Narrative of Edward McGowan : including a full account of the author's adventures and perils while persecuted by the San Francisco vigilance committee of 1856, together with a report of his trial, which resulted in his acquittal

Front matter

Class _JLjiXi Book.^ 1

COFffilGHT DEPOSm

Limited edition of tivo hwidred copies,

Introduction

The idea of this work was suggested by the reflection that Providence places no one on this earth without affording him, at some period of his life, an opportunity to be useful to his fellow-creatures, if he will. I thought, then, that perhaps I might turn to some account, in the way of a lesson to unthinking fanatics, the history of the sufferings to which fanaticism has subjected me. Conscious that I did not merit, at the hands of my persecutors, their cruel treatment, and equally conscious that I had, nevertheless, been the recipient of it, I, for the first time in my life, became painfully aware to what extent injustice may be carried, even by men with tolerably good intentions. Here, then, was my opportunity to be of some use to the world, by communicating my experience. The authors of the movement in which my troubles originated are undoubtedly deserving (not particularly on my account) of all the reproaches which the pen of censure, armed with its keenest point, could inscribe upon their records. I have humbly conceived, however, that, although upbraidings administered in that way may often be judicious, and sometimes beneficial in their effects, nothing can so readily awaken the human understanding to an appreciation of the horrors into which men may be led by fanaticism, and the facility with which badly balanced minds may become victims to that moral disease, than a calm, true, and, as far as may be, dispassionate recital of a great wrong which actually has been committed in the name and under the garb of virtue.

Therefore, in submitting the following pages to the reader, I have been prompted less by a desire to gratify the morbid appetite for the wonderful, — so characteristic of Californians, — than by a heartfelt conviction that from this simple and true narrative a lesson may be de-

V y rived, whose teachings, in future years, will serve as warning beacons to any misguided men who, mistaking the voice of passion for the call of duty, may be tempted to assume the fearful responsibility of setting the laws of the country, and even the Constitution itself, at defiance, enlisting in their vnihappy cause a reckless mob, whose responsibility they afterward vainly rely on for support, and whose fury they idly attempt to control. It is my sincere hope that the following summary of my supposed crimes, and true history of the cruel sufferings to which I have been subjected, — sufferings so incommensurate with even my alleged transgressions, — may induce others hereafter to pause ere they incur the hazard of inflicting like injustice on their fellow-man.

As my conduct as a politician has been made a fruitful theme of animadversion by my enemies, it may be as well for me here to state what have been my political antecedents. I do not do so for the purpose of vindicating myself from those charges of political misconduct which have been preferred against me, so much as to show how suddenly I must have become unscrupulous and corrupt, if, after enjoying for years the respect and confidence of the first men in my native State, and being honored time and again by the majority of my fellow-citizens with offices of honor and trust, I have suddenly left them, in the decline of life, to set an example of such political turpitude on the shores of the Pacific, that I have been deemed deserving of the persecution, the details of which form the subject of this narrative.

I entered political life in 1837. In the year 1838 I was elected Clerk of the District of Moyamensing, in Philadelphia County, living, at the time of my election, in the District of Southwark, where I was born. I immediately moved into the District to which I had been elected, and was xt-t\^Q\tdifi^e years consecutively Xo the same position. During the time I held this office, I was Secretary to the Watering Committee of the District, and was also, one year. Clerk to the County Board, composed of the Senators and Members representing Philadelphia in the State Legislature. I was recommended for this position by the Hon. Charles Brown, then State Senator, afterwards Member of Congress for the First Congressional District of the State, and subsequently Collector of the Port of Philadelphia, under the administration of Mr. Pierce. In the year 1842 I was elected to the Pennsylvania Legislature, and in the fall of 1843, appointed, by Gov. Porter, Superintendent of the State Magazine for the Eastern District

