¦YALE-VM^iaSffinr- • iLUBiR^israr ¦

Acquired by Exchange

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
PUBLICATIONS IN HISTORY

HERBERT E. BOLTON
EDITOR

VOLUME XII

Medal of the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance of 1856. ' ' Organ
ized 9th June 1851. Reorganized 14th May, 1856." From the, collection
of Mr. Charles B. Tin-rill.

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.

t

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA
1921

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 I
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  S8-115
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  162-1S5
CHAPTER IX
The Organization of the Committee of Vigilance.. 186-207
CHAPTER X
The Committee at Work  :  20S-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 Reorsanization  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 acknowledging a
debt of gratitude that I owe to many friends, I would mention,
first, the librarians who 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 Henry 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 ('
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 Californiana, has examined the proof of the bibliography, and
suggested some interesting additions to the entries relating to
the Committees of Vigilance.
Especial thanks arc due to Professor Frederick J. Teggart,
who directed my graduate work in its early stages, and to
Professor Eugene McCormac, who 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.
Mart Floyd Williams.

ABBREVIATIONS USED IN FOOTNOTES
The footnotes of this volume 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 check 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, Alta, 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.1 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 Brvce, 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 Library 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 Tribunals 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.2 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
2H. H. Bancroft, Literary Industries. 1890, pp. 658-660.

Introduction 3
of the Papers of the Committee of Vigilance. In 1910 the List
of Members, 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 by 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.3 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

a 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.4
As progress was 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
* See Papers, 639, 683-684.

Introduction u
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.5 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 Cmnps in 18S5. Josiah Royce's
California in 1886, and Bancroft's Popular Tribunals in 1SS7.

o 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.6 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.7 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

8 See Josiah Royce, California, 1886, pp. 279, 314-316.
7 Ibid., 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 always 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 laboratory 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 tin'
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 following 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
Dcmocra-cu in Old and Xcw England, 1894. pp. 77-90, 105-168; H. L.
Osgood, "Political Ideas of the Puritans," Political Science Quarterly. VI
(1891), 1-28; C. E. Merriam, History of American Political Thfories. 1903,
chaps. 2, 4; F. A. Cleveland, Organized 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;9
the Scotch-Irish of the Alleghanies also understood how to asso
ciate themselves for mutual protection;10 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.11 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 ; P. J. Turner, ' ' Western State-Making in the Revolutionary Era, ' '
American Historical Review, I (1895-1896), especially pp. 70-87; Allen
Johnson, ' ' Genesis of Popular Sovereignty, ' ' Iowa Journal of History and
Politics, III (1905), 3-19.
io See Theodore Roosevelt, 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 Regulators, 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, Lynch-
Law, 1905, 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, Annual, Report, 1894, pp. 141-212 ; M. DeL.
Haywood, Governor William Tryon, 1903, pp. 77-194; a 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. '

Introduction 11
years that elapsed before the neighborhood was incorporated
as Washington County in the state of North Carolina.12
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.13 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.14 "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."15
12 See J. G. M. Ramsey, Annals of Tennessee, 1853, pp. 106-140; Roose
velt, Winning of the West, I, chap. 7.
13 See Ramsey, Annals of Tennessee, 283-444; G. II. Alden, New Gov
ernments West of the Alleghanies before 1780, 1897; and his "State of
Franklin," American Historical Review, VIII (1903), 271-289; "Petition
for a Western State," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, I (1914),
265-269; Roosevelt, Winning of Die West, II, 324-369; III, 153-202;
A. W. Putnam, History of Middle Tennessee, 1859, pp. 89-103; Archibald
Henderson, Ricliard Henderson: the Authorship of the Cumberland fom/xn*/
and the Founding of Nashville, 1916; C. S. Lobingier, The People's Law,
chap. 8. Citizen committees did useful work in Mississippi in 1797 and
1798, see F. L. Riley, "Transition from Spanish to American Rule in Mis
sissippi," Mississippi Historical Society, Publication, III (1900), 275-311.
14 See B. F. Shambaugh, "Frontier Land Clubs or Claim Associations,"
American Historical Association, Annual Report, 1900, I, 67-84; and his
Constitution and Records of tlie Claim Association of Johnson County, Iowa,
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 Vie United States, 1889, I, 411—112.
15 Turner, "Western State-Making," American Historical Review. I
(1895-1896), 265-266. The characteristics of the frontier as a form of
society rather than as a geograpliic 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," primarily 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.16
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,17 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"18 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.
is 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.
" See J. R. Robertson, ' ' Genesis of Popular Government in Oregon, ' '
Oregon Historical Society, Quarterly, I (1900), 1-59; W. H. Gray, His-
\<?y°fo0re9°n> 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 many 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 :19
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

10 Turner, "Western State-Making," American Historical Review. 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.20 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.21 After the war was ended, damages were sought
2(> See E. D. Collins, ' ' Committees of Correspondence of the American
Revolution," American Historical Association, Report, 1901, I, 245-271;
Agnes Hunt, Provincial Committees of Safety of the American Revolution,
1904; J. M. Leake, The Virginia Committee System and the American Revo
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 (Lunch-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 lawle.ssness 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.22 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. ' '23
A popular trial destined to attract wide attention was that
of a murderer named Patrick 0 'Conner, convicted in May, ls:;4.
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.
0 'Conner was finally hanged with the solemnity befitting a legal
execution. In commenting on the case the Niles Begister said :24

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
Roosevelt, Winning of the West, I, 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 Iowa, ser. I, III (1865), 5(i(i-574; Jesse Macy, Institutional
Beginnings in a Western State, 7-S; Cutler, Lynch-Law, 811-S8: Xiles
Register, XLVI (1834), 352; Des Moines Register and Leader, 1910, Sept. 25.

16 Vigilance Committee of 1851
As law, 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."25
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.26 The Vem-
gericht of Germany and the Santa Hernumdad 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, " m his Frontier in American
History, 209-212, passim.
26 See Victor Duruy, History of Greece, tr. by M. M. Ripley, 1890, I,
538 et seq.; Sir H. S. Maine, Early Law and Custom, 1886, chap. 6.

Introduction 17
confreries. The local history of England and the Scottish border
recounts many acts of extra-legal retribution.27
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.28
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.20 The
social emergencies of the American frontier wen' 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. Paotow, Guide to the Study of Midu-val History, 1917,
"Vomgerichte," p. 292, "Hermandadas, " p. 321; Lavisse and Rambaud,
Histoire generale, II (1893), 466; Lynn Thorndike, History of Medieval
Europe [1917], 534 et sei).; R. B. Merriman, Rise of the Spanish Empire. I
(1918), 191-194; II, 99 el seq.; C. E. Chapman, History of Spain, 1918,
pp. 155-156.
28 Allied associations are discussed in Cutler, Lynch-Law, 5-12; Ban
croft, Popular Tribunals, I, chaps. 1, 3.
an In California there was a definite point of contact between Anglo-
Saxon and Spanish precedents as the Santa Hcrmandad had been highly
developed in certain parts of Mexico (see Bancroft, History of Mexico.
1883-1888, III, 272-276). J. W. Dwindle 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-
Californian regime" (Colonial History of the City of San Francisi'o. 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 (Popular Tribunals, I, 62-66; J. S. Hittell,
Historu 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 i{).

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

Introduction 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
i Cong. Docs., 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.2 Municipal
control was vested in the ayuntamientos 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.8 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.4 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
under 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.
s Bancroft, California. IV, 531; Frederic Hall, History of San Josi.
1871, p. 169; W. H. Davis, Stity Tears in California, 1889, p. 105.
* 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 ayuntamientos and displacing the
alcaldes, with the probable exception of the officials of the capital
town of Monterey.5
Radical changes in the Mexican system were again made in
1843 when Santa Ana was at the height of his power.6 In
California the offices of prefects and sub-prefects were abol
ished, and in January, 1844, Governor Micheltorena reinstated
ayuntamientos and alcaldes in several of the larger towns.7
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. 8 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 1845.9 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 1840 : ' ' 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, Establishment of Municipal Government in San Francisco,
1889, pp. 12-26.
s Bancroft, History of Mexico, V, 226-287.
' Bancroft, California, IV, 358-359.
s Ibid., 533.
vibid., 519.

The Spanish Inheritance and the American Conquest 27
to distinguish between the two classes of magistrates when called
to testify in the American courts.10
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.11
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. .lost Y. Limantour.
Transcript, 1857-1858, I, Case No. 424, pp. 140, 14:,, 153, 155. 163: IV.
Exhibit O, pp. 9, 13-17. The changes in system are outlined, II. 7.">:i-7."4.
Many extracts from this evidence are reprinted in Dwinelle, 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).
n See R. A. Wilson, "The Alcalde System of California," First Califor
nia Reports, 559 et seq. (in ed. 1, 1852. and annotated ed., 1906) ; 0. 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 Reports. 220; "Cohas
vs. Raisin," Third California Reports. 449; "Hart vs. Burnett,-" Fifteenth
California Reports, 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.12
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

i2 General reference on this period may be made to the histories of Ban
croft, Hittell, and Royce; G. L. Rives, The United States and Mexico, 1881-
1848, 1913, II; J. H. Smith, The War with Mexico, 1919, especially chaps.
14, 16, 17, with their notes.

The Spanish Inheritance 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.13 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.14 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.16 At the same time he asked the
judges, alcaldes, and other civil officers to retain their positions

is For orders of this period see Cong. Docs.. Ser. Xo. 499, Doc. 19. pp.
75, 79-84; Cong. Globe, 29 Cong., 2 Sess., Appendix, pp. 44-i7; J. V. Fre
mont, Memoirs, 1887, I, 537; Richman, California under Spain and Mexico,
pp. 528-529.
i* 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), 387H108; 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 Newly Acquired
Territory of the United States, 1904, pp. 159-275; W. E. Birkhimer, Mili
tary Government and Martial Laic, ed. 3, 1914, pp. 53-137.
io Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 493, Doc. 1, pp. 644-645. Reprinted in Soule,
Gihon and Nisbet, Annals of San Francisco. 1S55. pp. 9S-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,16 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,17
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 Monterey, for his interesting diary is one of the most familiar
sources of information on the events of the period.18
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

i« An election for the ayuntamiento had been held in Monterey, Dee. 10,
1845 (Bancroft, California, IV, 655 note).
it 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 eases 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).
is Walter Colton, Three Tears 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
forces.19 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.20 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.21
Long before this communication reached the East, other plans
had been matured for California. Soon after the outbreak of
the war Brigadier (ieneral Stephen W. Kearny 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.22

i'1 See Bancroft, California, V, chaps. 12-15.
2° Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 493. Doe. 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 Reports 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 Cong. Docs..
Ser. No. 493, Doc. 1, pp. 669, 671-672, 675; Bancroft, California. V. 2S4-
285. 22Cd«<7. Docs., Ser. Xo. 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.23
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 naturally towards Salt Lake.24 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.25 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. Roberts,
The Mormon Battalion, 1919.
25 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 499, Doc. 19, pp. 20, 26-73. See also R. E.
Twitehell, History of the Military Occupation of New Mexico, 1909, pp.
84-94, 147-199; J. T. Hughes, Doniphan's Expedition, 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.26
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.27 But Congress proved jealously alert to
any infringement of the legislative prerogative, and requested
full information as to the affairs of the occupied territory.28
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. lie
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.20
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,

20 Orders of Nov. 3, 1846, Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 499. Doc. 19, p. 15.
27 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 493, Doc. 1, pp. 22-23. See also commendation
of the Secretary of the Navy, ibid., 379.
28 Cong. Globe, 29 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 12 et seq. ; Appendix, p. 43 ft seq.
20 Message, Dec. 22, 1846, J. D. Richardson, compiler, Messagts and
Papers of the Presidents, 1899, IV, 506-507.

34 Vigilance Committee 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.30 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.31 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 engage the insurgents in a disastrous encounter at San
Pasqual.32 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. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 244-247.
3i 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 Publications, VIII (1911), 95-127.

The Spanish Inheritance and the American Conquest 35
new government with control on January 19, and departed for
San Diego.33
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
Richard B. Mason, who had been sent to the Coast to relieve
him.34 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,30 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,37 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

sa See Bancroft, California, V, 411-468; Proceedings of the General
Court Martial in the Case of Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont, 1847 (Cong. Does..
Ser. No. 507, Doc. 33); John Bigelow, Memoir of Fremont. 1S56, p. 222
et seq.; F. S. Dellenbaugh, Fremont and '49, 1914, pp. 355-380.
a* Bancroft, California, V, 436, 518.
s* Circular and proclamation in Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17,
pp. 288-289. The latter was made public March 4 (ibid., 2S4).
so 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.38 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 WeS|;
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.39 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.

ss See supra, p. 34. The orders were received April 23 (Cong. Docs., Ser.
No. 573, Doe. 17, p. 286).
39 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doe. 17, pp. 287, 315; Bancroft, California,
V, 462-468.

The Spanish Inheritance and the American Conquest 3<
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,40 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 bandos and laws and orders
and oppressing the people." Subsequent issues told of the
selection of delegates to the proposed legislative council from
San Francisco,41 Sonoma,42 and Santa Clara.43 When reports
of these proceedings were sent to Kearny, he replied that no such
council would then be convened.44 This fact was published in
the Star, with the announcement that a call for a legislative
assembly might be made within a short time.45 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 Californian, started August 15, 1846, by Walter Colton
and Doctor Robert Semple, was friendly to the military authorities. The
California Star was started as an organ of protest against their arbitrary
methods. See E. 0. Kemble, "History of California Newspapers," Sacra
mento Union, 1858, Dec. 25 %. An "Extra in Advance of the California
Star" had been printed about the first of November, 1846 (Hittell, San
Francisco, 109).
« California Star, 1847, March 6 ^.
*2 California Star, 1847, March 6 %, -'H-
43 California Star, 1847, March 6 'i^.
4* 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.46 Hyde was given the position, and a meeting for
protest was summoned by the following handbill:47
The People's Voice Stifled by Intrigue
People of San Francisco, rally for your rights!!! A majority of your
number have petitioned the Govt of this Territory to appoint John Town-
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 Govt 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
Rights. 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.48 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
415 Archives, ' ' Unbound Docs., ' ' 114-115.
47 Archives, "Unbound Docs.," 110.
« Hardie to Mason, May 30, 1847, Archives, "Unbound Docs," 109-
110. Reply, 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."49
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.60

40 Leidesdorff to Mason, May 30, 1847, Archives, "Unbound Docs.," 68.
oo See F. D. Clark, The First Regiment of New York- Voluntiers, 1882;
Bancroft, California, V, chap. 19; Z. 8. Eldredge, Beginnings of San Fran
cisco, 1912, II, 552-556. It was sometimes called the Seventh Regiment.

CHAPTER 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.1 Such a method would
account for the almost total lack of written statutes. Edwin
Bryant, alcalde of San Francisco in February, 1847, could find

i R. F. Peckham, San Jose Pioneer, 1877, July 7 (Serapbook 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.2
It was a common impression that the former magistrates had
administered the laws "in accordance with the principles of
natural right and justice,"3 and in one of his earliest despatches
Colonel Mason wrote to the alcalde of Sonoma :4
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 discordant 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, Debates, Appendix, p. xxv; Edwin Bryant, What I Saw
in California, 1848, p. 436; T. B. King, California, 1850, p. 3. By July,
1848, Colton was familiar with more satisfactory Mexican codes (Three
Years, 249).
3 Edwin Bryant, What I Saw in California, 436; Charles Wilkes, Narra
tive of the United States Exploring Expedition, 1844, V, 222.
4 Letter, June 2, 1847, Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 317. A
letter dated May 27 had asked a definition of the alcalde's duties (Archives.
"Unbound Docs.," 110-111).
o 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.6 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."7
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
« 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 m California," California Law Review, III (1915), 360-361.
I 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.8 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.9 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 year, 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 California and- New Mexico, January 21, 1S30.10
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 1S46 to
1850.11 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

»A useful study of this period has been made by Flora A. Wright, in
a master's thesis, Richard Barnes Mason, 1919, MS in the University of
California Library. See also S. H. Willey. "Recollections of General Hal
leck," Overland 'Monthly, IX (1872), 9-17; W. T. Sherman, Memoirs,
1875, I.
o See Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doe. 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 Law. 1861, Preface.)
io Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17. A slightly different arrangement
is given in Ser. No. 557. Doc. 18.
n 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.12
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.13

i2 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 Does." 112, 118-119, 145. See
also Bancroft, California, V, 606-611.
is See Cong. Docs., 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 usually 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.14 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.^
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.10
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 system. Under the Mexican
practice, certain classes of disputes might be adjusted by "trials
of conciliation," conducted before three arbitrators, who ren
dered a decision by vote of the majority. While these hombrcs
buenos 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.17 Neverthe
less Alcalde Colton had not been in office six weeks before he

n Stevenson to Mason, from Los Angeles, July 11, 1848, J rehire*, "Un
bound Docs.," 164. Mason planned to erect some secure prisons (Cong.
Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 558), but apparently the plan was not
carried out (ibid., 790).
is Case of U. S. vs. Limantow, Transcript, IV, Exhibit O, p. 35.
io J. H. Brown, Reminiscences and Incidents of "The Early Days" of
San Francisco [1886], p. [30]. See also Eldredge, San Francisco, II, 545.
it "There was nothing like trial by jury known to the Mexican system;
and there was no law authorizing anything of the kind" (Hittell, Califor
nia, II, 663). Bryant spoke of the function of these courts as being similar
to that of the American jury (Wliat I Saw 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."18
Our historians have treated as a matter of course this fitting
of the Anglo-Saxon 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,19 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.20 The method was not entirely successful,

is Colton, Three Tears, 47-48.
io 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,
1817, Americans expected juries to be called, and the California Star, Jan.
9 %, noted with indignation a ease 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 Califomians were reluctant to sentence their fellow
countrymen,21 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.22
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.23 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.24

21 Archives, "Unbound Docs.," 122. See also the experience in Louis
iana, infra, p. 420.
22 Archives, "Unbound Docs.," 108; California Star. 1M7. Sept. 11
%; W. F. Swasey, Early Days and Men of California. 1H91, p. INI; 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, ami when
sober wished to go on with tho 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 J illy 3 %, printed a notice of the court, couched in the formal terms
of American jurisprudence. See also Cong. Does., Ser. Xo. 573, Doc. 17,
p. 762. -iln his thesis From Alcalde to Mayor, p. 198. Robertson 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 Califomians; in Los Angeles all were natives at first, but they irrad-
ually gave way to Americans, while in other towns offices were divided
between the two nationalities.

r

48 Vigilance Committee of 1851
While the theory of beneficent military 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.25 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 Mexiean 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 0. 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 Does.,"
149). J. S. Ruckel, on Dee. 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.20 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.27
Unfortunately, the creation of the council did not greatly
better affairs in San Francisco. Hyde was under constant
charges of incompetency and irregularity of conduct, and,
although Mason did not think his removal necessary, he finally
resigned after a year of wrangling and disorder.2" 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.29 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

MCona: Docs., Sor. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 378-379; Annals, 195-197;
Bancroft,' California, V, 648-650; Moses, Establishment of Municipal Gov
ernment, 30-36. Couucilmen W. D. M. Howard, E. P. Jones, and R. A.
Parker became members of the Committee of Vigilance of 1851.
-'Laws of the Town of San Francisco. 1847, pp. 4, S. Two constables
were appointed at first, then one who was to give his entire time at a salary
of fifty dollars a month.
2« 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. 1S7S. 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.
2'J 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 few 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.30 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,31
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 public domain, or even to purchase it under any
satisfactory guaranty.32 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
30 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 321.
si See Colton, Three Tears, p. 228.
32 The California Star, 1847, Feb. 27 %, noted the desperate plight of
American immigrants who had exhausted their resources, and coufd not
secure the anticipated homes.

Colonel Richard B. Mason, Military Governor 51
were invalid, either from fraud or from technical imperfec
tions.33 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.34 In the case of disputed titles he advised rival claimants
to arbitrate their differences until such time as proper courts
could be established.35 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;30 there were supervision, and account
ability, and discipline, and there was a fundamental element of
definite law behind the "good sense and sound descrction" 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

as Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 118-133. See also W. C. Jones,
Report on ihe Subject of Land Titles in California (Cong. Does., Ser. No.
589, Doe. 18) ; Dwindle, Colonial History of San Francisco; Bancroft, Cali
fornia. VI, 529-581; Hittell, California. II. 739-755; Rodman, History of
the Bench and Bar of Southern California, 52-S5; William Kelly. Excursion
to California, 1851, I, 199-213.
3* Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 321, 440.
ss Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 3S0. 3S9. 435. 440.
»« Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doe. 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

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 Republic — 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. When 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.1 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,2 was repugnant to a
majority of the American settlers, and was unsuited to every
industry likely to develop on the Pacific Coast.
i 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 Califomians, 13,000 ; Americans,
8000; other nationalities, 5000: Jan. 1, 1850, total 107,000 — Califomians,
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 bo
The situation in Washington may be summarized very briefly.
On August 8, 1846, a month and a day 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."3 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

*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 Avas convinced that the acquisition of California and
New Mexico would be made permanent.4 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,5
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.6
The ratification of the treaty with Mexico was proclaimed
in California by Governor Mason on August 7, 1848. 7 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
by the absence of any orders covering the emergency except a
brief note, dated nearly five months earlier, which had directed

* Richardson, Messages, IV, 542.
s Richardson, Messages, TV, 589-590.
e See Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 489, 555, 558, 559, 586, 677;
Browne, Debates, Appendix, p. xv. The Alta 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 changed status of California Governor Mason
never published nor attempted to enforce those laws. Bancroft spoke of the
code as if it had been promulgated (Calif crrnia, VI, 263), but Hunt cor
rected the statement ("Legal Status of California," as cited, 396).
¦> 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.8 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.9 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 was declared, but no
such official message was written until as late as October, 1S4S.
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 :10
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.
s Orders of March 15, 1848, Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc 17, p. 255.
» See Browne, Debates, remarks of C. T. Bolts, pp. 274-2*4, and Halleck s
statement of the situation. Appendix, p. xxiv; Julius Klein. The Making
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.
i° Cong. Does., Ser. No. 573, Doe. 17, pp. 7-S. Repeated almost exactly
bv Secretary Marcv to Colonel Mason (ibid., 25S-2591. 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 military 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 es
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
by 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,11 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."12 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 cast of
tho San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers as 218 mon 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,13 and Elam 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 discovers- 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 California Star
suspended publication, the school closed, workmen abandoned
their employment, officials 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.14
The governor quickly realized that there would be need of
new methods of enforcing order. On May 2:5, 1S4?\ 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.16 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

is Shinn, Mining Camps, 96; Archives, "Unbound Docs.," S. 42.
"See Bancroft, California, VI, 52-81; Fayette Robinson, California
and Its Gold Regions, 1849, Appendix, p. 135. The disastrous consequences
of the desertions of soldiers and civil authorities are noted in Cong. Docs..
Ser. No. 573, Doc 17, pp. 603, 612, 613, 648. 650, 667, 677. Sutter's entire
retinue deserted him, and his property was left at the mercy of dishonest
miners (J. A. Sutter, Personal Reminiscences, 1S76, pp. 195-196, MS in the
Bancroft Library).
15 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc 17, pp. 555-556.
i« 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.17
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.18 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.19 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, 1848.20 in
which L. W. Hastings accepted the "judgeship for the northern
district" in order to establish law and government there, and
to cheek 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.21 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:22
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
" Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 580.
is Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 593.
is Letter of Oct 24, 1848, Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 677.
20 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 was 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 Califomians.24 Soon
after came many who had settled in the neighboring territory
of Oregon.25 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 will be fifty able-bodied soldiers fit for duty in California"
(Report, Aug. 25, 1848, Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 603).
2* Hittell, California. Ill, 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.26 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, and a fleet of
vessels prepared to carry passengers to California by way of
the Isthmus of Panama, and around Cape Horn.27 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.28
26 The subject of foreign miners is discussed infra, pp. 121-126 J S
Hittell spoke of the predominance of aliens during 1848 (San Francisco,
irefl)t'lvpL1S^!f+tCerta,m'ilh0Wever' that ™ 1849 the American arrivals
greatly exceeded those of other nationalities.
27 See Bancroft, California, VI, 110-163.
fl»™ S?/°T" h ™49' th°Alta "ported in the harbor vessels flying the
flags of England, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Hamburg, Bremen Bel
gium, New Granada, Holland, Sweden, Oldenburg, Chilif' Peru Russi?a
Iment iT^^?' ^7' ^^^ and T^ti (Steamer Ed sup
plement %). The world-wide mterest in California mines is attested bv
utgfagt °f ^ °n ^ ^^ PubHshed in vLLsEuropean

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 eiistoms
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-

20 See sup fa, 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.30 This was the danger
so 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
*?oro™ WaS traced» and the g^di was over-run with other miners. About
I ' 1 *,n™ /t en in a few days' of which the discoverer realized only
about $1000 (Six Months in the Gold Mines, 1850, p 91)

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 cast 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,1 nearly all young; they came with
no thought of remaining beyond the time necessary to snatch a
fortune from the placers; they had no purpose of reproducing
accustomed institutions in a land of transient sojourn ; and they
i 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 Tears in California, 1857, pp. 381-383; Burnett, Recol
lections, 301; Alexandre Holinski, La Calif omie, 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.2 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.3

2 See Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 476, 532. Mason 's succes
sor, General Riley, continued the policy of non-interference (ibid.. 789).
s See E. E. Dunbai, The Romance of the Age. 1S67, p. 129; J. B. Landis,
"Life and Work of General John A. Sutter," Lancaster County [Penn
sylvania] Historical Society, Papers XVII (1913), 2SS; G. F. Parsons, Life
and Adventures of James W. Marshall. 1870; Hittell, California. Ill, 52-o4.
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."4 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.5
Such companies tended to speedy dissolution, owing to
conditions unforeseen at the moment of their formation.6 Never
theless, they supplied elements of unity 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

* J. T. Brooks, Four Months among the Gold-Finders, ed. 2, 1849, p. 77.
6 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. R. Ryan, Personal Adventures
in ... Calif ornia, 1850, I, 211-214; A. J. McCall, Great California Trail,
1882, p. 17.
« 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.7 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.8 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 wen-
formulated as early as the summer of 1S4S. 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.9 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

"¦ Buffum, Six Months, 26-27.
8 One pioneer said that when the mines were opened around Nevada City
a determined prospector claimed all the diggings as far as his rifle carried.
The miners soon saw that more practical agreements were necessary (C. D.
Ferguson, Experiences of a Forty-niner. 1888, p. 157).
»C. II. Shinn, Land Laws 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.10 It is reported in the history of Colusa
County 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.11 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.12
Shinn stated that the smaller camps carried on most of their
proceedings without written records.13 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
i° J. H. Carson, Early Recollections 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.
n Colusa County, 1880, p. 80.
12 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. Wierzbieki, California as It Is, and as It May Be, 1849,
p. 45 ) . A few years later H. R. 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 Populi in the Mines of California il
title to water rights, and the adjustment of disputes. Speaking
of them, in the broadest sense, H. W. Halleck said :14
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. < >ne may
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. "ir' One may also apply to them
the words of James Bryce : "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]

"See Gregory Yale, Legal Titles to Mining Claims and Water Rights.
in California, 1867, p. 71. On the subject of miners' laws, see also Shinn,
Mininq 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 Relating to Mines and Mineral Lands within
the Public 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;
Rodman, Histoni of the Bench and Bar of Southern California. 85-92; C. L.
Brace, The New li'cst, 1869, pp. 128-129. Collections of miners' codes are
given in J. Ross Browne, Reports upon the Mineral Resources of tin United
States West of the Rocky Mountains [for 1866], 1867. especially pp. 226-
242; J. F. Davis, Historical Skitch of the Mining Law in California. 1902:
Heckendorn & Wilson, Miners ¦.r 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 tho local mining laws and regulations of the nation that could
then be obtained.
isA. 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. ' '16
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. ' '17
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,18 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.19 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.

ie Bryce, American Commonwealth, II, 282.
17 Shinn, Mining Camps, 4.
is 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.
i» Royce, California, 281.

Vox Populi in the Mines of Californ

i a

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.20
It is very easy to concentrate attention upon the picturesque
features of the miners' meeting: to visualize a firelit group of
stalwart men, 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 deci  d
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.21 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, Mining Camps, 177).
2i 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. Reports. Ill
(1911-1912), 127-167; T. M. Marshall, "Miners' Laws' of Colorado."
American. Historical Review, XXV (1920), 426-439; and his Early Records
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.22
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.23
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 (U. S. Statutes at
Large, XIV, 251). The chairman of the Committee on Mines and Mining,
urging the passage of the bill, 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. 1240, Doe. 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).
=3 Cutler, Lynch-Law, 91 et seq. Most of Cutler 's examples for this
period were 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 Lynchings in Iowa," Annals of Iowa, ser. 3, XI (1914),
260-285.

Vox Populi 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 days of '49. 24
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 ea.se of "high
misdemeanor" in that year. Of later months he said-.25
This honesty . . ..was not to be found in the crowds that daily thickened
around us in '49. Hordes of pick-pockets, robbers, thieves and swindlers
wore mixed with men who had come with 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.2" Every fairly

2* See report of Mason, Aug. 17, 1848 (Cong. Vacs., Ser. No. 573. Doc.
17, p. 532); Bancroft, California, VI, 84; Brooks, Four Months. 67; Alonzo
Delano, Life on the Plains and among the Diggings, ed. of 1S57. p. 359;
T. T. Johnson, California and Oregon, or Sights in the Gold Rtgion. ed. 3,
1851, p. 146; James Neall, Jr., Statement, 4-5, MS in the Bancroft Library.
2= 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).
20 < ' There was another branch of legislation soon called for to suppress
a system of thieving that was fast spreading; but the code of the famous
Judge Lynch was unanimously adopted, and under its oral provisions any
person caught in 'flagrante delicto' was shot down without ceremony, or
subjected to any other summary punishment the 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 were I
necessary to keep in check the'lawless and abandoned characters who flocked
to the uiines" (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
j 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,27 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.28
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

2T Brooks, Four Months, 177, 183-184, 206.
28 E. A. Ross, in his Social 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 Populi in the Mines of California 77
was less than in ordinary courts, as arrest followed swiftly upon
the discovery of crime, and many culprits were caught red-
handed.29 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
.Jiml&oui- penitentiaries whipping and execution were the only
alternatives.30 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.31 The pioneer journalist,

•-» For incidents of acquittal, see Albert Lyman, Journal of a Voyage
to California, 1852, pp. 121-122; Woods. Sixteen Months. OS.
»o General Riley attributed much of the lynching in 1849 to the lack of
secure jails (Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 790).
si 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, 44.5). The severity of frontier pun
ishments was condemned bv Howard, Introduction to Local Constitutional
History, 416-423, and it was defended by Judge D. D. Banta. in "The
Criminal Code of the Northwest Territory," Indiana Magazine of History.
IX (1913), 234-236. The following opinion was given by the Supreme
Court of New Mexico: "In new countries, without jails... a pressing
necessity for the adoption of the punishment of whipping for the offense

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 wittingly cruel in its judgments,
although it was liable to be swayed by prejudice or passion."32
Unfortunately, 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.33 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.34
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 punishment, and in no instance
has its infliction been held to be unconstitutional ("Garcia vs. the Terri
tory," Fi7-st New Mexico Reports, 415-419).
32 Bayard Taylor, Eldorado, 1850, I, 92; Shinn, Mining Camps. 179-180.
See also William Taylor, California. Life Illustrated, ed. of 1S58, 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 thev were
immediately hanged from the branches of a tree in the center of the' camp.
See Buffum, Sur Months, 83-85; Historical Souvenir of El Dorado Count)/,
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 mav be found in
J. W. Harlan, California '46 to W, 1888, p. 140. Anecdotes of trials
extending over many years, are collected in Popular Tribunals, I, 142-178;
Hittell, California, 272-309.
3* 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 heavy-handed
chastisement made life and property relatively safe, in spite of
the presence in their midst of many men of the most desperate-
recklessness. While 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 1^49 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 :35
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. Does.. 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. Folsoin, assistant quartermaster at San Francisco, wrote
to Major General Jessup, Sept. IS. 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" (New York
Journal of Commerce, ISIS. Dec. 27, clipping in Francis Lieber s California
Scrap- Booh: p. 7, a collection of clippings in the Bancroft Library i. St*
also another letter from Folsom, in Robinson, California and Its Gold
Regions, 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 :36
I know, in this ease, 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:37
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
MCong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 691; alcalde's report of the
case, Archives, "Unbound Docs," 34, 340. See also Popular Tribunals,
I, 68. 37 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 653. See also Colton, Three
Tears, 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."38
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.30
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 Prazier (Frasier or Fraser)
when a case arose that needed greater ability. My father,
Edwards C. Williams, went to Jamestown in the autumn of 184*,
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 Prazier, 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.

as Hittell, California, II, 674.
so See Shinn, Mining Camps. 127; History of Tuolumne County [by
II. O. Lang], 1882, p. 13; Bancroft, California, VI. 469; Hittell. California.
Ill, 224.

