Daily national Democrat., 1859-03-05
Mob Law in shasta County.

I Mob Law in Shasta County.
For some two or three issues of our paper,
we have received telegraphic dispatches from
Shasta giving accounts of lawless demonstra'
tions on the part of American miners toward
the unfortunate and helpless Chinese poPuia-
| tion. 1t seems that a number of this race
engaged in mining on Rock Creek, near
| Shasta. were huddled together, driven from
their mining claims into the Chinese quarter
of the town of Shasta and there directed to
remain. on pain of worse treatment Several
were wounded in the little contest that en-
sued, and one was killed. The Sheriff of
Shasta county, IA man who ought to be elec
ted to that office hundred times, if he de-
sires t) took the responsibility, in the face of
a strong counter.opinion among many, to ar
rest some of the actors in this disgraceful
business, and, when an attempted rescue was
made, bravely maintained his position and
drove back the assailants He has declared
his intention to see thot the laws are execu-
ted at all hazards, and has raised posse
with which he will at least attempt the ar
rest of all parties who undertake further to
molest the Chinese The rioters have as
sembled in large numbers, apparently re
solved to carry on their operations in the
very teeth of the Sheriff and his posse
Should they do SO, there will be blood shed.
We say cd speed to the Sheriff and his
band of supporters Let the law be main
tanned and the violators of it punished. II
the posse comitatus of the county be not
sufficient, let the military power of the State
be summoned, and, if that will not do, let
the Legislature invoke the aid of the FEEDER
al Government to put down insurrectlon ard
rebellion
1t is a shame that mob violence should
so long have been tolerated in this country,
and that the execution of the law should be
so weak and inefficient that out of hundreds
upon hundreds Of cases in which it has been
violated not solitary case is on record where
the offender has been brought to Justice
Were the perpetrators of these outrages the
permanent citizens of the State, it would still
be the duty of those who are entrusted with
the administration of justice to bring them
to account, but how much more ought it to
be done when they are, as a general thing,
mere temporary soiourners in the country
floating, migratory population, who pay
no taxes, and leave the State at the first op
portunity that they have to take their de
parture-a more useless population in fact
than the Chinese whom they persecute could
possibly be, for the Chinese do pay their tax
es and help largely to supply the Treasury
of the State with the necessary funds for
carrying on the Government. The cowardly
| prosecutors of Il helpless and non.combative
race have no more respect for the Govern
ment under which they live than lot of
cayotes in the mountains They shirk every
responsibility which attaches to abiding
citzen-own no property upon which to pay
taxes and will run ten miles at any time to
avoid paying even the small dues against
them for poll tax, under the revenue system
of the State 1t is true there are tax.paying
citizens who complain of the presence of the
Chinese, but those who take the law into
their own hands and shoot down or maltreat
poor defenseless Cinnamon, are not of that
stamp.
We are rejoiced that the Sheriff of Shasta
county has taken the stand that he has, and
We hope that he will be sustained by public
opinion all over the State. AS long as the
Chinese are licensed to work in the mines,
under the promised protection of the State
Government, it is a despicable Government
that would refuse to protect them, and des-
picable people that would not sustain the
Government in its efforts to protect them
to exclude the Chinese from the mines by
legislative enactment, let it be done, but we
would have no objection to seeing every law
less abuser and prosecutor of the Chinese, as
long as the latter are guaranteed the protec-
tion Of the Government, hung up by the neck
as the equal in every respect of pirate or a
robber. Men may pretend to respectability
who violate the law, but they are not respec
table, and they should be treated as those
who have put themselves out of the pale of
decent society We have no patience with
set of men who acknowledge no obligations
but their own shallow headed and lawless
notions of what is right, and undertake to
trample upon the laws which better men
have made.