Introduction of Pennsylvania. I held this post for two years, when a new Governor came into power, and I was removed. I was then elected Superintendent of Police for one of the Districts of Philadelphia, and held this position for several years, during- which time I was on terms of the most familiar intimacy with the Hon. Richard Vaux, then Recorder and now Mayor of Philadelphia. While I held this post, the California excitement led me to this country, where I arrived in 1849. Since I have resided in this State, I have held offices of honor in the gift of the people, and have also been intrusted, by appointment and otherwise, with most responsible positions, during my incumbency of which, princely fortunes of the money of the people have passed through my hands, and no murmur of defalcation was ever heard in the State in connection with my name. The records of the State Treasurer and Controller, under all administrations, now show a full and fair accounting for every dollar of public money ever intrusted to me, and to them I fearlessly appeal. Can some of my persecutors say as much? I will only add, that, in my native city, I enjoyed the most intimate social and personal relations with Governor David R. Porter, Hon. Richard Vaux, Hon. James Campbell, United States Postmaster-General, Hons. T. B. Florence and Henry M. Phillips, now Members of Congress from Philadelphia, Harry Connelly, Esq., Hon. John W. Forney, and a host of others, to each and every one of whom I now refer my traducers. So much for my political and personal antecedents. The charges of corruption which have been so lavishly heaped upon me by men who never saw me, I despise j and have inserted this brief history of my past life in the Introduction to this book more to gratify my personal friends at home and here, than from any solicitude as to the good or bad opinion of my slanderers.

It is not, of course, to be supposed that he who has been the victim of a popular persecution, which challenges the annals of his country for a parallel, can, by any ordinary human effort, purge his bosom of all feeling of resentment against his oppressors; nor, indeed, is it to be supposed that when Time, the great vindicator, shall have brought men once more back to the paths of duty, and opened their ears to the voice of reason, I shall be at all backward in visiting upon the heads of some of my persecutors the thunderbolts with which they have sought to annihilate me, and though, I trust, with more justice, yet no less vehemence.

The main object of this little work, however, is to lay before the

XarnitiiY of Edward McGowan people ;i true narrative of my adventures, witli tlie circumstances which led to them, leaving- with the reader's own iieart and judoiiient the task, of deducing; the moral from the story.

CHAPTER I * * • " his crimes! " — fVhat crimes i

Were it not better to record the facts,

So that tlic conteniplator might approve,

Or at the least learn whence the crimes arose ?

Marino Faliero.

It will be remembered that, some time in the fall of 1855, James King of VVm., who for many years had been a banker in San Francisco, and in the latter part of his business career connected with the defunct firm of Adams l5 Co., having by the reverses of fortune been reduced to bankruptcy, commenced the editing of a newspaper called the Evening BuUetiru The tenor and style of his editorials are too well remembered by the people of California to be here descanted upon. Suffice it to say, that, while they apparently aimed at the correction of abuses which undoubtedly existed in the San Francisco community, it was thought by hundreds of our best citizens that the example of unbridled license set by this paper to the press was far more dangerous in its tendency than even the evils it sought to eradicate; and it was well known that I, among others, entertained this opinion, having frequently and freely expressed it.

The boldness, arrogance, and not unfrequently reckless mendacity, uhich characterized this sheet, as might have been expected, awakened, in due season, a feeling of disgust, not unmingled with resentment, in the breasts of many of our citizens. Day after day this self-created censor fulminated his abuse indiscriminately on the innocent and the guilty, making shuttlecocks of the reputations of some of the best and most enterprising men in the state, till, em-

[2] (9)

boldened by impunity, his apparent zeal in the cause of reformation ran into the wildest fanaticism, at whose insane bidding many a proud and honorable hope was forever blig:hted, and many a happy heart was broken, never to be healed.