82 Vigilance Committee of 1851
Prom 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,40 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 arbitrary despotism the functions of the alcalde
of the pre-American regime. The exact position of the latter
was confused by conflicting statutes and shifting administrations,

*° 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. When 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 scrape, leaned against the wall
fast asleep. Brannan, as prosecuting attorney, summed 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 aud
soberer trial Pickett was acquitted."41

« 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 they should draw lots for the disputed animal. The
contestants cheerfully divided the costs and settled their quarrel
by drawing straws.42 It is easy to understand why a pioneer
should say :43
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.44 A few months later,
General Persifor F. Smith, commandant of the Pacific Division
of the Army, wrote to the Adjutant General :45
42 Carson, Early Recollections, 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.
« p. t. Tyson, Geology and Industrial Resources of California, 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
1^t(f>CaUfornia< n> 676> 712i c°n9- Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp.
7^7, 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.40 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.47 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
40 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 Boyce, California, pp. 303-304).
4? Eldorado, I, 67 et seq. Henry De Groot said the miner of 1849 was
far less disorderly than he was currently portraved ("Six Months in '49."
Overland Monthly, 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. S).

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 wasjiot jlone Tthe 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 many 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 iraccidents 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

48 This spirit was 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 outsid<- 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).

CHAPTEK 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 iixthe land,"
Jhey 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 society, rather than a law-defiant attitude
on the part of the people.

The Struggle for Organization 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."1 The
need for some sort of representative system 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 cheeked, 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

i Ross, Social Control, 52. See also A. B. Hart, in Cyclopedia of Ameri
can Government, 1914, III, 543; Cleveland, Organised Democracy. 37. 45;
Roosevelt, Winning of the West. I, 231-233; J. E. Young, "The Law as
an Expression of Communitv Ideals," Tale 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 inherent 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 Califomians, 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.2 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.3 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.4 Robert J. Walker, the
2 Printed in the New York Herald, 1848, Sept. 26, reprinted in Niles
Register, LXXIV, 1848, Oct. 18, p. 244.
3 Benton had been ' ' malignantly hostile ' ' to Polk since the outcome
"96 'd 'mfm passnosip si ja^ai s( uoiuag jo ^aajja eqj, 'ig -d 'v.idns aag *
'088-6SS 'SH-Ofcl 'ZST-9SI 'Al '0T6I Tuma 'mo& "% •£ eag -uori-BuSiput
asnaiui s, ^uapisajj eqi pasnoje ja^ai spqq. p<re 'x-bi^jeui ^jnoo s, juoraajji 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
thc^uestion of local government.5 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 Mexico
to take the same action as soon as it should be justified by the
increase of population.7 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

» Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 537, Doc. 1, p. 45. See also Magoon, Reports
on the Law of Civil Government, 166-169.
0 Richardson, Messages, IV, 639-642.
" Cong. Globe, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., 1, 21, 190-198. 381: Allen Johnson,
Stephen A. Douglas. 1908, pp. 133-142; Polk, Diary. IV, 22S-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.8 When Congress
adjourned,^March-37-lS49, it had done nothing for the relief
of California, except to extend over it the revenue laws of the
United States.9
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,10 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.11
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

s See infra, p. 103.
ail. S., Statutes at Large, IX, 400. See also Hittell, California, II,
705-706; Polk, Diary, IV, 364-370.
io Polk, Diary, IV, 231-233, 293-298. Eleven members of the House of
Representatives voted to return all the territory obtained by the treaty
with Mexico except the region about San Francisco Bay (Cong. Globe, 30
Cong., 2 Sess., 557-559).
"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 by popular initiative.12 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 m> an-, limit- -d
to the preservation of order. There was constant difficulty in
financing the civil department of the government, in enfmving
revenue laws, and ha regulating commercial affairs, but Mich
questions do not require consideration here.13
It must not be thought that during the discussions that dis
tracted Washington in the winter of l>4s to 1M9. tie- build, r-
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 unhappily conscious
of it, and resented their situation with outspoken bitterness. The
papers attributed the rapid increase of crime to the fact that
society was "held together without other law than had sugg.-t.-d
itself in eases of emergency."14 They pointed out the grave
dangers that would attend the continuance of lynch law. which

^-Cong. Docs.. Ser. No. 573. Doc. 17. pp. 9-11. Kin;: ^a- later ap
pointed collector of the port of San Francisco. He was disliked in Califor
nia, but his Report on California, 1*50. was a valuable document (Cong.
Docs.. Ser. No. 577. Doc. 59; reprinted under the title. California: the
Wonder of the Age. 18.50'.
" These subjects are discussed at length by Bancroft and Hittell. and
more brieflv bv Thomas, Military Govtrnment. 215-22V, and by W. C.
Fankhauser". Financial History of California. 1913. pp. 109-116. An excel
lent summary was made in the Memorial to Confess (Browne. Debates,
Appendix, pp. xiv-xixt. and in King's report. California. 3-4.
i* Placer Times, 1S49. May 5 %.

94 Vigilance Committee of 1851
was "only worthy of barbarians," and was as likely to turn its
destroying hands against the good as against the bad.15
Colonel Mason also viewed the situation with profound
anxiety. As early as November 24, 1848, he had written to
Washington:16 "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 Californian,'1'' 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 :1S 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 Cala, 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 %.
is Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doe. 17, p. 649.
iT The Monterey Californian 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 was rumored that Mason
and Commodore Jones had conferred on the subject of civil organization
(Californian, 1848, Oct. 21 %).

The Struggle for Organization 9->
on public events, since the California Star and Californian at
once commenced a vigorous campaign for the formation of a
provisional government. In the issue of December 2 the paper
reported a particularly shocking murder in the mining regions,
and under the caption, "Shall we have a Civil Government?"
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-
monding delay only until it be ascertained whether or not the Congress
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 military 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.10 In quick response to the call for aclion 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. (It her towns 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 6.20 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

m Seo Cardinal Goodwin, Establishment 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, Benicia, and Sonoma. See Bancroft, California. VI.
266-271 ; Browne, Debates, Appendix, pp. xvi-xvii ; Burnett. Recolltctions.
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.21
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 selfT
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, Debates, 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.22 He
was never acknowledged as a popular influence in California, and
his "patronizing letter" was agaiu 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.23 It will be remembered that a town
council had been instituted by the alcalde and confirmed by
Colonel Mason in July, 1847.24 That body had been empowered

2'J 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 1S50,
I (1893), 93 et seq.; T. H. Benton, Thirty Tears' View. 1854-1856, II, 713;
Burnett, Recollections. 311-317, 327-334; Browne, Debates. 274-2S4; Royce,
California, 247-254; Hittell, California, II, 712; Hunt, "Legal Status of
California" as cited, 80-82.
™ Annals, 219.
'-* See supra, p. 49. Even the alcaldes went to the mines in the summer J
of 1848. The council did not meet for five months, and special elections '
were called to fill the deserted posts (Cong. Docs.. Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17.
593, 667; Annals, 205-207; Bancroft, California, V, 648-1552).

98 Vigilance Committee of 1851
to serve until 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 of
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.25 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, Recollections, 306-310; Bancroft,
California, VI, 209-211, 273; Moses, Establishment of Municipal Govern
ment, 36-46. A. J. Ellis, A. J. Grayson, and R. A. Parker (Vigilantes of
1851) were members of the Assembly.

The Struggle for Organization 99
continuance of the arbitrary rule of an irresponsible alcalde.26
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 In
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 "confusion and intricacy would
inevitably result from establishing even the best government on
a false basis."27 Undaunted by this disapproval, the assembly
continued its work; held regular meetings, levied taxes, and
enacted regulations.23 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
military authorities, who advised him to retain possession of his

2u Cong. Docs.. Ser. No. 573, Doe. 17, pp. 728-735.
" Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 735-737.
28 Seo The Minutes of the Proceedings of th-e Legislative Assembly of
the District of San Francisco, 1860.

100 Vigilance Committee of 1851
office and .papers.29 A little later formal charges of malfeasance
were preferred against him, and the governor suspended him
from duty pending an investigation.30 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 off 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 31.31 The next day the governor restored Leaven
worth to the full exercise of his duties.32 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
by law-abiding citizens.33
29 Minutes, 16; Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doe. 17, p. 727.
so Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 758-760. Leavenworth ten
dered his resignation to take effect on May 15 (Archives, "Unbound Docs.,'
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, ibid., 64-66). Commodore Jones, Captain J. L, Folsom, and Rod
man N. Price stated that Leavenworth was so unpopular that he could not
give satisfaction in anything (ibid., 55).
si See 0. C. Coy, Guide to the County Archives of California, 1919, p.
413; Ryan, Personal Adventures, II, 251-254; Buffum, Six Montlis, 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.
as 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.34
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 Range to the Sierra Nevada Mountains.'15 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 Califomians
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

3* Alta, 1849, March 1 %; Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 749.
35 The Placer Times, 1849, May 5, reported the organization. Burnett
said the meeting was early in January (Recollections, 294), but in the His
tory of Sacramento County, 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.36 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.37
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, hejnever used his official position as a source of per

se 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
Republic, 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 Republic,"
Oregon Historical Society, Quarterly, XVII (1916), 177-200; H. E. Bolton,
"Admission of California," University of California Chronicle, XV (1913),
561. 37 Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, p. 748.

The Struggle for Organization 103
sonal profit. He left California shortly after his relief, and died
of cholera, in St. Louis, in the summer of the same year.38
On or about the first of June Governor Riley received positive
information that Congress had adjourned without creating a
government for California.39 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.40 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.41 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.42 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.'13 He
announced that in view of the months that would elapse before

ssSoo Bancroft, California, VI, 274; Hittell, California. II, 677; Sher
man, Memoirs, I, 65.
no ('o„g. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doe. 17, p. 748; S. H. Willey. Transition
Period. 1901, p. 85.
iofong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 776-780.
« Secretary of War Crawford wrote General Smith, April 3, 1S49. 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 Riley in a similar tenor, June 26, saying, at the same time, that it was
the rigiit of the people to form a plan of government, which might lead to
their admission as a state (ibid.. 160-161).
*-King, California: the 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.44
Early in July the members of the legislative assembly,
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.45 The
Annals of San Francisco, published in 1855, remarked of this
situation :46

44 See Burnett, Recollections, 319-326; Hittell, California, 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.
« Annals, 223; Bancroft, California, VI, 211 note. Leavenworth again
tendered his resignation on June 4 (Archives, "Unbound Docs.," 228;
Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doe. 17, p. 774).
48 Annals, 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 they 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.47 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

47 See Popular Tribunals, 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 Regulatoren von San Francisco, a story which
showed some familiarity with the circumstances, but no personal acquaint
ance with San Francisco. It was also described in "La Californie dans les
derniers mois de 1849," an article by Patrice Dillon, in the Revue des dtux
mondes, nouvelle periode, V (1850), 205-206.

106 Vigilance Committee of 1851
some of them in "carrying out the ends of justice."48 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 Frwncisco, and with other original sources. He said :49
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 Roberts. 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 were 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
lor the purpose of returning runaway sailors to their vessels (Reminiscences,
[78]). Sam Roberts, the leader, had been a member of Stevenson's Regi
ment (Clark, First Regiment of New Tork 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 %).
48 Vigilance Committees — Miscellany, 1877, pp. ,14-16.

The Struggle for Organization 10 1
were secured, there was a meeting of all the citizens, and a Court was organ
ized, the Judges of which 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, ete. 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 how they should ln-
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 were banish- d, 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.50 There were, however,
some permanent effects, for the impromptu military patrol was
the initial step in the organization of a regular company of
militia.51 More than this, McAllister's referenc 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 California, ed. of l^sp.
p. 98; California Illustrated [bv J. M. Letts]. 1852, p. 53; S. C. Uphani.
Notes of a Vo-yage to California. 1878, p. 222 ; MSS in the Bancroft Library
of Isaac Bluxome, Jr., Statement [1877?], 5, and of W. M. Gwin, Memoirs.
1878, p. 8.
« 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. 1S49 t,MS Statement.
6). The list, of members (Annals, 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.52 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 1851.53
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.54 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. Tesehemacher, A. J. Ellis, J. C. Ward, A. G.
Randall, Benjamin Reynolds, E. A. King. The Constitution and By-Laws
of the First California Guard was printed in 1850. This was not the first
militia of San Francisco (see J. H. Brown, Reminiscences [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 Tesehemacher, J. C. Ward, Hiram Webb (Annals, 558-559).
s* 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-jury 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.55
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."0 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.57
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.68 The returns showed that all

55 Ernest Frignet called the trial an "Example memorable, et que la
Californie a donne plus d'une fois, de ce que peut le plus petit effort des
honnetes gens coutre le desordre le mieux organise et les malfacteurs les
plus audacieux " (La Californie, 1866, p. 125).
so 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. ¦-See L. B. Patterson, Twelve Tears in the Mines. 1862. p. 35; History
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.59 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.60
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.61 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.
<"> Burnett, Recollections, 346.
8i "The Laws of California" were advertised in the Alta, 1849, Sept. 20
%. Reprinted in Browne, Debates, Appendix, pp. xxiv-xl.

The Struggle for Organization 111
of the larger towns.02 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 1850.08
After this period of reorganization there was somewhat closer
touch between the larger mining camps and the central author
ity.04 More effort was made in the new towns to keep records
of proceedings, and men who had, perhaps, 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.
02 Appointments, Cong. Does.. Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 832, St;7. 871.
os Amusing tales of Judge Almond are told in Hittell, California. II,
778-779, III, 223, 248; Burnett, Recollections, 343; Bancroft. California
Inter Pocu.hi, 1888, pp. 591-600; Annals, pp. 238-241. He sometimes said:
"Gentlemen, I don't know just what the law of this case is, but 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.
"•' 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.65
The August election gave the citizens of San pYancisco 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.66 At the initial meeting of the new
ayuntamiento67 Geary presented an excellent address on the
municipal' situation, and described as follows the confusion that
had arisen from the lack of civic equipment :6S
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. Publie 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.

os Some valuable pre-statehood records are mentioned in Coy, Guide to
the County Archives, pp. 50-51.
oe Annals, 228-229.
67 Riley revived the use of the Spanish term, which had not been em
ployed by Mason when he instituted the San Francisco council in 1847.
Riley also encouraged the election of ayuntamientos in all towns entitled
to such bodies (see Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 761-769; Ser.
No. 561, Doc. 52, p. 27).
os 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 Organization 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.''0
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.70 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.71
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.72
There were forty-eight delegates:73 Doctor Robert Semple. of

oo A list of crimes, Sept. 4, 1849, to March 26, 18.5a, was given in the
Alta, 1850, May 2 74. 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.
™ San Francisco Call. 1883, July 30 «;.
-'Bancroft, California, VI, 213-215.
"See Bancroft, California, VI, 284-303; Hittell, California. II. 756-
774; Royce, California, 259-270; Goodwin, Establishment of State Gov
ernment: D. R. Hunt, Genesis of California's First Constitution. 1895: F. V
Thorpe, Constitutional History of the American People, 1898. II. 287-394;
Browne, Report 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.
" See Browne, Debates. 47S; 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."74
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 finally 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.75 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.76

™ Browne, Debates, 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 :77
And the population of California, swept together from all the state-.
of tho Union, gave the most magnificent illustration of the wonderful
capacity of this people for self-government, by creating for themselves, of
their own 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 tlie United
States, III (1881), 463. Hittell called the constitution "one of the best, if
not the verv best, of all the thirtv-one that then existed (California. II.
783).

CHAPTER VI
THE FABRICATION OF THE COMMONWEALTH
A month after the constitution was signed at Monterey
it was ratified by the people.1 At the same time an election was
held for members of the first legislature and for representatives
in Congress; Peter H. Burnett2 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.3
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.4

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, Picl: 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. Newman has called attention to a report in
the Pacific Neivs, 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).
* 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). Riley doubted the

The Fabrication of the Commoniceaith 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.6
All this new machinery of government could not be set in
motion overnight. It was April or May of 18-50 before the larger
towns were incorporated and the counties and townships equipped
with the necessary officials.8 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 such 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, Establishment of State Government, 220-223; Rod
man, History of the Bench and Bar of Southern California. 21; von Hoist.
Constitutional History, III, 518.
' The work of the first legislature was described and commended by
Bancroft, California, VI, 308-336; Hittell, California. II. 791-807; Good
win, Establishment of State Government, chaps. 12-17.
'•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.7 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.8 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,9 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.10 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
young 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.
7 Bean's History and Directory of Nevada County, 1867, p. 65, stated
that the first mining ditch in California was projected at Nevada City,
March, 1850.
s Royce, 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 Reminiscences 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 tlie First
Alcalde of Marysville, January to May, 1850, preserved in the archives of
Yuba County, confirms Field's Reminiscences.

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.11
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.12 Sacramento, which had

n 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).
"On April 29, 1850, Major Sullivan was elected alcalde, "without
governmental authority and solely to meet an immediate emergency," His
tory of Tuolumne Count u [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.13
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.14
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

is Placer 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 Rough and Ready 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 Fabrication of the Commonwealth 121
a habit after twelve or eighteen months of license.15 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.18 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.17
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,

16 On the hardships of California life, see Brooks, Four Months, 102-
108; J. L. Tyson, Diary 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 Realities, 1851; Golden Dreams and Leaden
Realities [by George Payson], 1853; California and Its Gold Mines | hy
Thomas Allsop], 1853, pp. 73-77; Eliza W. Farnham, California, Indoors
and Out, 1856, pp. 366-368; Hittell, California, III, 168-171; "T. Turn-
bull's 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).
i« The gamblers in Sacramento defeated early attempts at organization
(Bancroft, California, VI, 456).
i' The first council of San Francisco made an unsuccessful attempt to
forbid gambling in January, 1848 (Annals, 199). Games of chance were
made illegal bv 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 . ..California, ed. 2, 1870, II, sees. 3322-333S ; Royce, California.
425. Bothwiek reported gambling on the wane in San Francisco in 1852
(Three Tears, 379).

122 Vigilance Committee 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."18 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.19 Following the examples of Eastern states,
is 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 Social Development, 1918, pp. 37-44.
19 See U. S. Immigration Commission, Immigration Legislation, 1911,
pp. 12, 24-28 (Reports, XXXIX, Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 5879, Doc. 758).

The Fabrication 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.20 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.21
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 iu
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 wen-
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.22 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 Calif ornia, Statutes, 1850, chap. 82, p. 202; Penal Code. 1872, § 173.
=i 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.)
sa Thomas Belcher Kay, see infra, p. 282.

124 Vigilance Committee 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 winter 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.23 The existence of organized bands of
criminals was suspected, and with each fresh outrage their
power and complexity of organization were magnified.24 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
* <2<3oB^th te^mS ,£ained earl7 currency. The Alta, 1851, July 10 %, spoke
of "Sydney Ducks," and the Annals of San Francisco, published ii 1855,
used the expression "Sydney Coves" (p. 257).
24 On Nov. 20, 1850, the Alta stated that convicts were in California
T^T 9r.°Tf -,^i Tr6 making the state a Pandemonium (see also ibid,
Feb. 20 %; April 11 %; lnfra, 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,

The Fabrication of the Commonwealth 125
taking possession of the mines," he stated that he intended td-
enforce against aliens the laws that forbade trespassing on public
lands.25 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."-0 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.27 As it was, the American miners were left to their
own initiative in the matter, for General Smith did not order tin-
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. \ I,
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 (ibid., 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).
28 See Lindley, Treatise on the American Law Relating to Mutes. I. 493.
508-526; Thompson, U. S. Mining Statutes. I, 29-30; Yale, Legal Tiths to
Mining Claims. 34-42; J. S. Hittell, Resources of California, ed. 6, 18,4,
p. 424 (but compare his earlier statement, ibid., ed. 1, 1S63. p. 354 i.
-¦ The natural resentment caused by the efforts to exploit extensive
claims bv 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."28 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 Califomians in this respect as an example of narrow
and unworthy prejudice.29 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. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17,
p. 788). Holinski was enthusiastic over the "fraternite universelle" that
united the many nationalities in the state (La Californie, 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 ltidouard
Auger, Voyage en Californie, 1854, pp. 112-113; Charles de Lambertie,
Voyage pittoresque en Californie 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;
Borthwiek, Three Tears, 74, 306, 363; Daniel Levy, Les Francois en Cali
fornie, 1884, pp. 88-105. The impressions of a traveler from Chili are
given in Vicente Perez Rosales, Recuerdos del pasado, 1910, pp. 259-370.
23 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 twenty dollars a month on miners
who were not citizens either by birth or by the provisions of the
treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.30 The attempt to enforce that law
provoked resistance on the part of the foreigners and actual
riot in the southern mines.31 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. 3-
In reviewing the difficulties of the state during this time, we
cannot ignore the hostility that constantly 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 lo
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-protection and imbued
with the hatred bred from centuries of frontier warfare, traversed

8" California, Statutes. 1850, chap. 97, p. 221; repealed, Statutes. 1^51,
chap. 108, p. 424.
si See Shinn, Mining Camps. 212-218; History of Tuolumne County
[by Lang], 28-34, 39-47; Hittell, California, 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, 18-56, p. 218).
aa 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 Muritta. 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 country 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;33 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.34 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.35
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.36 33 See Bancroft, California, 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
Vl', 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 Sl-etch 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.
3* See Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 573, Doc. 17, pp. 355, 643, 645, 689.
35 Charles White, alcalde of San Jose, to Mason, April 29, 1848, Archives,
"Unbound Docs.," 43.
se 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 .
Region, 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 Fabrication 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.37 Cattle
thieves also began the most outrageous operations,38 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.30 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.40

f Popular Tribunals, I, 73; Delano, Life on the Plains and among the
Dioqings, 268, 359-362.
as 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, Adventures of James Capen
Adams, 1860, pp. 11-12).
30 The persistence of individualism in the West is discussed by Hill in
his Public Domain and Democracy, 130-146.
"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.41 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.42 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,
1849,43 when he was conspicuous in organizing the Empire
*i 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 Representative Men, 1881-1882,
I, Sketch of Gwin, 231-239 ; Jeremiah Lynch, A Senator of the Fifties
[Broderick], 1911; E. R. Kennedy, The Contest for California in 1861,
1912, pp. 32-63; R. 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.
43See infra, p. 164.

The Fabrication of the Commonwealth 131
Engine Company, of which he became the first foreman. On
January 8, 1850,44 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.45 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.46 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.47 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

"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).
4« See C. of V., Papers, Index under "Broderick," "Charles Duane."
and ' ' Ira Cole. ' ' Broderick 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 Historv, " 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. 4S 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.49 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

4S Hittell, California, IV, 50.
49 Bancroft, California., VI, "Political History," chaps. 23-24.

The Fabrication of the Commonwealth 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.50 The political leaders of a passing
00 See G. P. Garrison, Westward Extension, 1906, pp. 294-333 ; W. H.
Smith, Political History of Slaveru, 1903, I, 113-129; Rhodes, History of
the United States, I, 116-198; J. B". McMaster, History of tlu? 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
owners. After seven months of discord and struggle, such pro
visions were finally adopted as separate measures. The act
admitting California to statehood51 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.52
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.

CHAPTER 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, j
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 :J ' ' Personne ne vous
demande qui vous etes, ni d'ou vous venez. Vous 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.2 Even the men who
desired to make permanent homes in California were cheeked
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

i Pierre Charles de Saint-Amant, Voyages en Californie et dans I 'Oregon,
1854, p. 73.
a ' ' 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 Maga-ine of Histo)-y, XIII (191. \
270-287.

138 Vigilance Committee of 1851
violence, in Sacramento in the summer of 1850.3 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.4 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.5 The towns
were no less changeable in their composition. Burnett, a promi
nent member of the San Francisco legislative assembly, who had
known nearly every one of his fellow-citizens in September,
1849, could not recognize one in ten after an absence of six

3 See Royce, 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), 394-102.
s 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 Establish Social Control 139
weeks, and found himself such a stranger in November that he
had grave doubts of securing his election as governor.6
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."7 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.8 The political conscience of the stale 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

a Burnett, Recollections. 347.
"Rudyard Kipling, "With the Night Mail," in his Actions and Re
actions (1910), 145.
s See Howard, Introduction to the Local Constitutional History of the
United States, I, 135-148; " Count v Government," American Academy of
Political and Social Science, Annals. XLVII (1913V 1-27S. especially 271-
275; H. S. Gilbertson, The County, the "Dark Continent" of American
Politics, 1917.

140 Vigilance Committee of 1851
tangible substance but once in two or three years, when the
neighbors whom tiny have placated or antagonized slip printed
papers into a ballot box.0 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.10
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.11 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:12
» 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.
i°Calfornia, Statutes, 1850, chap. 38, p. 102, sec. 10.
n See "The People vs. Gordon et al.," Fifth California 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 Establish 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 bonds of the like 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.13
One of the best known political incidents of early days was
the election of the sheriff of San Francisco, in May, ls50.14 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

" In August, 1849, Burnett accomplished the election of a friend from
Missouri within forty-eight hours of the latter's arrival in Sacramento
(Recollections, 335-336).
" See Davis, Political Conventions, 10; Annals, 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
Ranger are told in S. C. Reid, Jr.. Scouting Expeditions of McCutloch's
Texas Rangers, 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.15 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:16
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
is "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).
if California 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.17 Contemporary estimates of the public service were typified
by the assertion made in the San Francisco Evening Pi-cayunc,
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.1"- In spite
of such assertions, Bancroft wrote of the period :19
I may safely say that the judges on the whole were honest men. ... On
the Supreme bench, and presiding over the district and county court?, 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

« See Frank Marryat. Mountains and Molehills, 1855, pp. 236. 3S9.
'-Picayune. 1850, Sept. 2 Sj.
19 Bancroft, California Inter Pocula, oS2. 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
(ibid., 590).

144 Vigilance 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."20 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
20 Royce, 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 Tears, 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 attorneys21
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 tjie„ criminal rather than a safeguard to the community.22
Not only were the odds during the trial largely 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 censured23 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.-4 San Fran
cisco purchased a prison brig in 184!); Sacramento did the same
in 1850, and smaller towns improvised places of confinement as
best they might;25 but before permanent structures could be com
menced it was necessary to organize the counties, choose county
seats, vote funds, and arrange many details of construction.25

21 The salary of a district attorney was $2000 (California, Statutes,
1850, chap. 25, p. 83).
22 Prisoners were quite ready to pay their lawyers fees of $1000 (P. A.
Roach, Statement of Historical- 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).
2sAs by H. K. Norton, Story of California. 1913, p. 246.
= ' See the experiments in Stockton, supra, p. 119.
2-r- 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, aud prisoners were chained to a pine log for safe keeping
(Horace Bell, Reminiscences of a Ranger, 1881, p. 51). The first public
building of Contra Costa County was a stone jail, built in 1S50, 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.26 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.27 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.28 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 which 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 was also entrusted with the duties whieh
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
California, 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 California- 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 Countu, 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.29 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.80
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 tin- Mexican
system were discontinued. Justices of the peace and judg- s
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.31

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 Lvnch" (Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen and Sierra Coun
ties, 423).
29 See California, Statutes, 1850, chap. 33, p. 93. chap. 119. p. 2*-. sec.
176. The District Courts took cognizance, also, of civil and chancery cases.
They superseded the Mexican Courts of First Instance (ibid., chap. 2 7
p. 80, sec. 28).
'<• No fees were allowed witnesses in criminal cases (California, Statutes.
1850, chap. 138, p. 421, sec. 15). The Alta, 1851, Oct. 15 i;. noted the
impossibility of securing the attendance of witnesses under these circum
stances. si See Shinn, Mining Camps, 187. The miners of Chinese Camp appointed
an alcalde and a sheriff in September, 1850 (Heckendom \- Wilson, Miners
4r Business Men's Directory . . . 1856 ...of Tuolumne, 87- /. 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 offices
recently created for the new county of Trinity (Pioneer Days, 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 Vigilance 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.32
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
I 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, Recollections 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. F^

The Failure to Establish Social Control 151
way nor help him if he chose to resist.33 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.34

ss 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 Reform," in Initiative, 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 y{: "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 manv 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 Tlie Volcano Diggings; a Tale of California Law [by Leonard Kip],
1851.

152 Vigilance Committee of 1851
In the Alta 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_tq^ 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 :35
For some eight or ten years after the organization of our State gov
ernment, the administration of the criminal laws was exceedingly defective
and inefficient. 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
difficulty 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, Recollections, 386, 390.

The Failure to Establish Social Control 153
to many of the serious problems of the state, and proposed some
desirable reforms,36 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.37 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.38 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.89 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

30 Journals of the California Legislature, 1851, pp. 22-23.
a* Burnett, Recollections, 377.
88 See Crosby, MS Statement, 47-49, and Green, MS Life and Adven
tures, 25; Hittell, California. IV, 60-64, 87.
so Bancroft said that in 1856 McDougal was arrested for election frauds
(Popular Tribunals, I, 130).

