The Empire County argus., 1856-06-28
Coloma, Saturday Morning, June %. 1856.
Affairs at San Francisco.

The excitement at San Francisco has not in the
least abated but the plot seems daily to thcken.-
What the end will be- no one can tell, nor make an
intelligent guess thereat The results thus far have
disprovcd all predictions and time alone, and the
final consummaton, will show the result of the pres
ent revolution at the Bay. 1t is deporable state
of affairs, that necessity should exist for governing
q city-the most important on the Pacific and among
the most important in the Unon-by power warm
ed into life by an uprising against the representatives
of the law, saying nothing about the means by which
they became such. The people of San Francisco
as body, the very best of its people-compose the
present power and they asseverate that the necessity
for the movement existed We will not undertake
up-countIy and interior as (thank Cod we are, to
contradict them, in the matter of the existence or
noneXstence of such necessity We know that there
was much corruption in the Bay City, and particular
ly among the city officials it is probable that the
executors of the law held their places to great ex-
tent at the pleasure of the habitua trespassers on
its provisions. Had it been otherwise we should
long ago have raised our feeble voice against the
course pursued by the organization now in power.
The Committee rose, a giant full-grown, without
or tending, and did its greatest work for its
first. Its apparent might awed the State Executive
and he constrained to become mere locker on
in Vienna powerless as the rest He did as re have
all aong-looked on, seeing that desirable end was
being attained and hoping that the excited populace
would see the dangerous precedent their course would
be in after times, and disband. The excitement
luLed and he interposed proclamation, calling upon
members of the Committee to dissolve the organza-
ton and go about their accustomed pursuits. He
also called upon law abiding citizens to enroll them
selves under his subordinates subject to his orders
and in favor of restoring tranquility to the State-
The proclamation asked nothing that might not have
been consistently complied with by the Chief Ex-
ecutive of the Vigilance Committee. He called for
quiet return to the civil stations of life, by those
who had for the time taken upon themselves re-
dress of grievances against the public The first
great purpose of the organization had been achieved
and the excitement had died. Those within and
without the halls of the Committee, who were in
favor of speedy return to the beaten path of repub
lican government, might all consistently have enrolled
themselves under the Governors call. We said at
the time, that we thought the Governor was right
We have never unsaid it,
We have not, however, at any time thought that
the Governor should make an actual armed onslaught
upon the city. High-handed and defiant as the acts
of the Vigilance Committee may appear to ga man
up tree" or in the highest civil position in the
State we say what we know to be the popular sent-
ment in the mines that no blood should be shed on
account of any act yet committed by the Vigilants
DIT = Al.
howlng-for the howlers are not the bone and sinew
of the land-but strong undercurrent is gaining
force in the public mind, and the current runneth
thus: 1.-The Vigiants must resign soon" !" If they
do not resign, and the Federal Government take any
part in the premises, not a man. nor a cent nor a
word of encouragement will ever pass from the noun
tains to our fellow-citizens at San Francisco.
Our city friends may deprecate this plain talk but
we speak from the book-our words are dictated by
careful and extensive observations among our noun
tain people, and spoken for the benefit of those
to whom they are addressed. The residents of this
part OF the State would rise almost as one man,
against movement hereafter towards making men,
oerS OF the Vigilance Committee Individually answer
able for the acts of the organization thus ar-but
they say that the Vigiants should at once break up
and let their brief career be terror to evildoers-
and not set an example of anarchy for those who are
to come after them.
We have heretofore said very little on this subject
considering the whole movement in the direction of
local reform, and that the end justified somewhat
extraordinary means. Hamlet's language expresses
our general view of the matter
nt oaled iade vnce our
Owing to somewhat apathetic temperament, the
abundance of ice, and the high price of whisky, we
have felt very little fire in our veins-but we hope
the end is nigh, and that no portion of our commu-
nifty may ever see propriety in citing the late up
rising in San Francisco as precedent on which to
build similar organizations hereafter.