As for the charge of cruelty, it must be acknowledged that the code of the vigilance committee was severe. They hung for many offences which, in the Eastern States, can only deprive a man of his liberty. This also was a matter of necessity. Such severity was requisite to strike terror into the lawless vagabonds who infested the newly settled country. Besides, it was doing no more than was done in civilized, refined, enlightened England less than fifty years ago. Indeed, the vigilance committee were more merciful than the authorities of that realm, who hung a rogue for stealing a hat. It was only when a robbery was attended with circumstances of peculiar atrocity that they resorted to this extreme punishment.
Allowance must also be made for the state of feeling among the people in regard to capital punishment. It did not inflict such a shock upon them as it does on the inhabitants of an old, regularly governed country. Life was held very cheap there; it was taken upon the slightest provocation. Every man went armed, and weapons were resorted to at the commencement of a fray. The dry goods man, who measured out calico behind his counter, waited on his customers with a pair of revolvers stuck in his belt. The customers, wild, savage looking men, leaned upon their rifles or played with their bowie-knives while making their bargain. The purchase completed, the buyer threw down his leathern bag of gold dust, the seller weighed out the proper quantity and returned the rest. Should a dispute arise, few words were interchanged; arms were immediately appealed to, and the question was speedily settled. It is but fair, however, to say that, during these early days, the regular traders had but few difficulties with the miners, arising from attempts to defraud. Clearly, such a state of society cannot be judged by the same rule which applies to a settled and orderly community. A scene which I witnessed at Sacramento will probably give my readers a better idea of the mode of proceeding adopted by the vigilance committee, than any lengthened description of mere generalities.
A man who had recently returned from the mines, and was on his way to his home on the Atlantic coast, arrived in Sacramento one morning, and put up at the Orleans hotel. He had been quite successful in his labors, and brought in a goodly quantity of gold dust, a portion of which only he had deposited; the rest he carried about his person for current expenses. Elated with his good fortune, he could not refrain from boasting of his skill and judgment, and the excellent results he had obtained. He exhibited sundry little leather bags, and picked out nuggets remarkable for size or for oddity of form, which he exhibited freely to all the inmates of the house. He had one irregular mass of gold, which, to his fancy, resembled a race-horse. Another jagged, shapeless lump, he conceived to be a perfect likeness of Mr. Polk, whom he greatly admired, and this he declared his intention of having made into a breast-pin. He talked largely of the great things he would do with his money when he reached home, and, in the excess of his liberality, “treated the crowd� to innumerable cock-tails and smashes.
Two men, who were unknown to the people of the hotel, seemed particularly interested in the history of his exploits, and professed to have acquired a high regard for him personally, during their brief acquaintance. They swore he was a trump, that such a good fellow deserved to make money, and professed to rejoice in his success as greatly as though it had been their own. They too, they said, had just come in from the mines, where they had made a few ounces, though nothing like what our friend had secured. They were so exhilarated by his good fortune that they vowed they would return and try their luck again. They had come down with the intention of going home, but they did not like to be beaten by any one, so they would just “knock around� the city a little, have some fun, and go back to the mines the next day. Our friend was “such a devilish good fellow,� that they were proud to have made his acquaintance, and would enjoy their frolic ten-fold if they could only prevail upon him to accompany them.
Their proposition was accepted. Success and “red-eye� had rendered him more than usually confiding, and the three strolled away, amid the laughter of the crowd, reeling, hiccoughing, and swearing eternal friendship. They rambled off to a back street, engaged in the same interesting conversation. Suddenly one of the companions of our hero disengaged himself from his arm, slipped behind him, and with a billet gave him a tremendous blow upon the head, which knocked him bleeding upon the pavement. He was stunned only for a moment, and the blow seemed to have sobered him. He began to struggle, when his other newly found friend joined in the assault. The two together belabored him severely over the head till he lay senseless and motionless upon the pavement. Thinking they had quieted him for ever, they proceeded to rifle his pockets, and soon stripped him of every thing valuable he had about his person. They then made off with their booty.
Strange as it may sound to my reader, this outrage was perpetrated about three o’clock on a summer afternoon. Some persons in the neighborhood witnessed the whole affair, and immediately gave the alarm. The vigilance committee, ever on the alert, were soon in pursuit, and the scoundrels were captured a short distance from the outskirts of the city. The news spread with great rapidity, and soon a large crowd had collected. When I reached the scene of action, the members of the committee were escorting the culprits to a little grove of stunted oaks which stood upon the outskirts of the town. There was an expression of calm determination on the faces of the committee, of angry excitement on those of the rest of the crowd. Furious cries of “hang them!� burst from the mob, but did not seem to excite or ruffle the chief actors in this terrible drama, who went about their duties with great system and deliberation. As for the criminals themselves, a more villainous pair of faces it was never my fortune to look upon. Low brows, heavy features, and cold steel-gray eyes, gave them the expression with which Cruikshanks has pictured Sykes in his illustrations of Oliver Twist. They were Australian convicts, brutal wretches, whose hands were red with blood.
A jury was immediately empanneled by order of the committee, one of whom acted as judge. “Fellow-citizens,� said he, “these men have been accused of perpetrating an atrocious crime within the limits of this city. We are now ready to give them a fair trial. Those gentlemen who witnessed the outrage will now come forward and give in their testimony!�
The culprits were made to confront the jury, guarded by members of the Vigilance Committee. Several citizens came forward and stated what they had seen, and others from the hotel identified the prisoners as the men who went off with the unlucky miner. They also recognized the bags and the nuggets which were taken from them as the same which had been exhibited at the hotel. As for the wounded man, he was too badly hurt to testify.
The case was fairly made out against them, the jury gave in their verdict, and the judge formally inquired what the convicts had to say why sentence should not be pronounced upon them. They muttered out a few unintelligible words, when with a clear loud voice, he said: “Prisoners, you have been found guilty of a murderous assault and robbery. You have had a fair trial, and the sentence of this court is that you he forthwith hung by the neck till you are dead! One hour will be granted for such religious exercises as you may desire. If there is any one present who is disposed to render these men any religious service, he is requested to come forward.�
A man, who represented himself as a Methodist preacher, now advanced to the miserable men, said a few words to them in a low tone of voice, and then knelt down to pray beside them. During this part of the ceremony, the crowd stood silently by, and many took off their hats.