Committees of Vigilance elsewhere than in San Francisco 
 
 Miscellaneous Works 
 General Authorities 
 Series, Periodicals and Newspapers 
 
476 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 PUBLIC DOCUMENTS 
 
 Congressional Documents 
 
 The Congressional reports relative to the occupation and military 
 government of California appear in bewildering duplication. A useful 
 analysis is made in the Index to Fublications .... Eelaiing to Mexico, 
 published by the War Department Library. Bancroft 's footnotes, as cited 
 supra, chapters one and two, generally cover exact reference to the official 
 records. The subjects of the documents listed below are indicated in 
 parentheses. 
 
 Serial 
 number 
 
 493 29 Cong., 2 Sess., Sen. Doc. 1. (Eeports of Sloat and Stockton. 
 With President's Message of December 8, 1846.) 
 
 499 29 Cong., 2 Sess., House Doc. 19. (Occupation of Mexican Terri- 
 tory. With Message of December 22, 1846.) 
 
 503 30 Cong., 1 Sess., Sen. Ex. Doc. 1. (Kearny's overland march. 
 With Message of December 7, 1847.) 
 
 507 30 Cong., 1 Sess., Sen. Ex. Doc. 33. (Court Martial of Fremont, 
 1847-1848.) 
 
 520 30 Cong., 1 Sess., House Ex. Doc. 60. (Mexican War correspond- 
 
 ence, 1846-1848.) 
 
 521 30 Cong., 1 Sess., House Ex. Doc. 70. (New Mexico and California. 
 
 With Message of July 24, 1848. 49 pp.) 
 531 30 Cong., 2 Sess., Sen. Ex. Doc. 31. (Eeports of Stockton.) 
 537 30 Cong., 2 Sess., House Ex. Doc. 1. (Reports from California. 
 
 With Message of December 5, 1848.) 
 549 31 Cong., 1 Sess., Sen. Ex. Doc. 1 [pt. 1]. (Operations in California. 
 
 With Message of December 4, 1849.) 
 
 557 31 Cong., 1 Sess., Sen. Ex. Doc. 18. (See note on Ser. No. 573.) 
 
 558 31 Cong., 1 Sess., Sen. Ex. Doc. 47. (P. T. Tyson, Geology .... 
 
 of California, 1851.) 
 
 561 31 Cong., 1 Sess., Sen. Ex. Doc. 52. (Correspondence of General 
 Riley. With Message of May 22, 1850.) 
 
 573 31 Cong., 1 Sess., House Ex. Doc. 17, 1850. (California and New 
 Mexico. With Message of January 21, 1850. Cited in this 
 volume in preference to Ser. No. 557, which contains practically 
 the same material with some additions and omissions.) 
 
Bibliography 477 
 
 Serial 
 number 
 
 577 31 Cong., 1 Sess, House Ex. Doc. 59. (T. B. King- Eeport on Cali- 
 fornia, 1850. 32 pp.) 
 
 589 31 Cong., 2 Sess., Sen. Ex. Doc. 18. (W. C. Jones, Land Titles in 
 California, 1851.) 
 
 688 33 Cong., Special Sess., Sen. Doc. 4. (Indian agents in California. 
 
 With Report of the Secretary of the Interior, March 17, 1853 ) 
 824 34 Cong., 1 Sess., Sen. Ex. Doc. 101. (Committee of Vigilance of 
 
 1856. With Message of August 6, 1856. 30 pp.) 
 
 835 34 Cong., 2 Sess., Sen. Misc. Doc. 1. (C of V., 1856. Printed with 
 34 Cong., 1 Sess., Sen. Misc. Doc. 82. 1 p.) 
 
 881 34 Cong., 3 Sess., Sen. Ex. Doc. 43. (C. of V., 1856. Report of the 
 Secretary of War. 29 pp.) 
 
 1240 39 Cong., 1 Sess., Sen. Rep 't. 105. (Occupation of mineral lands 
 3 pp.) 
 
 1289 39 Cong., 2 Sess., House Ex. Doc. 29. (J. R. Browne, Report on 
 
 mineral resources.) 
 1293 39 Cong., 2 Sess., House Ex. Doc. 92. (J. W. Taylor, Gold Mines 
 
 east of the Rocky Mountains.) 
 1484-1496 42Cong.,2Sess.,Sen.Rep't.41,pts.l-13. (Ku Klux Klan.) 
 1975 46 Cong., 3 Sess., House Ex. Doc. 47, pt. 4. (Thomas Donaldson 
 
 The Public Domain, 1881). 
 
 2144 47 Cong., 2 Sess., House Misc. Doc. 42, pt. 14. (10th Census- 
 Mining laws). 
 
 5879 61 Cong., 3 Sess., Sen. Doc. 758. (Immigration Commission, Reports 
 vol. 39.) ' 
 
 6589 63 Cong., 2 Sess., Senate Doc. 608. (J. T. Hughes, Doniphan's 
 Expedition; reprint of the edition copyrighted in 1847.) 
 Congressional Globe, 29-30 Cong. (1846-1849). 
 
 Miscellaneous Federal Documents 
 United States. Statutes at Large. Boston and Washington, 1850. 
 United States. Presidents. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of 
 the Presidents, 1789-1897. By James D. Richardson. Washington, 
 1899. 10 vols. (Also published as Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 3265, pts! 
 1-10, 1896-1899.) Cited as Richardson, Messages. 
 United States. War Department. Reports on the Law of Civil Government 
 in Territory Subject to Military Occupation by the Military Forces of 
 the United States .... By Charles E. Magoon. Ed. 2. Washing- 
 ton, 1902. Cited as Magoon, Eeports. 
 
478 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 CALIFOKNIANA 
 
 California material found in works of general history is listed under 
 Californiana. 
 
 Bibliographies 
 
 Bancroft, Hubert Howe. ''Authorities quoted in the History of Cali- 
 fornia, ' ' in his History of California, 1, XXV-LXXXVIII. 
 The separate volumes of Bancroft's histories also contain valuable 
 bibliographical guides. Citations in these pages are made from the 
 full set of WorTcs, which in some instances differ in date from the 
 independent publications although the paging is identical. For a 
 discussion of the authorship of the various volumes, see an article 
 by William Alfred Morris, in the Oregon Historical Society, Quar- 
 terly, IV, 287-364 (December, 1903). 
 
 Bepler, Doris West. Descriptive Catalogue of Western Historical Material 
 
 in California Periodicals, 1854-1890 1920. 299 pp. 
 
 MS Thesis (M.A.), University of California Library. 
 
 California State Library. Card Index to California Newspapers. 
 An invaluable guide to local history. 
 
 Chapman, Charles E. ''The Literature of California History," South- 
 western Historical Quarterly, XXII, 318-352 (April, 1919). 
 
 Cowan, Eobert Ernest. Bibliography of the History of California and the 
 Pacific West, 1510-1906 .... San Francisco, 1914. 
 Full titles and descriptive notes of about 1000 books. An indispen- 
 sable tool for the student of California history. 
 
 Dietz, Ambrose P. "List of Books, Tracts, Pamphlets, and other Publi- 
 cations .... relating to California and .... to the adjoining 
 States and Territories. From the earliest Period of Discovery to 
 the Present Time . ..." m his Bibliotheca Calif orniae. A De- 
 scriptive Catalogue of BooTcs in the State Library of California (2 vols. 
 Sacramento, 1871), II, 687-789. 
 The first bibliography of California that appeared in book form. 
 
 Garoutte, Eudora. Study Outline of California History. Sacramento, 1920. 
 15 pp. (California State Library.) 
 
 Haferkorn, Henry E,, compiler. The War with Mexico, 1846-1848; A 
 Select Bibliography .... Washington Barracks, 1914. (Supple- 
 ment no. 1, Professional Memoirs, VI, no. 26. Bibliographical Con- 
 tributions, Bulletin no. 1.) 
 
Bibliography . 479 
 
 Hunt, Rockwell D[ennis]. Pacific Slope History with Special Beference to 
 California. Los Angeles, 1918. 25 + 30 pp. MS syllabus of lec- 
 tures, University of Southern California. In 2 pts. 
 
 Keith, Eliza D. ' ' California Books from the Library of Capt. Isaiah W. 
 Lees," in her Beport of Historical Landmarlcs Committee of the 
 Native Daughters [of the] Golden West [San Francisco, 1902], 39-68. 
 
 Macdonald, Augustin S. List of BooTcs, Calif orniana and the Pacific, in the 
 Library of Augustin S. Macdonald. Oakland, 1903. 76 pp. 
 This valuable collection has been bought for the Huntington Library. 
 
 Taylor, Alexander S[mith]. Bihliografa Calif ornica, 1510-1863. Printed 
 in the Sacramento Union, June 25, 1863, March 13, 1866. Scrap- 
 book, with preface by Henry K. Goddard, in the Bancroft Library. 
 
 Turner, Frederick Jackson. List of Beferences on the History of the West. 
 Revised ed. Cambridge, 1913. 
 
 United States. War Department Library. Index of Publications, Articles, 
 
 and Maps Belating to Mexico, in the War Department Library 
 
 Washington, 1896. (Catalogue no. 3.) 
 
 Newspapers 
 
 Inclusive dates of publication are given as exactly as possible. These 
 have most kindly been supplied by Mr. R. S. Kuykendall, of the Univer- 
 sity of California, who is preparing a volume entitled The Early History 
 of the Newspaper Press in California. Valuable material may also be 
 found in a ''History of California Newspapers," by E. C. Kemble, Sac- 
 ramento Union, December 25, 1858, pp. 2-3, 6-8. 
 
 Democratic State Journal. February 5, 1852-June 24, 1858. 
 
 Grass Valley Union. October 28, 1864-date. 
 
 Marysville Herald. August 6, 1850-January 1, 1858. 
 
 Monterey Californian. Established August 15, 1846. After May 22, 1847, 
 published in San Francisco. Continued as California Star and Cali- 
 fornian, November 18-I)ecember 23, 1848. See supra, p. 94 note 17. 
 
 OaJcland Transcript. April 1, 1868-January 3, 1878. 
 
 Oakland Tribune. February 21, 1874-date. 
 
 Placer Times. Established in Sacramento April 28, 1849. Continued as 
 Daily Placer Times and Transcript after June 16, 1851. Removed to 
 San Francisco and published there until December 15, 1855. 
 
 Sacramento Bee. February 3, 1857-date. 
 
 Sacramento Transcript. Established April 1, 1850. Continued as Daily 
 Placer Times and Transcript, June 16, 1851-December 15, 1855. 
 
 Sacramento Union. Established March 19, 1851. Continued as Sacramento 
 Becord Union, after September 1, 1875. 
 
480 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 San Francisco.* California Star. Established January 9, 1847. Continued 
 as California Star and Calif ornian, November 18-December 23, 1848. 
 See supra, p. 37 note 40. 
 
 Alta California. January 4, 1849-1891. See supra, p. 94 note 17. 
 
 Pacific News. August 25, 1849-May (?), 1851. 
 
 Daily Herald. June 1, 1850-(?), 1863. See supra, p. 410 note 3. 
 
 California Daily Courier. July 1, 1850-January 5, 1852. 
 
 Evening Picayune. August 3, 1850- April (?), 1852. 
 
 Morning Post. May 24^November 15, 1851. 
 
 Pacific Star. June 25-September (?), 1851. 
 
 Sunday Dispatch. July 13, 1851-(?). 
 
 The Pacific. August 1, 1851-date. 
 
 Evening Bulletin. October 8, 1855-date. 
 
 Call. December 1, 1856-date. 
 
 Chronicle. January 16, 1865-date. 
 
 Examiner. June, 1865-date. 
 
 Argonaut. March 25, 1877-date. 
 San Jose Pioneer. January 13, 1877-December 29, 1883. 
 Sonora Herald. July 4, 1850-(?), 1859. 
 Sonora Union Democrat. July 1, 1854-date. 
 StocUon Journal. June (?), 1850-June (?), 1854. 
 
 Sydney (N. S. W.) Morning Herald. Issues from July to December, 1851, 
 checked by correspondence. 
 
 Series and Periodicals 
 Academy of Pacific Coast History. Publications. Berkeley, 1910-date. 
 Associated Pioneers of the Territorial Days of California. Reports. New 
 
 York and San Francisco, 1875-. 
 California Historical Society. Papers. San Francisco, 1887-1893. 
 Historical Society of Southern California. Publications. Los Angeles, 
 
 1884-date. 
 Griszly Bear. Los Angeles (etc.), 1907-date. 
 Hutchings' Illustrated California Magazine. 1856-1861. 
 Overland Monthly. San Francisco, 1868-date. 
 Pioneer Monthly. San Francisco, 1854-1855. 
 Society of California Pioneers. Reports. San Francisco, 1850-. 
 Society of California Pioneers. Constitution and By-Laws . ... as Revised 
 
 December, 1912 .... List of Members since Its Organization. San 
 
 Francisco, 1912. 
 University of California. Chronicle. Berkeley, 1898-date. 
 The Wide West. San Francisco, March 17, 1854-July, 1858. 
 
 Arranged by dates. 
 
Bibliography 481 
 
 California State Documents 
 
 California Archives. Archives of California, ''IJnhound Documents, 1846- 
 1850. ' ' MS transcript in the Bancroft Library. 413 pp. 
 
 California. Laws of 1837, see Halleck, J. [i.e. H. W.], Translation and 
 Digest, infra, p. 488. Another translation in Minutes . ... of the 
 Legislative Assembly of ... . San Francisco .... 1849, pp. 249- 
 296. 
 
 California. Constitutional Convention, 1849. Eeport of the Debates in the 
 Convention of California, on the Formation of the State Constitution, 
 in September and October, 1849. By J. Eoss Browne. Washington, 
 1850. Cited as Browne, Debates. 
 
 California. Statutes, 1849-1850; 1851; 1852; 1856; 1865-1866. 
 
 California. General Laws, see Hittell, T. H., compiler, infra, p. 495. 
 
 California. Historical Survey Commission. Guide to the County Archives 
 of California. By Owen C. Coy. Sacramento, 1919. Cited as Coy, 
 Guide. 
 
 California. Fenal Code, 1872. 
 
 California Blue Boole or State Roster, 1907. Sacramento, no date. 
 
 California Legislature. Journals, 1849-1850; 1851; 1853. 
 
 California Supreme Court. Reports. First, 1850-1851; annotated ed. of 
 
 1906 cited. (Ed. 2, 1872, lacks the Appendix.) Secoiid, 1852; ed. 
 
 of 1854 cited. Third, 1852-1853; ed. of 1868 cited. Fifth, 1855; 
 
 ed. of 1870 cited. Fifteenth, 1860; ed. of 1861 cited. 
 
 Local Official Documents 
 
 Colusa County. Minutes of the Court of Sessions for October, 1851. (See 
 Coy, Guide, 132.) 
 
 Marysville. Archives of the County Clerk. Register of Suits before the 
 First Alcalde of Marysville, Stephen J. Field, January to May, 1850. 
 (See Coy, Guide, 609.) 
 
 Placerville. Archives of the County Clerk. Alcalde's DocTcet, 1849-1850. 
 
 (See Coy, Guide, 158.) 
 San Francisco.* Archives of the Eecorder. General Index. Blotter B. 
 The Laws of the Town of San irancisco. San Francisco, 1847. 8 pp. 
 The date of an ordinance on the last page shows that the pamphlet 
 was published after October 28, 1847. The copy in the Hunt- 
 ington Library is probably unique. (See Cowan, Bibliography, 
 200.) 
 
 Arranged by dates. 
 
482 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Minutes of the Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly of the District of 
 
 San Francisco. From March 12th, 1849, to June 4th, 1849; and a 
 
 Becord of the Proceedings of the Ayuntamiento or Town Council .... 
 
 From August 6th, 1849, until May 3d, 1850. With an Appendix Con- 
 
 taining Official Communications .... with Extracts from Mexican 
 
 Constitutions and Laivs .... Published by order of the Board of 
 
 Supervisors. San Francisco, 1860. 
 Beports of the Alcalde, Comptroller aiid Treasurer of San Francisco. 
 
 San Francisco, 1850. 36 pp. 
 
 Very rare (see Cowan, Bibliography, 203). California State Library. 
 Proceedings of the Town Council of San Francisco, Upper California. San 
 
 Francisco, 1849-1850. 
 
 Very rare (see Cowan, Bibliography, 202). California State Library. 
 
 Manual of the Corporation of ... . San Francisco, Containing a Map 
 .... the Charters .... the Bevised Ordinances; the General 
 Bepealing Ordinances ; the Ordinances Still in Force, and Certain 
 Laivs Belating Particularly to ... . San Francisco. San Fran- 
 cisco, G. K. Fitch, 1852. 261 pp. 
 
 Excellent maps. Valuable compilation of ordinances, 1850-1852. 
 San Francisco Municipal Beports. 1862-63. San Francisco, 1863. 
 
 San Francisco oflacials, 1834-1863, pp. 284-297. 
 
 San Jose. Archives of the City Clerk. 
 
 Tuolumne County. Archives of the County Clerk. Grand Jury Beports, 
 1855-1871. (See Coy, Guide, 576.) 
 
 Local Histories and Directories 
 
 Colusa County. Colusa County San Francisco. Elliott & Moore, 
 
 1880. 
 Eogers, Justus H, Colusa County Orland, Cal., 1891. 
 
 Contra Costa County. Illustrations of Contra Costa County Oak- 
 land, Smith & Elliott, [1878]. 
 
 El Dorado County. Historical Souvenir of El Dorado County Oak- 
 land, Paolo Sioli, 1883. 
 Jerrett, Herman Daniel. California's El Dorado Yesterday and Today. 
 Sacramento, 1915. 
 
 Fresno County. History of Fresno County San Francisco, Wallace 
 
 W. Elliott & Co., 1882. 
 
 Los Angeles County. History of Los Angeles County .... [by John 
 Albert Wilson]. Oakland, Thompson & West, 1880. 
 
Bibliography 483 
 
 Marysville. Amy, George Sturtevant, and Amy, O., compilers. G. and 0. 
 Amy's Marysville Directory for the Year Commencing November 1, 
 1856 Together with an Historical Sicetch San Fran- 
 cisco, 1856, 
 
 Nevada County. Brown and Ballison 's Nevada, Grass Valley and Rough and 
 
 Beady Directory, for the Year Commencing January 1st, 1856 
 
 With an Historical Sketch of Nevada County, by A. A. Sargent. 
 
 .... San Francisco, 1856. 
 California State Library. 
 Thompson, Hugh B. Directory of the City of Nevada and Grass Valley. 
 
 .... [San Francisco], 1861. 
 Bean, Edwin F., compiler. Bean's History and Directory of Nevada 
 
 County Nevada [City], 1867. 
 
 History of Nevada County .... [by Harry Laurenz Wells]. Oakland. 
 
 Thompson & West, 1880. 
 
 Placer County. History of Placer County Oakland, Thompson & 
 
 West, 1882. 
 
 Plumas County. Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen and Sierra Counties. 
 .... San Francisco, Fariss & Smith, 1882. 
 
 Sacramento County. History of Sacramento County [edited by George F. 
 Wright.] Oakland, Thompson & West, 1880. 
 History of Sacramento County [edited by George F. Wright]. Oakland, 
 
 Thompson & West, 1880. 
 Eoyce, Josiah. *''The Squatter Riot of '50 in Sacramento," Overland 
 Monthly, ser. 2, VI, 225-246 (September, 1885). Reprinted in his 
 Studies of Good and Evil, 1898. 
 
 Sacramento Illustrated Sacramento, Barber and Baker, 1855. 36 pp. 
 
 California State Library. 
 
 San Francisco. Barry, T[heodore] A[ugustus], and Patten, B[enjamin] 
 
 A [dam]. Men and Memories of San Francisco in the "Spring of 
 
 '50.'' San Francisco, 1873. 
 Brooks, B. S. ''Alcalde Grants in the City of San Francisco," The 
 
 Pioneer, I, II (1854). Five articles. 
 Brown, John H[enry]. Reminiscences and Incidents of "The Early 
 
 Days" of San Francisco .... from 1845-1850. San Francisco 
 
 [1886]. 
 Committees of Vigilance, see infra, San Francisco Committee of 
 
 Vigilance. 
 
484 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Dwindle, John W [hippie]. The Colonial History of the City of San 
 Francisco, Being a Synthetic Argument in the District Court .... 
 for Four Square Leagues of Land Claimed hy That City. San Fran- 
 cisco, 1863. Citations from ed. 3, San Francisco, 1866, which con- 
 tains an Addenda of many important documents. 
 
 Eldredge, Zoeth Skinner. The Beginnings of San Francisco from .... 
 1774 to ... . April 15, 1850. San Francisco, 1912. 2 vols. 
 
 Hittell, John S[hertzer]. A History of the City of San Francisco and 
 Incidentally of the State of California. San Francisco, 1878. 
 
 Home Guard for the City and County of San Francisco. B,oll Boole. 
 1861. 67 pp. Also 62 muster rolls. MSS in the Bancroft Library. 
 
 Jones, William Carey. The ^'Puehlo Question" Solved, in a Plain State- 
 ment of Facts and Law. San Francisco, 1860. 36 pp. 
 
 King, Edward A. ''List of Passenger Arrivals at the Port of San 
 Francisco for the Year 1849 [March 31-December 30]. Furnished 
 by the Harbor Master, Edward A, King, and Supplemented by 
 Research in the Papers, ' ' in Society of California Pioneers, Twenty- 
 fourth Anniversary (San Francisco, 1874), 38-47. 
 
