USA > California > A history of the new California, its resources and people; Vol I > Part 11
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59
"First, as to the cause or pretense for the organization of the Vigilance Committee : It is declared by its ex-members and supporters, or apologists, that it was necessary for the reason that the law was not duly administered; that the courts, the fountains of justice, were either corrupted or neglectful of their duties; that juries were packed with unworthy men in important crim- inal cases, that there were gross frauds in elections, by which the will of the people was defied and defeated, and improper and dishonest men, some of them notorious rogues, were counted in and installed in public office: and that there was a class of turbulent offenders who had the countenance, if not the support, of judges and officials in high places, and who, therefore, felt themselves to be above or exempt from the law.
"Tennyson has well remarked that there is no lie so baneful as one which is half truth. So it is in respect to these alleged reasons for the or- ganization of that Vigilance Committee. It is not true that the courts were corrupt, neglectful or remiss. Judge Hager presided in the Fourth District Court, and his integrity and judicial qualifications, or judgments, have never been questioned or impeached. Judge Freelon presided as county judge; the same can be remarked of him. There was no material fault alleged against the Police Court. It is true, however, that in important criminal cases, and sometimes in civil suits, the juries were often packed. But why ?
104
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
I will state: Merchants and business men generally had great aversion to serve on juries, particularly in important criminal cases, which are usually protracted; and the jury were kept in comparative close condition, because their time was too valuable, and their business interests required their con- stant attention. They preferred, therefore, to pay the fine imposed, in case they were unable to prevail upon the judge to excuse them. Jury fees were inconsiderable in comparison with their daily profits; but it was the loss of time from their business which mainly actuated them.
"Yet these fees were sufficient to pay a day's board and lodging, and to the many who were out of employment, serving on a jury was the means to both. There is, in every large community, the class known as professional jurymen-hangers about the court, eagerly waiting to be called. There were men of this kind then; there are more than enough of them still loitering about the courts, civil and criminal. San Francisco is not the only city in the United States in which defendants in grave criminal cases have recourse to every conceivable and possible means, without scruple, to procure their own acquittal, or the utmost modification of the penalty, by proving extenuating circumstances, or that the indictment magnifies the crimes. This was true of 1856, here, as elsewhere in the land; it is equally true now. Had the mer- chants and solid citizens then drawn as jurors, fulfilled their duty to the cause of justice, to the conservation and maintenance of law and order, they would have had no cause or pretense for the organization which they formed. The initial fault was attributable to themselves; the jury-packing they com- plained of was the direct consequence of their own neglect of that essential duty to the state, in the preservation of law and order; and they cannot reasonably or justly shift the onus from themselves upon the courts.
" Concerning the frauds in election : yes, there were frauds, outrageous frauds, at every election : repeaters, bullies, ballot-box stuffing, and false counts of the ballots to count out this candidate and count in the one favored of the 'boys.' More than one member of the Vigilance Executive Com- mittee had thorough knowledge of all this, for the very conclusive reason that more than one of them had engaged in these frauds, had not only par- ticipated in them directly and indirectly, but had actually proposed them; employed the persons who had committed the frauds, and paid these tools round sums for the infamous service. The reward of these employers and
105
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
accessories before, during and after the frauds, was the office that was coveted; and the 'Hon.' prefixed to their names was as the gilt which the watch-stuffer applies to the brass thing he imposes upon the greenhorn as a solid gold watch. Out of the committee, of the Executive Committee, the detectives of that body might have unearthed these honorable and virtuous purifiers and reformers ; with them, perhaps others whose frauds were no less wicked and criminal; but in business transactions, and not in political affairs.
