Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1893-10-03
THE SPIRIT OF LAwLEssNEss.

THE Nv t4Fs~NNfa>N.
The spirit of lawlessness which is
manifesting itself in nearly all parts
of our common country is something
to excite the alarm and earnest con-
Germ Of all good citizens without res
pect to class. Train robberies, train
wreckings, labor riots, murders, crimi-
nal assaults on defenscless women,
house-burnings and midnight assaults
10y white caps, and the uprising of in
furiated mobs who disregard all rea-
son and override all legal authority
and compound crime, follow 50 fast
upon each others heels that it seems
the spirit of crime has become conta-
gious. We repeat, the situation is
alarming.
1t is high time for the press and all
law-abiding citizens to call a halt and
speak out in no uncertain tones against
all forms of lawlessness. There is but
one safe thing to do at such a time as
this, and that is for every man to plant
himself squarely on the law, and stand
by the ministers of the law, insisting
that they shall do their duty. and shall
be protected in it. The guilty must be
punished, but as the law prescribes,
and the innocent must be protected.
Not long ago much ado, and rightly,
too, was made over an effort by an
armed mob in this county to overawe
the Court and Sheriff, and release
certain prisoners charged with white
Gaping; yet some men who condemn
ed that act in unmeasured terms, are
so inconsistent and thoughtless as to
be willing to see this same sheriff over
powered or murdered by an armed mob
and helpless prisoner in his custody,
whom he is sworn to protect, taken out
and swung to limb without court or
jury If other men are to be permit
ted to decide when the law shall be
disregarded and court officials intimi-
dated or defied, why not the white
caps? And if that be granted, then
we have anarchy and are at the end of
all law.
1t is conceded by good men every
where that no people can prosper that
refuses to conform to its own laws, or
permits those laws to be violated with
impunity. Yet we are treading dan
gerously near this fearful precipice
when we consent to the killing of men
without judge or jury. We are invit-
ing anarchy when we permit mobs of
angry men to override law and murder
those who are suspected of crime but
who have had no trial. We are court
ing disaster when we silently consent
to mob law which hangs, shoots, or
burns its helpless victims who, though
guilty perhaps, yet are denied trial
by a jury of their peers as is their con-
stitutional right. Article VI of the
Constitution of the United States guar
antees that In all criminal prosecu-
lions the accused shall enjoy the right
to a speedy and public trial, by an i'm
partial jury of the state and district
wherein the crime shall have been
committed" etc.
Let all good citizens stand by the
Constitution and the laws Of the land,
which they have solemnly sworn to
support.
Granted that in a large majority of
cases these men are guilty and richly
deserve death, the very fact that inno-
cent men may suffer, nay, do suffer,
should awaken us to the necessity of
demanding that this form OF anarchy
shall stop. We cannot afford to per-
nit this noxious weed to grow in our
soil. Its growth threatens our civil
zatiOn, for it is undermining our re
spect for law and educating the people
in wrong direction.