562 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



hope that this interest will be shown, and 

 the enterprise not allowed to become a bur- 

 den to the editor. 



History of the Pacific States of North 

 America. By Hubert Howe Bancroft. 

 Vol. XXXII. Popular Tribunals. Vol. 

 II. San Francisco: The History Com- 

 pany. New York : Frank M. Derby, 

 Eastern agent. Pp. Y72. Price, %h. 



The present volume of Mr. Bancroft's 

 great work is devoted to the history of the 

 second Vigilance Committee of San Fran- 

 cisco, or that of 1856, and is dedicated to 

 its president, William T. Coleman, who is 

 styled the " chief of the greatest popular 

 tribunal the world has ever witnessed." 

 The Vigilance Committee of 1856, while it 

 was of similar composition and of the same 

 character and spirit of that of 1851, rose 

 under different circumstances, and to meet 

 a different emergency. At the time of the 

 earlier committee, law had not been estab- 

 lished, but San Francisco was still the prey 

 of ruffians who had been attracted from all 

 quarters by the stories of the gold-diggings 

 to which it was the gate, and who overrode 

 all legal restrictions by brute force. In 

 1856 government had been organized, and 

 might have been strong enough if it had 

 chosen to exert itself, but was under the 

 control of political tricksters, assisted by 

 the roughs. Hence there was more appar- 

 ent reason in 1856 in favor of the plea that 

 reform should be sought through legal 

 measures, and for the clear difference of 

 opinion which existed between evidently 

 honest and well-meaning men as to the 

 propriety of the Vigilance Committee's exist- 

 ence and the justification of its measures. 

 Hence, also, a more temperate style than 

 the author of this history has permitted 

 himself to use through most of his work 

 would have been more becoming its sober 

 purpose. The Vigilance Committee of 1856 

 was a movement by the vast majority of 

 the people of San Francisco against system- 

 atic ballot-box stuffing, which made fair 

 elections impossible and all elections bur- 

 lesques, universal thievery, and political ter- 

 rorism intensified by frequent murder ; all 

 tolerated and said to be encouraged by pub- 

 lic officers who depended on such outrages 

 to reach and hold their positions. These 

 *bu3e8 had grown up since the former Vigi- 



lance Committee had finished its career five 

 years before, in consequence of the easy- 

 going citizens leaving politics to the politi- 

 cians. It was called into being by the 

 murder of James King, of William, editor 

 of the " Bulletin," by James Casey, follow- 

 ing close upon the murder of United States 

 Marshall Richardson by Charles Cora, an 

 Italian gambler. King's offense was de- 

 nunciation of the wrongs, and particularly of 

 Cora's crime, and attacks upon Casey, who 

 had interested himself in Cora's defense. 

 Casey was believed to be backed by promi- 

 nent politicians, including Judge McGowan 

 of one of the city courts, himself a formerly 

 convicted bank-robber. As it seemed mor- 

 ally certain that these criminals would not, 

 be punished, as others like them were not, 

 the substantial citizens took matters into 

 their own hands, and at a public meeting 

 reorganized the Vigilance Committee, which 

 had never formally surrendered its life. 

 This committee was a public affair, the 

 names of its members were known, its acts 

 were open, and its proceedings governed by 

 fixed rules. During the three months of 

 its activity — from the middle of May to the 

 18th of August, 1856 — it hanged four men, 

 banished about thirty, rescued — that is, took 

 possession of — two prisoners from the coun- 

 ty jail, and held a judge of the Supreme 

 Court under arrest, waiting the death or 

 convalescence of his victim. Its proceed- 

 ings were objected to, as those of the Com- 

 mittee of 1851 do not seem to have been, 

 by a considerable party of good citizens, 

 whose quality may be judged from the fact 

 that William Tecumseh Sherman was one 

 of them" The city authorities were against 

 it, of course ; the Governor of the State made 

 feeble and futile attempts to suppress it, 

 and efforts were made to embroil it with 

 the United States authorities.* In spite of 

 all it went on with its work, and when it 

 had done, adjourned sine die. It must be 

 judged by its fruits. Seven years after 

 King's death, the People's Reform Party were 

 able to show in an appeal to voters which 

 is too long to quote here, but which is given 

 in full in the 656th and 657th pages of the 

 volume, that San Francisco had, from be- 

 ing the very focus of peculation, disorder, 

 robbery, and murder, under uninterrupted 

 honest rule, become one of the best ordered, 



