The Chief-Justice, Terry, came to San Francisco the next day, issued a writ of habeas corpus for the body of one Maloney, which writ was resisted, as we expected.  The Governor then issued his proclamation, and I published my orders, dated June 4, 1855.  The Quartermaster-General of the State, General Kibbe, also came to San Francisco, took an office in the City Hall, engaged several rooms for armories, and soon the men began to enroll into companies.  In my general orders calling out the militia, I used the expression, “When a sufficient number of men are enrolled, arms and ammunition will be supplied.”  Some of the best men of the “Vigilantes” came to me and remonstrated, saying that collision would surely result; that it would be terrible, etc.  All I could say in reply was, that it was for them to get out of the way.  “Remove your fort; cease your midnight councils; and prevent your armed bodies from patrolling the streets.”  They inquired where I was to get arms, and I answered that I had them certain.  But personally I went right along with my business at the bank, conscious that at any moment we might have trouble.  Another committee of citizens, a conciliatory body, was formed to prevent collision if possible, and the newspapers boiled over with vehement vituperation.  This second committee was composed of such men as Crockett, Ritchie, Thornton, Bailey Peyton, Foote, Donohue, Kelly, and others, a class of the most intelligent and wealthy men of the city, who earnestly and honestly desired to prevent bloodshed.  They also came to me, and I told them that our men were enrolling very fast, and that, when I deemed the right moment had come, the Vigilance Committee must disperse, else bloodshed and destruction of property would inevitably follow.  They also had discovered that the better men of the Vigilance Committee itself were getting tired of the business, and thought that in the execution of Casey and Cora, and the banishment of a dozen or more rowdies, they had done enough, and were then willing to stop.  It was suggested that, if our Law-and-Order party would not arm, by a certain day near at hand the committee would disperse, and some of their leaders would submit to an indictment and trial by a jury of citizens, which they knew would acquit them of crime.  One day in the bank a man called me to the counter and said, “If you expect to get arms of General Wool, you will be mistaken, for I was at Benicia yesterday, and heard him say he would not give them.”  This person was known to me to be a man of truth, and I immediately wrote to General Wool a letter telling him what I had heard, and how any hesitation on his part would compromise me as a man of truth and honor; adding that I did not believe we should ever need the arms, but only the promise of them, for “the committee was letting down, and would soon disperse and submit to the law,” etc.  I further asked him to answer me categorically that very night, by the Stockton boat, which would pass Benicia on its way down about midnight, and I would sit up and wait for his answer.  I did wait for his letter, but it did not come, and the next day I got a telegraphic dispatch from Governor Johnson, who, at Sacramento, had also heard of General Wool’s “back-down,” asking me to meet him again at Benicia that night.