The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1877-06-23
The RMtland gaily Globs
SATURDAY, JUNE 90, 1877.
THE PENNSYLVANIA EXECUTIONS.


The execution of the eleven Molly Ma
Ruire murderers in Pennsylvania, Thurs
day, is the most remarkable event in the
criminal history of the country. Never
before were so many persons executed in
single state on one and the same day, and
we doubt whether all the executions in the
country on q single day have before
amounted to that number. During the one
hundred years of the existence of Vermont
as a state-in fact during the one hundred
and fifty-three years since its first perma-
nent settlement-there have been but nine
persons who have boen hanged for the
crime of murder; ard yet we have in
Pennsylvania, in single day, eleven meu
executed for that crime, and that in ter
ritorially email, but tlrickly settled region,
in three counties having less population
than the entire state of Vermont. We may
remark, in passing, that this fact does not
prove, or tend to prove, that crime is un-
known in Vermont, for there have been, at
least, eleven murders in Rutland county
alone, but 1t has so happened that the full
penalty of the law has never been exacted
therefor in single instance.
The record is remarkable in another re-
spect, 1t shows that lawlessness and crime
In the worst forms are confined to no par
ticular section of the country, that they ex-
list at the north as well as the south. For
fifteen years crime and lawlessness have
run riot in the mining districts of Pennsyl-
/, ~ l. \ ,
striking similarity between their course aud
that of the ku-klux and other similar Or
CARNATIONS of the SOUTH Both were Sc
cret, both worked by terrorism, intimida-
tion and assassination, and both were gov
erned by greed for power-one the pos
session of political power, and the other
the power to dictate the employment of,
and price to be paid for, labor. Both
worked by and through politics, and each
counted on immunity by means of the po-
litical influence that they could exert and
the number of votes they could control.
The one organization was as dangerous to
liberty as the other, and the existence of
one was as much shame and disgrace to
the country as the other.
Both were alike in another respect. In
neither Pennsylvania, South Carolina,
Louisiana or Mississippi was there moral
energy enough back of the statute law to
insure its enforcement. Both states had
excellent laws, but both lacked the moral
energy. And we are not sure that the con-
dition of Pennsylvania was not the most
pitiable, the most shameful. SpasmodIc
attempts to enforce the law were but sbor-
tions. Courts, judges, prosecuting officers,
sheriffs, constables and witnesses were so
intimidated and terrorized that those
known to be guilty were allowed to 60
free, while in the southern states judges,
witnesses and jurors had no occasion to
show their cowardice for the very good
reason that prosecuting officers gave them
no opportunity. In Pennsylvania the MUIR
ders committed by this gang are numbered
by the hundreds, while their other crimes
are simply innumerable and we venture
to say that for extent of territory and in
proportion to population, greater lawless-
ness existed in these three Pennsylvania
counties than in any portion of the south
since the close Of the rebellion.
The moral energy of the people was at
last 80 reused up that determined effort
was made to put stop to this reign of
crime and terror, and lawlessness and the
Molly Maguires received fatal blow at
Pottsvllle, Mauch Chunk and Wilkesbarre,
Thursday-and the blow was struck
through the forms of law and in compii-
ance with law. In the southern states, we
are fain to believe, even if the perpe-
traitors of the crimes which have disgraced,
not only the several communities and
states, but the whole country, are not ar
rested and brought to justice, yet that an
aroused public sentiment will prevent fur
Their crimes of the kind to which we have
been abiding. What the strong arm of
the law and the exaction of its extreme
penalty was necessary to accomplish in
fennsylvania will, we believe, be worked
out In the south by an aroused public SEN
tment, without the necessity Of resort to
the courts.
We do not wish to be misunderstood.
We have been only speaking OF the appar-
emit end of lawlessness in the states, or
parts OF states named. But there is anoth-
or remarkable thing about this Pennsyl-
vania matter-and it can hardly be called
remarkable either. for it is the history of
crime In all ages and in all committeeman
that is that, with rare exceptions, the per-
pstrators of high crimes will, sooner or
later, be punished. These Molly MaguIres