the presidential campaign as chief orator of the Republican party, for Fremont, and in November returned to his practice in San Francisco.

"The Vigilance Committee disbanded their military forces late in August. The Executive Committee held to them for future emergencies, but ceased their meetings. Fort Gunny Bags was dismantled. The rooms were abandoned; but as a closing scene a grand review of the military was held near South Park, and the rooms were thrown open to the public. Thousands, ladies and gentlemen and children went there, and looked at the stuffed ballot-box, at the nooses and ropes used in the hanging of Casey and Cora, of Hetherington and Brace, at the shackles and gyves, at all the other instruments and paraphernalia of the gallows and the cells, into the narrow cells and their scant furniture, and at all the ghastly curios of these haunted rooms of life and death, of mental torture and bodily suffering, of forced suicide and the mocking of the crazed victim of his own despair and desperation. It was a remarkable sight for women, an astounding treat to ladies, and such an example to children, boys and girls! But comment is not required.

"The city and county election was soon to follow. The committee men did not neglect the opportunity which their powerful organization had given them. The Executive Committee became practically a self-constituted nominating convention. Their rank and file were not forgotten. General Doane was nominated for sheriff. For every other office Vigilance men were named the candidates. None others had chance or hope. Their ticket was elected. They obtained the reward of their services in the organization, and profited accordingly. Thirty-one years have now passed since the existence of the committee. Many of its executive members are numbered with the dead. Some of them passed away in a manner to remain as an enduring sorrow to their kindred and connections. A few have prospered and occupy high places in community. A very few enjoy office bestowed by the party they aided so much to destroy in 1856. On the monument erected over the ashes of Casey is the scriptural admonition for all mankind 'Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, and I will repay.' Retribution is with God alone. The generation of this period will best subserve the good of community by conformity to the divine injunction. And this would never have been written were it not for the many and frequent exparte, and incorrect publica

tions which have been put forth as faithful and impartial accounts of the Vigilance Committee of 1856, of the character of those who suffered death and banishment at its hands, and of the causes which led to its organization. The task is done. May another similar to it never be required. The law of the land should suffice for every exigency. It sets no bad or dangerous example, but is always the conservator of the public welfare, the best protector of all, the voice of the people in accordance with the laws of God."

In concluding this chapter it may be well to say that during the trial of Cora there was no definite reference to the nature of the dispute between General Richardson and his slayer. On the authority of Judge Oscar T. Shuck, a prominent legal author, Cora was a sober man, and General Richardson was drinking and in a quarrelsome mood the night before the killing.

The fame of Colonel E. D. Baker grew after his able defense of Cora. He was one of the greatest of California's orators. Here are two extracts from his defense of Cora:

"The profession to which we belong is, of all others, fearless of public opinion. It has ever stood up against the tyranny of monarchs on the one hand, and the tyranny of public opinion on the other; and if, as the humblest among them, it becomes me to instance myself, I may say with a bold heart, and I do say it with a bold heart, that there is not in all this world a wretch, so humble, so guilty, so despairing, so torn with avenging furies, so pursued by the arm of the law, so hunted to cities of refuge, so fearful of life, so afraid of death;-there is no wretch so steeped in all the agonies of vice and crime, that I would not have a heart to listen to his cry, and a tongue to speak in his defense, though around his head all the wrath of public opinion should gather, and rage, and roar, and roll, as the ocean rolls around the rock. And if ever I forget, if I ever deny, that highest duty of my profession, may God palsy this arm and hush my voice for

ever.

[Colonel Baker here went into a long analysis of all the evidence.]

"Mrs. Knight swears that Richardson had one arm raised. Two others, for the prosecution also, say he had not. Remember that the raising of his arm is life or death to us. If Cora killed him with his hands down, it is murder; if there was a struggle, it was different. I believe Richard

son was brave. I don't believe that the man lives who, twice in one day, could back Richardson up against a door, and put a pistol to his bosom and hold it there, while he, Richardson, cowered like a slave. Is there no moral law to be observed? Is there no correspondence in the nature of things? Did Richardson, as Mrs. Knight says, raise his arms? Did he, as Cotting says, have his arms pinioned? Now, before you go one step farther toward a conclusion, you must be satisfied on that point, and you must all agree upon it. Again, a pistol, cocked, was found near his hand. Now, I want to utter a word upon which eternal things may depend. I ask you, was that pistol drawn before Richardson was shot? Can you believe he stood up in that doorway for four minutes with a pistol cocked and say he was unarmed? Mr. Cook may have been mistaken, but whether he was or not the pistol was there, the knife was there. The were drawn; he drew them; they were drawn in combat; and being drawn, it justified the utmost extremity of arms, before men or angels."

