In the last week of August, the Executive Committee caused the fortifications in front of the Head Quarters to be razed to the ground, threw open the doors and invited public inspection of their rooms, and disbanded the whole force; retaining however, as they stated in their Address, the power to defend themselves if attacked; to enforce the penalty against any banished criminal who should return; and to preserve the public peace, if it should become necessary. A tap of the bell would in future, summon the members, if any emergency should require it.
On the following third of November, the State arms which had been sent by the Governor from Benicia to be used by the "law and order" party in suppressing the Vigilance Committee, but which had been intercepted in the passage down the river, were restored; and the Governor then withdrew his Proclamation declaring the County of San Francisco in a state of insurrection.
This great and hazardous experiment of Reforms thus brought to a conclusion nearly six months after its inception, was planned by some of the best men in the community....
Happily the right prevailed without civil war. The imminent danger of a collision between the Committee and the United States authorities which might have arrayed against them the whole military and naval force at that station was surmounted by the exercise of consummate prudence. The most deadly peril of all, the internal dissensions and excessive exasperation in the ranks of the Committee consequent on the dismissal of Judge Terry without punishment was, with prodigious effort, finally averted. And then the determined front of the People thoroughly roused in City and State to their support, awed and finally crushed the force of organized ruffianism which had so long held sway, and run riot with impunity....
The approval or condemnation of the extraordinary movement described in these pages will depend upon the answer given by every person thoughtfully considering the subject, to the question whether, under our peculiar institutions, when a community has lapsed into a condition in which the bad element has become dominant and has succeeded in paralyzing or perfecting law and justice so that brute force and violence have full sway, and life and property are entirely insecure, there is any other conceivable mode in which the well disposed, industrious and orderly classes can assert their rights and secure their liberties, than the one adopted by the San Francisco Vigilance Committee in 1856? No other was suggested at the time, nor, so far as the writer knows, has been since. It obtained and preserved throughout, the approval, countenance and support of a large majority of the citizens of San Francisco, and also of the people of the State of California, as was abundantly shown by the numerous and continual expressions of sympathy, and proffers of assistance when needed and at the shortest notice, which were received by the Executive Committee.