Running an otherwise-anonymous editorial credited only with the name of Justice (an authorship later identified as the work of commission merchant R. S. Watson), the ALTA posed a series of "Propositions for the Public Safety" in the June 8, 1851 issue:
". . . we must be a law unto ourselves, and that there are enough good men and true who are ready to take hold . . . to establish a committee of safety . . . to appoint a committee of vigilance of twenty men, in each ward . . . to hunt out these hardened villains . . . ."
The proposal--that a self-selected few should unite in the private administration of justice--as juries, judges and executioners, outside the due process of law--was an extraordinary act which condoned in advance and rationalized the sort of mob-rule actions such as the lynching of Australian expatriate John Jenkins. Said the ALTA on June 10th, all of two days later:
"The trial and conviction of Jenkins was not the act of an inflamed and excited mob - his case was adjudged with calmness and deliberation, his guilt fully established, and the penalty of death imposed by a set of men respected and esteemed by their fellows . . . assuming a responsibility imposed on them by stern necessity, with a full perception of their accountability to their fellow men and their Maker. Who but He shall adjudge or condemn them? We dare not."
Not that Edward Gilbert's staff completely supported vigilantism without reservations; the February 23, 1851 issue had gravely warned that:
"Lynch law is a whirlwind which once set loose may sweep down all peaceable barriers before its angry blast . . . ."
Journalists themselves were not immune to the sort of intimidation, physical assault, and even assassination denounced in many an editorial in 1850s California. Edward Gilbert himself was killed in an August 1852 duel; he had dared to question (not without accuracy) the competence and integrity of Governor Bigler's administration.
Arson and carelessness continued to level and wreck the city again and again with flames, devastation, and conflagration. In the wake of the San Francisco fire of May 3-4, 1851, the ALTA survived as the only paper left standing and able to publish an edition the following day:
The entire run (1849-1891) of the DAILY ALTA CALIFORNIA is available for viewing on microfilm in the Fifth Floor Magazines and Newspapers Center of the Main Library. A bound collection comprising 1862-1891 can be found in the Sixth Floor San Francisco History Center. See also the California Digital Newspaper Collection for selected sample issues.
RAMPARTS was one of the most influential voices of the radical underground juxtaposed against an all-pervasive overground of mass market and establishment publications on the newstands of America from 1962-1975. From its beginnings in Menlo Park as a soul-searching Catholic literary quarterly as envisioned by publisher Edward Keating, this compelling title evolved into a forum for legendary muckraking and take-no-prisoners investigatory journalism and sweeping social commentary in the hands of San Francisco editors Warren Hinckle, Robert Scheer, David Horowitz, art director Dugald Stermer and the prolific contributions of many others. 
Ramparts helped bridge a growing credibility gap between mollifying democratic rhetoric and polarizing social issues, Cold War certitudes, and geopolitical realities. Pro-civil rights, anti-war, and champion promoters of good, old-fashioned American dissent, Ramparts stood alone against the journalistic mainstream with deep political analysis, subversive commentary, alternative opinions, and divergent viewpoints. Armed with both the courage of moral conscience and an unswerving social commitment to the exercise of free speech, Ramparts found
The complete collection of Ramparts magazine is available to readers and researchers at the Magazines and Newspapers Center on the fifth floor of the Main Branch of the San Francisco Public Library. For a special presentation on the life and times of this landmark San Francisco journal, you are invited to attend a live event with author Peter Richardson, A BOMB IN EVERY ISSUE: HOW RAMPARTS MAGAZINE CHANGED AMERICA. This library program will take place on Saturday, January 23rd at 11AM at the Main Library.
Join us for a hands-on demonstration session designed to introduce patrons to a valuable San Francisco Public Library resource - the cost-free digital scanning of photographs, negatives, slides and film! Together, we will scan, capture and edit images in the microfilm room on the fifth floor Magazines and Newspapers Center.