It was while the Bulletin was in the zenith of its career of slander and detraction, and when all men were in dread lest every day should bring the fearful ukase which was to herald them to the world as scoundrels, and place its indelible blight upon their reputations, that some person, doubtless considering that before the people should be expected blindly to believe and obey the teachings of this new monitor it would be v^'ell for them fully to understand what claims it had to the public confidence, published a card in relation to the present editor of the Bulletin, Thomas S. King, a brother of James King of Wm. , and to a certain extent engaged with him in the conduct of that sheet. The communication was signed Caliban — a no?n de plu?ne it was well known I had sometimes adopted, and hence, perhaps, the pretty general suspicion at the time, that I was its author. It so happened that the article in question was not written by me, as any one^at all conversant with my style may, by a careful perusal, easily perceive.

It was published in the San Fi-aneisco Sunday Tinu^s, a newspaper edited by James P. Casey. As the reader will perceive, it was not ver-y personal, and certainly, under the circumstances, not severe enough to be looked on as requiring a bloody atonement. It appeared on the eleventh day of May, 1856, and was as follows: — [communication.]

Tilt- following- communication finds place in our colunms because we believe some good may be effected by its publication. "There must be some fire, where there is so much smoke."

Editor Sunday Times: — Althoug;h you do not make so much parade of your courage and independence as some others in your profession, yet I, for one, believe that you have as good a share of these qualities as generally falls to the lot of even editors. In my opinion, he who assumes tlie tripod, and squats in the editorial chair, assumes a responsibility of such magnitude as entitles him to the strictest scrutiny of that public whose opinion he affects to direct. Acting on this assumption, I beg the use of your columns to state briefly my present object.

One of the chief traits in editorial management I take to be consistency, without which the editor loses prestige and becomes a mere object of ridicule; for the higher a man climbs, the more noticeable he becomes. I propose, therefore, to test somewhat the consistency of the editor of the Bulletin. In his issue of to-day, Friday, the editor exhibits a most marked fav^oritism for Mr. Latham, in his editorial remarks recently made by him. The Bulletin says: —

"if, in making liis appointments, Mr. Latham, instead of selecting his own personal friends, has appointed indiscriminately from all factions, we doubt very much whether the use he has thus made of his official patronage to harmonize the difficulties in the Democ-atic party will injure him in the slightest particular with the authorities at Washington. According to our way of thinking, it is wrong for Mr. Latham, or any other public man, to appoint any other than good men to office, and we cannot approve of some of those charged on him by a 'Purifier' in anotlier column to-day."

Contrast this language with the sweeping, persecuting tone of the same paper in reference to the appointment of Mr. Clarkson by the Governor, and Mr. McDuffie by the President, without taking notice of others of a more insignificant character. Day after day, the Bulletin has inveighed in no complimentary terms against some of the persons named in the "Purifier's" communication; day after day has that paper held them up to public notice as the worst men in the country; and yet mark its tone now that Mr. Latham has enlisted their services to fight against the honest expression of public opinion through the ballot-box. Now, Mr. Editor, the question arises. Whence this great and monstrous sympathy for Mr. Latham.? I will tell you. Mr. King, James King of Wm., has a brother who holds a lucrative position in the Custom House, under Mr. Latham, and this brother is one of the proprietors of that consistent, courageous, independent, and immaculate sheet, the Bulletin : ' ''Hinc ilke lachrytnCE. ' ' Another point to which I desire to call the attention of your readers is this : the brother I allude to was an applicant for the office of U. S. Marshal for California at the same time with Mr. McDuffie. Is it not possible, aye, even probable, that the bitter, unrelenting, and malicious persecution of that gentleman by the editor of the Bulletin was instigated by motives of revenge for the defeat of his brother, who, I say, is a large shareholder in the Bulletin?

Yours truly, Caliban.

A personal acquaintance with the writer of the above communication induced us to give it place in our paper; but until we read the article we knew not that Mr. King had a brother in this country. Our readers will jutlge and comment for themselves. — Ed. Sunday Ti7nes.

