All the newspapers took ground in favor of the Vigilance Committee, except the Herald (John Nugent, editor), and nearly all the best people favored that means of redress.

I could see they were organizing, hiring rendezvous, collecting arms, etc., without concealment.

It was soon manifest that the companies of volunteers would go with the "committee," and that the public authorities could not rely on them for aid or defense.

Still, there were a good many citizens who contended that, if the civil authorities were properly sustained by the people at large, they could and would execute the law.

But the papers inflamed the public mind, and the controversy spread to the country.