 Limantour, Jose Yves, defendant. The United vs. Jose Y. Limantour. 
 Transcript of Record. [San Francisco], [1857], 1858. 4 vols. 
 Cover titles: I, U. S. Land Commission; II, U. S. District Court; 
 III, Archive Exhibits; IV, Land Comlmission] Exhibits. 
 
 Moses, Bernard. Establishment of Municipal Government in San Fran- 
 cisco. Baltimore, 1889. 83 pp. (Johns Hopkins University, Studies 
 in Historical and Political Science, VII, nos. 2-3.) 
 
 Palmer, John Williamson. ''Pioneer Days in San Francisco," Century 
 Magazine, XLIII, 541-560 (February, 1892). 
 
 ^/Pendleton, Harry C, publisher. The Exempt Firemen of San Francisco. 
 .... Published by Authority of the Exempt Fire Company. San 
 Francisco, 1900. Cover title: History of San Francisco Fire De- 
 partment. 
 
 [Shuck, Oscar Tully, editor.] STcetches of Leading and Representative 
 Men of San Francisco, see his Representative .... Men, infra, p. 499. 
 
 Soule, Frank, Gihon, John H., and Nisbet, James. The Annals of San 
 "^ Francisco ; Containing a Summary of the History of ... . California, 
 
 and a Complete History of ... . Its Great City; to Which Are 
 Added Biographical Memoirs of Some Prominent Citizens^ San Fran- 
 cisco, 1855. 
 
 The chronological annals, compiled from contemporary newspapers, 
 are an invaluable source of information. Cited as Annals. 
 
Bibliography 485 
 
 Taylor, Eev. William. Seven Years' Street Preaching in San Francisco. 
 
 .... New York, 1857 [copyrighted 1856]. 
 Turrill, Charles B. ' ' Life in San Francisco, 1856, ' ' Overland Monthly, 
 
 ser. 2, LXVIII, 495-502 (December, 1916). 
 Wheeler, Alfred. Land Titles in San Francisco .... San Francisco, 
 
 1852. 
 Williams, Rev. Albert. A Pioneer Pastorate and Times San 
 
 Francisco, 1879. 
 Young, John P[hilip]. San Francisco. A History of the Pacific Coast 
 
 Metropolis. San Francisco, [1912], 2 vols. 
 
 San Francisco Directories 
 Bogardus, [J. P.]. Bogardus' San Francisco, Sacramento City and 
 
 Marysville Business Directory, for July, 1850 [San Francisco, 
 
 1850] 8 pp. 
 Kimball, Charles P. San Francisco City Directory. September 1, 1850. 
 San Francisco, 1850. 
 
 Two reprints. (See Cowan, Bibliography, 69). 
 Parker, James M., publisher, San Francisco Directory, for the Year 
 
 1852-53 San Francisco, 1852. 
 
 A. W. Morgan ^ Co.'s San Francisco City Directory. September, 1852. 
 
 San Francisco, 1852. 
 Le Count 4- Strong's San Francisco City Directory for the Year 1854. 
 
 San Francisco, 1854. 
 
 Colvllle, Samuel. Colville's San Francisco Directory. Volume I. For 
 
 the Year commencing October, 1856 San Francisco, 1856. 
 
 San Joaquin County. History of San Joaquin County .... [by F. T. 
 
 Gilbert]. Oakland, Thompson & West, 1879. 
 San Jose. Hall, Frederic. The History of San Jose and Surroundings. 
 
 .... San Francisco, 1871. 
 Stockton. Tinkham, George H[enry]. A History of StocUon In- 
 cluding a Sketch of San Joaquin County San Francisco, 1880. 
 
 Tuolumne County. Heckendorn & Wilson. Miners 4- Business Men's 
 Directory. For the Year Commencing January 1st, 1856. Embracing 
 a General Directory of the Citizens of Tuolumne, and Portions of Cala- 
 veras, Stanislaus and San Joaquin Counties. Together with the Mining 
 Laws of Each District, a Description of the Different Camps, and 
 Other Interesting Statistical Matter. Columbia, printed at the Qipper 
 Office, 1856. 104 pp. 
 
 Very rare. California State Library; Bancroft Library (copy 
 imperfect). 
 
 [Lang, Herbert O.] A History of Tuohunne County Compiled 
 
 from the Most Authentic Becords. San Francisco, 1882. 
 
486 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Yuba County. History of Tula County [by William H. Chamber- 
 lain]. Oakland, Thompson & West, 1879. 
 
 Contemporary Works, Published or Written 1844-1860 
 
 [Allsop, Thomas.] California and Its Gold Mines Edited by Robert 
 
 Allsop. London, 1853. 
 
 Auger, Bdouard. Voyage en Calif ornie (1852-1853). Paris, 1854. 
 
 Bates, Mrs. D. B. Incidents on Land and Water, or Four Years on tJie 
 Pacific Coast Boston, 1857. 
 
 Bigelow, John. Memoir of the Life and Public Services of John Charles 
 Fremont New York, 1856. 
 
 Borthwick, J. D. Three Years in California. Edinburgh, 1857. 
 
 By an English artist. Attractive illustrations. Covers 1851-1854. 
 
 Brooks, J. Tyrwhitt, M. D. Four Months among the Gold-Finders in Alta 
 
 California London, 1849. Citations from ed. 2. London, 
 
 1849. 
 Other editions printed in Paris and New York. The interesting diary 
 of an English physician. Severely criticized in Gerstacker, Narrative, 
 194. 
 
 Browne, J[ohn] Ross. Debates, see California Constitutional Convention, 
 1849, supra, p. 481. 
 
 Bryant, Edwin. What I Saw in California: Being the Journal of a Tour 
 .... across the Continent .... and through California .... 1846, 
 
 1847 New York, 1848. 
 
 By the second American alcalde of San Francisco. Many editions and 
 translations. 
 
 Buffum, E[dward] Gould. Six Months in the Gold Mines: from a Journal of 
 Three Years' Residence in Upper and Lower California. 1847-8-9. 
 Philadelphia, 1850. 
 The author was a lieutenant in Stevenson 's Regiment. 
 
 California Illustrated. See Letts, J. M. 
 
 California: Its Gold and Its Inhabitants. See Huntley, H. V. 
 
 California: Its Past History; Its Present Position; Its Future Prospects. 
 .... London, 1850. Engraved title page reads: The Emigrant's 
 Guide to the Golden Land 
 
Bihliography 487 
 
 Capron, E[lisha] S. History of California .... with a Journal of the 
 
 Voyage from New York . ... to San Fraiioisco, and Back 
 
 Boston, 1854. 
 
 Carson, J[anies] H. Early Becollections of the Mines, and a Description of 
 the Great Tulare Valley . . . . ed. 2. Stockton, 1852. 64 pp. 
 
 Cover title: Life in California. The first book printed in Stockton. 
 
 The first edition was a supplement to a ''steamer number" of the 
 San Joaquin Eepuhlican. Valuable observations of a practical miner. 
 (See Hittell, California, III, 119.) 
 
 [Clappe, Mrs. Louise Amelia Knapp.] ''California in 1851"; "California 
 in 1852." By Shirley [pseudonym], The Pioneer, I-IV, 1854-1855. 
 A reprint is now in press. 
 
 Clarke, A. B. Travels in Mexico and California .... a Journal. Boston, 
 1852. 
 Eare. California State Library. 
 
 Coke, Henry J[ohn]. A Bide over the EocJcy Mountains to Oregon and 
 
 California. With a Glance at Some of the Tropical Islands 
 
 London, 1852. 
 Cover title: The Rocky Mountains to California. This English traveler 
 devoted but one chapter to California. The English Catalogue notes 
 an edition of 1851. 
 
 Colton, Eev. Walter. Three Years in California. New York, 1850. 
 Events of 1846-1849. See supra, pp. 41-42. 
 
 Cutts, James Madison. The Conquest of California and New Mexico 
 
 Philadelphia, 1847. 
 
 Delano, A[lonzo]. Life on the Plains and among the Diggings 
 
 Auburn and Buffalo, 1854. Citations from New York ed. of 1857. 
 Under the nom de plume of "Old Block" this author wrote The Idle 
 and Industrious Miner, Sacramento, 1854; Old Block's Sketch-Book, 
 Sacramento, 1856; Pen Knife Sketches, Sacramento, 1853. 
 
 Delavan, James [proprietor of copyright]. Notes on California and the 
 Placers. . ... By One Who Has Been There. New York, 1850. 
 Accurate and entertaining observations. 
 
 Dillon, Patrice. "La Calif ornie dans les derniers mois de 1849," Bevue 
 'des deux mondes, nouvelle periode, V, 193-219 (January 15, 1850). 
 By the French consul at San Francisco. 
 
488 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Farnham, Eliza W[oodson (Burhans)]. Calif ornia, In-door s and Out 
 
 New York, 1856. 
 Keen- observations, 1851-1856. Mrs. Farnham acquired notoriety by 
 a project of bringing from the East a company of marriageable young 
 women (see Hittell, Calif ornia, III, 191; Ryan, Personal Adventures, 
 II, 282-283; H. C. Clark, MS Statement, 1). 
 
 Frost, John. Frost's Pictorial History of California Auburn, N. Y., 
 
 1850. 
 A popular but superficial history. Many editions. 
 
 Gerstacker, Fredrich [i.e., Friedrieh Wilhelm Christian]. Gerst'dcker's 
 Travels Translated from the German, London, 1854. Cali- 
 fornia State Library. 
 
 Gerstacker, Friedrieh [Wilhelm Christian]. Gold! Bin Calif ornisches Leh- 
 enshild. Jena, no date. Various editions). That cited is from the 
 California State Library. 
 
 Gerstacker, Friedrieh [Wilhelm Christian]. Narrative of a Journey round 
 
 the World New York, 1853. 
 
 California State Library. 
 
 Golden Breams and Leaden Bealities, see Payson, George. 
 
 Grabowski, Stanislaus. Die Eegulatoren von San Francisco Berlin, 
 
 no date. 2 vols. 
 
 California State Library. 
 Listed in Heinsius, Allegemeines deutsches BiXcher-Lexikon, XIII, 1857- 
 1861, pt. 2, p. 168. 
 
 Halleck, J. [i.e., Henry Wagner]. Translation and Digest of Such Portions 
 of the Mexican Laws of March 20th and May 23d, 1837, as are sup- 
 posed to he still in force and adapted to the present condition of Cali- 
 fornia; with an Introduction and Notes, hy J. HallecTc, Attorney at 
 Law, and W. E. P. Hartnell, Government Translator. San Francisco, 
 1849. 26 pp. 
 Very rare (see Cowan, Bibliography, 231-232). Huntington Library. 
 Eeprinted in Browne, Debates, Appendix, pp. XXIV-XL. 
 
 Helper, Hinton R[owan]. The Land of Gold. Reality versus Fiction. 
 Baltimore, 1855. 
 
 Hittell, Theodore H[enry]. The Adventures of James Capen Adams, Moun- 
 taineer and Grizzly Bear Hunter, of California. San Francisco, 1860. 
 
 Holinski, Alexandre [Jean Joachim]. La Calif ornie et les routes inter- 
 oceaniques. Bruxelles, 1853. Citations from ed. 2, Bruxelles, 1853. 
 The author was a Lithuanian, and the British Museum Catalogue prints 
 his name Holynski. The title page of this book describes him as 
 a ''citoyen americain," and its contents show that he was an 
 enthusiast for democracy. The work was prohibited in France 
 (Lorenz, Catalogue general, II, 608). 
 
Bibliography 489 
 
 Hughes, John T[aylor]. Doniphan's Expedition ; Containing an Account of 
 the Conquest of New Mexico; General Kearney's [sic] Overland Ex- 
 pedition to California Cineinnati, [copyrighted 1847]. 
 
 Various editions, including Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 6589, Doc. 608. Cita- 
 tion from reprint edited by William Elsey Connelley, Topeka, 1907. 
 
 [Huntley, Sir Henry Vere.] California: Its Gold and Its Inhabitants. 
 .... London, 1856. 2 vols. 
 
 Johnson, Theodore T[aylor]. Sights in the Gold Eegion, and Scenes hy the 
 Way. New York, 1849. Citations from ed. 3, with title: California 
 and Oregon; or, Sights in the Gold Eegion, and Scenes hy the Way. 
 Philadelphia, 1851. 
 
 Jones, William Carey. Beport on the Subject of Land Titles in California. 
 .... Washington, 1851. {Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 589, Doc. 18. 136 
 
 PP-) 
 Printed in part as Land Titles in California, Washington, 1850. 60 pp. 
 
 Kelly, William. An Excursion to California With a Stroll through 
 
 the Diggings and Eanches of That Country. London, 1851. 2 vols. 
 A Stroll through the Diggings was published separately. London, 1852. 
 
 King, Thomas Butler. California: the Wonder of the Age New 
 
 York, 1850. 34 pp. Eeprint of his Eeport on California. (Cong. 
 Docs., Ser. No. 577, Doc. 59). 
 
 Kingsley, Nelson. Diary of Nelson Kingsley, a California Argonaut of 1849. 
 Edited by Frederick J. Teggart. Berkeley, 1914. (Academy of 
 Pacific Coast History, Publications, III, no. 3.) 
 
 [Kip, Leonard.] The Volcano Diggings, a Tale of California Law. By a 
 Member of the Bar. Neiv York, 1851. 
 Not very interesting, but a reflection of local conditions. Huntington 
 Library. 
 
 Lambertie, Ch[arles] de. Voyage pittoresque en Calif ornie et au Chili. 
 Paris, 1853. 
 
 [Letts, John M.] California Illustrated New York. 1852. 
 
 Another edition has title: A Pictorial View of California. New York, 
 1853. 
 
 Lieber, Francis, compiler. California Scrap-BooTc, 1848-49. 
 A collection of clippings in the Bancroft Library. 
 
 Lyman, Albert. Journal of a Voyage to California, and Life in the Gold 
 Diggings Hartford, Conn., 1852. 
 
 McNeil, Samuel. McNeil's Travels in 1849, to, through and from the Gold 
 Eegions, in California. Columbus, 1850. 
 
490 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Marryat, Frank [i.e., Samuel Francis]. Mountains and Molehills, or Recol- 
 lections of a Burnt Journal London, 1855. 
 
 By an English artist. Interesting illustrations. An inferior edition 
 was published in New York in 1855. 
 
 Meyer, Carl. Naeh dem Sacramento Aarau, 1855. 
 
 Montgomery, C. E. *' The Lost Journals of a Pioneer, ' ' Overland Monthly, 
 ser. 2, VII (1886), 75-90; 173-181; 276-287. 
 
 Mysteries and Miseries of San Francisco New York, [1853]. 
 
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 ington Library. 
 
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 Teachers' Magazine, VI, 210-211 (September, 1915). 
 
 Palmer, J[ohn] W[illiamson], M.D. The New and the Old; or, California 
 and India in Bomantic Aspects New York, 1859. 
 
 [Payson, George.] Golden Dreams and Leaden Sealities. By Ealph Eaven. 
 .... New York, 1853. 
 
 A "Pile/' or a Glance at the Wealth of the Monied Men of San Francisco 
 
 and Sacramento City San Francisco, 1851. 15 pp. 
 
 Printed in New York, but bearing a San Francisco imprint. 
 
 Eeid, Samuel 0[hester], Jr. The Scouting Expeditions of McCulloch's Texas 
 Bangers .... and Sketches of ... . Hays, McCulloch, and Walker. 
 Philadelphia, 1847. 
 
 Eobinson, Fayette. California and Its Gold Beg ions New York, 
 
 1849. 
 
 [Ryan, E. F.] '' Judges and Criminals; or, Shadows of the Past.'' By 
 Juris Consult, The Golden Era [1853-1854?] 
 A series of historical sketches of California from the Spanish occupa- 
 tion to 1849. Scrapbook in the Bancroft Library. 
 
 Eyan, William Eedmond. Personal Adventures in Upper and Lower Cali- 
 fornia, in 1848-9 London, 1850. 2 vols. 
 
 By an English artist. Characteristic illustrations. 
 
 Saint-Amant, [Pierre Charles] de. Voyages en Calif ornie et dans VOregon. 
 Paris, 1854. 
 The author was French consul at Sacramento in 1851 (Popular Tri- 
 bunals, I, 156). His observations are exceedingly interesting. A 
 portion of his letters was published as Voyage en Calif ornie 1850- 
 1851, Paris, 1851. 
 
 Seyd, Ernest. California and Its Besources London, 1858. 
 
Bihliography 491 
 
 Shaw, Pringle. Eamhlings in California . ... the Five Tears' Experience 
 
 of a Gold Digger. Toronto [ca. I860]. 
 
 Shaw, William. Golden Dreams and WaTcing Realities London, 1851. 
 
 Shirley, pseudonym, see Clappe, Mrs, L. A. K. 
 
 Simpson, Henry I. Emigrant's Guide to the Gold Mines. Three WeeTcs in 
 
 the Gold Mines, or Adventures with the Gold Diggers of California in 
 
 August, 1848 New York, 1848. 30 pp. 
 
 The early date makes these observations interesting, but they must 
 
 be received with caution. 
 Taylor, Bayard. Eldorado, or, Adventures in the Path of Empire 
 
 New York, 1850. 2 vols. 
 Published in the same year in London, with illustrations by the author. 
 
 Various reprints. See note, supra, p. 85. 
 
 Taylor, Eev. William. California Life Illustrated New York, 1858. 
 
 Turnbull, T[homas]. T. Turnhull's Travels from the United States across 
 
 the Plains to California [1852]. Madison, 1914. Eeprinted from the 
 
 Wisconsin State Historical Society, Proceedings, 1913, pp. 151-225. 
 
 Separate no. 158. 
 Tyson, James L[awrence], M.D. Diary of a Physician in California 
 
 New York, 1850. 
 Tyson, Philip T[homas]. Geology and Industrial Resources of California. 
 
 Baltimore, 1851. Eeprinted, with introduction and appendix 
 
 from Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 558, Doc. 47. 
 The Volcano Diggings; a Tale of Calif ornia Law, see Kip, Leonard. 
 Weston, S[ilas]. Life in the Mountains; or Four MontJis in the Mines of 
 
 California. Providence [E. I.], 1854. 34 pp. 
 Ed. 2, revised, has title: Four Months in the Miiies of California; or. 
 
 Life in the Mountains. Providence, 1854. 46 pp. 
 Wierzbicki, F[elix] P[aul], M.D. California as It Is, and as It May 
 
 Be, or, a Guide to the Gold Region. San Francisco, 1849. 60 pp. 
 Often described as the first book printed in San Francisco (see Holinski, 
 
 La Calif ornie, 113; Eoyce, California, 301). Cowan corrects this 
 
 statement {Bibliography, 248). A second, enlarged edition, followed 
 
 the same year. 76 pp. 
 Wilkes, Charles. Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition. 
 
 During the Years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842. Philadelphia, 1844. 
 
 5 vols., and Atlas. 
 Wilson, E. A. ''The Alcalde System of California," in First California 
 
 Reports (1852), 559-582. Omitted from the edition of 1872. 
 Woods, Eev. Daniel B. Sixteen Months at the Gold Diggings. New York, 
 
 1851. 
 
492 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 GeJteral Histories, Biographies, and Reminiscences, 1861-date 
 
 MANUSCRIPT references OF PIONEERS IN THE BANCROFT LIBRARY 
 
 Clark, Hiram C. Statement of Historical Facts in Calif [ornia] from 1851 
 
 to 1865. 1878. 12 pp. 
 Crosby, E[lisha] O. Statement of Events in Cal{ifornia'\. 1878. 132 pp. 
 Currey, John. Incidents in California. 1878. 16 pp. 
 
 Dally, Henry I. Narrative of His Life and Events in Cal[ifornia] since 
 
 1843. 1878. 95 pp. 
 Garniss, James R. Early Bays of San Francisco. 1877. 32 pp. 
 
 Gwin, W[illia]m M. Memoirs on History of United States, Mexico, and 
 California. 1878. 265 pp. 
 
 Hyde, George. Statement of Historical Facts in California. 1878. 26 pp. 
 
 Kraszewski, Michael. Acts of the "Manilas." Lawlessness at San Juan 
 in 1856. 1878. 17 pp. 
 
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 16 pp. 
 
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 34 pp. 
 
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 PRINTED WORKS 
 
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 Twenty-seventh Anniversary (San Francisco, 1877), 7-16. 
 
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 Bancroft, Hubert Howe. Chronicles of the Builders of the Commonwealth. 
 
 San Francisco, 1891-1892. 7 vols, and Index. 
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 7 vols. (Works, XVIII-XXIV). 
 Barker, Eugene C. ''California as the Cause of the Mexican War," 
 
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 Bell, Horace. Reminiscences of a Ranger; or. Early Times in Southern 
 
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 more, 1891. (Johns Hopkins University, Studies in Historical and 
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 of California, Chronicle, XV, 554-556 (October, 1913). 
 
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 Brace, Charles Loring. The New West: or, California in 1867-1868. New 
 York, 1869. 
 
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 Resources of the United States [for 1866]. Washington, 1867. 
 Browne's report covered the area west of the Eocky Mountains. It 
 was also published as Cong. Does., Ser. No. 1289, Doc. 29. Taylor 's, 
 on the area to the east, appeared as Ser. No. 1293, Doc. 92. 
 
