This article was published in the
Winter 1999-2000 issue of Formulations
by the Free
Nation Foundation
Vigilantes of Montana
by Thomas J. Dimsdale
Reviewed by Roy Halliday
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Outline
--introduction
Life before the Vigilantes Organized
The Case of George Ives
Formation of the Vigilance Committee
Rationale of the Vigilantes
Results of the Vigilance Committee's Actions
Conclusion
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Vigilantes of Montana by Thomas J. Dimsdale was published in
book form 1865. It was first serialized in the Montana Post, of
which Mr. Dimsdale was the editor-in-chief. It describes the exploits of
vigilantes from Virginia City, Montana and its sister city Nevada, Montana
from 1863 through 1865. It consists of true stories of courage and persistence
on the part of the vigilantes as they pursued, arrested, tried, and punished
road agents, murderers, and other dangerous criminals. More interesting
to me than the stories, which constitute most of the book, are the occasional
explanations of the rationale for the Vigilance Committee and the comments
the author makes about the net result of its activities.
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Life before the Vigilantes Organized
Sometimes on the American frontier settlers had to take the law into
their own hands because the federal government had no meaningful presence
there yet and the territorial government had not been created. This was
not the case in Virginia City and Nevada, Montana. The citizens
of these mining towns did not lack government law enforcers. What they
lacked was honest and effective law enforcers. They had a duly elected
sheriff and legally appointed deputy sheriffs to enforce law and order,
but, unfortunately, the sheriff was the leader of the road agents and his
deputies were his partners in crime.
Highway robberies and murders by road agents and other criminals were
common in Montana in the 1860s. Honest citizens lived in fear. The jury
system used by the government courts was ineffective.
"No matter what may be the proof, if the criminal is well liked in
the community, 'Not Guilty' is almost certain to be the verdict of the
jury, despite the efforts of the judge and prosecutor. If the offender
is a moneyed man, as well as a popular citizen, the trial is only a farce—grave
and prolonged, it is true, but capable of only one termination—a verdict
of acquittal." (13)
Criminals gained popularity among prospective jurors by frequently buying
rounds of drinks at the local saloons. But this was not their only means
of swaying jurors. Intimidation of witnesses and jurors was another method
commonly employed by the criminal community. Anyone who dared become a
witness against a road agent was not likely to live long enough to testify
in court, especially with the long delays associated with the governmental
court proceedings. Potential witnesses were reminded that "dead men tell
no tales." These were not idle threats. The road agents had spies who informed
them whenever anyone reported a robbery or a murder to the authorities.
Survivors of highway robberies were often tracked down and murdered so
they could not testify. The members of any jury that dared to convict a
criminal could not expect to outlive him, even if the criminal was sentenced
to be hanged at dawn. So criminals who were guilty beyond a doubt were
seldom arrested, and when they were arrested they were generally acquitted.
"The chances of a just verdict being rendered is almost a nullity.
Prejudices, or selfish fear of consequences, and not reason, rules the
illiterate, the lawless, and the uncivilized. These latter are in large
numbers in such places, and if they do right it is by mistake." (75)
The author expressed the feelings of his fellow citizens sarcastically
when he wrote that they "might as well have applied to the Emperor of China,
for redress or protection, as to any civil official." (45)
Henry Plummer, the leader of the road agents, was able to use his ill-gotten
gains to make enough friends in Bannack, Montana to be fairly elected as
sheriff. He immediately appointed two of his partners in crime, Buck Stinson
and Ned Ray, to be his deputy sheriffs. Then Plummer proposed to the honest
sheriff of newly settled Virginia City, Montana, that he should step down
and allow Plummer to be sheriff of both cities. The sheriff of Virginia
City consented, knowing that certain death was his only alternative. If
someone was foolish enough to report a crime, Sheriff Plummer would inform
his fellow murderers about it and the reporting citizen's life expectancy
would suddenly drop.
"All along the route the ranchmen knew the road agents, but the certainty
of instant death in case they revealed what they knew enforced their silence,
even when they were really desirous of giving information or warning."
(92)
Plummer acquired a head deputy named Dillingham, who was an honest man.
