USA > California > A history of the new California, its resources and people; Vol I > Part 10
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" I have no doubt they were there in position when the shot was fired, and James King of William fell. I was waiting for the first pistol shot which I well knew would be the prelude to a fearful scene of bloodshed, when a man rushed past me, and began scrambling up one of the posts of a balcony directly at my back. . I saw it was Thomas S. King, the brother of James King of William. He at once began a harangue of almost delirious frenzy and after a few words only, he shouted out, who will go with me and drag the murderer of my brother from the jail? He could not utter an- other word. The fierce and savage yell, 'I,' 'I,' 'I,' from hundred of throats was perfectly deafening, and the revolvers came out like magic ready for sharp service.
"Thomas S. King leaped to the ground, and started with a rush, but he had not crossed half the breadth of Broadway, before he stopped, and at the same moment, the crowd began to grow quiet. Some one had touched them on the back and whispered, 'The Vigilance Committee has organized.'"
On that afternoon I had gone out near the presidio to secure some shrubs to plant in our garden at the home, then on the corner of Mason and Pacific
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streets. While engaged in planting them, I noticed a number of people entering the house. They came in such unusual numbers that I hastened to see what could be the matter. Upon entering the house, I learned that my father had been shot.
Those who were trying to break the news to my mother did it so gently, that she at first did not realize how serious the situation was. Griffin Dobson, a colored man, who had been porter in my father's bank, was telling my mother, when I entered, that my father had been shot in the arm. I immediately reasoned, that if my father had only been shot in the arm he would have been home then, so taking Dobson aside, I asked him where my father was, and he replied "at the office of the Pacific Express Company."
This was on the northwest corner of Washington and Montgomery streets, and without saying anything, I left the room and hurried down to the express office. As I reached the corner of Kearney and Washington streets I saw a large crowd blocking the street down to Montgomery.
A policeman, who recognized me, asked if I wished to see my father, and I told him I did. He then piloted me through the crowd, until I finally reached my father, who lay unconscious on a mattress, on the floors of the express company.
Here, among strangers, I waited anxiously by his side until the arrival of my mother, who in the meantime had been apprised of the true condi- tion of affairs. After good counsel as to what to say to my brothers and sisters, and to some directions as to what to do in arranging some of the household business in her absence, she bade me go home. I did so, returning early the next morning, and was present when they removed my father to Montgomery block.
During the days that intervened I was in attendance to go upon any errand, and attend to such things as my mother needed.
The Vigilance Committee formed on the night of May 14th, 1856, temporarily in the rooms of the Society of California Pioneers on Washing- ton street, opposite the old Plaza. Some two thousand signed the roll that night. The next morning larger rooms and accommodations were secured on Sacramento street, near Front, and the following notice appeared in the morning papers :
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"THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE.
"Members of the Vigilance Committee in good standing will please meet at 10512 Sacramento street this day at 9 o'clock a. m.
By order of the
COMMITTEE OF THIRTEEN."
Here fortifications were erected by filling gunny bags with sand, and planting cannon to defend the place. It was called "Fort Gunnybags." In less than three days five thousand names were enrolled as members.
These were men, drawn from the business community, and those who had the interest of the city at heart, and were as loyal a band of patriots as the world ever knew.
The London Times said of them, upon their disbandment, "that they had shown sufficient ability to found a state organization-a nation-if circumstances had demanded its exercise."
On the enrollment of members, each man took his number, and was known by it, instead of his name. Wm. T. Coleman was No. I and was elected its president. No. 33 was Isaac Bluxome, the secretary.
Turn Verein Hall on Bush and Stockton streets served as an armory, and the members being divided into companies of 100 men each, were thoroughly drilled by competent officers.
A lot of 5,000 flint lock muskets in good order, belonging to Mr. George Law, and stored in a warehouse, were at once hired by the committee. The committee for convenience was divided into four departments, as follows : Grand marshal, commissary, medical and police, and was organized into four regiments of infantry numbering ten companies each, and two battal- ions of cavalry, three batteries of flying artillery, one marine battery, one pistol company. No one received any pay, except fifteen of the police force of 300.