 Burnett, Peter H[ardeman]. Becollections and Opinions of an Old Pioneer. 
 .... New York, 1880. 
 
 Carr, John. Pioneer Days in California Eureka, Cal., 1891. 
 
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 manded hy Col. Jonathan D. Stevenson in the Mexican War 
 
 New York, 1882. Cover title: Stevenson's Regiment in California, 
 
 1847-8. 
 
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 fornia Austin, [1915]. Eeprinted from the Southwestern 
 
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 from California. New York, 1908. 
 
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 p. 481. 
 
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 Congress, The Pacific Ocean in History (New York, 1917), 363-372. 
 
494 Vigilance Comrmttee of 1851 
 
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 Angeles, 1902. 83 pp. Eeprinted from O. T. Shuck, History of the 
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 XIV, 316-329 (April, 1872). 
 
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 spect to the Civil War," American Historical Association, Annual 
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 Ellison, Joseph. Sentiment in California for a Pacific Republic, 1943-1861. 
 1919. Ill pp. MS Thesis (M.A.), University of California Library. 
 
 Ellison, William Henry. The United States Indian Policy in California, 
 1846-1860. 1918. 434 pp. MS Thesis (Ph.D.), University of Cali- 
 fornia Library. 
 
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 Revenues, Debts, and Expenditures. Berkeley, 1913. (University 
 of California, Publicatio7is in Economics, III, no. 2.) 
 
 Ferguson, Charles D. The Experiences of a Forty-niner during Thirty-four 
 Years' Residence in California and Australia. Edited by Frederick 
 T. Wallace. Cleveland, 1888. Cover title: A Third of a Century in 
 the Gold Fields. 
 
 Field, Stephen J[ohnson]. Personal Reminiscences of Early Days in Cali- 
 fornia No, place, [copyrighted 1880]. Citation from enlarged 
 
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 trative, legislation, description physique et geologique Paris, 
 
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498 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
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 Extracts from the San Jose Fioneer, June 9-August 4, 1877. 
 
 Perez Rosales, Vicente. Becuerdos del pasado, 1814-1860. Santiago de 
 Chili, 1910. (Biblioteca de escritores de Chili, III.) 
 
 Phelps, Alonzo. Contemporary Biography of California's Representative 
 Men San Francisco, 1881-1882. 2 vols. 
 
 Porter, Valentine Mott. General Stephen W. Kearny and the Conquest of 
 California (1846-7). Los Angeles, 1911. Reprinted from Historical 
 Society of Southern California, Annual Publications, VIII (1911), 
 95-127. 
 
 Eevere, Joseph W[arren]. Keel and Saddle. Boston, 1872. Citations from 
 ed. of 1873. California State Library. 
 
 Richman, Irving Berdine. California under Spain and Mexico, 1535-1847. 
 Boston, 1911. 
 
 Ridge, John R[ollin]. Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta Ed. 
 
 3, enlarged. San Francisco, 1871. 81 pp. 
 
 Rives, George Lockhart. The United States arid Mexico, 18S 1-18 48 
 
 New York, 1913. 2 vols. 
 
 Roberts, B[righam] H[enry]. The Mormon Battalion Salt Lake 
 
 City, 1919. 
 
 Robertson, James R[ood]. From Alcalde to Mayor; a History of the 
 Change from the Mexican to the American Local Institutions of Cali- 
 fornia, 1908. 293 pp. MS Thesis (Ph.D.), University of California 
 Library. 
 
 Robinson, Henry. * ' Pioneer Days of California, ' ' Overland Monthly, VIII, 
 457-462 (May, 1872). 
 
 Rodman, Willoughby. History of the Bench and Bar of Southern California. 
 Introduction by W. J. Hunsaker. Los Angeles, 1909. 
 
 Royce, Josiah. California, from the Co?iquest in 1846 to the Second Vigil- 
 ance Committee in San Francisco Boston, 1886. (American 
 
 Commonwealths. ) 
 
 Royce, Josiah. ''Provincialism; Based upon a Study of Early Conditions 
 in California," Putnam's Magazine, VII, 232-240 (November, 1909). 
 
 Royce, Josiah. Bace Questions, Provinoialism, and Other American Prob- 
 lems. New York, 1908. 
 
Bibliography 499 
 
 Eoyce, Josiah. '^ Squatter Eiot," see mpra, p. 483. 
 
 Scanland, J. M. ''Joaquin Murrieta; California Fra Diavolo," Overland 
 
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 Shafter, Oscar Lovell. Life Diary and Letters .... 1864, to ... . 1868. 
 
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 1915. 
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 Dinner (New York, 1891), 20-24. 
 
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 XX, no. 2.) 
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 Stockton, 1915. 
 Very inaccurate. 
 
500 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Tuthill, Franklin. History of California. San Francisco, 1866. 
 
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 War [Salt Lake City], 1881. 
 
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 1878. Cover title: Scenes i7i El Dorado in the Years 1849-'' 50. 
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 .... San Francisco, 1892. 
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 127-141 (May, 1891). 
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 himself and edited by his daughter. San Francisco, 1878. 
 Webster, Kimball. The Gold Seekers of '49 With an Introduction 
 
 .... by George Waldo Browne. Manchester, N. H., 1917. 
 Journal and reminiscences, 1849-1854. 
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 second Anniversary (San Francisco, 1882), 7-28. 
 [White, William Francis.] A Picture of Pioneer Times in California 
 
 by William Grey ['pseudonym']. San Francisco, 1881. 
 Willey, Eev. Samuel H[opkins]. The Transition Period of California, from 
 
 a Province of Mexico in 1846 to a State of the American Union in, 
 
 1850. San Francisco, 1901. 
 Willey, Eev. Samuel H[opkins]. ''Eecollections of General Halleck as 
 
 Secretary of State in Monterey, 1847-9," Overland Monthly, IX, 
 
 9-17 (July, 1872). 
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 to 1879. San Francisco, 1879. 
 Wistar, Isaac Jones. Autobiography, 1827-1905. Philadelphia, 1914. 2 
 
 vols. 
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 Woods, Eev. James. Becollections of Pioneer Work in California 
 
 San Francisco, 1878. 
 Woods, S[amuel] D. Lights and Shadows of Life on the Pacific Coast. 
 
 New York [1910]. 
 
 Woolley, L[ell] H[awley]. California, 1849-1913 Oakland, 1913. 
 
 Wright, Flora Alice. Bichard Barnes Mason, Governor of California. 1919. 
 
 275 pp. MS Thesis (M.A.), University of California Library. 
 Yale, Gregory. Legal Titles to Mining Claims and Water Bights, in Cali- 
 fornia, under the Mining Law of Congress, of July, 1866. San Fran- 
 cisco, 1867. 
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Bibliography 501 
 
 The San Francisco Committees of Vigilance, 1851, 1856 
 archives of the committee of 1851, in the bancroft library 
 
 Constitution and List of Signers. Boole of Names, Kept by the Sergeant-at- 
 arms. Printed as Papers of the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance 
 of 1851. I. Edited by Porter Garnett. Berkeley, 1910. 69 pp. 
 (Academy of Pacific Coast History, Publications, I, no. 7.) 
 
 List of Names Approved by the Committee on Qualification. Printed as) 
 Papers, II. Edited by Porter Garnett. Berkeley, 1911. 19 pp. 
 (Academy of Pacific Coast History, Publications, II, no. 2.) 
 
 Minutes and Miscellaneous Papers. Printed as Papers, III. Edited by 
 Mary Floyd Williams. Berkeley, 1919. 905 pp. (Academy of 
 Pacific Qoast History, Publications, IV.) Cited as Papers. 
 Contents: Minute Book of the Executive Committee, September 17, 
 1851, to June 30, 1852. Cash Book of the Treasurer, July 1, 1851, 
 to October 17, 1852. Eoll Call of the Executive Committee, Sep- 
 tember 17, 1851, to March 13, 1852. Miscellaneous Minutes, Ee- 
 ports. Evidence, and Confessions. Financial Accounts and Vouchers. 
 
 Unprinted: Boole of Fines of the Sergeant-at-Arms. Petty Cash Boole of the 
 Sergeant -at -Arms (fragment). Miscellaneous papers. (See Papers, 
 III, 830-831.) 
 
 Archives of the Committee of 1856 
 Both Bancroft and Hittell had access to the original archives of the 
 Committee of 1856, but Bancroft was not allowed to retain them, and in 
 1914 he was unaware of their location. Correspondence -svith relatives of 
 President Coleman and Secretary Bluxome has also failed to trace the 
 documents. A number of the papers were obtained by Mr. A. S. Macdonald 
 from a sealed room in a building in course of destruction in San Francisco 's 
 Chinatown, and were included in the Macdonald collection of Californiana 
 purchased by Mr. Henry E. Huntington. The most interesting item is an 
 Index to the Eecord of the Committee, made out under names of cases and 
 witnesses, but the Record itself is missing. There are also unimportant 
 papers relating to the cases of Judge Terry and Edward McGoAvan, some 
 communications on ballot box stuffing, fragments of muster roUs, various 
 subscription lists, vouchers, orders for membership certificates, and many 
 complaints against the character of witnesses, and against men who had 
 been admitted to membership in the Committee. The complaints show that 
 vigorous efforts were made to expel undesirable members as fast as they 
 could be discovered. A few letters relating to the Committee of 1856 are 
 preserved in the Bancroft Library in the file that contains the papers of 
 1851. It is probable that the rest of the Archives were destroyed in the fire 
 of 1906. 
 
502 Vigilamce Committee of 1851 
 
 Manuscript Statements of Members of the Committees 
 IN THE Bancroft Library 
 
 Bluxome, Isaac, Jr., ''33 Secretary." Statement. [1877?] 20 pp. 
 
 Cole, Dr. R. Beverly. Statement on Vigilance Committee in San Francisco. 
 
 1877. 22 pp. (1856 only.) 
 Coleman, William T[ell]. Statement. [1877?]. 174 pp. 
 Coon, H[enry] P., M.D. Annals of San Francisco. [1877?]. 31pp. (1856 
 
 only.) 
 Crary, Oliver B. Statement on Vigilance Committees in San Francisco. 
 
 1877. 12 pp. (1856 only.) 
 Dempster, C[lancey] J. Vigilance Committee. [1877?]. 59 pp. (1856 
 
 only.) 
 Dows, James. Statement on Vigilance Committes in San Francisco. 1877. 
 
 12 pp. 
 Durkee, John L. Statement on Vigilance Committee in San Franoisco. 8 pp. 
 
 (1856 only.) 
 Farwell, James D. Vigilance Committees in San Franoisco. 1878. 24 pp. 
 Frink, George W. Statement. Vigilance Committee. [1877?] 28 pp. 
 
 (1856 only.) 
 Gillespie, Charles V. Vigilance Committee. 1875. 10 pp. (Chiefly 1856.) 
 Manrow, John P[oole]. Statement on Vigilance Committees in San Fran- 
 cisco. 1878. 12 pp. 
 Neall, James, Jr. Statement. Vigilance Committee. [1877?]. 28 pp. 
 
 (1851 only.) 
 Olney, James N. Statement. Vigilance Committee.' [1877?]. 36 pp. 
 
 (1856 only.) 
 Eyckman, Gerritt W. Statement. Vigilance Committee. [1877?] 20 pp. 
 
 (Chiefly 1851.) 
 Schenck, George E[verett]. Statement on the Vigilance Committee, 1856. 
 
 1877. 59 pp. (1851 and 1856.) 
 
 Smiley, Thomas J[ohn] L[oud]. Statement on Vigilance Committees and 
 
 Early Times in San Francisco. 1877. 24 pp. 
 Truett, Miers F. Statement on Vigilance Committees in San Franoisco. 
 
 1871. 8 pp. (1856 only.) 
 Watkins, William B. Statement. Vigilance Committees in San Francisco. 
 
 1878. 24 pp. (1856 only.) 
 
 Vigilance Committees in San Francisco — Miscellany. 1877. 39 pp. State- 
 ments by Aaron M. Bums, J. D. B. Stillman, William H. Rogers, 
 Hall McAllister, Sylvester Woodbridge, James C. L. Wadsworth, Asa 
 M. Bowen, A. M. Comstock. 
 
Bibliography 503 
 
 PRINTED ACCOUNTS OF THE COMMITTEES* 
 
 Ayres, W. O. ''Personal Eecollections of the Vigilance Committee," 
 Overland Monthly, ser. 2, VIII, 160-176 (August, 1886). C. of V., 
 1856. 
 
 Bancroft, Hubert Howe. Popular Tribunals. San Francisco, 1877. 2 vols. 
 (Works, XXXVI, XXXVII.) 
 The original edition gave such offense to some Calif ornians that it was 
 withdrawn, and another printed the same year, with modifications 
 in the personal comments. Citations from ed. 2. 
 
 Bancroft, Hubert Howe. Chronicles of the Builders, I, 335-387. 
 
 Barbour, C. ''Two Vigilance Committees," Overland Monthly, ser. 2, X, 
 285-291 (September, 1887). Committee of '56 and Committee of 
 Montana. 
 
 Brierly, Eev. B. Thoughts for the Crisis : a Discourse Delivered in the Wash- 
 ington St. Baptist Church, San Francisco, Cal., on the Sabbath Fol- 
 lowing the Assassination of James King of Wm. by James P. Casey. 
 San Francisco, 1856. 20 pp. 
 
 Carpenter, W. W. Letter describing Stephen Payran's work in 1851, Oak- 
 land Transcript, 1874, March 29 i/i. California State Library. 
 
 Carroll, W. [i.e., Conrad Wiegand]. Dr. Scott, the Vigilance Committee 
 and the Church. A Lecture .... Delivered in Musical Hall, San 
 Francisco, Oct. 12, 1856. San Francisco, 1856. 52 pp. 
 By a purported friend of the Committee. Too incoherent to be of 
 value. Another item by Wiegand is listed on p. 507. 
 
 Cary, Thomas G[reaves]. "The First San Francisco Vigilance Com- 
 mittee," International Beview, XI, 78-88 (July, 1881). 
 
 Cary, Thomas G[reaves]. "The San Francisco Committee of Vigilance," 
 Atlantic Monthly, XL, 702-709 (December, 1877). C. of V., 1856. 
 
 Cary, Thomas Greaves. The Vigilance Committee of San Francisco, 1851 : 
 The Chinese in California: Clipper Ships and the China Trade. No 
 date. 80 pp. MS in Harvard University Library. 
 
 The ' ' City Guard. ' ' A History of Company " J?, " First Eegiment Infantry, 
 N.G.C., 1854-1896. San Francisco, 1895. Cowan collection. 
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 Coleman, William T[ell]. "San Francisco Vigilance Committees. By 
 the Chairman of the Committees of 1851 [?], 1856, and 1877," 
 Century Magazine, XLIII, 133-150 (November, 1891). 
 See also his reminiscences in San Francisco Call, 1884, April 14 y^.^. 
 
 * No attempt has been made to list the many accounts of the Committees 
 that occur in works of wider scope. 
 
504 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Constitution and Addrress [sic'] of the Committee of Vigilanoe of San Fran- 
 cisco. San Francisco, 1856. 8 pp. Huntington Library. Also in 
 JELutcliings' California Magazine, I, 15-16, 38-41 (July, 1856). 
 
 Drury, P. Sheldon. The Startling and Thrilling Narrative of the Darlc and 
 Terrible Deeds of Henry Madison, and His Associate and Accomplice, 
 Miss Ellen Stevens, Who Was Executed hy the Vigilance Committee 
 of San Francisco, on the 20th September Last. Cincinnati, [1857]. 
 No such execution took place. Collection of E. E. Cowan (see his 
 Bib liog raphy, 73). 
 
 Estell, Gen. James M. Speech .... Delivered in the House of Bepresent- 
 atives, Sacramento City, Cal., . . . . in Connection with the Vigilance 
 Committee. No date, 1857. 13 pp. 
 A vituperative attack upon the personnel of the Committee of 1856. 
 
 Evans, M. Discourse Pronounced by Eev. M. Evans, at the Funeral 
 Obsequies of James King of William, in Grass Valley, Cal., May 22, 
 1856. "Fiat Justitia Buat Coelum." Grass Valley, 1856. 17 pp. 
 Collection of R. E. Cowan. 
 
 [Fargo, Frank F.] A True and Minute History of the Assassination of 
 James King of Wm. and the Execution of Casey and Cora. San Fran- 
 cisco [1856]. 24 pp. 
 Compiled from articles in the Alta written by Fargo. 
 
 '^Fort Gunnybags, the Old Stronghold of the Vigilance Committee. Shall 
 It be Marked?" Overland Monthly, ser. 2, XXXI, 73-77 (January, 
 1898). 
 
 ''Fort Gunnybags ....'" Overland Monthly, ser. 2, LXXII, 574-581 
 (December, 1918). 
 
 Gray, Henry M., see Judges and Criminals. 
 
 Green, Alfred A. Life and Adventures of a 47-er in California. 1878. 86 
 pp. MS in the Bancroft Library. 
 
 The author was under arrest by the Committee of 1856. 
 
 Hallidie, A. S. ' ' William T. Coleman, ' ' Overland Monthly, ser. 2, XXIII, 
 71-75 (January, 1894). 
 
 Hunt, Rockwell D[ennis]. ''The Committees of Vigilance of California," 
 Overland Monthly, ser. 2, XLIX, 31-39 (January, 1907). 
 
 Hunt, T[imothy] Dwight. Sermon Suggested by the Execution of JenJcins 
 in the Plaza by "the People" of San Francisco during the Night of 
 the 10th of June, 1851. San Francisco, 1851. 26 pp. 
 
Bibliography 505 
 
 Judges and Criminals : Shadows of the Past. History of the Vigilance Com- 
 mittee of San Francisco, Cat. With the Names of its Officers. San 
 Francisco, 1858. 100 pp. 
 Ascribed to Henry M. Gray (see Cowan, Bibliography, 124). Opposed 
 to the Committee of 1856. Note similarity of title with that of the 
 sketches by R. F. Ryan, supra, p. 490. 
 
 King, Charles J. "Reminiscences of Early Days in San Francisco," 
 Overland Monthly, ser. 2, XI, 275-283 (March, 1888). 
 The Committee of 1856. By a son of James King of William. See 
 also his contribution to Irvine, History of the New California, I, 
 83-101. 
 
 King, Joseph L. "The Vigilance Committee of '56," Overland Monthly, 
 ser. 2, LXVIII, 509-520 (December, 1916). 
 By a son of James King of William. 
 
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 vs. Argenti et al. Speeches of B. A. LocTcivood, Esq. San Francisco, 
 1852. 48 pp. Ed. 1, 1851, see supra, p. 330 note 25. 
 
 McGowan, Edward. Narrative .... Including a Full Account of the 
 Author's Adventures and Perils, while Persecuted hy the San Francisco 
 Vigilance Committee of 1856. San Francisco, 1857. 
 "Edward McGowan 's Abenteuer, " in German, appears in Wentzel ^ 
 Huefner's San Francisco Kalender, 1877, pp. 1-25. 
 
 [d'Meara, James.] The Vigilance Committee of 1856. By a Pioneer Cali- 
 fornia Journalist. San Francisco, 1887. 57 pp. 
 The cover title is dated 1890. Opposed to the Committee. See also 
 his contribution to Irvine, History of the New California, 1, 102-199. 
 
 O'Meara, James. "Admiral Farragut," San Francisco Chronicle, 1881, 
 July 10 1/1.2. 
 Reports a conference with a committee from the C. of V. of 1856. 
 
 Paul, Almarin B. "The Vigilance Committee of '56," Overland Monthly, 
 ser. 2, XXIV, 433-441; 529-542; 622-634 (October-December, 1891). 
 
 The Phoenix. A weekly anti-Vigilante sheet, published by Edward Mc- 
 Gowan in Sacramento, August 30, 1857, to February 14, 1858. Its 
 attacks were so indecent that newsboys were arrested for selling 
 it in San Francisco, and to evade suppression the title was changed 
 to Ubiquitous, under which it appeared from February 21 to June 
 20, 1858. 
 
 Pierce, Franklin. Message. August 6, 1856. 30 pp. (Cong. Docs., Ser. 
 No. 824, Doc. 101.) 
 With correspondence relating to the "self-styled Vigilance Committee 
 in California. ' ' 
 
506 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 Eivors, . A Full and Authentic Account of the Murder of James King 
 
 of Wm., Dr. Bandall, Dr. Baldwin, West and Marion. The Execution 
 of James F. Casey, Charles Cora, Philander Brace, and Joseph Hether- 
 
 ington, hy the Vigilance Committee of San Francisco Written 
 
 by Rivors. Published by E. Darrow & Brother, Rochester, 1857. 
 64 pp. 
 
 Collection of H. R. Wagner. Chiefly reprints of newspaper 
 accounts. The first fifty pages closely follow Fargo 's True and 
 Minute History. 
 
 Scott, Rev. [William Anderson]. A Discourse for the Times. Delivered in 
 Calvary Church, Sunday, July 27, 1856. Education, and Not Pun- 
 ishment, the True Bemedy for the Wrong-Doings and Disorders of 
 Society. San Francisco, 1856. 8 pp. 
 In opposition to the Committee of Vigilance, although the organization 
 was not directly mentioned. 
 
 Sherman, William T[ecumseh]. *' Sherman and the San Francisco Vigi- 
 lantes. Unpublished Letters . . . . " Century Magazine, XLIII, 296- 
 309 (December, 1891). 
 
