The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1875-10-30

Mob Law in the south.
One OF the evils resulting from the in
PRODUCTION Of the race question into poll
tics, in those OF the reconstructed states
which have u majority of colored voters,
is the impossibility of obtaining u'tice in
the courts where au offender against the
law is negro and his accuser II white man.
III Mississippi whore the most abandoned
characters have been placed in official
positions giving them power To control
the action OF grand juries aud III many
parts of Louisiana. II is an utterly hopeless
undertaking TO secure the punishment of
any negro, except in very rare eases, who
has been guilty of crime against white
citizen. Tho prejudice against color is very
powerful with the average negro juror.
1t il IA natural consequence Of such state
Of affairs that citizens who have been
robbed, or who find that they have muir
derers among them, knowing that they
eau obtain no redress or protection from
the courts, should sometimes take the law
into their own hands. such proceedings are
to be condemned. for lynchers are not dis
eliminating IN regard to evidence. and
there is always danger that innocent men
may fail victims to the unreasoning fury Of
an excited mob. Aud yet, when the provo
cations a considered, IL " I! seem rather
remarkable than otherwise to those who
are familiar with the present condition of
the Afrlcanized States, that so few cases Of
mob law occur In communities which are
Systematically robbed by midnight pill
ferers, and III which the discovery of plots
to murder and burh are not of unfrequpnt
occurrence.
The recent tragedy in Clinton, Louisiana,
was Il direct result of state of things for
which the present rulers of that State are
chiefly responsible. In the parish or county
in which the outrage occurred. the white
citizens who pay the taxes have been com-
pletely at the mercy of the negroes, who
hold all the most important local offices.
The taxation there is 300 aud 400 per
cent. greater than before the war;
the jurics 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 OBJ
tanning justice in the courts. There was
recently riOtous rising of the negroes in
that parish, and it was ascertaned that
JoHN GAM, noted colored politician of
the worst reputation, was the instga or Of
1t. Then he induced his sister-in-law, IA
woman named MATHEWS, to attempt the
murder of Dir. j. NJ. SAUNDERS, IA promi-
nent citizen. she poisoned him by giving
him arsenic in drink of water, but the
dose failed to kill; the woman was arrest
ed, confessed her crime, and declared that
She was in-tigated 10 the act by GAR. The
l..st. "a
Rouge. While on his way 70 Clinton I'M
der guard he was shot by armed men In
disguise, ana tho woman was hanged by
the same mob.
Now, everybody must condemn such
llwlcss act rs this, though il is evident
that those who took part in the lynching
had good reason to believe that any at
tempt TO adequately punish the offenders
bv legal means would result IN failure But
before condemnng the whole white popu-
lation of Louisiana for an exhibition of mob
violence IN which but a few men took part,
1t Will be well to remember that similar
exhibitions are not unknown in States
whore the courts of justice are in satsfac-
DRY operation. II was only the other day
that two brothers, AMOS and ISAAC COURT
MHlbtI, WuO NtIt uttuHtu OF HuNlnR
killed a sheriff in Portage county, WIS
consn, were takon from the Jail and
| lynched; while but few weeks before a
mob said to have been composed of the
most substantial citizens of BellefOntaiue,
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 citizens of Pembroke
were restrained lately from killing an in
nocent man against whom they had no
evidence, because they chose to accuse
him Of n revolving murder. And, to come
nearer home, the brutal murder ana mutt
latiOn of the late CHARLES G.. X ELsEY at
Huntington, Long Island, with preliminary
barbarilies 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 adven-
turers who, through the illegal Interference
Of President GRANE have control of the
state Government Of Louisiana, are en-
dcavoring to make political capital out of
an outrage which is the legitimate result of
misgovelument ana judicial corruption;
aud they would have the North believe that
Isolated cases like that of GAIRs lynching
afford proof that the Southern people
are rpo for IA new rebellion, and arc al
ready engaged IN II war of determination
against the freedmen. The truth is that
| very few, II any, Northern communities
| would have submitted 70 the oppression OF