The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-11-04
Mob Law in the South.


One of the evils resulting from the intro
duction Of the race question into politics, In
those of the reconstructed States which have
majority of colored voters, is the impossi-
bility of obtaining justice in the courts where
an offender against the law is negro and his
accuser a white man. In Mississippi, where
the most abandoned characters have been
placed in official positions giving them power
to control the action of grand Jurles, and
in many parts of Louisiana, it is an utterly
hol eless undertaking to secure the punish
ment of any negro, except in very rare cases,
who has been guilty of crime against white
citizen. The prejudice against color Is very
powerful with the average negro juror.
II ia a natural consequence of such state
of affairs that citizens who have been robDed,
or who find that they have murderers among
them. knowing that they can obtain no re-
dress or protection from the courts, should
sometimes take the law into their own hands.
Such proceedings are to be condemned, Tor
lynchers are not discriminating in regard to
evidence, and there is always danger that In
nocent men may fall victims to the unreason-
ing fury OF an excited mob. And yet, when
the provocations are considered, 1T Will seem
rather remarkable than otherwise to those who
are familiar with the present condition of the
Africanized States that so few cases OF mob
law occur in communities which are systemat-
ically robbed by midnight pilferers, and IN
which the discovery of plots to murder and
burn are not Of unfrequent occurrence.
The recent tragedy in Clinton, Louisiana,
was a direct result of a state of things fer
which the present rulers of that State are
chiefly responsible La the parish or country
in which the outrage occurred, the white
citizens who pay the taxes have been com
pletely at the mercy Of the negroes, who
LII al M
The taxation there is 300 and 400 per
cent greater than before the war
the jures are usually composed of the
most ignorant plantation negroes and
their hatred of the whites is so great that
the latter have no possible chance of obtain
ing Justice in the courts There was re-
Gently riotous rising of the negroes in
that parish, and it was ascertained that John
Gair, noted colored politician OF the worst
reputation, was the instigator of it. Then he
induced his sister-in-law, woman named
Matthews, to attempt the murder OF DR.. j.
M. Saunders, prominent citizen. She
poisoned him by giving him arsenic in drink
of water but the dose failed to kill; the
woman was arrested, confessed her crime, and
declared that she was instigated to the act by
Gair. The later fled, but was arrested in
Baton Rouge. While on his way to Clinton
under guard he was shot by armed men in
disguise, and the woman was hanged by the
same mob.
Now, everybody must condemn such law
less act as this, though it is evident that those
who took part in the lynching had good
reason to believe that any attempt to ade-
quately punish the offenders by legal means
would result in failure But before con-
demning the whole white population of Lou
isans for an exhibition of mob violence in
which but few men took part, it will be well
to remember that similar exhibitions are not
unknown in States where the courts of justice
are in satisfactory operation.
II was only the oher day that two brothers,
Amos and Isaac Courtwright, who were ac-
cused OF having killed sheriff in Portage
county, Wisconsin, were taken from the jail
and lynehed, while but few weeks before
q mob said to have been composed OF the
most substantial citizans of Belletontaine
Ohio, hanged a man named Schell on sus-
picion of having committed murder,
though subsequent developments show
that he was probably innocent of the
crime. Even in staid, puritanical, New
Hampshire, it was with great difficulty
that the leading citizsns of Pembroke were
restrained lately from killing an innocent man
against whom they had no evidence, because
they chose to accuse him of revolving muir
der And, to come nearer home, the brutal
murder and mutilation of the late Charles G.
Kelsey at Huntington, Long Island, with pre-
limnary barbarities IN (which prominent
church members assisted as spectators, if not
in more active way, will be fresh in the re-
collection of every reader
The crew of carpet-baggers and adventu-
rers who through the illegal interference OF
President Grant, have control of the State
Government of Louisiana, are endeavoring to
make political capital out of an outrage which
is the legitimate result OF misgovernment and
judicial corruption; and they would have
the North believe that isolated cases like that
OF Gairs lynching afford proof that the South
ern people are ripe foc new rebellion, and
are already engaged in war of determination
against the freedmen. The truth is that very
few, if any, Northern communities would
have submitted to the oppression OF thieves
and ruffians with half the patience that the
people of Mississippi and Louisiana have
shown.-Nelu York Sun, oct. 80.