One of his principal friends wisely absconded, and so escaped sharing his fate, which would have been a thing almost certain had he remained.
It has often been asked why Slade’s friends were permitted to go scot free, seeing that they accompanied him in all his “raids,” and both shared and defended his wild and lawless exploits. The answer is very simple. The Vigilantes deplored the sad, but imperative necessity for the making of one example. That, they knew, would be sufficient. They were right in their judgment, and immovable in their purpose. Could it but be made known how many lives were at their mercy, society would wonder at the moderation that ruled in their counsels. Necessity was the arbiter of these men’s fate. When the stern Goddess spoke not, the doom was unpronounced, and the criminal remained at large. They acted for the public good, and when examples were made, it was because the safety of the community demanded a warning to the lawless and the desperate, that might neither be despised nor soon forgotten.
The execution of the Road Agents of Plummer’s gang was the result of the popular verdict and judgment against robbers and murderers. The death of Slade was the protest of society on behalf of social order and the rights of man.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE EXECUTION OF JAMES BRADY, FOR SHOOTING MURPHY, AT NEVADA.
“Murder most foul and most unnatural.”—Shakspeare.
Early in the summer of 1864, the Committee were called upon to visit the stern retribution due to those who wantonly and maliciously attempt to assassinate a fellow-creature, upon James Brady, a resident of the Lower-Town, more generally known as Nevada City. The case was clear, so far as the moral guilt of the accused was concerned, as will fully appear from the subjoined account of the transaction; but there are not a few who measure the extent of guilt by its consequences, and refuse to examine the act itself, on its own merits. Now, we have always held that a man who fires at another, deliberately and with malice prepense, inflicting upon him a wound of any kind, is as much a murderer as if the shot had proved instantly fatal. The other judgment of the case depends upon the relative goodness or badness of ammunition, the efficiency of the weapon, and the expertness of the marksman. Hence, to hit the mark is murder; but to aim at it, and make rather a wide shot, is manslaughter only. If a ball glances on a man’s ribs, it is manslaughter; if it goes between them, it is murder. This line of argument may satisfy some people; and that it does do so, we know; at the same time, it is not a doctrine that we can endorse, being fully convinced of its utter want of foundation, in right reason or common sense. Murphy, the victim of Brady’s shot, was believed to be dying; the physicians declared he could not live many hours, and for this crime Brady was executed. Some kind-hearted, but weak-headed individuals think that the murderer ought to have been spared, because Murphy had a strong constitution, and contrary to all expectations, recovered; but what the state of a man’s health has to do with the crime of the villain who shoots him, will to us, forever remain an enigma as difficult as the unraveling of the Gordian knot. The proper course, in such cases, seems to be, not the untying of the knot aforesaid, but the casting on of another, in the shape of a Road Agent’s neck-tie.
At about 11 P. M., the stillness of the summer’s night that had closed in upon the citizens of Nevada, was broken by two pistol shots fired in rapid succession. The executive officer of the Committee heard the reports, as he was retiring to bed; but the sounds were too familiar to a mountaineer to attract any special attention, and he laid down at once, to sleep. In a few moments, however, he was startled from his quick coming slumber by the sudden entrance of a friend who told him to get up, for there was a man shot. Hastily dressing himself, he found that an individual named Jem Kelly was a prisoner on the charge of being an accomplice in the deed. Who had fired the shots was not known, the man having run off with all speed, before he could be arrested. A guard of two Vigilantes was left in charge of Kelly and the officer went quickly to Brady’s saloon, where he first heard, from bystanders, that they thought Brady himself was the criminal, but that he had escaped. The wounded man confirmed this statement, and an examination of the premises showed a bullet-hole in the window through which the assassin had fired. The second shot had been fired from the door-step.
A detail of twelve men were ordered to search the town, for Brady, while the captain and three others started for Virginia City, with the intention of capturing him if he could be found there, or on the road thither. On arriving at Central City, they ascertained from a citizen whom they met on the street, that a man dressed in black clothes, and otherwise answering the description of the fugitive, had passed through, and that he was apparently intoxicated. They went on to Virginia, and on arriving there, just about midnight, they found that the only house in which a light appeared was the Beaverhead saloon, at the corner of Idaho and Jackson streets, now John How & Co.’s store.
One of the party knew Brady personally, and on entering he at once recognized him in the act of drinking with another man at the bar. The captain stepped up and asked, “Is your name Brady?” “Yes,” said he. “Then you are my prisoner,” answered the captain. On his inquiring what was the charge against him, he was told that he was arrested for the murder of Murphy. The prisoner immediately started off on a loud harangue, but was stopped by the captain, who told him to keep quiet, and added, “You will have a fair trial in the morning.”
Brady was taken down to Nevada by his captors, and confronted with his victim, who was lying in his own house. “Murphy,” said the captain, “is this the man that shot you?” The wounded man fixed his gaze on the prisoner, and replied faintly, “It is.” The guard then took Brady and marched him down town, to the house where Kelly was confined. The two men were given into the custody of a strong and well armed party, for the night. The death of Murphy was hourly expected by the attendant surgeons, and all around him.