"One of the Executive Committee had served his term of two years in the Ohio state prison for forgery; here in San Francisco he had, during two city elections, been the trusted agent and disburser of a very heavy sack in the honest endeavor to secure the nomination, and promote the election, of his principal to high office; yet this pure man was honored by his associates of the committee, and became singularly active in pressing the expatriation of some of the very 'ruffians and ballot-box stuffers' he had patronized and paid. He had learned that 'dead men told no tales.' This pure character did not stand alone in his experience of penal servitude, as birds of a feather, and he was under no necessity of exemplifying Lord Dundreary's bird, to go into a corner and flock by himself. That some tur- bulent offenders, and largely too many of them, defied the law, is likewise true. But that they were countenanced or favored by the judges, is utterly without truthful foundation. And it is remarkable that, of all the men hanged or expatriated by the committee, only two had ever been com- plained of or arraigned before the courts for any crime of violence; not one of them all had been here accused or suspected of theft or robbery, or other felony. This is more, as I have just above stated, than can be said of some of the forty-one members of the Executive Committee. And among the members of the rank and file of the five thousand or six thousand enrolled upon the lists of the Committee-of natives and English-speaking citizens or residents-there were scores of scoundrels of every degree, bogus gold- dust operators, swindlers and fugitives from justice. Of the members of other nationalities-some of whom had not been in the country long enough to acquire English-I have no occasion to pass remark; but the fear of com- munism and disturbance, from the increase of its incendiary votaries in our country, east and here, cannot be lessened or composed by the recol-
106
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
lection of the conduct of many of the same nationalities who then swelled the ranks of the Committee troops.
"Saturday, November 19, 1855, between 5 and 6 o'clock, the com- munity was startled by the report that General Richardson, United States marshal, had been shot dead by a gambler. The shooting occurred on the south side of Clay street, about midway between Montgomery and Leides- dorff streets. The fatal shot was fired from a deringer pistol by Charles Cora. Cora was a gambler, yet he did not look the character. He was a low-sized, well-formed man: dressed in genteel manner, without display of jewelry or loudness ; was reserved and quiet in his demeanor; and his man- ners and conversation were those of a refined gentleman. I first saw him at the Blue Wing, a popular rendezvous for politicians, on Montgomery street, east side, between Clay and Commercial streets, and my impression then was that he was a lawyer or a well-to-do merchant.
"General Richardson was a morose and at times a very disagreeable man. He was of low stature, thick set, dark complexion, black hair, and usually wore a bull-dog look. He was known by his intimate friends to be a dangerous man as a foe, and he always went armed with a pair of deringers. The Thursday night prior to the shooting General Richardson and Col. Jo. C. Mckibben, afterward member of Congress, were at the Blue Wing in company. After midnight Richardson went out for a moment on the sidewalk. A man passed him, made a jocular remark and entered the saloon. Richardson followed him in, and asked of Perkins his name. He had been drinking heavily. Mckibben prevailed upon him to start for his home. It was on Minna street, near Fred Woodworth's, just above Jessie street. Jo. accompanied him most of the way. Richardson spoke to him of an 'in. ult' he had received from 'that fellow Carter'-as he seemed to think the name to be-and declared his purpose to make him answer for it. Mckibben knew Cora, and that Cora was the man to whom Richardson referred; but he likewise knew enough of Richardson to not correct him, and let him believe that 'Carter" was the name, in the hope that, in his condition, he would either not think of the occurrence the next day, or would not be able to recognize Cora if he did.
"The following Saturday afternoon a party of us-Jo. Mckibben, John Monroe, clerk of Judge Hoffman's Court, E. V. Joice, Pen. Johnston, Joslı.
107
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
Haven and myself-were in the Court Exchange, corner of Battery and Washington streets. Richardson came in while we were there, and was in drinking humor. He became sullen and, as we all know his nature, it was quietly agreed among ourselves that we would leave and try to get him away. He was devoted to his wife, whom he married in San Francisco. Mckibben and myself accompanied him on his way home, as far as the old Oriental Hotel, within a few blocks of his residence. There he insisted on a 'last drink,' and we left him-he to go straight home.
"It turned out that he did not. He brooded over the 'insult' of Carter, as he still called him, and made his way to the Blue Wing to find him. Un- fortunately he found Cora there. He called him out, and, as one man will lead another by his side, walked with him around the corner into Clay street, halting just in front of the store of a French firm-I do not remember the name-and so managed as to put Cora on the iron grating of the sidewalk inside, with his back to the brick wall of the store. Cora had not the slightest idea that Richardson had taken offence at his remark on Thursday night-for it was in no light offensive or insulting, but simply a bit of ordinary pleasantry, and therefore, he was not aware of Richardson's object in ask- ing him to come out from the saloon. But many of Richardson's intimate friends, who felt his death keenly, and were at that time disposed to the extreme penalty of the law upon the man who shot him, after due reflection and deliberation came to the conclusion, that under the circumstances, stand- ing as he was placed before Richardson, who stood with his hands in his pockets, and a deringer in each pocket, pressing his demand on Cora, the latter had one of two things to do; either to kill Richardson or allow Richard- son to kill him.
