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 19
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While some one was taking down the block, a rush was made by some of the friends of Jenkins, who attempted to rescue him. They got hold of his legs under the rope and pulled him down while the rope was being put around the beam of the old adobe building at the corner of the Plaza, the old Custom House. The other party pulled the rope, and he was really strangled before he was raised up. He was dragged from the Liberty Pole to the adobe building with the rope around his neck, a dis- tance of about 125 feet, while his friends were hanging on to his legs, and he was really killed before he reached the latter place.
19 Bluxome, MS Statement, 10.
20 Schenck, MS Statement, 39. The attempted rescue was described at the inquest, and by Coleman (MS Statement, 22).
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It is a grewsome picture, showing a frenzied struggle in which the members of the Committee triumphed only through their physical ability to hold off the opposing forces at the point of the pistol. At the last crucial moment, in strange contradiction to the spirit of the hour, Sam Brannan called out : "Every lover of liberty and good order lay hold of the rope!" and as many men as could do so put their hands to the tackle that lifted Jenkins to his death.21 With grim determination they held him there till life was absolutely extinct, while fitful moonlight pierced the drifting fog. and about the Plaza gleamed the lights of the gambling halls, where the games ran on, unchecked by the tragedy of the sterner game without.22
Blixome, Ward, and perhaps others, stood guard over the body till morning. Then came Edward Gallagher, coroner, who cut it down and straightway impaneled a jury to make official inquiry into the cause of this violent death. Full reports of the testimony were printed in the San Francisco papers. As in the case of Lewis, transcripts of the evidence are preserved among the documents of the Committee. A few scraps of paper appear to be original records of the actual discussions of the jury in arriving at a verdict, and point to a very close connection between that body and some member of the Committee itself.
Among the manuscripts in the Bancroft Library is a dictation by A. M. Comstock, one of the jury, who said that at first there was great difficulty in determining anything respecting the cause of death, many witnesses refusing to give answers that might ineriminate them, and others finding it impossible to identify
21 T. J. L. Smiley, MS Statement, 1877, p. 1.
22 A vivid picture of this scene is given in a MS entitled The Vigilance Committee of San Francisco, 1851, by T. G. Cary, now in the possession of Harvard University Library. Cary was not a member of the Committee. He watched the execution from the steps of the the Old Adobe, but remarked no appearance of riot. See also his "First San Francisco Vigilance Com- mittee," International Review, XI (1881), 78-88; Edward Bosqui, Memoirs, 1904, pp. 55-56; illustration in Annals, 343.
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more than one or two of the chief actors.23 Members of the police force testified as to the attempted rescue, and the violence with which it was repulsed. All were reluctant to name the citizens implicated, and Officer Noyce swore that he feared for his own life if he should tell what he had seen. The Herald stated that the court was cleared at his request even of reporters. Little of his evidence was printed, but the testimony in the Vigilance Committee Papers includes a fuller statement, although it does not mention the clearing of the room. It is thus evident that the Committee learned exactly what happened behind the closed doors of the court, and had immediate knowledge of the very facts the timid witness feared to divulge.2+
Hall McAllister testified that he had watched people entering Brannan's office after whispering a pass word to a guard at the door. He gave the names of several whom he recognized there and on the Plaza, but he asserted that he neither assisted in the trial, nor sympathized with those who held the rope. Broderick also identified several participants in the night's work, and related his own attempt to frustrate their efforts. Ira Cole, one of Broderick's followers, stated that a third of the crowd was in favor of releasing the prisoner. That significant sentence was omitted from the Committee's transcript of evidence. Unim- portant testimony was given by five or six other citizens and by some half dozen members of the Committee, although most of the latter exhibited signs of partial or complete amnesia concerning the events in which they had been so actively engaged.
