Law and Order

Law(lessness) and (lack of) Order in the American West

System of Law and order in American West

New land → became a federal territory with a governor, 3 judges and US marshal

Population of 5,000 → the territory still had a governor, 3 judges and US marshal but also locally elected sheriffs to deal with local criminals and local affairs.

Population of 60.000 → the territory became a state with its own laws, government and finance, but there was still a US marshal with responsibility for federal matters.

Problems of trying to establish law and order [Pa Scared]

There were particular problems where new settlements grew hugely and suddenly, for example in the gold-mining towns (such as Aurora) and the cow towns (such as Abilene, Kansas).

Poverty: so people resorted to desperate measures.
Arguments: over land ownership, water, greed, and gambling
Scared of reprisal: 'respectable' citizens were scared to speak out for fear of reprisal.
Culture of violence: everyone carried guns, and sorted out problems by using violence (→ dangerous for sheriffs).
All-male: there were few women, so there was no calming influence.
Racial tensions: racism, language differences, no sense of community.
Enforcement poor: juries were bribed, often biased/ judges often had poor knowledge of law/ sheriffs were often as violent as the criminals/ vigilante groups were often as much a problem as the criminals
Distance and isolation: difficult to cover such large areas and isolated communities.

Vigilantes [UPSET]

People set up vigilante groups because:

Unsafe conditions: people felt there was nothing much to lose.
Problems with law: it seemed no-one was in overall control - confusion.
Severe: people felt drastic punishment was the only answer.
Exasperation: justice was not seen to be done, so people 'did it themselves.'
Type of people living there: many criminals with no respect for the law.

Vigilante groups provided swift and effective punishment. They helped establish law and order - e.g., in Montana - by 'clearing out' the worst criminals before the state system was set up.

BUT they were not a long term solution - many vigilantes used their power to settle personal quarrels, and many ordinary citizens feared for their lives.

NOTE: this topic is a stated topic on the Edexcel specification. It is NOT a stated topic on the AQA specification, but lawlessness was a problem facing both Gold Mining settlements and the Homesteaders.

Going Deeper

The following links will help you widen your knowledge:

BBC Bitesize

Good notes from SaveMyExams

Law & Order in Aurora

Law & Order in Abilene

Interpretations: Jesse James and the 'Wild West' - I, II, III

What problems faced people trying to enforce law and order in the American West?

YouTube

The Gold Rush and Law & Order - Mr Cloke

Reno Gang and the Pinkertons - Mr Cloke

Billy the Kid - Mr Cloke

Wyatt Earp - Mr Cloke

Source A

Problems in Virginia City - A Gold Mining Town in the 1860s

There was lots of gold, and to get it every trick was used by the gamblers, the traders and the vile men and women who had come with the miners. Nearly every third but in the town was a saloon where vile whisky was sold for 50 cents a drink in gold dust. Many of these places were filled with gambling tables and gamblers, and the miner who dared to go in with his day's earnings in his pocket, seldom left with any money.

There were many hurdy-gurdy dance-houses, and plenty town beauties in there. There too, the successful miner, lured by pretty smiles, drunk, would empty his purse into the lap of a girl for half-an-hour in her arms.

Not a day or night passed which did not give fights, quarrels, wounds or murders. The crack of the revolver was often heard above the merry notes of the violin. Street fights were frequent, and every one was on his guard against a stray bullet.

NP Langford, Vigilante Days and Ways (1893)
hurdy-gurdy: hand-organ.

Source B

Dark Days in Bannack - A Gold Mining Town in Montana in 1862

These were dark days in Bannack; there was no safety for life or property, unless a person could protect it with his trusty rifle.

The honest citizens far outnumbered the desperadoes, but they did not know each other, and did not know who to trust.

On the other hand, the 'Roughs' were well organised and under the leadership of a bad man, Henry Plummer. At times it seemed as though they were running the town.

Granville Stuart, Forty Years on the Frontier (1902)
desperadoes: bandits.