On reading the above, Thomas S. King- called at Casey's room, which \^■as at the house of John Burns, a deputy sheriff, and demanded of him the author. Casey replied that the person in question \^'as an old man with a lary^e family, and he would prefer \^'ithholdine: his name, or words to that effect, and King, thoLig:h apparently not satisfied with the answer, left him.

The next day, he again called upon Casey, at his office, in company with John Walton, a deputy collector of the port, and repeated his demand, though with no better success than he had met with the day before.

Casey then consulted me, and I told him I thought the matter would end there. I knew by the antecedents of Thos. S. King that he must be a poltroon, and told Casey that I did not think he ever meant to bring the matter to an issue of arms. Casey, however, differed with me in opinion, and said that he had made up his mind to pretend to be shy of King, to encourage him, if he would, to take further notice of the card. I advised him to let King take his own course in the matter, and to trouble himself no more about it, unless again called upon.

In the mean time. King consulted with a gentleman, and acting, I presume, under his advice, addressed two or three notes to Casey on the subject. He also published a card in the San Francisco Hcralrl, asking for a suspension of public opinion on the communication of Caliban.

Having received, as I understood, no satisfaction" from his correspondence with Casey, Thos. S. King, notoriously connected with a sheet whose every issue teemed with the vilest and most indiscriminate personal abuse, one morning repaired to the pistol-gallery kept by Natchez, on Clay Street, and had his derringer pistols cleaned and loaded. He then went in search of Casey, saying to several persons that he was following him, would make him give up the author, etc. He finally met Casey at the corner of Merchant and Montgomery streets, next door to the Bulletin office. I happened to be standing near the spot, in a little cigar-store. King approached Casey and told him that he would give him until ten o'clock the next day to give up the real name of Caliban. Casey replied that he did not desire another minute; that he was himself the author, and responsible. Upon this, King said that he thought the author was a gentleman,'' and walked away. I could not refrain from bursting into a loud laugh when I found how correct had been my opinion as to this man's poltroonery. He favored me with a malignant scowl as he left the

Narj-ativt^ of Edward McGowan 13

spot, and thus I supposed the difficulty between himself and Caliban was at an end. But, alas ! the cowardice of this man — Thomas S. King — was destined to be the polluted spring from which was to flow the stream of anarchy, treason, and almost civil war. Better, far better, had it been for the community, the country, and the lovers of free institutions all over the world, if, on that morning, King, Casey, and myself had all fallen in a street ?fielee, and the seeds of internal discord, afterwards sown so broadcast in the land, had been buried in our obscure graves. But it was not to be so. James King of Wm. , provoked to retaliate on the cause of his brother's discomfiture and disgrace, published, the next day, in the Bulletin^ a very severe article, in which he alluded, in terms of the bitterest opprobrium, to Casey's antecedents in New York, and stated facts in connection with his life there, which, being published without any explanation, of which they were to a certain extent susceptible, had a tendency to degrade Casey in the estimation of all good men. The following is an extract from the article: —

"The fact that Casey has been an inmate of Sing-Sing prison, in New York, is no offense against the laws of this state 5 nor is the fact of his having stuffed himself, through the ballot-box, as elected to the Board of Supervisors, from a district where it is said that he was not even a candidate, any justification for Mr. Bagley to shoot Casey, however richly the latter may deserve to have his neck stretched for such fraud on the people. These are acts against the public good, not against Mr. Bagley in particular; and, however much we may detest Casey's former character, or be convinced of the shallowness of his promised reformation, we cannot justify the assumption by Mr. Bagley to take upon himself the redressing of these wrongs."

