SOCIETT. 371 



Francisco he became a politician, and obtained the position of 

 inspector of elections in one of the wards ; and there he had 

 complete control of the ballot-box, and used it to keep himself 

 in office and elect his friends or those who paid him. In the 

 fall of 1855 Casey managed to be elected member of the board 

 of supervisors (which board has the same powers in San Fran- 

 cisco as the common council has in most cities), and this election 

 was conducted in such a manner that there was no doubt in the 

 mind of any reasonable man that the whole affair was fraudu- 

 lent. This man Casey shot a San Francisco editor who had de- 

 nounced him as a convict, a ballot-box stuffer, and a scoundrel. 

 The shooting took place in the street in open day, and the 

 wound was mortal. The editor had made himself prominent 

 and joopular by exposing various abuses, and no sooner was it 

 announced that he was shot, than a great excitement arose, 

 men collected by thousands in the street, and acted with a 

 passion little short of raving. The vigilance committee, whicli 

 had been dissolved for six years, was reorganized. Out of 

 twelve thousand white male citizens nine thousand enrolled 

 themselves as members of the committee. They formed them- 

 selves into military companies, obtained arms, chose officers, 

 and established an armory and a fort. The governor ordered 

 them to disband, and threatened to use the military power of 

 the state against them, but they set him at defiance, invested 

 the jail, took from it Casey and another man, who had com- 

 mitted homicide*, imprisoned them in their fort, and subse- 

 quently hanged them, after trying them secretly. The com- 

 mittee arrested a large number of persons on charges of vari- 

 ous crimes, executed two others for murder, banished about 

 a dozen, and maintained their fort and their military organiza- 

 tion for eight months, during which time they were really 

 masters of the city. They inflicted no punishment with- 

 out trial, held all their trials with much deliberation, and 

 were in no haste to execute their sentences. The governor 

 tried to call out the militia of the state, but the people gener- 

 ally sympathized with the movement, so neither the militia nor 