After a further analysis of the evidence in his own matchless manner Colonel Baker reached his peroration. In part he said:

"That a woman should, in adversity and bitterness, and sorrow and crime, stand by her friend in the dungeon, on the scaffold, with her money, and tears, and defiance, and vengeance, all combined, is human and natural. This woman is bad; she has forgotten her chastity-fallen by early temptation from her high estate; and among the matronage of the land her name shall never be heard. She has but one tie, she acknowledges but one obligation, and that she performs in the gloom of the cell and the dread of death; nor public opinion, nor the passions of the multitude, nor the taunts of angry counsel, nor the vengeance of the judge, can sway her for a moment from her course. If any of you have it in your heart to condemn, and say 'Stand back! I am holier than thou,' remember Magdalene, name written in the Book of Life.

"I feel prouder of human nature. I have learned a new lesson. Hide him in the felon's grave, with no inscription consecrated to the spot; and when you have forgotten it, and the memories of the day are past, there will be one bosom to heave a sigh in penitence and prayer, there will be one eye to weep a refreshing tear over the sod, one trembling hand to plant flowers above his head. Let them make the most of it. I scorn the imputation that

infamy should rest on him for her folly and her faith. Let them make the most of it, and when the great Judge of all shall condemn,—when, in that dread hour, you and I and she shall stand at the common tribunal for the deeds done or aimed to be done at this day, if this be remembered against her at all, it will be lost in the record of a thousand crimes perpetrated by high and noble souls. Let a man who feels in his heart no responsive type of such traits of goodness, of truest courage in darkest destiny, let that man be the first to put his hand to the bloody verdict.

"There is public opinion now; there was no such thing as genuine public opinion at the time of the homicide-it was bastard. It is now calm, intelligent, reflecting, determined, and just. If you mean to be the oracles of this public opinion, in God's name, speak! If you mean to be priests of the divinity which honest men may worship, answer! If you are the votaries of the other, you are but the inflamed Cassandra of a diseased imagination and of a prurient public mind. If of the former, I bow at your feet, in honor of the mysteries of your worship. Against this man the public press, so potent for good, so mighty for evil, inflames and convulses the public mind and judgment. There is not one thing they have said that is in accordance with truth and justice; there is not one version they have given that is based on testimony and facts."

Now, that the reader has had a fair report of both sides of the great and world-famous Vigilance Committee he may judge whether San Francisco acted rightly or wrongly in her struggle for social order in the wonderful era that followed the discovery of gold.

CHAPTER IX.

THE GOOD CITIZENSHIP MOVEMENT.

Just before the famous Vigilance Committee abandoned its organization a number of public-spirited citizens, many of whom had been a part of the Vigilance Committee, decided to organize an independent political party. Their purpose was, as they said, to "rescue the city of San Francisco from the clutch of irresponsible men." The result of their deliberations was the People's Reform Party.

The opponents of the original Vigilance Committee have always maintained that the new reform party was really organized for the protection of those who had participated in the affairs of the Vigilance Committee.

In August, 1856, at a spontaneous public meeting in front of the American Exchange, in San Francisco, Ira P. Rankin was elected chairman. Resolutions declaring the unfitness of the old parties were adopted without delay. To the old parties and their greed for spoils were attributed many of the evils that had called for summary methods.

Twenty-one men, among whom were J. B. Thomas, E. H. Washburn, Louis McLean, Frederick Billings, A. B. Forbes and T. O. Larkin, were appointed a committee to draw up resolutions recommending the election of legislators pledged to reform. It was also part of their duty to see to the nomination of city and county officers.

A strange event occurred about an hour after the organization of the meeting that meant the birth of the People's Reform Party, and that was the fact that the Republicans gained control, and the purpose of the organization was almost frustrated. To the masterful eloquence of E. H. Washburn is attributed the fact that the committee was permitted to carry out its work. In due time it submitted a reform ticket which triumphed at the polls.

The newly elected city and county officers are said to have been efficient and patriotic. To this fact and the great watchfulness of the awakened public may be attributed the infrequency of corruption and the reign of