The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-09-17
THE ETHICS OF LYNCH Law.

The lynching affair at Versailles was one
Of the worst on record, both in the number
of its victims and the brutality of its de-
tails The outbreak was local and sporadic
but the censure and disgrace of it will fall
on the entire State. So far as the State at
large is concerned this will be unjust, for
in the main the people of Indiana are as
conservative and law-abiding those of
any other State. A few localities have been
somewhat noted in former years for the
presence of lawless gangs or a few desper-
ate individuals who have been able to ter
rorize the communities in which they lived
and partially paralyze the administration of
Justice but those cases have almost ceased
to exist. The Ripley county gang was a
survival of one of these, and the furious
outbreak of the people on Tuesday night
was evidently the last resort of long suf-
fering community.
Not a word can be said in defense of
lynch law in a community where the courts
are open and where all the machinery of
government exists for the enforcement of
law. There may be times when it is justi
fable as the only available means of dis
pensing justice and protecting society.
This has often been the case in new and
unorganized communities, like mining
camps, where no laws have yet been en-
acted and no courts established, yet where
it is absolutely necessary to dispense swift
and punitive justice. That was the case in
California at an early day and in the Klon-
dixie even now, where a short time ago a
man was hanged for stealing side of
bacon. The vigilance committees which
were established in che chief towns of
California in 1S5O-51 were doubtless justi-
fled by the conditions which existed at the
time, and did good work Yet it was an
infexible rule of the vigilance committee
of San Francisco that no person brought
before the committee should be punished
without a fair trial and conviction. 1t was
not mob law; it was the dispensing of JUS
tice in a crude but semi-regular way. AT
that time California was overrun with out
laws, the civil authorities where there were
any, were utterly unable to cope with them,
and lynch law or vigilance committees were
the only means the people had of protecting
themselves. But no such situation as this
nor anything like it exists in Ripley county.
The same machinery exists there for the
enforcement of law and the administration
of justice that exists in every other county
in the State. The county has a population
of more than twenty thousand, of whom
the great majority are honest, law-abding
people. 1t seems incredible that thousands
of law abiding citizens should be terrorized
by gang of half dozen lawless fellows
to such an extent that they were afraid to
bring them to justice. In the present case
the fellows were in JAIL and it only re-
manned to have them indicted tried and
convicted in the regular way. Ripley coun-
ty cannot be so poor in honest men courage
Gus enough to do their duty but that a
grand jury could have been impaneled that
would have returned indictments against
the members of the gang, and petit jury
that would have convicted them if they
were guilty. If the honest men in the
county had formed law and order league
they could soon have broken up the gang
by legal methods. Instead of that they
have shown their own lawlessness In a diff
ferent way from that of the gang but even
more conspicuously, and in order to rid
themselves of a few bad characters they
have brought contempt law and dis
grace on the State. BY resorting to q
method which is only defensible in the most
primitive communities and then under ex-
ceptional circumstances, they have made
the whole State obnoxious to the charge of
lawlessness. In short, the lynchers have
shown themselves to be worse enemies of
the State than were the men they lynched.