man, was one of the first to respond to the call of
the sheriff, and that he went actually to the jail
with his one arm the night we expected the first attempt
at rescue, etc. Johnson then sent word for
them to reduce their business to writing. They
simply sent in a written request for an audience,
and they were then promptly admitted. After some
general conversation, the Governor said he was prepared
to hear them, when Mr. Crockett rose and made a prepared
speech embracing a clear and fair statement of the
condition of things in San Francisco, concluding with
the assertion of the willingness of the committee
to disband and submit to trial after a certain date
not very remote. All the time Crockett was speaking,
Terry sat with his hat on, drawn over his eyes, and
with his feet on a table. As soon as Crockett
was through, they were dismissed, and Johnson began
to prepare a written answer. This was scratched,
altered, and amended, to suit the notions of his counselors,
and at last was copied and sent. This answer
amounted to little or nothing. Seeing that we
were powerless for good, and that violent counsels
would prevail under the influence of Terry and others,
I sat down at the table, and wrote my resignation,
which Johnson accepted in a complimentary note on
the spot, and at the same time he appointed to my
place General Volney E. Howard, then present, a lawyer
who had once been a member of Congress from Texas,
and who was expected to drive the d—–d
pork-merchants into the bay at short notice.
I went soon after to General Wool’s room, where
I found Crockett and the rest of his party; told
them that I was out of the fight, having resigned
my commission; that I had neglected business that
had been intrusted to me by my St. Louis partners;
and that I would thenceforward mind my own business,
and leave public affairs severely alone. We
all returned to San Francisco that night by the Stockton
boat, and I never after-ward had any thing to do with
politics in California, perfectly satisfied with that
short experience. Johnson and Wool fought out
their quarrel of veracity in the newspapers and on
paper. But, in my opinion, there is not a shadow
of doubt that General Wool did deliberately deceive
us; that he had authority to issue arms, and that,
had he adhered to his promise, we could have checked
the committee before it became a fixed institution,
and a part of the common law of California. Major-General
Volney E. Howard came to San Francisco soon after;
continued the organization of militia which I had begun;
succeeded in getting a few arms from the country;
but one day the Vigilance Committee sallied from their
armories, captured the arms of the “Law-and-Order
party,” put some of their men into prison, while
General Howard, with others, escaped to the country;
after which the Vigilance Committee had it all their
own way. Subsequently, in July, 1856, they arrested
Chief-Justice Terry, and tried him for stabbing one