The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-09-27
Letters to The Editor.
x x si $ $ i as Ie $ 5:
The Remedy Worse Than the Disease

The Remedy Worse Than the Disease Editors The Advertiser.
 The death of President Mckinley has thrown many people. in fact, almost the resentment against his assassin in par ticular and anarchists in general; and dire have been the threats and various the remedies urged against them-chiefly among which Is lynching.
 Now if this remedy had been suggested
 in the 'iuncivilized and blood-thirsty South" 1t might not have been so shock ing. but to find 1t so commonly suggested prising.
 If reports be true, it is the disposition of many in that section of country. not only to wreak vengeance upon all the anarchists but to deal summarily with all who dare even to speak disparag- ingly of MT. Mckinley. Several men have barely escaped with their lives and some put in prison; while some. includ- ing a preacher or two have been tarred and feathered and ridden on a rail for merely speaking disrespectfully of the President.
 Many foolish and radical statements have been made about what ought to be, or have been done with the anarchist as- sassin; and. sad to say. some of the most bitter and fanatical of these expressions have come from prominent ministers of the Gospel.
 For instance, the Press dispatches re- port that In the course of his sermon Dewitt Talmage of Washington said:
 I wish that the policeman in Buffalo who seized the pistol of the scoundrel who shot our adored President, had ta- ken the butt of the weapon and dashed the mans brains out on the spot Ten | thousand people in the auditorium ap- | plauded the sentiment" And yet this
 sentiment Is just as murderous and | anarchistic as the deed of the scoun- | drel," and considering the difference in the places of the two less creditable to tl Ao aafo ia | reported that "a Methodist presiding el- der in the Presidents own church in Washington said in his sermon. The af- fair of o'clock Friday has almost con Verted me into. an advocate of lynch law"
 Another gentleman of 'the cloth" ex- pressed. so We are told, an ardent de- ''eat him up alive" but do not know what few days more will develop.
 All this and much more gives one a very poor opinion of the depth, solidity and quality of our civilization to say nothing of our religion as a people.
 Boast as we may, whenever a nation has gotten to the point. which we seem nearly to have reached, where 1t can be swept off iSs feet by an incident of any kind into disregard for the solemn obli- gations of law, there Is little more harm that anarchists can do 1t.
 All civilized government is founded on law-the rational and unimpassioned ad- ministra ton of 1ustice-and this law has its very constitution In the patriot ism and self-control of law abiding people. Passion. vengeance; mercurial sensationalism, and consequent reign of the mob betoken a moral condition which forebcdes no good to the nation. Lynch law is no cure for anarchism, nor anarchists; 1t Is rather like trying to put out fire by pouring petroleum on it; and these men who pro- pose mob vengeance are as much opposed in spirit to the sober and solemn pro- cesses of law as the anarchists they would lynch.
 The mob which proposes to hang or burn a man without a trial by duly con stituted authority is as much foe to government as those who would destroy i its executives. The point of attack is | different, but the effect is the same in l the end.
 The anarchists ought to be expelled made treason to attempt or incite the | killing of the head of the State. but it | ought also to he made a capital offence | to incite a mob to take life, overpower a sheriff or storm a jail for the purpose | of lynching.
 The State, in this country. lives even | more in it's citizens than in its head; and | that which strikes at the life of a citi- | zen strikes at the life of the State. Here. | the citizen is the sovereign, the offcial 1 is the servant, and there is no higher oh-
 ligation to protect the life of the one | than the other.
 The only protection for life whether
 President or citizen. lies fin the faithful, | impartial and inevitable execution of ] law, and to this anarchists and mobs are