Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1891-11-26
COMMUNICATED
WI y 2 Nh III
Elk Grove. Wis, Nov. 10Th. 81.

issued about the Both of September, 81,
and extensively copied in other papers
which does such gross injustice and is
also so full of misrepresentation that
am satisfied you allowed it to be pub
lished without understanding all the
facts and trust that you will perform
an act of simple justice by publishing
this communication. l am Anton Sic
bolts father and he lived at home with
me unit he reached manhood when he
went to work for himself about six years
ago and since that time he has worked
in the neighborhOod where / could see
or hear from him frequently and am
familiar with his every act. Your arti-
Gle in brief contains the statement, that
my son was dangerous character, that
his brother died few years ago from
injuries inflicted by him, and that he
once made a desperate assault on my.
self, that he was ugly and quarrelsome,
and upon what authority or from what
information you wrote these statements
| am of course unable to conjecture, but
is sufficient to say that they are abso
lutely and wholly false in every particu-
lar. He was personally known to at
least i've hundred persons in this and
adjoining towns all his life. and these
people are of every creed, nationality
and religion, and | challenge any re-
putable person out of the whole number
who will swear in any Court, that he
was either ugly, or quarrelsome, or that
he ever struck any human being blow
unless he was first assaulted, and there
is not an unprecedented person in La
Fayette County, who knew both him
and Meighan that does not realise that
Meighan was the assailant, as my son
said when he was first arrested. You
also state that the murderous gang who
assassinated him have the sympathy of
the community and that they feel relief
that the desperate was placed beyond
the reach of further harm What COM
munity? The people of this township
are unit in condemnation of his muir
der and the community in Darling
ton where he was murdered, as well as
their newspapers, are frantic at their
denials of any responsibility for the
brutal crime. The lawess element
here as we'll as elsewhere sympathize
with law breakers. You also add in
the article referred to that Anton was
hung because in the opinion of this
gang of toughs the punishment was in
adequate to the crime. Who made or
constituted this crowd, judges of the
sufficiency of the legal penalty attached
to any crime and by what process of
reasoning did they conclude that Siebolt
was guilty of any crimeP If he had
been allowed to have the God-given
and constltuticnallY guaranteed right,
of fair trial by an impartial Jury he
would have been acquitted beyond any
reasonable doubt and this was admitted
by them at the time of the murder.
You also editorally say, that there are
cases where one hesitates to condemn or
censure such outrages as the one en-
acted by Darlington especially where
there is no Capital punishment, will
you be kind enough to tell me of such a
case. Would it be where the Editor of
a Journal far removed from the scene,
without a particle of information about
the facts except from such courses as
YOU must have received yours before
writing the article in question, and
would II not, now that you have been
correctly informed as to the facts, be a
manly and Christian like act to condem
and that without qualification, the
murderous act of the Darlington mob
In other states and other portions OF
our own state every murder by mobS
has met condignant punishment. Viii
Lafayette County stand alone in hel
recreancy and disgrace or will hel
citizens give every aid and encourage
ment to the Officers of the Law in
bringing this blood stained and law
defying gang to merited punishment
We have seated on the judicial bench
an officer whose reputation is far re,
moved from any sentimental considera'
ton or from any motives personal to
himself in the administration of the
criminal law he cannot be bribed oil
intimidated, we have an intelligent and
honest class of citizens and there is nc
difficulty in obtaining jury. You vii
excuse the length Of this letter and
beg you to believe that it is not writer
in any spirit OF anger or resentment
but that the statements made in your
article were made in view of the fact,
as they were there in your possession
Hoping that you will do me the simpl,