The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1884-02-28
Wilmington Journal.l
An Ohio Lynching.

Cincinnati papers recorded a lynching
which occurred short distance from
New Lexington. 1t appears that the
brother Of respectable gentleman
living in that vicinity had married the
daughter of saloon keeper, who bore
a bad reputation, and because of an
expression of regret on account of the
unfortunate alliance, the man who
had a great deal of solicitude for his
brother was murdered in cold blood.
1t was supposed that the saloon
keeper and son were the guilty par
ties. They were arrested and while
the preliminary hearing was in pro-
gress before Magistrate, twelve mask
ed men, supposed to be from Corning,
stepped into the room and carried the
defendants away. The son was stran-
gled twice, until he confessed that his
father did the shooting. The latter
was then hung until he was quite
dead.
While lynching in Ohio is to be
deplored, yet our courts are somewhat
to blame for the disgrace which is
thus brought upon the fair name of
the State. Murders are committed,
the guilty parties arrested, and it is
no uncommon thing for from one to
three years to pass by before the mur-
derer is called upon to pay the penal
ty attached to the violation of the
law. Even when he is executed the
moral effect Of the punishment is more
than half lost because Of the delay.
There would not be half so many muir
ders committed in this country if it
were not for the delays which are al
lowed. by the courts. lie man put
another to death and he knew that for
the commission Of the crime, he must
suffer the death penalty before fort
night, and there was no getting around
it, he would hesitate before he
proceeded to commit the act of muir
der; but when there is so much un-
certainty about the conviction of a
criminal who is positively guilty and
when there are so many ways to de-
feat the ends Of justice. desperate men
take their chances and human life is
worth but little in their estimation.
The insanity dodge has become dis
gusting to the more respectable por-
ton Of any community. A man was
never known to have feeble mind
until after he has committed murder.
His family connections were always
supposed to be possessed Of average
common sense; but just as soon as the
crime Of murder is committed, in Or
der to save the neck Of the criminal,
all of his relations, from his great
grandfather down, have barely had
sense enough to keep them out Of the
lunatic asylum. In fact his relations
are often just enough affected with
temporary lunacy to go into court and
swear to anything. Under such cir
cumstances, and the public knowing
that such is the tendency of things in
these modern days, it is not to be won
dered at, when a good man is deliber-
ately murdered, if the better class of
the community takes the law into
their hands and meets out justice to
the offender. We say that to resort
to lynch law is thing to be deplored
and we regret that such proceeding
ever occurred in the State of Ohio;
but we insist upon it that the delays
allowed by our courts and the meth
eds resorted to in order to allow the
guilty to escape punishment are the
things which cause men to meet out
justice, and that speedily, to the muir
derer. The fact is the time has come
when law does not mean very much
in some sections Of our country. Men
do Just as they please, and nobody
seems to care. Even if they are ar
rested and indicted somebody will come
forward and swear them through. The
meanest criminal in existance can Of
ten secure bondsman when a respect
able man, who has, through some mis-
fortune, gotten into trouble, can not
secure a bondsman at all. All these
things go to show state Of affairs
not very encouraging.
If we desire the fair name of our
State not TO be tarnished with re-
sort to means to punish criminals not
sanctioned by law, then our courts
ought to see to it that the law is en-
forced. If the statutes are lame they
ought to be amended that there will
not be so many loop holes through
which criminals may jump at their
will. The cure for mob violence is
good law rigidly and promptly enfor-
ced.