Most
San Franciscans had come to believe that disastrous fires which raged
through the city early in 1851 were the work of arsonists from "Sydney
Town." A citizens' committee which numbered, among others, Stephen
Payran, W. T. Coleman and Sam Brannan, the former Mormon elder who knew
sin when he saw it, took the law into its own hands and formed the
first Vigilance Committee. The city government protested in vain, for
its record of inaction was too flagrant.
Spurred on by the city's leading newspaper, the Alta California, more
than eight hundred merchants and bankers (lawyers were specifically
excluded from membership) began a glorious clean-up—patrolling the
streets, arresting suspects, and searching houses for stolen goods.