Notwithstanding this, the expenses necessarily incurred in maintain- ing this organization were large, amounting to $250,000, which sum was raised by voluntary subscription from the members, and those who sympa- thized with them in the noble work in which they were engaged.
When the news of the assassination of James King of William was flaslied all over the state, the strongest expressions against the outrage came from the mountains and valleys of California, with the offer of any help that might be needed by the committee in the way of more men and means.
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James King of William was shot on Wednesday, May 14th, 1856, and lingered until Tuesday, the 20th, when he died.
In the days that followed the organization of the committee and during the three months it was in existence, the most exciting events followed in rapid succession.
· Before the committee had taken any action, their scouts brought in word that "The Hounds" and their friends or sympathizers calling themselves "The Law and Order Party," who many dubbed "The Law and Murder Party," were determined to do all in their power to prevent Casey and Cora being taken by the Vigilance Committee, even going so far as to threaten to burn down the city if such a thing were attempted.
Fearing that they might be called upon for an accounting in case the committee should gain control of the affairs of the city and flushed by the success with which their party had managed so long to defy the administra- tion of justice, these men were determined to do all they could to ruin San Francisco and keep it subject to their power.
On the next day, the 16th of May, it was discovered that a plot was formed to call out the state militia.
Governor J. Neeley Johnson was in town, stopping at the Occidental Hotel, and word was sent to William T. Coleman that the governor wanted to see him.
An interview took place which seemed to settle matters, the governor at its close slapping Coleman on the back and saying "Go ahead, but get through as soon as you can."
Later in the evening the governor called at the rooms of the committee, with William T. Sherman (afterwards famous in the Civil war). Coleman noticed from his actions that he ignored his previous interview and started in anew on the subject. The governor said that they had come to see if matters could be amicably settled. Coleman replied that outrages were of common occurrence, the people defrauded of their rights at the ballot box, and the citizens shot down in the streets ; and no redress was afforded by the courts, and they would endure it no longer. The governor urged the laws taking its course, saying that there was no need of the people turning themselves into a mob.
Mr. Coleman emphatically stated that the governor himself knew that
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it was no mob. It was a government within a government pulsating under the poisonous effect of unrebuked villainy.
After a long discussion, it was finally agreed that the Vigilance Commit- tee should have a specal guard stationed in the county jail, which was to be withdrawn and due notice given the governor before any overt act should be taken by the committee.
W. T. Sherman was appointed major general of the militia, and the gov- ernor issued a proclamation declaring San Francisco in a state of insur- rection. Sherman soon resigned his commission in disgust, and in his memoirs distorts the truth so much, as to make his work as far as a history, to be so thoroughly unreliable as to be valueless. Besides endeavoring to en- list the state militia against the Vigilance Committee, the effort to get the United States troops at the presidio and Fort Point under General Wood, and the United States navy under Captain Farragut to interfere proved equally futile as did the appeal of Governor Johnson to President Pierce.
On Saturday, May 17th, the Vigilance Committee in force moved to their headquarters at Fort Gunnybags, and had a large bell placed in the top of their building to call the members together when wanted for an instant emergency.
They had hardly reached their quarters before the governor's party cir- culated the statement that the committee had determined on no overt act.
This incensed the committee to that extent, that they determined to have no further communication with governor. The time for action had now come. Their guard in the county jail was removed and the governor was notified of the action taken.
Marshal Doane was notified to call out the entire membership and have them in attendance at 8 o'clock the next morning, which was Sunday, May 18th. Colonel Olney with a command of sixty men who had seen service, were delegated to watch the jail.
They came in at half past ten, in citizens dress, armed with pistols, and so scattered as not to attract attention.
The main body of the committee was maneuvered so as to march in differ- ent ways and upon reaching the block that surrounded the jail, to make the juncture so complete that at exactly ten minutes past twelve when the order to ground arms was given they should all come down at the same time. It was
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carried out exactly, and the cannon loaded to the muzzle was aimed at the door of the jail, the man with the lighted fuse, standing ready for the com- mand to be given to "fire."