"There were not many on Clay street, near the fatal scene, at that hour, but the discharge of Cora's pistol soon brought several to the spot. Richardson's body was carried through the side-door entrance on Clay street, into the drug store then on that corner of Montgomery street, and there hun- dreds viewed it. Cora was taken in charge. Dave Scannell was sheriff. That excitement over, the feeling increased every hour, and many urged the summary hanging of Cora. Scannell had duly prepared for all this, and order was preserved, although several hundred men formed in line and pro- ceeded to the county jail to force their way in, seize Cora and hang him
108
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
forthwith. Sunday morning the excitement had diminished in spirit of violence, but had increased in volume and disposition to bring Cora to jus- tice. Eminent lawyers, the personal friends of Richardson, had already vol- unteered to assist in the prosecution of the man who shot him.
"The application of Cora's friends to several of the most noted criminal lawyers in the city, to defend him, was in many instances declined. Cora had one to his support, however, who proved more successful in engaging counsel in his behalf. This was the woman known as Belle Cora, the keeper of a notorious house, with whom Cora lived. She was rich and possessed of indomitable spirit. She was devoted to Cora. In this connection I will re- late that which Governor Foote imparted to myself and J. Ross Browne, on a trip to Oregon, late in the summer of 1857. It was substantially this: Belle Cora had gone herself to the law office of Colonel E. D. Baker, to en- gage him as counsel for Cora, and had succeeded. The fee was to be $5,000; one-half this sum was immediately paid to him. She then applied to Gover- nor Foote to engage him to assist in the case. He declined, but assured her that he should not appear for the prosecution. In a few days, on account of the intense popular feeling toward Cora, and also because the law partner of Colonel Baker had strenuously objected to his acting as counsel for Cora, as it would greatly damage their professional business and their personal standing in the community. Baker called upon Governor Foote and requested him to see Belle Cora and apprise her that she must employ some other coun- sel; that he felt that he must withdraw from the case-the $2,500 already paid would be returned to her.
"To extricate his professional brother from his unpleasant situation, Governor Foote consented to undertake the disagreeable mission. The wo- man was immovable in her determination to keep Colonel Baker to his en- gagement. And she intimated in terms not to be misunderstood that she was determined that he should fulfill his obligation. Colonel Baker was a man of dauntless courage in facing dangers of human quality; but he was in constant fear at sea ; and it seems there was another quality of peril which overmastered his intrepid spirit. When Governor Foote related to him the result of his mission, he advised the colonel to see the woman himself. Colonel Baker did go, Governor Foote accompanying him. The governor said he had never witnessed such a manifestation of a woman's power and
109
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
irresistible influence. Belle Cora was inspired to the height of heroism, in her devotion to Cora, her purpose to secure his acquittal and prevent his sacri- fice. Slie first appealed, implored, begged Colonel Baker to stand by his en- gagement. He making no response, and seeming not to yield, she com- manded that he must, that he should. She would double his fee. She would have him appear as Cora's counsel, if he did no more than sit in court with Cora near him, and speak no word at all. But go on in court and have it known that he was Cora's counsel, he must. She was inflexible in this. And when the day of trial came Colonel Baker did appear, together with General James A. McDougell, Colonel James and Frank Tilford-as counsel for Charles Cora, and it was on that trial that he made the most eloquent and extraordinary argument and plea of his life in a criminal case.
"It was not a packed jury in Cora's case. Care had been taken to im- panel only good respectable citizens, some of whom, a short time afterward, became members of the Vigilance Committee, and in great or less degree par- ticipated in the seizure of Cora from the county jail and in his condemnation and execution. Three of the jury were prominent Front street merchants. Notwithstanding all the feeling against Cora, the popular unrelenting preju- dice, and the great preponderance of the foremost legal minds of the San Francisco bar, to his prosecution, Alex. Campbell, General Williams, and Colonel Sam Inge, U. S. District attorney, to assist the public prosecutor, the jury disagreed, and of the jurors who held out against a verdict of guilty of murder were three Front street merchants and others of equal high standing in the community. Cora was held for another trial, and it was while awaiting this that he was seized by the Vigilance Committee, taken to their rooms and hanged.
