(CALIFORNIA) Rufus A Lockwood The Vigilance Committee of San

Sale 2615 - Lot 35

Price Realized: $ 406

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900

(CALIFORNIA.) Rufus A. Lockwood. The Vigilance Committee of San Francisco: Metcalf vs. Argenti et al. 47, [1] pages. 8vo, stitched; marginal tape repair to title page, moderate wear, minor foxing. San Francisco, CA, 1852

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Peter Metcalf was a San Francisco cartman who claimed to have misplaced a cartload of goods during an 1851 fire. The extra-legal Vigilance Committee then performed a search of his house. Metcalf sued the Committee for this violation of his rights. These speeches were made by Metcalf's attorney, Rufus Allen Lockwood (1811-1857), who denounced the vigilantes with purple prose. "Heed not the crocodile lamentations and hyena howlings over petty crimes, of those vampyres who at midnight drain the stream of life in your midst, and at mid-day repeat their horrid orgies with triumphant demonstrations" (page 5). Cowan 1933, page 394; Greenwood, California Imprints 333; Howes L420 ("aa"); Sabin 41752; Streeter sale V:2713 ("Required reading for anyone wishing to understand the dark and cruel side of the activities of the Vigilance Committee").