W[illia]m H. Newby to Frederick Douglass, May 29, 1856

FROM OUR SAN FRANCISCO CORRESPONDENT.

SAN FRANCISCO, May 29th, 1856.

MR. FREDERICK DOUGLASS:—James King is no more. The assassin did his work most effectually. He lingered, in a state between life and death, for several days after he was shot; during which time, the Vigilance Committee were completing their organization. On the announcement of his death, the excitement of the people settled into a calm and rigid determination to speedily avenge it.

The funeral pageant of King was one of the most solemn and imposing ever witnessed in the State; not less than ten thousand persons assembled around his mortal remains, to pay the sad tribute of an honest tear to departed excellence. No man was ever so sincerely mourned. I could not have imagined that any man could have so ingratiated himself into the affections of the masses of California, where the inveterate acquisition of lucre, neutralizes the force of the moral sentiments.

Public sympathy demanded the hanging of the culprits, Casey and Cora; and they were hung, while the victim of Casey was being borne to the grave. The time of the execution was contrary to general expectation. The doings of the Committee are never published: everything is conducted secretly;—the names of the Executive Committee are not even known. It reminds one, in this respect, forcibly, of the Spanish Inquisition. Nothing but the stern necessities of the times would justify its toleration for a moment. It is anti-republican—no one is responsible for its acts. Its power is unlimited. Its support: the lives and fortunes of nineteen-twentieths of the people.—They have in their custody several persons; among them, Yankee Sullivan, the noted pugilist, and are now searching the city for Edward McGown, (Hon. and Ex-Judge.) He is inindicted as one of the accomplices of Casey. I am apprehensive that much blood will be shed before this excitement ends. A write of Habeas Corpus has been sued out by the Governor for Mulligan; but the Committee were inexorable. What the next step will be, it is difficult to say. The crisis must soon come; the threatening cloud must soon burst.