154 Vigilance Committee of 1851
effective until July, 1851.40 Justices of the peace were given
jurisdiction over minor offenses, and it was provided that their
courts should be open continuously.41 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.42
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,43 the legis
lature passed an act that permitted a jury to impose the death
penalty for robbery and grand larceny.44 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.45 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).
4i California, Statutes, 1851, chap. I, p. 23, sec. 90. The civil jurisdiction
of justices ' courts was also modified.
*2 See Some Account of the Work of Stephen J. Field [edited by C. T.
Black and S. B. Smith], 1881, pp. 19-20; Hittell, California, IV, 67.
*3 Journals of the California Legislature, 1851, pp. 91, 101, 1412.
44 Calif ornia, Statutes, 1851, chap. 95, p. 406.
45 See Journals of the California Legislature, 1851, pp. 286, 1422, 1426.

The Failure to Establish Social Control 155
nutted, at the discretion of the jury, a punishment of fifty lashes
for petit larceny. The statute remained in force until 1856,46
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:47
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,48 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 In
juries, and was repealed as soon as jails could be constructed
and the emergency relieved.49

40 See California, Statutes, 1856, chap. 139, p. 220.
47 Royce, California, 337-338.
48 Shinn, Mining Camps, 228. Perhaps copied from Tinkham, History
of Stockton, 161.
4" 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 Robinson 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, 1S51, 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,50 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:51 "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 Stockton, 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 note 3). George Tanner, for grand larceny, Marysville,
July 23, 1852 (Herald, 1852, March 23 3<c; May 15 ^; July 25 %; San
Francisco Chronicle, 1904, May 22, magazine p. 5 ; " The People vs. George
Tanner," Second California Reports, 257-261). A Mexican convieted 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.
so History of Colusa County, 1880, pp. 46-47.
si 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 Sketch, 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.02
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 Californian 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
02 "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 Resources 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.53 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.54 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, with 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 Tears, 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" (Ride over the Rocky Mountains, 1852,
pp. 359-360).
54 See Rev. William Taylor, California Life Illustrated, 300 ; Rev. James
Woods, Recollections of Pioneer Work 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 Tears, 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 were no citizens of assured
incomes, much less of independent leisure, who could occupy
themselves with altruistic social service. Every sunrise miglit
be the herald of fortune or ruin, turning on the hazard of wind
and tide, of fire or flood, 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.55 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.

50 W. T. Sayward, 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. Nye, "Letters," History Teachers' Magazine, VI
[1915], 211).

PART II

THE SAN FRANCISCO COMMITTEE
OF VIGILANCE

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.1 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 ayuntamiento were re-elected and
seven new members chosen.2
On April 15, 1850, San Francisco was incorporated by act
of the legislature,3 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.4 All other positions were

i 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 omce 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, 21o.
-See Annals, 265-266. Great confusion attended the election.
a 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, 121.

164 Vigilance Committee of 1851
filled by new men.5 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.6
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 following 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.
o 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.7 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.8
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.0 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.10 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 Municipal 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 paBsed 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.
10 Annals, 281. The city was charged $100 for digging the hole, and
$200 for rigging the halyards (Alta, 1851, March 25 }3 ) •

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,11 a dredger christened the Steam Paddy12 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.13 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.14 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 Tears, 80. The editor of the Alta, 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. R. Garniss, Early 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.
i* The Alta described the foreign quarters, 1851, June 29 %. The article
did not tally exactly with the map in Popular 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.16
The population at this time was about 23,000,17 gathered
from all the ends of the earth.18 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 (1. 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. io See Ann als, 296-298; J. S. Hittell, San Francisco, 151-153.
i' 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, Annals, 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 %.
is A cemetery on Russian Hill showed inscriptions in thirteen languages
(Herald, 1852, Dee. 12 %).

168 Vigilance Committee of 1851
fog; otherwise the city lay in darkness,19 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 :20
Cette merveilleuse cit6, bazar de toutes les nations du globe, creation
spontanee comme une de ces oeuvres fantastiques des Mille et aree Nuites
* * * * ou les mineurs et les aventuriers de toutes sortes apportent sans eesse
leur or, leurs passions, leur activite febrile et desordonnee. San-Francisco
est la ville aux transformations brutales, aux changements de decors a
vue; hier eit6 florissante, aujourd'hui monceau de cendres. Repassez dans
un mois, vous retrouverez a, la meme plape une autre ville avee 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,21
and eight daily newspapers;22 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

is 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, California, III, 424;
•Annals, 518).
20 Auger, Voyage en Californie, 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 Francisco in the "Spring of
'50, ' ' 1873 ; Borthwick, Three Tears, 43-93 ; Bancroft, California, VI, 164-
220; Holinski, La Californie, 101-132; C. P. Kimball, Directory, Sept.,
1850; J. M. Parker, Directory, 1852. Excellent pictures can be found in
J. P. Young, San Francisco, 1912; C. B. Turrill, "Life in San Francisco,
1856," Overland Monthly, ser. 2, LXVIII (1916), 495-502.
21 Kimball's Directory, 1850, p. 127.
22 Six dailies were 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.23
There were three more engine companies, the Protection, the
Howard, and the Eureka, and two 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.24
To cope with all the criminal problems of the city, there was
a force of about seventy-five policemen.25 From statements made
before the Committee of Vigilance it is evident that some among
them were confederates of thieves.20 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

2s The bells of the California and Monumental companies were used by
the Committee of Vigilance. (See infra, p. 206.)
2< 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;
Borthwick, Three Tears, 87-90; Frignet, La Californie, 156-159; H. C.
Pendleton, publisher, The Exempt Firemen of San Franoisco, 1900
2' Bancroft, California, VI, 214 note 68; Kimball's Directory, 1850. pp.
123-124. 20 See Papers, Index under "San Francisco — Police."

170 Vigilance Committee of 1851
building was far from complete.27 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,28 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.29 The crime, of itself, was no more
27 See infra, p. 247.
as Annals, 314.
29 Full accounts were given in the papers of the day; Annals, 314-320;
Popular Tribunals, I, 179-200; Royce, 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
Poster's Bar, in Yuba County.30 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, Robert AVin-
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 eriminal. 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 sear on
the right cheek.31 At one time or another men who had worked

so See Herald, 1851, Feb. 21 %; 22 %; and infra, p. 253.
si See Popular Tribunals, I, 194-196; Alta. 1851, Feb. 24; History of
Tuba County, 1879, p. 125. Members of the Vigilance Committee had an
opportunity to compare the two men, and Schenck said : ' ' Berdue . . . was a
man about five feet and 7% inches in height, with full oval face, dark
brown or auburn hair, a well 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.32 After
five feet 9 or 9% 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.
Ryckman 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. Tesehemacher, and T. H. Green were
again chosen to represent the people.33 The committee held a
long and stormy meeting, and their debates can stili 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.34
On Sunday a still larger crowd collected in the Plaza, when1
both parties of the committee presented their views,35 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 Alta 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

ss The committeemen were: W. D. M. Howard, Samuel Brannan, A. J.
Ellis, H. F. Tesehemacher, 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 (Alta, 1851, Feb. 23 %). The first eight
beoame members of the Committee of Vigilance.
84 "We are the mayor, and the recorder, the hang man and the laws!"
cried Brannan, "The law and the courts never yet hung a man in Califor
nia!" (Alta, 1851, Feb. 23 %).
s' The following report of the minority was distributed as a handbill,
and printed in the papers of Feb. 24 :
To the People op 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. King,
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.36 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. Schenek, who later became a member of the Committee
of Vigilance, was one of the jury, and spoke of the trial as
follows :37
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. s? MS Statement 25-26. Hall McAllister was also in substantial agree
ment with Coleman, Schenek, and the narrative presented by Royce. 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 Room 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 violent
than Schenek 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.38 Windred was given a ten-year sen
tence, but he quickly escaped.80 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

88 See the court reports in the Alta and the Herald, 1851, Mareh 15-21.
»»See infra, p. 311.

176 Vigilance Committee 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.40 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.41
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.42 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.43 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."44 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 Goff, Papers, 222-223.
« 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

.1 1

chosen mayor, R. H. Waller, recorder, Frank M. Pixley, city
attorney, and Robert G. Crozier, marshal.45
The former county judge, R. M. Morrison, having resigned
in April, the governor appointed Alexander Campbell to the
vacant position.46 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,47 but
"Ned" McGowan, friend of criminals and ward heelers, was 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.48
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

« See Annals, 326.
40 Herald, 1851, May 17 %.
" See note on his resignation, infra, p. 303.
'- See Papers, 332, 336, 349, also infra, p. 402.

178 Vigilance Committee of 1851
was refused.4"* 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.50 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.51 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. ' '52 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.53 This condition placed criminals who employed able
lawyers in a position of great advantage. Although repeated
complaint was made against it,54 an appointment noted in the
49 See Annals, 322-324; Herald, 1851, March 4; 10; 15.
so First California Reports (annotated ed.), 539-555.
si 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 was 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.53
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.50 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.'7
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.58 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 Ihe city for the purpose of plunder
created au 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

65 A prosecuting attorney for the mayor s court had then been appointed.
so See Aiuials, 329-333, 604-610; Bancroft, California, VI, 204-206;
Popular Tribunals, I, 74. Interesting recollections of the catastrophe were
given by Schenk, MS Statement, 44-45; and by Alfred Wheeler, "Oration,"
in Society of California Pioneers, Thirty-second Anniversary (18S2), 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, eares for a fire!" (Gerstacker,
Gold ein Calif armaches Lebensbild, p. 111).

180 Vigil-ance 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.59 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.60 Speaking of this organization Schenek
said :61
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 iu
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 Schenek '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
™Alta, 1851, May 19 %; 20 %; 21 %; 28 %.
eo See ordinance of May 26, 1851 (Manual of San Francisco, 1852, p. 49).
Bancroft placed the organization of the patrol in February (Popular
Tribunals, I, 205).
oi Schenek, 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.'32
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.63 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

02 Herald, 1851, June 10 %. In view of Schenek 's statement it is inter
esting to record the names of future Vigilantes who served as officers 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. Ilasson, 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.
08 An editorial in the Herald of June 4 reported a decided improvement,
but the Courier of tho 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 Tribunals, 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 crime, 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.04 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.05
Schenek said of the Lewis affair :66
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 Rube 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."07 This is somewhat fuller
than the reports which appeared in the newspaiicrs, 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 -'r, ; 23 % ; 30 %.
o» Schenek, MS Statement, 51. He said that Lewis escaped, and was
later connected with 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.
<» 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."68 A little later the men of
Sacramento made a vigorous protest against the crime that was
rampant in their city.69 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.70 The Stockton Journal went to
greater extremes and demanded that the people should appoint
a commission and proclaim martial law.71
The idea of a protective association was taking definite shape
in many minds. On June 8 the Alta 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.72 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.73 The California Courier of

MAlta, 1851, April 1 %.
os Alta, 1851, April 16 %.
70 See infra, p. 454.
7i See infra, p. 455.
72 See infra, p. 456.
73 Royce, 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.74
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 ORGANIZATION 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 III. 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

iSee Annals, 283-284. The first officers included W. D. M. Howard,
president, J. R. Snyder and Samuel Brannan, 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.2
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.3 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 note).
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 Califomians:
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. Battelle  10,000 A. B. Stout...  20,000
A. J. Ellis  50,000 J. D. Stevenson  350,000
C. V. Gillespie  225,000 H. F. Tesehemacher  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.4 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,6
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

* 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, Representative and Leading Men of the Pacific, 1870, pp. 455—159,
portrait; Davis, Sixty Tears, 507;" Burnett, Recollections, 298. 410; Brown,
Reminiscences, [29]; Swasev, Early Days, 202-208; Eldredge, California,
III, 118, portrait; Eldredge, San Francisco, II, 709-711; Ryekman. MS
Statement, 4; San Francisco Call, 1890, Sept. S %. 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).

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
f 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. Misfortune 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.6 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 country, and
o 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.

WILLIAM TELL COLEMAN' IN 1844

From a daguerreotype in the possession of his son,
Mr. Robert Lewis Coleman.

The Organization of the Committee of Vigilance 191
attributed that condition to the stern lessons of lynch law.7 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 1S56. 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.8
Isaac Bluxome, Jr.,9 was of Revolutionary stock, was born
in New York in 1829, and educated in a private school in

' Coleman, MS Statement, 2.
"See Eldredge, California, III, 434.
"See Popular Tribunals, especially I, 250-2o2; Phelps. Contemporary
B'mgraphu, I, 269-271; description of the Bluxome Ranch, Alta, 1S74,
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], 10 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,11
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

io 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.
n Born in New York, 1815; died Jan. 29, 1871. See Annals, 794-798,
portrait; Popular Tribunals, I, 247-248; Swasey, Early 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.
While 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.12 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.13 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,14 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
"Noted in Alta, 1851, April 29 %; May 14 %; June 3 %.
18 J. D. Farwell, Vigilance Committees in San Francisco, 1S78, p. 10,
MS in the Bancroft Library.
"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,15 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,16 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,17 and the arson of Lewis had threatened the destruction of
his property on Long Wharf.
Gerritt (or Garrett) W. Ryckman 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.13 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,
is See Annals, 784-789; Swasey, Early Days, 218-219.
ie Daniel Knower, Adventures of a Forty-niner, 1894, p. 86.
it See infra, p. 307.
is 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.
Ryckman 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.10
If Ryckman was the Nestor of the Committee "little Ceorge
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 out!"20 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

i»See Alta, 1881, Jan. 26 %; San Francisco Call, 1882. April 3 3.,
20 San Francisco Bulletin, 1896, Nov. 21 i%.
"Ryckman, 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.22
George E. Schenek, number 72 [68], came of a race of pio
neers that had adventured in North America since one Schenek
fitted out Hendrick Hudson 's Half Moon, and another sailed
upon her quarter-deck.23 He reached Sari 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:24

22 See Popular Tribunals, I, 235; II, 64, 382, 387; obituary, Alta, 1861,
Feb. 13 %. ' ¦" ' '
23 Schenek, MS Statement, 57-59.
2* 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 %; Dec. 22 %). Obituary, Alta, 1875, May 9;

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 his death in 1856 to become one of the most famous
men in California history.25 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.20 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.27 An unconfirmed anecdote relates that on
one occasion he was so convinced of the innocence of an accused

=5 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 ; Poplar Tribunals, II, 22-6S. passim.
2« As the son of William King, he assumed his father 's given name, in
place of the more usual designation of Junior.
2t 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.28 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.29
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 was an alder
man of San Francisco in 1854.30
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.31
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

as Shuck, Representative Men, 563.
29 Shuck, Representative Men, 574.
so Annals, 624; Herald, 1854, Nov. 10 %.
3i Argenti is mentioned in Eldredge, California, V, 427; obituary, Alta,
1861, May 20 %. 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.32 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. Schenek 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. Schenek further main
tained that "once a Committeeman, always a Committeeman."
A non-suit was 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.33 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.34 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
82 Papers, 23 note 21; Schenek, MS Statement, 51-54; Popular Tribunals,
Index under "Malony"; Alta. 1859, April 28 %•
33 See Papers, Index under ' ' David Earl. ' '
3* 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.35
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.36 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.
Rube 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 See 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, y, ; 22 % ; July 25
%; Alta, 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.38 Other committee
men have said that he was a professional copyist from Phila
delphia,80 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.40 Ryckman, who was some
what unsparing in his criticism, hinted that he became addicted
to stimulants during the stress of his exacting duties,41 and

»»Alta, 1851, Aug. 31 %; Herald, Sept. 1 %.
»» Popular Tribunals, I, 246.
*o See infra, p. 336.
" Ryckman, MS Statement, 4.

202 Vigilance Committee 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.42 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.43 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.44
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.45 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.
« In Oakland Transcript, 1874, March 29 14. See also Royce, California,
419-420. Recollections of Payran 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.
^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 work 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 Ncall, Jr."'' He said that on Sunday, June s,
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,

"James Xeall, Jr., MS Statement, 1-3. See extracts in Appendix.
pp. 457-45S.

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.47 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.48 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.49
No minutes have been preserved of this, the third meeting,
but it is perfectly evident that the harassed citizens of San
Francisco instinctively turned to 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

« 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 (Alta, 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 precinet "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.
*8 Popular Tribunals, I, 208.
*9 J. M. Guinn, who compiled histories of several California counties,
said that the name "Vigilance Committee" originated with 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 great 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.50
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 A ..
Constitution, 7-8). Another copy found among the miscellaneous docu
ments and printed in the Papers, III, 1-3, is dated June S. and Bancroft
accepted that date for the definite institution of the Committee (Popular
Tribunals, 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 situated51 . . . [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.52 The associates in this cause of self-protection
si 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 were
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 Popular
Tribunals, II, 545; Alta, 1866, Jan. 15, % ; San Francisco Call, 1893, Dec.
18 %.
^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 Committee 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 "Mayflower 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."53 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 meetings* 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.
«• Mississippi Valley Historical Association, Proceedings. VI (1912-
1913), 103-104.
54 Neall seems to refer to the meeting of Tuesday evening, but Bancroft
placed Stevenson's address on Monday evening (Popular Tribunals, 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.1 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. Schenek,
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.2 The suggestion
i 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 Schenek (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 :3 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 the 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.4 Within there was hasty consultation, initial confusion,
and swiftly emerging order. There was a chairman. Brannan,5
and a secretary, Bluxome. An immediate trial was decreed. A
jury Was selected; Schenek was appointed prosecutim; attorney;"
the particulars of the theft were rehearsed by witnesses. The
evidence was conclusive; the verdict was "guilty."'

8 Xeall told Bancroft that the California bell was tapped some twenty
times by George J. Oakes (Popular Tribunals, I, 229). The Monumental
bell sounded a few minutes before ten o'clock (Herald, lS-'l, 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.
» Farwell, MS Statement, 6.
"Schenek, MS Statement, 36.
7 The theft of the safe was proved bevond question (Coleman, MS State
ment. 19-21; Farwell, MS Statement, 7). J. C. L. Wadswortn said: "The
doors were closed, and no one allowed in but those we knew, ofiicers 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, Mr.
and Mrs. 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.8 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.9 But grand larceny rendered the thief : liabj^ tp_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 William 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!"10 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 AVilliam 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).
» For the affair with Mrs. Connolly, see Papers, 45, 53-57.
s Schenek, MS Statement, 37; Herald, 1851, June 11 %.
i» Farwell, MS Statement, 7. Ryckman 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.11 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.12
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!"13 The clergyman
reluctantly withdrew, admitting that Jenkins was incorrigible,14
and Mr. 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;15 "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. Schenek said that over eighty
joined during the evening (MS Statement, 36).
12 Ryckman, MS Statement, 2.
"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, Schenek and probably James F. Curtis,
as a subcommittee to make ready for the hanging.16 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 was
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.17 The events of the even
ing were thenceforth shifted to the open streets, and we can find
full reports in' the contemporary newspapers.18
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
' ' Ves ! ' ' 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

" Coleman, MS Statement, 21; Schenek, 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, li-27.

'7

-jY/ ? 7 7 i-arx.

The Committee at Work 213
sympathetic assemblage raised a warning cry: "No names! no
names ! ' ' and then divided, some hurrying to the Flaza 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.10 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 -.-°
While some one was taking down the 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 neek, 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.

" Bluxome, MS Statement, 10.
20 Schenek, MS Statemey\t, 39. The attempted rescue was described at
the inquest, and by Coleman (MS Statement, 22).

214 Vigilance Committee of 1851
It is a grewsome 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.21 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.22
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. Cary, now in the possession of
Harvard University Library. Cary was not a member of the Committee.
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 Com
mittee," International Review, XI (1881), 78-88; Edward Bosqui, Memoirs,
1904, pp. 55-56; illustration in Annals, 343.

The Committee at Work 215
more than one or two of the chief actors.23 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 was 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.24
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 be recognized there
and on the Plaza, but he asserted that he neither assisted in the
trial, nor sympathized with those who held the rope. Itroderick
also identified several participants in the night's work, and
related his own attempt to frustrate their efforts. Ira Cole, one
of Broderick 's followers, 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
2sComstock, in MS Vigilance Committees — Miscellany, 38-39.
=* 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.25 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,28 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. Reynolds, 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.
28 See Papers, 72 note 2.

The Committee 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
Resolved, That we, members of the Vigilance Committee, remark with
surprise the invidious verdict rendered by the Coroner's Jury after their
inqueBt 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 well exemplified by the following excerpt
from the Courier:"
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 i 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. "28
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:29
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."30
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
2s Report and editorial, Herald, 1851, June 12.
29 Bluxome, MS Statement, 10.
so 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.31 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 were 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.82 They were not received as a jest by the atlendants at
the mass meeting, however. Broderick forced his way to tin- 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
tlie 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

si Herald, 1851, June 13, %. 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).
=2 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 when 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,33 which was immediately chosen.
While Jenkins was still in custody, Isaac Bluxome, Jr., was
elected to the post of secretary,34 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
83 Wadsworth, in MS Vigilance Committees — Miscellany, 23.
si 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 Tribunals?5
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 1H14. 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 ;30
the other is a minute book for the meetings of the Ceneral
Committee, which was ordered by resolution but which may never
have been prepared.37
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 ( 'ommittee. 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
»» Popular Tribunals, I, 242.
so "The testimony already collected fills a large volume, and has occupied
the exclusive attention of one man in transcribing" (Herald, 1S51, June
-1 71 I ¦
"Papers, 247.

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,38 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.39 It met once or twice
a week40 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 even' day;41
sixty-two meetings are recorded by 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 Ryckman, infra, p. 460.
as C. of V., Constitution, 3.
4° Papers, 300.
« 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.42
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,43 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.44
Another standing committee, the Committee on Qualification, was
created by the constitution for the supervision of the admission
of new members.40
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, Avith subordinate assistants, acted
under his orders.4" Whenever necessary a much larger number
were called to act on the police force.17 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
42 Papers, Appendix C. Bluxome attended 74 meetings, Ryckman firy,
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,
** Papers, 340, 356, and Index under " C. of V. — Police."
47 On June 19, the patrol was increased to one hundred (Papers, 5S».

224 Vigilance Committee of 1851
often received instructions from that body, but on the whole they
were left largely to their OAvn initiative in making their investi
gations.48 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.49 The first headquarters
were in the Brannan building, on the northwest corner 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.50
We have no accurate description of the permanent Vigilance
headquarters. Contemporary illustrations51 shoAved 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 Papers.52 At the head of the staii-Avay 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 < ' We 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"
(Ryckman, MS Statement, 3-4).
« Papers, 97, and Index under "C. of V. — Headquarters— Police. "
Form of guard duty order, 136 ; lists of guards, 179, 531.
so Papers, 36, 42.
si Annals, 562.
52 See reports on the escape of Whittaker and McKenzie, Papers, 528-
541; inventories, 654-656; disbursements for headquarters, 823. Remodel
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 McKenzie.'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
Bs ' ' After the hanging of Jenkins, Ave 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" (Ryckman, 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 fulfillment, endorsed
with the report of the official who had executed them.54 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.55

s* 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 Avho 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 a.ssailant
of Jansen, the murderer of Charles Moore, 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 laAv. 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 frameAvork 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 Avas adopted
on the ninth of June; Jenkins was hanged on the eleventh, and
by the fourteenth the Committee Avas deep in systematic and
efficient work.
It must be remembered that its members felt that the safety
of the community Avas 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 outlaAvs as Avas
pictured by the popular imagination. It Avas 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 key to the methods that accomplished rapid and
effective results. The committeemen did not wait for other
thieves to be apprehended Avith their spoils, nor for complaints
to be lodged against suspected offenders: Avith 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 folloAved Avith such thoroughness that a
mass of incriminating evidence was accumulated against five of
the proprietors mentioned.1

i See Papers, 27-28, and Index under cases of Henry Beck, Thomas
Burns, James Hethorington, Crockstein and Ward, John 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 Mrs. Connolly shortly
before Mr. Connolly's mysterious death. A shadoAv still hung
over the place and over the Avidow, aaIio 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
Avorst resorts of the Sydney thieves, and he had been heavily
fined for keeping it open after midnight.2
Burns and another innkeeper, named James Hetheriiurton,
were considered especially dangerous residents and the secretary
of the Committee Avas instructed to send them notices to leave
town Avithin 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
someAvhat as follows:
You are hereby warned to leave this city within five days.
By order of the Committee of Vigilance.
Here A\-as a second warning issued to criminals by the Vigilance
Committee; thieves should beAATare 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 already urged the "Committee of Public Safety" to
command the criminal element to leave the state under penalty
of severe punishment.3 no one could anticipate how such orders
would be received. Some of the Committee had grave scruples
2 Alta, 1851, June 10 i,.
3 Herald, 1851, June 12 -2.

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.5
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.6 It was 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.7
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 aaIio Avould
vouch for his honesty. Several of these were called in his
defense,8 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.
* Papers, 41, 43-44. t Herald, 1851, June 21 %.
5 Papers, 45-59, 66-68. s Papers, 66-73.
6 Papers, 59.

The Records for June 231
While the two landlords Avere under investigation, other
questionable characters were called upon to account for their past
lives and associates. George Hopkins, from Hobart Town, maj
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 Avhich
all the members of the subcommittee assumed responsibility for
their action by attaching their signatures to the recommendations
they submitted.9
Thomas Scott, a tailor, had crossed the Pacific in the same
vessel with Hetherington, and had been in irons en mute for
theft, and assault upon the captain. There Avas also a rumor that
in San Francisco he had poisoned a man named Russel.10 When
examined by the Committee he assumed an air of great innocence.
protested that he did not e\-en know the location of North Beach.
and Avas 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 Avell-knoAA-n 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 were sold, and before they left the country they signed
"Papers. 130.
»• Papers, 73.

232 Vigilance Committee of 1851
receipts for the proceeds, which in each case exceeded two
hundred dollars.11 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.12
When commenting upon the notices of banishment sent to
Burns and Hetherington, the San Francisco Herald, June 18,
acknowledged 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 requiring 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.13
Only the orders to Burns and Hetherington, and another
order sent to one Ryan,14 who evaded arrest, are mentioned in the

n Papers, 151-153.
12 Papers, 63-73. Note the Reports 62-64 as examples of the methods
of investigation. is 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 ease 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-knoAvn
criminal lawyer, to leave the city without delay.15 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 Avas
therefore made to check the increase of the convict colony in
Sydney Valley. The statute of 1850 which prohibited the im
migration of criminals,10 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 Massachusetts Avas 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,17 it undertook to
send back, on its own responsibility, those avIio seemed to belong
to a criminal class.18 It was announced in the California Courier
™ Papers, 69.
i» See supra, p. 123.
i' 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 Avithin a feAv 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. ' '
1N The Committee also considered taking legal steps against shipmasters
who brought convict passengers to the state (Papers, ITS. 291, 434, 440,

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 Avould 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, Avell
acquainted with residents in the colonies" were employed to
assist in the work of identification. The Chief 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.19
The statement that the revenue officers agreed to assist the
Committee in this matter is confirmed by a note from Captain
McGowan, of the revenue cutter Polk, conveying the information
that the bark John Potter arrived from Sydney 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.20
Isaac Bluxome, Jr., thus described the methods employed in
the examination of immigrants:21
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.

i» Papers, 770, Voucher no. 6.
20 Papers, 136.
2i Bluxome, MS Statement, 15. The "old man" may have been Law
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.-2 The fol
lowing extracts, however, illustrate the nature of the question
naires :
George Starbuek, Mate of Bark John Potter. 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 employer 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 Potter"], 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 Adirondack] — 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 Adirondack] — 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 Parkfield 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 Renwick for Sydney— a convict ship for females-
was a prisoner.
General Andrew Jackson [on board Mary Catherine], an American,
from Honolulu.

" The lists are summarized in the Papers, Appendix H. See also the
Index under "Passengers examined by the C. of V." Four othervessels
arrived from the British colonies between June 8 and Sept. 17. 187)1; the
Sacramento on July 2, with 3 passengers; the Marmion, July 20. Avith 13;
the Rosalind, July 23, with 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 Committee
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.23 Of
those examined some 25 were under suspicion as ex-convicts, but
only 7 are on record as having been sent back to Sydney.2*
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 :25
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
Polk being especially at my orders.
His accounts for June show an almost continuous service.
There was a trip to Angel Island26 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." Wakeman 's Log tells of a launch
party to those islands at about that time, but it gives no hint of
his particular errand.28
23 These figures include the 15 passengers on the Chief reported in the
California Courier, but not noted in the files of the Committee.
T 24  Alderson, William Barclay, Richard Garland, Thomas and Mary
Jones,  Roach, Alexander Wright.
25 Wakeman, Log, 139. 27 Papers, 209, 771 Voucher no. 4.
26 Papers, 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 acknoAvl-
edgment of Wakeman 's services to the community in connection
with 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 wished the bluff old salt a
"long and prosperous life and in the end a safe anchorage in
the Haven of Eternal rest."20 W. H. Clark, Avho succeeded to
the post of chief of the water police, did his Avork so zealously
that he brought upon himself censure for extravagance and an
admonition to exercise greater caution in future.30
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 laAV." 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 Avrote
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.31
™ Papers, 395-396; Wakeman, Log, 170; Herald, 1851, August 1 ={-,.
*> Papers, 363 377, 824.
81 Papers, 38-39.

238 Vigilance Committee 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.32
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 18.33 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,34 Avas seen on
Powell Street in conference with a man who seemed to be under
the influence of liquor. Kay became so uneasy when aware of
surveillance that Van Bokkelen made a special report on the
matter.35 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.
3* Kay's resignation was noted in the Herald, 1851, May 15 %
ss 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, hoAv-
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 Avere disgracing
the city.86 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.37
The meeting sumoned so passionately Avas never held. On
Sunday, June 22, the citizens of San Francisco were struggling
to cheek 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 Avhole. or
parts, of sixteen blocks of buildings, and destroying property
valued at three million dollars.
The Annals called the fire "unquestionably incendiary "::s 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 tAvo men were
beaten to death by mobs on suspicion of robbery and incendiar
ism.30 A like fate threatened Captain Harris, master of the bark
80 See infra, p. 460.
"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.
80 Herald, 1851, June 24 %. Two men were also shot by the police for
looting. Saint-Amant, who arrived shortly after this, found the eity greatly
in dread of another fire (Voyages, 124-125).

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 con
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."40
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 Avith 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.
« Papers, 147, 279, 280.

The Records for June 241
the members of the Committee as "bloodhounds" Avho "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 somcAvhat 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 Sydney 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 lynching him. He
especially refuted the statement that the press feared to offend
the Committee of Vigilance, and said that the Alta Avas so
reduced in size after the fire that it had space for only a brief
paragraph regretting the unfortunate episode.''3 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.44

« Papers, 746.
"This notice appeared in the Alta, 1851, June 26 % (Steamer Edition).
"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 Avork 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.45 All of these except one Mexican succeeded in establish
ing their innocence and were discharged. The single conviction46
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.47 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, ' '4S 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 Meclora, 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.49
Two other incidents of June 22 must be noted. On that night
a man named Samuel Gallagher stabbed to death one LeAvis
Pollock in a quarrel over an inmate of a vicious resort. Gallagher
45 See Papers, 74-83.
*» Papers, 75-76.
" A report on the case of Antonio Barsallio, arrested at this time, recom
mended a whipping, but it was annotated "Discharged" (Papers, 82).
*s 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.50
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 Avas 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 Metcalf had purloined
and secreted valuables which he had been hired to remove from
the house of an unnamed "lady."51 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.52 Argenti 's friends rallied with equal staunch
ness to the aid of this second protege. On the same night a party
often 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

00 Four Vigilantes 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 %; Aug. 13 % ; 14 ^ ; Xov. 18 % :
Dec. 6 %.
" Papers, 78.
53 The relationship Avas scored in the arguments in court (R. A. Lock-
wood, Vigilance Committee of San Francisco, 1852, p. 20).

