California Digital Newspaper Collection – Daily Alta California
Murder in San Francisco
WEDNESDAY MORNING, DEC. 19, 1849
The Recent Murder.
We cannot refrain from saying a few words with regard to recent sad occurrence at the Bella Union which resulted in the death of one of the parties concerned, and the utter ruin and disgrace of the other participator of the affair. — The deceased has been represented as a mild and inoffensive young man, and certainly, if we are to place any credence upon the testimony, could not be considered in the light of the aggressor. The other participant, Withers, appears to have acted from the first moment of the affair which terminated in so melancholy a manner with the most perfect recklessness, for which we can account in no other way than by the presumption that he was rendered an irrational being from the demon rum. We do not desire in the least to prejudge his case or to prejudice the community against him. We have given the main portions of the evidence as taken before the Alcalde and at the Coroner’s inquest, which “all who run may read” and from which they can form their opinion as to his guilt or innocence. But the public is not the tribunal before which he must be summoned to defend himself. An impartial jury of his peers and a court sworn to entertain no bias and to decide according to law and evidence, will determine upon his case, and before them his guilt must be established ere he can be pronounced a murderer. — He has fled, none no whither, but the officers of justice are on the scent, stimulated by the hope of reward, and he may perhaps yet be arrested. We deeply sympathise with the distress which the announcement of this dire catastrophe will bring to the hearts of friends and kindred at home— the relatives of both parties being of the highest respectability though in different walks of life. We cannot contemplate it without sorrow and anguish.
In a populous place like San Francisco and when: the inhabitants are of so mixed a character, from all quarters of the globe, it is a remarkable fact that there has been so small an amount of crime. We believe it to be unparalleled in the annals of any new country. No city in the United States can boast so clean a criminal calendar in the same space of time as can we in a country which has been stigmatized as destitute of “law or order.”
The mischief has arisen in the present instance from the pernicious habit, which has already obtained to an alarming extent, of carrying concealed weapons — knives and pistols. It is a practice which should never be tolerated in any community, and the instances where necessity demands it are few and far between— it pertains only to the bravo and the hired assassin, who thank heaven, find no haven under our skies. Society rebels at this pernicious custom and has united in an expression of abhorrence at the vile and cowardly practice. In the United States the laws are most rigorous in this respect and heavy fines are imposed upon those who carry concealed weapons. It is urged that in a new country it is necessary for the protection of the peaceable citizen from the coward and the bully but we deem the argument fallacious in the extreme.— The peaceable man never thrusts a Bowie knife in his girdle, or a revolver in his pocket — it is the coward and the bully mostly who does it, and who, for some fancied slight, whips out his instrument of death and is ready to use it upon the most trivial provocation. If it is contended that it is necessary to carry arms let them be worn openly and let every man go about “armed cap-a-pie,” but the necessity does not exist, and the man who would belt his pistol or knife about him would but excite the ridicule of his fellows We hope that before the evil which has already made itself manifest shall produce still more disastrous results, some measures may he taken to prevent this abhorred practice.
(Updated Nov. 27, 2022. Added full text from the article, added links, categories and tags. JS)