The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-04-24
DR.. +. /. Oswald on the Court Of
Judge Lynch.
Mob Justice as Tribunal of Last AppeaI.
The Santa ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Courts.
Origin of the ETafia-Judge Lynch In the
United States.
Especial Correspondence

the fact" has opposed numberless obsta
cles to the progress of natural freedom
but has only rarely confused the popula,
conceptions of natural justice.
In vital emergencies the worship OF
Themls and her stately insignia is always
apt to yield to an elder instinct of tbs
human mind, and the enforcement al
grossly ubiquitous laws has thus often
been baft1ed bv the acts of a tribunal that
recognizes no higher court of anneai.
Human beings, enjoying the use of their
reason and the advantages of co-opera-
ton, will not put up with Injustice SO
long as they can get justice by methods
OF their own. The only way to counter
act that tendency to judicial self help is
the plan adopted by the sultan of Mo-
rocco, who hunts political malcontents
like wild beasts, and by obliging them to
devote all their energies to the problem
of survival leaves them no chance to in
terfere with his peculiar system of adj
ministration.
But the first breathing spell of such
outlaws results in conspiracies, and nei-
Their the ingenuity of Egyptian priest
kings nor the turbulence of medieval
despots could prevent reaction against
the abuse of this power. When the social
order of Spain was subverted by the ter
ror OF the Moorish arms, robber castles
sprang up like fungi on the hills of the
peninsula, and the plumber stored be-
hind their thick walls enabled their pro-
prietors to revel in luxury, while indus
trlous mechanics had to eat bread of
sobras-the sweepings of the flour mills
and in many cases had to sell their half
grown children to save their infants
from starvation.
The ramparts of the robber strongholds
defied the wrath Of the king. A share of
their booty purchased the connivance of
the Moors and biased the decision of the
courts. But the verdict of the vox
popuh could not be thus silenced, and in
1858 troop of Aragon hidalgos, return
ing from successful surprise of a mer-
chant convoy, were in their turn sur
prised to see % of their colleagues dam
Cling from crossroad tree. A new
power had appeared on the political
stage of the peninsula. The Santa Her
mandad, which for twelvemonth had
gathered and organized its forces in alb
solute secrecy, had celebrated it's second
birthday by g memorable assertion of it's
power, and henceforth highway robbery
ceased to rank with what our life insur-
ance companies term medium safe en-
Payments"
The Vehmic courts of northern Ger
many, too, made feudal despots tremble
in their strongholds, and about the mid
die of the fourteenth century had ex-
tended their influence all over central
Europe till even princes hesitated to defy
the summons of the Erie Graf, the dread
grand master of, the secret brotherhood.
For thoroughness of organization and
success the Vehmic courts form phe-
nomenon unparalleled in the history of
the human race unless we shall except
the portent of the French revolution,
when a whole nation upheaved it's upper
strata IN desperate appeal to the ar
bitrament of fundamental facts
Those oracles that set the world afame,
Nor ceased to burn till Kingdoms were no more,
though the Sicilian Malta at one period
OF its development is said to have at
tanned membership of $1,000 ssregu-
lars" with large reserve force of nov
ices and acceptable candidates. In its
struggle against the representatives of
the government that remarkable organ
ization at last became identified with the
principle Of lawlessness, but owed its
first success undoubtedly to its crusades
against official tyrants and seInifeudal
oppressors Of the poor.
In our own country the name Of ''lynch
law" has been applied to three widely
different modes of deviation from the
regular forms Of justice. On the thinly
settled frontiers mobs of indignant pio-
peers merely anticipated the establish
ment of less Informal though not always
more impartial courts. Their extern
porate committees were bride proof, as
fear proof, and their adherence of petit
Jogging chicanery was equaled only by
their contempt Of conventional forms, as
during that memorable convention of the
California Regulators (or s'Vigilantes,"
as their Spanish-American colleagues
called them) when two of the principal
orators engaged in friendly boxing
match to settle the question Of forensic
precedence.
In the midst of the deliberations for
eign spectator noticed an individual
standing a little apart from the center of
attraction and utilizing his modicum of
elbowroom to twirl cigarette. "Whom
are they going to hang anyhow, sir?'
asked the foreigner. SCOT match, part
ner" inquired the man with the ciga-
rette. Thanks" And then. as if incl
dentally reverting to the original CUES.
ton: "Whom are they going to choke,
you say? Well, stranger, ought to
know. If I amt much mistaken, it's
myself"
The White Cap outrages had an en-
tirely different origin. They were vari-
ously ascribed to reaction against fail
ures of justice and to the intrigues Of
nativists { 'Know Nothings'), but ayoung
fellow Of Shelby county, Ind, let the
t,,,-o oo+ @,x+ az tho no m w, o,, I, 49,, !