Casey, upon reading the above, repaired to the editorial room of the Bulletin, and told James King of Wm. that he desired he would not rake up the events of his past life in New York. He said that he was perfectly willing his conduct in California should be scrutinized, and that if anything could be proven against his character here, he was willing it should be published; but with reference to past matters he was exceedingly sensitive; that he was young and inexperienced when the offense for which he had been imprisoned was committed, and, as the evidence and the record showed, it was, at worst, but a case of constructive larceny. King replied that he would publish whatever he saw fit, and that on the next day he would be still more severe. Casey then told him he must be prepared to defend himself on the street, as he intended to attack him on sight, upon which King ordered him out of his office, and threatened to kick him out if he did not go. Casey left the ofiice, and immediately arranged his private affairs preparatory to attacking Mr. King.*

While all this was going on, I was attending to a cause before Justice Ryan of the FirstTownship, for Captain Dodge, of the schooner "Matthew Vassar." About twenty minutes past four o'clock of the day on which Mr. King was shot, seeing that another cause which was being tried was likely to occupy the rest of the afternoon, I asked to have that of Capt. Dodge postponed until the following day. This was granted, and after my client and I had stepped out of court, I saw the Evening Bulletin containing the above remarks with reference to Casey. I had not up to this time even heard that Casey had had an interview with King. I went from the courtroom down on to Montgomery Street, and stopped in the neighborhood of the Bulletin office. ^ I saw many persons gathered in knots about the streets, and everything indicated to me that a fight was expected. It was now about twenty minutes of five o'clock. While I was standing on the street, a friend informed me that Casey wanted to see me at a barroom kept in the rear of the City Hall by James Godfrey, Esq. I at once went there, and among a great many other persons I saw Casey. He and 1 immediately stepped into the alley on which the house is situated, and I there learned for the first time what had occurred between him and Mr. King. He was very cool, but apparently very angry. He told me that his determination was to attack Mr. King, and that he had finished the adjustment of his affairs, so that in the event of his fall there would be no difficulty about them. He said that he expected the meeting would result in a des-

*Tht* author is indebted for this information to James P. Casey, who detailed it to liim before the attack, and afterward in the County Jail.

perate fight, as Mr. King was greatly his superior physically, and, moreover, from the daily tone of the Bulletin, as well as from the notice he had given him, he took it for granted that he would be fully armed.* He begged me not to be in the street at the time the fight took place, lest, in the event of Mr. King's death, I should be suspected of complicity, on account of my supposed connection with the Caliban matter. He then embraced me, and I left him. I was secretly determined, notwithstanding his injunctions, to see the encounter. Like almost all old Californians, I was accustomed to such sights, and, naturally enough, when I knew that a fight was about to take place, curiosity prompted me to witness it. Accordingly, I returned to Montgomery Street, and, after standing there some minutes, I concluded, as I saw nothing of Casey, that perhaps he had changed his mind about making the attack. W I sauntered up Montgomery Street, and entered the Bank Exchange, on the corner of Washington. Here I met an old Philadelphia acquaintance named Peter Whiteman, and invited him to drink with me. While we were standing at the bar, the boy Butts (whose name appears in the subse-

*The following- are among- many passages of the kind to be found about that time in the Bulletin: —

Bulletin, Dec. 6th. — "Mr. Selover, it is said, carries a knife. We carry a pistol. We hope neither will be required, but if this rencontre cannot be avoided, why will Mr. Selover persist in periling- the lives of others? We pass, every afternoon, about half-past four to five o'clock, along Market Street, from Fourth to Fifth Street. The road is wide, and not so much frequented as those streets farther in town. If we are to be sliot or cut to pieces, for Heaven's sake let it be done there. Others will not be injured, and in case we fall, our house is but a few hundred yards beyond, and the cemetery not nmch farther."

//'.,Jan.7th. — "If these fellows are really determined to attack the editor of the Bulletin, -tuhy Jon '/ t/iey do it at once and tfC done ^with itF Why keep everybody in suspense ? Here we have been carrying a pistol for nearly three months because of the braggadocio bidlying of this crowd, until we are heartily tired of it."

