New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-07-19
California.


from California will surprise those who
have not carefully watched the course OF
events. and are not in some degree familiar
with the condition Of society in that State
The summary proceedings of the San Fran
cisco Committee of Vigilance, In the trial,
condemnation and execution of the tibet
Jenkins. are not TO be regarded in the light
of an ordinary riot, much less as an example
of hostility to the established laws, heralding
Differentiation and anarchy. Seen from
the proper point of view, it is manifesto
tion-violent, it is true--of that spirit OF
Order which created the State of California,
and while we regret the causes which IN
duced it, our faith in the integrity of those
who perpetrated it is nowise weakened.
There is no denying, now, that the laws
of the State, in their present operation, are
inadequate to protect the lives and property
other citizens The amount of crime has
fearfully increased during the last few
months, and the existence of an organized
band of desperadoes, covering large por-
ton of the country, has been ascertained.-
The temptations which California offers to
outlaws of all nations, have brought to her
shores host of persons of the vilest char
acter, and all the eXertions of the authorl-
ties, unaided by effective prisons and other
material appliances, have failed to check
them in their career of crime.
In this emergency, there is general de-
termination to resort, in self-defense, to the
severe code of the early gOld-diggers. We
have already spoken of the prevalence of
this sentiment in the mining regions, where
any regular legal procedure is next to i'm
possible Not only there, however, where
anv friend of Civil Order would justify such
a course, but also in San Francisco, with
her Criminal Courts and prisons, a sure,
speedy and terrible retaliation is to be dealt
upon every offender. After seeing the fair
est part of the city laid in ashes by the
hand of an incendiary, and the escape,
through some bubble of the law, of the
culprit who attempted to repeat that dread
full visitation, it is not to be wondered that
the merchants of San Francisco should take
the administration of justice into their own
hands. The names attached To tho doolora-
ton of the Committee of Vigilance, are
those of the most orderly and influential
citizens Of the place-men who would not
rashly venture on so hazardous course, or
lightly assume so awful a responsibility
San Francisco, therefore, presents the
singular spectacle of community governed
BY two powers, each of which is separate
and distinct from the other. They cannot
come in conflict, since there is no aggres-
sive movement against the Law on the part
of the Committee, and no attempt on the
part of the regular authorities to interfere
with the action of the latter Public opin-
ion universally upholds the course pursued
by the Committee. This course, under the
circumstances. cannot be called Mob Law,
or Lynch Law, in the common acceptatiOn
of the term Ii more nearly resembles
the Martial Law which prevails during
state of siege. 1t has been suggested by
the presence of danger which the ordinary
course of law seemed inadequate to meet.
Life and property must be protected at all
hazards the country is at the mercy of as
vile horde of outcasts as the sun ever
shone upon and nothing but the most
prompt and relentless jnstice will give us
security. These are probably the senti-
ments of nine -tsnths of the citizens of Cali
fornia.
At this distance, we will not venture to
Judge whether the circumstances demand
SO merciless a code But we are sufficient
" familiar with the characters of the men
composing the Committee Of Vigilance, to
acquit them of any other motives, than that
of maintaining public order and individual
security We believe they will exercise
the power they have assumed no longer than
is absolutely necessary TO subserve these
ends, and that their willing submission to the
authority OF the law when the law shall he
competent to protect them, will add another
chapter to the marvellous history of their
State In spite Of these violent exhibitions
of popular sentiment. The instinct of Order
the capacity for Self-Government, is mani
tested more strongly in California, at this
moment, than in any other part Of the world.
The news from the interior is again ia
vorable, except in the Southern districts
ryiny ON q systematic course of nlundcr