The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-11-20
THE OXFORD LYNCAING

IRE OAEOhU
A mob, or crowd if you please, composed
presumably of citizens of Benton county,
has passed sentence on the murderer Melting
and executed it without the vexatious delay
SO common to the processes of law. 1t will go
without saying that this moral monstrosity
| deserved death, and few or none will regret
| the action Of Sunday night, so far as his ig-
nominious taking off is concerned. A con-
fessed murderer, and almost beyond question
a rayisher in purpose he deserved the laws
severest penalty, for he was a dangerous
man and wholly unfit to live.
But while all this may be
admitted it is yet plain that
the men engaged in Sunday nights work at
Fowler and Oxford have only added in
tensity to the shame put upon the ccmmu-
nifty by the man whose life was required as
partial atonement for his misdeeds The
distinguishing mark between barbarism and
civilization is organized society and written
laws, bearing upon all and framed for the
protection of all. Among the lowest speci-
mems of mankind and among beasts of the
field, where no law restraints nor
affords protection, the individual law of
might is supreme. That it should
be selfish and frequently unjust is
but natural, and that it should
tend to defeat equity is also evident enough.
The buffalo bull of the plains carries his law
and its enforcement in his thick neck and
stubby horns. The modicum of brains in
the matted skull of the stoutest of the herd
! is the supremest court from which there is
no appeal save in the murderous methods
that have won for him his precarious SUI
premacy.
Man as a sentient being, and after centu-
ries of experience, has succeeded in remov-
ing the throne of justice from muscle to
reason. The human race, still advancing,
has come to recognize the fact that cumu-
lative wisdom is superior to that of any indi-
vidual so that, instead of an autocracy,
nearly all the civilized world now has popu-
lar laws, or laws made by the people. In
America we have fattered ourselves that
voluntary regard for law finds its highest
development The machinery OF enforce
ment, founded more on reason than on ira
dition, has been slow to move, too slow, per-
haps. We have been content to depend
largely upon the wisdom OF those who make
and those who suffer the law. Indeed this
is the cornerstone of our system of admins
tering justice between man and man. 1t is,
perhaps, this liberal manner of interpreting
and administering the law that has led to it's
abuse. Our judges and juries have sinned
against the law and the people, by taking too
many liberties with the written statute and
by placing upon it interpretations not sus-
tanned by common sense.
The Journal has within the past few days
pointed out the danger arising from this
source The law of the land has been so
often defeated and its palpable meaning and
spirit so often perverted that the people
have with some show of reason,
come to hold in contempt the law and
enforcement. Statutes written by the best
legal talent in the nation have been changed
to farces through courts allowing senseless
technicalities to defeat their fundamental
is so aggressive and criminals so confident
1t is not too much to say that it is easier to
find excuse for taking mans life thar for
simple profanity. He who is arrested for
| oor;n mill ha oil houOnd n
Do the records show that murderers are as
often held accountable? An idea of the per
! cent. of convictions for this crime may be
had from the records of the courts of Con-
necticut There is State long settled, the
people all educated and refined. and society
is established. During the past twenty
years there have been ninety-seven murders
there and only seven hangings. Does
anybody say that ninety of the ninety-seven
murdered men deserved death with.
out process of law? Rather, is it not plain
that justice has been juggled out of right by
cunning and constituencies attorneys, COM
placent courts and befuddled juries? Such
instances have been only too common in In
diana. They have been-they are so fire.
quent that almost universal distrust
and contempt is shown for written
statutes. No matter how unprovoked and
revolving murder may have been, if the
perpetrator is man of influence or wealth,
the public has reason to believe that he will
never be punished. Men have been assas-
sinated on the very threshold of our courts