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Show Irjp' ' The 1856 Vigilance Committee. f ,ljtjH 1 I The Argonaut publishes General Sherman's ac- iWt I count of the San Francisco vigilance committee of ij" vjjljjj; ? 185G up to the time he ceased to be a State officer, f if4$lj j f nnd then what followed after Sherman ceased to 1 ''jo!' ' b9 Ma3r General of Militia of California by ap- fWk polntment of the then Governor, J. Neely Johnson. .j:$M 1 At the time General John E. Wool was in com- ' 1 mand of the Federal military forces in California yp and Captain Farragut (later the great Admiral) ! 11m r tl,e naval forces, Wool promised Sherman the i i X, 'WW ' arms to put down the vigilants, but later went ' llfflR i back oil his promise at which Sherman resigned. y,:, jjB Farragut, too, when appealed to declared that ! A ' lie Imd no nutnority to interfere unless overt acts .;:yH i against the Federal Government were committed. wBh It is a most interesting paper and the names men- ,j.'jjHI tioned are of the chief actors in California af- . ijjjttn fairs at that time, such names as Givin, Brodor- ''SlW ' f lclt' Terry Bakor Farragut, Sherman, and a host "Iffllffll " more, some of whom later made imir ' .1 name? , jnjBLl I for themselves. Sherman's account of the leading up to and llS' killing of James King of William io not quite the Wk ' f t0ry H0 t0llS hW JamQS King oE wlllIam established the Bulletin, and attacked abusos, how he finally published an article which was the record re-cord of the conviction and imprisonment in New York of James Casey, who had established a little lit-tle paper in San Francisco and who was a ward politician. How Casey went to the Bulletin office and told James King of William that he would shoot him on sight and how he did shoot him, which started the vigilance committee. The facts aro these: The Bulletin as run by James King of William was a tough paper. It slashed and slashed at everybody. The decent people of San Francisco would not have it in their . homes. A compoallor on the Buljetin told Casey that an article was in type in the Bulletin office giving his record in New York. Casey went to the Bulletin office, told James King of William that it was true that when a boy ho had been convicted of a crime and punished; but that when he left home he told his old mother that he would henceforth live an upright life, and he added: "I have come to say to you that you are welcome to publish anything you may find in my record since I arrived here, but to ask you if you will not on account of my mother suppress the publication of that old New York record." At that King ordered him out of the office, whereupon Casey said: "If you do publish the old story I will hold you personally responsible for it." L'ng not only published it, but told in the same paper of Casey's threats and added that he should leave his office at a certain hour, and by what streets he should go home. Casey met him, gave him notice to defend him self and shot him through the shoulder. The doctors doc-tors in their anxiety over their patient kept him stupefied with morphine for a few days when he died. The revulsion of sentiment was Immediate and terrible. People who would not permit the Bulletin Bulle-tin in their homes the day before, at once became the champions of it, to them King became a martyr; the vigilance committee was organized; four men were hanged and many more were banished, ban-ished, and San Francisco was practically under seige for four months. New York merchants lost more from San Francisco Fran-cisco merchants that year than they had before since 1849. |