San Francisco Committee of Vigilance of 1856 -- History; Vigilance committees -- California -- San Francisco
as he subsequently boasted, were of exultation over his opportunity of
revenge, and of brutish import respecting the powerless victim, Casey
had been foreman of Crescent Engine Company, No. 10, located on Pacific
street, below Front. Cora's remains were given quiet interment. The
Sunday following the execution Casey was buried. A very large procession
followed his remains to the Mission Dolores Cemetery, in which a
monument was in due time erected to his memory. Upon it is inscribed the
manner of his death.
Governor Johnson had at first played into the hands of the Committee. He
had come down from Sacramento to San Francisco, in the middle of May,
and virtually caused the surrender of the county jail to the Vigilantes,
for the capture of Casey and Cora. At the instance of the leading men of
the Law and Order organization, he subsequently changed his course, and
endeavored to undo that which he had done. It was too late. The
Committee had already become the master of the situation. It was the
supreme power in San Francisco, and it had erected such harmony of
spirit with it in Sacramento, Marysville, Stockton, San Jose and other
interior cities and towns, that it was the paramount local authority and
formidable generally throughout the State. General Wool was at that time
in command of this Federal military department. The Federal Arsenal was
at Benicia. For the want of authority from the Federal government at
Washington, neither the military nor the naval forces could interfere,
and the hands of General Wool, the same of Commodore Farragut, were
practically tied, The only way in which the Federal authority could be
invoked was by due process of constitutional law. This required that the
Governor should convene the Legislature, that that body should call out
the State militia to quell the insurgent or rebellious Vigilantes; and,
these being insufficient for that purpose, then the call for the aid of
the Federal forces would be in order. It would take months to do all
this. Prompt action was the imperative necessity. Governor Johnson did
not act with promptitude. He sent on a committee of citizens to
Washington. President Pierce could do nothing under the circumstances.
He must first be satisfied that the Powers of the State had been
inadequate to overcome the trouble. This had not been done; and it was
of first importance before the strong arm of the Federal authority could
be ordered.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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