Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1856-07-16

tree speech, free vote, and public safety.
For years they have patiently waited and
striven In peaceable manner, and In &C
cordance with the forms of law, to reform th,
abuses which have made our city byword
Fraud and violence have foiled every effort
and the laws to which the people looked fol
protection, while distorted and rendered efete
in practice, so as to shield the vile, have beer
used as a powerful engine to fasten upon u:
tyranny and misrule.
As republicans, we looked to the ballot box
as our safeguard and sure remedy. But SO
efectually and so long was its voice smothered,
the votes deposited in it by freemen so entirely
outnumbered by ballots thrust in through
fraud at midnight, or nullifed by the false
counts of judges and inspectors of elections at
monday, that many doubted whether the ma
iority Of the people were not utterly corrupt
Organized bands Of bad men, Of all political
parties, or who assumed any particular creed
from mercenary or corrupt motives, have par
celled out our Offices among themselves, or sold
them to the highest bidders;
Have provided themselves with convenient
tools to obey their nod, as clerks, inspectors
and judges Of election;
Have employed DULLES and professional
fighters to destroy tally lists by force, and pre-
vent peaceable citizens from ascertaining, in
a lawful manner, the true number Of votes
pollod at our elections;
And have used cunningly contrived ballot.
boxes, with false sides and bottoms, so pre-
pared that, by means of a spring or slide,
spurious tickets, concealed there previous to
the election, could be mingled with genuine
votes
Of all this we have the most irrefragible
proofs. Felons from other lands and states,
and unconvicted criminals, equally as bad,
have thus controlled public funds and proper
~, and have often amassed sudden fortunes,
without having done an honest day work
with head or hands TAus the fair inheritance
OF our city has been embezzled and squander-
ed-our streets and wharves are in ruins and
the miserable entailment of enormous debt
viii bequeath sorrow and poverty to another
generation.
The jury box has been tempered with, and
our jury trials have been made to shield the
hundreds of murderers whose red hands have
semented this tyranny, and silenced with the
oowle- knife and the pistol, not only the free
voice OF an indignant press, but the thunder
ing rebuke of the outraged citizen.
10 our shame be it said, that the inhabitants
OF distant lands already know that corrupt
men In office, as well as gamblers, shoulder
strikers, and other vile tools of unscrupuIous
leaders, beat, main, and shoot down with i'm
punlty, as well as peaceable and unOffending
cllzens, as those earnest reformers who, at the
known hazard Of their lives, and with single
ness OF heart have sought in a lawful m amer,
70 thwart schemes Of public plumber or to
awaken investigation.
Embodied in the principles of republican
governments are the truths that the majority
should rule, and when corrupt officials who
have fraudulently seized the reins of authori.
~, designedly thwart the execution of the
laws, and avert punishment from the no.
toriously guilty, the power they usurp reverts
BACK to the people from whom it was wrested
Realizing these truths, and confident that
they were carrying out the will of the vast
majority of the citizens of this county, the
Committee of Vigilance, under solemn sense
OF the responsibility that rested upon them,
nave calmly and dispassionately weighed the
evidence before them, and decreed the death
OF some and the Punishment of others, who
oy their crimes and villanies, had stained our
fair land.
With those that were banished, this COM
paratiVely moderate punishment was chosen,
not because ignOminious death was not de-
served, but that the error, if any, might surely
be upon the side of mercy to the criminal
There are others, scarcely less guilty, against
whom the same punishment has been decreed,
but they have been allowed further time to
arrange for their final departure, and with
the hope that permission to depart voluntarily
might induce repentsnce, and repentance
amendment, they have been suffered to choose
within limits, their own time and method Of
going
Thus far, and throughout their arduous du.
ties, they nave been, and will be guided by
the most conscientious convictions of impera
tive duty; and they earnestly hope that, in
endeavOrlng to mete out mercifu Justice to
the guilty, their counsels may be 80 guided by
that Power before whose tribunal We shall ali
stand, that In the vicissitudes of after life.
amid the calm reflections of old age and in the
Gear view OF dying conscience, there NAV be
found nothing We would regret or wish to
change.
We have no friends to reward, no enemies
10 punish. no private ends to accomplish.
=, Our single heartfelt aim is the public good :,
the puIglDg from our community of those
abandoned characters whose actions have
been evil continually, and have finally forced
upon US the efforts we are now making We
nave no faVoritIsm as a body, nor shall there
De eVlnced In any of our acts either partiality
Ior; or prejudice against, race, sect or party
While thus far We have not discovered on
the part OF our constituents any Indication.
OF lack OF confidence, and have no reason to
dOuDt the great majOrity Of the inhabitants
Vi the county endorse our acts and desire US
10 continue the work Of wedding out the IRE
cialma6le characters from the community,
we nave, with deep regret. seen that some of
the state authorities have felt it their duty to
organize force to resist US. 1t is not impos.
sioie Tor US to realize, that not only those who
nave sought place with a view to public plum.
aer, Dut also those gentlemen who in accent
ing ofhces to which they were honestly elected.
nave sworn to uphold the laws of the State of
california, find it difficult to reconcile their
supposed duties with scquiescence in the acts
OF The Committee of Vigilance, since they do
not reflect that perhaps more than three.
iouIths OF the people of the entire State sym-
Pathize with and endorse our efforts, and as
that all law emanates from the people, SO
that, when the laws thus enacted are not ex-
ecuted, the power returns to the people, aud
Is thelrs whenever they may choose to exer.
cise 1t. These gentlemen would not have
heaitated to acknowledge this sclf-svident
truth had the people chosen to make their
present movement a complete revolution, re-
gained all the power they had delegated, and
re,issued 1t to new agents under new forms
Row, because the people have not seen fit to
resume all the powers they have confided to
executive or legislative officers, it certainly
ooes not follow that they can not, in the exer.
else OF their inherent sovereign power, with
Draw from corrupt and snfaithfuI servants
the authority they have used tn tbwa,t ,ba