THE REASON FOR LYNCH LAW
A few weeks before my arrival there, Downieville had been the scene of
great excitement on one of those occasions when the people took on
themselves the administration and execution of justice.
A Mexican woman one forenoon had, without provocation, stabbed a miner
to the heart, killing him on the spot. The news of the murder spread
rapidly up and down the river, and a vast concourse of miners
immediately began to collect in the town.
The woman, an hour or two after she committed the murder, was formally
tried by a jury of twelve, found guilty, and condemned to be hung that
afternoon. The case was so clear that it admitted of no doubt, several
men having been witnesses of the whole occurrence; and the woman was
hung accordingly, on the bridge in front of the town, in presence of
many thousand people.
For those whose ideas of the proper mode of administering criminal law
are only acquired from an acquaintance with the statistics of crime and
its punishment in such countries as England, where a single murder
excites horror throughout the kingdom, and is for days a matter of
public interest, where judicial corruption is unknown, where the
instruments of the law are ubiquitous, and its action all but
infallible,--for such persons it may be difficult to realize a state of
things which should render it necessary, or even excusable, that any
number of irresponsible individuals should exercise a power of life and
death over their fellow men.
And no doubt many sound theories may be brought forward against the
propriety of administering Lynch law; but California, in the state of
society which then existed, and in view of the total inefficiency, or
worse than inefficiency, of the established courts of justice, was no
place for theorizing upon abstract principles. Society had to protect
itself by the most practical and unsophisticated system of retributive
justice, quick in its action, and whose operation, being totally
divested of all mystery and unnecessary ceremony, was perfectly
comprehensible to the meanest understanding--a system inconsistent with
public safety in old countries--unnecessary, in fact, where the
machinery of the law is perfect in all its parts--but at the same time
one which men most naturally adopt in the absence of all other
protection; and any one who lived in the mines of California at that
time is bound gratefully to acknowledge that the feeling of security of
life and person which he there enjoyed was due in a great measure to his
knowledge of the fact that this admirable institution of Lynch law was
in full and active operation.
There were in California the élite of the most desperate and consummate
scoundrels from every part of the world; and the unsettled state of the
country, the wandering habits of the mining population, scattered, as
they were, all over the mountains, and frequently carrying an amount of
gold on their persons inconvenient from its very weight, together with
the isolated condition of many individuals, strangers to every one
around them, and who, if put out of the way, would never have been
missed--all these things tended apparently to render the country one
where such ruffians would have ample room to practice their villainy.
But, thanks to Lynch law, murders and robberies, numerous as they were,
were by no means of such frequent occurrence as might have been
expected, considering the opportunities and temptations afforded to such
a large proportion of the population, who were only restrained from
violence by a wholesome regard for the safety of their own necks.
And after all, the fear of punishment of death is the most effectual
preventive of crime. To the class of men among whom murderers are found,
it is probably the only feeling which deters them, and its influence is
unconsciously felt even by those whose sense of right and wrong is not
yet so dead as to allow them to contemplate the possibility of their
committing a murder. In old States, however, fear of the punishment of
death does not act with its full force on the mind of the intending
criminal, for the idea of the expiation of his crime on the scaffold has
to be preceded in his imagination by all the mysterious and tedious
formalities of the law, in the uncertainty of which he is apt to flatter
himself that he will by some means get an acquittal; and even if
convicted, the length of time which must elapse before his ultimate
punishment, together with the parade and circumstance with which it is
attended, divests it in a great measure of the feelings of horror which
it is intended to arouse.
But when Lynch law prevails, it strikes terror to the heart of the
evil-doer. He has no hazy and undefined view of his ultimate fate in the
distant future, but a vivid picture is before him of the sure and speedy
consequence of crime. The formalities and delays of the law, which are
instituted for the protection of the people, are for the same reason
abolished, and the criminal knows that, instead of being tried by the
elaborate and intricate process of law, his very ignorance of which
leads him to over-estimate his chance of escape, he will have to stand
before a tribunal of men who will try him, not by law, but by hard,
straightforward common-sense, and from whom he can hope for no other
verdict than that which his own conscience awards him; while execution
follows so close upon sentence, that it forms, as it were, but part of
the same ceremony: for Californians were eminently practical and
earnest; what they meant to do they did “right off,” with all their
might, and as if they really meant to do it; and Lynch law was
administered with characteristic promptness and decision. Sufficient
time, however, or at least what was considered to be sufficient time,
was always granted to the criminal to prepare for death. Very frequently
he was not hanged till the day after his trial.
