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mer judgment. Repeated cases of rehearing took place; and where the parties appealing were "white-washed," or turned out really "good citizens," generally no malice was manifested by them against the committee; because they, like their judges, considered that the whole proceedings had been conducted in good faith and for the public benefit. A few actions of damages for false imprisonment and defamation of character were about this time and subsequently raised against members of the Vigilance Committee, by parties who considered themselves aggrieved by their proceedings. In the end, however, these actions were either quashed, nominal damages only awarded by the jury, or the plaintiffs indemnified. Meanwhile, the committee pursued "the even tenor of their way," nowise daunted by the reproaches and threats of offended individuals, nor by the continual opposing action of mortified officials. When some of the warned were contumacious, and refused to depart, they were seized by force, in spite of their appeals to the courts of law, and imprisoned on board a safe ship in the bay until arrangements could be made for their transportation abroad. The legal authorities, with numerous practising lawyers in their train, meanwhile "fretted and fumed" at thus losing their own proper business; and denounced in angry language the sweeping action of the committee. Those personages did not deny the good result of this action, nor did they disguise the alarming increase of crime and the inability of the regular tribunals to cope with it; but still they harped upon the illegality,—the illegality of the whole proceedings. Illegality truly! People were abused, robbed and murdered on all sides, their houses set in flames, and their goods consumed or stolen, and yet they were to be forbidden the only remedy in their power, because form was to be observed, while the criminals escaped! The reproaches of mere lawyers were disregarded, and the work of purification went on.

Some individuals having chosen to throw obstacles in the way of the Vigilance Committee's action, that body issued the following notice to the public. It is here given to show the spirit of their proceedings, and the ceaseless watchfulness with which they were conducted. Not a word need be said as to their illegality; that is confessed by all.

"VIGILANCE COMMITTEE ROOM:-It having become necessary to the peace and quiet of this community that all criminals and abettors in crime should be driven from among us, no good citizen, having the welfare of San Francisco at heart, will deny the Committee of Vigilance such information as will enable them to carry out the above object. Nor will they interfere with said committee when they may deem it best to search any premises for suspicious characters or stolen property. Therefore,

"RESOLVED, That we the Vigilance Committee do CLAIM to ourselves the right to enter any person or persons' premises where we have good reason to believe that we shall find evidence to substantiate and carry out the object of this body; And further, deeming ourselves engaged in a good and just

cause-WE INTEND TO MAINTAIN IT.

"By order of

THE COMMITTEE OF VIGILANCE,

"San Francisco, July 5, 1851."

No. 67, Secretary."

The next striking occasion when the Vigilance Committee exercised its power was on the 11th of July following. A person of the name of James Stuart-the real party of that name, and for whom Burdue had been mistaken in the affair of the 19th of February preceding, had been for some days in the hands of the committee upon various charges. He had been regularly and fairly tried, found guilty, and was sentenced to be hanged. Subsequently he made a full confession of his crimes, and acknowledged the justice of his punishment. He was an Englishman, and had many years before been transported from Great Britain to Australia for forgery. At that time he was only sixteen years of age. His whole life afterwards was one continued tissue of the most daring crimes. After wandering about various parts of the Pacific, he lighted at last upon California, and during his short residence there was supposed to have perpetrated more murders, burglaries, and other crimes of every dark and desperate description, than any other villain in California. His confession revealed an extraordinary state of social impurity, and showed, clearly and minutely, the alarming mass of villany which existed among the community, and the support it received from the lax and culpable behavior of the executive. This confession was immediately published, and the people warned against the many persons whom it named and implicated in the crimes acknowledged.

