The Kansas herald of freedom., 1859-10-01
The Befais Of Erseson.
LAWRENCE, K. T.
Saturday Morning, Oct. 1. 1889.
III. Le,,,r-wrt,.r. on lawrence

4uo Aeu0I-WIlteIb on 4dWIouCo.
Baltimore has earned such an unen-
viable notoriety for her rowdyism, that
business men shun it as center of trade,
and her wholesale merchants complain
grievously of the change. Lawrence has
been in the way of earning a reputation
which will neither add wealth or honor
Its tendency must be to divert all law
abiding emigrants to other parts of Kan
sas, if not to other Territories. To say
nothing of the violation of law in the
cases Of Whitley and Huzzy, who were
driven from Lawrence by abolitionists, the
recent proceedings of the Vigilance Com
mittee cast dark shade over the moral
tone of the community. A Lawrence
correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette,
under date of June Sd, states:
"a few days since, the body Of man
was found floating in the river about ten
miles below this city. 1t was taken out
and identified as the corpse of one Murray.
From his neck a new rope hung, furnish
ing unmistakable evidence that the said
Murray had been hanged until dead, and
his body thrown into the waters of the
Kaw. He has been suspected for long
time of being connected with gang OF
horse thieves. He came into town a
few days since, and suddenly disappear
ed. 1t is suspected that during the night
he was taken into the timber by gang OF
men and murdered. The affair passed
off without exciting any attention or COM
ment"
He was suspected, arrested, hung till he
confessed, and implicated others, and the
RESULT is told by letter-writers. The writer
adds that others implicated, shave since
mysteriously disappeared-some say that
thoy havo boon rnu-dored, ~hilo othore
assert with considerable assurance, oh
they have only been hung up little, and
sent out of Kansas'-whether by river or
not, is not yet known" And that "'Hang
him up without judge or jury is frequent
ly heard in our streets, which is generally
applauded, and rarely if ever protested
against"
Jacques" who writes for the N. Y
Times, states the same case, with as much
sang fold as though hanging men was 9
midnight pastime in Kansas. Instead ol
pleading this lawlessness as an excuse fol
State government, it would be far better
to enforce whatever of statutory law there
is, and protect the legal rights of every
man, though he be the vilest criminal thai
ever went unwhipt of justice. Nothing
is more notoriously unsafe than mob law
nor more unreliable than the mob-spirit
The very men who to-day may extort by
the halter confession of guilt, and hang
the victim till dead, may tomorrow visi
vengeance on moral men who attempt tc
stem the tide of the liquor-trafic. 1t is
the rod of terror, in many localities, which
is held over the heads of men who wish
to enforce the laws for the regulation Of
suppression of liquor-selling
Criminal Jurisprudence presupposes the
innocence of the accused until proven
guilty, and even requires doubt as to the
guilt of the prisoner to be construed III
his favor. Lynch law metes out its judg-
ment, on suspicion, ex-parte testimony, OIL
forced confession. 1t has nothing to COM
mend it, while the reasons for its disap,
proval are many and valid.
The pleas set up that the laws cannot be
enforced, that lynch law is as necessary
here as in California, when gamblers and
thieves ruled San Francisco, are inappli-
cable. The laws can be enforced here as
well as elsewhere if the people are de-
termined to enforce them. Government
here has not relapsed into the hands OF
desperadoes similar to those who cursed
California, hence the precedent sought to
be borrowed from the shores of the Pacific
docs not apply.
If Kansas is to retain fame for any
thing noble and just, her citizens should
disown lynch law, be law-abiding, and
prove by their acts that the problem of
Territorial self-government without the
intervention of Congress, has been salts
factorily solved in this Territory.