Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1878-08-09
Anew Reign ar Terror.

Familiar as many of US are with the
working of the Vigilance Committee
upon the Pacific shores in former times,
it appears singular that handful of
Communists can openly defy law and
order, paralyze the strong arm of justice,
and set city trembling for fear of blood
shed and conhagration. Yet, so it is. San
Francisco is virtually in the hands of
mob, and its citizens awed into silence
and subiugated by terror. The "Kearney
Party" have usurped, or at least become
defiant of government; under the pre-
tense of the. rights of labor, it threatens
violence and incendiarism and mob out
RACES and plunder; the press is afraid 10
denounce, and the authorities to break
up the infamous meetings; the courts
are cowed; the poPulace trembling, and
the officers get rapidly out of the way
upon the appearance of the 'KearneY-
ties" The first cry of "drive out the
Chinese" has been supplanted by Amer
leans. ('Inarrow faced Yankees r') and if
resistance is offered, the city is to be
reduced to ashes. The natural result of
things is stagnation of business, the lock-
ing up of money and preparation for
moving.
Such state of affairs could not have
existed even in the most lawless days
when the Vigilance was organized and
power in the land; would not be now
if there was sufficient nerve to seize
upon Kearney and hang him-string
him up from the liberty pole of the
Piazza as a warning. A single firm move
at the first would have effectually
'sduelched the outbreak that now has
crown into formidable dimensions, and
the remedy will have to be in proportion
to the disease, and the death blow struck
not at single one, but many.
With the Vigilance as in other days,
and Jack Hays as sheriff, Mr.. Kearney
and his beggarly crew could not have
existed over night, and such an hour
may come again. The bell of the ''Mon-
umentaP (save in case of firel has now
an unfamiliar sound, but it is not beyond
the range of possibility to strike the
three well remembered strokes, and
gather thousands of well armed and
resolute men. Even while we are writ
ing such may be the case, for we do not
believe the Vigilance is dead, but only
slumbering, and that necessity will soon
breathe into it again the breath of life
and pristine vigor.
And it must come to this if the courts
and the officers of the law are terrified
into submission to the dictates of the
seoundrels of insane communism. There
is far too much at stake for capital and
business enterprise to long bow to the
dictum of one man, backed though he
may be by a rabble. 1t is a burning
shame and disgrace that such things
IL houn hoar1-
single hour. The foul fungus growth
upon society should have been obliter-
ated at the first appearance, and not suf-
fered to grow and spread and tester.
Some one will at last have to take a
Jacksonian responsibility, (if it has not
already been done), and then there will
be sudden exit of "Kearney and Com
pany" There are strong, active, daunt-
less men yet lingering at the "Bay" that
have not forgotten the workings of the
Vigilance Rooms in Sansane Street, and
know how speedily the Jail was re-
ieved of two of its inmates, and how,
as in breath, they were dangling from
beams in full view of the gathered thous-
ands. And they will not finch if neces-
sary to act. 1t Is but simply matter of
little time, and the sooner such turbu-
lent spirits are quieted the better. Vigi-
lance law, it is true, smacks triAe too
much of the 'Lynch" for ordinary
occasions, but when all else fails is
righteous in its judgment, as summary
in its DEGREES, and a certain cure for
fanatical outlawism and brutal mob vio-
lence and destruction.
String up Kearney, land if necessary a
few more of the malcontents), and peace
will reign again in San Francisco, and the
water roll placidly through the Golden
Gate. We are surprised it has been so
long delayed, and expect every hour to
hear flashed over the wires the intelli-
gence that the might of Right has been
ebeet ar servty to I bsnS Nd of dSIs msersb DIT
cut-throats and thieVing plunderers. =