The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-10-11
sx1rrrr. WEDNESDAY,. DER ~.
1nE rKKss no DIANE.

Chief Justice Bleckley. OF Georgia, IN an
address before the Georgia Bar Association
dsnounces mob Law with vigor. He afiirms
that mobs would not exist IL We could
silence their welI-mcauing bat deiuded adj
vocates and apologisss. Especially would
IL be serviceabIe to alter the tone and
teaching Of those public journals which
confonnd the mob VIII. the people. and
preach some IL not all instances of mob
violence - cases In which the people act
in their own behalf and take justice into
their own hands"
The disgusting feature of all these news
paper apologies for mob law is the pre-
tence that the lynching was the act of
.the people" The crowd OF men who
make 40 the ordinary iynching are not
.'ths people" Chief Justice Bleckley in
sists that mob Is not the people. nor even
any part fit. We quote:
80 become mob and do its work, those
eho compose IL must for the time being
secede from organized society. outrage its
most fundamental principles and trampie
on its institutions. Were il known
by actual count that all the people OF both
SEXES and oil ages had assembled and CON-
bined by unanimous consent to peFpetrate
an act of violence upon the worst of Grim
inais 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 assumed 10 iniliet
injustice in the name OF justice. The peo-
PIE have no hands for unlawful work
Justice IL in the hands OF the people only
when it Is in the hands OF their organized
tribunals. Should q mob pass
and promulgate statute or body OF
statutes would IL be said that the people
had taken the making of the laws into
their own hands7 What journal or news
paper would venture 10 speak thus of such
lawless method of making iaws3"
Judge Bieckley believes that mobs are
frequent in the Southern states largely be-
cause Southern newspapers apologize for
them and citizens of influence suffer with
indifference that the men who comprise
them should work their will. The asser-
tion of "Blil Arp" in the current number
of the Forum. that under freedom the
negro Is far more depraved and worthless
than he Was under slavery; that he is now
lynched frequently because the negro horn
nndcr freedom IL prone TO crimes that the
negro born and bred In slavery seldom com
mitted Is absurd. The true explanation
10 that the negro under slavery was a
valuable piece of property and the planters
could not afford TO allow crowd of white
men TO raise hue and cry and lynch their
negroes without careful and proper IN
vestigation any more than they could
afford to have their cattle and horses shot
down by mob on the vague charge that
they were infected with pieuro- pneum onis
or the CHAMBERS.
The negro in slavery did not carry arms
he could not travel without q pass, but
when he did commit a crime, like the
murder of his master. he Was not seldom
done TO death by being burned. Anybody
who ever read the Key to Uncle Tom,
Cabin" will see that most exemplary
fortunes aud matilations were Inflicted
upon refractory slaves. The slave was no,
murdered IS often As the freed man. nor
suffered 90 be murdered by irresponsible
parties. simply because he was valuabls
property, and no planter could AFFORD "a
see his property destroyed without investi
CATION by responsible parties. Bat today
the negro is 40 longer property. and there
il popular inditierentism TO lynehing an
accused negro because By his death Nc
white man loses dollar The old ums
planter woaid no more allow you TO lynch
avataahle slave on mere accusation than
be would allow you 20 shoot his mules. bat
today the old-time planter is Indifferent
because the negro is no longer his mule
be Is only man, in whose fate he take.
not che slightest interest