An execution, of course, attracted an immense crowd, but it was
conducted with as little parade as possible. Men were hung in the
readiest way which suggested itself--on a bough of the nearest tree, or
on a tree close to the spot where the murder was committed. In some
instances the criminal was run up by a number of men, all equally
sharing the hang-man’s duty; on other occasions, one man was appointed
to the office of executioner, and a drop was extemporized by placing the
culprit on his feet on the top of an empty box or barrel, under the
bough of a tree, and at the given signal the box was knocked away from
under him.
Not an uncommon mode was, to mount the criminal on a horse or mule,
when, after the rope was adjusted, a cut of a whip was administered to
the back of the animal, and the man was left suspended.
Petty thefts, which were of very rare occurrence, were punished by so
many lashes with a cowhide, and the culprit was then banished from the
camp. A man who would commit a petty theft was generally such a poor
miserable devil as to excite compassion more than any other feeling, and
not unfrequently, after his chastisement, a small subscription was
raised for him, to help him along till he reached some other diggings.
Theft or robbery of any considerable amount, however, was a capital
crime; and horse-stealing, to which the Mexicans more particularly
devoted themselves, was invariably a hanging matter.
Lynch law had hitherto prevailed only in the mines; but about this time
it had been found necessary to introduce it also in San Francisco. The
number of murders and robberies committed there had of late increased to
an alarming extent; and from the laxity and corruption of those
intrusted with the punishment and prevention of crime, the criminal part
of the population carried on their operations with such a degree of
audacity, and so much apparent confidence in the immunity which they
enjoyed, that society, in the total inefficiency of the system which it
had instituted for its defense and preservation, threatened to become a
helpless prey to the well-organized gang of ruffians who were every day
becoming more insolent in their career.
At last human nature could stand it no longer, and the people saw the
necessity of acting together in self-defence. A Committee of Vigilance
was accordingly formed, composed chiefly of the most prominent and
influential citizens, which had the cordial approval, and the active
support, of nearly the entire population of the city.
The first action of the Committee was to take two men out of jail who
had already been convicted of murder and robbery, but for the execution
of whose sentence the experience of the past afforded no guarantee.
These two men, when taken out of the jail, were driven in a coach and
four at full gallop through the town, and in half an hour they were
swinging from the beams projecting over the windows of the store which
was used as the committee rooms.
The Committee, during their reign, hanged four or five men, all of whom,
by their own confessions, deserved hanging half-a-dozen times over.
Their confessions disclosed a most extensive and wealthy organization of
villainy, in which several men of comparatively respectable position
were implicated. These were the projectors and designers of elaborate
schemes of wholesale robbery, which the more practical members of the
profession executed under their superintendence; and in the possession
of some of these men there were found exact plans of the stores of many
of the wealthiest merchants, along with programs of robberies to come
off.
The operations of the Committee were not confined to hanging alone;
their object was to purge the city of the whole herd of malefactors
which infested it. Most of them, however, were panic-struck at the first
alarm of Lynch law, and fled to the mines; but many of those who were
denounced in the confessions of their brethren were seized by the
Committee, and shipped out of the country. Several of the most
distinguished scoundrels were graduates from our penal colonies; and to
put a stop, if possible, to the further immigration of such characters,
the Committee boarded every ship from New South Wales as she arrived,
and satisfied themselves of the respectability of each passenger before
allowing him to land.
The authorities, of course, were greatly incensed at the action of the
Vigilance Committee in taking from them the power they had so badly
used, but they could do nothing against the unanimous voice of the
people, and had to submit with the best grace they could.
The Committee, after a very short but very active reign, had so far
accomplished their object of suppressing crime, and driving the scum of
the population out of the city, that they resigned their functions in
favor of the constituted authorities; at the same time, however,
intimating that they remained alert, and only inactive so long as the
ordinary course of law was found effectual.
From that time till the month of May, 1856, the Vigilance Committee did
not interfere; and to any one familiar with the history of San Francisco
during this period, it will appear extraordinary that the people should
have remained so long inactive under the frightful mal-administration
of criminal law to which they were subjected.
The crime which at last roused the people from their apathy, but which
was not more foul than hundreds which had preceded it, and only more
aggravated, inasmuch as the victim was one of the most universally
respected citizens of the State, was the assassination, in open day and
in the public street, of Mr. James King, of William, by a man named
Casey.
