Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1856-07-30

tect those by whom they had been officially
created, as We have explained.
They thus revolted against the nominal op-
GRAFTON of laws defeated by false witnesses,
and packed juries, and mock agents or oficers
of the law holding their places only through
successful fraud and violence. This revolt or
revolution was the work evidently of nine
| tenths of the real business men of the city,
driven to desperation by the accumulated
wrongs under which they were suffering, with
no other possible means within their reach.
All classes Of the business men participated
| in it, those not enrolled among the forces of
the Vigilance Committee being active sympa-
thisers with their brethren in arms The
Governor and his subordinate functionaries
to whom the successful termination of the Com
mlttee's lsbors without shedding more blood
than that of Casey and Cora must be certain
official death, called on the people to arm
against the revolutionists, and his cell was
responded to only by hundreds, including the
hunted class and their lower instruments,
where the forces Of the Committee numbered
thousands. An officer of the Vigilance Com.
mittee sought to arrest a man named Mulloney
in the presence of Judge Terry, and the Judge,
knowing the attempt to be illegal, essayed to
resist the power of the Committee by COM
manding the officer and his posse, in the name
of the law, to cease and begone. To have
obeyed him would have been virtually to have
restored things there tovery much the condition
In which they were prior to the murder of Jas.
King of William, and to have subjected the
Committee to the vengeance of those whom
they had been compelled to seek to drive from
the State. What that vengeance would be if
the Msgowans, Aldricks, Kearneys Il Co. had
again obtained power, all sensible persons must
realize. However much the Committee might
respect and regard Judge Terry personally, to
have acknowledged his authority and obeyed
him on that occasion would have defeated the
consumation of their labors for the good of
society. So the officer of the Committee still
essayed to make the arrest of Mulloney; and
while the Judge was endeavoring to cover
the latter's retreat, came into violent collision
with him, armed as he was, with a gun and
bowie knife. The Judge inflicted very dan
gerous wound upon him-the officer. Re-
treating to supposed place of safety with
the temporarily rescued man and some six
teen OF bis own personal friends, they were
very soon surrounded by thousands of the
Committees troops, to whom they promptly
surrendered. They are now held in custody
by the Committee, doubtless for their own
Ithe Committee safety. As for the idea
that vengeance will be taken by them on the
person of Judge Terry, even if the officer
(Hopkins) dies we have no faith in it, He
will be held in close confinement so long as
that course may be necessary to prevent him,
smarting under the personal indignity in
volved in his arrest as he doubtless does, from
operating seriously to endanger the success of
their plans for Kidding the State of the pre-
sence OF the villains whom they originally set
out to disperse and drive away His arrest
has OF course been seized on by the few par
tizans of the old order of things to generate
sympathy against the Committee So far as
we can judge from the tone of the press of
the city and State, the manure has failed as
signally as did the Governors call to arms
against the Vigilance Committee; because,
evidently, no serious harm to Judge Terry is
intended, and his present situation is the re-
suit only of bis Quixotic effort to oppose his
own arm against the Committees present
power.
On the whole, as matters stand there now,
the despotism of the Committee seems to US
far less to be deplored than that of the Ma.
gowans, Aldricks, Caseys, Kearneys, Cussicks,
Coras, Sullivans, &C., &c. it has subverted;
though the latter did murder and rob indis-
crminately and without let or hindrance prac-
tically by virtue of the authority of the law.
Desperate diseases in civil affairs, as in the
matter Of personal health, require desperate
remedies; and the San Francisco case seems
to rs certainly to have been one wherein il
should have been risked as aught else
could possibly give relief under the circun.
| stances.
The Great Fillmore Movement The meas.
ure of Mr.. Dunn, passed by the House yester.
day, abrogates the present Territorial Gov.
eminent Of Kansas re-establishes the Mis-.
souri, restriction, and, generally, makes such
changes in the law there as, if finally tri.
umphant, will surely consummate the so oft
avowed purpose Of its mover, to abolitionize
the Territory past redemption. 1t is the great
Northern Fillmore measure of the session its
sponso rs being Mr.. Filmore's two thumbs in
the House of Representatives-Messrs. Haven
and Dunn. Its passage through the House,
by the union Of the Republican and Northern
Fillmore parties, bears out all we have said
with reference to the entire Identification be.
tween those two great political interests, so
far as the rights and future of the South are
concerned. What Southern American.party
man, who cares more for the security of tho
rights Of the South under the Constitution
than for the triumph of the aholition;sn, oe