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.  

Time is Money

Going back to the mining camp laws of the 1840s and 1850s of a couple of posts ago, these were communities in the West made up of temporary, or transient people,  They were far from courts and government institutions.  Given this kind of community there were problems.  Put man together in a place without structure or rules and you have problems.  These mining camps were rough and tough.  By the very way they were settled, there were those who did not see rules as necessary.  The Vigilante style of law that prevailed was unique to mining towns across the West.

Miners preferred speedy justice - time was money.  Especially in the early days of the Gold Rush, a man was worth $16 to $100 a day.  Mining laws set by the Spanish ordered cases decided without delay.  A few hours could mean the difference between lucky and unlucky.  Those that decided cases received no pay, there were no jails and no guards - no place or time to worry about fair trial or juries.  Many times the accused was hung within a hour's time.

Popular forms of punishment included banishment, whipping and of course, hanging.  The methods were cheap and speedy.  In a community were a man might be there today and gone tomorrow, literally, the law had to act today if it was to be effective.

Josiah Royce, American philosopher, whose family went West in 1849, wrote a book California that describes Vigilante law in mining communities thus..."it was harder to work for a Vigilante Committee for a month than for a lifetime on a legal jury in a quiet town."  

Next time...More western mining laws.

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Today in Pioneer History: "On July 13, 1787, the Northwest Ordinance was enacted which structured the settlement of the Northwest Territory and created a policy for adding new states to the United States.  

The Laws of Gold and Silver

Like the settler's associations who made the laws for the newly settled communities in the West, gold mining towns did the same thing.  Mining towns were also beyond the range of effective federal law.  Miners who arrived first, like the first settlers, simply made their own laws.

As early as 1851 in California, the rule was that mining claims shall govern based on the "usage, regulations and customs."  By 1866 there were over 500 self-organized mining districts in California, 200 in Nevada and 100 each in Arizona, Idaho and Oregon.  There were 1100 of these self-governing mining districts across the West.

The self-governing districts all had the basic belief that they should and could make and enforce their own laws.  In July of 1866 Congress recognized that wherever these districts "did not conflict with the laws of the United States, they should prevail.  The rules and regulations of the miners form the basis of the present admirable system arising out of necessity.  They become the means adopted by the people themselves for just protection of all. The local courts recognize these rules, the central idea of which is priority of possession."  

Some things were unique to mining towns.  Like the settlers, the proper title then belonged to those that discovered it, those who arrived first, but continual use of the claim was necessary for legal ownership in a mining town.  No one was allowed to hold on to a claim longer than they used it.  The first person to reach a stream could draw out as much as he could use, not just for mining but for irrigation of farms, livestock, etc.

This priority law for both settler's and for mining towns lasted until at least the end of the century all across the West.  

Next time...New topic?

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Today in Pioneer History: "On July 5, 1957, John Lennon meets Paul McCartney for the first time.  John was scheduled to play at the Woollton Parish Church Garden Fete as part of the Quarrymen group.  Paul, only 15 years of age showed up to listen to 17 year old John and his band. Paul was introduced by a mutual friend and played a guitar riff for John...the rest is history as they say.

No Johnny-Come-Latelys

These ruling "Association Clubs" in the western settlements were not always democratic.  The honest settler didn't always win against the scheming speculator.  They acted not only to protect the squatters title to the land they lived on and farmed, but also helped to gain second and third claims against later settlers.  

A better name for these "Settler's Associations" would have been "First-Arrival Associations."  They protected the first settlers against anyone else.  The non-resident speculator rarely made any money as unimproved land by absentee owners was exploited, sometimes it was simply seized.  Other times taxes was levied on it for local improvements such as schools or roads without the land owner's knowledge, thus forcing the land owner to sell the unoccupied land for taxes.  

The Association law stood for the "Priority Principle" which meant that those who arrived first were the priority.  The rules that existed before the formal government were the superior law.  The principle helped to show that the Johnny-come-lately, the laggard, the slow starter, had no place on the new frontier.  They were the weak, and weak men would not do in the West.

The priority principle was at first about the emptiness and newness of America.  It was first about the law of the land, but it would come to be applied to the race for America's treasures - for gold and silver, for water, for grasslands, for oil.

Next time....Law in the Treasure Towns

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Today in Pioneer History: "On July 2, 1809, Chief Tecumseh, chief of the Shawnee tribe, urges his people of the Old Northwest and Deep South to unite and resist the the white settlers  squatting on their lands.  Together he said the tribes were strong enough to stop the whites from taking further land.  A year later he organized the Ohio Valley Confederacy and for several years he was successful in delaying further white settlement in the land.  

Skirting the Land Offices

Federal land office finally opened under the Pre-Exemption Act of September 1841. Under these federal laws a man had to have a house on the land at least 12 feet square.  The house had to have a glass window.  Settlers, however, played games with these federal laws, so to speak by claiming they had a 12x14 house which in reality was actually a 12x14" house or hanging a window sash on the inside of the house to look like a window when there was none.  

