state had suspended his execution. Almost
immediately after the respite was known, a
committee of citizens was formed, and was
even acknowledged by the mayor of the town,
Hardenburgh, who appeared before them, and
requested to know if he was to leave the
prisoners in the hands of the sheriff? When
Thompson and Gibson were preparing for
death, and the sheriff directed the judicial
executions, the committee caused a third
gallows to be erected on the same spot, and
Robinson to be hanged. After the execution,
his excellency the governor was hanged, too;
but, fortunately for him, only in effigy.

Order seemed to be re-established. But
this expectation, too, proved to be unfounded.
Among the prisoners were three criminals,
Mackenzie, Wittaker, and Mary Ann Hogan,
who had made disclosures, so important, and,
as it was believed, implicating so many
persons of high standing, that the committee
resolved to reserve the trial of this case to
itself. Upon Mackenzie and Wittaker the
sentence of death was passed, and the
twenty-first of August was appointed for
their execution.

Meanwhile, during the night before the
execution, the governor of the states had
obtained from Myron Norton, judge of the
supreme court, a writ of habeas corpus
which he placed in the hands of Sheriff Hays
and Deputy Sheriff Copperton for immediate
use. At half-past three o'clock in the morning,
the governor, the two sheriffs, the mayor,
city-marshal, and six police-officers entered
clandestinely the room of the Vigilance
Committee. The guards were surprised, and the
two prisoners were hurried off in full speed to
the county-jail. But now the bell from the
engine-house began tolling, and the people and
members of the committee moved in crowds
towards the committee-house. When it was
known that the prisoners were rescued, the
indignant crowd rushed towards the prison
in order to retake possession of the convicts.
The prison, however, was well defended,
and on its roof there were posted the
magistrates concerned in the rescue, the
police-force, and a body of well-armed citizens,
ready to repel, from their advantageous
position, any attack that should be made.
Although much superior in numbers, the crowd
dared not assail them. For two days the
prison was besieged without effect. Then,
the people became tired, and dispersed. When
all hope of recapturing the prisoners seemed
to be lost, on Sunday morning, the
twenty-seventh of August, the bell of the Vigilance
Committee tolled with unusual vivacity, and,
at the same moment, a carriage and two
splendid grey horses were seen dashing
through the streets towards the committee-house.
As the people poured out of the
houses, it was directly known that some
members of the committee had, by a daring
and sudden attack, succeeded in
recapturing the two prisoners from the
county jail during the performance of divine
service, and had conveyed them again into
the prison of the Vigilance Committee. The
excitement was immense, and in an
incredibly short space of time fifteen thousand
people were assembled before the
committee-house, venting their approbation in wild
shouts. Some minutes later, the two
re-captured prisoners were hanged from the
windows of the committee-room. It was, with
much satisfaction, observed, that from the
moment of capturing the prisoners in the
county prison till their final execution, only
seventeen minutes had elapsed. The public
opinion and the press declared that the
Vigilance Committee had redeemed their honour,
and the only circumstance the Alta California
found fault with was, that one or two of the
committee very indecorously had appeared
at the threshold of the window from which
the poor wretches had the instant before
passed into eternity, and seemed to recognise
acquaintances among the populace: exhibiting
very little reverence for the sacredness
and solemnity of death.

Proclamations followed from all sides, but
were nothing better than empty words. It was
clear to the most partial eyes that the victory
remained with the committee, and the
unbecomingly clandestine way in which the
highest authorities of the state had stooped
to act, without success, betrayed too
obviously their own consciousness of weakness.
Arrived at the height of popularity and
power, the Vigilance Committee acted wisely
in desisting from further interference with
the administration of criminal law. They
acted wisely, too, in not dissolving. The
whole organisation remained unaltered, and
imparted to the office-holders as well as to
the criminals the persuasion of the undeniable
truth, that at any moment, when necessary,
the committee could again repress
crime and protect their members against
either legal or illegal persecution in
consequence of the duties they had performed.
Even the preachers acknowledged from the
pulpit that the Vigilance Committee had
deserved great praise in delivering the country,
at least for some time to come, from serious
evils.

The annexation of California added to the
United States a fertile country, with a mild
climate, splendid harbours on the Pacific, and
immense riches of gold. But, on the other
band, it established a nursery of atrocious
crimes that were believed no longer to exist
except among savages. This bane of human
society was not confined to California alone.
Hundreds of thousands of American citizens
who had undergone the brutalising influence
of Californian life, returned to their former
homes; and if we read now of Missouri-men
scalping their fellow-citizens in Kansas,
and parading the bloody scalps before an
applauding populace, we may, not without
great probability, suppose that there is some