The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-06-19
NOT PARALLEL GASES.
The New York Sun Of the 18th inst

The New York Sun Of the 18th inst
says:
Il IL a dreadful state Of affairs Ia Mississippi
which let's the Chisholm murderers no unptin.
ished. On that point there lie little room for dis
agreement. The locality where such q crime car
be committed with IMMUNITY IL Justly regarded Al
plague spot, unfit for human habitation. Here
In New York, and indeed, throughout the coun.
try, II IL hardly mentioned without an expression
OF Adherence for such condition OF society as
must exist to secure immunity to the murderers.
But what have we TO boast Of Ia comparison
| IL not the Huntington murder still unAvenged
A young man was mobbed by scores oil persons
In public highway and in conspicuous private
grounds. He Was tarred and festhered. beaten
and mutilated. Women, some Of the elite OF the
town among them, came TO look with wondering
| admiration on the scene. Finally The poor fellow
was rowed out 10 q boat and sunk Ia the sea, the
bfiny waters oh Jking his voice aud seneing his
cries, which were only heard by Heaven after that.
| Yet this great crime remains unpublished and vr-
tually unprecedented
Chisholm aud Kel"y, Mississippi and New
York. What have we tu boast Of?
These are in no respect parallel
cases. The Huntington murder was a
brutal affair, without a palliating fea-
ture. Dozens equally as brutal occur
In the Northern cities every week and
pollute the columns OF nearly every
Northern newspaper, indicating a de-
based public sentiment and q very
rotten condition OF society. The kill
ing OF the Chisholms was certainly
terrible affair. But in what respect does
It resemble the atroeious and beast
ly murder with which the Sun at
tempts to eonfound it2 In none what
ever. The motive which prompted the
New York outrage sprang from the has.
est instincts and fiercest passions OF
human nature; the motive Of the mob
which slew the Chisholms was the ex-
tinction of band of murderers and des-
peradoes who had for years infested
Kemper county, overriding the law,
domineering over the better classes Of
the people. assassinating leading citi-
zens and fomenting trouble and
murder In the community.
For months and years these men
licensed assassins we may say were
under the protection and enjoyed
the favors of the State government.
Their hands, or, worse still, the hands
OF their hirelings, were stained with the
blood of several of the best and most
loved citizens of Kemper. The murder
by them OF Col. Gully-the last OF long
series of outrages provoked the people
beyond endurance. The law had given
them 80 little protection that they had
ceased to think Of it as an agency for the
punishment of crime and the vindication
OF justice, or, indeed, as anything else
than a mere corrupt political and parti-
san agency, and, excited to pitch Of
irresistible fury, they arose in their
strength and wreaked terrible and
bloody revenge upon the murderers.
We do not defend the bloody violence
Of the Kemper mob. The carpet bag
government had been swept out Of ex-
istence in Mississippi and the citi-
liens Of Kemper should have resorted |
to the courts Of the State and sought to |
bring the Chisholms and their confed-
crates to justice there. But we do say
that the Mississippians who killed the
Chisholms were not prompted by the
instincts OF the murderer or the robber,
as were the wretches who murdered
On the contrary, they
were moved to their deed Of violence by
the instinct Of self-protection aroused to
q pitch Of savage fury, and by a purpose,
born Of experience Of the inefficacy Of
The law, to clear their community Of a
band Of murderous desperadoes.
The difference in the two cases the
Sun has cited is this, and it is a very
broad one; The Huntington murder
indicates a degraded and brutalized
condition of society, while the Kemper
affair was the uprising Of a community
against corrupt and imbecile govern
ment and the bad and murderous men
who had long enjoyed immunity under
Its favor. In no civilized or well gov
erned community could murder like
that of Huntington go unavenged.
In no community can the participants
In mob like that Of Kemper county be
because the mob was social
revolt Of community
against evils which government had
not only failed to correct but had actu-
lIu nroo tod ond foatarad