About nine o'clock on the morning of the 11th, the customary taps on the bell of the Monumental Engine House, which showed

that a matter of life and death was under consideration, summoned together the Vigilance Committee. Immediately a numerous assemblage of members convened at their rooms, and proceeded to try the prisoner. Evidence was duly led and considered, and Stuart's guilt being fully established, he was sentenced by a unanimous voice, to immediate death by hanging. Before the execution, Col. J. D. Stevenson went forth to the crowd of people waiting outside, and addressing them, stated the facts of the case briefly, as established by evidence, the subsequent confession of the prisoner himself, and the proposed judgment of the committee. He then inquired whether the people approved of their proceedings, and would confirm the sentence. A loud shout in the affirmative from a great crowd answered his inquiry, against which there were only several voices in the negative. During this time the committee were in consultation as to their further proceedings, while the prisoner remained manacled in an adjoining room. He appeared quite reckless of his fate, and only at times said that the business was "d-d tiresome." He begged a piece of tobacco from one of the members, which he continued to chew until he heard his doom. When sentence was delivered, he was permitted to have a delay of two hours, to frame his mind to the solemnity of the occasion; and to that end the assistance of a clergyman was given, although the prisoner seemed very indifferent about religious duties. This clergyman, the Rev. Mr. Mines, was closeted with the condemned during the time granted. In the interval, the members present of the committee -some four hundred in number, sat grimly on their seats, silent and determined. They felt the responsibility and unpleasant nature of the task before them; but they did not hesitate. It was for the good of the community and their own safety that they had been laboring, and while conscience approved of their proceedings, they did not so much court, as they hoped and expected the confidence and applause of their fellow-citizens. The silence in that chamber of judgment was profound; a pin could have been heard to fall on the floor.

After the two hours' grace, the condemned was led forth, still manacled, and closely surrounded by those who had the direct charge of watching over him. The rest of the committee formed

in a line behind. They were all well armed, and prepared to resist any attempted rescue, either by the prisoner's friends, or the authorities themselves. In this order they marched, two by two, as in funeral procession, after Stuart and his guards, along Battery street to Market street wharf, down which they proceeded to its extremity. A great crowd of citizens followed.

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Hitherto the prisoner had preserved much coolness, but towards the close, fear was beginning to overcome him, and he was at last obliged to be supported by two of his guards. At the end of the wharf every thing had been hastily arranged for the execution. So soon as the procession reached the spot, the fatal rope was fastened, and the condemned quickly hoisted up with a jerk upon a derrick. He did not struggle much. After hanging a few seconds his hat fell off, and a slight breeze stirred and gently waved his hair. This was a sorry spectacle-a human being dying like a dog, while thousands of erring mortals, whose wicked

ness only had not yet been found out, looked on and applauded! But necessity, which dared not trust itself to feelings of compassion, commanded the deed, and unprofitable sentiment sunk abashed. Reason loudly declared-So perish every villain who would hurt his neighbor! and all the people said Amen!

About twenty-five minutes afterwards, when life was supposed to have fled, the body was lowered, and possession allowed to be taken on the part of the authorities. These had, previous to the execution, made some attempts to recover the person of the deceased; but were resolutely opposed, though no overt act of violence took place. The verdict of the coroner's jury was as follows:-"We, the jury, find that the deceased came to his death by strangulation by hanging, at the hands of a body of men styling themselves the Vigilance Committee of San Francisco." It is, perhaps, unnecessary to say that the authorities took no legal action on this verdict. The grand jury empanelled for the special July term by the court of sessions, towards the close of a long report on the state of crime in San Francisco, and in which they had made allusion to the Vigilance Committee, took occasion to say:

"When we recall the delays and the inefficient, and we believe that with truth it may be said, the corrupt administration of the law, the incapacity and indifference of those who are its sworn guardians and ministers, the frequent and unnecessary postponement of important trials in the District Court, the disregard of duty and impatience while attending to perform it manifested by some of our judges, having criminal jurisdiction, the many notorious villains who have gone unwhipped of justice, lead us to believe, that the members of that association have been governed by a feeling of opposition to the manner in which the law has been administered and those who have administered it, rather than a determination to disregard the law itself.

"Under institutions so eminently popular as those under which we live, the power of correcting all these abuses is with the people themselves. If our officers are unfit for the stations they occupy, if the laws are not faithfully executed, if an arraigned criminal procures his own friends to be placed on the jury that tries him, where is the fault, and where the remedy? If those of our citizens who are most interested in having good and wholesome laws, and in seeing them well and purely administered, will not give sufficient attention to our elections to secure proper and sober legislators, judicial and other officers, and neglect to obey the mandates of our courts when summoned as jurors and witnesses, as has been too often the case, can they expect to see justice prevail or crime punished? And is it not in the neglect of their duties in these important particulars, that they may find the true fountains from

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