No Law is a Law

"We need no law" wrote an old pioneer of the mining camps. Since we have discussed vigilante law in these camps, there is another record of a far different viewpoint.  Contrary to the legends surroundings the mining camps there was order. Their law was spontaneous, for the good of the community, not the individual self.   Like law in colonial America, law was nothing more than the customs "to which the mind of man runneth not to the contrary."

 

These transient communities were suspicious of all elaborate, explicit and recently written rules. They come from places where "law" had been reduced in value and force, so they saw law as everyone's
to understand, to defend, to enforce.

Like the settler's association clubs, these communities were also intensely communal before they had a well-organized government.  A pioneer of both California and Nevada mining camps talked of how
there was little law. but a large amount of good order, no churches but a great deal of religion, no politics but a large number of politicians, no offices but strangely no office-seekers.

The mining camps on the whole were at least as orderly as life in settled communities. A wash basin full of gold dust could be left on a table in an open tent undisturbed.  No police yet provisions and tools
were seldom stolen. Theft murder and violence of all kinds were rare.

So some legends speak about the rowdiness and toughness of mining camps while others, like this one show orderly men living in harmony. How can that be possible?  Like any other thing that happens, I suppose,  it depended on the people.  And maybe since Vigilante judgment on those that did do real crimes was quick and harsh (likes hanging within an hour of the crime as we talked about in the last post) maybe it served as its own law, therefore there were no need for a list of do's and don’ts, they just knew.  We have unspoken rules like that, and families have things you just know that you can't get away with.  No need to write those down because no one living in that household would even consider doing that!

 

Next time- How did Mexico and the Governor of California with these camps without laws?

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Today in Pioneer History: "On July 16, 1935, the first parking meter was installed.  The meter was known as Park-O-Meter #1 and it was installed on the southeast corner of what was then First Street and Robinson Avenue in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  The meter was the brainchild of Carol C Magee because of the over-crowding of downtown area.  His "brainchild" soon spread to every town and city in the United States.