The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1866-05-12
Boise City COrrcspondence-the Vigilance
Committee.
Borsr ClrY. May sth. 1856,

Il EDITOR WoRLD.-In reviewing the acts ant
deeds of violence which have been committed, a
different times, Oh the pubic highways. and in a
least one of our towns, by certain bodies of mel
who, upon various occasions, when carrying th
edicts of their bloody code into execution upor
their suspected bnt unsuspecting, and in many ca
ses more than probably innocent victims have
consisted of body of but from three to a half
pdozen irresponsible individuals who call them
selves igilantes. :. Or members of Organizations
under the name and style of Vigilance Commit
tees, who profess to have, and doubtless do have
branches of their Organization established in at
least three of the adjacent Territories viz: Mon
tana, Washing ton and Colorado, the grand centre
being in Montana, for the purpose, as they assert
of suppressing crime and regulating ands estab-
fishing society upon sound and virtuous basis;
and contemplating the great social, moral and DO.
FHtcafevs that must necessarily and surely spring
out OF CONTINUATION of the lawiess acts of these
organized bodies of self constituted publishers of
crime and administrators Of justice, | have been
folcibly reminded of the language once made use
of before the English House.of Lords by distin-
guished statesman, ia his day, [John RTn in
OF the impeachment of the Earl OF
Stafford, who stood charged with the crime OF
high treason. He said: 1.-The law is that which
puts difference betwixt good and evl-betWixt
just and unjust. II you take away the law all
things will fall into confusion. Every man will
become law to himself which, in the depraved
condition of human nature must needs produce
great enOrmities. Lust will become law and en-
Wy will become law; coyetousness and ambition
will become laws; aud what dictates, what decis-
ions such laws will produce, may easily be dis
cerned in the state and condition society and the
civic aairs of Idaho will be brought to, sooner cs
later, in case mob violence should supercede law
and order here as it has, to frigAtful extent in
our sister and neighboring Territory of Montana
Again: ''Your honors, your lives, your liberties,
and your properties are all in the keeping of the
law. Without this, every man hath a like right
20 everything, and to do everything; and such is |
he condition into, which" everything will be
thrown ipscase We abandon the Law and adopt and
adhere to mob violence in its stead. In taking the
stand that do, sir, by the authorship OF this ar
icle, / do not wish to be misunderstood by the
public No man deprecates crime, come. in what
hape it may, more than your correspondent ). but
a crime, or supposed crime, has been commh
ed, let the culprits, or supposed culprts, be ar
aligned before legally constituted tribunal of the
country and then and there, under the guidance of
hat (should beg honorable, dignifed and upright
dispenser of equal justice to all, and before an i'm
artial jury of his countrYmcn let him answer to
tI,on Int .
ntil then-let the criminal suffer the extremist
enalty of the outraged law-ths authorized guar
ian and pro tectOr OF society.
This procedure is based upon sound policy, and 6
] the very essence of principles So just and an
lent that the memory Of man lunneth not to the
They date back anterior to the time
Moses, the first or cat law giYer, who, accord {
1g to profane history, we find, even in the midst J
the great DESERT surrounded by his fleeing fol- t
wers, commanding and sustaining law and order
ad melting out justice with an impartial hand :
gain, III the language of MI. John Pym, cit is
re end of government. that all accidents and
rents, all councils and designs, should be i'm
roved to the public good but arbitrary power
ould dispose all to the maintenance of self,''-
be above paragraph, sir, is very significant, and
applied to mobs or vigilance committees, needs
, comments from my pen. We know that it is
le end of society and coed government that vr-
e should be cherished and vice and lawlessness
oppressed, but where arbitrary and unlimited
ower, such as is exercised by mobs and vigilance
is established to bring this about, it
ways opens way not only for the security Of /
il, but for tie advancement and encouragement y
crime Arguings from this stand point, with
the authority upon our side, courts Of justice +
tablished throughout the Territory al the ma
inery Of good government in practical opera T
IN and working smoothly and satisfactorily >
sislatiye, executive and Judicial what excuse is
has there ever been in any portion of QUE Ter B
DRY for tie institution of mob violence and the
and maintenance of vigilance com
tees? This is a question which large major y
of the people, and not miserable faction, ask
day, demand of these Woald De renoVat0Ps and
constructors of sn3 CT etee 1t is question which 10
erests every person in the community, for a
alive may be the next victim OF this cruel and
rbarous ysJem, which is only codnte part 81 ao
Spanish lnquisitlon and more inkeeping with
feGlal times of the middle ages than the en-
htenmeu5 of the nineteenth century and re E
end, at the risk of being found, one of these .
mornings, swinging to a tree or tripod, Iahel> =
and ticketed, Dltpe and tool of Street and the
aaocrdtic Party; Road Ageat, (not. OverlaDd)