![]() They arrested people including elected officials some of whom were held under penalty of death unless they agreed to resign their position and leave the state forever. The local officials were helpless to stop them. They formed a militia of thousands, raided the state armory and took over cannons and other weapons. They were anti-catholic, anti-mason, and anti-Southern. This book tells the story of an armed group in San Francisco lead by a group of businessman but supported by thousands of ordinary folks. The cast of characters is large and I did have a challenging time keeping track of al of them. They formed a militia of thousands, raided the state armory and took over cannons and other This is a good book that provides useful information about a troubling period in US history but it is not an easy read. This is a good book that provides useful information about a troubling period in US history but it is not an easy read. Ranging far beyond San Francisco, the 1856 Vigilance Committee’s activities affected events on the East Coast, in Central America, and in courts throughout the United States even after the Civil War.more Dirty Deeds tells the real story, in which a band of men took over a city in an attempt to control the most valuable land on the West Coast. Despite the organization’s assertion of working on behalf of law and order, its tactics-kidnapping, forced deportations, and even murder-went far beyond the bounds of law.įor more than a century, scholars have accepted the vigilantes’ self-serving claims to honorable motives. The acquisition of key waterfront properties in San Francisco by an ambitious politician motivated the thirty-odd merchants who called themselves “the Executives” of the Vigilance Committee to go directly after these parcels. Even after the establishment of a federal board in 1851 to settle the complicated California claims, land titles remained confused, and most of the land in the city belonged to no one. San Francisco’s real estate comprised a patchwork of land grants left from the Spanish and Mexican governments-grants that had been appropriated and sold over and over. Taniguchi draws on the 1856 Committee’s minutes-long lost until she unearthed them-to present the first clear picture of its actions and motivations. But its actual purpose was quite different. The committee, which met in secret, fed biased stories to the newspapers, depicting itself as a necessary substitute for incompetent law enforcement. In an 1856 dispute over land titles, a county official shot an outspoken newspaperman, prompting a group of merchants to organize the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance. But ownership of waterfront property was hotly contested. The California gold rush of 1849 created fortunes for San Francisco merchants, whose wealth depended on control of the city’s docks. ![]()
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