Dillingham tried to warn a man named Dodge that Buck Stinson, Haze Lyons,
and Charley Forbes intended to rob him. Dodge told the robbers about Dillingham's
warning and Stinson, Lyons, and Forbes murdered Dillingham. Lyons fired
first and hit Dillingham in the thigh. Stinson's bullet went over Dillingham's
head. Forbes' shot went through Dillingham's chest and killed him within
a few minutes. By prearranged agreement, their friend Deputy Sheriff Jack
Gallagher, rushed out, confiscated their pistols, reloaded Stinson's pistol,
and arrested them. They were tried right away without any red tape by a
people's court. Stinson and Lyons were found guilty and sentenced to be
hanged. Forbes was acquitted by a nearly unanimous vote because he was
handsome and he made an eloquent speech at his trial, and because Stinson's
fully loaded gun was presented as belonging to Forbes. Later, Forbes bragged
that he killed Dillingham and laughed at the softness of the miners who
acquitted him. Stinson and Lyons were brought to the gallows. Judge Smith
was called for. Lyons begged for mercy. Ladies in the audience pleaded
to save the poor young boys' lives. The judge ordered a new vote on the
sentences. The people had two options: hang or release the convicted murderers.
The first two votes were inconclusive. The third vote was managed differently.
Those who favored hanging marched between two men and those who favored
release marched between two other men. Those favoring release "ingeniously
increased their votes by the simple but effectual expedient of passing
through several times." (79) So the murderers were set free.
"As a matter of course, after the failure of justice in the case of
the murderers of Dillingham, the state of society, bad as it was, rapidly
deteriorated, until a man could hardly venture to entertain belief that
he was safe for a single day." (89)
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The Case of George Ives
The case of George Ives began the vigilante movement in Montana. George
robbed and murdered Nicholas Tbalt and hid his body in the sage brush where
it froze solid and was discovered and brought into Nevada, Montana after
10 days. George had been seen with the dead man's mules and had been heard
to say that Tbalt would never trouble anyone again. The citizens were so
incensed by this crime that 25 men pledged mutual support to each other
and rode out to capture George Ives in violation of the Magna Charta, the
Bill of Rights, habeas corpus, and other sacred principles of legal hocus
pocus.
"Marked for slaughter by desperadoes, these men staked their lives
for the welfare of society." (107)
Sheriff Plummer was sent for by friends of the murderer to save Ives from
vigilante justice. During Ives' trial his criminal friends tried to help
him by planning methods for his escape, intimidating witnesses, making
appeals to the sympathies of the jurors, and insisting that fine points
of the law be observed. But they deferred taking more drastic action until
the arrival of their leader Sheriff Plummer. Unfortunately for George Ives,
Plummer had heard rumors that a large body of vigilantes was coming after
him so Plummer, more concerned for his own safety than for the safety of
George Ives, stayed away from the scene. As a result, George Ives was found
guilty of murder and was hanged while vigilante guards with loaded shotguns
prevented Ives' friends from rescuing him.
"At last the deed was done. The law-abiding among the citizens breathed
more freely, and all felt that the worst man in the community was dead—that
the neck of crime was broken, and that the reign of terror was ended."
(115)
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Formation of the Vigilance Committee
The local criminals were scared by Ives' execution, but soon they resumed
their predations and tried to reestablish their dominance. They threatened,
watched, and followed all the prominent citizens who supported the arrest
and conviction of Ives—looking for the first opportunity to murder them
out of sight of witnesses.
But this time the criminals' tactics didn't work.
"One thing was conclusively shown to all who witnessed the trial of
Ives. If every road agent cost as much labor, time and money for his conviction,
the efforts of the citizens would have, practically, failed altogether.
Some shorter, surer, and at least equally equitable method of procedure
was to be found." (118-119)
Five men in Virginia City and one man in Nevada, Montana simultaneously
began organizing a Vigilance Committee. Within two days they united their
efforts.
"Merchants, miners, mechanics and professional men, alike, joined
in the movement, until, within an incredibly short space of time, the road
agents and their friends were in a state of constant and well-grounded
fear, lest any remarks they might make confidentially to an acquaintance
might be addressed to one who was a member of the much-dreaded Committee."
(121)
The Vigilance Committee comprised nearly every good man in the territory.
They pledged to render impartial justice to all. They took time from their
work, their leisure, and their families to spend days tracking down dangerous
criminals through the snow in the frigid climate of Montana.
"The volunteers formed a motley group; but there were men enough among
them of unquestioned courage, whom no difficulty could deter and no danger
affright. They carried, generally, a pair of revolvers, a rifle or shotgun,
blankets and some rope. Spirits were forbidden to be used." (125)
The vigilantes received no monetary compensation.