"The excitement consequent upon the killing of Richardson did not culminate in the formation of a Vigilance Committee, similar to that of 1851, but it influenced the public mind in that direction. It was the piling of combustibles which required only the next spark from the electric battery to fire and heat to consuming flame. There were still in the city a round number of the early Vigilance Committee which had ridden San Francisco of the 'Sidney thieves;' some who had also, in 1849, suppressed the 'Hounds;' and they were prepared again to meet violence and lawlessness
110
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
with the stronger arm of organized force, and the quick, sharp vengeance of the lex talionis.
"The occasion soon came. May 14, 1856, between 4 and 5 o'clock, afternoon, James P. Casey shot James King of William on Montgomery street at the corner of Washington. He fired only one shot. King was facing Casey as lie fired : he immediately staggered and fell. A crowd gath- ered in a very few moments. Casey was taken into custody and Sheriff Scannell hastened him to the county jail in a hack. The excited crowd fol- lowed and clamored for his life: they wanted to hang him at once. Then fol- lowed the organization of the Vigilance Committee, mainly directed by mem- bers of the committee of '51.
"And the burning fact remains incredible that among the members of the Executive Committee were some who had themselves obtained office by bribery and corruption, by calling into play the stuffing of ballot-boxes and by all wicked and infamous means which were at that time practiced. An- other member was, as I have stated before, a felon who had served his time in the Ohio state prison; another, still living and a highly respectable church member who professes holy horror of fraud, had in early years colluded with his brother to get possession of valuable wharf property, of which the brother was agent and care-taker by appointment of the owner, who had returned to his home in the east, to be gone a year. The scheme of these brothers was a fraud of villainous conception, but it was clumsy, and there- fore failed. On his return the courts restored the property to the rightful owner. I might go on and point out other members of the Executive Com- mittee who had committed deeds which, had they been duly brought to an- swer in the courts, would have put upon them the felon's brand and the con- vict's stripes, in some instances; in others, pilloried them as rogues and swindlers, unworthy of trust, unfit for respectable association.
"But were one to trace the career of several others of that body the tracks would be through the sloughs and conduits of shame and turpitude, rascality and crime, and finally to self-murder. It was as bad-it could hardly have been worse, except in numbers, proportioned to the greater nu- merical force-as in the vigilance rank and file. It is against reason and sense to expect that in a body of five thousand men, there will be none who are not good and honorable : that there will be no base and disreputable char-
111
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
acters, no rogues and scoundrels. Therefore, it is not strange that of the committee's entire force, so many were of the vile stamp, notorious gold-dust 'operators' who robbed the honest miner of his 'pile,' by bare-faced fraud; mock auction sharpers, high-toned frauds and swindlers of low degree; and others who neither toiled nor spun, yet feasted and fattened. All these found in the ranks of the committee their own security from the incarceration and banishment enforced in the case of so many less culpable than themselves. But the onus rests upon the Executive Committee-they constituted the head and front of the grave offending of the very laws they usurped ; they were the counselors and administrators. the accusers and arbiters, of the fate of their powerless victims. Theirs was a tribunal organized to convict-they were the prosecutors, the jurors, the judges, from whose fiat of condemna- tion there was no appeal : and defense was not allowed. Arrest meant death or banishment. The accused were prosecuted by the promotor or participant with them in the charged offense or crime, and convicted by the verdict in which some who had been accessories were most strenuous for conviction. It is a rule of law that the accuser shall come into court with clean hands.
