372 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



the legislature would do any thing. A few troops were col- 

 lected in San Francisco, but the vigilance committee took them 

 prisoners and deprived them of their arms. The governor 

 applied to the federal government for assistance, but the au- 

 thorities at Washington decided that they would not interfere, 

 except at the joint request of the governor and legislature. 

 The governor was thus left powerless, and the committee 

 maintained their fort and their military organization, and really 

 had control of the city for eight months. No judicial pro- 

 cess was of any service to release a man whom they had im- 

 prisoned. They hanged a few scoundrels, drove others from 

 the country, frightened still more, destroyed the influence of 

 bad men, rendered life and property secure, gave good men an 

 influence in the city government, purified the elections, gave a 

 better tone to society, commenced a new era of decent man- 

 agement of the municipal finances, and gave respectability to 

 the city. It is perhaps not more than proper that I should add 

 here, that I personally was neither a member of the vigilance 

 committee nor an advocate of its j)olicy of setting the laws at 

 defiance. This vigilance committee transacted all its business 

 secretly, and no record of its transactions has yet been pub- 

 lished. It is universally understood that the whole control 

 of the committee was vested in a secret executive commit- 

 tee of thirty-three, who had been chosen at one of the first 

 meetings after the reorganization began, when there were 

 but few members present. After the time Avhen they were 

 chosen, their names were never submitted for approval to 

 the great majority of the vigilance committee, who joined sub- 

 sequently, nor were their names ever announced to the citi- 

 zens by authority, nor did they ever appear in such a manner 

 that either the general public or the members of the vigilance 

 committee could know the names of this executive committee, 

 which was thus vested with an irresponsible and absolute 

 power. The meetings of the executive committee were secret, 

 and the greater part of their proceedings was never reported 

 even to their constituents. When any military or other action 



