The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1878-03-25
THE LYNCHIxG.

taking MIN therefrom, placed roPe
about his neck and hanged him to tree |
1t is dangerous and fearful thing for
men to thus take the execution of the law
into their own hands. And while such
action cannot be justified it can be readily
account for. But short time ago, an
adjoining neighborhood was the scene OF
the cold-blooded and strocious murder OF
an inoffensive old man named SHARKET.
This the law failed to svenge in any sde-
ouate manner. After much delay and
technical quibbling, at least one or Two
of those arraigned for the crime were
cleared; and, il they were not the guilty
parties, no effort was made to bring those
who were guilty to justice. Still more re.
Gently IN another adjoining neighoor'
hood, man named JoBEs, murdered
neighbor on q Sunday night a. church,
without the excuse OF provo
cation. He is still at large, probably
lurking in the vicinity where dwel'S the
bereaved wife and orphaned children OF
tho victim of his deadly assault, and the
law and its executors are too weak to
bring him to justice. The recent his
tory of this vicinity furnishes other ex-
smples OF the fact that no class OF citi.
zens are so we'll protected by Courts and
juries as that of the Desperate. Within
the last few days, an Ohio county Grand
Jury was compelled TO make official
complaint of its utter powerlessness to
ferret out and punish crime under the
administration of oCr present code OF
laws.
And now comes JOHN WALLACE, a
man of most brutal lusts, and in the quiet
of peaceful night in the country, he
selects tor his victim woman akin TO
him by the ties OF marriage, and young
girl related to his own kins-woman.
Upon the person and virtue of the latter
he commits brutal outrage, and then
to silence forever the witness against his
beas.liness, he deliberately murders his
helpless victim. His klns-woman grasps
to her breast her darling babe, and rushes
to the woods, hoping to find some friend
ly hiding place. He pursues. The
tracks IN the soft earth show that
the poor, alarmed woman ran
with her utmost speed as If pursued by
very fend incarnate. He overtakes her,
his hellish lusts being still unsated, he
first outrages and then strikes down with
murderous weapon her to whom he
should have been brother. Then,
stopping to look at the bloody work OF
his hands, he observes, lying by the side
of its mutilated and liieless mother, the
innocent babe who could scarcely yet
lisp its fond parents name, too young to
rise up as a witness against him who had
made it an orphsn-with fendishness
almost unparalleled in the annals OF
crime, he dsshes It's brains upon the
ground, and then, as if in very mockery,
laid its lileless form upon its mothers
cold breast.
Is it any wonder that it was difficult
for men-neighbors, mayhap relatives, Of
the butchered trio-to restrain their Just
indignation, and quietly wait on the laws
delay and uncertainties? The cause
OF this summary punishment does
not lie in the lawlessness of the people
who perpetrated it. 1t is an emphatic
assertion of their condemnation of the
inefficient administration Of justice by the
sworn officers OF the law, when muir
derers and villains are objects Of punis-
ment. This point is well put in an ed-
torlal in Saturdays Baltimore Gazette:
Yet there are two things in these
| Wallace murders that are calculated to
kindle that fierce popular spirit that
| often leads to the executions of lynch
| law. One OF these is the uncertainty of
criminal procedure in that locality, and
the reasonable hope that these prisoners
have that they may yet escape the gall
| lows and slip through the meshes Of the
| law. For the crimes of lynch law, the
uncertainties, chicaneries, technical hair
splitting OF our criminal law are In a
great measure responsible. The effect
OF Jury trials is so often to release red
handed murderers, that supplemented
people come to look at law as a sort
OF alder and abe!tor of crime. Sect
ting off on a technicslity," or by
hung jury, or by an acquittsl in face of
the evidence or by a failure OF evidence,
or by blunder of the prosecution, or by
an escape from prison, or by pardon
so manifold are the methods OF escaping
Justice that the common straightforward
people hold justice in suspicion. This
feeling being rooted among the people,
whenever revolving and hideous crime
is committed, hot-tempered men will be
ready to advocate lynch law so as TO
make sure of Furnishing the criminal.
Lswless men can usually be found to car
~ out the fearful DEGREES OF Judge
Lynch. Until our criminal law is more
certain and memorable in its operations,
lynch law will not be entirely sup
pressed"
TX commentinv on tho New York