In the meantime the representatives of the law had not been less alert.  The regular police force was largely increased.  The sheriff issued thousands of summonses calling upon citizens for service as deputies.  These summonses were made out in due form of law.  To refuse them meant to put oneself outside the law.  The ordinary citizen was somewhat puzzled by the situation.  A great many responded to the appeal from force of habit.  Once they accepted the oath these new deputies were confronted by the choice between perjury, and its consequences, or doing service.  On the other hand, the issue of the summonses forced many otherwise neutral men into the ranks of the Vigilantes.  If they refused to act when directly summoned by law, that very fact placed them on the wrong side of the law.  Therefore they felt that joining a party pledged to what practically amounted to civil war was only a short step further.  Against these the various military companies were mustered, reminded of their oath, called upon to fulfill their sworn duty, and sent to various strategic points about the jail and elsewhere.  The Governor was informally notified of a state of insurrection and was requested to send in the state militia.  By evening all the forces of organized society were under arms, and the result was a formidable, apparently impregnable force.

Nor was the widespread indignation against the shooting of James King of William entirely unalloyed by bitterness.  King had been a hard hitter, an honest man, a true crusader; but in the heat of battle he had not always had time to make distinctions.  Thus he had quite justly attacked the Times and other venal newspapers, but in so doing had, by too general statements, drawn the fire of every other journal in town.  He had attacked with entire reason a certain Catholic priest, a man the Church itself would probably soon have disciplined, but in so doing had managed to enrage all Roman Catholics.  In like manner his scorn of the so-called “chivalry” was certainly well justified, but his manner of expression offended even the best Southerners.  Most of us see no farther than the immediate logic of the situation.  Those perfectly worthy citizens were inclined to view the Vigilantes, not as a protest against intolerable conditions, but rather as personal champions of King.

In thus relying on the strength of their position the upholders of law realized that there might be fighting, and even severe fighting, but it must be remembered that the Law and Order party loved fighting.  It was part of their education and of their pleasure and code.  No wonder that they viewed with equanimity and perhaps with joy the beginning of the Vigilance movement of 1856.