The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-08-04
Waynesburg Republican.
Mutt Not a Criminal.

of right with more. Indignation, than
that of the murder of Capt. A. c.
Mutt and more than murder at the
hands of the assassin Dukes. 1t is
true Mutt died as did Abner. He
should not have visited the den of SO
loathsome and yenomous a reptile as
Dukes as the author of such obscene,
vulgar and slanderous letters, written
by the confessed libertine, The OBJ
ject of this article is not so much to
show the criminaIity of Dukes, as to
show that young Mutt is not crimi-
nal.
No considerable number of persons,
aside from the jury and a few inti-
mate associates of Dukes. pretend to
claim that he should have been clear
ed; but that he should have been
found guilty Of murder. "WhOso
sheddeth mans blood by man shall
his blood be she'd" is the law of God
reaching back to the deluge, and has
never been replealed. The Author
of the named statute is the God of
law and order. But when the powers
ordained by God fail to execute His
commands, then God has invariably
appointed a special agent to accomp-
lish His purposes Of right. Agog, the
king of the Amalekites. was a far
better man than Dukes, but had mur-
dered innocent women and children.
The Lord ordered King Saul to take
two hundred and ten thousand SOL
diers, and execute the law of God and
man upon Agog and his murderers.
Saul, like the jury at Uniontown,
failed to execute justice and iudg-
ment, so that Samuel, a special agent
of the Lord, took a sword and hewed
Agog to pieces. So likewise we see
young Mutt take the same kind of a
weapon as that with which Dukes
murdered the father, and execute JUS
tice and Judgment upon a wickeder
party than we have any history of in
the Bible.
We are told by some of the would
be apologists for crime that the New
Testament teaches a different and
new doctrine as to the punishment of
wicked men in this life. Quoting
from the Bible, vengeance is mine
and 1 will repay, saith the Lord"
That is true. But God has generally
made man an agent in executing His
vengeance. Nearly all agree that
Dukes was too wicked and dangerous
to live. He confessed by his infamous
letters that he was criminal of the
yilest character. Yet it had been
shown by the affidavits of other re-
liable parties that Dukes was lying
slanderer.
The elastic consciences and tender
heartedness ofsome modern divines-
Universalists and those opposed to
capital punishment-would teach and
have us believe that God has abroga-
ted his law of the Old Testament.
Jesus Christ tells us he did not come
to do away with the law, but to con-
firm the law. No part of the Old Tes-
lament threatens to punish crime
more severely, in this life and the
future, than Christ's judgments upon
Jews and other criminal persons.
Titus, the Roman General, is made
the human instrument in the hands
of God to punish and destroy the
murderous Jews, and for the last
eighteen centuries Gods judgments
have been infiicting those wretched
people at the hands of their fellow
men. Ananias and Saphira, for
crime much less than that of Dukes,
lost their lives by Gods judgments,
while Peter was the agent. Bloody
Jezebel had her Jehu; murderous
Joab had his Benaiah; the CORY
priests of Bsal had their Elijah Pha-
raoh had his Moses. There were
cities of refuge in the days of Moses
where parties might flee for safety
who had accidently slain a man, but
there has never been a place of refuge
for the willful and bloody murderer
where the avenger of blood, in the
person of nearest akin of the murder.
ed party might not followed and slay
the murderer.
The public appears to regret that
young Mutt did not slay the mur-
derer of his father and the traducer
of his family Immediately, and while
in the heat of passion. admire the
forbearance of the young man,-pa-
tiently waiting for the so-called civil
court to execute justice. The jury
falling to find verdict, as the facts
and law demands, young Mutt would
have been justified by precedence
both in the law of God and the com.
com law of man, in Staying Dukes in
the court house yard as he retired
after the mock trial by the jury. But
Mutt acted a wise part by waiting