nt dares"--He got
no further. Commodore Farragut sprang to his feet, his eyes flashing
fire, as electric sparks in brilliancy; his face betokening his fierce
indignation; his whole frame seeming a prodigy of the grandeur of human
passion highest wrought--the incarnation of the noblest majesty and
sublimest patriotism. "Stop, sir!" he thundered--Farwell had stopped
and sunk into his seat. And then the heroic Commodore went on to declare
what the duty of a citizen was; that which he should do, if occasion
required; and closed his less than five minutes burst of withering
rebuke and eloquent counsel with an impressive appeal to the other
members of the Committee present. The folly and rashness of Farwell had
thwarted the wise intentions of the parties who invited the conference.
It ended with Commodore Farragut's thrilling words. In a week or more
Hopkins was considered past danger from his wound, and Judge Terry was
thereupon set free. The Committee had now accomplished about all that
had been contemplated at its organization. It had put to death four men.
Of these at least two were not guilty of murder, as the law defines that
crime. As to the other two, the course of justice in the Courts at that
time gave no warrant for the presumption or belief that a fair and just
trial would not have, been given them; that their conviction and the
death penalty would not have followed. It is not too much to assert
that, so far as escape from the penalty of murder is involved, there has
been, any time these ten years, and there is now, in San Francisco,
stronger cause for a Vigilance Committee than there was in 1856. The
administration of the law was better then in general criminal procedure
than it is now. There were fewer heinous crimes then, in the ratio of
population, then the record of any year for the past ten years will
show. In the category of crimes, such as forgery, perjury, embezzlement,
frauds by which large sums of money or valuable property is obtained,
were then infrequent; now of daily occurrence. But in crimes of violence
the record is enormously against this period in comparison with that;
the infliction of penalties by the Courts was then more certain than it
is now. And as to ballot-box stuffing and frauds in elections, surely
the worst ever charged against the manipulators of that period, pales
and sinks into insignificance when compared with the colossal fraud
committed in San Francisco, in 1876, by which not only