hubert howe bancroft - Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History ...

242 THE JUDICIARY.
own expense to hold his evening sessions, as well as
stationery for the use of the court. In less than a
year the men nominated by the People's nominating
committee, and elected by the People's party, had
so changed the complexion of things, that there was
money in the treasury, and a new prosperity apparent
everywhere.
The consolidation act was exceedingly stringent.
Definite salaries were fixed, only a few officers elected
under the old county government being allowed to
retain their fees until the legislature could be brought
to eliminate them, after the law had been tested. No
more public money went into the keeping of the "political
bank in Kearney street." A police department
was created which became famous for its efficiency
and men, and women too, were safe to go everywhere
in the city by day or night. The consolidation act
had, however, to undergo the scrutiny- of the supreme
court, where it was sustained. But it often gave the
people a shock, as, for example, when it was decided
that the state debt was unconstitutional, and therefore
that the credit of the state was ruined; and that
when the people determined that the debt should not
be repudiated, the legislature acted unconstitutionally
in recognizing the indebtedness. The legislature was,
however, permitted to shift the responsibility upon
the electors, the adoption of such a debt by the state
not being provided for in the constitution. It would
be too much to expect, even in a supreme court, to be
always consistent.
In 1859 Hoffman of the United States district
court made a decision in regard to the banishment of
a certain obnoxious person by the vigilance committee
of 1856. This person, one Martin Gallagher, who
among his other accomplishments, encompassed that
of ballot-box stuffing, sued the captain of the Live
Yankee, on board which vessel he was placed by the
committee—an alternative to save him from hanging
—for damages, the case being decided in his favor by