"The smiles of an approving conscience are about all, in the shape
of reward, that is likely to be received by any of them for their brilliant
services." (126)
They returned all stolen property that they recovered to its rightful owners
or their heirs. When they were unable to recover stolen goods, they tried
to compensate the victim as best they could. After executing a thief in
front of a crowd of citizens:
"Before leaving the ground, a subscription was opened on behalf of
the man whose money had been stolen, and the whole sum missing ($400) was
paid to him by the Committee. This was an act of scrupulous honesty, probably
never before paralleled in any citizen's court in the world." (225-226)
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Rationale of the Vigilantes
Dimsdale regarded government courts as part of the ideal way to control
crime, but like John Locke, he and the other good citizens of Virginia
City believed that the people have the right to take control when the government
fails.
"Peace and justice we must have, and it is what the citizens will
have in this community; through the courts, if possible; but peace and
justice are rights, and courts are only means to an end, admittedly the
very best and most dependable means; and if they fail, the people, the
republic that created them, can do their work for them." (268)
Dimsdale proposed this test for determining when it is necessary to establish
a Vigilance Committee:
"The question of the propriety of establishing a Vigilance Committee
depends upon the answers which ought to be given to the following questions:
Is it lawful for citizens to slay robbers or murderers, when they catch
them; or ought they to wait for policemen where there are none, or put
them in penitentiaries not yet erected?" (16)
Dimsdale agrees with the answer arrived at by the vigilantes:
"Under these circumstances, it becomes an absolute necessity that
good, law-abiding, and order-sustaining men should unite for mutual protection,
and for the salvation of the community." (15)
Dimsdale defends the practice of hanging the criminals arrested and convicted
by the vigilantes:
"... nothing but severe and summary punishment would be of any avail
to prevent crime, in a place where life and gold were so much exposed."
(225)
"None but extreme penalties inflicted with promptitude are of any avail
to quell the spirit of the desperadoes with whom they have to contend;
considerable numbers are required to cope successfully with the gangs of
murderers, desperadoes and robbers who infest mining countries, and who,
though faithful to no other bond, yet all league willingly against the
law. (15)
"Finally, swift and terrible retribution is the only preventative of
crime, while society is organizing in the far West. The long delay of justice,
the wearisome proceedings, the remembrance of old friendships, etc., create
a sympathy for the offender, so strong as to cause hatred of the avenging
law, instead of inspiring a horror of the crime. ... in affairs of single
combats, assaults, shootings, stabbings, and highway robberies, this civil
law, with its positively awful expense and delay, is worse than useless."
(13-14)
He also defends the vigilantes' policy of secrecy:
"Secret they must be, in council and membership, or they will remain
nearly useless for the detection of crime, in a country where equal facilities
for the transmission of intelligence are at the command of the criminal
and the judiciary; and an organization on this footing is a VIGILANCE COMMITTEE."
(15)
Membership in the Vigilance Committee was voluntary, but a member's freedom
to quit was not always respected, especially if he chose to quit at a critical
moment. Dimsdale relates once incident in which a member of a vigilante
group that had just captured and voted to execute two men tried to leave
before the sentence was carried out:
"One of the party who had been particularly lip-courageous, now began
to weaken, and discovered that he should lose $2000 if he did not go home
at once. Persuasion only paled his lips, and he started off. The click!
click! click! of four guns, however, so far directed his fears into an
even more personal channel, that he concluded to stay." (131-132)
The vigilantes did not attempt to capture and punish every known criminal.
Their goal was not retributive justice. Instead they wanted to break up
the criminal gangs and make the territory safe. Their strategy was to go
after the leaders and the most dangerous criminals and to arrest them,
try them, and, if found guilty, to hang them (1) to prevent the criminal
from continuing his life of crime, and (2) to set an example to deter other
criminals.
At the execution of John Dolan in 1864, the executive officer of the
Vigilance Committee "addressed the crowd, stating that the execution of
criminals such as Dolan was a matter of public necessity, in a mining country,
and that the safety of the community from lawlessness and outrage was the
only reason that dictated it." (224)
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Results of the Vigilance Committee's Actions
According to Dimsdale’s reporting, the Vigilance Committee was an unmitigated
success amounting to a triumph of good over evil.
"Less than three years ago, this home of well-ordered industry, progress
and social order, was a den of cutthroats and murderers. Who has effected
the change? The Vigilantes; and there is nothing on their record for which
an apology is either necessary or expedient." (268)
Being arrested by vigilantes was not equivalent to being found guilty and
hanged. If the evidence was inconclusive, they released their prisoners—even
when they were almost certain that their prisoners were morally culpable.
"The Vigilantes rigidly abstained, in all cases, from inflicting the
penalty due to crime, without entirely satisfactory evidence of guilt."