The inquiry occupied parts of three days. During its progress it became more and more certain that the community was pre- pared to give hearty support to the executioners of Jenkins. Secrecy, therefore, was less vital to the committeemen, and on the second day of the inquest Sam Brannan divulged more
23 Comstock, in MS Vigilance Committees-Miscellany, 38-39.
24 Papers, 18-20.
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information than any member had previously been willing to vouchsafe. Ile acknowledged the existence of the Committee, and its instrumentality in the trial and the lynching, but he still refused to give any names on the ground that threats had been made against the lives of those involved. But names were soon given. The papers of June 13 printed an official announcement of the organization and purposes of the Committee of Vigilance signed by the first hundred and eighty members, who informed the public that they were all equally responsible for the execu- tion of Jenkins. The constitution was printed in full, and the citizens at large were invited to join the association, and to assist in establishing good order in San Francisco.25 At the inquest on the same day James C. Ward and F. A. Woodworth frankly avowed their connection with the Committee and swore that Jenkins had a full and fair trial and was justly condemned.
Early in the afternoon of June 13. the jury returned the fol- lowing verdict :
We, the Jurors of a Jury of Inquest empanelled by the Coroner of the county of San Francisco to inquire into the cause of the death of one John Jenkins, alias Simpton,26 do find upon their oaths that the said Jenkins alias Simpton, came to his death on the morning of the 11th of June, between the hours of two and three o'clock, by violent means, by strangulation, caused by being suspended by the neck with a rope attached to the [south] end of the adobe building on the Plaza, at the hands of, and in pursuance of a preconceived action on the part of an association of citizens, styling themselves a Committee of Vigilance, of whom the following members are implicated by direct testimony, to wit: Capt. Edgar Wakeman, W. M. H. Jones, James C. Ward, Edward A. King, T. K. Battelle, Benj. Reynolds, J. S. Eagan, J. C. Derby, and Samuel Brannan; and the following members by their voluntary avowal of par- ticipation in the act: (Here follows a list of members of the Vigilance Committee published yesterday morning.) A unanimous verdict.
T. M. LEAVENWORTH, Foreman.
25 See infra, p. 459.
26 See Papers, 72 note 2.
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The verdict appeared in the papers of the fourteenth, which also informed the public, over the same signatures that had been attached to the Vigilante communications of the previous day, that the Committee had
Resolved, That we, members of the Vigilance Committee, remark with surprise the invidious verdict rendered by the Coroner's Jury after their inquest upon the body of Jenkins, alias Simpton, after we have all notified the said jury and the public that we were all participators in the trial and execution of said Jenkins. We desire that the public will understand that Capt. E. Wakeman, W. H. Jones, James C. Ward, Edward A. King, T. K. Battelle, Benj. Reynolds, J. S. Eagan, J. C. Derby and Samuel Brannan, have been unnecessarily picked from our numbers, as the Coroner's jury have had full evidence of the fact, that all the undersigned have been equally implicated, and are equally responsible with their above named associates.
The members of the Committee thus kept their pledge to "defend and sustain each other in carrying out the determined action of the Committee at the hazard of their lives and for- tunes." In this case the hazard incurred was not great. The ruling of Judge Parsons in the case of Lewis had prevented any session of the grand jury until the month of July, and there was no way in which the lynching could be brought promptly to the attention of the higher courts. Meanwhile the newspapers united in approving the work of the Committee, in condemning the verdict, and in pointing out the absurdity of prosecuting such a large number of the most prominent and respectable citizens. The general sentiment is well exemplified by the following excerpt from the Courier:27
All laws are based upon the law of nature and when they are incapable either from positive imperfection or from an inefficient administration of them to protect our lives and property from the assassin and robber, the people, from whom all power is derived, have the indefeasible right to
27 California Courier, 1851, June 14 33. Similar expressions were printed in the Herald and the Alta, June 11-14. Two clergymen, Mr. Wheeler and Timothy D. Hunt, preached sermons approving the execution (Courier, June 28 31). Hunt's address was printed in pamphlet form.
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fall back upon the first principles of government, and do all that may be necessary and proper to protect their lives and property. This right was asserted by our ancestors, and it is a doctrine peculiar to republicans. The people have done the deed complained of and are ready to shoulder the consequences.
