The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-07-09
MOI La w.
horseback

Inc lrigntful increase OF IyncninS at the
South begins to produce its natural reac-
ton. The Charleston NeWs aud Courier
vigorously warns the South against the
dangers inherent in mob law. The Chat
tanooga Times dwells upon the danger of
the present drift toward anarchy through
mob influence. The Times Unioa of Jack
sonville, Fla, protests against the increas-
ing ascendency of lynch law, and says:
II magma charta is to DO trampIed on, and II
the law of feudal times, that might makes
right, Ia to be substituted, IL Is plain that the
South will go backward and downward and
become reproach to modern civilization.
The Macon, Ga, Telegraph says:
II il be thoroughly established by experience
that q number Of men, acting in concert, may,
without danger TO themselves. murder another,
provided he be accused OF crime, the door will
be opened to the most dangerous abuses. The
courts will be useless as guardians of the pub
lie peace and society will practically havo sunk
back to the semi barbarism OF the middle ages.
Every man will be forced to depend on his own
strength for defense against aggression, and
must be the instrument of his own doings when
wronged.
Chief Justice Bleckley, of Georgia, in
recent address before the Bar Association
of his state, fixes large share of respon-
sibility for lynch law upon those news
papers which confound the mob with the
people, and treat some, if not all. in.
stances of mob violence as cases in which
the people act in their own behalf and
take justice in their own hands. He
maintains that mobs are not the people;
that they who compose them are for the
time seceders from organized society who
outrage its fundamental principles and
trample on its institutions. He even con-
tends that if the people should perpetrate
an act of violence on the worst of GRIM
inals. the case would not be one in which
the people had taken justice in their
own hands, but one in which, in violation
of their own law, they had inflicted injus-
tice in the name Of justice. SIN such
matters" he adds, 1.-THE people cannot act
otherwise than through their legitimate
agents. By appointing these agents and
committing all punitive power into their
hands, to be exercised in the name of the
people and for the good of the people. the
people renounced completely and for ever
all right and all power to transact such
business in person or by means of their
own direct intervention"
The chief justice fairly asks what news
paper would speak with appreciation of
the people assembling in n mass and max
ing laws2 Why, then, should mob agency
in the administration of laws be counte-
nanced? BY interfering in the first in
stance. or by reviewing the verdict, as in
the New Orleans case, they make the jury
system contemplate. As Chief Justice
Bleckley well says, Anything which as
| sumes to be better and tends to make
| itself bigger than the jury is out of place
where trial by jury is an institution Of the
| country and forms the chief bulwark for
| the security of person and property. So
| ciety works by and through established in.
situations, and can work wisely and safely
| in no other way. To weaken or discredit
these institutions is 10 enfeeble govern
ment and bring authority into contempt"
Nothing better in exposition of the
| cowardice. the cruelty, the inutility and
insanity of mob law has been written than
| the following by Fred Douglass in the cur
rent number of the North american Rerieio:
| In the worst extremity it would be regarded
| effort 10 neutralize one poison by the
| administration of another It's presence is
| either an evidence of governmental depravity
democrat zed state of society. II is genel all V
| In the hands of the worst class of men in the
| community, and is enacted under the most de-
| grading and binding influences. To break
down the doors OF iails, wrench of the iron bars
| of the cells, and in the dark hours OF midnight
| drag out alleged criminals. and TO shoot, hang,
or burn them 10 death, req utres pre- paration i'm
| parted by copious draughts of whisky, which
| leave the actors without inclination or ability
| 10 judge OF the guilt or innocence OF the victims
| OF thelr wrath
Lynch law violates all OF those mercifui max
| inns of law and order which experience has
| shown TO be wise aud necessary for the protee-
| ton OF liberty, the security of the citizen, and
| the maintenance of justice Tor the whole peo-
pie. Ii violates the principle which requires,
| for the conviction OF crime, that a man shall be
| confronted in open court by his aceusers. II
violates the princ pie that 10 Is better that ten
| guilty men shall escape than that one innocent
! man shall be punished. Itvlolates the rule that
| preSumes innocence until guilt is proven. IL
| compels the accused TO prove his Innocence
| and deaies him a reasonable doubt in his favor.
ltsmp.y constitutes Itself not court of trial,
| bat court OF execution. IL comes TO its work
| in q storm OF passion and thirstng Tor human
blood, ready 10 shoot, stab or burn its ylctl N,
| who is deaie ell a word OF entreaty or explaRa-
ton. Like the gods OF the heather these mobs
| have eyes, but see not care. but hear not, and
they rush TO their work of death Us pitilessly a.
TIE tiger Eushes upon his prey.
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