Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1894-04-05


Mob law in the South and its remedy is
the subject of this article. The question is
too large to be treated satisfactorily in
brief paper, yet its pressing nature may rem
der some suggestions not unacceptable to
those who are willing to consider it diSpas-
sionately as a social problem capable of solu-
tol. \ very pressing question, indeed, is
it to the people of the Southern States, with
whom its settlement must rest Invcstga-
ton, wise counsel, deliberate action are
quired, especially since it has been distorted
for partisan ends by sectional and fractional
malice. In this, as i'll other matters. the
Southern States do not hold themselves
amenable to the criticism of political bodies
in the North, though they feel bound TO re-
spect the opinions of the wise and good
everywhere. But it must be settled by our
selves, without interference; and, with this
heavy sense of responsibility upon us, it is
our duty to look at the matter squarely, to
discuss it frankly and to decide it wisely.
MOB LAW PREVALENT.
The charge made is that mob law is pre-
valpnt in the Southern States. Apoogists
will be found to deny the fact, but candid
men must confess its truth Whatever the
causes whatever the palliations, il is motor
iOuS to us who live i'll the South that tho
regular Jurisprudence is held in little respect
and that summary popular vengeance is in
hicted with great and increasing frequency
on accused persons. In criminal cases, the
laws are now silent, not in tue clash ofarms,
but in Il time of profound peace and quiet.
Lynch law, an extra judicial process, the
fury or caprice of an excited mob. is con
tiuially substituted for those trials by courts
and iuries that our fathers deemed essential
t. Justice and liberty. | do not go into the
proof of this, for it is a notorious fact.
Mob law is inconsistent with rational free
dom, progress and civilization. Aspiration
for better things. sound laws to attain them
aud the nvariable execution of those laws
are admitted AS the surest signs of good gov
eminent and progressive civilization. The
prevalence of law is a Necessary condition of
moral order. and when co-ordnated with
liberty, is an uuerring test of moderation in
tho national character Its reputation and
habjtual evasion are marks of impending
decay and anarchy in community or state.
If such is the condition of affairs. it be
hooves every patriot to seek out the causes
and apply the remedies. Space will not al
low me to argue this question, only TO state
the points.
THE CAUSES OF MOB VIOLENCE
in the South are either general or special.
We are too apt to regard the condition of
things there as altogether exceptional. We
lay great stress on the cases that come to
our notice and forget that elsewhere in the
world great segmeuts of the people are max
ing such resistance as they are able to con-
stitutod authorites-to the courts, the police
and military forces. There have been riots in
England and Germany; dynamite is thrown
i'll France and Spain and armed insurrec-
ton stalks throughout Sicily. These forms
Of mob violence are much more serious and
threatening manifestations of popular pro-
test against what are thought to be bad
laws and failures of justice than anything
we have in the South, Nor can the persons
implicated in them be COMPOUNDED with
binary criminals, since they are generally
acting under "a mistaken view of right and
wrong, under fatal fallacies Of Judgment.
When they succeed, it is called revolution
and their heroes are apotheosized, az for in
stance, Garibadi. This distinction is not
forgotten that these European mobs strike
chiefly at government and classes, not priIn-
arily at persons: but they always mark out
individual victims. that the distiction is
sladowy and superficial Lives are lost on
both sides, great suffering is entailed on the
innocent. and the success of one or the other
proves not the righteousness of its conten-
tion, but merely its strength Vac |tcfiS!
THE EVILS EXAGGERATED
\ certain class in the North has through
ignorance and prejudice magnified and dis
torted every disorder that could be unearth-
ed in the South. These are cited as evi-
dences of a peculiar malignity in the white
people and as a systematic persecution of
the negro race. And yet it overlooks the
fact that every morning paper brings US
tidings of similar violations of law by the
whitecaps of tho North, and generally on
less provocaton Wherever a crude and
sparse population have control of the ma
chnery of government, it is inadequately ad-
Ininistered, often necessarily so. And when
ever failure of justice ensues from laxity
or maladninistratiOn of the law the spirit as
serts itself that anmates community strug
Cling toward conscious realization of sub
stantial lustice-of righteousness-bu often
by blind paths-and infiicts summary pen
atty on the offender. This is SO in the South:
il is so in the North But we will not use
the ''tu quoquen argument, except to illus
trate that the South is not greatly excep.
tOnal in America, in its motives and deeds.
If in the South punishment falls more fire.
quently ana moro heavily on the negro than
on the white man, it is not because of race
prejudice or antipathy, but because tho
negro chiefly constitutes the criminal class
He is so by reason of the denser ignorance
inherited criminal tendencies and feeble will
power peculiar to a social substratum that
has as yet been lifted only measurably above
the slough of barbarism. Special pleaders
may put III a general denial of all outrage
and violence but the truth is better We
cannot candidly deny much mob violence;
we may admit that negroes are more fire.
quently its victims than white men, and it
is possible that innocent men. occasionally
though very rarely, have suffered, but the
extcnuation is that, almost without excep-
ton n just fate has befallen the robbers
murderers and ravishers who have been pun
ished without warrant of law, and that only
thus could justice have been meted out to
Them.
THE RESULT OF SOCIAL CONDITIONS
This condition of things in the South is
L. +l,n., .Is.s