USA > California > History of California, Volume VI > Part 83
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Thus ended the senatorial contest between Gwin and Broderick. When Gwin 63 departed from the state to return to Washington, says O'Meara, "he had flouted in his face a large canvas frame, on which was
68 In the House of Representatives Mr Burlingame said: 'I never knew a man who was so misunderstood-who differed so much from his common fame.' Morris of Ill. said: 'A truer man, a more distinguished patriot, a firmer hater of wrong and oppression, a more devoted and consistent friend, and purer public servant, never lived. No suspicion was ever whispered that corruption had tampered with him, that bribery's base coin had adhered to his fingers, or that he was in any way implicated in schemes of public plun- der. Temperate, moral, simple, and frugal in his habits, and addicted to no vices, with all his aims his country's good, he trod life's path, not as society's spawn, but as one of nature's noblemen.' Sickles of N. Y. said: 'No man, I venture to say, lives who ever approached David C. Broderick as a legisla- tor, or in any public or private capacity, with a corrupt or dishonest sugges- tion.' Sac. Union, March 19, 1860.
69 Charles L. Scott, a native of Richmond, Va, a lawyer by profession, came to Cal. in 1849, and after trying his fortunes in the mines, resumed the practice of law. Union Democrat, in Hayes' Coll., Pol., ii. 298.
739
AN OMINOUS WARNING.
painted a portrait of Mr Broderick, and this: 'It is the will of the people that the murderers of Broderick do not return again to California;' and below were also these words, attributed to Mr Broderick: 'They have killed me because I was opposed to the extension of slavery, and a corrupt administration .? "
Behold, now, the irony of church charity! The body must be cast out by the priests-his body, who had been the grandest, noblest of all their saintly so- ciety, the body of the man martyred for his high poli- tical morality, for principles which were soon to shake the nation to its very foundations, and become estab- lished by the shed blood of a million of its sons. Broderick, whose life had been a battle for the higher progress against a vile, iniquitous, but cherished relic of savagism, was denied burial in 'consecrated ground,' because he died on the 'field of honor.' His mortal remains now lie under a stately monument in Lone Mountain cemetery, erected by the grateful people of California.70
70 A man who had much to do in forming loyal sentiment in San Joaquin county was David Jackson Staples. Staples was born in Medway, Mass., May 3, 1824, and was descended from early New England ancestors. He came to California in 1849, and settled on the Mokelumne river, where he purchased land, and engaged in farming and stock-raising. He was the first justice of the peace in his precinct, and the first postmaster. He used his influence to soften the hostility of his southern neighbors, as well as his courageous will to repel the tyranny of their leaders, and with great effect, considering the people he had to deal with in that county-'The South Caro- lina of California.' The first republican speech in the county was delivered on his premises. In 1852 he ran on the whig ticket for the legislature, and was beaten on account of anti-slavery sentiments. In 1860 he was elected as an unpledged delegate to the national convention at Chicago, and voted for Lincoln. Fremont selected him as his representative to decline for him the complimentary nomination, which it was understood he would there receive, and he executed his commission. On returning to California, he was solicited to run for joint senator for San Joaquin and Contra Costa counties, and came within 125 votes of an election, running 400 votes ahead of his ticket. Going to Washington to attend Lincoln's inauguration, he was there during the first days following the President's first call for troops, and was active in the defence of the capital at that critical time. On again returning to California he encountered the disasters by flood which ruined many less able to bear their losses, in 1861-2. This determined him to remove to San Francisco. He was appointed port-warden by Governor Stanford, which office he held until 1866, when he was displaced by Governor Low for political purposes. Soon after he became president of the Fireman's Fund Insurance company, which was saved from dissolution at the time of the great Chicago and Bos- ton fires by his arduous and well-directed efforts. He was influential in giv- ing a proper direction to the bequests of James Lick, who sought his advice.
CHAPTER XXV.
POPULAR TRIBUNALS.
1849-1856.