244 Vigilance Committee of 1851
by Mme. Duclos. 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.53 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
7 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."54
Statements made at a later time indicated that the resolution
did not reflect the sentiments of a majority of the Committee,55
but the course it advocated was a logical outcome of the Avhole
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 AmericainiDerty. The
announcement did not pass without challenge. Mayor Brenham,
in an open letter to the citizens of San Francisco,56 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 knoAvn under any other
than inquisitorial governments." Judge Campbell, on another
occasion,57 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 Avithout fear
of any abuse of the license claimed, and their confidence was
" See Papers, 156 note, and Index under "Metcalf"; also infra, pp.
329, 347.
5* Papers, 178.
ss See infra, p. 330.
bs 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 success 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.58 No one except Metcalf
sued the Committee for trespass and there is no record to indicate
that in other instances threats of violence Avere 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.50 A charge for
posters and another for bill posting, paid at this date.00 lead to
the inference that the reward Avas conspicuously adA-ertiscd
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, Margaret Robinson, Avho Avas in the habit of beat
ing him if he disregarded her Avishes. He Avas arrested by the
city police on suspicion of starting the fire of the twenty -second,
and confessed that he did so in obedience to Mrs. Bobinson, who

58 Papers, Index under ' ' Search Avithout warrant '
50 See infra, p. 461.
a" 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 12.61
It Avas during this period of activity that the Committee
undertook a work of unquestioned value to the community 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,
wdiich 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.62 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,63 and had finally succeeded, by
61 See Papers, Index under "Ben Robinson." The possibility that Mrs.
Bobinson might be lynched was noted with horror in the Albany Knicker
bocker (Alta, 1851, Oct. 16 %).
62 Alta, 1851, April 29 %.
es Alta, 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 Avere
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.64
Watkins and Adams were quickly rearrested, and on May G
Watkins made good a boast that he could escape from any jail05
by cutting a hole in the floor and departing in company Avith
Adams and other friends known as Switzer, Welsh, and ( iardncr .''"'¦
The Alta of May 9 stated that twelve or fourteen more prisoners
had broken from the station house, which was a Avretched cellar
under the city hall where as many as three dozen persons aw re
tumbled together, without sanitary necessities, and fed on a
scanty diet of bread and water.67 Adams, Welsh and SAvit/.er
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.08 Watkins was presently recaptured."" but
the others remained at large.
Such events constantly emphasized the need for a avcII 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.70 A tour of inspection followed
without delay. The visitors found seven cells occupied; the
"*Alta, 1851, April 24 %. os Alta, 1S51, June 3 ij.
"MHo, 1851, April 29 %. 69 Alta, 1851, June 7 %.
6I> Alta, 1851, May 7 %. 70 Papers, 93.
« Alta, 1851, May 26 %.

248 Vigilance Committee of 1851
largest, twelve by fourteen feet, held fourteen prisoners, and
the others, six by nine feet, held six each.71 The keeper's room
was also finished; another tier of cells needed only doors to be
habitable, although a part of the building was Avithout a roof.72
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.73
Suitable blanks were distributed within a few days,74 and the
work of collection extended over a period of several weeks. In
the meantime a further report wras made on the condition of the
jail.75 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 Tribunals :76
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

ti Papers, 157-162.
72 The unroofed condition was described in the Herald, 1851, Sept. 11
%;io%.
73 Papers, 177.
7* 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, I, 401-402. The absence from the archives of
several documents which Avere 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 Pa yean,
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.77 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.78 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 Avay it was thought that
the Committee might be reimbursed Avhen the jail fund should be
replenished from the county taxes. No record of such a lien has
been found.70
The example set by the citizens of San Francisco Avhen they
banded together for mutual protection received the hearty
approval of many of the smaller toA\-ns. 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 :80

'7 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.
'» The lien is mentioned in the Papers, 157, 161, 602, 723, 729, 740.
to Herald, and Alta, 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 Okdee, 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.81
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.82 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 neArer
tell when one of the Committee might be at their elbows.83 With

si See infra, p. 347 et seq.
sa 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 %. Ryckman 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
mystery. No secret, however, was made of the aims and the
methods adopted by the Vigilantes; the location of their head
quarters Avas known to every one in the city, frequent notices
were printed of their meetings, and many proceedings Avere
reported so accurately in the leading papers that it is evident
the Committee desired to keep the public informed of its policies
and actions.84
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 Sydney 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, EdAvards, 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
any clue to the band of outlaws who Ave re supposed to haunt the
nooks and corners of Sydney Valley.

learned that the friend to whom he complained was himself a member of
the Becret 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, 1849,1 was 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 Foster's Bar. One attempt to lynch him was
frustrated by the authorities, and he succeeded in breaking jail
before the case was concluded.2 Two months later he Avas in the
same region with two companions. As all three were out of
funds, they ' ' concluded that they might as Avell be dead as without
money and agreed to go up to the mountains and rob every man
they met, till each had $20,000. "3 The first victim was Charles

i 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 Papers, 169, 227. s 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.4 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. "Tie 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 Moore. About the same time other men
arrived from Auburn to see if the prisoner might be cither of
two brothers named Stewart, who had killed Sheriff Echols in
Auburn, in June, 1850. 5 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, Avho 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.0 In April he rode boldly
down to Monterey, where four or five of his friends were on trial

* 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.
"William and Samuel SteAvart 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 ^,).
"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.7
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:8 San Francisco June 19th 1851
Old Fellow
Look out the Hawks 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 Tours S. W.
This was originally addressed to J. Taylor, Marysville, Tuba
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.9

7 Papers, 237; infra, p. 309. » Papers, 237.
s Papers, 62.

James Stuart, Outlaw

J.00

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
Avas upon him, for on the morning of July 1 he Avas 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 bim before he
could escape.10 His clean, light clothes, still creased from
recent packing, led his captors to fancy that lie 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 Avas innocently walking
back to San Francisco from the Mission. When they retorted
that he had chosen a "damned pretty way to come from the Mis
sion," he became confused, and it Avas determined to place him
somcAvhere 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.11 At headquarters he made a favorable impression by reason
of his apparent frankness and his attractive personality. He Avas

1° Papers, 140-143.
11 Eyekman, 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.12 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 which
may have been quite true. G. E. Schenek said that Stuart's
answers were 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.13
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,14 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 wrote but a few lines Avith 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).
is Schenek, 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 Schenek :15
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. Schenek, 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. Schenek, assisted by R. S. Watson,10
raised funds the same afternoon to send a messenger to arrest
proceedings. Captain Hartford Joy Avas entrusted Avith 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."17 Tavo 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. "1S Both
of these letters were acknowledged on June 6 by John II. JeAvett.
president of the Marysville Committee,19 who stated that "James
Stuart, alias Thomas Berdue," had been found guilty on Friday,
the fourth, and awaited sentence on Monday; that the local

i» Schenek, MS Statement, 29-30.
"Schenek, 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).
"Papers, 143. « Papers, 164. "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.20 The witnesses, however, were sent as requested. In the mean
time others had been found nearer at hand.21 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.22 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.23 An effort 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 unknoAvn 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.24
In their search for competent witnesses the Committee turned
to Frank Pixiey, 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.
21 Papers, 165-170.
22 Papers, 176.
23 Papers, 165, 174. Curtis and Spence Arisited 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 knew ! .'!"
(Papers, 169).
s* 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. Bluxome related the interview with great zest ¦P
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 I 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 witli 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. Xcavs 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.20 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.

25 Bluxome, MS Statement, 8-9. Pixley 's connection with Stuart is
further discussed, infra, p. 265.
20 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 4.27
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.28 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 other 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 Papers, 133, 143, 154, 164.
28 See Papers, 175, 179-182, 198, 202, 215, 246.

James Stuart, Outlaw 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."20 Bancroft portrayed the amount of self-
revelation as a dramatic climax to the breakdown of Stuart's
incognito,30 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.
20 Coleman, MS Statement, 25.
to 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 report31 which states that the prisoner was will
ing to make a lull 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.32 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.33 Coleman said of the events of that night :34
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
si Papers, 223-224.
32 The Vigilante (Dr. Merritt) , who told of Stuart in the Oakland
Tribune, 1884, April 5 %, said that the prisoner seemed to rely on this
point of law.
ss Papers, 216. si 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, 10% 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.35
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 Avere
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 plots Avere also described, one of which
entailed Stuart's devout attendance at mass at San .lose, while
he kept his eyes alert for certain golden images reported as
enshrined in the sanctuary. The bandit named about twenty-
five accomplices,30 but with all his apparent frankness he evaded
betraying certain matters which he desired to conceal. So far
35 See Papers, 225-242. Schenek said of Stuart's trial: "Witnesses
Avere sent for from all parts of the state, and whenever he suggested any
Avitnesscs, to prove an alibi, or for any other purpose, they were sent for,
at a considerable expense to the Committee" (MS Statement. 31).
3<> Papers, 225 note 12.

264 Vigilance Committee of 1851
as we can learn, he never acknowledged his share in the murder
of Charles Moore,37 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,38 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.39
In spite of the general knowledge of Stuart's arrest,40 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
3' Schenek 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 Reverend 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.
40 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 by a writ which summoned W. H. Jones, A. J.
McDuffee, J. L. Van Bokkelen, and Stephen Payran, to produce
their captive in court.41 Issuance of the writ was promptly
reported to the Committee, and the gentlemen named therein
were given leave to retire from the rooms.42 Service was effected
in the case of the three first mentioned, but President Payran
"was not found, after diligent search." When 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 :43
Frank Pixley went 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, Ave 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. Rube Maloney, who Avas also a member of the
Committee said ..." I will put him in my house. ' ' So we Avalked 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
liim away from the Sheriff.

"Herald, 1851, July 9 %; 10 %; Alta, July 9 73; 10 %.
"Papers, 214.
"Bluxome, MS Statement, 11-12. The committee in charge of Stuart
was given a formal A'ote of thanks, July 10 (Papers, 254).
"Endicott Avas an alderman (Annals, 326). He AA-as 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.45
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
Pixley 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.46
Some of the members of the Committee entertained serious
misgivings over their evasion of the time-honored provisions of
- the writ of habeas corpus,47 and the fact that the Alta California
« Reported in California Courier, 1851, July 11 %. See also Popular
Tribunals, I, 320.
« Papers, 230-231, 242, 293.
4' ' ' We thought it a terrible thing to deny the writ of habeas corpus ' '
(Farwell, MS Statement, 9).

James Stuart, Outlaw 267
had advised them to obey it48 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.49 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 by the Vigilance Com
mittee to that writ."50 Dr. A. B. Stout, W. L. Bromley, and
C. II. Brinley were charged with this duty, and they soon sub
mitted a paper that was an interesting exposition of the Vigi
lante point of view.51 They traced the origin of the Avrit of
habeas corpus and . acknowledged its great value Avhen 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 culled
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 peradvcnture that

48 Alta, 1851, July 9 %.
"See case of LeBras (Papers. 281). Writs Avere also evaded in the
cases of Arentrue, and of W. H. Hays (ibid., 414, 441), and subterfuge was
employed when Bluxome Avas summoned to produce his records in court
(ibid., 731).
to 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.
81 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.52 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 :53
Minutes of Gentcr,al Meeting July 11, 1851
Mr. Selim Woodworth in Chair
On Motion
Resolved — That Evidence in case Stuart be read.
Questions by Dr. Stout and Mr. Dows"
Has the prisoner performed his contract or notf 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 Avere given in the Alta and
the Herald, July 12 to 14.
53 Papers, 263-264.
54 Probably James Bows. John Doavs was also a member, but his name
appears nowhere in the minutes of the Committee.

James Stuart, Outlaw 269
On Motion
Resolved That Prisoner Stuart be hung — unanimously carried —
Resolved that a Clergyman be sent for to remain Avith Prisoner until
he is hung —
Resolved That Prisoner be hung at 2 o'clock
Resolved That Ex Com make necessary arrangements
Eesolved That no person be allowed to leave the room
Resolved 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
Resolved That a Committee be appointed to draft a form of the testi
mony to be published in the papers of tomorrow morning
On Motion
Resolved 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.55 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 avIio 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.

to 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.56
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. ' '5T 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."58
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."59 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

so See Mr. Mines' letter on the subject, Papers, 308-312.
si Herald, 1851, July 14 %.
58 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, Outlaw 271
solid barrier.60 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 body01
he observed the formalities of his office, and impaneled a jury
which promptly found:62 "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 laAvs.63

to 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.
m 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 vout' He
said, 'By God, Middleton, you know I am a coroner! ' 'By God,' Avas the
answer, 'you don't get through till that felloAv's a fit subject for your
administration' (MS Statement, 4-5). There was a report that life was
not absolutely extinct Avhen Stuart was cut dovra, although all efforts failed
to revive him (Alta, 1851, July 13 %; Herald, 1851, July 14 7;,; Ryckman,
MS Statement, 16). J. W. Palmer Avrote: "The first man hung by the San
Francisco Vigilance Committee was dead before he was sAvung up, and the
second. ..was alive after he was cut doAvn'' (The New and the Old. 1S5P-.
p. 73). «2 Herald, 1851, July 14 %.
"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 sAvorn and
solemn duty to bring the guilty to punishment.64
The Alta 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.65 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 :66
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.67
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.63
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.69
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

to Herald, 1851, July 14 %.
07 See infra, p. 465.
88 See infra, p. 466.
to Herald, 1851, August 9 %; 11 %.

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.70 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.

¦"> 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.1 It was published
immediately, with the omission of some names which at the
time the Committee wished to conceal. It Avas 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 f olloAving 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 Avill much oblige them and disabuse the public mind
touching the affair. Respectfully, 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 Avas Jimmy from Town, a
small, clean-shaven, Irish sailorman, an adept in the peculiar
patter of the thieves' jargon, and a burglar of celebrity.2 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. Wlien 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.3
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 Avas 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 noted 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.5
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.6 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.7 That expedition cost the Com
mittee nearly two hundred dollars. At its close the quest was
* See Papers, 227 note 14, 294-296, *340-343 ; also supra, p. 226.
5 Alta, 1851, July 24 %.
6 Papers, 253, 265, Voucher no. 12.
7 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, Avas 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;8 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.0
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 lS-tO.10
After some vicissitudes he formed a partnership Avith an
Australian named Teddy McCormac, and together they opened
the Port Phillip House, which quickly became a rendezvous for
thieves and ruffians. There the tAvo 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.11 Whittaker, thus dispossessed,
removed to the Hogans' establishment during Mr. Hogan 's
absence in the mines.

b Papers, 402 note 3.
0 Papers, 243. Ryckman was much attracted by Whittaker 's manly per
sonality (MS Statement, 10).
10 Papers, 468-469.
n 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.12
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.13 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.14
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

ia Papers, 242, 474, 475. i* Papers, 260.
is 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.10 The surveillance proved futile, however, and another
searching party was sent to Sacramento to examine thoroughly
the sloughs and creeks of the marshy river.17 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 Avas taken into
custody by Sheriff V. W. Hearne, who at once embarked for Shu
Francisco, intending to deliver him to the police of that city.18
Once again a strange chance placed the Vigilance Committee
in possession of an important captive. While Hearne Avas 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 Avas reimbursed for the expense of

ib Papers, 293, 298, 335. ' ' The famous Mrs. Hogan . . . was seized on
Saturday on board a ship in the harbor . . . and removed to the Committee
Rooms  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 Rooms. For what cannot be said — cer
tainly not for the interesting female -within" (Herald, 1851, July 21 --,).
Voucher no. 15 in the Papers, shows that the carriage Avas hired by the
Committee at an expense of $16.
i» Papers, 363.
"Papers, 414-416.
« 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.19
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 activities20 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.21 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 Avilling 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 ; Papers,
454, Voucher no. 40.
20 See supra, p. 238.
21 Papers, 276-277; Herald, 1851, July 16 %; 17 %; Aug. 11 %.

On the Trail of Stuart's Companions

2sy

made affidavit in San Francisco that the former port warden was
even then unlawfully restrained of his liberty on a steamer in the
Bay, by "a great number of persons Avho styled themselves the
Vigilance Committee." In that way he procured a Avrit 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. McIIenry, 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.22 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 unlaAvt'nl
detention.23 The grand jury immediately caused bis rearrest,24
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.25 He was fortunate in departing just Avhen he did. for in a feAv
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 %).
"Herald, 1851, July 21, %; 22 %.
"Herald, 1851, July 21 %.
"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.26
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" escort27 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. Randall, 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."28
Messrs. Edwards, Osman, Briggs, Morgan, and Hughes, also
evaded arrest by the Committee. Hughes had been tried and
acquitted of the burglary of Robert's jeAvelry store early in
June,20 but Whittaker finally said the charge was true and that
the plunder had been . entrusted to Morgan, who Avith EdAvards.
Osman, and Briggs was traced to San Diego, where the party
boarded a steamer for Panama. Unsuccessful efforts Avere made
to arrest them at Mazatlan, and again, in October, Avhen it
was reported that they had returned to the vicinity of San
Francisco.80 The archives contain the names of eighty-six persons avIio
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 Avere incarcerated, first
and last, within the prisoners' room of the Committee of Vigi
lance, and their trials were prosecuted Avith vigor.31

™ Papers, 300 note 3; Herald, 1851, July 24 %; Aug. 11 -:,.
" See supra, p. 238.
to 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. Tavo months later
Whittaker identified the fugitive as Old Jack Morgan, a typical example of
the interweaAdng of independent clues (ibid., 47, 476).
" 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 :32
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. Ryekman 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
Ryckman 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 Ryekman 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 easy 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.33 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 Avhich 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 frankly 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 safety7
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.34 This recommendation was
immediately adopted in regard to Jimmy, Ainsworth, and Arthur,
but Adams was remanded for further examination. At the

^i Papers, 338, 345.

On the Trail of Stuart's Compactions 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.35
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 Monumental 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 Avas under serious
consideration. At last the prisoner was brought out, not on his
way to the scaffold, but to the county jail, where he Avas handed
over to the under sheriff, John Caperton, who acknoAvledged 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 Bube, 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 ease 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 Avith the supervision of other trials.30 The presence in
court of members of the society has been severely scored by some
writers as an effort to overaAve judge and juries. If such at
tempts were made, they are not reflected in the neAA'spaper re
ports, or in the sentences pronounced, Avhich in no case took

to Papers, 375, 410-413, 418, 419, 424, 426.
s« 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.37
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.38 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.39 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,40 and thereafter vanished
from the attention of the public.
Schenek said that the Committee had been informed that the
authorities had evidence to convict some of the prisoners of
murder,41 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.
ss Herald, 1851, Sept. 19 %.
39 Herald, 1852, Jan. 21 %; May 21 %.
40 Herald, 1854, Oct. 26 %.
4i Schenek, MS Statement, 43.

On the Trail of Stuart'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 Avith
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.42
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.43 Once started,
he confessed crime after crime with astonishing fluency. While
Stuart's narrative was a plain recital of events, Whittaker 's Avas
interspersed with reflections on the men and the occurrences
that he described.44 Like many other criminals he blamed
society for his downfall: he gave instances of injustice to shoAV
that a thief had a better chance than an honest man ; he sneered

<2 Papers, 463-467, 506. A brief and unimportant addendum, missing
from the files, was printed in the Alta. 1851, August 27 %.
"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. "Papers, 468-488.

292 Vigilance Committee of 1851
at his own service on a jury which sentenced a prisoner to a
term of imprisonment for the theft of a pistol, while greater
offenders, skilfully defended, went scot-free ;45 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.46
He characterized his companions with critical appraisement :
Kay was ignorant, and a dandy; others were bungling; the con
victs from Van Diemen's Land were far worse than those from
Sydney ;47 such a one was a convict without doubt, another might
be an incendiary but the "report was rumor";48 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.49
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. ' '50
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:51 "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."

« Papers, 469. 49 Papers, 482, 483.
46 Papers, 481. so Papers, 480-482.
*7 Papers, 478. si Papers, 473-476, 484.
48 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 Avife, returning to
him on various occasions such sums as he needed.52 We read
that during her ordeal the ' ' prisoner Whittaker was brought in
and confronted with Mrs. Hogan." So far as Ave may knoAV,
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.53 In closing her
story 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."54
The examinations did not prove actual murder against either
Whittaker or McKenzie, but the Executive Committee reported
that both men were self-confessed robbers AA'ho 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.05 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 IS. 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

&* Papers, 488-490; Herald, 1851, Aug. 18 '}{.
to Papers, 501.
"Report of a conversation Avith "Harriet," probably Harriet L.ing-
meade, in a brief paragraph in the Herald, 1851, August 1 ~2-
^ Papers, 462, 467. Smiley said: "The sentences of death in the cases
of Whitaker and McKenzie Avere passed by the Committee at large, upon
the eases coming before them" (MS Statement. 4).

294 Vigilance Committee of 1851
they were, although with a postponement of the execution for
forty-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.56 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 Avriting 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 Avith guard of ten —
At 8 o 'clock a person Avill be sent to room for special detail of
25 Avho 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
Avill wave his handkf — when the prisoners Avill run — " Bancroft
interpreted the concluding phrase as referring to the moment Avhen the
prisoners should be run up to the yard arm (Popular Tribunals, I, 359).

On the Trail 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.57
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 unAvilling to
relinquish. At first he thought it was not his duty, ' ' and rather
roughly declined,"58 but the obligation could not Avell 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 Avithout the customary countersign.
Payran, who had been indisposed during the day,50 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 knoAAdedge 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 Avarrant are printed infra, pp. 469-470.
to Papers, 530.
to 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.60 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, Avhich was introduced by the following
preamble :
The Committee haA'ing 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

eo Papers, 523-526.

On the Trail of Stuart's Companions 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 laAv !
The committee of investigation found no evidence of cor
ruption or of internal connivance in the escape,02 but it blamed
the chief of police for want of necessary caution and energy,
and censured those members "who Avere 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 be
did." The report was accepted and Van Bokkelen Avas 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.03 On the very day after the rescue Hays alloAved Ryckman to
interview the prisoners. "Mr. Ryckman," said Whittaker, "I

"i 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.
"a Payran always attributed the rescue to treachery on the part of the
guards (Carpenter's letter in Oakland Transcript, 1S74, March 29, p. 1).
to 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. ' '64 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, Me-
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.es 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.

s* 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
Avork proposed by the Committee Avould 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 Avhich 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).

PROCLAMATION! THE GO¥ ERMOR.

\\ II l'/l< Iv* S jiii ormed and organized hod* of the citizen* of Sao I'runr  I »'ini>
hu. In deSlROfl of III'- OonitltaUOD mid Law* oi lilt* Hlati\ —  ni -i le OUWiM lb*- prn of Hw rmrrln of Crialori
Junldletlon, nml tn pais und curry into . if. . i extrO'JuUklnl nenteoesj ¦¦'' <>¦ ¦¦¦"' ¦""' -'>¦¦¦¦ ¦ "pirii of . , - u ,v i ihr
Officer" Oflllfl L«W, 'Villi"- ¦ ..r.,.-. .[ J, (III* BXOOUlUa of their duty, !.'¦- r.. .-n njwnl) -...f nubllr-lj »«nifr.ti-J ; tWU-fr «.
rMiiioii tn (ji-li.-vi- Ihul further MiatJl-.  i li , .ii..-l. to Interfere with thr rr-gufar ml in I nUt rati1 on offaWtiM In (ail < -«¦!>
¦¦d'UpeolllUf to Ukr from th« rujffony nrthn Nl.rrlffrerl.ilii PrlSOften DOtf coqjW.I In thr <Ji"l »f ¦•*! ' - M.
flfoH therefore, I, JOHN EHcDOCOAL, Governor of thcNtalr of <nlif.»rni«, Jolirrrb»
oktl upon nil good oltlxenii of said < tounty t  lite for thr purpose of luitoJaJiif pnbHe inn nml truqtdDltj . i- *i«) Oh c«bd>

i in Hi.- dliohnrge of tlinir ilutv, nod by all lowfnl notni lo dlMoao,teoiaoe nnj nd mrj ittawri nhirbma* b«- ¦
lo IHDllllHte III'- despotic control of n NOlf-riiiiNlllulcfl rmMncintion unknown uml urtiiijj in ilcf
of llu regolnrt) orgnnl/rd government of the County, And I henbj aoJQ upon ,11 pabUe

UUinil In i be porformnm  t tholr IraiU, and to reilit to Ik* ntn«i«t ot Ibelrpowrori >ll olbrti which mai i«- miJ- i»
rabrarl the lowi md Irntnplo on the Conutltutlon.
i mi I herein ivnro tlionc who ore dinooHed to p«ilii the lejtal nafthorllleij that tfwi <«o-
¦ot do iot without Involving tho aomn  Hy of which thej ««. nembarj in »li the homn nf Clvfl ww, nbjMta H
liberty md property to tho moal fearful uprlAoca,
The Govermiie ot ll determined, al all hazard*., lo lUtall (lie t'ountitulion nod loBWS,
pulilin pciiro con unit be ice und  I |>nlillr lilicrty ran only If ninintnini-d, hj ¦ alrli-t nHh.'n-nc.. 10 dial IhlHnfJ of «»b..r-
¦Ijnaliuti lo ilir Inn, nm1 rQBDOOl for its minixters, which haio hcn-lnfon- rhm-ortrnird thr .Iuhtiho Proj.lr
The attention ol' nil eili/.ens i* r«S|iirKted (¦• Sections tit) to JM), of "An Art to recu
tita proceeding! in Criminal on.io»."
It is earnestly hopyd tliul no neeouitT will «ri?«e calling for thr e*ecotii>ti «f tho«r
¦mrlllOfllj ud llml UlO gOOd M-fiA- mni iiilm rcDeeUon Of OU *M*1 tUlnni will indurr ttlmt tn n-fr»ui train i-'minUiinj; any
•¦.'In Otlonllltod tO ilc»tro.v tltO pOOOO "nil order of llio OomiiiuoUv, anil In, lirlnR tin" anthorilii^ Into OOBoM wiih «*y ponWl
nf thr IVopIr,
JNO. McDODGAL,
Goremor of f'o/i/i
¦Sun Franriitro, Augwtt SlO/A. IH&I

Proclamation by Governor John McDougal relative to the Committee of Vig-ilauee.
August 20, 1S.~)1. From the Bancroft Library.

On the Trail 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 :eo
Capt. Cartwright:
You are hereby authorized to detail a guard such as you think proper,
and arrest two Prisoners to-wit — Sam Whittaker & R. 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. Payban Chairman.
Sect'. Executive Com" of Vigilance Com'
S. Francisco Aug. 24. /ol
Agreeably to your orders above I detailed (30) Thirty men who ].ro
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 — Respy [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.07 In order to avoid any
personal conflict with Jack Hays, George Schenek 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 secretary's real
errand was to discover whether a stand of muskets kept in the

to 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 B. Gorham, as president pro tem (ibid.. 541).
"'Details of the raid in the MS Statement of Ryckman, 13; Bluxome,
13-15; Sehenck, 40-42; Farwell, 10; confirmed by the daily papers of
August 25, and by Rev. Albert Williams, Pioneer 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 tbe 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 bis holiday sports. Sud
denly at half past two as the meeting drew to its close a signal
was waved from within, transmitted by tbe observer on the hill,
and answered from without. In a twinkling tbe Vigilantes inside
pinioned Lambert and the guards, those witbout 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 1851.68 Sixty-four years later he seemed to recall
"8 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.00 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

ol) 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
C'aeBar, ' ' and won his admiration so that he regretted the necessity for the
execution. In the brief interval within headquarters the doomed man told
Ryckman 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 tbe 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 hfe
of a fellow-being, and in no ease 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 :70
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 execution71
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

™ 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, %).

On 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.72 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 lie had
addressed the previous grand jury on the occasion of Stuart's
execution.73 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.74 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
Tribunals, I, 330.
" Herald, 1851, Aug. 26 %.
'« Herald, 1851, Aug. 26 %.

304 Vigilance Committee of 1851
signed an acknowledgment of $302, given him by Isaac Bluxome,
Jr., in tbe name of the Committee.75 A few days later he pub
lished in the papers the following card :70
I have kindly to thank those gentlemen for what they have done for
me; for certainly, through their vigilance and the kind providence of
Almighty God, they succeeded in capturing the criminal for whom I have
suffered so much.

75 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, Doc. 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.1 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 by convict landlords for the accommodation
of convict guests.2 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 nanjes, 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.3
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 . Marks pleads for baste, 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.4
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.
i Papers, 306, 318, 319, 344, 410-412.

Adventures im, 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. Randall 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 !6
"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
MHa, 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 (Peekham, in San Jos6 Pioneer, 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 will 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.6
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.7 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 %).
^ 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 bis 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 delayed, witli

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.8
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.9
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,
s Papers, 233-234, 470-471, 478^79, and Index under "Jansen."
= Papers, Index under ' ' Minturn. ' ' Ryckman 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.10
It is natural that queries should arise as to tbe 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 tbe 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 eases 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. ' ni While he was never
convicted of overt crimes against the peace of the Commonwealth
of California, his house was such a rendezvous for those wdio
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.12
One of the earliest appeals made to the Committee from
without was a request from Lieutenant George II. 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
» 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.13
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.14 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 Papers, 85, 107-109, 199-200.
i* Papers, 287-289.

