Cheyenne transporter. [volume] (Darlington, Indian Terr.) 1879-1886, 1882-05-25


ais in escaping punishment entirely
through executive clemency and legal
technicalities. But this is no justiGca-
ton where the government is in the
hands of the people. These states are
not ruled by alien powers. Not only
are governors created by universal suf-
frage, but in Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin,
Colorado, Michigan, and Minnesota the
judges are elected by the people If
the people want a more rigorous ad-
ministration of justice, why do they
not get itP They elect members of the
legislature every year or two, and the
legislatures determine the criminal law.
If published sentiment demands swift
and sure punishment, why does it have
to countenance lynch law in order to
get il? The fact is that the popular
ization of justice is based on a complete
misunderstanding of the facts, and
produces the most unsatisfactory re-
cults. 1t is assumed that prisoners
must be protected against the tyranny
and brutality of the executive and the
judiciary, and therefore the selection
OF judges is left to caucuses and town.
meetings, and in this state even judges
so created are distrusted, and the func
tions that belong to them are bestowed
on any twelve men who happen to be
drawn at random as jurors. General
Palmer desires to go even farther and
select grand jurors by ballot, just as
members of legislature are, and have
party tickets in the field. 1t is only a
bugbea, against which it is sought to
protect persons accused Of crime; the
only thing there is left for them to be
protected against is justice, and the
more the courts are popularized the
more efficiently criminals are protected
from justice. The legislature of this
state has just refused to revise
the criminal code, on the ground
that only Cook county con-
plains of the defeat of justice, and yet
it was in Bloomington that popular in
dignation at the laws delay and inef-
ficiency caused prisoner to be taken
from jail by great mob and hanged
without trial. If General Palmers
plan could be put in operation, the ad-
ministration of the criminal law would
become soon purely political matter,
like the division of the state into sena.
torial districts, and the courts would
have to be superseded as a regular
thing by vigilance committees. Only
a little while ago man in Danville
was accused OF arson; he took a change
of venue, was tried in another county,
and acquitted. ThereupOn there was a
mass-meeting held in Danville, and the
jury that acquitted was vigorously de-
nounced. AS mentioned above, a mob
in Indiana reversed the finding of a
jury and hanged a man who had been
acquitted. If this sort of thing be en-
couraged, it will not be long before the
question of guilt or innocence of a
man will be decided, not by an inves-
tigation of the evidence, but by show
of hands in mass-meeting. The
lynching which is now confined to the
prisoners will presently be extended to
jurors who acquit, and to judges who
fail to charge juries in accordance
with the prevailing local sentiment.
If the people really want crime pun.
ished, they can obtain what they want
more speedily and more safely by re-
instating the courts, and abOlishing the
caucus system of criminal procedure,
than they will by sustaining individual
avengers and vigilantes.
Whv An,ericsnS are Dvinp Out.