Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1884-04-04
THE CINCINNATI RIOT.

THE CINCINNAT III RIOT.
The riot of which we give the bloody
particulars this morning, will call forth the
usual denunciations of mob law from
those who prefer order and peace; but if
if this is all it does the American people
will fail to have derived full profit from
the high price that has been paid in life
and is yet to be paid in money. by one of
their chief cities. Mobs have been numer-
Gus in our country and from causes almost
as varied and numerous as the occasions
that gave birth to them. We have had mobs
decrease of wages, about race differences.
about theatrical artists, and about other
causes, but we recollect only two. besides
Cincinnati, that arose oct of protest by
the people against lax or corrupt ad-
ministration of the law. These two
were in San Francisco and Memphis.
Free as the American people are, in
dividually and collectively, and as
much opposed as they are to puri-
tanical and sumptuary laws, yet their
reverence for laws necessary for the
protection of the community is deep and
strong. Yet it is matter of history that,
especially in the last ten years, Jail full
of unexecuted murderers is not rare
sight in our States. It is a mistake to say
that this city or that city is better or worse
in this particular, for the unhealthy and
maudlin sentiment which hesitates to in
fict punishment of the last degree is con-
fined to no locality. 1t almost seems
sometime that lawyers are sent to law
making bodies only to make laws for other
lawyers to pull to pieces. There is hardly
a trial where the crime or the criminal
is great enough to attract attention, in
which the patience of the people and the
courts is not worried out by appeals,
rehearings, postponements, and applica-
tions for bail. It has come almost to be
accepted as provision of the law that a
man with friends enough and with coun-
sci of average ingenuity cannot be gotten
at by the courts provided for his trial
short of the highest tribunals of the land
TO one who has occasion to watch trial
it is strongly borne in upon him that the
great power of the State is perverted to pro-
tect the criminal. So particular is the
State not to do injustice to the murderer
that its back is bent too far for justice to
the people. 1t has been said that the la "
is the perfection of human wisdom
Doubtless it is, but if so, it is very clear
that good deal more of human wisdom
is needed to cope with the criminal classes
and their advocates.
But if the law were perfect it is help
less when taken in hand by an ignorant
corrupt or maudlin jury. And that seems
to have been the curse of Cincinnati.
though it is not confined to that locality
1t is certain that as a general thing the
very men IN community who are best
fitted for jurymen and in whose hands
the community feels that its interests are
safe, are the hardest to get into the jury
box. All sorts of evasions are practiced
by these men to escape the service. They
are becoming members of all kinds of mu-
nicipal organizations solely for the pur-
pose of securing exemption. The neglecr
or avoidance of any of our duties as citi
Zens will sooner or later bring its OVID
punishment. Every step in the govern
ment, from the political primary up, should
be shared in by all citizens, and more es-
pecially by the wisest and best of them
If we surrender the jury box which is The
qua rdian of our liberties, and the ward
meeti ng, which is the nurseryof our gov
eminent. to men untitled to appreciate
thetrue meaning and value of either, how
are we to expect the perfection of wisdom
in our laws or the perfection of justice in
our jury boxp All this neglect comes back
to us in one way or another. Fl ad the citi-
zens of Cincinnati seen to it that their
jury system was we'll served, they would
not to-day be attending the funerals of the
dead, subscribing to the relief of the liv-
ing and lamenting the loss of one OF the
most magnificent public buildings in The
country.
Of the mob itself there can be but one
opinion; excited to violence by the escape
of a criminal, they soon lost sight of their
first purpose and became madmen. FoI
such mob, as for all mobs. there is but
one remedy, the military. The loss of life
at Cincinnati was fearful, but it would
have been still more so if the mob, which
soon. changed into sort of commu ne
movement, had had full sway. Starting GU,
with defined purpose, they had fallen into
the widest and most insane excuses
which brought on them bloody fate.