The marshal then approached the jail and demanded first that James P. · Casey be delivered up.
Upon this being reported to Casey with the added statement that if he were not delivered up, they proposed to fire upon the jail, he turned to Scan- nell and asked him if he could not defend it. Scannell replied that there were thousands of men in front of the jail and it was useless to oppose them. Cole- man and Truett from the war committee then demanded the surrender of Casey.
Casey, fearing that he would be immediately executed, asked leave to speak ten minutes. Upon being assured that he would be protected, he was taken out, and placed in a carriage with Coleman and Truett. Upon his ap- pearance, a murmur ran through the crowd, but the hand of Coleman raised produced a silence throughout the ranks unbroken in the march to the head- quarters of the committee.
A force had been left at the jail, and notice was given the sheriff, that the committee would return for Cora.
This was done, and after some delay at the jail, Cora was also surren- dered, and taken to Fort Gunnybags.
The New York Herald in commenting upon this event said "we cannot read the account of the taking of Casey and Cora from the scoundrels' sanctu- ary-the county jail-without a thrill of admiration for the nerve and cool- ness of the armed citizens."
It is stated that as the committee were marching to the jail that Sunday morning, a man on the sidewalk remarked to his companion, "When you see these Psalm-singing Yankees turn out on Sunday, you can just reckon there's hell to pay.". The excitement, which became intenser each day, reached its climax when on Tuesday, May 20th, it was announced that James King of William had died. Thousands viewed his remains, which lay in Montgomery block, and the city was draped in mourning.
In the meantime Casey and Cora were each given a fair trial with coun- sel of their own selection, and had been found guilty as charged. Cora was somewhat of a fatalist, and from the moment Casey assassinated James King
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of William began to feel his doom was sealed. He, however, said if he had been as ably defended on his first trial, as he was before the committee, that he believed he would have been acquitted by the jury that then tried him.
The funeral services over James King of William were held Thursday, May 22d, and he was buried in Lone Mountain, now Laurel Hill Cemetery.
As the funeral procession left the Unitarian church then located in Stock- ton street between Clay and Sacramento, Casey and Cora were hanged from the rooms of the committee in Sacramento between Front and Davis. Cora made no remarks; but Casey was greatly agitated, and exclaimed several times "I am no murderer, I did not intend to commit murder ; oh, my mother, my mother !"
There were a great many hard characters whom the Vigilance Committee were compelled to banish.
They had arrested some and taken them to Fort Gunnybags until they should have a convenient method of sending them away. Among these were Yankee Sullivan, who, being deprived of his usual rations of liquor, commit- ted suicide on May 31, the cessation of his customary indulgence unseating his reason, and with a knife wound inflicted on his own arm he accomplished his exit from this life. Many persons were banished by order of the Vigilance Committee, upon penalty of being hanged should they ever return. The committee afterward, when good government was restored under the Peo- ple's Party, revoked their order of banishment.
Of these Billy Mulligan and Charles P. Duane created much trouble years afterward. Bill Mulligan was shot by policemen sent to arrest him at the old Francis Hotel in Dupont street. He proved so dangerous that they were compelled to shoot him. Charles P. Duane proved to be even a more desperate man. He killed one or two men more; but made the boast which he seemed to prove that he would never be hanged.
The so-called "Law and Order Party" were continually endeavoring to stir up all the feeling they could against the committee. They succeeded in securing at Sacramento some six cases of arms which were shipped on the schooner Julia to San Francisco. Two notorious scoundrels, members of the Law and Order Party, were deputized by that body to take charge of them on the passage. They were Maloney and Phelps. On the night of June 20, 1856, John L. Durkee of the Vigilance Committee with twelve chosen men
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succeeded in capturing the schooner and transferring her cargo to the head- quarters of the Vigilance Committee.
