New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-10-01
race, when Mr. Horace White gets tired OF
4 STEP FORUARD.


II is a most encouraging symptom to find
Chief Justice of Southern State denounclng
mob law with vigor. True. it was not before
popular gathering, non was it in the discharge
Ct judicial duties and the state of public opin-
ion in some Southern States is such that the
stem rebuke of prevalent practices may not be
a, widely copied and read as it should be. In
an address before the Georgia Bar Association
Chief Justice Blcckley affirmed that mobs
would not exist if we could silence their we'll
meaning but deludcd advocates and apologists
Especially would it be serviceable TO alter the
tone and teaching of those public journals
which confound the mob with the people, and
preach some if not all instances OF mob vIo-
len c as cases in which the people act IN their
own behalf and take justice into their own
hands,
This is salwart blow at the very root of
the evil II NAV be doubted whether there has
been a single instance of mob law at the South
which most of the papers published IN the
neighEorhood have net kindly mentioned as the
act of " the people" and they usually go on to
describe how "the people" were too Inlurlated
to he restrained, and what cries the people
uttered. and what weapons " the people, used,
and what the people" said about their own
performance after it was over. Indeed, dis
patches from that region which describe such
occurrences almost invariably rcclte what the
people" said or did But the very language OF
newspapers and dispatches convlcts them OF
faschood, for it invariably attributes to the
people, acts or words which must in the nature
Of the case have been those OF individuals only.
Generally " the people" on such occasions con-
sist of few dozen loafers and ruflianS. more
or less drunk. with much larger number OF
persons standing around who make themselves
accessory to the crime by offering no resistance,
and INDUCING a brutal curiosity to witness the
cowardly murder of one or OF few by many.
Chief Justice Bleclilcy insists that "a mob is
not the people, nor even any part Of the same
and continues:
To become a mob and do It's work, those who
compose IL must for the time being secede from
organized society. outrage its most Fundamental
principles and trample its institutions.
Were II known by actual count that all the people
OF both sexes and all ages had assembled and com
bined by unanimous consent to perpetrate an act
OF violence upon the worst of criminals. the case
would not be one In which the people had taken
Justice In their hands. but one In which, In
violation of their own law. they had assumed to
innict injustice In the name Of justice. The people
have no hands for unlawful work. Justice is in
the hands OF the people only when 1t Is In the
hands Of their organized tribunals Should
n mob pass and promnlgate statute or body OF
statutes. would II be said that the people had
taken the making OF the laws into their own hands?
What journal newspaper would venture to speak
thus OF such Il lawless method Of making laws?
II may 10 hoped that such earnest and manly
words. with the credtable protests which some
journals at the South have been making. may
produce some impression. Surely in this mat
ter an appeal 10 manlincSs ought not TO be IN
vain No one will account Southern people
cowarlS ard yet reflection must teach them
that il is in shameful degree cowardly for
go d citizens TO stand by. or look on from
safe distance lifting not finger TO uphold the
laws or 10 protect life, while helpless creature
is done TO death by crowd. often it has hap
pcned in Western "a in Northern states and in
England. that the earnest protest Of one brave
man has been enough ~ recall mob 10 a sense
of its cruelty, IL shamefulncsS and It's crime.
II rnobS are more frequent in Southern states
il is largely because southern newspapers apollo
cizc for them and Southern citizens of intlu-
cncc stand timely by and let cowaldly rufiianS
work their Will No doubt it takes courage TO
confront a crowd of lawcSs men. Everywhere
il rcuIilcS considerable manhood TO be y good
citizen and worthy Of the responsibilities of
self coycrnmcnt.