New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-10-24
Judge Lynch's Prejudice.

IL
In Louisiana, the other day, there was
case of lynch law which was somewhat Pc
cullar. woman in the family of one Mr..
Saunders administered to him solution of
arsenic in a cup of water, with the intention
OF poisoning him. Saunders did not die, but
public indignation against the woman at
once ran very high. She was arrested and
confessed her guilt. In her confession she
implicated her brother,in-law, one John
CAR. He also was arrested. While the
deputy sheriff and his company were taking
this prisoner to. Clinton tor Judgment in the
jail, mob of persons, seventy in number,
met the party, took Gair from the languid
hands of the officers of the law, and shot
him on the road. Meantime, another mob,
or detachment of the first, went to the
Clinton Jail, which seems to have been in
securely guarded on this occasion, and took
therefrom the imprisoned woman, and
hanged her to a tree in the courthouse in
closure. What the poisoned man thought
of this performance we are not told Pro
baby he enjoyed it very much. The in
habitants did; and they felt SO much re-
lieved when these two people were killed
| tor presumed attempt at murder that
| they telegraphed to New Orleans, "All is
| quiet" They went to bed satisfied that
| they might sleep in peace, since they had
| lnterfered to accelerate the ordinary course
| OF justice by putting to death two people
accused of design to commit murder.
We are under the impression that local
courts in Louisiana must be very lax in
| their administration OF justice. 1t it were
not so, we must presume the people would
not be compelled to get up at night and
hang suspected persons who were in Jail, or
under arrest on the charge Of attempted
murder. Possibly such is the popular hor-
ror of the.particular crime charged against
| Gair and his sister-in-law that the inhabi-
| tants considered that they ought to be
| hanged at once, on suspicion, lest tho slow
| process of law might result in merely send
| ing them to prison for life, or in hanging
| them after long, exasperating, and I'M
profitable delay. Nevertheless, in the alb
sence of any explanation of the circum-
stances which led to this summary execu
tion of lynch Law, we should belpuzzled to
account for such an apparent violation of
| the comm on law, if we did not notice that
one of the dispatches relating the affair
refers to Gair and his sister in. law as
negroes. Suddenly, as by flash of dark.
ness, we have clue to the whole proceed.
| ing. The common law is made for white
men. Lynch law is good enough for colored
| folk.
| 1t is too late in the history of Anglo Saxon
| civilization to say a word against the crime
of abandoning justice in favor of lynch
law. Occasionally lynch law strikes the
right man at the right time and in the right
way. Often the wrong man is executed,
| and usually the community in which Judge
| Lynch rules ia sure to set low value on
human life. Rights which we habitually
| consider inaliensble are insecure in place
| where man may be hanged without benefit
| OF Judge or jury, on suspicion. No man is
safe where the multitude constitutes Itself
| Judge, jury and executioner, and finishes
| It's work between sunset and midnight.
| These facts are recognized in nearly all
| portions of the country, and accused men
are usually allowed a fair trial before being
hanged. But in come parts of the re-.
| public, we regret to say, Judge Lynch has
| a violent prejudice against the cOlored
| race. In those sections, at Least, the
negro has not secured the civil right of
| Jury trial when under an accusation of
felonious assault. The story of the at
tempted poisoning OF Saunders and the
summary execution of Gair and his sister
in-law is inexplicable until we Light on the
incidental statement that the accused per
sons were negroes. Put the fact that these
alleged criminals we're colored into the open
| ing sentence of the statement, and all the
rest becomes plain. Why human life ehould
be SO insecure in the Baton Rouge region
that two suspected persons should be taken
out of the hands OF the officers of the law,
and hanged or shot, does not Immediately
appear. When we are told that these per
sons accused of an attempt at murder were
| negroes, we understand at once why their
punishment was SO irregular. just about
| Baton Rouge, for example, the white pt ople
may be supposed to be living on The ragged
edge" of apprehension. Nothing keeps down
boiling volcano of ne gro violence but the
instant execution of colOred people charged
with crime. There is really no other way
of accounting for this abnormal condition
of affairs. For even the people OF Baton
Rouge and vicinity will agree that this is
an abnormal and unnatural condition of
things In civilized communities, except in
extraordinary emergencies, accused persons
are considered entitled to trial.
After all that has been said and done
about giving civil rights to the negro it is
clear that he has not every where that one
right which the white man is bound to re-
spect-that of being duly tried before being
hanged. 1t is idle for any community to
claim that it is law abiding, peaceable aud
neigh b0rly, if it countenances lynch law.
| With the majority of mankind il makes no
difference whether the culprit hanged by
lynch law is innocent or guilty, nor does it
matter whether he is white or black. No
State, no county, no town can afford to ad-
vertise itself as maintaining a court supe-
rior to the courts of law. If there ever was
| time when mob law was justitiable in any
portion of this republic, that time has
passed. If a colored man has any rights
whatever, he has right to live until he
has been legally tried convicted and sen
fenced to death.-Neto YORK Times.