In the meantime Maloney and Phelps, having been released, visited all the saloons in the city, making threats against certain members of the com- mittee whom they swore to shoot on sight. Sterling A. Hopkins with four men was sent to arrest them, and meeting with more resistance than was anticipated, returned for reinforcements. In again approaching the head- quarters of the "Law and Order Party," a pistol was accidentally discharged and Judge D. S. Terry of the supreme court of the state, who had aided and abetted "The Hounds" and their followers, the "Law and Order Party," all he could, turned suddenly upon Hopkins and stabbed him, with a large bowie knife, and then escaped with his friends to the rooms above.
The bell of the vigilantes sounded, and quickly the headquarters of the scoundrels was surrounded, and Terry captured and taken to the rooms of the Vigilance Committee.
Had Hopkins died, the murder of Broderick would have not afterward taken place, and the state would have not been further disgraced by the high- handed conduct of a judge who ought to have been a peaceful citizen, instead of the character he proved himself to be, as shown by the following sentence which the Vigilance Committee, after Hopkins' final recovery and Terry's trial, pronounced :
"That David S. Terry having been convicted after a full, fair, and im- partial trial, of certain charges, before the Committee of Vigilance, and the usual punishment in their power to inflict not being applicable in the present instance,
"Therefore be it declared the decision of the Committee of Vigilance, that the said David S. Terry be discharged from custody; and also resolved that in the opinion of the Committee of Vigilance the interests of the state imperatively demand that the said David S. Terry should resign his position as the judge of the supreme court.
"Resolved, that this resolution be read to David S. Terry, and he forth- with be discharged from the custody of the Committee of Vigilance on this be- ing ratified by the Board of Delegates."
The release of Terry created such intense excitement that for his safety
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the Executive Committee sent him to Sacramento on the steamer Adams, and thus closed the Terry incident.
One would have supposed that the most daring murderer would have hesitated to commit any other like crime, during the existence of the Vigi- lance Committee. It was reserved for Joseph Hetherington, who had killed other men, to deliberately kill Dr. Randall at this time. He was immediately arrested, as was also Philander Brace, a cold-blooded assassin who had made away with quite a number of men in the years preceding, and had never been punished for any of them. After a fair trial, in which these men were both convicted and found guilty, they were on July 29, 1856, hanged by the Vig- ilance Committee.
On August 14, 1856, just three months after their organizing, the com- mittee disbanded and "Fort Gunnybags" disappeared from view. A public procession through the streets of the city was made by the members of the committee, in which there were nearly six thousand men in the ranks.
The New York Times on learning of this stated "It is due to these Vigi- lance Committees, both the first and second, to say that in no one instance have we discovered any abuse of their authority. We cannot learn that either of them hanged any person who did not richly deserve hanging."
The Vigilance Committee of San Francisco is not to be compared with those sudden outbursts in frontier towns that have sometimes taken place in the history of our country. They are deserving of the highest praise for the manner in which they performed their work.
Nearly fifty years ago this noble band of men risked their lives, and pledged their honor one to the other to transmit to those who should follow them a pure government, and for several years succeeding, under the rule of the People's Party, no city in all the Union was better governed than San Francisco. Later, beginning with the Civil war, and other events that fol- lowed, the two great national parties again managed to divide the attention of the voters, and the good work done by the committee was soon effaced by the success of one or the other of the political parties which held sway over elections throughout the land.
But these brave men have left an imperishable history, and have shown what the American-anglo-saxon-has done in this continent to settle the
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great issues that try men's souls. It is doubtless true no other people could have done what they have accomplished. For nearly six thousand years the world has struggled for that true ideal of liberty which was only realized in the promulgation of the Declaration of Independence.
The people who had to contend against the obstacles of nature, the wild beasts of the forests, and the wilder denizens of the howling wilderness, having wrenched liberty from their oppressors, pushed out as pioneers to people and settle the great heritage their prowess had secured to them.
In their struggles with wild beasts and the Indians, they learned to be expert marksmen, for it was often, if not always, their life or that of beast or Indian who came suddenly upon them. It was this that led them to be sure of their aim, and that told so fearfully under General Jackson at New Orleans when opposed to the flower of the British army who were almost annihilated in their onset against these yeomen. It was this that on sea and land has shown the superiority of the American as a fighter. The victories of Dewey and Schley can never be excelled, and before them fade away those of Nelson into comparative insignificance because of results. It was this spirit that led our California pioneers to overcome the obstacles in their way and to make this state the wonder of the world. These pioneers were instrumental in forming the Vigilance Committee, as it started in their rooms.
