The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-02-08
.LYNCH|NG@ DATE
BACK ID |(66
Southg's Method of IT aking
Law in Their Own Hands,"
is AN OLD OLD CUSTOM
Acts Of Early Day are Applaud
ed in History.

Although men were lynched in NORTH
| Carolina early as 176s. as was recently
pointed out by Judge Edward McCrady
| in a contribution to the New York Eve
| ming Post, one who wishes TO make a
| serious study of the origin and develop
| ment of the habit of thought which
makes men lynchers cannot do better
| than to begin with the story of the set
| tlement that was organized by James
Robertson. John Sewer and others, in
| 1772, in the valley of the Watauga river.
| The first home maker to reach the val
! ley was Virginian by the name of VIII
| liam Bean, who erected cabin in 176S
| on the creek where I'd. Boone Cilled, A.
| Bar in 1860. Other Virginians came to
| the Watauga in ITO and James Robertson
iof North Carolina Joined them. These
| raised enough corn to supply additional
| settlers during the ensuing year land
what we may call the Robertson contri-
| button of inhabitants included sixteen
| families from North Carolina, who arriv-
4 ed early in III.
| 1t is to be observed that the procla-
| nation of the Kin, issued after Pom
| taos war Q7635, prohibited settlements
| in the region west of the divide, but
| these pioneers seized upon the treaty of
| Fort Stanwfx las offering an excuse for
settling beyond the mountains That
| treaty was made solely to secure certain
| lands, west of the mountains, for the
benefit of Pennsylvania, and of certain
Indian traders who had suffered losses
during Pontiacs war, but Virginia had
commissioner (Thomas Walker,) at the
treaty conference, and his presence gave
to the eager pioneers sufficient excuse
to settle on any lands within the Vir-
ginia claim, regardless of a proclama-
ton which even washington had de-
clared 10 be temporary expedient.
But while the settlers of III were cuI-
tivating their first crop of corn, An
thony Bledsoe surveyed the southern
boundary of Virginia far enough to the
west to discover that the Watauga settle
ment was beyond the limits of that COL
ony. The treaty of Fort Stanwix had
been stretched to the limit to cover the
settlers when they thought themselves
| in Virginia, and they We're now. beyond
question, intruders on Indian lands.
But that was not the Worst feature Of
their position. Though their homes were
on land claimed by North Carolina they
were not on any organized territory of the
colony. and they were without any civil
| government whatever. And because Of
| the forests and mountains intervening
between them and the settlements of
North Carolina Ga wilderness wherin even
so good a woodsman as James Robertson
was lost for two weeks, it was practic-
ally impossible to extend the jurisdiction Of
any North Carolina court or county over
the Watauga people.
This condition of affairs was extreme
ly serious, for among the firstcomers
were many desperate adventures always
to be found hanging around the outskirts
of frontier civilization. Horse thieves,
murderers, escaped bond servants, runa-
way debtors-all, fleeing from the law,
sought TO find a secure asylum in the
wilderness"
But this was not the first time that
American settlers had found themselves
beyond the jurisdiction of legally organs
lied courts. The Pilgrims at Plymouth
Pay were out of the limits of the Vir-
ginia Company, whose grant they held,
and they judged it fit before landing, es-
pecially some signs of INSTRUMENTATION
appeared, to enter into voluntary agree
ment to submit to all just and equal
laws for the common good
Like the Pilgrim Fathers, the people
! of Watauga, most of whom were men
of sterling worth" came together Q712)
and exercised the divine right of gov
erning themselves First, a general as
sembly of the people was held and writ
| ten articles of agreement We're adopted
/ Then a representative assembly of thir-
| teen members was chosen and these elect
/ ed. from their own number, five men Ito
! form committee or court which should
carry on the actual business of Gov
eminent This court had a clerk who
kept record. and a sheriff who en-
forced their DEGREES.
The feature of the government. thus
! organized. that is of chief interest here
! is the work of the sheriff who en-
forced the decres." Ramsy says that in
! its executive work the government was
summary and firm Roosevelt says lit
carried on most vigorous warfare
against law breakers. especially horse
thieves sOne horse thief was arrested
| On Iitu on w anu
| hung on Friday of the same week" They
paid good deal more heed TO the es-
sence than to the forms OF law
II is only fair to assume. although no
one has been heard on the other side
! that the man hung on Friday was
guilty of stealing horse, and ii may
| he assumed. also that the crime. under
the circumstances. merited the penalty OF
. death. But when that much has been
/ conceded. the fact remains that the Wa
tauga people were governed by lynch law
for several years before Col Charles
Lynch. the Virginia planter, began to
! protect society and support the revo-
1 lutionary government in the region where
he lived. on the taunton river. by pun
ishng with stripes and Punishment such
lawless or disaTected persons as Were
accused. The execution OF the horse
thief who was hung on Friday was
legally murder.
This is not TO say that Robertson. Sc
( yier. and their associates should be held
in memory as criminals The only plea
that can be made in their behalf-the
plea of self-defenseis sufficient In truth.
3 summary and firm" government seems
TO have ben the only one exactly fitted 10
the circumstances. but it was, neverthe-
| less. a lynch-law government
II the story of the Watauga people were
-s.-asa h. -