Sometimes the same cabin was moved from claim to claim to satisfy the requirements.  In Nebraska there was said to be a house on wheels, drawn by oxen, for that very purpose.  At the cost of $5 a day a settler could hire out the house, thereby swearing that he had a residence of the land he was claiming.  It worked for many a "residence" in the community.

Women were not allowed to claim land unless they were widows who could claim "head of family."  Not to be outdone by the men, women came up with a plan to borrow a family.  A baby or child was hired out to serve as the movable house did.  The women would sign the adoption papers, swear to be head of the family and claim her land.  Afterwards, she would annul the adoption papers, and return the child to the rightful parents.  

From the early days of Western settlement age up until at least the Civil War, "association" (or club) law ruled the West.  It mean proper, quick judgment and procedures.  The do-it-yourself kind of law that for most practical purposes served to settle the West.

Next time...Not Always So Democratic

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Today in Pioneer History:  "On June 29, 1613, London's original Globe Theater was destroyed by fire.  The fire was started by a cannon shot that went off during the performance of Henry VIII.  The Globe was the theater where many of Shakespeare's play were performed.  

Rules are Rules

Membership in these "association clubs" that governed new settlements prior to Federal guidelines, was  usually acquired easily and quickly.  The membership rules varied from length of residency  (2 months) to whether one could see his chimney smoke from the location of the meeting.  The rules adopted by these community clubs however, were simple and easily understood - and religiously enforced.  They provided protection to the members from outsiders and from each other in unlawful actions.  There was no patience with legal technicalities, nor did they tolerate anyone taking advantage  of the law or each other.  The law was enforced promptly and effectively. 

One example from Johnson County Iowa dealt with a claim jumper with a good whipping by the committee.  A more drastic example in 1839 in Iowa City involved another claim jumper (someone who tried to take over someone else's land already claimed).  Mr. Crawford tried to take over the claim of one William Sturgis, the rightful owner.  Crawford refused to surrender the claim as requested several times.  A meeting was called for on November 7 and sixty men marched to Crawford's cabin where he was still inside building.  After another request to leave the claim was refused, and even an offer to pay him for the labor he had done, the men took the four corners of the cabin and in 15 minutes there was not a log left standing.  Mr. Crawford was still standing with ax in hand in the center of the vacant lot.  

The ruling of these association clubs was law since no lawyer, judge or jury could be found that were not members of the ruling association.  Apparently there was no appeal or recourse for a person, as Mr. Crawford discovered when he tried to get his own justice against their actions.

Next time...Land Offices Arrive

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Today in Pioneer History: "On June 25, 1876, Native American forces and Sitting Bull defeat the U.S. Army troops of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer near Montana's Little Bighorn River.  Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, leaders of the Sioux tribe of the Great Plains, had resisted the government confining their people to reservations, and even though they killed Custer and most of his men, within five years, they were confined to reservations.  A sad fact of our history as Americans.

Taking the Law into Their Own Hands

The early farmer settlers organized to protect their lands.  There were no courts of law - only "associations" or "unions" which sprang up virtual everywhere settlers formed communities.  For example, in Elkhorn Creek, Wisconsin, 40 families settled in a grove before the land was actually for sale by the Federal government.  A Methodist circuit rider passing through in 1835, noted in his journal, "They had, in the absence of all other law, met and made a law for themselves...appointed commissioners to take care of the land, preserve the timber so as to make it valuable...when it was settled by township law."

These families in Elkhorn Creek had allowed each family 40 acres of woodland  and as much grassland and each one needed.  No man was allowed to monopolize the timber, but that they should sustain each other against any new settler coming in.  At no time should any settler bid on another man's land.  Such a man would be "knocked down and drug out of the land office", tried in court and fined.  No spectator bid on a settler's land and no settler bid on his neighbor's land.  That was "the law."

These associations or unions guaranteed that a settler's land, even if not surveyed yet, remained his land, any improvements made, his profit and any crops grown, his crops.  These groups grew up quickly in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa - wherever settlers "broke the sod."  They began with a mass meeting of all settlers, forming a committee to draft by-laws and elect official leaders.  Each association had a procedure for choosing juries to settle disputes, a president and a marshal.

Each association also handled the land title records, in many ways acting as the Federal government would act.  These unions became the whole government, punishing crimes against person or property.  You could say they were technically "outside the law" but it was through such organizations that law and order was brought to the West.

Next time...Association Membership

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Today in Pioneer History: "On June 22, 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the G.I. Bill designed to compensate members of the armed forces for their efforts in World War II allowing my father and many of yours to go to college.  The bill was actually called the Servicemen's Readjustment Act and it was hoped to avoid the 20,000 unemployed veterans and their families who protested in Washington in 1932 from happening again.