 Sherman, William T[ecumseh]. ''The Vigilance Committee of 1856," Over- 
 land Monthly, XII, 105-116 (February, 1874). 
 Correspondence between the Committee and General Sherman, who 
 opposed the organization. Reprinted in San Francisco Chronicle, 
 1874, January 23 %.4. 
 
 Smith, Frank Meriweather, editor. San Francisco Vigilance Committee of 
 '66, with Some Interesting Sketches of Events Succeeding 1846. San 
 Francisco, 1883. 83 pp. 
 Friendly to the Committees of 1851 and 1856. 
 
 Soule, Gihon and Nisbet, ' ' The Vigilance Committee, ' ' in their Annals of 
 San Francisco, (San Francisco, 1855), pp. 562-687. 
 
 Texas Legislature. Besolution in relation to the restriction of the supremacy 
 of the law in California, and in securing to Judge Terry a fair trial. 
 1 p. (Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 835, Doc. 1.) 
 
 Trial of David S. Terry by the Committee of Vigilance of San Francisco. San 
 Francisco, 1856. 75 pp. 
 Transcript of the evidence. No comments. 
 
 United States. War Department. Beport . ... in relation to the proceed- 
 ings of the Vigilance Committee in San Francisco, California. 29 pp. 
 (Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 881, Doc. 43.) 
 
 Weed, Joseph. ''Vigilance Committees of San Francisco," Overland 
 Monthly, XII, 350-357 (April, 1874). 
 
Bibliography 507 
 
 Wheeler, C. B. Speech Delivered at the Sophomore Prize Dehate of the 
 
 Brothers in Unity of Yale College, January 14, 1857 Was the 
 
 Formation of the San Francisco Vigilance Committee Jutifiable? 
 8 pp. 
 
 Collection of H. K Wagner. Title page wanting. 
 
 The Wide West, June and October, 1856. Illustrations of scenes of 1856. 
 
 Wiegand, Conrad. To the People of San Francisco and California as Citi- 
 zens of the United States. [San Francisco, 1856.] 8 pp. 
 Eelates to the Committee of Vigilance. Collection of K E. Cowan. See 
 also entry under Carroll, W., p. 503. 
 
 Willey, Eev. S[amuel] H[opkins]. '^ Personal Recollections of the Vigilance 
 Committee," Overland Monthly, ser. 2, VIII, 330-331 (September, 
 1886.) 
 
 Woolley, Lell Hawley. ''Pioneer Experiences in California," Overland 
 Monthly, ser. 2, LXIX, 66-78 (January, 1917). 
 
 Zabriskie, James C. Eeply of James C. ZatrisJcie to a Committee of Citizens 
 of Sacramento, in Beference to the Vigilance Committee and Democ- 
 racy. Sacramento, 1856. 8 pp. 
 
 Collection of H. E. Wagner. Approves the Committee. 
 
 Clippings from the contemporary papers on the Committee of 1851 were 
 collected by Bancroft, and they are filed with the archives. Clip- 
 pings on the Committee of 1856 were collected in a scrapbook made 
 by Thomas B. Robinson, now in the Bancroft Library. 
 
 An interesting collection of pictorial letterheads, including illus- 
 trations of executions by both Committees, is preserve in the Memorial 
 Museum in Golden Gate Park. 
 
 Committees of Vigilance Elsewhere Than in San Francisco 
 
 California, Shasta County. Turner, William M. ''How We Did It on 
 Scott's Bar," Overland Monthly, XIV, 377-381 (April, 1875). 
 
 California, Los Angeles. Committee of Vigilance, 1836. 13 pp. Vigi- 
 lantes de Los Angeles .... 1836. 11 pp. 
 Two undated MSS in the Bancroft Library, describing the trial and 
 execution of Gervacio Alipas and Rosario Villa for the murder of the 
 latter 's husband. The Spanish MS is probably by Victor Prudon, 
 president of the tribunal. 
 
 California, Marysville. Marysville Vigilance Committee. Minutes of 
 the Vigilance Committee of Marysville. MS volume of 19 pp. in the 
 Public Library of Marysville. 
 
508 Vigilance Committee of 1851 
 
 California, Sonora. Layton, Grovenor I. Two Years in the Life of the 
 
 Felon, Grovenor I. Layton, Who was Lynched hy the Vigilance Com- 
 mittee at Sonora .... June 17, 1852. New Orleans, 1852. 40 pp. 
 
 (See Cowan, Bibliography, 137.) 
 Iowa, Jackson County Historical Society, Annals, I-IV, 1905-1907 (see 
 
 supra, p. 416 note 26.) 
 Kansas. Kansas State Historical Society, Transactions, X-XIII, 1907- 
 
 1914 (see supra, p. 420 note 32). 
 Louisiana. Barde, Alexandre. Histoire des Comites de Vigilance aux 
 
 Attalapas. Saint- Jean-Baptiste (La.), 1861. 
 Griffin, H. L. ''The Vigilance Committees of the Attakapas Country 
 
 . . . ." Mississippi Valley Historical Association, Proceedings, VTII 
 
 (1914-1915), 146-159. A review of Barde. 
 Montana and Vicinity. Dimsdale, Thomas J. The Vigilantes of Montana, 
 
 or Popular Justice in the Eoclcy Mountains Virginia City, 1866. 
 
 Ed. 3; Butte, 1915. 
 Langford, Nathaniel Pitt. Vigilante Bays and Ways; the Pioneers of 
 
 the Eoclcies. Boston, 1890. 2 vols. New ed. Chicago, 1912. 1 vol. 
 Montana Historical Society. Contrihutions, II-VIII, 1896-1917 (see 
 
 supra, p. 419 notes 30-31). 
 Oregon. Turner, William M. ''Pioneer Justice in Oregon," Overland 
 
 Monthly, XII, 224-230 (March, 1874). 
 See also infra, under J. E. Cutler; George Kennan; J. C. Lester; T. M. 
 
 Marquett; L. E. Munson; J. E. Parker; W. Y. Pemberton; G. F. 
 
 Shafer; W. J. Trimble. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS WOEKS 
 
 General Authorities 
 Alden, George Henry. New Governments West of the Alleghanies before 
 
 1780 Madison, 1897. (Bulletin of the University of Wis- 
 consin. Historical Series, II, no. 1.) 
 Alden, George Henry. "The State of Franklin," American Historical 
 
 Review, VIII, 271-289 (January, 1903). 
 American Association of Law Libraries. Index to Legal Periodicals 
 
 Chicago, 1908 to date. 
 Ashe, Samuel A 'Court. History of North Carolina. Vol. I. Greensboro, 
 
 N. C, 1908. 
 Avery, Elroy McKendree. A History of the United States and Its People, 
 
 from Their Earliest Records to the Present Time. Cleveland, 1904- 
 
 1910. 7 vols. Index. Tarrytown, N. Y., 1915. 
 
Bibliography 509 
 
 Bancroft, Hubert Howe. History of Mexico. 1883-1888. 6 vols. (Works. 
 IX-XIV.) 
 
 Bancroft, Hubert Howe. History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming 
 
 San Francisco, 1890. (Works, XXV.) 
 Bancroft, Hubert Howe. History of the North Mexican States and Texas. 
 
 San Francisco, 1884-1889. 2 vols. (Works, XV-XVI.) 
 Bancroft, Hubert Howe. History of Oregon. San Francisco, 1886-1888. 
 
 2 vols. (Works, XXIX-XXX.) 
 
 Bancroft, Hubert Howe. Literary Industries. San Francisco, 1890. (Works, 
 XXXIX.) 
 
 Banta, David D. ''The Criminal Code of the Northwest Territory," 
 Indiana Magazine of History, IX, 234-236 (December, 1913). 
 
 Bassett, John S. ''The Eegulators of North Carolina (1765-1771)," 
 American Historical Association, Annual Beport, 1894, pp. 141-212. 
 
 [Benton, Thomas Hart.] Thirty Years' View New York, 1854-1856. 
 
 2 vols. 
 
 Black, Paul Walton. "Attempted Lynchings in Iowa," Annals of Iowa, 
 
 ser. 3, XI, 260-285 (January, 1914). 
 Black, Paul Walton. "Lynchings in Iowa," Iowa Journal of History and 
 
 Politics, X, 151-254 (April, 1912). 
 
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INDEX 
 
 Abolition (abolitionists) : victims 
 of popular tribunals, 74 note 
 23, 422. See also Slavery ques- 
 tion. 
 
 Academy of Pacific Coast History: 
 
 Adams, George, prisoner C. of V.: 
 247, 251, 275, 276-277, 287, 
 290, 307, 308, 311, 312, 358. 
 
 Adams, Eobert, Jr.: 14. 
 
 Adirondack, a vessel: 235. 
 
 Aiken, George, see British consul. 
 
 Ainsworth, Thomas, prisoner C. of 
 v.: 251, 288. 
 
 Alcalde, The: in Mexican admin- 
 istration of California, 24-27; 
 small towns deprived of, by 
 laws of 1837, 25-26; ''alcalde 
 system," a popular misnomer, 
 27; installed without distinc- 
 tion as to size of town after 
 American occupation, 29-31, 
 38, 40; jurisdiction and duties 
 of, 40-42, 44, 47, 51, 58-60, 
 80, 110, 117-119; supervision 
 of, by Mason, 44; despotism 
 of, 37, 48-49, 52 Jiote 37, 99; 
 independent alcaldes elected in 
 the mining camps, 70, 81-84, 
 89, 101, 117, 147; office dis- 
 continued after state organiza- 
 tion, 147. 
 
 Alderson, William, prisoner C. of 
 v.: 236 note 24. 
 
 Allsop, Thomas: cited, 142-143. 
 
 Almond, William B., judge of first 
 instance: 111. 
 
 Alta California, a San Francisco 
 paper: 94 note 17, 168; pro- 
 posed survey of criminal re- 
 sorts, 184, 228; confirmed 
 statements in C. of V. records, 
 314. 
 
 Alvarado, governor of California: 
 26. 
 
 Andrews, W. C. B., C. of V., 1856: 
 473. 
 
 Angel Island: searched for stolen 
 goods, 236. 
 
 Angel's Camp, California: C. of V., 
 407 note 56. 
 
 Archer, Lawrence, cited, 84. 
 
 Arentrue, J. J.: prisoner C. of V., 
 267 note 49, 289-290, 360-361. 
 
 Argenti, Felix, C. of V.: biograph- 
 ical note, 198; mentioned, 188 
 note 3, 240, 346 note 27; sued 
 by Metcalf, 243-244, 329-331, 
 340, 343, 347, 375. 
 
 Army and Navy, U. S., cooperation 
 of officers of, with C. of V. 
 315, 371. 
 
 Arrington, N. O., C. of V., 1856 
 473. 
 
 Arrington, William, C. of V., 1856 
 473. 
 
 Arrowsmith, D. B., C. of V.: 208. 
 
 Arson: 239, 245, 340. See also 
 San Francisco — Fires. 
 
 Arthur, George, prisoner C. of V. : 
 288. 
 
 Assing, Norman: 318-319. 
 
 ''Association for the Protection of 
 the Eights of Property and 
 the Maintenance of Order": 
 393. See also Land clubs; 
 Land laws. 
 
 Atoy, a Chinese woman: 319. 
 
 Attakapas, district of Louisiana: 
 Vigilance Committees organ- 
 ized by the French colonists in 
 1859, 420-422. 
 
 Auburn, California: 146 note 25. 
 
 Auger, Edouard: cited, 168, 414, 
 
 Austin, E. G.: 282. 
 
 Australia: comments of news- 
 papers of, on acts of C. of V,, 
 241 ; efficient administration 
 of justice on the frontier gold 
 fields, 425-426. See also Con- 
 victs from Australia. 
 
 [519] 
 
520 
 
 Index 
 
 Ayuntamiento (town council), in 
 Mexican administration of 
 California, 24-26, 30 note 16; 
 in the American period, 49-50, 
 104; in San Francisco, 49, 97- 
 98, 112-113, 163. 
 
 Bail: forfeiture of, 152, 181 note 
 63. 
 
 Baker, E. D., lawyer: 411. 
 
 Ball, F. A., C. of v.: 467. 
 
 Bancroft, H. H. : importance of his 
 w^orks on California history, 1 ; 
 Popular Tribunals, 2, 5, 6; ap- 
 proval of C. of v., 414. 
 
 Bancroft Library: 1, 2, 221. 
 
 Banishment ordered by C. of V., 
 1851: 229, 232, 233, 286, 315, 
 362, 402; by C. of V. 1856, 
 199, 402. 
 
 Banners presented to C. of V. : by 
 ladies of Trinity Church, 371- 
 372, 403, 471; by Plum and 
 Warner, 372 note 45, 
 
 Bannock, Montana. See Plummer 
 gang, Montana. 
 
 Barclay, William, prisoner C. of V. : 
 236 note 24. 
 
 Barde, Alexandre, Histoire des 
 Coniites de Vigilanoe: 420- 
 422. 
 
 Barette, a vessel: 235 note 22. 
 
 Barnes the tinman: 306. 
 
 Barrett (Garrat), John: hanged 
 for robbery, 156 note 49. 
 
 Barry, P.: 107. 
 
 Barry, E. C. : 146 note 27. 
 
 Barry, T. A., C. of V. : 406 note 53. 
 
 Basquez, Theodore: hanged for 
 horse stealing, 156 note 49. 
 
 Bayles, L. J., C. of V.: 302. 
 
 Bear Flag revolt: 28. 
 
 Beard, J. R., president Sacramento 
 C. of v.: 378. 
 
 Beck, Henry, prisoner C. of V.: 228 
 7iote 1, 251. 
 
 Bell, A. W., C. of F., 1856: 473. 
 
 Bells of the California and the 
 Monumental engine companies, 
 used by the C. of V. : 169, 206 
 note 51, 268, 289, 344, 398. 
 
 Bennett, F. C, C. of V.: 164 7iote 
 5, 447. 
 
 Benton, Senator T. H. : letter on 
 organization of California, 90, 
 95, 96-97, 102 note 36. 
 
 Berdue, Thomas, from Sydney, mis- 
 taken for James Stuart, tried 
 for his crimes, and saved by 
 the C. of V. : Janseh attack, 
 171-175, 299, 453-454; Moore 
 murder, 175-176, 257; exon- 
 erated, 303 ; subscription for, 
 303 ; published card of thanks, 
 304. 
 
 Big Brummy, alias of Mat Hop- 
 wood. 
 
 ''Bird in Hand," suspicious lodg- 
 ing house: 306, 307. 
 
 Blackburn,* William, alcalde of 
 Santa Cruz: 47. 
 
 Blackburn,* "Judge" William, C. 
 of v.: 188 note 1. 
 
 Blake, G. H., C. of V.: 446. 
 
 Blood, J. H., C. of v.: 327, 471. 
 
 Blunt, S. F., C. of v.: 371 note 41. 
 
 Bluxome, Isaac, Jr., C. of V.: 
 biographical note, 191-192; 
 elected secretary, 209, 220, 
 338, 352; ''67, Secretary," 
 1851, 225 note 53, 332; "33, 
 Secretary," 1856, 189; men- 
 tioned, 2, 108 note 53, 267 note 
 49, 269, 298, 299, 333 note 35, 
 400, 473; MS Statement cited, 
 107 note 51, 202, 208 note 1, 
 234, 345. 
 
 Boles, A. : 382. 
 
 Bond, Charles E., C. of V.: 372 
 note 46, 406 note 53. 
 
 Bonner, : 146 note 27. 
 
 Borthwick, J. D. : cited on C. of 
 v., 413. 
 
 Bossange, L. : 473. 
 
 Boyd, Major: 346. 
 
 Brannan, Samuel, C. of V.: bio- 
 graphical note, 189-190; presi- 
 dent, 237; resignation, 260; 
 re-election, 337 ; mentioned, 32, 
 37, 46 note 19, 59, 106, 108 
 note 53, 173, 178, 187 note 1, 
 188 note 3, 203, 209, 223, 256, 
 257, 277, 278, 284, 318. 
 
 I have been unable to identify the Vigilante with Alcalde Blackburn. 
 
Index 
 
 521 
 
 I 
 
 Brantley, Theodore: cited on Vi^- 
 lance Committee of Montana, 
 419-420. 
 
 Brenham, C J., mayor of San 
 Francisco: 176-177, 239, 244; 
 proclamation against C. of V., 
 271, 463 ; assisted in rescue of 
 prisoners, Zd4:, 296. 
 
 Brewer, Frank: murdered, 238. 
 
 Briggs, Jim: 275, 285, 308, 311, 
 341. 
 
 Brinley, C. H., C. of V.: 188 note 3. 
 
 British Columbia: efficient admin- 
 istration of justice in courts 
 of, in frontier period, 426. 
 
 British consul (George Aiken) : 
 present at examination of 
 Stuart, 258, 371 note 42. 
 
 British penal colonies, see Convicts 
 from Australia. 
 
 Brittan, J. W., C. of V., 1856 : 473. 
 
 Broderick, David C. : 130-131, 153, 
 154, 169, 403; opposed C. of 
 v., 211, 215, 218, 220, 239 
 note 37, 266. 
 
 Bromley, W. L., C. of V.: 471. 
 
 Brown, David: hanged in Los An- 
 geles, 383. 
 
 Brown, Elam, alcalde, 59. 
 
 Browm, H. S., C. of F., 1856: 473. 
 
 Brown, H. S., judge: 177; resigned 
 as protest against C. of V., 
 303. 
 
 Browne, William, C. of V.: 181 
 note 62. 
 
 Bruce, Philander: murderer, exe- 
 cuted by C. of v., 1856, 401. 
 
 Bryant, Edwin, alcalde, San Fran- 
 cisco: 38; cited, 40-41. 
 
 Bryant, Colonel J. J. : 141. 
 
 Bryce, James: cited, 1, 71. 
 
 Buchanan, James, secretary of 
 state: status of California, 
 57, 90, 91, 96. 
 
 Buckler, John, Jr., C. of V.: 333 
 note 35. 
 
 Bullfight, Mission Dolores, 1851 : 
 299. 
 
 Bullett, Patrick & Dow^: lease to 
 C. of v., 224. 
 
 Burdell, Dr. Galen, C. of V. : 447. 
 
 Burke, M. J., C. of V., 1856: 473. 
 
 Burnett, P. H. : governor of Cali- 
 fornia, 116, 128 note 36, 138, 
 141 tiote 13 ; cited on defective 
 administration of criminal 
 laws, 152 ; message to legisla- 
 ture, .153 ; resignation, 153 ; 
 recommended death penalty for 
 grand larceny, 154; disap- 
 proved C. of v., 410. 
 
 Burns, A. M., C. of V., 1856: 473. 
 
 Burns, James, alias Jimmy from 
 Town, prisoner C. of V. : 275, 
 276, 288, 290, 358. 
 
 Burns, Dr. M. P., C. of F. : 238, 
 449. 
 
 Burns, Thomas, prisoner C. of V.: 
 228-232, 306. 
 
 Butte City, California: protest 
 against mob spirit, 394. 
 
 Cahuenga, Treaty of: 34. 
 
 California: under Mexico, 23-28 
 (see also Mexico, administra- 
 tion of California) ; American 
 occupation, and military ad- 
 ministration, 28-52 (see also 
 Bear Flag, Fremont, Kearny, 
 Mason, Sloat, Stockton) ; Mex- 
 ican laws perpetuated, 29 ; 
 Stockton's plan for civil or- 
 ganization, 31, 37; discord 
 with Kearny, 34—35 ; Kearny 
 w'arned against initiating per- 
 manent organization, 33-34; 
 Mexican laws enforced by 
 Kearny, 35-39, and by Mason, 
 40-52; status of California 
 after Treaty of Guadalupe 
 Hidalgo, 53-87 ; de facto gov- 
 ernment, 55-58, 90, 96-97 
 (see also Gold; Land laws; 
 Mines) ; Governor Mason's sit- 
 uation, 59-61, 79-80; struggle 
 for organization, 88-115 (see 
 also Benton; Constitutional 
 Convention; Settlers' theory; 
 Slavery question) ; indepen- 
 dence broached, 38-39, 99, 100 
 note 30, 102 note 36; public 
 records, HI; admission to 
 statehood, 134-135; organiza- 
 tion of state government, 116- 
 135 ; social and criminal con- 
 
522 
 
 Index 
 
 ditions, 136-151, 430-431; sec- 
 ond legislature, 152-155 ,- effect 
 of California life on individ- 
 uals, 157; slow development of 
 community spirit, 158-159 ; 
 California precedents followed 
 elsewhere, 417-420, 435 note 
 10. 
 
 See also Committee of Vigi- 
 lance ; Convicts ; Corruption ; 
 County system ; Courts ; Crim- 
 inal conditions; Death pen- 
 alty; Democratic party; Elec- 
 tions ; Foreigners ; Immigra- 
 tion; Indians; Jails; Jury 
 trials; Local government; 
 Lynch law ; Mob spirit ; Politi- 
 cal parties; Popular tribunals ; 
 Population ; San Francisco ; 
 Whig party; and local history 
 as given under names of places. 
 
 California Battalion of Mounted 
 Eifiemen: 30, 36. 
 
 California Courier: 168; comment 
 on Stuart's execution, 273. 
 
 California Engine Company: 169, 
 206 note 51, 209. 
 
 California Guard: organized 1849, 
 107 note 51. 
 
 California Institute : organized, 
 346. 
 
 California Star: demanded civil or- 
 ganization, 37, 52 note 37. 
 
