Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1891-03-17
TUESDAY. ........ MARCH II, 1891.
The New Orleans Avengers.

The New Orleans Avengers.
II is not necessary for as TO add much 70
what we said on Sunday with reference to
abe irregular manner in which the people
of New Orleans administered the law OF
the land last Saturday. 1t is just as GER
tain as the day follows the night and the
night the day that this law is never nd
ministered in that way in an enlightened
community when the dire necessity OF
seeming to violate the law rather than 20
execute il can by any possibility beayoided.
Yes. We say that it was the law Of the
land which was administered in New
Orleans last Saturday. II was administer
ed by the people in their sovereign ca
pacity, and not by their deputies. Usually
the law is administered by the peoples ser
wants. But in the case under consideration
the people themselves proceeded to carry
out the law. Jurors may finch, but the
people never do in the last emergency. As
sassination was not be condODed or go I'M
punished, no matter who were the victims.
But as TO ASSASSINATION of faithful public
servants, such thing was not to be even
so much as thought of. So the law, we
again say, wns taken in hand by the people
in their sovereign capacity.
We can certainly say that with a single
exception, wherever lynch-law is admins
tered Justice has been cheated so often
that the law-abiding people of that COM
munity can no longer withhold practical
condemnation of the men who thus swim
die the gallows or the prison, and render
sko az ootlaI standardization nf iratica q
by-word and Kissing. The single excep-
tion is an offence of so heinOus a nature
that though the courts and the juries
might be relied upon to punish it with
death the community feel that the merited
punishment must be inflicted at once or
the ignorant brutes who have been guilty
of it and their fellow brutes will misunder-
stand the facts.
And the people Of New Orleans were
"avengers." They took vengeance upon
miscreants who had dared TO defy the ma
iesty of the law, and committed the I'M
pardonable crime of striking down the Of
fcers Of justice whilst these officers were
engaged in the performance of their Of
fetal duties Lynch-law is heaven-de-
seconded as contrasted with such law as
had been meted out to the people of New
Orleans and their chosen agents by the
monsters whose career came to an end last
Saturday. The avengers are the solid men
of New Orleans. The action Of the Cotton
Exchange. of the Citizens Committee, of
the Stock Exchange, of the Board of Trade,
of the Produce Exchange, and Of the Sugar
Exchange settles all questions. Nothing
more is 10 be done. The people have fin
ished that good work, and desire TO hear no
more on the subject. As we said on Sunday
the verdict of New Orleans is that their po-
lice shall be protected.
And what will Italy do? Nothing is 10
be done. The work, we repeat, is ended.
EDMUND BURKE could not draw an indict- !
ment against q whole people, and the
Government of Italy, which has already
protested, can do nothing but protest. It
cannot frame an indictment against the
whole city of New Orleans and State of
Louisiana. MIR. Webster, in a letter to
BARNa BRoTHERs, gave it as his opinion |
that though Mississippi had repudiated
her debt and refused to pay any of 1t to
her English creditors, and though the
Government of the United States had no
power to compel her 10 pay, yet the Gov
eminent Of the United States would not
allow any foreign nation to coerce Missis- !
sippi into the payment Of her debt. SO in |
the case before u.s. The United States !
Government can't punish the lynch-law |
administrators of New Orleans, but it |
won't allow the Italian Government to lay |
a finger upon them. We must add, in JUS |
tice to that Government. that we have no |
idea that il will do anything more than |
ascertain the facts and then let the affair |
drop. Representative MoBRow, Of Cali |
tornia, a member of the Foreign Affairs |
Committee of the House Of Representa- |
tives, said on Sunday to Washington |
Post reporter:
international diIiculty. You must remember |
that the vengeance Of the mob was not directed |
against these Italians a rice, but as band Of /
supposed murderer, alleged TO have escaped |
their just deserts by miscarriage Of justice. II
they had been Americans or Swedes, or Of any
other nationality, they would have met the same
fate. Consequently, II seems 10 me that tho
only action 70 be taken In the matter Is for tho |
relatives Of the dead men 10 sue the city govern
mont OF New Orleans for damages ON the ground |
that the city failed TO furnish proper protection
% the lives Of men who we're for the time being
IN IL care. This was not a race riot In any sense
Of tho word, and the violence Of the mob was not
directed against the Italians because they were
y,at