OR
POPULAR JUSTICE
IN THE
ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
BEING A CORRECT AND IMPARTIAL NARRATIVE OF THE CHASE, TRIAL, CAPTURE AND EXECUTION OF
HENRY PLUMMER’S
ROAD AGENT BAND,
TOGETHER WITH ACCOUNTS OF THE LIVES AND CRIMES OF MANY OF THE ROBBERS AND DESPERADOES, THE WHOLE BEING INTERSPERSED WITH SKETCHES OF LIFE IN THE
MINING CAMPS OF THE “FAR WEST;”
Forming the only reliable work on the subject ever offered the public.
By PROF. THOS. J. DIMSDALE.
VIRGINIA CITY, M. T.:
MONTANA POST PRESS, D. W. TILTON & CO., BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS.
1866.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865,
By THOS. J. DIMSDALE,
In the Clerk’s Office of the 1st Judicial District of
Montana Territory.
[Pg iii]
The object of the writer in presenting this narrative to the public,is twofold. His intention is, in the first place, to furnish a correcthistory of an organization administering justice without the sanctionof constitutional law; and secondly, to prove not only the necessityfor their action, but the equity of their proceedings.
Having an intimate acquaintance with parties cognizant of the factsrelated, and feeling certain of the literal truth of the statementscontained in this history, he offers it to the people of the UnitedStates, with the belief that its perusal will greatly modify the viewsof those even who are most prejudiced against the summary retributionof mountain law, and with the conviction that all honest and impartialmen will be willing to admit both the wisdom of the course pursued andthe salutary effect of the rule of the Vigilantes in the Territory ofMontana.
It is also hoped that the history of the celebrated body, the verymention of whose name sounded as a death-knell in the ears of themurderers and[Pg iv] Road Agents, will be edifying and instructive tothe general reader. The incidents related are neither trivial inthemselves, nor unimportant in their results; and, while rivalingfiction in interest, are unvarnished accounts of transactions, whosefidelity can be vouched by thousands.
As a literary production, the author commits it to the examinationof the critical without a sigh. If any of these author-slayers areinclined to be more severe in their judgment than he is himself, hetrusts they will receive the reward to which their justice entitlesthem; and if they should pass it by, he cannot but think that they willexercise a sound discretion, and avoid much useless labor. With all itsimperfections, here it is.
Thos. J. Dimsdale.
[Pg 5]
“The teeth that bite hardest are out of sight.”—Prov.
The end of