Just at this time a committee representing the grand jury which Judge Parsons had declared illegal published a statement dealing with the condition of the local courts, the constant post- ponements of trials, the consequent escape of criminals, and the serious danger of a situation which for so long deprived the city of a legal body competent to take cognizance of felonies. This report was cited by the Herald as furnishing "a key to the enigma, why our most respectable citizens should be found at dead of night hanging a man with their own hands for larceny. "28
While the press of the eity and the public in general accepted the Committee with approval, it was bitterly opposed by Brod- erick. As Ryekman remarked, he "was out with all his strength" on the night of the hanging, and aided Jenkins' friends in their efforts to effect a rescue. Binxome said :29
Although we were all friends to Broderick, he was against us as the Vigilance Committee; he did not think the people should take the law into their own hands. . . . I had nothing to say against Broderick in his position, because his theory was good enough, but there is a time when men should take the law into their own hands.
Broderiek's evidence before the coroner's jury, as printed in the Herald, characterized the Committee as "very bad men.''30 Hle reiterated his convictions more forcibly in the course of a mass meeting held on the Plaza on the Thursday following the lynching. This was an adjournment from a meeting of Wednes- day, when a crowd without any particular object or leader
28 Report and editorial, Herald. 1851, June 12.
29 Bluxome, MS Statement, 10.
30 Broderick stated that W. H. Jones was "in favor of hanging every- body not belonging to the Committee. He was very violent: he said 'To h-1 with all the courts, let's take care of ourselves' " (Herald, 1851, June 12 3%).
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boisterously commended the execution and handled with great roughness Mr. H. K. W. Clark, who ventured to express his dis- approval. The meeting on Thursday afternoon was one of the largest that had ever been held in San Francisco.31 A Mr. Hoag offered a series of resolutions of the most radical nature. He maintained that the people had a "right to change their laws whenever they were nugatory and insufficient," and he proposed that they should then and there "resolve themselves back into their original elements, return to a state of nature, and commence again." He called for an immediate election where the people might adopt new criminal regulations, and elect officials to administer "The Peoples' Law." In reporting the meeting the Herald used the caption "Revolution Advocated." In a later issue it spoke of Hoag's resolutions as presented in the nature of a jest.32 They were not received as a jest by the attendants at the mass meeting, however. Broderick forced his way to the side of the chairman and made a long speech against the entire proposition. When a vote was taken the division of sentiment was almost equal, and the senator hotly contested a ruling in favor of the adoption of the platform. Great confusion ensued, and a rush was made to drag Broderick from his position. He struggled fiercely to maintain his ground, while his friends were "fairly leaping through the crowd to get to his assistance." In the end, they seem to have held the steps of the Old Adobe against all comers. Broderick put a motion of adjournment and declared that it was carried, while officers of the city police, in the name
31 Herald, 1851, June 13, 24. The meetings were also reported in the issues of June 12 and 14. Ryekman said: "If our small numbers had been known, especially at the first, we should have been crushed by the force of the opposition. A great many men were opposed to us, and Broderick headed them; he was the main spring of the opposition, the head and front of the law and order party, and had hosts of friends. He was active in speaking against us, not only on the Plaza at the time Jenkins was hung, but at the Union Hotel, at the corner of Merchant St. which was a great rallying-place for politicians" (MS Statement, 5-6).
32 Herald, 1851, June 13 31 24.
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of the law, commanded the crowd to disperse. Later the other faction resumed control, but adjourned withont further action.
This disorderly gathering deserves attention chiefly beeanse it was one of the few oeeasions when public condemnation of the Committee was even attempted. Broderiek may have felt that the moment was critical, but the crowd gave no indication of a temper ripe for revolution, and it seems more likely that the astute party leader hoped to cheek a movement that might initiate reforms dangerous to his methods of politieal control. In that he was entirely unsuccessful and apparently he then realized that San Francisco was resolved to support the new Committee, and that open resistance was practically useless. He was, however, an outspoken antagonist of the society, and some of his adherents. like Charles Duane and Ira Cole, did what they eould to annoy and injure the individual members.