 California Star and Calif ornian: 
 proposed constitutional con- 
 vention, 94-95. 
 
 Callao, a vessel: 348. 
 
 Callaway, James: 14. 
 
 Cameo, a vessel: 280. 
 
 Campbell, Alexander, judge: 177 
 letter to Brannan, 237; op 
 posed C. of v., 244, 272, 303 
 indorsed for re-election by C 
 of v., 325; copy of charge to 
 the grand jury, 464, and edi- 
 torial comment, 465. 
 
 Campo Seco, California: 303 note 
 77. 
 
 Cannon, : killed at Downie- 
 
 ville, 384. 
 
 Caperton, John: 247, 289, 295. 
 Capron, E. S. : cited on C. of V., 
 
 411. 
 Carlisle, James: alias of Stuart. 
 Carpenter, W. W. : cited, 202. 
 Carson, James: cited 70, 75. 
 Cartwright, Captain J. W., C. of 
 
 v.: 299, 300. 
 Case, C. L., C. of V.: 181 iiote 62, 
 
 473. . 
 Casey, J. P. : hanged by C. of V., 
 
 1856, 397, 401. 
 Centralized government, American 
 
 distrust of, 13, 117, 139, 428. 
 
 See also County system; Local 
 
 self-government. 
 Certificates of membership in C. 
 
 of v.: 349, 400. 
 Challenge, a vessel: 343. 
 Chief, a vessel: 234, 236 note 23. 
 Chilenos, in San Francisco: 126, 
 Chinese : prisoners of C. of "V., 
 
 318-319 ; labor demonstrations 
 
 against, 1877, 407-408. 
 Chinese Camp, California : 147 note 
 
 31. 
 Cholera, epidemic of: 121 note 15. 
 Church, Samuel, prisoner of C. of 
 
 v.: 315-316, 358. 
 Civil government of California, sec 
 
 California. 
 Civil Practice Act, 154. 
 Claim associations, 11. See also 
 
 Association for the Protection 
 
 of the Eights of Property; 
 
 Land laws ; Land titles. 
 Clappe,* Louise A. K. (Shirley, 
 
 pseudonym) : letters from Cali- 
 fornia, 6. 
 Clark, H. K. W.: 219. 
 Clark, W. H., C. of V. : 237. 
 Clemens, S. C. (Mark Twain) : 
 
 cited, 197. 
 Clergyman called for condemned 
 
 prisoners, see F. S. Mines. 
 Cole, Cornelius: cited on C. of V., 
 
 415 note 24. 
 Cole, Ira: opposed C. of V., 215, 
 
 220. 
 Cole, Dr. E. B., C. of V., 1856 : 473. 
 
 * Mrs. Clappe was a native of New Jersey, not of New England, as is 
 intimated in the Introduction. 
 
Index 
 
 523 
 
 Coleman, W. T., C. of V.: bio- 
 graphical note, 190-191; men- 
 tioned, 174, 178, 189, 199, 209 
 note 7, 211; resignation, 333 
 note 35; re-election, 337; mem- 
 ber Committee of Thirteen, 
 399; president C. of V., 1856, 
 400; of Pick Handle Brigade, 
 408; MS Statement cited, 212, 
 261-263, 453, 458. 
 
 Collyer, , ' ' Dr. " : 322. 
 
 Coloma, California: 184, 394. 
 
 Colton, Eev. Walter: alcalde of 
 Monterey, 30, 37 note 40; 
 diary cited, 41-42; introduced 
 trial by jury, 45-46. 
 
 Columbia, California: C. of V., 383 
 7Wte 77 ; lynching in, 395. 
 
 Committee of Vigilance of San 
 Francisco, of 1851: prelim- 
 inary influences, trial of the 
 Hounds, 108; attack on Jan- 
 sen and citizen patrol, 180- 
 181 ; arson by Lewis and wide- 
 spread criminal disorders, 181- 
 185, 454-457 ; organization, 
 203-207, 457-458; name, 204; 
 term defined, 387 note 83. 
 Archives, 2-4, 6-7, 202, 221-222, 
 
 259, 332, 334, 368. 
 Constitution, etc. : 205-208, 237 ; 
 published in newspapers, 216, 
 459 ; copies sent to other Com- 
 mittees, 376-381; adopted by 
 Committee of 1856, 400 note 
 35. Bij-laws: 225-226, 278; 
 orders in writing, 245 ; two- 
 thirds vote required for recon- 
 sideration, 332; reorganiza- 
 tion, 338, 355. 
 Executive Committee: appointed, 
 220; functions, 222, 286; 
 orders and reports in re Whit- 
 taker and McKenzie, 293, 299 ; 
 lapse in minutes, 334; final 
 report and recommendations, 
 334-335 ; resignations and dis- 
 missals, 335-336; election of 
 enlarged new committee, 335, 
 336-337; authority to arrest 
 restricted, 337, restored, 339; 
 
 election of March, 1852, 351- 
 352; election in the fall of 
 1852, 354; Committee of Thir- 
 teen, 355, 396, 399. 
 
 Finances : Committee on Finance, 
 223 ; assessments, fines, initia- 
 tion fees, 328 ; difficulties, 329, 
 343, 348, 353 (see also damage 
 suit of Peter Metcalf ) ; salary 
 of secretary, 338, 351; sale of 
 certificates, 349 ; theatrical 
 benefit suggested, 353 ; method 
 of handling accounts, 363-366; 
 analysis of expenses, 365-367; 
 liquor bills, 367-368; sources 
 of revenue, 368. 
 
 Headquarters : temporary, in 
 Brannan's building, 224; per- 
 manent quarters, 224-225 ; re- 
 moved to new quarters, 339; 
 abandoned, 352, 354; cost of, 
 366. 
 
 Members : biographical notes, 
 187-203, 441-452; identifica- 
 tion numbers, 192 Tiote 10, 
 225; Vigilantes served on 
 grand jury, 272, 392; major- 
 ity loyal to Federal Union on 
 slavery (secession) question, 
 404-405 ; members of. Commit- 
 tee of 1856, 400, 403, 473; join 
 Home Guard, 406. 
 
 Pass word (countersign) : 199, 
 209 note 4, 215, 295. 
 
 Police organization, 223, 267 
 note 50, 270, 278, 352, 370, 
 433; water police, 223, 236, 
 237, 242, 329, 341; bills of 
 366; Chief of police, see J. L. 
 Van Bokkelen; Sergeant-at- 
 arm^, 223, 267 note 50, 329, 
 338, 343, 351, 363; see also 
 A. J. McDuffe, and D. L. Oak- 
 ley. 
 
 Qualification Committee, 223. 
 
 Relation with authorities: coop- 
 eration of U. S. Revenue De- 
 partment, 234, 371 note 41; 
 C. of V. watched trials in San 
 Francisco courts, 238, 289- 
 290, 320, 322; C. of V. pris- 
 oners handed over to city au- 
 
524 
 
 Index 
 
 thorities, 243, 288, 318, 339, 
 receipts for their delivery, 289 ; 
 right to search without war- 
 rant claimed, 243-245, 332; 
 subscription for county jail, 
 246-249; attitude on writ of 
 habeas corpus, 265, 266-267; 
 pledged to sustain law, 287; 
 investigation of Whittaker 
 rescue, 296-298; the Water- 
 man affair, 344; cooperation 
 of Army and Navy officers, 
 315, 371; of foreign consuls 
 and county sheriffs, 370-371; 
 relations to grand juries, 272, 
 283, 371, 392, 466-467. 
 
 Eelations with general public: 
 Puhlioity, given to constitu- 
 tion, 216, 459; to meetings, 
 etc., 251, 339, 352-354, 366; 
 to cases, 275, 294, 314-315; 
 sanction of the community de- 
 sired and expressed, 212, 215- 
 217, 270, 298 note 65, 302-303, 
 357-358, 369-374, 398-399, 
 462, 465-467, 471; expressions 
 of disapproval, 215-220, 239, 
 271-273, 301 7iote 69, 303, 325, 
 330-331, 460-461, 463-465, 
 467-469; reward offered for 
 arson, 245, 354, 461; open let- 
 ter to citizens of California, 
 249-250; help asked by repu- 
 table citizens, 318; non-parti- 
 san movement started by mem- 
 bers of C. of v., 326-327; 
 Vigilantes elected to legisla- 
 ture, 326; Metcalf case tested 
 standing, 330 ; rescue of Mary 
 Lye, 342; library established, 
 345-346 ; false impersonation 
 of C. of V. in forged notices 
 to leave San Francisco, 233, 
 and in attack on Capt. Ellis, 
 348; Payran's statement of 
 objects, 372-373 ; contempo- 
 rary and historical appraise- 
 ment, 2-7, 18-19, 386, 409- 
 415, 428, 432-440. 
 
 Eolation Avith prisoners: clergy- 
 men called for condemned. 
 
 211, 228-233, 270, 334-335, 
 356-363; confessions of pris- 
 oners, 262-263, 291-293, 313- 
 314; witnesses summoned for 
 defense, 230, 263 note 35, 358; 
 corporal punishment used but 
 once, 242; business affairs of 
 prisoners adjusted, 231 ; bond 
 required for delivery of pris- 
 oners, 316; humane treatment, 
 356, 357, 362-363; fair trials, 
 358; inevitable hardships, 359 ; 
 testimony of a prisoner (Dahl- 
 gren), as to fairness of treat- 
 ment, 360; summary of cases, 
 361-362. See also names of 
 prisoners: Adams; Ainsworth; 
 Alderson ; Arentrue ; Arthur ; 
 Barclay; Beck; James Burns; 
 Thomas Burns; Church; Jane 
 Connolly; Dab; Dahlgren; 
 Earl; Samuel Gallagher; Rich- 
 ard Garland ; Goff ; Gonzales ; 
 Hance; Hays; James Hether- 
 ington; Higgins; Mrs. Hogan; 
 George Hopkins ; Howard ; 
 Jenkins; Jenks; Thomas and 
 Emma Jones; Kennedy; Le- 
 Bras; McKenzie; Eoach; Ben 
 Eobinson ; Margaret Eobin- 
 son; Scott; Stuart; Taft; Tal- 
 bot; Joseph Turner; Whitta- 
 ker; William Wilson, Wright. 
 Eelations existing between mem- 
 bers of the C. of v., friction 
 in: 225, 258 note 23, 260, 277, 
 294, 297; resignations: 333- 
 336, 343. 
 Committee of Vigilance of San 
 Francisco, of 1856: organiza- 
 tion, and relation to C. of V. 
 of '51, 400-401; oath of, 400 
 note 33 ; story of, 401 ; execu- 
 tions by, 401, 402; efforts to 
 purify local politics, 402; for- 
 mation of non-partisan Peo- 
 ple 's Party, 403-404 ; indepen- 
 dence of California broached, 
 404; influence in struggle over 
 secession, 404-406 ; relation to 
 Pick Handle Brigade of 1877 : 
 
Index 
 
 525 
 
 407-408; opponents of C. of 
 V. of '56 more influential than 
 those who opposed C. of V. of 
 '51, 409-410; suits against 
 committeemen, 199 ; archives, 
 405 ; certificates, 349, 400 ; his- 
 torical appraisement, 409-415 ; 
 Executive Committee, 473. 
 
 Committees of Vigilance in Califor- 
 nia outside of San Francisco, 
 249-250, 374-386, 406-407. 
 See also Angel's Camp; Bar- 
 ton's Bar; Campo Seco; Co- 
 lumbia; Coulter\alle ; Downie- 
 ville; Fresno; Gilroy; Grass 
 Valley ; Humbug ; Humboldt 
 County; Jackson; Los An- 
 geles ; Lundy ; Mariposa ; 
 Marysville ; Merced ; Moke- 
 lumne Hill; Natchez; Nelson 
 Creek; Nevada City; Oakland; 
 Eough and Ready; Sacramen- 
 to; San Jose; Santa Clara; 
 Scott's Bar; Scott's Valley; 
 Shasta ; Sonora ; Stockton ; 
 Visalia; Yreka. 
 
 Committees of Vigilance outside 
 of California: 415-423; fos- 
 tered by inefficient courts, 419 ; 
 degenerated into organs of per- 
 sonal and political revenge, 
 422. See also Idaho; Iowa; 
 Indiana; Louisiana; Lynch 
 law ; Mississippi ; Montana ; 
 North and South Carolina; 
 Oregon ; Regulators ; Texas ; 
 Washington. 
 
 Committees of Vigilance and Safety 
 in revolutionary period, 11-14. 
 
 Committees of Vigilance. See also 
 Lynch law; Mob spirit; Popu- 
 lar tribunals. 
 
 Compact, social, see Contract, 
 social; Mayflower. 
 
 Compromise of 1850: 134. 
 
 Comstock, A. M. : cited, 172 note 
 31. 
 
 Confessions, see C. of V., relations 
 with prisoners, 
 
 Connolly, Mr. and Mrs., proprie- 
 tors of **The Shipman's 
 Arms": 210, 229, 357. 
 
 Constitutional Convention: pro- 
 posed, in 1847, 37; in Douglas 
 bill, 91 ; by Governor Mason 
 and California Star, 94-95; 
 popular movement for, 95-97, 
 date postponed, 97, 101-102; 
 call for, by Governor Riley, 
 103, 104; election of delegates 
 to, 109; work of, 113-115. 
 
 Contract, social: theory of, 9; in- 
 fluence of, on American fron- 
 tier, 9-13 ; in California min- 
 ing camps, 63-65, 68; in civil 
 organization, 99, 149 ; in for- 
 mation of C. of v., 204, 373. 
 See also Local self-govern- 
 ment; Centralized government. 
 
 Convicts from Australia, 61-72, 
 121-124, 179; ex-convicts used 
 as voters by politicians, 140 
 note 11, 292; action against, 
 by C. of v., 228-233, 251, 285. 
 See also Immigration; James 
 Stuart, and names of convicts: 
 Alderson ; Barclay ; Barnes ; 
 Beck ; Berdue ; Thomas Burns ; 
 John Edwards; Captain Ellis; 
 Garland; Goff; Higgins; 
 James Hetherington( f ) ; Mrs. 
 Hogan(?); Hopkins(?); Jen- 
 kins; Thomas and Emma 
 Jones ; Kay ; King the barber ; 
 Kitchen; Long Charley; Mor- 
 gan; Ogden; Roach; Ryan; 
 Joseph Turner ; John Ward ; 
 Whittaker; Wright. 
 
 Coon, Dr. H. P., C. of V., 1856: 
 cited, 406. 
 
 Cora, Charles: hanged by C. of V., 
 1856, 396-397, 401. 
 
 Coroners' inquests, San Francisco: 
 Jenkins, 214; Stuart, 271; 
 Wliittaker, 302. 
 
 Corrales, Jose: hanged for horse 
 stealing, 156 note 49. 
 
 Corruption, political: 140, 143, 
 390-391, 396-397, 431, 432; 
 attack upon, by Committee of 
 1856, 402-403. 
 
 ''Cottage of Content," suspicious 
 lodging house: 306. 
 
526 
 
 Index 
 
 Coulterville, California: C. of V., 
 383 note 77. 
 
 County attorney: office abolished, 
 178. 
 
 County jail of San Francisco: 
 169-170; escapes from, 247; 
 subscription for building fund 
 raised by C, of V., 246-249. 
 
 County system: organization in 
 California, adopted, 117; its 
 practical working out under 
 local conditions, 139-144; size 
 of county, 146. See also Cen- 
 tralized government; Local 
 self-government. 
 
 Courts of California: under Mexi- 
 can system, 24-25, 45 {see also 
 Alcalde) ; no higher tribunals, 
 25; military, during American 
 occupation, 44; proposed for 
 mining regions, 60 ; miners ' 
 trials, 76-79, 150; corruption 
 of, after statehood, 144; sala- 
 ries insufficient, 144; Court of 
 Sessions, 146, 154, 246; delays 
 in judicial proceedings, 146- 
 147, 218; defective adminis- 
 tration of criminal laws in 
 1850, 152; District Court, 154; 
 duties of district attorney, 178. 
 See also Bail; C. of V. of San 
 Francisco, relation to authori- 
 ties; Coroner's inquests; Jury 
 trials; Justice of the peace; 
 Popular tribunals; San Fran- 
 cisco — Courts — Grand Jury ; 
 Sheriff; Writ of habeas cor- 
 pus. 
 
 Crary, O. B., C. of V., 1856: 406, 
 473. 
 
 Crescejit City, a vessel, 232. 
 
 Crime (criminal conditions) : on 
 American frontier, 13-17; in 
 California, 59, 75-87, 129, 136, 
 146, 150-152, 228, 305-323, 
 392, 397, 454; statistics of, 113 
 note 69, 181 note 63, 382 note 
 73, 388-390; decrease in, fol- 
 lowed action of C. of V., 250, 
 288, 349-351. See also indi- 
 vidual names under Convicts; 
 Stuart gang. 
 
 Criminal Practice Act : 154. 
 
 Criminal resorts: survey of, 184, 
 228. See also Lodging houses 
 considered suspicious. 
 
 Cronin, Daniel, C. of V. : 452. 
 
 Crooks, J. B. M., C. of V.: 168 
 note 19, 200 note 37, 335. 
 
 Crowell, W. H., C. of V. : 328. 
 
 Crockstein, : 228 note 1. 
 
 Crozier, E. G. : 177. 
 
 Curry, John, judge: cited on C. of 
 v., 411. 
 
 Curtayne, W. M. : commended work 
 of C. of v., 241 7iote 4:4:. 
 
 Curtis, J. F., C. of V. : biographical 
 note, 442; mentioned, 108 note 
 53, 181 7iote 62, 208, 212, 281, 
 335, 471, 473. 
 
 Cutler, J. E., Lynch Law : cited, 10 
 note 11, 14-17, 363, 423-424. 
 
 Dab the horse thief: 275, 277. 
 
 Dahlgren, Theodore: prisoner C. of 
 v., 240, 359; acknowledged 
 fairness of his trial, 360. 
 
 Dall, J. E., C. of v.: 181 note 62. 
 
 Darling, W. A., C. of V. : 406 note 
 53, 471. 
 
 Davis, Horace: cited, 405-406. 
 
 De facto government : 57, 58, 90, 
 96, 99, 135. 
 
 De Groot, Henry : cited, 85 note 47. 
 
 Death penalty for grand larceny: 
 154-155, 210; inflicted by C. 
 of v., see John Jenkins; Rob- 
 ert McKenzie; James Stuart; 
 Samuel Whittaker. 
 
 Delano, Alonzo: cited on C. of V., 
 413. 
 
 Delessert, Eugene, C. of V., treas- 
 urer: 200, 328, 329, 346 note 
 27, 352, 353, 372 note 46, 364, 
 473. 
 
 Democratic party : organization of, 
 in California, 116 note 3, 131; 
 San Francisco elections of 
 1851, 176 note 43, 324^326, 
 327; election of 1856, 403- 
 404; of 1861, 405. See also 
 Broderick; Gwin, 
 
 Dempster, C. J., C. of V., 1856: 
 473. 
 
Index 
 
 527 
 
 Derby, Lieut. G. H. (John Phoenix, 
 pseudonym) : relation to C. of 
 v., 315, 371 note 41. 
 Desertion of soldiers in the gold 
 
 rush, 59, 61, 94. 
 Dewey, S. L., C. of V. : 471. 
 Dickinson, Harvey: 467. 
 Dillon, Patrice, see French consul. 
 District attorney: small salaries, 
 
 144-145; duties, 178. 
 Doane, Charles, C. of V., 1856: 
 
 473. 
 Dodge, C. F.: 119. 
 Dodge and Company, of Foster's 
 
 Bar: robbed, 352. 
 Dorr, Ealph, C. of V. : 173 note 33. 
 Douglas, Senator S. A. : 80 note 
 37; bill for state organization 
 of territory acquired from 
 Mexico, 91-92, 97, 103. 
 Downieville lynching: 384-386. 
 Dows, James, C. of V.: 268, 270 
 
 note 59, 446, 473. 
 Drinking in California: 120-121; 
 
 in C. of v., 367-368. 
 Dry Diggings, California: 138 note 
 
 5. 
 Duane, Charles: opposed C. of V., 
 22; criminal record, 321; ex- 
 iled by C. of v., 1856, 402. 
 Dubuque's Mines, Iowa: popular 
 
 tribunal at, 15. 
 Duclos, Angelina: 243-244, 347 
 
 note 29. 
 Dufe, J. E., C. of V. : 300, 445. 
 Dunglison, J. R. : 346 note 27. 
 Earl, David, C. of V.: 199. 
 Earl, E. M., C. of V. : 335, 446. 
 Earl, J. O., C. of V. : 446. 
 Ebbets, A. M., C. of V. : 448. 
 
 Echols, , sheriff at Auburn: 
 
 murdered, 253. 
 Edwards, John: 251, 275, 285. 
 "El Dorado," gambling hall of 
 
 San Francisco: 313. 
 El Dorado County: citizens asked 
 capital punishment for horse 
 stealing, 154; lynching discon- 
 tinued in, 394. 
 