[t] I have since been informed that during this time Casey was in a lawyer's office with a friend, arranging- the final disposition of iiis efi'ects in the event of his fall. This office was in Bolton &" Barron's buikling, fronting on Montgomery Street, and commanded a full view of the scene of the meeting.

quent examination of the case before the Grand Jury) entered the room and said something to Whiteman which I did not hear, and Whiteman immediately left the room. I suspected that King and Casey were about meeting, and went into the street myself. I looked down the street and saw many persons standing about the sidewalks, but, seeing nothing of Casey, concluded once more to leave the scene, and started up Washington Street, on my way to my rooms on Dupont. As I traveled up Washington Street, I was met by Henry B. Truett and Hamilton Bowie — the latter since dead: peace to his ashes! They were riding in Mr. Truett' s buggy. Being intimate with both of them, I informed them of what was going on, when Truett remarked.

If such a fight is coming off, it is no place for me." I told them if it did come off I did not intend to witness it, and they drove away in an opposite direction. I continued up Washington Street, and on reaching Kearny I met James T. Green of the Police, (now Justice Green of El Dorado County,) together with John Nugent and Samuel Stevenson, also of the Police. We all went into a place called the Boomerang, on Kearny Street, to drink. While we were conversing about my applying to Mayor Van Ness to have Nugent, v^^ho had been suspended, reinstated on the Police, a man rushed by, on his way, as he said, to see Mrs. King, informing us that her husband had been shot by Casey. Presently I saw the crov^d rushing up Washington Street, follox^ing Casey, who was in charge of the officers, to the City Hall. From thence he was shortly taken to the jail. I went up to the jail and there found Thomas S. King haranguing the mob in a very excited manner.

I remained there some time, and then went with a friend to my usual place of dining. After dinner, H. H. Byrne, the District Attorney, entered the room, laughing and apparently exulting over the occurrence of the day. He had, I think, been drinking a little. Presently, with a very knowing air, and running his fingers through his locks, he exclaimed, "Judge, this is your pistol," at the same time exhibiting a derringer which he said his brother, Lafayette Byrne, a deputy sheriff, had taken from Casey. After Casey had shot King, Byrne was the first officer who approached him, and it is said that Casey, believing him to be his friend, slipped this pistol into his hand before entering the City Hall, not wishing to compromise the party from whom he had borrowed it.

I replied to District Attorney Byrne, "if it is mine, give it tome." It was not mine; mine were in my pockets, where I habitually carried them. They were gold-mounted, and are well known to hundreds of men in San Francisco. I wished, however, to get possession of the pistol, for I thought I recognized it, and considered it no harm to shield, if possible, the party to whom it belonged from suspicion ; the more especially as it will be remembered that Mr. King was not shot by a "derringer," but by a revolver.

Byrne refused to give me the pistol, and I said no more about it, taking care to leave him still under the impression that it was mine, knowing that, if called upon, I could easily clear myself of the suspicion. A few days afterward Mr. King died, and Lafayette Byrne swore at the inquest that his brother, the District Attorney, took the pistol, saying, Don't say anything about this, but try to find out the owner. I think some one else is en^a^ed in this, and I want to ferret it out. ' ' Since my return from southern California, he declares to my friends that he did not in that remark mean me. If he did not mean me, believing, as he said he did, that the pistol was mine, who did he mean.f' If he<^/V/mean me, v^^hy does he, now that I have, contrary to his expectations, returned, so solemnly asseverate that he did not.^" The reason is known to me, and shall, at the proper time, be made public. I here venture to assert that no man in San Francisco felt more heartfelt exultation in the death of James King of Wm. than this same exemplary and zealous District Attorney. Indeed, a reference to a few back articles of the Bulletin, where the editor has had occasion to use his name, will at once convince the reader that the District Attorney had very little cause to love the conductor of that paper.*

[From the S. F. Bulletin, March 17.]

* "The Ordinance which went into effect on the 15th February, by the joint conni\'ance of the District Attorney, the Mayor, the attorney