The Committee of Vigilance was thus fully launched upon its public eareer within a week of its initial gathering, and so strong was popular sentiment in its favor that the authorities took no steps to dissolve it. The verdiet of the coroner's jury never resulted in any indictments, and the "association of eitizens styling themselves the Committee of Vigilance" was unhampered in the proseention of its work. Organization had progressed swiftly during the hours of the first arrest and trial. The need of responsible leadership was quiekly realized, and sometime during the evening J. C. L. Wadsworth moved the appointment of an Exeentive Committee,33 which was immediately chosen. While Jenkins was still in eustody, Isaac Bluxome, Jr., was eleeted to the post of seeretary.34 an office which he retained throughout all the activities of the Committees of 1851 and of 1856.
It has already been stated that the Vigilantes preserved written records of their work, signed by their names or identification
33 Wadsworth, in MS Vigilance Committees-Miscellany, 23.
34 Bluxome, MS Statement, 10.
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numbers. The Minutes and Miscellaneous Papers of the San Francisco Committee of Viligance fill eight hundred octavo pages, and represent hours of laborious and conscientious writing on the part of the officers and members. Even there the archives are not completely presented, for several items are most unfortunately lacking in the collection preserved in the Bancroft Library. The most notable of the missing records is a book of minutes of the Executive Committee from June 16 to July 4, 1851. Bancroft was familiar with this volume when he wrote Popular Tribunals,35 although he incorporated in that work no significant official infor- mation which is supplementary to the data on the loose sheets and in the statements dictated by the members. The book of minutes was never entered in the manuscript catalogue of his collection, no mention of it can be found among the documents transferred to the University of California, and the historian himself was unable to recollect its fate when questioned about it in 1914. The other missing items are not important, as they represent transcriptions of original drafts which are still preserved. One is a large volume in which was copied evidence concerning criminals ;36 the other is a minute book for the meetings of the General Committee, which was ordered by resolution but which may never have been prepared.37
No one can glance even casually through these unique docu- ments without receiving a profound impression of the order and system prevailing in the work of the Committee. They have also an air of intense sincerity ; the very haste and roughness of com- position preclude the idea of evidence deliberately fabricated to conceal brutality or injustice, and careful comparison with the contemporary press and with the law reports there published
35 Popular Tribunals, I, 242.
36 "The testimony already collected fills a large volume, and has occupied the exclusive attention of one man in transcribing" (Herald, 1851, June 21 31).
37 Papers, 247.
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establishes their accuraey so far as verification is now possible.
As retold from the records of its daily work, the proceedings of the Committee were not impetuous or reckless, but rather painstaking and cautious, both in seeking criminals and in con- trolling the activities of the more impulsive members. The methods adopted to accomplish these purposes are perhaps the clearest indieation of the spirit which animated the organization. Let us therefore examine them in detail before a chronological narrative is presented.
The Executive Committee created on the night of Jenkins' arrest was composed of twenty members and beeame at once the center of administration. In that smaller circle matters of importance received their first consideration, 38 work was outlined, prisoners were examined, and recommendations and reports were. prepared for submission to the General Committee. The larger body ultimately enrolled 707 members.39 It met once or twice a week"" to review the work of the Executive Committee and to take action upon the final disposition of prisoners and such other questions as required decision by the society as a whole. During the period of greatest activity, that is. from June 26 to August 20. 1851. the Executive Committee met almost every day ; 41 sixty-two meetings are recorded by minutes or roll call, with an average attendanee of nine, and it is probable that some meetings are not registered. After the reorganization, September 17, 1851, there is an unbroken series of reports up to May 12, 1852. showing thirty-four meetings, with an average attendanee of eleven out of a membership inereased to forty-five. A summary of the roll call is printed in the Papers. From it one can tell at a glance the members who gave most unremitting attention
38 See MS Statement of Ryckman, infra, p. 460.
39 C. of V., Constitution, 3.
40 Papers, 300.
41 Papers. 62.
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to the business of the Executive Committee, and ean gain an idea of the magnitude of the task which they assumed.+2
For about a month Samuel Brannan acted as president both of the General and of the Executive bodies. When he resigned early in July, Selim E. Woodworth was elected general presi- dent, while Stephen Payran was chosen president of the Execu- tive Committee,43 a modification of method which indicated an increasing differentiation between the functions of the two groups. There were also two secretaries, but only one general treasurer.
