The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1884-04-03

No one can read the conmehS oi VIC
Cincinnati Commercial Gazette on the Gin
cinnati riot, published in our issue OF yes
terday, without feeling that something like
poetic Justice has developed out Of the affair.
In bemoaning It's dead and wounded and
"oounting the salvage" the Commercial
Gosefte is little short OF incendiary. Itnot
only weeps Hike RACHEL for her children,
and bowls like SHYLoCK for his ducats, but
seems TO have divorced itself from the
power Of calm reasoning. 1t forgets that
IL is s.ultifying itself. If the Commercial
Gdsette's article means anything, ii means
that the mob should have been al-
lowed 10 enter the Jail and take
the murderers out and hang them, and
that the militia committed a crime In
unfolding the majesty OF the law and AZ
fordiug that protection 10 the criminal to
which he is entitled, even at the foot OF the
gallows. II means that the civil authOri-
ties Of Cincinnati should have disregarded
their oath OF office and allowed the mob to
hold high carnival until its unreasoning
passion was satated, because, forsooth.
the sentiment Of certain classes in the city
is that II would have been satiated with the
death OF the murdererS. 1t means that
precedent should have been made that
would have encouraged contempt OF the
law in every large city In the land.
And yet the Cincinnati Commercial Ia
zette has heretofore been the great champion
Il hacI hof
which above all others has pretended TO
see in every little disturbance in the South
the eleven foot OF the conspirator against
law, order, and the integrity Of society. A
pistol-shot fred south OF MASON & DlxoN's
line. or the lynching OF some fiend in hui
% man shape, has seldom failed TO cause
IL TO lash itself into frenzy OF virtu-
Gus Indignation. Southern lawlessness
Is the string upon which it has harped
continuously for years, and from which
II has sought to evolve the Had OF
all the country's woes. In its blind, parti-
san, truculent prejudice, 1t has charged
the South with crimes that "defy all code
10 image or to NAME" In its zeal for
the maintenance Of the dignity Of the law.
the protection OF life and property, and
the purity Of State and municipal govern
ment. God save the mark y it has not hesi-
tated TO threaten the South with Federal
bayonets.
There can be no doubt that the admins |
tration OF justice in Cincinnati has been a
miserable travesty, butmob-law, bloodshed, |
fire, and pillage never yet reformed judi |
cial system. II is terrible to think OF nearly |
half hundred corpses lying In the streets |
OF the city, OF the distress in scores Of |
families, Of the amount Of property in |
ashes; but 1t is more terrible to contem- |
plate what might be the outcome in the |
near future Of having allowed the law to |
he trampled under foot and thus con-
doned the communism which subsequent |
events have proved was an element OF the /
riot. II is irightiul thing to fire q volley |
of musketry into a crowd OF people, but |
had the volley that did so much execution |
been fired sooner the Commercials Gazette |
would not have been placed in the light in |
which it now appears before the country. |
1t would not be admitting that all that pre- |
ventC renewed violence are the bayonet and |
the breech-loader. Itwould not be uttering |
the following wall, in which sorrow, des- |
pera,ion, and thirst for blood are strange
ly commingled:
I'VE have saved our jailf,i Of murder |
ers. We have killed forty-tive innocent |
men, and wounded and manned 145 more, |
all to save our iailful OF murderers. We |
have burned our fine courthouse, with the |
records Of three-quarters OF q century,
creating confusion which whole genera
ton will not suffice to SETTLE"
The Commercials Gazette is simply Illus
trating that it makes all the difference in
the world whose OK happens to be gored,
and we hope that this affair will be a lesson
10 II. Having had experience with the |
fury OF mob, it will, we hope, see the
injustice OF IFS denunciation Of the Dam
vile riot. While the Danville riot sinks
into utter insignifcance beside the Gin
cinnau Commune, sober second thought
should bring 1t TO a realization of the
fact that had the little band OF white citi-
zens Of Danville flnched or fired blank
cartridges, that city might have met with
worse than has overtaken Cincinnati. II
its curses, in coming home to roOst, de-
prive II and those /; represents Of their
venom towards the South, we may be able
to extend to it some of the sympathy we
feel for all the law-abiding citizens Of Gin
cinnati.