Butte record., 1856-08-02
He6ectiona.

We are heartily tired of the San Francisco
Vigilance Committee-of their extra judi
cial actions-and the feeling which their e1
istence has created and is now fostering in
community No subject that has ever agi-
tated the public mind, has been fraught
with SO much evil. or given rise to such acri-
monious feelings, or excited the public mind
to such pitch. Neighbors regard each
other with perfect astonishment, and dis
trust and foul suspicion is engendered among
those whose intercourse has formerly evi-
denced the most honorable feelings and
| friendly relations.
The press, too, has felt the influence of the
mob at the Bay. and forget that their ap-
peals should be to the judgment of the peo-
pie, instead of their passions, and indulge
| in the most bitter and acrimonious feelings.
1t is almost impossible to open a paper from
below, without reading the disgusting de-
tails o. lynch law execution, or the specu-
lations of mob editors upon the next victim
of the tyrants who now rule San Francisco
with the secret conclave and the bayonet, to
everlasting disgrace of our republican insti-
| tutions. As if to add fresh fuel to the feel
ings already agitatiDg the State, the Allan
tic papers are now favoring the California
public with republication of their pro-
ceedings, and Casey and Cora have just been
re-hung by the arrival of the last Steamer
Editors, who have remained tranquil during
the widest political excitements through
which the country has passed, have yielded
to the deleterious influence arising in Sar
Francisco, and given vent to their pent-uI
feelings, in bitterness of language in strong
mosphere is impregnated with lawlessness-
the times are demoralized-and the public
sense vitiated and perverted into unhealthy
channels. In proof of this, is the chroniclet
| fact that hundreds rushed to San francisco
to witness the execution of the first Ylgi
lance victims. On the circulation of a ru
NOR that some unfortunate individual is tt
be hanged at a certain hour by the Vigi
lance Committee, and men, women and chill
dren--old and young-hurry to the Vigi
lance Bastile for the puopose of witnessing
the expected execution. The depraveC
taste which seeks for its qualification the dy
ing agonies-the throes and commissions o
fellow being hurried into eternity, is
disgrace to humanity. When we find wo
men bringing their young children to feas
their eyes on the horrid spectacle-ladies il
their carriages with their lorgnettes ready
to be used to bring the object nearer-mor
ais, refinement and sensibility-in a word
all the finer feelings of our pature must b.
at low ebb indeed.
The evil influences which this VigilaDc,
movement has scattered abroad, arising
from familiarity with blood, from the sigh
of thousands of armed men taking the Law
into their own hands, or. rather, trampline
upon all law, and in the language of Jeho
vah, saying Vengeance is mine," will no
be erased till another generation shall have
passed away, and principles of right, rever
ence for the law, and respect for the com
mands of God, shall have rooted out tn,
memory of the lawless of the San Francisco
mob. The safeguards of the people in theil
persons, property liberty and lives, are tn,
constitution and laws of the land "Thest
are cast down from their high places in thu
affection and regard Of our citizens, an(
trampled in the dust, and in their stead, WI
have the uncontrolled will of a committee o
twenty nine, enforced by three Thousand
cleaning bayon ets." The committee have
fearful responsibility resting upon them
"Not mere physical responsibility and ac-
countability, but a responsibility which, il
their calmer hours, when excitement, and
passion shall have passed away-when il
after life they shall sit down to reflect or
their past lives-when age. creeping or
apace, shall silver DER their locks, and tht
messenger of death shall claim them for hi
own-then, when their own souls shall ST
in judgment on their acts, will they feel tn,
weight of that moral responsibility. which
will weigh th,m down with a repentance
which we trust may atone for ALL