STATE OF SOCIETY-MINERS' COURTS -- CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS-CRIMINAL CLASS-THE HOUNDS-BERDUE AND WILDRED-ORGANIZED RUFFIAN- ISM-COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE-THE JENKINS AFFAIR-VILLANOUS LAW COURTS- JAMES STUART-POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL CORRUPTION- JAMES KING OF WILLIAM-HIS ASSASSINATION-SEIZURE, TRIAL, AND EXECUTION OF CRIMINALS-A VACILLATING GOVERNOR-A BLOODY- MINDED JUDGE-ATTITUDE OF UNITED STATES OFFICIALS-SUCCESS OF THE SAN FRANCISCO VIGILANCE COMMITTEE UNDER TRYING CIRCUM- STANCES-DISBANDMENT.
IN the abnormal state of early California society, marked by a singular variety of races, classes, and characteristics, the people almost exclusively intent on gold-harvesting, with little regard for the country or thought of home-building, less than ordinary atten- tion was given to the public duties of a citizen by the mass of men on whom good government depends; so that the formal barriers to crime and corruption were either lacking or lamentably weak. The ever-shifting current of mining life prevented the creation of local authorities. Practical common sense was employed to reach direct results. Justice was not allowed to become subordinate to circumlocution or technicalities. A smattering of home precedents sufficed for forms; and for the settlements of disputes and the suppres- sion of outrages the miners improvised courts, with judges and juries selected from among their own num- ber, who rendered their verdict with promptness and equity. In the absence of prisons or permanent guards,
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741
EARLY CALIFORNIA SOCIETY.
chastisement for crime ranged chiefly between whip- ping, banishment, and hanging. Stealthy inroads upon property ranked here as a more punishable offence than personal violence; for property was un- protected, while men, for the most part well armed, were supposed to be able to take care of themselves; and so meanness became a greater crime than murder. They were a self-reliant class, these diggers; of rough, shaggy appearance, bristling with small-arms at the belt, yet warm-hearted; with mobile passions and racy, pungent language; yet withal generous and gen- tle. Cast adrift on the sea of adventure in motley companionship, each man held life in his own hand, prepared for storm or shoal, and confident in finding means and remedies when needed.
This element permeated also the large fixed settle- ments; but here the people, with some reverence for established law and authorities, generally abstained from interfering in the administration. Congregating largely in these centres of population were the idle and vicious, who took advantage of the preoccupation of the industrial classes for gaining control of power, which was then used as a shield for nefarious opera- tions against the community, by officials in the diver- sion of public property and traffic in justice and privileges, and by ruffians and criminals, singly or in bands, in more or less glaring raids on life and prop- erty. Thus two strong factions were preying upon society, assisted by such delectable elements as Sydney convicts, who had been allowed to take their departure from England's penal settlement. As allies, tools, or clients of the officials, the others could generally rely on their efficient cooperation for eluding punishment. If arrested, there were always at hand tricky advo- cates to distort law and protract trials till witnesses had been spirited away or bought; finally, compliant judges and packed juries could be counted upon for acquittal or nominal punishment, the latter to be quickly nullified by additional bribery.
742
POPULAR TRIBUNALS.
The rising of San Francisco in 1849 against the Hounds, in vindication of justice, had served only as a momentary check on crime, which with growing opportunity increased apace. At last, on February 19, 1851, the long-smothered indignation was kindled into a flame by the robbery and maltreatment of a prominent merchant. Excited throngs gathered within the city, with its tribunal and jail, wherein lay two persons just arrested on suspicion. The persuasive appeals of the officials were drowned in jeers, and vio- lence was feared from the mob. Then some respected men stepped forward with a propitiatory suggestion to organize a court of citizens for trying the prisoners. This was acted upon, but so conflicting proved the testimony concerning the identity and guilt of the ac- cused, that the improvised and perplexed tribunal surrendered them to the regular judges, despite the sullen growl of the masses.1
This partial discomfiture of popular justice served to dampen the ebullition of the masses, and crime emboldened swelled both in spirit and extent. The rising had not been fruitless, however. The merchants formed a patrol, and began to agitate the question of a popular tribunal for the punishment of crime in gen- eral. This took shape on the 9th of June, when the Committee of Vigilance was organized under the fiery, coarse-grained, and erratic yet resolute and influential Sam Brannan, as president of the executive commit- tee, or directing council and court. Subject to this was the general committee, embracing every respect- able citizen who chose to join and act as guard and detective, reporting all suspicious characters and occurrences to headquarters. In grave cases certain taps on the fire bells should be the signal for a general
The merchant robbed was C. J. Jansen, and the two persons charged with the robbery were Burdue and Wildred. Under the pressure of popular anger the regular judges condemned them to imprisonment. Wildred made his escape; the other, after further trials elsewhere, and narrow escape from being hanged, was proved au innocent man. Full account of the affair is given in my Popular Tribunals, i. 170 et seq.
