The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-07-27
ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLES

ties. has not within him spark OF that
regard for the rights OF the weak which
made this Republic possible.
ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLES
Let us place against these apologies for
mob rule a few essential and well-estab-
hshed principles. No government can en-
dure with the court and the mob seeking 10
exercise identical functions. Either the SUI
premacy Oh the law must be established be-
yond question. free rein mist be given
to the fury of riotous assemblages engaged
in trampling all law into the dust. An
archy and constitutional government may
not thrive within the same geographical
limits; we must ultimately altogether give
up the one or the other. IL guilty men are
TO be hanged or burned by good citizens
to-day under the summary procedure OF
brute force. then innocent men may be
hanged or burned tomorrow by bad citizens
operating under the same warrant, because
brute force is respecter OF persons or
principles, and may as readily be invoked ia
a bad cause as liz good one. III the mop
spirit is TO become the national spirit, and,
being contagious. IL must either be stamped
out or its ultimate supremacy conceded.
then the next step in our political develop
ment," IL history teaches anything. viii be
the sway of that dictator who proves him
self TO be the best leader of mobs.
The man who takes the law into his own
hands is a tyrant 10 the limit OF his oppor-
tunltleS, regardless OF the pfeteAt Dg WHICH
he undertakes TO justify his occupation.
either TO himself or TO others The man who
joins others in notification OF the rights or
his fellows, no matter what his ostensibie
purpose, has opened war on the Declaration
of Independence. The man who infokes
violence in an assault on the law
must be struck down by the laws
deputies who employ the Winchester
rifle and the shotgun in defense Of
prisoner whom mob seeks TO murder, the
militiamen who cooperate with them IN
the laws behalf, are as much soldiers IN
the cause of liberty any patriot who
fought at Bunker Hill or Kings mountain;
and those officials. sworn TO the execution
of the laws. who yield TO the mob spirit
in such an emergency are guilty OF as base
poltroonery as the sorriest coward who
ever fed from a battlefield.
AN AWAKENING NEEDED.
Let the American people take to heart
the issues involved in an appeal to mob
law, and the mob spirit will instantly dis
appear as a national phenomenon. For
the people are loyal, they are freemen in
fact as well as in name. We might grow
hopeless in the face of an evil which would
seem imminently to threaten the very foun-
dations of our government IL we did not
better understand the real temper OF
American citizenship. We need only a
national awakening To what this issue i'm
piles. we neeQ a STRENGTHENING OF the
arm of authority, widening and deepening
respect for the law by its enforcement
without fear or favor. We need an incul-
cation among all our people of the elemen-
tary principles of Americanism-a national
necessity To which Abraham Lincoln gave
expression when he said:
Let every American. every lover OF
liberty, every We'll w'sher OF his posterity.
swear by the blood of the Revolution never
TO violate in the least particular the laws
OF his country, and never To tolerate their
violation by others. AS the patriots of
'seventy-six' did to the support of the
| Declaration of Independence, so TO the sup
| port of the Constitution and the laws. LEI
| every American pledge his life, his prop
! erty and his sacred honor, let every man
| remember that TO violate the law Is "a
| trample on the blood of his father. and &c
| tear the charter of his own and his
| children's liberty Let reverence for the
| law be breathed by every American mother
| to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap.
Let ii be taught in schools, in seminaries
and in colleges. Let il be written in
| primers, spelling books and almanacs. Let
| IL be preached from the pulpit, pro-
| claimed in legislative halls, and enforced
| in courts of Justice And, I'm short. let II
become the political religion OF the
| Nation"