Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1892-05-02
Evening Tnts,,s-lssi Chronicle,
IS CENT PER WEEK.
v. W. BARKsDALE. PROPRIETOR.
Mob Law

&UoU LAd ~
1t is expected OF newspapers that
they should denounce mob violence
and uphold the law in Ill exigencies,
but we have not word of c0ndem-
nation for the Goodlettsyille people
for their action in breaking the Nash
vile Jail Saturday, taking out the
negro Grizzard by force and hanging
him.
The laxity of the law encourages
vagrancy, leading vagabonds to in
dulge in all manner of crime, con-
stantly going from bad to worse I'M
til their lusts and deviltry overlap
all bounds. Such foul crimes as were
perpetrated by the two Grizzard
negroes are becoming an everyday
occurrence, and women are not safe
alone anywhere.
The Nashville Jail has come to be
known throughout the State as a
kind of haven, place OF safe retreat
for men guilty of the most abhorrent
crimes. Wherever swift justice is
demanded by an outraged people in
the State the officers, in discharge of
what they conceive to be their duty
to the law and to the prisoner, rush
such miscYeants off to Nashville
through fear of vengeance from an
outraged populace, and rarely ever
p do such scoundrels receive justice
certainly not if they have money or
friends. When convictions are Sc
cured in the lower courts in commu-
mites familiar with the crime and
circumstances, the case is sure to 60
to the Supreme court, and there the
judges-goOd, honest, tender hearted
men-hear not hing and know moth
ing but the cold law in the case, and
are sticklers for techncalities, look
ing to every possible doubt or irreg-
ularIty lest some injustice be done,
following out the idea that it is bet
ter for ninety-nine guilty to escape
than for one innocent man to suffer,
and thus the worst of criminals are
set free or remanded for a new trial
to worry the courts and people and
run up great bills of costs to the
State. We say this i'll no spirit of
animosiiy or disrespect to the Su-
preme bench, for we believe them to
be good and pure men, but it is
nevertheless the truth, and we refer
to ii to show that there is something
wrong with our criminal law and its
administration.
The court is confined to a rut and
needs to be priced out of it. How
many desperate criminals have es-
clped justice through this channel?
And when was vile scCundrel,
backed by money and friends, ever
hung in Davidson county, or any
where else? The escape of the
murderer of DIR. Nuckolls in Spring
field is yet fresh in the minds of the
people; the murderer of John j.
Littleton go scott free; the notori-
Gus George Dunnaway, is sent to the
penitentiary to be pardoned by some
tender-hearted Governor, and how
many others might he mentioned?
Since the Grizzard lynchjng had to
be done and ought to have been done,
we are glad it was done in Nashville;
that he had to be taken from the
Nashville Jail, the refuge of scoun.
drels, and hung under the very Il oses
of the Supreme court, the able law
yers and the conscientious Governor.
1t is lesson not only for evil-dOers,
but Tor those whose duty it is to ad.
minister the law. 1t is not only a
lesson, but solemn warning that the
people are demanding new deal,
Justice at the hands of the lawyers
and the courts chosen to protect
society by the prompt enforcement
of the law. This negro, Grizz nd,
was undoubtedly guilty, and yet
under the methods Of administering
justice he would in all probability
have escaped for the lack of positive
proof of his guilt.
A radical reform is needed in our
courts and it must come, or the mob
spirit will gain the ascondency in
spite of condemnation by the press
1t should begin at once and begin
with the Supreme court by sweeping
away the cob-N chs of tochnicality,
substituting common sense justice,
and giving the courts and lawyers TO
understand that sCoundrels are not t.
escape justice on nice points ana
legal bubbles. The people all over
Tennessee will applaud the action of
the mob.
--s---
Gnrman the Man for Tennessee.