Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-05-17
THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE TULARE
COUNTY MURDERS.

Inc Mussel Slough settlers have unuer-
taken to assert that the Southern Pacific
Railroad Company is responsible for the
murders recently committed in conse-
quence of their lawless resistance to the
authority of the United States. They
have passed impudent resolutions to this
effect, and have had the audacity to send
them to Washington, while at the same
time they repeat their declaration that
they will not yield to the law. 1t is
therefore necessary to inform the public
that the whole responsibility for the muir
ders rests upon these men that they have
no shadow of justification for their high
handed defiance of the law; that they
possess no title to the name of "set-
tiers, as it is commonly understood
that they are, and have been from the
first, squatters who knowingly went upon
and occupied lands belonging to the
Southern Pacific Railroad Company and
that they have in fact had no reason to
complain of the treatment they have re-
ceived from the corporation, but on the
contrary have been throughout dealt with
far more moderately than their own con-
duct warranted. These men occupied
the lands they are now holding ille-
gally and by force, with full knowledge
that the territory belonged to the railroad
company. They have ever since refused to
recognize the title of the company, and
they have organized an armed league for
the express purpose of resisting the laws of
the land, and defeating the just claims of
the lawful owners of the land. 1t is a
shame and disgrace to the State that their
action should be defended by journals
which pretend to be conducted in the inter-
ests of society, and that the utter and fla
grant illegality of their proceedings from
the first should be ignored or condemned,
and the present situation should be dis
cussed as a subject for compromise. The
title of the railroad company to the Mussel
Slough land is indisputable. But the So
called Settlers League has undertaken to
dictate to the company at what price it
should dispose of its property, and has
forcibly resisted every attempt made to put
the legitimate owners in possession. Their
contempt for the laws of the country has
even led to the violent death of seven
men, five being members of their law
less League, and two being men who
had bought land from the COM
pany, and who were about to be put
in possession of it by the United States
Marshal. The truth is that the settlers
have no case whatever, and that the undi-
vided responsibility for these seven hon,i-
cides rests upon their shoulders. They
had no right to organize for the purpose of
holding the lands in the teeth of the law.
In taking that step they outlawed them
selves, and proclaimed themselves brigands
and bandits. They had no right to attack
the United States Marshal with force and
arms, and.if in committing this violation
of the laws they had all been killed, their
heirs could not have demanded any re-
dress. They have set out upon a pro-
gramme of violence and illegality which
deprives them of every claim to the SYM
pathy of law-abiding people, and they
have even in their insolent misrepresen-
tation of the facts reaffirmed their deter
mination to disobey the laws.
We call attention to letter from Judge