Historical Footnotes

7. Vigilance Takes Command

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7. Vigilance Takes Command

This is the third in a longer series of Historical Footnotes to California Republic dedicated to the two San Francisco Vigilance Committees. To start with the first Footnote in this series, click here.

The formal Committee of Vigilance organized in the wake of the ad hoc committee covered in the previous Historical Footnote, produced a charter.

Whereas it has become apparent to the citizens of San Francisco, that there is no security for life and property, either under the regulations of society as it at present exists, or under the law as now administered ... we are determined that no thief, burglar, incendiary or assassin shall escape punishment, either by the quibbles of the law, the insecurity of prisons, the carelessness or corruption of the police, or a laxity of those who pretend to administer justice.

The charter authorized Committee Rooms for meetings and decisions, to be staffed around the clock. A president, secretary and treasurer were appointed, and all members were to gather at the premises when a fire bell was sounded in a certain way. And the issue that had fractured the ad hoc committee now was rectified. Only a majority was required for Committee acts. Not unanimity.

Action on this charter happened quickly. In those very early days, before the waterfront was pushed out many blocks with landfill, all east-west streets of San Francisco ran out far into the Bay by means of wharf extensions, and these wharfs, particularly Long Wharf running from Commercial Street, were all active business corridors. On June 10th of 1851, one Jenkins, a Sydney Duck, stole a safe out of a Long Wharf business. He dumped it in the water while trying to escape, but it was soon recovered, and his guilt was never questioned.

The fire bell commenced to sound that night at ten o'clock and eighty men rushed down to the Committee Rooms on Battery, between Pine and California. The criminal was tried at once and sentenced to be hanged. Another fire bell was sounded to announce his doom to all of San Francisco, while Samuel Brannan, a leading, though bombastic, figure of the day, announced the sentence from atop a sand hill to a gathered crowd. Jenkins was then marched off to the Plaza (Portsmouth Square today) in the wee hours of the morning, apparently expecting to be rescued by his fellow Sydney Ducks.

There was an old adobe building in the northwest corner of the Plaza (Washington and Kearny Streets) offering a heavy roof beam. With a noose already round his neck, the loose end of the rope was tossed across it. Some men from the crowd then seized it and dragged Jenkins on the ground. By the time he was suspended, he was already likely dead, but the citizens kept pulling on the rope, allowing others to replace them over literally hours, as all who wished to share in credit or responsibility were allowed to.

But this illegal execution, for a crime that wasn't capital in any case, was not completely uncontested. David Broderick, the greatest of all Gold Rush era politicians, ran down to the Plaza in a vain attempt to stop the lynching. But he was pushed aside by men who were otherwise his friends and strong political supporters. The next day, with the body handed over to the coroner, Broderick testified before the inquest, naming many figures from the Vigilance Committee as criminal participants and leaders. But the outcome had to disappoint him. While the verdict of the inquest named those men that Broderick identified, no action by the law resulted. And far worse, the Committee, offended that the inquest had named only a small fraction of its members, proudly published all of them, amounting to some dozens of the most important business leaders in The City. The modern San Franciscan will recognize many of these names as major downtown streets. Howard, Brannan, Bryant, Jones, Davis, Post and Ellis.

At this point, a remarkable event occurred of which we can be certain only of the outline because the chaos of that moment has much clouded recollection. The Committee saw that its arrest and execution of a Sydney Duck had been approved enthusiastically by almost all of San Francisco. Committee membership was soaring as hundreds sought admission every day, and it was evident that City government was not prepared to move against it, thereby tacitly supporting it. This got some to posit even greater powers and ambitions.

And so shortly after Jenkins had been hung, a mass rally on behalf of the Committee was scheduled for the Plaza. Its purpose was to get the population to agree by acclamation that the Vigilance Committee should assume all functions of The City's government for so long as it deemed necessary. The crowd arrived in many thousands, all supportive of the proposition. David Broderick then appeared with maybe twenty of his toughest boys, as these were still the days when urban politics was backed with muscle. In a David and Goliath act of courage and audacity, Broderick and his operatives locked arms and charged the Old Adobe platform where the speech was being made so that "The Chief" (as Broderick was called) could push aside the speaker and harangue the crowd. Broderick spat fire and contempt on those who would replace elected government with secretive cabals of private citizens, and managed, by his sheer outrageous anger and persistence, to confuse the crowd, obscure the resolution, and thus prevent decisive action on the plan. But once again, his courage won him nothing. The Committee knew its power and its deep base of support, and proceeded to supreme authority. It soon resolved as follows:

It having become necessary to the peace and quiet of this community that all criminals and abettors in crime should be driven from among us, no good citizen, having the welfare of San Francisco at heart, will deny the Committee of Vigilance such information as will enable them to carry out the above object. Nor will they interfere with said committee when they deem it best to search any premises for suspicious characters or stolen property. Therefore, RESOLVED, that we, the Vigilance Committee do claim to ourselves the right to enter any person's premises where we have good reasons to believe that we shall find evidence to substantiate and carry out the object of this body.

This declaration, amounting to the suspension of core constitutional rights, was immediately followed up by action. In rounding up the Sydney Ducks, the Committee picked up one who was discovered to be the true James Stuart, the man Burdue had been confused with months before and nearly hung. This man turned out to be the one who had attacked and robbed the merchant. For some reason, perhaps sheer arrogance, this ex-convict who'd been sent to New South Wales at age sixteen, confessed of a long parade of crimes in California, naming many other Ducks as his accomplices. This was published to the wide community and, as it confirmed the dangers of the Sydney Ducks beyond what many had already recognized, it brought support for the Committee to new heights. The criminal was sentenced on the basis of his bold confession to be hanged, and a giant crowd expressed approval of the Vigilance Committee verdict before the prisoner was dragged off to a derrick at the far end of the wharf that ran from Market Street and strung up like a dog.

There was, once again, another inquest, which again resulted in no legal or official action. Quite the contrary, in fact. The legally-empanelled Grand Jury sitting at that moment ventured a report, concluding thus:

The Grand Jurors, believing, whilst they deplore their acts, that the association styling themselves the Vigilance Committee, at great personal sacrifice to themselves, have been influenced in their actions by no personal or private malice, but for the best interest of the whole, and at a time, too, when all other means of preventing crime and bringing criminals to direct punishment has failed, here dismiss the matter as among the peculiar results of circumstances that sometimes startle communities, which they can neither justify, or by a presentment effect any benefit to individuals or the country.

With this concession by The City's own authorities, the Vigilance Committee was invited to pursue its purposes unhindered by the law.

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