The causes which had gradually been driving the people to assert their
own power, as they did on this occasion, differed very materially from
those which gave birth to the Vigilance Committee of ’51, when their
object was merely to root out a gang of house-breakers.
To explain the necessity of the revolution which took place in San
Francisco in May, ’56, would require a dissertation on San Francisco
politics, which might not be very interesting; suffice it to say, that
the power of controlling the elections had gradually got into the hands
of men who “stuffed” the ballot-boxes, and sold the elections to whom
they pleased; and the natural consequences of such a state of things led
to the revolution.
In the _Alta California_ of San Francisco of the 1st of June [1857] is a
short article, which gives such a complete idea of the state of affairs
that I take the liberty to transcribe it. It was written when the
Vigilance Committee, having, a day or two before, hanged two men, were
still actively engaged making numerous arrests; and it is remarkable
that just at this time the authorities actually hung a man too.
The _Alta_ announces the fact in the following article:--
“A man was executed yesterday for murder, after a due compliance with
all forms of law.
“That he had been guilty of the crime for which he suffered there can be
no doubt; and yet it is entirely probable that, but for the
circumstances which have occurred in San Francisco within the past three
weeks, he never would have paid to the offended law the penalty affixed
to his crime.
“It is a very remarkable fact in the history of this execution, that the
condemned man, at the time of the murder of Mr. King, was living only
under the respite of the Governor, and that that respite was obtained
through the active interposition of Casey, who little dreamed that he
would suffer the death-penalty before the man whom he had labored to
save.
“This is the third execution only, under the forms of law, which has
ever been had in San Francisco since it became an American city. Murder
after murder has been committed, and murderer after murderer has been
arrested and tried. Those who were blessed with friends and money have
usually succeeded in escaping through the forms of law before a
conviction was reached. Those who failed in this respect have, with the
exceptions we have stated, been saved from punishment through the
unwarranted interference of the executive officer of the State. So
murder has enjoyed in San Francisco almost a certain immunity from
punishment; and the consequence has been that it has stalked abroad
high-handed and bold. Over a year ago, we understood the district
attorney to state, in an argument before a jury in a murder case, that,
since the settlement of San Francisco by the American people, there had
been twelve hundred murders committed here. We thought at the time the
number stated was unduly large, and think so still; but it has been
large enough, beyond doubt, to give us the unenviable reputation we have
obtained abroad.
“And yet, in spite of these facts, but three criminals have suffered the
death-penalty awarded to the crimes of which they have been guilty.
These were all friendless, moneyless men. A sad commentary this on that
motto, ‘Equal and exact justice to all,’ which we delight to blazon over
our constitution and laws.
“Was it not time for a change--time, if need be, for a revolution which
should inaugurate a new state of things--which should give an assurance
that human life should be protected from the hand of the gentlemanly and
moneyed assassin, as well as from the miserable, the poor, and the
friendless? Such a revolution has been made by the people, and it has
been the inauguration of a new and bright era in our history, in which
an assurance has been given that neither the technicalities of a badly
administered law, nor the interference of the Executive, can save the
murderer from the punishment he justly merits. It has been brought about
by the very evils it is intended to remedy. Had crime been punished here
as it should have been--had the law done its duty, Casey would never
have dared to shoot down the lamented King in broad daylight, with the
hope that through the forms of law he would escape punishment. There
would have been no necessity for a Vigilance Committee, no need of a
revolution. Let us hope that in future the law will be no longer a
mockery, but become, what it was intended by its founders to be, ‘a
terror to evil-doers.’”
The number of murders here given is no doubt appalling, but it is apt to
give an idea of an infinitely more dreadful state of society, and of
much greater insecurity of life to peaceable citizens than was actually
the case.
If these murders were classified, it would be found that the frequency
of fatal duels had greatly swelled the list, while, in the majority of
cases, the murders would turn out to be the results of rencontres
between desperadoes and ruffians, who, by having their little
difficulties among themselves, and shooting and stabbing each other, and
thus diminishing their own numbers, were rather entitled to the thanks
of the respectable portion of the community.
It is very certain that in San Francisco crime was fostered by the
laxity of the law, but it is equally reasonable to believe that in the
mines, where Lynch law had full swing, the amount of crime actually
committed by the large criminally disposed portion of the community,
consisting of lazy Mexican _ladrones_ and cutthroats, well-trained
professional burglars from populous countries, and outcast desperadoes
from all the corners of the earth, was not so great as would have
resulted from the presence of the same men in any old country, where the
law, clothed in all its majesty, is more mysterious and slow, however
irresistible, in its action.