The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-07-06
GEORGIA LAWYERS DEFEND
LYNCHING.


1t is not very often that members of
the bar favor lynch law, but it seems
that some in Georgia do. The bar as
ISOLATION of that state has been hold
ing session at Warm Springs. At the
meeting last Friday some five of the
leading lawyers of the state, during a
sharp debate, declared there was ne
cessity for lynch law. Halt T. Lewis
maintained that the criminal is
lynched because his victim should not
be subjected to the further humiliation
of detailing a crime which she can
hardly whisper to her husband or
breathe to her parents He is Iynched
because of the conviction in the public
mind that this is the most effectual
way of preventing a repetition of the
offense. To attempt a correction of
such sentiments by statute would prove
as futile as an effort to overcome the
fury of the cyclone or to prevent the
lightning flashes from the storm
cloud
Mr.. Burton Smith. brother of ex-
Secretary Hoke Smith, announced the
decidedly new discovery that "the
Anglo-Saxon has always protected
women without the aid of law courts.
and as long as Anglo-Saxon blood
flows in American veins, whether in
Georgia or Massachusetts,, Alabama or
Ohio, assailants of women will find a
short. swift and ready rope"
Lawyer Lewis may pirate as he
pleases about lynching being the most
effectual way of preventing a repeti-
ton Of offenses, but the facts are just
to the contrary. If it is just as futile
to attempt 10 correct such sentiments
in Georgia by statute as to attempt to
overcome the fury of a cyclone or to
prevent the lightning flashes from
the storm cloud, then Georgia is in a
very backward state of civilization.
Still, the attempt should be made.
Lawyer Smith appears to possess
very peculiar notions about the Anglo
Saxon race. The people of England are
generally held to be of that race, and
his broad assertion that that race has
always protected women without the
aid of law courts is fatty contradicted
by that country's history as well as
by the history of our own country
Mr.. Lewis says lynching is for the
purpose of saving the victims of GER
tain crimes from the humiliation of I
telling the story of the assault on them |
in open court. Then why is it that so |
many victims never hesitate to tell /
the newspapers all about it? How will |
he, or anyone who takes the position ne /
does. explain the burning of the negro |
in Tennessee, q couple of years ago,
when the Negroes victim lighted his .
funeral pyre? But before she did this.
some of the poor devils fingers were
cut off and presented to her. What
was the victim of the ne
gro Mitchell, who was lynched at Ur-
oana, o.. some weeks ago. saved by
ler assailant not being brought to
rial? Her name was paraded in all
he newspapers and she even issued a
ard of thanks TO those who lynched
Mitchell
But take those cases where men are
ynched whose crimes have not been
against women; what of them? Is it
o save the horsethief's victim the .hu-
of a public trial that he is
ynched? The moment the "humilia-
ion" argument is examined it falls to
he ground. The justification of lynch
ng is the laudation of lawlessness. 1t
hould be condemned everywhere, and
IS existence in this country is a blot
pon our civilization.