The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-07-03
THE spARrANRURG GRAND JURY.

INE SfAhiANhUhU UhANO OOhts
The Grand Jury of Spartanburg justify
the lynehihg of Moore for the murder of
Miss Heaton, and if the reasoning only
had application to Mcofe's case, we
would hot take Issue with it, for we be-
lieve, like them, that he fully deserved the
speedy doom he met; but the trouble is,
that there is always tendency in human
nature to take the law into ones own
hands which cannot be sanctioned or
permitted in civilized and law-abid!hg
State. Where mob law feighs there is
most frequently large amount of preju-
dice and passion, and always too much
haste for the action of sober judgment.
In one case the ends of justice may be
accomplished, but when this summary
mode of furnishing wrong-duers prevails,
innocent victims will frequently suffer
the penalty of other mems crimes. For
instance, had lynchihg occurred in the
case of the murder of Mrs. Hull in New
York, her innocent and grief stricken
husband is the man the populace would
have hung for the deed committed by
the negro Chastaine Cox. The detection
of murderers very frequently requires the
coolest judgment and the most unbiased
minds, which can never be secured in
the case of mob. Except in the most
outrageous cases, as the one in Spartan
burg, those who join mob are endan-
gering the civilization of the State, the
safety of life and property, and are
teaching the masses remedy for crime
which, in the hands of excited or mis-
guided crowds, is worse than the evils it
attempts to correct. Even in extreme
cases, as the Spartanbulg lynching,
there should be no exultation over the
matter; and while upholding it under
its unparalleled and fearful provocation,
the principle of lynch-law as a punish
ment for crime should be Enthusiastically
condemned. The fact that courts fire.
quently allow guilty men to escape is no
justification whatever, for public opinion
is responsible for this laxity in judicial
tribunals. It is a verdict of twelve men
from different parts of the County which
lets murderer escape, and when people
generally feel that the law should be
vindicated, and act up to their belief,
then the over-leniency TO criminals will
cease. If the courts do not perform their
duty properly, they should be remodeled
and made to accomplish the purpose for
which they have been organized. The
people control the courts, and where de-
fects are detected in their workings,
these defects should be properly reme-
died. The correction docs not lie in
taking the redress of grievances into
private hands. The fact that guilty men
sometimes escape is. no justification
whatever, for if there is not proof enough
to justify twelve men upon their oaths to
find verdict Of guilty, the case does not
warrant private citizens in assuming to
sit in judgment upon fellow-being, and
of their own accord to take the response
bility of his blood upon their hands.
There can only be excuse made for lynch
law where it is called in to inaict speedy
and condigu punishment upon some
felon who has committed a most fendish
and atrocious outrage upon law and
society. Then where the guilt is clearly
established, as the oAense is unparal-
lelled in gravity and infamy, a speedy
and unusual punishment may be justi-
fed-not as the act of an excited and
wild mob, but as the exhibition of the
burning indignation and fearful wrath of
the peaceful and law-abiding citizens of
the land. In this view, and in no other,
can the Spartanburg lynching be justi-
fed, according to our opinion; and from
its sanction no license should in future
be taken by those who have grievances
for which the law affords ample punish
ment to the guilty. Lynch-law has been
rare in South Carolina, and will not be
countenanced in any other than cases of
exceptional atrocity.