The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-12-02
WILMINGTON. n. G..
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1898.
AN AWAk ENING TO SUPPRESS VIC.
LENCE AND ENFORCE LAW.

completely restored, and in all the
states. It will prove very disastrous
TO civilization and to personal safety
if the violence, the murders, the rapes,
the house burnings, the lynchings shall
continue. When the regular appointed
courts are superseded, then the law of
seIf-wiIl and violence comes to the
front and lynchings increase and So
ciety is in danger. When mel of vio-
lence get in command they will not
stop at lynching for rape and murder.
Within a year men have been robbed
of their lives-have been murdered by
mObs-fOr such crimes as stealing. Re
Gently in Arkansas a man was lynch
ed because he had stolen $50. Last
year in Indiana five men were hanged
by an enraged mob for stealing. and to
this hour no one has been punished for
the awful crime of murder. The Mes
senger has seen that courts were not
equal to the protection of respectable,
v%irtuous white women against prOwl-
ing beasts clothed in ebony. 1t has
again and again urged that the way to
put an end to hanging for horrid, hell
iSh rapes was to stop the raping. The
courts so often fail to find murderers
guilty, and they are either turned
loose upon the people or are confined
for a few years, that people have risen
in their untempered wrath and execut-
ed vengeance upon the insensate, in
fernal miscreants.
But if the courts are so insufficient
and inefficient why not amend them?
Why not strengthen the cords for con-
viction? Why keep up he farce of
trial by jury while it is plain that in
nine cases out of ten SambO in the jury
box finds for Sambo the criminal? Only
a few months ago, in an eastern coun-
ty, a negro on trial escaped punish
ment by a failure of the jury to rend-
err a verdict of guilty by reason Of a
tie. Eleven White men voted guilty,
and one negro preacher voted no, and
this hung up the jury. He voted for
his friend and brother in black
without reference to evidence or law.
It is time this whole travesty upon
Justice was done away with.
Ought lawyers to take the defence OF
criminals when they positively know
that the scOundrels are guilty and en-
emies of their race and disturbers oil
society? The crimina laws should be
amended. The rights and safety of the
people should find some guarantee OF
protection in the courts A famous
case in the last century, or early IN
this century, caused a celebrated law
yer to lose cast and be sent to CoVen-
try because. of his management OF a
murder case when he knew the defend
ant was guilty of the crime. The best
sense of the bar and of England con-
.demned him. We are not sure of the
lawyers name now, for it has been
perhaps forty years since we read an
elaborate report Of he matter.
The Jury trial system is a lament
able failure in the south at present.
Last year, or the year before, a partlc-
uIar friend of the Prince of Wales was
sent to prison for his rascalities in
England, although a nobleman of high
rank. Within a year an English coun-
tess was jailed because of her mean
ness. These things could not happen
in this country. 1t is almost impos-
.sible to convict a very rich man, much
less people high in the ranks of nobill-
ty Off there were such here) in this
Land of the free The Charleston
News and Courier is precisely correct
we think in saying that there Is no
other one trait of the people VINO IN
habit the United States which is so
thoroughly national as this morbid
shrinking from doing ones duty when
dealing with aw-'breakerS. The jul
ror's sense of moral responsibility, as
the representative of society, whose
rights have been d~isregarded, and
whose safety depends on the repres-
sion of crime, melts away before the
~eIoauenc of the paid attorney for the
defence, and the threadbare, yet al
ways fresh and effective professional
trick, of the presence in court or the
weeping wife and children of the prls-
oner at the bar" This morbid
shrinking is not confined to juries or
sympathetic outsiders. The grave
Judges COR montebanks clothed in err
mine for the nonce,) and tender-heart
ed solicitors, and governors yer cloth
ed with ridiculous but supreme powers
over life and death, with weeping pro-
pensities, and no moral backbone, are
prone to yield at the wrong time, and
unite to save a scoundrel from a just
doom. This morbid shrinking is
marvellously common in these degen-
crate DAYS.
1t is time, we insist, that something
was done by intelligence and Vlrture
to strengthen law, make it possible and
mot difficult to punish guilt, and to up
hold the violated majesty of the law.
1t is time that Judge Lynch's jurisdic-
ton was very much c~urtailed, if his
circuit riding is not altogether stopped.