Adventures in Crime 317
away sailor was restored to his ship.15 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."16
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.17
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.
io Papers, 425, 608. The Herald, 1851, Nov. 18 "s, reported that Hance
was serving out his sentence in the chain gang in Carthagena.
"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.18
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.19
A curious instance, imperfectly explained by the records,
was the case of four Chinese prisoners examined on July 4.20
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
is 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.
m See eases 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.21
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 Californie, which narrated the incident, and attributed Atoy's
arrest to the efforts of the Chinese colony to suppress their
notorious country-women.22 Hol'inski wrote :
On fit entendre aux scrupuleux Chinois qu'il Stait impossible d 'oxeepter
miss Atoy de la tolerance accordee par la police de San-Francisco a mille
femrnea au moins, americaines, franchises, allemandos et espagnoles, dont
la conduite n 'est guere plus fidifiants. La dGputation, quoique disappointed
dans son but, se rotira hautement 6difi6e de l'fiquitfi du tribunal des barbarts,
qui pese dans la meme balance et avec 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 "Cliina Boys" who participated in the
memorial procession at the time of the death of President Polk (Alta, 1850,
Aug. 28 %; 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 that his father had no official rela
tion with the Chinese government.
"Holinski, La Californie, 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 --_.;
i%; Nov. 9 %; Dec. 14 % ; Reminiscences of C. P. Duane, in San Francisco
Examiner, 1881, Jan. 23 ]{). Norman As Sing was mentioned by James
O'Mera in "The Chinese in Early Days," Overland Monthly, ser. 2. Ill
(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.28
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.24
Other minor cases were investigated by the Committee, but it
is unnecessary to mention here all the people who were arrested,
as a summary of Vigilance activity will appear in a later chapter.
The courts were still carefully watched during July and
August. In one ease the Committee was particularly interested
—the trial of Charles Duane, a notorious bully and an unseru-
23 Papers, 510-517.
2* See supra, 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
Fayolle. 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.25 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.26 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.-7 He thus escaped punishment
at the hands of the Committee of 1851, although be was less
fortunate in 1856, when he was banished from California in
spite of his powerful political friends.-8
2MK», 1851, March 23 %; court reports March 25-27; June 27 -4 ;
Papers, 96.
!M!te, 1851, Sept. 10 %.
"Papers, 590.
-"'See Papers, Index under "Duane"; also Index of Popular Tribunals.
The case was frequently mentioned in the Herald and the Alta, July 22 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.29
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,"30
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:31
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 which 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., Bob. 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 Papers, 216-218. so Papers, 49.
si This letter is missing from the files, and is reprinted from Popular
Tribunals, I, 392. The lecture was advertised in the Alta, 1851, Sept. 8 %.

CHAPTEB XV
POLITICS AND REOKGANIZATION
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.1
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;2 some,
notably Stephen Payran, thought that the association should con
tinue unchanged for ' ' all time, ' 's 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.4

1 See the discussion of criminal conditions, infra, p. 388.
2 See resignation of E. M. Earl, Papers, 630.
3 Papers, 632. \* 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 was 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.6 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,6 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.7 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

s Alta, 1851, Aug. 26 %. An extract from the address is printed in the
Appendix, infra, p. 470.
6 Papers, 550-552. t 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.8 In spite of the fact that an effort had been made to
put the Democratic party on record as opposed to the Commit
tee,0 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 bim in
the office where they had found him fearless and incorruptible.10
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 following
conversation with Jack Hays, who had anticipated renomination
for the office of sheriff :11
He said to me: "Ryckman, I am mortified to death. . . It destroys
any hope I may have for a renomination, for I could not bo 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 1-100 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 ekvted
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

s Picayune, 1851, Aug. 26-Sept. 4.
'Resolutions to this effect had been published in the Herald. 1S51,
Aug. 5 %. See also Popular Tribunals. I, 322-323.
io Judge Campbell, then in private practice, also opposed the Committee
of '56, and even left San Francisco at the time for temporary residence in
the Hawaiian Islands (Shuck, Bench and Bar in California, 125).
n Ryckman, MS Statement. 16-17.

326 Vigilance Committee of 1851
a total of about 5700.12 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.13 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 tbe Democratic politicians, even the Picayune
admitted that the Independents had selected the best candidates
for indorsement.14
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.15 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.
is Papers, 706.
« Picayune, 1851, Aug. 30 %.
is 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 and 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 Committee'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.16
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.17 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

is Papers, 764, and Index under "C. of V. — Finances.'
it Papers, 177, 205-206.

Politics and Reorganization 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.18 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.10
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.2" 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.21 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.22 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

is Papers, 377.
10 Papers, 443, 447.
to Papers, 403, 440, 510.
21 Papers, 544.
-Treasurer Salmon raised nearly $1000 by outside subscriptions
(Papcr«, 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.23
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.24 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.25 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. ' '
23 Papers, 216, 290, 591, 598, 615.
25 The case was reported in the Herald, and the Alta, 1851, Aug. 17-25.
The pleadings of Lockwood were published in pamphlet form and used aa
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.26 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.27 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.28 Mr. Spence was
immediately asked to tender his resignation, but he did not

28 Papers, 155-156, 177, 210. The following preamble appeared in some
of the papers : "To the 'Vigilance Committee'
• San Francisco, July 7th, 1S51.
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 Courier, 1851, July 9 2A). The Picayune
supported the lawyer's position (July 8 %), but the Herald strongly upheld
the Committee (editorial of July 9).
"Papers, 265-267, 434.
-* 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.29 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. Relative 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. ' '30 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.31 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. 3i Papers, 204.
so Herald, 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.32 Occasional complaints were regis
tered against the character of members or against their insub
ordinate or overbearing behavior.33 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.34 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 Kxecutive
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.35 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

sa Papers, 418, 571. See also infra, p. 367.
ss See Papers. Index under "C. of V.— Relations which indicated fric
tion." M Papers, 414-417.
to Papers, 427, 462, 498-500. The resignation was signed by Payran,
Ryckman, Graham, J. B. Huie, Garwood, Schenek, 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
tliem to carry but the duties of the Committee (ibid., 153, 177); R. S.
Watson and William T. Coleman had no time to continue in the Executive
Committee (ibid., 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,36 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.37 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.38 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

se See infra, p. 355.
st Papers, 527, 577, and Index under "C. of V. — Resignations."
ss Papers, 591-598.

Politics and Reorganization 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.38 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.40 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 damd before he pays."41

so Papers, 601, 630. « Papers, 621, 627, 631.
40 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 be was accused of exercising too absolute a power.42
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.43
By the fifteenth of September disposition had been made of
every case before the Committee, and the prisoners' room at
Vigilance headquarters was empty.44 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.
^ Papers, 632-634.
« Papers, 639; Herald, 1851, Sept. 18 %.

Politics and 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 case 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 was adopted ; the Executive Committee was elected
as nominated, and the five members of the committee on re
organization were added to their number. Almost all the old
and active members were retained, Brannan and Coleman were
again included, and additions were made from the ranks of those
who had taken an active part in the work of the General Com
mittee.45

45 Papers, 642-644. The meeting was reported in tho Herald, Sept.
18%.

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.1 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.2 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."3
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.4 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.5 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

i Papers, 645-646 ; revised list of members, 652.
2 Papers, 678.
3 Papers, 650. = Alta, 1851, Sept. 17 %.
i Papers, 659-661. 8 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.7 A week after the reorganization the Committee removed to
smaller and less expensive quarters,8 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." Down tlie centre of
the room is a table containing books, an ornamental inkstand, &c. if.
At the eastern end, opposite the rostrum, the daily papers are to lie found
on file. The windows are neatly curtained; while hanging against the
wall are pictures and maps. The large banner wliich was presented tn
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 tin-
hand cuffs, chains and other paraphernalia of the Committee.
Before the month was over members of tbe 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.10 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.11 Gonzales was immediately handed over to the
authorities, and except for an obscure allusion to the "arrest of

' See Papers, 673.
8 Papers, 651.
"The mirror, found during the June fire, had been advertised without
success (Papers, Voucher no. 70). The banners are mentioned infra, pp.
371, 372.
™ Papers, 671-673; Alta, 1851, Oct. 2 =s-
" Papers, 689-692. Noted in Alta. 1851, Nov. 12 -L! ; Herald, Nov. 13 %.

340 Vigilance Committee of 1851
Handy,"12 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. 13
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.14
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."15 This

12 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. is See infra, p. 354.
" See Papers, Roll Call, Appendix C.
is 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 :16
,, . „ r, Paris, Nov. 20th, 1851.
Messrs. Marziou & Co.,
San Francisco, Gentlemen: We have today seen Mr. Reyre, Government Commis
sioner, to whom we communicated the information received from you,
relative to the action of the very honorable, the Committee of Vigilance,
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, I'd.
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 official 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 tor
Australia. Since rich plunder was known 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.17

i° Alta, 1852, Feb. 10 %j. The expedition was financed by the Society
du Lingot d'Or, which held a lottery on Nov. 16, 1851, and distributed as
prizes the passage money for 5000 emigrants. See also L£vy, Les Francois
en Californie, 72-74.
" 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
Marysville.18 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.19 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. is Papers, 676-768; Herald, 1851, Oct. 16 %, 17 %.
19 Carpenter 's letter in Oakland Transcript, 1874, March 29 %. 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."20
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.21 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 su 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, tbe office of the chainnan
being filled thereafter by the vice-presidents. G. W. Ryckman
and S. E. Woodworth.
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
to 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 Alta 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.22 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 city, 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, 11-12). 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. Schenek, 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."23 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 Schenek '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 :24
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 i'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.25 The minutes of December 17
stated that fireproof accommodations were too expensive for
the use of the Committee at that time.26 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.27
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.28 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 %.
26 Papers, 713.
27 President, S. E. Woodworth; Vice-Presidents, G. W. Ryckman, A. C.
Wakeman; Treasurer, Eugene Delessert; Recording Secretary, J. R. 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. R. Gerry, D. J. Thomas, A. M. Macy, D. S.
Turner, T. J. L. Smiley, L. W. Sloat, R. S. Lammot, A. J. Moulder (Herald,
1851, Nov. 30 %; Dee. 2 %; 8 %; Alta, Nov. 30 %; Dee. 8 %). All were
Vigilantes except Dunglison, Zantzinger, and Moulder.
28 The organization of the Mercantile Library was 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 :20
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.
Ud, — 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.
Sd, — 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.30 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.31 Although many
references show that these suits laid a heavy tax upon the

to 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 perjury, but was soon dismissed. Mme. Duclos ultimately
abandoned her case (Herald, 1851, Dec. 31 %; 1852, Jan. 1 -4; 12 -4;
13%; Lockwood, The Vigilance Committee, 47 note).
3<> Herald, and Alta, 1851, Dec. 8.
^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.32
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.33 One was referred to the
mayor of the city.34 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 Vigdantes, and
compelled to promise them money in order to save himself from
instant death.35
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 importance.36 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. 37 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.38
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.
s* Papers, 708.
35 Papers, 713-716; Alta, 1851, Dec. 18 %; 19 %; 22 ty,; Picayune,
Dec. 20 % ; Holinski, La Californie, 129.
se Papers, 680.
si 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,

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. ' '39 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 Ccelum." "lie 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 was voted to make the purchase of certificates compulsory, an
action which resulted in the sale of seventeen more during the
ensuing weeks.40
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 away 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
to Papers, 712, 722.
to See Papers, Frontispiece, and pp. 711, 734, 762. The Alta. 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
mercy of criminals. The following notice appeared in the Herald, Jan.
wi— go : "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 San-
some, to deliver the same, every day, between the hours of 12 and
2 o Vlnf»]r ~
• Per order of the Executive Committee,
Isaac Bluxome, Jk., Secy. ' '

350 Vigilance Committee of 1851
citizen to go about his business.41 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.42
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. ' '43 Not long after
it admitted that there was a slight increase of crime in the city
and state.44 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.45
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.46 A correspondent in the Alta prophesied
^ Herald, 1851, Sept. 21 %.
42 Herald, 1851, Sept 30 %; Oct. 1 %.
^ Herald, 1851, Oct. 11 %. See also Oct. 14 %; Alta, Oct. 19 %.
a Herald, 1851, Nov. 15 %; 18 %; 20 y,; 21 %; 27 %; 28%; Dec. 1 %.
*s Alta, 1851, Nov. 10 %.
« See supra, p. 290; and Alta, 1852, Jan. 21 %; 25 %; Herald, Jan. 29 %;
Feb. 18 %; 28 %; 29 %. The existing dangers 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 Closmg 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."47 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 city 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.48 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 sine die, the motion was laid on the
table.40 On February 4 the office of sergeant-at-arms was abol
ished;50 on March 13 it was voted to discontinue the salary of the
secretary.51 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.52 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. When
the new Executive Committee met for organization53 G. W.
Ryekman was elected president, S. E. Woodworth and Eugene

"Alta, 1852, Jan. 25 %.
*» 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).
"Papers, 720.
to Papers, 724.
n Papers, 733.
»» Papers, 732-735; Herald, 1852, March 17 %; 18 fj.
to 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.54
Isaac Bluxome, Jr. continued to act as secretary, in spite of a
resignation dated April 7.55 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 May it was voted to renew the volunteer patrol of the
city,56 and the following notice appeared in the Herald on several
days from May 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.57 Notices
appeared in the papers, but minutes are preserved for only one
meeting of the General Committee, on May 12, and for meetings
of the Executive Committee on May 5, May 26, and June 30.58
The room for permanent headquarters was given up in May.
™ Papers, 734-735.
ss Papers, 742.
66 Papers, 746.
si Herald, 1852, May 7 %; 12 %; Papers, 744 note.
sz Papers, 743-748.

The Closing Months 353
When 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,59 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.60 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.01 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
he 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
to Papers, 746.
0° Papers, 739.
°i 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 ! ' '62
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.63
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,64 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 Robbery. 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.
e2 Herald, 1852, Oct. 28 %.
os 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.65 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. Schenek wrote: "Once a
Committeeman, always a Committeeman, according to the by
laws."00 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.07

86 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 %.
00 F. "W. C. Gerstaeker, Narrative of a Journeu round the TVorld, 1853,
p. 253; Schenek, MS Statement, 52. "At the end it [the Committee]
adjourned, to be called together on any occasion when it might be required ' '
Ryckman, MS Statement, 20).
07 "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
tho jurisdiction of the proper authorities. They, however, maintain their
organization, and would, no doubt, act in case of emergencv" California
Illustrated [by Letts], 55).

CHAPTER 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.1
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.2 No information is
given of the accommodations provided for women prisoners, in
spite of the fact that several women were detained for brief
periods.3 Mrs. Hogan was probably in custody for a few days,
i See Papers, Index under "C. of V.— Relations with prisoners."
2 Papers, 654.
s See Papers, 420, 502, 574-575.

Problems and Methods of Administration 357
and so was Mrs. Robinson, charged with arson. On August 30
the wives of Robert 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 is.lij
have told me that both Committees ordered the food ol' the
prisoners from neighboring restaurants. The cash 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.4 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.5
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
« 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.6 George Gibson,
advising caution in a different matter, declared that he felt
"the awful character of our responsibilities."7 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.8 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 tlie public welfare,
the Committee preferred to return their prisoner to the military
authorities. The delivery to the authorities of Adams, Jimmy
o Papers, 43. The unsigned report is in "Ward's handwriting.
i Papers, 61.
s Papers, 197.

Problems and Methods 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 quality 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.9
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 who 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, was detained as a
witness, and discharged only after his feelings and reputation
were 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.10
The case of Theodore Dahlgren is another illustration of the
misfortunes of an innocent man. On tbe accusation of Mr.
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 was torn with grief
at these discreditable suspicions, and his letters were almost
ludicrous in their hysterical protests. Yet tbe intentions of his
jailers were so evidently fair, and their consideration of his case

* Papers, 328.
« 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 -}l
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.12 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.13 He was later arrested by the Vigilantes
11 Herald, 1851, July 11 %. See also Papers, Index under "Dahlgren."
12 Papers, 587-588.
is Alta, 1851, July 24 %. See also Papers, Index under ' ' Arentrue. ' '

Problems and Methods of Administration 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, wen- 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,14 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, tive 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."15 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 tbe 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 ;16 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.17
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.18 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.10 Food and
blankets were provided for those whe were unable to purchase
supplies for the voyage to Sydney.20
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
is 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).
" Papers, 84, 124, 132, 279.
is Papers, 195.
^See Papers, Index under "Receipts for effects," and supra, p. 232.
20 Papers, 338, 625.

Problems and Methods of Administration 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 guilty of such crimes, but with four exceptions
they were turned over to the authorities and given a chance to
fight for their lives in legal trials.21 Cutler said that vigilance
committees almost invariably incline to ready conviction and
severe punishments.22 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 Minutes 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.28 Some reference has been made to them in speak
ing of the financial difficulties of tbe 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, S2.5-
826. 22 Cutler, Lynch-Law, 135. 23 See Papers, 752-805.

364 Vigilance Committee of 1851
$575.58 for which items cannot be assigned.24 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.25
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 tbe 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,
amounting to $280.26 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.
2* See Papers, 764, 765, 800-805. The fragment of MeDuffee'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.

Problems and Methods of Administration 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 1S51. That table
appears in Appendix D of the Papers, but a summary will be
interesting here since it gives a valuable (due to many of the
activities of the Committee.
Classification or Expenses of the Committee op Vioii-ante
June 9 to
Sept. 17, 1851
Rent  $1,100.00
Salary: Sergeant-at-arms  484.00
Secretary 
Porter  257.00
Headquarters: Labor, equipment,
stationery, lights  1,500.00
Advertising  280.00
Water police  1,317.24
Travel and pursuit of criminals  848.25
Livery  231.00
Passage of convicts  425.00
Liquor: at headquarters  152.50
on Adirondack  40.00
Liquor or refreshments  298.00
Refreshments  132.71
Cigars  19.50
Sundry  201.75
Unitemized balance  520.58
$7,807.53

Sept. 17, 1851,

to June 17,

1*52

Total

$425.00

$1,525.00

1,097.11

300.00

2,138.11
414.84
1,914.84
62.75
342.75
125.00
1,442.24
848.25
231.00
425.00
192.50
298.00
132.71
19.50
443.70
645.45
520.5S
$2,S6S.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.27 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."28
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.29
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 $192.30 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.
an 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 $18.31 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.82 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 McDuffee 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. lie 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.33 Refreshments amounting to nearly $8710
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.
«> Papers, Vouchers nos. 14, 21, 57, 58, 111.
to Papers, 339.
83 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,34 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

si Papers, 397.

Problems and Methods of Administration 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.35
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 Market 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.36
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."'17
85 Soo donation of Flint, Peabody and Company, and tlie facsimile of a
list of subscribers, Papers, 527, 712.
"""With one single exception the entire press of this city, Sacramento,
Stockton, Marysville and Sonora have justified and sustained the citizens,
regarding their action as the result of painful, deplorable necessity" (Alta,
1851, June 16 %). The exception was the Morning Post, an unimportant
shoot, which ceased 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 Alta 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 reorgahized
committee (see infra, p. 410).
"Byekman, MS Statement, 9.

370 Vigilance Committee of 1851
This outspoken and widespread approval, coupled with the
frankness 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
writs 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."38
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 Papers, 346, 347, 426, 427. 39 Papers, 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.40 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 Vigilance.41 The representatives of
foreign nations gave the countenance of their presence on several
occasions.42 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 tbe jury that
requested from the Committee information in the case of T.
, Belcher Kay, and visited headquarters to obtain it.43
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 1856.44 It was finally given to Mr. John S. Ellis, as a souvenir
of his services in both Committees. It is now in the possession

*o Papers, 621-622.
"The attitude of Lieutenant Derby has already been noted (supra,
p. 316) ; the captain and officers of the revenue cutter Polk gave useful
information more than once (Papers, 134, 136, 203, 207, 2091, and there
were friendly relations with the officers of the sloop of war Yincenn-es (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).
"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. ** 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. 45
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 :46
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 was presented to the Committee by Messrs. Plum
and Warner (Papers, 339).
io Prom the Herald, 1851, August 12 ty,. Signed by Stephen Payran,
Eugene Delessert, F. A. Woodworth, D. S. "Turner, C. B. 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 Schenek 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."47 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

"For the citations, see Papers, 700, 373, 617, 635.

374 Vigilance Committee of 1851
sacred constitution from the machinations of a "corrupt minor
ity."48 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,49 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 whippings and brandings, conflicts with sheriffs, and
cruelty alike to innocent and guilty, had become all too common
in the state.50 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

i8 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. Comstock, 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 evils 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. Referring to the miners ' action in criminal affairs,
Bancroft' said that their courts were not wholly abrogated until after 1854
(Popular Tribunals, I, 436). See also his California. Inter Pocula, 240;
Borthwiek, Three Years, 125, 154-156; Helper, Land of Gold, 151-153.
5° 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 Administration 375
towns;51 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.52 There is
no evidence that the relation between these scattered bodies was
based on any closer bond than friendship and cooperation. At
one time a suggestion was made that the San Francisco ( om-
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.58 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.54 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

61 "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 tlie 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. 1S51.
July 1 %).
" Herald, 1851, Dec. 20 %.
58 See Papers, 281, 283, 391, 527. 5* Alta, 1850, July 19 =i.

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.55
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.56
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
with 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.57
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

ss See supra, p. 320; Papers, Index under "C. of V. of Stockton";
Popular Tribunals, I, 449-451.
se 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 Administration 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, 1858.68
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.59
The Alta 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

"See Popular Tribunals, I, 300, 454-456; History of Tuba County,
124; Alta, 1851, Nov. 14 %; 15 %; Herald, 1852, March 23 af
«°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."0 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.61
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 assistance 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

eo Papers, 392, 415.
si 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 Administration 379

to the officers of the law the only man that came before them
charged with a capital offense.62
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 :"8
Our great aim, gentlemen, is to remove corruption from high placesv
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 «o
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 nf 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 tn
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 Mokelumne Hill was typical
of the temper of the time. The settlement was a mining camp.

02 See Papers, Index under "C. of V. of Sonora"; History of Tuolumne
County [by Lang], 79-81; Heckendorn & Wilson, Miners $¦ Business Men's
Directory, 44; Popular Tribunals, I, 467-469; Sacramento Union, 1851 July
11; Herald, July 14 %; Sept. 19 %; Alta, July 2 %; Aug. 29 %; Sept. 19 %.
03 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.64 In November
another murder was committed but the people were persuaded
to leave the criminal in the hands of the sheriff at Jackson.65 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.66
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 March 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 accordingly 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
oi Alta, 1851, July 7 %. I have found no record of the execution.
65 Alta, 1851, Nov. 3 %.
oo 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.07
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.08 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 :60
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 warrants that would depreciate
the value of desirable farming land, they resolved:70 "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.71 The theft of a large
amount of gold dust led to the hasty formation of a Vigilance

ot Papers, 718, 730-732, 744-745; Popular Tribunals, I. 465-467; Borth-
wick, Three Years, 317-318; Alta, 1852, Jan. 5 ~i; Herald, March 24 %;
26%; April 4%.
«8 Papers, 676, 708-709.
60Redick McKee to C. E. Mix, Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
Oct. 28, 1851, Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 688, Doc. 4, p. 212.
™ Herald, 1853, Oct. 23 %; Placerville Herald, Oct. 29 %.
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 acording to their Judgment. A. Boles
Treka 1852 chairman of Commitee
There were popular tribunals in Southern California also
during this period,72 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
'>v the North, failed to check crime. There were many robberies and
murders and much trouble with lawless bands of Mexican
bandits.73 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 Methods of Administration 383
acting in the autumn of 1852.74 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.76 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. Mayor 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.7'''
Other Committees of Vigilance besides those already men
tioned were noted in the California papers between the years
1851 and 1856.77 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 sfrow that the Committees of Vigilance, as
organized by responsible citizens, made a sincere effort to secure
 ,v_  ._.
~i Popular Tribunals, I, 489, 492.
« Popular Tribunals, I, 493-494.
™ 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.
TT Notices may be found of Committees at Barton's Bar, 1851 (Alta.
Aug. 22 %); Natchez, 1851 (Alta, Nov. 15 73; Popular Tribunals, I, 456);
Urass Valley, 1851 (Popular Tribunals, I, 456'); Shasta, 1851 (Popular
Tribunals, I, 457; Alta, Aug. 20 %) ; Columbia, 1851 (Popidar Tribunals.
I, 469-470); Santo Cruz, 1852, 1853 (Popidar Tribunals, I, 477): Campo
Seco, 1852 (Herald, Feb. 24 ^) ; Jackson, 1852 (Alta, Mav 31 -4) : Oak
land, 1852, 1854 (Herald, 1852, Dec. 14 -:, ; 1854. Aug. 24 -;1); Nelson
Creek, 1853-1854 (Illustrated Histoni of Plumas. Lassen and Sierra Coun
ties, 214-215); Mariposa, 1854 (Popidar Tribunals, I, 467: Alta, March
18%; Herald, April 10 --i); Coulterville, 1856 (Alta, April 29 ?<iV

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 "DownieviUe lynching," a
tragedy which must form a part of any chronicle of the popular
tribunals of California.
DownieviUe was a bustling, populous mining camp, where
heavy-handed punishment was dreaded by the disorderly.78 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

's See Downie, Hunting for Gold, 145.

Problems and Methods of Administration 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.70 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 Marysville 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. With her own hands she
adjusted the rope, cried a brave "Adios, Sefiors!" and swung
lightly from the scaffold. An hour too late the sheriff arrived;
within a week DownieviUe 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,80 but we have no records of its activities.

70 The effort at rescue was told by Senator Charles N. Felton, who had
immediate 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 Downie, Hunting for
Gold, 145-153; Royce, California, 368-374; Popular Tribunals. I, 5S7 ;
Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen and Sierra Counties, 445-447. The
affair was condemned as disgraceful (Alta, 1851, July 14 -i). The news
paper index in the California State Library has the following entries under
the "Downieville Hanging": Alta, 1851, July 9 %; San Francisco Argo
naut, 1877, July 14 y,; Aug. 11 %; 1878, Sept. 28 Z[ ; Sonora Democrat.
1877, July 28 %; San Francisco Post, 1878, Aug. 10 1,',: 1S95, Sept. 21 ni;
Shuck, Bench and Bar of California, 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 DownieviUe 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.81 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.82
Tbe 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
si 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 Times 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.83
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.

88 In describing the development of popular juries in California, Hittell
said: "It was what was known at first as lynch-law and afterwards as
vigilance committee law" (California, II, 674). Colejnan said that the
Committee seized jipon the forces of a mob, arresteoTtnem, and utilized their
powers in regular form, systematically and coolly ("San Francisco Vigi-
\»ntse-^omrnittem7-*-Ce-Ktury, XLIII [1891], 148). "La Comite de Vigi
lance est le Lynch Law regularised modified ameliore" (Holinski, La Califor
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 Process- Verfahrens,
selbst ubernimmt" (Karl Buhl, Californien, 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 Alta California.1 From the first of May, 1850, to the
middle of July, 1851, a total of 3507 cases, 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
i 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.2 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.8 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
heen committed in San Francisco between 1849 and 1 *.">(;, but
he failed to give the sources of his information.4 T. II. 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.5
2 See Herald, 1852, April 26 ft; June 6 ft.; Alta, 1853, July 31 ft;
Herald, 1854, May 4 %; June 3 %; July 7 %; 1855, April 2 ft. 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 (Alta, Nov. 29 ft).
a 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
Plwenix was too scurrilous to deserve credence on any subject (see infra
p. 402), and this paragraph may or may not contain a hint of truth. The
single execution is described in Popular Tribunals, I, 135, 74ti-747.
* J. S. Hittel, San Francisco, 243. The Herald, 1854, Sept 9 ft, spoke
of 2000 murders which had taken place in the state since January, 1S49.
5 Hittell, California, III, 462. The Alta, 1856, Jan. 18 ft. quoted, with
out contradiction, a statement in the New York Express, 1S55, Dee. 12,
to the effect that in the preceding ten months there had been 4S9 murders
in California, 6 executions by sheriffs and 46 lvnchings 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 stern 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 eapitol, 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 was
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.7 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

0 1854 and 1855 were years of disastrous failures. For financial and
political conditions, see J. S. Hittell, San Francisco, 208-330; T. H. Hittell,
California, III, 423-459; Bancroft, California, VI, chaps. 23-26; VII, chap.
8; Royce, California, 377-501.
'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 ft; April 6 ft; May 3 ft.

392 Vigilance 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.9 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.10 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 ft; Sept. 10 ft; 30 ft; Oct. 2 %;
Nov. 29 %; Dec. 3 %.
1852, Alta, March 28 %; April 7 %; Herald, April 26 ft; May 29 ft;
30 %; Alta, Dec. 1ft; 10 %; 11 (from clipping).
1853, Alta, July 31 ft; Oct. 1 1^; Nov. 29 ft.
1854, Alta, Feb. 5 %, 17 % ; April 2 ft; June 4 ft; 14 ft; Aug. 6
ft; 11%; 19 %; Oct. 1ft.
1855, Herald, April 1 % ; Alta, Aug. 1 ft; Dec. 2 ty.
1856, Alta, Feb. 2 ft; April 6 %.
io 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.11 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," lie said.
"It is past! and let the dead past bury its dead. It must have
no other. Let there be Revolution or Law."12
The sentiments expressed by Judge Freelon wore by this
time gaining adherents throughout the state. The papers as a
rule discouraged, Tthe continuance of Committees of Vigilance,
and emphasized every hopeful symptom of increasing order. ( hie
pioneer of Placerville said that by tbe 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,

n Current disorders and the; need of better protection were noted in the
Herald, 1854, May 4, ft; May 23 ft. On June 2 the editor said: "The
Vigilance Committee was scarcely ever more necessary than at present.
The meetings of tho Association were held June 5, 6, 7. 9, and perhaps later
{Herald, June 6 ft; 8 ft; 10 ft; Annals 541). The following former Vigi
lantes were prominent in the movement: C. R. Bond, 0. L. Case, J. F. Curtis.
J. P. Manrow, Dr. Samuel Merritt, H. M. Naglee, John Parrot, John Perry,
Jr., A. G. Randall, Michael Reese, William Sharon, S. Tesehemacher, S. E.
Throckmorton, D. S. Turner, J. P. Van Winkle, Ferdinand Vassault, J. C.
Ward, Robert Wells, F. A. Woodworth, S. E. Woodworth, and possibly
Louis Colin [L. Cohen?] and J. C. George. A counter organization of
"Settlors" was reported in the Herald, June 16 ftj.
™ Herald, 1854, June 14 ft.

394 Vigilance Committee of 1851
rescued the suspected murderer, and escorted him to Coloma,
where he was lawfully tried and executed. Thereafter there
"was no more lynching in El Dorado County."13 It is to be
hoped that one county, at least, was so soon purged of disorder.
In other parts of California lynchings still occurred.14 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.15 In January, 1855, there were several
illegal executions in the mines, which prompted the editor of the
Alta to write:16
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 beerTso"many"

ffmes'the^wb'rse. 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:17 "The name of a Vigilance Committee should
is 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, I, 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).
is Herald, 1854, April 22 %.
i" Alta, 1855, Jan. 27 ft. Defense of that action, or a similar incident
at Michigan City, was -made in the Herald, Feb. 11 %•
17 Alta, 1855, Aug. 31 ft. Earlier reference to this lynching was made
in the Alta, Aug. 13 ft.

'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.18
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.18 Not long thereafter a murderer was lynched at
Columbia, Tuolumne County, and in editorial comment the Alta
said:20 "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."21 The press, to be sure, took
18 See Alta, 1855, Oct. 21 ft. Sunday closing, Aug. 9 ft; Nov. 1 ft.
a8See infra, p. 472.
20 Alta, 1855, Oct. 24 ft; Dec. 17 %; Popular Tribunals, I, 548-553.
" Herald, 1855, April 22 ft.

396 Vigilance Committee of 1851
pains to mention every indication of increasing tranquility,
but in spite of optimistic editorials there was constant disorder.23
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. Richardson 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.23
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 Evening 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.24
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 eity, at a late hour of the
night unarmed, is as dangerous as threading a forest infested bv a war
party of hostile Indians" (Alta, 1855, Oct. 4 ft).
23 Alta, 1855, Nov. 19 ft.
2* San Francisco Bulletin, 1855, Nov. 20 ft; 22 ft.