"Ignoring this just rule and in defiance of law, in usurping the seat of justice, the Executive Committee gave opportunity to several of its members to 'compound for sins they were inclined to, by damning those who had no mind to;' to sit in judgment on those whose testimony or confession in a court of justice would have turned the tables and wrought the conviction of their accusers, prosecutors and judges. But these strictures do not apply to the greater number of the Executive Committee-to only about half a dozen of its members. The committee was composed mainly of honorable men, deservedly high in the community, in every walk and relation of life. They doubtless acted from a conscientious sense of duty, and neither in- tended usurpation of the law, violence to justice, nor any wrong whatever. They believed it incumbent upon them to reform what they regarded as the mal-administration of public affairs, and to cleanse the city of the corruption which existed-as it has existed and always will exist in populous communi- ties, agreeably to the sentiment of Jefferson, that 'cities are scabs upon the body politic.' And with the best of motives, they believed that the organi- zation of the Vigilance Committee was the better and surer remedial agent to these wholesome and commendable purposes. But their action was akin
112
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
to that of the thousands of citizens who refrain from voting at primary elec- tions, where the seed is planted which will produce its kind in the fruiting on the day of the final "and determining election, and subsequently complain of the incompetency or dishonesty of the incumbents whose election is largely attributable to the neglect of these very citizens, to make it their special care that only good and qualified and worthy men shall be elected at the pri- maries."
Concerning the character of Casey, Mr. O'Meara avers that the slayer of James King of William has been put in a false light. He thus describes the man and his record :
"Now, as to Casey; he has been described as a ruffian and villain of irredeemable depravity-desperate to the last degree. James P. Casey was a young man of bright, intelligent and rather prepossessing face, neat in his person, inclined to fine clothes, but not flashy or gaudy in his attire. He was of low stature, slender frame, lithe and compact, sinewy, nervous and very agile. His eyes were blue and large, of bold expression. His voice was full and sonorous. He had served as assistant county treasurer for two years, handled a large aggregate of money in that capacity, and his accounts . squared to a cent when he handed over the books to his successor. He was twice supervisor. His record in that office will favorably compare with that of any who have succeeded him. During his lifetime in San Francisco he was never accused of crime; never suspected of criminal offense. Ballot- box stuffing was charged to his account; also fraudulent counting in elec- tions. Doubtless there was foundation for each charge. But there were members of the Executive Committee who had been associated with him in these gross wrongs, and at least one of them had gained place and profit therefrom; and these equally or more guilty men voted to hang their former associate in evil deeds."
"It will serve to state the offense for which Casey was sentenced to state prison in New York before he left for California. He had, the same as many other young men, taken up with a girl of loose character, whose chas- tity had been spoiled by another, and hired and furnished an apartment for her. The two lived as man and wife-much as too many live in that same rela-
113
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
tion, for they quarreled and separated. In his hot temper one day, he saw her upon the street, and instantly the thought flashed upon his mind that he would go to her apartment and have the furniture taken from it. He still kept a key to the door. He hired a wagon, and carried out his de- termination. The landlady supposed it to be all right. He had paid the rent in advance, and she was that much the gainer. He took the furniture to a second-hand furniture dealer, sold it and kept the money. As he bought it, he felt that it was his to sell. On the return of the girl, the land- lady told her what had occurred. In taking the furniture he had also car- ried away some articles which belonged to the girl. She hurried to the police court, made charge against him, and he was arrested. He made no defense and was convicted. The sentence was eighteen months in Sing Sing Prison. He served his time and came to California. This was the damning record which James King of William had threatened to publish in his Bulletin. He did not publish the facts of the case; but only the fact of the indictment, the conviction, the sentence and the imprisonment. King had been told all this by a man who had been clerk to the district attorney, and was cognizant of all the facts. He was a prominent Broderick man, hated Casey for having left that wing of the party and joined the other wing, and adopted this means to blast him in reputation. Casey was mor- bidly sensitive on the subject. He had been apprised that King intended to publish the matter; and early in the afternoon of the day of the shoot- ing he called upon Mr. King in his office, and warned him to desist from the publication. King gave no heed to the warning; the matter appeared in the Bulletin that day. Casey was exasperated to madness. He armed himself, watched for King on Montgomery street, but did not conceal him- self. It was King's invariable custom to leave his office in the small one- story brick building which so long obstructed Merchant street on the east side of Montgomery, soon after the Bulletin was issued, walk to the cigar store on the northwest corner of Washington and Montgomery streets, and thence out Washington street homeward. He usually wore a talma of coarse fabric, loose and reaching to his hips. It was sleeveless, concealing his arms and hands. As he came out of the cigar store, Casey hailed him. The distance between the two was about forty feet. Casey shouted to him, 'Prepare yourself!' and fired. King tottered and sunk upon the sidewalk. He had frequently
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.