The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-05-28
CONGRESS AND LYNCHINGs.

our hands.
CONGRESS AND LYNCHINGs.
The wisdom of bringing up the matter Of
Iynchings in the United States as a subject
of proposed legislation by Congress may be
questioned from several points of view.
The resolution offered by Mr.. Gallinger, of
New Hampshire, provided that the judici-
airy committee should investigate the sub
ject with a view of ascertaining whether
there is any remedy for the evil. Senator
Gallinger is a physician by profession He is
a man of high character, and no one can
doubt the excellence of his motives in Of
fering the resolution. but if he were law
yer he probably would not have proposed
an investigation by the judiciary committee
OF a subject which is clearly outside of the
jurisdiction of Congress. One does not have
TO be an advocate of state rights to per
cieve that the punishment and suppression
of violations of state and local laws belong
TO the States alone. The fact that lynchings
have occurred in so many States as to make
it almost a national crime does not make
it a proper subject of national legislation.
Many other crimes even more generally
prevalent are left to the exclusive legisla-
ton of the States. On this point the Journal
agrees with Senator Bailey, of Texas,
Democrat and a lawyer, that a report
the subject by the judiciary committee
could only reach one conclusion. and that
would be that, except in as far as it might
involve the rights of aliens resident in the
United States and entitled to its
protection, the subject does not
come within the legislative domain
of Congress. Another point made by
Senator Bailey well taken. He said
that if in the course of its investigation the
judiciary committee should undertake to
recapitulate all the lynchings which have
taken place in various parts of the country,
as it probably would if directed to make
report on the subject. the result. he
thought, would be to make us think less of
ourselves as a people and as a nation. In
this he was undoubtedly right, and he
might have added that such a voluntary
advertisement of national disgrace would
tend to lower us in the estimation of other
peoples 1t is bad enough for Americans to
know through the public prints and COM
mon report that some hundreds of lynch
ings occur in the United States every year,
without having the fact officially pro-
claimed in Congress with the conclusion
that it can neither prevent nor punish the
crime. 1t is hardly worth while TO refer to
the sectional aspect of the case. Senator
Gallinger disclaimed any desire to pre-
cipitate a sectional controversy and ad-
mitted that lynchings were not confined to
the South, yet it happened that the most
recent case which he cited was in Texas.
1nat case was accompanied by peculiar
barbarities, but these do not constitute the
crime. The essence of the crime is in a mob
usurping the function of law and inflicting
illegal murder, and the crime is just as
great whether the victim deserves punish
ment or not, whether the lynching be
accompanied by acts of special barbarity or
be done in the most orderly and expeditions
manner possible. Lynching itself is essen
TALLY criminal and barbarous and no
amount of cruel details can make it more
so. The most orderly case of breaking
and execution of mob law that occurs in a
Northern State is as Gisgraceful as the
worst case of negro burning that occurs in
the South.
1t may as well be admitted, once for all,
that lynching is peculiarly an American
crime and an American disgrace. 1t may
be due in part to conditions which give rise
to exceptional crimes, but it is mainly due
to the lax enforcement of law and to the
many avenues of escape for criminals which
are afforded by imperfect laws, weak
prosecutors, timid or incompetent judges
nerveless jurors and sometimes by sympa-
! thetic Governors. All these causes have
conspired by many years cooperation to
| produce a feeling of distrust and disrespect
for legal methods which induces the people
| to execute what they regard as justice in
/ a summary and lawless manner. The
remedy lies in better enforcement of Law
and better education of public sentiment
/ There is a distinct tendency in both di-
rections in all parts of the country. but IL
may take as long to reform the evil as il
has been in growing. Senator Gallinger's
resolution should not be called up again.