Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1883-06-23
NORTHERN TRIBUNE.
SATURDAY. JUNE 90 1888.
t.YNCIIlNG.

Night before last drunken tramp
was taken out of Jail by the citizens OF
Cheboygan, hanged up under the sign
board of railroad crossing, and left
swinging there till morning.. A week
ago last night mob took the two Bar
Der boys from the Jail at Waverly, Iowa,
, and hanged them to tree. On Monday
last negro named Direly was charged
with the murder of the Gibbons children
in Ashland, Kentucky, for which man
named Ellis was taken from the jail and
hanged by mob some months ago. The
The shooting of Dukes on Wednesday
last by young Mutt was not an instance
of lynch law exactly, but it was never
theless killing without form of law.
There are two classes of cases in which
an attempt is sometimes made to justify
the process of lynching. The first is that
in which the ordinary legal proceeding
has obviously failed, or is likely to fail,
of furnishing crime. The Dukes case
was one of that class. He had been tried
in court, and there was no doubt what
ever as to the killing, and no doubt in
the mind of the public that the killing
was murder. Dukes would have been
lynched as soon as the trial was over If
he had not concealed himself, and his
death at the hand of the man whose faith
er he had murdered is by no means la
mented where all the parties connected
with the tragedy are best known. There
is no doubt that lynching of Dukes
would have been approved by local pub
lie opinion at any time after he slew
the father of the girl whom he had ma
ligned.
The other class of cases in which
lynching is popularity justified is the
class to which such an outrage as that
at Cheboygan belongs. 1t includes those
crimes which seem too inhuman and
horrible to be punished by ordinary
methods. There is on the statute no
higher Offenss than murder, and in this
state the worst fate that can befall
murderer is Imprisonment for life. Such
a punishment, or even death itself, seems
inadequate for villain who would out
rage little girl and then kill her to
conceal his crime. If an Otfense of that
kind were Enthusiastically brought home
to a man in any community in this state,
there are not many citizens who would
not turn out to help hang him without
the aid OF sheriff, judge or jury. 1t is of
no use to tell people in such case to let
the law take its course. Their answer
is, that the law was made for human be.
ings, and that man who would commit
such an act is not human being.
mob is always disgrace and a
lynching Is always disgrdcefu; but there
are degrees of blame even for the law
lessness that goes to the extent of taking
life. Homicide is some times justifable
in an individual. and it is hard to con-
vince an outraged community that it is
not excusable when committed by an
assemblage that is technically a mob.
Assuming that there was no doubt of the
guilt of the wretch Warner at ChebOy-
gan, the people of that city can have the
satisfaction Of knowing that they have
done nothing worse than any of their re-
spectacle neighbOrs would have done I'M
der the circumstances. This does not
prove that lynching is right under any
circumstances; it simply shows that
there may be an aggravation so great as
to overcome the sense of obligation to
obey the laws.-Detroit Post and Tri-
bMne, June 16.