(165)
"The truth is, that the Vigilance Committee simply punished with death
men unfit to live in any community, and that death was, usually, almost
instantaneous, and only momentarily painful." (154)
Public reaction to vigilante justice was favorable. Upon hearing of the
hanging of Jem Kelly an old miner said, "Served him right; he ought to
have gone up long ago; I don't believe in whipping and banishing; if a
fellow ain't fit to live here, he ain't fit to live nowhere, by thunder—that's
so, you bet your life." (215)
The law-abiding public had no fear of being unjustly punished by the
vigilantes:
"There is not now—and there never has been—one upright citizen in
Montana, who has a particle of fear of being hanged by the Vigilance Committee."
(250)
Even criminals who were hanged by the vigilantes agreed that what the vigilantes
did was just. The last words of Erastus Yager, known simply as "Red," just
before he was hanged were, "Good-by boys; God bless you. You are on a good
undertaking." (135) Aleck Carter after being arrested and hearing the names
of others hanged by the vigilantes said, "All right; not an innocent man
hung yet." (179) When Bob Zachary was arrested, tried, and sentenced to
death, he dictated a letter to his mother, "in which he warned his brothers
and sisters to avoid drinking whisky, card playing, and bad company, which,
he said, had brought him to the gallows." When he was about to be hanged
he prayed to God "to forgive the Vigilantes for what they were doing, for
it was a pretty good way to clear the country roads of road agents." (185)
Just before Bill Hunter was hanged "he shook hands with each of the company,
and said that he did not blame them for what they were about to do." (192)
Just before he was hanged, James Brady wrote a letter to his daughter which
included these words, "I have been arrested, and sentenced to be hanged
by the Vigilance Committee. In one short hour I shall have gone to eternity.
It is my own fault." (213) At his hanging in front of five thousand people
Brady addressed the crowd and said he hoped his execution would be a warning
to others. (214) After his trial and conviction for murder, John Keene
got up and said, "All I wanted was a fair and just trial; I think I have
got it, and death is my doom; but I want time to settle up my business;
I am not trying to get away." (239)
The vigilantes arrested, tried, and convicted men who were responsible
for murdering 102 people. Under the laws and procedures enforced in the
governmental courts these criminals probably would have been set free and
protected from molestation.
After they executed Bill Hunter on February 3, 1864, there was no longer
any openly organized gang of robbers in the territory. (194) The execution
of R. C. Rawley, a road agent who fled the territory when the vigilantes
organized but made the mistake of returning to Bannack in September 1864,
prevented the criminal community from reorganizing.
"The effect of the execution was magical. Not another step was taken
to organize crime in Bannack, and it has remained in comparative peace
and perfect security ever since." (229)
The Vigilance Committee quickly rid Virginia City, Bannack, and the surrounding
country of criminal gangs. Some of the criminals fled to Helena to resume
their activities. The citizens of Helena followed the example of Virginia
City and organized their own Vigilance Committee. After the initial war
against criminals in the vicinity of Helena:
"Very little action was necessary on the part of the Vigilance Committee
to prevent any combination of the enemies of law and order from exerting
a prejudicial influence on the peace and good order of the capital; in
fact the organization gradually ceased to exercise its functions, and although
in existence, its name more than its active exertions sufficed to preserve
tranquility." (253)
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Conclusion
If you are the type of person who judges actions by their results, it
is hard to deny that the vigilantes of Montana greatly improved conditions
for their fellow citizens. This is the way Dimsdale saw it:
" ‘All's well that ends well,’ says the proverb. Peace, order and
prosperity are the result of the conduct of the Vigilantes..." (267)
I am not sure that a more pacific approach would have worked. As much as
I am philosophically opposed to retribution, I am tempted to justify what
the vigilantes of Montana did on the grounds of self-defense. The stories
in this book provide food for thought, especially for anyone considering
forming a free nation in which dealing with crime, and everything else,
will be handled exclusively by the private, voluntary sector. D
Vigilantes of Montana: Or popular Justice in the Rocky Mountains
by Thomas J. Dimsdale was republished by McGee Printing Company, Butte,
Montana in 1950. Used copies may be found for sale at <http://www.bookfinder.com>
Roy Halliday was a long-time friend of Murray and Joey Rothbard and
he was saddened to hear about the recent passing of Joey. She had always
welcomed him whenever he knocked on the door of their apartment in Manhattan,
even on Sunday afternoons after she and Murray had been up all night drinking
cocktails and playing Risk with other friends such as Leonard Liggio and
Walter Block. More than once she dragged poor Murray out of bed to entertain
and edify him. Roy regards Murray Rothbard as the most intelligent and
knowledgeable person he has ever known and as one of the jolliest and most
gracious of hosts.
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