The Worthington advance., 1879-04-10
THE NECESSITY OF LAW.


sasstnatton Of Judge Elliott.
Louisville Courier-Journal.1
Judge Ballard, in his remarks about the
shooting of Judge Elliott, said:
HE was at the capital in the performance
OF his official duty, and regret to say that for
the performance of that dnty: and almost in
the very act Of performing it, he was assassi-
mated. This terrible deed is, think, without
q parallel in this or any other civilized coun-
try. 1t has justly excited much indignation
here, and it will excite Indignation and horror
throughout the civilized world. No one can
feel the shock more keenly than l, ana no one
deplorcs the deed more than 1. 1t has put
stain upon our fair name which can not soon
be wiped out"
There is not man in Kentucky who has
the slightest intuitivo conception of the
with Judge Ballard, regard that deed as q
gaping wound in the honor of the State. It
has left stain upon Kentucky's 8 name which
nothing but most active, most aggressive
campaign against crime can wipe out. We
must sit, Mortified at the crime, and hear the
taunts of those who have ever sought to cast
reproach upon Kentuckians. 70 these taunta
concerning lawlessness and the insecurity of
human life We con not reply, with this last
great blot upon our record.
Crime, 1t is true, runs riot in the northern
States as we'll as in the South, but We do not
find elsewhere in this country the record of
the assassination of Judge for conscien-
tiously performing his duty OH the bench.
We have, in Kentucky, become, in measure.
accustomed to read the details of the bloody
deeds of masked marauders. shooting af-
trays in broad daylight and other acts of
lawlessness, hut the Frankfort affair is one
which exhibits in all its horror the mai ural
sequence and culuination of the spirit of
lawlessness which has prevailed, with but
few attempts to curb it, in this State, for q
good many years. The shot fired
by Buford signified the brutal de-
fiance of the law on the part of
the whole lawless element in the Sta'e. Bu-
ford represented in his own person that ele-
ment. When he pulled the trigger of his
shotgun he simply practically expounded
tho spirit and purpose of insubordjnation.
1t was a deed which, of all others, should
awaken the people of this commonwealth to
a realization of the peril of unexecuted law.
1t should arouse every representative man
in the State to demand that the safety of the
people shall be absolutely insured by the su-
premacy of law. For in the supremacy of
the law, in the sacredness of the bench, in
the yielding of the popular will to the law,
can the social fabric alone be preserved from
disintegration.
The Frankfort tragedy must not be made
only the groundwork from which to point
brief moralizing. There is something to do
besides contemplating the shame which our
indifference has wrought. Back of this
bloody Frankfort deed, back of all the mur-
ders and lawleasness which manifest them
selves in this State, is the unrestricted prac-
tice of carrying concealed deadly weapons.
No State in the Union has more stringent
law against the practice than Kentucky. We
regret to say that no State in the Union ia
more Indifferent to the execution Of such law
Did our last legislature mean anything
when it passed additional measures for the
public safety in amending the statute re]at-
ing to the carrying of pistols and other
weapons? Surely if Kentuckians ever ex-
pect to get their State out of rut, and send
her spinning along the ringing grooves OF
progress by bringing Immigrants and CAPT
taIists within her borders, the law must be
made supreme. The revolver must become
recognized as mark of reproach and shame,
like the indelible brand fixed on the brow OF
| the murderer Cain. He who bears weapons
habitually must have stigma
set upon him. He who talks OF
shooting others to avenge his personal griev-
ances. must be given to understand that
such talk is for communities where brute
force-violence is the supreme rule of con.
duct.
Let ns begin at first principles. Public
sentiment can make it q stlnging disgrace
for man to walk about among his fellow
men armed like an arsenal. Kentucky ID
not ready to be remanded to savagery. II
rests with her people to say whether she
| will have peace and law and order within
her borders. or violence and hinodshed