Frontier vigilance committees lynched hundreds to restore order before federal law arrived

Evidence

But in the West, when things reach their worst, a sharp and sure remedy is provided. Those settlers who find the state of matters intolerable, organize themselves into a Vigilance Committee. ”Judge Lynch,” with a few feet of rope, appears on the scene, the majority crystallizes round the supporters of order, warnings are issued to obnoxious people, simply bearing a scrawl of a tree with a man dangling from it, with such words as ”Clear out of this by 6 a.m., or ---.” A number of the worst desperadoes are tried by a yet more summary process than a drumhead court-martial, “strung up,” and buried ignominiously. I have been told that 120 ruffians were disposed of in this way here in a single fortnight. Cheyenne is now as safe as Hilo, and the interval between the most desperate lawlessness and the time when United States law, with its corruption and feebleness, comes upon the scene is one of comparative security and good order. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 44

Categorization

• SEED: The claim that 120 men were lynched in one fortnight in Cheyenne, and that the author frames this as ‘comparative security,’ is a vivid vignette for any piece on frontier extralegal justice and the gendered spectacle of Judge Lynch.
• CANDY: ‘120 ruffians disposed of in a single fortnight’ and the tree-dangling warning note are darkly memorable, tweetable frontier details.