Archives for January 2013

Boutwell’s resolve to free Terry wavers

It is unknown whether Commander Boutwell received David Terry’s letter before he wrote his own to the Committee of Vigilance or if he received it and after reading it changed his mind about the wisdom of acting too fast thus allowing himself to be used to bring about a conflict. But no matter what happened, when he wrote to Governor Johnson the next day he assumed a different attitude, saying he was sorry to inform him that because of the unanimity with which the people of San Francisco … [Read more...]

Terry pleads with Boutwell

On the same Saturday, June 28th that Boutwell wrote to the vigilance committee, David Terry managed to have a letter smuggled out of Fort Gunnybags and delivered to Boutwell. In it Terry stated his case. He was an American citizen and a state Supreme Court justice who, on June 21st, had been seized with force and violence by an armed body of men styling themselves as the Committee of Vigilance and taken to their heavily protected and well-armed fort in San Francisco. Since then he had been … [Read more...]