'51 to '77 397
jury;25 and one talesman, James Davis, was excused from jury
gervice 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.26 The decision had been
in the negative, but the Alta 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 Alta 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 ! it-
protected only at the point of a pistol.28
While Cora complacently awaited retrial thirteen other men
in San Francisco were under indictment for homicide with small
prospect for their conviction,20 and murders were so common in
the state that the attempt to record them was abandoned.30 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 Alta, 1856, Jan. 4 ft. Sam Brannan was taken into custody as a
general precaution against a public outbreak (Alta. Nov. 18 ft; 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,
Son Francisco Vigilance Committee of '56, 1883.
20 Alta, 1856, Jan. 5 ft. J. Hawes Davis was member No. 216.
"Alta, 1855, Dec. 8 ft.
2M»o, 1856, Jan. 17 ft.
'Mito, 1856, Jan. 21 ft.
80 Alta, 1856, March 30 ft. 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
si The thrilling moment of announcement was described by W. O. Ayers
in ' ' Personal Recollections of the Vigilance Committee, ' ' Overland Monthly,
ser. 2, VIII (1886), 166, and by J. D. B. Stillman in MS Vigilance Com
mittees — Miscellany, 7-8. Hittell cited Ayer's reminiscences as an authori
tative source (California, III, 482-488).

'51 to '77 399
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,82 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

82 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 Alta, 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 tlie 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 and
enlisted them by thousands under the oath of the Vigilantes
during the days to come.33
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,34 by
the adoption of the old constitution,35 by the membership cer
tificate with its significant "Reorganized," and by the silver
medal struck for the committeemen, which bears the old symbol,
83 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."
si Names of officers of 1856 are printed infra, p. 473.
85 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. "36
The work of the Committe of 1856 is another story. Bancroft
has told it in his own way in the second volume of Popular
Tribunals; 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.37 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.88 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 124, 1S56. 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 Monterey the victim of the very man who had been chief

so See frontispiece.
« Bancroft, Popular Tribunals, II; California, VI, 746-754; Tuthill,
California, 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; Tlie Vigilance Committee of 1S56 [by James
O'Meara], 1887.
ss J. S. Hittell placed the membership at 9000 out of a white male
population of 12,000 (Resources of California, ed. 1, p. 371). Bancroft
said 8000 (California, VI, 747).

402 Vigilance Committee of 1851
informer against the gang that had despoiled him six years
earlier.39 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.40 Among
them were Charles Duane, who had evaded a like fate in 1851,
and Rube Malony, who had been a committeeman in that year.41
Ned McGowan, also conspicuous upon the early black list, was
forced to take refuge in flight.42 When David S. Terry, justice
of the state supreme court, stabbed S. A. Hopkins as the latter

ss See Alta, 1856, July 25 ft; Papers, 27 note 2; Hittell, California, III,
609-615 ; Popular Tribunals, Index under ' ' Hetherington ' ' ; Vigilance Com
mittee of 1856 [by O'Meara], 31; Smith, San Francisco 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 ys).
i° 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).
i2 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 Ubiquitous. McCowan 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 Examine)-, 1893, June 4 %;
5 1ft; Chronicle, 1893, Dee. 9 ft).

'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 fate.43 G. W. Ryckman,
who refused to join the reorganized Committee, said that it even
contemplated the arrest of Broderick,44 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.45 As a factor in Cali
fornia life the Committee long survived the formal adjournment,
and Executive meetings continued as late as November, 1859.4"
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

"See Trial of David S. Terry by the Committee of Vigilance, 1856;
A. E. Wagstaff, Life of David S. Terry, 1892, pp. 97-136; also general ref
erences on the Committee.
"Ryckman, MS Statement, 19-20; The Vigilance Committee of 1856
[by O'Meara], 55-56.
« 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 somewhat lower figure. The banner
was certainly carried although Ryekman said that it was never given to
the Committee of '56 (MS Statement, 18).
*' Popular Tribunals, II, 541.
"See Hittell, California, III, 636-665; J. S. Hittell, San Francisco.
262-266; Bancroft, California, VI, 770-772; Papular 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. ' '48
Charges have been made that the Committee of 1856 gave
evidence of a sentiment that favored the political independence
of the Pacific Coast.49 If that were so the spirit of secession was
effectively 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, Political 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.
*8 Royce, "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 Stockton, 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).
*» See references supra, p. 102 note 36; Popular Tribunals, II, 371;
Royce, 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.50 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 by the People's Party, was the strategic center of the
whole campaign and polled nearly one fifth of tlie 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- Pa ei tic 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
80 See infra, note in Bibliography on Archives of the Committee of
Vigilance. M 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 3,17S
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, Report, 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.52 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.53
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."54 The San Francisco Committee of 1856 did not attempt to
establish any coordinated branches in the interior towns.55 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. R. 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.
5* 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.50 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.57 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.58
There was a notable reunion of the San Francisco Vigilante
personnel in 1-877, 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-
50 1 have not attempted extended research regarding later Committees
of Vigilance, but have verified the following references in the Sacraim-nto
Union (Record Union after Sept. 1, 1875).
1860, Sept. 20 ty, Protective League of Altaville, Angel's Camp, and
vicinity; 1863, No. 26 %, and 1870, Dec. 21 ft, V. C. in Los Angeles (see
also Popular Tribunals, I, 507, 511-512; Newmark, Sixty Years in South-
em California, 204-210, 324, 420) ; 1873, Nov. 10 % and Nov. 13 i,,.
V. C. in Gilroy; 1873, Dec. 12 % and Dec. 19 %, V. C. in Visalia (see also
Popular Tribunals, I, 470-474) ; 1880, July 8 2f. and 1884, March 27 *.'.,
V. C. at Merced; 1882, Jan. 9 y8, rumor of a V. C. in Sonora; 1SS2. Oct. 2
%, V. C. in Yreka; 1884, Oct. 25 %, V. C. in Lundy; 1887, Sept. 5 i4.
V. C. in Jackson; 1888, Aug. 16 %, and 1889, July 13 %, rumors of a V. C.
in Fresno. 87 Popular Tribunals, I, 463-465. So far as I have ascertained, there
was no execution by "601," but one of their own members was accidentally
shot in a raid on armed rowdies. The Committee was unsuccessful in quell
ing disturbances, according to the Sacramento Union, 1874. Deo. 16, ~: 19
Vt- It was condemned by the grand jury of Nevada County (ibid.. IS 75,
Feb. 11 %). The same paper alluded to renewed activities at Truckee in
the issue of 1876, Jan. 7 %; at Grass Valley (1885, March 30 #), and
again at Truckee (1889, Aug. 17 %).
88 Statistics in Cutler, Lynch-Law, 184.

408 Vigilance Committee of 1851
diary attacks against the coolie laundrymen 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

59 See San Francisco papers, 1877, July 24 et seq.; Popular Tribunals,
II, 696 et seq.; Bancroft, Chronicles of the Builders, I, 349-379; Hittell,
California, IV, 594-599; Coleman, "San Francisco Vigilance Committees,"
Century, XLIII (1891), 145-148; Bryce, American Commonwealth, 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 always be interpreted in accordance with the shifting
interests of successive generations and the personal vision of
successive historians.
The contemporary discussions that arose in 1S51 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 Tribunals.1 Where
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 necessary 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

i Popular Tribunals, I, 402-426. Bancroft quoted less freely from the
objectors, who 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.2 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.3
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.4
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. ' '5 But opponents
with higher standards should not be vilified or ignored. Peter
Burnett viewed the movement as ' ' incipient rebellion and a fatal
precedent."6 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 %).
* Judges and Criminals . . . History of the Vigilance Com/mittee 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 Problem 411
class of citizens, but he admitted, nevertheless, that San Fran
cisco conditions were improved by their efforts.7 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.8
The early historian, B. 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 in California.10 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 Califomians
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.'

» See Marryat, Mountains and Molehills, 227, 238, 390.
8 John Currey, Incidents in California, 1878, p. 16, MS in the Bancroft
Library. 'E. S. Capron, History of California, 1854, pp. 131, 161.
™Pioture of Pioneer Times, by William Grey [W. F. White], 108-114.
The facts presented by this author are far from accurate.
u I. J. Wistar, Autobiography, 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. ' '12
Some of the keenest criticisms on Californian conditions dur
ing the exciting period from 1851 to 1856 were written 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.13 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, Thirty 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 %).
" See Farnham, California In-doors and Out, 96, 318, 458-508.

Lynch Law as a National Problem 413
law-abiding citizens.14 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 :15
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 du — ¦
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
clefence 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. Horthwick
said:10 "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."

"Helper, Land of Gold, 237-253. See also Harlan, California, 211.
18 Delano, Life on the Plains and among the Diggings, 363-365.
"Borthwiek, 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.17
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.18 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.19 Ernest Frignet, giving another second
ary report, eulogized both Committees as instruments that served
the ultimate establishment of public order.20
"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 "very 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."21 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."22
The later historians, Bancroft and Hittell, were staunch
advocates of both Committees. Even Josiah Royce, who found
" Ernest Seyd, California and Its Resources, 1858, pp. 23-24.
is Saint-Amant, Voyages, 138, 408-411.
is> Auger, Voyage en California, 209-219.
20 Frignet, La Californie, 177-179, 196-202.
nAlta, 1852, April 7 %
22 Gerstacker, Narrative of a Journey round the World, 253-255. See
also commendation of Frank Lecouvreur, From East Prussia to the Golden
Gate, 1906, pp. 183-193; Carl Meyer, Nach dem Sacramento, 1855, pp.
188-192. > > w

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."23
But it is fruitless to multiply the repetition of opinions either
for or against the Committee of Vigilance of San Francisco,24
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.
Por California did not present a unique and isolated example
of defective social adjustment ; while the state was emerging from

"Royce, California, 407, 465.
24 A few further references may be given. Cornelius Cole, who had little
sympathy with lynch law, acknowledged that the San Francisco Committee
of '56 contributed largely towards 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 >ew-
raark (SUty Years in Southern California. 141). H. K. Norton approved
its results (Storu of California. 254-257), as did Henry Robinson, ( pio
neer Days of California," Overland Montlily. VIII [1872]. 4.n-4e'_).

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. 25
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.26
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 Advance into the Inland Empire. To one
25 See W. A. Eawles, Centralizing Tendencies in the Administration of
Indiana, 1903, pp. 308-309.
2« 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-^1, 68-75; IV (1907),
93-97. See also B. F. Gue, History of Iowa, 1903, I, 337-350 ; and supra,
p. 74 note 23. '

Lynch Law as a National Problem 417
who approaches that volume after a detailed study of California
problems, it is very interesting to read :27
But whatever elements of population prevailed in one or the other
place, there was one everywhere present, everywhere respected, every
where vital — the Californian. To Fraser River, 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.28 As had been the case in California, this
simple and voluntary association was effective in safeguardim:
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 lsii!' and 1 s'i3
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 tbe 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.
Mlbid., 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
wdlderness 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 :29
Of all the organizations for the irregular administration of justice
that have marked the westward advance of American civilization,
whether known as Moderators, Regulators, Vigilantes, or what not, the
Vigilance Committee of Montana will be found to have been the most
complete, most efficient, 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 Imw 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.30 A later chief justice, Theodore Brantley, in reviewing the
judicial history of Montana, wrote of the Committee of Vigi
lance :S1
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 own
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," ibid., 200-234.
"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;
HI (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.32 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,33 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, Fry'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, ' ' Annals 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.
ss Alexandre Barde, Histoire des ComiUs de Vigilance aux Attakapas,
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 National Problem 421
One receives from the pages of Barde 's Histoire des Comites
de Vigilance 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 tribunals 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 Gomite, 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."34 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 co*ntrol 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.35
34 Barde, Histoire des ComitSs de Vigilance, 56.
as See Cutler, Lynch-Law, 119-124; G. P. Garrison, Texas, 1903, 274-275;
D. H. Hardy and I. S. Roberts, Historical Review of South-East Texas, 1910,
I, 172-176, 385; J. F. Rippy, "Border Troubles along the Rio Grande,"
Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XXIII (1919), 103-104.

Lynch Law as a 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.30 In tha,t 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 tin-
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.37
The end is not yet, for the records of every year of the
twentieth century are stained with mob lynebings which for a
moment horrify the entire country and are then quickly for
gotten.38

so See J. C. Lester, and D. L. Wilson, Eu EIuj- Elan, 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). si 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 (Lynch-Lau: 184-185).
as 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 1 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 lynching, 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.39 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."40 Similar assertions are often
repeated by both English and American writers,41 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.
"As by William Roberts, "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
Relative Proportion of Murders, Lyrichings and Other Felonies, and Why
the Anglo-Saxon Countries Not under the American Flag Have the Least
Proportion of Murders and Felonies, and Know No Lynchings," Am-erican
Law Review, LI (1917), 239-248, especially p. 243.

Lynch Law cts a National 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 1*51
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 ta.sk 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 territory, 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.''2
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 1S52 spoke
of lynch law as "rampant" in the Victoria gold fields.43 and
Bancroft said that a Vigilance Committee was contemplated in

42 See Rolf Bolderwood, ' ' Genesis of Gold-Fields Law in Australia. ' '
CornhUl Magasinc, 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.
"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 1853.44 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.45
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."40
Trimble's final contrast of the two systems was exceedingly
interesting. He said :47

** Popular Tribunals, I, 19.
u> As Edward Dowling, Australia and America in 1892, 1893, p. 58.
*8 Trimble, Mining Advance, 154.
I n Ibid., 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 which have incited the people of the United States to

Lynch Law as a National Problem 427
Reviewing 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 Review, 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.1 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-
i See references supra, % ; and Herbert Croly, Promise of American Life,
1909, pp. 317-324.

In Retrospect 429
cations are practically unknown.2 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.3 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 way under the strain
of conditions that suddenly become intolerable.4
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.
• 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 ; Roscoe
Pound, Bibliography of Procedural Reform. 1917. Sec especially W. H.
Taft, "Administration of Criminal Law," Yale Line Review. XV (1905 i,
1-17; Moorfield Story, Reform of Legal Procedure. 1911; W. L. Ransom,
"The Organization of the Courts for the Better Administration of .Jus-
tice," Cornell Law Quarterly, II (1917), 186-201, 261-282; "Report of
Committee on Criminal Procedure," Journal of Criminal Law. Ill (1912),
566-591; Julius Go'ebel, Jr., "Prevalence of Crime in the United States,
and Its Extent Compared with That in the Leading European States, ' ' ibid..
Ill (1913), 754-769; H. E. Willis, "How Shall the People of the United
States Reform Their Legal Procedure so as to Make It an Instrument of
Justice?" ibid., VI (1915), 533-543; Roscoe Pound, "Causes of Dissatis
faction with the Administration of Justice," American Bar Association,
Report, 1906, I, 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 tlie state upon conditions, implied if not expressed, that the
state will protect them and punish those who do them injury. What if the
state doesn't do it?" (American Law Review, XLIII [1909], 455^66).
See also Butler, as cited, ibid., XLIV (1910), 200-220; Walter Clark, "True
Remedy 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.5
In California in 1849 and 1850 the strain to which the fabric
of American life is always liable was raised to the Nth 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 type 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

b 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 tin-
state was not equipped with any machinery whatever that could
restrain their eccentricities or correct their mistakes.0 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
^"Republicanism, here, may be literally said to have run mad. so
ridiculously incapable is it of exercising control over the masses" (Pringle
8ham, Ramblings 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."7
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.
They 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 wen-
tolerated by the community because of the general desire for
effective protection, and the general recognition of the good
sense and sincerity of the Vigilantes.8
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 Un
judicial department of San Francisco by the action of the Com
mittee and the assent of the community. The object now attained
hy the process of recall was then effected hy 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 Cordian
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 .-on-
ducted an independent and effective campaign at the local
election.

s "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 :9

9Forster, as cited, American Law Review, 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.10 But it is equally time that

10 An interesting article by George Kennan entitled ' ' A Russian Experi
ment in Self -Government, ' ' seems to invoke the very specters of the V igi-
lantes in an account of the "Amur California," in a Xo Mans 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, officials

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
forty-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 significance 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 tbe
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 meri_jn 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 Committ<-i- 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 Regiment, 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 1S78 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 Booh 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 R. 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
Alta 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 (Alta California, 1858, November 7 %;
8%; 11 %; 1877, Aug. 27 y6 ; 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 born 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 which
has a place in the Bancroft collections (Swasey, Early Days, 242-245 ; Alta,
1864, April 13 14 ; 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 In 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, Ists, but
the author's career as a miner was quickly terminated by illness. Ho was
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 soriety of u. quiet,
scholarly man whose family was already in the city. He was a K< publican
member of the state assembly in 1857. Obituary, Alta, 1875, Jan. 3 %.
83 [79]. Jesse Seligman, was senior member of a firm of importers,
and subsequently established a banking house (Colville's Directory. 1S56;
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," Alta, 1865, March 30, p. 1).
107 [105]. Henry F. Tesehemacher 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 Days, 270; Alta, 1863, July 2 %;
obituary, San Francisco Chronicle, 1904, Nov. 29 1%).
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 Franeisco. 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. 1SH7),
136 [135]. Alfred L. Tubbs was a member of tho 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; Schenek. 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 officer (Bancroft, California. Ill, 792).
157 [155]. Charles Minturn arrived in San Francisco in October, ls!9.
He engaged in the commission business, was an alderman in 1S50, and acted
as agent for Sacramento steamers. An attempt to rob his office has been
described on page 312 (Annals, 273; Kimball's Directory, 1S50).
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 Republican 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 York 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 committee 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, California and Its Gold Regions, 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 Riflemen, but was stationed in San Francisco during

Biographical Notes 4A1
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 1S37.
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 waB a pioneer of 1849. He was elected
to the Executive Committee towards the close of activities in 1852, and
renewed his connection with the association in 1856. He served as chief
of the united San Francisco engine companies in 1852 and Is.":: (Papular
Tribunals, II, 474; Annals, 618; Alta, 1853, Sept. 14 %; Oct. 16 yy, obit
uary, Alta, 1864, March 19-21; sketches, Argonaut, 1877, June 23 'v. 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 with his brother
an important foundry of their own. He aided in organizing the fir-t fire
company, was a Republican member of the assembly in 1857, 1858, and
1863, and was an officer of the Howard Street Presbyterian Church (Phelps,
Contemporary Biography, II, 274-275).
243. E. V. Joice arrived in January, 1849 and was 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 foUowing 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, Representative Men, 479-493, portrait; San Francisco Call,
1890, Sept. 8 %).
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
Republican politician, served several terms in the state senate and assembly,
was a candidate for the nomination for governor in 1861, ran for that
office, 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
wealth, 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 Days, 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 influential
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 (Parker's Directory,
1852). 349. Samuel Fleishhacker had already placed his family name ou 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 1866.
403. William M. Lent arrived in April, 1849. He was it 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. Richard 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 (Colville's 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 born 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,
TV, 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 %).
509. Henry Wetherbee arrived in November, 1849, and in later years
became one of the best known lumber manufacturers on the Coast.
530. Robert 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 jubilant 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

Biographical Notes 451
Smiley prompt in action, but talkative and excitable. Hia 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 Republican politician, (Popular Tribunals, II, 129-130 •
obituary, Alta, 1873, May 4 yi; 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 offices
in subsequent years, and was long a successful leader of the Democratic
party. He died April 27, 1889 (Bancroft, California, VI, 657 note; Uoham,
Notes, 497-500).
588. Beverley C. Sanders was a "Territorial Pioneer" of 1N50 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 Russian- 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 bee mi ing
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 Republican 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 was connected with the San
Francisco police, became chief of the force, and left a fine record for
efficiency. 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 %; 1871, Jan. 13 14 ; 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 Horne 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 R. 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, California, 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 California, 1851,
Feb. 23, %. See supra, p. 172.)
The Popular Trial op Windred and Berdue, San Francisco,
February 22, 1851
Described by William T. Coleman
I said, "We don't want a mob; we will 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,
aud 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 Vigilance CommMt&e 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 Appendix 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
with 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 from 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 with contumely; our respectable citizens are sup
planted by wholesale hordes of refuse from Sydney and other countries,
who find how easily in California they can resume their old trades of rob
bery, plunder and incendiarism, and soon this golden country will be known
only as the rendezvous for pirates by land and water.
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 tut moi]
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 town 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: tlie sick and infirm we 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 will assure his life and property, and the
guilty being executed on the spot will prevent our prisons from filling, con
sequently tlie prisoners from escaping.
(See supra, p. 184.)

456 Vigilance Comrmitt&e of 1851
Propositions for Public Safety
Extract from Alta California, 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 well 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. Justice
(Written by R. 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 lawyers? 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 punish nent,
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 — net 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 Oqranization of the Committee of Vigilance Described by the
Members
Statement of James Neall, Jr.
On Sunday [June 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 tilings, 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. Wo there found Mr. Brannan and his clerk, and sat down 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 N. 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, with 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
WHEREAS 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 aware 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 fire 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.
EESOLVED, 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 reshippe.l 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 whieh
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 whieh 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. Ryckman, 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, whieh 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 ol 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 Robespierre, or a Fouch6, 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 tn
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.)

Reward for Incendiaries
REWARD WILL BE PAID BY THE
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.

$5,000

¦>L COMITADO DE VIGILANCIA ha dccidido, 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 dicho Comitado.
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.
lER SICHERHEITS COMITE in seiner sitzung von
gestera abend beschlossen fuer die auslieferung
eines Brandstifters die summe von fuenf tausend dollars
zu bezalilen.
(Reproduced exactly as printed in the California Courier, June 26, 1851.
9 supra, p. 245.)

E1

L1

DE

462 Vigilance Committee 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 Sydney 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 our 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
will 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 confidence
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 Vigilance Committee 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
eounsel 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 the 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

Documentary Appendix 465
made to interfere with 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
or 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.
(Alta California, July 13, 1851. See supra, p. 272.)

Extract from Editorial Comment on Judge Campbell's charge
California Courier, July 14, 1851
No such committee could exist in any form in this city, if the whole
body of the community did not consider that necessity and policy d. -manded
it. The committee is composed of peace loving and orderly citizens — many
of them are elders, deacons and conspicuous memUirs of the Church. Tln-y
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 show 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, unwhippe.1 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 whieh our attention has been directed by
the presiding Judge, in his able charge, whieh 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 improper 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 sacrifice 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
witnesses. George Endicott, Foreman.
Kingsbury Root* J. D. Farwell* C. L. Tuffs*
F. A. Ball* William M. Hogg* E. Tichenor
Jno. McCurdy C. L. Ross Harvey Dickinson-
Francis P anton W. B. Peake* B. C. Hokx
D. A. Shepard Beverly C. Saunders [Sanders*] \V. 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, 1S51
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
Berious apprehensions are entertained of collision between the constituted

468 Vigilance Committee 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 saered
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 worst 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, we 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, with more efficient provisions,
attaching adequate penalties to the commission of offenses, 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 corpus can be enforced. And further,
says not. >r
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 Robert 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,
1851. 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 Robert
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-Partisan 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 whieh 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, 8. 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, au emblem
of their strength that defies the storms and tempests that howl 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
On 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
what 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 whieh 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 gratitude.
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 whieh 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 Report 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 state 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 who were members of
these committees or who countenanced their existence, will 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 Clerk, 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. Farwell*, W. H.
Tillinghast*, Lorenzo Hubbard, J. M. Taylor*, T. J. L. Smiley*, A. W.
Bell, D. S. Turner*.
Secretary, Isaac Bluxome, Jr.*; Assistant Secretary, Charles Ludlow.
Treasurer, James Dows* ; Assistant Treasurer, William Mover*.
Grand Marshal, Charles Doane.
Sergeant-at-arms, Jerome Rice.
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*, R. B. Cole, J. 8.
Emery, N. O. Arrington, L. Bossange, Charles Doane, J. K. Osgood, R. M.
Jessup*, J. H. Fish, M. J. Burke, C. L. Case*, F. W. Page, [G] E. Grisar',
C. J. Dempster, J. D. Farwell*, O. B. Crary, W. H. Tillinghast*, William
Arrington, E. P. Flint, W. T. Reynolds*, Eugene Delessert*, N. P. Hutch-
ings, J. W. Brittan, W. H. Rogers, M. F. Truett, C. V. Gillespie*. Isaac
Bluxome, Jr.*, H. S. Brown*, E. B. Goddard, E. Gorham*, G. R 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 Committee of 1851

CLASSIFIED LIST OF MATEKIAL
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 1S60, and every student
of the period must constantly refer to the excellent Bibliography compiled
by Mr. Robert 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. Robert E. Cowan, San Francisco.
Collection of Mr. Charles B. Turrill, San Francisco.
Collection of Mr. Henry R. Wagner, Berkeley, California.

Bibliography 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 Reminiscences, 1861 to date
Manuscript Rominiscences 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 Publications .... Relating 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. (Reports 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. (Reports 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. Doe. 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. Doe. 59. (T. B. King, Report 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, 1n53.)
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 42 Cong., 2 Sess., Sen. Rep't. 41, pts. 1-13. (Ku Klux Klan.)
1975 46 Cong., 3 Sess., House Ex. Doc. 47, pt. 4. (Thomas Donaldson,
The Public Domain, ISM).
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. 60S. (J. T. Hughes, Doniphan's
Expedition; reprint of the edition copyrighted in 1847.)
Congressional Globe, 29-30 Cong. (1846-1S49).
Miscellaneous Federal Documents
United States. Statutes at Large. Boston and Washington, 1S50.
United States. Presidents. A Compilation of tlie Messages and Papers of
the Presidents, 1789-1897. By James D. Richardson. Washington,
1899. 10 vols. (Also published as Cong. Does., Ser. No. 3265. pts.
1-10, 1896-1899.) Cited as Richardson, Messages.
United States. War Department. Reports on the Laic of Ciril 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, Reports.

478 Vigilance Committee of 1851

CALIFORNIANA
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, I, 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 Works, 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, Robert 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 . ..." in his Bibliotheca Californiae. A De
scriptive Catalogue of Books 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 Reference 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 Report of Historical Landmarks Committee of the
Native Daughters [of the] Golden West [San Francisco, 1902], 39-68.
Macdonald, Augustin S. List of Books, 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]. Bibliografa 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 References on the History of the West.
Revised ed. Cambridge, 1913.
United States. War Department Library. Index of Publications, Articles,
and Maps Relating 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 tlie 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-December 23, 1848. See supra, p. 94 note 17.
Oakland 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, 1S51. Continued as Sacramento
Record Union, after September 1, 1875.

480 Vigilance Committee of 1851
San Francisco.* California Star. Established January 9, 1847. Continued
as California Star and Californian, 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.
Stockton Journal. June (?), 1850-June (?), 1854.
Sydney (N. S. W.) Morning Herald. Issues from July to December, 1851,
cheeked 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.
Grizzly 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, 191% .... 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. v-~^-

Bibliography 481
California State Documents
California Archives. Archives of California, "Unbound 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. Report of the Debates in the
Convention of California, on the Formation of the State Constitution,
in September and October, 1849. By J. Ross 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 foy,
Guide.
California. Penal Code, 1872.
California Blue Book or State Roster, 1907. Sacramento, no date.
California Legislature. Journals, 1849-1850; 1851; 185.'!.
California Supreme Court. Reports. First, 1850-1851; annotated ed. of
1906 cited. (Ed. 2, 1872, lacks the Appendix.) Second, 1852; ed.
of 1854 cited. Third, 1852-1853; ed. of 1868 cited. Fifth, 1S55;
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, 1S50.
(See Coy, Guide, 609.)
Placerville. Archives of the County Clerk. Alcalde's Docket, 1849-1S50.
(See Coy, Guide, 158.)
San Francisco.* Archives of the Recorder. General Index. Blotter B.
The Laws of the Town of San irancisco. San Francisco, 1S47. S 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
Record 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 Laws .... Published by order of the Board of
Supervisors. San Francisco, 1860.
Reports of the Alcalde, Comptroller and 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 Revised Ordinances; the General
Repealing Ordinances ; the Ordinances Still in Force, and Certain
Laws Relating Particularly to ... . San Francisco. San Fran
cisco, G. K. Fitch, 1852. 261 pp.
Excellent maps. Valuable compilation of ordinances, 1850-1852.
San Francisco Municipal Reports. 1862-63. San Francisco, 1863.
San Francisco officials, 1834-1863, pp. 284-297.
San Jose. Archives of the City Clerk.
Tuolumne County. Archives of the County Clerk. Grand Jury Reports,
1855-1871. (See Coy, Guide, 576.)

Local Histories and Directories
Colusa County. Colusa County  San Francisco. Elliott & Moore,
1880.
Rogers, 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 Sketch  San Fran
cisco, 1856.
Nevada County. Brown and Dallison 's Nevada, Grass Valley and Rough and
Ready Directory, for the Year Commending 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 Georet- 17
Wright.] Oakland, Thompson & West, 1880.
History of Sacramento County [edited by George F. Wright]. Oakland,
Thompson & West, 1880.
Royce, 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] Augustus], and Patten, Bfenjamin]
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 1845-1S50. San Francisco
[1886].
Committees of Vigilance, see infra, San Francisco Committee of
Vigilance.

484 Vigilance Committee of 1851
Dwinelle, 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 by That City. San Fran
cisco, 1863. Citations from ed. 3, San Francisco, 1866, whieh eon-
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. Roll Book.
1861. 67 pp. Also 62 muster rolls. MSS in the Bancroft Library.
Jones, William Carey. The "Pueblo 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—17.
Limantour, Jos6 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 Com\mission\ 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.] Sketches 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, Rev. 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, 1S50.
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, 1S5S.
San Francisco, 1852.
Le Count $• Strong's San Francisco City Directory for the Year 1854.
 San Francisco, 1854.
Colville, Samuel. Colville's San Francisco Directory. Volume I. For
the Year commencing October, 1856  San Francisco, ls.56.
San Joaquin County. History of San Joaquin County .... [by F. T.
Gilbert]. Oakland, Thompson & West, 1879.
San Jose. Hall, Frederic. The History of San Jos6 and Surroundings.
.... San Francisco, 1871.
Stockton. Tinkham, George H[enry]. A History of Stockton. . . . In
cluding a Sketch of San Joaquin County. . . . San Francisco, 18S0.
Tuolumne County. Heckendorn & Wilson. Miners <)"• Business Men 's
Directory. For the Year Commencing January 1st, 1856. Embracing
a General Directory of the Citi-c.ns 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 Clipper
Office, 1856. 104 pp.
Very rare. California State Library; Bancroft Library (copy
imperfect).
[Lang, Herbert 0.] A History of Tuolumne County. Compiled
from the Most Authentic Records. San Francisco. 1SS2.