 Eleanore, Madame, actress: 353. 
 Elections: in pre-state period, 31, 
 37, 40, 43-44; delegates to 
 constitutional convention, 109 ; 
 for state officers, 116; quali- 
 fications of electors, 140, 141 ; 
 character of candidates often 
 unknown, 141, 142-146; cor- 
 ruption in, 391, 402; copy of 
 non-partisan address, 1851, 
 470. See also Political Par- 
 ties ; San Francisco — Govern- 
 ment. 
 Elizaheth, a vessel: 235. 
 Ellis, A. J., C. of v.: 98 note 25, 
 106, 108 note 51, 108 note 53, 
 173, 188 note 2, 188 note 3, 
 326, 333 note 35, 348; bio- 
 graphical note, 444. 
 Ellis, A. V. H., C. of V. : biograph- 
 ical note, 451. 
 Ellis, H. H., C. of V. : biographical 
 
 note, 451. 
 Ellis, J. S., C. of v.: 371; bio- 
 graphical note, 451. 
 Ellis, William, captain of the Cal- 
 
 lao, 348. 
 Emery, J. S., C. of V., 1856: 473. 
 Empire Engine Company: 130, 169. 
 Endicott, George: 467. 
 England, popular tribunals in: 17. 
 Euphemia, San Francisco prison 
 
 brig: 113. 
 Eureka Engine Company: 169. 
 Evans, H. D., C. of V.: 334. 
 Evening Ficayxme, see San Fran- 
 cisco Evening Picayune. 
 Ewer, F. C, C. of V. : 346 note 27. 
 Farallon Islands: 236. 
 Famham, Mrs. E. W.: cited, 412. 
 Farwell, J. D., C. of V.: 272, 406 
 note 43; biographical note, 
 443; mentioned, 467, 473; MS 
 Statement, cited, 467, 473; 
 cited, 193 note 13, 208 note 2, 
 209. 
 Field, S. J. : alcalde of Marysville, 
 118-119; tried to prevent 
 Downieville lynching, 385. 
 Financial conditions in California, 
 185-J^18o6: 391. 
 
528 
 
 Index 
 
 Fire Companies of San Francisco, 
 see Broderick; California En- 
 gine Company ; Empire Engine 
 Company; Eureka Engine 
 Company; Howard Engine 
 Company; Monumental En- 
 gine Company ; Protection 
 Engine Company. 
 
 Fire Fly, a tug boat: 341. 
 
 Fires, see Arson; San Francisco — 
 Fires. 
 
 Fish, J. H., C. of v., 1856 : 473. 
 
 Flag pole on San Francisco Plaza: 
 165, 213. 
 
 Fleishhacker, Samuel, C. of V.: 
 449. 
 
 Flint, E. P., C. of v., 1856: 473. 
 
 Folk moot: miners' meetings com- 
 pared to, 72. 
 
 Folsom, J. L.: 173 note 33. 
 
 ForeigTiers (foreign miners) : un- 
 popular among the gold seek- 
 ers, 61-62, 124-127; tax im- 
 posed on, 127; quarters of, in 
 San Francisco, 166-167; C. of 
 V. approved by many, 413. 
 
 Forged notices to leave San Fran- 
 cisco purporting to come from 
 C. of v.: 232-233. 
 
 Fort Gunny Bags, 1856: 401. 
 
 Foster, S. C, mayor of Los An- 
 geles: 383. 
 
 Foster's Bar, California: 252, 257. 
 
 Fourgeaud, V. J., C. of V.: 108 
 note 53, 443. 
 
 France, confreres, 16-17; French 
 immigrants expected in San 
 Francisco, 340-341. 
 
 Franklin, State of: 11. 
 
 Frazier, James, miners' alcalde: 
 81. 
 
 Freelon, T. W., judge: 393. 
 
 Fremont, Captain J. C. : in Cali- 
 fornia, 28, 30; governor, 34- 
 36; mentioned, 90, 318. 
 
 French, William, opposed C. of 
 v., 239. 
 
 French consul (Patrice Dillon) : 
 present at examination of Le 
 Bras, 317-318, 371 note 42; 
 correspondence with C. of V., 
 340. 
 
 Fresno, California, C. of V.: 407 
 note 56. 
 
 Frignet, Ernest: cited on C. of V., 
 414. 
 
 Frink, G. W., C. of V., 1856 : cited, 
 399. 
 
 Frontier, The : in American democ- 
 racy, 7, 19, 53-54; the mining 
 frontier of California, 64-87, 
 differences from other fron- 
 tiers, 66, 67, 136-137, 157, 
 287 ; individualism a char- 
 acteristic of, 129, 158; mining 
 frontier of Eocky Mountain 
 area, 416-420; in the Austra- 
 lian gold fields, 425; in British 
 Columbia, 426-427. See also 
 Centralized government; Con- 
 tract, social; Committee of 
 Vigilance; Criminal condi- 
 tions; Popular tribunals. 
 
 Gallagher, Edward, coroner of San 
 Francisco: 214, 271 note 61. 
 
 Gallagher, Samuel, prisoner C. of 
 v.: 242. 
 
 Gambling: 121. See also the ''El 
 Dorado. ' ' 
 
 Gang, criminal: 123, 184, 228, 251, 
 349, 352. See also Hounds; 
 Plummer gang; Stuart gang. 
 
 Gardner, Eichard : escape from San 
 Francisco jail, 247. 
 
 Garland, Eichard, prisoner C. of 
 v.: 236 note 24. 
 
 Garnett, Porter, editor C. of V. 
 Papers, Pts. I, II : 3. 
 
 Garrat, John, see John Barrett. 
 
 Garwood, G. M., C. of V.: 181 
 note 62, 188 note 2, 333 note 
 35, 346 note 27, 372 note 46, 
 406, 471. 
 
 Gates, H. S., 0. of V.: 346 note 27. 
 
 Geary, J. W., alcalde and mayor 
 of San Francisco: 112-113, 
 163. 
 
 Geddes, Paul, alias Talbot H. 
 Green, see Talbot H. Green. 
 
 Gerke, Henry, C. of V: 188 note 1, 
 449. 
 
 Germany, Vemgericht: 16. 
 
 Gerstacker, Friedrich: cited, 126 
 note 28, 179 note 58, 355, 414. 
 
Index 
 
 529 
 
 Gibson, George, C. of V.: 358. 
 
 Gibson, James: hanged for high- 
 way robbery, 155 note 49. 
 
 Gillespie, Lieutenant A. H. : 28, 30. 
 
 Gillespie, C. V., C. of V.: cited, 
 108 note 53, 188 note 2, 188 
 note 3 ; biographical note, 446 ; 
 mentioned, 473. 
 
 Gilroy, California: C. of V., 407 
 note 56. 
 
 Goddard, E. B., C. of V., 1856: 
 473. 
 
 Goff, John, prisoner C. of V.: 176 
 note 40, 314-315, 362. 
 
 Gold: discovery of in California, 
 54, 59; the gold rush, 58-65; 
 statistics, QQ note 1 ; organiza- 
 tion in the mines, 66-87; gold 
 rushes in Eocky Mountain 
 area, 416, 426; in Australia, 
 425; in Manchuria, 435 note 
 10. 
 
 Goodwin, Andrew: 342. 
 
 Gorham, E., C. of V. : 181 note 62, 
 473. 
 
 Graham, W. C, C. of V.: 181 note 
 62, 333. 
 
 Graham, W. H., C. of V.: 444. 
 
 Grand Jury: introduced at trial of 
 Hounds, 107, 109; legal de- 
 lays in early courts, 147. See 
 also references under grand 
 juries of Marysville; Nevada 
 County; San Francisco; Tuo- 
 lumne County. 
 
 Grand larceny, punishable with 
 death: 154-156, 210. 
 
 Grass Valley, California: C. of V., 
 383 note 77, 407 note 57 . 
 
 Gray, H. M., C. of V. : 447. 
 
 Gray, Victor de: complained of 
 forcible seizure by the C. of 
 v., 359. 
 
 Grayson, A. J., C. of V.: 98 note 
 25, 187 note 1, 446. 
 
 Green, T. H. (Paul Geddes) : 144, 
 173. 
 
 Grey, William, pseudonym of W. 
 r. White. 
 
 Grisar, C. E., C. of V.: 473. 
 
 Guadalupe Hidalgo, treaty of: 54, 
 56. 
 
 Guerrero, Francisco: killed, 317. 
 
 Gwin, W. M. : assisted in trial of 
 Hounds, 107; political career, 
 130-131. 
 
 Habeas corpus writ, see Writ of 
 habeas corpus. 
 
 Haff, J. P., C. of v.: 164 iiote 5. 
 
 Haight, S. W., C. of V.: 188 note 
 3. 
 
 Hall, Richard, a suspect: 238. 
 
 Halleck, Lieutenant H. W. : secre- 
 tary of state (California), 
 1847-1849, 43, 50; Digest of 
 laws of 1837, 43, 110; cited, 
 71. 
 
 Ham, R. S., miners' alcalde: 81. 
 
 Hammer, , Captain: resisted 
 
 C. of V. water police, 242. 
 
 Hampton, R. B., C. of V.: 164 
 note 5. 
 
 Hance, W. G., escaped murderer: 
 sent back to Panama by C. of 
 v., 317. 
 
 Handbill: on appointment of 
 George Hyde as alcalde of San 
 Francisco, 38; on Jansen rob- 
 bery 172, 173 note 35, 453; 
 calling mass meeting against 
 C. of v., 239, 460. 
 
 Hangtown, see Placerville. 
 
 Happy Valley, San Francisco: 166. 
 
 Hardie, Major J. A. : 38. 
 
 Harris, Captain Isaac, from Syd- 
 ney: rescued from mob by C. 
 of v., 239-241. 
 
 Hart, A. B. : cited, 71. 
 
 Hasson, J. C, C. of V.: 181 note 
 62. 
 
 Hat and Boots: investigated as a 
 clue, 320. 
 
 Hawes, Horace: 107. 
 
 Hays, J. C, sheriff of San Fran- 
 cisco: 141-142, 246, 295, 297, 
 299, 322, 325, 470. 
 
 Hays, W. H., prisoner C. of V.: 267 
 note 49, 287. 
 
 Headquarters of C. of V. of San 
 Francisco, see C. of V. — Head- 
 quarters. 
 
 ''Heart and Hand," suspicious 
 lodging house: 306. 
 
530 
 
 Index 
 
 Hearne, V. W., sheriff of Santa 
 Barbara: arrested Whittaker, 
 281. 
 
 Helper, H. H. : cited on C. of V., 
 412. 
 
 Henry, Patrick: cited on frontier 
 associations, 14. 
 
 Herald, of San Francisco, see San 
 Francisco Daily Herald. 
 
 Hetherington, James, prisoner C. 
 of v.: 228-232. 
 
 Hetherington, Joseph: a witness 
 against Stuart, 264, 280, 286, 
 291 ; perhaps executed by C. 
 of v., 1856, 401. 
 
 Higgins, LawTence, prisoner C. of 
 v.: 234 note 21. 
 
 Hinigan, Thomas, from Sydney: 
 comments on Captain Harris 
 affair, 241. 
 
 Hittell, T. H.: approval of Com- 
 mittees of Vigilance, 414. 
 
 Hoag, Mr. : 219. 
 
 Hobart Town, Van Diemen 's Land : 
 231. 
 
 Hobson, W. L., C. of V.: 108 note 
 51. 
 
 Hoen, Francis, C. of V.: 449. 
 
 Hogan, Mrs. Mary Ann, from Aus- 
 tralia: companion of Stuart 
 and Whittaker, 264, 280-281, 
 292-293, 306, 356. 
 
 Hogg, W. M., C. of v.: 467. 
 
 Holinski, Alexandre: cited, 126 
 note 28, 319. 
 
 Hoist, Hermann von: cited, 115. 
 
 Home Guard of 1861: 405-408. 
 
 Hopkins, George: prisoner C. of 
 v., 231. 
 
 Hopkins, S. A., C. of_ V., 1856: 403. 
 
 Hopwood, Mat: 275. 
 
 Horn, B. C. : 467. 
 
 Horse stealing: capital offense, 
 154-156. 
 
 Hosmer, H. L. : cited on frontier 
 problems and Vigilance Com- 
 mittees, 419. 
 
 Hossef ross, G. H., C. of V. : 447. 
 
 Hounds, The, rioters of San Fran- 
 cisco: 100; popular trial of, 
 105-109, 126. 
 
 Howard, G. H., C. of V.: 442. 
 
 Howard, , a deserter: arrested 
 
 by C. of V. and turned over to 
 the army authorities, 316. 
 
 Howard, W. A., C. of V.: 210, 346, 
 353 
 
 Howard* W. D. M., C. of V.: bio- 
 graphical note, 448; men- 
 tioned, 49 note 26, 107 note 51, 
 108 note 53, 173, 187 note 1, 
 188 7iote 2, 188 note 3, 471. 
 
 Howard Engine Company: 169. 
 
 Hubbard, Lorenzo, C. of V., 1856: 
 473. 
 
 Hughes, William: 275, 285. 
 
 Huie, J. B., C. of V. : 173 note 33, 
 188 note 3, 299, 302, 333 note 
 35, 471. 
 
 Humboldt County: C. of V., 381. 
 
 Hutchings, N. P., C. of V., 1856: 
 473. 
 
 Huxley, J. M., C. of V. : 188 note 1, 
 445. 
 
 Hyatt, Caleb, C. of V.: 327. 
 
 Hyde, George, alcalde of San Fran- 
 cisco: 38, 4^49. 
 
 Idaho: gold rush to, and frontier 
 conditions, 416-417; Commit- 
 tees of Vigilance in, 420. 
 
 Ide, W. B,, justice of the peace: 
 146 note 25, 156, 374 note 50; 
 cited, 140-141. 
 
 Immigration, early problems of: 
 British convicts from Austra- 
 lia, 121-124, 233 note 17 ; other 
 foreigners, 124-127; legisla- 
 tion concerning, 122-123, 127; 
 statutes against enforced by 
 C. of v., 233; colonists from 
 France, 340-341. See also Con- 
 victs; Foreigners. 
 
 Independence, a vessel, .237. 
 
 Independents, sec Non-partisan 
 movements. 
 
 Indiana: political "Committees of 
 Vigilance" in, 204 note 47; 
 protective associations, 1852, 
 416. 
 
 Indians in California : difftculties 
 with, 127-128. 
 
 Individualism: a frontier charac- 
 teristic, 129, 158. 
 
 Initiative and referendum: prin- 
 ciple of, in C. of v., 433. 
 
Index 
 
 531 
 
 International law: its effect on ad- 
 ministration of California, 29, 
 50, 57. 
 
 Iowa: Vigilance Committees in, 
 416. 
 
 Jack Dandy, alias of George 
 Adams. 
 
 Jackson, Andrew, President : re- 
 fused to interfere in O 'Conner 
 case, 15; Jackson party in In- 
 diana, 204 note 47; arrival in 
 San Francisco noted in Papers, 
 235. 
 
 Jackson, California: C. of V., 380, 
 383 note 77, 407 note 56. 
 
 Jails (prisons) : lack of, and in- 
 security of, 44-45, 63, 76, 77, 
 78, 79 note 35, 107, 119, 145, 
 146 note 25, 152, 350, 380, 
 407; in San Francisco, 169; 
 escapes from, 181 7iote 63, 
 247, 380. See also Police; 
 Prison ships; San Francisco 
 county jail. 
 
 James, Colonel C. F. : 233. 
 
 James CasMe, a vessel: 309. 
 
 Jamestown, California: 81, 278. 
 
 Jansen, C. J. : attack on, 170, 180, 
 253, 263, 303, 310, 453. 
 
 Jenkins, John, a thief hanged by 
 C. of v.: 208-217, 229; exe- 
 cution followed by decrease in 
 crime, 250. 
 
 Jenks, Daniel, prisoner C. of V.: 
 320, 359. 
 
 Jessup, E. M., C. of V. : 449, 473. 
 
 Jewett, J. H., president Marysville 
 C. of v.: 257. 
 
 Jimmy from ToAvn, alias of James 
 Burns. 
 
 John Potter, a vessel: 235. 
 
 Johnson, W. A., C. of V., 1856: 
 quoted, 225 note 53. 
 
 Johnson (Johnston), a vessel: 317. 
 
 Joice, E. v., C. of V. : 447. 
 
 Jones, E. P., C. of V. : 49 note 26. 
 
 Jones, Thomas, and Emma, prison- 
 ers C. of V. : 235, 236 note 24. 
 
 Jones, W. C: cited, 129 note 40; 
 requested assistance C. of V., 
 318. 
 
 Jones, W. H., C. of V. : 173 note 33, 
 302, 471. 
 
 Joy, Captain Hartford, C. of V.: 
 257. 
 
 Juanita, lynched at Downieville: 
 384-386. 
 
 Jury trial: introduced in Cali- 
 fornia, 45-47; practiced by 
 miners, 75-86; volunteer fire- 
 men exempt from service, 169 ; 
 jury service evaded, 159, 350; 
 jury trials in Louisiana, 421. 
 
 Justice of the peace, in California: 
 prior to 1850, 25-26, 30 note 
 17; limitation of authority, 
 1850, 146; jurisdiction ex- 
 tended, 1851, 154. 
 
 Kay, T. B., member of Stuart's 
 gang: 238, 275, 282-284, 292, 
 308, 312, 371. 
 
 Kearny, General S. W. : instruc- 
 tions on establishment of civil 
 government in New Mexico 
 and California, 31, 33-34; pro- 
 mulgated civil code for New 
 Mexico, 32-33; administration 
 in California, 34-39. See 
 also California. 
 
 Kelly, James : 279, 306. 
 
 Kemble, E. C: cited, 37 note 40, 
 94. 
 
 Kennebec Hill, California: 138 
 note 5. 
 
 Kennedy, Dr., prisoner C. of Y. : 
 317. 
 
 King, the barber, a convict: 306, 
 307. 
 
 King, E. A., C. of V.: 108 note 51, 
 173 note 33, 188 note 3, 442. 
 
 King, of William, James, C. of V. : 
 188 note 3, 471; biographical 
 note, 197; murdered, 397. 
 
 King, T. B., U. S. special agent to 
 California: 93, 103, 109; can- 
 didacy for U. S. Senate, 116 
 note 3, 340. 
 
 Kitchen, William, member of 
 Stuart's gang: 254, 275, 292, 
 311. 
 
 Knights of the White Camelia: 
 423. 
 
532 
 
 Index 
 
 Ku Klux Klan: 423. 
 
 La Grange, Sacramento prison brig : 
 253. 
 
 Lambert, Capt. William, keeper of 
 San Francisco county jail: 300. 
 
 Lammot, E. S., C. of V.: 181 note 
 62. 
 
 Land clubs: 11. See also Land 
 laws; Land titles; "Associa- 
 tion for the Protection of the 
 Eights of Property, ' ' etc. 
 
 Land laws (titles) : confused con- 
 dition in California, 37, 49-51, 
 137-138, 152, 391, 431. See 
 also Squatters. 
 
 Law, Common : adopted by Califor- 
 nia, 117. 
 
 Law books, lack of, 1846-1849 : 40, 
 43, 44, 47. 
 
 Laws of the Indies: 41. 
 
 Laws of 1837 (Mexican) : 25; Eng- 
 lish translation, 43, 56, 110. 
 See also California; Mexico, 
 administration of California. 
 
 Lawyers: rich rewards for in pri- 
 vate practice and its effect on 
 the securing of prosecuting at- 
 torneys, 144^145. See also E. 
 G. Austin; Judge Alexander 
 Campbell ; T. W. Freelon ; Hall 
 McAllister ; Edward McGow- 
 an; Judge Levi Parsons; F. 
 M. Pixley. 
 
 LeBras, Francois, prisoner C. of 
 v.: 267 note 49, 317. 
 
 Leavenworth, T. M., alcalde of San 
 Francisco: 98-100, 104, 105- 
 108. 
 
 Leese, J. P., C. of V.: 443. 
 
 Legislative Assembly of San Fran- 
 cisco, see San Francisco, legis- 
 lative assembly. 
 
 Leidesdorff , W. A. : 38-39. 
 
 Lent, W. M., C. of V. : 449. 
 
 Lewis, Benjamin: accused of arson, 
 181-185, 359. 
 
 "Lex diggerorum": 70, 86. 
 
 Lippitt, F. J. : 106, 107. 
 
 Lipseom, John: 319. 
 
 Liquor used by the C. of V.: 226, 
 367-368. 
 
 Little Chile : 166. 
 
 "Live and Let Live," suspicious 
 lodging house: 306. 
 
 Local self-government: on Ameri- 
 can frontier, 9-13; in Califor- 
 nia mining camps, 49, 68, 71, 
 73-74, 83, 89; spirit of, in 
 movement for civil organiza- 
 tion, 96-109; persistence of 
 spirit after organization, 149- 
 150. See also Centralized gov- 
 ernment; Contract, social; 
 County system. 
 
 Lockwood, D. W., C. of V. : 328. 
 
 Lockwood, E. A., lawyer: 330-331. 
 
 Lodging houses in San Francisco, 
 considered suspicious by C. 
 of v.: 228, 306, 314. See 
 also Henry Beck; "Bird in 
 Hand"; "Cottage of Con- 
 tent"; "Heart and Hand"; 
 Mrs. Hogan; "Live and Let 
 Live " ; " McManus ' Wel- 
 come"; "Panama House"; 
 ' ' Port Phillip House ' ' ; 
 "Eose Cottage"; "Ship- 
 man 's Arms " ; < ' Uncle Sam. ' ' 
 
 Long Charley: 275. 
 
 Long Wharf: 181, 313. 
 
 Lord Elden, a vessel: 235. 
 
