Talk:Johnson County War
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Not quite finished yet. Anyone is welcome to finish, but take care you use historical material not the latest movie which showed on the Hallmark channel and is not that historically accurate. User:Fredbauder Aug 25, 2002
- I added a "POV" box to the page. Although most of it seems to be a straightforward historical narrative, the last few paragraphs are not a balanced presentation of facts. Also, I found the concluding section confusing; why did Harrison intervene? Who was supporting the "invaders" and who was supporting the "rustlers"? Why did Wyoming "go Democratic" after this incident? It would be great if someone who understands the situation better than I do could clean up the article. RussBlau 13:17, Apr 27, 2005 (UTC)
- The answers are in the article: because the Governor asked for it, and because justice was not served. I've visited the museum in Kaycee, Wyoming and that's pretty much what they said, so I'm removing the banner. Gazpacho 06:32, 17 May 2005 (UTC)
- Well, maybe it's just me, but I'm not getting it. Sometimes when you know a lot about a subject it is hard to explain it to people who don't have the same base of knowledge. I don't doubt that what you've got is accurate, it just is hard to follow how the different sides of the conflict shook out. RussBlau 23:33, May 17, 2005 (UTC)
- Consider that law enforcement in a frontier area like Johnson County was limited, so both the settlers and the proprietors had a lot of flexibility on what they could get away with. The settlers got away with rebranding the proprietors' cattle, and the proprietors got away with making themselves judge and executioner on accusations of rustling. The cause of the war was that the settlers and proprietors had developed opposing views of the law and nobody tried to reconcile them.
Hernando de Soto (economist) has written a lot about how property rights develop when the state isn't involved, including squatter's rights and private enforcement associations, and the JC War saw both of those at play. You can read an interview with him here and another one here Gazpacho 07:54, 18 May 2005 (UTC)
- Consider that law enforcement in a frontier area like Johnson County was limited, so both the settlers and the proprietors had a lot of flexibility on what they could get away with. The settlers got away with rebranding the proprietors' cattle, and the proprietors got away with making themselves judge and executioner on accusations of rustling. The cause of the war was that the settlers and proprietors had developed opposing views of the law and nobody tried to reconcile them.
[edit] Political stuff
Does anyone have any source to back up the statement that the state went Democratic, and for how long? Pfeifer talks about the Republican local government being in the pockets of the big ranchers for a long time after 1892, so did the Democrats only come to power at the state level??--Bcrowell 3 July 2005 01:16 (UTC)
[edit] The Banditti of the Plains
I've edited this section to make it clear that it's a nonfiction book, written by an eyewitness. I've deleted the claim that it helped to make the war famous, since it seems to be logically inconsistent with the fact that the book was suppressed. I've changed the word "censored" to "suppressed," since that's how it's depicted at [1]. AFAIK, only pornography has ever really been censored by government in the U.S., not political tracts; I assume that the book was suppressed via economic means or the threat of a civil suit or something?? More clarification of how it was suppressed would be helpful.--Bcrowell 14:06, 6 August 2005 (UTC)