486 Vigilance Committee of 1851
Yuba County. History of Yuba 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, ltdouard. Voyage en Californie (1852-1853). Paris, 1854.
Bates, Mrs. D. B. Incidents on Land and Water, or Four Years on the
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 ihe 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 

Bibliography 487
Capron, Eflisha] S. History of California .... with a Journal of the
Voyage from New York . ... to San Francisco, and Back 
Boston, 1854.
Carson, J[ames] H. Early Recollections 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 Republican. 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.
Rare. California State Library.
Coke, Henry J[ohn]. A Ride over the Rocky 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. Tho English Catalogue notes
an edition of 1851.
Colton, Rev. 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, Aflonzo]. 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-Bool;
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 Californie dans les derniers mois de 1849," Revue
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 Wfoodson (Burhans)]. California, In-doors 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, California, 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., Friedrich. Wilhelm Christian]. Gerstdcker's
Travels  Translated from the German. London, 1854. Cali
fornia State Library.
Gerstacker, Friedrich [Wilhelm Christian]. Gold! Ein Calif ornisches Leb-
ensbild. Jena, no date. Various editions. That cited is from the
California State Library.
Gerstacker, Friedrich [Wilhelm Christian]. Narrative of a Journey round
the World  New York, 1853.
California State Library.
Golden Dreams and Leaden Realities, see Payson, George.
Grabowski, Stanislaus. Die Regulator en von San Francisco  Berlin,
no date. 2 vols.
California State Library.
Listed in Heinsius, Allegemeines deutsches Biicher-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 be still in force and adapted to the present condition of Cali
fornia; with an Introduction and Notes, by J. Halleck, Attorney at
Law, and W. E. P. Hartnell, Government Translator. San Francisco,
1849. 26 pp.
Very rare (see Cowan, Bibliography, 231-232). Huntington Library.
Reprinted 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 Californie 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 ainericain," 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  Cincinnati, [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 Inliabitants.
.... London, 1856. 2 vols.
Johnson, Theodore Tfaylor], Sights in the Gold Region, and Scenes by the
Way. New York, 1849. Citations from ed. 3, with title: California
and Oregon; or, Sights in the Gold Region, and Scenes by the Way.
Philadelphia, 1851.
Jones, William Carey. Report on the Subject of Land Titles in California.
.... Washington, 1851. (Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 589, Doc IS. 136
PP-)
Printed in part as Land Titles in California, Washington, 1850. 60 pp.
Kelly, William. An Excursion to California  With n Stroll through
the Diggings and Ranches of That Country. London, ls.'l. 2 vols.
A Stroll through the Diggings was published separately. London, ls.52.
King, Thomas Butler. California: the Wonder of the Age. New-
York, 1850. 34 pp. Reprint of his Report on California. (Cong.
Docs., Ser. No. 577, Doc. 59).
Kingsley, Nelson. Diary of Nelson Kingsley, a California Argonaut of IS 19.
Edited by Frederick J. Teggart. Berkeley, 1914. (Academy of
Pacific Coast History, Publications, III, no. 3.)
[Kip, Leonard.] The Volcano Diggings, a Talc of California Law. By a
Member of the Bar. New York, 1851.
Not very interesting, but a reflection of local conditions. Huntington
Library.
Lambertie, Chfarles] de. Voyage pittoresque en Californie 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-Bool; 1S4S-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., 1S52.
McNeil, Samuel. McNeil's Travels in 1S49. to, through and from the Gold
Regions, in California. Columbus, 1850.

490 Vigila/nce 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. Nach 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].
Sensational fiction, with Belcher Kay as one of the characters. Hunt
ington Library.
Notes on California and the Placers, see Delavan, James.
Nye, B. H. "Extracts from Letters of a Nantucket Forty-niner, ' ' History
Teachers' Magazine, VI, 210-211 (September, 1915).
Palmer, J[ohn] W[illiamson], M.D. The New and the Old; or, California
and India in Romantic Aspects  New York, 1859.
[Payson, George.] Golden Dreams and Leaden Realities. By Ralph Raven.
.... 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.
Reid, Samuel C[hester], Jr. The Scouting Expeditions of McCulloch's Texas
Rangers .... and Sketches of ... . Hays, McCulloch, and Walker.
Philadelphia, 1847.
Robinson, Fayette. California and Its Gold Regions  New York,
1849.
[Ryan, R. 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. Serapbook in the Bancroft Library.
Ryan, William Redmond. 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 Californie et dans I 'Oregon.
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 Californie 1850-
1851, Paris, 1851.
Seyd, Ernest. California and Its Resources  London, 1858.

Bibliography 491
Shaw, Pringle. Ramblings in California .... the Five Years' Experience
of a Gold Digger. Toronto [ca. I860].
Shaw, William. Golden Dreams and Waking Realities  London, 1851.
Shirley, pseudonym, see Clappe, Mrs. L. A. K.
Simpson, Henry I. Emigrant's Guide to the Gold Mines. Three Weeks 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, Rev. William. California Life Illustrated. . . . New York, 1858.
Turnbull, Tfhomas]. T. Turnbull's Travels from the United States across
the Plains to California [1852]. Madison, 1914. Reprinted from the
Wisconsin State Historical Society, Proceedings, 191S, pp. 151-225.
Separate no. 158.
Tyson, James L[awrence], M.D. Diary of a Physician in California 
New York, 1850.
Tyson, Philip Tfhomas]. Geology and Industrial Resources of California.
.... Baltimore, 1851. Reprinted, with introduction and appendix
from Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 558, Doc. 47.
The Volcano Diggings; a Tale of California Law, see Kip, Leonard.
Weston, S[ilas]. Life in the Mountains; or Four Months in the Mines of
California. Providence [R. I.], 1854. 34 pp.
Ed. 2, revised, has title: Four Montlis in the Mines 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 Californie, 113; Royce, 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, 184?. Philadelphia, 1844.
5 vols., and Atlas.
Wilson, R. A. "The Alcalde System of California," in First California
Reports (1852), 559-582. Omitted from the edition of 1872.
Woods, Rev. Daniel B. Sixteen Months at the Gold Diggings. New York,
1851.

492 Vigilance Committee of 1851
General Histories, Biographies, and Reminiscences, 1861-date
manuscript references of pioneers in" the bancroft library
Clark, Hiram C. Statement of Historical Facts in California] from 1851
to 1865. 1878. 12 pp.
Crosby, Eflisha] O. Statement of Events in California]. 1878. 132 pp.
Currey, John. Incidents in California. 1878. 16 pp.
Dally, Henry I. Narrative of His Life and Events in California] since
1843. 1878. 95 pp.
Garniss, James R. Early Days 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.
Roach, Philip A. Statement of Historical Facts on California. 1878.
16 pp.
Sayward, Capt. Wfilliam] T. Statement. Pioneer Reminiscences. [1877?]
34 pp.
Sutter, John Augustus. Personal Reminiscences. 1876. 206 pp.
For MS Reminiscences of Vigilantes see infra, p. 502.

PRINTED WORKS
Abbott, Carlisle S. Recollections of a California Pioneer. New York, 1917.
Archer, Lawrence. "Oration," in Society of California Pioneers,
Twenty-seventh Anniversary (San Francisco, 1877), 7-16.
Bancroft, Hubert Howe. California Inter Pocula. San Francisco, 1888.
(Works, XXXV.)
Bancroft, Hubert Howe. Chronicles of the Builders of the Commonwealth.
San Francisco, 1891-1892. 7 vols, and Index.
Bancroft, Hubert Howe. History of California. San Francisco, 1884-1890.
7 vols. (Works, XVIII-XXIV).
Barker, Eugene C. "California as the Cause of the Mexican War,"
Texas Review, II, 213-221 (January, 1917).
Bell, Horace. Reminiscences of a Ranger; or, Early Times in Southern
California. Los Angeles, 1881.

Bibliography 493
Birkhimer, William E. Military Government and Martial Law. Ed. 3, re
vised. Kansas City, 1914 [copyrighted 1892].
[Black, Chauncey Forward, and Smith, Samuel B., editors.] -Some Ac
count of the Work of Stephen J. Field  With an Introductory
Sketch by John Norton Pomeroy. [New York?], 1881.
Blackmar, Frank W[ilson]. Spanish Institutions of the Southwest. Balti
more, 1891. (Johns Hopkins University, Studies in Historical and
Political Science. Extra Vol. X.)
Bolton, Herbert Efugene]. "The Admission of California," University
of California, Chronicle, XV, 554-556 (October, 1913).
Bosqui, Edward. Memoirs. [San Francisco, 1904.]
Privately printed and very rare. (See Cowan, Bibliography, 22.)
Brace, Charles Loring. The New West : or, Californie! in 1867-1868. New-
York, 1869.
Browne, J[ohh] Ross, and Taylor, James W. Reports upon the Mineral
Resources of the United Slates [for 1866]. Washington, 1867.
Browne's report covered the area west of the Rocky Mountains. It
was also published as Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 12H9, Doc 29. Taylor's,
on the area to the east, appeared as Ser. No. 1293, Doc. 92.
Burnett, Peter H[ardeman]. Recollections and Opinions of an Old Pioneer.
.... New York, 1880.
Carr, John. Pioneer Days in California  Eureka, Cal., 1891.
Clark, Francis D. The First Regiment of New York Volunteers. Com
manded by Col. Jonathan D. Stevenson in the Mexican War 
New York, 1882. Cover title: Stevenson's Regiment in California,
1847-8.
Cleland, Robert Glass. The Early Sentiment for the Annexation of Cali
fornia  Austin, [1915]. Reprinted from the Southwestern
Historical Quarterly, XVIII (July-October, 1914).
Cole, Cornelius. Memoirs of Cornelius Cole, Ex-Senator of the United States
from California. New York, 1908.
Coman, Katharine. Economic Beginnings of the Far West. . . New
York, 1912. 2 vols.
Coy, Owen C. Guide, see California Historical Survey Commission, supra,
p. 481.
Davis, Horace. "The Home Guard of 1861," in Panama-Pacific Historical
Congress, The Pacific Ocean in History (New York, 1917), 363-372.

494 VigiloAice Committee of 1851
Davis, John F. Historical Sketch of the Mining Law in California. Los
Angeles, 1902. 83 pp. Reprinted from O. T. Shuck, History of the
Bench and Bar of California, 1901.
Davis, William Heath. Sixty Years in California  San Francisco,
1889.
Davis, Winfield J. History of Political Conventions in California, 1849-
1892. Sacramento, 1893. (California State Library, Publications,
no. 1.)
Degroot [De Groot], Henry. "Six Months in '49," Overland Monthly,
XIV, 316-329 (April, 1872).
Dellenbaugh, Frederick S[amuel]. Fremont and '49  New York,
1914.
Downie, William. Hunting for Gold  San Francisco, 1893.
Dunbar, Edward E. The Romance of the Age; or, The Discovery of Gold in
California. New York, 1867.
Duniway, Clyde A. "Slavery in California after 1848," American His
torical Association, Annual Report, 1905, I, 243-248.
Earle, John Jewett. "Sentiment of the People of California with Re
spect to the Civil War," American Historical Association, Annual
Report, 1907, I, 123-135.
Eldridge, Zoeth Skinner, editor. History of California. New York [copy
righted 1915], 5 vols.
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.
Fankhauser, William C[harles]. A Financial History of California: Public
Revenues, Debts, and Expenditures. Berkeley, 1913. (University
of California, Publications 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 Jfohnson]. Personal Reminiscences of Early Days in Cali
fornia  No place, [copyrighted 1880]. Citation from enlarged
ed. [Washington, 1893].

Bibliography 495
Fitch, George Hamlin. "How California Came into the Union," Century
Magazine, XL, 775-792 (September, 1890).
Fremont, John Charles. Memoirs of My Life  Vol. 1. Chicago,
1887. No more published.
Frignet, Ernest. La Californie. Histoire, organization politique et adminis
trative, legislation, description physique et geologique  Paris,
1866.
An admirable study of local conditions. Lorenz, Catalogue general,
cites an edition of 1865. Ed. 2 was published in 1867.
Goodwin, Cardinal. Establishment of State Government in California,
1846-1850. New York, 1914.
Grey, William, pseudonym, see White, William Francis.
Guinn, Jfames] Mfiller]. History of the State of California and Biograph
ical Record of Sacramento Valley  Chicago, 1906.
One of a series of local histories with identical general introductions.
Harlan, Jacob Wright. California '46 to '88. San Francisco, ]ss.s.
Haskins, C. W. The Argonauts of California. . . New York, 1890.
Lists some 35,000 names.
Hershiser, Beulah. "The Influence of Nevada on the National Mining
Legislation of 1866," Nevada Historical Society, Third Biennial
Report, 1911-1912, pp. 127-167.
Hittell, John Sfhertzer]. The Resources of California  San Fran
cisco, 1863. Ed. 6, rewritten, San Francisco, 1874.
Hittell, Theodore H[enry], compiler. General Laws of the State of Cali
fornia, from 1850 to 1864. San Francisco, 1865. 2 vols. Citations
from ed. 2. San Francisco, 1870.
Hittell, Theodore H[enry]. History of California. San Francisco, 1S85-
1897. 4 vols.
Hull, Dorothy. "The Movement in Oregon for the Establishment of a
Pacific Coast Republic," Oregon Historical Society, Quarterly. XVII,
177-200 (September, 1916).
Hunt, Rockwell Dennis. Genesis of California's First Constitution (1846-
49). Baltimore, 1895. (Johns Hopkins University, Studies in His
torical and Political Science, XIII, no. 8.)
Hunt, Rockwell Dennis. "Legal Status of California, 1846-49," Ameri
can Academy of Political and Social Science, Annals, XII, 3S7-40S
(November, 1898).

496 Vigilance Committee of 1851
[Ide, Simeon.] Biographical Sketch of ... . William B. Ide: with ....
Account of One of the Largest Emigrating Companies .... and ....
' ' The Virtual Conquest of California, in June, 1846, by the Bear Flag
Party . . . ." [Claremont, N. H., 1880].
A part of this material was published separately as Who Conquered
California? .... Claremont [1880]. See Cowan, Bibliography, 118.
Irvine, Leigh H[adley], editor. History of the New California; Its Re
sources and People. New York, 1905. 2 vols.
Jones, William Carey. "First Phase of the Conquest of California,"
California Historical Society, Papers, I, pt. I (1887), 61-94.
Kelsey, Rayner Wickersham. The United States Consulate in California.
Berkeley, 1910. (Academy of Pacific Coast History, Publications,
I, no. 5.)
Kennedy, Elijah R[obinson]. The Contest for California in 1861 
Boston, 1912.
Klein, Julius. The Making of the Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo 
The James Bryee Historical Prize Essay for 1905. Berkeley, 1905.
Reprinted from the University of California, Chronicle, VII, no. 4.
Knower, Daniel. The Adventures of a Forty-niner  Albany, 1894.
Cover title: The Days of the Forty-niners.
Landis, Jacob B. ' ' Life and Work of General John A. Sutter, ' ' Lancaster
County [Pennsylvania] Historical Society, Papers, XVII (1913),
279-300.
Leeouvreur, Frank [i.e., Theodor Maximilian Ferdinand Franz]. From
East Prussia to the Golden Gate  Edited .... by Mrs. Jose
phine Rosana Leeouvreur  New York, 1906.
Levy, Daniel. Les Frangais en Californie. San Francisco, 1884.
Lippitt, Francis J. ' ' The California Boundary Question in 1849, ' ' Century
Magazine, XL, 794-795 (September, 1890).
Lynch, James. With Stevenson to California, 1846. No place [1896].
Lynch, Jeremiah. A Senator of the Fifties: David C. Broderick, of Cali
fornia. San Francisco, 1911.
McCall, A. J. The Great California Trail in 1849. Bath [New York],
1882. California State Library.
McCall, A. J. Pick and Pan. Trip to the Diggings in 1849  Bath
[New York], 1883.
California State Library.

Bibliography 497
McElroy, Robert McNutt. The Winning of the Far West .... 1820-1867
New York, 1914.
M.-Kinstry, Eflisha] W. "Oration," in Society of California Pioneers,
Twenty-first Anniversary (San Francisco, 1871), 5-19.
McMurray, Orrin K. "Beginnings of the Community Propertv System
in California  " California Law Review, III, 359-380 (Julv
1915).
Magoon, Charles E. Reports, see United States War Department supra
p. 477.
Mains, John P., compiler. Annual Statistician. 1879 San Francisco
[1879].
Merwin, Henry Childs. The Life of Bret Harte, with Some Account of the
California Pioneers. Boston, 1911.
Naglee, Henry M[orris]. The Lore Life of Brig. Gen. Henry M. Naglee.
Consisting of a Correspondence on Lore, War and Politics. [San
Fracisco], 1867.
This uninteresting volume, copyrighted by Mary L. S.hell, was a
woman's revenge for an alleged breach of promise of marriage.
Newmark, Harris. Sixty Years in Southern California, 1S53-1:>13. . .
Edited by Maurice H. Newmark [and] Marco R. Newmark. New
York, 1916.
Norton, Henry K[ittre.lge]. The Story of < alifornia from the Earliest
Days to the Present. Chicago, 1913.
Norton, Lfewis] Afdelbert]. Life and Adventures of Col. L. A. Norton.
.... Oakland, 1887.
O'Connor, R. C. "David Colbert Broderick,'' American Irish Historical
Society, Journal, XIII (1914], 132-162.
O'Meara, James. Broderick and Gwin. . S:in Francisco, ls^l.
O'Meara, James. "A Chapter of California History," Overland Monthly,
ser. 2, XIV, 625-630 (December, 1889 7
Panama-Pacific Historical Congress. The Pacific Ocean in History. . .
Edited by H. Morse Stephens . . [and] Herbert E. Bolton.
New York, 1917.
Parsons, George Frederic. Life and Adventures of James W. Marshall, the
Discoverer of Gold in California. Sacramento, 1870.
Patterson, Lawson B. Twelve Years in the Mines of California 
Cambridge [Mass.], 1S62.

498 Vigilomce Committee of 1851
Peckham, R[obert] F. Eventful Life. Scrapbook in the Bancroft Library.
Extracts from the San Jos6 Pioneer, June 9-August 4, 1877.
Perez Rosales, Vicente. Recuerdos 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.
Revere, Joseph Wfarren]. 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 Rfollin]. Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta  Ed.
3, enlarged. San Francisco, 1871. 81 pp.
Rives, George Lockhart. The United States and Mexico, 1821-1848 
New York, 1913. 2 vols.
Roberts, Bfrigham] 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 Conquest 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. Race Questions, Provincialism, and Other American Prob
lems. New York, 1908.

Bibliography 499
Royce, Josiah. ¦"Squatter Riot," see supra, p. 483.
Scanland, J. M. " Joaquin Murrieta; California Fra Diavolo, ' ' Overland
Monthly, ser. 2, XXVI, 530-539 (December, 1895).
Shafter, Oscar Lovell. Life Diary and Letters .... 1864, to ... . 1868.
Edited .... by Flora Haines Loughead  San Francisco,
1915.
Shaw, D[avid] Afugustus]. Eldorado; or, California as Seen by a Pioneer,
1850-1900. Los Angeles, 1900.
Sherman, William T[ecumseh]. Memoirs  New York, 1875. 2 vols.
Shinn, Charles Howard. Land Laws of Mining Districts. Baltimore, 1884.
(Johns Hopkins University, Studies in Historical and Political
Science, II, no. 12.)
Shinn, Charles Howard. Mining Camps: A Study in American Frontier
Government. New York, 1885.
Shinn, Charles Howard. "Some California Documents," Maga:ine of
American History, XXV, 394-402 (May, 1891).
Shuck, Oscar T[ully]. Bench and Bar in California  San Francisco,
1888. Citations from enlarged ed., San Francisco, 1889.
Shuck, Oscar T[ully], editor. History of the Bench and Bar of California.
.... Los Angeles, 1901.
Entirely different from his Bench and Bar in California.
Shuck, Oscar T[ully], editor. Representative and Leading Men of the
Pacific  San Francisco, 1870.
[Shuck, Oscar Tully, editor.] Sketches of Leading and Representative Men
of San Francisco. London, New York and San Francisco, 1875.
A continuation of his Representative .... Men of the Pacific, pp. 703-
1082.
Smith, Justin H[arvey]. The War with Mexico. New York, 1919. 2 vols.
Street, Charles R. "Crossing the Plains in '49," in Associated Pioneers
of the Territorial Days of California, Sixteenth Annual Meeting and
Dinner  (New York, 1891), 20-24.
Swasey, Wfilliam] F. Early Days and Men of California. Oakland, 1891.
Thomas, David Yancey. A History of Military Government in Newly
Acquired Territory of the United States. New York, 1904. (Co
lumbia University, Studies in History, Economies and Public Law,
XX, no. 2.)
Tinkham, George H[enry]. California Men and Events .... 1769-1890.
Stockton, 1915.
Very inaccurate.

500 Vigilance Committee of 1851
Tuthill, Franklin. History of California. San Francisco, ' 1866.
Tyler, Daniel. A Concise History of the Mormon Battalion in the Mexican
War  [Salt Lake City], 1881.
Upham,- Samuel C. Notes of a Voyage to California  Philadelphia,
1878. Cover title: Scenes in El Dorado in the Years 1849— '50.
Wagstaff, Alexander], E., compiler and editor. Life of David S. Terry.
.... San Francisco, 1892.
Waite, E. G. "Pioneer Mining in California," Century Magazine, XLII,
127-141 (May, 1891).
Wakeman, Edgar. The Log of an Ancient Mariner. .... Written by
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.
Wheeler, Alfred. "Oration," in Society of California Pioneers, Thirty-
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, Rev. Samuel Hfopkins]. 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, Rev. Samuel H[opkins]. "Recollections of General Halleck as
Secretary of State in Monterey, 1847-9," Overland Monthly, IX,
9-17 (July, 1872).
Willey, Rev. Sfamuel] H[opkins]. Thirty Years in California .... 1849
to 1879. San Francisco, 1879.
Wistar, Isaac Jones. Autobiography, 1827-1905. Philadelphia, 1914. 2
vols.
Printed for private distribution. University of California Library.
Woods, Rev. James. Recollections of Pioneer Work in California 
San Francisco, 1878.
Woods, Sfamuel] 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. .Richard 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 Rights, in Cali
fornia, under the Mining Law of Congress, of July, 1866. San Fran
cisco, 1867.
Young, John P. Journalism in California. . . . San Francisco [1915].

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. Book of Names, Kept by tlie 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, Publicaticms, II, no. 2.)
Minutes and Miscellaneous Papers. Printed as Papers. III. Edited by
Mary Floyd Williams. Berkeley, 1919. 905 pp. (Academy of
Pacific Coast 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 I, ls.51,
to October 17, 1852. Roll Call of the Executive Committee, Sep-
tember 17, 1851, to March 13, 1852. Miscellaneous Minutes, Re
ports, Evidence, and Confessions. Financial Accounts and Vouchers.
Unprinted: Book of Fines of the Srrgeaul.-at-.trins. Petty Cn.sli Hnol, 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 with 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 Sim 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 Record 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 McGowan, some
communications on ballot box stuffing, fragments of muster rolls, 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 1S56 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 Vigilance 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 Francisco. 8 pp.
(1856 only.)
Farwell, James D. Vigilance Committees in San Francisco. 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.)
Ryekman, Gerritt W. Statement. Vigilance Committee. [1877?] 20 pp.
(Chiefly 1851.)
Schenek, 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 Francisco.
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. Burns, 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 Recollections 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 Califomians 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, Rev. 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 %. 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 Review, XI, 78-88 (July, 1881).
Cary, Thomas Gfreaves]. "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 "B," First Regiment Infantry.
N.G.C., 1854-1896. San Francisco, 1895. Cowan collection.
Material relating to the Committee of 1856 is given, pp. 224-228.
Coleman, William T[ell]. "San Francisco Vigilance Committees. By
the Chairman of the Committees of 1851[f], 1S56, and 1S77,"
Century Magazine, XLIII, 133-150 (November, 1891).
See also his reminiscences in San Francisco Call, 1884, April 14 14.3.

* 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 Vigilance of San Fran
cisco. San Francisco, 1856. 8 pp. Huntington Library. Also in
Hutchings' California Magazine, I, 15-16, 38-41 (July, 1856).
Drury, P. Sheldon. The Startling and Thrilling Narrative of the Dark and
Terrible Deeds of Henry Madison, and His Associate and Accomplice,
Miss Ellen Stevens, Who Was Executed by the Vigilance Committee
of San Francisco, on the 20th September Last. Cincinnati, [1857].
No such execution took place. Collection of R. E. Cowan (see his
Bibliography, 73).
Estell, Gen. James M. Speech .... Delivered in the House of Represent
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 Rev. M. Evans, at the Funeral
Obsequies of James King of William, in Grass Valley, Cal., May 22,
1856. "Fiat Justitia Ruat 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, Tfimothy] Dwight. Sermon Suggested by the Execution of Jenkins
in the Pla:a by "the People" of San Francisco during the Night of
the 10th of June, 1851. San Franciscb, 1851. 26 pp.

Bibliography 505
Judges and Criminals: Shadows of the Past. History of the Vigilance Com
mittee of San Francisco. Cal. With the Names of its Oificers. San
Francisco, 185s. mo pp.
Ascribed to Henry M. Gray (see Cowan, Bibliography, 124 1. 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,"
Ortrland Monthly, ser. 2, Xi, 275-283 (March, 1-^s).
The Committee of lv56. By a son of James King of William. See
also his contribution to Irvine, HUtoni of the Ntw California I
83-101.
King, Joseph L. "The Vigilance Committee of '56," Overland Monthly,
ser. 2, LXVIII, 5H9-520 (December, 1916 1.
By a son of James King of William.
Lockwood, R[ufus] A. The Vigilance Committ, e of San Francisco, Metcalf
vs. Argmti et al. Speeches of R. .1. Lockwood. Esq. S.-in Fran, Uco.
1852. 48 pp. Ed. 1. 1851, see supra, p. 330 note 25.
McGowan. Edward. V« rraf i r<- . . . Including a Full Ae.-ount of th.
Author's Adventures and Perils, while P, rsicut.il by the San Francisco
Vigilance Cummittte of 1856. San Francisco, ls.">7.
"Edward McGowan 's AUmteuor. " in Cerman, appears in Wentzel J-
Hitcf iter's San Francisco Kalender, 1S77, pp. 1-25.
[O'Meara. James.] The Vigilance Committee of lS.it.i. By a Rionitr Cali
fornia Journalist. San Francisco, l^s7. 57 pp.
The cover title is dated 1*90. Opposed to the Committee. S, . a No
his contribution to Irvine. History of the Xew California. I. H>2-199.
O'Meara, James. "Admiral Farragut, " San Francisco Chr, ouch. 1*M.
July 10 %{..,.
Reports a conference with a committee from the C. of V. of 1V>6.
Paul, Almarin B. "The Vigilance Committee of '56," Overland M ¦ ithly,
ser. 2. XXIV, 433-441; 529-542: 622-634 (October-December, WI).
The Phoenix. A weekly anti-Vigilante sheet, published by Edward Mc
Gowan in Sacramento. August 30, 1857, to February 14, lv~8. ir>
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, 185,8.
Pierce, Franklin. Message. August 6, 1856. 30 pp. \Cong. Does.. Ser.
No. 824, Doc. 101.)
With correspondence relating to the ' ' self-styled Vigilance Committee
in California. ' '

506 Vigilance Committee of 1851
Rivors, — . A Full and Authentic Recount of the Murder of James King
of Wm., Dr. Randall, Dr. Baldwin, West and Marion. The Execution
of James P. Casey, Charles Cora, Philander Brace, and Joseph Hether
ington, by 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 Remedy 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 Tfeeumseh]. "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
'56, with Some Interesting Sketches of Events Succeeding 1846. San
Francisco, 1883. 83 pp.
Friendly to the Committees of 1851 and 1856.
Soul§, Gihon and Nisbet, "The Vigilance Committee," in their Annals of
San Francisco, (San Francisco, 1855), pp. 562-687.
Texas Legislature. Resolution 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. Does., 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. Report . ... 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 50^
Wheeler, C. B. Speech Delivered at the Sophomore Prize Debate of the
Brothers in Unity of Yale College, January 14, 1857. . . . Was tlie
Formation of the San Francisco Vigilance Committee Jutifiable?
8 pp. Collection of H. R. 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.
Relates to the Committee of Vigilance. Collection of R. E. Cowan. See
alBO entry under Carroll, W., p. 503.
Willey, Rev. Sfamuel] 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. Reply of James C. Zabriskie to a Committee of Citizens
of Sacramento, in Reference to the Vigilance Committt ¦#¦ and Democ
racy. Sacramento, 1856. 8 pp.
Collection of H. R. 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 by 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
Attakapas. Saint-Jean-Baptiste (La,), 1861.
Griffin, H. L. " The Vigilance Committees of the Attakapas Country
. . . ." Mississippi Valley Historical Association, Proceedings, VIII
(1914-1915), 146-159. A review of Barde.
Montana and Vicinity. Dimsdale, Thomas J. The Vigilantes of Montana,
or Popular Justice in the Rocky Mountains  Virginia City, 1866.
Ed. 3; Butte, 1915.
Langford, Nathaniel Pitt. Vigilante Days and Ways; the Pioneers of
the Rockies. Boston, 1890. 2 vols. New ed. Chicago, 1912. 1 vol.
Montana Historical Society. Contributions, 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 WORKS
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 MeKendree. 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. 1883-18-ss 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, XY-XVI.)
Bancroft, Hubert Howe. History of Oregon. San Francisco, 1sm;-18sS
2 vols. (Works, XXIX-XXX.)
Bancroft, Hubert Howe. Literary Industries. San Francisco, j>90. (Works
XXX IX.)
Banta, David D. "The Criminal Code of the Northwest Territory,'
Indiana Magazine of History, IX, 234-236 (December, 1913).
Bassett, John S. "The Regulators of North Carolina (1765-1771),'
American Historical Association, Annual Report, 1894, pp. 141-21:
[Benton, Thomas Hart.] Thirty Years' View. Xew York, ls5t ls56
2 vols.
Black, Paul Walton. "Attempted Lynehings in Iowa," Annals of Iona
ser. 3, XI, 260-285 (January, 1914).
Black, Paul Walton. "Lynehings in Iowa," Iowa Journal of History and
Politics. X, 151-254 (April, 1912).
Bolderwood, Rolf. "Genesis of Uold-Fields Law in Australia," t <"„hill
Magazine, new ser., Ill, 612-623 (November, 1NH7).
Bolton, Herbert Eugene. "The Obligation of Nevada Toward the Writing
of Her Own History," Nevada Historical Society, Third Biennial
Report, 1911-19 U, pp. 62-79.
Borgeaud, Charles. The Rise of Modern Democracy in Old and New England.
Translated by Mrs. Birkbeck Hill, with a Preface by C. H. Firth.
London, 1894.
Browning, Coliu Arrott, M.D. England's Exiles; or. A View of a System
of Instruction and Discipline, as Carried into Effect during the Voy
age to the Penal Colonies of Australia. London, 1842.
Bryce, James. The American Commonwealth. New York, 1914. 2 vols.
(Ed. 1, 1888.)
Buchanan, James. Works .... Collected and edited by John Bassett
Moore. Philadelphia, 1908-1911. 12 vols.
Burgess, John W[illiam]. The Middle Period. 1817-1S5S. New York. 1897.
(The American History Series, IV.)
Butler, Charles C. "Lynching," American Law Review, XLIV. 2O.1-220
(March-April, 1910).
Chapman, Charles Edward. History of Spain. . . . New York, 1918.

