Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2001 21:11:46 -0400
From: bobhunt@erols.com
Subject: [lpaz-repost] OT history?  (fwd) Re: [American_Liberty] Wild West anarchy?
To: Individual-Sovereignty@egroups.com, lpaz-repost@yahoogroups.com


On Sun, 19 Aug 2001 12:46:56 -0700, "David T. Hardy" <dthardy@mindspring.com>
wrote:

>Half-formed thought/question:

>

>How were the sherrifs in early western towns paid? Were the residents

>taxed or did they (some of them) contribute voluntarily? Is there any

>way that they could be conidered a forerunner of a defense agency?


I *think* they were taxed. Not sure of how that was worked out. In 
event of a manpower need, the sheriff of course raised a posse from 
the civilians. And on occasion, they simply formed one themselves. 
There are tales of such groups setting out in pursuit of a robber, 
and returning to report that he had gotten away.... only it was 
interesting that the posse members had his watch, ring, etc. A rough 
justice had been meted out somewhere.

Closest forerunners might be the cattle barons, such as Peter Kitchen 
and Texas John Slaughter, who owned huge spreads, hired cowhands to 
defend them (among other duties) and were essentially a law unto 
themselves. Texas John kept his own cemetery of men he'd killed or 
executed after capture, while defending his holdings. Kitchen was 
essentially exempt from the Apache Wars because he'd saved an Apache 
who was a relative of Cochise, from being tortured and murdered... so 
Apaches essentially made a separate pece with him and his men and 
lands. Tombstone brought in Slaughter to clean the place up, which he 
did without burdening the courts. If he told a man to get out, and 
the man didn't, the man was apt to be shot in the back from ambush. 
Inside of a few months, Tombstone was very peaceful and Slaughter 
went back to his ranch. Then there was King Woolsey, who from his 
ranch led private forays against the Apaches, years before the 
cavalry moved in to do the same. He could get pretty rough... the 
Apaches never forgot the time he invited them to a big celebration, 
and had a cannon concealed nearby which ended the festivities.

In event of conflict, you had a range war. The Tewksburys and Grahams 
slugged it out in the Pleasant Valley War... and then there was a 
third party, never really identified, which went around killing BOTH 
Tewksburys and Grahams. You stayed out of Pleasant Valley unless you 
had to go.... since if any faction encountered you and didn't know 
you, they were apt to kill you on the theory that any unknown must be 
working for the other side.

My great grandfather, Charles W. Hardy, may have played a role (prob. 
with Tewksbury) although there's no proving it. Except that he was JP 
of Cave Creek, left no records at all for the state archives, and 
years later filled a doctor with tales of how the law was being 
enforced back then... lethally. Oh, and his name wasn't Judge Charles 
W. Hardy. He was actually an outlaw named Nat Hickman, who'd fled the 
law in Colorado.

On the side, you did have, er, certain nongovernmentl collective 
efforts at settling disputes. Western lynch mobs tended to be 
organized by the pillars of the community, and were called into being 
when it was seen that the existing governmental structure was 
inadequate. A gang was simply too powerful to be dealt with by the 
law, or had bought off the judge. Then one night they died. Or a 
leader died, and the rest received notes stating that unless they 
left within X days it would be necessary to kill them, too. The 
latter approach was considered more polite.

I'm sure there was a LOT of nongovernmental law enforcement. Some 
counties in Arizona are about as large as Connecticut, and had one 
sheriff and maybe a few deputies... large parts of them were days or 
weeks of riding away from the nearest law enforcement official. 
(Kitchen was famous for having had a down on the luck cowhand stick 
him up. Kitchen got the drop on his robber and announced, "now it's 
your turn. YOU empty your pockets." The guy had a few cents. Kitchen 
pulled out a fistful of silver... probably a month's pay for cowhand, 
threw it to the robber with "You need it more than I do," and rode on.

>--

>Our doctrine is based on private property. Communism is based on

>systematic plunder, since it consists in handing over to one man,

>without compensation, the labor of another. If it distributed to

>each one according to his labor, it would, in fact, recognize

>private property and would no longer be communism.

>       -- Frdric Bastiat (1801-1850)

>     Rick Pasotto    rickp@telocity.com    http://www.niof.net

>

>"Evolution beyond the moral and intellectual fraud of politics."

>

>You *will* read the entire website *before* contributing!

>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/American_Liberty/files/al.htm

>To post, email American_Liberty@yahoogroups.com or visit site.

>

>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/


-- 


"Evolution beyond the moral and intellectual fraud of politics."

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