The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1903-08-22
NEGRO J. YVCH/NC.
LAW hottest.

LAW hottest.
The thrill of horror which has
run through the country at the
the fearful vengeance wreaked by
a mob upon a negro fiend has
tended to blind US to the awful
enOrmity of his crime-the most
terrible known to hu manity in its
utmost degradation. That an in
nOcent young girl should be first
dishonored and then mercilessly
butchered by Satiated brute,
whose mere touch in familiarity
the instinct of ages has taught
her to consider a pollution,
rouses the masses to a feeling OF
frenzy. Every circum stance OF
the criminals BRITISH
ness. his strength, the baseness
of his motive, his grOvelling cow
ardice, the infinite pitilessness
and hOpelessness of the fate of
the victim-pleads for speedy
and stern retributiOn. Beneath
the veneer of civilization man is
still a savage, and the old Baby
lonian and Hebrew idea of a tooth
for a tooth, an eye for an eye, ap-
pealS to him, while reason says
that no expiration which the Grim
inal can suffer can equal the
pangs inflicted on the victim.
Our history from the rude times
of pioneer and frontier life has
made the idea Of lynch law
phrase of grim irony-familiar,
and, regret it as we may, when
such enormities are perpetrated.
this idea springs at once to the
mind of the primitive man just
under the surface of our Ordin-
ariiy law abiding citizen. The
primitive. men, Celts or Teutons,
from whom our people are de-
Scended, were generous in their
virtues and their vices, and the
brutal alterations of their de-
scendants are not altogether ig-
noble. Deep down in our hearts
some instinct pleads in palliat ton
of the acts of a mob who lynch
criminal of this base type, and
com bats the horror which we
feel at their more than savage
cruelty. But when we sit calmly
to reason of the thing and its
consequences, we all admit that
lynch law is wholly bad and per-
nicious. It weakens our respect
for all law, that sentiment, yet so
imperfect in US all, whose grad
ual advance through ages of sue
cessive ebb and flow has made
possible the great world states of
to-day and our boasted civiliza-
ton. We cannot hope to crush
out such outbreaks in an instant,
but public sentiment and all leg
islation should be directed to
that end, and we may hope that
future ages will see their utter
extirpation when the crimes
whence lynch law draws it's life
shall become rarer than they are
the half savage elements
of our population. We may real
ize upon what delicate adjust
ment of social forces these out
depend, when we consider
that the acts and utteranceS of
one man prominent in official life
may stir up sentiments leading
to an orgy OF lawlessness in va
rious parts of the country.
Bacon has contributed no pro
founder truth or grander senti-
ment to human thought than
when he said, The duties Of life
are more than life Whether
he knew it Or not, upon that
the sheriff of Evansville,
Ind, acted in repelIing the mob
who were seeking the life of the
negro murderer in his custody.
That thought, acted upon with
calm bravery by the officers of
the law, will effect much in les
sening the occurrence of lynch
ngs. Until the day of it's final
shall come, here is one
lelp in minim ling the evil the
selection of the right man for the
,ffice of sheriff, not the smooth
but the man who re-
cards the duties of life-the du-
les of his Office which he has
sworn to perform-as more than
lis life. How much one man can
10 who does both act and know,
he history of a few brave sher-
ifs in Alabama, in Indiana. and |
Elsewhere has taught US.
But with our present standard |
# duty by sheriffs and sworn
Ulcers of the law, the evil of
ynching seems increasing, not
less-life is of more
alue than the duties of life to
hese men. A dissenting opinion
~ the chief justice of North Car
lima in a recent case, State VS..
Jole, A S. E. Rep. 391, examines
he growth of lynching in a way