743
VIGILANCE COMMITTEE OF 1851.
assembling, to take action as determined by the exec- utive.2
The efficiency of the body was to be tested on the day following its organization, when the significant bell taps summoned the members to try a notorious robber just captured. A few hours later the same bell sounded the death-knell of the man, as he was hanged from the veranda of the old City Hotel.3 Roused by this action, and smarting under recent cruel incendiarisms, the people manifested their approval in public meetings, and rallied round the vigilance com- mittee till the enrolment number reached 716, one fifth of which force figured constantly on guard, police, or committee duty. Soon afterward the association marked its career by the execution of three more prominent members of the Sydney brood.4
All this was effected not without show of opposition, and dissent even from respectable quarters, from men whose reverence for legal authority had been stamped into their characters since early youth. Officials, lawyers, and all that class depending on the patronage of criminals objected to this profanation of time-hon-
Concerning the originators and chief members of the body, the constitu- tion and rules, quarters, district committees, and land and water police squads, some of them paid, I refer to the full history of the movement in my Popular Tribunals, i. 207 et seq. For convenience, secrecy, and safety, members were known by their enrolling number. Each contributed $5; further donations came from the more liberal members for rent, pay of a few constantly engaged men, and expenses of trials and deportation. Arrested persons were lodged in cells at the headquarters, in two large buildings ou Battery st, between California and Pine; after a preliminary examination by a sub-committee, they were tried by the executive committee, and convicted only on evidence suffi- cient to convict before ordinary courts, yet with procedure wecded of all needless technicality and form. The verdict was submitted to the general committee for approval.
3 John Jenkins, as he was called, had snatched a small safe from Virgin's shipping office on Long Wharf, and sought to escape with it in a boat. He was quickly overtaken and carried to the committee rooms. Being an old offender of the Sydney brood, he was quickly condemned and hanged at 2 A. M., June 11th, despite the efforts of the police and desperadoes to interfere. Details in Id.
+ Jas Stuart, the real culprit of the Jansen outrage, was hanged July 11th, the committee forming in military array for the purpose. Flags were hoisted and guns fired by the ships in the harbor. The other two victims, Sain Whittaker and Rob. Mckenzie, the former a knightly scoundrel, the smart- est of the Sydney thieves, the latter a churlish coward, were captured by the police, but retaken from the prison and hanged.
744
POPULAR TRIBUNALS.
ored tenets. The fact that the committee was so in- timately connected with the money-making order, and displayed a dictatorial attitude toward mobs, and all species of lawlessness except their own, naturally commanded the confidence of the laboring class. On the other hand, all non-producers, especially southern- ers, whose chivalric ideas soared above common indus- trial pursuits to the realms of government and the learned professions, deemed it to their interest to oppose all popular justice. The law-and-order party, as these opponents termed themselves, had also re- course to public meetings and loud declamation, wherein they waved the tattered emblems of author- ity, and conjured up phantoms of bloody anarchy. The mayor was induced to issue a proclamation against the unlawful reformers; the grand jury con- demned them; and the governor pronounced a warn- ing against arbitrary acts, though tacitly approving of them.
Meanwhile the committee held bravely to its course, registering daily notices of crime and felons, searching for criminals, and taking testimony for the trial of prisoners, of whom more than half a dozen were at times awaiting their turn. The sentences now passed were either hanging or banishment.5 Only four executions took place in San Francisco at this time, yet these four had greater effect than ten- fold that number of legal death-dealings. More than fifty notorious criminals and suspected characters were condemned to banishment, most of them being sent back whence they came, chiefly to Sydney.6 Bribery and distortion of evidence availed nothing before this inflexible tribunal, which startled the guilty with the
5 Continued imprisonment could not have been enforced by a temporary body, although the lash might have proved effective. Passage money for exiles was provided by the committee unless the prisoner had means. In- quiries and appeals from all parts had to receive attention, although many were foreign to the committee's object. The right it claimed to enter private houses in search of evidence created some hostility.
