main hall, and soon returned with Coleman, who was
pale and agitated. After shaking hands all round,
the Governor said, “Coleman, what the devil is
the matter here?” Coleman said, “Governor,
it is time this shooting on our streets should stop.”
The Governor replied, “I agree with you perfectly,
and have come down, from Sacramento to assist.”
Coleman rejoined that “the people were tired
of it, and had no faith in the officers of the law.”
A general conversation then followed, in which it
was admitted that King would die, and that Casey must
be executed; but the manner of execution was the thing
to be settled, Coleman contending that the people
would do it without trusting the courts or the sheriff.
It so happened that at that time Judge Norton was
on the bench of the court having jurisdiction, and
he was universally recognized as an able and upright
man, whom no one could or did mistrust; and it also
happened that a grand-jury was then in session.
Johnson argued that the time had passed in California
for mobs and vigilance committees, and said if Coleman
and associates would use their influence to support
the law, he (the Governor) would undertake that, as
soon as King died, the grand-jury should indict, that
Judge Norton would try the murderer, and the whole
proceeding should be as speedy as decency would allow.
Then Coleman said “the people had no confidence
in Scannell, the sheriff,” who was, he said,
in collusion with the rowdy element of San Francisco.
Johnson then offered to be personally responsible
that Casey should be safely guarded, and should be
forthcoming for trial and execution at the proper time.
I remember very well Johnson’s assertion that
he had no right to make these stipulations, and maybe
no power to fulfill them; but he did it to save the
city and state from the disgrace of a mob. Coleman
disclaimed that the vigilance organization was a “mob,”
admitted that the proposition of the Governor was fair,
and all he or any one should ask; and added, if we
would wait awhile, he would submit it to the council,
and bring back an answer.
We waited nearly an hour, and could hear the hum of
voices in the hall, but no words, when Coleman came
back, accompanied by a committee, of which I think
the two brothers Arrington, Thomas Smiley the auctioneer,
Seymour, Truett, and others, were members. The
whole conversation was gone over again, and the Governor’s
proposition was positively agreed to, with this further
condition, that the Vigilance Committee should send
into the jail a small force of their own men, to make
certain that Casey should not be carried off or allowed
to escape.
The Governor, his brother William, Garrison, and I,
then went up to the jail, where we found the sheriff
and his posse comitatus of police and citizens.
These were styled the “Law-and-Order party,”
and some of them took offense that the Governor should
have held communication with the “damned rebels,”
and several of them left the jail; but the sheriff
seemed to agree with the Governor that what he had
done was right and best; and, while we were there,
some eight or ten armed men arrived from the Vigilance
Committee, and were received by the sheriff (Scannell)
as a part of his regular posse.