510 Vigilance Committee of 1851
\ Clark, Walter. "True Remedy for Lynch Law," American Law Review,
XXVIII, 801-807 (November-December, 1894).
Cleveland, Frederick A[lbert]. Organized Democracy ; an Introduction to
the Study of American Politics. New York, 1913. (American Citizen
Series.)
Collins, Edward D. ' ' Committees of Correspondence of the American
Revolution, ' ' American Historical Association, Annual Report, 1901,
I, 245-271.
"County Government," American Academy of Political and Social Science,
Annals, XLVII (May, 1913. Whole no. 136).
' ' Criminal Procedure. Report of Committee E, ' ' Journal of the American
Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology, III, 566-591 (November,
1912).
Croly, Herbert [David]. Promise of American Life. New York, 1909.
Cutler, James Elbert. Lynch-Law : an Investigation into the History of
Lynching in the United States. New York, 1905.
The Cyclopedia of American Government. Edited by Andrew C. McLaughlin
and Albert Bushnell Hart. New York, 1914. 3 vols.
Donaldson, Thomas [Corwin]. The Public Domain. Its History, with
Statistics  Washington, 1881. (U. S. Public Land Commission,
1879-1880. Cong. Docs., Ser. No. 1975, Doc. 47, pt. 4.)
Devens, Richard M[iller]. Our First Century  Springfield, 1876.
Citations from edition of 1880.
Dowling, Edward. Australia and America in 1892: a Contrast. Sydney,
1893.
Published by authority of the New South Wales Commissioners for
the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893.
Duruy, Victor. History of Greece  Translated and edited by M. M.
Ripley  With an Introduction by J. P. Mahaffy  Boston,
1890. 4 vols, in 8.
Esarey, Logan. History of Indiana  Indianapolis, 1915-1918. 2 vols.
Esarey, Logan. "The Pioneer Aristocracy," Indiana Magazine of History,
XIII, 270-287 (September, 1917).
Fairlie, John Afrchibald]. Local Government in Counties, Towns and
Villages. New York, 1906. (The American State Series.)
Foote, Henry Stuart. Texas and the Texans  Philadelphia, 1841.
2 vols.

Bibliography 511
Forster, Henry A. "Do Our Laws Protect Criminals? Why the United
States Leads the World in the Relative Proportion of Murders
Lynehings and Other Felonies, and Why the Anglo-Saxon Countries
Not under the American Flag Have the Least Proportion of Murders
and Felonies, and Know No Lynehings," American Law Review, LI,
239-248 (November, 1917).
French, George Edgar. "The Coeur d'Alene Riots, 1892," Overland
Monthly, ser. 2, XXVI, 32-40 (December, 1895).
Fry, F. Fry's Traveler's Guide and Descriptive Journal of the Great North
western Territories  Cincinnati, 1865.
Garrison, George P[ierce]. Texas; a Contest of Civilizations. Boston, 1903.
(American Commonwealths.)
Garrison, George Pierce. Westward Extension, 1841-1850. New York, 1906.
(The American Nation, XVII.)
Gilbertson, H[enry] Sftimson]. The County, the "Dark Continent" of
American Politics. New York, 1917.
Goebel, Julius, Jr. "Prevalence of Crime in the United States and Its
Extent Compared with That in the Leading European States,"
Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology,
III, 754-769 (January, 1913).
Goodnow, Frank J[ohnson]. Politics and Administration; a Study in Gov
ernment. New York, 1900.
Gray, Wfilliam] H[enry]. History of Oregon, 1792-1849  Portland,
1870.'
Gue, Benjamin F. History of Iowa From the Earliest Times To the Begin
ning of the Twentieth Century. New York [1903]. 4 vols.
Halleck, H[enry] W[ager]. International Law. New York, 1861.
Hardy, Dermot H., and Roberts, Ingham S., editors. Historical Review of
South-East Texas  Chicago, 1910. 2 vols.
Hart, Albert Bushnell. "Growth of American Theories of Popular Gov
ernment," American Political Science Review, I, 531-560 (August,
1907).
Hart, Albert Bushnell. National Ideals Historically Traced. 1607-1907.
New York, 1907. (The American Nation, XXVI.)
Haydon, Afrthur] Lfincoln]. Tlie Trooper Police of Australia 
London, 1911.
Haywood, Marshall DeLancey. Governor William Tryon, and His Adminis
tration in the Province of North Carolina, 1765-1771  Raleigh,
1903.

512 Vigilance Committee of 1851
Henderson, Archibald. "The Origin of the Regulation in North Caro
lina," American Historical Review, XXI, 320-332 (January, 1916).
Henderson, Archibald. Richard Henderson: the Authorship of the Cumber
land Compact and the Founding of Nashville. [Nashville?], 1916.
Reprinted from the Tennessee Historical Magazine, II, 155-174
(September, 1916).
Hill, Robert Tudor. The Public Domain and Democracy  New York,
1910. (Columbia University, Studies in History, Economics and
Public Law, XXXVIII, no. 1.)
Hoist, Hermann [Eduard] von. Constitutional and Political History of the
United States  Chicago, 1876-1892. 8 vols.
Howard, George Eflliott]. Introduction to the Local Constitutional History
of the United States. Vol. I. Baltimore, 1889. (Johns Hopkins
University, Studies in Historical and Political Science, extra Vol. IV.)
No more published.
Hulbert, Archer Butler. "Richard Henderson: the Founder of Transyl
vania," The Chatauquan, XXXVIII, 366-371 (December, 1903).
Hunt, Agnes. The Provincial Commitees of Safety of the American Revo
lution. [Cleveland], 1904.
Huxley, Henrietta. ' ' Gold Diggings at Bathurst in 1851, ' ' Nineteenth
Century, XLV, 962-972 (June, 1899).
Johnson, Allen. ' ' Genesis of Popular Soverignty, ' ' Iowa Journal of His
tory and Politics, III, 3-19 (January, 1905).
Johnson, Allen. Stephen A. Douglas. New York, 1908.
Johnson, Brigham. "Frontier Life in Iowa in the Forties," Magazine
of History, XVIII, 23-28 (January, 1914).
Kales, Albert Mfartin]. Unpopular Government in the United States.
Chicago [copyrighted 1914].
Kennan, George. "A Russian Experiment in Self -Government, " Atlantic
Monthly, LXXX, 494-507 (October, 1897).
Kipling, Rudyard. "With the Night Mail," in his Actions and Reactions
(New York, 1909), 117-171.
Lavisse, Ernest, and Ranibaud, Alfred. ¦Histoire gene rale du IV siecle d
nos jours. Paris, 1893-1901. 12 vols.
Lawson, John Davison. "Technicalities in Procedure, Civil and Crim
inal," Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and
Criminology, I, 63-85 (May, 1910).
Leake, James Miller. The Virginia Committee System and the American
Revolution. Baltimore, 1917. (Johns Hopkins University, Studies in
Historical and Political Science, XXXV, no. 1.)

Bibliography 513
Lester, J[ohn] C, and Wilson, D. L. The Ku Klux Klan  With
Introduction and Notes by Walter L. Fleming. New York, 1905.
A smaller ed. was published at Nashville, 1884.
Lieber, Francis. On Civil Liberty and Self -Government. Philadelphia, 1853.
Citations from ed. 3, Philadelphia, 1891.
Lindley, Curtis H[olbrook]. Treatise em the American Law Relating to
Mines and Mineral Lands within the Public Land  Ed. 3. San
Brancisco, 1914. 3 vols.
Lobingier, Charles Sumner. The People's Law .... a Study in the Evo
lution of Democracy and Direct Legislation. . . . With an Intro
duction by George Elliott Howard. New York, 1909.
Lowell, Afbbott] Lawrence. Public Opinion and Popular Government.
New York, 1913.
Lyman, Horace S[umner], and others. History of Oregon. . New-
York, 1903. 4 vols.
"The Lynch-Law Tree," Green Bag, IV, 561-562 (December, 1892;.
McConnel, J[ohn] Lfudlum]. Western Characteristics. . New York,
1853. California State Library.
McCrady, Edward. History of South Carolina under Ihe Royal Government,
1719-1776. New York, 1899.
McLaughlin, Andrew C. "Social Compact and Constitutional Construc
tion," American Historical Review, V, 467-490 (April, 1900 i.
McMaster, John Bach. History of the People of the United States from
the Revolution to the Civil War. New York, 1883-1913. s vols.
Macy, Jesse. Institutional Beginnings in a Western State [Iowa]. Balti
more, 1884. (John Hopkins University, Studies in Historical and
Social Science, II, no. 7.)
Magoon, Charles Efdward]. Reports, see United States. War Depart
ment, supra, p. 477.
Maine, Sir Henry Sumner. Dissertations on Early Law and Custom. . . .
New York, 1886.
Marquett, T. M. "The Effect of Early Legislation upon the Courts of
Nebraska," Nebraska State Historical Society, Proceedings and
Collections, ser. 2, I (1S94-1895), 103-118.
Marshall, Thomas Maitland, editor. Early Records of Gilpin County. Colo
rado, 1859-1861. Boulder, 1920. (University of Colorado, Collec
tions, II. Mining Series I.)
Marshall, Thomas Maitland. ' ' The Miners ' Laws of Colorado, ' ' American
Historical Review, XXV, 426-439 (April, 1920).

514 Vigilance Committee of 1851
Mathews, John Mabry. Principles of American State Administration. New
York, 1917.
Mathews, Lois Kimball. "The Mayflower Compact and Its Descendants,"
Mississippi Valley Historical Association, Proceedings, VI (1912-
1913), 79-106.
Meigs, William Montgomery]. Life of Thomas Hart Benton. Phila
delphia, 1904.
Merriam, Cfharles] Edward. A History of American Political Theories.
New York, 1903.
Merriman, Roger Bigelow. Rise of the Spanish Empire in the Old World
and the New. New York, 1918. Vols. 1-2.
Munro, William Bennett, editor. The Initiative, Referendum and Recall.
New York, 1912. (National Municipal League Series.)
Munson, Lyman E. "Pioneer Life in Montana," Montana Historical
Society, Contributions, V (1904), 200-234.
New Mexico Supreme Court. Reports. First, 1852-1879. Chicago, 1911.
North Carolina (Colony). The Colonial Records of North Carolina. Pub
lished .... by order of the General Assembly; collected and edited
by William L. Saunders, Secretary of State. Raleigh, 1886-1890.
10 vols. Indexed in the Index to the Colonial and State Records,
compiled by Stephen B. Weeks. Charlotte, 1909-1914. 4 vols.
Northcott, Clarence Hfunter], Australian Social Development. New York,
1918. (Columbia University, Studies in History, Economics and Pub
lic Law. LXXXI, no. 2. Whole no. 189.)
Oregon Archives .... from the Earliest Attempt on the Part of the People
to Form a Government, down to, and Inclusive of the Session of tlie
Territorial Legislature, held in ... . 1849  By La Fayette
Grover, Commissioner. Salem, 1853.
Huntington Library.
Osgood, Herbert L. "The Political Ideas of the Puritans," Political
Science Quarterly, VI, 1-28 (March, 1891).
Paetow, Louis John. Guide to the Study of Medieval History. Berkeley,
1917.
Parker, James E. -"Pioneer Protection from Horse Thieves," Annals of
Iowa, ser. 3, VI, 59-62 (April, 1903).
Paxson, Frederic Logan. The Last American Frontier. New York, 1910.
Pemberton, W. Y. "Montana's Pioneer Courts," Montana Historical
Society, Contributions, VIII (1917), 99-104.
"Petition for a Western State, 1780," Mississippi Valley Historical Review,
I, 265-269 (September, 1914).

Bibliography 515
Piatt, Robert Treat. "Oregon and Its Share in the Civil War," Oregon
Historical Society, Quarterly, IV, 89-109 (June, 1903).
Polk, James K[nox]. The Diary of James K. Polk during His Presidency,
1845 to 1849  Edited .... by Milo Milton Quaife .... with
an Introduction by Andre.w Cunningham McLaughlin. Chicago,
1910. 4 vols.
Pound, Roscoe. Bibliography of Procedural Reform. Chicago, 1917.
Pound, Roscoe. "Causes of Popular Dissatisfaction with the Adminis
tration of Justice," American Bar Association, Annual Report,
1906, I, 395-417.
Price, Eliphalet. "Trial and Execution of Patrick O 'Conner at the
Dubuque Mines in the Summer of 1834," Annals of Iowa, III, 566-
574 (October, 1865).
Putnam, A[lbigence] W[aldo]. History of Middle Tennessee ; or, Life and
Times of Gen. James Robertson. Nashville, 1*59.
Ramsay, David. History of South Carolina, from .... 1670 to
1808  Charleston, 1809. 2 vols.
Ramsey, J[ames] Gfattys] M[cGregor]. The Annals of Tennessee to the
End of the Eighteenth Century  Charleston, 1853.
Ransom, William L. "The Organization of the Courts for the Better
Administration of Justice," Cornell Law Quarterly, II, 180-201. 261-
282 (March, May, 1917).
Rawles, William A. Centralizing Tendencies in the Administration of
Indiana. New York, 1903. (Columbia University, Studies in History,
Economics and Public Law, XVII, no. 1.)
Rhodes, James Ford. History of the United States from the Compromise
of 1850  New York, 1893-1904. 5 vols.
Richardson, James D. Messages and Papers of the Presidents, see United
States Presidents, supra, p. 477.
Riley, Franklin L. "Transition from Spanish to American Rule in Mis
sissippi," Mississippi Historical Society, Publications, III (1900),
261-311.
Rippy, Jfames] Fred. "Border Troubles along the Rio Grande. 1848
1860," Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XXIII. 91-111 (October.
1919).
Roberts, William. "The Administration of Justice in America," Fort
nightly Review, new ser., LI, 91-108 (January 1, 1892).
Robertson, James Rood. "Genesis of Popular Government in Oregon,"
Oregon Historical Society, Quarterly, I, 1-59 (March, 1900).

\

516 Vigilance Committee of 1851
Roosevelt, Theodore. The Winning of the West. 4 vols. New York, 1889-
1896.
Ross, Edward Alsworth. Social Control; u, Survey of the Foundations of
Order. New York, 1901. (Citizen's Library of Economics, Politics
and Sociology.)
Schouler, James. History of the United States of America, under the
Constitution. Revised ed. New York [copyrighted 1880-1913]. 7
vols.
Scott, Leslie M. "Pioneer Stimulus of Gold," Oregon Historical Society,
Quarterly, XVIII, 147-166 (September, 1917).
\ Shaf er, George F. ' ' Early History of McKenzie County, ' ' North Dakota
State Historical Society, Collections, IV (1913), 41-61.
Shambaugh, Benjamin F[ranklin]. "Frontier Land Clubs or Claim Asso
ciations," American Historical Association, Annual Report, 1900,
I, 67-84.
Shambaugh, Benjamin Ffranklin]. Constitution and Records of tlie Claim
Association of Johnson County, Iowa. Iowa City, 1894.
. See also his article in Iowa Historical Record, IX (1893), 414-420.
^ Smith, J[ames] Allen. Spirit of American Government  New York,
1912 [copyrighted 1907].
Smith, William Henry. A Political History of Slavery  With an
Introduction by Whitelaw Reid. New York, 1903. 2 vols.
Storey, Moorfield. Reform of Legal Procedure. New Haven, 1911. (Wil
liam L. Storrs Lecture Series.)
Sumners, Hatton W. "Protection of the State against the Criminal
. . . ." American Law Review, XLIII, 455—466 (May-June, 1909).
Taft, William Hfoward], "The Administration of Criminal Law," Yale
Law Review, XV, 1-17 (November, 1905).
Taylor, Zaehary. Letters .... from the Battle -Fields of the Mexican
War  Rochester, N. Y. 1908.
Texas (Republic of Texas). "Journal of the Permanent Council (October
11-27, 1835)," Texas State Historical Association, Quarterly, VII,
250-278 (April, 1904); IX, 287-288 (April, 1906).
Thompson, Jfoseph] Wfesley]. United States Mining Statutes. Annotated.
Washington, 1915. 2 vols. (United States Bureau of Mines, Bulletin
94, Law Serial 4.)
Thorndike, Lynn. History of Medieval Europe. New York. [Copyrighted
1917.]
Thorpe, Francis Newton. Constitutional History of the American People,
1776-1850. New York, 1898. 2 vols.

V

Bibliography 517
Trimble, William J[oseph]. Mining Advance into the Inland Empire 
Madison, 1914. (Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, no. 638,
History Series III, no. 2.)
Turner, Frederick Jackson. The Frontier in American History. New York,
1920.
Collects important articles hitherto accessible only in historical magazines.
Turner, Frederick Jackson. The Rise of the New West, 1819-1829. New
York, 1906. (The American Nation, XIV.)
Turner, Frederick Jackson. ' ' Western State-Making in the Revolutionary
Era," American Historical Review, I (1895-1896), 70-87, 251-269.
Twitchell, Ralph Emerson. History of the Military Occupation of the
Territory of New Mexico from 1846 to 1851  Denver, 1909.
Watts-Dunton, Theodore. "Bret Harte," Athenaeum, May 24, 1902, pp.
658-659.
Weyl, Walter Efdward]. The New Democracy. . . . New York, 1912.
Whately, Richard. Introductory Lectures on Political Economy. . . With
Remarks on Tithes and on Poor-Laws and on Penal Colonies. London,
1855. This is ed. 4, enlarged, of hia Introductory Lectures. 1831.
Wheeler, John H[ill]. Historical Sketches of North Carolina. From 1584
to 1851  Philadelphia, 1851. 2 vols, in 1.
White, Charles. Early Australian History. Convict Life in New South
Wales and Van Diemen's Land. . . Bathurst, 18s9.
Willis, Hugh Evander. "How Shall the People of the United States of
America Reform Their Legal Procedure so as to Make It an Instru
ment of Justice?" Journal of the American Institute of Criminal
Law and Criminology, VI, 533-545 (November, 1915).
Wilson, Woodrow. "Issues of Reform," «"n Munro, W. B., editor, Initia
tive, Referendum and Recall (New York, 1912), 69-91.
Winsor, Justin. The Westward Movement. The Colonies and the Republic
West of the Alleglianics, 1763-1798  Boston, 1897.
Woodward, Walter Carleton. Rise and Early History of Political Parties
in Oregon, 1843-1868. Portland, 1913.
Yoakum, Henderson K. History of Texas . ... to ... . IS 16. New York,
1856 [copyrighted 1855]. 2 vols.
Young, John E. Law as an Expression of Community Ideals ... " 1 ale
Law Journal, XXVII, 1-33 (November, 1917).

518 Vigilance Committee of 1851
Series, Periodicals and Newspapers
American Academy of Political and Social Science, Annals.
American Bar Association, Annual Reports.
American Historical Association, Annual Reports.
American Historical Review.
American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology, Journal.
American Irish Historical Society, Journal.
American Law Review.
American Political Science Review.
Annals of Iowa.
Arkansas Historical Association, Publications.
Athenaeum. Atlantic Monthly.
California Law Review.
Century Magazine.
Cornell Law Quarterly.
Cornhill Magazine.
Des Moines Register and Leader.
Fortnightly Review.
The Green Bag.
History Teachers' Magazine.
Indiana Magazine of History.
Iowa Journal of History and Politics.
Jackson County [Iowa] Historical Society, Annals.
Kansas State Historical Society, Transactions. Binder's title: Collections.
Lancaster County [Pennsylvania] Historical Society, Papers.
Magazine of American History.
Minnesota Historical Society, Collections.
Mississippi Valley Historical Association, Proceedings.
Mississippi Valley Historical Review.
Montana Historical Society, Contributions.
Nebraska State Historical Society, Proceedings and Collections.
Nevada Historical Society, Reports.
Niles Register.
Nineteenth Century.
North Dakota State Historical Society, Collections.
Oregon Historical Society, Quarterly.
Political Science Quarterly.
Revue des deux mondes.
Southwestern Historical Quarterly (formerly Texas State Historical Asso
ciation, Quarterly).
Texas Review.
Yale Law Review.

INDEX

Abolition (abolitionists) : victims
of popular tribunals, 74 note
23, 422. See also Slavery ques
tion.
Academy of Pacific Coast History:
3.
Adams, George, prisoner C. of V.:
247, 251, 275, 276-277, 287,
290, 307, 308, 311, 312, 358.
Adams, Robert, 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 note 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 ('. of V.,
267 note 49, 289-290, 360-361.
Argenti, Felix, C. of V. : biograph
ical note, 198; mentioned, 188
note 3, 240, 346 noti 27; sued
by Metcalf, 243-244, 329-331,
340, 343, 347, 375.
Army and Navy, U. S., cooperation
of officers of, with C of \ 7 :
315, 371.
Arrington, N. O., C of 17, ls.56:
473.
Arrington, William, C. of V.. 1*56:
473.
Arrowsmith, D. B., C. of V.: 208.
Arson: 239, 245, 340. Sec also
San Francisco — Fires.
Arthur, (ieorge, prisoner C. of V.:
288.
Assing, Norman: 3)8-319.
"Association for the Protection of
the Rights 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—122.
Auburn, California: 146 note 25.
Auger, ltdouard: cited. 168. 414.
Austin, E. C. 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
works 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
Comites de Vigilance: 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, R. 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
note 1, 251.
Bell, A. W., C. of V., 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 note
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. . Jansen 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 R., 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

Brantley, Theodore: cited on Vigi
lance Committee of Montana,
419^20.
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.
Brown, II. S., C. of V „ 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 17: 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 note 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 V.: 238,
449.
Burns, Thomas, prisoner O. of V. :
228-232, 306.
Butte City, California: protest
against mob spirit, 394.
Cahuenga, Treaty of: 34.
California: under Mexico, 23-28
(sec 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
warned 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-
eminent, 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. 111: 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
Riflemen: 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 Californian:
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
viUe, 384.

* Mrs. Clappe was a native of New
intimated in the Introduction.

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 note 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, see
California.
Civil Practice Act, 154.
Claim associations, 11. See also
Association for the Protection
of the Rights 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. R. B., C. of V ., 1856: 473.
Jersey, not of New England, as is

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, Rev. Walter: alcalde of
Monterey, 30, 37 note 40;
diary cited, 41-42; introduced
trial by jury, 45—46.
Columbia, California: C. of V., 383
note 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 denned, 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. By-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, 33 S. 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, 441-152; identifica
tion numbers. 192 note 10,
225 ; Vigilantes served on
grand jury, 272, 392: major
ity loyal to Federal Union on
slavery (secession) question,
404-405; meniliers of Commit
tee of 1856, 400. 403. 473; join
Home Guard, 406.
1'ass word (countersign): 199,
209 note 4, 215, 295.
Police organization. 223, 267
note 50, 270, 278, 352, 370,
433; water police, 223, 23(5,
237, 242, 329, 341; bills of
366; Chief of police, see J. L.
Van Bokkelen; Sergeant-at-
arms, 223, 2:i7 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. 23 8. 289-
290, 320, 322; O. 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.
Relations with general public:
Publicity, 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 m] 302-303,
357-358, 369-374, 398-399,
462, 465-467, 471; expressions
of disapproval, 215-220, 239,
271-273, 301 note 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.
Relation with 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; Roach; Ben
Robinson ; Margaret Robin
son; Scott; Stuart; Taft; Tal
bot; Joseph Turner; Whitta
ker; William Wilson, Wright.'
Relations 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; Coulterville ; Downie
viUe; Fresno; Gilroy; Grass
Valley ; Humbug ; Humboldt
County; Jackson; Los An
geles; Lundy; Mariposa;
Marysville; Merced; Moke
lumne Hill; Natchez; Nelson
Creek; Nevada City; Oakland;
Rough 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. Sec 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; Centralize.] government.
Convicts from Australia, 61-72.
121-124, 179; ex-convicts used
as voters by politicians. 140
vote 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 ( ? ) ; Mrs.
Hogan(?); Hopkins(fi; den-
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:
Whittaker, 302.
Corrales, Jose: hanged for horse
stealing, 156 note 49.
Corruption, political: 140, 143,
390-391, 396-397, 431, 432;
attack upon, by Oomniittee 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.
Crescent 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 nouses
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.
Croekstein,  : 228 note 1.
Crozier, R. G. : 177.
Curry, John, judge : cited on C. of
V., 411.
Curtayne, W. M. : commended work
of C. of V., 241 note 44.
Curtis, J. F., C. of V. : biographical
note, 442 ; mentioned, 108 note
53, 181 note 62, 208, 212, 281,
335, 471, 473.
Cutler, J. E., Lynch Law: cited, 10
note 11, 14-17, 363, 423^24.
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— i06.
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

021

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, Ralph, 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.
DownieviUe 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.
Duff, J. R., 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.
Elizabeth, 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 J'.; biograph
ical note, 451.
Ellis, H. H, C. of V.: biographical
note, 451.
Ellis, J. 8., C. of V.: 371 ; bio
graphical note, 451.
Ellis, William, captain of the Cal
lao, 348.
Emory, J. S., C. of 17, 1856: 473.
Empire Engine Company: 130, 169.
Endicott, George: 467.
England, popular tribunals in: 17.
Euphcmia, San Francisco prison
brig: 113.
Eureka Engine Company: 169.
Evans, H. D., C. of V.: 334.
Evening Picayune, see San Fran
cisco Evening Picayune.
Ewer, F. C, C. of V.: 346 note 27.
Farallon Islands: 236.
Farnham, 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 MarysviUe,
118-119; tried to prevent
DownieviUe lynching, 385.
Financial conditions in California,
1854-1856: 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.
Foreigners (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, CaUfornia, 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 Rocky 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, Richard : escape from San
Francisco jail, 247.
Garland, Richard, 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., C. 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, 66 note 1 ; organiza
tion in the mines, 66-87 ; gold
rushes in Rocky 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. Sec
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 h off
25, 187 note 1, 446.
Green, T. H. (Paul Geddes) : 144,
173.
Grey, William, pseudonym of W.
F. White.
Grisar, O. 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 note 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 bv C. of
V., 317.
Handbill: on appointment of
George Hyde as alcalde of San
Francisco, 3,8; on Jansen rob
bery 172. 173 note 35. 453;
calling mass meeting against
C. of V., 239, 460.
Hangtown, see Placer ville.
Happv 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.
Havs. 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, Lawrence, 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, 1 15.
Home Guard of 1861: 405-403.
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.
Hossefross, 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 O. 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 note 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, 48-49.
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, see Non-partisan
¦ movements.
Indiana: political "Committees of
Vigilance" in, 204 note 47;
protective associations, 1852,
416.
Indians in California: difficulties
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 0 '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 note 63,
247, 380. See also Police;
Prison ships; San Francisco
county jail.
James, Colonel G. F. : 233.
James Caskie, 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, R. M., C. of V. : 449, 473.
Jewett, J. H., president Marysville
C. of V. : 257.
Jimmy from Town, 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 V. :
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, R. S., C. of V.: 181 note
62.
Land clubs: 11. See also Land
laws ; Land titles ; ' ' Associa
tion for the Protection of the
Rights 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, R. A., lawyer: 330-331.
Lodging nouses 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"; "MeManus' Wel
come " ; " Panama House ' ' ;
' ' Port Phillip House ' ' ;
"Rose 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.
McCahill, 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., 294-
298, 469-470 ; proclamation,
298.
McDuffee, A. J., C. of V. : sergeant-
at-arms, 260, 333, 365, 367-
368.
McGowan, Captain of the Polk:
234.
McGowan, Edward, justice of the
peace: opposed C. of V., 177,
398, 402.
Mclntire, R. O, 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 17. lsl note
62.
Mary Catherine, a vessel : 235.
Marysville, California: organiza
tion, 118; C of V., 250, 257,
376; approved by gTand jury,
374 note 48.
Marziou & Co.: 341-342.
Mason, Colonel R. P. : 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. O. : 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
norf 56.
Merrill, I. M., C. of V.: 451.
Merritt, Dr. Samuel, C. of V. : bio
graphical note, 450: men
tioned, 256 7iofe 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, 35-36; 40-
47, 51, 57, 103-104, 110-111,
114, 118, 163. See also 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 note 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 also California;
Contract, social; Gold; Popu
lar tribunals.
Mines, Rev. 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 V.: 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; DownieviUe 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 47; 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 Californian: 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.
Marietta, 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 nrjte 24.
Norton, Myron, judge: 107, 295,
469.
Noyce, J. P., a policeman: 215.
Oakes, 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: 23,2.
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. 1SS note 1, 450.
Parker, W. H, C. of V.: 200 note
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 Road 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 war a dividing
issue, 132; corruption in, 390,
391; cleansed by 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.
Polk, 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^ — Relations 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 lynch 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. marshall:
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., C. 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. II., C. of V., 1856: 473.
Root, Kingsbury, ('. of (7: 467.
Rosalind, 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, 7s, 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.
Ryau, J. T., C. of V.: 301, 442.
Ryan, Michael, member of Stuart 's
gang: 232, 275. 308.
Ryckman, G. YY7, 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 V.. 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 note 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; Lawyers.
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.
Officials 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, R. G.
Crozier, 177; Mayor, see
Charles J. Brenham, and J. W.
Geary (alcalde) ; Port War
den, see T. B. Kay; Recorder
(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 Francisco 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.
Sayward, W. T. : MS statement
cited, 159 note 55.
Schenek, 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
note 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., Mini no 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. 11.: 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—105,
406; secession advocates beaten
in elections of 1856, 405; only
Lincoln men endorsed by Peo
ple's Party in election of 1865,
406.
Sloat, Commodore 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 Hermandad: 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 Regiment (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 R. 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 note 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,
264; 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, 231,
269; confession, 261-264; pub
lished in newspapers, 275, 314;
connection with F. M. Pixley,
258-259, 264-266; conviction
by C. of V., 268-269; popular
approval of sentence, 270; ex
ecution, 270-271 ; coroner 's in
quest, 271; action of city arid
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;
Hopwood; Hughes; . Kay;
Kelly; King the barber;
Kitchen; McCarty; McCor
mac; Mclntire; McKenzie;
Marks ; Morgan ; Osman ;
Ryan ; 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.: 444.
Suwerkrop, E. A., C. of V. : 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 note 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.
Tesehemacher, 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. See 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 17: 200, 4(57.
Tuolumne County: report of grand
jury, 472.
Turner, D. S., C. of 17. 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. YY7, C. of V.: 181
note C2.
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

Index

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, R. 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 eleer
tions, 1851, 176, 324, 326-327.
Whipping: common frontier pun
ishment: 14-15, 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 bv 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., 411^112.
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 note 53.
Woodworth, Selim E., C. of V.:
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, sec San Francisco.
Yreka, 382, 407 note 56.
Zantzinger, L. F., 346 noti 27.

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002 01259 3340