San Francisco Committee of Vigilance of 1856 -- History; Vigilance committees -- California -- San Francisco
Concerning the frauds in election: yes, there were frauds, outrageous
frauds, at every election; repeaters, bullies, ballot-box stuffing, and
false counts of the ballots to count out this candidate and count in the
one favored of the "boys." More than one member of the Vigilance
Executive Committee had thorough knowledge of all this, for the very
conclusive reason that more than one of them had engaged in these
frauds, had not only participated in them directly and indirectly, but
had actually proposed them; employed the persons who had committed the
frauds, and paid these tools round sums for the infamous service. The
reward of these employers and accessories before, during and after the
frauds, was the office that was coveted; and the "Hon." prefixed to
their names was as the gilt which the watch stuffer applies to the brass
thing he imposes upon the greenhorn as a solid gold watch. Out of the
Committee, of the Executive Committee, the detectives of that body might
have unearthed these honorable and virtuous purifiers and reformers;
with them, perhaps others whose frauds were no less wicked and criminal;
but in business transactions, and not in political affairs. One of the
Executive Committee had served his term of two years in the Ohio State
Prison for forgery; here in San Francisco he had, during two city
elections, been the trusted agent and disburser of a very heavy sack in
the honest endeavor to secure the nomination, and promote the election,
of his principal to high office, yet this pure man was honored by his
associates of the Committee, and became singularly active in pressing
the expatriation of some of the very "ruffians and ballot-box-stuffers"
he had patronized and paid. He had learned that "dead men told no
tales." This pure-character did not stand alone in his experience of
penal servitude, as birds of a feather, and he was under no necessity of
examplifying Lord Dundreary's bird, to go into a corner and flock by
himself. That some turbulent offenders, and largely too many of them,
defied the law, is likewise true. But that they were countenanced or
favored by the Judges, is utterly without truthful foundation. And it is
remarkable that, of all the men hanged or expatriated by the Committee,
only two had ever been complained of or arraigned before the Courts for
any crime of violence; not one of them all had been here accused or
suspected of theft or robbery, or other felony. This is more, as I have
just above stated, than can be said of some of the forty-one members of
the Executive Committee. And among the members of the rank and file of
the five thousand or six thousand enrolled upon the lists of the
Committee--of natives and English-speaking citizens or residents--there
were scores of scoundrels of every degree, bogus gold-dust
operators, swindlers and fugitives from justice. Of the members of other
nationalities--some of whom had not been in the country long enough to
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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