The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1891-03-28
The Lesson of the Lynching.

The reputable citizens of New Orleans
who on Saturday put to death the per-
sons accused of the murder of Chief Hen
Messy have need to do good deal OF
serious thinking.
They should reflect in the first place
repress crime in community is by the
commission of crime. They no doubt
believe in all sincerity that their act of
Saturday was necessary one for the
protection of their city against banded
lawlessness. They are convinced that
the men they put to death were assas
| sins and membert of an organized secret
| and cowardly band of assassins that
their trials by the courts was travetty
of justice: that the escape of the men
| from jud cial condemnation was secured
| by bribery, and that the only salvation
of the community from the direct Gomi-
nation of organized lawIessness lay in
| the temporary resolution of society into
its elements and the swift meeting out of
| justice at the hands of the people them.
selves.
And in way all that is true The
| provocation to violence was great. 1t
was not only that the assassins had es-
capped justice, but that the community
was lnsulted and defied by their friends
and sympathizsrs, who openly placed
| thn d. l,olE Al,
| places of business and Haunted foreign
| flag above it. This, from men who were
believed to be fellow members with
the criminals in an organized conspiracy
of assassination formed to strike at the
vitals of law and society, might we'll
have excited less suuburnt people than
those of New Orleans to assert the sup
remacy of law by lawless violence.
But how has it come about that the
Cours of New Orleans cannot be trusted
to administer justice with an impartial
hand? Whose fault is it that secret and
cowardly assassins against whom the
evidence is convincing cannot be convict
ed? How is it that courts and jurors
are SO corrupt that the best citizens of
the town find it necessary to call mass
meetings and take into their own hands
the work of determining guilt and infict-
ing punishment?
New Orleans is governed by it's own
people. If its courts are corrupt snd its
administration of justice mockery. are
not these very citizens who so bloodily
express their condemnation of this state
of things themselves responsible for it?
Have they done their duty as citizens
Have their political activities been d.
rected with proper earnestness to the
uprooting of corruption and the mainten-
aDcs of sound aud good government?
| And do they mean to rest here? Are
they content with administering re-
buke to corruption by their act of VOL
ence? Are they not going to band them
selves together for constructive work for
the reform of their local institutions
| 1t is not quite true that no good ever
comes out of this kind of violence. In
extreme cases lynching has sometimes
deterrent had influence upon lawlessness
| when no less violent means would have
sufficed. But the remedy is a drastic
| one at best, and the organized commun-
ity which finds its application necessary
condemns itself, for no organized COM
munity can fail into state to justify or
even to excuse such resort unless its
best and most influential people. have
betrayed their trust as citizen and neg
ligently permitted corruption to honey
comb their public offices.
The good citizens of New Orleans
have much of profitable reflection to do
just now.