 Los Angeles, California: ayunta- 
 miento in, 26; capital in 1845, 
 26 ; Committee of Vigilance of 
 1836, 17 note 29; of 1852, 
 382-383; of 1856, 407 note 56; 
 volunteer police force, 1851, 
 382. 
 
 Louisiana: Committees of Vigi- 
 lance. See Attakapas. 
 
 Ludlow, Charles, C. of V., 1856: 
 473. 
 
 Lundy, California: C. of V., 407 
 note 56. 
 
 Lye, Mary: abducted from guar- 
 dians and rescued by C. of V., 
 342. 
 
 ' ' Lynch Law ' ' : origin of term, 14 ; 
 development on American fron- 
 tier, see Committee of Vigi- 
 lance; Mob spirit; Popular 
 tribunals; fostered by noto- 
 rious failure of legal justice, 
 386-387, 397, 434-437; grad- 
 
Index 
 
 533 
 
 ually condemned by public 
 opinion in California. 394- 
 395, 407; practice of passes 
 from West to South, 423 ; race 
 hatred an impetus to, 423; a 
 problem peculiar to the United 
 States, 424-427, 434-437. 
 
 Lyndall, W. E. : 467. 
 
 McAllister, Hall: cited, 106-107, 
 174 note 37; testimony at Jen- 
 kins inquest, 215. 
 
 McCahiU, Thomas, C. of V.: 181 
 note 62, 335. 
 
 McCarty, A. J., a policeman: 258, 
 275. 
 
 McCormac, Teddy, member of 
 Stuart's gang-: 279, 306. 
 
 McCurdy, John: 467. 
 
 McDougal, John, governor of Cali- 
 fornia: 116, 153, 370; procla- 
 mation in re Stuart execution, 
 273-274, 467-469; pardon of 
 Duane, 321; proclamation 
 against Vigilante movement, 
 375; seized Whittaker and 
 McKenzie from C. of V., 294r- 
 298, 469-470 ; proclamation, 
 298. 
 
 McDuffee, A. J., C. of V.: sergeant- 
 at-arms, 260, 333, 365, 367- 
 368. 
 
 McGowan, Captain of the Folic: 
 234. 
 
 McGowan, Edward, justice of the 
 peace: opposed C. of V., 177, 
 398, 402. 
 
 Mclntire, E. C, a policeman: 258, 
 275. 
 
 McKenzie, Robert, prisoner C. of 
 v.: 225, 227, 275, 278-279, 
 282, 291, 306, 312; rescued by 
 authorities, recaptured and 
 hanged, 293-302, 469, 
 
 McKimmey, N. M,, sheriff of 
 Napa: 371. 
 
 McLean, W. W., C. of V.: 200 
 note 37. 
 
 ''McManus' Welcome," suspicious 
 lodging house: 229, 306. 
 
 Macondray, F. W. : 173 note 33, 
 180. 
 
 Mahony, Frank, C. of V.: 181 note 
 62. 
 
 Maloney, James R. (Rube), C. of 
 v.: 183, 200, 289, 402; bio- 
 graphical note, 198-199. 
 
 Manchuria: popular tribunals in, 
 435 note 10. 
 
 Manrow, J. P., C. of V. : 449, 473. 
 
 Marcy, W. L. : cited on status of 
 California, 58. 
 
 Mariposa, California: C. of V., 
 383 note 77. 
 
 Markey, P., C. of V. : 181 note 62. 
 
 Marks, Joseph, member of Stuart's 
 gang: 307. 
 
 Marmion, a vessel; 235 note 22. 
 
 Marryat, Frank; cited, 143, 410- 
 411. 
 
 Martin, W. F., C. of V.: 181 note 
 62. 
 
 Mary Catherine, a vessel: 235. 
 
 Marysville, California : organiza- 
 "tion, 118; C. of V., 250, 257, 
 376; approved by grand jury, 
 374 note 48. 
 
 Marziou & Co.: 341-342. 
 
 Mason, Colonel R. B. : military gov- 
 ernor of California, 35, 40-103, 
 128; letter relative to local or- 
 ganization, 94. 
 
 Mathews, Lois K. : cited, 10 note 
 9, 207. 
 
 Mayflower compact: 9, 10, 207. 
 
 Maynard, Lafayette, C. of V.: 371 
 note 41. 
 
 Meiggs, Henry: 167 note 15. 
 
 Meiggs, J. C. : 167 note 15. 
 
 Melius, George, C. of V. : 302, 334. 
 
 Mercantile Library of San Fran- 
 cisco: beginning of, 345, 346. 
 
 Merced, California: C. of V., 407 
 note 56. 
 
 Merrill, I. M., C. of F. ; 451. 
 
 Merritt, Dr. Samuel, C. of V.: bio- 
 graphical note, 450; men- 
 tioned, 256 note 12, 261 note 
 32, 310 note 6. 
 
 Metcalf, Peter: damage suit 
 against Argenti et al., 243- 
 244, 329-331, 340, 343, 347- 
 348, 375. 
 
 Mexican land proprietors: injustice 
 to, 139. 
 
534 
 
 Index 
 
 Mexico: administration of Califor- 
 nia, 23-27; laws of 1837, 25; 
 laws of 1843, 26; laws of 1837 
 perpetuated after American 
 occupation, 29-31, 3o-36; 40- 
 47, 51, 57, 103-104, 110-111, 
 114, 118, 163. See aim Al- 
 calde; Ayuntamiento : Califor- 
 nia; Courts; Justice of the 
 Peace; Pueblo. 
 
 Mexico, Santa Hermandad in: 17 
 note 29. 
 
 Meyer, William, C. of V.: 473. 
 
 Micheltorena : governor of Califor- 
 nia, 26. 
 
 Middleton, John, C. of V.: 164 
 note 5, 188 note 3, 449. 
 
 Militia organization: 107 note 51.. 
 
 Military courts under American 
 occupation, 44. 
 
 Military organization, use of by 
 Committee of Vigilance, 271 
 note 60. 
 
 Mines (mining region) of Califor- 
 nia: Pre-state period, equip- 
 ment for social control lacking, 
 58-60, 63 ; status of miners, 
 67; average earnings, 68 note 
 6; self -organization of camps, 
 67-87; first code, 69; mining 
 regulations, 71 oiote 14 ; con- 
 trol of crime (miners' trials), 
 76-89 ; California precedents 
 on other frontiers, 416-420, 
 435 note 10. After state 
 organization, hardships, 121 ; 
 ephemeral population, 138, 142 
 note 15 ; difficulties of early 
 organization, 140-146; failure 
 of courts to control crime, 147- 
 149, 152 ; persistence of lynch 
 law, 150-151, 374, 386, 389- 
 395,407. ;See aZso Calif ornia ; 
 Contract, social; Gold; Popu- 
 lar tribunals. 
 
 Mines, Eev. F. S., rector of Trinity 
 Church: attended prisoners 'of 
 C. of v., 211, 264 note 37, 268, 
 270. 
 
 Mining companies: 68. 
 
 Minturn, Charles, C. of F. : 164 
 note 5, 188 note 3, 312, 334, 
 445. 
 
 Mississippi: citizen committees in, 
 11 note 13. 
 
 Mob spirit manifested in the popu- 
 lar tribunals of California: 78, 
 148-151; trial of Berdue, 172- 
 175; of Lewis, 182; in con- 
 nection with activity of C. 
 of v., 213-214, 219, 239-240, 
 242, 243, 284, 359; Waterman 
 affair, 344 ; Downieville lynch- 
 ing, 384-387; King's assassi- 
 nation, 298 ; C. of V. organiza- 
 tion a restraining influence, 
 386-387, 407; danger of, in 
 American life, 423. See also 
 Lynch law; Popular triunals. 
 
 Mokelumne Hill, California: 69; 
 ' ' Committee of Vigilance, ' ' 
 April, 1851, 204 note 4.7; C. of 
 v., 379-381. 
 
 Mokelumne (River) : jury trial on, 
 1849, 84. 
 
 Montana: gold rush to, 416; crim- 
 inal conditions and Committee 
 of Vigilance, 417-420. 
 
 Monterey, California: Mexican 
 administrative district, 26; 
 American occupation of, 28- 
 30; capital of California, 26, 
 35 ; first trial by jury, 46 ; con- 
 stitutional convention at, 113 ; 
 robbery of Custom House, 254, 
 308. 
 
 Monterey Calif ornian: 37 note 40, 
 94 note 17. 
 
 Monumental Engine Company : 169, 
 206 note 51, 209, 268, 289. 
 
 Moore, Charles, of Winslow Bar: 
 murdered by Stuart, 171, 252- 
 253. 
 
 Morgan, J. M., member of Stuart's 
 gang: 228 note 1, 275, 285, 
 307, 308, 311. 
 
 Mormon Battalion: 32. 
 
 Mormon Camp, California: 111 
 note 64. 
 
 Mormons in California: 32, 46 note 
 19. 
 
 Morrison, R. M., judge: 177. 
 
 Motto of the C. of V. : 401. 
 
Index 
 
 535 
 
 Muldoon, J. P., C. of V. : 200 note 
 37. 
 
 Mulligan, Billy : exiled by C. of V., 
 1856, 199. 
 
 Murderer's Bar, California: magis- 
 trates of, described, 143. 
 
 Murietta, Joaquin, bandit: 127 
 note 32. 
 
 Murray, Alexander, C. of V.: 333 
 note 35. 
 
 Murray, James, C. of V.: 181 note 
 62. 
 
 Naglee, H. M., C. of V.: 107 note 
 51, 445, 471. 
 
 Natchez, California: 383 note 77. 
 
 Neall, James, Jr., C. of V.: bio- 
 graphical note, 446; cited, 75 
 note 24, 203, 207, 209 note 
 3, 457. 
 
 Nelson Creek, California: C. of V., 
 383 note 77. 
 
 Nevada City, California: C. of V., 
 379. 
 
 Nevada County: grand jury con- 
 demned Vigilance Committee 
 of Truckee, 407 note 57. 
 
 New Helvetia, see Sutter's Fort. 
 
 New Mexico : American occupation 
 of and Kearny's code, 31-33. 
 
 New South Wales: efficient admin- 
 istration of justice on the gold 
 fields frontier, 425. 
 
 New York Volunteers, First Regi- 
 ment, see Stevenson's Regi- 
 ment. 
 
 Newmark, Harris: cited on C. of 
 v., 415 note 24. 
 
 Newspapers: 37 note 40, 94 note 
 17. 
 
 Niantic, a vessel: 166. 
 
 Non-partisan movements started by 
 C. of v.: 1851, 323-328, 470; 
 People's Party, 1856, 403-406. 
 
 Norris, Thomas, C. of V. : 200 note 
 37. 
 
 North Beach, San Francisco: 166. 
 
 Norton, H. K. : cited on C. of V., 
 
 415 note 24. 
 Norton. Myron, judge: 107, 295, 
 
 469. 
 Noyce, J. P., a policeman: 215. 
 
 Cakes, J., C. of V.: 203, 209 note 
 3, 298, 441. 
 
 Oakland : C. of V., 383 note 77. 
 
 Oakley, D. L., C. of V. : 338, 346. 
 
 O 'Conner, Patrick: tried and exe- 
 cuted by popular tribunal at 
 Dubuque's mines, 15. 
 
 Ogden, Robert, member of Stuart's 
 gang: 251. 
 
 Ohio, a vessel: 281. 
 
 ''Old Adobe" Custom House: 165, 
 213, 219, 313. 
 
 ''Once a Committeeman, always a 
 Committeeman": 199, 355. 
 
 Orator, a vessel: 232. 
 
 Old Jack, alias of J. M. Morgan. 
 
 Oregon: frontier organization in, 
 12; settlers joined gold rush 
 to California, 61 ; opinion of 
 President Taylor, 92; bitter- 
 ness resulting from Indian 
 massacres, 128; gold rushes to, 
 416; Committees of Vigilance, 
 420. 
 
 Oregon: brought news of admis- 
 sion, 134-135. 
 
 Osman, Richard, member of 
 Stuart's gang: 275, 285, 307, 
 308, 341. 
 
 Osgood, J. K., C. of v., 1856: 473. 
 
 Page, F. W., C. of V., 1856 : 473. 
 
 Palmer, Cyrus, C. of V.: 447. 
 
 ' ' Panama House, ' ' suspicious lodg- 
 ing house: 306. 
 
 Panton, Francis, C. of V.: 467. 
 
 Parker, R. A., C. of V.: 49 note 
 26, 98 note 25, 188 note 1, 450. 
 
 Parker, W. H., C. of V.: 200 )wte 
 37. 
 
 Parson, Levi, judge: 177-178, 182, 
 217. 
 
536 
 
 Index 
 
 Passenger vessels from Sydney ex- 
 amined by C. of V. : 234-235. 
 
 Payne, Theodore: 173 note 33. 
 
 Payran, Stephen, C. of V.: bio- 
 graphical note, 201-203 ; presi- 
 dent of Executive Committee, 
 260-261, 331, 336, 338; resig- 
 nation, 333 note 35, 336, 342; 
 letters, to Wakeman, 237, to 
 Hays, 248-249, to Grass Val- 
 ley C. of v., 379; rescue of 
 Mary Lye, 342 ; mentioned, 
 223, 286, 293-294, 296, 298, 
 323, 329, 332, 372, 373. 
 
 Peake, W. B., C. of V. : 272, 467. 
 
 People's Advocate (Sydney) : cited, 
 241 note 44. 
 
 People's Party, see Non-partisan 
 movements. 
 
 Phelps, T. G., C. of v.: 448. 
 
 Phoenix, John, pseudonym of G. 
 H. Derby. 
 
 Phoenix, a newspaper: 389 note 3, 
 402 note 42. 
 
 Pick Handle Brigade, 1877 : 408. 
 
 Pickett, C. E.: cited, 48 note 25; 
 jury trial of, 83. 
 
 Pixley, F. M,: city attorney of 
 San Francisco, 177 ; defended 
 Stuart, 253, 264, 265; charges 
 against, in Stuart 's confession, 
 and his denial of, 266. 
 
 Placerville (Hangtown, Dry Dig- 
 gings), California: 78. 
 
 Plank Eoad to the Mission, San 
 Francisco: 167. 
 
 Planter, a vessel: 235. 
 
 Plaza (Portsmouth Square), San 
 Francisco: 165, 213, 218. 
 
 Plum and Warner, Messrs., gift of 
 banner to C. of V.: 372 note 
 45. 
 
 Plummer, Henry, Montana sheriff 
 and gang leader: 417-418. 
 
 Police. See C. of V. of San Fran- 
 cisco — Police ; San Francisco — 
 Police. 
 
 Political parties (politicians) in 
 California: 109, 116, 129-132, 
 403 ; Mexican w^ar a dividing 
 issue, 132 ; corruption in, 390, 
 391; cleansed bv committee 
 of 1856, 403-404. See also 
 Broderick; Democratic party; 
 Gwin ; Non-partisan move- 
 ments ; Whigs. 
 
 Polk, J. K., President, and the 
 establishment of government 
 in New Mexico and Califor- 
 nia: 33, 55-56, 90-91, 92, 99. 
 
 Pollc, U. S. revenue cutter: 234, 
 236, 371 note 41. 
 
 Pollock, Lewis: murdered, 242, 
 320. 
 
 Popular sovereignty, see Local self- 
 government. 
 
 Popular tribunals (lynch law) : de- 
 velopment of, on American 
 frontier, 13-16; in other coun- 
 tries, 16-17, 424 ; in California, 
 17-19, 74-81 ; Governor Mason 
 forced to approve, 80; weak- 
 ness of, 85-86, 89, 93; trial 
 of the Hounds, 105-108; per- 
 sistence after state organiza- 
 tion, 149-151, 374-375, 407; 
 trial of Berdue and Windred, 
 171-176. See also Committee 
 of Vigilance; Frontier; Lynch 
 law; Mob spirit. 
 
 Population of California: statis- 
 tics, in 1847, 58 note 11, in 
 
 1849, 54 note 1, 66 note 1, in 
 
 1850, 131 note 47; ephemeral 
 quality of , 137-138, 142 note 
 15, 431. See also San Fran- 
 cisco. 
 
 ''Port Phillip house": 279, 306, 
 312. 
 
 Portsmouth Square, see Plaza. 
 
 Preston, William: 14. 
 
 Prison ships: 113, 119 note 11, 145, 
 253. 
 
 Prisoners, see C. of V. of San Fran- 
 cisco — Eelations with prison- 
 ers. 
 
Index 
 
 537 
 
 Prisons, see Jails. 
 
 Proclamations against C. of V.: of 
 Governor McDougal, 273-274, 
 294, 298, 375, 467-469; of 
 Mayor Brenham, 271, 463. 
 
 Protection Engine Company: 169. 
 
 Public improvements in California: 
 impossible before state organ- 
 ization, 145. 
 
 Pueblo organization in California: 
 25. 
 
 Qualification Committee, see C. of 
 V. of San Francisco — Qualifi- 
 cation Committee. 
 
 Race hatred, in America, an im- 
 petus to IjTich law: 423 note 
 38; in California, see Foreign- 
 ers. 
 
 Randall, Albert S., C. of V.: 108 
 note 51. 
 
 Randall, Dr. Andrew: robbed, 308; 
 murdered, 401. 
 
 Ray, Benjamin: 173 note 33. 
 
 Recall, process of, effected on Cali- 
 fornia frontier : 433 ; by C. of 
 v., 373, 433. 
 
 Recorder, of a California city: 
 powers of, 163 note 4. 
 
 Reed family: murder of, 80. 
 
 Registration of voters, not required 
 in 1850, 140. 
 
 Regulators of North and South 
 Carolina: 10, 14. 
 
 Regulators, San Francisco Society 
 of, see The Hounds. 
 
 Republican party: 403. 
 
 Reynolds, Banjamin, C. of V.: 108 
 note 51, 108 note 53, 302. 
 
 Reynolds, W. T., C. of V.: 473. 
 
 Rice, Jerome, C. of V., 1856: 473. 
 
 Richardson, W. H., U. S. marshal!: 
 murdered, 396. 
 
 Riley, General Bennet, governor 
 of California: called consti- 
 tutional convention, 101-104; 
 administration, 110-116, 146 
 note 25. 
 
 Roach, James, prisoner C. of V. : 
 236 note 24. 
 
 Roach-, P. A., a of V. : 326, 451. 
 
 Robbery, see Grand larceny. 
 
 Robert, J. H. : robbed, 238, 285. 
 
 Roberts, Samuel, leader of Hounds : 
 106. 
 
 Robinson, Ben (Negro Ben), pris- 
 oner C. of V. : 245-246, 358. 
 
 Robinson, Henry: cited on C. of V., 
 415 note 24. 
 
 Robinson, Mrs. Margaret L., pris- 
 oner C. of v., see case of Ben 
 Robinson. 
 
 Robinson (Heppard), William: 
 lynched, 155 note 49, 378. 
 
 Rogers, W. H., C. of V., 1856: 473. 
 
 Root, Kingsbury, C. of V.: 467. 
 
 Bosaliiid, a vessel: 235 note 22. 
 
 Rose Bar, California: 70. 
 
 ''Rose Cottage," suspicious lodg- 
 ing house: 306. 
 
 Ross, C. L.: 467. 
 
 Rough and Ready, California: ap- 
 pointment of ' ' Committee of 
 Vigilance and Safety," 120; 
 ''State of," 120 note 14. 
 
 Royce, Josiah: California, 5, 6; 
 cited on miners' organizations, 
 72, 74 note 22, 78, on anti- 
 foreign attitude of Califor- 
 nians, 126, on election of un- 
 worthy officials, 144, on sanc- 
 tion of death penalty for 
 grand larceny, 154—155, on 
 People's Party, 404, on C. of 
 v., 414-415. 
 
 Ryan, J. T., C. of V. : 301, 442. 
 
 Ryan, Michael, member of Stuart's 
 gang: 232, 275, 308. 
 
 Ryckman, G. W., C. of V.: bio- 
 graphical note, 194-195 ; men- 
 tioned, 286, 297-298, 333 note 
 35, 343, 346 note 27, 351, 403, 
 406 note 53, 471; MS State- 
 ment cited, 172 note 31, 201, 
 208 note 1, 211, 325, 369. 
 
 Sacramento: local organization at- 
 tempted, 101, 119-120; squat- 
 ters in, 138; prison brig pur- 
 chased, 145 ; protest against 
 crime, 184; C. of ¥., 250, 377- 
 378. 
 
 Sacramento, a vessel: 235 note 22. 
 
 Saint-Amant: cited on California 
 conditions, 137; on Committees 
 of Vigilance, 414. 
 
538 
 
 Index 
 
 Salaries : insufficient to attract com- 
 petent officials, 142, 144-145, 
 152. 
 
 Salkmyer, Frederick: hanged for 
 horse stealing, 155 7wte 49. 
 
 Salmon, J. W., C. of V.: treasurer, 
 328, 365; resignation, 328, 
 334. 
 
