USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > 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 > Part 18
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42 Bluxome, MS Statement, 16.
43 In Oakland Transcript, 1874, March 29 11. 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.
45 Papers, 639.
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The Organization of the Committee of Vigilance
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. Bnt they have not been quoted as absolutely authentic unless the archives or the contemporary press have afforded standards for careful verification. They are invaluable, however, for their accounts of the beginning of the Committee of 1851, since there are no official documents and no press reports that tell the steps that were taken to form the protective association that had been so widely advocated during the first week of June.
The clearest statement of the preliminaries of organization was given by James Neall, Jr.46 He said that on Sunday, June 8, he discussed the perilous condition of society with his neighbor, George Oakes. The latter suggested that they visit Sam Bran- nan and consult him as to the possibility of effecting improve- ment. Brannan was found in his office in company with his clerk, A. Wardwell, and the four men decided to summon a larger group to consider the situation of the city. A list was compiled without delay and notices were written asking various reliable men to invite other responsible citizens to meet on the following noon at the California Engine Honse. There was a most satis- factory response to this appeal, and after some debate on the course that should be followed the meeting adjourned, to reas- semble in the evening at Brannan's building, on Sansome and Bush streets. There the plan of organization took definite shape,
46 James Neall, Jr., MS Statement, 1-3. See extracts in Appendix, pp. 457-458.
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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.49 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 eitizens 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
47 See supra, p. 120. The Alta, 1850, July 19 31, 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 (AAlta, 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 eom- munities. In 1828 the Jackson party in Indiana formed preeinet "Com- mittees of Vigilance" (Logan Esarey, History of Indiana, I [1915], 299). The same name was often employed by local organizations in Texas during the movement for independence from Mexico.
48 Popular Tribunals, I, 208.
49 J. M. Guinn, who compiled histories of several California counties, said that the name "Vigilance Committee" originated 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."
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The Organization of the Committee of Vigilance
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 V., Constitution, 7-8). Another copy found among the miscellaneons docu- ments and printed in the Papers, III, 1-3, is dated June 8, and Bancroft accepted that date for the definite institution of the Committee (Popular Tribunals, I, 210), but the official date of organization inscribed on the certificates of membership is plainly June 9.
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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
51 The Committee had the use of the bells of the California and Monu- mental engine companies. Both were tapped when occasion required, but the Monumental bell, linng on the engine house on Brenham Place, facing the Plaza, was by far the more famons. 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 56, and in the Chronicle, 1896, Jan. 12 91. 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, 16 ; San Francisco Call, 1893, Dec. 18 24.
52 Popular Tribunals, I, 207. T. J. L. Smiley, number 573, said that Jenkins' trial "was an impromptu meeting" ( Statement, 1877, p 1, MS in the Bancroft Library).
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The Organization of the Committee of Vigilance
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 meeting54 there were of course many young men not largely experienced in the affairs of life, and who perhaps did not realize the responsibilities they were taking upon them- selves, what it might lead to; but some of the older heads saw in it an incipient revolution, and that difficulties might arise, and among them was Col. J. D. Stevenson. Though he sympathized fully in the necessities of the movement, he felt its importance, and he got up and made a speech, in which he dwelt upon the responsibilities of the case, and called upon every man to do his full duty etc.,-putting on his severest military air as he spoke.
53 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 knoek 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 ery 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. Sehenek, 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
1 Bluxome put the number at 100 (MS Statement, 9); Ryckman at 75 or 80 (MS Statement, 4).
2 Details of the capture were given by Schenck (MS Statement, 35-38) ; and by J. D. Farwell (MS Statement, 6).
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The Committee at Work
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; Schenck was appointed prosecuting attorney ;6 the particulars of the theft were rehearsed by witnesses. The evidence was conelusive; the verdict was "guilty."?
3 Neall 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, 1851, June 11 %). Some reports said the signal was three taps.
4 Papers, 22-23. It may have been upon this occasion that "Lewis" was the countersign. See supra, p. 183.
5 Farwell, MS Statement, 6.
6 Schenck, MS Statement, 36.
7 The theft of the safe was proved beyond question (Coleman, MS State- ment, 19-21; Farwell, MS Statement, 7). J. C. L. Wadsworth said: "The doors were closed, and no one allowed in but those we knew, officers were chosen for the meeting, which being organized, we proceeded to the evi- dence. We heard the testimony, and after it was all in, a committee was appointed to step one side and deliberate upon it and bring in a verdict, and say what should be done with the man. This committee went to a corner of the room, and after consultation for a while brought in a verdict of guilty,
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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-conviet. In San Francisco he had kept a vicious lodging house known as the Unele 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 liable to the death penalty of the statutes of 1851, his previous bad record told heavily against him, and he deliberately excited his eaptors to a dangerous pitel of resentment by cursing them vigorously and by boasting that he would quickly be resened. 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 William T. Coleman sought to obtain a post- ponement of execution until morning, urging that it was unmanly
and the sentence of death was pronounced on the man" (MS Vigilance Committees-Miscellany, 23). At the coroner's investigation Brannan swore that the prisoner had a fair hearing before sixty or eighty persons, who gave a unanimous verdict of guilty (Papers, 24).
8 For the affair with Mrs. Connolly, see Papers, 45, 53-57.
9 Schenck, MS Statement, 37; Herald, 1851, June 11 %.
10 Farwell, MS Statement, 7. Ryekman said that even Sam Brannan showed something of the white feather on this occasion (MS Statement, 4).
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The Committee at Work
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 Ryekman 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. Schenck said that over eighty joined during the evening (MS Statement, 36).
12 Ryckman, MS Statement, 2.
13 Ryckman, MS Statement, 2.
14 See Papers, 309. When Jenkins was convinced that his fate was sealed, he asked only for a drink of liquor and a cigar, accepted these small favors coolly, and met his death without further protest (Herald, 1851, June 11 %).
15 Ryckman, MS Statement, 9.
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Vigilance Committee of 1851
to serve with Wakeman, Schenck and probably James F. Curtis, as a subcommittee to make ready for the hanging.16 IIe 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 defiaut 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 deelare whether or not this action should be approved. The response was a tumultous ery of "Yes!" mingled with cheers and some dissenting "Noes!" Next eame a voice from below : "Who is the speaker?" Mr. Brannan was named-and no name was more familiar than his. Another voice : "Who are the Committee?" But the prudent and
16 Coleman, MS Statement, 21; Schenck, MS Statement, 39; Wakeman, Log, 139.
17 Wadsworth accompanied him (MS Vigilance Committees-Miscellany, 24).
18 Especially in the Herald, 1851, June 11, and in the evidence before the coroner's inquest, printed in the newspapers and in the Papers, 14-27.
I Brann
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The Committee at Work
sympathetic assemblage raised a warning cry: "No names! no names!" and then divided, some hurrying to the Plaza to watch developments there, and some remaining behind to await the appearance of Jenkins.
A little before two o'clock the Committee came from the build- ing. The handcuffed prisoner and two guards walked within a circle of rope held by a watchful cordon. The rest of the Vigi- lantes surrounded them in solid ranks. All were armed, and little George Ward marched valiantly behind the towering Australian, flourishing his pistol and announcing that at the first hint of resistance he would shoot to kill.19 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 :20
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