The disbursement of money for incidental expenses was at first in the hands of the sergeant-at-arms, who also collected initiation fees. and fines; but very soon all expenditures were made subject to approval by a standing Committee on Finance, which authorized payments by the general treasurer only.44 Another standing committee, the Committee on Qualification, was created by the constitution for the supervision of the admission of new members. 45
A chief of poliee was appointed to investigate criminal eon- ditions in the city and to make arrests when occasion required. He was sometimes called the chief of patrol, or the chief marshal, and five deputy marshals, with subordinate assistants, acted under his orders.46 Whenever necessary a much larger number were called to act on the police force.47 A separate group, assigned for duty as a water police, patrolled the Bay and visited vessels suspected of harboring Sydney convicts. Both branches of the police reported to the Executive meetings, and
42 Papers, Appendix C. Bluxome attended 74 meetings, Ryckman 65, aud Payran 57.
43 See infra, p. 260. Appendix B of the Papers gives a list of officers. 44 Papers, 60, 91, and Index under "C. of V .- Finances."
45 C. of V., List of Names Approved by the Committee on Qualification, 1911.
46 Papers, 340, 356, and Index under "C. of V .- Police."
47 On June 19, the patrol was increased to one hundred (Papers, 58).
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often received instructions from that body, but on the whole they were left largely to their own initiative in making their investi- gations.48
The second article in the constitution provided for a room in which responsible members of the association should be in attend- ance day and night under direction of the sergeant-at-arms. From occasional reports it is apparent that five members were constantly on guard duty, in three hour shifts, and that every member was required to report daily so as to keep in touch with orders that might need his attention.49 The first headquarters were in the Brannan building, on the northwest corner of San- some and Bush streets. On June 17 an agreement was made by which the firm of Bullitt, Patrick & Dow, and H. A. Cheever, leased to five gentlemen (members of the Committee, but not so nominated in the bond) the second story of a frame building on the west side of Battery Street, betwen Clay and Pine.50
We have no accurate description of the permanent Vigilance headquarters. Contemporary illustrations51 showed that four windows and two upper doorways faced the Battery Street front, and the arrangement and furnishing of the interior may be partially reconstructed by reference to allusions scattered through the Papers.52 At the head of the stairway a door opened directly into a room large enough to accommodate a guard of forty or more men. It is possible that this apartment was sufficiently spacious to serve for the gatherings of the General
48 " We systematized the thing, and formed our committees for different purposes. There was a water police and other police. Captain Wakeman was Chief of the Water Police ..... The city was districted, and there were committees for each district, and they patrolled the city day and night" (Ryckmau, MS Statement, 3-4).
49 Papers, 97, and Index under "C. of V .- Headquarters-Police." Form of guard duty order, 136; lists of guards, 179, 531.
50 Papers, 36, 42.
51 Annals, 562.
52 See reports on the escape of Whittaker and MeKenzie, Papers, 528- 541; inventories, 654-656; disbursements for headquarters, 823. Remodel- ing the rooms cost about $650, furnishing them about $700.
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Committee. A sentinel stood watch over the door and members were expected to identify themselves by number as they entered, althoughe rule was sometimes relaxed, as for example at the time of the rescue of Whittaker and Mckenzie.53 Another door, also guarded, led from the first room into another, where the prisoners were confined. The Executive Committee met in a separate chamber. This room, it is permissible to suppose, boasted of the more luxurious items of furniture-the armchair that cost sixty dollars, the two cushioned office chairs, the desk and writing accessories. Among the other fittings were a supply of smaller chairs, tables, two dozen straw mattresses, fifty-eight pairs of blankets, nineteen window curtains, a copper urn, cook- ing utensils, and tableware.
The earlier minutes do not indicate that there was much con- flict of opinion over questions of policy. In view of the voluntary service given by the members, and of their emancipation from all the restraints that are imposed upon the lawful guardians of society, the harmony and cooperation that made the body efficient were remarkable. It is evident, however, that rival claims to authority produced moments of intense friction. After one such incident the Executive Committee was instructed to make a clear definition of the duties of the various officers. In response by-laws were framed, which dealt particularly with the responsi- bilities of the chief of police and of the sergeant-at-arms, and
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