Existing comment:
Vigilantes:
The polyglot hordes that overran the digs were a lot to try the patient of Job. Native Americans, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish Yankees, Chinese Taoists and Buddhists, Sikhs, Hindus, Moslems, and multi-ethnic Europeans, accustomed to esoteric laws and cultural mores, turned up on the turbulent frontier.
A logical cross-section of human beings from honest law abiding individuals, to the dregs of humanity added to the explosive mix of religions, cultures, and conditions.
With the inability of the emerging system of government to cope with the staggering problems of maintaining orders, righteous civil groups took control -- the Vigilantes. |