Did You Know

When you use the word 'cowboy', you imagine handsome, hardy men driving huge herds of cattle north, singing soulfully around the camp-fire at night. This stereotype is a Hollywood invention.

In most of the Amercan West in the 1860s and '70s,'cowboy' was another word for 'outlaw'.

Consider:

1. Using source A, list four things that made places such as Virginia City dangerous and bad places.

2. Why weren't the honest citizens in Bannack (Source B) able to keep law and order?

Source C

Montana Vigilantes

There was so much lawlessness that five men in Virginia City and four in Bannack began the vigilante movement.

In a few short weeks people knew that the voice of justice had spoken. The vigilantes took the weapon from the murderer, told the thief to steal no more, and forced the ruffians who for so long had kept a 'reign of terror' to run away.

Justice and safety are the right of every American citizen. This must be kept by the law where possible. But where justice is blind and powerless, people have the right to protect themselves.

Professor TJ Dinsdale, The Vigilantes of Montana (1866)

Source D

Idaho Vigilantes

The general lawlessness resulted in the vigilante gangs; and everywhere they have brought trouble upon the community. The remedy for crime is worse than the crime.

The editor of the Idaho World newspaper (1865)

Consider:

1. How does Interpretation C differ from Interpretation D about the actions of the vigilantes?

2. Why might the authors of Interpretations C and D have a different interpretation about the actions of the vigilantes?

3. Which interpretation gives the more convincing opinion about the actions of the vigilantes? Explain your answer based on your contextual knowledge and what it says in Interpretations C and D.

Source E

A Sheriff's Problems

In spite of the stories, it was not a glamour job full of adventure and danger. The sheriff did all the police work, had charge of the jail, and served as traffic cop and dog catcher. Drunks, petty thieves, breaking city rules, stray dogs . . . took most of his time. His wage varied, but was never very high. Sometimes the police were given some of the fines they collected as part of their wages. Some towns even made them buy the uniform, and gave the sheriff only a star, club and whistle.

For this, the tax payers expected a superman, on the spot whenever there was trouble and on duty at all times. If the town did not pay enough for two shifts, there was no sheriff either during the day or at night-time.

The basic problem was money. The public were penny wise and pound foolish. Certain citizens were willing to ignore crime if they made a profit. Without public support, the sheriffs were powerless to stop the criminals.

Duane Smith, Rocky Mountain Mining Camps (1893)
penny wise and pound foolish: the people paid the sheriff as little as possible, even though this meant they lost lots of money in crime.

Source F

Henry Plummer

Henry Plummer, seemed 'a perfect gentleman' but was really a thief and killer. He was the chief of the 'Road Agents' gang, and told the honest sheriff of Virginia City that 'he would not live much longer' if he did not resign.

Plummer became sheriff at Virginia City. One of the deputies was an honest man. When he got to know what Plummer was up to, he was shot dead in public by three of the Road Agents gang.

There was no longer any law. Men dared not go outside after dark, nor risk their life by saying who had robbed or wounded them. Murder happened every day.

JW Chapman, Echoes from the Rocky Mountains (1889)

Consider:

Using source E, describe five reasons a sheriff's job was "not a glamour job of adventure and danger", and three reasons why sheriffs were not able to do their job properly.

Improvements after 1870 [Grows Up]

Towards the end of the century, there were improvements in law and order:

Government Involvement: the federal government set up judicial circuits, bringing courts to frontier areas. It also expanded the role of US Marshals to deal with interstate crimes and track down notorious outlaws (eg US Marshal Chris Madsen tracked down Rufus Buck and his gang 1895-6, who were robbing, killing and raping across both white and Indigenous communities in Oklahoma and Arkansas).
Railroads : employed private security forces such as the Pinkerton National Detective Agency to protect railroad property, capture train robbers and track down notorious criminals (eg the Pinkerton Agent Charlie Siringo pursued Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid).
Outlaw Pursuit: federal and local lawmen often worked together to pursue outlaws (eg the Dalton Gang was tracked by a combination of federal marshals and local sheriffs and deputies across Kansas and Oklahoma, culminating in the Coffeyville shootout in 1892).
World-famous Lawmen – such as Wild Bill Hickok in Abilene; Virgil & Wyatt Earp in Dodge City & Tombstone; and Pat Garrett (killed Billy the Kid) – became legends in their efforts to impose the law and may have had some deterrent effect, though it is arguable that they caused more trouble than they prevented.
State involvement: As territories became states, they set up courts, sheriffs, and police forces (eg Wyoming, which achieved statehood in 1890, set up courts which handled disputes between cattlemen and homesteaders after the Johnson County War, including the trial and hanging of Tom Horn in 1902).
US Army: although the Army's main role was to protect settlers from perceived Indigenous warrior threats, it also kept peace between rival civilian groups (eg they stepped in to end the siege of the KC Ranch in the Johnson County War.
Public hangings and shoot-outs: were symbolic acts of law enforcement, often without proper process, publicised to deter; the most famous, of course was the shootout at the OK Corral (1881).

Interpretations

In his book Law and Order in Buffalo Bill’s Country (2007), Mark Ellis, associate professor at the University of Nebraska, questions the popular stereotypical image of a ‘Wild West’, with its gunslinger lawmen and fights at the OK Corral. Focussing on the town of North Platte in Nebraska, he notes that there was a very brief nine months of ‘hell on wheels’ between October1866 and June 1867, when 3,000 railway construction workers resided in a town without sheriff, police, lawyers, jail or courts.

But, argues Ellis, this time rapidly gave way to law and order. In October 1867 the citizens of North Platte elected a sheriff – not a gunslinger but OO Austin, a respected engineer from the Union Pacific Railway. Facing his first murder in November 1868, Sheriff Austin arrested the culprit and made sure he got a proper trial in nearby Dodge City. In 1868, North Platte got its first lawyer – Beach Hinman – and by the mid-1870s had become a legal centre for the surrounding area, with ten or twelve lawyers in the town. In November 1868 a courtroom was created, in January 1869 they built a jail, and in 1881 a state reformatory for youths at nearby Kearney. After 1876 the town had a police force which kept order in the saloons of Front Street … for a brief period, 1879-80, the town even implemented a period of prohibition, until the businessmen of the town decided it was bad for business.

There was one instance of a vigilante killing in 1870, when a mob seized and lynched three armed robbers … but the next year, when a mob surrounded the jail again, with the sheriff away, his wife came out and remonstrated with them, and they departed.

North Platte, Ellis finds, was a law-abiding place. In the 42 years to 1910, court records reveal 506 felony cases, 146 violent crimes and 20 murders. There were thousands of misdemeanours tried in the local police court, but the reader is amazed at some of the offences. In 1900 three men were arrested for disrupting a Salvation Army service with “boisterous language”; during a strike in 1902, Archie Adamson was charged with malicious mischief for calling Jessie Harvey a “scab” (strike-breaker), pulling his pants down, exposing his backside and slapping his buttocks. Frank Crick was sent to Kearney at the age of 14 for being unkind to his parents and fighting with his younger brother; eight-year-old Charles Howard was put away for being disobedient and running away.

The settlers who came to the Plains, argues Ellis, came from communities where there was law and order, so they automatically set about implementing law and order as properly as they could. Even on the westward trails, pioneers would set up a kind of court when a crime had been committed in a wagon train. The San Francisco Committee of Vigilance which hanged Charles Cora and James Casey held an unofficial-but-formal trial before they did so. And as soon as possible, citizens set about creating a proper system of law and order in their communities – it was in their interests to do so, because shopkeepers, businesses, doctors, schoolteachers and the like were not going to settle in a town ruled by violence and the mob.

Thus – although there clearly were ‘enclaves’ of violent anarchy on the Plains, such as some of the mining and cow towns – they were short-lived and at the frontier; and ‘the wild west’ appears as a moment of lawlessness which moved west with the frontier.

AQA-style Questions

Edexcel-style Questions

OCR-style Questions