Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-05-11

Iynchings are occurring With alarm
ing frequency. A few months ago Hi
nois. wisconsin and Michigan joined
the border states and tae territories
in substituting mob violence for the
notion of the courts. A few weeks
Ego there was q lyncking in Indiana
which was attended ty such adjHncts
of a legal execution as a Clergyman
and q surgeon. Wednesday night two
men were lynched together in Ken
lucky, two together in one town in
Colorado, and one in another, and at
anearly hour yesterday morning a man
was lyncbed in Minneapolis. In all
these cases but one there is little or no
doubt about the guilt of the victims,
but in one case q man was lyuched on
suspicion, and liz Indiana only week
ago a man was hanged by a mob after
he had been tried by jury and acquit'
ted. These violent and leUiess pro-
ceedinEs raise once more the question,
Is civilization failuSeS
1t is no Justification of a,murder by
a mob that the vicHAl deserves hang
ing. The only Il nt of these recent
t SaSe ast III %ton is that Occurred
in Minneapolis. There the mob killed
a man who had committed as atrocious
crime as can be conceived of, but one
for which 1t was not at al likely that
he could be legally hanged. In all the
other cases the penalty Of the law was
sufficient. The worst case Of all was
the one in Indiana, where mob MUIR
dered a man who had been tried and
found iEnocent by a jury. To justify
or in any degree excuse that act would
be equivalent to the obliteration Of all
criminal courts and procedure, and the
return to the methods of savages. The
man may have been guilty, in spite CT
the verdict, but if verdicts are to be
disregarded, and if people are to
hang every man whom they think
a scOundrel merely because they
think so, and without regard to le-
gal evidence, then there is an end to
organized society, and to the security
of life and property, and social chaos
and barbarism are already introduced.
Civilization involves something more
than the punishment of criminals;
criminals are punished by Indians and
Hottentots. 1t involves the ascertain
ment of guilt by rules OF evidence, The
execution of the penalties of the law
by authorized persons, and the settle
ment of disputes between man and
man, and between society and the
individual, by duly-organized courts
The vendetta and the lynching process
are calculated to oveTturn the reign of
law, and substitute therefor the lelgn
of what preceded law-namely, vic.
lence and passion. The interests of
society demand the repression of lynch
ing as much as they do the repression
of crime in any other form; more so,
in fact, for the crimes of individuals
are less hostile to the permanence Of
social order than the crimes of masses
of men sustained by the public senti-
ment of whole communities. Social
order rests on the assumption that law
is supreme. BIT law ceases to be
supreme where it is overridden by a
mob. The 6rst duty of government is
to maintain the law and suppress mob
murder, cost what it may.
That one lynching leads to another
is undoubtedly true. The.e is a con-
tagion in lawlessness. The fact that a
hundred men can vent their rage
against an evil-doer with impunity
incites a hundred men in another To-
cality to do the same thing. These
frequent lynchings in comparatively
old and established communities, where
all the instrumentalities for the legal
punishment OF crime exist, are not
sporadic outbreaks of infiamed public
sentiment. They are the symptoms OF
an epidemic. They beget contempt
for the courts and spirit of defiance
to the law. Unthinking persons may
rejoice in them because they promptly
punish scoundrels, but they do more
than that; they create a sentiment
regarding law and order and the regu
lar tribunals that no community car
afford to have created.
Some excuse Is offered for these act
OF mob crime by complaining of tn,
delay in getting criminals punished b.
the courts, and the success of Grimm
ais in escaping punishment entirely
through executive clemency and lega
technicalities. But this is no justiica
ton where the government Is in tn,
hands Of the people. These states ar
not ruled by alien powers. Not onl,
are governors created by universal suf
frage, but in Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin
Colorado, Michigan, and Minnesota tn
judges are elected by the people. /
the people want more rigorous ad
ministration of justice, why do the,
not get itf They elect members of tn
legislature every year or two, and tn,
legislatures determine the criminal law
If published sentiment demands swift
and sure punishment. why does 1t hav,
to ceuntenance lynch law in order I,
get itS The fact is that the popular
iZation Of justice is based on a completi
misunderstanding of the facts, anC
produces the most unsatisfactory re
suits. It Is assumed that prisoner
must be protected against the tyrann,
and brutality OF the executive and tn,
judiciary. and therefore the selection
OF judges IL left TO cauouses and town