6 Some were examined on arrival at their destination, and not permitted to land.
745
COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE.
swiftness and certainty of retribution. Moreover, the admonitions to evil-doers, and the watch kept over courts, so aroused public offices to zeal and alacrity as greatly to promote the reform in hand.
The committee's aim being thus accomplished in the main, it retired from active duty on September 9th, after three months' existence; yet in order to sustain the effect of his work, a committee was ap- pointed for six months to continue the watch over the political and judicial administrations, and in case of need, to give the signal for a general meeting.7
The example of San Francisco was widely imitated throughout the state and beyond, partly because the criminal affliction in the interior had been increased by the exodus of fugitives from the metropolis. Ow- ing to the absence of courts and jails throughout the country, summary justice became indispensable. By July vigilance committees had been formed in different places, and more were rapidly organizing after the model of the city by the gate, and associated with her in a measure for the exchange of criminal records and occasional cooperation. In the larger towns, such as Sacramento, Stockton, Marysville, Sonora, San José, and Los Angeles, were standing associations of the best citizens, as complex and effective as the proto- type, although less extensive. In the smaller towns and in the mining camps, committees organized only for the particular occasions demanding them, usually to try some desperado just caught. With less facility for effectual banishment, they inclined to the severer penalties of lash and noose, with corresponding effect.8
7 In March 1852 the general committee did once more meet to intimidate the emboldened criminals. In June the records of their meetings ceased. Yet during the winter 1852-3 they issued offers of reward for the arrest of incendiaries. Pop. Trib., ii. 394 et seq.
8 It was proposed to unite the committees into one, centring in San Fran- cisco, and several country associations offered themselves as branches; but the original body declined to assume the responsibility that might arise from inevitable excesses beyond its control. It expatriated, however, many erim- inals sent in from the country. The Sacramento committee, created June 25, 1851, numbered 213 members at its first meeting, and stirred the courts to
746
POPULAR TRIBUNALS.
The sweeping purification of 1851 served long to restrain many evils, but as watchfulness relaxed they sprang up again, changed somewhat in their nature, however, from the former predominant outrages on property and life, to the less glaring phases of politi- cal corruption. It was deemed safer and more profit- able to steal from the public, under cover of law, than to rouse the outcry that must result from individual spoliation. Thus, at a time when commercial prosper- ity was on the decline, taxes were increased to four per cent to furnish dissolute and scheming officials with money, even the funds not embezzled being di- verted into channels most conducive to sustaining them in authority. And to this end public positions, requiring able and trusted men, were distributed among the subservient tools of domineering bullies, knaves, and ruffians, who manipulated the ballot, and reduced judicial investigation to a farce.
An ominous frown of discontent had for some time been gathering on the public brow, when on May 14, 1856, the community was startled by the predeter- mined assassination of James King of William, editor of the Evening Bulletin, a man of fearless nature, who had assumed the task of exposing roguery and pro- moting administrative reform. The murderer, James Casey, also an editor, was a noted politician, whose
greater zeal. On Aug. 22d it hanged a reprieved robber. As the centre of a district overrun by horse-thieves, and entrepôt for the southern mines, Stock- ton suffered greatly, and on June 13th a citizen police was organized by 170 volunteers, preliminary to a vigilance committee. Marysville had its com- mittee, which adjourned in Oct., only to meet in the following month for the pursuit of Murieta's band. In July 1852 it was revived by incendiarisms, and continued to act as late as 1858, when five desperadoes were sent away. Shasta, Nevada City, Grass Valley, Eureka, and Mokelumne Hill figure in the list, the last two applying the noose in 1852 and 1853. Sonora was among the most busy in the daily dispensation for some time of whipping and ban- ishment, with shaving the head and branding H. T., even on the cheek. At the same time, she displayed a generous charity in efforts to save the less culpable from temptation. San José and Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispo, Santa Bárbara, and San Diego, were represented in the south. At Los Angeles robber gangs and riots kept the place in a turmoil. In several towns were uprisings at a later period, as at Monterey, Truckee, and Visalia, the last named doing sweeping work, and Truckee obtaining martyrdom for one of its defenders. For details of vigilance work in and beyond California in early days, with its exciting and romantic episodes, I refer to my Popular Tribunals, passim.
