was a graduate of a college in the States; and, though a Road Agent and thief, yet he never committed murder, and was averse to shedding blood. He was wounded in attacking Forbes’ train, and his feet were so far mortified by frost when he was captured, that the scent attracted the wolves, and the body had to be watched all night.
Concerning the rest of the gang, nearly all that is known has already been related. They were, without exception, old offenders from the Pacific coast. The “bunch” on Ned Ray’s foot was caused by a wound from a shot fired at him when escaping from the penitentiary at St. Quentin, California. This he told, himself, at Bannack.
JAMES DANIELS.
This criminal, the last executed by the Vigilantes, it should be generally understood, murdered a Frenchman in Tuolumne county, California, and chased another with a bowie-knife till his strength gave out. In Helena, he killed Gartley, whose wife died of a broken-heart at the news; threatened the lives of the witnesses for the prosecution, and had drawn his knife, and concealed it in his sleeve, with the intent of stabbing Hugh O’Neil in the back, after the fight between Orem and Marley, at the Challenge Saloon. He said he “would cut the heart out of the ——!” when an acquaintance who was watching him, caught hold of him and told him he was in the wrong crowd to do that. Daniels renewed his threats when liberated, and was hanged; not because he was pardoned, but because he was unfit to live in the community.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
CONCLUSION.
“All’s well that ends well,” says the proverb. Peace, order and prosperity are the results of the conduct of the Vigilantes; and, in taking leave of the reader, the author would commend to the sound sense of the community, the propriety of maintaining, in readiness for efficient action if needed, the only organization able to cope with the rampant lawlessness which will always be found in greater or less amount in mining camps.
At the same time, let the advice be well understood before it is either commented upon or followed. Readiness is one thing; intermeddling is another. Only on occasions of grave necessity should the Vigilantes let their power be known. Let the civil authority, as it increases in strength, gradually arrogate to itself the exclusive punishment of crime. This is what is needed, and what every good citizen must desire; but let the Vigilantes, with bright arms and renewed ammunition, stand ready to back the law, and to bulwark the Territory against all disturbers of its peace, when too strong for legal repression, and when it fails or is unable to meet the emergency of the hour. Peace and justice we must have, and it is what the citizens will have in this community; through the courts, if possible; but peace and justice are rights, and courts are only means to an end, admittedly the very best and most desirable means; and if they fail, the people, the republic that created them, can do their work for them. Above all things, let the resistless authority of the Vigilantes, whose power reaches from end to end of Montana, be never exerted except as the result of careful deliberation, scrupulous examination of fair evidence, and the call of imperative Necessity; which, as she knows no law, must judge without it, taking Justice for her counselor and guide.
Less than three years ago, this home of well ordered industry, progress and social order, was a den of cut-throats and murderers. Who has effected the change? The Vigilantes; and there is nothing on their record for which an apology is either necessary or expedient. Look at Montana that has a committee; and turn to Idaho, that has none. Our own peaceful current of Territorial life runs smoothly, and more placidly, indeed, than the Eastern States, to-day; but in Idaho, one of their own papers lately asserted that, in one county, sixty homicides had been committed, without a conviction; and another declares that the cemeteries are full of the corpses of veterans in crime and their victims.
Leave us the power of the people, as a last resort; and, where governments break down, the citizens will save the State. No man need be ashamed of his connection with the Virginia Vigilantes. Look at their record and say it is not a proud one. It has been marvellous that politics have never intruded into the magic circle; yet so it is, has been, and probably will be. Men of all ranks, ages, nations, creeds and politics are among them; and all moves like a clock, as can be seen on the first alarm. Fortified in the right, and acting in good conscience, they are “just and fear not.” Their numbers are great; in fact, it is stated that few good men are not in their ranks, and the presence of the most respectable citizens makes their deliberation calm, and the result impartially just.
In presenting this work to the people, the author knows, full well, that the great amount of labor bestowed upon it is no recommendation of its excellence to a public that judges of results and not of processes; but one thing is sure; so far as extended research and a desire to tell the truth can effect the credibility of such a narrative, this history has been indited subject to both these regulations, since the pen of the writer gave the first chapter to the public.