Thread by @s7ephen

In Ted Kaczynski's cabin among a stack of books was this one at the very bottom. It is about a piece of history I knew nothing about.

A time when citizens (amidst rampant corruption) took matters into their own hands.

A short on The Committee of Vigilance. 🧵

The San Fran Committee of Vigilance is a group of citizens that cleaned up in 1851 when law enforcement couldnt keep up with all the corruption and crime.

They tracked the corruption from the streets all the way up to city hall arresting, hanging, or forcing resignations of their targets.🧐
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Franc…

The amazing thing is that they did all this according to a strict code of ethics. In their fight against tyranny they didnt want to become tyrants themselves. So they vowed to relinquish all power gained during the "op" after the 3 month engagement.

There have been a small handful of authoritative books written about this time, and although the George R Stewart one was in Ted K's cabin, it was written in 1964, over one hundred years later. I wanted older sources...

There is an older much more detailed account written by Mary Floyd Williams. Her father served in the militia (Stevenson's Regiment) associated with the Committee
(what's with that "eye" logo?)
archive.org/details/histor…

Mary Stewart's account is much more detailed because it comes from the original handwritten letters between the members, that she herself transcribed.

Her transcription of the letters is over 900 pages. She even donated her transcriptions to Stanford Law and they are accessible online.
archive.org/details/papers…

She also donated the thousands of pages of the original handwritten letters. Those too are available online
"San+Francisco+Committee+of+Vigilance+of+1851" archive.org/search?query=c…

I also found and read The Committee of Vigilance's short constitution. I HIGHLY recommend it. Oddly, it gives you a sense of hope. That people won't stand idly by as their homes are corrupted and destroyed. ( and it's only SIX pages long).
archive.org/details/consti…

The Constitution is Signed: "33. SECRETARY" 👀
33?
Ok so, my suspicion about that logo was correct, this was clearly a "fraternal" operation.

I am sure you already knew (or figured out by now) that "Vigilante" is derived from these "Vigilance Committees", but what I didnt know is that "Vigil" is from the Latin word that means to literally stay "awake". Like a nightwatch of a town or village

Even though the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance in 1851 is the more popular example. There was another American Vigilance Committee predating the San Fran one, it was in 1837 to protect Black folks.

This one is on my research-todo list.

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