747
VIGILANCE COMMITTEE OF 1856.
eastern record as a convict had been exposed by his victim. This slaying of a champion of the afflicted citizens, and by a pronounced public swindler, roused in the breasts of all good men the greatest indignation, and set on foot measures which were to raise King of William to the rank of a martyr, while dealing destruc- tion to the public foes. The long-silent bell was quickly sounded, and a new work of reform was begun.
Recognizing as before the danger lurking in a maddened crowd, the remnant of former vigilance members determined on May 15th to revive the old committee on a plan more suited to the changed con- dition of affairs, and the prospective encounter with greater opponents. An executive committee of forty 9 members was chosen, under the presidency of William T. Coleman, a prominent merchant, a model Californian for enterprise and integrity, and a man possessed of practical sense, presence of mind, and determined cour- age. The members of the general committee, which quickly mustered 6,000 men,10 and later increased to 8,000, were organized into a military body, mainly in- fantry, armed with muskets and clubs, complemented by some cavalry, flying-artillery, and a marine battery, with commissary, medical, and police departments, and patrol service.11 Subscription soon reached $75,000, and several hundred thousand flowed in due time into the treasury from dues and voluntary subscriptions, to cover the outlay for armament, police, testimony,
9 At first of 26. For names of officers, see Pop. Trib., ii. 113 et seq., with biographic traits of leaders.
10 During the first 24 hours 1,500 enrolled, and in July 6,000 stood on the list, with many more ready to join in case of emergency.
11 Employing constantly 300 or 400 men. When 4,000 strong there were 40 companies, including two companies of cavalry, three of flying-artillery, one marine battery, and one pistol company. The police numbered 200 or 300 men, partly from the city police, and several under pay; the medical dept had a hospital; the commissary attended also to rations for the patrol. The companies elected their own officers, and many possessed their special armories. C. Doane was chosen marshal or general, with Col Olney as second. No uniform was required, but most members wore a dark frock-coat and cap. In Aug. they possessed 1,900 muskets, 250 rifles, 4 brass six-pounders, 2 iron nine-pounders, 5 smaller pieces, a portable barricade on wheels, also swords, pistols, etc. A board of delegates, composed of three members from cach company, had to confirm verdicts.
748
POPULAR TRIBUNALS.
GROCERIES & LIQUORS
HEADQUARTERS OF THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE.
749
CASEY AND CORA.
deportation, and other demands. Headquarters were selected on Sacramento street,12 cast of Front street.
In the ranks of the reformers were persons of all classes and creeds, laborers, merchants, and mechanics, master and man alike shouldering a musket, standing guard, and marching side by side. They differed from their brethren of 1851 in having among their number more solid business men, with a sufficient majority of sedate, deliberative, and broad-minded conservatives to control the hot-headed radicals. Seldom has been seen an array of patriots playing soldier who combined more intelligence and zes1. 13
The first task was to secure and try Casey, who to escape popular fury had eagerly availed himself of the protection of the jail, there to wait till the stormn abated sufficiently to permit the usual circumvention of justice. His voluntary surrender being hopeless, the committee mustered en masse to enforce it, advanc- ing in sections, by different approaches, toward the jail. It was Sunday, May 18th. A sabbath stillness reigned throughout the city, broken only by the meas- ured tread of the reformers and the call to worship of church bells. The law-and-order party was also abroad, confident in the stout walls of the prison; but as the line of gleaming bayonets grew denser around it their smile of derision faded, and it was with serious apprehensions that they beheld the yawning muzzle of a gun uncovered before the entrance. They saw the hopelessness of opposition. Casey was surrendered, together with another murderer named Cora.14
Rebellion! was the cry of the law-and-order party,
12 Old no. 41. It was the old appraisers' store. Description, with plans and views in my Pop. Trib., ii. 97-108. The first temporary quarters were at 1053 Sacramento st. The constitution of 1851 was revised and adopted. Text in Id., 112-13. The inspection of jails was an early task.
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