Home > West's Encyclopedia of American Law > San Francisco Vigilance Committees of 1851 and 1856

Self-appointed law enforcement committees that were organized to maintain order in San Francisco, California, during the mid-nineteenth century.

As a result of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, which concluded the Mexican War, the United States acquired a vast territory in the Southwest including California and New Mexico. After gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in 1848, thousands of gold hunters flocked into northern California. Many of the gold rush towns where the immigrants settled had been little more than villages before the gold rush and lacked the municipal institutions that were needed to cope with the rapidly expanding populations. As government and law enforcement became increasingly disorganized and chaotic, vigilance committees were formed in many towns. The San Francisco Vigilance Committees of 1851 and 1856 provide two of the most famous examples of vigilante activity.

Before gold was discovered in...