The long and black catalogue of his crimes was too much for the patience of the Vigilantes, who, though used to the confessions of ordinary criminals, were unprepared to hear from a man just baptized, such a fearful recital of disgusting enormities. They thought that it was high time that the world should be rid of such a monster, and so signified to the chief, who seemed to be of the same opinion, and at once gave the order to “proceed with the execution.” Seeing that his time was come, Silvie ceased his narrative, and said to the men, “Boys, don’t let me hang more than two or three days.” He was told that they were in the habit of burying such fellows as him in Montana. The word “take hold,” was given, and every man present “tailed on” to the rope which ran over the “limb of the law.” Not even the chief was exempt, and the signal being given, he was run up all standing—the only really merciful way of hanging. A turn or two was taken with the slack of the rope, round the tree, and the end was belayed to a knot which projects from the trunk. This being completed, the motionless body was left suspended until life was supposed to be extinct, the Vigilantes gazing on it in silence.
Two men were then detailed, and stood, with an interval of about two feet between them, facing each other. Between these “testers” marched every man present, in single file, giving the pass-word of the organization in a low whisper. One man was found in the crowd who had not learned the particular “articulate sound representing an idea,” which was so necessary to be known. He was scared very considerably, when singled out and brought before the chief; but, after a few words of essential preliminary precaution, he was discharged, breathing more freely, and smiling like the sun after an April shower, with the drops of perspiration still on his forehead.
The Committee gradually dispersed, not as usually is the case, with solemn countenances and thoughtful brows, but firmly and cheerfully; for each man felt that his strain on the fatal rope was a righteous duty, and a service performed to the community. Such an incarnate fiend, they knew, was totally unfit to live,and unworthy of sympathy. Neither courage, generosity, truth nor manhood, pleaded for mercy, in his case, he lived a sordid and red-handed robber, and he died unpitied, the death of a dog.
Very little action was necessary on the part of the Vigilance Committee, to prevent any combination of the enemies of law and order from exerting a prejudicial influence on the peace and good order of the capital; in fact, the organization gradually ceased to exercise its functions, and, though in existence, its name, more than its active exertions, sufficed to preserve tranquility. When Chief Justice Hosmer arrived in the Territory, and organized the Territorial and County Courts, he thought it his duty to refer to the Vigilantes, in his charge to the Grand Jury, and invited them to sustain the authorities as citizens. The old guardians of the peace of the Territory were greatly rejoiced at being released from their onerous and responsible duties, and most cheerfully and heartily complied with the request of the Judiciary.
For some months no action of any kind was taken by them; but, in the summer of 1865, news reached them of the burning and sacking of Idaho City, and they were reliably informed that an attempt would be made to burn Virginia, also, by desperadoes from the West. That this was true was soon demonstrated by ocular proof; for two attempts were made though happily discovered and rendered abortive, to set fire to the city. In both cases, the parties employed laid combustibles in such a manner that, but for the Vigilance and promptitude of some old Vigilantes, a most destructive conflagration must have occurred in the most crowded part of the town. In one case the heap of chips and whittled wood a foot in diameter had burnt so far only as to leave a ring of the outer ends of the pile visible. In the other attempt a collection of old rags were placed against the wall of an outbuilding attached to the Wisconsin House, situated within the angle formed by the junction of Idaho and Jackson streets. Had this latter attempt succeeded, it is impossible to conjecture the amount of damage that must have been inflicted upon the town, for frame buildings fifty feet high were in close proximity, and had they once caught fire, the flames might have destroyed at least half of the business houses on Wallace, Idaho and Jackson streets.
At this time, too, it was a matter of every day remark that Virginia was full of lawless characters, and many of them thinking that the Vigilantes were officially defunct, did not hesitate to threaten the lives of prominent citizens, always including in their accusations, that they were strangling ——. This state of things could not be permitted to last; and, as the authorities admitted that they were unable to meet the emergency, the Vigilantes reorganized at once, with the consent and approbation of almost every good and order-loving citizen in the Territory.
The effect of this movement was marvellous; the roughs disappeared rapidly from the town; but a most fearful tragedy, enacted in Portneuf Canyon, Idaho, on the 13th of July roused the citizens almost to frenzy. The Overland coach from Virginia to Salt Lake City, was driven into an ambuscade by Frank Williams, and though the passengers were prepared for Road Agents, and fired simultaneously with their assailants, who were under cover and stationary, yet four of them, viz: A. S. Parker, A. J. McCausland, David Dinan and W. L. Mers were shot dead; L. F. Carpenter was slightly hurt in three places, and Charles Parks was apparently mortally wounded. The driver was untouched, and James Brown, a passenger, jumped into the bushes and got off, unhurt. Carpenter avoided death by feigning to be in the last extremity, when a villain came to shoot him a second time. The gang of murderers, of whom eight were present at the attack, secured a booty of $65,000 in gold, and escaped undetected.
A party of Vigilantes started in pursuit, but effected nothing at the time; and it was not till after several months patient work of a special detective from Montana, that guilt was brought home to the driver, who was executed by the Denver Committee, on Cherry Creek. Eventually, it is probable that all of them will be captured, and meet their just doom.
The last offenders who were executed by the Vigilance Committee of Virginia City, were two horse thieves and confessed Road Agents, named, according to their own account John Morgan and John Jackson alias Jones. They were, however, of the “alias” tribe. The former was caught in the act of appropriating a horse in one of the city corrals. He was an old offender, and on his back were the marks of the whipping he received in Colorado for committing an unnatural crime. He was a low, vicious ruffian. His comrade was a much more intelligent man, and acknowledged the justice of his sentence without any hesitation. Morgan gave the names and signs of the gang they belonged to, of which Rattlesnake Dick was the leader. Their lifeless bodies were found hanging from a hay-frame, leaning over the corral fence at the slaughter house, on the branch, about half a mile from the city. The printed manifesto of the Vigilantes was affixed to Morgan’s clothes with the warning words written across it, “Road Agents, beware!”
Outrages against person and property are still perpetrated occasionally, though much less frequently than is usual in settled countries; and it is to be hoped that regularly administered law will, for the future, render a Vigilance Committee unnecessary. The power behind the Throne of Justice stands ready, in Virginia City, to back the authorities; but nothing except grave public necessity will evoke its independent action.