Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1869-10-05
Mob Usurpation and Murder

We are compelled to chronicle so
many on trageous murders of recent
date, followed by the summary ven
geance Of Infatuated mobs whose con-
duct meets with the calm approval
of the press, that we cannot but fear
there is something fundamentally
rotten in our political, social and re-
ligious systems and ideas. The or
binary modes Of repression Of crime
by law are deemed effete and mad
equate, and are abandoned by COM
mon consent, and communities which
boast of their virtue and intelligence
approve Of mob ursurpation and MUIR
der Spain killed Britt, without
provocation, it is said, in Portage
City, and law abiding naen in that
city seized upon Spain instantly and
hung him upon the most convenient
tree. We don't know that Spain
could have shown, had he lived, any,
thing in extenuation Of his crime the
law abiding people of his own city
have hurried him into eternity, al
lowing him no time to tell his own
story or even to confess his guilt,
and tho editors of the public press
there have mingled their ink with
his blood, and say it was all right,
and oulogize the virtuous and holy
Indignation Of that sanity popula-
ton that will not suffer a scoundrel
or villain to breathe their double re-
fined atmosphere. But in our views
the crime of Spain is dwarfed into
insignlfcance compared with the
Aideous guilt of his extempore muir
der authorizing as IL does a contempt
for all law, advertising to the people
of Wisconsin and the nation that the
time has come for the dissolution Of
society into its original elements and
the formation of new system in
which the brutal and sanguinary ell
ements that compose mob shall
bear undisputed sway. Do the peo-
pie Of Portage City fatter themselves
that their gallows tree and rope will
frighten scoundrels and villains from
their alleys and streets and shops and
stores? We predict that that tree
will rain its bitter fruit of lawlessness
upon them for years to come, and its
branches will reach to other parts of
the State, inspiring contempt for law
and order, and inviting reckless and
unprincipled mon to usurp the Office
of furnishing and numbering, under
pretext of zeal for justice, whoever
may oppose their authority.
Will not the Portage Register fur
nish us with the names of the actual
hangmen in the cases of Spain and
Wildrick From what we have
learned of the reign of mobocratic
violence, if the whole community
approve of the act, class of buliies
and semibarbarous wretches acquire
pre-eminence and influence in society
that they could get in no other way.
We do not regard it as desirable to
put our lives and peace and property
in the keeping of such fellows. But
the approving press of Portage City
ought to give US the names of the !
actual hangmen and executioners |
that have made their city terror to |
to all classes of scoundrels, thieves
and villains. Other places may need |
their services, if there are towns and |
neighborheods in the State that be-
lieve law and order can be maintain
cd by licensing gang OF self consti-
tuted hangmen to police society and |
determine who ought to live and who |
ought to die. The papers in Portage |
City ask for no change in the law,
no restoration of capital punishment
nothing of the kind. They are
well satisfied with the security and
safety afforded by their very accom-
modating body guard of mobocrats,
and vainly imagine that contemners
of the law in the form of a murder
Gus mob will exterminate contemn-
ers of the law in the guise of thieves,
robbers and assassins. They believe
,hey have outwitted the devil, and
induced Satan to cast out Satan, and
hat the millennium has ushered It's
irst dawn in Portage City. Well,
We shall see.