San Andreas independent., 1858-03-27

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Juries were distrusted, because the panel
was SO easily made up toincludc one whom
the criminal, on trial, might chang to
stand out for him in the verdict. The
judges were such characters that they
plainly ought to be bribed, if they were
not. Administrators and trustees were
suspected as being appointed by the con-
nivance of judges. Legislators and gov
ernors were distrusted also This distrust
became, in due time, torment to the
public peace, by its uncertainty; and none
the less torment that the worst rumors
and suspicious were most likely to be
true; till, finally, everything had began to
be true; and the public prints make
point of heroism, in dealing out their accu-
sations with unsparing boldness. A stran-
ger could hardly guess what it meant
Every print was for California Nothing
too laudatory could be said for it; mean
time, as if a paradisaic whole could be
made up of diabolical particulars, the
sweeping denunciations of individuals ap-
peared to have no honest man in it.
Out of this general state of corruption,
decentralization and distrust, grew the Wig
lance Committee, containing in its ranks
large majority of the better classes of
citizens, as we'll as members of the church
es. OF the motives and general conduct
of the Committee the writer approves,
concluding his remarks on this subject by
saying, since this perilous adventure of
reform, San Francisco is the best gov
erned city in the Union. The laws arc
now enforced, the economies are duly at
tended to, there is no plumber, and every
evil doer stands in fear. 1t is the begin
ming, apparently, of great moral reac-
ton, which is felt by the whole State
Whatever may be true, therefore, of this
great popular movement, whether it is
right or wrong, wise or unwise, it will be
impossible ever to turn it as reproach on
the certainly patriotic men who were fore
most in it. They are much more likely
to be celebrated hereafter with Harmodius
and Aristogiton and other great leaders of
mutiny, that have been deliverers of their
country.
We state these facts concerning the
moral aspects of mining and agriculture,
and the usurpations, perjuries and bribe-
rles of liticalintriguers and denagogues,
connected with the general destruction of
confidence and the necessary throes of
violence by which they must inevitably
| be redressed, not as being, in themselves,
any picture of California Such they are
not. They are only facts, without which
J any description is rose -colored and without
: sound verity,-such facts as will meet a
stranger, first, because they are most out
standing and impressive. And for this
) the reader will make due allowance, even
as in reading any history; for it is not the
virtues and the smooth and silent fowings
of goodness that make up even the staple
OF history, but the explosive wrongs and
outrages rather, by which the evenness of
good was disturbed. For ourselves, says
the author, we regard these facts, not with
any feeling of despair or Encouragement
On the contrary, we perceive certain
sublimity, in the contest here begun and
the clearing process going forward, which
creates appetite in us. We know certain
victory, we see it coming, and we envy
especially those young heroic spirits who
have set themselves, in the love of God
) and their newly adopted State, to such
: works of duty and sacrifice, as are neces-
sary to the sublime future they have in
prospect.
} Opposite to these facts that we have
&o1 L L
! spect and inspire our confidence. They
have good and able ministry, for exam
pie, such ministry as will compare ia
vorably, in all the denominations, with
anyof the older States. They have church
es in every denomination, not inferior to
churches here. The attendance is good,
. especially in the cities, and the order, the
dress, the music are only TOO much evened
by the manner of the East.
The Sabbath also is becoming more
established institution, and to be without
a Sabbath, as day of rest, is more and
more distinctly felt to be an oppression.
And therefore the traders and shopkeep-
ers, in most of the country villages, are
petltioning the Legislature, more earnestly
every year, for the establishment of COM
plete suspension of trade
Education is not forgotten. The towns
and cities are allowed by statute, to tax
themselves for this purpose, and many of
them do it most literally. The public
schools of San Francisco are not inferior
to those of our Eastern cities-many think
them even superior.
There is no reason to apprehend any
loss of natural vigor and tone from the
climate on that shore. Some have taken
it as bad indication that the Digger In
dians, (thc aboriginals of California, are
the most spiritless and abject of all known
tribes on the continent, and about the
lowest specimens of humanity known upon
the earth. But this may be sufficiently
accounted for, by the general softness Of
the climate and the fact that they have
never been required to feed themselves by
the manly exploits of hunter-life; having
always at hand enough of bugs, and fish,
and sugar pine bark, to serve their pur-
pose. Sometimes also degree of discour-
agement has been derived from the ana
] loUical or c,,,oboIioo1 faot tho4 -