The Six-Shooter State: Public and Private Violence in American Politics

291 Pages·2018·3.965 MB·English

by  Jonathan Obert

TheSix-ShooterState
Americanviolenceisschizophrenic.Ontheonehand,manyAmericans
support the creation of a powerful bureaucracy of coercion made up
of police and military forces that provide public security.At the same
time, many of those citizens also demand the private right to protect
their own families, homes, and property. This book diagnoses this
schizophreniaasaproductofadistinctiveinstitutionalhistoryinwhich
private forms of violence – vigilantes, private detectives, mercenary
gunfighters – emerged in concert with the creation of new public and
state forms of violence, such as police departments or the National
Guard.ThisdualpublicandprivatefaceofAmericanviolenceresulted
from the upending of a tradition of republican governance, in which
public security had been indistinguishable from private effort, by the
nineteenth-century social transformations of the Civil War and the
MarketRevolution.
jonathan obert is Assistant Professor of Political Science at
Amherst College, where he has taught since 2014. He has published
articlesonviolence,organizationalchange,andstateformationinthe
UnitedStatesatLaw&SocialInquiry,PerspectivesonPolitics,Studies
inAmericanPoliticalDevelopment,andtheJournalofPolicyHistory,
amongothers.

The Six-Shooter State
The Dual Face of Public and Private Violence
in American Politics
JONATHAN OBERT
AmherstCollege
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names:Obert,Jonathan,author.
title:Thesix-shooterstate:thedualfaceofpublicandprivateviolence
inAmericanpolitics/JonathanObert.
description:Cambridge,UnitedKingdom;NewYork,NY:
CambridgeUniversityPress,2018.|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
identifiers:lccn2018017124|isbn9781316515143(hardback)|
isbn9781108454148(paperback)
subjects:lcsh:Violence–Politicalaspects–UnitedStates.|
Vigilantes–UnitedStates.|Police–UnitedStates.|Firearmsownership–UnitedStates.
classification:lcchv6432.o242018|ddc303.60973–dc23
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And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that
make peace.
− James 3:18

Contents
ListofFigures pageix
ListofTables xi
Acknowledgments xiii
ListofAbbreviations xvii
1 Introduction 1
2 JurisdictionalDecouplingasInstitutionalChange 23
3 Bandits,Elites,andVigilantesinAntebellumIllinois 63
4 PinkertonsandPoliceinAntebellumChicago 99
5 RacistVigilantismasReforminReconstructionLouisiana 138
6 TheViolentCareersofAmericanGunfighters 197
7 Conclusion 238
Index 261
vii

Figures
1 Jurisdictionalcoupling page34
2 Enclosedauthorityandjurisdictionalcoupling 70
3 NorthernIllinois 74
4 Membership in claims associations and vigilante organizations
(1835–1845) 90
5 Mayoralco-affiliations(1835–1868) 110
6 Delegativeauthorityandjurisdictionalcoupling 112
7 Delegativecapacityinselectneighborhoods(1855–1856) 119
8 TrendsinprivatesecurityemploymentinChicago(1851–1870) 130
9 Selected career trajectories of Chicago violence experts
(1850–1870) 135
10 Representativeauthorityandjurisdictionalcoupling 144
11 WhiteLeaguepresenceandpoliticalintimidation(1874) 183
12 Imperialauthorityandjurisdictionalcoupling 204
13 Gunfightingparticipants(1850–1930) 226
14 Professionalgunfightercareertypes(1850–1930) 230
15 Flowofgunfightersbetweenlocales(1850–1930) 232
16 USmilitarybattlecampaignsagainstIndiangroups(1866–1891) 233
17 Gunfightersocialnetwork(1850–1930) 235
18 Ratioofwatchmentopoliceinselectcities(1865–1900) 246
ix