PREFACE. During my researches in Pacific States history, and particularly while tracing the development of Anglo-American communities on the western side of the United States, I fancied I saw unfolding into healthier proportions, under the influence of a purer atmosphere, that sometime dissolute principle of political ethics, the right of the governed at all times to instant and arbitrary control of the government. The right thus claimed was not to be exercised except in cases of emergency, in cases where such interference should be deemed necessary, but it was always existent; and as the people themselves were to determine what should constitute emergency and what necessity, these qualifications were impertinent. Though liable at times to the grossest abuse, I found this sentiment latent among widely spread and intelligent peoples, but in a form so anomalous that few would then admit to themselves its presence among their convictions. It was a doctrine acted rather than spoken, and existing as yet in practice only, never having through formulas of respectability worked itself out in theory. Yet it was palpably present, more often as a regretted necessity, usually denounced in judicial and political circles, though clearly operating under certain conditions to the welfare of society. Finding on these Pacific shores, in a degree superior to any elsewhere appearing in the annals of the race, this phase of arbitrary power as displayed by the many Popular Tribunals here engendered, I pressed inquiry in that direction, and these volumes are the result. It is all history; and though herein I sometimes indulge in details which might swell unduly exact historical narration, I have felt constrained to omit more facts and illustrations than I have given. These omissions, however, are not made at random, or to the injury of the work, but only after carefully arranging and comparing all the information on the subject I have been able to gather. And the material was abundant. Beside printed books, manuscripts, and the several journals of the period advocating the opposite sides of the question, I was fortunate enough to secure all the archives of the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance of 1851, and to obtain free access to the voluminous records and documents of the great Committee of 1856. But this was not all. Well knowing that the hidden workings of the several demonstrations could be obtained only from the mouths of their executive officers, I took copious dictations from those who had played the most prominent parts in the tragedies. From one member I learned what occurred on a given occasion at the point where he happened to be; from another, what was taking place at the same time at another point of observation; and so on, gathering from each something the others did not know or remember. By putting all together I was enabled to complete the picture of what were otherwise a conglomeration of figures and events. At first I found the gentlemen of 1856 exceedingly |