All honor then to these heroes who showed, only as an American popula- tion could show, how to pioneer a city out of the condition into which San Francisco had fallen, into that which to the student of history shall encircle them with imperishable glory, for the success that crowned their efforts. As we realize that in 1903 nearly a million emigrants came into New York harbor, that in the last month of that year thirty-five thousand came to San Fran- cisco, let us echo the universal California sentiment relative to the class of men we desire to welcome to our Golden State, as expressed so eloquently in the halls of national legislation by one who lies buried in Laurel Hill Ceme- tery.
I would see its fertile plains, its sequestered vales, its deep blue cañons, its furrowed mountains, dotted all over with American homes, the abodes of a free and happy people, with the sweet voices of flaxen-haired children, and ringing with the joyous laughter of the maiden fair, soft as our clime
:
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and sunny as our skies. Like the homes of New England, yea, better and brighter far, shall be the homes to be builded in the wonderland by the sunset sea. The homes of a race, from which shall spring the flower of men, to serve as models for the mighty world, and be the fair beginning of a better time.
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CHAPTER VIII. VIGILANCE COMMITTEE CRITICISED. By the Late James O'Meara, Pioneer Journalist.
THERE WAS NO CALL FOR THE COMMITTEE, BECAUSE JUSTICE WAS OBTAIN- ABLE IN THE COURTS-CORA MUCH SINNED AGAINST-HOW THE COM- MITTEE SHIELDED MURDERERS-OTHER STRICTURES.
[The late James O'Meara was a defender of the Law and Order party, which opposed the Vigilance Committee. The editor obtained the manu- script from a friend of the late James O'Meara, and quotations from it are frequent in this chapter .- EDITOR. ]
There have been two opinions of the work of the Vigilance Committee of 1856 ever since the days of its activity. Though Mr. Charles James King has presented the popular side quite fully it should be said, in justice to the memory of Cora, that one jury composed partly of high, reputable merchants, failed to find him guilty, and a second trial was hanging over his head at the time he was tried and convicted by the Vigilance Committee.
Mr. George K. Fitch, the venerable retired journalist, who was for many years editor of the San Francisco Bulletin, said to the author of this work in January, 1904: "The killing of United States Marshal Richardson was never clearly accounted for as to details. Of course Cora killed him, but whether the men had quarreled has always been unaccounted for and was a mystery during the trial."
Mr. William M. Hinton, one of the venerable publishers of San Fran- cisco, formerly a supervisor, and the man who brought out Henry George's "Progress and Poverty," said to the present writer in December, 1903: "The facts concerning Cora's conviction by the Vigilance Committee have never been published. The late Auditor Thomas Smiley, of San Francisco, defended Cora before the Vigilance Committee, of which he was a member, and Smiley told me there was a tie vote as to the accused man's guilt. A member of the committee said, 'Suppose we settle it by the tossing of a half dollar,' and Smiley is my authority for the statement that the committee
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flopped a half dollar. The throw went against the accused, and Cora was hanged on the chance verdict of the coin."
George K. Fitch said he could not credit the story, because, "the Vigi- lance Committee was a body of very calm and temperate men of great delibera- tion and a high sense of justice. For ten successive years after their work the People's Party won every election, the Democratic and Republican parties were side-tracked, and San Francisco was purified."
Coming to Mr. O'Meara's criticism, and preliminary to direct quota- tions from his manuscript, it should be said that he held that all publishel ac- counts of the committee's work were by members or friends of that organiza- tion. As for himself, he was neither a member of the committee nor of their opponents,-the Law and Order Society, of which William T. Sherman (afterward the famous general) was the president. However, he indorsed and favored the work of the latter society. Here are Mr. O'Meara's criti- cisms in his own words:
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