The Vigilantes of Montana, Or Popular Justice in the Rocky Mountains PDF Download

Author: Thomas Josiah Dimsdale
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781333063696
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Excerpt from The Vigilantes of Montana, or Popular Justice in the Rocky Mountains: Being a Correct and Impartial Narrative of the Chase, Capture, Trial and Execution of Henry Plummer's Road Agent Band, Together With Accounts of the Lives and Crimes of Many of the Robbers and Desperadoes 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 weari some proceedings, the remembrance of old friendships, etc., create a sympathy for the offender, so strong as to cause a hatred of the avenging law, instead of in spiring a horror of the crime. There is something in the excitement of continued stampedes that makes men of quick temperaments uncontrollably impulsive. In the moment of passion, they would slay all round them; but let the blood cool, and they would 'share their last dollar with the men whose life they sought a day or two before. Habits of thought rule communities more than laws, and the settled opinion of a numerous class 15, that calling a man a liar, a thief, or son of a b h, is provocation sufficient to justify instant slaying. Juries do not ordinarily bother themselves about the lengthy instruction they hear read by the court. They simply consider whether the deed is a crime against the Mountain Code; and if not, not guilty is the verdict, at once returned. Thieving, or any action which a miner calls mean, will surely be visited with condign punishment, at the hands of a Territorial jury. In such cases mercy there is none; but, in affairs of single combats, assaults, shootings, stabbings, and highway robberies, this civil law, with its positively awful ex pense and delay, is worse than useless. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.