Butte record., 1856-07-19
Address to the Citizens of TuOI-
umne County.

! uMAue SOumtys
| Of all social things. it most becomes an
earnest man and patriot to understand
his own times. Ours are indeed portentlous
OF evil. Almost in torpid apathy. we are
walking over the slumbering fires of revolu-
ton and civil war, which if once enkndled
cannot be extinguished, but will Consume
US and all we hold most dear
We, the undersigned claiming the right
to speak only as your fellow citizens, as
brothers in the love of a common country,
desire to address you few words upon the
appalling events which have passed and are
passing before our eyes like the fearful Wis
ions of dream, filling every true Ameri-
cans heart with sentiment of the pro-
| foundest melancholy, and almost wringing
from him the despairing confession that the
golden days of the Republic are over. We
desire that these should be the words of so
berness, of wisdom, of moderation Last of
all would we write one word that could fos-
ter the excitement with which our State is
now reeling and staggering, or add fuel TO
the infuriate and malignant passions which
| for the moment seem to have driven Justice
charity, hor or, dignity and decency from the
breasts of all of us. We desire to create no
heart burnipgs, no ranking, no asperity,
no bitterness, nor ''to set down aught in
malice, against the men who, however
pure their lives and motives, are surely
! leading our people into chaos, ruin and
leath.
We speak not to express our own opin-
ons, but only to warn and to call upon you
% keep steady eye upon the signs of the
iroes; to pause. to reflect. and to see your
gay through things which concern, vitality
1aarast inf
country-to enkindle in your hearts, with
fresh purity of purpose, cica virtue. that
known to the hearts of freemen only, pecu-
liar to the race Through which our life
blood tracks its parent lake." and sprnging
from habit of at once obeying and insist
ing upon the laws of a free country. To
awaken in you that ''bold and fearless. but
sharp-sighted, cautious, sagacious, discrim
mating. far-seeing spirit Of Liberty" which
built up this government and its institu-
tions, with a watchful eye to the rights of
the lowliest in the land, and preparing for
the assaults of all kinds of arbitrary power,
whether those assaults should come from
the governmen, from individuals, or the
masses -s' that spirit which. Jealous of
power, jealous of encroachment, jealous of
man, demands checks, seeks for guards,
insists on securities, entrenches itself behind
strong defences, and fortifes itself with all
possible care against the attacks of ambi-
ton and passion That spirit which knows
that unchecked and irresponsible absolutism
under whatever fair name it may come,
whether individual or collective, whether a
one man tyranny, or naked, unmtigated
democracy, is the very negation of liberty
which g in looking to the end never forgets
the means,' and trusting nothing to the
weakness of human nature, nothing to the
alternate principles of good and evil, that
wage incessant war in fallen and erring man
-'snever permits power to step beyond its
prescribed bounds, though benevolence,
good intent, and patriotic purpose come with
it" We believe that this spirit can yet be
found in the race of men that planted free
empire on this Pacific shore, and that if once
awakened, it will sweep out of sight the ex-
aggeratious, the chimeras, and all the allu-
ring plausibilities and fearful fallacies, false
in logic, unhallowed in theory, and destruc-
tive in practice, with which our day is so
rife We desire then, simply to hold up,
even unto yourselves, the appalling evils
and dangers into which it is apparent we
are rapidly drifting, and which, if not turn
ed aside by the hand of human wisdom or
Gods mercy must destroy our State, her
government, her liberties, her dignity and
her happiness.
No man need be told of the things done in
San Francisco during the past six weeks
They have hurried by US like the shifting
scenes of panorama, leaving us startled,
blinded, paralyzed, with a vague terror in
our hearts that the end is not yet. Every
man stands looking for some greater horror
we are yet to see-no man can yet realize the
enormity of those already committed, or has
raised the veil from the disastrous and de-
plora BILE effects that lie beyond. Hereafter,
when heat and passion and intemperance
are over--when confusion and violence are
calmed, simple statement of facts, without
establishment or exaggeration, will scarcely
obtain credence We have seen in the city
of San Francisco an organization which, it
is said, in the beginning embraced but
sin rle idea-that of Furnishing the murder
er of James King of Wm.-proceed with
armed bands, with cannon and all the ap
pliance of war, to the Jail of that county,
drag forth two men therein detained in the
custody of the law, and, without legal trial,
put them to death. We have seen a third
man driven to suicide through terror of a
like fate cruelty held up before his eyes
We have seen bands of armed men, rudely,
without explanation, without warrant or
other process of law, at the dead hour of
midnight, break in upon the dwellings of
citizens, forcbly search. the premises. out
raging families and insulting females. Not
only in the dens of vice and shame have
these things been done, but in the dwellings
and private apartments of honest, peaceable
and reputable citizens. We have seen other
men seized, publicly, in the broad light of
day, hurried into cells, with pistols and
| knives at their breasts, and from thence
driven forcibly from the State. Others,
without : hearing,-without the poor privl-
| lege of knowing the crimes charged upon
them-without the right Of counsel--without
| the right to cross examine or impeach the
witnesses offered against them, or to offer
any in their own behalf-with personal en-
emies, it may be, sitting among their judg-
| es, we have seen condemned and insultlngly
! ordered to expatriate themselves under
| threats of "the seyerest penalties " We have
seen liberty of speech and communion set at
| naught. the sacredness of private cores
| nondence violated. We have seen the civil
| made subordinate to the military authority
We have seen new and extraordinary tribu-
! nails erected-tribunalsi ignorant OF our laws,
| despising all the rules and safeguards which
| the experience of ages has shown necessary
| to promote a fair and impartial trial; and
| vet before which citizens are dragged, con-
| demned, and sent to banishment or execu-
ton. We have seen the sworn officers of
| law secuted at in the discharge of their du
| ry; the authority Of the Executive and Ju-
| dietary disregarded and trampled upon; the
writ of hdbeus corpus resisted at the poiut
| If the bayonet, the Constitution prostrated.
| and all the checks and guarantees placed
there to protect the people from their own