minutes and were cut down and turned over to the Coroner. We, the rank
and file of the Vigilance Committee, were immediately afterwards drawn
up in a line on Sacramento street, reviewed and dismissed after stacking
our arms in the Committee room, taking up our pursuits again as private
citizens[4].



Yankee Sullivan.

James (or Yankee) Sullivan, whose real name was Francis Murray, had been
taken by the Vigilance Committee and was then (May 20th, 1856), in
confinement in the rooms of the Committee. He was very pugilistic and
had taken an active part in ballot-box frauds in the several elections
just previous. He had been promised leniency by the Committee and
assured a safe exit from the country, but he was fearful of being
murdered by the others to be exiled at the same time. He experienced a
horrible dream, going through the formality and execution of hanging. He
called for a glass of water, which was given him by the guard, who at
the same time endeavored to cheer him up, and when breakfast was taken
him at 8 o'clock that morning he was found dead in his bed, he having
made an incision with a common table knife in his left arm near the
elbow, cutting to the bone and severing two large arteries[5].



"Law and Order" Party.

On the 2nd of June, 1856, Governor J. Neely Johnson having declared the
city of San Francisco to be in a state of insurrection, issued orders to