Omaha daily bee., 1886-08-22
The Lesson of the Convictions.

The verdict of the jury condcmning to
death the Chicago anarchists was some.
thing more than a vindlcation of the law
and conservation of Justice. 1t was n
declaration as well that the American
people not only do not sympathize with
the bloody and destructive principles of
which these men, in their coarse and
brutal way, are the representatives,, but
that they have the will and the courage TO
punish to the last extremity of the law
those who put these principles III prac
tice. Greatly as all must regret the ter
rible sacrifice that was necessary to bring
out this declaration fully and unmistak.
ably, the compensation will be complete
if the hordes of anarchism shall learn
from it that the free soil OF America can.
not be used with impunity for the propa
CATION and practice of their doctrines of
ruin and murder, and that for those who
outrage the freedom and the generous
hospitality of the republic there is swift
and certain punishment.
Unquestionably we have as a
people been misiudged in this
regard. The socialist and anarch-
ist elements of Europe, of which
the Chicago conspirators are the bascst
product, have undoubtedly believed that
the United States offered fair and tree
field for the cultivation and growth of
their theories, and that not only was the
popular mind here susceptible to them,
but there was assured protection for the
propagandists to almost any extreme
whether of speech or act. The miserable
men condemned to death in Chicago
came to this country thoroughly i'm
pressed with this false idea, and tens of
thousands OF others whom they left be-
hind them entertained the same no.
ton. They found here generous meas
ure of liberation, and that general indf-
ference to their wild mouthings and
threatening displays which come of a
sense of security and conscious power.
Misled by this evidence of apparent pub
lie uncOncern and encouraged by the re-
inforcement of Il few worthless and reck-
less natives, they went forward boldly
with their conspiracy and worked it out
to its logical end in murder. Then the
people awakened from their indifference,
and from one end of the land
to the other demanded that these
cowardly conspirators and brutal as
sassinS be hunted down. and brought to
justice. In the remotest end of the
county the feeling was not less strong
than 1t was in Chicago that these perpe-
traitors of Wholesale murder should be
punished. Every lawrespecting citizen,
every man with n patriotic instinct-the
merchant, the farmer, the'honest work
ingman-all were actuated by the one
sentiment that the criminals should suf-
fer the full penalty of their crime. Only
among the enemies of peace and order
and law did they find the sympathy that
was powerless to aid them.
1t was revelation to these men whose
misguided impressions had led them to
expect different popular expression,
and their fate will be lesson to those of
| their kind here and abroad. 1t teaches
| that this is a republic of law, that the
| freedom vouchsafed to every man who
ooiio' no'e oa'iios WIN ~ 'nn ',yI,gation
| VI opeoiellce ~ ~ .ne laws, that conspiracy
! against the peace and welfare of society
| is not less crime here than
in other civilized nations, that dcstruc-
ton of property and murder as remedies
for real or fancied political or social evils
are not recognized in the American code,
and that this people have the power and
the courage to compel obedience to every
requirement of the laws and to punish
those who violate them. The cost of the
lesson has been severe and bitter, but it
| possesses ineStimable value.