 San Francisco: description of, 
 1851, 163-185; population, 
 167 note 17. 
 Courts: first trial by jury, 46: 
 statistics of crime, 1849, 113 
 note 69 {see also Crime) ; con- 
 ditions, 1851, 177-179; im- 
 provement in, after organiza- 
 tion of C. of v., 288. See 
 also Courts; LaAvyers. 
 Fires: 1849-1850, May, 164; 
 1851, 179, 181, 239; engine 
 companies, 130; fire depart- 
 ment, 168-169; firemen exempt 
 from jury service, 169; re- 
 wards offered by C. of V. for 
 incendiaries, 245, 261. See 
 also Arson; California Engine 
 Company ; Monumental Engine 
 Company. 
 Government : delegates elected to 
 Stockton's legislative council, 
 37; protest against appoint- 
 ment of Hyde, 38; town coun- 
 cil of 1847, 48-49, 97; legis- 
 lative assembly, 1849, 98-100, 
 104-105 ; elections of August, 
 1849, 108, 112; incorporation, 
 163 ; city administration, 1850, 
 164-165; charter of 1851, and 
 election under, 176; election 
 of September, 1851, 323-327; 
 political corruption, 1855- 
 1856, 396; election of 1856 
 (People's Party), 403. See 
 also names of political parties. 
 Grand Jury: dismissed by Par- 
 sons, 182; report on condition 
 of courts, June, 1851, 218; 
 jury for July, 1851, 272-273, 
 283-284; relation to C. of V., 
 371, 466; jury for September, 
 1851, asked to be discharged. 
 
 321 ; service of Vigilantes, 
 1851-1856, 389; reports of 
 grand juries, 389 note 2. 
 
 Jail : 45 ; prison brig purchased, 
 145, 169, 181, 247; county 
 jail, 246-249. 
 
 Otncials of City and County: 
 Attorney (City), see Frank M. 
 Pixley; Collector of the port, 
 see T. B. King; Coroner, see 
 Edward Gallagher and Coro- 
 ner's inquests; Marshal, E. G. 
 Crozier, 177; Mayor, see 
 Charles J. Brenham, a7id J. W. 
 Geary (alcalde) ; Port War- 
 den, see T. B. Kay; Eecorder 
 (city magistrate), R. H. Wal- 
 ler, 177; Sheriff, see J. C. 
 Hays, and deputy, John Caper- 
 ton; Street Commissioner, see 
 J. J. Arentrue. 
 
 Police: in 1847, 49 note 27; in 
 1849, 113; in 1851, 169; volun- 
 teer night patrol organized, 
 180, reorganized, 350 note 46, 
 352; police failed to prevent 
 lynching of Jenkins, 213-215; 
 testimony in examination of 
 Stuart, 258 ; assistance to crim- 
 inals, 275. 
 
 Streets: naming of, 113; expan- 
 sion of territory, 165-167; 
 nationalities represented in, 
 167 note 18; street lights in- 
 stalled, 168 note 19. 
 
 See also Committee of Vigilance 
 of San Francisco; Flag pole; 
 Happy Valley ; Hounds ; Lodg- 
 ing houses; Old Adobe Custom 
 House; Plank Road to the 
 Mission; Plaza; Steam Paddy; 
 Sydney Valley. 
 San Francisco Daily Herald: 168; 
 advocated protective associa- 
 tion, 182; approved C. of V., 
 1851, 217-218, 273; opposed 
 C. of v., 1856, 410. 
 San Franvisoo Evening Bulletin, 
 
 198, 396. 
 San Francisco Evening Picayune, 
 168, 324. 
 
Index 
 
 539 
 
 San Francisco Library and Museum 
 Company: formed by C. of V., 
 345-346. 
 
 San Francisco Society of Regula- 
 tors, see The Hounds. 
 
 San Jose, California: execution at, 
 80; movement for constitu- 
 tional convention, 95 ; meet- 
 ing of first state legislature at, 
 116; of the second, 152; C. of 
 v., 381. 
 
 San Miguel: murder at, 80. 
 
 San Pasqual, battle of: 34. 
 
 Sanders, B. C, C. of V.: 451, 467, 
 
 Sandwich Islands: natives came to 
 California, 61. 
 
 Santa Anna: president of Mexico, 
 25-26. 
 
 Santa Clara, California: delegates 
 elected to Stockton's council, 
 37; C. of v., 250, 375, 377. 
 
 Santa Cruz, California: C. of V., 
 383 note 77. 
 
 Say^vard, W. T.: MS statement 
 cited, 159 note 55. 
 
 Schenck, G. E., C. of V. : biograph- 
 ical note, 196; mentioned, 
 199, 208, 209, 212, 257, 290, 
 298, 299, 333 note 35, 355; 
 MS Statement cited, 163 note 
 1, 171 note 31, 174, 179 note 
 56, 180, 183, 345. 
 
 Schultz, J. G., C. of v.: 279. 
 
 Scotland, popular tribunals in: 17. 
 
 Scott, Thomas, prisoner C. of V. : 
 231. 
 
 Scott's Valley, California: com- 
 mittee of citizens, 381. 
 
 Search, without warrant, right to 
 claimed by C. of V. : 243-245, 
 332. 
 
 Secession, see Slavery. 
 
 Self-government, see Local self- 
 government. 
 
 Seligman, Jesse, C. of V.: 443. 
 
 Semple, Dr. Robert: 37 note 40, 
 113. 
 
 ''Settlers' theory" regarding 
 status of California after 
 treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: 
 96-97. 
 
 Seyd, Ernest: cited on C. of V., 
 414. 
 
 Sharon, William, C. of V.: 164 
 note 5, 449 ; testimony in re 
 right of search, 332. 
 
 Shasta, California: C. of V., 383 
 7hote 77. 
 
 Shelton, Mr.: botanist, 346. 
 
 Shepard, D. A., 467. 
 
 Sheriff, responsibility of: 150, 151 
 note 33. 
 
 Sherman, General W. T. : assistant 
 to Colonel Mason, 43; cited, 
 102. 
 
 Shinn, C. H., Mining Camps: 5-6, 
 70, 72, 78, 155. 
 
 ' ' The Shipman 's Arms ' ' sus- 
 picious lodging house: 210, 
 229, 306. 
 
 ' ' Shirley, ' ' pseudonym of L. A. M. 
 Clappe. 
 
 Shubrick, Commodore W. B., 35. 
 
 Sibley, A. H. : 173 note 33. 
 
 Sinclair, John, alcalde: 58, 60. 
 
 Slavery question: effect of, on 
 status of California, 54, 90, 
 132-134; prohibited in, 114, 
 245 ; views of Gwin and Brod- 
 erick, 130 ; sentiment in Cali- 
 fornia, 131-132; speculations 
 on influence of, in the move- 
 ment of establishing Vigilance 
 Committees, 404; attitude of 
 individual members, 404-405, 
 406; secession advocates beaten 
 in elections of 1856, 405; only 
 Lincoln men endorsed by Peo- 
 ple 's Party in election of 1865, 
 406. 
 
 Sloat, Conmiodore J. D. : military 
 occupation of California, 28- 
 30. 
 
 Smiley, T. J. L., C. of V.: 286, 
 349, 351, 450, 473; cited, 206 
 note 52. 
 
 Smith, Oscar, C. of V.: 473. 
 
 Smith, General P. F. : cited, 85, 
 102 note 36, 326, 452. 
 
 Snyder, J. R., C. of V.: 59, 187 
 note 1, 326, 452. 
 
 Social contract, see Contract, social. 
 
540 
 
 Index 
 
 Society of California Pioneers: 
 187, 206 note 51. 
 
 Sonoma, California: Bear Flag re- 
 volt, 28; delegates elected to 
 Stockton's council, 37; alcalde 
 adopted laws of Missouri, 47 
 note 23 ; local organization at- 
 tempted, 1849, 101. 
 
 Sonora, California: mining camp, 
 organized, 1848,81; correspon- 
 dence with alcalde, 111 note 
 64; town government adopted, 
 119; C. of v., 278-279, 373, 
 376, 378-379, 407 note 56. 
 
 South, The: popular tribunals in, 
 421-423. 
 
 Southern California: social condi- 
 tions differed from those of 
 the north, 382; popular trib- 
 unals, 382-383. 
 
 ''Southern Chivalry": 132. 
 
 Spain, Santa Ecrmandad: 16. 
 
 Spear, Samuel: 385. 
 
 Spires, George, a suspect: 238. 
 
 Spofford, W. E.: 106. 
 
 Squatters (lawless settlers) : 50, 
 137-138, 152, 393. 
 
 Stanford, Leland, governor: vote 
 for, 405. 
 
 Steam Paddy: 166. 
 
 Stephens, George: opposed C. of V., 
 239. 
 
 Stephens, H. M. : interest in Cali- 
 fornia local history, 1-5. 
 
 Stevens, alias of James Stuart: 
 258. 
 
 Stevenson, Colonel J. D., C. of V.: 
 32, 69; biographical note, 194; 
 mentioned, 182, 188 note 1, 188 
 note 3, 270. 
 
 Stevenson's Eegiment (New York 
 Volunteers) : 32, 39, 105, 106. 
 
 Stewart, Samuel, and William: 
 killed Sheriff Echols, at Au- 
 burn, 253 note 5. 
 
 Stidger, O. P., judge: 175, 252. 
 
 Stillman, J. W., C. of V. : 327. 
 
 Stockton, Commodore E. F. : gov- 
 ernor of California, 30; his 
 plan for civil organization, 
 31, 34, 37, 38; discord with 
 Kearny, 34-36. 
 
 Stockton, California: organization 
 attempted, 119; aroused by 
 horse thieves ' depredations, 
 184; ''Vigilance Committee," 
 
 1850, 204 7iote 47; C. of V., 
 
 1851, 320, 375-376, 380. 
 Stockton Journal: advocated mar- 
 tial law, 1851, 184, 455. 
 
 Stout, A. B., C. of v.: 188 note 3. 
 
 Stuart, James, the leader of the 
 Sydney convicts: robbery of 
 Jansen, 170, 252 (see also 
 Thomas Berdue) ; arrest, 227, 
 284; story of his career in 
 California, 252-259, 308, 309, 
 311, 312 ; personal description 
 of, 255-256; identification, 
 257, 258-259; record incom- 
 plete in C. of V. archives, 259; 
 contract as to confession, 261, 
 289; confession, 261-264; pub- 
 lished in newspapers, 275, 314; 
 connection with F. M. Pixley, 
 258-259, 284-286; conviction 
 by C. of v., 268-269; popular 
 approval of sentence, 270; ex- 
 ecution, 270-271; coroner's in- 
 quest, 271 ; action of city and 
 state authorities, 271-274; his 
 relation to Mrs. Hogan, 280. 
 
 Stuart gang: 238, 253, 274-303; 
 adventures of, 305-322 ; broken 
 up by C. of v., 323; burning 
 of city plotted, 263, 311. See 
 also Adams ; Ainsworth ; Aren- 
 true; Barnes the tinman; 
 Beck; Briggs; James Burns; 
 Long Charley ; Dab ; Darke ; 
 Duane; David Earl; John 
 Edwards; Hays; Mrs. Hogan; 
 Hop wood; Hughes; Kay; 
 Kelly; King the barber; 
 Kitchen; McCarty; McCor- 
 mac; Mclntire; McKenzie; 
 Marks; Morgan; Osman; 
 Kyan ; Switzer ; Joseph Tur- 
 ner; Watkins; Welsh; Whit- 
 taker; Windred; Yates. 
 
 Sullivan, John, C. of V. : 199, 209 ; 
 identification of Stuart, 257. 
 
 Sutter, J. A., California pioneer: 
 58, 67, 129 note 38. 
 
Index 
 
 541 
 
 Sutter, J. A., Jr., C. of V. : 450. 
 Sutter's Fort: alcaldes at, 58, 60, 
 
 101 ; jury trial at, 83. 
 Sutton, O. P., C. of V. : 44.4:. 
 Suwerkrop, E. A., C. of F. ; 449. 
 Swift, J. M., C. of V. : 346 note 27. 
 Switzer, alias the Slasher: escape 
 
 from jail, 247. 
 Sydney, Australia, immigrants, .see 
 
 Convicts. 
 ' ' Sydney Coves, " ' ' Sydney 
 
 Ducks": 124. 
 Sydney Morning Herald: cited, 
 
 240. 
 Sydney People's Advocate: cited, 
 
 241 note 44. 
 Sydney Valley, San Francisco: 
 
 166, 251, 313. 
 Taft, Hamilton, prisoner C. of V.: 
 
 316, 359. 
 Talbot, Charles: prisoner C. of V., 
 
 354. 
 Tanner, George: hanged for grand 
 
 larceny, 156 7wte 49. 
 Taylor, Bayard: cited, 78, 85. 
 Taylor, J., of Marysville: 254. 
 Taylor, J. M., C. of V. : 449, 473. 
 Taylor, Zachary, President: Mes- 
 sage on California and New 
 
 Mexico, 43 ; opinion concerning 
 
 California and Oregon, 92. 
 Terry, D. S., judge: arrest by C. 
 
 of V. of 1856, 402-403. 
 Teschemacher, H. J., C. of V. : 108 
 
 note 51, 108 note 53, 173, 188 
 
 note 3, 443. 
 Texas Committees of Vigilance 
 
 (safety) : 12, 422. 
 Theatrical benefit, suggested for 
 
 C. of v., 353. 
 Thompson, John: hanged for high- 
 way robbery, 155 note 49. 
 Thompson, S. T., C. of V. : 473. 
 Thompson, William, Jr. : indicted 
 
 for perjury, 284. ^ee also T. 
 
 B. Kay. 
 Thompson, W. T., C. of V. : 473. 
 Tichenor, E., 467. 
 Tilford, Frank: 163, 331. 
 Tillinghast, W. H., C. of V.: 107 
 
 note 51, 473. 
 
 Timandra, a vessel: 240. 
 
 Titan, a vessel: 235 note 22. 
 
 Townsend, John: 38. 
 
 Transportation in California: facil- 
 ities lacking, 139. 
 
 Treaty of Cahuenga : 34, 
 
 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: 54, 
 56. 
 
 Trimble, W. J., Mining Advance 
 into the Inland Empire: cited, 
 416-417, 426-427. 
 
 Trinity Church, San Francisco, see 
 Banners presented to C. of V. ; 
 see also F. S. Mines. 
 
 Truckee, California : ' ' 601 ' ' com- 
 mittee, 407, 407 note 57. 
 
 Truett, M. F., C. of V., 1856: 473. 
 
 Tubbs, A. L., C. of V. : 406, 445. 
 
 Tuffs, Leonard, C. of V. : 200, 467. 
 
 Tuolumne County: report of grand 
 jury, 472. 
 
 Turner, D. S., C. of V.: 372 note 
 46, 473. 
 
 Turner, F. J. : cited on frontier in- 
 stitutions, 10-16. 
 
 Turner, Joseph: 275. 
 
 ''Uncle Sam," suspicious lodging 
 house: 210, 229, 306. 
 
 Van Bokkelen, J. L., C. of V.: 188 
 note 2 ; biographical note, 198 ; 
 chief of C. of V. police, 228, 
 238, 277, 295-297. 
 
 Van Diemen's Land: 229, 292. 
 
 Van Voorhies, William: 90, 96. 
 
 Van Winkle, P. W., C. of V.: 181 
 note 62. 
 
 Vassault, Ferdinand, C. of V. : 188 
 note 3. 
 
 Vermont, popular tribunals in: 15 
 note 22. 
 
 Veto, a vessel: 315. 
 
 Vigilance Committees, see Commit- 
 tee of Vigilance. 
 
 Voiget, J. J., C. of v.: 188 note 3; 
 biographical note, 447. 
 
 Virgin, G. W. : robbery of, 208. 
 
 Virginia, popular tribunals in: 14- 
 15. 
 
 Virginia City: citizens form Vigi- 
 lance Committee, 417. 
 
542 
 
 hidex 
 
 Visalia, California: C. of V., 407 
 note 56. 
 
 Vyse, the bear hunter : 306. 
 
 Wadsworth, J. C. L., C. of V. : 187 
 note 1, 209 note 7, 220, 281, 
 333 note 35, 442, 471. 
 
 Wakeman, A. C, C. of V. : 346. 
 
 Wakeman, Captain Edgar, C. of 
 v.: biographical note, 196; 
 mentioned, 212, 224 note 48, 
 236, 237, 406 note 53. 
 
 Waldo, G. : proposed popular trib- 
 unals, 455. 
 
 Walker, R. J. : circular on Califor- 
 nia, 90-91. 
 
 Walker, William, editor of San 
 Francisco Herald: 177. 
 
 Waller, E. H., recorder of San 
 Francisco: 177. 
 
 Ward, Frank: 106. 
 
 Ward, G. R., C. of V. : biographical 
 note, 195; treasurer, 364; men- 
 tioned, 349, 352, 473. 
 
 Ward, James C., C. of V.: bio- 
 graphical note, 441; men- 
 tioned, 107, 108 note 51, 108 
 note 53, 187 note 1, 188 note 
 2, 188 note 3, 216, 357, 406, 
 406 note 53. 
 
 Ward, John, proprietor of sus- 
 picious lodging house: 228 
 note 1. 
 
 Ward, Sam: 106. 
 
 Wardwell, A., C. of V.: 203. 
 
 Washington, B. F., judge: 175. 
 
 Washington: gold rushes to, and 
 frontier conditions, 416. 
 
 ''Watchful Eye of Vigilance," 
 symbol of C. of V.: 401. 
 
 Waterman, Captain: threatened 
 with lynching, 344. 
 
 Watkins, William, thief: 307; 
 escape from San Francisco 
 jail, 247, 290. 
 
 Watson, R. S. (''Justice"), C. of 
 V. : biographical note, 442 ; 
 organization of Committee pro- 
 posed by, 184, 204, 456; men- 
 tioned, 257, 333 note 35. 
 
 Watauga: frontier organization of, 
 10. 
 
 Webb, Hiram, C. of V.: 108 note 
 53. 
 
 Welling, C. H., C. of V.: 200 note 
 37. 
 
 Wells, Robert, C. of V. : 188 note 1. 
 
 Welsh, Thomas: escape from San 
 Francisco jail, 247. 
 
 Weston, H. L., acknowledgment: 
 202 note 43. 
 
 Wetherbee, Henry, C. of V.: 406, 
 450. 
 
 Wethered, J. S., C. of V.: 449. 
 
 Wharves of San Francisco: 113, 
 166. 
 
 Wheeler, Thomas: murdered, 318. 
 
 Whig, political party: organized, 
 131-132; San Francisco elec- 
 tions, 1851, 176, 324, 326-327. 
 
 Whipping: common frontier pun- 
 ishment : 14r-15, 77 ; employed 
 in California, 45, 77, 119, 155, 
 290, 377, 378, 382, 386 note 
 81; inflicted by C. of V., 242, 
 363. 
 
 White, W. F.: opposed C. of V., 
 411. 
 
 White Camelia, Knights of the: 
 423. 
 
 Whittaker, Samuel, a convict and 
 leader in Stuart's gang: 254, 
 264, 275, 306, 309, 310, 311; 
 voting of ex-convicts, 140 note 
 11; warning to Stuart, 254; 
 search for, and seizure by C. 
 of v., 279-281; confession, 
 291-293, 314; execution recom- 
 mended, 293; rescued by au- 
 thorities, 294-296, 469; re- 
 captured and executed by C. 
 of v., 296-302; coroner's in- 
 quest, 302 ; public approval 
 and disapproval of Commit- 
 tee's action, 301-303. 
 
 Wiggin, C. L., C. of V.: 449. 
 
 Wilber (Wilbur), James, C. of V.: 
 330 note 24. 
 
 Willey, Rev. S. H.: cited on C. of 
 v., 411-412. 
 
 Williams, Edwards C. : miners ' al- 
 calde, 1848, 81; mentioned, 
 166. 
 
Index 
 
 543 
 
 Williams, John, a state prisoner: 
 pardoned on petition of C. of 
 v., 322. 
 
 Willow Bar, California: 111 note 
 64. 
 
 Wilmot proviso : 55. 
 
 Wilson, James: hanged for horse 
 stealing, 155 note 49. 
 
 Wilson, Joseph: trial of, 156. 
 
 Wilson, William: prisoner C. of V., 
 360. 
 
 Windred, Robert: popular trial of, 
 for Jansen robbery, 171-175, 
 453-454; legal trial and con- 
 viction, 171; escape, 247, 311; 
 exonerated by testimony of 
 members of C. of V., 303. 
 
 Wistar, I. J.: cited on C. of V., 
 411. 
 
 Witnesses in courts: difficult to 
 procure at time of trial, 152, 
 289, 290, 321; members of C. 
 of V. as, 302, 303, 330-332. 
 
 Wohler, Herman, C. of V.: 326, 
 451. 
 
 Woods, C. S., C. of v.: 334. 
 
 Woods Creek, California: 69. 
 
 Woodworth, Frederick A., C. of V.: 
 biographical note, 193-194; 
 mentioned, 237, 319 note 21, 
 372 note 46, 406 7iote 53. 
 
 Woodworth, Selim E., C. of F. ; 
 biographical note, 192-194; 
 mentioned, 216, 223, 258, 302, 
 319, 343, 346, 351, 353, 406, 
 471; president General Com- 
 mittee, 260; vice-president, 
 343, 351. 
 
 Wright, Alexander, prisoner C. of 
 v.: 236 note 24. 
 
 Writ of habeas corpus (or of ar- 
 rest) : resisted bv C. of V., 
 265-268; case of Stuart, 265- 
 267; report on use and abuse 
 of, 267; successfully served in 
 case of Whittaker and Mc- 
 Kenzie, 294-295, 469. 
 
 Wyman 's Ravine, California : C. of 
 v., 381. 
 
 Yates, Thomas, alias Wood: ar- 
 rested by S. F. city police, 238. 
 
 Yerba Buena, see San Francisco. 
 
 Yreka, 382, 407 note 56. 
 
 Zantzinger, L. F., 346 note 27.