Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian., 1859-01-01

A0Aoenoft M0r0ere0 BY mObAssH0kAs
Day Amusements In Le sueur County!
In another column we present with feelings
If pain, humiliation and indignation, all COM
oined, an account from an Extra of the St:
Peter Statesman, Of the foul and most brutal
murder committed by mob in LIE Sueur
county, upon the body of J. c. RHlNEHARr,
by ta0ics hanging him up to tree! t4
The desperadoes who murdered him are al
legged by the writer of this letter to the Saint
Peter Statesman, to be mostly from Rice
county; but we doubt not this is only
= pretext to remove the onus of the
bloody. deed off the people of LIE Sueur coun-
off those Immediately participating
in the deed, as well as off those who, pretend
ing to decency, countenanced and urged on
the fellows of baser sort the unmitiga-
ted total depravity" of the vicinage-to ex-
ecute this, their rsusnge, upon helpless pris-
oner.
We rejoice that there does not appear to
have been any such mockery of a trial, as on
his first arrival there, was said to have taken
place prior to his reported lynching at that
time. We are glad that no humbug "color
of law" and fairness, was resorted to on this
murderous occasion.
The act stands out, therefore, in the bolder
relief, without any such miserable palliation
for feeble minds to rest upon while they are
family justiying the atrocity.
Had mob, when he first arrived in LIE Seu-
er county-under the immediate excitement
of the moment-then hung him up, some lit
tie excuse could have been offered for the
bloody deed. But even thep 1t would have
been an outrage of the FIRST magnitude
The people of LIE Seuer county originally invok-
ed the far reaching arm of the law to pursue
supposed murderer-that arm, at their in
stance, seized hold of him, bringing him
through several communities in public man.
ner, in the custody of their own Sheriff: The
people Of LIE Seuer county in this manner
entered into solemn bonds as it were to
those several law abiding communities, that
the law in LIE Seuer county, and that the peo.
pie of LIE Seuer county, aoould protect him
until he was adjudged through all the sacred
forms of legitimate law to have forfeited his
citizenship and his life, and that after fair
trial by jury of his country. This was the
pledge the people of LIE seuer gave the world
gave to us of ST. Paul-when we allowed hel
officer to take him through our city under the
muzzle of his revolver. What have they
done-how have they redeemed their pledge
Their obligations to the laws, TO other com
munities, to the reputation of the State and
her people, have all been recklessly tramplet
under foot, in their eagerness and blood-thrst
mess, simply and solely for recenge.
We confess to have had our suspicious O.
what was intended, when we heard that {
temporary Jail was erected to confnc hin
amidst themselves for trial, instead of follow
ing the example of other counties in regard t.
their criminals, and sending him to Stillwatc,
or to some secure Jail elsewhere to be held il
safe custody until his time for trial came.
But they never intended to try him. 1t i.
scarcely to be doubted that the design of thes,
lynchers, or those who instigated them, wa.
deliberately formed to commit this bruta
homicide, two or three months ago! 1t was
probably deemed best by them to reserve til,
turury of deliberate, revengefu. murder unit
the holidays. This is killing time for animals
why not for human beings! 1t was Christ
mas and New Years .trozic for the people o
lie Sueur county The times are dull-peact
reigns and the Legislature even is not in ses
sion-the border community up there requir
ed amusement and erc:tement! So they
saved up" human being, as the Cannibal.
of the South Sea Islands save up a captive, t.
have "good time" between the Birth o
Christ and the Death of Time, in feeding or
his blood
We hear privately that the mob was largely
composed Of Irish. No doubt-no doubt I,
is characteristic. This pure and peaceable
and law-abiding race, who never murder
among themselves, must doubtless have beer
shocked at q supposed murderer being suffer
ed to live long enough to have legal trial
But this does not relieve the people of LIE
Sueur county from he onus and burden o.
this deed. They permitted it-they counter.
anced it-they doubtless urged it on!
There was no positive evidence to convict
RHINEHART. 1t was circumstantial entirely
Yet the feeling existing against him in the
vicinage, his trial would have certainly end.
ed in verdict Of "guilty." There was nc
chance for his escape. The law was sure to
punish him. How much more noble; how
much more terrible; how much more in &C.
people; to have let the sure vengeance and
majesty of the law been executed on the Grim
inal, instead of allowing free scope to the ma.
licious, murderous, revengc(ul, blood thirst.
ness of an Irish mob-Irish chiefly: Ameri-
cans, however, standing by and using these
brutal tools to do what their own hands shrunk
from. If the Irish were the more brutal, they
were also the braver of the two classes.
AS We have said, the evidence against
RHrNEHART was entirely circumstantial: much
of it was vague and contradictory. He may
have been guilty-but, o he may have been
innocent too. Men with stronger circum-
stances against them, have been condemned
and executed, and their innocence afterwards
discovered! The real murderer of BoDELL
may yet be at large, unsuspected!
And under this view of the case, what
terms can picture the crime of those men who
composed the mob that murdered RHINEuARr:
what terms strong black, damning enough for
thus hurrying into eternity in a most hrnta al