San Andreas independent., 1857-03-07


and all. had failed to save them, would
have met the same fate from His Excel
lency, that befel poor William Stonecifer,
which is-"that upon receipt of these
presents, he go free of all further punish
ment for said crime, and be fully restored
to his liberty"
A few more such pardons, and the " oc-
cupation' of j. Nicely johnson and James
Estell twill be gone" The people will
lose confidence in all authority, except that
which is executed by their own hands,
awarding just convictions and due pun
ishments by juries selected from their own
numbers. Between Estell and johnson,
the criminal has, for one case that the pun
ishment awarded will be carried out, a
thousand chances to get clear. We are
opposed to Vigilance Committees, entirely,
where the law can be erecuted but when
the Governor and his g law and order"
retainers and supporters, backed by the
lar and murder press, vindicate homicide
and outrage, we say in such cases let the
people assert their rights; and if needs
be, to protect human life, in the name
of heaven, let us dissolve into original ell
ements, clothe ourselves with the higher
law of self protection-the first law Of
nature-and assert the power and the pri-
yilege guaranteed to man by his Creator.
Il, hereafter, IN the aoizd burst Of indig-
nation that .foHoaos homicide, some IN
aocent man should be murdered by mob,
on the head Of j. Neely johnson be has
blood
Governor Johnson, says the San Francisco
Bulletin, has pardoned William Stonecifer, who
murdered A. Richardson, in Sacramento, about
sixteen months ago, and orders that " he go
free of all further punishment for said crime,
and be fully restored to his liberty" The mur-
der was cold blooded and atrocious deed, for
which no palliation could be found for Stone
cifer. He and his victim were runners for op-
position stage lines and Stonecifer to get q
rival out of the way, brutally stabbed him (an
unarmed man) in four different places, which
caused his death Stonecifer was convicted so
long ago as 18th January, 1885, and after many
delays on technical grounds, was sentenced to
be executed, on Friday last, February 9th, at
Sacramento. Some petitions, meanwhile, had
been presented to the Governor, asking for
mercy; and he, instead of committing the SEN
tence to a period of Imprisonment that is, if
he interfered at all, which he ought not to have
done-has thought fit to pardon the murderer
outright. This gross abuse of the pardoning
power has excited much popular ferment at
Sacramento; and a correspondent writes us on
the subject, from that city, as follows:
SACRAMENTO, Feb 81, 1857.
Nr. Edior:-I beg leave to express through
the medium of your independent and widely
circulated journal, the intense feeling of in
dignation felt by the real law and order-not
the q law and murder"-loying citizens of Sac
ramento against Governor Johnson, for his late
glaring act of official injustice in turning loose
VIM. Stoncifer, a man.. if such being can
be called man"-so hardened and vile as to
have not one redeeming quality, except such
Weighty metallic ones certain corporate mo-
nopolies choose to furnish him with. If j.
Neely Johnson had not so often thwarted JUS
tice already, and committed errors of such mag
nitude that this last one, though enormous
loses by comparison his political death and
damnation could have been safely predicted as
the natural result of this one wrong act. In
this instance he has not enacted the usual farce
of committing the sentence to imprisonment in
the State Prison, where, if the prisoner did not
see fit to escape, he could be pardoned at leisure
when the circumstances should become par
TALLY forgotten but he has given him uncon-
ditional pardon, thereby bestowing his sane
tion to the assertion of the petitioners in Stone
cifer's behalf-that he had already suffered suf-
ficently for his crime and we now have the
somewhat novel principle established, on the
authority of a Governor of California, that
few months Imprisonment in the county ail is
sufficient punishment for the crime of murder
And we furthermore see in the columns of some
of our journals the name of J. Neev Johnson
appended to two very antagonistical articles
the one offering liberal reward of the peoples
money for the arrest of supposed murderers,
the other turning loose q known and convicted
murderer, without any guarantee that he will
not repeat the crime for which he has lately
been dealt so leniently with by the Governor.
/ think the taxpayers of the North have
just cause of complaint that their money
should be so literally appropriated by the Leg
islature to ferret out and arrest robbers and
murderers in the South to be again let loose
and distributed by Estell and Johnson in the
North. But what the people to do with
this model Executive who SO earnestly and
steadfastly refused to allow justice to be exc
cuted by the people, and as tenaciously refuses
to execute it himself2 While do not pretend
to say what his fate should be, am free to say
what think it will be. He has already been
damned politically, and his name has become
synonymous with all that is impolitic and inef-
cient in an Executive; and he but waits the
expiration of his official term to give up the
! GHOST nnlitica ll,. Thar &c Lo -