The Nevada journal., 1856-05-30

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full and of vast Aesponsibility, by an au-
thority amenable to none but the silent
monitor and the Ole to whom ultimately
all must render An account, is a theme on
which the wisest and {best might ponder
long and we'll.
That the dreadful necessity existed Of
suspcnding for time he legal code es-
tablished by properly constituted author
tiles, to check by the strong arm of society
in its original form and purity, the abuses
which had found shield under the cor
rupt workings of well designed but in
operative for justice system of laws we
do not doubt. Indeed the most attrocious
acts of consummate villainy for which San
Francisco was long since proverbial, the
character of the men who have perpetra-
ted the deeds, and the character of an
opposite nature which the populace that
took the law and the execution of Justice
into their own hands, leave little room to
cavil that one Of those rare and awful
crisiscs had been brought to the option..o
the citizens Of San Francisco, either to
surrender all hope of justice forever or
rise to assert an Unborn social right, and
vindicate the majesty of a ler non scripta
from which there can be no escape, no
appeal.
The calmncss and deliberation of the
Vigilance Committee in the discharge of
the grave duties they had assumed, is an
index Of the moral responsibility they felt
resting upon them in the extraordinary
emergency they were called upon to meet.
GA mob is monster with many heads
and no brains" But there was nothing
on the exterior of the moving of the
masses in the late tragedy which indicated
the workings of a mobocratic spirit On
the contrary the solemnity which charac-
terized the whole proceedings has rarely
been exceeded in any court of Justice
There can be no question that the master
spirits in the late reign Of pure democracy
in San Francisco, were actuated By pa
triotic and rational motives. In the
community for which they heroically acted
their deeds will be salutary in the highest
degree. A score of others not less guilty
than Cora or Casey ought to feel the rod
of offended justice, and San Francisco
might possibly indulge the hope that it
would not be worse for her than Sodom,
in the day of reckoning.
But just as the action of the people at
San Francisco many have been, and was,
we very much fear, the example will be
deleterious upon the State at large.-
There is in every community class who
cannot discriminate between a case of
absolute necessity for the assumption of
original right, and one where the grievance
is slight and better to be punished not at
all than not by law. These, on occasions
when the passions of men are overheated,
may he disposed to initiate the example
which has been set. There is love of
notoriety, no matter how to be acquired,
in the bosoms Of hundreds of our popula-
tion, which seeks to be gratifed at what
ever expense.
Many would not scruple to take the
lives of their fellows if in SO doing thew
could be shielded by the popular senti-
ment, and severally obtain the reputation
of a Hercules for Kidding the world of
pests, real or even imaginary. There is
also another class, whining eternally of the
total depravity of all mankind but them
selves, who 60 about with uplifted eye
brows whispering the most marvellous and
dismal tales of blood being discovered
under suspicious circumstances of shrieks
and groans being family heard in a certain
locality; of jew pedler being seen and
then missing, &c. These in times of ex-
citement help to fasten suspicion upon
persons more innocent than themselves.
and passions once let loose without the
restraints of law, a case of righteous ret
ribution is cited as precedent, and sonc-
body is sacrificed to appease the morbid
state of public feeling.
The San Francisco tragedy was well,
and if the well-disposed citizens of other
communities are not too eager to initiate
the example which has been set, no harm
will result to the balance of the State
But there is cry in certain quarters for
the organization of Vigilance Committees
before there is even plausible pretext for
such organizations uS,Go;.n. u,.o A. .